Oral sex wasn’t a new activity for her, but for some reason, giving Drake head brought out the naughty girl in her. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t lick, taste and touch if it gave him pleasure. She feared nothing except this being a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
They spent most of their time together but not all. When she wasn’t with him, she was thinking about him. He was funny and smart and without a doubt the most gifted lover she’d ever known…and maybe would ever know.
No matter how much she scolded herself, or chastised her foolishness, her infatuation had grown. She’d fallen in love with him. Head over heels, a forever-and-ever kind of love and no amount of fighting the ballooning attraction stemmed its growth.
She hadn’t asked for anything beyond this time together because she was afraid of his answer. If she confessed her feelings or asked for more and he said no, the rejection would simply kill her.
No, she had to accept what she had…the here and now. Some people went through their whole lives and never knew what love felt like. Now she did. It was wonderful, glorious and painful.
When he left her, and he would if his lack of talking about the future was any indication, she’d survive. It’d hurt, but she’d survive. The best thing she could do for herself was live in the moment, love to her fullest and go home with memories to last a lifetime.
A couple of times she’d awakened and just watched him sleep. His strong, square jaw. His long lashes splayed on his cheeks. The early morning scruff on his face. His lips, pink and full, looking so kissable. Heaven help her, he was as handsome asleep as he was awake.
A couple of days before they were scheduled to leave, she came back from the spa and found him on the patio, drink in hand, watching the waves roll in. After her hour-long chocolate massage, she was overcooked-noodle relaxed.
She wrapped her arms around his neck from the back. “Hey. What’s shaking?”
He dropped his head back. “Hmm. You smell great. Kiss me.”
Grinning, she leaned down and brushed his lips.
“More,” he ordered. “Or you won’t get your surprise.”
“A surprise? For me?” She started to pull her arms back so she could look for her surprise, but he grabbed her elbows.
“Not ’til you give me a good kiss.”
She smiled and leaned forward. Her lips pressed against his and parted. He slid his tongue into her mouth and she sighed. He tasted of bourbon, sunshine and pure raw testosterone. So yummy. The best thing she’d had in her mouth all day.
Their tongues tangled and twisted together, each trying to outdo the other with finesse, but he beat her hands down. He could swirl and touch places that made her toes curl. He ran the tip of his tongue along the inside surface of her teeth and into the space between her lower lip and her bottom row of teeth.
She moaned her approval and threaded her fingers into his hair.
Directing her with tugs on her elbow, he walked her around his chair to pull her into his lap, their lips and tongues never losing contact.
“Now that’s how you ask for your present,” he said when he finally broke the kiss.
“What? That wasn’t my present?”
He laughed and swatted her ass. “Nope. Go look on the bed.”
“But I’m so comfortable,” she said, snuggling next to his chest and wiggling her bottom against his thighs and groin.
“It’s something you’re going to look great in.” He kissed the end of her nose.
She climbed from his lap and walked to the bedroom to retrieve the wrapped box on the bed. When she returned and began to sit in the lounger beside his, he hauled her back into his lap. She wiggled her hips to get settled, feeling his penis grow thicker below her.
“Witch,” he said. “Be still. Now open your present.”
She twitched a couple of more times for good measure and then turned her attention to the box. The sticker on the corner bore the name of the store in the main lodge. She yanked the ribbon away and pried the lid off. She gasped. The white tissue paper inside lovingly caressed the fire-engine-red bikini she’d been drooling over when they’d arrived.
“I love it,” she said, holding up the small scrap of material that was the bottom. “How did you know?”
“I saw you admiring it last week and I knew it was perfect for you. Go put it on and let’s get in the pool.”
“Put it on just so you can take it off?”
His smile was lecherous. “You know it, babe.”
The suit stayed on for maybe ten minutes, with seven of those her parading around the pool and striking poses for him. When she hit the water, the suit hit the patio floor.
The night before they were scheduled to leave, sleep was once again evasive for Drake. After the draining round of sex they’d just had, he should have dropped into a coma. Instead, his mind had whirled and his body tossed and turned. So as not to disturb KC, who’d fallen into a deep sleep, he climbed out of the bed, found a pair of shorts the butler hadn’t packed yet and went out on the patio.
The night air was thick with salt tang and humidity but the breeze helped to make it comfortable. He sat in the lounge thinking I could live here. And it wasn’t just the fabulous condo and setting. It was the overwhelming joy in life he’d found here.
In some ways, he was more relaxed and at ease than any time in his life. Good food. Mind-blowing sex. Stimulating conversation. The perfect woman.
But in other ways, he was as jittery as a virgin on a wedding night. For the past twelve days, he’d fought his growing affection for KC, but it was getting harder to keep his feelings to himself.
Damn it. He’d been down this road before. Hell, hadn’t he jumped at the last two relationships after just a couple of weeks? And look how well those had gone. Maybe as he’d done with Stella and Magda, he was reading things into KC’s words and actions that weren’t there. Sure, she liked him. And she sure loved the sex, but beyond that? He didn’t know.
He propped his head in his hand. Looking back, he’d always been a crappy reader of women and their signals. Determining KC’s feelings for him by watching for signs and gestures could be unreliable at best and totally wrong at worst. His friendship with the Montgomery family, particularly Travis, went far back into childhood. The last thing he needed, or wanted, was to do anything that would put a burr under Travis’s saddle.
Okay then. His decision was made. What he’d do for now was nothing. KC was great at saying exactly what she wanted, and if she had feelings for him she’d let him know. If she made it clear she wanted this relationship to continue past this vacation, he’d be thrilled. If she didn’t, then he’d have to rethink his plan. After all, they had a long flight home tomorrow for her to suggest they continue seeing each other. If she felt for him half what he felt for her, they’d be a couple before the plane taxied for takeoff.
The morning they left, rain rolled into the luxury resort. KC couldn’t help but think the nasty, foul weather fit her mood perfectly. Her two weeks were up. Drake had said nothing about continuing their liaison—or whatever it was—when they got home, and she sure wasn’t going to bring it up. She’d done her part when she’d invited herself along and made him agree to sex. Any promotion of the next step in their relationship—if they even really had one—had to come from him.
The flight to Puerto Rico was bumpy and scary as they traversed the rain and clouds. However, once they left San Juan for Dallas, the jet got above the cloud bank and the craft settled down for a smooth, uneventful ride.
Drake was pleasant on both flights. Laughing, holding her hand, making sure her luggage was dealt with. He mentioned how much he’d needed the vacation, how much fun he’d had and how glad he was she’d made him go. He never said anything about love, or like or anything else regarding how he felt about her. And nothing concerning the future.
And damn it. She wasn’t going to ask.
What she had noticed was that as they got closer and closer to Dallas, Drake became more and more
distant. When they got into his SUV for the ride from Dallas back to Whispering Springs, she was almost in tears. The clicking down of their time together sounded like a death knell in her mind. Her time with him was almost over.
She promised herself she’d be a mature woman. Strong. Decisive. Go on this vacation and come home. Cling to the memories and not the man. And she would. Starting tomorrow. Tonight, she planned to cry herself to sleep and move on.
He unloaded her bags from his Range Rover and hauled them into her kitchen.
“Leave everything here,” she said. “The laundry room’s down here so there’s no reason to lug everything upstairs and then have to bring it back down to wash.” She hugged him and gave him a very quick peck on his mouth. “Thank you for the vacation of a lifetime.”
His head snapped back. “Okay. Glad you have fun. So did I. Um, I…”
“Yeah, me too. I’ll see you around.” She opened her front door and waited for him to exit. “Thanks again.”
The minute he cleared the threshold, she closed it. She didn’t want him to say the words goodbye. She didn’t believe she’d survive it.
Chapter Eight
Monday morning, KC hit her office door ready to tackle bears if she needed to. Drake had left on Saturday and she’d not heard from him since. She’d allowed herself a huge pity party on Sunday, but it was hard to be seriously sad when Jazz had been so glad to see her.
“Have fun?” Margaret asked. “You’ve brought home quite the tan.”
“I did. Loads. I miss anything interesting while I was gone?”
“The new dentist came by and introduced himself.”
“Really? Cute?”
Margaret leaned forward. “Very cute. I heard that he’s been taking Caroline Graham and Lydia out to lunch. Jason wasn’t too happy about Lydia going.”
“Please. He’s being silly. Besides, what does he think is going to happen over a meal? A ménage during lunch at the Lone Star?”
“Well, that’d certainly liven up the place, wouldn’t it?”
The two women laughed.
“Anything big on my calendar this week?”
“Not really. You’ve got a couple of appointments with new clients, but both are wills and trusts. Your mail is on your desk. Welcome back.”
KC opened her office door and groaned. There was a huge stack of mail to go through. She’d had Margaret pick up her house mail during the past two weeks rather than stopping it, so it was piled here with any office mail that needed her attention.
“Welcome back is right.” She looked at her receptionist. “I’m going in. If you haven’t heard from me by the time you leave, make sure I didn’t suffocate under the pile of papers.”
“Will do,” Margaret said with a laugh.
KC dug into the mail, separating bills and personal mail from junk mail and flyers. There was an invitation to a pool party to watch the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason football game. It was a special Wednesday game, not the usual Friday or Monday. The party was being hosted by a couple of old friends.
In reality, she didn’t want to go. She wanted to be with Drake, but she didn’t see that happening. She sighed. She had to get back to her life. That’s what she’d promised herself…and him, if she thought about it. The party gave her an opportunity to try to restart her life, not that she had anything in her love life to restart. Oh well, she’d probably know everybody there and it’d give her something to do. Besides, last year’s pool party had provided fodder for the gossip mill for weeks, and she wouldn’t want to miss out on that.
After checking her calendar and seeing nothing scheduled for that night, she sent an acceptance email.
The first three days back at the office passed in a blur of appointments, paperwork and late nights playing catch up. She’d reached Caroline Graham on her cell phone and Caroline had assured her that she was doing fine. She didn’t want KC to worry about her and promised they would have lunch soon.
And still, Drake never called.
In a moment of weakness, Drake agreed to go with Elsie Bell Lambert to a combination football-watching/pool party. His mother had been waiting for him to come visit so he decided to knock out both on the same day. On Wednesday, he drove to Whispering Springs and took his mother to lunch at the Lone Star Diner. Not the finest food around but definitely the place to go if one wanted the latest gossip. Plus, most of the town’s professionals had lunch there.
“You look a little sad.” His mother touched his arm.
“No, Mom. I’m fine. Just a little anxious for the bar-exams results.” He tried to covertly glance around the room, checking to see if possibly KC was there.
“Oh, there’s the girl I’ve been talking about.”
“Who’s that?” He was barely listening. His mother was always on the lookout for the perfect mate for her son.
“Dr. Caroline Graham. My new doctor. Oh shoot. She’s leaving. I wanted to introduce you to her.”
Drake glanced up in time to catch a view of a shapely brunette. She was walking out the door with a man he didn’t know and Lydia Henson, Jason Montgomery’s fiancée. “She’s very pretty, Mom.”
“And smart too. Why, I just know you two would hit it off.”
He smiled, the only response his mother wouldn’t question.
After lunch, with a few hours to kill before he picked up Elsie Belle, he headed out to Halo M ranch. He found Travis Montgomery in the working arena on a brown and white appaloosa, putting the horse through a series of cutting maneuvers.
“Hey,” Travis yelled. “Long time no see. Give me a minute.”
Drake watched Travis work the cutting horse through a couple of more sharp turns before he swung down and walked over to the fence.
“Good to see you. What are you doing here?”
Drake shrugged. “Had a couple of hours to kill before I have to pick up Elsie Belle.”
“Date?”
“Sort of. She asked me to take her to the Hendersons’ annual party tonight. Didn’t have anything else to do, so I figured why not.”
“But Elsie Belle?”
Drake laughed. “We’re just friends. She’s trying to use me to make you jealous.”
Travis let himself out of the corral. “Sorry, man. She’s all yours.”
“Yeah, I told her that, but you know how she gets when she thinks she’s right.” He gestured toward the barn. “You got time for a ride?”
“Sure. Let me get Webster or one of the guys to take care of Mr. Stubborn in the pen.”
Fifteen minutes later, they rode out of the Halo M stables into a large field.
“Okay to run him?” Drake asked, referring to the gelding under him.
“Sure.”
Drake gave his horse his lead, and they shot across the field. He could hear Ransom, Travis’s horse, thud beside him. It felt good to be in the sun and let the jarring ride shake some sense into him, not that he believed that would happen. He missed KC. Thought about her all the time. Hell, the erotic dream from last night had almost killed him. Nothing he said to himself about leaving her alone worked. Now he hoped Travis could talk some sense into him.
They slowed as they topped the hill leading down to the large lake.
“So you want to tell me why you’re really here.”
Drake looked over at Travis. His friend had always had the ability to see through Drake’s bull.
“Trying to get over a woman.”
“So what’s new?” Travis said with a laugh. “There’s always a woman in the picture when a man’s miserable.”
“Mom suggested I should ask out her new doctor, Caroline Graham. Maybe that would help?”
He expected to see Travis nodding. Instead his friend was scowling at him.
“What?” Drake asked. “What’d I say wrong?”
“You won’t be asking Caroline out.”
Caroline? First-name basis. That was interesting.
“Why not?” Drake egged Travis on, recognizing there was something go
ing on he didn’t know about.
Travis stopped his horse and Drake followed.
“You don’t get to date Caroline Graham.” Travis’s voice was forceful but still held a playful tone. “That’s my wife we’re talking about.”
A tap with a feather could have knocked Drake off his horse. As the men rode, Travis told him about the secret faux wedding, Caroline’s grandmother’s death and how Caroline had given him Singing Springs ranch. Every time he said Caroline’s name, Drake noticed a slight change in Travis’s expression.
“You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you?” Drake asked, sure of the answer.
“Yep. And her contract with Whispering Springs Medical Clinic is over at the end of the year.”
“So, you’ve got four months to convince her to stay.”
Travis grinned. “Working on it. So now that we’ve eliminated my wife from possible replacements for this woman in your life, what’s wrong with this mystery woman?”
“Nothing, and that’s the problem.”
“Do I know her?”
Drake didn’t reply.
“Look, whoever it is, if she makes you feel one-tenth of what I feel when I’m with Caroline, you’d be a fool to give her up.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe nothing. What have you got to lose?”
As they rode back to the stables, Drake decided Travis was right. What did he have to lose?
KC studied the outfits she had laid out on her bed, trying to decide which one worked best for tonight’s pool party. One of them reminded her of the Jeep ride around Sugar Island with Drake. The shorts outfit on the left was the one that she’d worn for the striptease show she did for him. The emerald-green shirt of the third possibility was the exact shade of Drake’s eyes. She rubbed her neck in frustration. She had to forget him. He hadn’t called, or texted, or emailed or sent up smoke signals. After fifteen minutes of indecision, she gave in and called Lydia Henson.
“Hey,” she said when Lydia answered. “Jason says y’all are coming tonight to the Hendersons’ party. Are you wearing a swim suit?”
Texas Fandango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 3 Page 7