Sensual Chocolate (7 page)

It was time to get on more neutral ground.

“Tell me, was this something you’d always wanted to do?” he asked, placing his red wine on the coffee table on the other side of them.

“Sensual Chocolate?”

When he nodded, she continued.

“Oh, no. I was an interior designer and I enjoyed my job. When I inherited all of this—” her hand spread out wide, making her robe gap giving him a flash of the swell of her breasts, “—I felt as if I would be dishonoring my uncle’s memory and faith in me if I didn’t take it.”

The firelight played in the water at the rim of her lower lashes.

“You must have loved him a lot, to put your life aside and take on a family fishing residence.” He ate while he listened to her talk. The roast before him was delicious and could rival any other from a fine restaurant. Even though Jolie said she was a simple cook, she was a good one.

“I did. He was funny and caring. He loved people and making them happy. His wife passed away a few years after they married and he never married again. Uncle Johnny didn’t have any kids so he poured out everything on me and my siblings. He’d bring us here the week after school ended every year and we’d have a family week of fun. Aunts, uncles, cousins…we flooded the place.” She drank some of her own wine.

“How many siblings do you have?”

“There are seven of us. Four boys and three girls. I’m the youngest.”

“No, shit?” He couldn’t understand being from a family so large. It was him and his mom. His mother had been her parents’ only child and he was hers.

“No, shit.” She smiled at his shock and took a few bite of her food.

“I would think with so many of you all, you wouldn’t be close.”

“Not so. We are extremely close.” She unfolded her legs and pushed her feet closer to the fire, wiggling her toes.

For a moment he had an image of how she looked as a little girl, pretty and full of life.

“Are they in North Carolina too?”

“Nope, scattered all over the US now. We traditionally get together at my parents’ house in Maryland every Thanksgiving.”

She continued for a few minutes about the last get together and how many nieces and nephews she had and still getting most of the teasing from her siblings. Pushing his plate aside, he leaned back on one of his forearms and listened to her. He loved hearing her talk. It wasn’t just what she was saying that captivated him, but the sound of her voice, smooth and comforting as warm honey, drew him in.

“Your turn. Tell me about your family.” Her bright topaz gaze was fixed on him, her face clear and expectant.

Shit
. This was why he avoided doing more with a woman he was interested in besides sex. It got sticky, complicated. The sharing of the feelings and life stories made him uncomfortable. Drawing a leg up, he rested a forearm on his pant-covered knees. His slacks were his only apparel, at first he’d felt comfortable sitting bare-chested before the roaring fire with Jolie, now he felt naked. Revealed.

Not wanting to appear like a jerk, he tried to keep his comment light. He stared at the flickering flames instead of her. “It was just my mom and I for the most part. No family gatherings.”

“Do you mind if I ask why your father wasn’t in your life?”

Yes
. He sighed, trying to think of a way out of the conversation, but unable to come up with anything. “He was until I was around thirteen.”

“Did he pass away?” Her tone dropped to that kind of low octave that people used when they believed something would make a person sad.

“Eventually.” Dragging his hands through his hair, he thought about telling her to
piss
off
. It wouldn’t be the gentlemanly thing to say, but he wasn’t feeling like a kind man now. Emotions he’d spent most of his life keeping buried were beginning to rise to the surface and boil over, spewing all over his soul.

He made the mistake of looking at Jolie. If there was ever an example of someone’s heart being in their eyes, it would be her, at this moment. Her eyes looked more golden then brown, intense yet soft, as if any moment she’d wrap her arms around him and embrace him.

You’re too old for a hug, Trenton
, his mind screamed. He didn’t ask for an embrace, but he began to talk. “I thought my life was perfect when I was a child.” Scooting down, he lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, feeling too raw to face her. “My dad seemed bigger than life. He taught me how to play cricket, came to all my games after I made the team. Spent time with me and Mum. Their relationship, to me, was perfect. I frequently caught them snogging or sitting on the couch laughing with each other when Dad was home. I used to think to myself ‘I want that’.”

He paused and slipped a hand beneath his head. “When I was thirteen I learned that fairytales were for children. The reality of life and relationships were a bitch. People put up smoke screens.” He fell silent.

The time must have stretched on too long, because Jolie asked, “What happened?”

“On the day after my thirteenth birthday we got a call from a co-worker who went to my father’s hotel room when Dad didn’t show for the shuttle to the airport. My father had had a massive heart attack that morning. They got him to the hospital in New York. My father was a pilot, so his company arranged for us to get out of England immediately. By the time we got there my father had already had emergency surgery. A nurse directed us to his room. When we walked in there were a woman and boy standing beside his bed.” He swallowed attempting to relieve the tension building in his throat in remembrance of that day.

It took all of his will to continued, but he did. “The woman was holding one hand and the boy the other.”

“Stiles and his mother?” she surmised.

He rolled his head to the side and looked at Jolie, who was staring at him. “You see, my father had two wives. As an international pilot he flew from Europe to the states on a regular. He and my mother had been married for seventeen years. At some point he met and married Marsha, Stiles’s mother, before Stiles was born. So there I was staring at a boy who looked nothing like me, but was my brother. The other son of my father.”

“What happened next?”

“The usual explosion of emotions. My father with nothing but a lot of empty words about being in love with two women and not intending it to happen. I vividly recall nurses and doctors escorting two furious women out of the room because my father was too fragile.” He humphed. “Too weak to deal with his own mess.”

He let out a burst of air, trying to find relief. “My mom, who I love dearly, divorced my father. Amazingly Marsha and my mom bonded in some weird way that day. My mom did not think my father’s philandering should keep two brothers from knowing each other. Stiles’s mom helped my mother find a job and relocate to America. I will admit it was tough. Stiles and I had a hard time for a few months, but once I stopped blaming him for getting half of my father’s time we became the best of friends. We made a choice to attend the same college and our friendship became stronger.”

“Did you still communicate with your father during that time?”

“No. At first I did, but it hurt my mother so much to hear about him, I stopped returning his calls. He died during our freshman year in college, alone in England, of a second heart attack.”

Trenton knew that a part of him always desired a relationship with his father, but as he got older he understood the major error in judgment and moral code his father had made, so never revealed that to his mom. Not knowing what else to say, he just laid there, listening to the hissing of the gas fire. He wanted to conjure up something witty and funny to break the tension. To bring back the passion of the night; a place he felt more comfortable. His mind was blank.

Circumventing the platters and bottle of wine, Jolie crawled over the blanket until she was beside him. Then, without saying a word, she aligned her body against his side, wrapped her arm around his waist and cradled her head on his chest. Laying with him, she lent him her strength.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that until Jolie’s voice broke the silence. “That explains a lot.”

At first he frowned, thinking that she was talking about his aversion to intimacy and questioned her, “Explains what?”

She balanced her head up on his chest by her chin. “Why it is you use more American terms than British, until your balls are being scalded in hot water.” She winked at him.

“That’ll do it.” He appreciated her giving him a little humor, just enough to make breathing a little easier for him.

They were quiet again and she rested her head back on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and gave himself permission to hold her. It was that moment he dreaded the dawning of the new day.

Chapter 5

Jolie slipped out of her bed, doing her best not to disturb the sleeping man, and snuck off to the bathroom. Last night had been wild, amazing and more emotional than she’d planned for. A night that was supposed to be filled with romance and sex had turned out to be something incredible.

Closing the door, her mind played back on everything from the moment Trenton arrived at her house with the single red rose, to confessions he’d made about his father, and every bout of sex in between. And after, her body reminded her. After over an hour of just holding each other before the fire he’d carried her upstairs and made love to her. Those were the only words that fit the slow, gentle rhythm he gave her as he laid his body on hers and whispered endearments in her ear until she came. She was glad it had been dark in the room and he couldn’t see the tears that rolled from her eyes as her climaxed.

Now she had to put distance between them. Allowing him a chance to awaken and leave without the messy entanglement of telling her it was a nice night, but he had to go. Women always considered it a bad thing for men to sneak out, and in any other circumstances she would agree. However, she couldn’t take saying good-bye to him this morning and knowing this was it.

Turning on the shower beside the tub, she climbed in. She’d been a fool to agree to the night, she’d done exactly what she’d warned herself not to do, opened her heart to Trenton Rayner. If he were any other man she would have been happy to discover the morning after that she had fallen for him, but he wasn’t another man. He was the one-night guy who had been hurt and disillusioned when he was younger about commitment and relationships and didn’t believe in love.

A sound from the room reached her ears, and an image of Trenton getting up, looking irresistible filled her mind. She buried her face under the vigorous spray, muddling the sound. By the time she got out he’d be gone. Case closed.

****

Until this moment, until Jolie, Trenton felt as if he’d never lived. As if in some way before now his life had been incomplete. The thought rattled him. Shook the very foundation of his beliefs. Sex was sex, nothing more, had been what he’d told himself countless times since entering puberty, and now those words seemed empty and insufficient. Last night he had broken his cardinal rule and opened up to a woman about his past. It was a no-no for this reason.

He couldn’t stay. He had to leave.
Flee
, his mind screamed. However, he didn’t know where he could go and be away from himself and his traitorous thoughts. Dropping his pants back on the chair, he told himself he just had to see her one more time. Just one more kiss on those sweet full lips, he told himself.

The compulsion propelled him forward, he found himself opening the bathroom door. The sound of the shower echoed off the tile of the smoked glass enclosure where he could make out Jolie’s form inside. She was under the water, possibly washing her hair or face. It didn’t matter, he needed her.

Pulling the shower door open, he stepped inside. It took her a moment to turn around and realize she wasn’t alone. When she glanced over her shoulder, he could see the astonishment in her gaze.

“Trenton,” came the sultry whisper. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

“Not without my good-bye kiss.” He dragged her in his arms. “You wouldn’t deny me of such a simple pleasure, darling Jolie?”

Shaking her head, she leaned into him. His lips met hers. As if the sun and earth collided everything ignited inside of him. He couldn’t get enough of her. Moving his hands all over her wet body, he held her waist, feeling the heat of her slim form against him. He caressed her breasts and the taut peaks stabbed the center of his palm.

Jolie sighed in his mouth as he pinched each nipple. When his hands moved to her ass, cupping each plump cheek, she grounded her slick pussy against his dick. Feeling like a Neanderthal, he wanted to claim his woman, mark her as his. Lifting her up, he turned and took the steps needed to reach his destination.

She spread her legs wide and wrapped them around his waist as he pressed her up against the shower wall. He was hard and ready for her. He couldn’t think straight, the only thing he knew was that he wanted to be inside Jolie, now.

Reaching underneath her ass he took hold of his cock and set it at the mouth of heaven, and with one hard thrust he embedded himself inside of her. Hot, tight, wet satin was how her pussy felt around him.

She cried out at his rough entry but still locked her thighs firm around him, her heels digging into his ass. His body would have loved to call the pounding he gave her fucking. That he’d swiveled with Jolie in the morning light and fucked her good before he left. But no matter how hard he was giving it to her, or how rigid his dick was as it piston through her walls “just fucking” wasn’t it. It didn’t describe the pumping of her hips against his or the sweet sound she made as she moaned and sighed, whispering his name as her pussy milked his shaft as she came.

And it sure as hell wasn’t a good explanation on why it felt as if the earth had dropped away from his feet when he climaxed. No, nothing got fucked this morning but his mind.

The water continued to rain down on them and their laborious breathing had barely calmed when he heard her say, “Thank you for a wonderful night, Mr. Rayner.”

It was just what he needed to hear to remind him that this had been an arrangement. The morning was here and it was time for him to go. Time to get back to life as he knew it.