hesitated, as if weighing her response, and then nodded. Without a word, she took her keys from her pocket and he could see her hands tremble. Desire or something else?
He followed her in. As the door closed, her keys fell to the carpet along with her bag, and he didn’t waste a moment.
“I love how you taste,” he shared before devouring her mouth again, urging her to respond, to take him as much as he wanted to take her. He licked the thundering pulse in her throat, knew that she liked it by the soft sigh she couldn’t hold back. “Touch me back, Joy. Kiss me back,” he said against her mouth.
She did, and when he slid his hands up under her shirt, she moaned into his mouth as his palms closed over her breasts, kneading through the fabric of her bra, teasing her nipples to fine points that he enjoyed playing with.
Rafe pressed his erection against her hip, rubbing gently. He was close, ready to explode. It had been a long while and he was starving for release.
She seemed to notice, intuiting his need to be touched, and slipped her hand down inside his jeans. He caught his breath audibly when her fingers closed around his length and he pressed into her harder. They dove into each other’s kisses enthusiastically and within seconds he gave in, groaning as he came, unable to hold back. It was one of the most erotic things he’d ever experienced, so much so that he remained hard, barely finished but ready to go again.
“Uh-oh, we’re one-nothing now—want to go to bed early and even the score?” he asked teasingly, weaving his hands through her hair and nuzzling her warm skin.
He could taste the sheen of perspiration that had formed there, turning him on more. This first time had been fast, taking the pressure off, but when he got her upstairs he’d show her that her dreams paled compared to reality. He wanted to make her scream with pleasure while she was completely awake.
“Oh, no, I don’t think so. That’s all right,” she said quickly, extracting her hand and slipping away from him, hitting the light switch by the door.
He blinked in confusion, watching her bend to pick up her keys and coat, putting her keys in her pocket. She smoothed her shirt and hair, as if, well, as if they were done.
“Excuse me?” He walked over and tugged her up against him, looking down into her eyes, her face only inches from him.
The desire he’d experienced with her in the semidark by the door vanished, however, the only hints of it remaining in the color of her cheeks, her swollen lips and the musky smell of sex between them. He could see the stemmed desire in her eyes, the tautness of her features, as if she were under stress. He’d be happy to relieve it for her, but had no idea what she was doing.
“What game are you playing, Joy?” He was still on edge, his body hot for hers and his emotions scrambling. He didn’t like how she just shut it off, the passion. It made what had happened, well … cheap.
“No games.” She put her hands on his arms, pushed back, getting some physical distance. “I … I don’t know why I did that. It was nice, it’s okay—you don’t have to, ah, even the score. It was a mistake, obviously.”
“Why?” He wrapped his arms around her even though she gasped an objection and tried to push away. But he held her there, moving his hands firmly around her back. Her resistance was nominal, as if she were fighting herself more than him. Finally, she looked up at him.
“You’re only here for a few weeks. This won’t go anywhere. I don’t know you.”
What he’d interpreted as distance he now realized was not that at all, but instead closer to fear or anxiety. He loosened his hold, but stayed close.
“So you’ll spend a couple weeks getting to know me, and we’ll have some fun. Remember fun, Joy? Have you ever really let yourself go and not worried about every little thing?”
“Easy for you to say, you’re on vacation, you don’t have a career that needs your attention, and you—”
“You said you don’t know me—and you’re right,” he reminded her tersely. “You don’t. This isn’t completely a vacation, Joy. It’s a leave of absence because I couldn’t do my job. A job I happen to love, and which has been my whole life. So don’t say I don’t understand that. Now I can’t do it, because I can’t get a damned night’s sleep.”
He stepped back, wiping a hand over his face, lowering his voice when he saw her stunned expression. Great. She’d hit a nerve, and their emotions were running high, but that didn’t give him the right to lash out.
“Listen, maybe you’re right, I’m sorry—”
She took a step forward. “No … You’re right. I don’t know you, so I shouldn’t make assumptions. I didn’t mean to do that, I didn’t know …” She drifted off as if searching for the words, and he waited.
“You’re right. I haven’t had fun in so long…. Maybe that’s why my blood pressure’s up—”
“You have high blood pressure?” he asked, slipping into his EMT role without a second thought.
She smiled. “Slightly. The doctor wasn’t concerned, but she did tell me to find ways to relax more. I guess I didn’t really follow that prescription.”
He took another chance. “Maybe I could help with that?”
His stomach actually did a little flip when her cheeks turned hot as if merely thinking about having fun excited her, and he experienced the corresponding stir in his lower regions again. They could have a little fun together.
“I don’t know, Rafe, I can’t make any promises about … that.” She glanced meaningfully toward the door, and he knew to what she was referring. “I’ve never been very good with, uh, sex. I don’t seem to enjoy it much.”
Saying the word made her cheeks burn even hotter and he watched her flailing, wondering how she could think such a thing about herself.
“Coulda fooled me, honey, but a lot of people are insecure about sex and—”
“No, take my word for it—that’s why I keep dreaming, like I do—that never happens in real life. Ever. It’s never been my … thing.” Her hands flew up, covering her red face as she moaned with embarrassment. He pried her fingers away.
“Listen. Part of having fun is no pressure, so there isn’t any. There’s fun, and then there’s fun, and I’d like to have both kinds with you, but you lead the way, okay?”
She took a deep breath, obviously relieved, though her hands were ice cold in his. He was going to make it his personal challenge to warm her up.
“Okay. Thanks,” she said.
“Who knows?” he said, pulling her against him. “Maybe we’ll end up making a few dreams come true.”
8
“THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST magical nights of my life,” Pam whispered, a delicious shiver running down her spine as Ted’s big, powerful hand touched her gently at the spot where the back of her dress scooped down past her shoulder blades.
“Every
