About Last Night...

by Michele Dunaway

  Deep words from Shane were unheard-of, totally unfamiliar territory, and Lindy tried to make light of the moment. “You’re just trying to soften me up, get under my skin so that I’ll marry you.”

  Shane’s expression turned even more serious. “No, I’m not. When you’ve said no, you mean no. Believe me, I’ve learned that lesson. After all, you’re not working for me now, are you?”

  “Well, technically, I am. You’re somehow my superior at Jacobsen.”

  He grinned. “Okay, I am right behind Harry on the chain of command. But you know what I meant. I was talking about when I worked out of my home. Speaking of which, I’m moving out.”

  “You’re what?”

  “Moving out. The pool house isn’t a real home, and when my son or daughter comes to stay with me, I want him or her to have a real house. A real place to be. I’m looking for property. The Ladue and Clayton school districts are good, so I’m concentrating on those. Of course, my parents believe that junior should have a private-school education, but, I mean, for grade school? But I figure we have a few years to decide that. Anyway, Ladue and Clayton are close to Jacobsen Enterprises. I don’t want too much of a commute.”

  Shane’s face brightened as if he’d been struck by a great idea. “You know, you should probably come look at houses with me. After all, you might want to give the place a seal of approval.”

  “I’m not sure,” Lindy said. The prospect of looking for houses with Shane was, well, overwhelming. How often had she fantasized about that?

  “I think you should,” Shane said. “I mean, I might get this totally modern thing that is nowhere near, what’s that word, kidproof. And I’m buying a new car.”

  “You’re giving up your Corvette?”

  Shane looked sheepish. “I didn’t say that. I mean, it’s a fiftieth anniversary edition. I’m buying a second car. A sensible sedan with a back seat where I can strap in a baby carrier. I’m torn between two models, a Lexus or a Buick. Both have excellent safety ratings. Hey, how about I get the brochures? They’re in my car.”

  “Well, I—”

  “It’ll only take a minute,” Shane said. He scrambled to his feet and was out the door before she could protest further.

  Once again, Lindy found herself staring at the door. Tomorrow she resolved to call the apartment complex and have them paint it. A few moments later, she heard Shane’s footsteps on the landing, and then he entered. “Got them,” he announced. “Here, look at these. Say, it’s Monday night. Want to go for a test drive with me? The dealership’s open until nine.”

  Lindy thought of her Grand Prix. Three years ago she’d splurged on the top-of-the-line model because car payments and rent were her only two big monthly expenses. Now Shane was showing her brochures for cars that cost twice as much as her GTP. Once again she said the words that were all too familiar where Shane was concerned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “Sure it is,” Shane said. “Be impulsive for once. You’re finished eating, and television’s boring. Let’s go.”

  “Really, I…”

  “Come on.” Shane pulled her to her feet, and in the process Lindy found herself falling against him. As her body pressed his, fire seared her and her body fully betrayed her as her nipples thrust forward, seeking closer contact with Shane’s chest. Lindy’s face flushed as she realized that heat had traveled even farther south.

  “Steady, there,” Shane said, and he encircled her in his arms. “I’ve got you.”

  He did, too, and Lindy’s face reddened again as she realized that she wasn’t the only one slightly aroused. That she could cause such a reaction in Shane, when he wasn’t drunk, surprised her. She lifted her head to look at him.

  Which was a mistake.

  Those baby-blue Jacobsen eyes had morphed into bottomless pools she could easily drown in. Those lips of Shane’s were way too close. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek, feel the soft hairs of his arms underneath her fingertips.

  She could feel how much he wanted her.

  Her. Lindy Brinks. Former PA.

  “Speechless,” Shane mused, and then as if fate had finally decided, he swooped his lips down.

  Chapter Six

  The moment his lips touched hers, Lindy shattered. The fact that he didn’t pull away caused her to detonate.

  How long had it been? Eight weeks? Ten? Right now she couldn’t remember the exact length of time since their last kiss, but as Shane touched his lips lightly to hers again, Lindy didn’t care.

  Shane was kissing her.

  Wait. Shane was kissing her. The insistent little voice inside her head tried to intrude, but as Shane ran his wet tongue over the outside of her lips, Lindy banished the nagging voice of reason to the deepest netherworld region of her brain.

  The first time they’d ever kissed he’d been under the influence of painkillers and strawberry daiquiris. This time, as he kissed her, he tasted of chili and cheese mixed with cola. He tasted delicious. Delightful. Divine.

  “Kiss me,” he whispered against her lips, and upon hearing those two words Lindy’s final resistance caved. She pressed her lips back to his. His fingers traced her jaw as his lips feathered over hers, beckoning her to take another taste, to deepen the intimacy of their mating mouths.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered back, before parting his lips with a quick darting tongue movement of her own.

  “I will,” Shane said, and as the words traveled the millimeters from his mouth to hers, Shane knew he would kiss her. Forever if he could. Her mouth tasted of chocolate and of French fries, and right now no caviar or champagne could be richer or tastier. As he kissed her, he realized that he’d lost all control. Kissing her was like discovering an awe-inspiring power, an electrical storm that could heat and cool the entire world. But along with this raging passion, there was still a simple beauty, a glorious grace to Lindy that made kissing her special, different from any other kiss he’d ever had before.

  Shane slid his arms lower around her waist, bringing her hips toward his. He wanted to feel her close again. To remember. To relive what they’d shared. He deepened the kiss, devouring her mouth as if he’d been seeking its fruit his whole life. His veins felt molten, and his knees weak. No other woman had ever done that to him. He reached up with one hand and threaded his fingers into her hair. Just as silky and smooth as he’d semiremembered it being, had subsequently fantasized it being.

  He knew at that moment he should probably stop the kiss, but in a split second he decided not to. If he stopped her before she wanted to, guilt might sink in. He didn’t want that, not when everything in her body language told him to go on. No, he’d move slowly, giving her all opportunities.

  He moved her slightly, knocking the car brochures off of the table and down to the floor. She didn’t seem to notice or care. He lowered her to the couch, and she only moved her lips to change the angle of her kiss.

  Part of him raged to simply take her into the bedroom and ravish her. But this was Lindy, and this time he wanted it to be slow. He wanted to savor her. He wanted to taste every bit of her skin as he slid his lips lower, feeling with his fingertips every bit of phenomenal friction as his hands experienced the texture of her skin.

  He mated his tongue with hers, and Lindy’s hands suddenly laced themselves into his hair. The feeling of her touch ricocheted through him and his lower body quickened further. Realizing his eyes were closed, he drew back a moment and opened his eyes. In doing so, he saw that Lindy was staring up at him, the most intense look on her face. Her brown-eyed gaze held his as her hands, still in his hair, pulled him back down for another long kiss.

  Was this what it had been like before? Shane tried to remember, but when his hands slid underneath Lindy’s broadcloth shirt and found her lace bra, his mind blanked as the new history overwrote the old. She arched her back up into him, and Shane could deny himself no longer. He kissed her neck, laved the skin revealed at the V-neckline of her blouse, and then, instead of unbuttoning the
bothersome article of clothing, he simply yanked the shirt up and kissed Lindy through the white lace.

  She wore white lace. Surprise ripped through him, although somehow he should have known that Lindy would be a white-lace type of girl. Did she know how much he loved white lace? How much it turned him on, and how Lindy in white lace was the biggest turn-on he’d ever had?

  He’d have to tell her later, he resolved, and his mind lost focus and drifted off again into fields of pleasure as his teeth nibbled, his mouth suckled, and underneath him Lindy went positively wild as pleasure and abandon racked her body.

  “That’s right, let go,” he whispered as he moved his kisses to her other straining breast. He lowered his mouth to it, and with deft fingers began undoing the buttons of Lindy’s skirt. She hadn’t changed out of her work clothes, but he didn’t want a quick coupling with her skirt shoved up at her waist. No, he wanted her bare as the day she was born. He wanted nothing on her but the sheen of her skin.

  She arched her head back, and Shane knew that even if she stopped him after his next action, he’d have at least broken down some of the barriers she’d put up around herself in these past few weeks. With a fast swoop he slid her skirt off, and he went mad. Lindy had always maintained that she hated panty hose. He’d never understood or paid much attention, until now. Instead of waist-high hose, she wore individual thigh-highs. And covering her most intimate secrets was white lace.

  The memory of that first night returned to him, elusively, as Shane began removing Lindy’s hose, one silky leg, then the other. Her eyes were still closed, and he leaned over and kissed her lips again. Stay with me, he said to her under his breath. Stay.

  And then the hose were off and he moved himself between her legs, putting one of her legs up on the couch as the other fell uselessly aside. He felt her inner thigh clench as he placed a wet kiss on it, and then he simply placed his whole mouth over the white lace and kissed her through it.

  Lindy shuddered and turned her head to the left. The thought that resistance was futile filtered through her mind, and the fact that this phrase came from Star Trek flickered into her consciousness and out again just as quickly. She could think of nothing but what Shane was doing to her, and the massive release he’d already teased out of her body.

  She fisted the side of the sofa in a weak attempt to get a grip on something, anything, but found herself denied as Shane’s mouth pulled down the lace and tossed it somewhere aside.

  She opened her eyes and saw Shane’s blond head concentrated on nothing but her pleasure. He looked up at her, and his gaze locked onto hers. The intensity in his baby blues scared her, and as he brought her to rapture’s edge again, she let her head fall back onto a cushion.

  The thought crept into her mind, then, that she should stop him, stop this, but she’d ached for Shane Jacobsen for far too long. And he was making love to her because he wanted her, and Lindy couldn’t deny herself one last pleasure, one last time.

  “Take off your shirt,” he said, somewhere between subsequent kisses, and powerless to resist anything, Lindy unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall to the side as another wave of pleasure overtook her.

  “White lace,” he murmured as he brought his face back toward hers, stopping again to kiss each breast into full extension. He stood and reached for her hand. “Come.”

  Maybe it was the command, maybe it was the double-edged promise in the word, but Shane had always been her pied piper, and this time was no different. She took his hand and let him lead her to her bedroom. A soft click indicated he’d closed the door behind them.

  He’d seen the inside of her room, of course, but he’d never been in there with her. No man had. Maybe it had been the fear of the awkwardness of Tina seeing the gentlemen callers the next morning. Maybe it had just been Lindy keeping her space pure and preserved. But now as Shane pulled back her comforter and set her down on her sheets, she was glad she’d never had any memories of any other man in this bed.

  His lips found hers again, and while kissing him she ran her hands up underneath his shirt. His skin felt unbelievable, incredible. She ran her fingers over his body, touching him everywhere. She tugged his shirt, and as if sensing her intentions, Shane broke their kiss, pulled it off, and tossed it aside.

  Lindy closed her eyes as his lips found hers again, and she palmed him, memorizing his steel chest using nothing but her deliberate touch. In the blackness that was somehow light, she felt her bra disappear and Shane’s mouth once again taste her.

  “Do you know how much I want you?” he whispered, and Lindy didn’t know, but as her desire for him swept over her again, she didn’t care. She arched her back, and he slid his mouth down one last time before coming to rest over her on all fours. She reached for the buttons of his shorts that were now positively offensive because of the fact that they were still on.

  “Look at me,” he said.

  She opened her eyes. His face was close to hers, those blue eyes intense. Not one part of his body touched hers, and she missed the heat that had fused between them.

  Shane leaned down and gave her lips a quick kiss. “I need to know. Do you want this?”

  Did she? Lindy blinked.

  “I don’t remember asking you last time. Now that we’re both sober, this time I want you to be sure.”

  Maybe it was the way his eyes seemed to twinkle and the lines around his eyes crinkled that took the edge off how serious Shane’s question was. Maybe it was just her overwhelming need to once again have the reality that had been her fantasy for almost three years. Maybe she just missed the warmth of his touch.

  Whatever it was, right now she needed Shane Jacobsen as much as she needed to breathe. “Yes. I’m sure,” she said.

  And with that, he lowered himself to her, kissing her everywhere at least twice until finally he poised himself and drove himself inside her.

  “Oh, my,” he muttered, but Lindy had no real comprehension of Shane’s dilemma, as her body had already detonated into slivers of shimmery lights. She could feel him, skin to skin.

  And she’d thought her chocolate shake had been heaven. Shane joined to her was heaven. This one moment in time was nirvana, a bliss that only two people could create. A small tear formed in her right eye as the enormity of the passion Shane called from her overtook her again. He moved her as no other man ever had, probably as no other man ever would. Shane Jacobsen was her sexual other half.

  She let herself go again, taking the pleasure he offered her, joining herself to his body so that the sensations that both of them experienced blended into one, as if their mutual passions had fused.

  She felt him thrust deep into her and knew he was watching her face, watching her pleasure, and she kept her eyes tightly closed as Shane cried out with his own overwhelming reaction. She felt him shudder and she was with him, spiraling over the edge with him, giving and taking until both of them drifted into the sweet aftermath of spent passion.

  Neither said anything, and Shane gathered her into his arms. Lindy lay across his chest, not caring that sunset seeped through the window. For right now, she was at peace, and she didn’t want anything to disturb it.

  A rare satisfaction overtook her, and without meaning to, Lindy slept.

  SHE AWOKE to a darkened room, only to discover the smooth sensations soothing her head were Shane’s fingertips stroking her hair and spreading it along the pillow. “Hey, sleepyhead,” Shane said.

  Lindy bolted straight up, clocking him in the chin in the process. He rolled over onto his back. “Ow.”

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, quickly clutching the sheet to cover her naked breasts. Her own head now throbbed from the hard impact, but she ignored it. She’d just made love to Shane Jacobsen—again.

  Hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time? The first time had knocked her up. Lindy sighed. Where fools feared to tread, she rushed right on in, especially where Shane Jacobsen was concerned. He’d asked her if she’d wanted to stop, and she’d pressed on. But how could sh
e have stopped? Making love to Shane was like being offered chocolate milkshakes and being asked if she wanted one. Duh. No contest there. But the end result? Now she’d another moment of delicious decadence that would live on her thighs forever.

  “You have a hard head,” Shane said. His words returned her from her reverie, and as Lindy’s eyes adjusted to the low light, she could see a small reddish spot on his forehead.

  “Sorry,” she said again. “You surprised me. I mean, this surprised me. I mean…” Her voice faltered. She sounded like a babbling idiot. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Not long. About an hour and twenty-five minutes.”

  No way! She stared at him. “I’ve been asleep an hour?”

  “And twenty-five minutes.”

  Lindy clutched the sheet a little tighter. “I—”

  “You needed the rest.” Shane sat up, the portion of the sheet covering him slipping down to his waist. Lindy stared at his smooth torso, the one she’d palmed with wild abandon once again. He reached forward and moved a strand of her hair out of her eyes. “You needed the rest, sweetheart.”

  His use of the endearment surprised her, and she turned to stare at him. “Why did you do this?”

  He blinked at her, his expression clueless. “Do what?”

  “Make love to me?”

  “Because I wanted to,” Shane said simply. Letting her right hand continue to clutch the sheet, he took her free hand in his. Warmth flowed through her. “We have a phenomenal chemistry between us. I have to admit, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. You?”

  Lindy debated lying. But how could she? The passion between Shane and her was unlike any she’d ever known before. No matter what, even if it came back to haunt her, he deserved to know that. “No. I’ll admit, it’s pretty intense.”

  “Exactly. While I was kissing you I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to make things right between us, to let us both feel once again what we’d done to create our baby.” He reached his other hand over and placed it on Lindy’s still-flat stomach. “This little one’s lucky if that was the way he or she was conceived.”