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

expunge my former
life with an illusion of how it could have been; one night stands, beer fuelled
holidays. And babies.
    The first time was
a frenzied, mechanical union of lustful bodies and we undressed only the
necessary parts of each other. My sofa creaked and groaned under our activity
and I blocked out the distracting noises as I satiated myself in the intimate
live connection with another human being. We each took what we wanted from the
other and lay exhausted in the afterglow, neither one of us wanting to break
the atmosphere with futile platitudes as we waited for our heartbeats to return
to normal.
    “You ok?” Teina
whispered eventually, surprising me with his caring. My foot rested against his
calf and I felt the dark hair tickling my toes. He stroked my cheek and fixed a
gentle kiss over my lips, his own trembling with the adrenaline withdrawal. The
pressure of his body over mine pinned me to the sofa cushions and the
uncomfortable gap between them, but it didn’t matter and I dreaded him starting
to move away in the ultimate rejection. I wound my arms around his neck like a
baby monkey and tried to make the moment last, my face pushed against his
shoulder. To my surprise he stroked my curls and kissed my neck and the
underside of my jaw. He’d leave soon; walking out of my life as though I didn’t
matter. Because I didn’t, not to him. Not to many people really.
    “I’ve never done
this before,” I whispered and he smiled with his eyes.
    “Never?”
    I buried my face in
his shirt to hide my embarrassment and shook my head. “Not like this. I don’t
know you.”
    Teina ran his thumb
down my jaw line and his expression looked kind. He leaned up on one elbow and
nodded, the movement slow and calculating. “Would you like to know me?” he
asked, the crinkles in the outer corners of his eyes softening his angular
face.
    “You’re a referee,”
I said, chewing my bottom lip in mischief. “I just broke a Saint rule.”
    “A cardinal rule
too,” Teina said with a low snort. He kissed my cheek, the end of my nose and
then my lips as his eyelashes fluttered against my skin like falling rose
petals. When he moved I felt the hardness of his interest against my inner
thigh and saw a vision of myself; falling like a loose stone into the swirling
lava of volcanic lust. It served as a warning and I should have heeded it. I
shouldn’t have led the dark stranger through the apartment to my sterile
bedroom and I certainly shouldn’t have slipped out of my summer dress with such
a frisson of excitement mixed with fear. I shouldn’t have delighted in the way
he undid the buttons of his shirt or the sound of it fluttering to the floor.
From the first moment I invited him into my tiny flat, I suspected I was in
trouble. I shouldn’t have been surprised by its outworking.

Chapter 5
    I woke with the taste of wine in my mouth, mingled with the masculine
tang of Teina. I lay for a while listening to him breathe and feeling his arms
tighten when I tried to shift. He’d moved his leg over me in the night and he
lay awkwardly, his arms sheltering me. In the semi-darkness I examined his
tattoo, watching the black lines morph into patterns and words across his skin.
The sheet cut across his midsection and I watched him for signs of waking as I
pushed it away with care, needing to see the man who gave me so much pleasure a
few hours ago.
    He disturbed and I
felt myself tense, afraid of his reaction when he woke in my bed. Me; a
stranger.
    “About last night,”
he began. I scooted up the bed and covered his lips with mine. His hands
clasped my waist and he kissed me back, inducing a sense of relief. The last
thing I needed was rejection and the slamming of Pandora’s Box lid on my
fingers. “I don’t want to talk about last night,” I breathed. “I just want to
do it again, without talking.”
    “Fine. Because I’m
not sorry.” He bent his head and kissed me. I groaned and ran my hand across his
torso, surprised