by Vivian Wood
“I think your daughter’s doing pretty good,” Jack said quickly.
Addy hurried to clean up the plates as they finished up. “Kenzie, it’s getting late. Maybe you should get Dad home?”
Kenzie looked at her phone.
“Yeah, I have something to get to tonight, anyway,” she said. “Come on, Dad. I’ll take you home.”
For once, Kenzie’s social life worked in my favor.
It felt strange to hug her dad goodbye, but for a second it felt like the old days.
“Need some help washing?” Jack asked.
“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “Just need to get the cheese off, mostly. The dishwasher will take care of the rest.”
She stole glances at him beside her at the sink. When she checked to make sure the table was clear, she returned to his broad back bent over the farmhouse sink while he scrubbed away at the casserole pan. Overwhelmed, she embraced him from behind.
“Thank you for today,” she whispered.
He started to turn. Before she could get herself into trouble, she ran off to her room.
Chapter Fifteen
Jack poured the creamer generously into the thick coffee mug emblazoned with Addy’s family’s restaurant logo. He sprinkled in two spoonfuls of Splenda and swirled the sweet concoction.
From the bedroom doorway, he paused. She was beautiful when she slept, innocent and unconcerned. It was the only time he ever saw her without worries visibly dotted across her face.
Addy was sprawled across the bed with one tanned leg slung over the sheet. Her t-shirt had inched up during the night to expose a stretch of her toned stomach.
With each deep breath, he couldn’t help but notice the rise and fall of her chest. Clearly braless, for a moment he almost thought he could see through the white material.
“Morning,” he said, just as his arousal started to shift in his scrubs.
“Morning,” she murmured, eyes still closed. Slowly, she opened them and squinted. “Is that coffee?”
“With creamer and Splenda, just like you like. You know, those fake sweeteners will kill you,” he said with a smile as he moved toward her outstretched hands.
“So will a morning without coffee,” she said before she took a sip. “Okay, you got my attention. And now I know you want something. What’s up?”
Jack grinned. “Get up. Get dressed. The stars have magically aligned, and we both have the day off.”
She groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, doctor’s orders. And wear workout clothes or something.”
“We’re working out? No, I don’t think so,” she said and put the coffee on the nightstand. “No coffee is worth that.”
“We’re not working out. But wear something you don’t mind getting dirty.”
“What?”
Before she could argue, he left the room and shut the door.
“What are we doing?” she called behind him.
“It’s a surprise! Hurry up,” he yelled from the living room.
Twenty minutes later, she appeared in the living room freshly showered wearing black yoga pants and a heathered gray Santa Fe University top with a generous V-neck. A strappy black sports bra could be seen underneath.
“Okay, I’m ready. Now tell me,” she said.
“Everything’s in the car. You’ll see.”
She groaned, but let him grab her hand and drag her toward the Jeep. Addy peeked in the back, but all she could make out were duffel bags.
“Are we going on a hike?” she asked. She slipped on a pair of aviators and stuffed her hair under a baseball cap.
“Quite the opposite, actually. But that’s all the hint you get,” he said. “Here, eat this,” he said as he handed her a meal replacement bar. “You’ll need it.”
From the corner of his eye, he watched her break off pieces by hand and chew slowly. Jack checked the distance. They were getting closer. Soon, signs for Black Chasm Cavern started to appear. He watched her take them in and shot him a curious look.
Jack pulled into a gravel lot.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re going spelunking.”
“No way,” she said.
Addy shook her head vehemently, but took the blue jumpsuit he handed her. She stepped into the belay belt and warily took the red helmet he handed her from the bag.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re in good hands.”
As he hoisted the belt over her hips and cinched it tight at her groin, he couldn’t help himself. Being this close to her, his hands inches from that sweetness he’d been teased with.
Addy audibly gulped. Jack looked up from where he squatted before her and saw a deep blush spread across her face.
“Let’s go,” he said, and gave her belt one final test tug.
He led the way into the first cavern and gestured for her to turn her light on.
“I didn’t know real spelunking, or whatever you call it, was allowed in here,” she said. “I thought it was like a tourist trap.”
“From what I could tell, it isn’t allowed,” he said.
“Jack!”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I did my research. Lots of people sneak in for a little private caving.”
As they rounded a corner, he held up a flashlight to the first formation he’d read about.
“Check this out, it’s an aeolian.”
“What’s that?” She came up behind him, mildly breathless from the touch of fear the darkness tends to bring.
“It was created by the wind.” Jack turned off the handheld light and slipped it into his pocket. Only the lights on their helmets illuminated the whirling pattern.
“Come on,” he said. He couldn’t see her hand, but he felt it and she grasped him tight.
“Where are we going?” she said. Addy whispered it, the sacredness of the cave omnipresent.
“The first belay bolt.”
He helped her up the first minor ascent and then scrambled after her. In the oily darkness of the little perch, the sediment walls pressed in around them.
He felt like kissing her. She smelled of flowers every time he got close.
The rest of the morning unfolded with plenty of close calls. Once, in the dark zone of the cavern where daylight could never reach, he almost couldn’t stop himself.
He came close, crouched down to avoid the low overhang. Addy didn’t need to duck at all. Instead, she looked up at him, her chin tilted upward and those plush lips nearly begged him to close the distance between them.
Yet he resisted.
This was a stupid idea, he realized as they made their way through the tightest quarters of the cavern.
It required them to be on hands and knees. Addy moved ahead of him, her heart-shaped ass punctuated by the outline of the belt. He steadied his breath but couldn’t look away.
It took all his willpower not to grasp that belt, pull her back to him, rip off her clothes and sink his hardness deep inside her. With every inch she moved forward on hands and knees, he grew harder.
As they cleared the tunnel, she glanced back at him over her shoulder. Only his headlight illuminated her face.
Ask me to take you, right here, he thought.
But she didn’t. She only smiled and stood up, brushing her knees with her fingertips.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “What’s that called?”
Addy pulled out her own flashlight to illuminate the swirling column.
“Helictite,” he said. “They’re amazing, aren’t they?”
He prayed she wouldn’t shine the light down and see his raging hard-on. Jack had never been so thankful for the darkness.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” she said quietly.
She reached for his hand and wove her fingers through his easily. It should have been romantic, but it was beyond that. Jack had seen many things in his life, incredible things, but with Addy he saw them with fresh eyes—her eyes.
Had he come alone or with anyone else, he would have simply ticked
it off as another helictite featured in one of his many adventures. She made it different, special. She showed him the wonders right in front of him.
He let her lead the way and choose the next fork. As he watched her ass sashay in front of him and her hips swing side to side, he tried to figure it out. He’d never obsessed about a girl so much in his life.
But she’s not just any girl, is she?
All the others had basically thrown themselves at him. Even Rosalie. He was used to all the games they tried, whether they were flirty or aloof. The ones like Rosalie who were skilled at playing hard to get were still easy to read.
Rosalie had slept with him on the third date and swore she’d never done anything like that before.
But not Addy. She wasn’t like any of them. It was refreshing, and strange, especially after he’d been awarded his MD title. The girls came easily enough before that, but afterward? Even a hint that he was a doctor made the most exquisite of women flock to him.
Why was Addy immune to it?
If anything, she seemed to be the one trying to keep everything light and breezy.
Fuck. If this is a game, she’s better at it than I am.
Had he met his match? He couldn’t tell. But Addy’s seeming indifference to him made him want her even more. And that little incident in the bathroom? He couldn’t be totally certain that she would have fucked him had Kenzie not interrupted.
She’s so quick to switch gears, she could have called it quits at any minute.
In front of him, she leaned down to squeeze through another small space. Jack reached out, desperate for just a touch of her. To feel her ass in his hands again. Just like that night in the bathroom.
Just like his dream when she let him cradle her cheeks in his hands while she rode his face, demanded with her body that he tongue her clit generously before he dipped it into her center. “Fuck me, please.”
He still remembered Dream Addy and how she’d begged for it, even while knowing she was in control. She could have asked anything of him.
“Is that the sun?” Her voice in real time broke his trance.
“Looks like it,” he said. Jack commanded his erection to subside by the time they reached the exit. “Stop.”
She turned. “What is it?”
“You can’t just go out in the sun like that. You have to stay here a minute, let your eyes readjust.”
They leaned against the cool walls of the cave, half in the darkness they’d just shared and half in the sun. Addy squinted into the sunlit greenery. She turned to him and opened her mouth. Just one word, and I’m yours, he thought.
“I could use a beer,” she said, and stretched overhead.
“Yeah, okay. Let’s find a bar,” he said, deflated.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop eye fucking her.
Chapter Sixteen
“Does that sound too serial killer?” she asked.
Addy pointed to the first highway sign for food that they passed after spelunking.
“Noah’s Ark Burgers and More? No, not at all,” Jack said.
She was exhausted. Addy leaned the seat back and pressed her palms against her thighs. There was a dull burn where the belt had dug into her skin. Still, it had been worth it.
She’d never felt so alive in her life. And being with Jack in the dark, the sexual tension between them, the way she’d felt his eyes on her ass every time she was in front of him—it had been intoxicating.
Addy kept waiting for him to kiss her, to throw her against the wall, to do anything at all, but he’d behaved the entire time.
It wasn’t just the spelunking that had exhausted her. Waiting, maddeningly so, for him to make a move was even worse. She thought she’d explode by the time they’d reached the exit.
What, does he think I didn’t notice him checking me out all day? Does he think I didn’t do the same every time he looked away?
She shook her head and stared out where her window should have been as Jack exited toward the macabrely named burger joint.
You need to get it together, she told herself.
What did she expect? For him to slam her against a cave wall and fuck her wildly in the dark?
Well, maybe, she thought. Even the idea of it got her wet and she squirmed in the seat. But he’s such a classic bad boy. And such a bad life decision.
The little restaurant was decorated with a huge mural of an ark. Happy animals, two by two, climbed onboard.
“What are they so happy about?” Jack murmured. “Cows, pigs… all the animals they probably serve in there on a bun.”
“No penguin, I hope,” Addy said.
She pointed to the black and white cartoon animals. He chuckled, but it wasn’t enough to cut the tension between them.
Fortunately, the menu was pretty all-American basic. They ordered two cheeseburgers with a basket of tater tots to share. Ice cold beers arrived with the made-to-order lunch and Addy pounced on it, famished.
At least I can feed one kind of hunger, she thought. The cheese melted onto her fingers. She sucked it off greedily.
“Hey,” Jack whispered.
“Don’t give me any crap,” she murmured. Addy didn’t take her eyes off the burger. “I’m hungry, okay?”
“No, not that. Look.”
Addy looked up and Jack gestured with his eyes toward the other side of the restaurant. “What?”
“See that old couple? They’ve been staring at us. Maybe this is one of those serial killer towns,” he stage whispered.
Addy realized it was an old couple from her hometown. The two who were always in the soda shop for the early bird breakfast special. She couldn’t recall their names, but she knew they were huge gossips. It was all they had to do.
“Oh, God,” she said. Addy dropped the burger and buried her head in her hands.
“What? Hey, watch it. You’re going to get cheese in your hair.” Jack leaned across the table and swatted her hands away from her face.
“I know them,” she said.
“You do?”
“Well, not really. They’re the town gossips. I’m sure they’re taking notes, ready to report back everything they see.”
“Oh. Well, then let’s give them something to talk about.”
Quickly, Jack moved to her side of the booth and wrapped his arm around her. He brushed his lips against her ear and instant goosebumps spread across her skin.
He cupped her chin in his hand and forced her face upward. Limp in his arms, she opened her mouth slightly for his kiss. It was warm, pillowy, and simultaneously familiar and exotic.
Addy melted into it, even though she was aware it was for show. But she couldn’t help herself. She wanted more. She clutched at his shirt and pulled him closer, opened her mouth to welcome his tongue against hers.
Jack obliged and explored her mouth. He moved to her jawline and inched toward her neck. As she started to make those little animal noises in his ear, he felt his cock stiffen.
She felt his hand graze against her breast while her nipple hardened to attention. There was almost nothing between her nipple, which begged for his kisses, and his fingers. Just two flimsy pieces of fabric.
She wanted more than anything to press herself against his touch. To encourage his hands to roam freely. Open her legs so he could feel how she’d started to soak through those yoga pants at his touch.
But Addy fluttered her eyes open and saw that the old couple had already left.
Should I tell him? No, she thought. Just one more minute. Just give me one more minute…
Addy closed her eyes and let herself respond to his touch. He was buried in her neck, and as she pressed her breast against his hand she felt a sting as he started to suck her skin.
Already, she knew he’d leave a mark. It made her wetter, knowing she’d be branded as his.
Through her t-shirt, he pinched her nipple lightly. She responded with a moan loud enough that it broke through her consciousness. Addy didn’t care, pushed closer
against him.
He pulled at her nipple through the material and she parted her legs. But Jack’s hand stayed at her breast. Frustrated, she reached for his crotch. He was swollen, hard, about to burst through the fabric.
The feel of it shot her into a frenzy. She wanted him, needed him, right then.
Who gives a damn if it’s the middle of a restaurant?
“Hey,” he said suddenly. “Whoa.”
She opened her eyes to see him pulled back. He panted slightly, flushed, but at least he had the wherewithal to keep both of them in check.
“Uh, sorry,” she said. Reluctantly, she pulled away. “I guess I just… got carried away with the whole thing.”
“It’s okay,” he said.
The waitress promptly arrived with the bill and gave them both a hard look.
Shit. Noah’s Ark. This is probably a super-Christian mom and pop place.
Addy shifted her weight awkwardly while Jack paid the bill.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded silently and followed him to the car, head down like a child caught doing something naughty.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as they merged back onto the highway.
“What’s wrong? You know, we don’t need to touch each other or act all cutesy unless Rosalie or Jeremy are around.”
“What the hell?” his voice trailed off. She watched a dark cloud settle across his face. “Fine,” he said. “You’re right.”
He stared out the windshield and Addy discreetly inched away so her back faced him. The drive home was long and silent.
She commanded herself not to squirm, no matter how uncomfortable the sticky wetness between her thighs had become.
Chapter Seventeen
“Thank you for unloading the dishwasher,” Addy said formally.
Jack sighed. It had been days since their spelunking adventure, followed by the makeout disaster at that weird restaurant, and the tension was palpable between them. Addy was trying so hard to keep things “friendly but separate” that the whole situation had become incredibly awkward.
And it’s my fault, Jack thought.
