by Melody Anne
He cleared his throat, and she realized she was practically drooling as she gazed at his thickness. Her eyes jerked to his. They weren’t laughing at her, as she’d thought they would be. It seemed there was worry in his expression. But she didn’t understand why.
Her brain was muddled. She wasn’t able to think. She most likely wouldn’t be until he wasn’t standing naked before her. Without permission, her gaze drifted back down his body to where he still stood erect. It seemed like such a waste to do nothing about it.
Without conscious thought, she was moving to the side of the bed and grasping him in her hands. His entire body tightened as a drop of moisture dripped from the wide tip of him. She leaned forward and licked it off.
“Jenna . . .” he groaned. She wasn’t sure if it was a warning or a command to continue, but Jenna couldn’t stop herself. She took him inside her mouth and sucked. His hands clutched at her shoulders as he stepped closer so she wasn’t straining to reach him.
He tasted delicious. Her stomach was shaking as her core throbbed with need. She wanted more. She took him to the back of her throat and sucked hard before releasing him and running her tongue across his dripping head. She did this repeatedly, her body growing tighter. She wondered if she’d orgasm from just touching him. She certainly was willing to give it a try. She wanted more of his salty taste as he slicked her tongue with his pleasure.
Reaching down, one of his hands found her swollen breast, and his fingers began pinching her nipple. The heat inside her dripped out as she pressed her legs together, the feeling so intense. She was barely holding on.
Picking up her efforts as she melted, she sucked harder, her tongue dancing across his steel. He moved his other hand down and gripped both her breasts, his touch hard as he twisted and pinched her buds.
Her throat opened as she cried out, her body letting go once more and shuddering in pleasure. The opening of her throat sent him in a couple more inches, and she felt his cry reverberate through her as hot ropes of his pleasure shot down her throat. He pulsed inside her mouth as his body shook beneath her hands.
Carter pulled himself from her mouth and she took in a deep breath of air as the final tremors of her pleasure dissipated. She fell back on the bed, too exhausted to move even an inch. Carter said nothing as he lifted her, then covered her body.
She fell asleep instantly with a smile on her swollen lips, thoroughly sated.
five
Carter waited for Jenna to fall asleep, and then he dressed and slipped from her room. He walked down the snow-packed driveway, his body still overheated from the single most intense sexual experience of his life. He couldn’t help but think back to ten years ago. When he’d first noticed Jenna, his teenage heart had fluttered.
He’d been so cocky then—not much had changed, he thought with a sardonic smile. But he’d turned to Michael and told him he was going to have that girl. Michael had scoffed at the thought of having just one girl at the tender age of sixteen.
When he’d approached her, full swagger in effect, he’d been confident she’d melt at his feet. He’d told her he was taking her out to the movies that night. She had smiled the most beautiful smile in the world and then said good luck with that. To his utter shock, she’d turned and walked away. His feet had been glued to the ground in such disbelief he hadn’t followed her. Only Michael’s laughter had brought him out of his stupefaction.
“How’s it feel to be turned down cold?” Michael had asked with pure joy.
“Did that just happen?” Carter had asked, his voice in awe.
“Oh yeah, that happened,” Michael told him, looking after Jenna a bit in awe himself.
He sighed and then smiled big. “I’m gonna marry that girl.”
And then the chase had begun. The next time they’d had a conversation, she’d told him she didn’t date overinflated jocks with bigger egos than brains. He’d been floored again. And he hadn’t given up. From that moment on, he hadn’t even seen any other girls, no matter how much they flirted with him.
It had taken him a solid six months, but finally he’d convinced Jenna to go on a date with him. It had taken three more dates before he’d gotten a kiss. And the rest was history. Their lips had locked together and magic happened. He’d watched her fall in love with him. It had taken her so much longer than it had taken him. He’d fallen in love that day she’d walked away from him.
Carter realized as he came back to the present that he’d never truly forgotten about her. What did that mean, though? He’d walked away from her without so much as a look back. He’d walked away from his entire life.
Did he have regrets?
No. Carter didn’t believe in regrets. He believed that a person had to have convictions in the decisions they made. If not, the person was weak and he wanted nothing to do with them. So he wouldn’t regret his romance with Jenna, wouldn’t regret leaving, and he certainly wouldn’t regret the amazing sex they’d just had.
He’d had to get out of that bedroom, though. The feelings that had rushed through him as he’d looked down at her sleeping so peacefully with a tiny smile on her swollen lips had left his heart pounding with the need to pull her close to him and take her all over again.
It had been years since he’d wanted to take a woman twice in a row, let alone three times. Sex was great. Of course it was great. But since Jenna, he hadn’t felt a connection with anyone else. Sex was just pleasure. When it was over, he could walk away without even thinking of looking back.
It appeared some things never changed, because even though he was walking farther from the inn, everything inside him wanted to turn around and go back to her. Because of that thought, he forced himself to continue moving.
He would go back, but it wouldn’t be because he had to, it’d be because he was ready. That made a world of difference in Carter’s mind. He had to be in control, always. When he’d lost his parents and brother, he hadn’t been able to do a thing about it. From that moment on, he’d never left anything to chance.
And relationships were the biggest game of chance there was. You couldn’t force a person to stay with you and you couldn’t force a person not to love you if you didn’t want that. There was no control in a relationship, so the bottom line was that Carter didn’t do them—especially with someone he had history with.
But sex was sex, he reminded himself. And sex with Jenna was out of this world. He was there for a week and it’d be a shame for them not to utilize that time. They both had needs that they could meet for each other. No promises would be made.
Carter refused to acknowledge the small twinge inside him telling him he was a fool. He’d just been thinking about the fact that relationships weren’t controllable. But he insisted this wasn’t a relationship. This was just two sexual people needing release, and from Jenna’s reaction, she really needed more release.
That brought a smile to his lips. He was turning back without conscious thought. He needed to be in her bed. Carter was suddenly rushing back up the driveway to the inn. He’d barely shut the door before running to the stairs. He didn’t slow until he was standing in her room.
She hadn’t moved from her cozy position on the bed. His heart was racing as he took several minutes to look down at her and take in the peaceful setting.
Moving over to the fireplace, he added more wood, and then, almost as if a string was attaching him to Jenna’s bed, he found himself standing beside it again. With a sigh, he gave up.
Stripping down, he climbed in beside her. When her warm body immediately curled around his, he told himself his heart didn’t skip a beat. Then he closed his eyes and fell into a perfect sleep.
six
Nothing was said when Jenna woke up in Carter’s arms. At first, panic set in, and she wanted to run far and fast, but then his fingers twitched and she found herself melting against him. The first time he’d taken her hard, fast, and passionately.
This time it was slow and soft. He kissed every inch of her body, whispered in
her ears, then groaned as she trailed her lips down his salty skin. He’d slipped inside her as if he’d never left, and the hunger was still there, but the feelings were so much more intense.
As she stood beneath her shower spray for her second bathing of the day, the warm water washing away the evidence of their passion, she smiled. Did a person ever truly get over their first love? She was starting to think the answer to that was a solid no.
But she couldn’t think that way—what they were doing wasn’t something that would last. He’d walked away from her ten years before without a look back. He would do the same this time. She didn’t even know why he was there. They hadn’t exactly gotten around to much talking.
Maybe that was the next step. But if she began questioning him, what if he walked out before she got answers? It didn’t make sense in her sex-addled mind. Her body had been woken, and now even the spray of the water was making her squirm.
She felt eighteen again, in love and not quite fully sated. Oh, this wasn’t good. Before she dressed and climbed down those stairs, she needed to have a solid plan of action in place. It was all that could possibly save her from tumbling down a hill with no end in sight.
By the time she was done, Jenna still didn’t have answers, but when she walked into the kitchen and found him standing at the stove wearing an unbuttoned shirt and low-rise jeans hugging his hips, her mouth watered.
Maybe this could just be about sex, she thought. But for how long? Was it just this one day? A week? A month? Ugh, she was a planner, not a spur-of-the-moment kind of person.
“Why are you here?” she blurted out.
He turned, but there wasn’t surprise in his eyes. He’d known she was there. Was he waiting to see what she was going to say? Was he testing the waters? Was he just there to get free sex? She’d never been a slut, but she was beginning to feel a little bit like one the longer he stared at her.
“I’m in town to see Michael,” he finally said.
There was a flash in his eyes that worried her. When they were young, she’d called him out on it, had told him he was the worst liar ever. He was better at it now that he was some bigwig landowner, but she knew him too well to miss it completely.
She was glad he couldn’t read her thoughts. She didn’t want him to know she’d kept track of him through the years. It wasn’t that she’d stalked the man, but she had read articles, had seen him rise to the top of the who’s-who list and make a name for himself. In her defense, it was hard not to know what he was doing when he was constantly in the media.
“What are you doing here?” She stressed the last word, wanting to know why he was at her inn.
“I heard you were back,” he said, his eyes more shaded this time, covering up whatever he was thinking.
“So you stopped by for a booty call?” she asked, hating the tiny hitch in her tone. Hopefully he hadn’t noticed. Hopefully she was just so nervous she was projecting.
He was quiet for several moments as he turned to stir whatever was filling the room with a delicious aroma. The man had learned to cook. Or at least it smelled like he had. She shifted as he turned off the stove and moved to the cupboard to pull down two plates.
“I couldn’t find much in the kitchen, so I made do with what was here,” he said, ignoring her other question.
He served two plates of chicken stir-fry and walked to the table, where he already had glasses of wine, silverware, and bread waiting. She followed him, determined to get some answers.
“Look, I’m not going to lie and say the sex wasn’t great, but you can tell me why you showed up on my doorstep,” she said. He was looking at the food, not at her.
She sat and took a bite of his impromptu meal, having to hold in a sigh. The vegetables were perfect, fried with just the right amount of crunch, the chicken tender and well seasoned, the bread warm. They were both silent as they ate for a few more moments. She patiently waited for him to answer her.
“I wasn’t going to see you,” he finally said.
The words sent a pang of hurt through her, but she didn’t show that to him. She’d asked him to tell her what he was doing, so she couldn’t complain about the answers he gave her.
“Then what changed your mind?” she asked.
He took another moment to answer. “From the moment I first met you, there was something about you that always pulled me to you. Ten years hasn’t seemed to lessen that impact,” he admitted.
That made a smile flutter to her lips. He was frowning. If only she could read his mind, she wished. But even as a teenager, he had held secrets inside him she had no chance of finding.
“Okay then. You’re here for a visit and we’re going to have sex and then say good-bye.” She said it as a statement. If she were more in control, then she wouldn’t be hurt when whatever this was ended.
“It’s not like that,” he told her, not touching his food as he grabbed his glass of wine.
“We don’t have to make this into something it’s not. We’re both adults. I knew what I was doing when I went to bed with you,” she said, her chin held high.
“Jenna . . .” He stopped as he ran a hand through his hair.
She could see he was struggling to say something. She wanted to reach within him and pull out the words.
“Just tell me, Carter. I’m a big girl,” she said.
“Can we just enjoy an old friendship for a little while? I’ll be here about a week,” he told her.
She wished it were as easy as having a casual meeting with an old friend. It never was casual when it came to a first love, though. Beyond that, she wasn’t sure she’d ever fully closed that door between them. She thought she had.
“I honestly don’t know,” she said, deciding not to lie.
“I wasn’t planning on taking you to bed,” he admitted. She looked up to find his eyes locked on her face. She felt her cheeks heat.
“You just fell,” she said with a short laugh. “Oh, wait, that was me.” She added the last with a sardonic twist to her lips. It felt so much easier to laugh than to allow herself to break down and cry.
“I might have to stick around awhile to make sure you don’t hurt yourself. I can see that you haven’t grown out of your klutziness,” he told her. The tension of moments before was slowly easing. She decided not to be offended.
“Yep, that’s me, Ms. Graceful,” she said.
He lifted his wineglass and took a sip before giving her his full attention again. Damn, she could gaze at this man all day. He had always been beautiful, but he’d filled out in the last ten years, and there was something dangerous and haunting about him now. She didn’t know if she wanted to take him back to bed or wrap him in her arms and protect him.
“I didn’t plan on sleeping with you, but that all went out the window when you walked from the bathroom in that ridiculously short towel,” he said almost accusingly.
“I didn’t expect you to be in my bedroom,” she pointed out.
“True,” he admitted. “But we did have sex and it was spectacular. I think we need to do it a lot more,” he said.
She wished she could push him away, laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but the low purr of his voice made it nearly impossible. She wanted him. He knew it. There was no use denying that fact. What was she going to do about it?
“Just because we have this odd chemistry doesn’t mean we should continue to act on it,” she pointed out. She needed to play devil’s advocate.
His eyes narrowed as he took in her flushed cheeks and trembling fingers. He knew she was bluffing and he was calling her out on it. She picked up her wineglass and swallowed the rest of it down.
“I’m here for a week, Jenna,” he reminded her. “Then I have to leave. I’d like to spend that week with you, but I won’t lie and say it’ll turn into anything more.”
He said it almost angrily, like he fully expected her to tell him to go to hell. After all, she remembered fondly, it had taken him months to get a first date with her so many years earl
ier. She understood his defensiveness. He was letting her know the choice was hers. There wouldn’t be any bends in the agreement. They either had the week together or they had nothing.
She shifted in her seat as she watched him refill her wineglass. Good. She needed it. Right now it seemed that Jenna was doing a lot of things she normally didn’t do. Having sex in the middle of the day and taking a nap, sitting down with her sex buddy and having a meal. And then casually discussing whether they were going to have a cheap affair.
Life as a grown-up was so much fun, wasn’t it?
She was an adult, though. If she enjoyed what he was doing with her body, there was no reason to feel guilty about wanting more. Sure, she didn’t make it a habit to have sex with no commitment, but that made for a very cold bed, and in Montana, it was extra chilly.
Though her conscience was telling her she could never pull off casual, she found herself nodding at him. Her reward was a darkening of his eyes. He understood what she was saying without uttering a single word.
“Finish your food, Jenna. You’re going to need it,” he told her with a low rumble of words that had her instantly wet and wanting.
And so it began.
seven
Jenna knew she was being foolish. She could tell herself all day long that she could handle a no-strings-attached affair, but she feared she’d be devastated when Carter walked out her door. That thought made her angry. It was her choice how she felt. She didn’t have to let her weaknesses consume her.
Maybe this time she would be the one to tell him to go. She couldn’t exactly be the one to walk away, since they were conducting their affair at her inn, but she could put on a mask just like the one he wore and tell him she was finished.
No. She should act bored. That was much better. She’d give him a pitying look and tell him she’d had fun but she was over it now and it’d be best if he moved along. Maybe she’d do that the day before he was supposed to leave. Would that give her back some of her dignity?