Tessa Radley - The Saxon Brides - Mistaken Mistress

“I did it to stop Heath. Roland bet him that he couldn’t, that he was too chicken to dive in. I took Heath’s place. Although if I hadn’t been hurt, Heath would probably still have dived in. He was as mad as a snake that I’d taken his turn. So my big gesture was probably for nothing,” Joshua said wryly. “The joys of being sixteen—and impatient to be a man.”

And the man had become every bit as responsible as the boy had striven to be. She eyed him furtively. Gorgeous, too. And loyal to the point of fault.

Alyssa remembered his mother saying she hadn’t known how he’d been hurt. So he’d never dobbed his brother in. She didn’t know if the loyalty was stupid or admirable.

“Here, have a bagel.” He held out a paper bag.

“Thank you.” It was perfect. Fresh and slightly chewy, filled with smoked salmon, avocado and cream cheese. Eating distracted Alyssa from what she’d been going to say next. But at least Joshua was talking to her again. She’d had enough of the silent treatment to last her a lifetime.

Next he produced a bottle of Pinot Gris and two glasses out of the pack. Once he’d filled the glasses, Alyssa took a sip. The slightly sweet, well-rounded sturdiness of the wine took her by surprise.

“Very nice,” she said appreciatively, squinting at the label. “I didn’t realise Saxon’s Folly produced Pinot Gris.”

“Not in large amounts,” Joshua said. “You need to be on our loyal client mailing list to even get a chance of snapping it up. We hold the grapes on the vine until early May, so it’s essentially a late-harvest wine.” He swallowed a mouthful. “Mmm, the really special thing about this wine is that we sourced the vines from an ancient Alsace clone.”

Alyssa dusted her fingers of the last of the crumbs from her bagel. “Alsace? In France?”

“Yes, imported into New Zealand in 1886.”

“That is ancient.”

Joshua topped up her glass. “And to complement fine wine …” His voice trailed away and he dug into the pack again. With a flourish he drew a punnet of strawberries and a container of chocolate dipping sauce.

“Oh my, this is decadent.” There was something incredibly sexy about a man who provided food. A primitive leftover from ages past when the male had been the hunter. It was disgusting to be so impressed. There should be no need to feel so nurtured. She was a modern woman, totally able to take care of herself. Self-sufficient and sensible enough to be able to forage for herself.

Alyssa glanced around the clearing but couldn’t see anything in the surrounding bush that would’ve appeased the appetite that the fresh air and ride had whetted. Not even the birds that called from the treetops.

Then there would be the little problem of catching them, cooking them. She slid a glance at the man beside her, his fingers long and tanned against the bright red berries. Okay, so he’d probably make a plan to find food in the bush. While she’d only poison them both.

City girl.

Fast lane….

Joshua’s words came back to haunt her. So what if she was out of her comfort zone? This was Joshua’s world. He’d been born and raised here.

“Try this.” He held out a strawberry that had been lightly dipped in the chocolate.

She took it and bit into the ripe red fruit. Juice leaked over her fingers, her lips. She gave a little self-conscious laugh as she licked them. “Juicy, aren’t they?”

He didn’t reply.

She looked up into blazing black eyes.

“Joshua?” she whispered, her nipples hardening under the pink cotton T-shirt she wore, warmth flowing through her body to pool between her legs. The heat and desire and that other emotion … something terribly primal … in his eyes set her instantly alight.

“God, but you are the most provocative woman I have ever met.”

She stretched her eyes wide. “What did I do?” But she already knew. The fire in his eyes was unmistakeable.

She’d turned him on.

“You bit into the berry,” he said, his voice cracking.

The hoarse sound caused shivers to spread across her skin. Alyssa didn’t know how this had happened. Didn’t want to think too much about it. She only knew that she wanted more of the heat, the exquisite arousal that softened her body, the excitement that churned in her stomach.

She picked up a strawberry, swirled it through the chocolate sauce and offered it to him, her pulse racing. “Your turn to bite.”

“Oh, yes,” he drawled, his eyes dark and slumberous. “My turn.”

The heat that scorched through him at Alyssa’s offer turned Joshua’s lower body to fire. Bending his head, he took a bite of the strawberry she held. His teeth sank into the soft flesh of the fruit and instantly his mouth was filled with an assortment of flavours.

The succulence of the strawberry.

The sweetness of the chocolate.

The complexity of the Pinot Gris.

There was another flavour, too. The unmistakable spice of desire. Slowly he chewed, swallowed, then raised his head.

A hectic flush staining her cheeks, Alyssa quickly popped the remaining half of the berry into her mouth. Their eyes held. She swallowed. Joshua groaned and leaned forward.

His mouth closed over hers. She tasted sweet. Of fruit and juice and wine. He moaned, licking the soft inner skin of her cheeks, sealing her lips tightly with his lest any sweetness escape.

His head spinning, he finally lifted his head. He cradled her chin between his cupped hands and stared into her glowing eyes. “Was that good?”

She nodded.

“Tell me you want more.”

She hesitated. An unfamiliar emotion flickered in her eyes. “I want more.”

Satisfaction settled in him. She’d come with him for this. And he wasn’t objecting. Instantly Joshua wanted to take her mouth, slake his hunger for her. What was it about this woman? With one searing look, a couple of words and she made him throw all his customary caution to the wind. He’d had girlfriends … lovers … women that he’d easily kept at a distance while he waited for the right one. But no one like Alyssa. Never this hunger.

Why her? This woman could never be right for him.

His brother’s lover….

Alyssa Blake, the woman who had once before humiliated him in print. Compromised his reputation and Saxon’s Folly’s profits. And would do so again in a flash. A woman who took what she wanted, to get what she wanted. To desire such a woman was his folly.

He forced himself to slow down, told himself he was in control of his senses, his tight-wound body. Sure, he was. He told himself he could control this reckless desire as easily as he controlled a busy and successful vineyard, told himself that he could take his pleasure and watch her walk away later today with no regrets.

He almost believed it.

“So you want more.” He coupled the gentle taunt with a deliberate, measured smile and watched her breasts rise and fall as her breathing quickened. He picked up another strawberry. The strange colour of her eyes deepened. Clearly she’d expected him to kiss her, not feed her.

“Oh, no, my beauty,” he whispered softly. “We’re going to take this slowly.”

A trace of fear flitted over her face. If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he wouldn’t even have seen it. And that was what concerned him most about Alyssa Blake. She wasn’t easy to read. He never knew what this woman was thinking. Hell, he still didn’t even know what had been behind her gate-crashing of the masked ball.

Why had she come to Saxon’s Folly?

To patch up a relationship gone wrong with Roland? And if so, then why the hell had she let him kiss her that night? If Heath hadn’t interrupted them … she would have made love with him. In his bed.