“He stopped?” Holly pushed open the screen door to see the stack of boxes that sat on her front porch. “He did. He actually stopped.” She smiled as she eyed the familiar label from her herb company. “I may end up liking that man, after all.”
“That makes one of us. I don’t understand it. I filled out the order form and gave specific instructions. I can’t use a blonde. Bert has brown hair. It would feel too much like cheating and the whole point is to pretend like he’s Bert, so that when it really is him, I’ll be ready to go.”
Holly let the screen door close and turned back to Sue. “What are you talking about?”
“The Warm Bodies company sent me the wrong doll.”
Her gaze swiveled to the naked stranger. “You mean that’s a doll?”
“A very expensive doll. I used my entire savings to pay for Billy the Buckaroo. He comes with a cowboy hat and spurs and looks the most like Bert.” She shook her head. “This is Paul the Preppie.” She motioned to the paperwork that sat on the table along with a black silk tie and a pair of designer socks. “The company got my order mixed with someone else’s, but they said they’ll send me the correct one just as soon as I send this back.”
A doll.
The truth echoed in Holly’s head and calmed her pounding heart as she approached the table and rounded the figure sitting in the chair.
Forget the cheesy blow-up sex toys she’d seen in the movies. Despite the stiffness of his body, this doll looked like a bona fide, life-size man, complete with a sprinkle of golden hair on his chest and a limp member resting on top of two rather large testicles. Of course, the member was wrapped in plastic, tape covered his eyes and he had foam stuffed into his mouth. But otherwise, the likeness was remarkable.
Sue’s gaze twinkled. “If you stroke it, it gets bigger.”
Holly grinned. “No way.”
“Way. It has this built-in pump that responds to heat.” At Holly’s disbelieving look, she added, “His skin is made from a special silicone mixture that warms to the touch just like the real thing. Try it.” Sue motioned to the bare skin of his shoulder and Holly reached out.
“It’s soft, supple and—” her gaze collided with Sue’s “—it is warm. And getting warmer.”
“I told you. He’s made from the same stuff they use on the space shuttle and his hair is made from this special synthetic that feels as soft as silk. He’s also waterproof so you can take him into the shower or a hot tub, and he’s even got a tongue and a mouth that moves when you press this button at the back of his neck.”
“Now that sounds kind of creepy.”
“I guess it does, doesn’t it?” Sue eyed the doll. “Okay, kissing is out—it’s too intimate—but he’s good for lots of other things.” Her eyes twinkled. “His thingamajig has three different speeds and is the ultimate vibrator. I can definitely use him to practice my lap dancing.” Her brows drew together. “Once I exchange him, that is.”
“You’re taking lap dancing lessons?”
“It’s a home video course I ordered from this magazine. It even comes with this numbered diagram—sort of like a Twister board—that you place on your man’s lap to help you touch all the right parts.” She grabbed the plastic bag and slid it over Paul’s head. She hefted him into her arms and placed him in a large box that sat off to the side of the kitchen, his legs hanging over the side. “I’ll bend him back up and ship him back on Monday when we send out our orders.”
“Speaking of orders, we’d better get to work.” Holly reached for her own apron and started unpacking and sorting supplies.
She spent the rest of the day baking her back orders while Sue boxed the desserts and slid them into the freezer to be shipped on Monday. They finished around five in the afternoon. Sue left to pick up a pizza and spend Saturday evening watching her Sex and the City DVD collection while Holly headed upstairs to the sixth dining room to prepare for tonight’s recipe.
The room had been decorated in various shades of blue, from the sheer curtains that covered the windows to the bedspread draping the full-size bed. The color said calm. Easy. Relaxed.
She would have to be if she intended to masturbate in front of Josh McGraw.
She’d never actually gone solo in front of any man before and doubt tied knots into her stomach. At the same time, a thrill of excitement rippled up her spine as she arranged the massage oils and lubricants she’d picked up while sending out her last shipment. She’d also picked up a new toy. She opened the drawer and pulled out a bright pink rectangular box.
The purpose of tonight’s recipe—Hot-from-the-oven, Hand-picked Cherry Pie—was to give Josh a show that would have him getting off while watching her, and so Holly wanted to be completely prepared. The lady at the adult goody shop had said this was the latest and greatest vibrator on the market. Much better than the tried-and-true version Holly kept in her own nightstand drawer, and more impersonal. There was just something about using her own in front of him that seemed, somehow, so…intimate.
This wasn’t about intimacy. It was about sex. And so she was getting jiggy with The Rabbit.
Pulling the contraption from the box, Holly tested the batteries and set it on the nightstand before heading back downstairs. Just as she’d done the night before, she taped an index card with instructions for tonight’s recipe to the kitchen door for Josh. The less contact she had with him outside of the dining room, the easier it was to keep her perspective.
Not that she would have any trouble tonight.
She wouldn’t even be touching Josh. It was all about closing her eyes and finding her own pleasure.
The notion followed her into the shower. Her senses came alive as she stood beneath the spray. Warm water sluiced over her skin. She remembered the tickling trickle of brown sugar syrup over her body and the way Josh had savored her with his mouth and his tongue.
And how much she wanted to feel him again.
An orgasm, she reminded herself. It’s not him, in particular, that you’re hungry for. It’s another mind-blowing orgasm. No man required. That’s what she told herself, but when she retrieved her own vibrator from her lingerie drawer and stretched out on her bed, she found herself missing the brush of chest hair against her nipples and the feel of hard, muscled skin beneath her fingertips. She couldn’t seem to lose herself in the cool, vibrating sensation against her clitoris.
Because it was too cool.
She finally gave up and headed down to her kitchen for the leftover Chocolate Orgasm batter sitting in her refrigerator. She’d just retrieved a spoon and taken a mouthwatering bite when her gaze zeroed in on the large box that sat off to the side of her kitchen. Paul and his plastic-wrapped torso sat surrounded by white foam popcorn, his bent legs hooked over the side of the box. They’d been so busy that Sue hadn’t had a chance to repackage him.
Holly walked over to the box and pulled the plastic bag from his head. She peeled the tape off his eyes and they opened to reveal a vivid brown gaze that seemed to stare straight through her. She grasped the piece of foam in his mouth and tugged. Sure enough, he had a tongue just as Sue had said. And soft lips. Not kissable, mind you. But still soft. She could see how some women might get into a little lip-lock with him.
But Holly needed more than a kiss at the moment. She needed warm skin and a hair-roughened chest and an orgasm. And she needed it in the next half hour.
She set her spoon on a nearby counter, grasped Paul under his arms and pulled him from the box. He was firm, but not heavy, and she managed to transfer him to a chair with minimal effort. Grabbing a pair of scissors from a nearby drawer, she cut through the remaining tape and plastic until Paul looked like any other naked blonde who might happen to be sitting at her table.
Her gaze traveled over his broad shoulders and six-pack abs to the impressive package in his lap. Before she could stop herself, she leaned over and touched him. Sure enough, the heat from her fingertips worked its magic. His member twitched and expanded just a fraction. She touched him
again, stroking from root to tip. He grew hard and literally throbbed beneath her fingertips. She pressed a pressure point on his chest and his member started to vibrate.
Need tightened in her belly, but not because of the transformation happening right before her. Rather, she thought of Josh and the way he’d responded to her touch. He’d come alive and then he’d brought her alive and then bam!
She blew out a deep breath and tried to calm her suddenly pounding heart.
Don’t even think it, a voice whispered as she stared at Paul. It’s a sex doll, for heaven’s sake. You can’t have an orgasm with a sex doll.
At the same time, Holly wasn’t a hypocrite. Like a lot of healthy women her age, she had a vibrator. The penis between Paul’s legs was exactly that. A super deluxe vibrator that had three adjustable speeds. And just happened to be attached to a body and a face that, while man-made, looked as good if not better than the real thing.
Sort of.
He wasn’t even close to Josh McGraw and his dark good looks and sinful charm. But then, that was the whole point. To have a mind-blowing orgasm without Josh.
Which was exactly what she intended to do.
“WHAT THE HELL?”
Josh watched from the doorway as Holly straddled the man who sat in the kitchen chair and his gut twisted. Christ, she was going for it right here and now with another…The thought faded as several things seemed to register:1) the man’s arms didn’t move, 2) his hands didn’t slide around her to cup her buttocks and anchor her in place and, 3) he didn’t buck and thrust his pelvis toward her.
No normal, red-blooded man could not react to a woman like Holly.
His gaze swiveled to the gigantic cardboard box sitting off to the side. Chunks of foam and pieces of plastic wrapping littered the floor. Warm Bodies. The name registered and he remembered an ad from some men’s magazine.
A doll. The man was a doll, for chrissake!
The truth hit him and he expected to feel a measure of relief. No such luck. While she wasn’t getting busy with someone else, she still wasn’t getting busy with him.
At the same time, he couldn’t seem to find his voice to put a stop to it. Instead, he watched as she sat astride the seated man, braced her hands on his shoulders, threw her head back and started to ride him. Her back arched and her full lips parted. Her soft, round breasts trembled as she lifted and slid back down. Her nipples hardened into rosy, ripe points and Josh swallowed.
He wasn’t sure what he hated the most—the fact that she was enjoying herself without him or the fact that he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from the sight.
And so he watched for the next several moments, until he grew so hard that he had to lock his knees to keep from falling. Her lips trembled around a sigh and the sound thrummed through his body. His testicles throbbed and his gut ached and he stepped farther into the room.
The urge to pull her away from the doll, throw her to the floor and give it to her until she forgot about everything and everyone drove him across the room.
He took the last step and grabbed her arm. Her eyes popped open and she stared up at him with a startled expression.
“What are you doing here?” she blurted. Her shocked gaze swiveled to the wall clock. “You’re forty-five minutes early.”
What was he doing? Getting jealous and crazed over a woman when Josh McGraw never got jealous and crazed over any woman. It just didn’t happen. Not now. Not ever. Control.
Josh forced aside the strange emotions warring inside him and focused on the heat in his groin and the desire making his skin tight. He let go of her long enough to pull off his boots.
She stared at him a moment longer before she seemed to realize that she was buck-naked and still sitting astride the doll. “I wa-wa-wasn’t,” she stammered as she went to climb off. “That is, I was, but I didn’t know you would be here early and so I just thought—”
He leaned down, silenced her with his mouth and urged her back down onto the doll. He swallowed her gasp as she sank onto the vibrator and his gut clenched. He deepened the kiss, forcing her mouth open wider, plundering her until the taste and scent of her consumed his senses. Desire burned through him, hotter and brighter than his anger.
He’d already pulled his shirt over his head and reached for the waistband of his jeans by the time she recovered from the kiss. Her eyelids fluttered open just in time to see him push his jeans and underwear down his hips.
“What are you doing?”
“Recipe six.” He kicked his jeans and underwear free. His erection bobbed forward, desperate and eager to be touched.
“But we can’t.” Panic filled her expression. “I mean, we can’t. Not yet. We’re not upstairs and we don’t have everything we need and—”
He kissed her again, hard and rough and quick before pulling back. “Trust me, cupcake. We’ve got more than we need.” And then he dropped to his knees behind her and pressed his lips between her shoulder blades.
“But we’re supposed to follow the directions and do it right.”
“We’ll do it right,” he promised as he pulled her back up against his chest and slid his hands around her waist to finger her nipples.
“But we need a bed—ahhh…” Her protest faded into a deep, throaty moan that made his cock twitch.
He trailed his hand down her bare stomach until he reached her thin strip of pubic hair. She caught his wrist with desperate fingers.
“Don’t.”
He nuzzled the soft flesh near her ear. “Don’t because you don’t want me to or because you’re embarrassed?”
“I don’t…” She caught her lip as if rethinking her answer. “I’m embarrassed,” she finally admitted. “I’ve never masturbated in front of a man, and certainly not with another… I mean, this is the first time I’ve used one of these.”
Joy rushed through him, followed by a wave of desire so intense that it made his teeth ache. “You’re so sexy, Holly. Don’t ever be embarrassed about that. I love watching you, but I want to feel you, too. Please.”
Her hand hesitated on his for a brief moment before her grip loosened. He traced the fine line of silk down to where her slick folds stretched over the vibrator. He traced her tight lips and felt her shudder until his fingers were slick with her moisture.
“Move for me,” he murmured as he slid his hands around to stroke her soft, round ass.
Her movements were slow and hesitant at first. She shimmied her hips, moving a little to the right, then to the left until a soft gasp parted her lips.
“That’s it, baby.” He slid his erection between her buttocks, back and forth, as she worked herself on the vibrator. The slickness trickled from her body, wetting the head of his cock where it nestled in the space between her ass cheeks and the chair beneath her. It was all he could do not to explode right then and there.
But he wanted to watch her go over the edge first. Hear her. Feel her. Then he could let himself go. He concentrated on pushing her higher with his hands and his mouth until she moved faster, her movements desperate, her body deliciously wet and hot.
When Josh slid his hands down Holly’s quivering belly and his callused finger touched her clitoris, sharp, sweet pleasure exploded inside her.
She fought to draw air into her lungs as her body hummed with the wondrous sensation of being filled with the vibrator—now on ultraspeed—and surrounded by Josh McGraw.
His hard, muscular arms held her tight. His hot penis nestled between her buttocks. His warm breath stirred the hair on the back of her neck. His musky scent filled her nostrils. His heart hammered against her back.
“I can feel you tighten around the vibrator,” Josh murmured against the damp skin of her shoulder. “Every time I stroke you here—” he pinched her clitoris ever so lightly “—you tighten around him. You like feeling us both, don’t you?”
I like you.
The words were there, but she didn’t say them. Because she knew, despite the strange tenderness in her chest, that she
didn’t really mean them. It was the heat of the moment smothering her common sense. She didn’t like him. She liked what he was doing with his hands. She liked the vibrator humming inside her. She liked the dual sensation.
At least that’s what she told herself as she closed her eyes and arched back against him.
He didn’t ask any more questions. He answered her unspoken request and fingered her clit, rubbing and circling the nub until her vision blurred and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. He stirred a pleasure so fierce that she thought she might explode.
And then she did.
Heat swept her from the soles of her feet to the roots of her hair, setting ablaze everything in between including the notion that the second bite was never quite as good as the first. It was better. And so was the third.
She braced her hands against the doll’s shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh as her body shook with convulsions.
Through the ringing in her ears, she heard Josh’s deep groan as he spilled himself against her bottom, followed by a string of curse words that would have made her ears burn if her entire body hadn’t already gone up in smoke. His arms slid around her and he held her close against him for the next few moments, as if he never meant to let her go.
As if.
If there was one thing Holly knew, it was that Josh McGraw fully intended to turn her loose. Just as she fully intended to do the same.
Her arms curled around his forearms, her hands closed over his and she held tight.
But not yet. Not just yet.
10
JOSH AIMED the blue flame and sliced through the last layer of tangled metal before killing the power on the portable welding torch. He pulled off his goggles and gloves and grabbed a small crowbar. Shoving the edge of the tool beneath what was left of the transmission, he pried the part loose and pulled it free of the engine hull.
Holly had been right, he thought as he set the part off to the side and reached for the new transmission he’d ordered online from the small parts dealer that supplied his charter company.There were similar parts between a car and a plane. Plugs, shocks, fuel pumps, fan belts and a dozen other common items. Granted, the sizes differed dramatically and a plane had more specialized components, but his Cessna still required the same basics as the ancient GTO.
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