by Scott, D. D.
“No. I don’t have anything else going on, so it should be fine. We need to talk about how the hell I’m gonna pay you since the overtime on this is gonna kill me.”
“Let me think about it. Maybe I can come up with an alternative.” She knew exactly what she wanted but she’d have to wait till they got to the resort to spring it on him.
* * * *
Where the hell was Shortstuff? It wasn’t like her to be late. She had texted him the plane would be getting in now and the plane had come in on time but no Squirt. Of course he didn’t mind waiting when the scenery was so nice. He didn’t know who the bombshell that got off the kid’s flight was waiting for but he was one hell of a lucky guy. Every man in the place was looking at her and licking their lips like she was a Sunday pork chop and they wanted to suck the meat off her bones.
Damn fine, she was put together like the girls they painted on the sides of World War II bombers - just the way he liked women. He never got the whole skinny girl thing. He’d definitely been born in the wrong era. It was a simple equation to him: men were supposed to be hard, women were supposed to be soft. He liked his women like this one, with curves in all the right places and not little ones either.
She was dressed to accentuate those curves, which was even better. It meant that she wasn’t letting all the crap advertising tell her she didn’t look great - she knew she did. She looked cool and crisp, like she was coated in a sugar shell waiting for someone to crack it and get to the sweet soft center.
Her tight little skirt cupped her ass, hugged her thighs, and ended in ruffles at the bottom. It was long enough that her knees were covered but those ruffles were like a neon sign making you look at her curvy legs. He’d even bet there was real lingerie under there. He’d love to find out; shame that wasn’t going to happen.
Her heels weren’t those stupid platform kind that reminded him of hooves. This surprised him ‘cause she was about five feet tall if she was an inch. He might be north of six feet but he had a thing for shorter women. He didn’t really dwell on what it said about him but short girls brought out both his dominant and protective urges. Maybe that made him a macho shit but tough. He still thought they were hot in a “wild in bed and take home to mom” kind of way.
She was wearing a blouse, not a shirt or T-shirt but an honest to God feminine blouse, in some silky material; the collar did some kind of fold over thing that showed off her rack. Jonah knew just from a glance they were natural, too. Plastic tits were another thing he didn’t get. As an avowed “tits and ass” man, he liked natural better; they were more responsive, but some guys were just into quantity.
Even her hair and makeup was old school. She had perfect red lips and her hair up just enough so you could fantasize about how it would look mussed up after you had gotten her into bed. She was even wearing a big straw sun hat. Who the hell wears hats anymore? He wished he could see her eyes but she was wearing big dark sunglasses. The polished lips and creamy skin just made you wonder what she’d look like after you’d kissed her breathless. Lipstick like that got a married guy in trouble because you’d find traces of it all over you if you played your cards right. Damn, he needed to get Delia and hightail it out of here before his cock got even harder. Where the hell was she?
He’d been staring at his shoes for a minute trying to get his mind back to why he was here, so he was surprised when he looked up and saw the bombshell was about ten feet from him and closing in. He hoped she hadn’t caught him staring but he started to turn red with the guilty thoughts he’d been thinking.
“Jonah, sweetheart, you look like you just got spit out of a whale.”
“What the hell? How do you…” She took off her sunglasses and smiled at him. Holy hell! “Delia?”
“Aren’t you going to give your darling wife a kiss?” But she didn’t give him a choice as she reached up, grabbing his tie and pulled him down to her lips. Jonah was so stunned that he almost didn’t respond - almost. His brain may have been stunned stupid but his body had spent the last ten minutes coming up with exactly what it wanted to do with her. One hand around her back pulled her into him while the other cupped her ass. If he had actually been able to think he might have been more of a gentleman or he might have had her against the wall to mark her as his right then and there. She must not have minded how he had grabbed at her though because her arms wound round his neck and shoulders pulling him even closer. There was no way she could miss his erection.
“I don’t understand. Where… how…?”
“You told me to get some clothes and look pretty.” She did a little turn so he could see the whole package. He had a sudden urge to take off his jacket and throw it around her so no other man could see her.
“Pretty, sure, but not reduce the entire male population to slavering idiots. You aren’t exactly going to fly under the radar looking like that.” She pursed her lips which, God help him, made her look even more like a sex kitten.
“You seem to like it fine.” She leveled a pointed glance at his crotch. “That was all I really cared about since I figured you were buying. Besides, I needed to get clothes that looked good on me; the retro stuff fits better on my kind of body.”
“It sure as hell does.” He hadn’t realized he’d said it out loud till she started laughing at him.
“My bags should be off the plane by now. Do you want to bring your car around and I’ll bring them out?”
“I can carry your bags for you.” He looked at his shoes, suddenly feeling sheepish.
“This from the same guy who last week sat there while I moved file boxes from one room to the other?”
“Sorry. It’s not like you suddenly realized I’m an asshole.”
“Not an asshole really more like a pain in my ass. Let’s find my bags.”
Half an hour later, they were on their way across the island to the Paradise Resort. Jonah was still having trouble breathing, especially with her so close. He needed to drop her off at the hotel and go to the beach or something, anything to put some distance between him and her so he could think. The entire time they were getting the bags he kept trying to picture her in her usual baggy jeans and T’s but now when he did he knew what they were hiding and even in his head he wanted to just pull them off her. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this consumed with pure unadulterated lust.
At the hotel he hustled her upstairs, completely defeating the purpose of having her here. He’d have to show her off later when he could be more objective and not want to kill any guy that came within ten feet of her. Once they were in the suite, he dropped her bags and beat a fast retreat out the door.
* * * *
Delia almost laughed at how fast he ran out of the suite. You would have thought he was on fire. Judging from the erection she felt at the airport he definitely didn’t think of her as a kid anymore. The problem was he’d had a jones for the babe that got off the plane; now he had to connect that image with her. She was pretty sure wherever he went there was a drink already in his hand and he was trying to separate the babe from his “Shortstuff.” She was damn tired of being his cute gal Friday and she was going to get some of the “magic” his string of women always raved about.
If she had to put off one more of Jonah’s very long string of has-beens she was going to scream. She had spent four years listening to them extoll his skills in bed, listened to them detail exactly what it was he liked to do in that bed, listened to their tears when he didn’t want to bed them anymore till she thought she’d lose her mind. Somewhere along the way, her innocent crush had morphed into something ravenous, hot, and hungry.
Having a crush on your boss when you’re eighteen and he’s twenty-eight is one thing; having serious fantasies about your boss when you’re still there at twenty-two demands action. She was nobody’s little girl anymore, in any way, shape, or form. She was a very healthy size 16 and while she may only be five foot nothing, she kicked ass and she knew it.
She had worked hard and graduated at the
top of her class. Her degree should get her a good job even in this lousy economy but before she left Hutchinson Investigations she wanted a little graduation present by the name of Jonah Hutchinson. This was the perfect chance to get him into her bed and she was not going to let him get off easy. She had never had a serious guy and she was pretty sure Jonah was incapable of having a serious relationship so this was perfect for her last summer in school. She was going to have her summer fling if it was the last thing she did. She had planned everything perfectly; all she needed was her victim to be halfway willing. Wherever that man was, he’d have to come back eventually and she’d deal with him then.
Jonah had spent the last two hours nursing the beer chaser to his shot. He needed the shot badly to get over the shock of seeing Delia. How the hell had she been sitting under his nose for the last four years without him noticing she was a total babe? He was a goddamned private investigator, and a good one too. His whole world was about reading people, seeing what others missed, looking at the big picture and seeing all the details. It was because she was Cam’s niece; that had to be it. His brain just wouldn’t let him take in what she really looked like because Cam would kill him if he touched her. A little thing like Cam being in a wheelchair wouldn’t keep him from killing Jonah with his bare hands.
He’d just have to go back to being oblivious. Except, for the last hour and a half he’d tried to get her out of his head and couldn’t. Thinking about her in her regular clothes hadn’t helped any more now than it did when they were in the car. Helping her get her bags, he’d leaned over and gotten a whiff of her hair so now he knew exactly what heaven smelled like: sunshine and grass with some kind of piney wood. It was so clean, fresh, and unexpected since she looked so naughty. Crap, maybe it was just he wanted to do those kinds of things with her. When she had brushed up against him in the elevator he thought, maybe just hoped, it was on purpose but when he looked down she was just looking at her nails.
No, she didn’t really have any interest in him; she just dressed nice because he told her to. There was no way she knew she was hitting all his buttons with that look. He just needed to hold it together for three weeks and then they would go back to Boston and everything would go back to normal. Except now he knew what was under the bulky college sweatshirt and the two-sizes too big cargo pants and once you knew something like that you couldn’t unknow it. His body damn near vibrated with knowing it. Worse, he knew just what to do with her body.
Who was he kidding? She was ten years younger than him; hadn’t she just finished college? She’d laugh in his face and call him a dirty old man if he tried to put any moves on her. Hell, she probably had a string of guys her age panting after her. And the thought made him crazy. A woman like her deserved careful attention to her needs, not some young prick’s random fumbling before he got off. She needed to be taught just what her body was capable of. Not here, not with her looking like that, though. He wouldn’t be able to control himself. He’d push her too hard, be too eager to satisfy his own needs, make her do things that she’d look back on and blush. When they got back to Boston, maybe after he’d talked to Cam, ask to take her out, maybe then he could ease her into the idea of them sleeping together. He could be a sort of mentor, but more likely not.
For now he was just going to have to spend the next three weeks on the couch and act like she just always looked like that. That was his plan when he opened the door to the suite. He heard the shower going so he figured he would slip into the bedroom to grab his stuff and move it out to the living room before she got out. With any luck she’d never even notice that he’d been in there in the first place.
Then he opened the door. His mouth went dry first, then his chest felt like it was going to implode, and then he got hard enough to cut diamonds, all because she was standing with her back to him in nothing but some stretchy black lace panties.
He tried to breathe but mostly just opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. The lace hugged her hips and disappeared to a thong down the crack of her ass. The lace was wide enough though that just the bottom of her cheeks peeked out. His palms itched with wanting to reach out and caress those sweet round cheeks.
“Fuck.”
“Wha…? Oh, you’re back.” She reached over and grabbed her robe like she didn’t really mind he’d seen her mostly naked. She shrugged it on but it barely covered her as she walked into the bathroom. She turned the shower off and walked out. “Jonah, we need to talk.”
Talk! Was she nuts? There was only one thing he wanted to do right now and it didn’t involve words, unless the words were: yes, harder, faster, and Ohmigod you feel so good. Now that he could see the front view, he knew he was dead where he stood. Lush was the only word running through his brain. The robe hugged her chest but it hadn’t closed all the way down the front. She was too big busted to run around braless in public but young enough that she was still firm. Her nipples tipped up just slightly like they wanted his attention. With the robe open like it was, he could see down the valley between them and thought his knees would buckle; as it was, he had started sweating.
Her hips held the robe apart at the bottom and through the gap he could see that the lace of the panties came to a “V” highlighting her navel and soft smooth belly. He closed his eyes. Would someone please just kill him now? He was going to have to spend the next three weeks living like a eunuch while actually working with her.
Delia took a deep breath and gave her checklist a quick run through. “Jonah, for Pete’s sake, it’s not like you’ve never seen a naked woman before. Get a grip. Were you serious about me pretending to be your wife on this assignment?” He looked like he was going to pass out and, if he didn’t say something soon, she was going to have to slug him. It was going to be hard enough to say what she had planned without him acting like an idiot on top of it. She knew he didn’t like stick figures but she figured she was a little rounder than his usual flavor of the day. Take a deep breath and suck up your courage girl; you can do this. Just be your cute, fun self. Let him know that you want to walk away as much as he does. It’s only a fling, no big deal.
“Jonah!”
“What?”
“Okay, you’re back among the living. Were you serious about me acting like your wife for this assignment?”
“Ugh, yeah?”
“Okay, how far do you want to take it?”
“What…”
“For the next three weeks I want to act like your wife. And I mean exactly like your wife.” She reached over and grabbed the box off the bedside table.
“What the hell do you mean ‘exactly’? How far do you want to take the charade?”
“This far.” She lobbed the box at him. His eyes got round as looked at the 36 count box of Trojans in his shaking hands. He looked back at her with his mouth open. If she were hearing him tell this story it would have been hysterical but right now she just wanted his answer. “Well?”
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.” He seemed to snap out of his trance then.
“Oh, no! No, you don’t, Littlebit.” He was moving toward her like he was stalking her.
She needed to hold her ground. He couldn’t chase her if she didn’t run. He got right up in her face. “You have no idea what you’re getting into, Shortstuff. I control the shots here. I’m not one of your panting boys; I’m a grown man with a grown man’s kinks. I don’t think you have any idea what you’re asking for.”
“Don’t I? I haven’t listened to four years of your stories about the women you’ve slept with? You’re not exactly a gentleman the day after. Like I haven’t had to field the phone calls from the brokenhearted, all of them raving about you between the sheets and reviling you once you’re back out of them? I think I know what you like better than you do.”
“You should get taken over someone’s knee and spanked.”
“It would take more than you to do it.” She could see she might have pushed him a little too far. He was bre
athing heavy and clenching his fists, not like he was going to throw a punch but like he was trying to get his control back. At some point he gave up and made a grab for her. She was ready for him though. She stepped forward as he reached for her wrist. When he grabbed her, she broke his hold and twisted his hand back, locking his thumb and wrist in an awkward, painful hold. She smiled just a little. Right now his brain was telling him that if he moved his wrist would break. She shoved him down to his knees and pinned him there. “Jonah, I want three weeks of you in my bed. When the job is done, we go back to Boston and everything goes back to the way it was before. I’ll be looking for a job anyway so you won’t have to even see me much beyond that. I’ll consider it a graduation present.” She let go of his arm. He shook his wrist to get the blood back in it but didn’t get up off his knees.
“Shortstuff, your uncle will kill me. I can’t.”
“I told Uncle Cam what I was planning; nothing specific mind you, just that I was tired of you treating me like I was still a kid and I wanted to date you or at least pretend to while we were down here. You know what he said? He thought three weeks would be the longest relationship you’d ever had, even if it was fake. I told him I knew you were a man-slut going in so I didn’t have any expectations.” That got him back to his feet.
“Man-slut!”
“Totally!Which is why you’re not going to touch me unless you’ve got one of those on.” She pointed to the box of condoms he still held.
“I haven’t said yes to this yet.”
“Parts of you have,” she said, staring at his crotch and then back up to his eyes.
“Damn, didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”
“Mom writes romance novels that shade toward the erotica side of the genre. She taught me everything she knows. So do we have a deal?”
