He looked down at himself. “I go to the company gym to think.”
“You must think a lot.”
“Yeah.”
Gil wasn’t body-builder beefy, but his slim, defined torso would draw eyes at any beach. They certainly drew hers.
Cammy didn’t know how long she would have stood there and salivated, but a stray breeze twirled across the parking lot and the feel of it against skin that normally wasn’t exposed reminded her that she was standing outside in her bra with a half-naked man.
All in all, she’d been worse places.
He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his shorts and Cammy was half afraid, half hopeful that he would take them off. “Second thoughts?”
Glancing up, she saw the banked desire in his eyes. He’d already prepared himself for her to change her mind. “Just admiring the view.”
With a lazy gesture, he reached for her shoulder and slipped his fingers beneath her bra strap. “If you expect me to back off because I’m nice or sweet, don’t. Anything you offer, I’m taking. And I’ll make you offer more.” He tugged until the strap slowly whispered over her shoulder and then dragged his knuckles against the side of her breast.
Her nipples tightened. There would have been something wrong with her if they hadn’t.
Okay, change of plan. Before she called a halt, since he obviously wasn’t going to, Cammy would get him all hot and bothered. Then she’d stop. It was evil and wicked but she’d enjoy herself and make her point, too. A little voice asked exactly what her point was, but Cammy ignored it.
He thought he knew how this was going to play out. Cammy wanted to shake him up. Maybe she wanted to shake herself up, too. Reaching around to her back, she unhooked her bra and shimmied it off her arms. Tossing it over her shoulder in the general direction of the car, she said, “And I’ll make you beg.”
5
CAMMY ONLY GAVE HERSELF a couple of seconds to savor the stunned expression on Gil’s face before she climbed into the car. Even though she barely recognized herself, she still wasn’t an exhibitionist at heart.
Gil was in the car with the door closed and leaning toward her before she had time to crawl all the way over. “This is so much better than my fantasies about you.”
Gil had fantasies? About her?
His eyes dark with desire, he skimmed his hands from her waist to her breasts. “Sooo much better.”
Heat pooled in her belly with frightening speed. Her last thought before Gil’s mouth closed over her nipple was that she’d be okay as long as she kept her shorts on.
His touch was all heat and sizzle and she felt it everywhere. There was no slow buildup, just an explosion of sensation. Her hips bucked as he teased her with his tongue. She felt one of his hands wander to the snap on her jean shorts. Yes, she thought, her brain clouded by lust, and then remembered no. Capturing his hand, she placed it on her other breast and then tunneled her fingers through his hair.
Pleasure rushed through her. Oh, he was good. Really good. She moaned. Really, really good. He knew just how to touch her and keep her suspended in the sweet spot between too much and not enough.
Normally, there wasn’t such a thing as too good, but Cammy’s plan was already in serious peril. She couldn’t stop after a few breathless moans and oh yeses, not when she was writhing beneath him and practically pulling out his hair. It had been less than a minute and she was already rounding the corner at “Don’t stop” and heading for “Hurry!” Nothing left after that but the slide into home.
Time to take it down a notch. She tugged on his shoulders. “Kiss me.”
Gil shifted until his mouth was over hers. Instead of kissing her immediately, he slowly brushed stray pieces of her hair off her face. He wound one piece around his finger and let the curl spring loose. “I like your curly hair.”
“It’s a frizzy mess.”
Gil shook his head. “You’re beautiful.” And then he did a rotten thing—he stared directly into her eyes and gave her the most tender smile. It pierced her heart, that smile. When he lowered his head and softly kissed her, she shivered, nearly overwhelmed with emotion.
She wasn’t supposed to be feeling all gooshy about Gil, not when she hated him. But he’d looked at her with his heart in his eyes and she’d felt so mean about getting him all worked up and then stopping. Especially since she was all worked up and confused. She was supposed to be in love with Jonathan.
She closed her eyes and kissed Gil, pretending she was kissing Jonathan.
And felt nothing. Actually, she felt annoyed because Jonathan was intruding on her lovely kiss with Gil. Gil who had rescued her. Gil who had taken her to her favorite restaurant. Gil who had given up his Saturday to drive her to the beach house. Gil who had brought her coffee.
Gil who was making her feel so delicious.
Cammy ran her hands over his back and wrapped her leg around his waist. He felt so good against her, and warm, and solid, and he truly was the best kisser in the world. He gave her long, slow, syrupy kisses that tugged on her soul and deeper passionate kisses that heated her to the boiling point. The time to call a halt came and went and Cammy mentally waved good-bye to her plan. It was a stupid plan, anyway.
Reaching between their bodies, she tried to unsnap her shorts or his shorts or somebody’s shorts but Gil’s body was pressed so tightly against her she couldn’t.
“Gil!” she cried in frustration. “Gil!”
HAVING CAMMY HALF-NAKED in his arms after so long was almost too good to be true. Gil poured everything he had into kissing and teasing and stroking and anything else he could think of to keep her squirming and making those sexy little sounds.
When she’d challenged him and tossed her bra over her shoulder, his caveman instincts had kicked in and he’d been fighting the urge to rip off the rest of her clothes and perpetuate the human race. He had more finesse than that.
He’d let her get into the car first.
Gil had gone from loving her in an idealistic way to enjoying her in a carnal way. He enjoyed her mouth and he enjoyed her breasts and he wanted to enjoy other places.
She was hot. She was panting. She was wiggling.
She was beating on his shoulders. “Gil!”
Her distressed voice finally penetrated. Gil dragged his mouth away from her and supported himself with his arms. Head hanging down, shoulders heaving, he softly groaned. He’d known it was too good to be true. She’d been mad at him and somehow that had translated into a heavy make-out session—he didn’t follow the logic, but he sure wasn’t complaining—but he’d known she’d have second thoughts.
“Gil, I—”
“It’s okay, Cammy.” He tried to keep the screaming sexual frustration out of his voice. “It’s okay.” He sucked in a huge breath of air, raised his head, and kissed her on the forehead murmuring, “It’s okay.”
“Gil—”
“It’s okay.”
Cammy groaned.
“I said I’d take everything you offered. That also means I’m not taking anything you don’t.”
“That’s nice,” she panted. “Help me get off my shorts.”
He raised his head and blinked several times, mentally and physically doing a one-eighty. “I can do that.”
He rolled to the side and helped Cammy draw off her shorts and underwear. And then he stared at her body concentrating fiercely so he’d remember every curve and every dimple and the way her skin glistened. He stared at the neat triangle at the juncture of her thighs, highlighted by the untanned skin, and thought, this has been worth the wait.
“Gil?” She nudged him with her foot.
“Hmm?”
“Take off your shorts.”
“I can do that, too.” He’d forgotten he still had them on.
“Good.”
He scrambled out of them, sacrificing style for expediency.
He felt her hand run up and down his back and swallowed. He’d make this good for her if it killed him.
“It
’s time to get the condom,” she said.
“Thank God.”
“And can you turn around while you do that?”
Gil stopped in the act of reaching for the packet she’d propped in the headrest. “Turn around?”
“Yeah, so I can see.”
He hadn’t planned on making a big production out of it, but he turned around.
“It’s a personal rule that nothing goes inside me without me seeing it first. It’s also a personal rule not to have sex in the backseat of a car, but there you go.” Cammy propped herself on her elbows and watched interestedly. “Now that’s worth an exception to the rule, that is.”
Gil fumbled with the condom.
“Ha! You said you never fumbled.”
“You’re staring! I feel like I’m auditioning. Talk about breaking the mood.”
“Oh, please. Nothing’s broken.”
“Just my manly pride,” he said darkly.
“Your manly pride is taking a quick breather before gearing up.”
“That’s not the way it’s gearing.” How could this be happening? With Cammy? With Cammy naked in his car? The thought alone should be plenty. The reality should have him like—
“Oh, Gi-il…”
He looked up, his gaze traveling up her legs, across the dewy expanse of her stomach, climbing over the peaks of her breasts, lingering in the hollow of her throat and hauling itself over her chin to meet her eyes.
When she had his attention, Cammy gently sucked on one finger, swirling her tongue around and around the tip before trailing it over her chin, between her breasts, and all the way down her stomach, retracing the path his gaze had just taken.
And then her knees fell open and she began touching herself.
The breath hissed between his teeth as lust exploded inside him. His heart pounded in his ears, his temples, his chest and his groin. He stared transfixed as her finger circled and dipped and rubbed.
“Don’t think,” she murmured. “Keep the blood flowing to the important parts.”
“Okay,” he said. “I can do that.”
She smiled the most un-Cammylike smile he’d ever seen. “I’m going to stop giving stage directions now and let you slide on home.”
“You’re using sports metaphors?”
She settled back down, eyes closed. “If you can say ‘metaphor,’ you’re thinking too much.”
Right. Simple. Keep it simple. He knelt between her legs and caught Cammy’s hand. Kissing it, he took her other hand and stretched them both over her head, pinning them against the seat.
Surprised, her eyes flew open and he grinned. Yeah, you didn’t expect that. Makes us even, because I didn’t expect you. Then he kissed her. Once, twice. She made the little sound he’d been waiting for. He kissed her a third time and her hips ground against his. He raised his lips, waiting, and only when her eyes opened again did he rock into her, not stopping until he was completely encased by her heat.
“Gil!” Her eyes were wide with shocked pleasure before growing heavy-lidded as a sensual smile curved her lips. “Is that all you’ve got?”
He thrust into her, setting a pace fueled by three years of longing and frustration.
Beneath him, Cammy moved her head from side to side and moaned as she tugged at her wrists. “Gil!”
He released them and she clutched his back and wrapped her legs around him.
Gil let go, pounding into her, claiming her for his own as she panted his name over and over. His name.
Her muscles clenched around him as she climaxed. He slowed, feeling a primal satisfaction as he felt the ripples and heard her moan his name. And then he said, “Cammy,” and lost himself in her.
6
SHE HADN’T KEPT HER shorts on and now she was in trouble. Hot and sticky and naked in a car in a parking lot with no bathroom to duck into and stare at herself in the mirror and say, “What were you thinking?”
Cammy had been thinking of sex, that’s what. The sex had been incredible. But it had been incredible with Gil.
What did that say about her? Probably something slutty because any sex that good had to be wrong somehow. It was like a life rule.
She didn’t recognize herself. Sex in a semi-public place. In the daylight. And not with the man she’d been in love with for three years—or thought she’d been in love with for three years—but Gil.
She’d never acted this way before and wondered why. It was fun. She’d had a good time. People would be appalled. She would be appalled. But she felt smug.
The downside was that this situation wasn’t real. It was some fluke, maybe due to low barometric pressure or something. It wasn’t normal. And she was thinking why can’t it be normal? which was the trouble part.
Beside her, Gil was talking. And talking.
She wasn’t listening. Worse than that, she wanted him to stop talking so they could have sex again. They were good at sex. She turned onto her side, propping herself on her elbow and watched Gil talk. He was so happy. He’d been making love, not just having sex. Next time, Cammy would make love to him. He’d be incoherent. He’d be—
She’d make love to him because she would be in love with him. The realization blindsided her. Gil talked on, completely unaware that Cammy was having A Moment. It was as though she’d put her life in storage and had gone on vacation for three years to Delusion Land. Gil had brought her home and made her turn on the lights and start retrieving the pieces of her life. And it looked as though he was going to be one of those pieces. He assumed he was. But Cammy needed to be sure. Being hopelessly infatuated for way too long made her judgment suspect.
Time to get dressed. This was going to be awkward. Undressing had been so much easier.
She sat up, wondering how to begin, when Gil snagged his shirt with his foot and shook it out before handing it to her. “In case somebody comes by before we find all your clothes.”
Good idea.
He waited until she dragged the shirt over her head before opening the door. Standing by the car, he pulled on his shorts and just like that, he was decent, looking as if he’d been at the beach.
Men had it so easy.
He reached beneath the seat and came up with her shorts and underwear. “I was thinking,” he said as he handed them to her.
Don’t think, she thought.
“You could partner with me again. With Paul and me, because I wouldn’t do that to him. Besides, he can draw and we can’t. It’s wild. You tell him something and he puts it on paper. He thinks as he’s drawing. Give him a good idea and he’ll make it great. With the two of us, we’ll give him great ideas and the sky’s the limit.”
“Uh…” Had he noticed that she wasn’t saying much? Had he noticed he was talking a lot?
“Cammy, we make creative magic. That doesn’t happen very often.” He grinned. “And obviously it transferred to the physical, too.”
When she didn’t respond, his grin faded.
Well, that wasn’t fair to let him doubt it. “Gil, sex with you was scary good. It was—” she gestured because she couldn’t find the words “—beyond anything that I ever dreamed sex could be.”
“But?” he prompted.
“I feel as though I’m in an alternate universe. This time yesterday, I was sitting at my desk. And now I’m…I’m….” she looked down at herself. “Naked except for your shirt.”
The grin was back. “Oh, I know.”
She gave an unwilling laugh.
“But it’s too fast for you,” he said.
She nodded. “Not only that, but this isn’t me. I would never have dreamed I’d do this. Or that I’d like it. I don’t want you thinking this is me.”
“Cammy, I know who you are.”
Gil thoughtfully went searching for her bra in the front seat as she struggled into her underwear.
Yeah, but did Cammy know who she was?
Gil found the bra and her top, which had fallen to the ground. After shaking off bits of gravel and crushed shell, he gave
her the clothes.
Their eyes met. She knew he saw the doubt in hers because he turned away so she could finish putting her clothes on.
Because she was being so quiet, he thought she was having regrets. Cammy searched her mind and found only a warning that if she didn’t reassure him pronto, then she’d have regrets.
He stood in the open doorway with his back to her, arms crossed over his chest, probably mentally kicking himself.
Setting aside her bra and top, Cammy hooked a finger into the waistband of his shorts and tugged. “Hey.”
“What?” He looked over his shoulder.
Cammy pulled his shirt over her head and plopped it next to her clothes. “I didn’t get enough skin time with you. Come here.”
The happiness and relief she saw on his face told her she’d made the right call. When he crawled back inside, she made him lay back and straddled him, running her hands over his chest and watching his eyes become glazed with desire.
I like this man she thought. Really soon, I’m going to love this man. Bending her head, she kissed his throat, along his jaw, beneath his ear, and the place where his neck met his shoulder.
Sighing, she laid her head on his shoulder, enjoying the way her skin felt against his. One of his hands rested in the small of her back, lightly caressing, making her aware of him without the white heat of passion consuming her. Just stoking the fire a little. “This is nice,” she murmured.
She felt his breathing change and knew he was about to say something. “I meant what I said.”
“About the three of us as a creative team?”
“Yes and when I said the L-word. I meant that.”
“The L-word?” She smiled against his neck. “You mean love?”
“Yeah, but I thought it wouldn’t sound so scary to you if I didn’t say all of it.”
“It’s not scary. It’s unexpected.”
“I understand that. I do. But I wanted you to know sex with you wasn’t just a casual thing. For me.”
“I know.” She kissed his jaw. “The past twenty-four hours are a lot to process. You’ve had time. I’ve had a day.” And right now, she didn’t know what she felt or what she might feel. So she wasn’t going to think about it. Yesterday’s Cammy would pick apart every nuance of their…encounter might be the best word. Today’s Cammy wasn’t going to worry about it. Yet.
His Little Black Book Page 17