by Vivian Arend
“Message received, loud and clear. I won’t say another word on the matter.” Damon rested his hands on the back of the couch and leaned forward. “Out of curiosity… Do you still have the coin?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Jim got to his feet and headed to the bureau in front of the window. He hauled open the middle drawer more violently than he needed to, reaching in and pulling out Lady Luck from where Damon had left it the other day. He thrust his hand into the air, the coin easily visible. “Satisfied?” he demanded, still speaking softly. “Or did you want to test it for authenticity? Because, you know, maybe sometime in the five minutes she and I haven’t been together here in the apartment, she managed to make an exact copy from strands of her hair, and that’s what I’m holding.”
He shook the plastic case, the coin rattling loudly.
“All I’m saying,” Damien whispered back as he walked toward him, “is if the shoe were on the other foot, you’d be warning me to keep my head. There’s something not right here.”
“And this is your wolfie senses speaking?”
“Maybe,” Damon bit out before softening his tone. “Maybe it’s that I’m a friend, and I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Jim breathed slowly, letting his frustration ride out along with his exhale. He closed the distance between himself and his friend. “Tell you what.” He offered Lady Luck to Damon. “This needs to be given to the judge anyway. Why don’t you arrange that this morning—plus set up the rules of engagement. Where we report in, what we bring to prove we completed the challenge—all that shit. Do it today, and that’s one less thing for us to worry about.”
“No problem. Anything for you.” Damon took the coin with reverence, as if being offered something precious. He offered Jim a wry smile. “Sorry for being a jackass. I don’t know why I’m itchy about her.”
Jim pressed his hands to Damon’s shoulders and held on tight. “I appreciate your concern, more than you know. You’ve been a rock in my life, Damon, and I don’t tell you often enough. Things really are okay.”
Damon patted him on the back, and Jim gave him an extra squeeze, and they ended up doing that guy thing where you almost pound each other into the floor rather than actually give each other a hug.
As close to saying I love you as two best friends could, or ever would.
“Are you sure there’s enough material in this outfit I won’t get arrested for indecent exposure?”
The woman helping Lillie into her dance costume cracked her bubble gum loudly, her bright red lipstick contrasting sharply with her sparkling white teeth. “Oh, you look just perfect, darlin’. You wait till you try those moves you practiced in the studio out there on stage.”
A shiver rolled over Lillie’s skin. “There’s no real audience, right?” she asked for the fifth time.
“Of course not. You’re nowhere near performance ready, but it’s a good thing to try your moves on the stage for fun. See if you learned enough to be able to go and do some sexy dancing for that someone special.”
Sylvia winked as she adjusted the miniscule bra over Lillie’s breasts, pulling the strategically placed tassels into tangle-free lines. “And that someone special out there, you won’t be able to see, not really. We turn on spotlights the same as you have on a stage. No, just do the routine we taught you, and if you have any trouble you peek up at the right corner where there’s a video playing to remind you.”
Lillie took a deep breath. “It has been fun.”
“Of course it has.” Sylvia smoothed the line of the barely there shorts Lillie wore. “Not only am I a fabulous instructor, this is all about getting in touch with your inner sensual beast.”
It didn’t seem right to giggle.
This was definitely a story she would share with Addie. Her friend would have gotten a kick out of seeing her shy little Lillie up on the stage.
“Right through there, and you can use the pole on the left. We’ll have the music start once you’re in place, and remember there’s nothing you can’t do in this routine. This is about having fun and celebrating your sexuality. Let your inner goddess pour out of you as you celebrate being a woman.”
Lillie had an attack of the giggles she fought valiantly to keep under control.
While she liked her sexuality, she didn’t tend to talk about it in those terms. Walking out onto the wooden stage, her high-heel boots clicking against the surface, she was more worried about keeping her balance than strutting her stuff.
Still, the dance lessons had been a blast. The spotlights on her blocked the entire view of the audience, and when another set turned on, this time with a red glow, Lillie let herself fall into the fantasy.
She was two days away from having to meet her destiny. Two more days to be wild-and-free Lillie with the sexy Jim who sat in the empty auditorium watching her.
Even that thought couldn’t make her nervous as she wrapped her right hand around the pole and stood beside it. Chin lifted high, legs spread shoulder-width apart, she stared straight ahead like Sylvia had taught her and pretended no one was around.
No one who mattered but herself…and Jim.
The music began. Slow and bluesy, with lots of low horn tones that reverberated off the high ceiling of the stage. Lillie worked through the first moves Sylvia had demonstrated, stepping around the pole and concentrating as she wiggled her hips and struck different poses.
But after the first few moments, it was less about exactly duplicating what she’d been taught as she slipped into a happy zone, pulsing to the beat of the music with more than one body part at a time.
She squatted low then spun around the pole, extending her legs and coming back up to vertical with her body close enough she made contact with the cool metal. She added a body arch. Her long hair fell loose over her shoulders as she danced, brushing her skin with a sensual tease.
The lights grew hotter, and the pole warmed under her hands. Now she was glad her outfit had so little material because she was working up a sweat, her feet staying within a one-foot radius of the solid metal shaft.
Everything centered on the pole.
She wrapped one leg around it, dragging her hands up to her breasts and beyond until she was reaching overhead, arched back and held only by the single connection point.
Even with the volume of music pulsing around her, she swore she heard a growl from the audience.
The heat in the room shot sky high.
Jim.
He was out there. And no matter what Sylvia had said about this being a dance for Lillie to celebrate her sexuality, Lillie knew the truth. This was also a dance for him.
A thank-you for having taken the time to protect her and ease her fears. Her entire trip could have turned out so differently. Addie was right about that, and it was only fool’s luck Lillie hadn’t ended up in dire straits.
So she hauled herself back to vertical as she lowered her gaze, guessing where he might be. She loosened another snap on her bra and let more of her breasts show.
The final beats of the song were drawing near, and Lillie put her heart and soul into her motions. Dancing for herself, yes, but dancing for him as well.
When the music stopped and the lights clicked off, Lillie’s heart continued to pound, and she struggled to catch her breath.
No wild applause greeted her from the audience, no catcalls or whistles. In fact, it was eerily silent considering she was certain she’d heard Jim before.
She was too invigorated by her successful venture to be disappointed for long, and she turned to the back of the room, heading for the faint crack of light showing the way off the stage.
That had been absolutely amazing.
She pushed through the curtain, and her feet left the floor.
“You did that on purpose,” Jim rumbled, carrying her rapidly from the stage area and down a dark hall. “You didn’t tell me what kind of dance you were doing. I sat there in the dark thinking you were going to come out and sashay yourself across the
stage, or do a cancan, or some such nonsense. But no, you decided to drive me fucking crazy.”
Oops. “Did you like it?”
He growled, and the hair on her arms stood on end.
He pushed through a door, slamming it shut behind them and engaging the lock. “I want to fuck you,” he said.
She didn’t think it was a question, or that he was asking for approval. More like a warning as he kept her in his arms and carried her to the farthest corner of the room.
He plopped her down on something cold and hard, his hands slamming on either side of her hips as he leaned in nose to nose with her. “I want to fuck you right now.”
His hands were on the snap of her bra, pulling it apart and tossing the fabric aside. He caught the bikini bottoms and stripped them away, the shredded material fluttering to the floor as he ripped opened his pants and set his erection free.
The curtains beside them were open a crack, enough to spotlight the dust motes floating in the air as he pushed her knees open and crushed their bodies together.
His lips were on hers, his hands on her breasts, teasing and tugging at her nipples until she gasped into his mouth.
He bent to lick them, one side then the other. Lillie leaned back on her arms as he worked his way down her body. He caught her ankles and propped them beside her hips a second before he put his mouth to her sex.
Dancing had been all the foreplay she needed, but this? There was no way she could turn this down. He ate hungrily, greedily licking until she squirmed. His tongue targeted her clit, and intense pleasure went off like a flaming arrow, igniting the rest of her body.
Orgasm came rapidly. She burnt to a cinder, nothing but ashes left. He blew, and the embers flared as her body jolted through multiple aftershocks.
She was in the air again, briefly. Flipped to her stomach, her feet dangling toward the floor. Her ass stuck out over the edge of the hard wooden surface. For the first time she got a good look at where she was—sprawled over the satiny smooth finish of a baby grand piano.
“Oh dear. What if someone walks into the room?”
His hands were firm on her hips as he tugged her back, the heated length of his erection rock hard against her butt as he leaned over and put his lips near her ear. “If someone comes in, I hope they plan on playing something lively.”
He lined himself up with her pussy and pushed, driving deep as her air rushed out in a gasp. “Oh, God.”
“Just Jim.”
He retreated slowly, so slowly she moaned for a good minute, it seemed. Which was a mistake because that meant when he thrust forward, she had no air left in her lungs and no way to suck any in either.
There was no chance to coordinate her breathing, her lungs starving for oxygen, but she didn’t give a damn because he was moving faster. Driving forward, her legs rocking in midair as his groin slapped her ass. The sounds of sex and their heavy breathing echoed in the silence of the room.
And when he came, it was with a roar that shattered the silence and set her blood pumping all over again.
Her heated cheek rested on the cool wood of the piano, her hair tousled everywhere. The sheen of sweat on her skin was beginning to dry, and as he pulled free, she figured she was pretty much a mess.
She didn’t care one bit, turning eagerly as he helped her sit up on the piano top. His arms wrapped around her, one hand firm on the back of her neck as he took her lips in a final kiss. Tender this time, gentle.
As if their wildness had been consumed until all that was left was sheer pleasure, joyfully shared between them.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Splashing noises escaped from the bathroom along with a saucy tune rendered in a surprisingly fine alto. Jim caught himself tapping his fingers to Lillie’s singing, and put aside the newspaper he’d been attempting to read.
It made no sense to be wasting his time in the living room when what he wanted was to spend time with Lillie.
He knocked on the partially open door, and the singing stopped abruptly.
“May I come in?”
More splashing. “Umm, I’m in the bathtub.”
The sheer innocence in her voice only made Jim smile harder. “I had surmised that. It’s part of the reason I want to come in.”
Lillie laughed. “Well, I suppose it is your bathroom.”
He’d begun to move as soon as she’d given the first word of approval, strolling to the edge of the tub and looking down on a vision.
There was something about this woman that pleased him so well. Only hours ago they’d shared the most incredible sex at the dance club, and already he wanted her again. And yet, leaning back on the counter, he was content to fold his arms and simply look his fill.
She’d piled her hair on top of her head, and even in the muted feature lighting, coppery highlights glittered as she moved. The claw-toed tub was filled nearly to the brim, her feet nowhere near reaching the end. Her arms were draped over the sides, probably in an attempt to keep herself from sliding under the surface.
No bubbles blocked the view of paradise relaxing before him. Her breasts bobbed along the water’s surface, her back slightly arched. A perfect artist’s model with one leg bent upward, the other extended. The lean line of her stomach led down to a neat triangle of reddish curls.
Her toenails were painted blue.
He’d seen her naked a number of times already, and every time he enjoyed it more.
Lillie laid her head on the rim of the tub, and her body floated upward. “Did you decide where we’re going for dinner?”
“We’re staying in.” The words burst from him without advance warning. He wasn’t sure where the idea had come from, but it was perfect. “If you don’t have your heart set on something, we can take it easy. Hang out here, maybe watch a movie.”
She blinked her hazel eyes, pulling herself back to vertical and nodding slowly. “Okay. Actually, you know, I would like that very much.”
“Good.” He sank to his knees beside the tub and went to trickle his fingers through the water, snatching them back as the temperature damn near scalded him. “Lord, woman, how can you stand the water that hot?”
Lillie opened her mouth to answer…and paused. Her lashes fluttered, and he wondered if she was avoiding sharing something personal.
The lack of information between them clicked over from a logical necessity to an unwanted burden, and suddenly he wanted nothing more than for her to share. He needed to know more about her. Wanted her to know about him.
Warning, warning. There are only two days until the race. Don’t do anything foolish.
Jim didn’t wait to hear what the other half of his psyche would suggest in response. He wanted…more. Not sure yet what, but they could figure it out as they went along.
His mental ramblings had taken a few seconds, because when he focused, she had turned toward him, all rosy-skinned and smiling. “You’re daydreaming,” she teased.
“I am, and that’s a terrible thing considering I don’t need to dream when you’re right here in front of me.” He caught her fingers in his hand, lifting them to his mouth.
Drops of water fell as he pressed his lips to her knuckles, and Lillie sighed. “I love when you do that. That kiss-the-knuckles thing gets me every time.”
Jim gave her fingers a squeeze. “I like it as well.”
“You are obviously a well-adjusted and bright individual.” She raised a brow. “Are you going to let me out of the tub? Or did you want to join me?”
“Tempting.” And it was… “But I think I’ll go make dinner arrangements. Any requests? You can have anything you’d like—even the finest restaurants in the area deliver.”
She wiggled onto her knees, leaning her hands on the edge of the tub as she pressed her lips to his for a brief, flirtatious kiss. “You’re going to think it’s silly.”
“Try me.”
Lillie bestowed another of those delicately sweet kisses on him before rocking back out of reach. “Pizza? Something with a kick?”
He could do that. “One pizza with a kick, coming right up.” He took a final appreciative glance before leaving her, the singing starting up as if the bluebird of happiness had invaded his suite.
She wasn’t singing when she joined him, but another of his oversized plain white shirts had found its way from his closet onto her petite form. He didn’t mind at all. They looked better on her than they did on him.
Jim held out a hand, and she joined him, curling her fingers around his and curling her body tight as well. “Did you check the movies?” He led her to the couch and seated her, passing over the remote control. “Let me get us something to drink, and you’re in charge of this.”
Lillie gave an exaggerated gasp of disbelief. “Not the remote control. Really? Really?”
She was almost as bad as Damon. “Did you want to pick the movie tonight or did you want me?”
She cradled the remote to her chest and rocked slightly. “I will cherish it forever.”
“You’ve never even watched TV with me. What makes you think I’m a remote-control hog?”
“You’re a guy.”
“Women hog the controls as well.”
A low clicking noise escaped her. “Statistical data would suggest that in nine out of ten cases of remote control obnoxia, the overwhelming majority of sufferers are male.”
She tossed him a brilliant smile and turned to the TV, clicking the unit on then tucking the remote into her cleavage.
“If that’s where the controls are going to be stored, I can see exactly why men want to have their hands on them.”
Too much laughter followed, until Jim’s cheeks damn near hurt from all the smiling. She found them a show to watch. The pizza arrived. The next three hours passed in the blink of an eye. Jim couldn’t remember having as much fun without sex involved in a long time.
She pointed out plot holes in the movie, just like Jim always got in hell for doing with Damon. At one point, the two of them were so busy discussing what exactly had jumped the shark in the show, they had to rewind to get up to speed with the rest of the action.