“What?” Aware she was gaping, she snapped her mouth shut.
Nolan lifted her legs and sat on the footstool. Bemused, she let him arrange her feet on his hard thighs. She swallowed, struggling with what to do, how to react. He plucked off her sheepskin slippers and dropped them on the floor.
“I don’t think— Ah!” Her moan of pleasure reverberated through the lounge, accompanied by his soft laugh. Those talented fingers of his pushed and stroked, used pressure on the arch until every muscle in her body relaxed. He started on her other foot, and her head told her she’d be stupid to send him packing at this particular moment. Half an hour of foot rubbing and then she’d kick him to the curb.
“Is the bookstore still closed on Sundays?” he asked.
“No, but I don’t work on Sundays.” And she’d trained three local high school students who covered for her on Saturdays. She’d wanted to spend time with her boys, do normal things like watch Michael’s rugby games and take the boys to the beach. Sometimes she managed to talk Gina into going with them, and they made a real family day of the outing.
“The local agricultural day is next week. Would you and the boys like to come with me? Dad is taking care of the stock entered in the show. I’ll probably check in with him to see if he needs anything, but other than that, I have a free day. When Tyler and I were kids we used to look forward to the show. Tyler and Susan are going. We could have lunch with them. What do you say?”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“The boys would love the rides.”
Their friends were attending, and Michael had already started his pleas. Her heart overruled her head, and she wavered. “Are you willing to go on the dodgems and some of the other rides?” Yvonne loved the rides but found it difficult to supervise both her boys.
His eyes gleamed as he scented success. “Count on it.”
Yvonne frowned, the grimace smoothing out when he started rubbing her foot again. A sound close to a purr rumbled from her throat. Her boys would love a day out with masculine attention. “Tyler and Susan will be there?”
“With Katey,” he said, referring to his young niece. “Probably Josie and Eric as well.”
Josie and Eric were Tyler’s in-laws. They’d recently sold their farm and intended to move north to Auckland. Yvonne liked them both very much.
“All right,” she said finally. “Where should we meet you?”
“I’ll pick you up,” he said. “The show starts at ten, but could you be ready at nine thirty? That’ll give me time to swap the car seats over into my vehicle and check in with Dad at the show. Would Gina like to come with us?”
“She’s going with a group of her friends,” Yvonne said while her mind struggled with the changes in him since their last private meeting. The Nolan back then wouldn’t have known of the existence of car seats, let alone considered the time needed to swap them from vehicle to vehicle.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked.
“Okay,” Yvonne said, perplexed by this change in him. In the past, he’d slunk into her house and dragged her off to bed. An hour later, he’d left. No chit chat. No cuddles. No soft words.Nothing but an empty bed and the sense of ill-use.
“What do you want to watch?”
Inspiration struck. “I taped one of my favorite movies last week and haven’t had time to watch it.Romancing the Stone,” she said, watching him closely.
“Do you want a top-up of wine before I start the movie?” The man hadn’t even flinched.
“Sure,” Yvonne said. “I’ll get—”
“No,” he said, staying her with a gentle hand. “You wait there while I get the wine.” He plucked her glass from her hand and strode from the room.
Yvonne studied the curve of his butt, which was faithfully outlined in a pair of well-worn jeans. When he disappeared from sight, she blinked, her heart thumping hard. She wasn’t ogling. No, she wasn’t. It was merely feminine appreciation of a nice, tight backside.
Thoughts of an earlier conversation with Gina popped into her head. They’d discussed body language, and Gina had quoted from the book she was currently reading.
“‘Women like men with broad shoulders and muscled arms, men with long, strong legs because we need them to provide food for us. We look for men with small, tight butts because that means they have good forward propulsion and are able to direct sperm and make lots of babies.’”
Yvonne shuddered. Nolan bore all the necessities, according to Gina’s book, and especially the ability to pass on his sperm with excellent forward thrust. A shiver of heat dispersed through her body, frisking her pleasure points on the way to converge in an achy awareness between her thighs. She shifted her weight. It didn’t ease her tension.
The movie,she thought, glancing around the room for the remote control.Concentrate on something else.
Nolan arrived back with their wine before she managed to struggle from the chair. “Stay,” he said, handing her a glass. “I’ll sort it out.”
In his usual capable way, he had the television on and the movie queued to start. “One more thing,” he said. “Hold on to your glass.”
Before she could form a question, he scooped her off her chair and resettled her on the couch. He plopped beside her, and slung his right arm around her shoulders. She stiffened and knew he must have felt the strain of her muscles, but he merely picked up the remote and hit start. The opening credits began and soon Joan Wilder filled the screen. The actress was crying while writing the final words of her novel.
Every rapid breath Yvonne took filled her nostrils with his scent. Masculine with a hint of herb. Not aftershave, but the more subtle aroma of soap or a body wash.
“Relax,” he whispered against her ear.
Easy for him to say. A romantic chick flick suddenly struck her as a poor choice of movie. Too much incentive to ponder hot and heavy thrusts. Yvonne sucked in a large breath and let it ease out in steady increments. The man wasn’t trying to cop a feel or seduce her in any way. All he was doing was a little cuddling while he watched the movie.
Meantime, her thoughts took a corner onto a different street altogether. She thought about more forward thrusting of the naked, kinky kind, and the reaction spread through her body. The ache in her pussy grew, arousal dampening her panties. Thank goodness she knew this movie well and didn’t need to pay attention. She drank more wine and stared at the screen.
Nolan might have rubbed her feet and talked her into an outing for the coming weekend. No way in hell did she intend to add the reality of forward thrusting to her crimes.
