Sliding off his barstool, he took Lisa’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go pack. I know exactly what we’re going to do.”
“Galveston’s only an hour away.” Adam couldn’t help but talk excitedly as he signed the bill for the rooms. “We’ll get a room in some little motel right on the beach, get some shrimp, some beer. We can take a nighttime swim in the Gulf.” He grinned at Lisa. “Ever gone to the beach at night?”
“Never. Galveston?” she repeated, sounding dubious. “I’ve never even been there before.”
“Never been to Galveston?” He thanked the receptionist and then squinted at Lisa. “Where did you say you’re from, again?”
She laughed, a full-throated sound, and he took a second just to watch her. He loved looking at her—at those dark, pretty eyes, that thick, glossy hair he just wanted to run his fingers through. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt the color of merlot today, and he could just see where the lines of her bra ran under it.
Feeling a little bit like a pervert, he tried not to look.
“I grew up in Smithville,” she told him. “It’s a little town east of Austin. Why?”
“I know Smithville. And I grew up less than half my life in Texas, but I’ve still been to Galveston. Next you’re going to tell me you’ve never been to Mexico.”
“I have too,” she said defensively. “I’ve been to Nuevo Laredo a bunch of times.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “That’s not Mexico. That’s still just south Texas.”
She raised her eyebrows and gave his arm a playful smack. “Try telling that to the people who live there.”
“Okay, okay, point taken.” He winked, hefted her massage bag against her protests, and moved through the lobby toward the door. “Let’s go see if James feels like taking a drive to the beach.”
“I’m not sure this is such a great idea,” she said, hesitating. “Maybe I should just get back to Austin.”
“You already took the weekend off, right? And you aren’t planning to be home until tomorrow. So think of this as a paid vacation. When’s the last time you took a vacation?”
“It’s been way too long,” she admitted.
He struck a gallant pose, gave a half-bow. “Then do me the honor of letting me treat you to a night at the beach.”
She chewed at her bottom lip, but only for a second. “Well, if you put it that way.” She smiled giddily up at him, and something inside him unfurled.
They were going to have a romantic little mini-vacation—just the two of them.
They stepped outside and were met with a blast of humid heat and sun. It took only a moment to spot James’s sleek, dark sedan. “This way.” Adam gestured for Lisa to walk ahead of him. “James,” he called out, “how goes it?”
Once they were at the car, Adam fished in his pocket for his cell. “I’m going to shut this thing down until tomorrow.” Powering down the phone gave him an instant sense of freedom. “You’re the only person I want to talk to for the next twenty-four hours.”
Lisa’s cheeks went a pretty shade of pink as she shook her hair back from her shoulders. “Thank you,” she said to James, who had taken her bag and her massage table and managed to fit both into the yawning trunk of the car. She turned back to Adam. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Turning off your phone? I mean, is everything all settled with the Dream Date couple? They went home, and everything?”
“Yep, after I smoothed things over as well as I could, and gave them each free six-month memberships to Mister Match,” he told her. “And gift certificates to a couple restaurants and hotels.”
“A little severance package.” Lisa nodded. “Good idea. It’s truly not your fault, you know. Or the Mister-Match system’s fault. Sometimes things just don’t work out the way we hope.”
He stared out at the busy street for a moment. “Logically, I guess I know that’s true. This is just the way it went, and I can’t do anything about it. I mean, every Dream Date couple signs a contract before they ever go on the date, stating they understand the website isn’t responsible for the success or failure of their love lives, et cetera, et cetera.”
They slid into the cool, dark privacy of the sedan’s back seat, and he closed the door. The car was blessedly quiet and dim, and he sighed as he let his head fall back against the leather seat. “I know I’ve done everything I can.” He glanced at Lisa and, without thinking, ran his hand beneath hers, where it rested on the seat between them. He laced their fingers together and gave hers a light squeeze. “Now I just have to convince my lovely and gorgeous traveling companion to indulge me by spending the night in the Queen City of the Gulf.”
She was staring at their joined hands, and he found himself thinking, for about the thousandth time, of the night before.
From the very first time he’d laid eyes on her, he’d wanted to touch her. The fact that their first encounter had involved her putting her hands all over him hadn’t helped curb his interest any.
Last night, finally, after what had felt like eons, he’d gotten to return the favor.
Her responsiveness had amazed and excited him beyond belief. Her admission that she hadn’t been with a man in a while had made him feel a funny kind of pride. He’d chosen her to break his long fast, and she’d chosen him for the same.
That had to mean something.
Chapter 25
____________________________________
“This place. Right here. Pull over, James, will you?”
“Here?” Lisa leaned over Adam to peer out the window at his motel of choice. It didn’t look like much to her. A long, low little building painted in peeling, faded pink, a courtyard with a lone willow tree drooping in the heat, a small turquoise pool, and a barbecue pit. An old, weathered sign proclaimed it to be The Emerald Queen Motel.
“It’s the Emerald Queen, but it’s pink.”
“It’s perfect.” Adam popped open his door and stepped out, then leaned back in and held out a hand for Lisa. “It’s just like places I used to go with my mom when I was little.”
That, Lisa thought, was beyond cute—that he wanted to relive childhood memories of his mother at the beach.
Or maybe it was a little weird. Or maybe both.
She frowned. “Are you sure about this? We could go back up the Strand, find a regular hotel. We passed a Comfort Inn on the way here. Or there’s the Hotel Galvez. It’s famous.”
“Would you rather do that?” There was concern in his eyes as he looked at her. “Would you be more comfortable in a place that isn’t quite so—” He gestured at the motel in front of them. “Funky?” he finished.
She gazed up at him and realized, with a small quake in her belly, that she would be comfortable anyplace with him. The truth was, she’d be so keyed up from being alone with Adam, she probably wouldn’t even notice the room. “No, this place is fine. Whatever you think is good.”
“You’re so agreeable,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, well.” She winked. “Don’t get used to it.”
Adam arranged for James to return the following morning, and lifted their bags from the trunk. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Inside the office, they found a short woman who looked to be in her sixties with wizened skin and tightly curled gray hair sitting behind the counter, watching Judge Judy.
She stood. “You two looking for a room?”
“Yes, please, ma’am.” Adam stepped forward, pulled out his wallet and removed a credit card. “Just for tonight.”
She took the card, looked it over. “Steven Masters?”
“That’s me.” He smiled at her disarmingly, then put an arm around Lisa’s shoulders, drawing her up to the desk with him. “This is my wife, Lisa.”
The woman grunted. “I’m Sandra. Newlyweds, are you?” Something like a smile flickered over her thin mouth. “Saw you pull up in that fancy car. I’ll give y’all the honeymoon suite.”
The “honeymoon suite” turned out to be two adjoining bedrooms flan
ked by the world’s tiniest kitchen and bath.
“Two bedrooms.” Adam chuckled. “That’s a little weird for a honeymoon suite.”
“I’ll say.” Lisa stood in the middle of the front bedroom, staring at the flowered bedspread. “You think that’s been here since the sixties?”
“Probably.” Adam walked through to the kitchen, and she heard him opening and closing cupboards, the fridge. He came back to the bedroom where she still stood and turned on the window A/C unit, which came to life with a rattling whoosh. “I love places like this. The weird patterns on the linoleum floors, the wood-paneled walls, the little framed picture of flowers over the toilet.”
His excitement was catching. Lisa smiled. “It’s pretty kitschy, all right. It’s cute.”
“What do you want to do?” He came closer, ran his palms down her arms and then around her back, pulling her securely to him. “I can think of a few things.”
Her body responded instantly to him, pushing into him almost of its own accord. She snaked her arms around his neck. “So can I.”
“I’m really glad we’re here,” he murmured. “Together.” He bent his head and brushed his lips over hers.
Lisa kissed him back before pulling away. “By the way—Steven Masters?”
Adam grinned. “That’s my middle and last name. My credit cards and driver’s license are all under Steven Masters, to help preserve a little anonymity.”
“I guess that makes me Mrs. Steven Masters. For tonight, anyway.” Lisa grinned up at him. She liked playing a role. She liked being able to step outside herself and her real life for a few hours, and pretend to be someone else.
“That’s right.” He reached down, clamped strong hands on her thighs and pulled her up to straddle his waist. “And we’ve both saved ourselves for marriage, so we’ve got some serious sexual tension stored up.”
She lost her breath as he crossed to the bed in two steps and leaned down with her still clinging to him. A moment later, she was on her back, and he was on top of her. She could feel he was already huge, hard as a rock, where he pressed against her between her legs. Which was a good thing, because she was breathless, already dripping wet for him, moaning in need as she reached up, grabbed his neck and pulled his head down to hers to mate fiercely at the mouth.
“I don’t have any condoms,” she gasped as he pulled her shirt over her head with rough, urgent fingers.
“I do.” He spoke brusquely, desire clipping his words. Then he bent to her, stroking a hand over her bared skin. “You are so gorgeous. I don’t know how no one’s snapped you up before now.”
Before now. Did that mean he’d snapped her up?
She didn’t have long to consider the question. A moment later she was panting as he bent and flicked his tongue over a nipple, making her let out a sound that was nearly a scream.
How could her need for him be this intense? He’d just given her the biggest orgasm she’d ever had than twenty-four hours ago, and now she was clawing at his back, his thighs, as if she could take him into her own body just by yanking hard enough.
He untied the drawstring of her pants, pulled them down and took a moment to admire her panties before pulling them off too. She sent up a brief prayer of thanks to the gods of sex that she’d bothered to put on the cute, lacy pink ones with the little bows, and then she was naked and vulnerable in the late afternoon light.
He cupped her where her legs joined and pressed his palm against her hot, wet curls, making her twist and writhe on the bed.
“You’re like a livewire,” he murmured. “All raw energy.”
“Adam,” she said. It was all she could say. I need you inside me, on top of me, pressing me down. I need you in me.
He moved away from her just long enough to take off his clothes and shoes, and then he was back, his weight on her a blessing, his lips on her skin maddening, starting fires wherever they touched.
“I want you in my mouth,” she murmured, and then her eyes went wide and startled. “I can’t believe I just said that!”
“Say it again,” he commanded, his voice thick with need. “Say it.”
“I want you...” She swallowed and tried again. “I want you in my mouth.” She licked her lips and saw his eyes shutter closed for a second, as if he were suddenly overcome.
A surge of power rushed through her. She was doing this to him—she was rendering him needy and shaky and begging for more.
She pressed a hand to his chest, shoved him to lie on his back. Then she moved down his body and took the thick, hard length of his cock first in her hand, delighting in how he responded to her touch.
And then she took him into her mouth.
She was experimental, tentative, at first. It had been a long time since she’d done this. She wasn’t sure she remembered how, and she didn’t want to do anything wrong. But when she swirled her tongue over the impossibly velvety skin of the head of his cock, and he groaned as if she were torturing him, she knew none of that mattered.
He was completely under her power.
She let herself go, reveling in the feel of his hot, velvety skin against her tongue, the slight, salty flavor of him when she licked the tip of him. But after only a few moments, he shifted, shoved up onto one elbow and caught her face in the palm of his hand. “Hey.”
She looked up, afraid she’d hurt him somehow. “Am I doing something wrong?”
He chuckled, a strangled sound. “Uh, no. Not in the least. That’s the problem. If you don’t stop, I’m going to be finished here in just another second or two.”
He took her hand and drew her up to lie on top of him. Her hair tumbled into his face.
“I don’t want to finish until you’ve had your pleasure,” he murmured. “Until I’ve watched your eyes go cloudy with release. And then I want to lose myself inside you.”
His words made her body go weak and fluid and taut all at once, and she moaned in response like a dying woman.
Keeping her atop him, he reached off the bed, groping around for a moment until he found his slacks, his wallet. She waited breathlessly as he pulled out a condom package and sheathed himself. Then, with a small war cry of victory and pleasure, she slid down onto the length of him, taking him fully into her body.
Neither of them lasted long. She moved atop him with mindless urgency, pressing the heels of her hands into his chest to ride him harder, and he stared up at her, into her eyes, as he held her hips, her breasts, and urged her on. The tension built within her, the tiny little strokes like the feathery touch of bubbles that meant she was rising toward her peak. And then the bubbles fizzed over. Her body screamed and convulsed around him. She saw his eyes go wide and clear in the second before she lost coherence and fell against him, overcome.
Chapter 26
____________________________________
Adam had mentioned nighttime swimming, but they didn’t get much swimming done, or anything else for that matter. If they had bothered to look out the window at some point during the day, they might have caught the motel manager staring across the courtyard at their suite, shaking her head with a little smile.
But they didn’t look out the window. They hardly left the bed.
Around midnight, deliciously sore and raw and loving it, Lisa scooted back on the bed to sit against the pillows. “So is there anything in that fridge, or are we marooned here with no provisions?”
“Nothing,” Adam said dolefully. “The cupboards are bare. We’ve got nothing to eat.” His expression turned wolfish. “Except each other.”
Lisa felt an arrow of desire spear through her abdomen. How could she still want him just as sharply as she had the first time? “We could make a run to the grocery store,” she pointed out. “There’s got to be a store somewhere nearby.”
“Sure, but you realize James has the car. We’ve only got our feet.”
Lisa’s eyes rounded. “Oh my God. We’re stuck here.”
He cut her a look, swatted her thigh with the nearest pillow. “C
ity girl. We can hoof it. There must be a convenience store someplace nearby, at least. Come on.” He moved off the bed and around to her side with a speed and grace that excited her, and nearly alarmed her—the power of him, right here, up close and personal. They’d made love half a dozen times now, and yet she could still hardly believe her luck.
He pulled her to her feet. “Come on. Put something on. Let’s go.”
Their midnight walk was lit by a hazy moon, nearly full, and punctuated only by the soft, rushing, rhythmic sounds of the surf.
“This town goes to sleep early,” Lisa murmured as they walked, hand in hand, down the center of the street.
“We’re kind of on the edge of town. People probably get up before dawn, a lot of them, anyway, to head out on the water.”
Lisa took a deep breath. “It smells wonderful here, doesn’t it?”
“I love it. I love the humidity, the soft air. I love the Gulf Coast, even though the water’s shallow a mile out—”
“And it’s brown and warm as a bath,” Lisa added with a grin.
“And if you pick up a handful of sand from the bottom,” he started, and glanced down at her.
“It smells like oil!” She giggled. “And your silver jewelry turns the color of copper.”
“Yep, we’ve got the finest beaches in the country,” Adam confirmed with a grin that showed teeth shining blue in the moonlit darkness.
They found a gas station convenience store that was still open. The clerk, a large man with a long, thin, gray ponytail, eyed them as they loaded up on bags of chips, bottles of Gatorade, chocolate chip cookies and fried cherry pies.
Outside the store, clutching their paper bags, they inexplicably collapsed in giddy laughter together. For a long moment, they hooted and giggled together like two teenagers, neither knowing exactly what the joke was, but both knowing it was a private one that only the two of them shared. Then they started the long walk back to the motel, fingers linked together and arms swinging under the light of the hazy moon.
Mister Match (The Match Series Book 1) Page 22
