by Tami Hoag
Without another word Genna took it from him and went into the dining room, where she put the flowers on the table and slouched down on a chair to read the card.
For yesterday, when I needed you and you were there—J.J.
Amy handed the delivery boy two fresh Santa Claus cookies just as Genna burst into tears. The young man’s eyes went huge with interest. Amy smacked him for staring and shooed him out the door. By the time she made it to the table, aching to hear a tearful true confession, Genna had reined in her emotions and gotten rid of the evidence of her outburst with a pink tissue. Amy grabbed for the card, but her friend held it out of reach. She scowled.
“They’re from Jared,” she accused the air. When Genna refused to answer, she slapped a chubby hand on the table and cackled like a crazed chicken, her dark eyes dancing. “I knew it! You are softening up! He’s winning you over!”
“Baloney.” If Amy was going to get an admission out of her, Genna was determined to have a little fun making her work for it.
“Ha! He sends you flowers and you burst into tears—”
“An allergic reaction.”
“Yeah, sure. Allergic to telling the truth.” She got on her knees on the Windsor chair and leaned across the table toward Genna, bracing her hands on the smooth wood surface. “Okay, Hastings, come clean—”
Bang. “Break out that new dress, Genna,” sang a smoky sexy tenor. “I’m taking you dancing tonight.”
“Blast you, Hennessy,” Amy snarled at him. “She was just about to break!”
Jared took in the scene of Amy half on top of the table, her well-rounded backside sticking up in the air, and all sorts of weird explanations zinged through his brain.
Genna gave him a bland smile. “Yes, Amy was about to bring out her thumbscrews.”
He bit the head off a reindeer cookie and chewed thoughtfully. “This sounds too kinky even for me. Is there some deep dark secret you’re not telling me, Gen?”
“Why, yes … yes, there is.” She smiled enigmatically, her eyes taking on a gleam of mischief she had seen so many times in Jared’s. His gift had taken her by surprise, tilted her off balance. Now a rare burst of reckless abandon overpowered her, bringing her to her feet and propelling her toward the man.
It was Jared’s turn to be shocked. And Amy wanted a confession? Well, why not give her one that would knock her socks off?
Suddenly wary, Jared took a step back, but Genna caught him, sliding her arms up around his neck. She gave him a sultry smile, tipped back his baseball cap, and kissed him full on the mouth.
Amy screamed.
Jared went through a rapid series of reactions—shock, followed by a swift involuntary rush of passion, then back to shock. Still hanging on to his mutilated reindeer cookie, he backed away from her, breaking lip contact at last.
“Genna!” he exclaimed as he turned red.
Genna grinned impishly and shrugged. “I love you.”
Amy screamed again and staggered for the back door, fanning herself with a gingerbread man.
A smile twitching at her lips, Genna went to the sink and calmly started washing cookie sheets. She couldn’t believe how good she felt now that she’d said it out loud. She loved Jared Hennessy. It felt doubly wonderful because he was none of the things she had forced herself to believe she wanted in a man. With Jared she would never wonder whether she had fallen for the man or his MBA. With Jared she had no doubts.
Except about the future.
She didn’t know how much time she would have with him. She didn’t know if he had welcomed her confession or cursed it. She had agreed to a no-strings relationship, yet she had come out and said she loved him. Well, that didn’t mean she was expecting him to say it back. She was simply being honest. If he didn’t like it …
Well, she decided determinedly, I won’t think about that today. I’ll think about that tomorrow. Nor would she think about the fact that Scarlett had ended up without Rhett while proclaiming tomorrow was another day. These were the eighties after all. A woman could have a summer romance if she wanted to.
Genna had never had a summer romance. She’d had summer jobs and had gone to summer school, but she’d never had a summer love. She’d been too practical and level-headed for that. Now she was thirty and for once she was going to throw practicality out the window. She was going to love Jared Hennessy for as long as she could, and when it was over, she wasn’t going to have any regrets.
Jared sneaked his arms around her and snuggled up to her from behind. A shiver danced through Genna at the feel of her bottom tucked intimately against the most masculine part of him. She giggled as he nibbled at her neck. Apparently he had recovered from his attack of shyness now that Amy was gone.
“Do you realize it’s been almost four whole days since we made love?” he queried against the sensitive flesh of her throat.
“Really? That long?” she quipped breathlessly, her bones turning to molasses.
His hips arched against her backside provocatively. Taking her earlobe between his teeth, he stated, “That long.”
Genna gasped and groaned, dropping her dishrag into the sink with an audible plop. She braced her hands on the counter, her senses reeling.
“Bernice and Alyssa are making pasta. I’m told that takes a long time.” His fingers slipped under the over sized pink T-shirt she wore and teased the undersides of her breasts.
“Long time …” The words fluttered from her lips like butterflies. Lord, what this man could do to her body!
“You’ve never shown me the upstairs of your house, Genna,” he purred, running the tip of his tongue down her throat while he circled a finger around each of her aching nipples. “I’ll bet there’s lots of interesting stuff up there.”
“Mmmm ….”
“Why don’t I lock the door and then you can show me?”
“Mmm.”
How her rubber knees got her up the stairs, Genna wasn’t sure. What she was sure of was that she wanted Jared with an intensity that robbed her of all coherent thought. And it was obvious he felt the same way. If their lovemaking had been unhurried the first time, this time it was anything but.
They made it to the general vicinity of Genna’s white iron bed before they found each other’s arms. They met in a blaze of passion and urgency. Tongues dueled as eager hands tore at buttons and zippers. Genna’s baggy jeans hit the floor and she kicked out of them as they went down on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs.
“I want you,” Jared moaned hotly against her mouth. He pulled her legs up around his bare hips and thrust into her without preamble.
The excitement of sudden need had been their fore play. Genna was more than ready for him. She ran her hands down his back, arching against him wantonly, savoring the satin heat of their union.
Jared watched her for a moment. Beneath him Genna was the most beautiful creature on earth. She gave herself to him so freely, without hesitation or reservation or coyness. She loved him. A shudder went through him. This was what he needed to make his life complete, for this woman to love him.
Another shudder rolled through his body, reminding him of his hunger for Genna. Her eyes fluttered open and locked with his as they moved together in passion’s dance, as they raced together toward passion’s edge and hurled themselves over it.
With her name on his lips Jared dropped his head to her shoulder and collapsed on top of her. They were half on the bed and half off, and he weighed a ton, lying on top of her, but Genna didn’t care. She felt wonderfully complete and content in a way she had never experienced before. I love him.
“Did you mean it, Gen?” he asked in that smoky voice that turned her blood hot and heavy in her veins. He raised up on one elbow and looked deep into her eyes.
“I love you,” she said simply, acutely aware of how vulnerable she was to his rejection. There was every chance that he wouldn’t want her to admit being so involved. She started to open her mouth to tell him he didn’t have to worry, that she was a big girl and she could
handle a short-term relationship. But he banished the noble speech from her mind with a tender kiss.
A slow, sweet smile curved his mouth. He brushed her tangled hair back from her face and tugged her T-shirt up. Keeping their bodies joined, Jared bent his head and leisurely attended to her breasts with his mouth, kissing, sucking, laving.
Genna moaned with delight. A tide of renewed desire surged through her, stronger than the one that had swept her upstairs in the first place. It gushed through her arms and legs, fingers and toes. It settled like a whirlpool in her breast, the sensations swirling around and around as Jared’s tongue swirled around and around. Then his warm lips closed on the turgid tip and he sucked urgently.
Genna’s fingers dug into his short black hair. The sensations shot to the pit of her belly, and she tightened around him. She felt him stir inside her again. He moved against her in short, teasing strokes that drove her crazy.
“You’re so damn sexy,” he said with a growl, nipping at her collarbone then kissing where he’d bitten.
Sexy. The word didn’t even begin to describe the way he made her feel. What happened to her when she made love with Jared went well beyond the realm of Genna’s meager experience. She lost all control of her mind and body and was swept away weightlessly on waves of sensual abandon.
He rolled them over on the creaking old bed so he was on his back and Genna was sprawled on top of him. He took his fill of her mouth then gently pushed her back.
“Sit up, baby,” he ordered hoarsely.
Genna obeyed, groaning deep in her throat as she took him deeper inside her.
Jared bit his lip and forced himself to be still. “Take your top off, sweetheart.”
She did as he asked, and he shuddered with desire as he watched her pull the pink T-shirt over her head, her full, ripe breasts thrusting up as she arched her back. The shirt cast over a chair and forgotten, she turned her gaze, dark and glazed with passion, back to Jared. His breath caught in his throat as she began to move on him.
She moved slowly, all her attention focused on the special, warm, silken pocket nature had left her just for him, as he filled her. Her head rolled back, eyes closed, her dark lashes curving along the line of her cheek.
He braced his feet on the bed, dimly aware that he was still wearing his sneakers. He gritted his teeth, fighting the completion that rushed toward him. Reaching out, he caught Genna’s hand and drew it to the dewy valley where their bodies were joined. Her eyes flew open and she gasped his name as the explosion of fulfillment shook both her body and his.
“I love you, Genna,” he whispered, pulling her down on top of him.
They lay in a happy, contented, exhausted tangle of limbs. Jared stroked a hand over the curve of Genna’s hip the way he might stroke a cat. He loved the feel of her, soft and smooth with just a little extra padding in all the right places. A smile of utter serenity graced his handsome features as he opened his eyes to gaze into Genna’s. They shared her pillow. It had a hand-embroidered pillowcase and smelled of potpourri and summer and Genna.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, too exhausted to do more.
She smiled like a pixy and giggled. “I’m not beautiful. I’m cute.”
He found the strength to chuckle. “Adorable.”
Snuggling her closer and pressing a kiss to her unruly mop of waves, he let his eyes take in the details of the loft bedroom. It was like Genna—not too big, but very feminine; an endearing mix of practicality and whimsy. Every piece of furniture looked like a flea market refugee, most if it repainted white and adorned with old patchwork pillows, porcelain figurines, and beribboned bouquets of dried flowers. He guessed this would be her hideaway, the place where she would come to read romance novels and fashion magazines, though she would probably never admit it.
So tied up in being sensible. He wondered if she had ever let herself be free of responsibility, childlike, footloose. Had Genna ever done anything just to be crazy? He doubted it. Probably since childhood she had worked her fanny off to be as unlike her father as possible. Jared imagined that admitting to being in love with him the way she had was the most reckless thing she’d ever done. It meant a lot to him. Practical, level-headed Genna confessing love for an … individual … like himself. And in front of a witness no less. He was, after all, the antithesis of her ideal man.
He was tempted to tell her how much it meant to him, how much she meant to him, but he forced himself to hold back. Genna hadn’t wanted a relationship with him in the first place. He’d be a fool to push her now, when she was only just beginning to accept this very special magic that they shared. For Genna’s sake he would be patient. For Genna he would do just about anything. Jared grinned and stretched, feeling incredibly self-satisfied.
“Thank you for the flowers,” Genna said, running her foot up and down his muscular calf. They had finally managed to get his jeans and shoes off. Lord, how she loved the feel of his body. He was so solid, and he was solid in more than the physical sense. A woman couldn’t ask for a better man, a better friend or lover. She was determined to enjoy every minute she had with him.
“You’re welcome. And thank you for helping.”
“Did you get everything straightened out with Alyssa?”
“Mmm-hmm. We had a good talk last night. I think it’s all straightened out. I know I need to understand that she’s going to miss her mother. I guess I’m just touchy about it because I was always jealous of the time Elaine got to spend with her. Between that and this thing with Simone …”
Genna reached up to run her fingertips down the taught plane of his cheek. She could feel a muscle working in his jaw. “Didn’t your lawyer say there’s nothing to worry about? You’re Alyssa’s natural father and, thanks to me,” she teased, “well on your way to becoming a model citizen.”
“I know, I know. There’s just … something. I don’t know.”
Just something. Genna didn’t tell him she felt it too. She shivered a little and made a show of pulling the sheet up over her bare shoulders.
“I just feel as though she’s got some kind of trick play up her sleeve, something my defense isn’t ready for.” He patted Genna’s bottom and forced a grin. “Listen to me. Here I am, talking like a quarterback, and I don’t have to leave for training camp for another two weeks.”
“That soon?” Genna cursed herself a jillion times for blurting that out. She didn’t want him to feel as if she were tying unwanted strings to their relationship. He was hers for the summer. He hadn’t indicated he wanted anything more serious than that, and she wouldn’t make the mistake of assuming he did. Nor would she try pushing him into it. She’d done that once; she had the emotional scars to prove it. If loving him meant letting him go, then that was exactly what she’d do.
Misinterpreting her sudden stiffness for plain old embarrassment, Jared chuckled. He tipped her chin up, giving her his teasing grin. “Genna, are you gonna miss me?”
She twisted a wry smile up at the corner of her mouth, but couldn’t quite meet his gaze. “Don’t flatter yourself, Hennessy.”
“You’re a cruel woman, Genna Hastings.” He laughed, rolling over so he was on his hands and knees, straddling her. “So, are you going dancing with me tonight, or what?”
“Dancing?” Genna asked, as if the concept were totally unknown to her. She couldn’t seem to tear her gaze or her mind off the massive male form looming over her.
“Yeah, you know, cut the rug, trip the light fantastic. Dance. It’s a social activity.”
“Oh. Dance,” she said stupidly, her gaze feasting on the scenery of his thickset chest and tapering waist. His belly was flat and ridged with muscle, and a thin line of downy brown hair bisected it and ran in a widening path to a thicket of curls around his—
“I’d love to, doll,” he teased, not missing the trail her darkening eyes took, “but I don’t want to spoil you.”
A vivid blush stained Genna’s cheeks. She shoved him off the bed with a strategically place
d hand and sat up, reaching for her pink T-shirt. “You’re impossibly conceited.”
Jared bounced to his feet, pulling on his underwear. “Might as well face it, babe,” he said, amused, “you’re addicted.”
Otis “Boo Boo” Paige took up the floor space of a family of four. He made Jared look like a munchkin. He was the biggest, meanest-looking man Genna had ever laid eyes on. She did a strangulation number on her black satin clutch purse as she stood in Jared’s living room looking up—up—up at the man, her features frozen in an expression that was a mixture of cordiality and stark terror.
Jared introduced him as “the baddest offensive line man in the cosmos”—Genna assumed that was a compliment—then the men slapped hands, butted heads, and pretended to shoot each other with finger pistols.
Jared searched his cluttered rolltop desk for his car keys. Debris scattered this way and that. It looked to Genna as if someone had emptied a Hefty bag of crumpled papers onto the surface. How he ever found anything there was a miracle, she thought. Who knew what lurked under all that rubble. Someday he’d probably come across the Holy Grail.
“Boo Boo’s going to baby-sit Lyssa while we’re out,” Jared said, still digging.
“Nnnn,” Genna said through her teeth, raising her brows.
“I’m not a baby,” Alyssa protested, swinging her legs over the edge of the desk chair.
Outlandish as the thought was, still Genna was tempted to suggest taking the little girl along, then Boo Boo smiled and his whole tough-guy image shattered. Suddenly he possessed all the deadly menace of a teddy bear. His eyes glowed a soft velvet brown. He had a space between his two front teeth and talked with a slight lisp.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hastings.” His voice was like cotton candy.
“Boo’s got his master’s in child development.”
Why should that surprise me, Genna asked herself. She offered Boo Boo her hand and her smile. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Paige. Jared’s friends are always so full of surprises.”
Otis laughed his understanding.
“Daddy, Genna’s got her new dress on,” Alyssa said from her seat in the swivel chair. With a wink Jared swung her up in his arms, and nose to nose they sang a jazzy number about a woman in a fancy dress out for a night on the town.