“This is a first.” She was compelled to make conversation so her mind wasn’t free to dwell on how much she liked the feel of his hands on her body. “I don’t think we’ve ever danced together before.”
“I’m not much of a dancer,” he said, and they both laughed because that was an understatement. “I guess this is just a weekend of firsts.”
That it was. “And you decided you suddenly wanted to dance why?”
He shrugged, but a hint of pink touched his cheeks. “Everybody else has danced. I thought it might look weird if we didn’t.”
After glancing around to make sure nobody was dancing too closely to them, she tipped her head back to look at him. “I guess we succeeded in making everybody think we’re a real couple.”
“We did.” His gaze was so intense, she blinked. Then he smiled. “We must make a good fake couple.”
“We must.”
When his mouth closed over hers, she closed her eyes and melted against him. Perfect. Everything was so perfect, she thought, and she broke off the kiss so she could gaze up at his face. She wanted to remember this moment forever. The way he looked with the ocean behind him and the taste of his kiss on her lips.
“I was exploring a bit and I found a very, very secluded spot that’s not visible from here or the inn,” he said with a very suggestive arch of the eyebrow.
“I’m not into having sand in all the wrong places,” she told him firmly.
“We can just make out a little bit.”
“Like I trust you,” she said, and he laughed. “A little bit of making out and next thing you know, I’ve got sand up in places I don’t even want to think about.”
“I think about those places,” he said, sliding his hand from her waist over her ribs and toward her breast. “I’ve been thinking about those places all day.”
Carly had zero interest in getting naked anywhere near sand, but he was a hard man to resist. “We can go for a walk.”
He gave her a triumphant smirk, but she chose not to set him straight as his fingers laced through hers and he led her toward a path she hadn’t even noticed. Her clothes weren’t coming off. Sand or rocks or whatever were a hard pass.
They walked along the path in a silence broken only by the lapping of the waves and the faint sounds of merriment from the party on the beach. It was barely a path at all in places and they had to pick their way over rocks and around tide pools, but he kept hold of her hand the entire time.
They finally came to a small patch of sand surrounded by rocks and it was like being in a world of their own. Nobody could see them here and they couldn’t hear the reception anymore. It was just Noah and the moon shimmering on the calm water behind her.
He kissed her softly, his fingers entwined in her hair, and she lost herself in his mouth. Never in a million years would she have dreamed Noah could kiss her like this, and the memory of their disastrous first kiss as kids made her smile against his lips.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” she said, not wanting to voice the reminder they were gambling a lifetime of friendship on being able to leave this new and very delicious aspect behind them when they left.
Tomorrow. They were leaving tomorrow.
“Hey.” He tugged on her hair until she dragged her gaze back from the ocean and looked at him. “This is very smooth sand.”
“I’m not taking my clothes off, Noah.” When disappointment furrowed his brow, she laughed.
He yanked his T-shirt off and spread it on the ground. “See? No sand. And you can be on top. I’ll make sure nothing but your legs hits the sand.”
“How about you—” She popped the button of his jeans and his eyes widened. “—drop these jeans a little and put your ass on that shirt. And the only thing that’ll hit the sand is my knees.”
“Carly.” He had to clear his throat. “You’re killing me.”
“I think I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” But he unzipped his fly and started lowering his jeans.
She stepped close and wrapped her hand around the erection that sprang to life when freed of his jeans and boxer briefs. He sucked in a breath and moaned, and she stroked him gently as she ran her tongue up his throat.
“Maybe I could just stand right here,” he said in a slightly strangled voice.
“You’re too tall, and you’re the one who wanted sand.”
With a groan he lowered himself to the ground, managing to get his butt on the fabric of his shirt despite the fact she went with him, never letting go of his dick. She squeezed a little on her next stroke, pausing to brush her thumb over the tip, and he fell back onto the sand.
Kneeling next to him, she pushed her hair out of the way and bent to run her tongue over the length of him. His entire body shuddered and she took a few seconds to revel in the power her touch had over him.
Then she closed her lips around the head and drew him into her mouth. He arched his hips and she took him deeper. She tightened her hand around the base of his cock and then squeezed slightly as her fist followed her mouth up the shaft until her tongue circled the tip.
“This isn’t going to take long,” he said, and then he tried to chuckle but it came out as more of a breathless moan.
Carly stopped, sitting back on her heels. Then she danced her fingernails down his chest and abs. “Do you want me to go really slow? Make it last?”
“Yes.” She ran just one fingertip up the length of his erection and it twitched. “No. No, I don’t. Please, Carly.”
“Since you ask so nicely.” Shoving her hair out of the way again, she bent and took him all the way in, sucking hard.
He grabbed her hair, whether to keep it out of her way or so he could see her mouth on his dick, she didn’t know. And she didn’t care. She wrapped her hand around him again, her fingers following the slick trail her mouth left. His fingers tightened in her hair and when her hand reached the base of his cock again, she paused to curl her fingers under his balls.
His body was practically vibrating and she quickened the pace, simultaneously sucking and squeezing a little harder and a little faster with each stroke. When his fingers fisted in her hair almost to the point of being painful and his hips lifted, she thought about pulling back. Slowing it down. Teasing him.
But with her next downward stroke, he held her head and pushed up into her mouth, his hips jerking as he came. She relaxed her hold, stroking him gently until his body relaxed on the sand and his breath came in short, heavy pants. Swallowing, she swiped her thumb over her lips and then shifted so she could lie down on the arm he lifted for her.
Nestled against him on the sand, she looked at the starry sky and listened to the waves gently crashing on the rocks as his breathing slowed. He squeezed her and kissed the top of her head once, then twice more as if he couldn’t help himself. She smiled, but was surprised tears threatened and she blinked them back as hard as she could.
“This is now my favorite place in all the world,” he said in a hushed voice, as if he was reluctant to break the silence.
“I could stay here forever,” she told him, and the fact it was true made her eyes blur again.
At that moment, she wanted nothing more. They could stay here. Make love. Walk the beach. Make love some more. If they just stayed on the Cape, this never had to end.
And that scared her. If she wanted to keep this going so much she was considering the both of them going AWOL from their very happy lives in order to hide out on the Cape, how could anything ever be the same between them again?
She didn’t want to think about that, so she sat up, rolling away from him to give him some privacy for the awkwardness of getting his pants back up. “Okay, it’s getting cold and my sweatshirt’s back at the party.”
“I guess we should get back.” Reluctance was heavy in his voice, and she felt t
he echo in her heart. She didn’t want to go, either, but they had to. And she wasn’t lying about getting cold.
Once he was back on his feet, Noah picked up his shirt and shook it out before pulling it over his head.
“You’ve still got sand in your hair,” she said, trying not to laugh. “And on your shirt.”
“And you’ve got damp spots on your knees,” he told her, and he did laugh.
She tried brushing her knees off, but getting rid of the sand did nothing to dry the denim.
“We’re not staying long,” he said. “As soon as it’s polite, we’re leaving and I’m taking you to bed.”
“You’re worried about being polite after sneaking away to very obviously get a blow job?”
He laughed. “I guess they won’t be too surprised when we sneak away again, then, will they?”
“You sure you’re going to be up to it?”
He stopped walking to look at her with a slow grin. “That sounds like a challenge and you’re damn right I’ll be up to it.”
Chapter Eight
We have to go home today.
It was the first conscious thought Noah had and it ruined the entire day before he’d even opened his eyes.
Once they got dressed, checked out and headed his truck in an off-Cape direction, the pretense would be over. Carly wouldn’t be his fake girlfriend anymore and what had happened on Cape Cod would stay on Cape Cod.
He wanted to stay on the Cape. With her.
“Coffee,” Carly muttered.
“It’s your turn,” he muttered back.
“Oh shit. You didn’t set the alarm?”
“I was a little distracted last night.” He’d been a lot distracted, actually, and he didn’t regret a single second of it.
“We have to check out in forty-five minutes.”
“We don’t have to check out until eleven.”
“It’s ten-fifteen.”
“Oh shit.” He sat upright, looking at the clock. “It’s ten-fifteen.”
She slapped his arm. “I can tell time, thank you very much.”
Forty-five minutes sounded like a lot of time until you were helping a woman pack up the astounding amount of crap she’d managed to strew from one end of the room to the other in only two days. And he was pretty sure everything had multiplied, too, because it seemed like there was a lot more to pack than what they’d unpacked on Friday.
And thinking about unpacking made him think about that black lace and he didn’t have time to think about black lace right now. Plus, he needed to stop thinking about Carly’s bras at all, because they were going home and she was going to be just-Carly again. Thinking about your best friend’s underwear was weird.
The sound of the door closing behind them with a thud was depressing, as was the elevator ride down because even though he really wanted to, he didn’t touch her butt this time. He might as well start breaking the habit now because he wasn’t going to get to touch her butt anymore.
She sighed deeply when the elevator settled on the first floor, and he wondered if she was feeling the same emotions he was. Maybe she liked him touching her butt and kissing her and getting his hands on her lacy underwear—and under it. But before he could work up the nerve to broach the subject, the doors opened and she stepped out. He decided to keep his mouth shut and follow her to the lobby.
Carly paused at the portrait of the ship’s captain and his wife with the enigmatic smile. “I guess I was right about this place having a good vibe.”
He’d certainly had one of the best weekends of his life under this roof, and it was pretty obvious Carly had a good time, as well. This was a good time for him to come up with a decent segue into asking her just how good a time she’d had and whether she thought maybe what they had was worth exploring a little more, but he couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth.
This was Carly. He couldn’t risk not having her in his life at all because he’d blown it and made their friendship awkward.
“Give me your keys and I’ll go get your truck while you check us out,” she said, turning her back on the possibly frisky painted couple.
Noah handed the keys over to her and, taking their bags with him, went to the desk to officially put an end to their stay. He was almost to the exit when he heard his name and turned to see Jim and Emily walking toward him.
“Hey,” Noah said, turning back. “I thought you two would have been off on your top-secret honeymoon by now.”
Jim chuckled. “We kept the honeymoon a secret because we’re staying right here for another week.”
“I don’t blame you. We don’t want to leave, either.” He really didn’t want to leave.
“That’s why we didn’t tell anybody. We didn’t want any of the family to find excuses to stay a little later. Like just a quick dinner because they barely got to talk to us during the reception and then we won’t even know they’re here. You know it would happen. The Caribbean was on the table but, once we saw the pictures of this place, trading one beach for another seemed like a waste of money.”
“I think the water’s a little warmer in the Caribbean.”
“We don’t intend to do a lot of swimming.” Jim chuckled, and then startled in a way that implied his new bride had grabbed his ass. Noah’s gaze flicked to the portrait of the ship captain for a few seconds. “We really enjoyed meeting Carly. She’s as awesome as you’ve been telling us she is.”
“She really is.” Jim had no idea just how awesome. “She had a great time. We both did.”
“We’ll have to get together again soon. You know, do some couples stuff.” Emily leaned against her husband and turned her face up to give him an adoring look. “Like dinner and... I don’t know. Mini golf or something.”
Noah felt the smile freeze on his face, but he was thankful for the freeze because it meant his mouth couldn’t drop open. He hadn’t really thought that far ahead. He and Carly had discussed the fact he didn’t have a fake relationship exit strategy, but double dating—or whatever it was called when one of the couples was actually married—hadn’t crossed his mind. “That sounds great.”
“We should get back to our suite before we run into anybody else,” Jim said, and they shook hands. “We went for a walk on the beach and we were trying to avoid running into people, but I wanted to say goodbye and thank you for coming.”
Carly was already in the passenger seat of the truck, which was idling near the door, when Noah got outside. He put the bags in the backseat and then got in, thankful she had the air conditioning cranked. It was a muggy day and the situation he found himself in had him hot enough under the collar.
After fastening his seat belt, he put the truck in gear and slowly rolled away from the beautiful inn. “I ran into Jim on my way out. They’re honeymooning here but didn’t tell anybody because they want us all to leave.”
“I don’t blame them. And they seem like really great people. I enjoyed meeting them a lot more than I thought I would.”
“They liked you so much that Emily said we have to get together again soon. As couples.”
She laughed. “Your face right now is killing me. You look like you drank sour milk straight from the carton.”
“Milk doesn’t even come in cartons anymore, smart ass.”
“Yes it does, and you’re deflecting. What did you say?”
“What was I supposed to say? I told them that sounds great.”
“Okay.” She waited a few seconds and then held up her hands in a questioning gesture. “And what do you think is going to happen when couples date night rolls around?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you can...just go. It’s a night out on my dime. How bad can that be?”
“Noah, I can’t fake date you until you reach retirement age. We’re going to have to fake break up.”
He frowned as his guts tightened
into a knot. Fake or not, the thought of breaking up with Carly made him a little sick to his stomach. “We can’t do that.”
She cocked her head. “Seriously? At some point in the near future, you’re going to have to tell Jim and Emily we broke up. I’m not going to pretend I’m your girlfriend forever.”
Okay, he knew that. There was a part of him that wasn’t happy about it, but on a logical level he knew he and Carly couldn’t maintain a long-term fake relationship.
“Noah. Come on. Think how awkward it’ll be when you show up for an event with your girlfriend...and her husband and kids,” she said, and his knuckles tightened around the steering wheel so hard he wouldn’t have been surprised if it cracked.
He knew how badly Carly wanted marriage and a family. He was her best friend so he’d been listening to her hopes and heartbreaks for years, and the thought of that change had never hit him so hard before. Maybe it was because they were still on Cape Cod. Once they crossed the bridge, he hoped things would start feeling more normal again.
“But we’re always hanging out,” he said once his throat loosened up, along with his grip on the wheel. “If I tell them we broke up, I’ll have to lie about almost everything I do.”
“Not necessarily. After two or three weeks, you tell them we’ve fallen back into our old friendship and then life goes on, without the lies.”
“They’d never believe that. Friends who end up in a sexual relationship can never go back to their pre-sex friendship.” Carly stared at him until he replayed the words in his head, and then he shook his head. “We don’t count because it was fake. The relationship, I mean.”
“The sex wasn’t fake.”
“So no When Harry Met Sally situation?” He grinned at her before turning his attention back to the traffic getting more congested by the mile. It was going to be a long drive.
“You know me better than that.” She leaned forward and changed the radio station, effectively changing the subject away from sex and to bickering about music.
One Summer Weekend Page 7
