by Sabrina York
“Savannah.”
“No shit,” Drew muttered.
“Umm hmm. In the stock room. Lucy and I went back to check on a shipment of Arabica and there they were.”
“Son of a bitch,” Lane muttered, though he had no room to talk. Lucy had walked in on him doing exactly the same thing. Not with Savannah, but it hardly mattered. No one mentioned it. But surely they were all thinking it.
Holt leaned forward, bracing his arms on the table. “So…temporary or permanent?”
“Permanent.” Definitely permanent. Wangdoodles in strange va-jay-jays were kind of a deal breaker for her.
“Good.” Something in Holt’s tight tone snagged her attention. Or maybe it was the way he narrowed in on her, as though he was pinning her, fixing her in his sights. As though he was a hunter and she a hapless deer.
Cam noticed his friend’s heightened attention as well, and stiffened. Well, bristled, really. Kristi gave his leg a little squeeze. Holt was one hot piece of man flesh, but they all knew of his…proclivities. As attractive as he was, Kristi had never been tempted to so much as encourage him. His appetites were far too dark for her liking.
“Now maybe you can date a real man.” This Holt said with a steamy glance. There was no doubt which man he had in mind.
A vision of herself strapped to a St. Andrew’s cross being lashed mercilessly as she called him “Master” and “Sir” flickered through her mind and she laughed. She couldn’t help it.
As if.
Playing “pirate captive” was about her kink speed. Holt needed a woman who could meet him halfway. Maybe more than halfway.
She was not that woman.
“Well, I for one will be delighted to see the north end of Rolf going south,” Bella said. “So will Dad. He was scared to death you’d marry him and end up supporting his lazy ass for the rest of your life.”
Kristi frowned. “I don’t think I would have married him.”
“People tend to drift into relationships. Very few actively choose.” Her gaze snapped back to Holt. Why was it everything he said seemed to be a double entendre? “You want to be one of the ones who chooses, Kristi.”
Cam’s fingers tightened on hers at the way Holt said her name, but she didn’t think it was intentional. It was probably annoyance. Holt had said it slow and tender, like a caress.
She had the distinct impression he was seducing her.
Really?
After years in an emotional desert, she was being showered with attention? From two super-hot guys? In the same night?
There was only one she wanted of course.
The one she’d always wanted.
And just had.
She wanted him again.
She glanced at him and smiled slowly, running a thumb over the rough material of his jeans. He moved imperceptibly closer.
Cassie yawned. “Woof, I’m tired as a Dawg.”
“Woof. Woof,” the guys responded, harkening back to their college days. Woof was their code word for let’s blow this pop stand.
“Yeah. I’m heading for bed.” Drew stood, triggering a great scraping of chairs as they all followed suit. “It’s been a rough week.”
“Oh?” Bella asked, carrying her glass to the fridge and filling it with water. “Lots of fires?”
Drew snorted. “I wish. At least fighting a fire is exciting. This week we broke in a new recruit. I swear. I don’t know where they dig up some of these guys.”
Lane clapped him on the shoulder. “Ah, the younger generation.”
“Shut the fuck up, you ass. We’re hardly geezers.”
“Aren’t we? It’s not ten o’clock and we’re all going to bed. On a Friday night.” Lane quirked a brow and headed for his room, the only one on the main floor. “Night y’all.”
“Night,” everyone chorused.
While they were all focused on Lane, Cam leaned in and whispered, “Come to my room tonight.”
Kristi blanched. “I can’t!” she burbled. “Cassie and Bella will find out.”
“Wait ‘til they fall asleep. Come on, Kristi. Don’t leave me like this.” He pressed her hand against his erection and surged into her for good measure.
She smirked. “You started it. What were you thinking, teasing me like that? That I’d just sit back and take it?”
“The thought crossed my mind.”
She pursed her lips and repeated his snarky words from earlier. “Well, that’s what you get for thinking.”
He hooted with laughter. He was about to respond when Holt, who’d been heading for the stairs, called back, “Aren’t you coming, Kristi?”
Cam’s teeth came together with an audible click.
“In a minute,” she said and then, just to placate Cam, who looked like he was about to pop a gasket, she added, in an undertone, “I’ll try to come.”
“Try hard,” he growled.
She shot him an impish grin. “You can play with yourself while you wait.”
Judging from his glower, he didn’t appreciate the suggestion in the slightest.
Chapter Four
It took Cassie and Bella forever to fall asleep.
Just when Kristi thought they’d dropped off, one of them would say something and the other would respond and a muted, sincere conversation would ensue—despite Kristi’s deliberate snoring.
How rude of them.
Chattering away as though someone in the next bed wasn’t trying very hard to pretend to be asleep.
They finally drifted into silence. Kristi strained to listen to their breathing, only stirring when she was certain they were asleep. She eased off her covers and tiptoed from the room, glad she’d brought her full-length nightie so she didn’t have to flit through the house in her teddy. Although Cam might have enjoyed that.
Of course, when she packed, she had no idea she’d be plotting an illicit tryst. Or she might have tossed the teddy in.
It seemed like every stair creaked as she made her way down to the great room. She winced with each step. The room was dark, cloaked in shadows. While she did enjoy the stillness of the night, she didn’t appreciate stubbing her toe on the coffee table. Thankfully she thought to muffle her curse.
Her yelp—when a dark form stirred and rose from one of the easy chairs—was a different matter entirely.
Holt’s low chuckle resonated through her.
“Shit, Holt. You scared me to death.”
“I was wondering when you’d come down.”
She frowned at him through the gloom. “What made you think I’d come down?”
He stepped closer. “I’m not blind.”
“Blind?”
“Yeah, I saw what was going on between you and Cam. I figured you’d make your way to his room sometime.”
“And you waited up—why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No.” It was annoying. That’s what it was. All she wanted was to continue her journey into the bowels of the house and slip into the bed of the man who was waiting for her. And hard for her. And—
“I meant what I said, Kristi. About choosing. But in order to choose, a woman has to know she has a choice.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Us.” The clouds broke just then and a faint shaft of moonlight sighed into the room. The look on his face was alarming. Hungry.
Her mouth went dry. “Holt, there is no us.”
“There could be. God damn it, if I’d known you were coming this weekend, that you’d finally given that smarmy ass his walking papers, I’d have been here waiting for you. Instead, Cam got the opening I’ve been hoping for.”
She shook her head. “No, Holt.”
“No, what?”
“Just no. It’s always been Cam for me. Always. Ever since…well, always.” She set her hand on his arm, just to comfort him.
Big mistake.
He caught her wrist in a tight cuff and yanked her against him. He was big and strong and held her in a vise. “Maybe this will
change your mind.”
His mouth settled on hers, hard and demanding.
If she’d been any other woman, she would have been moved. She would have been seduced. He knew what he was doing and kissed like the very devil.
But he wasn’t Cam.
She let him finish, just so he could tell himself he’d tried. But she didn’t respond. Sometimes apathy spoke more powerfully than resistance. When he lifted his head with a hopeful expression she smiled. Sadly. “Nope.”
“Shit Kristi…that was a damn good kiss.”
“It was very pleasant.”
“Pleasant?” he squawked.
She shrugged. “Sorry, buddy.” She probably shouldn’t have emphasized the word, but she needed to make a point.
Clearly, he missed it.
“Okay then. How about this?” He kissed her again, this time with a tinge of desperation. He nearly suffocated her with his presence, pressing into her and clutching her and working her lips.
He kissed her and kissed her and kissed her. And he didn’t seem inclined to stop anytime soon.
Kristi forbore tapping her toes, but she was getting a little impatient. What she wanted—all she wanted—was to be with Cam. After a while, she tried to gently disengage, but he wouldn’t release her. She was on the verge of wracking him in the balls, which she really hated to do to a friend, when she was ripped from his arms and flung across the room. She landed with an “oof” on the leather sofa.
A sharp crack resounded, along with a feral growl. Something that sounded like, “Mine.”
Holt reeled back and collapsed in the lounger.
Cam turned to her with a ferocious glower and whipped her into his arms. His body hummed with tight tension. She suspected he would have tossed her over his shoulder if he’d needed to.
He didn’t need to.
She was right where she wanted to be.
He’d lifted her so effortlessly, it made her feel like a delicate china doll. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled closer as he carried her down to the basement. She loved that he’d stormed to her rescue wearing only his pajama bottoms. His chest was bare and broad and warm.
“My hero,” she whispered into his ear, and he relaxed, but just a bit.
“I was wondering what was taking you so long.”
“Bella kept chatting.”
“Bella’s a chatterbox. She needs a man to take her in hand.”
“Mmm. I like the sound of that.” She toyed with his nipple. He nearly missed a step so she decided not to do any more of that until they were finished with the stairs. “Would you like to take me in hand?”
“I’d like to turn you over my knee.”
She chuckled. “Me? What did I do?”
He gaped at her. “Other than passionately kissing Holt?”
“I wasn’t kissing Holt, and you know it.”
“Really?” He crossed the rumpus room and shouldered into his bedroom and tossed her onto the bed. She bounced. “Then what the hell was that?” He waved at the ceiling.
Kristi straightened her nightgown, primly covering her bare calves. “He was kissing me.”
His brows bunched. “Not okay. Do you know what seeing that did to me? God, Kristi. It ripped me up inside. I wanted to kill him.”
“He had to know.”
“Know?” He hit a warbling tone that would make America Idol contestants green with envy. “What did he have to know?”
“That I feel nothing for him.”
That shut him up. He stopped, stock-still and stared at her. “Nothing?” This, in a little boy voice.
Other than shock that two of her longtime friends had declared their intentions in the space of one evening? “Not a thing.” She wormed her way off the bed and sashayed toward him, swinging her hips. “Less than nothing, in fact.” She stood on tiptoe to press a kiss on his lips. “It was like kissing my brother. Or my uncle. Or Professor Layhea.”
“Professor Layhea?” Against his will, his lips tweaked. She could tell he was fighting it. His pout was kind of adorable. “Professor Layhea was pretty sexy.”
She kissed him again. Made her way along the line of his jaw to his lobe. Dabbed her tongue in his ear. He shuddered.
“I do find nostril-beards über sexy. And older men who take their baths in Old Spice—ha cha cha.”
His brow rose. His fingers curved around her waist and he pulled her closer. His cock stirred against her belly. “Did you ever kiss Professor Layhea?”
“Just the once.” She laughed when his eyes boggled at her boldfaced lie. She rubbed against his growing ardor. “I had to. I needed an A.”
“Hussy.” He eased her back onto the mattress pinning her there with his hardness, his heat. He hovered over her, staring at her for a long while. Then he slowly lowered his head and kissed her.
It didn’t take long for their teasing mood to completely evaporate. It was replaced by a crackling arousal. His cock pressed into her with an uncomfortable insistence. She wiggled a little bit and he shifted so it pressed against her cleft instead. He rubbed, up and down, like a cat, until she moaned.
“I shouldn’t want you again,” he murmured against her lips.
“Of course you should.”
“You drained me completely fucking dry earlier.”
“We forgot to use a condom.”
He nibbled her neck. “You’re on the pill.”
She hiked up her nightgown, enough so she could hook her legs around his butt. Tugged him closer. “I can’t believe how many times you made me come.”
“How many?”
“I lost count.”
“Really? I noticed two.”
“Oh, there were more than two.” She scored his back with her nails; he shivered. “It was probably a fluke though.”
He reared back. “What?”
“You know. On account of the fact I was so horny.”
“How, um, how horny were you?”
“Pretty horny.”
“How long… I mean, how long since—”
She drew his head back down. “I don’t want to talk about it. Point is, it was probably a fluke.”
“It wasn’t a fluke. I’ll have you know, I’m damn good in bed.”
“We’ll see.”
“What? We’ll see?”
“We haven’t done it in a bed.” This, she stated rather prosaically. “We’ll just see if you can do it again. Make me come like that again.”
A slow smile quirked his lips. “That sounds like a challenge.”
“I do believe it was.”
“Well, madam, if there’s one thing Cameron Jackson cannot do, it’s resist a challenge.” He teased her hem higher and she laughed.
“Yes,” she said. “I know.”
Funny.
Funny and sexy and damn stimulating.
That’s what Kristi was.
Perfect.
She even wiggled out of that prissy nightgown when he rolled to the side, pulling it over her head and tossing it over his shoulder. His breath caught in his throat as her breasts bobbed free. Glorious.
“Well,” she said with a tiny frown. “What are you waiting for?”
“I’m not waiting. I’m savoring.” He cupped her firm full mounds. Their weight delighted him. Her nipples perked up, even as he stared at them. He couldn’t resist drawing one, then the other, into his mouth. Delicious.
She squirmed at that, rubbing against his cock.
He pressed her breasts together and did what he’d been yearning to do since he’d seen her in her swimsuit last summer, buried his face between them and drew in her scent. Exquisite. She smelled like summer. Like summer and talcum and woman. A groan hovered at the base of his throat. She was so soft, so pliant. Everything about her was welcoming.
“Hey, mister,” she muttered. “You’re not pleasing me. You’re pleasing yourself.”
He chuckled and lifted his head. “Oh, I’ll please you. I’ll have you screaming for mercy in a minute.”
/> “You wish.”
“You wish.”
“I guess my challenge wasn’t challenging enough.”
He scooted up, until they were nose to nose, tunneled his fingers through her lush brown hair and held her still as he kissed her. Kissed her as though his life depended upon it. Which he suspected, in one tiny corner of his soul, it did.
He could kiss her forever, he thought. He could nestle in and lap and lick and suckle those lush pink lips. He could crawl inside and explore with his tongue and nibble and nip until eternity came knocking on the door.
His cock had other ideas.
As he seduced her, coaxed her, cajoled her with his mouth, the monster rose, until he was so hard and full he ached. The only way to assuage the nagging hunger was to press against her. Even that wasn’t enough.
He wanted to pull down his pajama bottoms and slip into her creamy depths. But she’d issued a challenge. And he was determined to answer it. He wanted to make her come. Make her so crazy for him she’d beg, plead, howl to be fucked.
He could think of a couple ways to accomplish that. He decided to go for out and out teasing. Slowly, he made his way over her chin to her neck, feasting there until she sighed and cooed and dug her nails into his shoulders. He circled her breasts, placing tiny kisses on the very edge, where the swells just began, ignoring the nipples altogether. He was only half done when she lost her patience.
“Damn it, Cam,” she reached for her nipples herself.
He grabbed her wrists. “Ah, ah ah. Put your hands over your head, missy.”
“What?”
“Go on. Up over your head.” His grin at her expression was, perhaps, a trifle evil.
“But—”
“But nothing. This is the Cam Jackson show. You are a canvas, and I’m painting on you. Come on. Do it.”
With a gusty sigh, she raised her arms.
“Good girl. Leave them there.”
“Get back to work. And quit driving me crazy.”
“I want you crazy.” To prove his point, he went back to work, making sure to go as slow as he could bear. Before long she was twitching restlessly.
As enjoyable as this torment was, he wanted, needed to continue his journey. Every inch of her was a new delight to relish. He made his way over her torso, appreciating the way the rise of her ribcage plunged to a flat belly. He spent a while exploring that creamy expanse before he suckled the rim of her bellybutton and dabbed in his tongue.
