"Very wise," she said gravely.
"So … what are your intentions toward my brother? Do you realize that those muscles are just the tip of the Tobias iceberg? And that he's not an iceberg at all, even though he can look a little intense?"
"I have figured that out, yes. It's true that I nearly called security on him when he first turned up in class. But I have since discovered a different side of him."
"This is completely unnecessary," said Tobias, turning a little red in the face. "Carolyn, ignore him. I swear to God, a kid goes to college and all of a sudden he thinks he rules the world."
"Wait, I'm not done," Aiden said stubbornly. "Professor Moore, did you know that Tobias personally saved an entire village in Afghanistan? He got them to evacuate just before a bomb hit a dam nearby. He got a Silver Star for that. The only reason he hasn't gotten a Purple Heart is that—"
Tobias clamped a hand on his brother's shoulder and marched him away, sending Carolyn an apologetic glance over his shoulder. She bit her lip to keep from laughing. Honestly, Aiden had no need to fluff Tobias up to impress her. But it was pretty cute that he wanted to.
Carolyn took a break from her peeling beets and stepped outside for a breath of air, and to watch the chaos of twenty teenagers and a bunch of adults ready a course for croquet. Josh, deep into an intense discussion with Will, held a handful of wickets, which he kept waving around. Tobias and Aiden joined them, and the wickets got doled out for installation.
Tobias walked with Josh toward the first wicket location. Josh was carrying little Faith on his shoulders; she shrieked with laughter and her hands dug into his hair. At one point, when it looked like she might slip off Josh's back, Tobias put a hand on the little girl's back to steady her. She grinned at him like a gap-toothed little imp, and Carolyn's heart nearly melted.
Tobias, she realized in a flash, would be a jewel of a father.
No. No. Don't go there, Caro. Christmas was doing its usual thing—making her long for everything having to do with families. Stick to reality. This is hot sex with a hot guy. Enjoy it for what it is. Live for the moment.
20
Carolyn watched Tobias for another little while, letting the hot images from last night chase away her Christmas blues.
Then she sighed and walked back into the kitchen.
There she found Ben in a tense-looking conversation with Suzanne. His wide shoulders were hunched, his usually lighthearted expression replaced by a scowl. He was shaking his head at whatever Suzanne was saying. All Carolyn caught was the phrase, "her side of the story," before Suzanne caught sight of her and stopped talking.
"Hi Carolyn," she said, awkwardly. "Sorry, we were catching up on old times. I'd better go check on Faith."
"Faith is fine, Josh has her helping set up for croquet."
Suzanne looked alarmed. "He isn't letting her use a mallet, is he?"
"Of course not, they're taller than she is."
"Yeah, but that man would let her drive the car if she just batted her eyelashes at him enough. She loves fire trucks, did you know that? He took her on a tour of the Jupiter Point department and the firemen made such a fuss over her, she had a tantrum when they left. Now Josh is looking online for child-size firefighting tools for her. She barely just learned how to walk!"
Ben, who still looked preoccupied by whatever Suzanne had been telling him, gave a halfhearted smile. "I'll go check on them."
"Thanks, Ben," said Suzanne gratefully. She waved one flour-covered hand as he left, then went back to cutting strips of pie crust dough.
"I'm sorry I interrupted your conversation." Carolyn grabbed the potato peeler and got back to work on the carrots. The oven was already producing the tantalizing scent of roast turkey and sage-apple dressing.
"No no, it's fine. Poor Ben. His ex-girlfriend is back in town and he can't handle it."
"Really? Ben must have a hundred of those. Tobias says he's the king of easy-come, easy-go. Never takes anything too seriously."
"That's now. Back then it was a different story. He and Julie were the ultimate happy couple. Like, blissfully happy. I assumed they'd get married as soon as it was legal. Then she just up and disappeared, right before their dad was murdered. It was the worst timing ever. Ben was so crushed, and then he joined the Air Force, and when he came back, he was a different person. He's still a great guy, of course. Super-cute, obviously. Lots of fun. But you should have known him before. He was such a love. He wore his heart on his sleeve, it was completely adorable."
Carolyn dropped a carrot into the bowl of water keeping them fresh. "Like Aiden?"
"I guess so. Yeah, he was the most like Aiden. They both take after their mother, except she was…kind of a mess. An emotional mess. You know she left too, right? She had a breakdown after the murder. So poor Ben lost his dad, his mom, his sister and his girlfriend in the span of a month. Poor guy."
"I didn't know any of this. Not that I would, I mean, I only just met them. Well, recently. There's no reason they'd be sharing all their family secrets."
Suzanne shot her a sardonic look. "I get the feeling that you've been sharing a lot more than family secrets with a certain Knight brother."
"Well…"
"That's great. Just…be careful."
Carolyn looked up sharply. This was the first time she'd heard Suzanne be anything but positive about the Knight brothers. "What do you mean?"
"I’m only telling you this because you’re a friend, and please take it with a grain of salt because people do change. A friend of mine was dating Tobias when Robert Knight was killed. She told me he was destroyed, that it was like a piece of him died. He broke up with her right after that. He said he had nothing to give and never would. She was crushed. Granted, he was only twenty, so like I said, grain of salt.”
Suzanne's warning hit her right in the solar plexus, because it fit with a few things she herself had observed about Tobias. He'd said the same thing—that he was still haunted by his father's murder.
On the other hand, he didn’t act as if he were dead inside, or as if he had nothing to give. Maybe he had changed since the trauma of the murder.
Still, being careful was never a bad idea. If her father had been more careful when he met Lilith, maybe they’d never have gotten sucked into the Light Keepers. She should take Suzanne’s advice seriously.
Carolyn gave her friend a curious sideways glance. "You sound like you know a lot about the Knight brothers."
"Julie, Ben's girlfriend, was one of my best friends. I used to hang out with her and Ben and whoever I was dating. I always envied them because they were so in love with each other. I couldn't really imagine feeling that way about someone."
"And now you do."
"And now I do," she said softly, her eyes lighting up. "And it's the best feeling in the world, right up there with having Faith. But Ben and Julie, I don't know, it was something really special. Having that close a connection when you're so young and everything's so intense…their relationship was truly epic."
Really, the whole family was epic, if you asked Carolyn. Maybe it was the aura of tragedy that clung to them, but they all seemed bigger than life, somehow. Or maybe that was her Tobias crush talking.
"It's funny, I still don't know why she left. She's back, but we haven't talked much. I considered asking her here for Christmas, but I'm glad I didn't, judging by Ben's reaction."
Just then a horde of teenagers came trooping in. "Croquet's starting! Ben sent us in to get you." They spread throughout the kitchen to steal tastes of apple filling, spinach dip, cranberry dressing. The sudden blast of young exuberance felt like a wind sweeping through the kitchen.
Carolyn and Suzanne exchanged a glance. A pile of carrots and beets still remained to be peeled. A mound of pie crust hadn't been rolled out yet.
"I don't know, we're supposed to be the adults," Suzanne said dubiously. "We should probably stay here and keep working on this meal."
"Why should the kids get all the fun?" Carolyn
winked at the teenagers. "You'll help us finish this up, right?"
"Of course!" the teens chorused.
"Okay then!" Suzanne whipped off her apron and tossed it aside. "Bring on the mallets!"
The kids cheered. One of them grabbed Carolyn's arm and she found herself being swept out of the kitchen. She caught Suzanne's glance again and laughed, feeling light and carefree in a way she never did.
Outside, the winter sun sparkled through the birch trees, and the sounds of kids laughing mingled with the deeper voices of the adults discussing the rules of the tournament. Brianna was running around making sure that none of her favorite plantings were in the line of fire from a croquet ball. Lisa knelt on the grass next to a girl who must have hurt her ankle; Lisa was gingerly rotating it to assess the injury.
And Tobias? He now carried Faith, who was using his ears like a joystick and shrieking with delight as he zigzagged across the lawn.
Josh came over and swept Suzanne into his arms. "Look, I found us a babysitter. Want to sneak off somewhere with your lawfully wedded husband? Faith just told me she wants a brother for Christmas. We'd better get on that."
Suzanne gave him a little shove. "Keep dreaming, hotshot. How would you manage to keep spoiling her rotten if there was another baby around?"
"See? Another great argument for number two."
Suzanne rolled her eyes at Carolyn. "Easy for him to say, right? As soon as they invent a way for the man to spend nine months puking their guts out, we can talk again."
Josh snorted. "For the record," he told Carolyn, "she's just as baby crazy as I am. She just hides it a lot better."
"It's true," Suzanne admitted cheerfully. "But I do enjoy torturing him. Now hand me a mallet so I can kick your ass at croquet."
They went off arm in arm to join their team. Carolyn took a deep breath, soaking in the joy all around her, and the crisp December sunshine. This would go down in her personal history as one of the best Christmases ever.
As for Suzanne's warning? Be careful. She could do that. Absolutely. She was going into this with her eyes wide open, with no illusions about forever. She’d lost those long ago anyway.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the hot sex.
21
Tobias had never imagined that a Christmas dinner and the most rambunctious croquet match ever known to mankind would be such a turn-on. But he loved watching Carolyn lose all her inhibitions as she whacked his croquet ball into the weeds. He loved hearing her laugh with the teenagers.
After the match, and after the feast, she sat with a few of the more artistically inclined teenagers as they showed off their drawing and other artwork. She talked with them earnestly about art, and what classes were available at the community college.
He wouldn't be surprised if JPCC saw a sudden spike in enrollment thanks to her. Who wouldn't want to take a class with a kind, beautiful, patient teacher like Carolyn?
He and his brothers decided to gift every one of the shelter teens a ride in one of their planes. Of course, that made them instantly the most popular people in the room, but it was the expression on Carolyn's face that meant the most to him. He realized he'd do almost anything to see that soft light in her eyes.
And then there was the hot look that came later.
He peeled off from his brothers and drove back to Caro's place with her. Somehow, their relationship had become fact—it surprised no one when he looped his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head as his brothers waved goodbye.
Okay, maybe it surprised him. He'd never been the public type when it came to demonstrating affection. He'd never felt inspired to let the world know his feelings. But everything was different with Carolyn. He wanted all of Jupiter Point to know they were together.
"That was the best Christmas I've had in a very long time," she told him as they drove to her place. "That was great, what you guys did. Those kids are going to love it."
"You'll love it too. I want to take you up there. Show you the world. My world."
"Your world?" she teased. "All that sky up there, it's yours?"
"When I'm up there, I sure feel like it is. Maybe it's a Jupiter Point thing. Growing up here, it's all about the sky. Constellations, planets, alignments. My dad was really into stargazing. We had a big telescope set up in the attic. He took us to the observatory every year. The first time I went up in a Chinook, I swear I felt my dad's presence."
He stopped, embarrassed that he'd veered into that direction. But she reached over and took his hand in hers. "Is Christmas tough for you too?"
"Not usually. I've been overseas for most Christmases. Once I met Will and Aiden in Mexico for Christmas. Being back here…I guess it's a little tougher. Brings back some memories. It's okay. I intend to make some new ones in about fifteen minutes."
"Why fifteen minutes?"
"That's how long it's going to take to get home, get your clothes off, and feast myself on your naked body."
Her hands jerked on the steering wheel, causing her to veer over the yellow dotted line. "Do you have to say things like that when I'm driving?"
"Things like what? Statements of fact about how I intend to lick you until you scream for mercy?" he teased. He put his hand on her thigh, spreading his fingers wide, his little finger edging oh-so-close to her sweet pussy.
She shifted her hips in the seat. "Stop that," she said weakly. "I'm driving."
But he couldn't help noticing that she'd actually managed to get her mound even closer to his finger. "I'm helping." He squeezed her thigh lightly. Her muscles tightened under his touch.
"How is that helping?" she gasped.
"Inspiration. Motivation. The quicker we get home, the quicker I can blow your mind."
"You're impossible." But her lips curved in the dim light of her dashboard.
"And you're impossibly sexy and sensual and gorgeous. Is there any way you could drive faster? You can always let me have the wheel. Army trained. I can make this thing rocket back to your house."
"Nope," she said firmly. "I like to drive. I wasn't allowed to at the compound, and now I love it. But maybe going faster isn't the worst idea." She pressed on the accelerator and zoomed through the streets of Jupiter Point, its quaint storefronts adorned with twinkle lights for the holidays. He held on, hoping the local law enforcement had better things to worry about on Christmas night than two people so hungry for each other they practically broke the sound barrier getting home.
When they finally burst through her door, he noticed with one part of his brain that she'd unpacked some of her boxes and tidied up. But most of him focused on getting naked. He spun her into a kiss as soon as the door closed behind them. As their mouths melded together, hot and slick, he ran his hands down her body, peeling away her clothes. He had to pull away briefly to tug her silky top over her head. Her bra took only a touch to undo. He slid off the shoulder straps as he dove back into that deep, urgent kiss.
Skirt, unzipped. Sleek flesh, unveiled. When she finally stood naked before him, he tore himself away from their kiss and gazed at her body, the creamy curves scalding his vision. He could look at her like this all day and all night.
"Know what I want for Christmas?" he said.
"What?"
"Stay like this for the rest of the night. Not a single stitch of clothing for you."
"Or you."
"I have no problem with that." To prove it, he shrugged out of his shirt and stepped out of his pants. He was already rock-hard from the sight of her naked body. He got rid of his briefs, freeing his raging erection. Her gaze dropped to it, and he saw her tongue do that delicious thing it did, that discreet little swipe across her lips.
That made him even harder.
He dropped to his knees and cradled her ass in his hands. The two globes settled into the palms of his hands so perfectly. He blew on her soft curls, spotting moisture hiding there in the lovely nest of blond hair. She drew in a long ragged breath and gripped his shoulders.
"Y
ou know, there's a bed in there," she murmured.
"I know." He blew another hot rush of air against her sex. "I intend to make good use of it. But I'm a little busy now. Can't you tell?"
He drew his tongue along the upper seam of her sex, where her clit pouted for attention. It swelled under the pressure, like a bud about to unfurl. Her taste drove him mad with need. He put one hand on his own cock, fisting himself as he worked his mouth deep into her folds. Her fingers dug into his shoulders; he'd probably have marks after this. He didn't care a bit. Bring it on.
He wanted her to come in his mouth. He wanted it so badly he couldn't see straight. Her hips quivered against his grip, her inner thighs trembled. He used the flat of his tongue to add more friction, lashed her with the tip, probing deep, finding the spot that made her cry out. Losing himself in her heat and wetness, in the flexing of her hips, her whimpers, her murmurs, he had no idea how much time passed.
All he knew was that suddenly she was arching against him and all he could do was hang on, mouth latched to her sex, while she rode out the fierce spasms of her climax.
When she finished, limp and sated and damp, her long body gleaming with sweat, he couldn't wait another moment to get inside her. He rose to his feet, his erection so hard, so swollen, he thought it might burst at the slightest touch.
"Bend over the couch," he told her, his voice about two octaves lower than usual. "Hold on to the back. Hold on tight."
Her eyes flared with sleepy heat. With her breath still coming quickly, she turned her back to him and bent over to place her hands where he'd asked.
Oh God. He was going to die, right here and now, at the sight of her pale curves spread out before him. The cleft between her legs gleamed from her orgasm. The soft opening called to him like a siren, the shadows promising hot release to his aching member. He didn't want to rush it, because the sight of her was just too tempting. He took a long moment to caress the curves of her ass, skim his fingers along the sides of her hips, to the tender flesh of her inner thighs.
Coming In Hot (Jupiter Point Book 6) Page 15
