All They Need - By Sarah Mayberry Page 0,78

It took a moment for her body to relax into his embrace.

“What’s going on?” he asked quietly.

“Just a bad dream. Nothing important.”

He hesitated a moment. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“No. It was mostly gobbledygook. Bits and pieces of lots of stuff.”

She turned her head and pressed a kiss to his throat.

“Your house is very cold.” Her hands slid to his backside and she cupped his butt cheeks. “Lucky you’re so hot.”

She kissed his neck again, opening her mouth this time. His body stirred to life instantly but he was very aware of the fact that Mel was using sex to distract him. She lifted a leg and ran her foot along his calf, pressing her hips against his. He pulled back from her a little so he could see her face.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

She returned his regard, her gray eyes unreadable.

“I’m fine. Really.”

She kissed him, urging him close again with her hands on his hips. This time he didn’t resist, even though he knew he wasn’t getting the full picture, even though he suspected that Mel wasn’t fine. She clearly didn’t want to talk about it, and she clearly also wanted to make love again. He was prepared to follow her lead. For now, anyway.

They returned to the living room and made slow love, firelight flickering over their bodies. Afterward, Mel tucked her body against his back and rested her cheek on his shoulder. A few minutes later she was asleep. He lay awake, watching the fire, thinking.

He knew Mel’s marriage had been unhappy. She’d intimated that her ex had been critical, maybe even controlling. The day they’d had lunch together she’d also implied that Owen Hunter’s parents had not approved of their marriage and that she’d never fit in with the Melbourne society set.

Not a good picture, any of it. And he could understand why Mel might be gun-shy. He wished he knew more about what she was thinking, how she was feeling, because he was about as committed as it was possible to get. Had been for some time now. For the first time in his life, he was truly in love. Mel was the woman he’d been waiting his whole life to find. Everything in him wanted to sweep her off her feet and put things in motion to start the rest of their lives together.

But only an idiot would ignore the subtle and not-so-subtle signals that Mel was broadcasting. She’d been reluctant to acknowledge their attraction from the very beginning, and even though he’d been hoping that what had happened between them last weekend would have put paid to some of her doubts, it was clear that she was still very much feeling her way as far as their relationship was concerned.

He was going to have to be patient, and he was going to have to let Mel set the pace. It chafed the impetuous idiot boy in him, but at the end of the day, as long as they wound up at the same destination, he was willing to take as circuitous a route as Mel required. Whatever it took.

Because she was worth it. A million times over.

THE NEXT DAY they both woke early. After a quick shower, they walked into the village and bought croissants and pain au chocolat from the local bakery and ate them during the walk to Summerlea. He still had her brush-cutter in his garage, and Mel insisted on borrowing her brother-in-law’s machine as well so they could tackle the blackberry brambles in tandem. By the time they were finished they had a huge pile of severed canes and a large collection of cuts, scratches and splinters between them. Walking to the house with Mel at his side, his muscles aching pleasantly from a day of physical activity, Flynn had a vision of how the rest of his life could look—the two of them working here at Summerlea, restoring the garden to its former glory, restoring the house, growing together. It felt so close, so achievable, as though he could almost reach out and touch it.

“I was thinking of inviting my parents down next weekend to show them around the place,” he said as they stored the equipment in the garage.

Mel shot him a quick, startled look before her expression smoothed into polite interest. “I didn’t realize they hadn’t seen it yet.”

“Between one thing and another, I haven’t had the chance to have them down yet. I was thinking we could do a bit of a tour here,