There was another sound, a long feminine cry, and there was no mistaking the satisfaction in it. Then there was silence. Zoë pressed a hand against her stomach. Her insides were so hot, so empty, and longing for…something. When was the last time she’d achieved that kind of release? That kind of pleasure? Years ago.
She should leave. She should get back into her car and drive around a bit. After bunching all the note cards together, she stuffed them back into the box.
And then suddenly, she felt him. It wasn’t a sound that warned her. It was her body’s reaction that told her Jed Calhoun was there even before she turned and saw him standing at the edge of the trees, wearing nothing but cutoff shorts and a baseball cap.
Her mouth went dry as dust, and a rush of sensations cartwheeled through her. Heat. Cold. An electric shock of lust. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even think.
He was watching her in that intent way he had. Even at this distance, she could feel his eyes moving over her, the heat of his gaze on her skin. The sensation was as real as if he were touching her.
She wanted him to touch her. She wanted his hands on her. More than that, she wanted her hands on him. But he wasn’t moving. He was a man who could wait for what he wanted.
Lifting her chin, she rose to her feet. Well, she wasn’t going to wait for what she wanted.
JED HADN’T THOUGHT it was possible for his body to get any harder, but it did with the first step she took toward him. He’d been watching her for some time, and the sounds coming from the houseboat had made his head spin with images of what it would be like to touch her until she was hot and wet and slick, to thrust inside of her and feel her close around him….
If he’d gone to her now, he wasn’t sure he could have kept himself from taking her right here on the spot. Control was something he’d always prided himself on. But it seemed to disappear around Zoë. Case in point, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from getting out of the hammock and coming to see her. Now he was willing her to come to him.
That’s what she’d done in the little daydream he’d been having in the hammock before he’d heard her car. The woman he’d conjured up in his mind had risen out of the water like a nymph or some kind of sea sprite, and she’d walked toward him just as she was doing now. Her hair had been loose, just as it was now.
The punch of desire that hit him low and hard was new and very real. So was the sharp need to bury his hands in that hair.
In the daydream, she’d been out of those baggy, drab clothes of hers. He’d imagined her in a bikini, but in the snug jeans and tank top, she looked even sexier. That slender, compact body was more appealing, and those legs were much longer than he’d imagined.
How often in life was reality better than a fantasy?
She didn’t stop until she was nearly toe-to-toe with him. Though amber-colored sunglasses covered her eyes, he felt it like another little punch in the gut the minute her gaze locked on his.
She cleared her throat. “Would you like to have sex with me?”
Jed felt his mind begin to empty, and he was pretty sure his mouth had dropped open. Talk about fantasies. But this was real, right? He badly wanted to pinch himself to make sure, but he didn’t think he could move his hands. He concentrated on finding his voice.
She certainly wasn’t having any trouble using hers. He could see her lips moving, and through the buzzing sound in his head, some of the words were getting through.
“I’m not crazy—don’t think I am—it’s just that you keep slipping into my thoughts and my dreams.”
He could understand that and even sympathize with the annoyance he heard in her voice. That was real. And so was her scent: sunshine and something that reminded him again of homemade sugar cookies. He wasn’t sure how long he could wait to take a bite of her.
“So…what I’m thinking is we have sex—if you think that you’d be open to that?”
Open? He felt another punch of desire and struggled to focus.
“I’m not suggesting anything long-term. Just a brief liaison.”
“Liaison.” Relief streamed through him that he’d not only found his voice, but he’d managed to get his tongue around the word.
She waved a hand. “I just need to get you out of my system so that I can think again.”
“I’m in your system?” That was good to know, since she was definitely in his. Some of the blood seemed to have returned to his brain because he was thinking again, and he was pretty sure he could move.
Nodding, she drew a deep breath, then hurried on. “I know that you may not be as attracted to me as I am to you, but maybe there’s something that I could do. Some particular fantasy that you’re into. I’d be willing to experiment a—”
“Hold up.” He was tempted to let her go on, just to hear what she’d say, but he was even more tempted to see her eyes. He reached over and pulled off the sunglasses. Her eyes were almond shaped, like a cat’s eye. Funny that he’d never noticed that when she’d worn the owl glasses. And this close, they were the color of rich, dark chocolate flecked with gold.
“Why did you do that?” Zoë asked.
“I was curious about what you would look like without glasses,” he said. “In reality. In my fantasies, you’re always underneath me and I’m inside of you when I take them off of you.”
“Oh.”
He had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes darken and cloud.
She blinked. “Well…then, I suppose…” She blinked again. “Are you saying that you’ll have sex with me?”
She was so damn cute. He had to touch her then, drawing one finger along her jawline as he’d done so often in his fantasies. Her skin was even softer than he’d imagined. “You had me at ‘Would you like to have sex with me?’ Since then, I’ve been fighting off the impulse to drag you to the ground and take you right here.”
She blinked again and glanced back at the houseboat. “That’s probably not a good idea. We could be interrupted.”
“Good point.” Taking her hand, he drew her into the trees.
ZOË SWALLOWED hard as she walked with Jed. She was going to have sex with Jed Calhoun. In a minute, he would sink in. To her. In a minute, they’d actually do it. When he’d touched her, just that gentle stroke of his finger along her jaw, heat had arrowed through her, and her toes had curled. No man had ever made her toes curl before.
So why was there a little knot of panic forming in her stomach? She stopped short, and he glanced down at her.
“Having second thoughts?” he asked.
“No.” She looked up and met his eyes. He suddenly seemed taller. Sunlight was filtered through the leaves overhead, and in the shifting shadows, Jed Calhoun looked more dangerous, too. For some reason, that made her want him even more. The thought occurred to her that she might just be getting in a little over her head.
“What
