Jinxed!

by Jacquie D’Alessandro

  He didn’t say anything for nearly half a minute, but she could tell by his frown that he was considering her words. Finally he cleared his throat. “There’s nothing wrong with having goals and working hard. In trying to succeed.”

  “I agree. But I think there is something wrong when all your time and energy is devoted to your career and every other aspect of your life becomes just going through the motions. When success is measured only in terms of getting ahead professionally. When people and relationships and participating in life cease to matter.”

  “And you think I’m one of these soulless clones?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s pretty harsh.”

  “Did you want me to lie?”

  “No. But I think you’re wrong.”

  “Really? I’ll prove I’m right. Close your eyes. And no peeking.” After he’d complied, she asked, “What’s depicted in the painting on the wall behind your desk?”

  A frown bunched between his eyebrows. “There’s a painting on the wall behind my desk?”

  “Oh, brother. You’re worse than I thought.”

  He opened his eyes and looked at the wall behind her. “That’s not fair. My office was redone during the renovations.”

  “Uh-huh. And when was it finished?”

  “Three weeks ago.”

  “Three weeks is a long time not to notice something that’s right under your nose, or in this case, hanging right over your head. I rest my case.”

  “Give me another chance.”

  She blew out a sigh and closed her eyes. “Fine. What color are my eyes?”

  Without hesitation he said, “Golden-brown. Like caramel. With little flecks of gold. The irises are surrounded by a dark ring that looks like melted chocolate.”

  Lacey’s lids popped open and she found him looking at her intently. “You seem surprised,” he said.

  “I am. Stunned actually. I didn’t think-”

  “I’d noticed? Believe me, I’ve noticed. Maybe I’m not the soulless clone you think I am.”

  “Maybe not. But you’re still a rigid rule follower. And way too prim and proper for me.”

  “You think I’m rigid? Prim? Proper?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You say that to a man with whom you shared wild sex against a coffee-house counter?”

  “One bout of wild sex that we both agreed was the result of temporary insanity isn’t enough to change my opinion.”

  “I see. So then you say that to a pirate who used a knife to cut off the dozens of tiny buttons running down the front of your gown?” He reached out and traced a single fingertip down the front of her shirt, slowly circling each button, halting her breath…and hardening her nipples. “A pirate who made love to you until you were too exhausted to move?”

  She had to swallow twice to find her voice. “That was just a dream.”

  “And a helluva good one.”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  “Your assertion that I’m too proper…you realize it challenges me to prove you wrong.”

  His words, spoken in that husky voice, the way he was looking at her, as if he wanted to devour her, ignited fire in her veins. She could feel her pulse throbbing everywhere. In her temples. At the base of her throat. Between her legs.

  “Well, even if my assertion is incorrect, that still doesn’t mean us spending time together is a good idea. After all, you said I wasn’t your type.”

  “I think it’s probably more accurate to say that based on the wrong way we’ve rubbed each other since almost the minute we met, I wouldn’t have believed us compatible in any way. But there was nothing wrong with the way we rubbed each other Saturday night.” As if to prove his point, he stepped forward and lightly brushed his pelvis against hers, shooting sparks to her every nerve ending.

  “Uh, no,” she murmured. “There was nothing wrong with that.”

  He studied her for several heartbeats, his blue eyes breathing fire. “Since we’ve both said we’re tired of games, I’ll throw out the unvarnished truth-I know you said we needed to forget what happened between us Saturday night. And believe me, I’ve tried. But I can’t. I’ve tried to stay away from you, but I simply don’t want to. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, even when I managed to fall asleep. And there is nothing prim or proper about the things I want to do to you.”

  A dark thrill she couldn’t name rippled through Lacey. And based on his honesty, she couldn’t give him anything other than the same consideration in return. “I could waste a lot of time repeating everything you just said or I could sum it up in five words: that makes two of us.” She slid her palms up his chest and over his shoulders to link her fingers at his nape. “And I’m tired of wasting time. Here’s my unvarnished truth-I’ve been dying to get my hands on you again.”

  With a groan, he pulled her against him. “Me, too. My hands, my mouth…all of me on all of you.”

  “That sounds perfect. And, um, now would be fine with me.” She settled herself more firmly against him and a combination of impatience and anticipation sizzled through her at the intimate press of his erection against her belly. “Right now.”

  8

  R IGHT NOW …

  Lacey’s words reverberated through Evan’s mind, snapping the thin thread he’d managed to retain on his control. Desperate to taste her, his mouth came down on hers, demanding and insistent, and her lips parted, dragging a groan of relief from his throat. Finally…finally, she was in his arms again.

  Clearly, whatever had gripped them Saturday night wasn’t a fluke. She was as impatient to touch him as he was to touch her because she yanked his T-shirt from his jeans and coasted her hands up his back. Pleasure shuddered through him, but it wasn’t enough. He needed them skin to skin.

  “Hold on,” he ground out. Her arms tightened around him, and cupping his hands around her buttocks, he lifted her. “Wanna see if a desk works just as well as a counter?”

  “God, yes.”

  He stepped between her legs, spreading them wide, and rolled his hips against her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he leaned forward to press his lips against the base of her throat.

  “You smell so damn good,” he muttered against her fragrant skin while his fingers made quick work of the buttons on her shirt. He ran his tongue down the side of her neck in a long, slow lick, absorbing the shudder that ran through her. “Taste so damn good. Like sugar and flowers.”

  She tipped back her head, affording him better access to her soft skin. When he’d flicked the last shirt button free, he skimmed his hands inside the white cotton and filled his palms with her lace-covered breasts. He kissed his way down her chest and circled his tongue around her already hard nipple, then drew the peak into his mouth.

  Gasping, she slapped her hands on the desk and arched her back, offering more of herself, an invitation he instantly accepted. The rational part of his mind commanded that he not rush this time, that he savor her, but between his own raging need and her impatience, his body wasn’t listening. He skimmed her shirt down her arms then dropped the garment to the floor. Seconds later her bra joined her shirt, baring her generous breasts to his avid gaze.

  “Beautiful,” he said, his voice a husky rasp, watching her eyes darken with arousal as he rolled her tight nipples between his fingers.

  “No fair,” she murmured, reaching for his shirt. “You have on more clothes than I do.” She tugged his shirt upward and seconds later, it topped the growing pile on the floor.

  She ran her hands over his chest, then down his abdomen. His muscles jumped with jolts of pleasure everywhere she touched him, and with a groan he kissed her again, feeling like a starving man who’d just been given a feast.

  Forcing himself not to rush, he flicked open the button on her black pants, then slowly lowered the zipper. When he slipped his hand inside her panties, they both groaned.

  “You’re already wet.” His fingers glided over her slick flesh, and the musky scent of h
er arousal filled his head, tightening his groin. He circled her opening, then slipped two fingers inside her. “And so damn hot.”

  She gasped and threw back her head. “I’ve been this way. Hot and aroused. Since Saturday night. All your fault.”

  “Hot and aroused…glad to find out it wasn’t just me.”

  “Really glad to find out it wasn’t just me.” She leaned farther back and pressed herself against his hand while his fingers slowly pumped in her wet heat. “I’m not going to last very long if you keep that up.”

  He eased a third finger inside her and leaned forward to tease a plump nipple with the tip of his tongue. “Good. Let’s see how fast you can come.”

  She came fast. And hard. Throwing her head back and pulsing around his fingers while her body arched and quivered and her long, guttural groan of pleasure filled the room.

  He slipped his fingers from her body, and still breathing hard, she raised her head and looked at him through glittering eyes. “Wow. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.”

  “More mine.” She reached out and trailed her fingers over the bulge in his jeans. “Looking forward to returning the favor.”

  “That makes two of us.” Stepping back, he lifted each of her feet and slipped off her shoes. “Raise your hips.” After she complied, he slipped her pants and panties down her legs where they joined the rest of the clothes on the floor.

  “I have a condom in my purse.”

  “I have one in my back pocket.”

  She opened the button on his jeans with one hand while reaching behind him with the other. The whisper of his zipper opening tightened his muscles in anticipation. “Condom in your back pocket, huh?” she said, drawing her hand forward and wiggling the packet between her fingers. “Pretty sure of yourself.”

  “More hopeful than sure. But I figured I’d better keep protection close by. I knew if I got my hands on you again, all bets would be off.”

  “I like your hands on me.”

  “Again, that makes two of…us.” The last word ended on a hiss of pleasure as her hands slipped beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs. He toed off his sneakers, yanked off his socks, then held his breath while she slid his underwear and jeans down his legs. He kicked both garments aside with his foot.

  “Oh, my,” she purred, touching the base of his straining penis with a single fingertip and dragging it slowly upward. “You’ve managed to change my opinion about you being prim and proper, but rigid is obviously still a problem.”

  “You’ve no one to blame but, ahhhh, yourself.” The erotic sight and feel of her fingers surrounding him, cupping him, gently squeezing him was driving him insane. “You have no idea how incredible that feels.”

  Her lips curved upward in a lazy, sexy smile. “Bet I do-thanks to you.”

  “I don’t know how much more I can take.” He watched a drop of pearly fluid bead on the head of his penis, a drop she captured with her fingertip and slowly spread over the sensitive head. “I’m done,” he ground out, reaching for the condom.

  He quickly sheathed himself, then settled his hands on her thighs and urged them wider apart. Lacey wrapped her legs around his waist, and grasping her hips, he lifted her over his erection and then slowly lowered her.

  Once he was buried to the hilt, he settled her back on the desk and rolled his hips. A hum of approval rumbled in her throat, and he withdrew nearly all the way from her body then sank deep again, the slick pull killing him with pleasure. Again, another long, slow thrust, then another, faster, harder. He fought the need to come roaring up his spine, knowing he couldn’t hold it off much longer. The instant she cried out and he felt her tighten around him, he let himself go. His orgasm exploded through him, shudders racking his body. When they subsided, he hauled her against him and she buried her face in the spot where his neck and shoulder met.

  “You’ve certainly given me something new to think about every time I sit at this desk,” he managed to say.

  “Good,” she said, her warm breath caressing his skin. “Listen, except for Saturday night, it’s been a while since I’ve done that, so I’ve gotta ask-and I want the unvarnished truth. Was that as incredible as I think it was?”

  “I think so. But I think we should do it again. Just to make sure.”

  Her huff of laughter blew against his jaw. “Good thing I brought a condom, too.”

  “Very good thing,” he agreed, dipping his chin to brush his mouth over hers. “And maybe we can actually make it to a bed, or at least a sofa at some point.”

  She smiled. “There you go, being all prim and proper again.”

  He skimmed a fingertip down one of those sexy dimples. “You said it’s been a while. How long?”

  “Since I’ve had sex? Other than Saturday night, a few months. Since a man made me feel like that? Umm, I don’t know. I don’t think any man has ever made me feel like that.” She ran her tongue over his bottom lip. “You’re…potent.”

  “That makes two of us,” he said, echoing the earlier sentiment. He lightly ran his hands up and down her smooth back. “You know, I think I’ve figured out how we can spend our time while we un-curse ourselves.”

  She looped her arms around his neck, leaned back and smiled. “Is that an invitation to have yet another bout of wild sex?”

  “Another bout or two or twelve or twelve dozen.”

  “Twelve dozen? We’re gonna need a lot more condoms.”

  “Got plenty at my place.” He cupped her face between his hands and tried to name the warm feeling spreading through him. He wasn’t quite sure, but it felt suspiciously like…happiness. “Wanna come home with me?”

  The invitation surprised him since it broke his own rule of not bringing women to his house. But he couldn’t deny he wanted her there. In his home. In his bed. Her serious eyes searched his and he wished he knew what she was thinking. Then her lips twitched. “You have a desk there?”

  He nodded. “And a hot tub. And a nice big bed.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  A smile lifted his lips. “That makes two of us.”

  9

  ON A FRIDAY EVENING one month after that first night spent with Evan, Lacey locked the door to Constant Cravings and headed across the Fairfax courtyard. She’d arranged to take the weekend off, and anticipation curled through her at the getaway she and Evan had planned. He needed to be in San Francisco next week for business and had invited her to drive up with him two days early so they could enjoy the weekend there. Lacey planned to fly home Sunday night while Evan remained.

  As she made her way across the courtyard, she realized that next week would be the first time in a month that they wouldn’t be together. And she further realized that she was going to miss him-more than she ever thought she could miss a person.

  She continuously marveled at how things could change so drastically in a matter of only a few weeks, and pinched herself at least twice a day to make sure this relationship with Evan was real and not some figment of her imagination.

  She’d spent the first week of her time with him convinced that their attraction was nothing more than sex, a firecracker of lust that would quickly burn out after a few sparks. Simply a case of wildly aroused libidos colliding.

  But the exact opposite had occurred, and as that week rolled into another and another, she realized this was not just sex. Every moment spent with him was a revelation, showing another aspect of his personality, stripping away another layer of the soulless clone she’d mistakenly believed him to be.

  Given their explosive first encounter in her shop, she’d fully expected to enjoy spending time with him in bed-where she’d quickly learned that there was nothing prim or proper about him-but this…this was different. She’d enjoyed good sex before. Had even experienced what she’d thought, at the time, to be stupendous sex. But making love with Evan was like the opening of a new dimension. He engaged not only her body, but her mind and spirit as well, touching her on every level in a way no other man ever had.<
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  Every day she realized something new about him, and she’d yet to learn anything she hadn’t liked. What was there not to like about a man who was kind to his neighbors, adopted a zany stray dog and, as she’d discovered, had single-handedly arranged for GreenSpace Property Management to make a sizable contribution to the local children’s hospital? He loved surprises-both giving and receiving them-and had greatly appreciated her efforts when she’d baked him a batch of bed-shaped cookies, which she’d dubbed Take Me to Bed. He’d loved the sweet treats, and she’d loved the way he’d done just that-taken her to bed. Again and again and again. He equally enjoyed the ice-cream-cone cookies she’d baked him last week called Lick Me-as had she when he’d taken the command literally.

  In spite of his claim that he hadn’t excelled at team sports as a kid, she discovered during excursions to the beach and a local park that they shared of a love of swimming and jogging and that he built a mean sand castle. She also learned that he couldn’t toss a Frisbee to save his life, although the latter could have been blamed on the Sasha-chewed holes in the plastic disk. Clearly Frisbee translated into “chew toy” in Russian.

  He taught her the strategy of playing strip blackjack-better than strip poker, he claimed, because you got naked faster. Lacey had ended up naked first and been declared the loser, but as far as she was concerned, the way he’d run his hands and tongue over her body had made her the winner. In return, she’d taught him the many erotic ways that frosting could be used-none of which appeared in any cookbook.

  She also discovered they had a lot in common. A shared love of trying new foods. Action films. Murder mysteries. Crossword puzzles. A dislike of lima beans. They discussed current events, pop culture, religion and politics. They agreed on some issues, disagreed on others, but regardless of whether their views were similar or not, she found their discussions and debates exhilarating. There wasn’t a single subject he shied away from talking about, and unlike previous men she’d dated, Evan really listened.