by Debra Webb
Holding back took every ounce of willpower he could marshal, but he wouldn’t risk hurting her any more than necessary. Her legs tightened around his waist, a silent plea for more. He filled her. She was so exquisitely tight that he thought he might not survive this one full thrust. He closed his eyes and surrendered to the incredible sensual bliss of being inside Kennedy. He pressed harder, making their joining complete.
She was his. Completely.
His pressed his forehead against hers and willed his body to slow its spiral toward the ultimate release. The pleasure of being inside her exploded in his chest, sent a new kind of heat rushing through his veins. Nothing or no one had ever made him feel this way before.
Her lips tempting his, she lifted her bottom from the table, urging him to begin. Her fingers dug into his skin. She whimpered her need, and Drake could wait no longer. Her pulled back and thrust fully into her again and again, his movements becoming harder, faster each time…until she climaxed, crying his name.
He gasped with his own powerful release, and slowed. Then, resting his forearms on the table on either side of her to support his body, he kissed the tip of her nose and she smiled. “That was amazing,” he murmured.
“You’re amazing,” Kennedy answered dreamily. “I can feel you still pulsing inside me. It makes me want you again.”
He chuckled softly at her honesty. “How about we try it upstairs in the bed this time?”
Kennedy’s eyes rounded as if she’d only just realized where they were.
“I told you not to knock it until you’d tried it,” he teased.
~*~
The smell of coffee brewing did little to perk up Kennedy the next morning. She leaned against the kitchen counter and studied the borrowed engagement ring on her finger. She and Drake had made love three times last night. She had sneaked out of the bed this morning, leaving him asleep. How could she face him and risk his seeing the truth on her face?
She was in love with him.
The feelings had been there for days now, but Kennedy hadn’t been sure of what it exactly meant. Not until last night.
But she couldn’t be in love with him. He was Drake. She and Drake were friends. Had last night elevated their relationship all the way to friends with benefits? This whole week had been make-believe. A spin. Tears welled in her eyes and Kennedy wanted to cry. How could she have let it happen?
“Hey, sweetpea.” Brenda draped her arms around her daughter. “I really like your ring. Did you two pick it out together?”
Kennedy stared into her mother’s questioning gaze and the urge to cry overwhelmed her all over again. God, how could she have been such an idiot?
“Mom, there’s something I have to tell you,” she began, emotion almost choking her.
“Yes, sir,” her father boomed as he and Drake entered the kitchen. “Tonight’s game will be a hell of a match. Martin and a couple of the guys are coming over. If you and sweetpea don’t have plans, maybe you can join us. We’d love you two to spend your last night with us.”
“Sounds good,” Drake smiled affably until he shifted his attention to Kennedy and something in his eyes changed, shadowed with remembered desire.
“Morning,” he said huskily.
“Good morning.” Kennedy essayed a pathetic attempt at a smile.
“Now, what were you going to say, sweetpea?”
Kennedy’s gaze flew to her mother. “Oh, it’s nothing.” She shook her head and waved her hand in dismissal. “I can’t even remember what it was now.”
Her father shot her a knowing look. “Well, it looks as if love is in the air. Your Uncle Martin called this morning before sunrise and announced that he and Celia were leaving for Vegas tomorrow afternoon.” Chuck poured himself a cup of coffee.
Brenda frowned. “Celia doesn’t strike me as the Elvis chapel type.”
Chuck waggled his eyebrows. “I don’t know. It might be kind of groovy to be married by the King.”
Kennedy tuned out the rest of the conversation. Love was in the air all right. It was just too bad she had fallen in love with the kind of man who wasn’t interested in commitment. He loved his freedom too much.
Besides, Drake had lots of women ready to fall at his feet. What on earth would he need with her?
~*~
Sunday morning Drake watched as Kennedy said her goodbyes to her father and mother. Both had shed their hippie garb, and looked like the conservative, small-town folks Kennedy had first described to him. He gave his head a slight shake as he realized just how much he was going to miss these people, and the town. Sometime during the past seven days he had come to think of this place as home. In all the years he had lived in D.C., his apartment had never actually felt like home. But somehow this place did.
Or maybe it was Kennedy.
He refused to consider that he was losing her. He almost laughed out loud. Losing her. Hell, she’d never belonged to him. The whole week had been nothing but an illusion.
“Drake.” Chuck Malone embraced him in a bear hug. The older man drew back and smiled. “I want you two to come back and see us soon. We expect to be the first to know when the date is set.”
Drake only nodded. He couldn’t bring himself to lie to the man again. Not now.
Brenda Malone was the next to throw her arms around him. “You take care of our girl, Douglas,” she whispered, a tear in her voice.
“I’ll do my best,” he managed. He could at least do that. He and Kennedy had looked out for each other for three years. There was no reason they couldn’t continue to do so. That is, if she would let him.
Kennedy dropped into the seat behind the steering wheel and popped on her sunglasses. “I’ll call!” she promised as she started the engine.
Drake settled in on the passenger side and clicked his belt into place. Things would probably return to just the way they were when he and Kennedy got back to D.C.
Kennedy jammed the gearshift into reverse and whipped out into the street. Drake braced his hand against the dash. That is, if he made it back to D.C.
Chapter Ten
“Just put them here,” Kennedy insisted once they reached her apartment door. Drake dropped her bag on the floor. His own duffel was still slung over one broad shoulder. Kennedy tried not to notice that about him. Or his beard-shadowed face. Things were supposed to return to normal once they were back in D.C.
They were back home now. Home. Somehow the word sounded empty when she considered her beige, nondescript door. The emptiness that lay beyond it made her feel suddenly too cold.
“Well.” Drake looked anywhere but at her. “It was a great trip. But it’s good to be back.”
Kennedy squared her shoulders and prepared herself for his goodbye. “Yeah, it’s good to be back.”
He finally looked directly at her. A current of sensual electricity flowed instantly between them. “I guess I’ll go check on Iggy.”
“I have a thousand calls to make,” Kennedy returned. “I probably have a million voice mails.”
Drake hesitated before he turned away. “If you ever need me for anything…anything at all, just let me know, Kennedy.”
She smiled weakly. “Sure, thanks, Drake. You do the same.”
He got halfway across the hall this time before he turned back. “You have your key, don’t you?”
She held up her hand and displayed the item in question. She blinked to hold back the tears now threatening to humiliate her. If she cried now, he would know the truth—that she loved him with all her heart.
“Okay.” He stared at the tiled floor for a moment. “Well, see ya.” He forced a smile and turned his back. This time he didn’t stop until he was at his own door.
Kennedy turned to her door and inserted the key. No point in loitering in the hall.
She heard Drake’s door close behind him.
It was over.
~*~
Kennedy dragged herself out of bed on Monday morning and forced herself to go through the motions of prepa
ring for work. Never in her entire life had she ever felt so depressed. So…heartsick. She shook herself and tried psyching up for the office, but it didn’t work. Dreading work was totally out of character for her.
Work was her life.
At least it had been until she’d pretended to be engaged.
A vivid memory of Drake making love to her in that slow, thorough manner of his zoomed into 3-D focus—but she couldn’t think about Drake. It was over. They weren’t together anymore. Certainly not engaged.
Engaged.
The ring.
Kennedy stared at the borrowed jewelry on the third finger of her left hand. “Oh, God.” She had almost forgotten the ring. Wouldn’t she have had a fine time trying to explain that one at the office? She tugged at the ring, but it wouldn’t budge. Kennedy frowned. It had fit perfectly when she put it on.
Irritated now, she stormed into the kitchen and rubbed dish soap on her finger. She pulled for all she was worth. It wasn’t moving. Anxiety tightened like a steel band around her head. She had to get this ring off. Not only could she not go to work wearing the damned thing, she had to return it. Today.
Ten minutes later it was obvious she wasn’t getting the ring off. Her finger was red from her pulling and twisting. Desperation made her impatient. She glanced at her watch. She was late. She had to do something.
Now!
Drake would know what to do.
Kennedy grabbed her bag and keys and hurried out the door. She locked up, since she would need to leave immediately after he got the ring off her finger.
That thought sent another kind of fear coursing through her. She had tossed and turned all night long. The memory of their lovemaking haunted her. The image of her Drake kept playing over and over in her mind. The way he moved. The way he talked. The way he kissed her.
God, she was hopeless.
She couldn’t think of him that way anymore. He was back to being her neighbor. She paused in front of his door. For all she knew he could already have one of his girlfriends over. A jealous anger she had never felt before erupted inside her. Slowly, Kennedy took three deep breaths. This was ridiculous. He didn’t belong to her. He never had. Drake was simply her neighbor, and right now she needed him for nothing more than removing a stubborn ring.
Kennedy pounded on his door. No answer. He had to be there. She pounded again. He couldn’t have left on some assignment already.
What was she thinking? Knowing him, he was probably still in bed. The memory of how he had looked that morning when she had discovered him naked in his bed suddenly came back to her. Kennedy shivered. She absolutely had to stop thinking like that.
He still hadn’t answered the door. She looked at the ring of keys in her hand and considered using the key to his door to let herself in, but she couldn’t do that anymore.
Things just weren’t the same.
The door suddenly opened and Drake towered over her, dressed and ready to go.
“Good, I was just about to call you,” he said in a rush. He placed his duffel and his camera bag on the floor outside his door, closed and locked it. “My flight leaves in less than two hours. Can you give me a lift to the airport?”
Kennedy snapped her open mouth shut. He was leaving.
Today.
Now.
He slung the bags over his shoulders and grabbed Kennedy by her arm. “Come on. We can talk on the way.”
He was leaving. She had been right. Nothing they had shared during the past week had changed the way he felt about her. She was still simply his friend. A handy neighbor for feeding his pet and giving him the occasional ride. By the time Kennedy stopped ranting silently, they were at her car. He snagged her keys and opened the trunk. She studied the impassive expression on his face. How could he feel nothing at all? How could he be so…so nonchalant?
“Wait,” she fairly shouted, anger fueling her indignation.
Drake’s head came up. He closed the trunk with a resounding thud. “What?” he asked, the picture of utter innocence.
“I don’t have time to go to the airport, Drake. I have a job, too. Or have you forgotten?” she railed hotly. The very idea that he would pick up where they left off. She had to admit the man had some nerve.
He frowned, a study in concern. Kennedy seethed. The same old Drake. Treating her like a pal already. Why in the world had she ever believed that anything that happened had affected him the way it had her?
She was a fool.
“I’m desperate, Kennedy. You know how hard it is to get a cab around here at this time of the morning.”
And how could he look so damned sincere? And why did she care? Kennedy blew out a frustrated breath. “Fine.” She jerked her door open and sat down behind the wheel. If he could act like nothing had happened, so could she.
Once they were on the street, Kennedy kept her attention focused on the morning rush hour traffic, but she could feel Drake’s gaze on her.
“What?” she finally demanded, shooting him a sharp glare.
“Nothing.” He looked straight ahead then.
“You were staring at me, Drake,” she countered crossly. “Why? It’s not as if you don’t know what I look like.”
He sighed mightily. “I was just thinking how beautiful you are.”
Heat swirled inside Kennedy, followed immediately by renewed ire. “Don’t even start. Our little ruse is over. O-ver,” she added for good measure.
Pretending not to notice her foul mood, he smiled at her the next time she looked his way. Kennedy rolled her eyes. She was, without a doubt, the biggest fool who’d ever walked the earth. She’d decided that days ago, and then again minutes ago.
“Did you need something this morning?” he asked abruptly. “Is that why you were at my door?”
Kennedy thrust her left hand at him, awkward as that proved. “I can’t get it off,” she fretted, suddenly remembering her dilemma.
Drake held her hand and pulled on the ring. It didn’t budge. A car honked. Kennedy swerved back across the line.
“Maybe we’d better wait until we get to the airport,” he suggested tightly. He placed her hand back on the steering wheel.
Fifteen long, silent minutes later, Kennedy whipped into a no-parking zone. She jumped out and rushed to the trunk to unlock it. Drake reached in and retrieved his bags, once again draping them over his shoulders.
“I have to get my boarding pass, then I’ll get that ring off.”
Kennedy had to run to keep up with his long strides as hey hurried to the airline counter. While Drake checked in, she suddenly wondered where he was going.
Of course, she wasn’t supposed to care.
But, dammit, she did.
Drake finally returned, without the duffel. “Okay, let’s see that stubborn ring.”
Kennedy lifted her gaze to his. “Where are you off to?”
He glanced up, his fingers still twisting the ring back and forth. Those silvery eyes called to her, as did those sinfully full lips. God, she was pathetic. He probably hadn’t given their time together a second thought.
“I have to be in Colombia as soon as possible.”
“Colombia?” Kennedy suddenly thought of all the bad things that cold happen to a person while traipsing through the jungles of South America.
He pulled her hands to his mouth and licked her finger, all the way around the stubborn ring. Kennedy’s breathing hitched, then stalled in her lungs.
“I’ll be back in about a week, though,” he continued as he worked the ring back and forth over her dampened skin. “You’ll feed Iggy?”
“Sure, I’ll feed him,” she murmured, her concentration still focused on the feel of his tongue on her skin. He had touched many other parts of her body with that skilled tongue of his. The memories made her shiver.
“You gonna miss me?” He put her finger in his mouth this time. Her self-control vanished when his tongue did another little wicked glide around the ring.
“W-what?” Kennedy stammered.
Something in his gaze told her that he was serious. “Yes,” she told him in all honesty. Kennedy bit her lip nervously. “Apparently I grew quite fond of you during our—our engagement.” Had she really said that? Hurt and humiliation tightened her chest. Kennedy averted her gaze and tried hard not to cry. Please, if only the floor would crack open and swallow her up right now.
His fingers closed around her hand. “I guess you could say I got a little attached to you, too.”
She lifted her gaze back to his and offered a weak smile. “Well, we’re still neighbors,” she said noncommittally. “It’s not like we won’t see each other or anything. I mean…it’s pretty much like it used to be…I guess.”
Was she imagining it, or was he closer now?
“That’s true, I suppose,” he said softly.
Somehow the idea that she wouldn’t see him for a whole week made her deathly ill. She didn’t want whatever had started between them to end. But it had, for him anyway.
“I have to go.”
She nodded. “I know.”
He didn’t move. He just stood there, looking at her and holding her hand and the confounded ring that still wouldn’t come off.
“The ring,” she reminded.
He never took his eyes off hers. “It doesn’t want to come off.”
Kennedy tamped down the hope building in her chest. “I can’t just keep it. I borrowed it.”
“What if I bought it for you?”
Kennedy’s heart stilled for an endless moment. “Why”—she cleared her throat—“why would you do something like that?”
He moved closer. Kennedy could feel the heat from his body. “Because I stayed awake all last night and did a lot of thinking. I kind of liked things the way they were in Friendly Corners.”
“But that would mean we would have to be engaged for real.”
Uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “You don’t want to be engaged?”