Page 141 of Original Sin

‘Yes we can,’ he said with a chocolaty laugh.

She groaned as he kissed her damp neck, his hand sliding across her stomach, gently pushing her back onto the hot sand. She felt his lips over her sun–kissed skin; her shoulders, fingertips, stomach. He slid off her bikini top and sucked her dark, cherry–like nipples as his fingers peeled off her briefs.

‘Not here,’ she gasped. ‘Someone might come.’

‘Maybe,’ he chuckled as he dipped two fingers through her damp, dark triangle of hair and deep into her, stroking her hard, throbbing clit with his thumb.

She dug her toes into the sand as he pulled down his swimming shorts in one impatient movement. She no longer cared who might come and see them. Here, with Sean in this secret cove, it seemed the most natural and perfect thing to do.

‘Please, now,’ she gasped, knowing she was already on the edge of climax. Pulling his hard, muscular body towards her, she could think of nothing but how she needed his cock, beading with dew, inside her. And as she moved in unison with his body, his cock filling her whole, every sensation she had felt over the past twenty–four hours: the annoyance, panic, sadness, the pleasure, they all crystallized into one hot, burning climax so intense that she saw spots of light bursting on her vision.

Afterwards, they lay together, their damp bodies caked in the red sand, Sean stroking her hair, Tess enjoying the feel of his strong arms around her. They went back to Chris Kennedy’s house and, after a long cool shower together, made love again, this time on the crisp white sheets of an emperor–sized bed, more slowly, less urgently, but with just as much desire. Stepping onto the lanai, watching the streak of peppery starlight across the inky black sky, she smiled to herself. Now she could see that Sean’s actions in London were only designed to show her how little Dom cared for her feelings. But did that mean Sean cared for her? She didn’t want to think about th

at too thoroughly right now.

He walked out and handed her a glass of pink lemonade and they both sat on the swinging love–seat, watching the fireflies come out to dance around the brush.

‘What are you doing after the wedding?’ asked Sean after a long pause.

‘You mean, am I staying in New York?’

He nodded.

‘I’d like to,’ she said slowly, unsure if that was the right answer – whether it was true and whether it was what he wanted to hear. She was enjoying this moment and didn’t want to break the spell. Did he expect her to want to run back to London because he was there, just because they had had sex? Is that what she wanted to do? Tess just didn’t know anything any more.

‘So what about you? How long are you staying in London?’ she asked cautiously.

He rocked the seat back and forth with his foot. ‘Initially it was a year, then it became two; now I consider it home. You probably don’t know this, but I want to start my own PR and events management agency next year.’

‘Really? And not work for Asgill’s?’

‘No, I’d still work for Asgill’s, they’d just be one of my accounts,’ said Sean. ‘Over the years, a lot of blue–chip companies have approached me to do events and PR for them, and it seems a waste to let those opportunities pass by, especially when I can still do my bit for the family company.’

She glanced at him; here was yet another side of him she hadn’t noticed. She’d been so quick to write him off as a waster and a dilettante that she hadn’t recognized his ambition and passion for what he did. ‘Anyway, how can I leave England,’ he said with a cheeky twinkle, ‘When my latest addiction is English girls?’

She punched him on the arm.

‘Hey! Let me finish!’ he cried. ‘ … Although it’s just a shame that the one I like lives in New York.’

He was cut off by the chirping of her mobile phone.

‘I’d better get that,’ she said, her heart still thumping wildly from his words.

‘Leave it.’

‘You know I can’t do that,’ she said regretfully. She had already missed two calls from Jemma and wondered if there was a problem.

‘But you’re with the boss,’ he shouted after her.

‘Boss’s son,’ she yelled back.

Snatching up the phone, Tess was surprised and flustered to hear Meredith.

‘Tess. How was the pageant?’

Tess closed the patio door behind her and moved into the bedroom.

‘Great. Wonderful,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Lovely winner.’