“We’re doing this.” She freed him and shoved his boxers down, stomping on them with her bare feet.
He stepped from the inconvenient clothing and kissed her again, moving them to the couch. “Wait, not there. I’ve slept on floors that are more comfortable.”
He routed them through the living room to the tiny kitchenette instead, which wasn’t all that far away given the diminutive size of the suite.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Concern wrinkled her forehead. “I would’ve let you have the bed.”
“I know.” He gripped her waist and plopped her onto the tiny square of countertop. He had to move the mini coffeepot aside and bodily brace her against the counter to keep her from toppling off.
“What are you doing?” she asked through a laugh.
A laugh! While she was naked, damp parts of her freshly showered body sticking to his sexy, tanned form... She’d never had sex and laughed at the same time. What was it about this guy?
“Countertop sex. I hope. We have a serious real estate problem.” He looked behind them at the tiny table and chairs that might collapse under the weight of a stern glance. “Not many options around here.”
“What about the bed?”
“Definitely the bed. I was saving that for tonight.” He kissed her softly. “Assuming I impress you enough to earn a repeat.”
“Hate to break it to you...” Looping her arms around his neck, she rested her forearms on his trapezoids and tilted her head. “But considering how long it’s been for me, and how forgettable sex has been in my recent and not-so-recent past, that bar is pretty low.”
Eleven
And she’s funny.
Funny in a clever way. He found nothing funny about her admitting she’d had forgettable or bad sex in the past. He found it...exhilarating. Not to brag—what the hell, it wasn’t bragging if it was true, right?—but Gage didn’t leave women unsatisfied. And he was never forgettable. Which was part of the problem, since the women he slept with began nudging him toward boyfriend status pretty soon after they did the deed.
He wanted to have a release with Andy—to experience every amazing part of her lithe body—but he also wanted to show this woman how beautiful she was. It seemed like no one had taken the time or effort to show her, and that was a crime.
She didn’t curl away from him or appear the least bit bashful now. If she’d been honest about the mediocre sex in her past, he’d raise the bar so fucking high no one would ever compete with him. Gage aimed for 100 percent success in all attempts and right now, with a wet and willing Andy Payne holding onto him and smiling at him like he was her shiny new present, he’d happily blow her mind.
“Ever done it on a hotel countertop?”
“Can’t say that I have.” She wobbled and he steadied her by pressing against her. The move had the added effect of his hard-on rubbing against her slick folds and, God have mercy, did she feel warm and welcome and good.
So good.
“I have a condom in my purse,” she told him, then offered a chagrined twist of her mouth. “It’s really old, though.”
“Mine aren’t.” He didn’t miss the subtle flinch. He cradled her face with one palm. “I don’t mean because I had sex recently. I meant because I bought them recently.”
“When is the last time you had sex?”
“Long enough.”
“I’ll tell you how long it’s been for me.”
“Andrea.”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to talk or do you want to fuck?”
He tested her with the harsh word to learn what she liked. To his delight a smile burst forth on her face. “The second one.”
Then she bit her lip and his erection gave a happy jerk.
“Okay, then. Don’t fall off this countertop while I grab a condom from my bag.”
“Okay.” She kicked her legs back and forth, knocking the cabinets with her heels and sending her breasts bouncing in a rhythm he could watch all day. He raced back to her, fumbling with the packet, and she took it from his hand.
“Gage Fleming, I think you must be excited.” Package ripped open, she reached for him. “Do you mind?”
“From now on, you don’t have to ask that.” He held the back of her neck as she rolled the condom on. He watched her long, graceful fingers as she sheathed him, and let out a groan.
“Did you like that?” she asked.
“I like everything you do to me. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” At her entrance, he nudged, his gaze drilling into hers. He notched the head, blew out a breath and closed his eyes. Nerves tingled and his arms shook. He hadn’t been this excited to slide home in...a while. More than that, he hadn’t been this intrigued by the prospect of sex since he was a hell of a lot younger.
“Gage, yes.” She sighed, a breathy exhale that tore him open. He obeyed her tugging hands and slipped inside of her, slowly thrusting as her eyelids sank to half-mast and her mouth dropped open in ecstasy.
This. This was fantastic.
“You feel so good,” she breathed, wrapping her ankles around his butt to pull him forward on the next long slide.
She raked her nails into his hair and he slammed his mouth over hers.
“So thick,” she gasped when their mouths parted. “Big. No. Huge.”
He gave her a pleading look. “Andy. Keep that up and this will end a lot sooner than you want it to. Got it?”
She bit her lip and nodded and that sweet, chaste expression did absolutely nothing to help him pull himself together.
He’d started this physical interaction to show her how sexy she was and yet she’d turned the tables, flattering him so much he could hardly keep his head in the game.
Scooping her to him, he tilted her hips and sank into her again. She let out a squeak of delight, her nails scraping his back.
“Yesss,” she hissed in his ear. She only got louder as he continued working them into a sweaty lather, especially when he found her G-spot and pulled her down on him hard. It was awkward and clumsy at first but now she clung to him, her limbs wrapped around his while she finished him off. When she shouted her release, he buried his face in her neck and let go.
Seconds, minutes or, hell, hours, he didn’t know, later, he surfaced from her cinnamon-scented skin to give her a lazy smile. It was one Andy returned, her cheeks rosy, her body sated and lazily draped over his as he held them against the countertop with what little strength he had left.
“How was that?” he asked, shameless.
The sex had been incredible and he was fishing for as many compliments as she’d dole out.
Fingers finding the curls of his hair, her mouth widened in an equally shameless grin. “You’ve proven you know your way around a countertop. I guess we’ll see what you can do tonight in bed.”
The wine tasting that evening doubled as a bachelorette/bachelor party for the bride and groom. Since this was a private event, the wedding party plus guests had the run of the patio, which had been decorated with strings of twinkle lights.
Andy was impressed by how low-key Gwen had kept the weekend’s festivities. Her itinerary was nothing like Kelli’s or Ness’s had been—which were almost military standard by their punctual schedules—though Andy was sure if she was a bride in the future, she’d be much less laid-back than Gwen or Carroll. Gwen’s wedding was happening at breakneck speed, somehow fitting in brunch, boating and a wine tasting along with a bachelor/bachelorette party into a single Friday.
“This is such a beautiful venue. Were all of you married here?” Amber, Gwen’s good friend and Matthew’s date, asked. Andy’s ex-boyfriend wasn’t sitting with the girls but with the guys, who’d poured cognac instead of wine and held unlit cigars on the other side of the winery’s huge patio.
“I started it,” Kelli announced, her I’m-the-firstborn-and-pioneer-of-al
l attitude shining through. “I found the venue and Boyd agreed it’d be perfect. Vanessa followed suit.”
“Only because they had the option to be married in the vineyard,” Ness defended.
“It’s so funny that you all married in order, too!” Amber exclaimed with a sweep of her hand. When that hand reached Andy, Amber caught her mistake. “Oh, well. Almost in order.”
Andy gave the other woman a brittle smile. Rub it in.
“I’m sure Andy will choose a venue that is on the West Coast when she weds,” Ness said. “She’s always been one to do her own thing and snub tradition.”
Kelli sent a smirk to Andy that wasn’t hard to decode. If she gets married.
“I’d love to see what kind of beautiful West Coast wedding you come up with, Andy. I bet it’d be gorgeous.” Carroll smiled in support and Andy appreciated her sister speaking up for her.
“How long have you and Gage been seeing each other?” This from Amber.
“Eight months,” Andy answered automatically.
“So, it’s serious,” Amber said.
“Looked pretty serious on the boat this afternoon.” Kelli trilled.
“Yeah, I thought maybe he’d come as a friend until I saw that kiss,” Ness said. “Not to mention you are absolutely glowing-happy right now.”
Andy blinked around. The girls were sitting in a circle on metal chairs around a firepit dotted with citronella candles. They were all nodding their agreement.
“What happened after the boat and before this wine tasting, anyway?” Carroll asked with a teasing wink as she raised her wineglass to her lips.
A rush of confidence pushed a smile to Andy’s lips. “Oh, you know. We went back to the room and showered. Then...watched some TV,” she said coyly.
A round of woots and giggles lifted on the air and she looked up in time to see Gage smiling his approval.
She wasn’t used to taking her sisters’ teasing in stride, but their playful pokes didn’t so much as ruffle a single one of Andy’s feathers. She supposed she had Gage to thank for that, too. He’d praised her for being sexy, had turned her on like a light switch and then made love to her standing up, giving her the discretion to invite him to her bed tonight.
Andy had practically floated here on a balloon filled with her own confidence. Confidence at work, she was used to. Confidence around her family was a whole other experience.
One she embraced.
“You two are seriously compatible,” Gwen said, noticing Andy and Gage’s eye-lock from across the patio. “I love you together. Reminds me of me and Garrett when we first met.”
“Which was what, about seven minutes ago?” Ness teased, and everyone laughed.
Gwen and Garrett had been seeing each other less than two months when Gwen announced her engagement. As crazy as it’d been to receive that email from her sister, Andy had passed it off as kismet. True love had the reputation of finding people when they weren’t looking for it.
Andy bit her lip in thought. True love wasn’t what was between her and Gage, but there seemed to be something there. She wasn’t willing to deny herself the experience of sex with him, but now that it’d happened she wondered what life would be like when they returned to Seattle. When she followed up with him to ask how the team was doing in the office. She’d only asked for his help for the weekend...but what if it blossomed into more?
Did she want it to?
“Gage is yummy. Am I allowed to say that?” Carroll refilled her wine and gave Andy a cute but slightly sloppy wink.
“Yes. I think we can all drink to that. If it’s not too weird for Andy that we objectify her date,” Ness said.
“Gage can handle it.” Andy sneaked a glance to find him laughing with the guys, though when he ducked his head to take a drink from his glass, she noted him glaring at Matthew. That made her like him more.
“Those curls are to die for. He has this sort of schoolboy charm,” Kelli said. “But one look at his ass and it’s clear he’s all man.”
Andy blushed, but couldn’t help adding, “You should see the rest of him.”
Howls of laughter erupted in their circle and Gwen gripped Andy’s forearm in support. “I love you like this! So open and happy. It’s awesome.”
It was awesome. Andy shook her head, but not in disagreement—in surprise. “I guess I always felt like the black sheep. The odd one out.”
Gwen abruptly sobered, her eyebrows twin slashes of concern. “We don’t see you that way.”
“At all,” Kelli chimed in.
“If anything you’re the pioneer of all of us,” Carroll agreed. “Over there in the big city making a name for yourself.”
“Living life on your own terms,” Ness added, and Andy blinked at her in shock.
Whatever brought forth that moment of rallying, whether the wine or the weather, Andy welcomed it.
“Thanks, guys.” She raised her wineglass. “Cheers to Gwen and Garrett!”
Everyone joined in on the toast and Andy, as relieved as she was to have the attention off her, also allowed a little part of her to bask in the newfound feeling of fitting in.
Twelve
Gage caught Andy peering over her wineglass at him and had to smile. Damn, but his sexy strawberry-haired vixen would be the death of him. And if that was the way he’d go, he was sure he’d die a happy man.
Nothing had turned him on more than turning her on. Watching as she surprised herself by liking him so much, by liking sex on the countertop so much. He’d enjoyed the delighted, satisfied smile on her face as much as he’d enjoyed the sex itself. Pleasing her pleased him, and the prospect of doing it with her in a bed tonight was a welcome one. Especially after she’d had a few glasses of wine and was loose and sleepy.
Whatever flashbacks of his ex-fiancée had haunted him before, he was glad to have pushed them aside in favor of indulging with Andy.
“You and Andy, huh?” Matthew Higgins, known to the rest of the guys as “Higgs,” asked.
It was rhetorical, though, a way to bring up Andy and goad Gage into a fight. Gage knew Matthew’s type. Mean. Stupid. The kind of guy who had to prove he was the biggest, strongest man in any gathering. Gage couldn’t care less about bravado. He knew exactly what Matthew’s insistence on drawing attention to himself meant. It meant that Matthew had a small dick.
“She’s always been a puzzle,” said Kenny, who stroked his beard in thought. “But then I saw you two together and it was like the puzzle was a whole picture.”
“Uh, thanks.” But Gage’s smile, though slightly perplexed, was also grateful. Ness’s husband, Alec, spoke next.
“Andy surprised us, is what Kenny means, I think.” Kenny gave him a thumbs-up, and Alec’s eyebrows jumped. “Anyway. She’s been a loner for as long as I’ve known her. Except, well...when she dated him.” He gestured to Matthew, who puffed out his chest.
Moron.
“Eh, Andy and I weren’t long for this world. She doesn’t mesh with me. She’s brisk and curt. Professional and cold. Smart as a whip, though. I’ll give her that.”
Gage’s blood was set to simmer. Between clenched teeth, he managed, “Must’ve been you.”
Matthew’s lips oozed into a smile. “That so? Did you thaw our little Ice Queen, Gage?”
“She’s not our anything, prick.” Gage’s anger spiked and he took a step toward the larger, dumber man. Andy might not belong to Gage, either, but he’d be damned if he’d let her ex stake some sort of claim over her.
“Okay, Higgs.” Alec put a hand on Gage’s chest and patted a few times. “Last thing Gwen and Garrett need is a fistfight on their wedding weekend.”
“If you do anything to make Gwen cry, I’ll beat your ass myself,” Garrett promised, his eyes on Matthew. “Including upsetting her best friend, your date.”
Garrett capped off that state
ment with a smile, but it was a humorless one.
“Far be it from me to ruin anyone’s weekend,” Matthew grunted. To Gage, he said, “If Andy’s happy with you, I guess congratulations.”
“Gee, thanks, Higgs,” Gage grumbled.
“I like Andy,” Garrett told him, trimming the end of his cigar and passing the trimmer to Gage. “She’s probably like the rest of our girls in that there’s another layer to her when you two are alone. Another side of her that she doesn’t share with the world.”
“Gwen has a side other than bubbly and cute?” Alec asked, disbelieving. “And here I thought she was a fairy princess.”
The rest of the guys chatted about their wives, but Gage found his mind wandering to his own Payne royalty. Gwen was a fairy princess, and Andy believed she was the Ice Queen—no thanks to the Neanderthal “Higgs” across from him who puffed on his cigar. Matthew had set himself away from the guys as if by choice, but they’d shunned him by subtly turning their backs.
Gage peeked over at Andy, who was sitting, legs crossed, in a pair of white capri pants and a radiant red blouse. She was smiling, her wineglass aloft, her eyes light and happy. It was so good to see her comfortable around the women she’d compared herself to for years and never thought she’d measure up to.
Gage had told Andy she was sexier than all of her sisters combined and he’d meant it. He perused the Payne women, including her mother, who was just joining them, and noticed a tall, older man—Andy’s father, Gage would bet—angling for the guys.
Andy stood out in stark contrast from the women surrounding her because he knew that secret side of her the guys had hinted their wives had, too. Gage knew a part of Andy few others did, and that made him want to uncover more.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the man who’s stealing away my baby girl.” The tall man with white hair boomed as he held out a hand to Garrett.
“Abe. Good to see you.” Garrett straightened some, taking the man’s hand in a solid pump.
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