Kiss and Make Up

by Serenity Woods

  When she’s done, Eli, you need to get up and go. Don’t linger. If he lingered, he was going to kiss her again, and although his willpower was normally iron-strong when it came to diets and exercise, he had the feeling it was going to evaporate when his lips touched hers.

  She finished and gave him a quick smile. “All done.”

  “Thanks.” He pulled on his T-shirt.

  She cleared her throat. “I’ll just put this stuff away.”

  “I’ll help.”

  Eli! But it wouldn’t be gentlemanly to let her do it all herself, would it?

  She made sure all the lids were on the bottles and let him carry the tray into the storage room, turning on the light. The shelves were full of bottles and the various tools of her trade.

  Eli slid her tray onto the shelf next to the others, and Tabby stepped around him to put the used cotton pads and tissues into the trash. As she did so, he turned around, and they bumped into each other.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “No worries.” He ignored the heat that spread through him and straightened the trays, making sure they were ready for the next morning. She took the lid off the trash can and lifted out the bag, tied the top, and reached over for a fresh bag, just as he leaned across to place his wig on the stand.

  “Oops.” He’d barely touched her, but his heart pounded.

  “Oh, sorry.” She bent to place the new bag in the trash can.

  Finally, she took the trash bag out into the main room. He followed her, and together they brought in the last odds and ends of scissors and glue that someone had left out, and placed them on the shelves.

  She turned just as he passed to put a tub of brushes on the nearest shelf, and she walked straight into him. He caught her by the arm. His hand lingered on her skin, and when she looked up to meet his gaze, her eyes were hot and intense.

  At that moment, the door to the storage room very slowly swung, not quite closing. They both turned to look at it, and then looked back at each other.

  “Do you think someone’s trying to tell us something?” Tabby said.

  He attempted joviality. “There is supposed to be a ghost haunting the rooms.”

  She swallowed, and his gaze dipped to her throat before returning to hers. He wanted to kiss her. Desperately.

  Goddammit.

  He put his hands on his hips. “I knew you were going to be trouble the moment I saw you.”

  “Me?” Her eyebrows rose. “How am I trouble?”

  He gave a short laugh, fighting with himself. Did she really have no idea?. “Tabbs, I don’t date women I work with.” The words sounded hollow to his ears. Her dark eyes, her slightly parted lips, the scent of her perfume… Everything in him wanted to seduce her, and he didn’t know how much longer he could fight it.

  She shook her head slightly. “I’m not looking for a date.”

  His heart shuddered to a stop. “What are you looking for?”

  …

  Tabby hesitated. Something for me, she wanted to say. Something fun, a brief moment in time where she could enjoy herself without worrying about the future. She didn’t want a relationship. She didn’t want to have to share herself, to compromise, to start making decisions to please someone else. But then neither did he—he’d told her that. She’d never been so bold before, but for the first time in her life, she was going to be honest and tell a guy what she wanted. She took a deep breath. “Would you think badly of me if I said sex?”

  He moved closer to her, his hands resting on her waist. “Why would I think badly of you?”

  “I’m not normally like this.” Her mouth had gone dry.

  He stepped even closer. “Being celibate for nearly a year must have been difficult.”

  She rested her hands on his chest, his muscles hard beneath her fingers. She looked up at him helplessly. “I’d coped fine until I met you. But it’s been torture all week. You’re driving me insane.”

  He groaned, slid one hand behind her head, and kissed her.

  Oh, it was a heavenly kiss. His lips were soft, gentle, and he kissed her very, very slowly. He moved his mouth across hers with a tenderness that surprised her, given that she’d practically given him permission to rip off her clothes and do whatever he wanted with her. After a while, he brushed his tongue across her lips, and she opened her mouth to him, sliding a hand up to cup his face. She inhaled as he pulled her to him, one hand on the small of her back, the other threading through her hair as if he were afraid she might move away.

  There wasn’t much chance of that. Tabby was so hot for him she was almost self-combusting, and she delved her tongue into the warm cavern of his mouth. He groaned and deepened the kiss as he pushed her back the four or five inches to the wall. She met it with a bump and gasped.

  A crash from the other room made them both jump. Eli pulled back and met her gaze as the hum of a vacuum cleaner echoed around the room. Tabby pushed him away and walked over to the door, which was still open a tiny crack. Two women were moving around the room, collecting the garbage and sweeping up the scraps of tissue and glitter from the floor.

  There was a soft pressure against her back, and Eli’s hands rested on her hips. She caught her breath as he pressed a kiss on her neck above the collar of her shirt. He didn’t say anything, but he traced his fingers down her back. He outlined her shoulder blades, followed her ribs, dipped into her waist, and came back up again to rub her shoulders and graze down the backs of her arms. He continued this gentle and sensual torture, and she closed her eyes, half-concentrating on his touch, half on the conversation of the women in the other room.

  “I saw Daniells today,” said one woman. “I watched him do the fight scene.”

  “How’d he look?”

  “He’s putting on weight.”

  Tabby felt, rather than heard, Eli chuckle where he’d started placing soft kisses on her neck. She smacked his leg, and he bit her earlobe playfully, making her inhale.

  “He’s still good-looking though,” said the second woman.

  “Oh yeah.”

  They fell quiet for a moment, and Eli slid his hands around to draw patterns on her stomach under her shirt, rising to brush her ribs with his thumbs.

  “His stunt double’s pretty tasty, though,” said the first woman.

  “I’ll say.”

  Eli ran his fingers just beneath the low waistband of Tabby’s jeans, making her wriggle.

  “He’s got a nice ass.”

  He lifted his head and gave Tabby a querying look as she turned to glance up at him. She shrugged, and he whispered, “You want me to prove it to you? Okay, clothes off.” He began to undo the buttons on her shirt. She tried to stop him, stifling a laugh, but he pushed her hands away and continued to release the buttons of her shirt.

  The two women continued their assessment of the actors in the movie. “That Mick Forstner’s pretty hot, too.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “Which one would you rather do, out of the three of them?”

  Eli’s hands paused. Tabby tried not to giggle as he awaited the verdict.

  “The stunt guy, obviously.”

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  “Score,” he whispered in her ear. “Good to know I have options.”

  “And a threesome as well.” Tabby peered through the door. “Although one of them’s at least ninety years old.”

  “That’s all right—I’m used to false teeth.”

  They shook with their silent laughter, and then he released the last button on her shirt and slid it down her arms, throwing it onto a chair to one side. Tabby’s heart thumped hard again, the speed increasing when he pulled his own T-shirt over his head before returning to hold her, his skin now warm against her back.

  As he kissed her shoulder, she knew he would be admiring her breasts. Thank God she’d worn the pretty white bra with lacy half-cups.

  He traced his tongue across her skin, tasting where her pulse beat in her neck, and she tipped her head to the
side. He brushed up her arms to her shoulders and placed his warm hands on her breastbone, then slipped his fingers beneath the straps of her bra and slid them up and over her shoulders, down to the clasp at the back. Geez, he was going to undress her while the women were still in the next room. The thought made her mouth go dry with nerves but her panties grow damp with desire.

  He took the clasp in his fingers and pushed the clips together, releasing the elastic, and let the bra slide down her arms and onto the floor. She fought the urge to cover her breasts, instead placing both hands on the wall next to the door as he slid his arms around her waist, his chest warm against her back.

  “You’re beautiful.” His deep voice seemed to reverberate through her like a bell, and she flushed with pleasure, her breaths coming more quickly as he ran his hands along her ribs, bringing them up to cup her breasts. He took the soft peaks between his fingers and thumbs and squeezed them gently, and they tightened into firm buds beneath his touch. She inhaled and closed her eyes, arching into his touch.

  “I’ve wanted to do this since the moment you walked up to me on the field,” he whispered. “I’ve been dreaming about seeing you naked,” he kissed her shoulder, “holding you against me,” another kiss on her neck, “making love to you as slowly as I can bear it.” His husky voice nearly made her melt into a puddle at his feet.

  Unable to hold back any longer, she turned, lifted her arms around his neck, and kissed him. Pushing her up against the wall, he returned the kiss, pressing his hips against hers so she could be in no doubt as to his enthusiasm.

  Pulling back, she glanced through the crack in the door. After gathering up the rubbish bags, one of the women flicked off the lights before leaving and shutting the door behind her.

  They were plunged into darkness, the only faint shimmer of light coming through the small, high window from the waning moon. Tabby looked back up at Eli, seeing his eyes glitter in the moonlight. She wanted him, badly, and she wasn’t going to torture herself any longer. “Please tell me you have a condom on you.”

  He retrieved his wallet from his back pocket and tossed it onto the nearby shelf. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Oh, thank God.” She fumbled at her waist to undo the button of her jeans, and he helped her out, his hands steady and sure. Soon she stood in her white lacy panties, and he ran his hands over her hips and behind to grasp her butt.

  He slid his right hand beneath her panties, then lifted the lace and traced around to the front of her legs. Raising his head to watch her, he brushed down through her curls with his fingers. They slipped easily through her folds, illustrating how turned on she was. He blew out a long, slow breath of approval.

  Tabby bit her lip, a little shy, but thrilled at how it seemed to please him. “Oh, Eli—see what you do to me?”

  “Mmm.” His mouth hovered over hers while he moved his fingers inside her to gather some of her moisture, then returned them to stroke her clit.

  She tipped her head back, resting it on the wall, and he kissed her neck, then down to her breast. His hot mouth fastened on her nipple, his tongue warm and soft. She was only half-successful in stifling a moan of pleasure. It had been so long since a man had done this for her, and Eli was especially gorgeous. She couldn’t quite believe she was letting an almost-stranger touch her so intimately. That was the weird thing, though—it didn’t feel wrong, or immoral. It was hot and exciting, and it certainly seemed to be turning him on, too. When she brushed against his jeans, his impressive erection made her knees grow weak, and his eyes fired with desire.

  Already keyed up before they’d entered the room, she felt the approach of her climax in minutes, and she put a hand on his arm to push him away. It was like trying to move a steel girder, and just as useless. Refusing to give in, he continued his long, slow strokes, his touch sure and practiced, inexorable, and she gasped as her orgasm bloomed deep inside.

  “Wait,” she mumbled, half-embarrassed at the speed of her climax, but although he lifted his head to watch her, he didn’t stop. Her muscles tightened, and pleasure swept over her in a hot, exquisite rush. His mouth closed over hers while she gasped, as if he wanted to capture her blissful sighs, and she moaned against the slow thrust of his tongue that mirrored the lazy swirl of his fingers over her clit.

  When she’d finished, he raised his head again, withdrawing his hand from her panties. “Nice?” He touched his lips to hers.

  “Nice is such a bland word,” she said, panting. “Heavenly would be more of a description.”

  He chuckled and dropped his hands to his jeans. “It was certainly a great starter. Let’s get on to the main course.”

  Excitement growing inside her again, Tabby tipped her head to the side to watch him. A flash of light through the gap in the door startled her, and she gave a soft exclamation and pressed her face to the gap.

  One of the women had re-entered the room and switched on the main light. She carried a tray full of makeup paints and was walking toward the storeroom, clearly with the intention of stowing it in there. As her gaze fell on a few stray bits of tissue and cotton wool on the table that she’d missed, the woman paused to collect them, humming as she tidied.

  Flicking on the storeroom light switch and hoping the woman would think it had been on all the time, Tabby turned and grabbed her bra, stuffed it in her pocket, and picked up their T-shirts from the floor. “Put it on.” She thrust Eli’s at him and tugged on her own, then pulled her jeans up her legs.

  Eli yanked on his top, grabbed a wig from a nearby stand, and pretended to be placing it back there, while Tabby studied the bottles on a nearby shelf.

  The door swung open. “Oh.” The woman stopped as she saw them. “Sorry, I thought everyone had gone.”

  “That’s okay.” Eli turned on his charming smile. “We were putting the final bits and pieces away.”

  “Oh, well, here…” The woman appeared too flustered by his presence to have noticed anything amiss. Her cheeks reddened as he continued to smile at her. She shoved the tray in his hands and scurried out.

  Eli chuckled and slid the tray onto the shelf.

  Tabby slipped her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Her fingers tangled in the bra, and her cheeks grew warm. What had she been thinking?

  Eli didn’t appear embarrassed. He brought her toward him and wrapped his arms around her. “Sorry, honey. That was unfortunate.” He moved back and brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek. His eyes were gentle, and when he lowered his lips to hers, the soft kiss made her ache.

  When he finally raised his head, she knew she was blushing. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” He smiled. “Are you going down to Rock Salt now?”

  “I guess. You?”

  “Yeah, I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving.”

  “True.” He held out his hand. “Come on—I’ll buy you a beer.”

  “Okay.” She let him lead her out of the room. The cleaners had gone, and she couldn’t decide if she was pleased or disappointed they’d appeared. It was for the best, though, and she knew it. Although what they’d done had been sexy as hell, neither she nor Eli wanted to complicate matters when they both had plans for after filming ended.

  Yes, definitely for the best.

  Still, she knew when she went to bed that night, she’d dream of Eli holding her in his arms, his lips warm on hers.

  Chapter Six

  Monday afternoon, Eli paused in the doorway to the food tent and watched as Tabby scrutinized the craft service table. Clearly, the decision of what to have for her lunch was an important one, and she was taking time making her choice.

  His gaze skimmed over her slim back and waist and her lovely ass, tight and high in her black leggings. She wore a pink shirt over the top that just skimmed her hips. He could easily have taken her by the hand, dragged her down the road to somewhere quiet, and done very naughty things to her.

  She hadn’t exactly avoided him all morning, but she had kept her distance.
He understood her indecision about what they’d nearly done. His brain yelled no, but his heart begged yes, please.

  His mother had always said, “Follow your heart.” He was pretty sure she hadn’t meant it in this capacity, but who was he to go against his parents’ advice?

  He sauntered through the tent, greeted a couple of people, picked up a tray, and joined her at the table. “Hey.”

  She glanced at him, her face registering surprise. “Hiya.” Pleasure lit her eyes, but she looked back at the food as if she was trying to hide it from him. “What have you been up to?” She sounded nonchalant but her cheeks grew pink, and he couldn’t help but tease her.

  “I’ve been busy planning.”

  “Planning what?”

  “Our next rendezvous.”

  She stared at the selection of fresh fruit. “Oh.”

  He’d thought she would laugh or push him playfully, but her wide eyes made him pause. Perhaps she’d decided it had all been a terrible mistake. He could have kicked himself. “Open mouth, insert size thirteen. You’ve changed your mind.”

  “I had.” She blushed and looked away.

  Hmm, past tense. Interesting. He wouldn’t give up just yet. He moved a little closer to her, so their arms touched. She didn’t pull away, and it gave him the courage to continue.

  “I can see you need convincing. Maybe if I revealed some details of my future plans?”

  She grabbed an apple, took a deep breath, and shook her head. “It won’t make a difference.”

  “That’s a shame.” His hand hovered over the doughnuts. “It’s a really good plan.”

  “I…I’m sure it is.” Her cheeks flushed and she bit her lip as if tempted to ask him. Instead, she took a bite from the apple and reached for a napkin.

  He couldn’t decide between a jelly-filled doughnut and a chocolate-covered one, so he took them both. He observed her blush with amusement. She was trying to do the right thing, but she wanted him. That much had been clear in the storeroom.

  The memory of her soft sighs as she came flooded his mind, and mischievousness shot through him. “I haven’t decided actually. I’m thinking…either the sofa in the meeting room with you on top, or up against a tree somewhere, probably from behind.”