Points. Kelly and her points. What was it now, three to one with her in the lead? Hell, if she’d brought it up at the time, he’d have awarded her five more points for that kiss today. He felt like her mouth was permanently imprinted on his. If he lived to be a hundred, he’d still be able to bring back the taste of her and the feel of her in his arms while the cold wind danced around them.
“This isn’t getting any work done,” he muttered, and stood up from the desk. It wasn’t until that moment that Micah realized how quiet it was. The hammering had stopped, and there was no more good-natured shouting from Kelly and Terry.
He walked to the window and looked out. At that angle, all he could see were the tops of plywood panels the two women were fixing together and standing in front of the porch. But it seemed that work on the haunted house was over for the day. Good. No noise meant not being reminded of Kelly. With no thoughts of Kelly, maybe he’d get some pages written.
“Where did she go?” he muttered an instant later, drumming his fingers on the window frame. “And why do you care?”
He didn’t, of course. Curiosity didn’t translate into caring.
Shaking his head, Micah walked to the desk and it felt like the computer screen was glaring at him, mocking him for stopping in the middle of a damn sentence. Well, he didn’t have to be insulted by his own tools. He slammed the laptop shut and stalked out of the office. Work wasn’t happening. Relaxing wasn’t happening. So he’d try a beer, the game on TV and a chance to shut off his mind. Micah took the stairs, then turned and headed for the kitchen.
He never made it.
Kelly stepped through the swinging door from the kitchen into the dining room and stopped dead when she saw him. Everything in Micah tensed and eased at the same time.
Her hair tumbled wild and wavy around her face and down over her shoulders. Her eyes were bright and locked on him like laser beams. Micah’s breath caught in his chest as a tight fist of need closed around his throat.
“Surprised to see me?” she whispered.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “A little. But then you seem to be full of surprises.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said, and moved a couple steps closer to him.
“You should.” Micah walked toward her, too, one slow step at a time. “I never know from one minute to the next what you’re going to do.” He didn’t admit how much he liked that about her. Didn’t mention that he saw her everywhere. That images of her were dancing through his brain 24/7. Hell, he didn’t even like admitting that to himself, let alone her.
Kelly’s eyes flashed and his insides burned.
“Like being here now for instance,” Micah said quietly. “What’re you doing, Kelly?”
“I came to ask you a question.”
He blew out a breath. “What is it?”
“Pretty simple, really,” Kelly said, moving still closer.
He could have reached out and touched her, but Micah curled his hands into fists to keep from doing exactly that. After that kiss this afternoon, he was sure that if he held on to her now, he might not let her go again.
“There’s a lot of...tension between us, Micah.”
He snorted. “Yeah, you could say that.”
She kept talking as if he hadn’t spoken at all. “I mean, that kiss today? I thought the top of my head was going to blow off.”
Micah reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “I felt the same.”
“Good,” she said, nodding. “That’s good.”
“Kelly...” He was at the ragged edge of his near-legendary control. Her scent was reaching for him, and the look in her spring-green eyes was tempting him to just let go. “What’re you getting at?”
“Well, we’re both grown-ups, Micah,” she said, tipping her head back to look at him.
“Yeah,” he said tightly. “That might be part of the problem.”
She laughed shortly. “True.”
Her hair fell in a red-gold curtain behind her, and a light floral scent that clung to her skin seemed to surround him. “But, since we are adults, there’s a simple way to take care of that tension.” She took a breath and held it. When she spoke again, the words tumbled from her in a rush. “I think we should just go to bed together. Once we do that, we’ll both be able to relax and—”
Control snapped at the suggestion he’d been hoping for. Micah grabbed her, speared his fingers through her hair and held her head still for his kiss. He poured everything he felt into it. The unbearable frustration that had tortured him for two months. The wild, frantic need that disrupted his sleep every night. The desire that pulsed inside him like an extra heartbeat.
She groaned, fueling the fire enveloping him, and kissed him back with the same fierce hunger that was clawing at him. Her hands moved up and down his back, up into his hair, then clutched at his shoulders.
Micah’s brain simply shattered. He didn’t need it anyway. The only thing either of them needed now was their own willing bodies. When Micah tore his mouth free of hers and gasped for air, Kelly grinned at him. “I guess that’s a yes?”
Surprise after surprise.
“No, it’s a hell yes,” he corrected, then picked her up and slung her over one shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
“Hey!” Hands against his back, she pushed up and swung her hair back in an attempt to see him. “What’re you doing?”
He glanced back at her and rubbed one hand over her behind until she shifted in his grasp.
“This is faster. No time to waste,” he told her, and headed for the stairs again.
“Right.” She rubbed her own palms over his back, then down to his butt. “Hurry.”
He took the stairs two at a time, his long legs making short work of the distance separating them from the nearest bed. He covered the hallway in a few long steps, walked into his bedroom and tossed her onto the mattress.
“Whoop!” She laughed as she bounced, then her gaze met his and all amusement fled. “Oh, I’m so glad you didn’t say thanks, but no thanks.”
“Not a chance of that,” Micah assured her, and yanked his T-shirt off over his head.
Kelly smiled, licked her lips and toed off her shoes before immediately tugging at the button and zipper of her jeans. She squirmed out of them, making Micah’s mouth water at his first peek at the tiny triangle of pink lace panties she had on under those jeans.
She kept her gaze locked on his as she worked on the buttons of her long-sleeved shirt and slowly let it slide down off her arms. The pink lace bra matched the panties and displayed more of her breasts than it hid.
He couldn’t look away from her. Every breath came loud and harsh in the room. Micah felt like he was straining against a leash that had held him in place for two long months. Now that it was ready to snap, he didn’t know what to do first. Where to touch. Where to kiss. Where to lick. He wanted it all. When she took off the bra and panties then tossed them over her head to the floor, the leash finally snapped.
She lay there, her pale skin luminous against the forest-green duvet. Her hair spilled out around her head like a red-gold halo of silk. Her breasts were fuller than he’d imagined, but delicate, too, her dark rose nipples rigid with the desire pumping through her.
His mind simply went blank. Like a starving man suddenly faced with a gourmet feast, Micah froze, helpless to look away from the woman laid out in front of him like a dream.
“Micah...you’re wearing too many clothes,” she murmured, licking her lips.
“Right. I am.” He peeled out of his clothes, and in seconds he was naked and covering her body with his. Her hands slid up and down his back, across his shoulders to his chest and then up to cup his face. When Micah kissed her again, their bodies moved against each other as if they both were looking for that skin-to-skin contact. To revel in the heat. To
drown in it. As if to assure each other that they were finally going to ease the raging desperation that had chased them both through torturous days and long, sleepless nights.
He swept one hand down the length of her as he shifted, dragging his mouth from hers to trail kisses along the line of her jaw, the slim column of her throat. She sighed, gasped and arched up into him. Her legs tangled with his, smooth to rough, adding new sensations to those already crashing down on them.
He slid his hand across her abdomen, down her belly to the center of her. To the heat he needed to claim, to bury himself in. She jerked helplessly. To drive her higher, faster, Micah took one hard nipple into his mouth.
Instantly, Kelly writhed in his arms as if trying to escape even while she held his head to her breast to keep him from stopping. “Micah... Micah, this is too much.”
“No,” he whispered, “not nearly enough.” He covered her damp, hot core with his hand and slid first one, then two fingers inside her. She arched into him and his mind splintered at the feel of her generous, oh-so-eager body shaking and twisting in his arms.
His lips, teeth and tongue worked her nipple as his fingers continued to push her toward a release they both needed so badly.
“Stop, Micah,” she whispered brokenly.
He lifted his head, questions in his eyes. “You want me to stop?”
Shaking her head, she choked out a short laugh. “Not on your life. I just want more than your hand on me.” She was breathless, eyes a little wild, and she’d never looked more beautiful. “If you keep touching me like that, I’m going to climax and I don’t want to. Not without you inside me.”
Relief flooded him. He’d have had to back away if she’d changed her mind, and Micah knew without a doubt that stopping would have killed him. Knowing that she was simply trying to hold back an orgasm gave him the freedom to push her beyond the ability to fight it.
“One now,” he said, stroking that one sensitive nub at her core with his thumb. “More later.”
“Oh...my...goodness...” Her fingers dug into his shoulders. Her hips rocked frantically into his hand. She planted her feet and lifted herself higher, higher. He watched as Kelly’s eyes glazed. “Micah—I... What are you doing to me? I’ve never...”
Micah had never been with anyone like her before. What she felt echoed inside him. The taste of her filled him, the scent of her swamped him, and the shattered, hungry look in her eyes fed the fires inside him like nothing he’d ever experienced before.
He hadn’t been prepared for this, he thought, frantic himself as he watched her body bow and twist. He’d thought it would be a simple matter of bodies meeting, doing what came naturally. Feeling that sweet flash of release and moving the hell on. But no woman had ever affected him like this. No woman had slipped beneath his defenses, made him crave her release as much as his own. He didn’t know what any of it meant, and now wasn’t the time for trying to figure it out.
Micah felt the first shudder take her, body rippling with too much sensation all at once. She fought for breath, grasping at his shoulders, digging her head back into the mattress, struggling for air as she screamed his name like a prayer to an indifferent god.
His own breath caught in his chest. Mouth dry, heart hammering, body as tight as a bowstring, Micah set her down on the bed and shifted, reaching for the drawer of the nightstand. He pulled it open, grabbed a condom and ripped the foil packet. He had to have her. Now.
“Micah, that was—” She shook her head, at a loss for words. The smile that curved her lips shone in her eyes, as well. “I’ve never...” She stretched like a happy cat and damn near purred. Then she opened her eyes at the sound of foil tearing.
“Wow. You went out and bought condoms just in case?”
He shook his head. “Nope, had them with me.”
“You travel with condoms?” she asked, surprise in her voice.
He glanced at her. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“Hoping to get lucky, were you?”
“Babe,” he admitted as he sheathed himself, “I’m a guy. I’m always hoping to get lucky.”
Her grin spread as she held out her arms to him. “Well, since I think we’re both pretty lucky at the moment, I can’t really complain, can I?”
He returned her grin, and as he shifted to part her thighs and kneel before her, he quipped, “So, having a condom handy means a point for me, huh?”
“Oh,” she teased, “I don’t know about that. I mean points are serious business and—”
He slid into her heat, and she went instantly quiet as she shifted a little to accommodate him. Then she groaned and tipped her head back into the mattress.
“Yes,” she said. “If you can keep making me feel like—oh!—this, definitely a point for you.”
“I love a challenge,” he whispered. Still smiling, he covered her mouth with his and tangled their tongues in a dance that mimicked the movements of their bodies. She gave as much as she took, Micah thought, and realized that for the first time he was with a woman who was completely herself. There was no pretense with Kelly.
Whatever she felt, she let him know. Her soft cries and whimpered moans told him exactly what she liked. She was a little wild and he liked it. His mouth moved on hers as his hips rocked, slipping into a rhythm that had her kissing him hungrily, sliding her hands up and down his back, dragging her nails across his skin.
When he was strangling for air, he lifted his head to watch her expressive face as he claimed her completely. Her body held his in a tight, hot embrace, and he gritted his teeth to keep from giving in to the urge to let go. He wanted this to last. Wanted to make her crazy before he finally gave them both what they needed most.
Outside, twilight stained the sky a deep violet. Inside, the only light was in her eyes as she stared up at him, a look of wonder in her gaze. Their hands met, fingers linked, and he felt it when her climax slammed into her. Her body arched, her heels dug into his lower back. She screamed his name, and Micah watched the inner explosions ripple across her face and felt more satisfaction himself than he could ever remember. His heart raced, and his body continued to move in hers, and only when the last of the tremors coursed through her did he let himself go, finally giving up control and diving into the maelstrom, willingly letting it take him.
Seven
Kelly didn’t know how much time had passed. And truthfully, she couldn’t have cared less. Her whole body was humming as if her finger was somehow stuck in a light socket and electricity was pouring through her.
Finally, though, when she thought she could speak again, she said simply, “Wow.”
“Agreed.” Micah’s voice was muffled because his face was buried in the curve of her shoulder.
She smiled to herself and stared blankly up at the ceiling. Good to know that he was as shattered as she felt. Micah’s body pressed her into the bed and she knew she should ask him to move, but it was so lovely to feel the heavy press of a man’s body on hers after so long on her own.
At that thought, Kelly felt a pang of sorrow that peaked and ebbed inside her in seconds. Sean. She closed her eyes briefly, as if thinking about him now was a breach of trust, somehow. Which was just stupid and she knew it. But, until today, Sean was the only man she’d ever been with. Hardly surprising that thoughts of her late husband would rise up.
Sean and Micah were so very different in so many ways. Micah’s body was stronger, bigger—in every way, she thought with a tiny stab of guilt for the comparison. But it wasn’t just their physical differences that set them apart.
With Micah there was laughter along with the sex. Kelly smiled, remembering the teasing about points and traveling condoms. With Sean, lovemaking had been a serious business. Instead of romance and fun, she’d always felt as if Sean had had a mental checklist. Turn lights off, check. Kiss Kelly, check. Tongue, check. T
ouch breasts, check. Their times in bed together had been almost clinical, more of a task to be accomplished.
God, she couldn’t believe she was even having these disloyal thoughts. Kelly had never told anyone how unsatisfied she’d been in her marriage. Not even Terry. Though she had loved Sean, until now Kelly had believed that she simply wasn’t capable of the kind of orgasms that Terry described—blinding, mind-shattering, earthshaking. Because in her husband’s arms, Kelly had never felt more than a tiny blip of pleasure. Before today, sex had been just a sense of closeness.
She’d had absolutely no idea that there was a tsunami of sensations she’d never experienced.
Kelly opened her eyes and looked at the man she still held cradled to her. In the first few moments with Micah, Kelly had discovered more, felt more than she ever had with her husband. And maybe, Kelly thought for the first time, that was the reason she hadn’t been interested in going on dates, finding another man. Because being with Sean hadn’t been all that great.
She’d long blamed herself for the lack of spark between her and Sean, assuming that she just wasn’t experienced enough to really make things heated between them. Now she had to admit that maybe the truth was that she and Sean had been friends too long to make the adjustment to lovers.
“I can hear you thinking,” Micah murmured. “Keep it down.”
Kelly grinned, grateful he’d interrupted her thoughts. Silently she let go of the past and returned to this amazing moment and the man she’d shared it all with. “Are you sleeping?”
“Yes,” he muttered.
She laughed and the motion had his body, still locked inside her, creating brand-new ripples of expectation. Stunned, she couldn’t believe she was ready to go again after what had been the most staggering orgasm of her life. Kelly slid her hands up and down his broad back and lifted her hips slightly to recreate that feeling. Instantly she was rewarded with another tiny current of electricity.
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