by Tess Oliver
Once I reached the ramshackle structure, I found that it had been fashioned with plush cushioned benches and a small table. I wished, suddenly, for a good book and glass of wine. I glanced back toward the path. I was far from the house and could no longer hear the hammer. The outline of the inn was hidden by tall trees.
A whispery breeze pushed through the curled iron scrolls of the gazebo and cooled my warm cheeks. I sat on one of the upholstered benches. The fabric looked bright and new, especially in contrast to the dilapidated state of the gazebo. I propped a few pillows against the side rail of the bench, pulled off my boots and brought my legs up on the seat. I gazed through the opening on the gazebo as if I was sitting on a window seat staring out at a field of flowers.
Delicate pink and yellow flower heads danced with the breeze, and the tall grasses carried the scent of nature through the gazebo. Something about the earthy fragrance brought my thoughts back to Grayson. He was nothing like the men I’d been dating, men I considered a better match, men who worked in the business world and drove impressive cars and lived in overpriced apartments. Men who had clean fingernails and rarely broke out in a sweat. Men who tended to be just as boring in bed as in a board meeting. Grayson was none of that. And I couldn’t get him out of my mind. The long stroll had done nothing to cool the burning ache between my legs.
It was a crazy idea, but then the last twenty-four hours had been nothing but crazy. I looked around. Other than a few birds perched on the edge of the gazebo railing, apparently waiting to see if I had a pocket full of bread crumbs, I was alone.
This was all Grayson’s fault, I reminded myself as I unzipped the fly on my shorts. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I slid my hand down between my legs and pressed my fingers against my clit. The heady wildflower fragrance and warm breeze only intensified my need to reach orgasm. Grayson’s handsome face, dark blue eyes and tilted smile coasted through my mind. I moved against the pressure of my hand. I was still tender from the night with Grayson. That rawness only served to bring me closer to the edge.
A sound in the gazebo made me freeze. My eyes shot open. Grayson gazed down at me with a nearly predatory hunger. I struggled to yank my hand free, but he reached down and held my arm in place.
“No. Keep it there. Best damn game of solitaire I’ve ever seen.”
He held my arm until I relaxed. He crouched down next to me. “I want to watch,” he said in a low voice.
I shook my head and moved to pull my hand free. He dragged his fingers lightly along the bare skin on my arm. Just that small, light touch sent a wave of heat through me. “Come on, V.P., let’s see you let go of some of that uptight, no nonsense bullshit. Have some fun. Right here. In front of me. It’s the best thing I’ve seen since—well since you were naked beneath me on the bed last night.”
He rose up on his knees, leaned over me and kissed me lightly on the lips. Then he drew his tongue along my bottom lip. “I don’t think you understand how fucking hot you are, Jessi.”
A usual, my cheeks warmed at the sound of his voice and his words. His giant shadow loomed over me as he stood. Without warning, he reached forward and yanked the shorts down, exposing my hand tucked beneath my panties. I should have been embarrassed as hell, but the opposite was happening. My state of arousal was peaked. I wanted nothing more than to continue and have him watch me. It was by far one of the most erotic moments of my life, and it was all because of the man standing over me.
“Now finish what you started, darlin’. Then you’re mine for the rest of the evening.” His last words sent me into a tailspin. My fingers caressed my clit, and I easily brought myself to climax beneath his deep blue gaze.
The second I finished, he swept me up, sat on the bench and pulled me into his lap. His erection pushed at my near naked bottom. His scent was pure man, a mixture of sweat and soap and grit. I breathed in deeply, not wanting to miss any of it. It rekindled the heat between my legs.
I curled my arm around his neck and lifted my mouth to his. He kissed me gently at first but then it increased with urgency. Being in his strong arms had knocked me nearly senseless. I hadn’t noticed that he’d pulled the shorts off my feet until the morning breeze brushed over my legs.
He slid his hand beneath the crotch of my panties. “Now it’s my turn.” He slid his fingers between the folds of my pussy. I’d only just brought myself to climax, yet his touch made me want more.
I sat up from his arms and straddled his lap. Up on my knees, I reached between us, fumbling with his fly. And all the while, he watched me, smiling up at me as my shaky, clumsy fingers worked the buttons on his jeans. But before I slid my fingers down to take his glorious cock in my hand, I sat down on his lap, slightly deflated. I might have decided to go along with this crazy fantasy weekend, but clearly, I was still holding on to some common sense.
“We can’t do this without protection,” I said, astounded at the sheer disappointment in my tone.
His smile never left his handsome face as he reached back to his pocket and fished out a condom.
I laughed. “Now that’s what I call prepared for anything.”
He lifted his broad shoulders with a shrug. “Not really. It’s just as I watched you walk away from me, I decided I wasn’t going to get through the morning without these sleek thighs wrapped around me at least once.” He rubbed his palms over my legs. His palms were callused and rough and altogether pleasing.
I reached down below his open fly and briefs and took hold of his cock. It was hard and hot in my fingers. “At least once?” I asked as I lowered my mouth to his.
His lids dropped over glazed blue eyes as his hands went firmly around my ass. “Well, once for the morning break anyhow. Those roof tiles aren’t going to set themselves.” He freed one hand from my ass and scooted his pants down. He opened the foil package with his teeth.
I grabbed the condom from him. “Guess since you brought the party favors, the least I can do is put it on.” I sat back. His heated gaze never left my face as I rolled the condom down over his enormous erection. I couldn’t hold back a smile.
“What’s that grin for, V.P.?”
“You are—hmm, what’s a good term? Considerable? Sizable?”
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him. His hand slid down beneath my ass and between my legs, where he yanked aside the crotch of my panties. “Is that a good thing?” The tip of his erection played teasingly against my pussy.
“Oh yes, a very good thing. A woman likes to know that she has invested wisely. And the dividends in this instance, well, the dividends are fabulous.”
He leaned forward and kissed my breast through the cotton shirt. “I guess that’s what they call talking dirty in the business world.” He peered up at me. “All right, my hot little executive, how about I fuck you before my cock explodes with wanting you?”
“We can’t have that.” I lowered myself down over him, taking in every glorious inch of him.
A low, deep groan rumbled from his mouth as he kissed my throat. “Should have ripped this fucking blouse off first,” he growled as he reached to the hem and shoved it above my breasts, exposing my bra.
I rose and fell down over his erection as he tugged the bra down below my breasts.
I wrapped my arms tight around his head, pulling his mouth against my nipples, all the while milking him with my pussy. Warm friction built up where my pussy rubbed against his body. He jammed his erection harder into me with each pass and every time our bodies met, my thighs clenched tighter. I was desperate to keep him there, between my thighs coaxing me to climax with his strong, rough hands, hot mouth and hard cock. We moved in perfect unison as if we knew exactly what the other wanted.
He pulled his mouth from my breasts, and his head lulled back as he concentrated on my pussy. His fingers gripped my ass cheeks, pulling them up and tight so that my clit was more exposed against his skin. I slid my body down and pushed my ass back, rubbing my clit until the heat and pressure caused my pussy to ti
ghten.
“Oh, Grayson. Fuck yes.” I closed my eyes and tried to stay upright as my body splintered apart and my pussy pulsed with pleasure.
“That’s it, darlin’, you belong right there. Like a fucking glove.”
I was still reeling from the orgasm as he held me tight over him and slammed his cock up inside of me. I tangled my fingers in his hair and held his face against me as I plunged down to meet his thrusts. The bench and the rusted gazebo shook as if the ground was moving beneath us. Sometimes it seemed he was too impossibly long and thick for me to take all of him in. Then he’d prove me wrong by going deeper. My tender pussy gripped him, swallowing him as he pushed inside of me.
His hold on my ass tightened, and he held me down over him as he came. “Damn, Jessi, can’t get enough of you,” he growled in a low voice.
I relaxed against him. The meadow breeze tickled my skin as it floated through the gazebo. The sun’s warmth poured through the metal lattice overhead. All of it was too perfect, the setting, the sex, the man I was curled against. I wondered how long until I woke up. This was going to be a hard dream to let go of.
He slapped my bottom and I sat up with a start. “Well, my perfectly sexy meadow sprite, I have to get back to work.”
I climbed off with a disappointed sigh. I reached down for my panties and shorts. We both got dressed. I reached for the hiking boots, but he took hold of my hand and pulled me to him. I felt like a teenager in the arms of the guy I’d been crushing on. My heart couldn’t seem to stop fluttering. The way his strong arms wrapped around me made me feel secure and wanted. And deliriously happy.
Grayson pushed my chin up with his fingers. “Tonight, darlin’. So rest up.” He kissed me and walked out of the gazebo. I let my gaze linger on his broad shoulders and great physique until he disappeared around the bend in the path.
Chapter Thirteen
I’d offered to cut some herbs from the garden for Coco’s pot roast. I nibbled a red velvet cupcake as I wandered along the line of red clay pots looking for thyme and rosemary. It was, as Coco had warned me, the last cupcake. The others had all been bought by customers. It was strange because I never saw one person come up to the inn. Of course, I’d been mildly distracted.
The herb garden took me around the corner of the house where Grayson’s ladder was propped up against the wall. Just seeing his ladder sent a thrill through me. I couldn’t remember the last time a man had that kind of impact on me. It was just a damn ladder.
The loud screaming buzz of a table saw pulled my attention around the corner to the back of the house. Grayson had changed into a white t-shirt, a strong contrast to his suntanned skin. He was wearing black sunglasses. A cap was pulled down low enough to make his hair curl up on his collar.
The muscles in his arms flexed as he lifted a long board of wood and positioned it on the table saw. The saw screeched as it cut the wood in two. As he lifted the two pieces off, he caught me standing in the middle of the herb garden gawking at him.
I waved my empty cupcake paper at him. His white smile gleamed back at me. I could have watched him work all day, but Coco needed the herbs and my mouth was already watering at the idea of her pot roast.
I managed to pull myself away from the view to attend to my task. I pulled out the scissors that Coco had supplied me with and snipped off a twig of fragrant rosemary and three stems of thyme, as directed by the chef. I remembered rosemary because it always reminded me of the branch on a Christmas tree, but I had to read the cute little garden signs to find the thyme. My own cooking skills were less than stellar. Although, in a pinch, I could whip up a respectable omelet. The only home cooked meals I ate these days were when I decided to make the hundred mile drive up north to my parents’ house. That thought startled me into the realization that people might be looking for me. I’d been enjoying myself so much, I’d completely forgotten that with no service on my phone and no computer, friends and family might be worried about me.
I finished cutting the herbs and hurried back to the house. Coco was arranging cut flowers in a vase as I walked into the kitchen. I opened my mouth to speak, but she spoke first.
“Jessi, I placed my laptop on the table on the porch. Thought you might want to check your email. It’s hard keeping in touch without decent phone service out here.”
“You read my mind,” I laughed. “Again.” I headed toward the door but stopped.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“What will I say? I hardly know myself how to explain this.”
“Explain what?” She blinked innocently at me. The whispers of crow’s feet cornered her eyes and then disappeared again.
“This weekend. This place.”
She pushed the long stem of a rose down into the vase. “You’ll think of something.”
I pushed open the screen on the front door and walked to the side of the porch where Coco had set a laptop on a table next to a wicker settee. She’d poured a glass of lemonade to go along with the perfect porch setting.
I glanced up at the front yard before returning my attention to the computer. My face popped back up. A vine of pink roses had begun its climb around the wood columns holding up the porch roof. At least ten pink clusters of roses sparkled in the midday sun. I thought back to my arrival. There were no roses. I’d noted it mostly because the picture of the inn on the website had shown a house covered with blooming rose vines. I had to brush it off as yet another unexplained event.
I would definitely have a story to tell Cara on Monday morning. And as if thinking about her had conjured it, Cara’s was the first email in my inbox. Below were several emails from friends who were more or less just people to socialize with when I was bored. Apparently my mom had been too busy knitting baby things to notice that her own baby had gone missing. And Dad knew how to fix lawn mowers and truck engines, but he was all thumbs when it came to using a computer. Texting was another modern day skill that he preferred to ignore. His favorite comment whenever he saw me texting was that ‘maybe God should rethink this opposable thumb thing’. He theorized that, with the exception of thumbs up or thumbs down, they hadn’t been meant as a tool for communication.
I opened Cara’s email and saw the message I’d anticipated. “Jessi, where the heck are you? Pauline called and said you never made it to dinner last night. I’ve left a billion voicemails. Write or text or call . . . or something.”
I smiled at the worry in her message. Cara had started as my assistant three years ago, and we’d grown very close. She kept me grounded and organized. She seemed to be the only person who cared enough to notice me missing. I wrote back.
“I’ve taken a small, self-indulgent weekend vacation.” My mind left on a quick road trip as I thought about the stolen moments in the gazebo with Grayson. I’d never done anything like that before, and I doubted I ever would again. That thought saddened me. What would happen once I left here? How the heck was I going to wash a man like Grayson from my mind?
I stared at the one sentence reply. Cara deserved more of response. “I have so much to tell you when I get back. But for now, I’m having the time of my life. There’s no phone service where I’m at. See you Monday.”
Just as I clicked send, footsteps sounded on the front steps. I felt giddy before I even looked up. I could already sense when he was near, and it had nothing to do with the yummy, woodsy, manly scent that surrounded him. I just knew. It was as if a cloud of heat swallowed us up the instant we were within ten feet of each other.
“I was wondering how long it would be before I found you hunched over a computer.” Grayson’s steel-toed boots thudded on the creaky wood planks of the porch. He stopped and tapped one with his boot several times. As if on cue, Coco stepped outside with a second glass of lemonade.
“Thanks. You must have read my mind.” He reached for the glass. “This porch needs some work. I can work on it after I’m done with the roof.”
“That would be great.” Coco turned to me. “Were you able to find wha
t you needed? I confess I rarely use that computer. I have few skills when it comes to technology.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise. “But you have that terrific interactive website with the interview questions, and, I might add, it’s incredibly persistent.”
Now it was Coco’s turn to act surprised. “What website?”
My mouth dropped, and I stared stunned at her. “The Silk Stocking Inn website? Where you asked me about my favorite cupcake—among other things.” My gaze flitted quickly toward Grayson, who seemed confused by the conversation.
“A website for Silk Stocking Inn? What a novel idea.” Coco laughed as she walked back inside.
My mind was temporarily pulled from the good looking man standing on the porch drinking lemonade, something he managed to look extra good doing. My curious fingers flew over the keyboard. I typed in every version of Silk Stocking Inn I could think of, but nothing came up. There was plenty about silk stockings and silk and even inns, but the site that had popped up so mysteriously on my work computer was not there.
My inattention had sent Grayson back down the steps. He sat on the bottom one. I closed the laptop and placed it on the table. Then I grabbed my glass of lemonade and sat next to him.
He lifted his glass for a toast. “Here’s to cold drinks on a hot day and an even hotter sipping partner.”
I smiled. “The comments you come up with. It’s almost as if you spend your day thinking up charming things to say.”
“That’s disappointing. I was hoping my charming comments would seem more spontaneous instead of rehearsed. Guess I have to work on delivery.”
“No, trust me, there’s nothing at all wrong with your delivery.”
That made him smile. He took a drink and I peered over at his Adam’s apple, wondering how he managed to make swallowing look so sensual.
He sighed and stared at the half finished glass. “Coco mentioned she wasn’t sure if you were staying or not.”