Читать книгу Sins & Secrets - NICHOLA HARVEY - Страница 8

A FRISSON OF annoyance flared as I speculated Teddy’s reticence. As it stood, our little tryst had left me with a rock-hard erection, one I desperately needed to rid myself of, and quickly before my balls turned a lovely shade of blue. Ice cubes might magically do the trick.

Weaving my way through the crowded dancefloor towards the bar, I made the gut-wrenching decision to stay away from Teddy for the rest of the evening. Visiting with her at her North Melbourne home appeared to be the preferred choice. Privacy would be a given at least.

“Bourbon, straight, and no bloody ice!” My curt demand quickly met, I threw the dark liquor back, its burn felt on the way down. It wasn’t enough. I slammed the small crystal tumbler onto the bar indicating for another.

“Another, Mr Jaeger?”

Irritated he couldn’t take the hint, my brows shot up. “Does a bear shit in the woods?” Only then did the young, inexperienced red-faced barman understand. He swiftly poured and slid the drink back to me.

My gaze inadvertently slid across the yard as I casually leaned my forearm on the bar. I frowned; considering our steamy encounter earlier, Teddy was rather lively. It had to be nothing more than an act, surely. My silent question furtively answered as her daring gaze glanced over at me, and creamy cheeks turned a deep crimson.

A perceptive smile flittered across my lips. Knowing Teddy was just as affected by my presence as I was hers, offered a fragment of hope. Even if it was small, tomorrow was bound to be an improvement on tonight’s epic failure.

Then I got a glimpse of the reason behind Teddy’s animated persona, Eve, my mother’s younger sister. She peered past Teddy’s slender shoulder and waved. I raised my glass, acknowledging her. She added a wink for good measure. Cheeky bugger.

Eve Whittemore, what could I say, I adored her. She was more of a second mother than an aunt. Whenever I required an indifferent and impartial opinion, she was someone I knew to be honest. Another reason I loved her was her diplomacy skills or lack thereof. She certainly wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, that too, was a given.

Highly skilful at luring anyone to her bed, she had earned quite the reputation as a seductress and a man-eater. She proudly owned it too. Over the years, I had observed her successfully seduce men, and women alike with a simple glance or a feather-light touch. The moment their entranced gaze stared into fathomless chocolate brown eyes, they were instantly lost. Unwittingly, they found themselves worn down, giving in to whatever she desired. As beautiful as my mother, it wasn’t surprising, but that’s where the similarities ended.

Eve oozed a sexual dominance that surpassed any of the women I’d known and briefly dated over the years. Come to think of it; they had nothing on her. So self-assured, every member of the family had often wondered how her bumbling husband Nicholas had snagged her; he was quite the marshmallow compared to his seductress wife.

I turned back to the bar, ordering yet another drink.

“I’ll have one of those too please.” Speak of the devil.

I grinned at the person behind the posh voice sliding up beside me. “Eve, my old darling aunt, how are you this fine evening?”

She snorted and bumped shoulders with me. “I’m well preserved, not old.”

“There’s a difference? I had no idea.”

Laughing, Eve opened a silver cigarette case and slid one between her plump lips. I tugged a Zippo lighter out of my pocket and lit it for her. Her mischievous eyes glittering as she dragged pleasurably and blew a stream of smoke into the fresh night air. “I’m also a little spice and no sugar.”

I snorted derisively. “Tell me something I didn’t know.”

“Having spice in one’s life never hurt anyone, Ari.” She sipped on her bourbon. “You know what they say?”

“I’m sure you shall take immense pleasure in enlightening me, my darling, Eve,” I said, smiling warmly.

“All work and no fun can make you a dull and lonely boy.”

I smirked. “And your point is?”

With her white long-sleeved dress fitting her willowy body like a glove, Eve was dressed to kill. It was also backless, exposing her shapely back as she twisted and leaned against the bar. Only she could pull off such a dress at her age.

Leisurely spinning back on the spikes of her six-inch heels, her twinkling gaze dropped to the crotch of my black dress pants. “For fuck's sake, Ari, go and sort out that pole inside your pants before you poke everyone’s eyes out!”

Raising a brow at my loquacious aunt, I lifted the drink to my lips, taking another tentative sip. “Isn’t going blind a prerequisite of growing old also? I guess I thought wrong.”

Her mouth quirking, she picked at the nibble tray on the bar, deftly shelling the pistachios before popping them one at a time into her mouth and slowly chewing. “You do realise that you and Teddy have it bad.”

“Getting slow is another prerequisite too, you know.” My smart mouth earned me a firm punch to the bicep. “Ow!”

She laughed heartily. “Pussy.”

I set my glass on the bar and slumped in defeat. When it came to any other woman, I exuded confidence, yet when it came down to a stunningly gorgeous young woman I’d known my entire life, I fumbled like a pre-pubescent teen.

Eve knew it too and wasn’t about to let me live it down. “Yeah, I’ve been watching the two of you all night. It’s better than any movie I’ve ever watched. Any hotter -,” She smiled, fanning her face. “- we’d all be on fire.”

“Well, it hasn’t exactly gone to plan tonight for either of us, Eve. Believe you me; we both tried but...,” I trailed off as I noticed my doe-eyed cousin, Gabriel fawning over her. My chin jerked in their direction. “Although, I noticed just now, your son appears rather enamoured. I might have some fierce competition.”

Her lips twisted wryly viewing them quickly. “She’s a beautiful woman, no? What’s not to love,” she stated stubbing out her half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray on the bar. “Besides, Gabriel doesn’t like Teddy the way you do, and with the way he’s been acting of late, I’d say there’s someone in the picture – and it’s not a woman, trust me I know.”

“Mothers intuition?”

“If that’s what you call it,” she countered making me laugh.

Everyone in the family and our social circles knew it was no secret about Gabriel’s sexuality and his preference for either sex. The apple hadn’t fallen too far from the tree in that regards, and as I looked around the marquee, you could only speculate amongst the guests, who had shared his bed. Regardless of his luxurious upbringing and English heritage, dressed in a black tuxedo, he looked uncomfortable and oddly out of place.

Tall and well built, Gabriel’s once black-brown hair he had dyed a dirty blonde. Messy and appeared unkempt, it closely resembled dreadlocks. With kind, chestnut brown eyes that drew you in, he had a charisma unlike no other.

“So, go grab her. Put both yourselves and us -,” Eve’s slender hand regally circled the marquee, “- out of our misery.”

“As much as I would love too, I’m more of a gentleman than you are,” I murmured winking.

“That’s debatable,” she quipped.

My beaming smile faded as I stared longingly at Teddy from afar. “No, I’ll visit with Teddy tomorrow, when we’re both sober.”

Walking off, she shouted over one slender shoulder, “Be sure to let me know if you’re successful or fall flat on your face!”

“I’ve deleted your number!” I shouted back, laughing when she flipped me the bird. All class that woman.

Having met my father’s shiniest new toy, and failed dismally with Teddy, I just wanted to head home where I could wallow in self-pity with dignity. I tossed back the rest of my drink and spun on my heel, lamenting as I peered over at Teddy one more time. Tomorrow.

I eventually tracked down my parents inside the house, playing doubles at the twelve-foot billiards table in the rumpus room with my Uncle Garrett and his wife, Michaela. His usual cigar clenched between his lips, dad stretched over the green felt and took his shot. A loud exclamation escaped his tightened lips as he missed the pocket.

I patted his back and shook his hand, chuckling. “Bad luck, old chap.” I glanced across the table. “Uncle G’s kicking your arse. Still, I see?”

“The table mustn’t be level.”

I grinned as Garrett poked back. “No, brother, it’s just your aim that’s crooked.” Then the usual slinging started.

“I’m leaving before you two involve me in your little games.” Kissing Michaela on the cheek, I wished her good luck.

Her nose scrunched playfully. “It’s gonna be a long night I feel.”

Mother’s customary goodbye took longer thanks to her inquisition.

“Lovely party, but I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.” Hopefully between Teddy’s legs.

“A new acquisition?” she teased, lovingly rubbing my arm. She knew me well.

I smiled affectionately. “Something like that.”

“I trust you had an enjoyable evening?”

“Of course, I always do at your soirees.”

“Be sure to join us for dinner one night this week darling, hopefully with a date?” A glimmer of optimism twinkled in my mother’s glassy eyes.

“Yes, Mother. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.”

Down in the mouth and with my hands in my pockets, I strolled out the front door to my Imperial blue M6 Gran Coupe BMW already parked and waiting for me in the curved driveway. One of the two surly attendants my parents had hired for the evening held the door open for me. I thanked him and slid onto the supple leather of the black sports seat, turning the key. The V8’s throaty engine sprang to life, a sound that would never grow old, raising a smile. Something had to. Intentionally revving the accelerator, l sped out of the driveway, the tyres spinning in my haste to go home. The black skid marks left behind I guaranteed shan’t be received well. Nor will mother’s earbashing over her ruined driveway.

Apart from the few cars I passed, the drive home was quiet. The lit streets were practically empty, leaving me alone on the road and alone with my thoughts, mostly about Teddy, and that hot, wet, heated kiss. The night I presumed was a teaser, a prelude for the future.

I pulled into the garage of my seaside Beaumaris home just after eleven and wandered inside, heading straight upstairs and into my ensuite bathroom where I dove under a shower. The warm water cascaded over me, barely easing the tension in my tightened sac.

Gripping my cock, I leaned my back against the shower wall and began softly stroking as evocative images of Teddy’s beautifully naked body appeared. Her narrow hips squirming as my tongue fluttered over the sensitive bud between endlessly long legs as I drew out her orgasm.

Suggestive imagery that only made my cock harder. I began fisting savagely, my release coming hard and fast as it spurted in long streams, over my hand and onto my belly. Sagging against the tiled wall, I moaned. The relief couldn’t have come fast enough.

Reaching for the body wash from the inset shelf, I poured the scented liquid over my loofer and began scrubbing with my mind still stuck on Teddy. I found myself inwardly questioning as to why she pulled away from me. Something had stopped her. The distress in her voice and the agony in her eyes told me that the same girl I’d loved since we were children was no longer there.

Was I simply chasing a fantasy?

The Jaeger’s and the McGovern’s, two families introduced by chance just after we’d left the freezing shores of England for the warmer climate of Australia. I was a mere four-year-old more fascinated by the tiny infant girl with strawberry curls in the pram, rather than the fancy parties that our parents frequently threw. My mother claimed Teddy had me love struck from that moment on; she was spot on, she had.

As we grew, so did the fascination. Whether it was building sandcastles in the sandpit, or swinging on the swings in each other’s backyards, we were inseparable. Or as my mother would say, not even surgery could’ve severed us.

Over the years, the dynamic changed. More so as we hit our pubescent years.

Teddy had blossomed right before my eyes, transforming from an awkward teenager into a ravishing beauty. As an adolescent boy, I became a walking hard-on whenever she was around.

Conversely, the turning point for us was Teddy’s lavish twenty-first birthday party. The minute I laid eyes on the stunning beauty politely greeting her guests, my entire world shifted. She was striking, and from then on, the allure I felt with her grew.

As Teddy slipped a slender hand inside mine, her soft creamy skin deepened, much like the roses in my mother’s garden by the illustrious touch. Glossy pink, plush lips had shamelessly parted as she smoothly glided her tongue along a full bottom lip. An erotic sight that headed south, hitting my nether regions with quite the pleasurable thud.

That pleasure swiftly turned painful as soon as Teddy’s overbearing mother Therese waltzed over and rudely came between us. Openly proceeding to scold her daughter, she had sternly warned her that our interaction was lude and unacceptable. Displaying such actions in front of their guests was utterly distasteful apparently, forcing us to part ways.

The entire night I had stared wistfully, hoping for a glance, or a mere suggestion, anything, just to put me out of my misery. I had expected to kiss Teddy’s full, pink lips, just for a taste. Sift my fingers through the thick wavy copper locks flowing down her curvy spine. A naked back I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of as her hair swayed or as she tucked it over a shoulder, curling the ends over her delectable breasts.

It drove me wild the entire night knowing I couldn’t touch her.

Now I had another erection. Great. Gruffly flicking the tap, I shut the water down and stepped out, grasping one of the towels off the heated rail beside me. I barely dried myself as I sauntered into the bedroom, tapping the lights off on my way past. I fell into bed, hoping the next day would lead to a promising future with the one woman who had forever haunted my dreams.