by Leslie Kelly
“You’re okay,” he whispered, reassuring them both.
“Thanks to you,” she replied. She dropped her head back until it rested on his chest, and leaned a little so he had better access to her neck.
He took advantage, kissing her pulse point, then the spot directly behind her ear. She was pressed tightly against him, the pose provocative, her posture willing and pliant. His thoughts were racing crazily, from what might have been had she fallen to what might be now that she was pressing back against him like she wanted to make their clothes disappear.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, carefully turning her around to face him.
“I’m sure.” She smiled up at him, then reached up and swiped her thick hair off her face. Her cheek was smudged with dirt and a tiny bit of blood where either the cat’s claws or the tree’s bark had nicked her. A few leaves were tangled in her curls, and she had a sappy pine needle stuck to her chin.
And she looked beautiful. So incredibly beautiful.
He was well over his desire to spank her, and went right for the I’m-so-relieved-you’re-okay reaction. He drew her into his arms and hauled her against him, not even caring that they were still a good six or seven feet above solid ground.
She threw her arms around his neck, holding on, and neither of them hesitated before diving together in a hot, hungry kiss. Their tongues met and mated, swirling and exploring. After not having tasted her for a week, he felt like he was ending a hunger strike. She provided all the nourishment he needed, her sweet taste heightened by her sultry woman’s smell.
She shimmied even closer, and he braced a hand behind her, on the tree trunk, to keep them stable as the kiss continued. Everything else disappeared—time, place, the kid, the cat, the job, the other guy. All of it. At least for a little while.
Finally, though, when his body was throbbing with need to do a lot more than kiss, he slowed things down. Because as much as he wanted to continue, there was, of course, the small problem that they were still standing in a tree.
When they finally drew apart to heave in a few breaths, he said, “I thought you weren’t the type to wait around for a man to catch you.”
“Well, just like you promised—you didn’t make me wait.”
They both smiled. Then, by unspoken agreement, began to climb down out of the tree. Xander helped her with the final drop, noticing the way she flinched when his hands encircled her waist. “Are you hurt?”
They both glanced down. During her descent, her bright yellow top had been pulled free of the waistband of her white capris. Now, both shirt and pants were ripped and smeared with stains.
Tugging the shirt up a little, she revealed several flecks of blood on her stomach from where she’d brushed against the rough bark. “Ow,” she mumbled.
“Let me see,” he said, dropping to one knee in front of her for a closer look. He pushed her shirt up higher. Her creamy skin was reddened and scraped in several places, but there were no deep cuts. Still, it had to sting. “You’re going to need to clean these up and put some antiseptic on them,” he said. He lifted a hand and brushed his fingertip right beside the worst scrape. “Especially this one.”
She made a tiny sound of assent. He looked up and saw Mimi had closed her eyes and dropped her head back a little.
She did not look like a woman in pain.
She looked like a woman who’d just been thoroughly kissed, whose partner in that kissing was now kneeling at her feet, inches away from her delectable body.
Xander could have stood back up, brought her back to the house to tend her cuts. But something compelled him to lean close…then closer. Until his mouth hovered an inch over one of the scrapes. He eliminated that inch, pressing a soft, gentle kiss on the sore. Kissing it better.
She didn’t resist, didn’t pull away. Instead, she slid her hands into his hair, twining strands around her fingers.
Xander moved to another spot, sliding his lips ever so lightly across her stomach, his jaw brushing against the fabric of her cropped pants. They were low-waisted enough to reveal her belly button and he moved there, swirling his tongue over that tiny indentation.
“Xander,” she groaned.
He ignored her, moving again, breathing through the thin cotton. He could smell her now, smell that secret, feminine scent that called to each masculine cell in his body and made it spark. She was aroused. Warm and wet beneath her clothes. And while he was dying to feel her, taste her more fully, right now he was content to merely breathe in her essence.
She dropped her hands to his shoulders. He moved his to encircle her hips, stroking that perfectly curved feminine bottom, urging her closer. He knew he should stop, knew it was broad daylight. But they were surrounded by trees, wrapped in the secretive embrace of the woods. He couldn’t stop. He just couldn’t. She’d been nearly naked when he’d fallen at her feet that first night. And ever since, he’d dreamed about exploring that beautiful, secret place he’d been privileged enough to see.
He opened his mouth, tasting her through the fabric, letting her feel the heat of his breath. Letting her pull away if she felt she had to.
She sighed and arched closer. Which was all the answer he needed to the question he hadn’t even asked.
He slid his fingertips into her waistband, unbuttoned it and gently tugged her pants down. Sighing again, she leaned back against the tree, as if her legs could no longer bear her full weight.
At some point, he’d love to lay her down in a bed and pleasure her until she couldn’t remember her own name. But right now, being below her, looking up at her, seemed like the perfect way to do what he’d been wanting to do for days.
Xander kissed each spot of skin as it was revealed, loving the flavors of her. She quivered as first his breath, then his lips, then his tongue touched the vulnerable indentation just above her panties. When he moved them down so he could brush his lips against her soft curls, she groaned out loud.
“Oh, God.”
“I’ve wanted to taste you since the night we met,” he admitted. “Don’t stop me.”
She didn’t stop him.
One flick and he’d pushed the pants and her panties down all the way to the ground, revealing that beautiful thatch of amber curls between her thighs. It invited him, tempted him beyond belief, and he didn’t have the patience to tease her anymore. He slid his tongue between the plump lips of her sex, finding her hard little clit immediately.
She let out a cry, her hands tightening on his shoulders. Xander lifted his hands to her bottom to hold her tight, squeezing her, tilting her closer so he could offer her even more pleasure.
She took it, welcoming him with an arch of her hips, and he continued to stroke her sensitive nub with his tongue. He sucked it, nibbled it, changed the pressure, knowing by her cries what she liked the best. When she began to pant, then to shake, he slowed things down a bit. Yes, he was tormenting her—but the payoff would be even better if he made her wait.
“Xander,” she begged when he moved his mouth away.
“I need to taste all of you,” he muttered as he licked his way down the sweet, slick folds of her sex.
He pushed her back harder against the tree, wanting access to all of her now. Pushing her pants off one foot, he lifted it, draping her leg over his shoulder, parting her fully to the bright daylight and his hungry gaze. When he saw all her feminine glory, his mouth watered. He wanted to drink from her, to savor her and swallow her down.
He plunged deep, making love to her with slow, steady strokes of his tongue. She shuddered, whispering his name, begging for more, begging him to stop, ordering him not to.
All his senses were overwhelmed with Mimi—the brush of her soft thigh against his cheek, the beauty of the secret, feminine flesh he couldn’t stop exploring, the taste of her on his tongue, her joyful cries in his ears.
He wanted to really make love to her. He was desperate to free his throbbing, aching cock from the confinement of his jeans and plunge up into the war
m, welcoming heat that wrapped around his tongue. Knowing he couldn’t, he made a mental note to always carry a condom from this point on.
“Please, please…”
He knew what she needed, knew she craved release with desperation that bordered on insanity. So he moved his mouth back up to that pretty little clit. He licked it, toyed with it, timing his strokes to the sound and volume of her cries.
It didn’t take long. With one more deep, pleasure-filled groan, she jerked hard and dug her nails into his shoulders.
“Yes, oh, yes,” she said, shaking against him for several long moments. When at last the shudders began to subside, she was apparently left weak-kneed. She sank down to the ground in front of him, her arms draped across his shoulders. Xander tugged her tightly to him and she collapsed against his chest, her face buried in the crook of his neck. She was panting, gasping for air, her whole body quivering, still reacting to every sensation, fully affected by what they’d just done.
Xander was panting and shaking, too. But at this point, it was sheer need making him quake. He needed to be in her and not being able to was just about killing him.
“Mimi!” a voice called. “Are you back there?”
Hearing the intrusion, Mimi flew back so fast she landed on her bare butt on the ground. Her eyes wide with panic, she scrambled to pull her clothes back into place.
“Calm down, I’ll stall,” he said, leaping to his feet, then pulling her to hers. He’d recognized their landlady’s voice. “We’re on our way, Anna. Be right there!” he called.
“Oh, my God, what were we thinking?” Mimi whispered, still frantically trying to get her clothes into place.
“The same thing we’ve both been thinking for seven days and twenty or so hours.” Xander pushed her hands out of the way, twisting her capris into the right position, then tucked her shirt in. “It’s okay. Breathe.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you didn’t just…”
“Uh, I think I had something to do with it.”
She looked up at him, those violet eyes wide and luminous. Her lips quivered. “Yes. You did. Thanks.”
“Always a pleasure,” he said with a wag of his eyebrows.
She snagged her bottom lip between her teeth, but was unsuccessful at containing a giggle. There was no regret, no anger, no guilt. She looked…happy. Joyful. As if being intimate with him, here, in the woods, was the most natural, wonderful thing in the world.
“Ready?” he asked, reaching for her hand.
“Yes,” she said, falling into step beside him. Then, with a sheepish shrug, she added, “You, uh, might want to wipe your face.”
He didn’t. He really didn’t. He wanted to smell her and taste her for the rest of the night. But considering they could see their landlady standing at the edge of the lawn, he figured he ought to do what he could to hide what they’d been up to.
He pulled his shirt up, wiping off the remnants of Mimi’s arousal from his lips and cheeks, knowing there was no way to wipe off his self-satisfied smile. Nor could anything eliminate the aura of satisfaction wafting off the thoroughly pleasured woman at his side.
“There you are!” Anna exclaimed as she caught sight of them. “You have surprise guests, Mimi. Dimitri is here, and he has someone else with him.”
She stumbled. If he hadn’t had her hand clasped in his, she might have fallen. A lump rising in his throat, he cast her a quick, reassuring look, and realized he had been wrong. There was something that could eliminate that aura of pleasure wafting off her: houseguests.
Talk about your bad timing.
Seeing Anna’s curious look, Xander glanced down at their clasped hands. Mimi did, too, and immediately let go, her hand dropping to her side.
Anna pretended she hadn’t noticed. “Thank you for rescuing Tuck’s cat.”
Tuck. The grandson, if he remembered correctly. He and his mother were moving in today. Obviously Buster the feline was exploring his new home.
“Not a problem,” Mimi said, her voice low, toneless.
Hearing that lifelessness, Xander wanted to break something. Mimi had been an earthy angel in his arms a few minutes ago. Now she was being thrust right back into real life with the guy she’d been dating.
Only, no. No way. She wasn’t going to be able to slip back into that role, to go back to being another man’s sort-of girlfriend, not after what they’d just shared in the woods. “Mimi,” he said, “we should…”
“We’ll talk later, okay?” she insisted.
She picked up her pace, almost jogging to get ahead of him, heading for two men who stood on the back porch. Whether she was racing to her visitors or away from a conversation about them—what had happened, what it meant—he couldn’t say.
“Uh, you might want to tuck in your shirt,” Anna said, sounding only slightly amused.
“Thanks,” he said, doing as she’d suggested.
“And I wouldn’t suggest getting close enough to shake hands.” She had the courtesy not to say because you reek of illicit sex, but it was understood.
As they continued to approach the patio where Mimi was talking with Dimitri and an older man who had to be her father, Anna spoke. “Don’t give up on her, okay?”
Give up? Those words weren’t even in his vocabulary. Especially not when they concerned Mimi. “Not gonna happen.”
As they drew closer, he had no problem recognizing the human Ken doll, who, even when dressed in casual clothes, wore that aura of money that always clung to guys like him.
The other man was older, probably in his mid-fifties, with gray hair and a tan. Wearing white pants and a collared shirt with a polo player on the breast, he appeared ready to sip a martini at the ninth hole. The guy looked like he’d stepped off the pages of that old Richie Rich comic, as the character’s dad.
“Dad, I still can’t believe you decided to just stop by,” Mimi said, sounding shocked.
Xander sighed, not truly surprised Mr. Rich had turned out to be her father.
“Dimitri and I were heading back from Arbor Ridge and realized how close we were, so we decided to drop in to visit.”
Judging by their clothes and sun-reddened faces, Xander assumed Arbor Ridge was a golf course. How…chummy.
He wondered how Mimi felt about it. Her hands were clenched at her sides, her smile tight, and she was not meeting his eye. Was she worried Dimitri had seen the leaves in her hair, noted the redness of her lips, known she was in the woods with Xander and formed his own conclusions? He’d be an idiot not to.
Part of him thought that might not be a bad idea. Another part—the part that realized this was the father of the woman he was becoming seriously addicted to—knew he had to make a getaway. Talk about one hell of a bad first impression. Hello, sir. Why, yes, that is your daughter’s arousal I’m wearing like an expensive cologne.
Not cool.
He pivoted on his feet, prepared to walk away without another word. But Mimi’s father spotted him and raised his voice to say, “Well, Mimi, are you going to introduce us?”
Xander kept walking a few paces, then glanced back, as if just realizing the older man had been talking about him. He smiled, nodding hello to Dimitri, noticing the way Mimi kept looking back and forth between all three of them, her frown deepening. Tension washed over her, as visible as if she’d been doused with a bucket of paint.
His heart twisted as he realized just how frazzled she was. The incredibly hot-and-sexy, joking, flashing, vase-threatening, vibrant woman appeared racked with uncertainty.
One way to help ease it.
“Sorry I can’t stay for introductions,” he called. “I have to head back to the station unexpectedly.” To shower. “Anna, tell that grandson of yours to take care of his mischievous cat.” Then, with a friendly smile at Mimi, he added, “And don’t go climbing any more trees without backup, okay?”
He could almost see her exhale a sigh of relief, and she offered him a tremulous smile of thanks. “Definitely not.”
&nbs
p; Nodding pleasantly, he said, “Bye,” then turned and left.
As he got into his car and drove back to the station, he told himself he was glad for the interruption. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t have loved some more afternoon delight with Mimi, but the situation wasn’t exactly ideal. Nor was the location.
The next time he touched her, it would be in a bed, or some other comfortable flat surface. And that couldn’t come soon enough for him.
He didn’t doubt that it would happen. It didn’t matter what he’d told himself about whether she was right for him, or he for her, or that they hid the truth behind small talk and ladder adventures or cat rescues. It was there: attraction. Interest. Heat. It was seething. Growing.
