Yet, when he held his hand out to her and smiled, she couldn’t have stopped her hand from reaching for his if someone had chopped it off. Taking his hand just was. That was the only way she could describe it.
His steps back inside were easy, slow. Hers were stilted and clumsy. Blessedly, the interior of his father’s house was dark and cool. Campbell’s father, unlike her mother, obviously believed in air conditioning, and she was grateful. The flush of heat rising from every pore in her body was like having your insides microwaved on high.
Maxine fell into him due to leg wobble, but Campbell caught her with a shadow of a smile she could only see due to the overhead light on the range hood. His hands were at her waist again, rolling his palms over her hips, easing her toward him until the delicious friction was too much to bear and she allowed herself to be drawn into his embrace.
A sigh of homecoming trickled from her lips. Why he felt so comfortable, or how, was something she would never understand.
Campbell brushed a stray strand of hair from her neck, dipping his head to nibble the sensitive flesh. Her reaction was to melt, and surely, he couldn’t be so consummate a neck nibbler as to evoke a reaction like that from her. The thought crossed her mind that she hadn’t made love in well over a year now, and possibly this was her unattended libido overreacting.
Yet Finley had nibbled her neck a thousand times, and it was never as tingle inspiring as when Campbell did it. Tracing a path up along her jaw, he touched her lips with his, taking possession of them in a sweep of tongue and delicious mouth.
Her everything throbbed with a pulsing need to slake her desires.
But when Campbell’s hand cupped her breast, she froze. Not because it didn’t feel as good as a bacon cheeseburger with a chocolate shake hitting your stomach in a caloric jubilee of fat and sugar. It wasn’t even because she wasn’t hearing love songs in her head.
She was.
Air Supply.
Definitely Air Supply.
No. It was due to the fact that she was so nervous, her tongue just had to move. Their last encounter was unplanned. She’d come here with a purpose this time. What she’d forgotten was there’d never been anyone but Fin in her sexual experiences, and no matter how much her loins were screaming for her to put a sock in it, her brain was telling her someone was going to see her naked way faster than she’d had enough time to do crunches for.
Max pressed a hand to his wrist, mumbling from the side of her mouth, “They’re fake. Silicone. I had them done five years ago. I hope they hold out. I can’t afford to get replacements. That’s shallow, right?”
Campbell’s lips whispered over hers. “Wow. Really? They’re fake?”
“Yeah. So fake they define fake.”
Campbell let her hold on to his wrist, but he continued to caress the underside of her breast with his knuckles. Her fake one. Oh, God. “They don’t feel fake. Do fake boobs feel fake? I’ve never felt fake boobs before. So if they do under normal circumstances feel fake, big kudos to your plastic surgeon,” he teased, walking her backward.
“He was really nice. He made me feel so much better about the process by telling me that my not fake, former boobs had stood up well against the test of time.”
“Very complimentary.” Campbell let his other hand roam down along the curve of her spine to settle on her ass, cupping her close to him.
“That’s not fake. My butt, I mean. But of course you can tell that because you have to reach down to the backs of my knees to hold on to it.”
His reply was husky. “I like your knees, Max. I like all of you. Fake or not.”
All of her liked all of him, too. But . . . “But you like the Max that has Spanx on underneath her clothes. They smooth out all your unsightly bumps. It’s like wearing an iron maiden, only with more give, and thank God I was wearing them the night I left Finley. God knows I couldn’t afford them on my salary. But you might not like Max once she spills out of this sausage casing. In fact, we might need the Jaws of Life to get them off me, and I’d hate to rip them. They cost a fortune—in fact, they’d cost three whole weeks of poop-scooping.”
“You wanna let me have a go at it and we’ll just see?”
Her libido screamed, “Hell to the yeah!” but her fears lobbed roadblocks the size of boulders. She placed a hand at his shoulder. “I think it’s time for some extreme honesty here. I’m so turned on I could weep, but I’m also petrified. I’d bet almost all of my next paycheck you’re far more experienced than I am at this,” she said as he pulled her into his bedroom. Which was nice. Very nautical and beach-ish with primitive wood anchors on the wall and fishing nets across the windows held in place with fake starfish.
“What makes you say that?” he asked, setting her on the edge of his bed with blue and white sailboats floating over the comforter.
“I know what people think about cheerleaders and prom queens. That we put out. I definitely behaved as though I put out that night in the woods, but that wasn’t the case back then. My mother whooped the fear of God and Planned Parenthood into me when I was in high school. I never . . . Finley was my only . . .”
“Can I say something here?”
“Yes. Say something. Say anything to shut me up.”
“I’ll admit I’ve had more than one lover. When I—how do I put this—you know—outgrew puberty and my body changed, I didn’t exactly abstain. But to hear you say I’m only your second lover is a little special.”
“Right,” Maxine snorted, looking for a reason to create some dissidence. “Even though I may not have put out like it said on the boys’ bathroom wall, I know a line when I hear one. I’ve watched a lot of reality TV. A lot of MTV.” Like that made her all in the playa know.
“So what you’re saying is even though I chased you all over this village, and continued to do so even after you called me some really offensive names in public, I’m just looking to get laid?”
Well, when he said it out loud and gave her those intense eyeballsingeing glares . . . “The pickin’s in the village for a hunk like you are pretty slim. I mean, I can almost see Mrs. Knickerbocker’s appeal, she definitely looks pretty hot for sixty, but I just don’t get the impression she’s your type. I’m sort of the obvious choice. I’m the only choice unless some other ex-trophy wife shows up. Or, if you’re lucky, my mother’s friend Mary’s niece. She’s gorgeous. I’ve seen pictures.”
Campbell’s dark eyebrow rose in clear amusement. “Lemme get this straight. You’re just convenient because I’m too lazy to get out of my own way and go outside the village to scope chicks?”
Maybe? No. Everything he said was always so logical. If he’d just let her get carried away with her wild notions, everything would be fine. “I think I’m not sure what I’m saying.”
Cupping her face, his eyes captured hers once more. “I think you’re creating excuses just to create them. Pay attention, Max, and maybe I can still that spinning head of yours. You’re not just some easy lay. Nothing about this has been easy,” he teased, his eyes taking on an amused glint. “You’re not someone I want to screw and ditch tomorrow so I can say I tapped the one-time head cheerleader from Riverbend High at our next reunion. I’m not going to stop chasing after you even if our lovemaking sucks. If it does, we’ll work on it until it’s what we both hoped for. I’m not even going to stop chasing you if you say no to me tonight. I’m not in this to bag and tag. I’m not in this because I take a physical commitment lightly. I’m in this because I want you—as neurotic and full of crazy notions as you are. I don’t care that you’ve had plastic surgery. I don’t care that you wear Spankys—”
“Spanx,” she corrected with a more relaxed giggle.
“Whatever. I don’t care that you’re forty-one—”
“Almost,” she corrected.
“Whatever. I don’t care about any of the things your free time seems to allow you to concoct in your head. And if that’s too much for you to wrap that always-in-motion brain of yours around, say so now,
and we’ll have a cup of coffee after I take a cold shower.”
With his words, something settled in Maxine—clicked. Something solid, something that made sense to the tizzy her head was always in. In that instant, her brain quieted, her fears lifted. Maxine wrapped her hands around his wrists at her jaw and closed her eyes, letting her mouth find his as her answer.
She felt the smile on his lips, the tightening of his hold on her when he laid her back on his bed, pulling her length to meet his. His minty-fresh breath tickled her nose when he asked, “Now, about those Spanx.”
About those. “Maybe I should just go take them off. Unless you’ve done some professional wrestling in your time . . .”
Campbell nuzzled her neck, licking the tender skin with silken rasps of his tongue. “No way I’m letting you go to the bathroom. I don’t have a key.”
Her nipples tightened when his mouth left her neck, the moist path he’d left on her skin making contact with the air. “Are you implying I’d lock myself in there?”
Campbell rested his chin on hers. “I’m not implying anything. I’m stating a fact.”
“That’s it,” she said with another one of those giggles he was so good at dragging out of her. Maxine slid from the bed, lifting the skirt of her dress and shimmying out of her Spanx with a grunt, tossing them on the bed beside him. “Committed enough for you?” she asked with a whole lot more confidence than she felt.
He patted the bed beside him with a lascivious grin. “We’ll see.”
Maxine’s hands went to the front of her dress, smoothing the silky material as though she could smooth away her not-so-flat belly. Okay. It was now or never.
But what was the rush?
Campbell certainly wouldn’t be in such an all-fired rush once he saw what was underneath her dress. A blind man wouldn’t be in a rush . . .
“Max,” he purred, rising to stand before her. “I’ve seen parts of you in broad daylight.”
“But you haven’t seen all of me. I was semi-clothed.”
“I’m going to take off your dress.”
She closed her eyes with a tight scrunch of eyelids, and lifted her arms toward the ceiling. “Okay.”
A chuckle came from the dark. “Maybe you might try not behaving like this is some form of torture. You know, so we don’t harsh the romance vibe.”
Her eyes remained firmly closed. “Yeah. You say that now. But wait until you see my stomach. Nothing could harsh a buzz faster.”
“Look at me, Max.” His command was thick, insistent, but no way was she falling for it.
No. She couldn’t bear the look on his face she’d created in her mind’s eye. Rather like one of those cartoon characters whose eyes bulged in horror with a loud “zoink” written in a bubble over their heads. “Oh, no. This is on you. If you scream and end up fetal, you’ll get no help from me.”
Campbell untied the halter straps around her neck, letting them fall away. “I haven’t screamed in a long time. There isn’t much I’m afraid of.”
“Spoken like a true warrior. I bet most every warrior says the same thing before he rides his trusty steed off into battle. I’d also bet he isn’t singing the same tune when he loses an arm and his entrails are wrapped around a tree.”
“I can’t tell you how sexy that image sounds. Who needs Viagra with you?” he asked on a laugh, tugging at the top of her dress until cool air drifted over her half-bra.
Maxine clucked her tongue, admonishing his gusto. “You’ll need Viagra when you see what I have goin’ on under here. So just keep at it, tiger. In no time, you’ll be taking one for the team.”
His hands skimmed the bottom half of her dress. She heard the rustle of the material against his callused fingertips and winced. “Ready or not . . .”
Not. But if she were always “not,” she’d die the crazy cat lady. “Hurry it up. My circulation isn’t what it used to be,” she half joked, wiggling her numbing fingers.
The whoosh of air when Campbell pulled her dress up bathed her body in shivers. She felt rather than saw him take a step back and cringed. His sharp intake of breath jolted her in her heels. Oh, God. She had heels and a half-bra on and nothing else. “I told you, didn’t I? But just like one of those crazy horror movies where you’re screaming don’t go down in the basement, you just had to go down to the basement. Did you think I was making it up? You have no idea the kinds of tricks I know to hide almost anything unsightly—”
Campbell silenced her by slanting his mouth over hers and hauling her to him, kissing her until she was breathless. He unhooked her bra, running his full palms over her breasts until her nipples ached from the friction. His tongue devoured hers, rasping against it, tugging it with his lips, sipping at her mouth until she thought she’d die from the rush of new sensations he evoked in her.
Maxine groaned when he moved from her mouth to her collar-bone, skimming her flesh with hot lips and tongue. Her arms fell from above her head, numb but willing, to allow his broad shoulders to give them support. Pleasure throbbed through her veins as he moved over her shoulder, down along the tops of her breasts, leaving behind his own groan when he cupped her breasts together, laving each turgid nipple.
Hot streaks of electricity shot to the place between her thighs, leaving her swollen and forgetting everything but the feel of his lips and tongue pulling her toward a sensual abyss.
White lights flashed behind her eyelids as his mouth left her nipples, caressing the skin of her midriff, moving lower and lower until she understood where he planned to end up. The thought alone made her grab at Campbell’s shoulders to steady her weakening knees. The muscles of her legs burned, tensing and flexing while Campbell moved closer to the most intimate place on her body.
His fingers feathered across the tops of her thighs with a whisper of a touch, testing her reaction, waiting until she adjusted. Maxine gripped at his hair, clenching fistfuls of it, wrapped up in what was to come.
When he parted her swollen lips, laying a tentative tongue over her clit, Maxine nearly screamed from the sharp, sweet sting of desire sitting low in her belly. His mouth was like heaven, his fingers, stroking, plying her, coaxing a building heat, like the closest thing to magic she’d ever experienced.
Her head fell back on her shoulders, no longer mindful of her nakedness or the fact that her high heels were digging into her toes. She wanted this. Wanted Campbell. Wanted.
He dragged his tongue over her clit, swirling it around the swollen nub until she quivered, increasing the pressure until he’d pulled her flush to his mouth, cupping her ass with powerful hands that kneaded her flesh.
Thick tendrils of pleasure swirled along her skin, every nerve in her body crying for satisfaction. An ache, familiar yet bolder than she ever remembered, left a scintillating pressure deep within the farthest reaches of her desire. It grew as Campbell stroked her with his tongue, dragging his fingers over her now slick flesh until her chest became so tight, she couldn’t get air to her lungs.
Each pass Campbell took with his heated tongue, each wave of his hot breath, each moan he made from between her thighs made her arch backward, offering herself to him.
The explosion of her senses came when he suckled her clit, nibbling at it with gentle teeth, encompassing it with his lips, bringing a scream Maxine had to fight to keep from escaping her mouth. The mind-bend of pleasure he brought was all she focused on.
Her only need, his tongue and her satisfaction.
A sizzle of fire shot through her, spreading outward until the slow burn turned into a flaming entity. Her gasp of completion was husky to her ears, filled with her hot need. Spirals of pleasure accosted her from every angle, making her hips buck against Campbell’s mouth. The frantic need for climax eased as he stroked her hips, letting her rock against him until she slowed with a shudder of a breath.
Her legs, no longer willing to hold her up, crumbled. Campbell caught her, scooping her up and laying her on the bed. She fought for air, her lungs filling and releasing with cho
ppy breaths.
Campbell pulled her to him, letting his hands roam along her heated skin, caressing, soothing her while she wrapped her brain around the utter bliss he’d just brought her.
Maxine’s head fell back over his forearm and he leaned in to kiss her, leaving the taste of her most intimate pleasure on her lips. There was nothing to describe what had just transpired. No special word. No particular phrase. Yet it had been one of the single most decadent moments in her life.
Realizing that was when embarrassment caught up with her, making her eyes finally open. Campbell had done all the work. “You—I mean, I—we—”
With a press of his finger to her lips, he smiled, his eyes expressing he understood her dilemma. “Just relax.”
“But . . .”
He sighed with a ragged breath. “We have a technical difficulty.”
Her groan was of humiliation. “Does it need Viagra?”
Campbell grinned when he barked a laugh. “Uh, no.” He took hold of her hand and placed it between his legs. “There’s no doubt you do it for me.”
Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow. Everything was in clear working order.
“It has nothing to do with Viagra and everything to do with no condoms. Don’t say it. I’ll beat myself up plenty tomorrow. But I think this is a testament to my integrity. The fact that I have no condoms says I had no devious intention to accost your woman parts, at least not tonight. I had plans, but you know what they say about those.” Campbell shook his head with a wry grin. “No, you can apologize later for your egregious error in judgment. Right now, I think we should just focus on what an idiot I am.”
Her giggle began as a snort and built to laughter, leaving her holding her stomach. “Ohhhhhhh, this is priceless. Hold that thought.” Maxine burst into another fit of laughter, taking the comforter with her to cover her cooling flesh as she made her way out to the living room for her purse.
At the doorway, she held up the gleaming foil package with a smug grin. “You might not have had nefarious intentions, but I did.”
You Dropped a Blonde on Me Page 26
