The Time of Her Life

by Jeanie London

  His chest heaved against her back as he stretched to position the wrench. His breathing came in fitful bursts. Her breaths were shallow, a direct result of their proximity rather than the barely cooperating spray she wrestled to contain.

  Then two quick turns and the bubbling quieted, leaving them with only the awareness of how their bodies were touching.

  Susanna knelt rooted to the spot, so grateful Jay couldn’t see her face. Not with awareness surely written all over her expression. How was it even possible to hide her reaction with her cheeks blazing, every nerve impossibly alive?

  With any luck he’d assume embarrassment, which wasn’t a lie. She was embarrassed, to the very core of her soul.

  For lusting after this man.

  Regardless of every rational reason that she shouldn’t feel this way.

  Ever the gentleman, Jay slid away in a slow, controlled movement that did nothing but heighten the flexing of his muscles, the strength of his thighs supporting him as he reached for the vanity to brace himself as he pulled away from her.

  He was entirely male, and the bulge of his crotch pressed into her backside for a split second until he managed to maneuver upright.

  Susanna’s eyes fluttered closed, doing nothing to block out the swooping response low in her belly, the way slumbering places deep inside awoke to the feel of his intimate parts.

  Was six months over yet?

  And shouldn’t this frigid bath have cooled her off a little?

  More splashing, then she felt his outstretched hand slip over her shoulder.

  “Careful,” he said in a throaty voice. “Let me help.”

  He guided her with light fingertips along her waist, helping her scoot back from the wall, presenting yet another show, until he could grab her hand and steady her while she sat back in the water with another splash that only emphasized the quiet.

  Emphasized they were close, wet, alone.

  He was still on his knees. She understood why. They’d have been foolish to try and stand in the wading pool that had once Mrs. Harper’s neat bathroom.

  Lifting her gaze, Susanna intended to thank him, to right their relationship again. Alternating companionable and combative professionalism was far more comfortable than this crazy intimacy.

  A simple thanks would restore balance, distract her from the awareness making every nerve ending tingle, her breasts heavy as her nipples grazed the wet sweatshirt.

  Why hadn’t she thrown on a bra again?

  Any answer was lost when she met Jay’s gaze, saw his face. The awareness she saw in his expression mirrored hers, and it was torture.

  For one wild moment, time stopped.

  Not a breath passed between them.

  Not a sound.

  Only the awareness of the pent-up restraint they’d both held in check and the certainty that restraint was about to end.

  Suddenly his grip tightened, fingers pressing into her arms as he dragged her full against him. Hard muscle met yielding skin in such an intimate joining. She tipped her face to his, unable to resist, and he growled low in his throat as his mouth slanted across hers with a need that proved however hard-won her restraint, he had fought even harder.

  * * *

  SUSANNA SIGHED AS HER mouth yielded beneath Jay’s, his lips moist and chilly, such a striking contrast from the heat of their kiss. There was nothing tentative about the way his mouth moved over hers, nothing uncertain about the way he demanded a response, determined to take what he could. His kiss betrayed him as a man who wanted.

  His strong arms slipped around her, and she melted against him, unable to resist, breasts pressing against him and eradicating the last of the boundaries.

  One kiss invited her to touch, to yield to the attraction between them. Her body molded against his as if she’d waited forever for the simple privilege of touch.

  It had felt like forever, anyway.

  Her sigh broke against his lips in a warm burst. Their breaths mingled. Their tongues tangled as so many months of wanting welled up inside.

  One kiss granted permission to stop resisting, to stop rationalizing all the reasons they shouldn’t want each other.

  Right now there was no work between them.

  No age difference.

  No disparity between all she’d done with her family and all he hoped to do with his life.

  There wasn’t even the inevitability of his departure, leaving her behind to run his family legacy.

  There was only his kiss.

  And the way he swept his tongue inside her mouth and the taste of his warm breaths, his need.

  There was only the way he locked her against him with one arm and brought the other to her face, fingers slipping around her jaw to tip her up and deepen their kiss, tangling his tongue with hers, exploring her mouth as if he’d waited forever, too.

  There was only the way he leaned backward enough to force her whole body into the action. Muscular thighs braced her as he pressed the swell of his maleness into her belly, using his arm around her waist to pull her impossibly closer until all she could feel was him, everywhere.

  The sheer masculinity of him was unfamiliar, but drew a response so enticingly familiar, long ago forgotten.

  The purely physical awareness of him.

  Her every breath dragged in the wet scent of his skin, the taste of his warm mouth, the sound of his ragged breathing. Heat surged to life deep inside her, made her body feel weighted and heavy with anticipation. There was no hesitation, only the ebb and flow of a rhythm that made her ache from the inside out.

  There was only the needy way she touched him, her hands fluttering up, hesitating only a bare instant before instinct took over. Dragging her palms along his broad back, she traced the length of the sodden sweatshirt clinging to the hard strength of his muscles below, learning the feel of his shoulders, his ribs, his waist, the hard curve of his butt beneath those clingy running pants.

  She couldn’t stop touching him.

  Didn’t want to stop.

  The radio crackled through the waterlogged quiet, shattered the unreality of the moment and jarred her from the trance.

  “Chester here, Mr. C.” came the announcement. “I’m on the property. You need me to get down to the street or did you get the leak stopped?”

  That breathless kiss ended as suddenly as it had started.

  The moment disconnected because their bodies still pressed provocatively together. Jay’s gaze held hers, the intense green of his eyes hard, angry even, and she only stared at him, barely able to shake off her stupor.

  Reason returned, but oh, so slowly, starting with the knowledge that they were wrapped around each other in Mrs. Harper’s bathroom where anyone might walk in.

  Knowledge reflected in Jay’s scowl, the hard lines transforming his face. Why? Because he hadn’t been able to resist kissing her? Because she’d responded to him? Or because they’d been interrupted?

  If only she could read his mind, because she sensed his agitation, recognized it when his chest rose on a sharp breath.

  But still he didn’t let her go.

  “This isn’t smart on any level, Jay.” Her voice echoed in the confines of the tiled bathroom like the sounds of their ragged breaths. Reason. One of them should.

  “No,” he agreed. “It’s not.”

  There, that was all settled.

  Now he just needed to let her go. With a slight shake of his head, he sent wet hair
tumbling over his forehead. She resisted the urge to brush back the silky strands from his face, the droplets coursing down his temple onto his cheek.

  His tension eased as he released the vise around her waist, allowed her to catch her breath as they parted.

  She exhaled a deep sigh that was a little relief.

  And a lot of regret.

  “Come on,” he ground out in a rough-edged tone as he braced a hand on the vanity and helped her stand. “Be careful.”

  Perfunctory touches that had only moments before been intimate. They dodged each other’s gaze while drying off with towels as best they could, patted themselves down in the quiet hallway while residents slept and someone spoke in hushed tones in the admin office at the end of the hall.

  Reality separated them again in a big way even before Susanna said unnecessarily, “We’re going to leave a trail.”

  Jay followed her gaze to the long expanse of hallway that led to the employee stairs outside the security doors. “Take our shoes off?”

  “Anything’s got to help.” Susanna slid off her deck shoes and carried them as she and Jay ran lightly, a vain attempt to keep wet cuffs from dragging on the carpet.

  The scene would have been comical had it not been for the shattered lack of restraint that had changed everything.

  They didn’t bother stopping to put shoes back on, even though the employee stairs were concrete, until emerging in the stairwell on the first floor that had been transformed into a makeshift office.

  Puddles slowly grew around their feet while they conferred with everyone on the action plan. Jay spoke with Chester, who already had the wet-vac in tow, while Susanna stood in the midst of her coworkers dripping wet with no bra as if she’d just participated in a wet T-shirt contest.

  She assigned Kimberly as duty manager so Walter could go home to dry off.

  Then Jay was beside her again, saying, “Come on, I’ll give you a lift home.”

  “I drove my car.”

  He stared down at her with a gaze that softened while traveling the wet length of her. The hard edges of his expression faded, replaced by a bit of humor. The return of the man she knew. “Sure you don’t mind soaking your front seat?”

  Oh.

  He grimaced rather animatedly, stroked his chin. “Laundry has patient gowns. We can turn one backward and maybe get you out of here without—”

  “I’ll go with you, thank you.” Even though the thought of being alone with Jay right now, to address what had passed between them made the heat crawl slowly to her cheeks.

  God only knows why. She was an adult, not a ninth-grader. Owning responsibility for her actions came with the turf. Unfortunately.

  Spurring everyone into action with a few words, Jay slipped his fingers over her elbow and guided her through the front lobby, where Robbie let them through the door.

  “Thanks for coming, bosses,” he said with a chuckle as the doors hissed shut again and the lock clicked.

  The night air hit hard. Susanna should have been grateful for a chance to cool off. Suddenly she could feel every wet inch of her as if it were icing over.

  “You going to be okay?” Jay asked, always perceptive, always thoughtful. “Robbie can bring a blanket—”

  “No, thanks. I’ll be fine.”

  He took her at her word and didn’t look surprised.

  Then they were maneuvering around the well-lit facility and onto the dark path. Jay drove the way easily, as if the light of the waxing moon wasn’t necessary to keep him on the path. But that moon illuminated the still surface of the lake, cast the world in a glow as surreal as she felt, sitting beside this man, his strong fingers clasping the steering wheel, those fingers that had touched her so possessively, so demanding.

  Neither of them said a word. The only sound to disturb the still night was the steady hum of the engine and the tires grinding over hard ground, breaking the occasional twig or crunching over a fallen bough of leaves.

  The vinyl seats withstood their drenched selves, but she clung to the windshield frame for balance so she wouldn’t tumble off the slick seat as he whipped along at top speed.

  Was he trying to get her home quickly? Surely he must be frozen, too. Or maybe he was only reacting to their earlier indiscretion. He must be wondering where they went from here, as well. Did they show up for work in the morning and pretend nothing had happened?

  Susanna’s inclination was to address the situation and negotiate a resolution, but that would mean discussing the kiss. She couldn’t even think about his arms around her, about the needy way she’d responded. Not without her heartbeat speeding up dangerously.

  Embarrassment?

  She wished. The only safe thing to do right now was keep her mouth shut. She’d wake up fresh and able to think more clearly after a good night’s sleep.

  If she managed to close her eyes. She somehow doubted sleep would be part of the equation for the rest of this night.

  And then he wheeled into her driveway. She’d had the foresight to leave the porch light on but didn’t argue when he hopped out to escort her to her door.

  This was Gentleman Jay, after all.

  Gentleman Jay, who’d kissed her.

  Dragging her cold, wet self onto the porch, she unlocked the front door. Then she turned to say goodbye...they might as well break the ice now, so tomorrow would be less awkward. If that was even possible.

  Susanna was busy rallying every ounce of her resolve to present herself as nonchalant and unaffected, so she didn’t notice that Jay had stepped in behind her. But he was so close she nearly landed back in his arms when she turned.

  “Jay!” she said, surprised.

  Planting a hand on the door above her head, he towered over her, forcing Susanna to tip her head back to meet his gaze. And what she saw in his face made her heart slam a slow hard beat.

  He was going to kiss her again.

  No sooner had the thought popped into her head than he lowered his face to hers.

  Every shred of reason rebelled. Not at the insanity of continuing what they’d started in Mrs. Harper’s room, but at the thought of denying him, and herself, in this moment.

  Though reason demanded she open her mouth and say one very simple word, “No!” she leaned up on her tiptoes to bridge the distance between them.

  Then his mouth was on hers again.

  And this was no kiss like the first, all loss of restraint and urgency. No, this was a premeditated kiss, a kiss designed to control the moment, a kiss meant to seduce an invitation.

  He dragged his tongue across hers, a lingering stroke, savoring the taste of her before pressing his advantage. And the advantage was all his. He kissed her as though he never wanted to stop, so honest with his need that she had no choice but to be honest back, to lift her hands until she could touch his jaw, a featherlight touch just to make sure he was real, and this moment was real, and the sensation welling deep was real.

  He blocked out the night with his body, trapped her with that hand braced over her head, as his free hand slid along her waist, beneath her sweatshirt. The feel of his hand on her bare skin made her gasp aloud, but he caught the sound with his mouth, dragged his palm up over her ribs.

  Her breath hitched when he made contact with the sensitive curve of her breast, a bold stroke that made every nerve tingle until she could feel the heaviness of her breasts and the graze of wet fabric against the tight peaks, the cool air that slipped in against his warm hand that fond
led her.

  With the same perception that he displayed everywhere else in his life, he noticed her body’s response.

  And considered it an invitation to keep touching.

  Thumbing the taut peak, he sent sensation spiraling through her, pooling in her most private places, making her breasts grow heavy with desire, making her yearn.

  “Let me come inside, Susanna.” He breathed the words against her mouth with warm breaths that become part of their kiss. “Let me make love to you.”

  Those bold words caused her own breath to catch in her throat, made her struggle to find a response as he gently tugged at her bottom lip with his teeth, thumbed her nipple until her knees felt liquid beneath her.

  “We agreed this wasn’t smart.” She finally found the words, forced them out in a rush.

  “Just because it isn’t smart doesn’t mean we can’t do it.”

  Well, he had Susanna there.

  And didn’t let her go. He crowded out the night with his body, stole her reason with his kisses, promised her pleasure by the way he touched her, coaxing a response from deep, deep inside, a need that had been asleep so long.

  The only thing left was to pull out of his arms, to tell him no, that she didn’t want to kiss him.

  And that would be a lie.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  JAY WAITED. HE STOOD THERE staring into Susanna’s exquisite face, her delicate features cast in the golden warm glow of the porch light’s single bulb. He tried to interpret the fleeting play of emotions over her expression. Surprise widened her eyes. Uncertainty played around her brow. Desire made her kiss-swollen mouth part around shallow breaths.

  He thought she might be warring as hard as he was, but couldn’t be sure.

  And wanted to be.

  Jay was done with wanting, and waiting. Giving in to their attraction made no sense. Not with him leaving and her staying. But this would be his only time to know this woman intimately, to discover how to coax those wispy sighs from her lips, to make her tremble with desire, for him.