“I’m a model.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “A model? As in Playboy?”
She shook her head and grimaced. “Silly. I’m the cover model on this month’s issue of Sports and Men. I’ve been modeling the last seven years.”
So that’s where her little red car came from. Hard work, not some rich lover. “I feel like a fool.”
She canted her head to one side, “Why?”
“I thought the Porsche was a gift from an admirer.”
“It is.” Her chest shook with laughter. “And now, I’ll bet, you want to know who. You haven’t changed a bit, have you? Always curious Joe.”
“Yeah, still anal retentive.” Yet she’d piqued his curiosity so he waited for the answer.
Her head bobbed up and down. “The car is a gift from me to me. I’ve earned it.”
“I bet you have,” he said with a little smile.
She laid her fork on her plate and frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You always said you wanted to make something of yourself. I think you have.” Satisfaction and joy overcame him. He wanted to hug her and dance around the house with her, but he had to eat first, because he knew what would come after the happy dancing.
* * * *
The after-dinner dessert ended up being a feast in Joey’s four-poster bed. Amber hadn’t eaten much, although she drank almost a jug of iced tea.
Joey had gone into the bathroom down the hall from his room and when he’d come back, his eyes almost popped out of his head. The dark coverlet had been turned down to the foot of the bed. SXY LXY knelt in the middle, her thighs splayed, and she was cupping her breasts, her lips set in an inviting pout.
“Sweet mother of mercy,” he ground out, pausing in the doorway to admire the gorgeous view. He’d never had women over, not that there’d been that many. Up until now, and after Amber’s hasty departure from Cedar Ridge, he’d thought of himself as a loner, the law in town with not much of a social life. But he was rethinking his position as he surveyed sexy Amber on his bed.
“Hey, big guy,” she murmured in a silky smooth, erotic voice. “Wanna come and play with my tits?”
He folded his arms across his chest. His heart pounded loudly. “Are you finished playing your games?” The games that left him panting after her, wanting more of the titillation only she offered in her inimitable way.
Her brow furrowed, and she licked her lips slowly before she answered, “What games would that be?” The wicked gleam in her blue eyes warned him that if he weren’t careful, she’d start up again and once more become elusive SXY LXY.
He decided to tread lightly as he unbuckled his belt and climbed out of his pants. “The ones you were playing with me on the highway. You definitely wanted sex, but you wanted it on your terms only.” As if she doesn’t now, buddy-boy.
She batted her eyes. The wickedness hadn’t left them, and he wondered what exactly he was in for. “On my terms only? That sounds strange, I’m not the one who handcuffed you and forced you into the backseat of the car with the threat of being arrested.”
“You’re not into the melodrama thing, are you?”
She shook her head, her lips turning down in a pretty pout. She tugged on one nipple then the other, extending them into tiny puckered peaks. “Why?”
He drew in a breath and slowly exhaled. No matter what she said, she was toying with him again. With great effort, he tried to focus on his words. “I knew a woman once who couldn’t do anything without becoming a drama queen. She went into hysterics if she didn’t get her way, and cried copious tears if she felt she’d been slighted. I couldn’t handle that type of lifestyle.”
“Oh?” She blinked and slid her right hand down to her navel in a languorous caress. “Your use of the word ‘lifestyle’ suggests I’m sticking around in Cedar Ridge.” Her gaze pinned his. “I’m not. I was just passing through.”
“Oh.” Disappointment flared to life. She’d sure fried his brain and his libido if she was just passing through. How she’d turned him inside out in that gold mini-dress the first day, then today in that body-hugging black lace… Joey hated to think what she’d do to him if she were staying in town, but on the other hand, he enjoyed the prospect of keeping Amber to himself, loving her day after day.
“Something bothering you?” she asked, her eyes focused intensely on him.
“Yeah, I was hoping you’d stay.” He couldn’t let her leave, to walk out of his life and away from him. He’d felt lost the first time he’d confronted it, but now he had control. He could change his life, and hers. He hesitated before he whispered, “With me.”
Adamantly, she shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
“Are you married?” His question was much too unfriendly, but anger boiled to the surface at the thought. That would account for the red Porsche. Perhaps a gift from one of her lovers or even from a spouse.
“No. Not engaged either.”
She got off the bed with an agility and grace that made his cock stand to rigid attention. Why was he talking when all he wanted to do was make love to her?
Barefoot, her feet barely making a sound on the hardwood floor, she strolled up to him and placed her palm on his shoulder. An electric spark arced between them.
“Come on, Joey, what’s really bothering you? You have a naked woman in your bed. Here’s an opportunity to have sex with her all night long, without getting up in the morning and feeling as if you’ve made a mistake and committed to a long-term relationship—the kind I suspect you’re so afraid of.” Amber popped open the top buttons on his shirt. Her warm breath fanned his throat.
He began to protest, but she cut him off.
“Most men are. They can’t think of anything but how to extricate themselves from a relationship they don’t particularly want.” She tilted her head and met his gaze. “You don’t have to worry about that with me. I like sex. I love naked men—especially ones in a uniform—. End of story. You don’t have to worry that come tomorrow morning, I’ll be demanding you marry me.”
Joey understood then why she acted as flirtatiously as she did. She’d been badly hurt by someone. Man, but he wanted to tear the jackass another hole. Amber was talking to him as if he was the one afraid of a relationship, but in actuality, she was reinforcing for herself that she was. He didn’t blame her, not after what he’d done the night of the prom. Negative reinforcement was never a good idea. If she was even aware that she was doing so. He had to find some way of helping her without her realizing it.
Her hand lingered on his upper chest against his erratically beating heart. He wished she could always keep her palm there, as a blessing, as a promise of more to come and a bright future.
He had to slow down, not give away the fact that he knew what made her tick with such a frenzy. Catching her slim wrist in one hand, he cleared his throat.
“Come and play with me, Joey,” she said, her gaze fixing on his.
Heat burned through his body at the sight of her naked breasts and the hot spot between her thighs. “I’m beat. Let’s lie down without any pressure.” Without waiting for a response, he led her back to the four-poster and sat down with her on the edge.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “That’s not why I came here,” she protested. Her gaze flashed fire, and her cheeks turned a hot pink.
“I know, Amber, but we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“You,” he replied gently, awestruck at how beautiful she was.
Her lips trembled. “There’s nothing to talk about, and as I said, that’s not why I’m here.”
Joey realized just how easy it would be to give in and have sex with her. And he also sensed that’s all it would be to her was plain old sex, devoid of any sense of attachment or feeling aside from instant gratification.
Before he could react, Amber climbed onto his lap and straddled him. Her wet pussy nestled against the tip of his cock. “You should stop thinking so much, Joey. Stop being
so anal retentive.” She kissed his left cheek with a playful pertness that left him gasping for precious air. “You haven’t changed much from high school days, have you?”
Have your way with me, Sexy Lexy. I’m all yours, but come morning light, you and I will have a little chat about where you’re going, and where you’ve been.
Amber had no idea what Joey had wanted to talk about. When she’d settled in his lap, his cocoa-colored eyes had glazed over, and that’s when she’d known. He was all hers.
She planted tiny, smoldering kisses along his cheek and his jaw line, down the side of his throat, over the corded muscle there and the steadily beating pulse at the hollow of his neck.
“Talk can wait. My engine’s all revved up, Joey, and there’s no stopping it,” she murmured.
Under her kisses, Joey shivered. Her palms traveled around his shoulders and down his back over the crisp cotton of his shirt. His dick was rock hard against her pussy. He wanted her, and she’d keep him wanting her the whole night long.
“What did you say about lying down?” she asked in a playful tone, watching his pupils narrow.
“I was going to talk, but you can do anything you want to me,” he whispered, lifting his hands and settling them on her shoulders.
“You have such big, broad, sheriff hand,” she said with pleasure.
“Have you ever done any other men in uniform before?” he asked, licking the top of her ear.
Shivers ran down her spine and into her groin. “A time or two,” she replied.
“More sheriffs?” came the abrupt question.
She sensed his jealousy and told him the truth. “No, a fireman and a state policeman.”
“At the same time?” Joey asked incredulously, his tongue darting into her ear.
She sighed. “Are you grilling me? I’m not asking you about your love life, am I?” Oddly, she resented him snooping into her past, as if he needed the answers. “I never got involved with them,” she added. “I just slept with them.”
“Hmm.”
Using the heels of her palms, she pushed him backward and said in her most seductive voice, “I want to suck your cock and make you come in my mouth.”
“Did the fireman and the cop like it that way?”
Amber halted, clamped her fists on her waist, and demanded, “What’s up, Joey? What’s this grilling? In case you haven’t noticed, you haven’t stopped with the third degree.” The continual questioning was beginning to irritate her.
“Just wondering, that’s all.”
“Does it bother you that I’ve slept with men in uniform before you?” She couldn’t imagine why it would. It really wasn’t any of his business.
“Yes, it does.”
Sucking in a breath, Amber rolled off him and onto her side. “Why?” Maybe his response, if he chose to give one, wasn’t her business either.
“I want more,” he said simply, looking directly into her eyes.
Annoyed, she shook her head. “You want a committed relationship with the possibility of a baby and a white picket fence.” Not that she didn’t want those, but she’d long ago made up her mind that they weren’t for her. She couldn’t face the pain and desolation of a torn heart. When she made out with a guy, she did so with the understanding that it was a one or two night deal, nothing more.
“Yeah, I do.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Eventually.”
Amber’s breath whooshed out with relief. Eventually was far away, in the very distant future.
“I’m glad you said that.” But she didn’t care to elaborate. She’d be long gone by the time Joey considered those eventualities.
His brows arched upward. “Did we kill the romantic spirit?”
She frowned. “Romantic? What do you mean?” Romantic meant bouquets of roses, boxes of chocolates, and candlelit dinners. She decided she’d get sex in with the heavy duty talking. Talk was cheap but sex was something she could hold onto.
Propping herself up on her elbow, she got to her knees and straddled Joey’s thighs. His cock was flaccid but she could easily change that with a touch here and there.
She lowered her head to his chest, before she considered gazing at him to gauge his mood. This stuff about romance and commitment could quickly kill off an aroused state.
Joey’s eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. “Romantic as in making love to a woman who only wants sex.”
Amber bristled at first, but heck, that pretty much described her. She only wanted sex. Which was fine by her. She finished unbuttoning his shirt and moved the front closures apart.
“You have a very nice chest,” she exclaimed, changing the subject. “Very broad, well muscled, tanned, with a fine matte of hair.”
“That comes with being a man in uniform.”
She heard him chuckle softly and flicked her tongue over his nipple. He moaned and writhed under her.
“Lower, lower,” he urged impatiently.
She peppered tiny kisses along his chest to his navel and licked the inside before she continued downward, eliciting a heavy sigh from above her. She heard him swallow hard. “Am I driving you crazy?” she asked sweetly.
“Uh, yeah.” He circled his palm around his cock.
Amber immediately pried his fingers apart from the turgid flesh and chastised him. “Your bad boy’s turn is coming next. Be patient.”
“His name is Long John,” he grumbled, quivering under her.
“I’ve heard of men calling their penises some interesting names, but that’s a first for me.” She caught his engorged penis with both hands and flicked her tongue over the glistening hole. He tasted of male musk and sunshine sweetness.
He blew out a contented sigh and shuddered. His thigh muscles quivered. The more she licked, the more he tensed.
“Take it easy, Joey,” she whispered softly.
“Take it easy? When I’m about to have the orgasm of my life?” He groaned and turned his head from side to side.
She brushed her hair aside. Her breasts throbbed fiercely, and once again, her tresses cascaded over his penis. And suddenly, her heart began to ache for the life she vowed she could never have.
Joey just about shot off the bed when her tongue met his hot flesh.
”What are you doing?” he asked from between clenched teeth.
“I’m sucking your cock,” Amber replied, lifting her unflinching gaze to his. The sparkle of laughter was there momentarily before she bent her head to take his cock more fully into her mouth. Her silky blonde hair covered her face and brushed against his thighs, arousing him even more than he was.
He arched his back as she took him in more, her tongue circling his shaft. She cupped his balls and everything else was forgotten as his mind buzzed with the pending orgasm. Every muscle in his body went rigid, then he croaked, “I’m going to come.”
She didn’t move away, and instead took his long length in even more. He gripped the bed sheet and let himself go in the most powerful orgasm he’d ever had. He didn’t have to go searching for bliss. It had come to him instead and her name was SXY LXY.
Chapter Six
“Wow!” Joey managed from a parched throat. His brain reeled with the potency of the orgasm he’d just experienced.
Her eyes languorous, Amber crawled up his length and kissed his lips. “Did Long John like that?” she teased.
He grunted. “You know he did.” She was so much like the friend he’d known, but now he was discovering she was more of a sexy stranger. Volatile, enticing.
“That’s good.” She brushed aside sweat-matted hair from his forehead.
“And where did the license plate come from?” Maybe he was snoopy, but then that was part of his job as sheriff of Cedar Ridge.
“You’ve forgotten?” Amber toyed with the fine hairs on his chest between his nipples.
He hated to admit it, but he had. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Alexandria is my middle name. I model under Lexy, so that’s where it comes from.”
“Oh r
ight.” He began to lift his hand to slap his forehead, but Amber clamped her fingers down on it, preventing him from doing do.
“Enough of the self-flagellation.”
“That sounds like a real nice word from the dictionary.”
She felt so right and comfortable with her head resting on his shoulder. Once, they used to lie in the meadow by Cedar River and just hold onto each other. Joey had forgotten how nice and tranquil that had felt. Nostalgia swept through him.
“Before I began to model, I put myself through college. I won’t ever be able to eat a fast food burger again, but that’s how I survived. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature.”
Compassionately, he said, “That’s great. What do you want to do with that?”
“Go on to get my masters and, perhaps one day, write a book.”
“I don’t think you need a Masters to write a book,” he countered, happy for her.
“Maybe not, but publishers like credentials.” She trailed the tip of her middle finger up and down his chest in a lazy line.
“I’ve got an idea.” A wickedly sensual one, which he didn’t think she’d care for.
“What might that be?” Her finger didn’t pause.
Joey didn’t ask permission. Gently but briskly, he pushed her head to one side and rolled on top of her.
“Joey!” Amber pushed the heels of both palms against his chest.
Before she could finish what he assumed would be an outrageous question, he caught her mouth in a kiss. She submitted, the tension oozing from her body. Her hands ceased pressuring his chest, then she pried his lips apart with her tongue and delved into his mouth.
When he came away for air, he said, “I haven’t made love to you with me on top.”
For a fraction of a second, he saw the frightened hurt in the depths of her blue eyes. He’d been right. She liked being the one in control, which gave her leverage.
“Amber?” he whispered, dismayed by the sudden awareness of just how vulnerable she was. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
Sexy Lexy Page 4
