He nodded briefly. The tension on his face made it looked carved from stone. Her orgasms had always been the biggest turn-on for him. Nothing revved him up quite like watching her come apart under his touch. Apparently, the same thing held true now, because when she reached between his powerful legs, she found his penis scalding hot and hard as steel.
“Condom,” he said as he reached for the drawer of his nightstand.
Of course. Condoms. They’d never needed those before, but of course he was right. They weren’t two virgins experimenting anymore. They’d been out in the world, and the world could have left its mark.
She shoved the thought aside. It didn’t matter. That was the whole point—they were adults now, doing adult things like “going all the way.” Wearing a condom was part of that. If they’d had sex back then, they probably would have used a condom as the easiest form of birth control.
He sat back on his heels long enough to cover himself with latex. As he did so, she feasted her eyes on his form. Every bit of him was familiar to her, with some new details. A silvery scar on his right rib cage. Whimsical swirls of light brown hair arrowing toward his crotch. And of course, the mountain and star tattoo. But the way he bent his head, the way he smiled crookedly when he was done, the warmth in his eyes—that was all the same. Her beautiful, wonderful Ben.
She smiled back, pouring her entire heart into it. Emotion throbbed between them, so strong it was nearly tangible. He lifted his body over her, bracing himself with arms made of pure corded muscle. She reached down and took him into her hand. Even through the latex, his heat and firmness made her heart sing. She guided him to her entrance, which was already slick and slippery from her climax.
“My sweet Ben,” she whispered as she lifted her hips for him. He eased inside her, his eyes wide open and focused on her face. No place to hide. No way to disguise how it felt to be filled by him.
It felt glorious—beyond glorious. As if they’d found paradise, just the two of them. She felt her heart open up to him, along with her body. Nothing stood between them, nothing but a thin layer of latex and the last remnants of her wariness.
When he was fully seated inside her, he whispered in her ear, “This. This is it. You and me.”
Whatever he meant, she barely heard him, because her attention was riveted to the hard flesh filling her to overflowing. He drew out, long and slow, and impaled her again. She gasped at the sensation of being claimed. That was how it felt as he thrust deep once again, then again, the pace scrambling her brain. She couldn’t control her response. She could only release all hesitation, all fear, and abandon herself to the flight he was taking her on.
“Oh baby.” He groaned and ran his hands across her skin, the backs of her thighs, her calves, her shoulders, anything he could reach. “God, you feel good. How can anything feel this good? It’s impossible.”
She gave a broken laugh, wanting to say something but unable to summon words. To be like this with Ben, after all these years, when she’d feared she might never even see him again, let alone go to bed with him—it was overwhelming.
He checked in when she didn’t say anything. “You okay?” Typical Ben, thinking of her even when he looked like he was about to detonate in the world’s most explosive orgasm.
“Good,” she managed. “So good.”
“I can’t last very long. Sorry.”
“No, don’t be. It’s okay. I want you to come.” She wanted him to feel as good as she did. If he could experience even a fraction of the bliss she had, she’d be happy.
But even though she’d already orgasmed, new streams of pleasure were coursing through her system. The feel of his body, the scent of his skin, the sound of the bed creaking, his panting breaths, the sensual slap of flesh against flesh, the glimpses of damp hair, hard, flat nipples, straining muscles…it all added up to a kind of surround-sound extrasensory state. Immersed in sensation, she lost track of herself, of what was her and what was him.
And when his body stilled, rigid as his release seized him, she slipped into a soft, rolling orgasm, almost a sympathy climax triggered by his.
He fell into her arms after that, and they rolled onto their sides, holding each other. Deep tremors vibrated through his frame, like the aftershocks of an earthquake. She stroked his long, muscled back, collecting the dew of his sweat on her fingertips. In a sweet daze of afterglow, words came and went, drifting in and out but not surfacing into actual expression.
Thank you, she wanted to say. Wow. I love you. I’ve always loved you. The sort of thing it wouldn’t be wise to say out loud, not now. Maybe not ever.
Sex changes things. She knew it was true. But “change” was a big word that covered a lot of territory. What kind of changes? Good, bad? Heartbreaking? Glorious?
“Oh man.” Ben finally stirred. “I’m dead. I think I’m dead.” His tone, a combination of humor and sexy appreciation, made her smile. As always, he had a knack for chasing away her worries.
“You’d better not be. Those Cessnas won’t fly themselves.”
“Heartless. That’s what you’re worried about? You practically kill me with sex and you’re concerned about the flight schedule?” He pulled the condom off his penis and tossed it toward a wastebasket in the corner.
“You hired me for a reason.”
He lifted himself up on one elbow. Alarm mingled with satisfaction in his gaze. “Shit, I forgot about that part. You work for Knight and Day. Did we just break an HR rule?”
“Well, since you don’t have any HR rules, I’d say no. And besides…” She hesitated briefly. “I need to quit.”
19
“What are you talking about?” Ben’s heart sank. This was the last thing he expected to hear after the intensely intimate experience they’d just shared.
“You only hired me to get you organized and get your systems set up. That’s all done now. So, I’m quitting.” She smiled at his horrified expression. “You’ll be fine, I promise. I found a bookkeeper who can come in once a week and keep you on track.”
“No. I won’t be fine.” Was Julie disappearing again? Already? No, it wasn’t fair to hold her previous disappearance against her like that. Lighten up. “I’ll be going through Julie withdrawal,” he said lightly. “You’ll have to let me see you every day to get me through the transition.”
“No problem. I have the perfect opportunity. How about I hire you this time? I need help running my lines for Grease. You mentioned before that you’d be willing to do it.”
“Of course I will.” Relief flooded through him. She wasn’t ditching him. At least not yet.
“It’s crunch time now; the first dress rehearsal is in two weeks and I’m still not off-book. That’s one of the reasons I need to quit Knight and Day. I don’t have time for everything.”
He grumbled at her. “I guess that will have to satisfy me. Running lines with you. Naked, of course.”
“Yes, didn’t you know this is the nude version of Grease? I mentioned that the part of Danny is being played by the gospel choir director at the Baptist Church, right?”
“The one with the big belly and the bald head?”
“Yup. He has the best voice in town. And he can really move. You should see him in the ‘Greased Lightning’ number.”
He traced the inner slope of her hip bone, where the texture of her skin became even softer. “Are you sure it’s safe to do something so public, Julie? What if that man is still hanging around?”
“That’s exactly why I told them no at first. But I’ve been here over a month now, and it’s such a small town. He would know by now. So I think he’s gone. I really do.”
“I hope so.” He spread his fingers across the slight rise of her lower belly.
She shivered. “I don’t. I wanted to catch him. I wanted to be the hero who put that bastard behind bars.”
With a soft laugh, he nuzzled her hair. This was the fiery side of Julie, the one who’d stood up to his father. “Nice thought, but I’d rather you stay safe. Count me in f
or whatever rehearsing you need. You know my schedule better than I do by now.”
“So true.” She turned her head so their lips met in a long kiss. “Thank you. I tried to get Felix to help, but there’s just no way to sing ‘Summer Lovin’’ to a scowling kid in glasses without cracking up. I’m not that good an actress.”
He laughed at that. “Speaking of Felix…do you think he’ll be okay with us,” he wasn’t quite sure how to put it, “being together?” There, that seemed vague enough to cover all the bases.
“He knows we’re old friends.” She looked away, tangling her fingers in the scatter of hair on his chest.
“You don’t plan to tell him more than that, huh?”
“Well…” She ran her tongue across her lips, a sure sign she was nervous. “He doesn’t really do well with change. Coming to Jupiter Point has been tough enough, not to mention dealing with the Reinhards. I’d rather keep this quiet, if we can.”
Ben’s heart sank even further. As teenagers, they’d hid plenty of stuff from their parents. He’d snuck out to meet Julie when he was supposed to be doing homework, that sort of thing. But now they were adults. Did they really have to do this?
But she didn’t want to upset Felix, and he couldn’t argue with that.
“Okay, I get it. So where is this line rehearsing going to happen?”
Her hand traveled farther down his chest, her soft palm cool against his still-heated skin. She was such a sensual woman. How was it she’d had only two sexual partners in the past twelve years? He should probably thank Felix for scaring off all the men, like a solemn little gargoyle watchdog.
The kid could try to scare him off too, but Ben had a few tricks up his sleeve. His charm, his persistence…but most of all, his Cessnas.
“Here, when I can find someone to stay with Felix. Maybe he could go to Tobias and Carolyn’s for an evening and play with Sarah. They really hit it off, though I don’t understand why. They’re so different.”
“Sarah never met a kid she didn’t like. She’s like a wide-open flower, always soaking in the sunshine.”
“Wow, I love that image. That’s beautiful.”
“She’s a great kid. Felix is too,” he added quickly. “I’m trying to win him over, but he’s tough.”
“You already have. He likes you, probably because you answer his ten kajillion questions about flight mechanics.”
“He’s really something. He already knows more than I did after a year of flight school.”
Julie smiled proudly. “We call it ‘pulling a Felix.’ He absorbs information like a sponge. It’s pretty incredible. He’s even got the Reinhards impressed, and that’s hard to do.”
“Speaking of the Reinhards…” Ben caught her hand under his, stilling it before she could get too close to his cock and make him forget everything. “Any chance you could wrangle me some invites to the Winter Ball? I’d ask them myself but I’m still filled with rage about what they did.”
She blinked at him in surprise. “You want to go to a ball? You always thought it was ridiculous.”
“Of course it’s ridiculous. But I remember how much my mom always wanted to go. She even switched to the Reinhards’ church so they’d consider putting her on the list. But they never did. I was thinking that an invite would give Mom an extra reason to come home. How could she turn down a ticket to the ball?”
“Oh Ben.” She rolled over on top of him and plopped a kiss onto his chin. “Has anyone ever told you you’re the sweetest, most adorable, most endearing, most wonderful, most—”
He stopped the flow of flattery by claiming her mouth in a rough kiss. Seriously, “sweet and adorable?” He didn’t want to be that, not anymore. “You’d think that my years in the Air Force would erase all the ‘sweet and adorable’ out of me.”
“Well, they didn’t. Sorry. I think you’re stuck with it.”
He gripped her bare ass, filling his hands with her flesh. God, those curves, that sweet whiskey-and-cream skin, those dark nipples begging for his touch.
“So, will your mom be in Jupiter Point by then? The ball is only two weeks away.” She squeezed her thighs on either side of his hips. The tips of her breasts hardened against his chest.
He groaned. “You expect me to answer questions while your pussy is touching my cock and the rest of you is right in front of my eyes?”
She bit her lip, wicked laughter turning her face pink. “You came,” she pointed out. “You’re satisfied. We did the deed and now we’re just hanging out talking.”
“You think I’m satisfied?”
“You sure sounded like it. Moaning and groaning and cursing.”
“Well, yeah, I was very satisfied. But that was then and this is now.”
“That was about ten minutes ago.”
“Exactly my point.” He was definitely ready for another trip into the mind-blowing realm of sex with Julie. “Ancient history.” He reached for his nightstand again and snagged another condom. He brandished it at her. “Ready?”
In response, she snatched the condom from him and ripped it open. She moved her ass farther down his thighs, giving herself space to work. She rolled the condom onto his shaft. With the clumsy way she worked at it, he knew that sheathing a man with latex wasn’t something she’d done with the occupational therapist. Ha. Another first.
When he was covered, he pushed his swelling cock into the hot cave between her legs. That felt so good that he had to stop and battle for control. He gripped her hips and lowered her onto his erection. Her channel was still hot and moist from ten minutes ago—had it really only been that long? He had no idea. Time with Julie stretched in weird ways. He rubbed his thumb over the nub of her clit and felt it swell immediately.
Oh yeah, she was just as hot for him as he was for her. That had always been true. She’d promised her mother not to have sex until she was eighteen, and they’d kept that vow. But no one had specified anything about oral sex, kissing, finger-fucking, or anything else they could come up with. They’d let their imaginations run wild and enjoyed themselves plenty without losing their technical virginities.
But he’d never stopped wanting it. And now that they’d made love, officially, with full penetration, he was actually glad that they hadn’t done it before. His primitive boy-brain would have exploded. He would have spiraled deeper into love with her, like Alice down the rabbit hole. He never would have gotten over her disappearance.
And maybe, in fact, he never really had.
After round two, they took a break to devour the lasagna he’d made. Ben was actually a pretty good cook. He’d cultivated that skill as a way to please Julie’s mother, and he still remembered some of the recipes she’d taught him. Not lasagna, of course. Too much cheese and pasta; Mrs. Reinhard would have fired her for a dish like that.
Julie pulled on his overshirt, the blue cambric barely clearing the tops of her thighs. She’d finally taken off the thigh-highs, thank God, or they’d still be back in bed going for round three. She lit the candles while he served up the lasagna, garlic bread and salad that had been sitting while they screwed their brains out.
“Sorry the lettuce is wilted. I blame your nipples,” he teased.
“And the butter is congealed on the garlic bread. All my fault, too?”
“If you weren’t so sexy, we could have had dinner like normal people. So yes. All your fault.”
She made a face at him, then took a bite of lasagna and rolled her eyes in bliss. “Oh my God. This is incredible. I’d say it’s better than sex, but, well…it’s not, quite.”
“I’d say I’m insulted, but I’m not, quite.”
He sat down with her and they dove into their food with the appetites of two people who had just burned approximately ten million calories having sex. They fell silent as they ate, completely comfortable with each other, completely attuned. Ben was pretty sure this moment marked the happiest he’d been in many, many years. That piece of him that had been missing—well, it wasn’t completely filled.
Questions about his father, the need to see his mother and sister, all of those realities still existed. But being with Julie, like this, went a long way toward healing the hole in his heart.
True, they didn’t have an official term for what they were doing. Were they getting back together? He wouldn’t say that. Renewing their friendship? That didn’t take into account the getting-naked part. Which he wanted to keep doing as long as possible.
He cleared his throat, looking for a delicate way to bring up the topic of the future. “Is Felix liking Jupiter Point any better?”
“Hard to say. He doesn’t complain as much, and he’s started spending time with the Reinhards without me around. That’s huge progress.”
Better just come out with his question. “How long are you planning to stay?” He tried to make it casual but didn’t quite get there.
She put down her fork. “I don’t know. Until the semester ends, maybe? I sublet my apartment until June.”
Until June. That wasn’t enough time. Not nearly.
He cleared his throat. “So you like living in LA?”
“No. Not really. It’s overwhelming, especially for someone who grew up in a small town like Jupiter Point. But I’m used to it now, and Green and Pristine is doing great. You’d be amazed how much people are willing to pay to get their houses cleaned.”
“We have dirty houses here too.” He glanced around his tidy condo. “Not mine, of course. I’m a neat freak.”
Smiling, she toasted him with her wine glass. “Another point in the plus column. The very long plus column.”
He clinked her glass with his. “But seriously. What does LA have that we don’t? Besides more traffic and more dirty houses?”
“Felix. Savannah,” she answered promptly. “Savannah has nothing but bad memories from here. And you know how Felix is about change.”
He struggled with the follow-up question to that, one which seemed so obvious to him, he didn’t even know why he had to ask it. “Couldn’t you stay here when Felix goes back to LA?”
She blinked, her face turning pink, then white. “Excuse me?”
Hot and Bothered Page 15
