by Linz, Cathie
“Wow, this is a big party,” Mindy said from beside Leena.
“I don’t know most of these people.”
“When you live in a small town everybody knows everybody else.”
“I haven’t lived here for a decade.”
“Right.” Mindy nodded nervously.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bite your head off. I’m just a little nervous.”
“No way. You? Nervous? Not possible.”
“Totally possible. You look great.”
“I don’t, but it’s nice of you to say so.”
“Okay, that’s got to stop right now.”
“What did I do wrong?”
Leena tugged her friend into a quieter corner. “You keep insulting a good friend of mine and I want you to quit it.”
“I’m so sorry.” Mindy hung her head. “I try to never insult anyone.”
“The friend I’m talking about is you. You keep putting yourself down and I want you to stop doing that.” Leena lifted Mindy’s chin. “You are a smart and beautiful woman.”
“I’m not beautiful.”
“You accept a compliment with a thank-you. You are worthy and lovable and have so much to offer. You have the best smile, excellent cleavage, gorgeous skin, and you always see the good in people. Everyone but yourself.”
“I’m not like you.”
“And you’re not supposed to be. Trust me, I’m no role model.”
“Yes, you are. You’re a successful model about to embark on a new exciting career in film.”
“All lies. Except the model part.”
“What?”
“There is no movie. That was total speculation and . . . never mind about that. We were talking about you. I want you to come with me to belly-dancing class.”
“I couldn’t.” Mindy’s face turned apple red. “I’d be too embarrassed.”
“Just come with me once. If you really hate it, you don’t have to do it again. Come on. Just once. As a welcome-home gift for me.”
Mindy held out her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay.”
“There you are. I thought you’d kidnapped my beautiful wife,” T-Bone said. Like Butch, T-Bone had been on the state championship wrestling team and had the no-neck build of a wrestler. The adoring look he gave Mindy made it clear that he loved her as much now as he did back in high school.
“I’m not beaut—” Mindy stopped when Leena gave her “the look.” “Uh, thank you?”
Leena nodded her approval. “That’s a much better way to accept a compliment.”
“Mindy never believes me when I compliment her,” T-Bone said.
“She’s going to do better about that in the future. Right, Mindy?”
“I’ll try.”
“You go, girl.” Leena gave her an encouraging hug. “Carry yourself as if you’re proud of what you have. Head held high, shoulders back. You’d be surprised how well that works.”
“Leena, what are you doing in the corner?” Sue Ellen demanded. “You’re supposed to be mingling.” She dragged Leena across the lobby. So much for head held high. Hey, it was always easier giving advice to others than taking it yourself. “Now talk to people.”
A woman approached her. “Leena, long time no see. Do you know who I am?”
Leena didn’t have a clue.
“I’m Connie Clayton. We went to school together. You didn’t recognize me, did you?”
“I, uh . . .”
“That’s what four kids will do to you. And Clairol. I used to be a brunette with long curly hair and now I’m a short-haired redhead.” Connie laughed and preened a bit. “So Leena, tell us more about this movie you’re going to be in.”
“I can’t.” She just couldn’t say it was all a mistake. Not to anyone other than Mindy. Certainly not to Connie Clayton, leader of one of the cool-girl cliques in high school. A clique that had never included Leena. “So you have four kids now?”
Connie nodded. “They drive me nuts. There’s no place for them to play here. There was talk a while back of opening a playground in that vacant lot just north of town, but nothing ever came of it.”
“There are nonprofit organizations that help out with setting up playgrounds for communities that need them,” Leena said. “You could check on Google and see what you find.”
“I don’t have time to do that. Not with four kids.” Connie drifted away.
“Some things never change, huh? Connie never wanted to take the initiative. Hi, I’m Vanessa Jacobs. I was in English class with you.” The woman smiled.
“I remember you. You took great notes.”
“Still do. I’ve got a blog and website for women entrepreneurs. Angel is a member. Her Angel Designs is really hot right now.”
“Skye’s mom runs Angel Designs?” Why had no one mentioned this before? Their fuzzy scarves and shawls were all the rage.
“So you’ve heard of it?”
“Who hasn’t?”
“Our site is all about empowering women. I’d love for you to be a guest blogger and talk about learning to love your body.”
Sue Ellen had clearly been eavesdropping nearby. “Is she talking about the Remote-Control MegaMax—”
Leena cut her sister off. “No, she’s not. Excuse us a moment, will you?”
Vanessa nodded as Leena dragged Sue Ellen away to the ladies’ room.
“What’s wrong?” Sue Ellen demanded. “I’m not the one talking about loving your body.”
“Loving as accepting. Not loving as sex and orgasms with vibrators.” A toilet flush in one of the two stalls sent Leena into a blind panic.
“Chill out,” Skye said as she opened the stall door and joined them at the sink. “It’s only me.”
Leena sagged in relief.
“I already knew you both bought one of Lulu’s RCM vibrators,” Skye said.
Leena looked at Sue Ellen. “You didn’t tell me you got one too.”
Sue Ellen shrugged. “I couldn’t get it to work.”
“Me either,” Leena admitted.
Skye shook her head while washing her hands. “Amateurs.”
Leena ignored the comment. “Do you two know Vanessa Jacobs?”
“Sure,” Skye said. “She runs a great website.”
“She asked me to be a guest blogger and talk about empowerment for women. Accepting yourself and your body. That kind of thing.”
“Tell them that big hair makes you look smaller,” Sue Ellen said.
“Did you accept her offer?” Skye asked.
“I was about to when Sue Ellen here interrupted us.”
“Sue Ellen, don’t you have a cake to prepare?”
Leena stared at her sister in surprise. “You baked?”
“No. Butch made it. But I have to light the candles.”
They ran into Butch outside the restrooms. “There you are,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you. The cake is ready to go.” He pointed to a large sheet cake on a wheeled cart a few feet away. “Here.” He handed Sue Ellen an elongated candle lighter. “You do the honors.”
“It’s banana cake,” Sue Ellen told Leena.
“Why all the candles? It’s not my birthday.”
“I put ten on here because that’s how long you’ve been gone.” Sue Ellen reached out to steady one of the candles. Instead she ended up igniting her long acrylic nail.
Leena grabbed her sister’s hand and blew her nail out before it scorched her. “That was a close call.”
Sue Ellen sniffed back tears.
“Did you get burned?” Leena asked in concern, taking hold of Sue Ellen’s hand again to look. There was no sign of injury, other than to the fake nail.
“They don’t match anymore,” she wailed.
“We are not burning your other nine nails,” Leena said.
“I wanted tonight to be perfect.”
“It will be.” Leena patted her sister’s shoulder. “Go on into the bathroom and run some cold water on it. We’ll wait for you. Hurry up.” Leena blew ou
t the few candles Sue Ellen had successfully lit. “You get a do-over. Only this time I’ll light the candles.”
The cake made its entrance without further mishap. A few minutes later, Leena accepted Vanessa’s blogging invitation and worked out the details with her. She also talked with her about the undeveloped playground.
Catching sight of Tameka, Leena excused herself.
“Do you know Hannah Dabronovitch?” she asked Tameka.
“Yes. She’s a student in one of my classes. Why?”
“She’s having some body image issues, and I thought maybe you could help her. I tried, but I don’t know how successful I was.”
“I can help out. There are some passages in a book called The Body Project that might help. I’ll also touch base with her softball coach. She might have some ideas too.”
“Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt,” Julia said, looking radiant in a simple floral dress. “But I just wanted to thank you for your help, Leena, when I barged into the animal clinic and my water broke.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You called for the ambulance. I’m sorry I was so crazed that day. My husband Luke will tell you that I’m not usually like that.”
“You were under a lot of stress.”
“Yeah, well, so were you. Your first day on the job and all. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks.”
“Where’s your baby?”
“With Angel. She couldn’t get Tyler to come to the party. He hates crowds, so they decided they’d rather babysit our darling. It’s the first time I’ve left her,” Julia admitted. “It’s only for an hour and they’re right upstairs in Skye’s apartment over the theater, but I miss her.”
“Miss who?” Luke asked as he joined them, sliding his arm around his wife’s waist.
“Our amazing baby girl.”
“We could always go check on her,” Luke said.
Julia nodded. “What a great idea.” A quick smile and she was gone along with her husband.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Cole whispered in Leena’s ear. “Luke used to be a tough guy and look at him now.”
She shivered. His warm breath tickled a tendril of her hair. He’d done it again, sneaking up on her and stealing her composure.
“We’ll talk later,” Tameka said, leaving them alone. Alone with the sixty other people crowding the elaborately elegant lobby.
“Come on.” Cole gently steered Leena through the throng to the doors leading into the theater.
“Have you ever made out in the back of a dark theater?” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
He was wearing jeans, but tonight he’d teamed them with a crisp white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal his muscular forearms. But it wasn’t just his great looks that got to her. He had the kind of magnetic sex appeal that would capture any woman’s attention. He also had a talent for making her feel as if she were the only person in the entire universe that mattered. Powerful stuff.
She looked at him and just knew. “Tonight’s the night.”
“Yeah, it is.” He smiled with just a hint of a sexy dimple. “A special night.”
“A very special night.”
“Yeah?”
She licked her lips. “Oh yeah.”
“I can hardly wait.”
“Me either.”
He gave her a look. One of those smoky, erotic I-want-you-naked-now looks. “Are we talking about what I think we’re talking about?”
“Making out in the back of the theater? No, something even better.”
“Really?” He trailed his fingers down her cheek.
“Yes, really.”
“If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up. You’ve already caused me plenty of sleepless nights.”
“Same here.”
“So we’re going to make up for that tonight?”
Leena nodded and nervously ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “That’s the plan.”
Cole slowly brushed his thumb over the curve of her mouth. “You always have a plan.”
“I try to.”
“One of the many things I like about you. How soon can we leave this party?”
“Right now.”
“Then let’s do it.”
In that moment doing it all night with Cole seemed like the most brilliant idea she’d come up with in her entire life, more important than all the commonsense reasons why caution would be a safer path.
Leena was tired of playing it safe. Just this once, she wanted to give in to the needs storming through her body.
“Where to?” Cole asked.
“My place.”
Chapter Sixteen
Leena watched the headlights of Cole’s Ford truck in her rearview mirror and prayed she didn’t get cold feet. The drive wasn’t long, but it gave her enough time to be logical if she wanted to be. She didn’t.
They’d made their escape through an exit in the theater near the stage. Sue Ellen wouldn’t be pleased. Leena had left without eating one of Butch’s crab puffs. Without kissing up to any of her sister’s prospective realtor clients.
Kissing naturally led her thoughts back to Cole. He was right behind her, and he jumped out of his truck the instant they arrived at her mobile home. He had his lips on hers before she got both feet out of her Sebring, tugging her into his arms and running his hands up and down her back.
“Inside,” she whispered or gasped, she wasn’t sure which. She couldn’t think straight.
He took the keys from her hand and unlocked the front door while stringing kisses across her face.
This continued all the way down the hallway to her bedroom.
He nuzzled against her neck as he freed her hair, sending it tumbling down. “Mmm, you smell good.”
“Happy,” she murmured.
“Yeah, me too.”
“No. My perfume. It’s called Happy.”
“I like it. And I like this.” He braced his hands on either side of her face, threading his fingers through her hair to rest behind her ears. His thumbs rested near the corner of her mouth. “I like kissing you and touching you.”
He barely brushed his lips over hers while he slid his hand to her breast, down to her waist and around to the small of her back and then her bottom.
The last time she’d made love with a guy he’d ended up calling her thunder thighs the next day. The sudden awareness of that fact sent a chill through her as panic replaced passion. Cole instantly sensed the change in her.
“It’s okay.” He used that incredible voice of his, the one that made her believe whatever he said. Believing was a powerful thing.
Great sex was more than just physical. It involved the body and the mind. Not that Leena was an expert in the great-sex department. Mediocre-to-okay had been her limited experience. She could count the number of men she’d been intimate with on one hand.
But none of them got to her the way Cole did.
“It’s okay.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “We’ll go slow. I don’t want to rush this. I want you to enjoy every single second. And if you don’t, then just tell me.”
Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen. She adored everything he was doing to her. She might be scared, but she still wanted more. She told him so in the way she kissed him, her lips parted, her tongue slickly tangling with his. He tasted like the icing on her cake. Heaven, sheer heaven.
She ran her palm along his jaw. He’d shaved recently and his skin was smooth and warm. He looked great when he had that sexy stubble thing going on, but when it came to practical matters she wasn’t a fan of stubble burn.
Lowering her hand, she fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. His body radiated heat through the thin cotton. She shoved the material off his shoulders and stood back to admire him.
That meant breaking off the kiss for a moment, but it was worth it. She no longer had to fight the urge to touch him. Now she could indulge to her heart’s content. Crisp hair spread out from the center of his chest, arrowing down over his muscled ab
s to disappear into the waistband of his jeans. He wasn’t overly hairy. He was just right. She trailed her fingernail down the dark swirl to the button on his jeans. Leaning forward, she licked his tanned shoulder, then the coppery circle of his nipple.
She could feel him swell beneath her fingers as she lowered his zipper.
She liked focusing on him. It prevented her from worrying about her own body and what he might think of it. She wanted to come to him as an all-powerful Goddess of Love, but the reality was that confidence was still something she faked sometimes. Like now. He sure helped matters by being so irresistible.
What woman could turn away? Which got her thinking about the other women who’d seen him naked and whom he’d seen naked. All of them probably skinnier than she was.
She took a step back. He followed her, backstepping her toward her bed. She stopped when she felt the mattress at the back of her knees. Instead of shoving her onto the bed, he started kissing her again, building her pleasure. She didn’t even notice that he’d undone her dress until it fell down around her waist and she felt the cool air against her skin.
At least this time she was wearing her favorite underwear set. No pink polka dots tonight. Her bra and panties were matching mocha silk. Fabulous. Surely a confidence booster. Definitely a breast booster. Her cleavage was awesome.
Cole clearly agreed. He stared down at her with awe and appreciation. He wasn’t even touching her there yet and already her nipples were pebbled.
When he lowered his head, she wondered if he planned on ripping off her bra with his teeth. But he had a better plan. He licked her skin, right where the silk met flesh, along that lacy edge. His actions drove her closer to the brink. As promised, he took his time, and didn’t miss one inch. Only when that territory had been completely explored did he move on.
Surely now he meant to remove her bra. She braced herself. The silk might not provide much protection, but it stood between her and nudity.
But Cole didn’t reach for the front fastener of her lingerie. Instead he shifted his attention to her nipples, brushing them through the material. The ensuing friction was incredibly arousing.
She arched her back, thrusting her breasts against him. He responded by taking her into his mouth and tonguing her nipples through the silk and then blowing on the damp material.