Silently returning to the front of the restaurant, she informed the people that they were indeed closed, made sure the Closed sign was visible and headed back to Kevin in the shower.
She approached from the beach side and watched as he rinsed soap out of his hair. Suds trailed over his shoulders and down his back, continuing over his hips and bumping along the hair on his legs.
Mia couldn’t look away. She should say something, at least let him know she was there.
But she didn’t and when he opened his eyes as he slicked back his hair, he didn’t react when he saw her. He’d probably known she was watching him.
Holding her gaze with his, he turned off the water and toweled off.
“I never slept with Jonathan,” Mia told him, as though they’d been discussing it. “And I’m not sure I would have this weekend, either. But I am sure that I’m never going to because I’m through with Jonathan.” She gave Kevin a crooked smile. “You’ve spoiled me for other men.”
Without waiting for his response, assuming he had a response, Mia went back inside and up the stairs where she collapsed onto Kevin’s bed in the blessed cool from the window unit.
5
WEARING A TOWEL HE held at the waist, Kevin entered his bedroom. She’d gone and done it now. The one thing—the one thing—that might have saved him from losing his heart to Mia was knowing she was involved with that dog, Jonathan Black.
And now she’d wiped it all away, leaving Kevin defenseless.
He steeled himself and glanced at his bed. A fully-clothed, sleepy-eyed Mia lifted her hand in a lazy wave.
Kevin pulled open a drawer and rummaged through it for a pair of boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
Mia yawned. “Do you always sleep in boxers?”
“Nope.”
“Then don’t bother on my account.”
He slid a look toward her. “Do you always sleep fully dressed?”
“Nope.”
“Then don’t bother on my account.”
“I didn’t want to presume.”
“Please. Presume all you want.” Kevin walked into the bathroom and hung up his towel.
He was too tired to fight his desire, but too tired to do anything about it with any finesse, either.
He rubbed the stubble on his face. Shaving could wait. Walking over to the bed, he stared down at Mia. Her eyes were closed as she fumbled with the buttons on her blouse.
Exhaling a sigh from deep within, Kevin opened the door to all the feelings he’d been trying to keep out and let them wash through him. He felt a connection with this woman and he wanted to explore it, even though he was setting himself up for a world of hurt.
She’d had a point about being smart in love, although he hadn’t wanted to admit it. And this wasn’t smart. This was the city girl/country boy conflict of his marriage all over again.
Mia half opened her eyes. “You’re so beautiful,” she murmured sleepily. “Inside, too.”
Nuts. Kevin sat on the bed beside her and took over for her fumbling fingers. He unbuttoned her blouse and unsnapped the front of her shorts. Mia wiggled out of both and lay back down, her creamy skin more than living up to the way he’d imagined it through the wet dress.
“You’re wearing some mighty fine undies,” he said. Pale pink with gray embroidery in the lace on basically invisible fabric.
“Do you think they’re sexy?”
“Yeah. But useless. Can I take them off?”
“Okay. They’re not hiding anything anyway.”
“No, they’re not,” he agreed. But he still enjoyed peeling them off her.
“That’s right. You’re a skin man, aren’t you?” she asked as they lay down.
“There’s no substitute for a naked woman cuddled up against me.” He drew her into the curve of his body. She settled next to him and her breathing slowed. Kevin listened to her fall asleep within a half-dozen breaths, kissed her gently on the shoulder and passed out.
MOONLIGHT STREAMED INTO the room when Mia awoke. Kevin wasn’t beside her and she had no idea what time it was. On her way to the bathroom, the hum of the AC unit changed as the compressor kicked in. Cool air blew across her body reminding her that she was naked, giving her a last-minute heads-up that if she didn’t intend to have sex with Kevin, now would be the time to put on clothes.
Not only was she not going to put on clothes, she wasn’t going to get back under the sheet, either. She lay on the bed. Wise or not, she was ready.
She heard Kevin on the stairs and sat up as the glow of a flashlight preceded him into the room.
“What time is it?”
“A little after one.” He handed her a chilled water bottle.
She hadn’t known she was thirsty until that very moment. “One in the morning? That’s a weird time to wake up. It’s too early to get up and I don’t feel like going back to sleep.”
“I’m thinking it’s the perfect time.” He climbed into the bed bringing a citrusy scent with him.
“You shaved.” Mia cracked open the bottle.
“Didn’t want to rough up all that gorgeous skin.” He leaned on one elbow and watched as she drained half the water bottle at once.
The light kissed the planes of his body, reminding her of the matted photographs against the wall. Studying him, she sighed a little when she realized that the pictures hadn’t required much retouching. His chest was smooth and his skin was bare all the way to his lower abdomen. At the juncture of his legs, hair a darker blond than his surfer locks surrounded his growing erection. She smiled. That hadn’t been in the pictures.
“Moonlight is a good look for you,” she told him.
“Naked is a good look for you,” he said.
Mia carefully set the water bottle on the window ledge and hugged her knees. “Do you think it’ll be the same? You know, between us? Like before?”
“You mean so instantly intense and hot and urgent that you have no control?” His eyes glittered in the silver light.
Mia’s skin tingled and her heart beat in heavy thuds she could feel throughout her body. “Yeah. Like that.”
“I hope so,” he said and reached for her.
They met in a tangle of arms and legs, frantically grasping for each other, their mouths fusing together.
And like their earlier kiss, the heat was instant and all-consuming. But it wasn’t exactly the same as before. This time, skin was involved. Lots and lots of lovely skin. Mia shuddered and ran her hands over Kevin’s body as he touched her, here, there and everywhere, she thought a bit hysterically. When she could think. Which wasn’t often. Or necessary.
Feeling was necessary. Feeling was good. Feeling was everything.
Feeling drove her; the heat consumed her. He stole her breath and gave her his own. Sensation overwhelmed her nerve endings. His touch was too much and not enough at the same time, a burning cold that made her breath come in shallow pants.
“More!” she pleaded, depending on Kevin to figure out what she meant.
Kevin stroked her from thigh to shoulder and back again. His movements were jerky. She’d take them.
They were beyond a gentle, teasing exploration. Beyond a slow seduction. Kevin touched her all over, claiming her, imprinting her with his taste and scent. And Mia gave as good as she got.
“I can’t get enough of you.” His rough voice was heavy with lust and wonder. And then he nipped her earlobe, a tiny sharp prick that increased the ache between her legs.
Gasping, she arched her neck. Kevin opened his mouth over the pulse that beat in her throat and sucked hard.
Her belly tightened. “You’re not getting ready to pop out a set of fangs, are you?”
He dragged his mouth away, looking down at her, gaze unfocused, breathing fast. “Do you want me to?”
“What would happen if I said ‘yes’?”
“I’d distract you like this.” He licked his way to her breast, his tongue trailing that icy fire, swirling it over her nipple. When he pulled the tip into his m
outh, she nearly came off the bed.
“Ke…” She couldn’t even form his entire name. She couldn’t breathe.
She was mindless with need.
And thoroughly distracted.
This was not the way Mia Weiss had experienced sex, with her body bending and thrusting all on its own as she selfishly sought her own pleasure. And there were supposed to be stages to go through, levels of arousal where there was mutual pleasure in giving and taking. More control. Less grabbing and flailing.
Actually, Mia was doing all the flailing and grabbing. Kevin was doing all the sucking and stroking and teasing.
And she was fine with that.
At least until the tension coiling within her caused one of her flailing arms to smack against the bedside table.
She moaned with two kinds of frustration.
Kevin lifted his mouth. “You okay?”
“No, but I will be more than okay if I can just get to that condom.”
“I’ll get—”
“No!” She pushed his head back to her chest. “Do not stop. Do not take your hands or mouth off me. I will deal with the condom.”
“It’s been a while, but best I can remember, I’m supposed to wear the condom.” His voice was muffled, since his mouth was full of breast.
“I know that!” she groaned.
Her fingers closed over a packet. She tore it open with her teeth and managed to rip the contents. “Tell me you’ve got more,” she sobbed.
“I’ve got more.” His hand left her breast for a few seconds that seemed like hours. “And even if I didn’t, there are dispensers in the public restrooms downstairs. A day at the beach should be fun, not a mistake you pay for for the rest of your life.”
“You’re such a responsible person!” she wailed, not sure why she was crying and not caring much, either.
He loosened her clenched fist and slipped the ring of latex beneath her fingers, and then his mouth and both hands were touching her again and she stopped sobbing.
His fingers stroked between her legs and her hips bucked. Gentling his fingers, he slid them slowly over her as the tension inside her formed a knot of pure need.
She was close, so very close, but she wanted him with her.
“Please,” she whispered, fumbling between them.
He captured her hand. “Tell me.” The words were rough. “Tell me what you need.”
“You. Inside me. Now!”
Passion glazed his features and he blinked down at her as though he had trouble processing the words.
“It wasn’t a request!”
And he plunged into her, fast and hard. She gasped, clutching at him and only then realized that her hand was empty. He hadn’t been processing her words, he’d been processing the condom.
He takes direction well, Mia thought. Then she wrapped her legs around him and hung on for the ride.
It was a short ride, like one loop on a roller coaster. She climbed to the top, felt suspended in air for a few breathless moments of anticipation and then let go and whooshed back to earth, trembling in the glorious aftermath.
Mia gulped air. That was quick. Intense, but quick. Her body throbbed as the fire between them became more like glowing embers and less like a raging, all-consuming inferno. But it was still there ready to flare again.
Her breathing slowed and deepened, matching Kevin’s. He was above her, balancing some of his weight on his arms. Mia wanted his entire body against her, pressing her into the bed.
She shifted and he flinched. Her eyes flew open as she became horribly aware that Kevin hadn’t been on the roller coaster with her, as it were.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For being so bossy?” She heard the strain in his voice.
“I’m not bossy!” But she had been really insistent. And selfishly unaware. And a pretty rotten lover, when it came down to it.
He gave a tense chuckle. “You do know what you want.”
“What I wanted was for our first time to be together,” she explained.
He kissed her. “Our first time’s not over yet.”
A thrill of anticipation shot through Mia.
Eyes locked on hers Kevin began moving again, slower this time, deeper, more deliberate.
“I don’t believe this,” she said as the heat began to build. “I never—”
“You’re complaining?” He picked up the pace.
“No. Oh, no. No, no, no-o-o-o.” In fact, Mia was going to stop talking now. Thinking, too. She moved her hips upward to meet his thrusts and watched his eyes grow heavy-lidded with lust before he buried his head next to hers.
She gripped his sweat-slickened back as he drove into her, taking them both up an even higher roller-coaster hill. Again there was that moment when everything stilled before he sent them careening over the edge.
Mia heard him saying her name, over and over and couldn’t tell where his shuddering stopped and hers began. She felt dizzy. She was going to black out. There was a limit to how much pleasure the human body could endure and she’d reached hers. And then she gasped because she’d been holding her breath and the dizziness receded.
“Mia,” he breathed.
Mia drew in air. “Is—is it always like this for you?”
Balancing himself on his arms, Kevin brushed his lips across her temple. “It’s never like this. So when it is, we need to pay attention.”
She didn’t want to pay attention. She wanted to savor and enjoy and…enjoy a few more times before they parted with some fabulous memories. “Maybe it’s just a chemical thing and it’ll burn itself out.”
Kevin gave her a slow smile. “We’ve got a few hours before dawn. How about we test your theory?”
6
EVERYTHING LOOKED different in the morning and not just because golden sunlight had replaced the silvery glow of the moon.
Mia lay on her back and stared at the sliver of cloudless blue sky she could see out the top of the window behind the bed.
Now what?
She’d been awake wondering for a while. Kevin had been asleep, but sometime within the past fifteen minutes or so, he’d rolled onto his back, too, no doubt thinking the same thing she was, which was where did they go from here? Or did they go from here?
Kevin brushed his fingers against her hand and slowly, gently linked his little finger around hers. A tiny point of contact, but it warmed her as they lay there.
Do not fall in love with this man, she told herself fiercely. Do not mistake great sex for love.
You don’t have great sex without love said an inner voice.
She was supposed to have been protecting her heart. What had happened? She wasn’t supposed to fall in love with Kevin. She didn’t want to live at the beach and she knew Kevin didn’t want to leave. The rhythm of the ocean was part of his soul. He wouldn’t be happy away from it. He wouldn’t be the same person. As for her moving here—forget it. The slow, laid-back lifestyle wasn’t for her. She thrived on urban energy. She’d go nuts living here. They’d end up hating each other.
She knew this. He knew this. Unfortunately, her heart didn’t.
Why was the right man so wrong for her?
NOW WHAT?
Kevin could hear Mia’s thoughts as though she said them aloud.
He didn’t want to let her go, but he wouldn’t ask her to stay. Never again would he ask a woman to change her life for him.
This was gonna hurt. He’d known he was doomed from the moment he’d kissed her and bells had gone off as though he’d hit the jackpot at the Grand Casino. Actually, he’d known earlier when she’d started running things at the shelter. The kiss had confirmed it.
Beside him, Mia inhaled deeply and let out her breath.
One of them needed to say something. This was his house, his bed, he was the man. It was up to him. He turned his head on the pillow without knowing what he was going to say.
Mia turned her head, too. If Kevin had seen love blazing from her eyes, he might have said on
e thing, but when he saw a cautious wariness and a frozen expression that told him she was bracing herself, he said the only thing he could. “Ready to go get your car?”
THE DRIVE TO WHERE her car sat took about a third of the time it had taken on Friday night.
Other than idle comments about the condition of the road and the mess and household debris that had ended up far from the beach houses, Mia and Kevin were silent.
She almost hoped her car needed repair so she’d have an excuse to stay another night, but other than a dented right rear quarter panel that Kevin pulled out so it wouldn’t rub against the wheel, it started right up.
“I don’t think you bent the frame,” he said as he chipped sea grass and dried mud off her bumper. “But get it checked out sooner rather than later.”
“I will, thanks.” She opened the trunk and wrinkled her nose at the sour smell.
Kevin reached around her and felt the carpeting. Mia closed her eyes when the heat of his body made her want to lean into him and bury her face in that wonderful spot where his neck met his shoulder.
“Just damp. Air it out and you should be okay.”
The car might be okay. Mia had doubts about herself.
He closed the trunk, avoiding eye contact with her even though her clothes were dry this time. “Let’s put your bag in the backseat.”
He opened the door and pulled the bag from her unresisting fingers. Her heart pounded and she hated the way she felt.
This weekend hadn’t been real life. It wasn’t even Kevin’s real life. She’d get over him. She had to.
The door slammed shut, both on the car and on their time together.
She turned to face him and found him staring at her, his jaw rigid. So he felt the same way she did.
At least they didn’t need to have the talk.
“I’ll never forget you,” Mia said.
“I will always remember you,” he told her, and it sounded better than what she’d said.
His Little Black Book Page 12