by Joss Wood
“Aw, baby, you’ll be fine.” Flick rubbed his wobbly jowls and kissed his head. “It’ll make you less crazy and far more stable and you’ll settle down and be normal.”
“Nothing normal about getting your ’nads removed, bud. Trust me on this.”
Flick whirled around so fast that she almost fell off the log. Then she wobbled again when she saw that a sweaty Kai Manning was standing on the path behind her, his fingers against the pulse point in his neck, his eyes flicking between them and his wristwatch. And, dear Lord, he wasn’t wearing a shirt—it was tucked into the back of his shorts—and that broad, slightly hairy chest glistened with perspiration. Muscles rippled and gleamed, and his tattoos, stark and beautiful, had her mouth watering.
She’d seen the geometric one that covered his forearm the other day but the one that made her breath catch and hold was the tattoo high up on his chest, of dog tags hanging from a nail. She squinted to make out the writing. Jo, June 1990. Mike, September 2009. She knew that Mike was an army buddy of his and Sawyer’s who’d been killed on a mission in . . . Flick frowned, trying to remember the country. But who was Jo? She wanted to know who was so important to him that he’d keep her memory so close to his heart.
“Don’t let her do it, bud. Run like hell.”
It took Flick a couple of seconds to work about what he was talking about but when she did, she quickly responded. “Maybe if I do remove his balls—”
“Aaaarrroooooooooooo.” Rufus howled and they both winced.
“—he’ll stop running.”
“Doubt it,” Kai replied, placing his fists on his hips. “He’s got a lot of border collie in him and they like to exercise. I heard you coming up the hill. You were puffing like a steam train before you ran half a mile.”
“He pulls my arm off!” Flick protested.
Kai stepped closer to her and she caught a whiff of his deodorant and musky sweat and felt her knees go to jelly. If she could bottle that scent, she’d make a fortune selling it as an aphrodisiac. Flick sucked in her breath when Kai picked up her hand and started to unwind Rufus’s leash from it, which had lost all feeling about fifteen minutes ago.
His fingers were warm on her hand and wrist and she sighed when they drifted over her pulse point. When she thought that she had a good chance of stringing a sentence together, she looked up at him. “What are you doing?”
“Up here or right now?”
“Both.”
“I had a difficult morning so I thought that I would take a break and get a run in.”
“Taking a break is having coffee and eating a cookie, not running a couple of miles,” Flick told him.
Kai ignored her mutter and pulled the leash away from her hand. “You need to get blood back into your hand.” Kai slipped his hand through the opening of the leash and wrapped it around his wrist. Rufus, seeing a bird in a tree, lunged upward but with a jerk, Kai had the massive dog sitting again. “You! Behave!”
Rufus just sat and looked up at Kai angelically, his tail going at two hundred beats per second. He had found someone new to charm and he was in doggy heaven. Rufus gave Kai his doggy grin and Kai responded by rubbing both of Rufus’s ears and her dog’s eyes rolled in delight. Flick couldn’t blame him. She suspected that she would have exactly the same reaction if he rubbed anything of hers.
Behave, girl.
“Shake your fingers out,” Kai ordered and Flick groaned when the blood started rushing back to her battered palm and fingers.
“Ah, that hurts like hell.”
“He’s too strong for you,” Kai said, shaking his head. His biceps bulged as he easily kept Rufus from lunging away in pursuit of a phantom rabbit.
Now that she had some feeling back in her hands, Flick held out her hand for the leash. “I’m good now, thanks.”
“You can’t run him properly because you can’t control him,” Kai said and flicked a quick look at his watch. “I still have about five miles to do on this trail. I’ll take him with me and tire him out.”
“I’m not sure if he’ll cope.” Flick tasted panic in the back of her throat. “I only rescued him three months back and he was a wreck. Five miles might be a bit much for him.”
“Bullshit,” Kai stated, his tone firm. “He’ll be fine.”
“I’m really not sure . . .” Flick bit the inside of her lip, feeling like a neurotic new mother.
“We’ll be fine.” Kai smiled and Flick felt her internal organs flip over. That was some smile, she thought; it made him look younger and even sexier, if that was at all possible. “And to keep you from worrying about your crazy dog, I’m going to give you something else to think about as you stroll home.”
Stroll? Now he was just being rude. “Uh, what?”
His hot eyes ran up and down her body and they warmed her from the inside out. “You have such an amazing body. Women spend hours in the gym to look like you do naturally.”
Hoo . . . hoo boy.
“Genetics.” Flick just managed to gasp the word.
Kai lifted his hand and cupped the back of her head, his fingers spearing up into her hair and causing an instant fireworks display in her brain. And between her legs.
“And, God, you have a spectacular mouth.”
She did? She’d always thought she looked like Daffy Duck.
He dropped his head and she watched, mesmerized, as he closed the space between them. They were so close now that they could taste each other’s breath. His eyelashes were dark and stubby and up close she could see a faint scar bisecting his left eyebrow. He’d conquered and then shattered her personal space. She just needed to pull in a deep breath and her breasts would be pushing into his hard pecs, and a small tilt of her head and their lips would collide. Yet he just kept one hand in her hair and his eyes on her mouth.
It seemed to take forever for his mouth to touch hers. She expected dominance and a show of masculine strength, but his lips moved graciously, sensuously against hers. Flick couldn’t help her eyes closing, couldn’t stop her hands from reaching out to touch his warm chest, her bare thigh from moving between his legs. He nibbled and played with her mouth, licking her bottom lip with his tongue before giving it a gentle nibble. It was a perfect kiss, sweet and sexy, and Flick sighed her appreciation.
That slight parting of her lips was all that was needed for all hell to break loose. Flick felt his free arm band around her and he enveloped her; mouth, hand, his amazingly hard body. She wasn’t sure where she started and he ended. Her breasts were flattened by his hard chest, and through the fabric of her shirt her puckered nipples pushed against his skin. His erection, strong, hard, and delicious, was perfectly placed against her, and she couldn’t stop her hips from tilting to get closer, needing to drag her aching core against him. From a place far away Flick felt a fist tighten in her hair as he held her head in place, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, tangling with hers. He tasted of mint and coffee and sun and sex.
Wishing that he would use his hands to touch her breasts, to give her nipples the attention they desired, to cup her between her legs, she moaned into his mouth, rotating her hips in invitation. Instead she felt the leather of the hand strap of Rufus’s leash as he lifted his other hand to cradle her cheek.
God, he’d made her damp from nothing more than some body contact and a hot kiss. Flick couldn’t wait to find out what else he could do with that mouth.
“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Flick blinked at his words, utterly confused as Kai stepped back and looked at her with those eyes, which had darkened to a passionate umber. “I’d been wondering what you’d taste like.”
Flick just stood in the sunlight, bemused, looking at him looking at her. Electricity, lust, passion—all those wonderful sensations so inadequately described in romance novels arced between them, and Flick knew that they were both considering whether to go another round, to throw themselves in the rin
g and see where their passion took them. The tension was explosive and she was about to break the standoff by initiating another kiss when he took a half step backward and a curtain fell across those fabulous eyes.
Big brain back in control, Flick thought, partly relieved, partly annoyed. All frustrated.
“I’ll be home in thirty minutes. You can pick him up then,” Kai said, suddenly all business. Flick blinked and watched, gobsmacked, as he tugged on the leash and her dog loped off with, essentially, a stranger.
It took her a moment to come back to earth and when she did, she slapped her hands on her hips, annoyance replacing lust.
“You can’t just kiss me and then kidnap my dog!” she shouted at his back.
His voice was threaded with amusement. “Just did.”
“I don’t even know where you live!”
“The old blue stone Victorian on the corner of Second and Peach. Later.”
Flick blew her breath into her cheeks and pushed out her bottom lip as her dog and her—the!—man disappeared from view.
What the hell just happened? She had been moments away from allowing him to ravage her in the trail—ravage was the only word that could possibly describe what he’d just done to her—and then she’d allowed her dog to be kidnapped.
Kai Manning has the ability to scramble your brains, Flick. Be careful.
Be very careful indeed.
***
Once Kai was certain that Flick could longer see him, he stopped dead, yanking Rufus to a stop. The dog/monster/horse uttered a strangled bark and sent Kai a reproachful look. Kai had no difficulty in interpreting his look: We were speeding along quite happily and then you had to screw it up. Seriously!
Kai immediately placed his hand on Rufus’s head to apologize before adjusting his pants. Holy shit, the woman could kiss. Those hands on his body felt like they belonged there. He would’ve been happy to stand in the sunlight being touched by her forever. Kissing her, having her touch him, stroking her, could almost be enough.
God, now he’d started lying to himself, something he never did. It would never be enough until he slid into her and found out whether she was as hot and tight and wet as he suspected. Maybe then he’d be satisfied.
Then again, maybe not.
He’d kissed her on a rocky path in the middle of a forest while holding onto a shaggy, drooling dog. He couldn’t have not kissed her—the compulsion had been that strong. He hadn’t looked for the serious eye contact to tell him that she would be open to the kiss, hadn’t worried whether she’d looked at his mouth in anticipation. He hadn’t cared; he’d just needed to kiss her.
He’d needed to taste her, to see if her lips were as soft as they looked, to feel those amazing lips under his. He’d just needed, he still needed . . . needed, needed, needed. Which was strange for a guy who’d lived his life not needing anyone or anything.
Discombobulated, Kai broke into a fast jog, hoping to run off the burning itch. Flick’s dog easily kept pace with him. As his body settled down, so did his mind, and rationality replaced the headiness of that kiss. He was overreacting, he decided, momentarily distracted by lust. Flick wasn’t anyone special. It had just been a helluva long time and that kiss fried his brain.
But difficult to ignore was the fact that, for the first time in nearly a year, he’d found someone who he was so attracted to that he wanted to break his rule about ships-in-the-night sex. The strength of his attraction to Flick nearly scared him, when nothing much in the world did.
Part of his attraction was the fact that she seemed wholly unimpressed by him and not intimidated or turned off by his taciturn attitude. She wasn’t like most of the women who gave him that look that said they were open for a quick romp. She was smart, steady, and, even if he wanted to suggest a hookup, she would be the last woman in the world who would have a one-night stand with an ex-sailor who was leaving town the next day. Not going to happen, dude. Not even in your dreams.
Having Flick was a fantasy and Kai didn’t believe in fantasies or dreams. He never had.
Chapter Four
MissGreenwood: Does anyone know why that new Caswallawn boy brought Flick’s dog home? And why did it take Flick four hours to collect her dog from him this afternoon? I’ve tried to call her on her cell and at home but she’s not answering. Is she all right? Does anyone know? Should I call the police?
BoredWife: Yawn. Will someone please draw Miss G a picture?
***
Flick raced through her shower before driving her sedan across town to the smarter side of Mercy to pick up Rufus. She’d always liked this house, she thought, as she left her vehicle and walked up the stone path to the steps that led to a wraparound porch. As a little girl, she’d had a friend who’d lived in this house and, if she recalled correctly, it had wooden floors and high ceilings and a claw-foot bathtub in the master bathroom. The bay windows were still the same but the front door was now painted a glossy black. Flick jammed her finger against the doorbell, relieved when she heard Ru’s bark in response.
They were back and her dog was still alive. This was good news.
“I’ll be with you in a minute, Flick.” Kai’s voice came from somewhere above her, so she walked back to the railing and looked up, but she couldn’t see past the porch roof. The master bathroom was directly above her—maybe he was taking a shower, water running off those long, lean muscles. Flick walked over to one of the two Adirondack chairs and sat on its arm, lifting the newspaper Kai had left on its seat and idly fanning herself with it. The memory of that strong mouth on hers had her saliva disappearing and heat pooling between her legs. She’d never been kissed with such skill, such intensity . . . With all the men she’d kissed before, kissing was always a step to tick off on their list, just something that had to be done in order to get into her pants.
Kai just kissed her.
Expertly.
And because he didn’t try anything else, didn’t do or say anything to suggest moving things along, she wanted to take it further. She wanted to give him more, wanted to take more from him. She wanted to know if the control he had when he was kissing her was a part of his lovemaking, whether he was as generous a lover—as brilliant—as his kisses suggested.
Didn’t she deserve one brilliant lover once in her life?
A sweaty, slick, hard man who kissed like a dream? Surely she was entitled to one night where giving and receiving physical pleasure was the only objective, to a sexual encounter that was hotter than hell and briefer than a thong. Wasn’t she allowed a night with a man who she had no designs on as a boyfriend or a lover or a future husband? And if she wanted to prove to herself that she could, absolutely, separate sex from love and attention, then nobody had to know that but her.
And sleeping with Kai would be a wonderful way to climb out of her head, to not think about the tangle her life was at the moment. For days she’d been trying to figure out if she should tell Pippa about her mother’s situation, weighing the loyalty she felt to her aunt against her loyalty to her cousin and best friend. Finding no answers, she’d alternatively felt angry at Gina for putting her into this situation and then desperately guilty for being so intensely angry. And she was also so damn curious as to why Gina had started collecting on such a stupid, massive scale. Flick was a hot mess of guilt and anger and worry, and she’d do anything to step out of that space for a while.
The door opened in front of her and Flick slowly lifted her head. If she’d had any doubts about what she was about to do, they were demolished when she noticed that Kai was only wearing a pair of athletic shorts. Drops of water from his still-wet hair were landing on his bare shoulders and rolling down his collarbone.
Flick didn’t realize that her eyes darkened and that the tip of her tongue touched her top lip. She just slowly crossed her long legs and sent him a long look. She gathered all her courage, swallowed, and blurted out the words as fas
t as she could. “How would you feel about having a one-night stand? With me?”
Flick saw surprise pass through his eyes but his expression remained as inscrutable as ever. He didn’t say anything, so she rushed into the silence. “You’re leaving town and I haven’t had sex for a while and I thought that we . . . I’m not looking for anything beyond a night. At all. I promise.”
It sounded like she was promising him but, in reality, it was a promise that she was making to herself.
Jesus God, he was going to turn her down, Flick thought as his expression remained sphinxlike. He just kept looking at her, as if he were weighing his words, and his options. He was going to say no, she just knew it. This was mortifying, she thought, as heat spread up her neck and into her face.
She had to get her dog and leave, right now. Flick scrambled to her feet and was about to bolt down the steps when Kai’s deep voice pinned her feet to the floor.
“Does it have to be a night?”
Flick blinked at his pensive tone as she tried to make sense of his words. Does it have to be a night? What did that mean? Did he want more than that? Oh no, he wasn’t going to go all hearts and flowers on her and say that he was looking for more, was he? He didn’t strike her as the looking-for-a-relationship type. If he said that he was looking to start something, then she’d bolt down those stairs, drop-dead sexy or not.
“Sorry? What?”
“What’s wrong with right now? Do you have to go back to work?” Kai asked. “I don’t and I’m hoping you can play hooky for the afternoon.”
Okay, phew! They were back on the same page, reading from the same book.
“Are you saying yes?” Flick demanded, breathless. “To a straightforward hookup? Nothing more?”
The corners of Kai’s mouth lifted. “That’s normally my line. But, yes, I’m saying yes.”
Flick’s knees softened. She couldn’t believe that she’d suggested this, that they were going to do this. “Okay, then. And yes, I can play hooky.”
