“Me either.” And yeah, she knew what she was saying. But life held few joys. Especially now. “I think skinny-dipping is okay for an engaged couple, don’t you?”
“If you say so. Never argue with a lady.” He grasped the hem of his T-shirt and lifted it, revealing inch after inch of sculpted abdomen to her hungry eyes. Will had been a handsome young man when they’d come here for the picnic she’d relived ever since, but he had not been so muscular. His arms flexed as he tugged the shirt over his head and reached for his jeans.
She swallowed hard. “Let me?”
Will chuckled but shook his head. “No, bad idea, if you want to swim.” Below his hands, his jeans bulged, indicating his point of concern. “I’ll do this myself…this time.”
Maggie undressed as quickly as possible, despite her bold suggestion still the same shy girl she’d been at nineteen when it came to naked with Will. She willed him to look in another direction, but he lowered his jeans and kicked them away, keeping his gaze fixed on her. “Still commando, huh?” she bravely put out there.
“Always, darlin’. But you’re either going to have to take something off or get that pretty dress all wet.”
“It’s a skirt and blouse.” And with his completely interested manhood bobbing in the breeze, she couldn’t move.
He winked. “Either way, it’ll get wet, but whatever you like. If you’re satisfied with your survey, how about if I dive in and let you get busy getting naked?”
How embarrassing to be caught staring, but how could he miss? She forced a casual smile and waved him off. “Sounds good. Let me know how the water is.”
He let her get away with it, strutting his too-sexy stuff down the grassy slope and into the shallow water at the edge. Then darn if he didn’t dive, giving her yet another view of how his body had developed in the last several years.
“Maggie!” He surfaced and shook the water out of his hair. The hat he always wore sat on top of the cooler, next to his boots. Trademark since he and Baxter were six or seven, pretending to be cowboys. He looked darn good without it, too, sandy hair long on top and shaved up the sides. “Are you waiting for me to come and get you?” Will took a step toward her, the water rippling away around him as it fell to his waist.
“No. No…you don’t have to.” She’d wasted time watching him. And he knew it. Maggie kicked off her sandals and headed for the water, leaving her skirt and top in a heap of sunset colors along the way. Down to her bra and panties, pale-gold satin she’d bought especially to wear with the skirt and blouse to a faculty mixer, Maggie hesitated.
If they came off, so did any chance she wasn’t going to end up naked on that blanket with Will buried inside her. Shivering with anticipation, she opened the tiny hooks and slid the straps off her shoulders. She tossed the delicate garment on top of the others on the grass and faced him in just the itty bitty bikini panties that felt daring even under clothes.
In for a penny.
She hooked her thumbs in the sides and let them glide down over her hips, thighs, and calves and kicked them away.
In for a pound.
Lifting her chin, Maggie paused, gaze fixed on the sunlight sparkling on the shallows, to allow Will a chance to see her as she had him—she would never be accused of lack of fairness in any game, even this one she made the rules up to as she went along.
She was in decent shape. One of the classrooms she taught in was a long way from her office and the others, making her walk a lot. But she didn’t have a “fitness plan.” And while she rarely put any thought into her body image, presenting her form to a man who belonged on the cover of a fitness magazine didn’t do a lot for her self-confidence.
On the other hand, when she raised her chin, Will’s stunned expression told her everything she needed to know about his impression of her.
“Damn, Maggie,” he muttered. “Were you this beautiful last time we were here?”
Chapter Six
The smile spreading across Maggie’s face sent Will’s heart into outer space. She splashed into the water, perky breasts bobbing on the surface as she followed him into the center of the pond. “It’s not cold at all,” she said, arriving at his side. “I guess I should have known better. I do a little hiking in the mountains at home, and the water is always chilly there. Melting snow, you know.”
Home. This was home. But pointing that out might remind her she didn’t want to be there. “Pretty different. This one just gets the little flow from the stream, and most of it is warming in the sun all day every day.” How informative. Discussing water flow when he wanted to grab her and have his wicked way with her right then and there.
“Yeah, I knew that.”
Of course she did. It was her pond. “Right.” He struggled not to fill the uncomfortable silence with nonsense. A new experience. He’d never had any trouble finding a topic to discuss with Maggie. But then she’d hung on his every word since she was about three. Now she was a twenty-seven-year-old college professor with way more education than he had. What could he tell her she didn’t already know?
“Will, it doesn’t feel like it’s been eight years since we were last here, to me at least.” Sparkling reflections from the water bounced off her perfect skin, but already a few freckles stood out on her nose.
“Could be yesterday.”
“I wish it were. Then my folks would still be alive and Baxter would be well. And I wouldn’t have missed you all that time.” She ducked her head. “Did you ever remember me? Think about me at all?”
He reached out and laid an arm over her shoulders, bringing her closer. “I might have, once or twice. A day.” An hour. But why sound any more pathetic than necessary.
“With all the women in your life?” Maggie leaned her head on his chest. “I bet you had a different lady every Saturday night.”
He tipped her chin up so he could speak while looking into her green eyes. “I wasn’t a monk. But I didn’t lead the wild life you seem to think I did.” Clearing his throat, he plunged on. “I was involved with my last employer in a less-than-real romance for a while.”
“What happened there?”
“She married the rancher next door. Older, with much more money. Obviously, he couldn’t have her boy toy hanging around.”
“Don’t call yourself a toy,” she blurted. “Even if it wasn’t true love, I am sure you weren’t selling yourself.”
“No,” he admitted. “Nothing like that. But it was physical, and I had come to take for granted we’d be moving forward in a business partnership. We did everything together, and the place was doing very well.” He smiled sardonically. “Her new husband took all the work out of her hands and sent her shopping. I read her so wrong.”
“Maybe,” she said, resting a hand on his cheek. “Or maybe she wished she had more of your heart. Does her husband love her?”
“I was so caught up in how her marriage affected my life, I never really thought about it. I think he wanted to merge their successful places more than anything.”
“Will”—her soft palm slid over the scruff on his chin, already rough even at lunchtime—“did she look at him like this?”
He took in the soft light in her eyes, the complete happiness in her smile, and shook his head. “Not exactly, not that I saw anyway. She was never one to really show her feelings. But her new husband looks at her that way. I thought he was being pushy, sending her to shop and firing me, but, you know, she was already smiling a lot more. Laughing. And maybe he knew what made her happy better than I did.”
“Sounds like your old boss…”
“Carmen.”
“Sounds like Carmen scored the right man for her.” It did, didn’t it?
“And it was never about me.” A bird cried overhead, and they both jumped, laughing as the intensity of the moment broke.
Unfortunately, Maggie also stepped back. “No, probably not.”
She lifted her feet and floated on her back, gaining distance but also giving him a great view. He chose n
ot to mention how her sexy he found her pose, just to enjoy for a bit. Her nipples were a deep coral, her belly smooth and white above her—oh man!—bare pussy. Who was she waxing for? Jealousy roared to life.
“And you never answered my question, Maggie Lynn. You know I’m not involved. Anymore. Are you seeing anyone?”
She moved her arms out and back, floating gracefully around him. Finally, she turned her face to him. “I would think the answer obvious, William James.”
Frustration raised his blood pressure, and he clenched his fists at his sides, wishing for calm. “I guess it is. Of course you’d have a boyfriend. Who could pass you up?”
“What a lovely compliment.” Maggie dropped her feet to the bottom and stood, a few feet away from him. “Yuck. I forgot how muddy it is out here in the middle. Anyway, I will have you know I do not cheat on my fiancé. And shame on you for even thinking it.”
“Maggie, I—”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “I will forgive you if you are on that blanket when I get to ten. One. Two.”
“Three.” To Maggie’s complete shock, her big, strong ex-boyfriend and current fiancé threw himself at the bank and splashed his way out. By the time she reached six, he lay propped on one elbow, unruffled and looking like a magazine ad for sex on a stick. Or sex with a big stick. For a woman who’d experienced one heck of a long dry spell, she faced the possibility of breaking it in a mind-blowing way.
But could she do it? Unlike Will who had just emerged from a friendly but shallow relationship, she’d never gotten over him. Never been able to cross the line from casual dating to casual sex. Comparing every man who escorted her to dinner or a lecture to the cowboy lounging in dappled shade resulted in their falling short. And her memories had only been a shadow of the real thing.
She ached to join him, to welcome him into her body and take all he had to offer. But what would be left of her afterward? In a very short time her brother was going to die. She was vulnerable. In a couple of weeks, or so, she’d be on a plane back to California, and if she made love with Will this afternoon, he’d have the tiny fragment of her heart she’d managed to keep intact. The one time they’d gone “all the way,” right here at the lake, they’d been deeply in love, both of them. She’d swear to it. And she couldn’t find fault in their coming together in love.
Then life ripped them apart.
Her leaving the ranch for college, his leaving to put as many miles between him and his stepdad as possible to make sure he didn’t kill the man for his lack of care for his mom.
But if they spent the afternoon locked in one another’s arms and he didn’t still love her, she’d have nothing left.
She’d be a shell.
If she didn’t spend this afternoon in Will’s arms, she’d still be a shell, still be going back alone to a place where she began to realize she didn’t want to go anyway, and she’d be giving up the opportunity for one sweet memory with the man she’d never stopped loving. Was it right for her to take from him without knowing how he felt? Treat him as if he loved her, too?
Sorry, morals. Sorry, fate. I’m going to tempt you and take whatever I can get.
For one sweet, mind-blowing afternoon.
Will lay under the tree, watching Maggie hesitate out in the pond. She stopped counting at six, when he made it to the blanket. She’d been so dominating for a second there, bossing him. He didn’t think he’d like it every day but for right at that moment, fun stuff. She’d always, in his memory, been so sweet and surrendering, ready to let him make all the plans for their dates and take the lead in their making out…and their one amazing time at the lake.
He liked the bossy side of her. The professor side. His little Maggie Lynn a grown woman who commanded the attention of students and faculty alike. Nice.
So then why did she remain in the lake? Pond? They’d never been able to decide which to call it. Either way, she stood smack dab in the middle, in water up to her chest, and not moving. “Maggie, are you stuck in the mud?”
“What?” She shook her head like coming out of a dream. “No, of course not.” But as she started toward him, her face was scrunched up the same way it always was when she landed in the muddy patch. Most of the bottom smooth sand, but that one bit. Yeah. Slimy, slippery, get-stuck-between-your-toes mud. Poor girl. He’d never minded much.
The section she objected to occupied only a few square feet, and he could tell when she left it. Her face relaxed, same way it always had. They had too much history to be hesitant with one another. Her blowing hot and cold on taking charge, making hot suggestions then hesitating worried him.
In the end, she remained his buddy’s—his dying buddy’s—sister. One thing to make love to her when they both thought they had some kind of future, although with their different ideas of what it might be, they’d been deluding themselves. Delusions or not, fake engagement or not, the present held a whole different situation.
Maggie deserved a man who could give her a future. One who would live with her in The City, maybe teach at the same university. A guy with a tweed jacket instead of a denim one. She did. Really. And he’d be a jerk to take advantage of her when she faced one of the saddest days of her life.
And of his. Could it be acceptable for them to draw comfort from one another? Maggie knew he would never fit into her world, and she didn’t want any part of his world. But from the gleam in her eye as she sank down beside him, from the sweetness of her lips pressed to his, she did want this afternoon.
Comfort, yes.
And heat.
He tugged her until she lay sprawled on top of him without breaking their kiss. Her cool, damp skin clung to his, and he deepened the kiss, tracing his tongue over her lips until she opened them and welcomed him inside. For now, he wanted to get to know her again, to familiarize himself with the new, slightly fuller curves. Although he’d admired her polished appearance, her neat, attractive clothes and smooth bob, he’d take naked Maggie, with her red hair slicked back and freckles blossoming on her nose. As if she jumped back in time, a little, to the girl he’d discovered.
Gliding his hands down her side, he followed the curve of her waist to where her hips flared into a bottom he could get a grip on. She squirmed and made a little moan into his mouth, and he nudged a knee between her legs, urging them apart. His cock, hard as a bar of iron, fit there and he rocked his hips.
He released her lips to trail kisses along her jaw to her ear. “Maggie, I’ve missed you. Not once or twice a day, but all the time.” She rolled her head to the side, giving him access to the long, graceful line of her throat, and he followed it to the hollow and stayed there a moment, breathing in the scent of fresh water and Maggie.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered. “All the time. What are we going to do?”
“Well, let’s take this a little at a time and figure it out.” Grasping her waist, he flipped her onto her back and hovered over her. “For example, I thought I’d start with this.” Lowering his lips to her breast, he opened them and drew it in, flicking his tongue on the hard tip. Maggie buried her hands in his hair, holding his head in place, which he interpreted as don’t stop. He bit down, sucking and working the nipple around in his mouth while she writhed under him. She’d always loved when he caressed her breasts, but he hadn’t realized just how sensitive she was.
Lifting his mouth, he moved to the other side and lapped at the nipple then blew on it.
“God, Will, I can’t stand it,” she whimpered.
Redoubling his efforts, he sucked and nibbled and licked and bit down just hard enough to hear her squeak. Skating his palm over her abdomen, he appreciated the smoothness there. Last time she’d had a pretty sexy thatch of red hair, but the nudity of her mound made him crazy. He released her nipple and followed his hand down, pausing to dip his tongue into her belly button. She shivered but kept her fingers locked in his hair.
“I’m going to make you scream, darlin’, but if you don’t let loose of my hair, I’ll b
e hollering along with you.” At once, she let her hands drop to her sides and squeezed her eyes closed. “But I’d rather you watch.”
He held still, waiting, and finally she opened one eye then the other, and peered down at him.
“That’s my girl. Last time we were here at night, remember?” He settled between her legs and held her gaze.
“I-I remember.”
“This time, I want to see everything. It’s a beautiful afternoon, and you’re a beautiful woman.” She was more than beautiful, but it was the strongest word he could think of without sounding like a total wimp. Her pussy lay inches away from his face, and as she continued to watch, he parted her folds to reveal the pink interior. Again, he worried about who she might have waxed for but she’d said she wasn’t involved with anyone, and she’d never been the type to sleep with casual dates. It took him a long time to lure her into his arms, and she’d been in love with him.
Of course, it had been a long time. They were wild out in California weren’t they? Her school had a very liberal reputation. But he shoved away the idea of anyone else ever laying a finger on her while he—selfishly—prepared to make sure she’d never want anyone else. Will stroked a finger over her exposed center, loving that nothing hid her from his inspection. Like the inside of a conch shell, the secret pink nobody else could see. Her breath caught. “Like that, darlin’? Then you’ll probably love this.” He closed his lips over her clit and sucked, repeating the actions she’d loved on her nipples. Breathing the scent of her cream, he lapped it up as fast as she produced it. He sucked some more then released her clit and tickled it with the tip of his tongue. She wasn’t screaming yet, but she couldn’t be far off.
“Will, God, Will, that’s too…too good.” Her hips bucked, and he slid a finger inside her. She clamped around him, barely leaving room for a second one and when the ripples started, he yanked his finger free and lunged up her body to bury his twitching cock deep inside her spasming pussy, swallowing her screams with his kiss.
Maggie locked her arms and legs around him and held on tight. No wonder she’d never wanted anyone else. He was magical, sending her over the edge and into spinning darkness. If she let go, she’d fall off the face of the Earth and disappear into the galaxy somewhere. She spasmed over and over while he drove into her, somehow never breaking their kiss.
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