Janey cupped his head in her hands, more than up to the challenge of his sexy coaching. “Okay.” She went up on tiptoe, fitting her lips to his. She had expected him to be passive and he was for about a moment, and then his tongue twined with hers and his lips covered hers in a desperation and hunger that she not only understood but felt, too. Life wasn’t simple. Neither was this. Lovemaking didn’t come without consequences, but sometimes those consequences were worth the risk.
Hand to her spine, Thad lowered her to the bed.
He stretched out beside her, his lips moving down the nape of her neck, across her shoulders, to her breasts. He caressed her breasts through the fabric of her dress, with both palms, then laved the nipples with his tongue until they were tight and achy. He cupped the weight of them in his hands, brushed his thumbs across the tips. Kissed and suckled them again and again and again. Janey had never felt anything so wonderful and she moaned as fire swept through her middle, pooling low.
She wanted him to take her—now. But she also wanted to be an equally adept lover. And that meant giving, as well as receiving. She shifted positions, turning so that he was beneath her. “My turn.”
He lay back against the pillows, arms folded beneath his head. Waiting. Janey stretched out on top of him. Her heart fluttered once in anticipation, then she kissed him, long and slow and sweet. Hard and deep. Wet and hot. She kissed him until her heartbeat hammered in her ears and she was so aroused she could barely think. And then she did what he had done. She slid lower, letting her lips explore the strong column of his throat, his collarbone, the mat of hair across his chest. She found his flat male nipples, hidden in the crisp hair, and she kissed and touched those, too, until they were as hard and tight as her own, until he groaned his pleasure just as she had, and then she moved lower still. Letting her hair slide across his abdomen like a sensual ribbon, teasing, caressing, as her hands found the fly on his jeans. He tried to stop her, tried to take control once again, but she wouldn’t let him, and as she stripped him of the rest of his clothes, he finally let her do what she pleased.
Still in her dress and panty hose, she knelt between his legs, running her hands over the bunched muscles of his thighs, the flatness of his abdomen. She found the cleft between his buttocks, the sensitive area beneath his sex. She traced the length of his erection, the nest of curls at the base, the drop of fluid at the tip. And then she did it all again, cupping the fertile sacs with one hand, caressing him with the other, using her lips and tongue over the shaft. She wanted to drive him to completion, and she knew he was nearly there. Then his hands were on her shoulders, Janey was on her back and he was the one shifting over top of her.
“Oh, no you don’t,” he said.
“But—”
“Not without you.”
Janey meant to argue, but the need on his face, the passion in his kiss, soon had her surrendering to his will. She gave in to the plundering rhythm he set, allowing him to slide his hands beneath her and unzip her dress, ease it off. Panty hose, bra, panties followed. Soon she was as naked as he. And as aroused. She didn’t need the intimate caress of his fingers or the sweep of his tongue, but he gave it to her anyway, not stopping until she was shuddering and falling apart. And only then, when she was aching for him, rising up, half mad with desire, did he slide her up into a half-sitting position on the pillows, and struggle to find a condom.
Heat flowing through her, she helped him sheath himself. His gaze locked with hers, he slid between her thighs and pulled her legs to his waist. Her leg muscles tensed as he used his fingers to ease the way, and then they were one again, the delicious waves of pleasure building, plunging her over the edge. She urged him on with her body and her moans, meeting him stroke for stroke. Their bodies collided again and again. He was hard and heavy and hot atop her as he laid claim to her with predatory possessiveness. Her back arched. Her thighs fell even farther apart. Blood rushed hot and needy through her veins. And then all was dissolving as they moved together toward a single goal, finding it, clinging to it, savoring the release. They clung together that way, trembling, bodies hot and throbbing. And then he kissed her again. Softer now. And in that instant, with satisfaction rushing through her, Janey knew. There could be no more denying it. Complications be damned. She could really, really get used to this.
FOR THAD THE AFTERMATH of sex had always meant deep, immediate sleep. Until now. With Janey cuddled in his arms, her body still trembling hotly, the sweetness of their lovemaking still fresh on his mind, the last thing he wanted to do was slip into oblivion. Especially when he knew their chances to be together like this would not extend beyond the week.
Unless he could convince her to really throw caution to the wind and jump ahead to where they were going to end up anyway…. As Janey snuggled closer, Thad wondered if her thoughts were going in the same inevitable direction as his. Still stroking her hair, he decided to find out. “Contemplating how long you need before we go again?” he teased. He knew he was. He had never felt as happy as he did when he was with her.
Janey lifted her head, affection shining in her amber eyes. “Give me a break, Coach. I haven’t had a cardio workout like that since…well, I don’t know when.”
To his disappointment, his gut told him this wasn’t the time. But soon, he promised himself. Very soon. “Not much for exercising?” he chided lightly, tightening his arms around her.
“I used to be.” Janey sighed contentedly as she rubbed a caressing hand across his chest. “But then when we moved here, there didn’t seem to be any time to go running anymore.”
Thad knew the lack of regular exercise could be adding to her stress. “Why not early in the mornings before work?” he suggested gently, realizing that was something else they could do together, and a surefire way to bring her around to his way of thinking.
Janey shrugged. “I’m busy getting Chris off to school or whatever.”
She shouldn’t be making excuses when it came to her health. “Not tomorrow,” Thad pointed out. “He’s at camp.”
She made a face as he deftly robbed her of the ability to procrastinate. “But I’ve got to be in the bakery by eight.”
Thad grinned. “So I’ll go with you at six,” he offered cheerfully, thinking how pretty she looked with her hair all tousled, the color of exertion in her cheeks. “I’ll even buy you breakfast.”
She tilted her head and regarded him thoughtfully. “I’m not sure I can keep up with you.”
She’d managed so far just fine, Thad thought. He bent and kissed her tenderly. “Why don’t you just let me worry about that?”
THE NEXT MORNING, running along the jogging paths that wound throughout the narrow park that went from one end of town to the other and ran alongside several miles of Holly Creek, Janey was surprised to see so many people out. But Thad, who ran the trails all the time, obviously knew that was the case.
As they jogged down the paved path, at a much slower pace than Thad was used to keeping, she looked over at him and remarked, “You wanted to be seen with me, didn’t you?”
He grinned and didn’t deny it.
“What is this—a territorial thing?” Janey huffed and puffed as she stopped by a grouping of picnic tables and pulled out the plastic water bottle she had strapped to her waist. She was really beginning to feel this run in her legs. Or maybe it was the lovemaking from the night before she was beginning to feel. Before the night was over, they had tried several new—for her anyway—and interesting positions. Which had left her body aching pleasurably in a few other places, as well.
Thad watched as she took a long thirsty drink. “Maybe. Do you mind?”
Actually, she didn’t. And that surprised Janey, too. Because broadcasting her ongoing relationship with Thad was bound to invite even more commentary from her family. Nevertheless, she rather liked feeling as if she belonged to him. Because that was certainly how Thad was acting.
Several voices had them turning. Janey blinked. “Hey, isn’t that your dad over t
here?” she asked, recognizing the man in the sport shirt and khakis, a cup of coffee in his hand.
Thad looked at the handsome couple, standing side by side. “He probably came out here to watch the sunrise.”
“And your mom?” Janey asked, noting Veronica was clad in shorts and a T-shirt similar to Janey’s own. His mother was in her mid-to-late fifties, but she had the body of a much younger woman.
“She’s really into running, always has been,” Thad explained as they stood for a moment, catching their breath, while Veronica and Gordon continued to talk.
“You see it, too, don’t you?” Thad remarked quietly after a moment.
Janey nodded. “The way your dad looks at your mom…” Most divorced couples she knew were acrimonious even years after the fact. Not Veronica Lauder and Gordon Lantz. He still looked completely besotted with his ex. While Veronica simply looked…friendly, in a casual, noncommittal sort of way.
Thad sighed, and borrowed Janey’s bottle. “He’s still in love with her. Always has been, and according to him anyway, always will be.”
Janey watched Thad take a long drink. She knew that had to be so hard for him, because he obviously loved both his parents, as well as his stepfather, Lionel Lauder. “Why did your parents divorce, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Thad wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “They married too young, chiefly because I was on the way. They thought they could make it work, but after I was born my mother realized she was never going to love my father the way he should be loved, so she asked him for a divorce.”
“And he agreed,” Janey guessed.
“Not right away.” Thad frowned, handing her water back to her. “I think it took a couple of years for my mom to convince my father he wasn’t going to be able to turn things around for them romantically. The problem never was a lack of attention or chivalry on his part, just a lack of feeling on hers.”
Which was, Janey thought, the kind of thing you can’t fix. Her heart went out to Thad—obviously his parents’ divorce still hurt on some level.
“Anyway,” Thad continued, in a low, brooding tone, “she eventually found the kind of passionate love she was looking for with my stepfather, Lionel. But my dad is still carrying the torch.”
“And you wish he’d stop.”
Thad wiped the sweat from his brow with the hem of his T-shirt. “I just think it’s a hell of a waste,” he said in obvious frustration, “to go through life yearning after someone who doesn’t yearn after you. They would both be better off if my dad just cut his losses and walked away.”
“Which is what you did in your own divorce,” Janey said softly, admiring Thad’s guts—in ending his marriage and putting closure to it as Renee asked—even as she felt for the hurt Thad had endured in the process. Maybe if she had done the same regarding her union with Ty, they would have been happier. Chris, too. Because staying locked in a loveless marriage was no example to set for her son. She knew that now. And though it was too late to change what had happened in the past, she knew she could control what she did in the future.
Thad nodded, his expression grim but determined. “I promised myself a long time ago I would never make my dad’s mistake, by hanging on to something that was never meant to be in the first place.” He looked at Janey seriously. “It’s a vow I mean to keep.”
Chapter Eleven
“Chris is making amazing progress, isn’t he?” Dylan Hart said as he and Janey sat in the practice facility and watched the hockey game in progress.
Janey turned to her sportscaster brother. Dylan had been in Carolina taping an interview with a university coach who summered there. He’d dropped by to cheer on his nephew on his next to last day of summer camp, before heading back to Chicago.
“Is that a professional opinion or family pride speaking?” Janey teased.
Dylan squinted at her. As always, he was awesomely attired, in a suit and tie custom-tailored for his six-foot frame. The smallest of all five Hart brothers, he was also the most sophisticated and had made the transition from small-town boy to big-city sportscaster with ease.
“Even you have to admit this week at hockey camp has been good for Chris,” Dylan chided, casting another admiring glance his nephew’s way. “He’s made great strides in his skating. And the way he handles a puck now shows real discipline. That plus his talent—he could go places one day if he keeps up this level of intensity.”
Janey kept her eyes on the action on the ice. Thad was out there, along with his assistant coaches, giving the kids pointers as the play progressed. They were all looking up at him like he was the greatest man on earth. She understood the feeling well.
“And I’m not just talking about his hockey playing, Janey,” Dylan continued. “I had dinner with Chris and some of his buddies before the game. He told me he was doing better in his math class, too.”
Janey knew she owed Thad for that. “Thad worked with him on that, the week before camp,” she said.
Dylan lifted a curious brow.
Janey continued. “In addition to helping with the lessons, Thad made Chris understand that he’s going to need math if he wants to keep his options open.”
Dylan looked as pleased as Janey. “That has to make you happy.”
Janey turned her glance back to Thad, noting how handsome he looked in his coaching attire. “Chris has needed someone who could get through to him, since Ty died. Thad’s managed to do that.”
“Which isn’t a surprise,” Dylan mentioned, with his usual enthusiasm for all things that had to do with sports. “Thad has a reputation for working wonders with players. He has a way of sizing people up, giving them exactly what they need to motivate them to perform.”
Janey thought about the lovemaking session she and Thad’d had the night before. It had been amazing. She’d felt wilder, more uninhibited than she ever had in her life. Under his tutelage, it had been so easy to let go of her shyness and self-consciousness and really come into her own in bed. And he’d done the same thing for her in her professional life, by prodding her to drop the woe-is-me act and find a way to expand her business so it would give her the financial return she needed.
“And it’s not just in a hockey arena.” Dylan shook his head with obvious respect. “A couple of years ago, Thad headed up a charity drive for the children’s hospital in Nashville—that’s where he was coaching then—and he got people who never got involved in that kind of thing to not only sign up for it, but work their tail ends off. They raised a record amount of money for the hospital. People are still talking about it. They don’t know how he did it.”
Janey did. Thad had a way of bringing out the best in people.
“All that’s ever necessary is for Thad to figure out what he wants. And then he knows exactly what to do to get it.”
Dylan turned to Janey. “You’re lucky he’s taken such an interest in Chris. Something like this could make all the difference in his life.”
And mine, Janey thought.
“YOU’RE AWARE this is our last night like this,” Thad whispered in Janey’s ear that evening as they cuddled together in his bed.
Her body still humming from the sensual aftershocks of their lovemaking, Janey burrowed deeper into the warm protective curve of his arm. She wanted to stay here with him like this forever, but she knew she couldn’t. This week had been like a wonderful romantic dream for her, but soon it was back to life as usual with her parental responsibilities taking up the forefront of her life. Between that and the demands of running her business, she would barely have time for herself, never mind her newfound love affair with Thad. She propped herself up on her elbow and looked over at Thad wistfully, wondering if he was as sad as she was that this passionate respite was all about to come to an end. “Chris comes home from camp late tomorrow. Which means—”
Thad nodded, understanding. “You won’t be spending the night with me or vice versa.”
“Right.” Janey swallowed around the sudden ache in her throat
, the feeling of loss deep inside her. “I wouldn’t want Chris to think it’s okay to have casual—”
Thad pressed a silencing finger to her lips. His blue eyes were dark, serious as he corrected, “There’s nothing casual about what I feel for you, Janey.”
Nor I you, Janey thought, very much aware that even though they had made love at least a dozen times in days and nights gone by, they had yet to say the words that would have lifted their liaison from something purely sexual and sensual to something more. To something even the most old-fashioned side of her would have approved. “You know what I mean,” Janey said, ducking her head.
Silence fell between them as Janey lay back against the pillows and drew her forearm across her eyes.
Thad turned onto his side and gently brought her forearm down to her side. “I know we haven’t been seeing each other all that long.”
He’d come into her life two weeks ago and nothing had been the same since.
“But I’ve never felt for any woman what I feel for you.” He paused, looked deep into her eyes. “And I think your feelings for me are just as intense.”
Janey’s heart began to pound as she thought about the words she still yearned to hear from the man she felt like she had been waiting for her entire life. “What are you trying to say?” she asked him hoarsely, wondering if this was it, the moment when all her dreams really were going to come true.
The smile on Thad’s lips reached his eyes as he laid out his thoughts as pragmatically as any business deal. “I think we should get married.”
JANEY HAD EXPECTED a lot of things from Thad Lantz. A proposal wasn’t one of them. And yet she knew, he wasn’t doing this impulsively. Unlike her, he was not prone to cycles of recklessness and regret.
The Secret Wedding Wish Page 15