by Liz Lee
As she watched him talk, Kacie Jo knew she’d do everything in her power to keep him from falling into the abyss.
“So when are you going back?” She asked the question as they sat in relative silence, the only sounds those of crickets and frogs and leaves blowing in the slight wind.
“Never.”
His answer surprised her. “But you love it.”
He nodded, staring off in the distance, remembering something or someone he wanted to forget. “I did.”
She took his hand in hers and tried to lighten his sudden heavy mood. “Hey, I’m sure you’ll be good as new after a vacation."
A pained grimace crossed his face at her words. But then he shrugged and stood, pulling her up as he did. “Sunrise.”
She recognized his attempt to change the subject for what it was, but when she looked off to the east, sure enough, the sky was painted with the reds, pinks and oranges she often woke early to see. She let him have his way with the conversation. “So it is. You know what that means.”
He kept looking toward the sunrise. “Hmmm?”
What memory had such a great hold on him? She didn’t want to ask and have him run away or worse, kiss her again. “Breakfast. Come on. I’ll take you to my house and make you the best coffee this side of the Mississippi, and then we’ll make omelets and call Grady and tell him what all he’s missing.”
“Your brother’s going to kill me.”
The way he said the words sent a shiver down Kacie Jo’s spine. “Don’t be crazy, Donovan. We spent all night at the park talking. It was fun. I’m not a kid anymore.”
Donovan didn’t look all that reassured. “He’s not a fool.”
Okay, enough was enough. “Look, I don’t care what Grady is or isn’t. If it’ll make you feel better we can call him up, invite him over for coffee and eggs. He’ll be up soon anyway.”
Finally, Donovan looked at her. And even though his thoughts still seemed far away, his smile was real enough. “I think I can handle breakfast with you without losing control.”
If anyone was worried about control, it was her. Under no circumstances would she ruin this night by letting her feelings run away with her.
“Then breakfast it is. You haven’t tasted anything until you’ve tasted my omelets.”
He laughed as he trailed behind her. “I seem to remember you saying something like that before.”
She remembered the day he was talking about. He and Grady had dug into her cookies and spit them out almost immediately.
It wasn’t her fault they’d left her behind instead of taking her on the fishing trip. And it wasn’t her fault they dug into the cookies like starving refugees.
Okay, so it was her fault she’d used a cup of cayenne pepper, but to her twelve-year-old mind, they’d deserved it.
“After today, you’ll never think of my cooking the same again.”
With those words, she grabbed Donovan’s hand and pulled him along behind her. She might not be able to make him forget all of his problems, but she could at least give him a couple more hours of simple friendship.
And maybe he’d find the solace he so desperately needed.
As he watched Kacie Jo whip eggs and cream in a glass bowl Donovan couldn’t remember a more relaxing time. He tried to pay attention to the cheese he was grating, but she kept singing some silly song about American girls as she danced around her little kitchen. Somehow, in the last few hours, Kacie Jo Jenkins had become absolutely irresistible.
He focused on the cheddar and told himself to get over it. The last thing in the world she needed was a guilt trip brought on by him.
But he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. She really was pretty. Not gorgeous or perfect or glamorous or exotic. Simply pretty in a girl next door, real sort of way.
He’d love to see how the photographers would capture her. He could see her laughing on a swing or picking flowers out of the garden or carrying a plate of cookies. Or standing beside a bed taking off one piece of clothing after another until….
Dammit! He had to get a grip. He should’ve never kissed her, never touched her lips with his. Now that impression was seared on his memory for eternity. Well, that was good because that one kiss would have to last a lifetime.
She poured the egg into a waiting butter-filled skillet and faced him with a cross of perturbation and pretend disappointment.
“Geez, Donovan, you’d think I’d asked you to make the cheese from scratch.” She held out her hand, and he was struck by how shapely her fingers were, by how the red nail polish seemed at odds with the girl standing there.
“Hel-lo.” She interrupted his thoughts with a laugh. “I think I better take over or we’ll have burned eggs.”
She scooted him over with a bump of her hip and took the cheese from him. For some reason he was truly at a loss. He’d cooked over campfires all over the world, but here he couldn’t even concentrate on simple tasks. Lack of sleep didn’t begin to explain it. He’d gone far longer without sleep. And Kacie Jo didn’t seem a bit fazed by a sleepless night.
In fact, she looked pretty damn terrific. She looked like a freaking housewife, and he didn’t belong in her perfect country blue kitchen any more than he belonged in Caldale.
Again, he knew what he should do. As she sprinkled cheese and bacon over the eggs, he should hit the door running and never look back, but he couldn’t ruin her mood. Couldn’t bring himself to just leave even though he was a coward for staying.
She laughed at the disgruntled look on his face, misunderstanding. “Hey, no frowning allowed. Just wait until you taste it.”
She held the egg out to him as she said the words and he instinctively closed his mouth over the food. He swallowed the bite, salt and cream and light egg bursting across his taste buds.
Focus on the food. “You were right. It’s great.”
She tossed him an I-told-you-so smile and shuffled the second omelet onto a plate and then had him sit while she got their coffee.
Donovan didn’t trust himself to watch her anymore. He was an idiot, a fool. And he needed to get out of there. Instead, he sat eating breakfast like he had every right in the world to be there with her.
God, he was well and truly a complete and total ass.
Kacie Jo sashayed over to the table and Donovan considered asking her to please go change into something less revealing. Something like a full-length coat, gloves, a fur hat and scarf would do nicely.
Instead she sat across from him all pretty as you please.
“So, where next?”
Donovan almost spit out his coffee at her question. “What?”
She put her fork down. “You know. Where next? Since you’re not going back to the Middle East, where will you go?”
Oh, what a question. Donovan’d been wondering himself. “I’ve had a few offers.”
She took another bite of omelet, and he was amazed. She wasn’t feeling anything, not a damn thing, but hunger—for food. How was it possible? He could practically feel the air spark to life around them.
“But?”
He set his fork on the side of his plate and shrugged. “But I don’t need to decide just now.”
She moved the food around on her plate. How in the hell had eggs become so damn sexy?
“Not hungry?” Kacie Jo pointed to his half eaten omelet.
Oh honey, if you only knew. Donovan just shook his head. “I’m not much on breakfast.”
She shrugged again and Donovan noticed the way her shoulders were slightly rounded, the way her neck was gently lined with small veins, the way she still had that tiny beauty mark under her right eye.
Finally, he could take no more. Pushing away from the table, he almost jumped out of his chair. “I’d better get going.”
Kacie Jo seemed about to protest but then reconsidered. “I hate to see you leave. Especially not knowing where you’re going.”
If he’d had any idea Kacie Jo would affect him like this, he would’ve burned those letters.
>
“As soon as I know where I’m going, I’ll get in touch.” He spoke the words knowing they were a lie.
She stood across the white ceramic tiled floor, she crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes searching his for truth, refusing to demand it.
“So….” She stopped and waited for him the same way he’d been waiting for the last few minutes. But they weren’t waiting for the same thing, and that was why he was leaving.
“Yeah, well, so, I guess I’ll…”
His words were interrupted by the shrill sound of her house phone, and he was surprised at the relief he felt. Now, he could simply leave, no goodbyes, no crazy impulsive decision by him that would be bad for both of them.
With a wave and his signature devil-may-care smile, Donovan opened the door and headed to God only knew where.
Kacie Jo grabbed the phone on the third ring. Shoot! Here she was missing her chance for a proper goodbye from the man of her dreams. She should’ve just let the machine get it.
“Hello.” She practically growled the word.
“Kacie Jo, put Donovan on the line now.”
Great. The last thing she needed or wanted was to listen to Grady, but at least his call served one purpose. She told her brother to hold on and ran to her door.
“Donovan, wait. Grady’s on the phone.”
Even though he was facing away, she could bet he was every bit as unhappy as she was with the unwanted call. Okay. Different reason, but still not a bit happy.
As he walked back toward her, she stared in wonder. Even after spending all night with him talking, he still had the power to leave her breathless.
She handed the receiver over and worried over the Mickey Mouse phone. Would it just reinforce the idea that she was a kid? She should've gotten rid of the house phone months ago.
It didn’t matter. He could think whatever he wanted. Maybe it was better if he did think of her as a kid. She wasn’t going to give into temptation. No matter how much she wanted to.
A frown furrowed his brow, and he said no and then no again, and then when it looked like he was about to hand her the phone, his shoulders tensed, and his hand clenched on the receiver.
She didn’t need to hear his response to know what Grady had said. Still, hearing it left her more than a little thrilled.
He didn’t even pause just jumped right in. “Listen here, Grady. I know this stems from worry over your baby sister, but we better get something straight right now. Kacie Jo is fully capable of making her own decisions. She’s not some kid who can’t keep her head screwed on straight. She’s a mature woman, not in the running for Valedictorian. And I know exactly who I am and what I’m doing.”
With those words, he pushed the phone back into her hands and headed for the door.
Oh no he didn’t! Kacie Jo couldn’t let him leave. Not like this. Not upset and looking crazy.
She grabbed Donovan’s arm and hoped he’d wait.
“Thanks so much, Grady," she practically growled into the phone. "You’re a great friend all right. I swear you’re an idiot sometimes!”
She didn’t wait for an answer, just slammed down the phone and turned to Donovan. “Don’t go.”
She’d meant the words to come out normal, as if she’d asked him if he needed more coffee or a glass of water. But they didn’t. They were a plea.
She held her breath as she waited for his answer, and when he just stood there half way out her door, she couldn’t wait another second.
Chapter Five
Swallowing her indecision, she reached out, barely touching his arm with her newly manicured fingers.
That’s all the convincing it took.
This time when Donovan’s lips met hers, she forced all thoughts to stop and instead let herself feel, really feel. His lips, his arms, his face, his tongue. She took the kiss for all it was worth, intent on putting every ounce of every dream she’d ever had about this man into her response.
She barely registered the slam of her door as Donovan made his final decision. He leaned against her, pressing her back into the wall, pressing his erection against her and she gasped with the intensity.
Oh God. She’d wanted this for so long. She reached up and pushed the hair from his face the way she’d wanted to earlier, and when his eyes met hers this time, there was no deception. Just pure unadulterated want and need. She understood both.
He whispered her name, then his lips claimed hers before moving down her neck and back to her mouth.
When he pushed her shirt up, she forced herself to stop thinking about anything other than how good his hands felt on her bare skin. Nothing mattered but this moment.
His eyes burned her skin as he slowly pulled her bra from her arms and then his lips were on her breasts, on her nipples, suckling, leaving her breathless and begging for more and more and more.
And he laughed, the laugh from years before, the one she’d always imagined spoke of days of fun and nights of pleasure and no worries, and when she heard that, she knew she was doing the right thing.
“Oh God, Kacie Jo.”
Kacie Jo barely heard the words as he slowly moved his calloused hands from her stomach to her waist to under the waistband of her Levi’s. And when his fingers finally found the wet heat they were seeking, Kacie Jo thought she might die.
She moved against his hand, wishing she could tear the jeans and panties off her body and wrap her legs around him here in the hall with only the door behind her as a brace.
But Donovan had other ideas.
Slowly, he ran his fingers over her center and then against the outside of her jeans before trailing them up her bare stomach to her chest.
Her skin burned with his every touch, and she could tell he knew just what he was doing, just how he was slowly, surely driving her crazy.
When his lips moved to her ear, she pressed against him and gasped, and when he whispered “Sweetheart, if we don’t take this to your room, I’m going to make you come right here against your front door,” she finally understood the need for smelling salts. For the first time in her life, she honestly thought she might faint.
She led him down the hall, past the kitchen, past the living room to her room, all the while thinking, Oh my God, I’m taking Donovan Nelson to my bed. And as she made that small trip, she promised herself she would never be sorry for whatever happened next. Regardless, she would treasure this moment for the rest of her life.
Donovan followed Kacie Jo to her room and wondered how he’d had the mental capacity necessary to even think about a bed. He wanted her, wanted to possess her completely, wanted to bury himself inside her until she screamed.
But Kacie Jo deserved a bed. She deserved a whole hell of a lot more than that, but it would take a better man than him to walk away now. He wanted her and she wanted him. And dammit all, he was tired of fighting it.
Her room was decorated in blues and whites. Lace.
And all he could think was he’d never seen anything as erotic as Kacie Jo stripping her 501’s in front of her dresser mirror.
Her eyes never left his, and as he stood there watching, desire and something more took his breath away.
“Damn.” He spoke the words with reverence to the picture she presented and the woman she was. She stood there, naked. Her skin white, perfect. Her hips flared, her waist tight, her breasts high, her nipples the sexiest shade of dusky pink he’d ever seen. And the triangle of hair below her belly, God, he wanted her.
He moved to pull his shirt off, and she finally stepped forward to stop him.
“Let me.” She spoke the words like the temptress she was, and he was more than happy to be seduced by a woman like this.
She pulled his shirt up over his head and pressed her lips to his chest, her tongue gently laving his nipples leaving him hard and ready. But when he tried to hold her to him, she pushed his hands away and moved to the buckle on his belt. A few seconds later, she shoved his pants to the floor, and he found he couldn’t say a word.
; When she took his full, hard length in her hand, he had to say something, anything, or he was going to embarrass himself. “Kacie Jo.” Pulling her arms around his shoulders, he buried his head in her hair. “I can’t. You can’t or we won’t…”
He felt her surprise at the words, heard her little “oh” of understanding and then, nothing mattered but completing what they’d started. He reached beside the bed and grabbed for his jeans, but her hand on his arm stopped him.
She reached past him to her bedside table, grabbed the unopened box of condoms and yanked the plastic covering free.
He grabbed the foil packet from her and slipped it over his hard erection. And then yes, finally, he slowly pushed her back on the perfectly made bed, fitting himself into the vee between her legs.
His lips ran across her neck once more, and he slicked his finger across the wet heat between her legs. She was ready. And as much as he wanted to wait, he couldn’t. It was now or never.
And then he was there, inside her, feeling nothing but her tightness as it slowly enveloped him.
Until suddenly, he found the barrier that shouldn’t have been there. He met her eyes with shock. “Kacie Jo…”
She didn’t let him finish the words, just pushed against him until the barrier broke and there was nothing but him pressed deep inside her.
He forced himself to be completely still. He didn’t know what to do, or what to say or if he could even make this good for her. What the hell was she doing? He didn’t want to hurt her.
“God, Kacie Jo.”
She shook her head. “Shhh. Don’t talk, just please…” She didn’t say anything else just stared at him with such deep longing, he knew he was lost. He just hoped he didn’t hurt her worse than he already had.
Slowly he moved away and her eyes closed, then she gasped with pleasure as he pushed deeper again.
And then nothing mattered but finding the ultimate completion in her arms.