“You sure about that?” he asked.
She slid one leg over his, until they were intimately lined up. She wiggled her hips and felt him immediately harden. He grabbed her hips, stopping the sweet torture, but not before she noticed that his eyes were shifting toward blue again. She smiled.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said.
“Don’t be,” he said. And then, just as before, he took over.
Round two was as hot as before but even sharper because now they knew each other just that much better. The lovemaking lasted only a few minutes longer than the last time but the climax was just as intense as the first, leaving Carly a tousled, sweaty, panting pile of quivering woman.
When James pulled her close to hold her, she didn’t even have the energy to boot him out of the bed. As she rested her cheek on his chest, she promised herself that she would roust him out of her bed in a few minutes. Really.
• • •
A bell ringing woke Carly up. It was clanging insistently enough that she couldn’t ignore it. She blinked and reached over to shut off her alarm clock, except her alarm clock wasn’t there.
She squinted at the nightstand. It was a dark stained maple, not the modern chrome and glass of her own apartment. That’s right, she wasn’t in Brooklyn anymore. She sighed.
Clang, clang, clang.
The annoying bell kept ringing. She glanced around her room. Sunlight was peeking over the white eyelet half curtains on her windows. She could see the vibrant red shade of the leaves on the maple tree outside her window. It had turned a breathtaking scarlet this year and she had to admit, there hadn’t been anything that beautiful outside her window in Brooklyn.
She shifted against her sheets and realized she was naked. In a hot rush, memories of the night before filled her mind. James had been spectacular. She had never had a one-night stand that . . . she felt a warm hand squeeze her hip . . . that was still there in the morning!
Carly sat up and turned to take in the man lying beside her. He was still here! James was still here!
Clang, clang, clang!
“What is that racket?”
The door to Carly’s room slammed open hitting the wall. Gina stood there in her pink flamingo pajamas with her hands on her hips and the craziest bedhead Carly had ever seen. James lurched up in bed beside Carly, dropping the sheet off of him and Carly as he blinked at the unfamiliar surroundings.
“Oh, my god!” Gina cried. “You’re home one night, one stinking night, and you have a man in your bed! What the hell, Carly? I am so telling Terry on you!”
“Get out!” Carly shouted. She jerked the covers up, covering both James and herself.
As if he sensed his pack was in trouble, Saul chose that moment to sneak around Gina into the room to hop up on the foot of the bed as if to keep watch.
Clang, clang, clang!
“And shut that damn bird up!” Gina shouted. “Some people are actually sleeping in this house.”
“Bird?” James asked. He looked at Carly, his eyes bewildered, and then they cleared. “Oh, Ike.”
“Yeah, he’s over there,” Carly said. She turned back to Gina. “Why are you still here? Get out!”
Gina stared at James’s muscle-hardened biceps as he reached across the bed to rub Saul’s ears then she turned to back Carly looking like she wanted to slap her sister’s face.
“I haven’t had a date in months and you come home and in less than twenty-four hours, you have a man, a hot man, in your bed. It’s not fair!”
“Fair?” Carly asked. “What are you talking about? This was a one-night stand, no big deal. You have no reason to be mad at me.”
“Yes, I do,” Gina said. “You always get what you want and I never do.”
“Oh, man.” Carly dropped her head into her hands. She peeked at James. “I am so sorry about this.”
He looked like he was trying to take it all in and trying not to laugh at the same time.
“Do not apologize to him when you should be apologizing to me!” Gina stomped a slippered foot on the floor.
“Gina, you’re a spoiled rotten brat. Stop acting like I took something that was yours without asking. I lost my job, my apartment, and my life in Brooklyn, and now I’m stuck here in Bluff Point. What could I possibly have that you don’t?” Carly asked.
“Orgasms,” Gina said. “By the sound of it, lots of them.”
Carly felt her face heat up like it was hit by a blowtorch. She couldn’t even look at James for fear that she would implode in a fiery ball of mortification.
“There was none of that here,” James said. He slid his hand onto her thigh and she felt him cross his fingers while they squeezed her leg. “I swear we just slept, there were absolutely no shenanigans.”
At that point, clearly out of sorts because no one had lifted the cover off his cage, Ike decided to join the conversation.
In a perfect imitation of Carly’s voice in the throes of passion, he squawked, “James, oh, James!”
“Yeah, right,” Gina said. The door slammed so hard upon her exit that it rattled on its hinges.
Carly slumped back onto her pillows, pulling the blanket over her head. She was pretty sure she was never going to leave her room ever again in this life.
“Hey, you okay?” James asked.
He tugged at the covers Carly was holding over her head, but she wouldn’t let go.
“This is wrong,” she moaned. “So very wrong.”
“I’m not following. What’s wrong?” he asked.
She felt the bed shift as he rose to get up. Thank goodness, he was leaving, and she didn’t have to be mean about it. She just didn’t spend whole nights with guys. It was a rule. It kept things from getting complicated—like, having her baby sister see her naked with a guy she had just bang-tangoed with complicated.
“You, you’re not supposed to be here still,” she said.
“Why not?” he asked.
She could hear him moving around the room. How to explain? She figured the direct method was probably best. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about what had happened last night. While the sex had been off the charts, a one-night stand was exactly that. One night. No strings. No need to exchange last names or cell phone numbers. A young, virile man like James would be thankful to escape any relationship expectations, right?
The rustling in the room stopped. She peeked over the covers to see if he was fully dressed, so much easier to toss him out if he was. Instead, she discovered him standing butt naked in front of Ike’s cage. He was looking at Ike, who was giving him side eye.
“Hey there, good lookin’,” he said to the bird. “You sure are a handsome fella, Ike.”
“James, oh, James!” Ike replied. Then he shook his iridescent green head and raised one foot in what Carly recognized as his kung fu pose.
James burst out laughing. He turned to look at Carly and his grin was wide and warm, causing her to smile back at him even when she knew she shouldn’t.
“He sounds just like you,” he said. He wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s getting me hot.”
The look he gave her made Carly’s insides spasm in the most delicious way. Uh-oh. She had to nip this in the bud and quick. She glanced at the clock. It was after nine. Saved by the hands of time!
“Oh, dang,” she said. “Look at the time. I have to report for my first day of work.”
She hopped off the bed, forcing Saul to roll over as she dragged the sheet with her to preserve her modesty; but really, after last night, who was she kidding? Still, she kept it wrapped around the girls as she bent over to pick up his discarded clothing.
A cold morning draft blasted her backside and she wrapped the sheet tighter. She tossed his underwear at him and he caught it, looking sleepy and surprised at the same time.
She then tossed his pants, shirt, jacket, and s
ocks at him, not giving him a moment to dress, just to snatch his clothing out of the air before it pelted him.
“Okay, good,” Carly said. She opened her bedroom door and added, “Bathroom is the first door on the left but don’t linger or my sister will likely walk in on you, and in case you didn’t notice she is unpleasant in the morning.”
“But I . . . shouldn’t we—?”
“No time,” Carly interrupted.
She pushed him naked out into the hallway and closed the bedroom door. She spun around and put her back to it, trying to catch her breath. Saul was looking at her from under his bushy blonde eyebrows.
“Do not judge me,” she said. “I’ve never spent a whole night with a man before. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Saul gave a sympathetic whine and fell over onto his side.
Jeez, this was awkward. Which confirmed her reasoning for not letting men sleep over. The morning after was always so much weirder for tossing a man out than the night before.
She glanced at Ike, who was now bobbing up and down on his perch. She got the feeling he was laughing at her.
“It’s not funny,” she said.
Ike wolf whistled at her and Carly rolled her eyes. This was another man she needed to unload as soon as possible. Surely, he could charm someone into taking him.
“James, oh, James!” Ike cried. Then he cackled. Carly was pretty sure the bird knew exactly what he was saying.
Carly slapped her palm against her forehead. This was a nightmare.
She heard the water in the bathroom running. That got her motivated. She dashed around her room, selecting her clothes for the day.
Jillian’s shop was a petite bakeshop called Making Whoopie that specialized in the most famous of Maine desserts, the whoopie pie, and was situated on the town green in Bluff Point. Making Whoopie sold all of Jillian’s baked concoctions, from the traditional chocolate cookie with vanilla filling to the more exotic pumpkin spice cookie with blueberry filling. Just thinking about it made Carly drool, and she figured she might need to mainline some whoopie pie filling in order to get her equilibrium back.
She pulled on a pair of skinny jeans, her low-heeled black riding boots, and a tunic-length off-the-shoulder sweater that was as soft as a well-loved bedspread. She finger-combed her tangled hair and braided it into one thick plait that she let hang over her shoulder. She would have killed for a shower but she had no time and she needed to get James gone.
A knock on the door made her freeze. Was it Gina or James? Her brain hoped for Gina but her insides, particularly the lower regions, were rooting for James.
“Carly?” It was James.
“Yeah?”
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Totally fine,” she said. “Just getting ready for work, but you . . . ugh . . . can go on ahead. I don’t mind, really.” There. She was letting him off the hook from any post-coital weirdness. A guy had to appreciate that, right?
There was silence on the other side of the door. Carly cringed at the awkwardness of the situation. Again, this was why waking up together the morning after was such a bad plan.
“But, hey, thanks for last night, it was fun,” she added, hoping that it smoothed things out between them.
More silence.
Carly waited until she figured he had left. Then she sighed with relief. Excellent. Now all she had to do was slap on some deodorant, brush her teeth, feed these animals, and get to work.
She yanked open her door to find James standing there, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Sorry, sunshine, but we’re not done here,” he said.
Chapter 7
“I’m not your sunshine and, yes, we are,” she said. She tried to stand firm, really.
“No, we’re not.” He pushed past her into the room.
“Look, buster, just because we spent a nice evening together does not mean there is anything—” she began to berate him but he interrupted her.
“Nice?” he asked. He paused in front of her and shook his head at her. “Comfortable shoes are nice, hot apple pie is nice, a pretty sunset is nice—what we did last night, that wasn’t nice.”
His voice got lower with each word until its rough side rubbed against her skin, making it heat up and itch at the same time. How did this man do that with his voice?
He took a step toward her and she took a step back. He did it again and so did she. She was trying to maintain a healthy boundary but he seemed to be having none of that. When her back was at the wall and she had nowhere to go, she steeled herself against him making a move.
She’d let him kiss her, if that was what he wanted. Maybe she’d even let him cop a feel. That would be a nice parting gift, she thought.
He braced one hand against the wall beside her shoulder, bringing him even closer. She swallowed past the breathless knot of desire in her chest. The urge to launch herself at him was so strong it took every ounce of self-control she had to stay put.
He leaned in even closer until his lips were just a breath away from her skin and said, “What we did was hot.”
“Hmm, hot,” she murmured.
“Dirty,” he said. He moved lower so his mouth was hovering right in front of the girls.
Carly let out a tiny whimper. She didn’t mean to; she just couldn’t hold it in.
“Delicious,” he said. He crouched before her, his hot gaze blasting the crotch of her tight pants.
Carly wanted to bury her fingers into his thick hair and pull him in but she curled her fingers into her palms instead.
James reached behind her and picked up his shoes. He rose to stand and his gaze met hers in a look that pinned her to the wall as surely as if he had pressed her up against it with his own body.
“But it was not ‘nice,’” he said. He stepped away from her and sat on the edge of the bed while he pulled on his shoes.
Carly put her hand over her racing heart and tried to get her composure back. Every alarm bell in her system was chiming so loud she had a hard time hearing the thoughts in her head, but it was pretty clear that James Sinclair was too dangerous for her. Period.
Still, she didn’t want him to think badly of her. She gulped in a lungful of air and blew out a breath. Maybe if she stroked his ego a little, they could part without this tension between them.
“You’re right,” she said. “Last night was . . .”
She paused, looking for an adequate adjective.
Ike took the opportunity to fill in the silence with a wolf whistle.
James turned to look at the bird and then he grinned.
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Carly said with a sheepish smile. “It was that.”
James bent over and finished tying his second shoe. Then he sat up and looked at her as if trying to make sense of her. Saul butted his hand with his nose and James absently scratched the dog’s head while he studied her. She would have told him not to bother but she got the feeling James wasn’t the world’s best listener.
“But that’s as far as you want it to go?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. Relief surged through her and she pushed off the wall, feeling more confident now that he seemed to understand how things were—or more accurately were not—between them. “I don’t do relationships.”
He pursed his lips and nodded. Saul rolled over to give James access to his belly. Ike clanged the bell in his cage and they both glanced at him.
“Well, you have these two,” James said. “So, that’s a relationship of sorts.”
“Ike and Saul? Yeah, no, I recently inherited them from my neighbor in Brooklyn,” she said. “Trust me, as soon as I can find a good home for them, they’re gone.”
“Hmm,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest and tipped his head to the side. “Just for my own curiosity, have you ev
er had a boyfriend?”
Carly thought about telling him that it was none of his business—she thought about telling him to get the hell out—but he asked it in such a nonjudgmental way, she felt like she could trust him with the answer even though after eleven years it still caused her great pain and she never, ever, spoke of it.
“I had one once, sort of,” she said. “That was more than enough. Believe you me, I will never make that mistake again.”
James rose from the bed and moved to stand in front of her. His eyes had spiraled into a soft flannel gray, reflecting the color of his jacket no doubt, but they were full of kindness and compassion and Carly felt a small lump form in her throat.
She glanced away but he was having none of it. He cupped her chin and looked into her eyes and said, “He must have done a helluva number on you. I’m sorry.”
Then he pulled her into his arms and just held her. He stroked one of his big man hands up and down her spine in a gesture that comforted and soothed. Carly felt the prick of tears sting her eyes. She blinked. She was not about to cry all over the front of a man she hardly knew—well, except in the most intimate way possible.
She knew she should pull away but instead she soaked up his kindness like a dried-up sponge. It felt so good to be held, to have a man care about her sorrow and try to ease it without looking for something for himself. It was . . . nice.
She almost laughed at the thought but she didn’t because she was afraid it might trigger some tears. Instead she leaned against him for just a moment or two. She told herself that it was because this was a much gentler way for them to part company than her throwing his clothes at him, but deep down she knew. She knew she was savoring the feeling of his solid strength and on a day in the future when she wasn’t feeling so strong she’d revisit the memory and use it to pick herself up if need be.
After a few minutes, he stepped back and Carly let him. He smiled down at her and said, “So you want this to be good-bye.”
Barking Up the Wrong Tree Page 7
