by Ali Olson
Renee began planning immediately. Patty’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Next week, Renee. You don’t need to work on it right now. I just knew you would want to know.”
She thanked Patty and hung up. She was still standing in the same spot she’d been when she had picked up the phone, but now she dropped onto the bed.
It was actually happening. She couldn’t believe it.
Despite Patty’s parting words, Renee knew it would be impossible for her to wait the entire week to get started. She would need to go through each of her best pieces and check them for any problems, then choose which ones to submit.
An idea popped into her head, making her fingers itch for her laptop. She could take Jessica’s article and design an amazing page around it, with the picture of the barn front and center.
She knew it would be impressive and show off her skills, but it would take time. She would need to get started on it immediately.
* * *
IT WAS MIDAFTERNOON when Jeremiah and Aaron pulled up to Aaron’s house. It had been a long day, and Jeremiah could barely contain his excitement as he walked into the house. This was it. He and Renee would finally get some time alone.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said to his friend, as if the thought had just sprung to mind. “How about I take Renee out to town for dinner and some sightseeing? That way you and Jessica can have some time alone together. It must be weird having someone else around all the time.”
Aaron smiled and narrowed his eyes at Jeremiah, giving him a sly look. “Are you trying to get together with Renee?”
Jeremiah laughed like the idea was crazy. He’d been prepared for this. “I just know how depraved you two are. It must be killing you not to grope each other every ten minutes.”
Aaron nodded. “You have no idea.”
“So I’m a great friend. Remember that.” If things went the way Jeremiah hoped, he’d need all the brownie points he could muster.
With that, Jeremiah waltzed out of the room, ready to find Renee and get out of that house. A few hours alone, then a nice dinner together—maybe he could convince her that they had a future after all.
She was sitting on the living room couch, hunched over her laptop. He paused for a moment and just stared at her. His heart sped up as he imagined what her face would look like when he did all the things he wanted to do to her.
He walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Even that much contact made his body react. She looked up, and the flush on her cheeks made it clear that she felt it, too. He couldn’t wait another minute to kiss her. “We’ve been paroled. Let’s go,” he said in a whisper, gesturing toward the door.
She hesitated, looking back at her computer, and he knew something was wrong. “I’m kind of in the middle of something important. Give me a few minutes.”
His good mood dampened. She hadn’t seemed very happy about the idea of being alone with him, and the thought stabbed at him. He tried to put that thought out of his mind. It must be something else that was making her act like that. “Work?” he asked.
She nodded, staring at the screen. “My boss called this morning. They’re going to offer me the job, but I need to send them a few of my page designs.”
“And they’re making you work on it while you’re on vacation?” He felt annoyance on her behalf.
She looked at him. “Well, no, but I had an idea and wanted to get started on it.”
“So, there’s no good reason for you to be working on this right now? You’re joking, right?”
He knew it came out harsher than he’d wanted, but he couldn’t believe that she was putting off what they’d both been looking forward to for this. The thought that she wasn’t as excited as he was only made his mood darker.
He could see her jaw working and knew she was frustrated. Hell, so was he. She shut her laptop with a snap and stood, but it was clear this wasn’t over. Instead of walking over to him, she turned to leave the room, heading toward the stairs. “This is important to me,” she threw back at him as she disappeared.
And I’m not, he thought, filling in the implied meaning.
Jeremiah wasn’t sure if he wanted to storm out or race after her. Instead, he stood there, still looking at the door she’d disappeared through, until he heard a door upstairs close. Without another word, he left.
* * *
RENEE STOOD IN her room, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Why had Jeremiah acted like that?
She asked herself the question, but she knew the answer. The real question was, why had she hesitated? She’d been looking forward to this opportunity, and when it finally came, she’d stalled. What was she so afraid of?
Renee sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. When he touched her on the shoulder, it was warm and sweet, and looking up at him made her heart light on fire and melt at the same time. It was the melting that had scared her enough to put off her chance to go with him.
But there was no reason to worry about falling for this guy. He certainly wouldn’t be falling for her, and anyway, it was only one week. Then she’d be heading back to New York. Did she really want to go back without having any of the fun she’d promised herself?
God, she was an idiot. She stood and raced out of the room and down the stairs, not letting herself think too much about what she would do or say.
But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She got to the door just in time to see his truck disappear.
She trudged back upstairs, to her laptop and pages. They suddenly didn’t seem quite so interesting or important.
* * *
JEREMIAH MADE A circuit of the outside of his house, thinking. He felt like an idiot, and a meandering drive after leaving Jessica and Aaron’s hadn’t helped at all. He should never have imagined that he and Renee could be more than a short-term thing. He’d known from the beginning that she didn’t want anything more than a casual fun week. She was a workaholic who refused to let anything more serious happen; she’d made that clear right off the bat.
So why had he let that fact get him so frustrated?
He sat on the stairs of the porch and looked up at the darkening sky. He’d let himself believe that maybe he could change that about her, but that was ridiculous. You can’t change someone after just a few days of kisses and conversation.
No, he needed to accept that if he was going to have any type of relationship with Renee, it wasn’t going to be anything more than her indulging a few fantasies. She wouldn’t let her heart get involved.
That was what he’d agreed to, and if that was all he could get from her, so be it. Without ever entering the house, he got back into his truck. He needed to go apologize and see if he could salvage this thing.
By the time he got to Jessica and Aaron’s, stars were dotting the sky above him. He walked in and found the two of them sitting at the kitchen table, the remnants of dinner still in front of them. Aaron looked up at him. “Hey, what happened?”
Jeremiah wasn’t sure how to answer. In addition to making a mess of things with Renee, he hadn’t exactly given his friend the privacy he’d promised. “Renee was working on something for her job,” he answered with a shrug.
Jessica said, “She just came down for a second when I called her for dinner. Didn’t even eat. She just said she was working. She didn’t look good. Do you think she’s sick?”
Jeremiah shrugged again, feeling guilty. Had he made her feel that bad? He was such an ass.
Aaron stood and grabbed a bottle of Johnnie Walker from the cupboard. “You don’t look so good yourself. Here, have a drink.”
Jeremiah couldn’t really say no, and a drink sounded like a great idea. If Renee was that upset, giving her a little space was probably a good thing.
* * *
RENEE SAT ON her bed, staring at her comp
uter screen. For over three hours, she’d been trying to work on her design, hoping she could lose herself in the clean lines of the page, but it wasn’t working. Her mind wouldn’t blank. It kept filling itself with Jeremiah, blocking out everything else, even work.
She looked at the clock. It wasn’t even nine yet, but she was done with this day. She turned out the lights and lay down. The previous sleepless night caught up to her, and she was quickly asleep.
* * *
“SLOW DOWN, MAN. Is everything okay?”
Jeremiah looked at his empty glass. He hadn’t meant to drink it all, but he’d been thinking about how he and Renee had left things and before he realized it, the whiskey was gone. He tried to decide what he could tell Aaron.
“I don’t really want to get into details, but I’m trying to make things happen with a woman, and it’s not quite working out the way I’d like.”
Aaron leaned forward, interested. “What woman? Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
Jeremiah shook his head. “Not ready to talk about that, Aaron.”
“Is she related to you or something?”
Jeremiah punched Aaron in the arm.
“Ow! What? It happens more than you think.”
Jeremiah shook his head. “Anyway, she doesn’t want anything serious.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows. “And you do? Whoa. I didn’t expect you to be ready to settle down.”
Jeremiah didn’t say anything else. He’d probably already said too much, but Aaron had been his best friend since kindergarten. It seemed weird to go through all this and leave him completely in the dark.
Aaron refilled their glasses. “Without knowing more, I can’t really give you advice. But I say, if you think she’s worth it, don’t give up hope.”
Jeremiah took another swallow of the brown liquid and thought about what Aaron had said. He’d never been the type to give up hope, so why would he start now? He wasn’t sure if it was that thought or the alcohol, but he felt better.
Now he just needed to mend things with Renee.
“Is it okay if I stay the night?” he asked Aaron. “I don’t want to drive home,” he explained, gesturing at the empty glass and glad for the excuse.
Aaron nodded, and Jeremiah walked resolutely up the stairs, ready to patch things up with Renee. Thinking about spending time alone in her room made his body react immediately, but he tried to calm it back down.
Once he got to the top of the stairs, he paused and took a breath before knocking on the door to the left.
No answer.
He eased the door open. The room was dark and quiet, so he shut it again, disappointed. She was already asleep.
Jeremiah stood there for a long time, looking at Renee’s door. He wanted to apologize, wanted more than anything to kiss her and finally do what they’d been edging toward since she arrived. But she had made it clear only a few hours ago that she was mad at him, so barging in, even to apologize, while she was sleeping when he was a little beyond tipsy, seemed like a terrible idea in so many ways.
He wanted to see her so badly, but even through the alcohol he was able to convince himself that it wasn’t the best time. He finally turned to the door on the right, his usual room. He promised himself that he would talk to her in the morning, when she was awake and he was sober.
He went into his room, leaving the light off. Jeremiah pulled off his shoes and pants and dropped into bed before he could make any stupid decisions.
* * *
RENEE WOKE SLOWLY, not wanting to let go of the delicious feeling of Jeremiah’s hard body spread out next to her like a yummy treat. She pressed her lips against his, opening in invitation. It was only as his tongue slid enticingly over her teeth that she realized she was no longer asleep.
This couldn’t be real, could it?
She opened her eyes. The room was dark, but there was just enough light coming in through the window for her to see Jeremiah’s outline beside her. “You’re real,” she said aloud before realizing how stupid it sounded.
“Real,” he affirmed, before leaning in to kiss her again.
She wasn’t sure when he’d sneaked into her room, or even what he was doing at Jessica and Aaron’s house in the first place, but those questions fled from her mind as he kissed her even more deeply, groaning with the sensation of it.
She pressed herself against him, sinking into the kiss. Any worries or hesitation she had had before were gone. All that was left was her need to touch him everywhere. Her hands slid down his bare stomach until they reached his boxers and his erection.
He was definitely real. No question about it. She wrapped her fingers around him and squeezed.
He groaned again. “You’re killing me, Renee.”
She gave him a devilish grin he couldn’t see. She hadn’t even begun.
He leaned in to kiss her again, this time his breathing ragged and quick. His fingers clenched in her hair for a moment before starting a slow crawl down her body.
When his hand reached her breast, her already-speeding pulse increased, making her feel light-headed. Her nipples tightened into hard nubs at his touch, and the sensation was so intense she thought she might orgasm right then and there.
She pushed him flat on his back, and leaned over him, kissing his chest, tasting and teasing his skin as she moved downward, inching closer to his iron-hard erection. “Whoa, what are you doing?” Jeremiah asked, in a voice that said he knew exactly what she was doing.
He just wanted to hear her say it.
She smiled in the dark, pressing a small bite to his abs. “What I’ve been wanting to do since I saw you in Vegas.”
With that, she slid down his boxers and took him into her mouth, relishing the taste of him.
He moaned again and throbbed against her lips. A feeling of power surged through her—this incredibly sexy man was totally under her control, and she reveled in it. After only a few moments, though, Jeremiah sat up, and before she was sure what happened, she was flat on her back. “I wasn’t finished,” she told him.
He chuckled. “If I let you keep going, I would be, and I don’t want this to be over yet.”
With that, his hands and lips went to work on her body, moving over every inch of her until she was so alive with sensation that she couldn’t think.
He moved between her legs, his mouth and hand converging at her center. As his fingers curled inside her, he applied his tongue to her mound, sending her over the edge so sharply that she had to bite her hand to keep from screaming out. She shuddered as the spasms of sensation hurtled through her body.
She clenched and unclenched her hands, trying to bring herself back under control, but Jeremiah seemed to have no intention of allowing that. He bit her thigh, then soothed the spot with his tongue, continuing the pattern down one leg, then back up the other. His caresses only gave her a moment of respite before bringing her back to the cliff’s edge. She couldn’t wait any longer. “I want you in me,” she said, hardly able to create a coherent sentence. “Now.”
Jeremiah didn’t need to be told twice, which was good because Renee had used the last of her ability to speak on that sentence. He leaned away from her, leaving only cool air in his wake. For a moment, she wanted to call him back to her, but then she heard the ripping of a condom wrapper. In a moment he was back with her, his hard, hot body against her, then on top of her. Finally he slid inside her, filling her. The sensation making her gasp.
She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him even deeper, and he groaned out her name, his voice deep and primal. They rocked together, breaths mingling as they kissed. As much as Renee had imagined and fantasized about it, she still couldn’t believe what was happening. The incredibly sexy Jeremiah was ravishing her mouth with his tongue, while the rest of him moved in a slow rhythm building toward what she
knew was the inevitable conclusion.
Slow curls of ecstasy wrapped through her as he began to move faster, and she lost herself in the sensations. He nipped at her earlobe and whispered her name, and she fell over the edge once more. He squeezed her hand in his as he followed.
8
JEREMIAH OPENED HIS EYES. The early-morning light streamed through the window, making Renee’s hair blaze like a reddish-blond halo framing her face. She was so beautiful he wanted to run his hand over her cheek to be sure she was real, but resisted the urge. He didn’t want to wake her up.
His mind replayed everything that had happened. He had thought sex with her would be great, but it was so much more. Incredible, that’s what it was. Everything about her was amazing. The way her lips felt against his, the way she tasted, the little squeals she made as she came for him.
He wanted it all, over and over again.
As if she could read his thoughts, Renee snuggled closer to him, kissing his shoulder as she opened her eyes. “Good morning,” she said with a nibble that shot through his heart and straight down to his groin.
“If you keep doing that,” he said through his teeth as he struggled to maintain control, “I’m going to have to do things to you.”
“Oh yeah?” she responded with a mischievous smirk. “What kind of things?”
“The kind that would probably come to Jessica and Aaron’s attention.”
Her groan of annoyance was so adorable that he chuckled, which turned quickly to a sharp intake of air as her fingers slid along his already-hard shaft. He pulled her hand away, cupping it in his own. “You should probably head back to your room before they wake up,” he told her, wishing he was saying something very different.
Confusion swept across her features before being replaced by understanding. She sat up. “This is your room,” she said.
