It Was Only a Kiss - By Joss Wood Page 0,20

Jess was past frozen. A cold front had rapidly moved in, with an icy wind that had blown in heavy clouds and was sneaking in under her clothes. Jess buried her face in between Luke’s shoulderblades and gripped his hips with now frozen hands. She wished she felt comfortable enough to slide her hands up under his jacket to get her hands out of the freezing wind.

Jess pulled her head up as Luke braked and stopped the bike. He left it idling as he half turned to face her. He took her hands in his and rubbed them.

‘I can feel you shivering. Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you out this long,’ Luke said, blowing his hot breath onto her hands.

Jess quivered and not only because of the cold. Seeing that dark head bent over her hands and feeling his warm breath on her skin made the worms squirm in her stomach.

‘How long until we’re back?’ Jess asked, her teeth chattering.

Luke winced. ‘About forty minutes. This cold front came up really quickly.’ He looked up and frowned at the black clouds gathering above. ‘We might get wet.’

Jess shrugged. ‘Well, then, we’d better get moving.’

Luke pulled a black-and-white beanie out of his pocket and pulled it over her ears, tucking away her hair. They were close enough to kiss, Jess thought. She could count each individual spiky eyelash, could see the gold highlights in his very green eyes, could make out the faint traces of a scar in his left eyebrow.

She really wanted to be kissed...

Luke’s fingers were cool on her face as he tucked her hair under the cap and she wondered if she imagined his fingers lingering for a moment longer than necessary on her cheekbone.

‘At the risk of you taking this the wrong way, get as close as possible. Put your hands under my jacket—get them warm. The temperature is dropping fast,’ Luke said as he turned back.

Luke waited while she wriggled herself as close to him as she could and until her hands were flat on his stomach—oh, the blessed warmth—before roaring off. Jess put her face back between his shoulderblades and felt so much more comfortable than she had just minutes before.

His stomach was hard and ridged with muscle and his back was broad, protecting her from the wind they were now riding into. She’d forgotten how much of a man he was, Jess thought as the first drops of icy rain fell. It wasn’t only his impressive body—while he wasn’t muscle bound, he was still ripped in all the right places, like the six-pack under her hands—but wherever he went on the estate he instantly commanded respect.

She’d watched and listened as he interacted with his staff. He gave orders easily, listened when he needed to and made swift decisions. His employees felt at ease around him—enough to crack jokes and initiate conversation.

She hadn’t realised how extensive his property was or how much he was responsible for. He had a small dairy herd that provided milk to a processing dairy in town, orchards that exported plums and soft citrus, and olives that were sold to a factory in Franschoek that pressed and bottled olive oil.

‘They all add to the St Sylve coffers,’ Luke had said, a muscle jumping in his jaw. ‘Thank God.’

‘Are the St Sylve coffers empty?’ she’d joked.

‘You have no idea.’

Jess couldn’t understand it...why did St Sylve have money troubles if he had all these other sources of income? Even if the wine wasn’t selling that well, then the milk and olives, sheep and fruit should subsidise the winery.

It was a puzzle. Jess felt a big drop of rain hit her cheek and she shivered. Luke briefly placed his left hand over her hands, as if to reassure her, and Jess rubbed her cheek against his back and turned her thoughts back to St Sylve.

Luke and St Sylve were such a conundrum. According to the grapevine, Luke made money hand over fist from his venture capital business, so he was supposedly not hurting for cash. It was common knowledge that he had extensive business interests apart from St Sylve, and he was reputed to have the very fortunate ability to make money—a lot of which, she suspected, he poured into this estate. Although he was based in Franschoek she knew that he provided financial and management capital to high-potential, high-risk, high-growth startup companies for a stake in said company.

But the question remained: if he had all these other sources of income for the farm