Me and Mr. Jones

by Christie Ridgway

  He’d stuffed both lists back in her purse, thrust the purse into her arms, and practically sprinted for the car. The message he’d hoped to send by that move was they’d be dropping the subject of List 2. No way would he tease her about it, make jokes referring to it, or suggest additions to it. His aim was not to mention it ever again.

  Because…Jesus. He ran his hand through his hair and detected a slight tremble. Who could blame him? Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.

  An unfake orgasm.

  Oh, if only he could unsee that damn list.

  Unsee it, and stop thinking about it.

  The hostess was back now and Kane was led to the table beside Audra’s. He chose the chair that placed them back-to-back. It wouldn’t help matters to lunch while looking into her lovely face. Better this way.

  Yeah, better to keep some distance when he was suffering from the need to plow his fist into the jaw of every loser she’d ever been to bed with.

  Drinks were delivered to both tables. Food ordered. Kane managed to give the astounding view out the window his attention, kicking back in his chair.

  “I don’t know about this,” Audra said, her voice low. “When people eat out by themselves, what occupies them? My phone doesn’t have any bars.”

  His lips twitched. Of course, the pleaser would find sitting at a restaurant without her usual social or business component grating. “Does it feel like you’re wasting time, baby?”

  The conversation was interrupted by the server arriving with Audra’s food and then with his and he used the pause to remind himself for the tenth time to eliminate baby from his vocabulary.

  Over the scrape of her utensils and the clink of ice in her glass he made out the sound of her sigh. “Really,” she murmured. “This is maddening.”

  He grinned. “You could think about work. Make yourself—” he almost said “a list” and then hastened away from it “—an agenda for your next meeting. Something like that.”

  “I don’t want to think about being back at the office,” she said. “And I can’t just turn off my brain. This is why I haven’t signed up for those meditation sessions at the resort.”

  He chuckled. “I confess I’m not much of a meditator either.”

  “It seemed important, like something a grown woman should be comfortable with, eating out by herself. Now it only seems annoying.”

  “There’s always eavesdropping,” he suggested. “You could see if that entertains you while you have your meal.”

  He heard her shift in her chair, as if she was perking up. “When you’re out by yourself you listen to other people’s conversations?”

  Well, no, he supposed he didn’t actively listen. But as a hotelier it was part of his job to be attuned to the moods of the people around him. If he happened to overhear a guest voicing a complaint or expressing a wish, then it was only good business practice to see what he could do to fix or fulfill. “I keep my ears open.”

  “Okay.” He thought she might have nodded. “The only problem is, there’s no one nearby for me to eavesdrop on.”

  True. There were patrons out on the deck beyond the glass, but only a few sat at far away tables in their same room.

  “So I guess it’s up to you,” Audra said, her voice warming. “Talk about something, please.”

  He smiled. “I don’t normally hold a conversation with myself out loud, honey.”

  “Hold up your phone to your ear. Pretend you’re on a call. Get personal.”

  She was silly. This was ridiculous, and he’d feel so, but she was sounding amused by the idea of it, so he went along. Anything to cheer her up. With his cell to his ear, he opened his mouth.

  And couldn’t think of one damned thing to say, except for the subject that had been plaguing him more and more, the closer it came to his thirty-first birthday. A personal thing. “I’m thinking about leaving my job,” he said, his low voice for his and her ears only. “Leaving the company, actually.”

  He wasn’t expecting a response, so he went on. “I’ve been given the opportunity to take over all the West Coast operations, but I’m not sure it’s what I want.”

  Pausing when the server stopped by to top off his iced tea, he continued as she moved away again. “I’m leaning toward moving to Central America. There’s a chain of eco-resorts that have expressed interest in me coming on board.”

  He stared out at the horizon line, where the gray ocean met the pure blue of the sky. “My sisters won’t like it.” On a sigh, he scrubbed his scalp with his free hand. “But, the truth is, I don’t think they’re enough to get me to stay.”

  A seagull flew by to join others of its flock poking at the crust of a roll that had fallen to the deck.

  “I just don’t feel…connected to the life I have now,” he said, frustrated by what was true. “I’m not engaged with all my senses.”

  He could tell Audra had stilled behind him, but he didn’t stop. “I’m an aloof bastard, I see that, though I’m affable enough to co-workers and guests. I’m good to my family. I do find my work interesting and each day goes by quickly.”

  There was still a missing piece, though, a void inside him that dug deeper and yawned wider the older he became. A malaise that he sometimes wondered was triggered by that damn curse. “But I just can’t seem to do what the rest of the world finds so easy—care all that much about anything.”

  In the ensuing quiet, the clink of ice cubes against glass made him think that Audra was sipping at the soda she’d ordered. He heard the delicate clearing of a female throat. “He—my former fiancé—said I was hard to warm up.”

  Kane’s hand instantly tightened. He put aside his phone before he strangled it to death. “Audra—”

  “He may be the first to say it out loud, but he’s not the first man I’ve ever been with. And each time…I just couldn’t get there. I was never truly engaged with all my senses. I didn’t feel connected to my partner in bed.”

  It didn’t get past him that she was repeating some of his same phrases. Sweet, so sweet, Audra was, in expressing her concern and empathy in this way.

  She cleared her throat again. “I just can’t seem to do what the rest of the world finds so easy.”

  Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Was that tears he heard in her voice? No way could he let her despair over some stupid shit her weasel ex spewed at her. If Kane ever got his hands on the guy, the other man would find out what hurt really felt like.

  “Damn it. We should have gone skinny dipping,” he declared. “Walked nude on the beach.”

  “What?”

  He didn’t turn because looking at her would only grow his rage. “But it’s too late now.”

  “Too late…?”

  “We’re abandoning that first list, baby.”

  “What?”

  “Going straight to the second.”

  She let out a little squeak. “That’s not why I—”

  “I know why you shared, baby. And that was…that was…nice.” A stupid adjective for it, but Christ, her kindness, her caring bowled him over. She deserved a reward for that. “And I’m going to show you how nice I can be, as soon as we get back to the resort.”

  Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.

  An unfake orgasm.

  Not all at once, but the last for sure.

  Her silence was fraught with tension. “You don’t mean…”

  “I mean, and I intend.” He put all his confidence into the words. “As soon as we get back to Santa Barbara.”

  “Um, n-no, I couldn’t, w-well, I wouldn’t, if you know what I’m saying.” Though she was stammering, her voice halting, he knew exactly what she was saying.

  She thought he couldn’t make her come.

  He wondered if he could make her climax with kisses only. Because she’d been close to it on the beach, he’d swear.

  Throwing up his arm, he caught the server’s attention and paid for his and Audra’s lunch. She stayed glued to her chair until he grabbed her hand and pulled her to a
stand. Her fingers were cold and her body trembled in his hold.

  The ride back to Dragonfly Beach was going to be a long one for her, and he swallowed his smile at the thought.

  Because a few nerves never killed anybody.

  As a matter of fact, getting Audra keyed up with all her clothes on might make taking them off all the easier for her.

  Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.

  An unfake orgasm.

  God, he loved that list.

  Lust flooded his system as he towed her to the car, every one of her reluctant steps turning his crank. He opened her door for her, pushed gently on her shoulder as she folded onto the leather cushion. Leaning inside the opening, he latched her seat belt himself, his fingertips brushing against the bare skin of her thigh as he moved to straighten.

  Her breath made an audible hitch and he caressed her cheek before shutting the door and moving around to his side. As he slid in, she cleared her throat.

  “Yes?” he said, looking over at her.

  “This seems a little…bloodless.”

  “Are you feeling cool, baby?” He doubted it, because despite her little shivers her face was a delicious pink. It would be his pleasure to see her entire body turn that sweet, aroused and arousing, shade.

  She’d look beautiful in an orgasm flush and nothing else.

  Except maybe a couple of his ties in strategic places.

  “Kane,” she said, her voice tight. “I don’t know what I feel about this.”

  Yeah, right. She was looking at him with those big eyes of her, her tongue coming out to lick her soft lips. The woman felt like she wanted to give him a chance to take her there.

  “Let’s explore that then,” he said smoothly, starting the car. “Your feelings about…things. It will give us something to talk about on the way.”

  Audra clutched her hands together in her lap. Kane wanted to talk about sex? That’s what he meant, wasn’t it?

  Specifically, about the two of them having sex.

  “I’m terrified.” Oh, God, she’d said it out loud.

  “Do you want me to forget I heard that?” Kane asked, sounding amused.

  “Yes, please,” she replied, darting a glance at him. He looked perfectly composed in a pair of dark jeans and a collarless, short-sleeved cotton knit shirt. A hint of a smile quirked his perfectly molded lips that she’d had no problem kissing, no problem wanting to kiss. As a matter of fact, stopping kissing him had been the problem.

  “But I don’t want you to forget you made a list. You have goals, baby, and I’m here to make sure you achieve them.”

  “Why?” She bit her lip. “I mean, I’m sure you don’t have trouble finding women to share your bed, so why would you want to take on someone who can’t…can’t…”

  One of his big hands came over hers, squeezed. “You can and you will.”

  She slumped into her seat, flummoxed by his confidence. And unable to bring herself to reject his offer.

  Because, of course, she wanted to give him a chance.

  “Now tell me, Audra, what do you like about men?”

  Her head whipped toward him. “How do you mean?”

  His gaze slid to her, then back out the windshield. “What do you like about men’s bodies?”

  A flush of heat rolled over her. “Um…”

  “Close your eyes, let your mind wander, and then share with me the specifics when you’re ready.”

  Breathing unsteadily, she told herself she could do this. If she was going to do this, then she needed to follow his lead, show a little of that savoir faire she’d promised herself earlier in the day, and answer his question like a composed adult. Closing her eyes, and ignoring the slight foolishness she felt doing it, she allowed his voice to echo in her head.

  What do you like about men’s bodies?

  An image bloomed to life. A strong male hand, wide palms, long fingers.

  “I like your hands,” she said. “That first day in the bungalow, I watched you work. You seemed…skilled. Capable.”

  He made a quiet noise of approval.

  Audra remembered staring at his butt that first day too. “And I like you in the jumpsuit,” she said, a little tease, knowing he’d get she was kidding.

  He showed her he did by delivering a gentle pinch to her cheek. “What else?”

  Her own behind squirmed in the seat as she thought of his muscled chest beneath her palms. The way that it looked, naked and sweaty, when he’d played volleyball on the beach. “You have a very nice torso,” she said primly.

  “Is that so?”

  “And of course you’re handsome, but you’ve heard that a thousand times.”

  “Not from you,” he answered, sounding smug.

  Then another image flashed in her brain, Kane’s mouth descending, moments before he kissed her. Following that was a memory of the kiss itself, the heat of his lips, the powerful thrust of his tongue, the way he took the weight she leaned into him and ate at her mouth as if her taste was something he couldn’t get enough of.

  Her breath backed up in her lungs and she felt a heavy warmth pool between her thighs. Her nipples tightened into aching buds against the cups of her bra.

  “What are you thinking about now?” he asked, his voice low, a sexy burr. “Because I know it’s getting you hot.”

  She twitched. “Kane—”

  “What’s getting you hot, baby?” His palm landed on her bare thigh, and he pushed up the hem of her dress, caressing her and comforting her at the same time. “What am I doing inside that head of yours?”

  “Kissing me,” she admitted, whispering. “Just kissing me.”

  “Good. You keep thinking of me kissing you until we stop. I want you soft and wet and swollen when we get back to the resort.”

  “Kane—”

  “You do that for me, baby. Be good.”

  And so Audra did, because being good was her nature, and because who could say no to such a gorgeous man?

  Such a gorgeous, arrogant man.

  The man who was going to take her to bed as soon as they got back to the resort. She shivered, but it was in anticipation now, not out of nervousness. Her nerves seemed to have melted along with any idea of resisting him.

  Smart man, to pose that question and—wait a minute.

  He’d asked her what she liked about men and she’d spilled what she liked about him. God, he knew what he was doing, didn’t he? He knew what he was doing with her.

  If she couldn’t have an orgasm under the hands of Kane Hathaway, she was doomed, forever…broken.

  “Baby,” Kane whispered, and his hand was on her thigh again, heavy and warm and impossible not to think about. And think about it in other places as well. “In your head, my mouth is on you. Imagine it…”

  Audra did as he suggested, only to float on heated fantasy until she felt the car come to a final halt. “You stay put,” Kane said. “I’m coming around to get you.”

  The memory of his touch lingered on her leg even as he opened her door and helped her out. Then he had his hand on her again—nothing overt, a guiding touch on her elbow, fingertips to the small of her back—as they walked into the resort’s reception area then immediately turned right to a bank of elevators.

  Her breath whooshed in and she glanced over as he pressed the button for the top floor. “We’re not going to my place—” she began.

  “I’ve got a suite,” he said. “I don’t always stay there—” He broke off, his gaze narrowing. “What?”

  “Nothing,” she said hastily. What did she care if it was his sex lair? That’s what she wanted wasn’t it?

  The elevator pinged open and he hustled her inside, then bent over her, his hand on her chin to bring her face to his. “I’ve actually never brought a woman here.”

  She tried to toss her hair, but his fingers tightened on her face. “It’s none of my business.”

  “Now, you are my business. Just you.”

  The doors glided open on another chime and
too soon she found herself in a sizeable suite, a spacious living area with wet bar and a bedroom she could see through another doorway. Presumably a bath beyond.

  The magnificent view from the windows showed Dragonfly Beach and the ocean to the horizon line.

  Audra’s nerves came alive, and she considered making a run for it.

  “Hey,” Kane said gently.

  Her head swiveled toward him. His was tilted, his eyes studying her. “Relax. Take a few deep breaths.”

  “I’m too much work,” she said, her voice high with apprehension. What had she been thinking, coming up with him to his rooms, planning to have an encounter with a man of his experience? On the heels of him learning all her own experiences had led only to fake orgasms and frustration?

  “No,” he said, moving toward her. “You need to get out of your head and we need to get onto something more interesting.”

  Before she knew what he was about, he had pulled her into his arms and he was kissing her, the thrust of his tongue immediate and sure. Audra clutched at his biceps, nails digging in, to keep herself upright. When Kane lifted his mouth from hers, she had no air at all and she only stared up at him, dazed. Somehow, they were in the bedroom.

  “Yeah, I like this look on you,” he said, rubbing a knuckle down the slope of her nose. “You keep your mind on kissing, baby. Nothing else.”

  He swooped in again, and this time her knees sagged. With a laugh, he pulled her to the bed and they fell upon it, kissing and rolling so that she was ultimately under him. Then he broke the kiss to prop his body on his elbows, his eyes on her face. She stared back, unblinking, and some emotion moved between them, big and weighty. It settled in her chest.

  “Kane…” she said, uncertain again. Her toes curled as if gripping the edge of a cliff.

  His mouth quirked, and then he pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped a few times on the screen. Music came pouring from unseen speakers, a sexy, soulful pulse.

  She blinked at the so-obvious song, then laughed, suddenly tickled by the choice. “Marvin Gaye?” she said. “Is this your secret weapon? You pull out Marvin Gaye?”