Free The Morning After The Wedding Before by Anne Oliver Page B

Emma.’
    ‘One weekend.’ She leaned away, her eyes clouded with conflicting emotions. ‘And then what?’
    ‘Put next week out of your mind, it’s too far away.’
    Come Monday they’d go their separate ways. Back to real life and working ridiculous hours. Emma and the Blue Mountains would be nothing but a warm and pretty memory.
    ‘Think about this instead,’ he said, sliding his hands down her upper arms. ‘Neither of us wants to be tied down,and we both work our backsides off. We deserve some playtime.’
    ‘Playtime?’
She stared up at him, her eyes the colour of the mist-swirled mountains behind her. ‘No deal. Not with you.’
    ‘Why not? Afraid you might enjoy yourself?’
    She rolled her lips together, as if to stop whatever she’d been about to say, then said, ‘I just don’t want to play with you, that’s all.’ She turned and began walking back the way they’d come.
    ‘Liar.’ Grabbing her arm, he walked around her, blocking her path until they stood face to face. ‘Tell me you didn’t enjoy that kiss just now.’
    She studied him a moment. ‘I didn’t enjoy that kiss just now.’
    He laughed. ‘You started it. That night at the restaurant. You blew me away with your enthusiasm and got me seriously thinking about you. And me. I haven’t stopped thinking about you and me—together—since.’
    ‘I told you, that kiss was an overreaction to a particular circumstance,’ she said primly. ‘And what are we—kids?
“You started it”
,’ she muttered with a roll of her eyes, but he thought he saw a hint of humour there too.
    She looked so delightful he couldn’t resist—he planted a firm smacking kiss on those pouted lips then grinned. ‘I’d better get you back. Stella’ll be starting to think I’ve kidnapped you.’
    Grabbing her hand, he tugged her alongside him along the path towards the hotel. The weekend had barely begun, plenty of time to convince her to change her mind.
    ‘So. Seen any good movies lately?’
    She kept up a brisk pace beside him. ‘No.’
    ‘Me neither. Stella mentioned you swim every morning, come rain or shine. Is that true?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘So … if I were to change my early-morning jog—’
    ‘One weekend.’ She jerked to a sudden halt and looked up at him. ‘And whatever happens happens?’
    A strand of hair had come loose and blew across her eyes. He smoothed it back, tucked it behind her ear. ‘We’ll take things as they come. It’ll be good, I promise.’
    Oh, yes, she knew. Emma stared into those beguiling eyes. ‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’ She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with Jake Carmody.
    She resumed walking, hoping she was headed in the right direction. Everything seemed surreal. The moonlight distorting their combined shadows on the path in front of them. The sharp eucalpyt fragrance of the bushland. The way her body was responding to his proximity even now.
    His seductive charm really knew no bounds. No wonder women swooned and fell at his feet. She firmed her jaw. Not
this
woman. Still, she didn’t have to swoon, exactly …
    He was suggesting what amounted to nothing more than a weekend of sex and sin. Heat shimmied down her spine. A weekend on Pleasure Island. She had no doubt Jake could deliver, and couldn’t deny the idea called to her on more than one level. But was she game enough? Why not? It wasn’t a lifetime commitment, for heaven’s sake.
    Since her father’s death eleven years ago she’d worked her butt off to make things better for them all. Jake had made it clear to her that it was past time she took something for herself. One weekend to be free and irresponsible. And this weekend, with Stella leaving home and the love rat a disappearing blot on her horizon, was it perhaps a good time to start?
    They reached the hotel and she hesitated on the shallow steps out front. Her cheeks felt hot and super sensitive, as if a feather might flay away the skin.
    She turned to say