He kept going until she was done, until she was lying back, just as undone as he had been, breathing hard. But he didn’t intend to let her rest. He rolled over and reached in the candlelight for the condom in the drawer, and then he was over her, inside her, sliding home, taking it easy, because it sometimes took a woman a while to accept all of him.
Not tonight, though. Not this woman. She took all of him and asked for more. He kept it slow at first all the same, rocking her easy, and her arms wrapped around him and her legs came up to do the same, and he knew that she needed him in her as much as he needed to be there. He knew he had Alyssa Kincaid taking him inside her body and begging for more, and he gave her what she was asking for. Thanks to her, he was able to make it last, to take the time he needed to do every wonderful thing he needed to do to her.
He shifted her position again and again, did her every way he knew how, until she was shaking and he was, too, until nothing could have kept him from her, until the need in him was a wild thing, clawing at him, roaring in his head, until she was bucking and sweating under him. And then, finally, he gave her all of himself. And he made her his.
Why Not Me
Alyssa woke from the doze she’d fallen into, reached a hand out and groped for Joe, but he was gone. She raised herself on her elbows, but the bathroom was dark. Well, of course it was, because the lights were out, and now the candles were, too. Joe must have blown them out after she’d fallen asleep. But there was no flashlight glow coming from the bathroom either, and now she could hear faint sounds from below, a metallic clank, a thud. She thought about getting out of bed and seeing what he was doing, but it was way too cold out there, so she snuggled back in between the flannel sheets, pulled the thick down comforter over her, and, despite her best intentions, fell asleep again.
She woke again to the disturbance of Joe sliding into bed beside her, reached sleepily out for him, and encountered an arm like ice.
“Brrr,” she complained. “What were you doing?”
He pulled her close to him, and she settled her head on his chest, clad in a T-shirt now, with a sigh. “Building a fire in the stove,” he said. “Going to get awfully cold in here without it. It won’t stay going all night, not unless I manage to wake up a few more times, and I don’t think that’s happening, because somebody wore me out, but it’ll take the edge off.”
“Always thinking,” she said.
“I know how cold you get. Just doing my part.”
“You found a good way to warm me up at last.” She snuggled in a little closer, because he was so comfortable. “I wondered if you ever would. I wonder if you even realize how hard I tried. I’ve never been that forward with anybody. I thought, maybe if I actually stripped naked and lay down for you, you might get the hint. But then I thought you just weren’t interested.”
His hand was stroking over her hair. “Yeah, well, there were reasons.”
“Oh, yeah?” It was so cozy, talking to him in the dark like this, her body humming with bone-deep satisfaction. “What kind of reasons?”
“Well, at first, you were too young. I was . . .” She felt his chest shake, heard the low sound of his laughter. “I was feeling pretty perverted, those first couple years. Good thing you can’t be arrested for your thoughts, because I’d have been in jail for sure.”
She sat up a little. “You liked me then?”
He sighed and pulled her closer with his other arm, forcing her to lie down again, but that was all right, too. “I’m not sure like is the word, but yeah, I’ve always liked you, since the first moment I saw you. You were so pretty, and so . . . lively. So funny and sweet and . . . did I mention you were pretty?”
The glow filling her wasn’t just from the warmth of his body anymore. “You mean we’ve wasted all this time? Do you realize how many not-Joes I’ve dated since then?”
“Probably not as many as the not-Alyssas I’ve been out with.”
“So why not? Why not me?”
“Because you’re Alec’s sister. Because you’re your parents’ daughter. Because Alec is my partner, and you lived in a different part of the state, and I only saw you at Christmas. What was I supposed to do, kiss you under the mistletoe in your parents’ living room?”
“Yes,” she said.
“No,” he answered firmly.
“All right,” she said, “OK, but I’ve lived in San Francisco for six weeks now. A little pokey, aren’t you?”
He laughed again. “Pokey? Six weeks? Alec’s still my partner, you know. And you were dating other guys. How was I supposed to know you wanted me?”
“I don’t know, maybe by the hundred-and-one hints I gave you? And one other guy.”
“Well, we’re here now,” he reminded her. “The damage is done. No un-ringing this bell.”
“Because I’m yours.” She gave his chest another stroke.
“Yep. That would be the one.”
“That was a really hot thing to say. Who knew you were such a good dirty talker?”
Now he was the one raising his head. “That wasn’t dirty talk. I mean, yeah,” and she couldn’t see his smile, but she could sense it all the same, “it was, I hope, but I meant it, too.”
“Joe.” She laughed. “I am not marrying you just because you compromised me.”
She felt the withdrawal in him, his hand stilling. “Joking,” she hastened to explain. “I mean, if you mean we’re together, then yes, that’s what I want to be, too.”
“Good,” he said, and she hummed a little in contentment, and felt his hand stroking over her shoulder. She stopped talking, then, and fell asleep again.
The next time she woke, it was light. Still cold, but maybe not quite as cold, and Joe was gone again. The power was still out, she found when she made it down to her bathroom, but at least there was enough light to take a shower, and luckily, water heaters ran on gas.
He was on one knee in front of the wood stove feeding the fire when she came downstairs. In heavy canvas pants, with a woolen button-down over his usual T-shirt, he was looking more like a logger than ever.
“Power’s out for this whole area,” he informed her, shoving another log in and arranging it with the iron poker. “Looks like it’s all right in town, though.”
“I guess we picked a good time to leave,” she said, zipping her coat up.
“Well, that’s not happening either,” he said, closing the door to the stove and straightening. “All the passes are closed.”
He’d pulled the drapes back, and the outside world was snowy, but no worse than the day before.
“Really?” She thought with a pang about Helene. She wasn’t going to be happy. “It doesn’t seem that bad.”
“Wind,” he said. “That’ll be why. And it’s supposed to blow all day. Looks like we aren’t going home until tomorrow, and we’re not skiing, either. They’ll have closed the lifts, weather like this. Guess we’ll have to find something to keep us occupied.” The rough planes of his face softened into a smile. “I can think of one or two things.”
“You can, huh?” She forgot all about Helene and went for sass, because she loved to sass Joe. “You got Monopoly?”
“Nope.” He pulled her into his arms, got her standing on tiptoe, then kissed her like he meant it, and she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him right back.
“Poker?” she asked against his mouth.
He laughed a little at that one. “Maybe. Maybe strip poker, though I should warn you, I’m a pretty good poker player. You’d be the one doing the stripping. Or I could take you back into town and watch you play pool some more. But if you do that bending-over-the-table thing again, I can’t guarantee that I’ll behave this time. You might just find me following you into the ladies’ room and taking you up on that invitation. You might want to re-think that, if you don’t want it that way.”
“You noticed?” she said, trying to keep herself from asking him to take her up on it right now. “I didn’t think that was working.”
; “Oh, it was working. It worked on me, and it worked on every other guy in the bar, too. Because you’ve got one hell of a body, in case I’ve never mentioned it.”
“Hmm.” She was kissing the corner of his mouth, nibbling at him, because he tasted so good, and he was so damn sexy. “I don’t believe you have. You’ve got some catching up to do, don’t you?”
“We both have some catching up to do. Going to be hard to keep this place heated with one wood stove. We might have to get some blankets down here, stay in front of the fire. But first . . .” He let go of her, stepped back with obvious reluctance. “Breakfast.”
“Oh, man,” she complained, “you mean I have to wait to get some more of you?”
He laughed again. “You’re going to get all of me you can handle,” he promised. “And you’d better look out, because I plan to get every bit of you, too.”
“Plug your phone in first,” Joe said when they were in the car the next morning. The pass was finally open, and they were headed back, though the going was slow.
“You don’t need to check in?” she asked.
“Nah. Alec and Rae know I’ll be back this afternoon. That’s all I needed to do. They’ve got it. So go on. Plug it in.”
“Thanks,” she answered in relief. She’d tried not to let her concern about her late return intrude on the magic of her unexpected holiday, but the niggle of unease had refused to be silenced as soon as they’d begun packing up.
“What” Joe asked when she checked her messages and still sat silent.
“Can I read this to you?”
“Sure.”
Inconvenient, Alyssa read aloud, and I wish it hadn’t happened. Today was your deadline on the fundraising package, and we have the Forester Pharmaceuticals meeting later this week. Were you able to give that any attention this weekend?
“I didn’t work on it,” she said wretchedly. “How could I, with no power? Anyway, I didn’t even bring my computer.”
“Why should you have?”
“Because of what I just read you. Because of what you just heard. Because she’s going to see this as another screw-up.”
She was right, she found when she finally made it into the office well after two that afternoon. Joe had waited for her to drop off her stuff and change clothes, telling her that he’d store her ski gear at his place, and then had driven her to work. She’d told him he didn’t have to wait, but it sure made her feel good that he had.
“Don’t let her bully you,” he said when they were in the car again and headed toward Van Ness. “You can work extra this week. Storms are an act of God. What are you supposed to have done?”
“I need to show her I’m committed, though,” she tried to explain. “What I really need to do, what I’ve been trying to do, is come up with a killer idea. I’ve had the start of one rattling around at the back of my head, that there must be a better way to raise money. Something better than mass mailings and one-on-one appeals. Something like the Race for a Cure idea, but different, because everyone does those runs and walks, right?”
“True. So what do you have in mind?”
“I’m still working it through. But can I talk to you about it, when I get closer?”
“Sure,” he said, and she held on to that, when she went into the office at last.
“Oh, finally,” Helene said with a sigh when Alyssa showed up, and Alyssa marveled that the other woman could say so much with two little words.
Alyssa didn’t apologize again, because what was the point? She gave Helene her letter, she got to work on the Foster Pharmaceuticals proposal. She tried, once again, to become indispensable. She tried to fit in.
A Serious Thing
Joe finally entered the AI Solutions office at three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, nodded a hello to Carla, the receptionist, and made his way around the warren of cubicles to his office, with a brief stop for a progress report from Michael, his lead programmer. He unlocked the door to his own office, hung up his jacket, unpacked his laptop with his usual care and plugged it in. But he didn’t sit down at his desk.
Do it now. No point in dragging it out. He left his office again and stuck his head into Alec’s, next door.
Alec was turned away, typing furiously. He looked up, though, at the sight of Joe in his peripheral vision, which meant he wasn’t coding.
“Hey,” he said. “You made it.”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “Eventually.”
“Seems like we got out just in time, Rae and me. Though I was sorry to miss the skiing. How was it?”
“Good. Storm came in there too, though, we had to cut it short, and Alyssa will tell you it got a little exciting. Not as exciting as she’ll make it out to be,” Joe said, unable to resist smiling despite the unease he was feeling. “But not the perfect conditions you’d hope for, somebody’s first time. She’ll tell you all about it, I’m sure, in gory detail.”
He was babbling, he realized with wonder. There was something he’d never been accused of. Time to cut himself off. “How’s Rae?” he asked. “How’s the knee?”
“Hurts,” Alec said, grabbing a cup of coffee from the desk and taking a swig, then making a face. It was probably cold. “She’s working from home this week, under orders from her boss.” He smiled himself at that one.
“Yeah, right,” Joe said. Now or never. He’d spent a fair amount of time on the drive home thinking about how to say this, and there was no good way. “I slept with Alyssa.”
Alec stared at him, the cup in midair, then set it down. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You do realize,” Alec said, “that ‘I slept with your sister’ is not on any guy’s list of favorite sentences.”
“That’s why I thought I should tell you,” Joe said stolidly, and waited for what would happen next.
“Well, then, give me some information,” Alec said in exasperation.
“You want information?” Now it was Joe who was staring.
“Not—Of course not. Of course I don’t. Are you trying to make this conversation even harder? I mean, what are we talking about here? I’ve got to figure that you’re not in here to tell me that you hooked up with my little sister and had a real good time, and you want to make sure I know all about it. I hope that’s not it, anyway, because I’d be obligated to try to kick your ass, and I don’t think I could. So for Rae’s sake, tell me it’s not that. She likes my pretty face.”
“Would you shut up?” Joe demanded. “Do you like to talk this much?”
“All right,” Alec said, and despite his flippant tone, he didn’t look all that relaxed. “So tell me. And would you please sit down? Quit standing there like you’re expecting me to ask you to step outside, or to tear up our contract, or whatever it is you’re thinking. Just sit down and tell me.”
Joe sank into the chair that sat kitty-corner from Alec’s, in front of his own monitor, the one he used when they were doing paired programming. The place where they’d hammered out so much of Hal, the virtual assistant software that was already well on its way toward making them their latest and greatest fortune. It wasn’t looking like it’d be the last time he’d sit there, although he’d wondered.
“I didn’t hook up with her,” he said at last, “not like you mean it. But I slept with her, and I plan to go on sleeping with her, and I don’t intend to keep that a secret.”
“So this is a—what?” Alec asked. “A serious thing?”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “A serious thing.”
“Well, damn.” Alec leaned back in his chair, his hands on the leather-covered arms, and laughed. “Rae was right. Damn, I hate when that happens.”
“Oh, yeah?” Joe asked, relaxing a bit himself.
“Oh, yeah,” Alec assured him. “She’s been telling me for months that Alyssa had a thing for you. She and Mira had quite the conversation about it at Christmas, from what I hear. I said no, not possible, because Liss isn’t exactly subtle. Not the world’s most patient person. Pretty hard for me to im
agine her longing for you from afar for years, but they were both pretty sure. The only question was, did you have a thing for her too, and nobody was sure about that, because you’ve always been so damn hard to read. Which was why we went skiing with you.”
“What?”
Alec made an impatient circular gesture with one hand. “Come on, keep up. Whose idea was it to invite ourselves along on your ski trip?”
“I don’t know, whose?”
“Rae’s, of course. And who said, ‘You know what? We should invite Alyssa too, if you don’t mind, Joe? She loves to ski.’”
“Well,” Joe said, feeling like he’d been left behind somewhere back around the last turn, “I do remember that that was Rae.”
“Yep. She said you two needed some time together, away from the parents. A little fire in the fireplace, a little whisky, a little drama—”Alec made a face at that one. “I could have done without the drama, thank you very much. But you notice I left you the whisky,” he added helpfully.
“So we were set up.”
“Wow, you catch on quick, don’t you? Yep, another victim of the Desiree Harlin executive steamroller. She sees something she thinks needs doing, she makes a plan, and she executes. Good luck trying to get in the way of that.”
“Hope she didn’t fall on purpose too.”
“No.” That sobered Alec up. “No, that was a little extra icing on the cake. Even Rae can’t always get everything right. But sounds like she came close.”
Joe wasn’t listening, though. “Away from the parents,” he said. “What about the parents?”
“I don’t know. Rae probably does, magically, but I don’t have a clue. What are you going to do about that?”
“Same thing I did with you. Go up there and talk to them.”
Asking for Trouble (The Kincaids) Page 19
