“You’re up—”
“Stay back.” She held up a hand as she struggled to pull up the bodysuit. “Just stay right there.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” Everything. Just one look and her heart had kicked up a notch. Goose bumps danced along her bare flesh followed by a wave of heat. Her toes tingled. “This is not happening to me.”
“You don’t look so good.”
“You do.” Laughter bubbled from her lips. “I feel like death warmed over and you still look good. And you smell good. And I’d be willing to bet you feel good. Not that I’m finding out. This is it. The end of the line. No more being nice to each other or touching or kissing.” Last night rushed at her full force and the damned tummy tickles started. “No more.”
“But you kissed me last night.”
“I did a lot of things I regret last night.” And she had the pounding temples to prove it. “I shouldn’t have kissed you and I won’t kiss you again— Stop,” she burst out when he took a step toward her. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Let me get this straight. You kissed me but you didn’t mean to, and now you’re saying you don’t want to kiss me again.”
No. “Yes.”
He ran a hand over his face. “I don’t get you. One minute you’re hot, the next you’re cold. Is this a hormonal thing?”
Her anger bristled. “Look, maybe I just don’t want you.”
“I might believe that if you didn’t get all googly-eyed when I touch you.”
“I do not get googly-eyed,” she said on behalf of hormonal women everywhere.
“You can’t even see straight.”
“You wish.” She struggled to haul the top half of the bodysuit up and under the oversized T-shirt she wore. “You’re just full of yourself like every other man out there and don’t want to consider the possibility that you just don’t do it for me. Maybe that’s why I”—she squirmed and tugged and . . . there—“don’t want to fall into bed with you again. Maybe I realized I’m just not interested.”
“Prove it,” he countered, his gaze dark and challenging and oh so disturbing. “Look me straight in the eye and touch me.”
“I will do no such thing.” She hauled off the T-shirt and tossed it onto the bed. “I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. The bottom line is—” Her sentence stumbled to a halt as she stepped in a puddle of reddish-brown water. “What the . . .” Her gaze shifted to Killer, who sat next to the water and panted, her mouth open, tongue lolling, as if she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Killer?” She dropped to her knees, her gaze darting from the water to her beloved dog. “Ohmigod, what’s wrong?”
“I told you before—she’s pregnant.”
“And I told you she can’t be pregnant.” She cradled the dog’s head and studied the animal.
“She’s pregnant and she’s in labor.”
“Says you. She can’t be pregnant.” She noted Killer’s bright black eyes and the way her whiskers twitched. “She’s eleven years old. Not to mention, to be pregnant, you have to have . . .” For the first time in her life, she couldn’t bring herself to say the word. “She’s always in the house.”
“Except during her evening walk.” Linc hunkered down next to Eve.
“But that’s just around the block. There are no other dogs in the neighborhood except Mr. Wilkie’s blue heeler, Lady and the Tramp.”
“So which is it?” Linc’s question drew Eve’s attention. His deep blue gaze drilled into her. “Lady or the Tramp?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and turned her attention back to Killer. “I assumed it was Lady since that’s the first part of the name, but I never really looked.”
“So it could be the Tramp?”
“No. Yes. I guess.” The dog panted, her mouth open, tongue lolling, and Eve remembered Skye’s frantic breathing and the fierce labor pains. “Ohmigod, she’s in labor. Oh, Killer.” She stroked the dog’s head. “It’s okay, baby,” she crooned while Linc went to retrieve a soft, fluffy blanket.
He set up a pallet in the adjoining bathroom and whistled for Killer. The dog followed him in, but she didn’t settle down. She sat, still panting, her ears twitching and her tail wagging.
“What do we do?”
“We give her some peace and quiet and try to keep her calm.”
“Calm? Yeah, calm.” Eve’s heart pounded ninety to nothing as she dropped to her knees in the bathroom doorway and stroked the dog’s head. “There, there, girl.”
“You don’t have to sit with her.”
“I can’t just leave her.” She settled next to the pallet. “Easy, girl. It’s going to be okay. Just try to breath slow and— Wait,” she blurted out when Linc pushed to his feet. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
“I have to or I’ll miss my plane.”
“But you can’t leave. She’s having a baby.”
“She’s having puppies, and she’ll be fine. Just keep an eye on her and let nature take its course.”
“But shouldn’t I do something? I’ve never had puppies before.”
He grinned. “I should hope not.”
“You know what I meant. Shouldn’t I be doing something? Boiling water or something?”
“The only water she needs is to drink. Give her plenty of cool drinking water—that’s what I did back when I was a kid and my dog had puppies—and that’s about it.”
“But what happens next?” Eve straightened the edge of Killer’s pallet. “I mean, her water broke, which means she’s in labor. Doesn’t she have to push?”
“She’ll do it when she’s ready.”
“Isn’t she ready now? And when she does push, how many pushes to get a puppy? And how long between each puppy? Does she pop them out bam, bam, bam?”
“When my dog Sadie had her twelve puppies, it took about two hours for each one.”
“Two hours each? As in twenty-four hours of pushing?”
“Come to think of it,” he said, looking thoughtful, “it was twenty-six hours of pushing—she had thirteen initially. Speaking of which, you might watch to make sure she doesn’t eat one of them.”
Her stomach jumped. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
“When a dog has too many, particularly large breed dogs, they’ll eat the runt because they don’t have enough milk to feed them all.”
“You’re making that up.”
“Just keep an eye on her and keep count,” he said as he walked toward the dresser to retrieve his wallet and keys, “and I’ll be back late tonight.”
“But she’s only half large breed,” Eve said as she watched him through the open bathroom doorway. “Maybe the poodle side will cancel out the cannibalistic impulse— Wait,” she blurted out again when he grabbed his duffel bag. “She’s eleven and she’s never had a litter before. What if something goes wrong? You can’t just leave.”
He could and he should, reason whispered to Eve. He had commitments and Killer was just a dog. Dogs had puppies all the time.
One of which they sometimes ate.
Her stomach pitched and rolled and she turned a desperate gaze on Linc.
He stared at her for a full five seconds before tossing his duffel bag to the bed and walking into the bathroom. “Move over.”
Four hours later, Killer still hadn’t had her first puppy and Eve had all but paced a hole in Linc’s bedroom carpet.
“Something’s wrong.”
“Maybe.” Linc sat on the edge of his bed and eyed the dog through the open bathroom doorway. Killer moved back and forth across the tile. She was restless and panting. “I’ll be right back,” he finally said as he pushed to his feet and started for the bedroom doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“To call the vet.”
An hour later, Eve stood in treatment room number one at the Adams Animal Hospital and listened to Dr. Abe Peterson explain Killer’s condition.
“Frankly, she’s so old, her uteru
s just doesn’t know what to do. We gave her some Pitocin to speed things up. It increased her contractions, but her body just isn’t responding. We did an ultrasound and the puppies look fine. But with her in such distress right now, that might not be the case if we wait any longer.”
“Which means?”
“We help her out and do a cesarean.”
“They do C-sections on dogs?”
“Of course. We’ve given her some pain medication right now and as soon as you give the go-ahead, we’ll get her to the operating room and prep her.”
“How long?”
“An hour at the most. Then I’ll want to observe her for an hour or so after that to make sure she’s okay.”
“And then?”
“If all goes well, she can go home.”
“You’re kidding?”
“She’s a dog, Mrs. Adams. They’re extremely resilient.”
Eve was so worried that she didn’t even correct him on the missus thing. “But she’s going to be okay, right?”
“She’s going to be fine. She’s old, but healthy. You just go on home and let us take care of her and we’ll call you soon with an update. And by the way, congratulations.”
Eve took a deep breath as she let the news sink in. A C-section and puppies and two hours and she’s going to be fine. Relief swamped her. “Congratulations?” she asked a few seconds later when the sentiment finally registered.
“On your marriage.”
“You’re congratulating me?” She glanced down and saw her flip-flops, gray running shorts, and white T-shirt she’d changed into in a hurry before they’d left for the vet. Her long, dark hair was pulled back in a haphazard ponytail. She wore only the faint smudges of last night’s mascara beneath her eyes. So much for the hot, shocking sex diva. Not to mention, being an animal lover undoubtedly scored major points with a vet.
“Me and the missus have known Linc since he was a baby,” the man went on. “He’s a good boy. You’re a lucky woman.”
If only, Eve thought as the doctor left the room. From the get-go, it had been back-to-back disasters in her life as far as Linc Adams was concerned. First, she’d fallen into lust with him. Then she’d fallen into like with him.
Talk about unlucky. And stupid. And flat-out unexplainable.
She eyed him. He sat in a chair near the exam table, a woozy Killer in his arms. He nuzzled the animal and stroked her soft fur, and something tightened in her chest.
He was her Mr. Kaboom, all right. From his refrigerator stocked with Sweet Leaf Tea, to his law degree from Yale. He was nice and kind and sensitive enough to go to a huge amount of trouble to give her an orgasm. On top of that, he had enough heart to be genuinely concerned about her dog. And enough compassion to take care of Eve after she’d freaked out on him and tossed her cookies in the ladies’ room. And enough courage to go after what he wanted most in life—a Nextel Cup Championship—despite the fact that he had to go it alone, with no encouragement from his own family.
She liked him and she wanted him, and suddenly she wasn’t half as scared to have sex with him as she was not to have sex with him. To feel his arms around her and his lips on hers and his body filling hers. He wanted her and she wanted him. Want. It didn’t have to go beyond the physical lust if she didn’t let it. She could cut herself off from her emotions the way she’d done so many times in the past—every time—and enjoy herself, even if only for a little while.
That was the kicker. It wasn’t the right time in her life. At the same time, the right time was ticking away.
She watched as Linc handed Killer over to the nurse before crossing the distance to her.
“What did Doc Peterson say?”
“That they’re going to do a C-section and we should come back later.”
“Got any idea what we should do until then?”
Eve smiled. “Actually, I do.”
They drove back to Linc’s house in silence. The car’s air conditioner hummed full-force to ease the summer heat, but it wasn’t enough to cool the fire that raged inside Eve. Sweat dampened her forehead. The SUV jumped and jolted over bumps. Her sensitive nipples rasped against her bra, her bottom rubbed against the soft leather seat. The ride was short, but enough to stir her senses and build the anticipation of what was to come.
Then again, the anticipation had started months ago when she’d first met Linc Adams and gazed into his deep blue eyes.
They made it into the house and as far as the living room before Eve turned on him.
She took a deep breath and whisked the T-shirt up and over her head. Anxious fingers worked at the clasp of her bra and freed her straining breasts. The scrap of lace landed at her feet. Her running shorts soon joined the heap until she stood in nothing but a leopard-print thong. She hooked her thumbs at the waistband, slid them down and stepped free.
She expected him to step forward and do something, but he stood motionless in the middle of the room, his gaze hooked on her. Watching. Waiting.
It was her move. She knew that. She’d faked it their very last time and so the ball was completely in her court. She gathered her courage and touched her tight, hard nipples.
Her breath caught at the first swirl of her fingertips. She rubbed and stroked for several breathless moments as he stared at her, into her, his gaze dark and hot.
She moved her hands lower then, down the quivering skin of her stomach, to the dampness between her legs. The air seemed to stand still around her and she saw Linc’s breath catch and his chest hitch.
She slid one fingertip along the soft, wet folds between her legs. Heat pulsed through her and a moan curled up her throat.
The sound seemed to galvanize him into action, and suddenly it seemed as if it wasn’t enough to watch her. He stepped forward. Strong, muscular arms wrapped around her and drew her close. His mouth claimed hers in a deep, thorough kiss.
Large, purposeful hands slid down her back, cupped her bottom and urged her legs up on either side of him. Then he lifted her, cradled and kneaded her buttocks as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her aching sex settled over the straining bulge in his board shorts.
She rubbed herself against him, creating a delicious friction that sent a sharp spike of desire through her. “I really want this,” she murmured. “I really want you. Now.”
As anxious as Linc was to be inside the warm, willing woman in his arms, he wasn’t going to risk another fake orgasm. Not this time. Not ever again.
He pressed his fingers into her soft, sweet ass and stilled her movements long enough to give her a slow, deep kiss. His heart pounded and seconds ticked by as he tasted and explored before he finally pulled away. He carried her to the bedroom and stretched her out on his bed. Bright sunshine pushed through the open curtains and filled the room with a warm light that bathed her flawless skin as she lay naked on his sheets.
He grasped his T-shirt and pulled it over his head, but he didn’t take anything else off. Instead, he leaned down and kissed her again, even slower this time. His tongue swept her bottom lip and nibbled before dipping inside. He tasted and explored and stirred with more deep kisses as his hands trailed over her body, learning every curve, every indention. He cupped her breasts and plucked at her nipples until she whimpered and tugged frantically at the waistband of his shorts.
He covered her hand and stilled her movements. “Not yet. If I take these off, there’s no way we’ll be able to take this slow. And thorough. And I want both this time. I want you.” He feathered his lips over hers. “Out of control,” he murmured against her mouth. “Coming undone. Coming, period.”
“So stop talking about it and get on with it.”
He grinned and placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose before nuzzling the side of her neck. He trailed his mouth down her fragrant skin and the slope of one beautiful breast. He licked at the ripe nipple before blowing on the tip and making her moan.
Her fingers threaded through his hair and held him to her as he drew her deep and sucked her
long and hard. She tasted so sweet and it was all he could do not to explode right there in his pants. His erection throbbed and the blood rushed through his veins, but he held himself in check, determined to make it good for her.
He kissed a path down the warm skin of her belly to the sweet heat between her legs. He trailed his fingers over her slick folds and she gasped. He spread her legs until she was wide open. Then he cupped her bottom and tilted her for better access.
At the first flick of his tongue, she moved her hips, begging for more. He licked her softly, slowly at first, before touching her completely with his mouth. She started, a gasp parting her full lips as she bowed toward him. He tasted her, licking and drinking her sweet essence and soon her muscles relaxed and her legs spread wider. He feasted on her, his tongue rasping her tender flesh until she splayed her fingers in his hair and arched her hips.
She was close. She had all the signs of a woman on the cusp of orgasm—from her panting to the flush of her beautiful skin to the ripeness of her nipples and her tense muscles.
Close, but not quite there. Not yet. And not without him inside her.
Eve felt him pull away and her eyes fluttered open in time to see him shed his shorts and briefs. She couldn’t help herself. She reached out and stroked his rock-hard length. He went stock-still and his eyes closed as he seemed to relish her touch for the next several moments before he caught her hand.
“If you don’t stop, I’m going to explode.”
She smiled. “That’s the point.” Before he could pull away, she leaned closer and took him with both hands. She stroked the long, solid piece of him until liquid beaded on the ripe head. Then she dipped down and tasted him.
Linc groaned and caught her head. Threading his fingers through her hair, he cradled her as she loved him with her tongue. It wasn’t long before his chest heaved and his body went rigid and his grip on her tightened.
“Wait,” he growled and she stopped. “Just wait.”
As much as she wanted to keep tasting him, she wanted to feel him deep inside of her even more. Because she knew there would be no faking this time. Just pleasure. Sweet, fierce, consuming pleasure.
Sweet as Sugar, Hot as Spice Page 22