All Saints: Love and Intrigue in the Stunning New Zealand Wilderness (The New Zealand Soccer Referee Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

of his front teeth marring the
perfection, but making him seem less perfect. He leaned forward and sat his
glass on the coffee table, stretching his arms backwards so that his hands
touched the wall behind. Defined chest muscles and washboard abdominals pressed
against his shirt and I caught the outline of a tattoo through his white
sleeve. He studied me, his eyes calm and steady as he tried to read my
thoughts. I held my breath and craved the feeling of his arms around me,
crushing me to his chest and telling me everything would be ok. I wanted arms
which weren’t my dad’s spindly, decaying muscle tone and empty platitudes. I
ached to be held and cossetted, made to feel special and needed. I wanted it. I
didn’t want what went with it.
    “I should go,” he
said and something clicked in my chest. His company provided a temporary balm
for my unease. I’d lived in the apartment for six months and in that time had
two unwanted visitors. I owned little worth taking but they tossed the place
both times. The second time they’d done everyone on my floor. Druggies, the
cops reckoned. Loneliness snaked a cold hand around my heart and terrified me
with the thought of the long, empty nights ahead. My singleness spread before
me like an endless road of torment and rejection, resounding with the last
words my husband spoke to me. ‘ Geez, Ursula. The only great thing about you
is your Saint name. I don’t know why I thought we could pull this off .’ His
body lay in the cemetery as beetles and earthworms sucked the skin from his
bones; more use in death than he ever proved to be in life. Yet still he
retained the power to hurt me. An overwhelming need to overwrite the entirety
of our marriage with something else drove me to my feet, desperate for the
attractive male to stay. I owned nothing worth giving away and as I offered the
final, most precious thing, my conscience screamed at me to stop.

Chapter 4
    “I’m sorry. I don’t
mean to be so...” I scratched around for the word but only hostile presented itself. Teina Fox watched as I rose, picking my way around the coffee
table until I stood before him, my face blank and expressionless as I worked to
keep the empty need at bay. My eyes betrayed me and he read it there instead.
“Will you hold me again?” I asked, desperate to touch the rippling muscle and
feel his strength wrap around my body. He moved and I inhaled a heady breath of
his masculine scent. My calves pressed against the coffee table as he stood,
occupying the remaining floor space between me and the sofa. I swallowed, waiting
for rejection.
    It didn’t come.
Teina said nothing, drawing me into his chest and enfolding me in his arms. He
squeezed and the breath went out of me in a whoosh. I snaked my arms around his
waist and held on, desperate for it not to end. Safety enveloped me and I
wished I could stay there suffocating in the clean smell of his shirt, my cheek
pressed against the soft, expensive fabric. “Are you married? Or with someone?”
I whispered, sparing a thought for the woman he belonged to, being thrust into
my position of jilted wife and knowing I wouldn’t be able to follow through and
seat her on my victim’s throne.
    “No.” His voice
sounded muffled as my ear nestled against his chest, my makeup transferring
itself to the white cloth with abandon. I pulled his left hand towards me,
searching for the gold evidence and saw nothing as I slipped my fingers through
his, mine tiny in comparison. When I tipped my head up and let his lips find
mine, I tasted the merlot on his tongue and he explored my mouth with tenderness.
He teased my senses, touching my tongue with his and then withdrawing it,
kissing as though we were teenagers who hadn’t worked out the mechanics of it
yet. I bit his lower lip and he groaned and released his tongue into my mouth
again, letting me connect with him and taste his essence. My common sense
screamed out a warning but for once, I ignored it, wanting to