Keeping Time

by Jamie Craig

  He didn’t even make it to their cars before reaching out to touch her.

  “Anything special I need to bring?” he asked, tugging her against him.

  Ana touched his chest, her fingers warm through his shirt. “No. Just you.” She looked up with wide eyes, and her mouth was almost close enough for him to touch. “And clothes, if you think you’ll get a chance to wear them.”

  Ben smiled. “If you think I’m gardening in the nude, you’re crazy. There are certain parts of my body that do not need to be introduced to dirt.”

  She laughed. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

  “Usually in the bedroom.” He captured a swift kiss, savoring the spice that still lingered on her tongue. “Or any room I happen to be with you in.”

  “What about the car?”

  Her suggestion made his already hard cock ache. “My car’s too small for anything comfortable,” Ben said. Slowly, he backed her up until she was pressed to the driver side door, and he let go of her wrists to cage her with his hands on either side of her head. “But since I clearly don’t have a problem with fucking you in public, I’m more than happy to do it right here.”

  She rested her hands on his hips, pulling him closer. “I can’t believe that almost sounds like a good idea.” Ana kissed a path from his jaw to his mouth. “You go home. Get what you need. And I’ll be waiting for you.”

  It was the soft promise of her final words that gave him the strength to pull away. With one final soft kiss, Ben backed off, nearly making it all the way to his car before turning around. He felt her lips on his for the entire drive to his apartment, for the ten minutes it took him to throw everything he thought he might need into a duffel bag, and for the excruciatingly long drive to her place.

  Ben didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this large, family home in the hills above Pasadena, just a mile from the Rose Bowl. She wasn’t kidding about gardening. Her lawn was immaculate, surrounded on all sides by flowerbeds, with red and purple and yellow splashes of color. The walkway up to the door was a series of elevated steps. Ana opened the door before he reached the porch, reaching for his hand to pull him inside before he said a word.

  The living room was decorated in cream and blue, and it didn’t look lived in somehow. He suspected she didn’t spend a lot of time at home, and if she did, she chose other rooms in which to relax in. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him against her. “Missed you.”

  Ben dropped his duffel to the polished floor so that he had both hands free to hold Ana. “I’m here now,” he murmured in the moment before their mouths met.

  He had known from the first contact of their lips at The Ledge that this was a woman he could drown in. There had been tendrils of worry before arriving at the club, questions about whether or not the chemistry they shared online would translate to the real world, but then he’d seen her sitting there like a lush, exotic flower, and those had been banished. More so after they kissed. The taste of rum would forever get him hard, he realized, because he associated it with her. Just like he did so many things now. He’d shared more with Ana than any other woman he’d known, most of it long before he’d met her in the flesh.

  He wondered if she knew that.

  “I had a thought,” he said when they parted. She cocked her brows in curiosity. “Let’s pop the tape in and watch a little bit first. To make up for not seeing as much of the concert on Saturday.”

  Ana nodded and took his hand to lead him down the hall. He had been right in his assessment about her living space. The entire house seemed empty until she opened the door to a room that seemed to double as her den and her office. It could only be described as cozy. The walls were decorated in posters of everybody from Decrepit Moon, to Bowie, to the Beatles. She had a fantastic entertainment system that took up most of one wall, and a giant bookshelf against the others, full of CDs and vinyl records.

  “You get comfortable,” she said, gesturing toward the large couch. “While I put the tape in.”

  Ben toed off his shoes before crossing the room and sinking into the soft cushions. Stretching his arm across the back, he watched Ana get it all ready, his gaze straying to the curve of her ass before traveling down those impossibly long legs. She was strong. He’d felt that firsthand. She had wrapped those legs around him tight enough to make him have to struggle to move once or twice. Ben had to discreetly rearrange his cock to make his erection less prominent before Ana turned back to him.

  “Come here,” he said. He held his hand out and pulled her down so that she was nestled into his side, his arm going around her back. When she rested her cheek on his chest, he brushed a kiss across her temple. “Figure out why I wanted to watch this yet?”

  “Maybe,” Ana murmured, running her hand over his stomach.

  She caressed him absently through his shirt, moving her hand in slow circles. His muscles jumped beneath her touch. Nobody had taken the time to touch him like that in a long time. He swallowed hard, trying to focus on the television as the picture zoomed in to the stage. She seemed content to touch him through his shirt until he began to relax, accustomed to the light, almost ticklish pressure.

  Ana shifted her attention the moment he relaxed, pulling his shirt from his pants and pushing her fingers beneath it to brush against his abs. Ben sighed, waiting for her to do more, but once again, she seemed happy with the light, playful contact. But every brush of her nails across his stomach sent slivers of pleasure directly to his groin. His cock jerked against his tight pants, and he silently willed her hand lower, hoping she would free him from his jeans.

  His own hands weren’t still as she touched him. Ben ran his knuckles up and down her ribs, detouring to caress the side of her firm breast with each stroke. She sighed, burrowing closer to him, like she couldn’t tolerate even a half-inch separating them. The five men on the screen launched into an old blues song with a hard driving bass. The tape contained some five hours of footage with some amazing musicianship, but this was always his favorite moment. They all shifted so seamlessly, it was like they had been playing together for years. And he could tell Ana dug it, too.

  He waited to speak until after the song was over.

  “Have you ever seen any of this before?” he asked.

  “No. Occasionally, mp3s of a few of the songs will pop up online, but I’ve never seen the footage.”

  “There’s a part later on, where Travis starts one song and Neil starts something else, and when they realize they’re playing different songs, the whole thing morphs into this new number…” His voice trailed off. Her nails had scraped over a ticklish spot on his side, and it made it difficult to concentrate. “But you’ll see it for yourself,” he finished lamely.

  She nodded, her hand drifting higher on his chest until her nails skimmed his nipple. He sighed, his arm tightening around her, as she rubbed his chest with the flat of her hand. Her touch could almost be comforting as she circled his chest, except when she reached his nipples. She lingered on the hardening skin, scraping her nails across him, pinching gently.

  “If this is you testing to see how long it’ll take for me to break,” Ben murmured, “you should know I have very low resistance when it comes to you.”

  “I’m not testing you.” She looked up. “I just can’t stop touching you. It’s your own fault.”

  The music from the TV faded into the background as her large brown eyes met his. A stray curl kept falling over her forehead, and while he had withstood the urge to brush it off her face up to this point, it was futile to fight it any longer with Ana this close.

  “I think I have to kiss you now.” The curl sprang back into place as soon as he let it go, but Ben barely saw. “I can’t believe I’ve managed to hold off this long.”

  “I think you do,” Ana agreed, leaning forward. “I’ve been waiting for it.”

  It started with the lightest of touches across her lower lip. The tip of his tongue traced over the full swell, tickling at the corner un
til she smiled, then repeated the path along the lip above. A hint of curry reminded him of the heart-pounding moment when he’d seen her walk into the restaurant, and he deepened the kiss, shifting his position to pull her more on top of him. He was getting a whole week with Ana. He was going to savor every second of it.

  Ana ran her fingers through his hair, holding his mouth against hers as she responded. She knew how to kiss. Ben appreciated that. She teased him with her tongue, at times playful, at times hungry, but she never overwhelmed the slow pace he set. Her nipples were hard points against her thin T-shirt. She arched against him, pressing her breasts against his chest, and then began to slowly rock up and down, dragging her hard nipples against his body.

  They had talked about this, more than once. Long, languorous make-out sessions on her couch, stretching into the wee hours of the morning with both of them reluctant to lose each other’s mouth. It had been in the back of his mind when he’d suggested watching the video, but the reality of Ana lying atop him far surpassed anything they had fantasized. He felt her heat even through their clothes, felt the way her muscles undulated as she rubbed against him, felt every caress of her tongue as she opened up to his kisses. Briefly, Ben wondered if chatting or phone would ever satisfy him again, but then Ana bit his lip, and he jolted back to the present, his hands smoothing down her back to tighten around her ass.

  Ana moaned and broke away from the kiss long enough to pull her shirt over her head. He sat forward, allowing her to tug his shirt over his torso and toss it aside. As soon as they were both topless, she settled on him again, her mouth finding his. Her skin was unbelievably smooth. He didn’t know it was possible for skin to feel so soft, so much like silk.

  Ben found the clasp of her bra and freed it without losing the rhythm of their kisses. It fell from her shoulders, though Ana didn’t lift her arms in order to get rid of it entirely. But it was enough. Now he had room to touch the bare curve of her breast, feel the taut points of her nipples against his chest without impediment.

  He moaned in the back of his throat. “This week is going to be amazing,” he murmured against her mouth.

  Ben felt, rather than saw, her smile. “I’m counting on it.” She moved away from his mouth, drawing her tongue along his jaw, then down his neck. She barely touched him with the tip of her tongue. He felt her breath more than he felt anything else. Ana only explored his skin for a few moments before finding his mouth again in a surprisingly hard kiss.

  He wanted his own taste. Sliding his hands to her waist, Ben tugged at her body, forcing her to slide farther up so that she was straddling his hips. Ana tried to chase his mouth, but he refused her the chance, licking a path along her collarbone down to her bared breast. With her body in a better position, his hands were now free to return to her back, savoring the soft skin as his tongue flicked across her nipple.

  Ana gasped and cupped her breast, holding her nipple between two fingers. She guided it toward his mouth, tensed as his tongue flicked across her again and again. Ana reached for his hand and guided it to her other breast, encouraging him to massage her full flesh as he sucked her nipple between his lips.

  This was one of the other things he liked about being with Ana. She knew what she wanted. She was a woman who knew exactly what she liked, and there wasn’t any dancing around pretending she didn’t want to do something. It was easy and straightforward and Ben suspected she had no idea just how gratifying that was to a man.

  As he let his teeth scrape over the tender flesh, Ana rocked harder against his hips, grinding into the hard line of his cock. He thought it was more reactionary than anything else, that she was simply seeking the pressure on her clit. But it was driving him crazy. Sometimes she would stay along the shaft, somewhere in the middle, and then others, she would slide up far enough so that the denim ground into the head. The rising desire for more tumbled out in his attention to her breasts, sucking her nipple hard against the roof of his mouth as his fingers pinched at the other.

  The harder he sucked on her nipple, the more she rocked against him. Her hands went to his shoulders to brace herself, and she dropped her head back. Her muscles were tense against him, a contrast to her supple skin. “Ben…if you keep…I’m going to come.”

  He let go only long enough to say, “Kind of the point, Ana.” Then his mouth was back on her breast and he was pushing up against her to meet the erratic thrusts of her hips.

  Ben listened as her soft moans turned into pants, and each breath came shorter and sharper. She tensed, her chest hitching, and when he thought she was right on the edge, he bit down on her nipple, burying the point of his tooth in her soft flesh. Ana shouted, slamming against his cock one final time.

  “Oh…Oh, Ben…” Ana moaned, gently pulling away from his mouth. She caught his chin and tilted his head back to press her lips against his.

  He folded his arms around her, stealing the heat that made her skin sear. Their kisses were startlingly gentle, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. His own need still simmered beneath his skin, and Ana knew it. She read him—had always read him—better than any woman he’d ever known.

  His mouth felt swollen when they parted. “I want to see your bedroom,” he murmured. “I’m looking forward to sleeping in sheets that smell like you.”

  Ana leaned back in his arms and cupped his face. Her palm was dry and warm, slightly roughened by the hours she spent in her yard. Smiling slightly, she brushed her thumb over his lips. “I hope you don’t plan to do any sleeping for a while.”

  “Only when you do.” Tightening his hold, Ben stood up, grateful when she coiled her legs around him so that he didn’t have to let her go. “Now tell me how to get there so that I can start wearing you out in all the best ways.”

  Chapter 7

  Ana had been mostly kidding about making Ben work out in the garden, but when he volunteered, she didn’t see any reason to tell him no. She gave him a pair of gloves and a small spade, then stretched out on the cool lawn in a pair of over-sized shades to watch him work. And she loved to watch him work. He was lean and tan in the sun, his bare back glistening with sweat, streaks of soil clinging to his forearms, his hair damp on his head. She never knew anybody who actually whistled while they worked, but he did. Just looking at him made her mouth water.

  Ben so enthralled her she didn’t notice her neighbor, Claire, until her little toy poodle put its cold nose in Ana’s face.

  “Shasta! Get down!” Tiny hands swooped the animal away, and Ana shifted her attention to see Claire cradling the dog in her arm. “Sorry about that. I think we’re both just so surprised to see you home during the day, we got a little excited.” She sat down on the grass next to her, her slim legs folding automatically into a lotus. “Why are you home? Was there a snowstorm in Hell I didn’t hear about?”

  Ana laughed. “As far as I know, no. I’m on vacation this week, and since I get to spend the next three weeks on the road, I thought I’d relax at home.”

  Ben’s whistling caught Claire’s attention, and her head snapped up as together they watched him toss a handful of weeds into a nearby bucket. The muscles in his back rippled from the movement, and it was Claire’s turn to whistle under her breath as he bent down again over the flowerbed.

  “And got yourself some fresh home entertainment with a new gardener, I see,” she commented. “Oh, he’s yummy. Where did you find him? And please tell me you’re loaning him out while you’re gone.”

  “I found him on the Internet. You can find just about anything online these days.” Ana dropped her voice. “As for loaning out, that’s up to him, but for now we have a more or less exclusive arrangement.”

  “You must be paying him pretty well if he’s not taking on any more work. Most college kids are screaming for summer jobs.”

  Ana’s lips thinned. She wasn’t sure if she should shrug it off, tell Claire to mind her own business, or snap that she wasn’t paying him and this was just another variation of their extensive sexual exploits. Her
stomach shifted uncomfortably. It was exactly this sort of thing she wanted to avoid. Now it was Claire mistaking him for a gardener, what would she do later when somebody mistook him for something much worse?

  “He’s not working for me, Claire.”

  “Then what…” Claire’s voice faded away, her mouth making a small o as she looked again at Ben. Even through the dark sunglasses, Ana saw her eyes appraise him in a new light, and when Claire spoke again, her voice was pitched much lower.

  “You have got to tell me what dating service you used,” she half-whispered. “You got way better results than I ever have.”

  “I didn’t meet him using a dating service. He sent me some music from a band we both like, and we started exchanging emails. Things just sorta…snowballed from there. I didn’t realize he was quite so young, though.”

  “Lucky for you. I haven’t had a date with someone that gorgeous in months.” Claire sighed, absently petting Shasta. “Of course, I haven’t had a date at all in months, but that’s neither here nor there. I swear, Ana, you get all the best breaks.”

  “So it wouldn’t make you feel uncomfortable? I mean, if you were in my shoes and you happened to mention something that happened before he was even born, it wouldn’t bother you?”

  Claire frowned. “No, why would it?”

  “Because…Look, do you know how old he was when I married Clint? Ten. He was ten years old.”

  “But he’s not ten now. He is really not ten now.”

  “I know he’s not ten now but there’s no…” And sighed and picked at the grass. Ben had moved farther away, following a path of flowers to the back of the house. “There can’t be any sort of future here, can there?”

  “Why not? Do you have anything else in common other than this band?”

  “Yes. We have a lot in common. We e-mailed and chatted for about a month before we met, and I think we covered just about everything from politics to movies. We pretty much agree about everything. But that’s not really the issue.” Ana pulled her knees up to her chest, watching as Ben carefully pulled a clump of weeds out of the ground without disrupting the flowers. “What happens when he wakes up one morning and realizes he’s sleeping next to an old woman?”