Barking Up the Wrong Tree

by Jenn McKinlay

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think that’s for the best. I mean, I’m not even planning to be in town that long.” She gestured to her laptop computer, sitting on the desk. “I have a goal to send out ten résumés per day, every day, until I get a job back in New York. Really, I’m just passing through.”

  “Hmm,” he hummed noncommittally.

  He cupped her face and studied her features as if memorizing them. Carly felt horribly self-conscious about the eyebrows she’d let go, the fact that any makeup she had on was a remnant from last night, and she was pretty sure she was getting a pimple on her chin. He didn’t seem to notice or care about any of those things. He smiled at her and it was tender and lovely and warmed Carly from the inside out.

  Then he placed his lips on hers in the gentlest of kisses and the impact about took her out at the knees. Without thinking about the consequences, she twined her arms about his neck and pulled him flush up against her. She opened her mouth under his and encouraged him to plunder and pillage with his lips, teeth, and tongue as much as he wanted.

  They were both breathless when they finally parted. Carly could feel his response to the kiss pressing up against her belly and she knew from the throb between her own legs that things could go sideways, in the best possible way, if they didn’t get away from each other right now.

  “One-night stand, huh?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  They stared at each other for a moment and the next thing Carly knew, they grabbed for each other at the same instant as if neither of them were quite ready to let the crazy attraction between them go just yet. He hauled her up against him and kissed her while she wrapped her arms about his neck and kissed him back. This time he maneuvered her so that her back was against the wall. His hands stroked her sides, just brushing against her curves but not fully committing to groping. It was maddening.

  Carly clutched the back of his neck and hoisted herself up to fasten her legs around his hips while deepening the kiss by thrusting her tongue into his mouth. The contact was electric and this time it was James who let out a moan and curse as he grabbed her hips and drilled up against her even though the barrier of their clothes kept them apart.

  “James, oh, James!”

  Carly wasn’t sure if it was her or Ike squawking. She just knew that it was exactly what she was feeling, as if she could never get enough of this man, ever.

  “Carly?” a voice called from the hallway.

  Carly ripped her mouth away from James. He fastened his lips on her throat while she clenched her legs around him and yelled, “Go away, Gina!”

  “I would but I’m not Gina.”

  The door to the bedroom was thrust open and there stood Jillian, slack jawed and wide-eyed.

  Chapter 8

  Carly dropped her legs from around James’s waist but he thwarted her escape by cupping her bottom and keeping her pinned between him and the wall.

  “Sorry, am I interrupting something?” Jillian asked. She looked like she was fighting a laugh.

  “Yes,” James growled at the same time Carly said, “No.”

  Now Jillian did laugh.

  “Put me down,” Carly hissed.

  She could feel her face flaming in embarrassment while James appeared singularly unaffected by their surprise guest. Reluctantly, he released her and a spike of lust stabbed Carly low and deep as she did a slow slide down his body before her feet hit the floor. For a second, she almost slammed the door in her friend’s face and jumped James Sinclair’s bones for the fourth time.

  Thankfully, Jillian’s laughter forced Carly’s good sense to kick in and she did no such thing.

  “What are you doing here?” Carly asked her friend.

  “It’s nine thirty,” Jillian said. “Since Gina didn’t drop you off at nine, I thought the two of you might be having issues about carpooling. I told you I’d come get you if you didn’t show up at Making Whoopie on time.”

  Carly glanced at the clock. Yup, she’d blown it. “So you did.”

  “Making Whoopie?” James asked with a grin.

  “It’s my whoopie pie bakery on the town green,” Jillian said. “I make the best whoopie pies in Maine. You should come by.”

  “No, he shouldn’t,” Carly said. “Er, I mean he’s all into fitness and whoopie pies are bad for you, really bad, with all that fat and sugar.”

  She could feel James watching her. She was afraid to look at him for fear she’d get swept into his hotness and do something stupid like give him her number or knock him down and have her way with him. Truly, it could go either direction. This was why one-night stands were not supposed to leak into morning. It was a rule. Damn it!

  “Well, I’ll take that under advisement,” James said. Clearly, he was trying to smooth out the awkward. “I guess I’d better go.”

  “Yup. Good-bye, James, and, uh, thanks,” Carly stammered. She closed her eyes. Good god, she sounded like an idiot. What was she thanking him for? Orgasms? Sheesh!

  “James, oh, James!” Ike squawked.

  “Oh, my!” Jillian’s eyes went wide.

  Carly felt her whole head burst into a big ball of mortified heat. Could this morning possibly get any more embarrassing? She didn’t think so. She glanced at James to see if he was suffering equally. He was not. In fact, he was grinning. It made her want to kick him or kiss him—no, definitely kick him.

  “Will you excuse us for one second?” he said to Jillian and he gently shut the door in her face.

  Carly blinked at him. What did he think he was doing? He couldn’t just . . . He began to walk toward her. The look on his face was intensely sexy. It went from her mouth to her eyes and back to her mouth.

  “I need to make one thing clear before I go. I know you think this”—he paused to gesture between them—“is done, but it’s not. Not even close.”

  “I—”

  That was all she got out before he put his mouth on hers and kissed her with a single-minded focus that made her entire body hum with a desire so strong she was pretty sure she was vibrating.

  When he broke the kiss, he leaned back to study her face as if trying to memorize the way she was looking at him right now. His eyes were a fiery shade of bright blue and he ran his thumb over her swollen bottom lip. A slow smile of satisfaction parted his lips.

  “I’ll see you around, sunshine,” he said. Then he kissed her one more time. It was swift and sweet but no less scorching for its brevity.

  As he left the room, Carly put her hand over her heart. She was pretty sure she was having a heart attack. Jillian came into the bedroom and her eyes were positively bugging out of her pretty little head.

  “Oh, wow, that was totally hot,” she said. She looked at Carly in alarm. “You are so screwed.”

  “Shh,” Carly hushed her friend.

  They listened to his footsteps go down the stairs and then heard the front door shut after him. Carly collapsed onto the messy bed in a heap of stress and nerves. For the first time ever, she thought she might have taken on a man she couldn’t bend to her will.

  “I can’t believe you let him spend the night,” Jillian said. “I never would have come up here, but Gina was in the kitchen and she waved me up. Swear to god, I had no idea he was still here. What was he doing here, by the way? You never let guys sleep over, ever.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Carly said. She draped her forearm over her eyes. What had happened last night? Clearly, she was just in a weird place from moving home, right? Right. “It must have been the emotional upheaval of coming home. I was too exhausted to give him the boot after, well, you know.”

  Jillian was watching her and Carly didn’t like the speculative look in her eye.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Please, I know that look and it is not nothing,” Carly said.

  “I just find it int
eresting that he spent the whole night and you were clearly going to greet the day with your eggs over easy . . .”

  Carly burst out laughing. It was part embarrassment and part genuine humor. Jillian had a way of getting right to the heart of it. Last night had been different for her but now that James was gone, taking the fog of lust with him, she could see that her lapse in judgment in letting him sleep over was just an aberration. Nothing more.

  If there was a tiny part of her shouting that what she’d experienced with James—the chemistry, the way he made her feel worshipped, adored, and lusted for—was not something she felt with most guys, well, she would just hold a pillow over that tiny part of her until she snuffed it out. Problem solved.

  “I think maybe it’s just been a really long time since I was with someone, and I got carried away,” she said.

  “Uh-huh.” The disbelief was loud and clear in Jillian’s voice, but she said no more. Instead, she leaned forward and grabbed Carly’s hand. She pulled her to her feet and studied her face. “Whatever you say but right now we have to go. I have massive orders waiting to be filled, and I need you.”

  “You could have called me,” Carly said. “You didn’t have to come over.”

  “I did but it went right to voice mail.”

  Carly grabbed her phone out of her purse. She glanced at the display and pressed the button on the front. It didn’t respond. Her battery must have died. She tucked her charger into her purse and then shrugged on her jacket.

  “No, don’t leave me,” Ike squawked from his cage.

  Carly and Jillian exchanged a glance.

  “Did he just . . . ?” Jillian asked.

  “No, he can’t understand . . .”

  “Don’t leave me,” he squawked. And Saul, as if sensing his pal needed backup, gave a soft woof and then lowered his head, giving Carly a look full of sad eyes. She’d have to be made of stone to resist him.

  “Can they?” Carly asked.

  Carly patted Saul’s head, then she approached Ike’s cage suspecting the pretty green bird and his dog buddy were playing her. Ike hopped from foot to foot, bobbed his head, and shook his tail feathers while Saul’s gaze remained steadily aggrieved.

  “Maybe they’re lonely,” Jillian said.

  “I suppose I could play the radio for them,” Carly said.

  “Then Ike might start talking like a DJ—or worse, some blowhard on talk radio.”

  “If Gina would let me put them in the main part of the house at least they’d be able to see the goings-on,” Carly said. “Up here, I’m afraid they’re going to be sad and bored.”

  Jillian sighed and then nodded. “Find his travel cage and Saul’s leash. They can come to the shop with us. But Saul can’t shed all over the food. He’ll have to stay in the yard in back. And if Ike poops on anything, he’s out and you’re cleaning it up.”

  “I promise,” Carly said. “Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will come into the shop and fall in love with them and offer to take them off of my hands for the very low price of nothing.”

  “A bargain,” Jillian said.

  Carly put his travel cage on the bed and opened the door. Turning toward Ike, she opened the main door and slid her hand in. She’d been watching the parrot for almost a week now but every time she had to pick him up, she got tense and nervous.

  She’d seen him crack a nut with his gray beak like it was made out of paper. She really didn’t want him to do that to her knuckles. She took a deep breath and put her finger in front of his belly so he could step on her outstretched hand.

  Ike bobbed his head and gave her the side-stare.

  “If you want to come with us, you have to climb on,” Carly said.

  Ike shook himself once more and then stepped onto her hand, the fleshy part between her thumb and pointer finger. She knew it was ridiculous but she was pleased that he trusted her enough to do so.

  “I suppose this just makes sense since I have to take him to Gavin for a checkup anyway,” Carly said. “Our appointment is at two. I’m hoping he can tell me how to curb his language issues.”

  “Shut your cake hole,” Ike said.

  Carly put him in the smaller travel cage and sighed. “That is not going to find you a nice home, Mr. Ike.”

  “Nice home,” he said. “James, oh, James!”

  Saul woofed and Carly was pretty sure he was laughing at her.

  Jillian snorted, and Carly felt her face get hot as the bird really did do a spot-on impression of her. “Huh, I think I prefer the profanity.”

  • • •

  James sat in his car, pondering the extraordinary events of the past twenty-four hours. Carly DeCusati. The name on the mailbox confirmed what he had suspected when he first saw her yesterday at the park, having just hurtled back into his life like a comet scorching the earth. For a second, he considered checking his skin for burn marks but then again even if he was suffering from third-degree blisters, he’d do it all over again. The woman had straight-up blown his mind.

  They’d met once before, a lifetime ago, and he had never forgotten her. He could still see her in her red dress with her long dark brown hair loose about her shoulders. She had beamed at him with a smile that stopped his heart even though she hadn’t really seen him. No, her entire focus had been on the man she was with at the time. James hadn’t even been a blip on her radar.

  But for James she had punched right through his chest to imprint on his heart and he had never forgotten her or the time they’d spent together. In fact, it had taken everything in him to do the right thing and walk away from her back then, but he’d done it.

  Oh, he’d dated and he’d even managed to fall in love once or twice but no one had ever hit him with the same impact that Carly DeCusati had. He felt as if he’d been waiting forever for her or someone like her to come into his life and then BOOM there she was.

  Did he believe in love at first sight? Yes, he did, because that was exactly what he’d felt the very first time he’d laid eyes upon her. He had been completely undone by her then and now, after last night, he was even more sure that she was the one.

  He caught sight of his reflection in the rearview mirror and realized he was grinning like an idiot. He tried to stop, really, he did, but the smile on his face could not be bent into a scowl no matter how hard he tried. Last night had been a fantasy come true, a night he would never, ever forget.

  Then he frowned, remembering what Carly had said right before they landed in another clinch, a clinch that still had Mr. Happy looking for his new playmate. Carly had been very clear that she wasn’t interested in anything more than a onetime-only, no-strings-attached, don’t-call-me-in-fact-please-lose-my-number sort of deal. That had been his opening to come clean about their past, the fact that they actually had met before, but he’d been caught off guard and the moment had slipped by him.

  He knew he should respect her wishes. It was the gentlemanly, honorable thing to do. He knew that. Yeah, and he had no intention of doing anything even remotely like that. Although, if she did remember meeting him before, things could get complicated, really complicated. He considered the possibility and knew that he’d have to come clean sooner or later, but he simply could not walk away from this woman, not again.

  When something this good came along, a once-in-a-lifetime sort of something, it was a moral imperative to follow up on it. Especially since she had walked into his life twice now. Perhaps if they saw each other again, there wouldn’t be the same fire-to-gasoline sort of combustion they had shared the previous evening, but he knew that wasn’t true. The way Carly affected him every time she crossed his radar proved that one night spent naked and sweaty together was not enough to get each other out of their systems. James suspected that would take a lifetime.

  Yes, Carly had made it pretty clear that a repeat was not going to happen as it was not her way. But, she had
also let him spend the night and she had been clear that that was not her usual style either. So, he was already off to a good start.

  Now he just had to figure out how to see her again. Winter was coming and the tourists were leaving Bluff Point as fast as the leaves were dropping. By the end of October, their town would shrink from its summer seasonal high of twenty-four thousand to a mere eight thousand. In a few weeks, it would actually be difficult not to run into each other. His smile returned with his optimism.

  He saw a curtain twitch in the window above and realized that sitting in his car not moving probably looked weird, so he turned the key and fired up the engine. He checked his phone, noting that he had two voice mails and several emails to deal with from work, but first he needed coffee.

  Caffeine would help defog his brain and maybe help him come up with a plan to get Carly to see him again. Because, oh yes, he fully intended to see her again if for no other reason than to prove to her that last night had been pure, delightful, most definitely repeatable madness.

  • • •

  The bells on the shop door clanged and Carly shot a glance at it over her shoulder. When she recognized the unkempt, shaggy head of blonde hair and the beaky nose of the man who entered, she felt her heart settle back down in her chest. Zach, of course, it was Zach.

  She was not disappointed. She was relieved. Really. She hadn’t expected James to swoop into the bakery and sweep her off of her feet. She didn’t even want him to. In fact, she was afraid that he would, yeah, that was it. She didn’t want to have to endure a prolonged conversation about the status of their non-relationship and have him get all butt hurt and sad.

  Because it was just a night of good sex. Okay, that was a lie. It was the best night she’d ever had, with the nicest guy and the hottest sex, but still, Carly didn’t do the couple thing. She had learned her lesson and she was never going to let herself be that vulnerable again. Even if James could do the most amazing things with his hands and his mouth, she was not interested. All of a sudden, she felt overly warm and glanced around the shop to see if a fire had broken out in the bakery kitchen.