Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
F reya tapped lightly on the screen door. She could see Justin sitting in the living room, hunched over something. He looked up to her and she saw his eyes were red and puffy. Without hesitating, she opened the door and stepped inside. Within seconds she was beside him, gathering him into her arms and stroking his hair. She whispered reassurances in his ear.
His arms enveloped her. His hands roamed over her back and she felt herself tingle under his touch. He nuzzled his way up to her mouth where his lips met hers, hot and hungry, in a searing kiss that shot all the way to her fingers and toes.
He broke the kiss and drew back to look at her. "Are you sure about this?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against him. "You’re kidding, right?"
"No. I’m serious. I need to know."
She pressed her lips against his and even though the contact was brief, she shivered at the restrained desire sizzling in the coiled strength of his hard body. "Yes. I want you."
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, laying her down on the bed. She pulled him on top of her, his deliciously aroused body pressed against her in all the right places.
She kissed along his spiky jawline and farther down to the soft skin of his neck. His pulse throbbed against her roaming lips.
He straightened and pulled off his shirt, revealing his toned torso with a smattering of fine, brown hair. She reached up to run her palms over his body and he groaned before reaching for her T-shirt and tugging it up.
As she rid herself of her clothes, he pulled off his jeans, all the while watching her. She lay back on the bed and he sat beside her. He slowly moved his focus from her face to scan her body, hovering on her breasts and slipping lower. His lips parted as his expression glazed over with increasing desire.
This time, he didn’t hold back. He kissed her deeply, probing her warm mouth as her body arched up against him, her tongue sliding to match his own wet strokes. It was incredible, the heat igniting him deep inside.
He rolled on a condom, and then he was with her, settling between her thighs—where he belonged.
Oh God . She thought she’d felt pleasure before, but this was something else. He was surging inside her, stroking her so deep, she was losing her mind. Freya clung onto him, rising to meet every thrust, until they were moving as one, each new stroke driving her higher, setting her blood on fire.
There were no words left, just the feel of him—hard, and deep, and so damn right she never wanted it to end. But her body couldn’t hold back. Soon, she was cresting, right there on the edge, his body bearing down on her and his mouth claiming hers.
Freya gave up trying to process the sensations crashing through her. She laid back and revelled in the waves of incredible pleasure.
Nothing compared to the ecstasy he brought her. Physical, emotional, total. This wasn’t just sex—this was a level of intimacy she’d never experienced before. Love in its most intense form.
Justin woke in the most blissful state to see that dawn was breaking outside. Freya was draped over him, half tangled up in the sheets. She was everything he'd fantasised about and more. And to have her ... finally. Like this. Like he had wanted from the moment he had laid eyes on her ...
It was more than intoxicating.
She opened those big brown eyes of hers and smiled up at him.
"Good morning," he whispered, his finger lightly tracing patterns across her collarbone.
"Morning, yourself."
Her phone chimed from the living room where she had happily forgotten it the night before. "What time is it?"
He twisted his head to see the digital clock on the bedside table. "Just after six."
She stretched. "I haven't slept this late in years."
He chuckled. "You call this late?"
She kissed his chin. "It is when you live on a dairy farm. Dad will have been up since four."
Justin's thoughts turned to Boyd, and he tried to swallow down the emotion.
“He would have been proud of you.” Freya stroked the hair around his ear. “I'm sure he loved you and just wanted you to be happy.”
“Is that why he never wrote to me? Never came to visit me?” His voice was full of venom, not directed at her—he hoped she knew that. “Did he think I’d be happier without him in my life?”
Freya rolled onto her side and ran her fingers over his chest. “Maybe he didn’t want to be a distraction. Maybe he thought you were better off without him.”
He closed his eyes. “I was happy without him. I had my stepdad, and he was great. But now I realise that I'll never have the opportunity to know Boyd, my real father. I'm so angry with him, because he never gave me the chance to know him."
She softly wiped away the single tear that rolled down his cheek. "You did miss out. But he missed out on knowing you and that was the greater loss." She kissed his cheek, then looked him in the eye. "I wouldn't give up knowing you for anything."
He saw the sincerity of her words, the honesty and empathy with which she lived her life.
She slipped her arm around him and rested her head against his chest. Justin lay back, feeling her body rise and fall with every breath.
An unfamiliar sense of peace swept over him.
"Stay." After having made love to her again, Justin leaned across the bed, and pulled Freya in for another kiss.
"I can't. I have to go to work." She gave him a longing look before pulling on her jeans.
He admired the way they clung to her thighs and backside. Her body was perfect, and his fingers itched to discover it again and again and again.
And God, it felt right. Perfectly, wonderfully right.
He threw back the sheet covers and pulled on his jeans before following her to the living room. The air was cold against his shirtless chest and he shivered.
"It's been raining," she said from the window. Outside, low clouds blanketed the fields. "The mist should rise soon. We need the rain though, so we can't complain."
He went to her and touched her shoulder, letting his hand glide down her arm until their fingers linked. He brought her palm to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss against it. "When can I see you again?"
Her smile lit up her face as though she had been hoping he would ask just that question. "How about lunch? You can come to the café, or we can try somewhere else?"
"Only if I can have you for dessert," he teased as he pulled her in for another heart-stopping kiss.
"I'm sure that can be arranged." She held him close against her for a moment before letting go, gathering her belongings, and slipping out the door.
He leaned against the doorframe and watched her drive away. He could still smell her intoxicating scent in the room, on himself.
He was so grateful for having met Freya. This amazing, sexy woman who seemed to understand him and know him like no one else.
Shit.
Falling in love with her wasn’t on the agenda. Though as his heart continued to thump and his skin tingled at the memory of her touch, he had the uneasy feeling it was already too late.
Shaking his head, he walked back to the bedroom where he showered and shaved. He was making the bed when his phone rang. He answered the call and greeted his lawyer.
"I've got some news, Justin. We've had an enquiry about the farm, from a solicitor acting on behalf of a property developer.” The lawyer paused dramatically. “They have made an offer."
Justin's head was spinning. Faced with the chance to sell, he realised he’d been leaning towards leasing the estate out to the Montgomerys after all. When did that happen?
"What does a developer want with a dairy farm?"
"They want to turn it into a housing estate."
Justin heard the hesitation in the lawyer’s voice. A housing estate. All Justin could picture were cookie-cutter houses crammed onto tiny blocks of land. His father's farm would be carved up into little chunks and sold off for top dollar.
The idea didn't sit well with him, but he also had to think about himself and his future. He had to at least consider this.
"What kind of an offer are we talking about?"
"A very generous amount. I think you should come into the office."