by Calista Fox
Kate gasped.
“You like that,” he murmured, his breath tickling her sensitive flesh.
“I like everything you do.”
“I’m not done,” he said. “Not even close.”
He shifted beneath Kate, causing her to lift up slightly so that he could work his briefs over his hips. His cock sprang free and Kate felt the ribbons of ecstasy unravel.
She reached for her robe and pulled a condom from her pocket. “Lucky me, I grabbed this on the way out of my room…”
Jake grinned. “I like the way you think, Kate Hampton.”
She handed over the foil packet. “Put this to good use.”
He chuckled. “Lift up again.”
She did and he slipped the condom on.
As she eased back down, taking him in slowly, he said, “You’re already wet.”
His hands clasped her hips while he thrust up into her.
Their gazes locked as Jake moved leisurely, rocking sensuously.
“That’s good, Kate,” he muttered. “Perfect.”
Her hips rolled in-sync with his casual rhythm. Jake’s jaw clenched, indicating he was as revved as she was.
Kate’s hands slid over his strong shoulders, down his sculpted chest. One long fingernail grazed his nipple and Jake let out a sharp groan. He pumped his cock into her a little faster.
Pleased with her effect on him, Kate’s hands continued to explore his body. Her head bent and she nipped at his neck, the thick cords straining. Jake’s grip on her hips tightened. He coaxed her to rise up slightly and when she did, he increased the speed in which he thrust into her.
Kate clutched his biceps as he held her up, inches off his lap, while he fucked her. Until she was right on the verge of falling over.
Then he pressed her hips down so he was buried inside her once more. She moved with him, riding him hard. Her head fell back. Her breath came in heavy pants.
“Jake.” Everything within her stretched thin. Then released. “Oh, God!” She repeated the words over and over, despite them being incoherent even to her.
Jake pumped heartily and then his body convulsed as his own climax ripped through him.
“Kate,” he said in a gruff voice. “Oh, fuck…”
His arms wound around her waist and he held her close. His face burrowed in the crook of her neck. His lips teased her skin with his labored breathing.
She could stay in this moment forever. Everything about it was so tempting. So tantalizing and…
Heartwarming.
How long had it been since she’d felt this charged with a man? This cherished?
Had she ever, really?
Kate racked her brain and came up empty-handed.
When Jake whispered, “It’s still early, you know?” she laughed softly.
Pulling slightly away from him, she said, “I realize you’re twenty-five and invincible. But I’m already guessing I won’t be able to walk come morning.”
The wicked glint in his eyes made her shiver anew with excitement. “No need to walk. Tomorrow’s Saturday. Spend the day in bed. With me.”
There was a ripple of exhilaration low in Kate’s belly—and in her heart.
Maybe it was dangerous.
Maybe it truly was wrong.
But Scarlett was still in the house…
“Alright.”
* * *
Jake made love to her in the wee hours of the morning, before dawn broke. Slowly, sensuously, he loved her, as though time and the outside world ceased to exist. As though they had nowhere to be, no responsibilities, no outside commitments or impediments. Then they talked until the sun came up. He wanted to know about her family and although she felt a tinge of guilt for the uncomplicated, privileged childhood she’d had, she told him about her travels.
“My father is an adventurer at heart and he married the right woman.” Kate’s head rested on Jake’s chest. His arm was draped across her shoulders and his fingertips drew lazy circles on her biceps. “He wanted to see the world and she was happy to follow him wherever he went. We only really settled down as a family when I was in high school. But after senior year…”
She smiled as she thought about the way her parents’ pride in her for being class valedictorian had warred with their anticipation over knowing they could hit the high seas as soon as her diploma landed in her hands and her graduation cap flew into the air.
“They spent nearly six months exploring Asia, then had me meet up with them at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps during my first college Christmas break. The pattern continued, always someplace new and exciting to see.”
“Where haven’t you been, then?”
“Oh, plenty of places, believe me. It’s a big-ass world.”
Jake chuckled. “So you still have some exploring to do?”
“Definitely.”
He shifted on the bed, forcing her onto her back. His large body pressed against hers as he settled between her legs.
Staring down at her, the moonlight streaming in through the blinds, illuminating his handsome face, he said, “I’d like to have a few adventures with you, Kate Hampton.”
Then he kissed her.
Chapter Four
“You have got to be shitting me.” Maggi stared at Kate, her green eyes wide, shock written all over her face. “You had sex all weekend?”
“From just about the moment he walked through my front door to the moment he left.”
“Seriously?” Maggi demanded. “You really spent forty-eight hours in bed with God’s Gift to the Vagina?”
Kate laughed. “Now who’s being un-PC?”
“Cut me some slack. I’m living vicariously through you, remember?”
“Then you’ll be very pleased to know that the man is a stallion. With stamina that would make a Roman warrior jealous. And we weren’t just doing it in the bedroom.” Kate winked. “He’s fantastic, Mags. In every way imaginable. I am such an idiot for thinking he was just some studly construction worker I could fantasize about, fuck and then send on his merry way.”
“I’m sorry…” Maggi said with a hint of hesitation in her voice. “Are you telling me you might have…you could possibly be fall—oh, hell, no! I know you way better than that!” She mocked wiping sweat from her brow. “For a second there, you had me going.”
“Yeah, well...” Kate vaguely waved a dismissive hand in the air. But the sudden coiling low in her belly made her jump out of her chair and reach for the cord on the blinds. Yanking it tight, she snapped the verticals closed.
“Kate, the windows are tinted. He can’t see you!”
“I know. But just the mere thought that he might be down there, hefting two-by-fours, flexing his muscles, his bronze skin glowing in the mid-morning sun… Oh, shit.” She groaned as she sank back into her chair, her pulse racing as fast as it had when Jake had kissed her, touched her, slid into her. Every single time. “You have no idea what I’m dealing with here. The man is not at all what I was expecting. And on Sunday morning—”
“I still cannot believe he stayed the whole weekend!” Maggi’s eyes became huge saucers in her pretty face.
“We talked, then ate, then talked, then—”
“Fucked. Call a spade a spade, Kate. You talked, fucked, ate, fucked, talked, fu—”
“Mags!” Kate chastised her friend with a pointed look. “After the first few times it ceased to be just fucking.”
This caused Maggi to collapse into a chair in front of Kate’s desk. “Now wait just a minute.”
“I know, right? I’m totally shocking the shit out of you and it’s only ten o’clock. But I have to admit… something happened to me this weekend.”
Maggi, despite her stunned expression, actually appeared quite thrilled with Kate’s revelations. “Seriously, it’s about time, Kate. I haven’t seen you beam like this since our college graduation.”
Which was, Kate suddenly realized, a very sad sentiment. So much so, it made her breath catch. It occurred to her that she was
a woman who’d had everything go right in her life except for one of the most critical components. Love. She had a family that adored and respected her and friends that never let her down. A career that only continued to get better.
But love had eluded her all this time.
Until now?
Until Jake?
Kate pulled in a sliver of a breath. She wasn’t quite ready to accept what all of this meant.
“Okay, let’s hit the stop button and rewind,” she said, her sensible side stepping in. “The man is eleven years younger than me. Eleven!”
“Well, yeah, there is that.”
Even though she’d mentally contended that first night with him that the number had become inconsequential, in the light of a new day, she was back to obsessing over it.
Kate nibbled her lip, then mused, “What would his friends think?”
Hitching her chin, Maggi said, “Screw what his friends think. They should want him to be happy, right? And it is the decade of the cougar. This isn’t anything new.”
“No, but… Well, yes, it is new. I mean, for me at least. And again. Eleven years is a lot, Mags. A huge difference.”
“Only if you choose for it to be.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. His mother would go through the roof—and consider me some sort of sexual predator. And his younger sisters… They’ll think it’s gross, won’t they?”
“I don’t know, Kate. This isn’t a situation I’m familiar with. But if you made a connection with this guy, don’t you owe it to yourself—and to him—to explore it further?”
“Explore it further? As in…date a guy who was still in junior high when I was being promoted to Marketing Director at the firm in L.A.?”
Maggi’s face scrunched up. “Put like that…”
“Put like that, I am a sexual predator!”
“Oh, good grief, Kate. You are not!” Maggi threw her hands in the air. “The man is legal. The man is hot. The man is apparently hot for you!”
Kate sighed, a dismal feeling suddenly weighing her down. “What am I doing?” Her brow furrowed and her heart sank. “What have I done?”
“You met something you like, Kate. Someone who lit you up and gave you back a part of yourself that had been missing for a long, long time. A painfully long time.”
Kate stared at her friend, the empathy in Maggi’s eyes tugging at her emotions. Still… “I might have made a really big mistake.”
Maggi leaned forward and covered both of Kate’s hands, resting on the desk, with hers. She squeezed gently. “Don’t say that. You were thrilled two minutes ago. Glowing and exuberant. Now you’re caving to doubt. Insecurity. Regret.”
“It’s more than that. I feel…something. A hell of a lot of something.” She pulled her hands from Maggi’s. “Christ. I think I might have… Could have… Shit.” She tried to catch her breath. Slow her raging pulse. No such luck. “Doesn’t it sound as though I—”
“Fell in love?” This time, Maggi grinned. “Would it really be so bad?”
Kate shrieked as she did a face plant onto the cushioned leather blotter before her. Because she knew it was true. “Holy fucking shit.”
* * *
Jenna, Kate’s assistant, poked her head around the partially opened door to Kate’s office. “Special delivery. Okay for me to come in?”
Kate was having a small heart attack, but she nodded anyway. “Yeah, sure.”
As Jenna entered, Kate and Maggi exchanged looks. In Jenna’s hands was a tall, slim crystal vase filled with a spray of flowers that overwhelmed the eyes upon first glance. The arrangement was stunning and about the most vibrantly colorful display Kate had ever seen. Jenna carefully set the vase on the small table in the corner.
“Heavy, but it sure is beautiful,” she said.
Kate was speechless. The room was instantly filled with an exotic fragrance from the blooms, the aroma was that rich.
Maggi said, “Wow. He’s one hell of a guy.”
Jenna plucked the small card from the bouquet and handed it to Kate on her way out of the office. When the door closed, Kate slid a manicured nail under the sealed envelope and extracted the simple white note card.
“Well?” Maggi demanded, intrigue fringing her voice. “What does it say? Come on! The suspense is killing me!”
She read the note. “‘Kate, until next time...’”
Maggi wagged her brows. “He’s already counting the minutes?”
“Guess I convinced him there actually would be a next time.”
Sparing another glance at the flowers, Maggi said, “You must give one hell of a blow job.”
Kate finished reading. “‘Dinner tonight?’”
Maggi whistled under her breath. “The boy can’t get enough of you.”
Kate’s gaze snapped up and locked with Maggi’s. “Let’s not call him that. And, Mags, he’s not even a construction worker. At least, not usually. He’s Jake Mosley and he owns the company that’s erecting commercial and residential buildings around Liberty Station. In fact, Mosely Construction put up this building. The only reason he’s working on the one across from us is because he’s got a guy whose wife just had surgery and he needs to be home with her. Jake didn’t hire a replacement because the man has worked for the company for nearly twenty years and Jake didn’t want his loyal employee to fear he wouldn’t have a job to come back to. So Jake’s filling in for him.”
“Ohhh,” Maggi said on a long breath. “Double wow.” She seemed to mull all this over, then added, “I’m liking him more and more.”
“Now you know my dilemma.”
“Your fantasy fuck has turned out to be…Prince Charming.”
“Yeah.” Kate dropped the card on her desk. “That’s the whole problem. I mean, I wasn’t looking for someone I could start a relationship with and yet… I can totally see myself with Jake. I think the world of him, Maggi, and I don’t even know everything there is to know about him. Just that he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever met and beyond generous in the bedroom. Not to mention smart and ambitious and wholly dedicated to his family. He’s a good guy, Mags. A genuine guy.”
“One of the last few, if you ask me.”
Kate rolled her eyes at her predicament. The impasse she’d reached. “Thing is, I’m just not ready for this—I still have all kinds of stupid Ken shit in my head. All I wanted to do with Jake was clear away some cobwebs. One night was all I’d planned. Not…romance and flowers and dating and—”
“Love?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like finding the perfect shoes,” Maggi contended. “When you’re desperate to match them to an outfit, you can never find the right shade. But when you just pop into Neiman Marcus on a whim, there they are! In your size, half off and just waiting to go home with you.”
“Exactly.” Kate crossed her arms over her chest. “What am I going to do? I can’t seriously date this guy.”
“Why not?”
“I told you. I’m not ready for this. And let’s not forget the whole age thing.”
“Kate,” Maggi said as she came out of her chair, planted her palms on the desk and pinned Kate with a grave look. “Fabulous men are not falling from the sky, girlfriend. They don’t grow on trees. They’re not a dime a dozen—see what I’m getting at here? They’re rare and finding one is…special. A man like Jake Mosley isn’t disposable. He’s a keeper.”
“Yeah, but—”
“He’s not Ken.”
Tears instantly sprang to Kate’s eyes.
They’d chosen a wedding venue. Had picked a china pattern. Were going to honeymoon in Fiji.
And then she’d walked in on him having sex with his boyfriend.
God, was she scarred for life because of that one incredibly mortifying, excruciatingly agonizing experience?
Only if you let yourself be…
She stared at Maggi, wanting so much to be as optimistic as her friend was about this unexpected treasure she’d discovered.
; But Kate was still terrified.
“I don’t think I can go through that again,” she said, honestly.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t brutal, Kate. But if you keep your head buried in the sand, you just might miss the best thing to happen to you.”
Fat drops tumbled down Kate’s cheeks. Maggi went to the credenza for tissues.
A part of Kate liked keeping her head buried in the sand. The other part recalled how wonderful it’d been to have Jake in her house, in her bed.
But she was still so afraid of getting hurt. Her weekend with Jake had healed her damaged psyche, had given her libido and her ego some much-needed CPR, yes. Yet she was still cautious.
Once bitten and all that.
Kate really wasn’t sure she could suffer through another tragic and heart-wrenching fall from cloud nine.
And that’s when she made up her mind.
Standing, she said, “I need to find Jake. I’ll be back in a little while.”
“Kate,” Maggi called after her. “Come on. Don’t do anything rash here!”
But it was too late. She was already out the door
* * *
She found Jake across the courtyard, only he wasn’t working the site this morning. Instead, he held an iPad in one hand as he spoke with a man Kate assumed was the foreman for the job. He glanced up as Kate approached and the slow, easy grin that curved his lips made her stomach flutter. As usual. There was no immunity to the man.
He really was magnificent. And whether he was dressed in nice pants and a button-down shirt or jeans and a tank top or a towel or nothing at all, he was by far the most gorgeous man she would ever know.
And the memory of her weekend with him would never fade from her mind.
In fact, Kate had a feeling she’d play it over and over in her head, keeping the mental images fresh so she could savor them always.
Her one decadent, wicked weekend with a hot construction worker.
That’s how she’d compartmentalize this encounter.