Biding His Thyme: 4 (23 page)

“Someone’s in there,” Jake said. “Open up.”
He took two steps back and kicked at the door. Wood cracked but the door didn’t
give. He kicked again and the door flew open.

Brother Felix stood in the office with
Brothers John and Tyrone. When Jake and Luke prowled into the office they
cowered back against the walls.

“The rest of the culprits,” Jake said.

“Who are you?” Brother John demanded in a
quivering voice.

“You’re under arrest for cattle rustling
and conspiring to kidnap,” Luke said.

“Me?” Brother Tyrone drew himself up. “I
had nothing to do with the cattle rustling.” He pointed a trembling finger at
Jake. “He was so proud of committing the crime he made us take photos.”

“Why you snivel—”

The three men took a collective step back.

“Jake,” Luke grabbed him by the shoulder,
hauling him to a stop. “You’re all under arrest. We can discuss the facts at
the station.”

They put up little fight as he ushered them
from the office. A sea of shredded paper decorated the floor.

Sorrel stared at the paper, her lips
twisting at the irony. They were still trying to cover their tracks.

“Can you see your mother’s books?”

Alarm twisted her stomach tight. Her breath
caught as her gaze went to the bookcase. Relief had her knees buckling, her
breath exploding in whoosh of pure relief. The red-bound notebook sat squeezed
between two larger tombs on herbs and flowers, a layer of dust attesting to the
length of time the books had remained unread. She reached forward to extract
the notebook, blew off the dust and opened it.

Her mother’s scrawled writing and drawings
filled the pages. Some of the older recipes she’d developed with results of her
failed experiments.

“Do you think Brother Rick murdered Brother
Samuel?” Jake asked.

“It’s a gut feeling. There’s no doubt
Brother Samuel was getting older, but until he ate the mushrooms he was
healthy. Sister Andrea swears she didn’t add the mushrooms to her stew. Brother
Rick had visited his father during dinner. They’d argued, and Brother Rick
stormed out. I saw him.”

“That doesn’t make him guilty of murder.”

“No, that’s true. I—” She broke off
abruptly. “Look at this. It’s a diary entry by my mother.” She read aloud. “I
don’t have any proof, but I think Brother Rick has been giving Brother Samuel
something in the glass of juice he brings his father every morning. Samuel has
complained of dizziness. I’m going to try a few mouthfuls of Brother Samuel’s
meals and the drinks he takes in his private quarters. If I start to become
sick, I’ll have proof Brother Rick is up to no good. I can’t believe Sister
Andrea is complicit in poisoning.” Sorrel lifted her head. “That’s not proof,
but it’s enough to cast doubt.”

“Unless they find something concrete it
won’t be enough,” Jake said, sliding his hand across her shoulder in silent
commiseration.

“I know the truth. That’s what matters.
Brother Rick knows the truth too.”

“Luke is thorough. Brother Rick won’t
escape charges of some sort,” Jake said.

“Good.”

“Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes.” Not a shred of hesitation entered
her at the thought of leaving the place she’d called home for most of her life.
“Is your undercover job finished now?”

“Yes, and I can’t wait to put on a pair of
jeans instead of wearing this bloody robe.”

* * * * *

Later that night, Jake and Sorrel shared
dinner with Luke and Janaya.

Janaya’s violet eyes gleamed as she stared
from Jake to Sorrel. “I take it you’re staying the night, Jake?”

“Please.”

Janaya’s lips quivered, and Sorrel suspected
whatever Janaya was thinking made her want to laugh. She managed to hold it
back, restraining her humor to a twitch of lips. “I’ll prepare a room for you.”

“That’s not necessary,” Jake said. “I’ll
share with Sorrel.”

“Told you,” Janaya said, holding out her
hand to her husband. “You owe me twenty-dollars.”

Jake growled. “Yet bet on us sharing a room
again.”

“That’s not exactly what she bet on, and
she hasn’t won yet,” Luke said.

“All’s fair in love and war,” Janaya
quipped.

“On that note, we’re retiring for the
evening,” Jake said. “I have an early start tomorrow.”

Sorrel rose, removing the empty glasses
from the table and stacking them in the dishwasher. Jake was returning to
Papakura tomorrow, returning to the army base for medical clearance and possibly
reporting for duty. The knowledge left a hollow inside her. It expanded until
her entire chest ached. She didn’t want him to go, but she couldn’t ask him to
stay either. Jake had a job, responsibilities.

Jake tugged on a lock of her hair to gain
her attention. “Hey, don’t think so hard. It might never happen.”

Her throat closed up, and she had to force
the words to exit her mouth. “I’m going to miss you. What happens if you pass
the medical? When you pass the medical?” she corrected herself.

“It won’t be so bad. My contract will be
over in three months,” Jake said. “It won’t be long until I’m back.” He pressed
a kiss to the tip of her nose. “You’ll hardly have time to miss me.”

Her head tilted back to meet his gaze.
“You’re coming back to Sloan?”

“For you,” he said. “I’ve had enough of
army life. It’s not the same now that my mates have left the team. I’m not sure
what I’ll do once I get out, but I’ll give it some thought while I’m away.”

“You’re coming back to Sloan for me?” She
felt like the proverbial parrot, but she needed to have things clear in her
mind.

“Sorrel.” Jake stopped in the doorway of
the bedroom she was occupying. He cupped her cheeks and smiled down at her.
“You’re special, Sorrel. I want to see where the future will take us. Will you
wait for me?”

“Yes. Yes!” She threw her arms around his
neck and clung to him. Their lips met in a kiss, then he was lifting her into
his arms, entering the bedroom and closing the door behind them.

“Good.” His sigh held relief and the
realization made her tip her head up to search his features. He grinned at her,
an open display of happiness that pushed her pulse rate into a gear change-up.
He hadn’t been certain of her, had harbored doubts. Probably some of the same
worries she had about trusting herself enough to step forward into the future
with him.

“Can I write to you while you’re away?
Um…doing soldier things?”

“We can do better than that, sweetheart.
I’ll buy you a laptop. I won’t have time to show you how to use it, but I’ll
ask Luke and Janaya to help you set it up. You’ll be able to send me emails and
talk to me online.”

After spending months as an outsider, his
kindness overwhelmed her, brought a touch of giddiness and even disbelief.
“You’d do that for me?”

Jake laughed again. “It’s for my benefit
too.” He released her, letting her slide down his body and lowered his head,
crushing his lips to hers. Gradually, he backed her up to the bed, and they
toppled to the mattress together.

Somehow her clothes disappeared, and he was
kissing her everywhere he could reach. He plundered her mouth, his fingers
spearing into her hair, holding her captive.

“My turn. I enjoy exploring you,” she said
when she had a moment to speak.

“You mean you want to torture me. “ He
pulled away and lay on his back, his dark eyes gleaming. “I’m all yours.”

So she trailed her hands over him, pleasing
herself and cataloguing his reactions to her caresses. The catch of his breath
when she skated the tips of his fingers across his ribs. The way he trembled
when she licked his nipple.

“More,” he encouraged softly. “Explore my
cock.”

“What if it bites me?”

He barked out a laugh. “Pet it a bit and
see what happens.”

Fun and laughter had never entwined in her
mind when she’d considered sex in the past. With a smile curving her lips, she ran
her fingertips down the length of his shaft. Silky skin. Warmth. A masculine
scent, musky, but not unpleasant filled the air. She curled her fingers around
his cock, testing, stroking. Exploring in whichever direction her curiosity led
her, she teased him and learned his body.

“Enough,” he said.

She froze, but a tiny smile curled her
lips. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Never.” He paused to grab a condom then
lifted her by the hips and positioned her over him. “Guide me inside you,” he
whispered.

She did as he asked, saw the way he watched
where they were joined. Her inner muscles stretched as gravity sank her down on
his cock, impaling her. His hands at her hips guided her through the erotic
dance until they both soared. They coasted back down together, and she
stretched out on his hard chest, her last thought as she toppled into sleep was
that Jake felt like the home she’d never had.

After Jake left the days passed rapidly,
the only time she had to herself were the evenings. It was during those quiet
times when she missed him, his solid presence that always made her feel safe
and protected. At least she’d felt that way until their separation stretched to
six months and his calls and emails stopped coming. After a month of unanswered
emails, she accepted the truth. They didn’t have enough of a foundation for a
lasting relationship. Now in the small hours of the night she brooded,
wondering if she should have done something different. She stifled a yawn. The
lack of sleep was starting to tell.

“Hey, enough with the daydreaming,” Alice
said. “We have a lot to do. We need you at the board meeting. It starts in
three minutes.”

Sorrel set her pen aside with a rueful
sigh. “I’m trying to think of an interesting scent combination for a new range
of Star Sign bath bombs. Something different but not so radical it’ll put off
customers.”

“I have faith in you,” Alice said. “Come
on. You need a break.” Her gaze zeroed in on the shadows Sorrel knew she hadn’t
managed to cover with light makeup. “You look tired.”

Sorrel bit her lip.

“Something wrong?”

“Jake has stopped contacting me. I haven’t
heard from him in months.”

Alice wrinkled her nose. “I’m no expert on
men, but are you sure there’s something wrong?”

“Two months of silence? That spells problem
in my language.”

“Maybe he’s away from his base?”

“Or maybe he’s seeing his old girlfriend.
We were together for such a short time. We had a fling. I read about flings in
one of Hinekiri’s magazines.”

“So email him, tell him how you feel and
say you’re moving on.”

“No, that’s similar to breaking up in a
text. It’s not cool, according to the magazines.”

“Don’t believe everything you read,” Alice
said in a crisp order. “They brainwash you into thinking there’s something
wrong if you’re not coat-hanger thin with big lips and hair. We’ll organize a
girls’ night out soon. That’ll perk up your spirits.” Her gaze flicked to the
wall clock. “Time for the board meeting. Let’s go.”

The boardroom was bedlam, as usual. The
oldies were already present, full cups of tea and coffee at their elbows, their
eyes fixed on a container of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the middle of
the table.

“Ah, there you are,” Harriet said, her
needles clicking and clacking musically, black and white knitting spilling onto
her lap in a long tail.

Alice disappeared and reappeared again with
a gift-wrapped box. The lid of the box sported a pretty purple bow and trails
of curling ribbon. In her other hand, she carried a plain brown bag. She set
both on the table in front of her and slipped into a chair.

“There’s only one,” Joseph said.

“Is everyone ready?” James asked.

Silence fell, faces bearing eagerness and
filling the air with expectation. Nerves simmered in Sorrel, propelled by the
anticipation and prompted by worry of failure. So much was riding on her
product. What if it went wrong? Look at what had happened with Jake. The
thought steadied her. As long as she tried her best. No one could demand more
than her best.

“Production started on our
Dream Cream
today. We’ve made enough for our market testers, so we can get feedback on use
and any potential problems.” Alice pushed the gift-wrapped box across the board
table toward Sorrel. “Open it.”

Sorrel fumbled the box a little, her hands
trembling in her excitement. This was the culmination of her tests and the lab
perfecting the formula for mass production. She pulled out a plain black tub
and lifted it for everyone to see. Someone had written on it with a gold pen in
elegant script.
Dream Cream. Give your lover the gift of pleasure.

“It’s beautiful.” Sorrel couldn’t get
another word out, the lump in her throat causing an emotional blockage. She
turned the tub around so everyone could see the label.

“Perfect,” Katarina said. “Simple and
classy. It’s perfect. Is that the final packaging?”

“Yes, I think so,” James said.

“Dreams should be wrapped in simplicity,”
Sam said with a decisive nod. “The plain packaging puts the spotlight on the
product.”

Alice handed out samples to everyone.
“These are the reports we want you to fill out. I’d appreciate them back by
Monday next week. Our time frame is short for this one because we need to get
our promotion underway. Any objections to Monday?”

“Works for me,” Richard said, glancing at
his wristwatch. “Was there anything else important to discuss today? I need to
get back to the police station to relieve Luke.”

“You go,” James said. “We’re going to
discuss marketing ideas. If you have any suggestions bring them with you to the
meeting on Monday.”

Richard left and everyone settled back to a
discussion on how they should market the
Dream Cream
.

“I still like our initial ideas of
packaging products together,” Alice said. “It worked well for our vibrating
condoms and the vibrator. I think we should stick with the tried and true.”

“Other companies have copied our marketing
strategy,” Ben said. “I say we try to come up with something different.”

“We need a loyalty card, something to
market in combination with our social media pages,” Harriet suggested.

“That might work for those who are computer
savvy. We could still do the loyalty card. Good idea, but we need something
more,” Alice said.

Sorrel listened to the ideas flow back and
forth, her mind racing to keep up. This group of people was amazing and she
felt honored to be part of it.

“You could offer discounts if customers
purchased more than one product. Make it so the more products they buy the
bigger discount they get,” she said. “Buy one product and get a free gift.”

“We wouldn’t want to discount too much
because that might backfire, but we could think about an introductory
discount,” Alice said. Her pen raced across the page as she jotted down the
ideas.

A phone rang in the distance, and a tap
sounded on the door. A secretary stuck her head through the door. “Phone call,
Mr. Bates.”

“Are we done yet? Ben and I need to get to
bowls practice,” Sam said.

“Off you go. I’ll see you all on Monday
afternoon,” Alice said, making a shooing action with her left hand.

There was a mad scramble until only Alice
and Sorrel remained in the boardroom. Alice glanced up from her notes. “Did you
think of something else?”

“Yes. I love working here. Everyone has
made me so welcome even though I don’t have a formal qualification. Thank you
for giving me this chance.” Mere words couldn’t convey the gratitude she
experienced each day. Alice and her friends had gone out of their way to help
Sorrel find her feet in Sloan. The name Sister Bitter no longer existed, and
she held not a single regret about leaving the compound.

“You’re welcome.” Alice pulled a comical
face. “One day you’ll have to get me to tell you about how I came to live in
Sloan, perhaps over a glass of wine at
The Thirsty Cricket
. Maybe this
weekend. I’ll call around and see if everyone is free on Saturday night. Are
you free Saturday?”

“Nothing on my social calendar.” Which was
a bit sad, according to the magazines. Sorrel stood and winced. Alice was
right. Reading those magazines just depressed her. “Thanks again. I’d better
get back to the lab. I want to brainstorm my star sign bath bombs before I
leave today.”

By the time she left Fancy Free, she’d come
to tentative decisions about the scents to use for the new products she had in
mind, and she had an entire Friday night stretching ahead of her. Some of the
inventors in the lab had asked her to go for drinks at the pub, but she’d said
no. Despite her bravado about giving up on Jake, carrying out the idea made her
want to howl.

More fool her.

She had the house to herself and after a
halfhearted attempt at eating pasta for dinner, she shoved it aside. Unable to
help herself she walked to her room and hit the receive button for her email.
Three hard thumps of her heart later, she stared at the empty inbox. She
retreated to the kitchen and filled her glass of wine.

Janaya’s dog trailed after her, pausing at
the fridge with a hopeful bark.

“Janaya said I’m not allowed to feed you,
no matter how pitiful you look.”

The dog grumbled a protest, almost as if it
were talking to her. Sorrel carried her glass of wine out to the deck and sat
watching the night push the day away, shrouding everything with darkness. Soon,
the stars twinkled into prominence, and in a nearby stand of trees, a Morepork
owl hooted its mournful cry.
More pork. More pork.

Sighing, Sorrel washed out her empty glass,
stacked it in the dishwasher and retreated to bed. A glossy magazine sat on the
nightstand.
Cure loneliness
, one of the subtitles on the cover
practically screamed.

“Rub it in,” Sorrel muttered.

The tub of
Dream Cream
sat near it,
and Sorrel decided to do some work. She’d try out the final version of her
cream, get out one of the new vibrators Gaby, one of the inventors had asked
her to test and squeeze a sliver of pleasure out of this crummy night.

“I’m going out tomorrow,” she told the dog
who had followed her to her bedroom. “You’re not watching. Out you go.” Sorrel
closed the door after the grumbling dog and stripped off her clothes. After a
quick shower, she retrieved the test vibrator and the relevant paperwork from
her handbag. Then, with a pen and the test questionnaire close at hand, she
opened the tub of dream cream. The perfume of carnations filled her lungs,
sweet and fragrant. Unexpected, yet perfect. Maybe not everyone’s choice of
scent, but she delighted in it. They’d tested citrus and discarded the scent in
favor of the more unusual.

She dipped her forefinger into the tub. The
cream was thick in consistency and almost solid. Body heat softened the cream,
helping it to disperse and produce the wonderful tingles and stimulation.

Her forefinger trailed around the outer
edge of her areola, and the effect was instantaneous. Her breath caught,
prickles of pleasure streaking across her breast.

“Yes,” she whispered. She stroked her body,
coating a little cream on her other breast and working it into her nipples
until they stood to attention, taut and aching. Taking her time, and
cataloguing every sweet sensation, she parted her legs, the cool air against
her swollen pussy ramping up her excitement even more.

Languidly, she dipped her finger into the
tub again. Her digit slipped across the surface of the cream, and a whiff of
carnations hit her along with a hint of her own musk. Sighing, she ran her
finger down her folds and back up again. She could feel the silkiness of her
arousal, the tightening in her belly as her excitement built.

The cream worked rapidly. Sometimes too
quickly if the user took a liberal amount of cream and applied it to the
clitoris. Her eyes fluttered closed to better concentrate on the buildup of
pleasure, the quickening of her breaths.

She rubbed lazy, languid circles around her
clit with the odd sweeping path across to make the swollen bundle of nerves sit
up and pay attention. Oh yes. This was perfect. The only thing that would make
it better was a man.

Jake.

Not gonna happen.

She might as well do what Alice said and
stop putting this part of her life on hold. She fumbled for Gaby’s newest
vibrator design and switched it on, thankful for Gaby’s foresight in providing
batteries. Turning it off again, she spotted a few dots of the cream along the
shaft of the device since rigorous testing had shown internal use worked well
too. She slid it languidly in and out, enjoying the sense of fullness, the
stretching. The initial coolness of the shaft warmed to her body temperature.

She could feel the coil of excitement in
her belly tighten, and she closed her eyes again. She thumbed the power switch
of the vibrator, and moaned as the clit tickler came into direct contact.
“Yes.”

Nice and quiet. Oh yes. She liked this
vibrator. It was perfectly shaped. Just perfect. Sorrel bit her bottom lip, her
hips lifting off the bed. She moved the vibrator a fraction, and a streak of
pleasure shot down her legs. Mentally she reached for her orgasm, but the coil
tightened even more. Her pulse raced, and another groan escaped. The sensations
tugged at her almost painfully. She didn’t know if she could bear the direct
contact any longer, yet she thought stopping would kill her. Balanced on the
precipice, her body fought for release, struggled for satisfaction.

A hoarse breath squeezed past her clenched
teeth.

A sharp yank on one nipple zapped the coil
of tension with pain and she toppled over into orgasm, sharp, hard waves of
pleasure rippling through her pussy.

She gasped, fighting her lethargy to open
her eyes. A man stood by the bed. Tall. Dark. Hungry brown gaze fixed on her.
Pretty. He was familiar yet not.

“Jake?”

“In the flesh, sweetheart.”

Still spasms of pleasure rippled to her
womb, the combination of the vibrator and the cream drawing out her release.

“I thought…” She swallowed and tried again.
“I thought you—”

“Didn’t want you?” he asked in a harsh
voice, lined with a definite note of emotion. “There hasn’t been a day go past
without me thinking of you, wanting you in my arms. You kept me going.” While
he spoke, he lost his clothes. His shirt came off, his movements awkward and
jerky. A snow-white bandage covered one biceps.

“Are you all right?” She removed the
vibrator, switching it off at the same time. Her cheeks turned red, now that
she could think properly.

“I am now.” He stooped to remove his boots
and peeled his jeans and underwear down his legs in one move. His lips came
down on hers, cool from the night air, but his first hungry kiss went a long
way to shoring up her confidence. “God, I missed you so much.”