Barking Up the Wrong Tree

by Jenn McKinlay

  “In the best possible way,” she said. “So, my place?”

  “Only if you’re absolutely sure,” he said. It looked like the words cost him, and Carly liked him even more for that. “We can call it a night here, and I’ll take you home and then we can revisit whatever this might be when we’re both feeling more rational.”

  “You’re very sweet,” Carly said. “But I’m not a real big fan of being rational.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him back onto the sidewalk. “Where’s your ride?”

  “There,” he said. He led her to his car, which was parked at the curb in front of Marty’s. He unlocked it and opened the door for her. It was a large SUV but before Carly could hoist herself up, he picked her up and set her on the seat. He closed the door and walked around the front.

  Carly glanced behind her and saw that the seats were folded down to accommodate several thick plastic crates full of hand weights, wrist cuffs, stretch bands, yoga mats, exercise balls; truly it was a fitness fanatic’s wet dream back there.

  As James climbed into the driver’s seat, she fished, “So, you’re really into the fitness thing?”

  He grinned. “Gee, what gave it away?”

  “Aside from your perfectly chiseled physique?” she asked. He smiled. “I watched you with Mac’s aunts, Sarah and Charlotte, today. You were really good with them. And that’s saying something since they can be a bit of a handful.”

  “I get a kick out of them,” he said. “They’re very enthusiastic, which is more than I can say for some of my clients.”

  “Is it hard training people who don’t want to work out?”

  “Not really. I can be very persuasive,” he said. He leaned over the console between them and planted a swift kiss on her mouth, then pressed his lips on the sensitive spot just below her ear before kissing a path down the side of her neck to her shoulder. “Oh, and I believe in rewarding good behavior.”

  “Oh, my,” she breathed.

  He winked at her. Then he fired up the engine and left Marty’s Pub, following Carly’s directions to her house.

  The old Pontiac, Gina’s car, which was now their shared car, was parked in its usual spot in the driveway and James parked beside it.

  “My sister’s home,” Carly said. “So, we’ll need to be quiet.”

  “You live with your sister?” he asked.

  “For now,” Carly said. “My life took an abrupt detour off its charted course.”

  “It happens.” He nodded as if he understood. He strode around the front of his vehicle and opened her door. Carly slid out, right into his arms.

  James was tall, lean, and muscled. She got the feeling he hefted around the equipment in the back of his truck without even breaking a sweat. Given that she was built strong and curvy, she felt confident that he could handle her. Oh, that thought was a scorcher and so was the kiss they shared.

  For the first time in months, Carly felt as if she had some control in her life. Granted it was controlling what happened between her sheets, but it was better than feeling like she was at the mercy of life, which lately seemed to be having a grand old time kicking her legs out from under her every time she turned around.

  She led the way to the house. It was dark. Carly knew she had left the porch light on but since it was out, she suspected Gina had shut it off to spite her—man, she could be such a child sometimes.

  It took Carly a second of fumbling with her World’s Greatest Dad keys to get the door open, but she managed it. She shoved the key ring back into her purse before she had even more explaining to do. It was one thing for James to know she was living with her sister; it was quite another for him to discover that this was her parents’ house. A girl could only handle so much embarrassment, after all.

  The DeCusati residence was an old farmhouse. The front door opened into a small foyer where an antique coatrack was stationed to hold all of the coats, hats, gloves, and scarves that were required to survive a Maine winter. Since they were just in heavy jackets, Carly didn’t bother unloading their stuff on it.

  A door on the left led into the front sitting room, which opened up to the large kitchen and dining room beyond. The door on the right was Carly’s parents’ library with squashy chairs and shelves of books, lining all four walls, which were packed to bursting. Straight ahead was a hallway that led to Carly’s parents’ bedroom, while just off center was the staircase that led to the five bedrooms above.

  The house was over two hundred years old and had been gutted and reconfigured several times over the years, but Tony and Barbara DeCusati had bought it specifically so that each daughter could have her own bedroom. Carly was pretty sure it was the only thing that had kept the girls from killing each other during the teen years.

  Since Gina had never left home, she had taken the biggest bedroom at the back of the house as soon as Terry, the eldest, had moved out. Carly was relieved because she had one of the small front bedrooms. If everything went well, Gina would never know that James had been there. Carly never let her partners spend the night, mostly because it would give them the idea that she wanted them to call again—she did not—but also because she really hated sharing a bed.

  “This way,” she said. She locked the door after him and then took his hand and led him upstairs. She glanced at her sister’s door and saw that it was shut with no light shining from under it. Phew.

  She pushed open the door to her room. A cold nose shoved up into her palm and she jumped with a little shriek. Saul.

  The fluffy golden retriever let out a soft woof and Carly bent over to give him some love.

  “Hey, boy,” she said.

  “You have a dog?” James asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “James, this is Saul.”

  James held out his hand for Saul to get his scent and as if Carly needed his approval of the situation, Saul began to wag. James scratched his ears and Saul wagged even harder.

  “Okay, pal, you get to take over the study,” Carly said. She opened the door next to hers and Saul trotted into the spare bedroom. Saul glanced at her over his shoulder and Carly nodded, giving him the okay.

  Saul jumped up onto the bed, circled around a couple of times before settling down to sleep. Carly heaved a sigh of relief. She hadn’t really thought about the pets when she brought James home but so far so good.

  She took James by the hand and led him into her room. Thankfully her mother had turned it into a guest bedroom a few years ago. It was done in pretty shades of blue and white and looked like it could belong in any bed-and-breakfast on Cape Cod.

  She switched on the light and ignored the pile of boxes that had been shoved into the corner of her room along with the large cage with the cover over it that was in the opposite corner. Please, bird, do not wake up now.

  Instead, Carly turned her attention to James. He was checking out the room as if trying to figure out how it jived with her personality, or at least, what he’d come to know of her personality in the last hour and a half.

  Carly could have told him not to bother as they weren’t going to know each other that long. To distract him, she gave him a solid shove and caught him off guard. He fell backwards onto the bed with a thump and a bounce.

  His look of surprise made her laugh. It had been so long since she’d fooled around with a man, she wasn’t sure where she wanted to start. He looked deliciously rumpled. His hazel eyes had deepened to that wicked shade of blue that she found so fascinating.

  They lured her in and before she had fully thought it through, she found herself stalking toward him and then pouncing until she was lying on top of him with all of their parts lined up just right.

  She moved in slowly to kiss him but he rose up, unwilling to wait, and kissed her first. It was a little rough, a little wild, and more than a little perfect.

  James cupped the back of her head with one hand and used his mouth to get to know h
er. There was no hesitation on his part. He kissed her as if he’d been waiting a long time for this and couldn’t wait another second more. It made Carly a little dizzy to feel as if she was the object of his desire not just for the moment but for forever. How did he make her feel that when they had just met?

  “You taste amazing,” he said. “I think I could spend the entire night just kissing you.”

  Carly felt her entire body flush with heat. This guy was good, very good, and she wanted more. She unzipped his jacket and pushed it aside. He wore a snug-fitting thermal in the same shade of blue as his eyes. She took a moment to appreciate how it embraced his muscles and then she wanted it gone. She tugged at the hem.

  He got the hint and sat up, taking her with him and moving her legs so that they straddled him in the most profound way. Her girl parts were cradling his boy parts and they fit so perfectly, Carly felt herself get hot, wet, and breathless all at the same time.

  “Wow,” he said. He kissed her while he shoved off her jacket then ditched his own. When the coats hit the floor, his hands found her hips and he rocked her back and forth over his crotch until her vision became blurry and spotted.

  “Clothes, must lose the clothes,” she panted.

  “On it,” he said.

  Carly didn’t have the capacity of speech to clarify that technically she was the one who was on it. Besides, he didn’t give her a chance as her cute little sweater went one way and then her dress went another, and she was straddling him in just her boots and underwear.

  James dug his fingers into her hair. The long dark curls draped around her shoulders and he used them to pull her close. They were nose to nose and his gaze locked in on hers. He kissed her with his eyes open as if he didn’t want to miss a second of her reaction to him. It was crazy hot.

  She pressed up against him, feeling slightly naughty at her state of undress while he still had his shirt and pants on. She broke the kiss so she could finally yank his shirt off. He let her and then he pulled her close and rolled so that she was under him and he was pressing her into the soft blue and white comforter.

  His lips were moving over every bit of available skin he could find and Carly arched off the bed to meet him. His callused hands moved down her back to cup her backside, pulling her up to meet the hard part of him still zipped into his jeans.

  “I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It would be powerfully painful to walk out of here right now, but if you have even a smidge of doubt, I’ll go. No problem.”

  Something inside of Carly let loose a soft sigh of appreciation. She was bedding a nice guy. They were few and far between and because they were so rare and precious, she promised herself she’d give him the night of his life.

  She reached between them and cupped him with her hand. He bucked and hissed, surprised by the bold maneuver.

  “I’m thinking it would actually be a big problem if you were to leave me now,” she said. Then she gave him her patent-worthy come-hither look. “So don’t you worry. I have no doubts about this, not a one.”

  James stared at her for a heartbeat. Then he was on her. Carly forgot about the covered cage in the corner of her room, she forgot about her sister down the hall, she forgot what time it was, what day it was, and for a little while what her name was. Yes, he was just that good.

  His hands were everywhere at once, drawing a response from her that she’d never felt before. If it wasn’t his hands, it was his mouth. The boy could do things with his tongue that she had previously thought were the stuff of urban legends.

  She was sprawled across the bed, completely at his mercy. Somehow, she was only in her boots while he was still half dressed and when she glanced down and saw his thatch of midnight-colored hair between her thighs, she reached down and shoved her fingers into it in an attempt to get a handle on him, on this, on the way he was making her insides clench with spasms of lust and desire.

  He was not to be deterred, however. He grabbed her hands and held them at her sides while he nibbled, sucked, and debauched her until Carly was a mindless, throbbing, hot mess.

  She arched her back, right on the brink of release, when he pulled his mouth away and said, “Say my name, Carly. I want to know that you know who is making you feel this way.”

  “James,” she whispered.

  “Louder,” he ordered. Then he put his mouth on her clit and with one stroke of his tongue, that was it.

  “James, oh, James!” she cried. She was loud and didn’t even care as she was swept under by a riptide of pleasure that seemed to go on and on and on.

  When her heart rate finally slowed, she opened her eyes to find him lying beside her with one hand splayed across her belly. Maybe it was because he’d just given her one of the best orgasms of her life, but Carly was pretty sure he was the handsomest, smartest, wittiest one-nighter she’d ever had. And she knew she wanted him to feel the same way about her.

  She pushed him onto his back. He let her. She ran her hands over his warm skin, enjoying the sparse hair and firm muscle beneath her fingertips. He let her do that, too. She straddled him, still in her boots, and he cupped her breasts with a reverence that let her know he was a boob guy, thank god—a leg man really wouldn’t do her much good.

  She let him play for a moment and then she went to work on his jeans. She hiked them halfway down his thighs, making it impossible for him to move.

  She pulled away from his hands and began to inch her way backwards, running her mouth over his pecs, which were nicely defined, and lower, the contact giving her the added bonus of making him clench his stomach muscles, which made his hard abs high-def and decidedly swoon-worthy.

  She moved lower and lower, working her mouth over him until she noticed that he had gone so still she was afraid he’d passed out on her. She glanced up and caught him watching her with an intensity that almost set her hair on fire. His eyes licked at her like blue flames and when they settled on her lips she could feel the heat.

  “Come here,” he said.

  Chapter 6

  Carly, who was usually much more independent-minded, found herself doing as he ordered. Clearly, she wasn’t moving fast enough for him as he scooped her close and rolled so that she was on the bottom. He kissed her, long and deep, until her ears started ringing. By the time she came back to her senses, he had kicked his pants off and slid a condom on.

  “Last chance to change your mind,” he said. His gaze held hers. One look at his face and she knew he would do whatever she asked. Wow.

  “No freaking way,” she said. Then she reached around him, grabbed his butt, and yanked him forward until he slid right into her all the way, skin to skin, bone to bone. It felt amazing.

  “Hot damn, that feels even better than I imagined,” he grunted.

  He pushed her hair out of her face and kissed her slow just like he was moving down below, in and out, in a steady rhythm that was making Carly sweat and pant.

  “Yes, it does,” she gasped between kisses. “And it’s about to get even better.”

  She arched her back and clenched her vaginal muscles around his erection as tightly as she could. James grunted and blew out a breath as if it were taking everything he had to maintain control. That really wasn’t going to work for Carly. She wanted him to feel just as blissed out and borderline crazy as she had.

  “Sunshine, you’re not making this easy,” he said. “I’m trying to last more than ten minutes here.”

  “Why?” she asked. She pulled him down so he was pressed flush against her and then she rocked her hips, making him gasp. “There’s always round two or three . . .”

  “That’s it,” James said. He reared up and took over. Pushing her legs up high and wide, he put one thumb on her hot spot while he pounded into her. Carly didn’t stand a chance.

  This time he didn’t have to tell her to say his name; she did it on her own, crying out repeatedly, as if begging for
more and more and more. The hot swell inside of her was all-consuming. She couldn’t think, only feel. For the life of her, she was pretty sure sex had never been like this . . . ever.

  “James, oh, James!” she shouted his name while she convulsed around him so hard it almost hurt, forcing him over the edge as well.

  “Carly, sweet Carly,” he said her name when he collapsed against her, as if these were the last words he would ever utter.

  Their hearts were thumping hard; their breathing was staggered. Carly felt as if her limbs had the consistency of wet lasagna noodles and she was betting by the way James was pressing her into the mattress that he felt exactly the same way.

  It was a solid ten minutes before either of them moved and then it was James discarding the used condom into the trash can by her bed. He ran his hands through his hair as if trying to kick-start his brain. Then he flopped back against the bed, clearly giving up.

  He turned to her and she noticed his eyes were now more gray than blue. They looked content and Carly instinctively opened her arms to snuggle him, which was surprising mostly because she wasn’t a snuggler. Then again, when a man delivered the hottest sex a girl could ever remember having, well, a snuggle was surely required.

  James paused to pull her boots off, then he drew back the covers and pushed her under the thick comforter. Instead of just letting her collapse on top of his chest, his hands stayed busy stroking every bit of skin he could reach. Carly would have purred but she didn’t have the energy, not yet anyway.

  “Favorite color?” James said.

  “Huh?”

  “I want to know some facts about the woman I just defiled,” he said. “Favorite color?”

  “Well, it used to be green but now it is most definitely a blue gray. Defiled, huh?” she said. She rested her chin on her hands while she studied him. “If anyone was defiled, sir, it was you.”

  He moved his hand over her backside, down in between her legs and stroked the part of her that he now knew quite intimately. Carly gasped and felt her desire rise up, shocking her with its sharp bite. Usually, after a good tussle she was content for weeks. Not with this man, however; clearly her body had not gotten enough of him just yet.