Free Red Red Wine (Tastes of Seduction) by Jess Dee Page A

close. Always have been. But my folks are getting on in age, and they’re not well, either of them. The pressure…it takes its toll, you know?”
    “Tell me about them. Your mum and dad.”
    He almost smiled at her request. How many women in his past, whom he’d brought to orgasm, had then turned around and asked about his family?
    Oh, yeah. None.
    “They’re good people. Both of them. My mum is younger than my old man. But when they met it was love at first sight. They got married the day she turned twenty-one.”
    “How old was he?”
    “Thirty-six.”
    “How old are you?” Tori asked.
    “I turn thirty next month.”
    “Me too. Well, it’s my birthday next month. But I turn twenty-eight. You’re a Taurus?”
    “Gemini. Birthday’s at the end of the month.”
    “Mine’s at the beginning.” Then as if realizing she was talking about herself again, Tori redirected the conversation. “Okay, so you’re going to be thirty, and your mom got married when she was twenty-one. She can’t be getting too far on in age, can she?”
    “They got married when she was young, but I wasn’t born until years later. She was almost forty.”
    “They waited a long time to have children.”
    “I have a half-sister, my dad’s daughter from his first marriage. She was five when my folks married, and I guess they didn’t want any more children then. It was only when she left home that my mum started getting clucky.”
    “Are you close to your sister?”
    “Kind of. She lives in the States. I don’t get to see her often.” Still they spoke on the phone a lot, more than usual in recent months, and Caroline was planning a trip down to see the family soon.
    “I have a sister too. She’s two years older and my favorite person in the world.”
    “Does she live close to you?”
    “In the next suburb. We see each other all the time. She’s my matron…” She swallowed audibly. “Was supposed to be my matron of honor. You might have seen her earlier, when we arrived at the hotel? She’s the one with hair like mine and a belly the size of a beach ball.”
    “Pregnant?”
    “Seven months along.”
    “I didn’t see her. The only woman I had eyes for today was you.” He’d hardly noticed individual faces of the group who’d gathered around Tori in reception. “First niece or nephew?”
    “Second. She has a little boy, Eli. Cutest kid in the world. And you are the world’s best flatterer. Tell me, how do you do it?”
    “Do what?”
    “Get me to talk about myself when we’re focusing on you.”
    “I want to know more about you. Is that a crime?”
    “No.” She let out a long sigh. The hiss of breath was not an unhappy one. “You’re like balm to the battered soul, Ando.”
    “I’ll be your balm anytime you need it.”
    Another kiss landed on his shoulder. “You’re sweet.”
    I’m horny and falling for a woman with a broken heart. “Puppies and toddlers are sweet. I’m an adult with a massive hard-on and a million dirty fantasies on my mind. I’m not sweet.”
    “Yeah, you are. Now tell me why you had to escape from your parents.”
    For a while there, when he’d been consumed by Tori’s heartache and physical need, he hadn’t had a chance to think about his parents. It had been liberating. But the leash had tightened around his neck again the second Tori brought them up.
    “They’re getting old. And with aging comes problems.”
    “They’re both sick?”
    “My dad’s recovering from a bout of pneumonia, the second one in nine months. At his age, it lingers. And it’s serious. We weren’t sure he’d—” His voice broke, forcing him to clear his throat before he could continue. “We weren’t sure he’d make it the second time round. He spent two weeks in hospital.” Two weeks that had felt like a year.
    “That must have taken its toll on you. And your mum.”
    “On me,” Andrew agreed. “My mum, she wasn’t really aware of the crisis. She knew something was wrong. Knew someone