by Roni Adams
Shane tossed him a wry look, then watched as Karen hugged Krista.
“Thanks for your help and the bread. Black Friday, three a.m., right?”
Krista nodded. “Yep, I’ll be in the driveway.”
Shane walked into the hall and picked up his coat and Krista’s before returning to the doorway of the rec room. “There isn’t a sale big enough to get me out of bed at that hour to go to the mall.”
He held Krista’s coat out for her. For half a second, he almost held it up for her to slip into, but jerked his hand back, hoping no one else noticed his gesture. Things were weird between them, and he didn’t like it. Better to get her home and away from him so he could think straight again.
Karen kissed his cheek. “Thanks for coming over. I know you were tired.”
Shane hugged his friend briefly. “The chili revived me; thanks for dinner. I feel great now.”
She smiled. “Liar. Thanks for running Kris home. As always, you’re my hero.”
Dave groaned out loud. “Yeah, you’re my hero, too. If I could move, I’d come kiss your hand.”
“Trust me, the term hero is way overused on me.”
At the door, he turned to Krista. “Wait here on the porch. I’ll go get the car and bring it over.”
She shook her head. “I’m going to get drenched whether I run across the yard to the car or run out here to the car. I’ll just come with you.”
He wasn’t about to argue. “Suit yourself.”
Within seconds, they were on his front porch. Shane pushed open the door. “Don’t trip on my gear.”
Krista sidestepped the pile; the odor emitting from the dark green sea bag stung her nose. “Wow. That’s ripe.”
Shane grabbed his keys. “Yeah, I know. I’ll run it through the machine in the morning.”
“Does the smell come out in the wash?”
He glanced back. “What difference does it make? I’ll be wearing it next drill, and we all smell the same. Ready?”
Krista nodded and went back out the door with him. They ran to his car, and were soaked to the skin by the time they were inside.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and shivered. “Definitely a November night, that’s for sure. I’d rather have snow than this.”
He glanced at her bare legs. “Most folks know enough to put jeans on this time of year.”
“It was in the seventies earlier today.”
She waited for him to get the car started, but when he turned the key nothing happened. He cussed and tried it a few more times. Nothing.
“What’s wrong?”
He fiddled with the key. “It was acting up before I left on Friday, but when I got back to the unit this afternoon, it started right up. I figured it was fine.”
He sat back. “I’ll get Dave to take you home. I’ll deal with this in the morning.”
Krista turned toward the house next door. “Lights are off already.”
“Yeah, well, he’ll have to get up. No big deal.”
She twisted around. “Karen mentioned today was a ‘good’ day, so I think they could be busy.”
Shane scowled. “A good day? What does that mean?”
She felt warmth flush into her face. “You know, a good day. They’re trying to get pregnant, remember? I think they might be...busy.”
Shane’s eyes widened, and he glanced at the house. “That fast? We just left.”
Krista shrugged. “I’m not taking any chances on being the interruption.”
“So, now what?”
“I’ll walk.” Even as she said the words, she knew he wouldn’t let her.
He snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“Well, let’s at least go back inside. I can call a cab or we’ll figure something else out.”
Inside, she stepped back over the pile, shrugged off her wet coat and hung it on the coat tree in the corner.
“Want some coffee?”
“You probably don’t have any tea, do you?” she asked, kicking off her soaked sneakers.
He gave her a look and she sighed. “Coffee is fine. But why don’t you take care of this wet stuff, and I’ll put it on.” She shivered as her cold, wet clothes stuck to her.
“Works for me. Then I’ll grab you a dry sweatshirt.” Shane hoisted his backpack up and headed toward the kitchen.
Krista watched as he opened a door that must lead to his basement, but she kept moving down the hall to the kitchen. He had the same coffeemaker as his parents and it didn’t take her long to have a pot brewing.
Shane emerged from downstairs with a clothes basket in his hands. “Here.” He handed her a gray sweatshirt. “The bathroom is through there.” He pointed to a mud room on the other side of the kitchen.
Krista took the shirt from him. “Thanks.”
In the bathroom, she stripped off her sweatshirt and slipped Shane’s on. It was the USMC shirt that she’d seen him wear a million times. Wearing it felt incredibly intimate, and she almost yanked it back off.
Ever since their kiss the other night, she’d had a hard time thinking of anything else. Dinner had been fun, but strange as she once again caught him staring at her several times. And when her gaze met his, she’d known exactly what he’d been thinking.
Since the sweatshirt fell almost to her knees, she slipped off her denim shorts, but left her underwear on. If Shane was any other guy, there was no way she’d emerge from his bathroom clad only in a sweatshirt, underwear and socks, but kiss or no kiss, this was Shane. She had no worries about him taking it as an invitation when she opened the door and walked back into the kitchen.
The way his gaze zoned in on her bare legs and slid slowly up leaving a trail of warmth behind gave her second thoughts.
Chapter Six
“My shorts were soaked.” She yanked on the hem of his sweatshirt, even knowing it wasn’t showing anything except her knees.
Heck, he’d seen her in a bathing suit most of her life; this was nothing. Except they were all alone, in his house, in a rain storm, and she was wearing almost nothing but his sweatshirt.
Deciding the best defense was a good offense, she straightened up and marched into the room. “Quit looking at me as if I’m yummy. It’s me, remember? I’m practically your sister or your cousin or something.”
But Shane didn’t move. Krista was forced to walk past him to get a mug out of the cupboard. Before she could get beyond him, a hand reached out and grabbed her upper arm.
“We’re not related. I’ve never considered you a sister, or a cousin, or anything else.”
His kept her in place directly in front of him. Her heart pounded and she couldn’t breathe. There wasn’t any way to misunderstand the look of intent in his eyes. Shane was going to kiss her again.
Oh no, that won’t do. There were a million reasons why kissing Shane again was a really bad idea, but the worse was that Shane would hate himself later. She wasn’t dense. For whatever reason, he was suddenly attracted to her. But for him, it was just another roll in the hay; for her, it would impact her entire life.
Her relationship with his mother flashed into her head. Nope, they weren’t related, but they were connected by family and a business. It would get very messy if this went any further. She had to cut this down quick, make him back off.
Krista gave him her best disgusted glance. “Come on, Shane. Call Melissa if you’re horny. I bet she’d jump at the chance to be in your bed. Leave me out of it.”
As she knew he would, he jerked back and dropped his hand.
“What the hell are you talking about? Who invited you to bed? You’re reading a lot into some coffee.”
“Uh huh. Well then, quit looking at me as if I’m a pinup model in this crappy old sweatshirt. Can you get my wet stuff out of the bathroom and toss it in your dryer so I can get out of here?”
He pushed away from the counter. “Yeah, pour me some coffee. When your clothes are dry, I’ll get a cab to take you home.”
By the time he returned, she had coffee p
oured for each of them together with a plastic container of cookies his mother must have given him. The look of interest was gone from Shane’s gaze as he sat at the table across from her. An odd sense of disappointment washed over her, but she knew it was the only thing to do. Shane was off limits no matter what.
Krista bit into a cookie and immediately spit it back out. “These are stale.”
“They’re a few weeks old,” he admitted.
“Throw them out then. Yuck.”
“I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. You act like I’ve been sitting around all weekend, needing to clean out my kitchen.”
“Sorry. I forgot you were gone all weekend. How was it?” While she had no idea what he did during a drill weekend, she knew from bits and pieces picked up over the years that it wasn’t just paperwork. The reserves trained hard to be ready if they ever had to be called to active duty again.
She was content to sit and listened for a while as he described the extent of the training. When, the look of exhaustion came back to his face, she picked up the container of cookies and headed to the trash can at the end of the counter.
“Leave them. I can take care of it.”
Ignoring him, she dumped them out and set the container in the sink. “It’s no big deal, Shane. All done.”
She picked up the coffee carafe, moved to the table and refreshed her coffee before moving to his side to top his off. As she bent forward to pour, Shane reached out, his hand accidentally smacking into her breast.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry!” His wide gaze flew to her face, then her breast, then her face again. “I was just going to say I didn’t want any more.”
Krista spun over to the counter top to set the pot back on the burner and grabbed her breast. She breathed deep as the pain receded. Behind her, Shane’s chair scraped the floor.
His hand touched her shoulder. “You okay?”
She winced. “Yeah, but next time a simple, ‘No thanks,’ would work better.”
“Seriously, I whacked you pretty hard. You sure you’re okay?”
Releasing her breast, Krista glanced over her shoulder. Breath whooshed from her lungs as their gazes collided. Her head spun and reality seemed to go fuzzy.
He lowered his head toward her. “I feel horrible,” he said softly.
She shook hers slightly. “It’s fine, honest.”
But his mouth came closer, and Krista found herself turning further toward him instead of spinning away as she knew she should.
With the counter at her back, her chin went up as Shane shifted the tiny bit closer, his hands settled on either side of her waist. At the touch of his lips to hers, her eyelids lowered, and a tiny sigh escaped her mouth. He pressed closer; his erection against her belly caused a million butterflies to explode inside.
Her hands crept up and around his neck. This is madness! Kissing Shane felt so incredibly right and so good, but there were so many reasons why it was wrong.
Still, her knees trembled when his hand slid the bulky sweatshirt aside to mold to her hip. When he explored further, slipping up toward her bare breast, she kissed him back with a hungry need.
Shane’s hand settled over the injured breast. His touch gentle on her skin, he cupped her flesh and weighed it in his hand. Krista’s mind spun. When his thumb grazed her hardened nipple, she whimpered and slid her fingers into his hair, holding on tight.
He lifted his head, and she slowly opened her eyes to find him staring at her, but if she thought he was going to stop, one look at the heat in his gaze told her otherwise.
“I won’t be convinced it’s okay if I don’t look.” His voice was soft and laced with the tiniest bit of humor.
Krista wet her lips and nodded. “I understand.”
She followed his gaze as he lifted the hem of his old sweatshirt to reveal her naked breast. His hand still held the flesh in his palm, and she watched as he rolled his thumb across her nipple once more. Lightning lit up the sky outside the window, but the electric shock coursing through her had nothing to do with the storm. Her nerve endings were on full alert and responding to his fingers as he fondled her nipple again.
She heard her sharp intake of breath in the quietness of the room. Before she could find the strength to push his hand away, Shane bent and pressed his mouth to the swell of her breast. Krista slammed her hand on the edge of the counter to hold herself upright as her knees threatened to give out. Aching to feel his lips on her straining nipple, she bit her lip to stop from pleading as he slowly kissed her skin once more, slowly moving toward what she wanted.
“It does look just fine, but I really should kiss it better, don’t you think?” he whispered.
Krista couldn’t answer for his mouth had closed over her throbbing peak. All she could do was close her eyes and let the powerful sensations wash over her. The pull of his lips on the nub spoke to the center of her as she felt an answering heat pool between her thighs. Her body shuddered before she knew it, two strong hands spanned her waist and lifted her to the countertop.
Shane shifted to stand between her thighs, one side of the sweatshirt still hiked up, revealing a naked breast to his touch. Her hands clung to his shoulders as he lifted the gray material higher as a cool rush of wind washed over her other breast. As his mouth explored the uncharted territory of her aching flesh, the rain pounded against the kitchen window and thunder rolled through the sky. Lightning lit up the room even more, but Krista’s focus was on Shane as he suckled one breast while tenderly teasing the other nipple with his fingers.
She flung her head back and stared at a spot on the ceiling, fighting against the drowning sensations of wanting to throw caution to the wind and just spend the night in Shane’s bed.
His bed? What the hell am I thinking? This had to stop.
Reality nudged her conscience, but then Shane’s lips rose to suddenly capture hers once more, and all reason fled when her tongue met his. One large hand settled on her bare thigh and his fingers inched closer to the moist heat between her thighs.
When Shane shifted his lips and kissed her neck, she struggled to breathe.
This is ludicrous! What the hell was happening to them?
Using all the strength she had left, she pushed gently at his shoulders. “Shane,” she squeaked. “Shane,” she repeated in a firmer voice.
His head lifted. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? You don’t know?” She scanned his eyes. “It’s me, Krista. You’re kissing Krista Saunders in your kitchen.”
“I know who I’m kissing.” He smirked. “Hell, I don’t know what’s going on either, but it sure feels good. Doesn’t it?”
His hand gently squeezed her breast, and she yanked at the hem of her shirt to pull it down. Shane stepped back, and she hopped off the counter on incredibly unsteady legs.
She crossed the room and raked her hands through her hair, brushing it off her face. “We can’t do this.” He didn’t follow her, and she was grateful, or at least she told herself she was.
“Hell, I don’t know what’s happening any more than you do,” he offered. “But it’s better than fighting all the time. Isn’t it?”
Krista couldn’t argue with that. No wonder women fell into bed with him all the time. When Shane kissed you, all you wanted to do was drop your panties and say, “Climb on.”
Still, this wasn’t going to end well, and she had to be smart enough to stop. Her entire future dreams and goals depended on the relationship she had with his mother. Shane could easily sleep with her, walk away, and come out unscathed, but she knew herself better than that. No matter how much fun it might be in the moment, there was no way this could end any way but bad. Her breasts, however, tingled and the moistness between her thighs was hard to argue against.
The dryer buzzed, ending the silence between them. She raced toward the cellar stairs. “There’s my clothes.”
Happy for the escape, she flew down the stairs and glanced around, not sure where the washer and dryer w
ere located. She recognized a Ping-Pong table from his parents’ house and what looked like a homemade bar complete with mismatched bar stools. One corner of the room was set up as a sitting area with more of his parents’ cast-off furniture. She headed for what she hoped was the laundry area when she heard him coming downstairs.
Not wanting to bend over to open the dryer, she squatted down to pull out her jeans and sweatshirt. Still-warm clothes in her arms, she stood as he reached her side.
“Sorry about that. I honestly did want to make sure I hadn’t, um, bruised you or something. You took a pretty hard hit.”
Krista couldn’t meet his eyes. “It’s not like when you guys get hit in certain places. I mean, it stings for a second, but it’s not debilitating. Thanks for the concern though.”
He didn’t say anything. When she finally slid a glance at him, his gaze was riveted on her half-naked body, setting her on fire once more.
“Shane…” she whispered.
Although her mind was sharp and clear, her body definitely sent out an entirely different message as she held his stare. The intimacy of their aloneness, even more so now in the basement of his house with the storm raging around outside, created an atmosphere of seclusion from the real world.
Shane reached for the clothes in her arms, but she clung to them, almost desperately.
“I don’t know what this heat between us is about, or why it’s never happened before, but I kind of like it.”
One sexy eyebrow lifted in invitation, and she tore her gaze from his to force the lie from her throat. “I don’t, so you need to back off.”
Shane wrenched back as if she’d slapped him. She glanced back as he raised both hands in surrender.
His face took on a hard, unreadable expression. “No problem. Sorry I misunderstood the signals a minute ago, but I would have sworn you were into me.”
Krista shifted in her sock-clad feet. She hated how Shane was looking at her as if she was a tease. But to continue what he’d started upstairs would be a disaster. The only way to ensure he kept his distance was to hit his ego.
“You’re not my type. I like bad boys, remember?”
His mouth quirked. “I can be as bad as you need me to be. I mean, if you’re really into that. You know I have the handcuffs and...”