The Pleasures of Autumn by Evie Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

shaking.
    This thing that had flared between them – whatever it was – was dangerous. And Sinead O’Sullivan didn’t do dangerous and certainly not with someone like him. This wasn’t a nice safe fantasy. It was happening too fast, and she didn’t like the feeling of being out of control.
    ‘Finish your breakfast and put on some more coffee. I’m going to take a shower and when I come back, we’re going to talk about the ruby.’
    Sinead sat at the breakfast bar again and took another spoonful from her cereal. Niall was right. This wasn’t food. She looked longingly at the bits of scrambled egg on his plate. It did look good, but she didn’t have time to make herself an egg white omelette.
    After scraping out her bowl, she went to the bookshelf. The cover of the notebook stated that women who read were dangerous. Inside the back cover was a scribbled list of names. She had hauled the battered notebook through school, college and her years in London. Among the names of school friends and work friends were a few special contacts. People she had done some private consulting for when they wanted to expose a fake, or find out if something was worth buying if the provenance couldn’t be completely authenticated.
    When she got some privacy, she would make a few calls.
     

     
    Niall shuddered as he touched himself in the shower. God, what had got into him? He never shared a bed witha woman. Oh sure, he loved women, loved their shape and smell and the feel of their soft flesh under his hands, but he never stayed the night. They played, and then she left or he did.
    What had happened last night that he had ended up sleeping in Sinead’s bed, and not just sleeping, but holding her in his arms? God, he was getting soft.
    All but one part of him. He looked down ruefully at his engorged penis. It had been in a state of semi-arousal since he woke up. Cooking, and looking at her repulsive breakfast, had calmed him enough that he could conduct a rational conversation. She had looked up at him with those damnable eyes and reminded him of how he had woken up. His cock sprang to instant life and he’d had to take refuge in the shower.
    He remembered the way her bottom, surprisingly full for such a slender woman, had nestled into his groin. It had been perfect, round with soft flesh covering firm muscle. He wondered idly if she lifted weights.
    Her breasts had been a revelation. Somehow she had concealed them under the ugly clothes she wore and he had convinced himself she was flat chested. Niall swallowed. She was so far from flat chested; her breasts were beautiful, high and succulent and topped with prominent nipples that firmed up as soon as he touched them.
    His fingers flexed as if he were still feeling them and his hips bucked.
    There was no way that his erection was going anywhere.
    He rooted around in Sinead’s collection of beauty products, wondering what women did with all of them. They must have a purpose, or they wouldn’t buy them,but he doubted it. There, that one looked as if it would do. He opened the bottle of Nuxe oil and poured a stream of it into his palm. The smell wafted to his nose, hinting at Sinead.
    His erection swelled more urgently.
    Niall turned his back so that the shower beat down on his shoulders, and slathered the scented oil down his chest and to his cock. He smoothed it on, poured another dollop of oil and rubbed that around his balls as well as his cock.
    He closed his eyes and imagined that the hands caressing his chest belonged to Sinead. He kept his touch light, as if she was exploring for the first time. She’d be tentative at first, he decided, and then she would gain courage. Her fingers would dig into his ribs, run through the meagre strip of hair on his chest. As a teenager, he had hated not having as much body hair as the other kids at Mount Temple. Now he was glad of it. Otherwise Sinead would never explore his chest with her lips like this …
    The heat of the water on his back