“Still…” She shook her head, clearly unconvinced, and then gave him a sudden frown. “What do you mean you wouldn’t take anyone to a reception like that?”
“Why would I bore a date with that kind—”
“Stop it,” she said, cutting him off with an angry glint in her eyes. “Last night was an honor and you’d be a jerk not to accept the acknowledgment.”
Anger churned in his gut. “That’s not the topic of our discussion.”
“Tough.”
He snorted at the stubborn lift of her chin. “It’s no big deal, Doc. I have the time and resources. It’s not like I’m making any sacrifices.”
She stared silently at him with a look he was beginning to recognize. She was trying to figure him out. Get inside his head.
“Dammit, Doc, don’t think just because we stuck our tongues in each other’s mouths you know me. You don’t.”
She didn’t bat an eye at his choice of words but gave him that serene smile that annoyed him just as much as that measuring look. “Better and easier to give than to receive, isn’t it?”
“Keep it up. If you recall, I have a very effective way of shutting you up.”
Confusion drew her brows together, making her look sweet and naive. But then understanding dawned, and she glared back. Slowly she rose from her chair, her intention unclear by her blank expression.
She rounded the corner of the desk and said, “Maybe I like the way you shut me up.” She shrugged in that coy, feminine way that let a man know he was in trouble. “Maybe I want to…”
Holy shit.
He straightened. She was going to kiss him. Just the thought got his southern hemisphere thinking, expecting, stiffening…
She walked past him.
“You want a bottle of water, I assume,” she called matter-of-factly over her shoulder as she disappeared into the back room.
Nick shook his head, mopped his forehead. He’d actually started to sweat. Who knew what kind of anxious expression had been on his face. The little witch was probably back there laughing.
“Sure,” he called out, beginning to smile when he remembered what he had in store for her. “You might want to bring yourself an extra one.”
She appeared in the next second and handed him the Evian, her suspicious gaze narrowed. “Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to ask what that means.”
“I’m guessing a smart girl like you has already figured it out.”
“Girl?”
“Just a figure of speech, sweetheart.”
“Go ahead, dig yourself in deeper.” She sat down and twisted off the bottle cap.
She was awfully cool today. Not what he’d expected. He eyed her for a moment. “By the way, you were right last night. We shouldn’t have been getting down and dirty by the pond.”
She half sighed, half huffed. “I wouldn’t have called it that.”
“We should’ve gone straight to my place. No interruptions there.”
She rolled her gaze toward the ceiling and then focused on setting the recorder. “Shall we get started with our session?”
“Sure, Doc, anything you want.” He noticed her fingers tremble as she fussed with the recorder. So she wasn’t as cool as she pretended. For some reason, that didn’t console him.
“Ready?”
He nodded, forcing her to look up again.
She pressed the record button and then settled back with the pencil in her hand. It was fairly steady now.
“Okay, let’s see, how did it start?” He looked up quickly, at his slip. She didn’t seem concerned. It was his guilty conscience working on him.
“You did take notes? Maybe even did the diagram we discussed?”
“Notes,” he muttered, and dug into his pocket for the illegible pages. He’d scribbled the highlights of the story at the last minute. Nevertheless, he straightened out the crumpled paper. “Okay, I was at this party. It was daytime, late afternoon, and we were at a lake.”
“We?”
“These two girls—”
“Of course.”
“Are you going to let me tell this?”
She pushed her glasses into place. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay, so we were at this lake, having a few beers, barbecuing, the regular outdoor party stuff that goes on— What?”
Her eyebrows were raised in that scolding schoolmarm look. “You’re not giving me enough details.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I will.” He made it sound like a threat.
She sighed. “You know what I mean. Do you actually know the women? Is the lake familiar?”
“If I know, I’ll tell you. Otherwise assume this is all anonymous, and we can get through this quicker.”
Emma bit back the retort that nearly sprang from her lips. Why the hell was he in such a hurry? Was he late for a date with Tiffany?
After last night, Emma knew this would be a tough session. Acting cool and indifferent helped, but inside her nervous system was working overtime. She’d replayed his kisses a hundred times, ran the palms of her hands over her thighs, her breasts, anyplace he’d touched, wondering what her body felt like to his experienced hands.
Her reaction had been so insane and juvenile it should have been laughable. But she hadn’t laughed. She’d been too confused and self-pitying. Thank goodness she’d finally pulled herself together. She couldn’t allow what happened to compromise her study. When it was all over, and she’d written her thesis, well…
Well nothing. Nick would be gone, moved on to his next distraction, and she’d be busy working her butt off to settle a mountain of student loans. Sometimes life sucked. But it was the only one she had, and crying over lost opportunities wouldn’t get her anywhere. God forbid, it would land her back in Utah, where her mother would eventually leech the life out of her.
“Okay?” He sounded impatient, probably because she hadn’t answered him the first time.
“Fine.” She didn’t even know what he’d said, but she forced herself to concentrate as objectively as possible.
“So we’d all been partying hard, drinking too much and getting daring, when one of the girls decided she wanted to go swimming. Only no one had brought their swimsuits. So she started taking off her clothes. The others whistled and egged her on.”
“Others? I thought there were only three of you.”
“That’s because you interrupted.” His gaze lingered on her mouth long enough to make it go dry.
She swallowed. “Who were the others?”
“This is really hard.”
“You’ve forgotten?” That was a surprise. He usually had excellent recall. “Go ahead and check your notes.”
“I want to kiss you.” His gaze slowly left her mouth to meet her eyes. “I thought I could walk in here and forget about last night.”
“You have to,” she said, resenting the betraying flutter in her stomach. “We have work to do.”
“Maybe if we got in one really good, tonsil-licking kiss along with all the condiments I’d be able to get it out of my system and concentrate.”
A nervous laugh escaped her. “Condiments?” She took in a quick breath and held up her hand. “No, I don’t want to know. No kissing, no touching. Out of the question.”
“Even if it’ll help my concentration?”
“Nick, stop it.”
He slumped, hunching his shoulders forward slightly like a sulking child. “Why?”
She groaned with exasperation.
“One kiss. What’s wrong with that? It shouldn’t last more than…” He shrugged, one side of his mouth lifting. “An hour.”
She jerked in surprise. Whether from his teasing or the fact that she was tempted, she didn’t know which. “Maybe we should resume this session tomorrow.”
“Great. That leaves me free for the next two hours.” His sexy grin finished the suggestion.
“Nick, please.”
His smile vanished, and he stared at her for a mom
ent, regret in his dark eyes. “Let’s finish.”
She nodded, curious as to what suddenly changed his mood. She dared not ask though. If he was willing to continue, she didn’t want to ruin things by getting personal again.
“Let’s see…yeah, there were a few other people. I’m not sure how many, maybe four or five, at least one of them another woman, but they’re kind of hazy. They didn’t do much in the dream except watch.”
Oh, brother. She knew it would go in this direction. Why hadn’t she switched on the air conditioner?
“Okay, so this blonde took off her T-shirt and bra, and then her shorts. All the guys started chanting for her to take off her panties, but she only laughed and then jumped into the water.” He paused, his frown thoughtful, but a smile definitely lurked. “I almost forgot the details. You probably want to know about the woman’s body.”
“Only if it’s important.”
“Well, Doc, let’s say she kind of took center stage for a while.”
“Right.” She took a sip of water.
“The thing I remember most is that she had nice round breasts. Not too big but just right. About so.” He cupped his hands over his chest, his gaze idly wandering toward her breasts. “About your size, in fact.”
The heat immediately flooded the base of her throat, and then rushed to her cheeks. She said nothing. She doubted she could force anything coherent out of her mouth. Especially now that he stared at it again.
“Anyway, she was tan, all over, and really buff like she worked out a lot. And she had great legs just like you.”
That innocent smile of his tempted her more than anything else—to wipe it from his smug face. Instead, she carefully maintained a blank expression and waited for him to continue.
“She got out of the water and you could tell she was really eating up the attention she was getting from everyone. She put on a show by slowly stripping off her panties, which were wet and clinging to her and not hiding a damn thing anyway. Once she was totally naked, she started some stretching and bending exercises, exposing some interesting places.
“All the attention she was getting must have pissed off the other two women because they stripped off their clothes, too, each one making a production of the routine. One had large breasts with nipples that stuck out so far they looked unnatural, as if she were constantly aroused. Which the way she started acting pretty much confirmed.”
He paused to pick up the Evian, taking his sweet time to twist off the cap.
“Need help with that?”
“Anxious for me to continue?” he shot back.
No way she’d take the bait. “I was hoping to complete my thesis in this century.” It took all her self-control not to make a crass remark about his perverted dreams. That would be real professional.
“Chill out, Doc. I won’t keep you hanging.” He smiled, and then took a long, slow sip of water, while she bit her tongue. “This other woman with the…did I tell you she had two nipple rings on each breast? Two each. That’s how much her nipples stuck out.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s why they stuck out so much, because they were really out to…”
Emma drew his wandering attention with three impatient taps of her pencil.
“Right,” he said with an apologetic tone and a devilish gleam in his eye. “Okay, she stood in the middle of everyone, playing with her breasts with these long red nails, and asked if anyone had sucked a nipple ring before. All the guys went nuts, volunteering their service, when she turned to the blonde and asked her if she had.
“The other woman was taken aback at first but she accepted the challenge and approached the brunette. By now everyone else was pulling off their clothes, their eyes glued to the women. The blonde really got into the spirit by ordering the brunette to take off her shorts and then to lie down. She eagerly obeyed, spreading her legs so that we could all see she was completely shaved. Hope this much detail doesn’t offend you, Doc.”
She shook her head, aware of how intently he watched her, not missing a single reaction or nuance. “Go ahead.”
“The two of them were really getting into it and of course all the guys cheered them on, but I just sat back, sipping a beer, watching but not participating. I was the only one who still had on clothes. That’s probably what got to the brunette because she pointed to me and demanded that I go to her. The blonde had been suckling her and then tried to move her mouth lower.
“But the other woman stopped her and said she was saving that course for me. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there while the blonde tore off my clothes. The brunette played with her nipple rings while she laid back and watched. I was getting pretty horny by then and it didn’t take much to encourage me to kneel down between her legs. I was rock-hard by then and just as I lowered my mouth, the blonde grasped the base of my—”
Emma’s pencil snapped. She jumped and stared down at the stub left in her hand.
“Take it easy, Doc. I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
The quiet laughter in his eyes sobered her. She took a deep breath. “Are you sure this was a dream?”
He seemed momentarily disconcerted. “What? You think I made this up?”
“Did you?”
“Doc, you wound me. I thought we were getting to be…friends.”
His subtle but suggestive tone irked her. She took off her glasses and rubbed her weary eyes. Residual mascara and liner from last night smeared her fingertips.
Last night.
What a mistake. Half an hour’s lapse in judgment and everything had changed. If she got through this study objectively it would be a miracle.
“What’s the matter, Doc?” he asked quietly. “I’m not scaring you, am I?”
“No, Nick, you’re not scaring me. You’re pissing me off.” Unmoved, she stared at the surprise in his face. “You must have a dozen women waiting in line to go out with you…do anything you want. But you obviously have the need to harass me. Why?”
“Harass you?” He looked genuinely offended. “I’m sorry you regard my interest in you as annoying or threatening. I like you, Doc. Plain and simple. Stupid me, last night I figured the feeling was mutual.”
She hesitated, knowing the heat would hopelessly hit her face at any second. “I do like you, Nick. I couldn’t deny that if I wanted to, but we’re at different places in life. We want and need different things.”
“For chrissakes, I didn’t ask you to marry me.” He pushed an agitated hand through his hair and focused on something outside the window, looking as steamed as she’d ever seen him.
“That would be rich.” She laughed. “You…mar-ried. It boggles the mind.” He gave her a sharp look. “The thing is, I don’t know what you want from me. A little recreational sex maybe?”
Denial leaped into his eyes, and then guilt. “Harmless, consensual, recreational sex is more accurate.”
“Explain that to me.”
He made a sound of disgust. “What would you call last night’s little tryst?”
“Hormones and poor judgment.”
Incredibly, hurt flickered in his eyes. “Don’t forget mutual.”
“I haven’t forgotten. Not in the least. And I’m not ignoring my responsibility—”
“Excuse me, Doc, but the way I see it, you’re making an awfully big deal out of nothing.”
She smiled sadly. “That’s my point. Last night meant something to me. It was a big deal. If it happens again it could be an even bigger deal.” The squeamish look on his face made her laugh. “Don’t worry, I won’t stalk you. I’m not that infatuated.”
“Damn, I must be losing my touch.” He chuckled but she could tell he was nervous.
“I’m getting off track. The main difference between us is that you’re pretty much set on where you want to be in life. I’m still plodding along.”
“I don’t see your point.” He saw something, judging by the way his jaw set and his eyes hardened.
“Put simply, you have a lot of time
on your hands. I don’t. I work two jobs and spend all my other waking time on my thesis. I don’t have surplus energy to waste.”
He sat silently, staring at her, his nostrils flaring, as though a lot was bubbling inside him, as though he were about to explode. Finally he said, “Maybe we should postpone the rest of this session.”
If he was bluffing, he was in for a surprise. “I agree,” she said, getting to her feet, exhaustion weighing heavily in her neck and shoulders. “About tomorrow’s session…” She hesitated at his grim expression. “I’ll call.”
11
EVERYTHING HAD BACKFIRED on him.
Nick attacked the Chevy’s hood with too much vigor. Hell, the thing didn’t even need polishing. It already had a fresh coat from last week. With his recent luck, the Chevy would probably self-destruct from too much love and care.
Shit!
He thought he’d been so damn clever in passing off those raunchy letters as his dreams. Now Emma thought he was obsessed with sex. What crap! He didn’t think about it any more than the average male. He liked sex. So what? He was a healthy twenty-nine-year-old, all parts in cherry condition. He was supposed to want sex, for God’s sake. A body might even require it. Regular maintenance sure kept things tuned and lubed.
The phone rang, and he jumped to answer it. Midday already and he hadn’t heard from Emma. Which couldn’t be good news. She wasn’t the type to keep him hanging. Although she didn’t think he had anything else to do, either.
The reminder stuck like a hard lump in his throat. Screw her. Maybe he shouldn’t answer. Not that he’d have a choice since he couldn’t find the damn phone. He rarely used the garage extension and had to stop and think a minute. It rang a third time and he followed the sound.
He tossed the heap of rags he’d brought from the dryer but it wasn’t there. He kicked aside a stack of newspapers waiting to be recycled, sure the phone was behind them. No luck.
After the fourth ring, he located it in his wash bucket. Good thing the sucker was dry.
He clicked the button, started to say hello when he heard the dial tone. It had rung only four times. Three technically, since he’d gotten it on the fourth one. Who the hell hung up after three rings?
Extra Innings and In His Wildest Dreams Page 31
