by Megan Hart
The lame excuse didn't fool Karen, who rolled her eyes. "On a Saturday?"
Audrey shrugged. "I have finals."
"All right." Karen sighed, with a longing look back toward the room, where whoops and hollers suddenly rose in a cacophony indicating something big had just happened. "I'm out of dollars anyway."
* * * *
For once he didn't have to be up early to work at Country Breezes, but though he'd planned to sleep late, Joel was wide awake and staring at his ceiling. He turned his head to look at the pile of money on his nightstand. Seven hundred dollars--a great night's take. It would pay for his books next semester and leave something to jingle in his pockets, too.
Nope, he couldn't complain about six hundred and ninety-nine of those dollars. Only one of them he wished he hadn't received. The one from Audrey.
She'd been smiling as she tucked it into his waistband, and smiling when they danced. The next thing he knew, she'd up and vanished. She hadn't even said goodbye.
Sighing, he slid an arm beneath his head and went back to staring at the ceiling. Maybe Morty was right. Maybe he should just ask her out. She'd seemed to be having a good time while they were dancing. But then she'd left.
Damn it.
Joel sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. There was only one thing to do about it. Go see her.
* * * *
Books. Notepad. Pens. Pencils. Pot of coffee. Audrey had everything she needed set out on the table in front of her. Classical music warbled softly from the CD player. She picked up her highlighter and opened the book, but set down the pen a moment later. She poured a mug of coffee and blew on it before she sipped.
"C'mon," she muttered. "Get to work."
She couldn't concentrate. She'd never really believed the rumors about Joel, had always thought they'd sprung from jealousy and his casual confession to the truth of them his way of dismissing them. A secret agent had seemed as ridiculous an idea as him actually being a male escort--only last night had proven her wrong. Sort of. There wasn't any reason to believe any of the boys in Muy Caliente had done more than dance for dollar bills. No reason to think the whispers about Joel being paid by the orgasm were true.
"Of course they're not true," she said aloud. "That's ridiculous. Absolutely..."
But was it? Was it really? Joel was handsome. Charming. Generous. Kind, smart, funny... Audrey groaned. Joel was a damn-near perfect guy, a fact she tried constantly to ignore because they were study partners and friends, nothing more.
She rubbed her eyes and tried to focus on the text in front of her, but couldn't seem to manage. What Joel did in his spare time wasn't any of her business. Nor was how he paid for school or anything else. She forced herself to uncap her highlighter again and go over the words in the chapter she was unsuccessfully trying to commit to memory.
The trouble was, all she could seem to think about was the way his fingers had linked with hers, that touch as erotic as if he'd thumbed a nipple or stroked between her legs. The way he'd moved with her, the way he'd stared into her eyes when he told her she looked beautiful.
Audrey groaned aloud. How on earth was she going to face him again after seeing him that way? How was she going to go back to being his pal, when all she could think about was how his body had felt along hers?
That's it. She was a pervert, plain and simple. This was Joel, the same man who'd gone mini-golfing with her and Lauren and lost graciously to the eight-year-old on every hole. The man who passed her notes in class that made her laugh. Joel...
"The perfect guy," she said aloud. "Who happens to be either a secret agent or a gigolo."
A rap-tap-tap on the kitchen door made her look up, and a moment later the reason for her inability to study appeared when she opened the door.
"Joel!"
"Hi ya, Audrey." He waited, expectantly, for her to move aside to let him in, and soon she did.
"What are you doing here?" She closed the door behind him, glad for the action that gave her an excuse not to look at him right away.
"Studying for finals, right?" He set down his backpack on one of the chairs, but paused in unzipping it. He turned to look at her, a brow raised. "Isn't that okay?"
"Oh...oh, sure. I didn't think...sure, it's fine."
She waved a hand and grabbed another mug for him. She busied herself with pouring coffee, rustling in the cupboard for sugar and creamer and pulling out a package of cookies that she arranged on a plate before setting it on the table.
Joel watched her do all that, his expression bemused, and finally reached out to grab her wrist as she sidled by the table to fuss with the music.
"Audrey, sit down. Why are you fussing so much?"
She looked down to where his hand gripped her. Last night his fingers had linked with hers and their bodies had aligned. He'd told her she looked beautiful. Now, remembering, heat crept up her cheeks and words fled, leaving her with only a shrug to explain herself.
Joel let go of her wrist. "It's about last night. Isn't it?"
Audrey sat and gripped her mug. "Don't be silly."
"Audrey."
She looked up.
"Are things going to be weird between us now?"
"No, of course not." She couldn't lie to him. She sighed. "I feel stupid."
Joel sat back in his seat. "For last night?"
She nodded, toying with her highlighter. "That's not really my thing."
"Didn't you have a good time?"
She couldn't read his face, usually so open. Now his brow furrowed. The full mouth, so often tipped into a smile, now curved down.
"Well...yes. I did."
"Until I showed up?"
Audrey wasn't sure what to say, so she shrugged. Nodded.
"Never mind," he said. "Let's just get to studying. Okay?"
Joel flipped open his book and grabbed a pen. He hunched over the table and scribbled a note or two on his notepad. This wasn't the way they'd studied in the past, silence a barrier between them, but Audrey wasn't quite sure what to do.
"I was surprised," she said at last, not looking at him.
He looked up, dark eyes not glinting with his usual glee. "How do you think I felt?"
They stared at each other for another long moment.
"You must see women there who you know," she said finally. "Lancaster's not that big a city."
"Women," Joel said. "But not you."
The line of ever-present and always ignored tension snapped taut between them. The pen dropped from her fingers and rolled off the table. Neither of them bent to retrieve it.
"It's your job," she said at last, voice faint and a bit hoarse. "It's how you pay for school..."
"Is that what you think?" he asked, voice gone as low as hers. "That it was just a job...with you?"
Audrey got up from the table and took her mug to the breakfast bar to pour more coffee into her still-full mug. "Wasn't it?"
She heard the scrape of the chair legs on the hardwood floor and in an instant felt him behind her. She put the mug down hard enough to slop hot liquid onto the breakfast bar and over her hand. She hissed at the sting.
"Did you burn yourself?" Joel's hands turned her to face him, and he lifted her hand in his to inspect it.
"It's fine," she tried to say, but he'd lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the pink spot, and her voice died.
Joel looked up and moved closer in the same motion. The hand he'd kissed went to the front of his shirt, over his heart, which thump-thumped beneath her palm. His went to her hip, fingers splayed.
"I meant what I said last night, Audrey. About you being beautiful. I've always thought so, from the first time I met you."
She swallowed. The bar behind her back prevented her from moving away. This close, she had to tip her head back to look into his eyes.
"I don't have any dollars with me," she whispered.
Joel frowned. The hand on her hip gripped tighter. He moved closer. "I'm not working right now."
His mou
th stopped her from replying. Her arms went around his neck in automatic response to his taste and the way he pushed against her. Her lips parted beneath his, and when his tongue swept inside, she let out throaty gasp that disappeared into his kiss.
The heat that had earlier stained her face spread like arcs of sparking electricity through her entire body. The fringes of his hair tickled the backs of her hands. He slid a thigh between hers, pressing upward as he pushed her back against the edge of the bar.
Audrey murmured a small protest at the discomfort, and Joel lifted her without breaking their kiss. Her rear slid on the smooth Formica. He caught her startled gasp with another kiss and pushed her thighs apart to move between them, his hands on her hips sliding her forward until their bodies joined again. His belt buckle rubbed her, and Audrey wrapped her legs around his waist.
Everything had become automatic, give and take, push and pull. She didn't think about it, because to think would be to realize this was insane.
He murmured her name against her mouth and dipped his tongue inside again. He tasted liked mint, which was often the way he smelled, too, and the familiarity of it sent a shiver through her.
Joel broke the kiss to pull away and look into her eyes. His mouth glistened and his cheeks had flushed. Somehow his hair had rumpled, and she wanted to smooth it off his forehead.
"Bedroom?" His voice, hoarse with desire, fanned the flames already kindled from his kiss.
"Upstairs," she breathed.
He nodded and lifted her off the breakfast bar without hesitating. Audrey yelped and clung to his broad shoulders, her heart thudding as Joel scooped an arm under her legs and headed through the kitchen toward the stairs.
"Joel, put me down. You'll drop me--"
"I won't drop you."
All at once she believed him, had no doubts he could carry her up the stairs as Rhett had done to Scarlett, kissing her all the while. Fortunately, the staircase in her house was far less grand than the one from Gone With The Wind because, by the time he got to the top, Joel had begun panting with something other than passion. He made it the half dozen steps to her bedroom, kicked open the door and took her to the bed, where he managed to lay her down without dropping her. His body followed hers, and the bed dipped and creaked.
"You didn't drop me."
Joel buried his face in her shoulder. "I didn't."
He nuzzled her skin, and she shivered again. His hand slid up her side to cup her breast, then his mouth found hers again. He kissed like a dream come true, the right amount of nibbling pecks and soft, slow strokes of his tongue in the perfect combination to make her respond.
"May I?" His fingers skated along the row of buttons on the front of her blouse, then tracked the line of her hem and the bare patch of belly.
Audrey nodded. He moved without fumbling, slowly, easing each button from its slot with as much care and concentration as a burglar cracking a safe. He parted the material of her blouse as he worked, and kissed the line of her throat to the swell of her breasts as he finished opening her shirt. He put a palm flat on her belly, while his lips traced the curve of her breasts above the lacy edges of her bra.
Audrey held her breath, back arching slightly as his mouth teased her skin. Joel slid both hands up to cup her breasts, bringing them together so he could kiss the mounded flesh before he found the front hook of her bra and released it. He smoothed the lace over her skin, his breath hitching when her breasts, the nipples taut, were revealed.
The sound he made sent a spear of desire straight between her legs. Her clit pulsed in response, and slick arousal made her shift beneath him. Her breath lodged in her throat until she made the conscious effort to let it out.
When he closed his lips over one tight nipple, Audrey cried out and lifted her hips. Joel's hand cupped between her legs, the heel of his hand pressing her sweetly throbbing clit. As she moved, he moved, easing his fingers beneath the waistband of her jeans and then the lace edge of her panties. Joel suckled her nipple gently while his finger dipped between her folds. Audrey knew she was already wet for him, and when he brought some of her slickness up to coat her clit as he circled it, she let out low, shuddering breath.
"You're so hot," Joel murmured against her skin. Still suckling one nipple and the next, back and forth, he withdrew his hand from her panties and worked open the button and zipper of her jeans.
This was no time for slow and easy seduction, Audrey decided. This was a time for urgency. She pushed off her jeans as Joel sat up to pull his t-shirt over his head, and she reached for his belt. It was fast and insistent, but easy too. When at last he lay down naked on top of her, she didn't want to have time to worry about stretch marks or dimpled thighs.
His skin was warm on hers as he kissed her, belly to belly, their legs tangled. His cock rose between them, as hot and throbbing as her own center, and Audrey reached a hand between them to touch him. Joel moaned and gave a little shudder, his teeth closing on the base of her throat, nipping.
She gasped, and he soothed the sting with a kiss the way he'd done downstairs to her scalded hand. They moved together like they'd been choreographed, no awkward shifting or inadvertent tangling of hair, no accidental pinching. He kissed her mouth again, rolling her a bit so they lay on their sides, facing each other.
Again, something unreadable flashed in his eyes, something almost vulnerable, but it disappeared before she could be sure of it. He grinned and bent to kiss her again. He put his hand between her legs once more, one finger parting her curls and finding, without effort, the spot she most wanted him to touch.
He had a gentle, sure touch, a steady pace that didn't stutter. In moments she was shifting her hips in time to his motions. Her body strained, her sense of time shifted. The world centered on the places his body touched hers, and she could think of nothing else.
"Like this?" Joel asked, his hand moving against her.
"Yes..."
He sucked on her throat, just over her pulse. His tongue stroked her skin while his lips tugged in time to the smooth circles of his fingertip. His mouth slid lower, over her nipple to suckle briefly before moving lower still, over her belly.
Then his mouth had replaced his hand and she bit down on her hand to stifle the cry of pure pleasure that welled up in her throat. Joel settled between her thighs. His breath caressed her as his tongue flicked against her swollen flesh. The pressure and pace were different than they'd been seconds before, but her body embraced the change.
She'd never had trouble reaching climax and considered herself blessed because of it, but it had been two years since she'd last slept with a man. She wasn't just going to come. She was going to explode.
His tongue fluttered against her. She drew in a breath, held it, closed her eyes. Every muscle tensed and tightened. She stood knee-deep in the ocean as the waves got higher and higher, each covering more of her until at last, it happened, that glorious release, and the final wave of pleasure broke over her and tumbled her head over heels and tossed her up on the sand, panting and breathless, feeling slightly bruised and shaking, but utterly sated.
She blinked, coming back to reality. Joel pressed his lips to the twitch and throb of her clit, then cupped his hand there instead and moved up her body to settle next to her, his face in the curve of her shoulder.
Silence hung between them, but it wasn't awkward this time. Audrey sighed and turned her face to his. He was smiling. So was she.
"Mmm," she told him. "Wow."
He kissed her, and she put her hand to his face again. When he pulled back a little, she rolled onto her side and put her hand on his rear to tug him against her.
"I have condoms in the nightstand," she murmured, and he nodded.
"In a minute."
His answer surprised her, a little, and she reached out to stroke his cheek again. "Joel? You all right?"
He nodded. The look was there again, a flash in his eyes that passed so fast she'd have been able to convince herself she'd imagined it, if it hadn't b
een the third time. She studied him, her heartbeat slowing. His cheek was bristly beneath her fingers. He turned his head to kiss her palm.
Audrey leaned to kiss his mouth, taking her time. Tasting him. Urging his lips to part and accept her tongue. She explored him, and his cock lengthened between them as she did. She ran her hand down the line of his spine to caress the firm mounds of his buttocks, then a bit further down to feel the backs of his strong thighs. He shifted and laughed when her fingertips traced his skin.
"Ticklish?" she asked.
Joel nodded. He pulled her closer, his eyes searching hers, but for what, she wasn't sure. She kissed him again and then pushed him to roll onto his back.
It'd been long enough since she'd gone to bed with anyone, but longer still since she'd gone down on a man. Even so, Audrey didn't hesitate. She wanted to see him, all of him. He groaned when she licked the base of his throat and moved her mouth to cover his nipple, then down lower over the perfectly sculpted abs. She traced the muscled ridges with her tongue, the salty, musky taste of him sending new threads of pleasure weaving through her body. She nipped the jut of his hipbone, earning another groan.
She let her breath ghost along his erection, but didn't touch him. His hips lifted and she put a hand on each thigh to keep him steady as she studied his cock.
It was perfect, too.
"Audrey?"
She looked up, having no trouble understanding his expression this time. That he was as worried about his length and width and girth as she had been about her thighs and stretch marks touched her once more, and she reminded herself he was a flirt, but naked and therefore vulnerable, nonetheless.
She kissed the head of his penis, and smiled when he shivered. He lay back on the pillows. She took him into her mouth with slow precision, wanting to give him the same pleasure he'd given her. Joel moaned when she did, then again when she took him deeper. He pushed upward and she opened for him.
There'd been many times when she'd performed this act while thinking of a grocery list, or with one ear cocked for the sound of a baby's cry. This time, she had no such distractions. Nothing to do but make love to him with her mouth, nothing to think of but how good she could make him feel.