Catch (10 page)

He pulled himself away; she groaned in frustration and looked at him as if he'd gone completely mad.
 
He kissed her and she lapped at him, devouring her own juices from his face.

"I want you," he gasped between kisses, "but we need a condom."

"No, don't stop." Her strangled cry was more ammunition than his tortured body needed; he couldn't deny her, couldn't leave her hanging.
 
Working his way back down her sweaty body, he parted her with his thumbs.
 
At the touch of his tongue her trembling began anew. Matt peered up as best he could and she moaned incoherently, grasped his head with one hand and ground him into her.
 

As she bucked and writhed he felt his own orgasm rumbling deep inside, felt the familiar stirrings in his balls, that aching need for release.
 
If he didn't stop this he'd come all over the floor.
 
There was no way of stopping any of it.
 
He resigned himself and waited for the rush of her orgasm.

Letting go of his head, Tamsen gripped the counter top, caught her breath, arched back and he felt the sudden gush of her climax.
 
Her satisfied growl coupled with the sweet taste of her sent him over the edge.
 
Grasping her thighs and exhaling into her groin, he exploded in a rush all over the kitchen cupboards.

Collapsing to his knees, he heard quiet giggling - not hysterical, but a little loopy sounding.
 
He cast a glance skywards and she was smiling down at him, her face flushed, her eyes shining.
 
She was even more beautiful and he was even more taken with her.

"I've made another mess in your kitchen, haven't I?"

He smiled, lifting himself so he could kiss her just under her navel.
 
"No, I don't believe this was all your doing - I think I have to take responsibility for some of it."

Tamsen's post-coital bubble broke and she had a sudden flash of what she must look like, perched on the countertop in amongst the used plates and cutlery, wearing nothing but her shoes.
 
Color rushed to her cheeks and she knew it had nothing to do with delayed orgasm.
 
The man had a mighty way with his mouth.

Matt backed away, almost awkward, putting some distance between them, globules of come dripping from his rapidly diminishing cock.

"This is typical of me," he stammered. "Not thinking through the consequences of my well-thought-out -
not
- actions."

The emphasis on the word made her laugh.
 
"Come here."
 
She motioned to the space between her legs, all modesty gone; it really was way too late to be shy.
 

She wrapped her legs around his waist and placed her index
 
finger over his bruised looking lips and then down to his chin, still sticky with her juices.
 
"Has anyone ever told you you've got an amazing mouth and you know how to use it?"

A light touch of red kissed his cheeks. "And that was only a warm-up.
 
Come shower with me and I'll show you what I can really do."

She shuddered, but what the hell? The night was young, and how much more trouble could she get into, really?
 
"Lead the way, I'm still all yours."

"So, you brazen trollop, what time did you get in last night?"
 

Gina's assault broke Tamsen's train of thought. She should have been writing her morning sheet, but she sat there, gazing out to sea and thinking of Matt.
 
The touch of his hands and mouth on her skin. "Hmm, what’d ya say?"

"I wanted to know what time you dragged that sorry, and by the look on your face, well-shagged ass home last night?"

Tamsen giggled. "I think it was about quarter to three when I eventually fell into bed.
 
And it wasn't my ass that got shagged."
 
She took a sip of her dandelion tea. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Girlfriend - " Gina lit a cigarette and took a long drag " - if anyone's getting any action around here it's definitely my business."
 
She swigged her coffee and took a bite of the ritual breakfast doughnut.
 
"So spill.
From the grin pasted on your face he's built like a horse and you were at it like rabbits all night."

Tamsen smiled. "Ladies don't tell."

"That good?
 
Damn, I was hoping he'd be pencil-prick material and you hated every minute of it."

"Sorry, he's a keeper."

"Come on, let's not get past tag and release at this stage.
 
You've only known him two days."

"Okay, then - " Tamsen chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen " - a prospective keeper."

"Better." Gina swallowed the last of her coffee. "Well, I’d best be off to the pit-face, see what time yonder Prince Charming stumbles in."

"Hey, Gina."

"Yep?"
 
She stopped at the door.

"Thanks for lending me the Dubby."

"Ah, no probs." Gina waved her hand dismissively.
 
"And if you feel the need to bring lover boy back here I won't be in tonight - I'm off to stay at Cassie's."

"Ooh, sleepover."

"Don't get your hopes up.
 
She's having a few friends around for dinner and I'll be too pissed to drive home, so there won't be any of that, I can assure you."

"Don't drink so much and you never know what'll happen."

"Whatever." Gina headed for the doors. "See ya tomorrow.
 
Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Tamsen turned her mind to her journal again.

I've mixed feelings about where last night went and where it's taken me.
 
I sit here, the sun's shining off the sea, the dog walkers are doing their usual round of the sand and the gulls do what gulls do.
 
Nothing's changed in the scene before me, but I feel as if I'm looking through different eyes.
 
How can an encounter with someone you barely know touch you in such a deep and personal way?

Tamsen sighed and closed her journal.
 
Her one true friend in life.
 
These pages were the closest she'd ever come to unconditional love.

Matt hadn't made any mention of when he wanted to see her again.
 
Tamsen could already sense needy and obsessive tendencies trying to surface.
 
Gina wasn't going to be home tonight.
 
An opportunity to return the favor and prepare a meal for him, perhaps.
 
Who was she kidding?
 
She was a disaster in the kitchen.
 
She could cook, but it took three days and a water blaster to clean up afterward.
 

Besides, it wasn't eating she was interested in.
 
Last night had whetted her appetite for the man.
 
She couldn't get enough - just thinking about what his mouth was capable of made her wet.
 

She shivered. Best be off to work, take her tiny mind off the man before she decided to have herself on the terrace, in full view of the dog-walking brigade.

Matt was besotted.
 
It was the only way he could describe his feelings.
 
He'd slept log-like for a couple of hours after Tamsen left and woken raring and ready to go.
 
Even her bratty receptionist roommate wasn't able to put him off his stride this morning.
 
Gina’s smile had been smug, as if she knew some dirty little secret and might hold it over him, but he didn't care.
 
Nothing would get in the way of him having a great day.

Danni had other ideas.
 

"Morning boss."
 
She dropped what looked like a seventy-five-page agreement on his desk.
 
"Tim thought you needed a little bit of reading material to keep you going."
 

"Shit, Danni, don't suppose there's any chance of saving a few trillion trees by sending these things by email, is there?"

"You know these guys as well as I do.
 
Dragging them kicking and screaming into the 21
st
century's a mission impossible.
 
Most of them still think a mouse is something we need pest control for."

"No, honestly, I'm serious.
 
Can't we find some way of persuading them to use the technology we spend thousands on?"
 

She shrugged.
 
"I could try to organize some in-house seminars for the secretaries, but really it's a matter of you working on the fossils at your end.
 
Someone like Tim just doesn't trust the technology.
 
No matter how much I tell him it's okay, he can’t believe if he isn't holding the pages in his hand then it's likely to disappear or be changed, and he'll never be any the wiser."

Matt dropped his head in his hands. "It's like pushing the proverbial uphill with my nose."

"That's lawyers for you - not big on change."
 

Danni busied herself filing correspondence on the relevant client files while Matt contemplated the huge document on his desk.
 
He was already way behind on a couple of jobs; he just couldn't seem to find any enthusiasm for the work these days.
 
Even after the night he'd just had with Tamsen.

"So was she good?" Danni cut into his wandering thoughts.

"Sorry?"

"The mystery woman you took out for lunch yesterday. You've got one of those I've-been-up-shagging-all-night looks on your face."

He felt his cheeks redden.

"Ha, I knew it."
 

She pulled up the seat opposite his desk, a vision in black crushed silk with a white lacy camisole under her suit jacket. She had a way of looking feminine and business-like.
 
"So, spill.
 
Who is she?"
 

"Not telling."

"Matt..." Danni leaned forward and eyed him over the desk.
 

He knew he was in deep trouble.
 
A woman on a mission, and him clean in her sights.
 
What kind of hell must her husband have gone through when she made the decision he was going to marry her?

"You can tell me now, or we can sit here all day until you do.
 
What's it going to be?"
 

"I don't have to tell you."
 
A feeble come-back and he knew it, but at least the verbal battle might distract him from obsessing about Tamsen.

"I'm your personal assistant, I need to know what's going on in your life - and besides, I'm not going to tell anyone."

"And you're not going to leave me alone until I tell you."

"Correct, so spill."

"Tamsen."

"Tamsen Parsons.
 
The fishy girl.
 
Gina's friend.
 
That Tamsen?"

He nodded.

"She's not exactly your type."

"What do you mean, my type?"

"Well, she seems a bit hippyish- one of those girls who'd set a metal detector off in the airport.
 
You never know what's lurking under her clothing."
 
She looked at him slyly.
 
"Though you probably do now, don't you?"

Matt felt a sudden, inexplicable need to defend her.
 
"Steady on.
 
You can't judge someone by how they look."

"You've tried telling that to your mother, have you?"

"Leave my mother out of this.
 
And you're not to breathe a word to anyone. It's bad enough the creature on reception knows."

Danni made the universal motion for zipping her lips and went back to her filing.
 
Matt couldn't miss the smug look on her face.

Why did she have to bring his mother up?
 
Danni was right, his mother would not approve. She approved of the vile and poisonous Angie though Matt couldn't wait to get her out of his life - it had been like living with a pit-bull in twinset and pearls.
 
He shivered at the memory.
 
There were days when he couldn't even smile right.
 
It hadn't even occurred to him until he booked into a hotel in a furious rage that he'd walked out of his own home.
 
That's how twisted and distorted his outlook on life had become.
 
He’d vowed never to go there again, and if that meant he had to run a little against the conventional grain, then so be it.

Sod it, he thought.
 
He picked up the phone and dialed Tamsen's cellphone.

"Danni, can you close the door on your way out." His PA knew when he wanted to be alone and obediently closed the door behind her as she vacated his office.

"Hello?"

"Tamsen?"

"Yes."

"Hi, it's Matt."
 
She probably thought he was a complete idiot but it was too late now.

"Hey, I was just thinking about you."

His mood lifted. "Clean thoughts, I hope."

"Utterly filthy.
 
You want to come over to my place tonight and I'll share them with you?"

"I'd like that." More than he cared to admit. "You could give me a hint though."

She giggled. "If I told you what I'd been thinking about you'd never be able to keep your mind on your job."

"I'm having enough trouble after last night, so you can’t do any more damage."

"I was just putting a fish in a new aquarium and it occurred to me you might be fun in water.
 
I've got a rather large sunken spa bath at home and - "

"Stoppit."
 
His mind ran a million miles ahead of the rest of him.
 
"What time do you want me?
 
And I'm warning you now, I'm not bringing trunks."

"Damn and I was planning to take them off with my teeth."