Though it was the most profound and provocative kiss of his life, it had also been…more. Something less easily defined and more felt. He was certain this emotion had some sort of name, but absolutely refused to label it. Shameful cowardice, particularly for a so-called badass Ranger, but so be it. He’d rather take an unknown hill than admit what he suspected he was feeling for Natalie.
The hill was a lot less terrifying.
Levi had been kissing girls since grade school, having sex on a semi-routine basis since his sophomore year. No brag, just fact, but he’d been charming the pants off practically any girl he’d set his sights on since puberty. Some had fallen willingly into his arms, some had required more persuading.
Seducing a woman had always come fairly easily to him. A slow smile, an I’m-into-you up-nod and it was usually game on. He never made any promises and made sure that the women he kept company with knew the rules going in. Though some guys were a little less than truthful when it came to bed sport, Levi preferred the honest, direct approach. It gave the lady in question the option to refuse, should she not agree to the terms.
And frankly, there were too many women looking for the same one-night relationship to muddy the waters with a woman who wasn’t. No muss, no fuss. Everybody walked away happy and mutually satisfied, without feeling used.
Given Levi’s typical modus operandi, Adam had been fully justified in issuing the warning on Natalie’s behalf. The problem was…who was going to issue a warning on his behalf?
Because for the first time in his life, he suspected he was going to need one.
Kissing Natalie had been different. Better. More. It honestly defied description, and if he came apart with a mere meeting of the mouths, then what the hell was going to happen to him when he finally made love to her? When he finally settled himself firmly between her thighs?
Though she still hadn’t admitted that she was his Mysterious Ms. X, he knew it all the same and was proceeding accordingly. They only had a small window of opportunity to be together and he’d be damned if he’d waste it chasing what he knew in his gut was a foregone conclusion.
It was her.
And thanks to those letters he had an inside track to her dreams and desires. He knew what she wanted—most importantly, him—and how she wanted it and when she wanted it. His imagination had cast her into those graphic scenes she’d written to him and, as a result, he’d been cocked, locked and ready to rock since the first letter had arrived.
He’d read those fantasies over and over—sometimes to the point that he’d had to take matters into his own hands, so to speak—and now he’d been given the rare opportunity to live them out.
In the flesh.
With her.
Unfortunately he’d fly out of Charlotte on Saturday morning. That gave him only four days to make a lifetime’s worth of her—and his—sexual fantasies come true.
“We’ve wasted a lot of time,” Levi told her, content for the moment just to hold her.
She winced. “I know.”
“I don’t want to waste any more.”
Her laugh tickled his neck. “You won’t get any objection from me. Although I hate the idea of taking time away from your family.”
Levi shrugged. “Just because I’m home doesn’t mean their lives are on hold. I’ll spend time with them while you’re at work.”
“How will they feel about this? We won’t be able to keep it a secret.”
“Whatever makes me happy makes them happy,” Levi said. Which was true in the general sense. No doubt his mother would be imagining a wedding and grandchildren, Levi thought, surprised when he didn’t involuntarily recoil. Because it would be Natalie meeting him at the altar and red-haired, brown-eyed babies and…
Damn.
She made a noise, seemingly satisfied with his answer, then brushed a kiss against the underside of his jaw, setting off a blast of heat in his groin. She slipped one hand over the back of his neck and the other at the base of his spine, pressing herself more tightly to him. It was slow and leisurely, demanding and erotic, and it stoked the flame inside him to a fever pitch.
Though he knew he should go before things got too far out of control—because when things ultimately went out of control, it was going to be one of her made-to-order fantasies—Levi couldn’t help himself. His legs were rooted to the spot and his hands had taken on a life of their own. They were determined to slip and slide all over Natalie’s body. They slid down her ribcage, around her back and settled over her magnificent ass.
How long had he wanted to do that? Levi wondered, as he filled his palms with her sweetly curved rump. How long had he wanted to suckle her ripe bottom lip, exactly the way he was doing now, or pull her tongue deep into his mouth? How many times had he thought about holding her? Kissing her? Bending her over a chair and taking her until her eyes rolled back in her head and his balls burst from the pleasure?
As if on cue, Natalie reached between them and cupped him through his jeans. He jerked hard against her and felt his breath leave him in a startled whoosh.
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” he choked out, pushing against her clever palm.
She found the snap, then the zipper whined as she pulled it down. “Killing you would hardly serve my purposes.” She wrapped her hand around him and stroked. “I need you both stiff and alive.”
Rough laughter erupted from his throat. He’d been around her long enough to know that she had an outrageous sense of humor. He just wasn’t used to encountering it under these particular circumstances—her hand down his pants, working his dick with enough skill to have him prepared for launch and ready to detonate at any second.
He needed to distract her, Levi thought, or he didn’t have a prayer in hell of holding it together. In fact, a few more strokes and he was going to lose it.
Not like this, dammit. When he came, he fully intended to be inside her.
Time to turn the tables.
Reaching down, he eased his hand beneath her dress and made a determined trek up the inside of her thigh. He found a ridiculously small triangle of silky fabric over her curls and smiled against her lips when he realized it was gratifyingly damp. She squirmed against his fingers and made a little mewling sound in her throat.
Predictably—thankfully—her hand stilled against him.
He rubbed her, wishing that he’d had the forethought to bring a condom. But, sleeping with her tonight hadn’t been in his plans. Tonight he’d planned to move in and test the waters.
What he hadn’t expected was losing any pretense of control.
He should have, but he hadn’t. Furthermore, there was a reason he’d wanted to wait, though for the life of him right now he couldn’t remember it. Something about fulfilling her fantasies, but at the moment, all he wanted to do was fill her. With himself.
Right here against her front door. Hadn’t that been one of her fantasies? Levi thought as he backed her up and slipped a finger between her nether lips. He unerringly found the little nub at the top of her sex and thumbed it, drawing a broken breath from her chest.
“You don’t play fair.”
“Fair’s for pansies,” Levi said, dipping a finger inside, then coating her with her own juices. He felt a single bead of moisture leak from his dick and a sweat broke out across his forehead.
Man, how he wanted her.
To hell with plans. To hell with everything.
He kissed a path down her throat, then licked one over the top of her breast and watched the nipple pucker for him. Pouting nipples, hot sex…
Doomed. Utterly doomed.
“Natalie, I didn’t—I don’t have any protection. You wouldn’t happen to—”
“What?” she asked, her voice tortured as she worked herself against him, hovering on what he knew was the edge of climax. The straps on her sundress sagged, revealing her cleavage. “You didn’t bring anything?”
“No,” he admitted. She clamped herself around him, her greedy sex clutching his fi
ngers. So damned responsive, he thought. And so very, very close. He hooked one finger inside and angled up, then knuckled her clit harder.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream and seconds later she spasmed hard around him. Her breathing came in labored little puffs and she clung to him, seemingly unable to stand.
A moment later, a satisfied smile curled her lips as she looked up at him. “Then the next time you come to my door you need to take a lesson from the Boy Scouts,” Natalie told him. “And be prepared.”
Another laugh rattled out of his chest. “Duly noted.”
He pressed another kiss to her lips.
Make no mistake—he would be.
9
Dear Levi,
Do you remember the time you sacked that guy on the beach for hitting his girlfriend? Did you know that’s the moment you melted my heart? Did you know that’s the instant I fell in love with you?
“I CAN’T BELIEVE you didn’t just tell him you were the one who’s been writing the letters,” Winnie admonished, exasperated. “I don’t understand what the big deal is now. I could see it before—the possibility of humiliation and all—but now?” She shook her head, looking as though she’d like to shake Natalie instead. “I just don’t get it. He likes you, you little neurotic moron. Tell him.”
Thankful that the bakery was empty and that no one was privy to Winnie’s unusually loud advice, Natalie popped a bite of iced sugar cookie into her mouth and nodded. “I will. Really.”
“When?” her friend pressed.
“Today.” Natalie’s cheeks puffed as she exhaled mightily. “If the letter does come today, then I’ll tell him.”
“If you don’t, then I will,” Winnie threatened.
Natalie felt her eyes widen, certain that her friend had to be joking. “You wouldn’t,” she breathed, slightly horrified. What the hell was wrong with Winnie? She’d been a bit out of sorts since Natalie had come in a few minutes ago.
Winnie rolled her eyes. “Of course, I wouldn’t. I just hate to see you blow this.”
Marginally mollified, Natalie leaned against the counter. “I’m not blowing it. Didn’t you hear anything I said? He told me that he’d wanted to kiss me for years, that the only reason he’d never made a play for me was because he thought that Adam and I might eventually become a thing.”
Winnie’s eyes widened significantly and she snorted. “Him and everybody else,” she said.
Ah, Natalie realized. Now they were getting somewhere. Adam. “How did seeing Adam go the other day?”
Winnie immediately busied herself wiping down a display case. “Fine.”
“He said you’d come by.”
“I took your advice and fixed him a care package.”
Natalie watched her closely. “Yeah?”
Winnie’s face crumpled in frustration. “I’d have been better off if I’d been a petit four,” she all but wailed. “Oh, Natalie, I just need to forget him. I need to move on, to let it go…and yet I can’t. I’ve tried.”
“What happened?”
She smiled sadly. “Nothing. That’s just it. He barely looked at me and had less to say.”
Natalie frowned. “He was unfriendly?” That didn’t sound like Adam.
“Not unfriendly. Just…uninterested. I mentioned coaching my softball team—something he would have been interested in before—but he only grunted. I told him about training for that 10K I’m running in the fall and he muttered a weak congratulations.” Her small shoulders lifted in a fatalistic shrug. “I wish I’d never gone over there. Seeing him was hard enough. Seeing him and realizing that he can’t even drum up the enthusiasm to make small talk with me? That’s worse.”
Natalie tsked under her breath. “Winnie, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. Adam’s just been Adam with me, you know? I just assumed—”
Winnie’s lips twisted with bitter humor and her blue eyes glazed with unshed tears. “He’s always been ‘just Adam’ with you, Nat. You have no idea how much I envy you that.”
“Oh, Winnie,” Natalie said, her voice thick as she pulled her friend into a hug. “I’m so sorry. I wish I knew—”
The bell tinkled over the door, interrupting what she was about to say, and Adam’s low whistle filled in the rest of her sentence. “Damn. If I’d known I was going to get to see a little girl-on-girl action along with one of the best cookies in the world, I would have been coming down here every morning.”
Winnie’s wide-eyed gaze swung to Adam and she blinked, then quickly dashed away the lone tear that had escaped.
Naturally, Adam didn’t miss it. He looked questioningly at Natalie and she aimed an I’ll-deal-with-you-later look in his direction.
He merely blinked innocently. “I’ve been looking for you,” he told her. “I went by the gallery first, but when you weren’t there I figured I’d find you here.”
Winnie turned away and pretended to check on the éclair case.
Torn between both friends, Natalie crossed her arms over her chest. “Why have you been looking for me?”
“Because I can’t get anything out of my tight-lipped brother and wanted to know how things went last night.”
Natalie pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Things went fine. He liked my lasagna.”
Adam stared at her. “That’s it? I practically shove the two of you together, spend a lonely night at home in front of the television when I could have been watching a miserable chick flick with you, and that’s all you’re going to give me? ‘He liked my lasagna’?”
Natalie shrugged, enjoying this more than she should. “’Fraid so.”
Adam swung his outraged gaze to Winnie, evidently hoping that she would give him the scoop. Winnie merely grinned. “It’s damn good lasagna.” She grinned back and forth between the two of them. “But I will tell you this—”
Natalie whirled on her friend.
“—they didn’t watch a chick flick.”
“Winnie!” she admonished, outraged.
A wide grin split Adam’s face and he turned to stare at her. “Well, well, well. If you didn’t watch a movie, just what did you do?”
“She didn’t say that we didn’t watch a movie,” Natalie objected. “She said we didn’t watch a chick flick.”
Adam chewed the inside of his cheek. “What did you watch?”
“I’ll never tell,” Natalie said, because she knew it would infuriate him.
He looked to Winnie, and Natalie silently willed her friend to be strong. “Well?”
“They watched The Shining.”
Stunned at how quickly her friend had caved, Natalie felt her mouth drop open. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“You’ve got too many secrets,” Winnie said archly.
“Not anymore,” Adam remarked, staring across the street at the post office. A smug grin she absolutely didn’t trust curled his lips. “Levi’s got a handful of mail and he’s wearing a smile so big I can count his teeth from here. Oh, and look. He’s headed toward your gallery.” To Natalie’s absolute shock, Adam poked his head out the door and bellowed at his brother. “Hey! She’s down here!” He rubbed his hands together, then hobbled over to a chair and sat down. “In the absence of popcorn, I’ll have one of those little cake thingies. Come join me, Winnie. We’re about to have ringside seats.”
Natalie gaped at them.
Adam tsked and shook his head. “I can count your teeth, too, but obviously for different reasons.”
“Asshole,” Natalie said. “Would you shut up?”
“You were going to tell him today anyway,” Winnie pointed out.
The sugar cookie she’d eaten only moments before churned in her belly and she resisted the pressing urge to flee from the store. This had been coming. She’d known it. She’d known the letter was going to get here. She’d known he was going to find out that she’d been the one writing him.
She’d known it…and yet she wasn’t prepared.
Two seconds later, Levi appeared
at the door. The look in his eyes—hot and happy and confused—slammed into her before he entered the store.
She saw the envelope in his hand, recognized her address stamp from where she stood. Nausea hit and, hand over her mouth, she bolted to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, after brushing her teeth—she always carried a toothbrush and paste for this very reason—Natalie steeled herself for what was to come and opened the door.
Levi stood there, leaning against the wall in the small hallway, away from the main dining room. He looked up from the letter in his hand.
“You’ve got to quit doing this,” he said, jerking his head toward the bathroom. “This is not the kind of thing a guy wants to inspire in a woman.”
Natalie crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed the back of her calf with her foot. She gestured toward the letter. “You know perfectly well how you inspire me,” she said. “Especially now.”
Levi waited until her eyes met his. “I don’t understand. You put a return address on this one. Why couldn’t you just tell me? I all but asked you last night.”
Natalie looked away, feeling a flush creep up her neck. “Er…the thing is…I didn’t exactly stamp the return address on it.”
A line emerged between his brows and an unsure smile curved his lips. “I’m not following.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “You can’t always know everything.”
“Natalie.”
“Lacey, my assistant, did it,” she admitted, releasing a pent-up breath. “In a rare instance of efficiency, she noticed the letter on my desk, stamped it and took it to the post office along with my other promotional mailings.”
A slow grin slid over Levi’s lips. “You mean this was an accident?”
She nodded and lowered her head. “Of epic proportions. You were never supposed to know it was me.”
“Never?”
“At least not until I was ready to tell you.”
Levi moved forward, put a finger underneath her chin and lifted it up slightly. “Would you ever have told me?”
Uniformly Hot! Volume 1 from Harlequin: Letters from HomeBreaking the RulesComing Up for Air Page 9
