Finally, Colin knelt on one knee on the edge of the bed, between Jaina's legs. She sat up, reaching for the hem of his sweater. She couldn't lift it high enough, so he pulled it off over his head. Jaina watched with fascination as the muscles of his arms, chest, and abdomen flexed. She summoned all her bravery and placed her hands on his chest. He shuddered at the butterfly-light touch of her fingers.
He lightly rubbed her arm, his lips to hers, as he removed his shoes and socks with one hand. Slowly, he lifted her sweater. Jaina raised her arms, letting him remove it. She blushed at the heat in his eyes they roamed over her, taking in the heavy orbs of her breasts, held in her pink and black lace bra. For months, he'd longed to see her this way, and doing it now was almost too good to be true. He'd built a fantasy in his mind, since that night in the club, and he thought with delight that he could now touch her the way his fingers burned to.
Reaching around her, eyes locked on hers, he unhooked her bra and slowly slid the straps down her shoulders. Leaning forward, he kissed near her ear, then down her throat, and across her left shoulder. She shivered as his mouth slid down her arm, following the strap on that side. Jaina fell back on the covers, feeling rather boneless.
Dropping her bra on the floor, Colin leaned over her, his mouth continuing on its journey. In response, something in her lower belly tightened.
She felt bereft as he released her, the cool air hitting her damp skin. The feeling lasted only until he found a new site for worship. Her fingers clawed at the covers, clutching handfuls of the quilt.
He slipped the button of her jeans through the hole, then slowly slid the zipper down with a whir that made Jaina tense slightly. Her nervousness, which had been waning, came back full-force.
He tugged the waist of her jeans over her hips, and in seconds, they joined the growing pile on the floor. He smiled when he saw that she wore mismatched underwear, her panties a white cotton with light blue stripes.
She rose on her knees as he crawled onto the bed. Her fingers shook as she unfastened his pants. He wore blue boxers, which did not surprise her. Straddling his lap, Jaina cupped his face and kissed him. His arms snaked around her and they fell back, her hair spilling forward into his face.
Laughing, Colin pushed her hair back over her shoulders. Jaina smiled a bit wryly, bracing herself on her outstretched arms. He pushed himself up on his elbows and kissed her lightly. She sat on his lap, and her eyes widened.
He chuckled at the look on her face. Sitting up, his chest came in full contact with hers. If it were even physically possible, her eyes got larger, green rings surrounded by white. He stroked her back and Jaina shivered again, leaning into his touch.
By silent consent, he pulled back the covers and they stretched out on their sides, facing each other. Their tongues entwined as he cupped her breast. When they broke for air, Colin gazed into her eyes. Hers were unfocused, darkened, her pupils large, lids heavy.
When she tried to sit up, he laughed and pushed her back against the bed. Hooking two fingers under the waistband of her underwear, he slid them down her legs. He rose swiftly and shed his boxers. Jaina barely had time to study him before he moved over her, hips against hers, their bodies full against each other. She parted her legs to accommodate him. Colin made a noise low in his throat.
As for Jaina, she happily ran her hands over the toned muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back. Impatiently, she moved her hips. A strangled noise came from Colin, and she looked up at him, suddenly shy. He traced her lips with a finger.
“Just let me know if-”
“Shh,” she murmured, and pulled him down.
Chapter Fourteen
She woke slowly, as if floating, out of a deep slumber. Jaina felt as if her limbs were lead. She was warm, and didn't want to move.
Something was different. She wasn't sure what, but the air in the room had a different quality to it.
Her face was pressed against something warm, that was soft, and yet hard. She opened her eyes to find her head pillowed on Colin's bare shoulder. Jaina blinked a few times, unable to remember how she'd come to be lying with a shirtless man.
She looked up at him, meeting those intense blue eyes.
"Well,” he said, tone just a little dry, "I have to say, that was the most interesting 'talk' I've ever had."
Memories came back in a rush, and Jaina's face went scarlet. She turned her face into his shoulder.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to maul you."
"I thoroughly enjoyed and was a more than active participant in that mauling," he reminded her.
His face close to hers, he said, "Granted, it wasn't what I'd come to discuss."
Jaina raised her head. "What did you come to discuss?"
Her hands were curled against his chest, and he grasped them with the hand not pinned under her body. The color was high in his face as he murmured, "I love you."
To his consternation, her face crumpled and she burst into tears.
Alarmed, he gathered her close, whispering soothing things into her hair until she settled. Her reaction was far from what he'd been expecting.
Typing her face up, he wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Why the tears, sweetheart?"
Jaina sniffled. "I thought you didn't want me!"
He annoyed her greatly by giggling. Giggling! She frowned and thumped his shoulder. "Why are you laughing, you- you jerk?!"
Colin caught her hand and kissed her clenched fingers. "Not want you," he gasped. When he finally got himself to stop laughing, his expression suggested she'd lost her mind. "Jaina, I've been dying from wanting you since the moment I first saw you. I thought you didn't want me!"
"You had plenty of opportunities to do something!" she said. "But nooo, you kissed my forehead!"
He shook with silent laughter. "Jay, love, I was terrified. And it was obvious you thought I was gay. The truth is, I've been trying not to make any passes because I didn't want to be rejected."
Colin swept the tangle of her hair out of her face. "In all honesty," he said, voice dropping to a level that made her tremble, "I think I want you more now than I did an hour ago."
"An hour ago," she repeated, his words triggering some memory. Then her face blanked. "Oh, crap!"
In a flurry of bedcovers, Jaina flew from the bed, grabbing for her robe that hung on one of the posts. Then she was out of sight and he heard her feet on the stairs.
Bewildered, Colin shook his head and set to straightening the bedding. Then he stopped, frozen.
A moment later, Jaina came back, chuckling. "I was so worried I'd burned the food, but I just found I didn't even turn the stupid oven on. I..."
She trailed off when she saw his face. "What?"
The set of his jaw was angry, his face tight, but his voice was nothing but concerned. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She followed his gaze as he turned his head, and she went red as the stains on the white sheets. "I tried," she whispered. "Several times. But... It doesn't matter to me. Does it matter to you?"
Colin rose from the bed and walked naked over to her. He realized now that every time she'd tried to tell him, he'd stopped her. It made him feel terrible. "I'm just horrified at the thought of hurting you."
Jaina wrapped her arms around him. "You didn't, not really. I, um, didn't exactly notice. And it would have happened anyway, Colin, whether you'd known or not."
He kissed the top of her head. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." Jaina rested her cheek against his chest. "You're the one I... I was waiting. Until I found the right one. And... I have. To me, you are."
"Jaina," he breathed, at a loss for a response.
She looked up. "I love you. And I don't think I could have hope for a better initiation than that."
He actually flushed at that. "I would have been more careful," he said.
"Screw careful. You would have been too cautious to do anything."
His guilty expression confirmed her thinking. Jaina shook her head.<
br />
"It's done," she said. "And I don't regret it. If I hadn't wanted it, I wouldn't have let it happen in the first place."
He had to admit, she had a point. Closing his eyes, he just held her, both of them silent. Her hair smelled of lavender.
Then his stomach growled.
Jaina laughed. "I invited you for dinner, and we haven't even eaten yet."
"All I'm hungry for is you," he informed her.
"Not according to your stomach," she said, but was secretly flattered. "Let's, um, clean up, and then we can see if the food I made is salvageable."
♥♥♥
The romance novels, Jaina recalled, always depicted the heroine as being emboldened by the loss of her maidenhood. She always had mind-shattering, life-altering sex with the hero. And she never suffered the morning after.
Jaina, having read innumerable examples of this scenario, could only say she'd experienced the sex. Not that she had anything to compare it to, but that was beside the point.
As for being "emboldened", every time she looked at Colin, or even thought about what they'd done, she went red from head to toe. In addition, she already ached from their enthusiastic mating, and it had only been a little over an hour. Her chances for mobility the next morning weren't real hot, she thought.
Colin had gone downstairs to turn on the oven while Jaina had made the bed. Just thinking about it, as she gathered the sheets, she blushed again.
"Stupid," she muttered.
Returning to the bedroom, Colin saw how slowly Jaina was moving as she put the fitted sheet on the mattress. "I know just the thing," he told her. "You'll feel better in no time."
In the bathroom adjoining her bedroom, Colin filled the tub with hot water. He pulled Jaina into the bathroom.
"C'mon, we're taking a bath."
"But... there isn't room for both of us," she protested.
He gave her an amused look. "Yes, there is. We're not going to be doing acrobatics. We're going to be sitting. Come on, get in."
Colin climbed in first. Jaina hesitated, then shed her white-, pink-, and green-striped terry cloth robe and stepped in. She made an unintelligible, happy noise as she leaned back against his chest.
"See?" he chuckled.
Letting her head fall back on his shoulder, she said, "Okay, you're right. This is much better."
"I told you. Rule number one-"
"Keep talking and I'll hurt you, Pierce."
Colin placed a kiss against the pulse just under her jaw. Their sudden intimacy felt strange, he thought. They hadn't been dating, really, or anything. The speed at which they'd gone from friends to lovers astounded him. They hadn't even been speaking to each other the day before!
He looked down at Jaina, whose eyes were shut, a small smile curving her lips. Steam from the water was making the wispy hairs around her face curl. He wrapped one around his finger.
"Jaina," he said softly. "I'm sorry. I would have made it better for you."
She opened an eye. "Are we back to that? Honey, my muscles may be stiff, but I feel like I've got the gross motor skills of a bowl of gelatin. Don't worry about it."
He laughed. "Me, too," he admitted.
Jaina was quiet for a long moment. “Do you think I'm a geek?"
"No, not at all." He had to grin. "I already know about your obsessions, so it doesn't surprise me. Actually, I've been wondering what your hobbies are, considering that all you ever do, to my knowledge, is put makeup on people, cook, ride bikes, and injure yourself."
She scoffed. "It's not like I make a habit out of hurting myself! And that was your fault, anyway. If you hadn't suddenly popped out of nowhere, I wouldn't have fallen."
"You fell for me," he said with a goofy laugh.
Jaina poked him in the thigh. "That was terrible, Mr. Comedian."
"Pardon me if my brain's not operating to full ability," he said. "You're lucky I'm stringing words together in the right order."
She looked up at the ceiling. "That reminds me of something on the show that’s been bugging me. How can any self-respecting sci-fi geek like Keith not be able to reproduce Yoda's speech pattern? Hard, it is not. Made me cringe, it did."
"You have too many thoughts," he said fondly. He kissed her temple.
"So I've been told." Jaina sat up, with an effort. "We'd better get out of here before we start to resemble humiliated grapes."
"What?"
The bewilderment in his voice made her laugh. "Benny & Joon reference"
"Ah." Colin's hand dropped under the water.
A moment later, Jaina said, incredulous, "Again?!"
A husky chuckle was her answer.
"Let's at least eat first!" she said.
"Oh, fine," he said. "But make it quick, would you?"
"I don't know if I can so soon," she said. "Do it again, I mean."
Colin hugged her. "It'll be okay. I promise."
Chapter Fifteen
The smell of something burning greeted them when they walked into the kitchen. Jaina, moving quicker than she'd thought capable, fetched the casserole dish out of the oven, placing it on the range top, and looked at it mournfully. Then she started laughing.
Colin was mortified. Jaina had told him 180 Celcius, and he'd set it for nearly twice that. As he turned red, Jaina hugged his arm.
"It's okay," she laughed. "We'll just have cereal or something."
They did. Jaina had a bowl of something with almonds and wheat flakes, oat clusters, and bananas. Colin had "Lucky Charms". Sitting at the table, they only took up one corner.
Colin looked at the marshmallows on his spoon. Laying on a thick Irish brogue, he said, "They're after me lucky charms!"
Jaina giggled. "Don't do that, you'll make me shoot milk out of my nose!"
He looked delighted. "Really?"
"Try it and I'll stab you with my spoon."
"Why a spoon?" he asked, interested.
"Because a dull spoon hurts more, duh.” Jaina put her spoon down, in her bowl, and ran her bare foot up his leg. "So, tell me. How did the gay rumor get started?"
He choked on his marshmallows. Jaina sighed and handed him her glass of milk. She waited until he'd stopped coughing, then asked again.
Colin swallowed, then said, "It's a long story."
"I've got all night," she said pleasantly.
"Okay." He cleared his throat. "Well... back when I was working on this show back in my twenties, I... had a girlfriend. I didn't see us as that serious, but apparently, she did. When I wouldn't commit, we broke up, and she started telling people that I was gay."
"Ouch." Jaina winced. "Then what? Didn't you protest?"
"Well, too much protesting, and they wouldn't believe me. I figure that if they were going to believe her, they wouldn't listen to me. And about that time..." He paused, then asked, "Have you seen What Women Want'?"
She nodded. "So... There's a Marisa Tomei in there somewhere?"
Colin was surprised. Jaina had caught on quicker than he'd thought. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm... I'm friends with her still, have been for ages, but... I'm not interested in her, and... letting her think I'm gay was easier than breaking her heart."
"Hmm." Jaina stirred her cereal. "Well, as long as I'm Helen Hunt to your Mel Gibson, without the backstabbing, I'm good. So who is she?"
"Um. You haven't met her." Colin was getting very distracted by her foot. "Jaina, if you keep doing that, the only sounds that come out of me will be gibberish."
"Sorry." Grinning to show she was anything but, Jaina tucked her foot under her chair. "So that's it? People think you're gay just because you haven't said otherwise?"
"Pretty much, yes. And I haven't had a date in ages." Shrugging, he said, "Plus, for the last two years, I've been celibate."
Her grin turned wicked. "Oh, that's riiiight. Did I make you break your vow of celibacy? That's too bad."
Colin eyed her. "If you want to know, the reason I couldn't get a date and haven't been laid in years is because everyone thought I was
gay and I couldn't get a woman to look at me twice. Well, not one who wasn't a fan, and I don't get involved with fans."
She frowned. "I'm a fan."
"Yes, but you're also a coworker, and my best friend. I know you as more than someone I've met at a convention, or something. More than that, I love you." He smiled.
That smile faded when he saw how pale she was. "Are you all right?"
"I dunno, I just feel... tired. I mean, yeah, I have reason to be tired, but... I haven't been feeling well recently, and I guess I'm just exhausted."
Colin nodded. "All right, then. Tonight, we'll just sleep."
Jaina straightened. "No, we can still..."
When she blushed, he smiled and said, "To quote Xander Harris, if you're old enough to be doing it, you're old enough to say it."
She ducked her head. "It just... it's all new, and weird. I mean, I've wanted this more than anything, but having is different than wanting. I never really thought about what happens after."
"After happily ever after?" Colin reached over and took her fingers. "Tonight, it will be sleep. Despite what I said earlier, I don't want to hurt you, and truthfully, I'm just as exhausted. Besides, we need to be on set at seven tomorrow."
Jaina groaned. "I do not want to go to work."
"Seven AM is too early," he said, remembering.
"It's not that. I mean, yeah, it's too early, but Angela's also very nosy. And she knows how I feel about you."
"You told her?"
"Well, she was wondering why I'm such a head case and why I go to pieces when you're around."
"Ah." He grinned, feeling smug.
Jaina finished her cereal, then yawned. "Okay, I think it's time for bed."
He nodded, spooning in the last of his marshmallows. Colin followed Jaina into the kitchen. As they put their bowls in the sink, Colin frowned.
"Jaina..."
"Yeah?"
He struggled, not able to get the words out. "Jaina, we didn't... um."
It took her a moment. "Oh. Don't worry about it. I'm on birth control."
Love's Dance Page 9
