by Lisa Alder
“You don’t even know.” Brandi looked at him assessingly. “Where did you kiss me for the first time?”
“Where did that come from?” Jake swore to God if he lived to be a hundred he’d never understand the female mind. Where did they come up with this stuff?
“You don’t remember,” Brandi said flatly.
He had the grace to look embarrassed. He didn’t remember.
“Where’d you kiss her for the first time?”
Up on a stage in front of Elvis. Not bad for Miss Priss. If he hadn’t thought it would hurt Brandi’s feelings, Jake would laugh. As it was, he realized if he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget that moment. Jake shifted away from her. “That’s hardly appropriate.”
She laughed. “Since when did you care about appropriate, Jake.”
He didn’t say anything. He was still pondering that he’d never forget that kiss.
“I wasted my time.” She picked up her traveling suitcase. “Have a good life.”
She hesitated, then leaned up and pressed a slow, lingering kiss on Jake’s mouth.
And he felt nothing.
***
Lilah wandered around his dad’s office wondering how Jake’s talk with Brandi was going. Wondering if they were going to patch things up. Wondering why the thought of that hurt in a place deep inside.
She trailed a finger along the spines of the books that lined the shelves and mentally catalogued the various mementos from trips or friends.
She frowned and looked again. There were no pictures of Jake. She prowled around the office and made sure she wasn’t wrong.
But there were no pictures of Jake anywhere.
Lilah lifted the sheet covering the desk and folded it into a neat little square. She studied the top of the desk. No pictures of Jake here, either.
The click of the front door closing interrupted her discovery.
Jake walked toward the open French doors, but he stopped at the entrance and didn’t set foot inside the room.
“Is she?” Lilah cleared her throat and tried to keep the surprise out of her voice. “Did Brandi leave?”
“Yeah.” He looked pensive. Jake glanced around the room, a grimace on his face.
“Are you okay?”
“What?” Jake glanced up from his contemplation of the sofa. “Oh. Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”
“Is she coming back?”
“Somehow, I don’t think so.”
Those words struck a deep chord of happiness in her heart. But even more importantly, Jake was smiling. And when he smiled, he took her breath away. His eyes crinkled at the corners and laughter creased his face.
“So you’re okay.”
He continued to hesitate in the doorway. Lilah had a feeling this room didn’t hold too many good memories for him. Then Jake walked over the threshold and came up in front of her. He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “I’m great.”
He examined her with an intensity that was disconcerting. His gaze traced her body from her toes to her head. Lilah could feel the sexual ferocity in that look. Her whole body tightened and she tried not to remember their wedding night. But, oh my gosh, it was hard when he looked at her that way. They’d agreed, not to do this again. And Lilah knew she needed to stop him.
“Tell me about your daddy.”
Jake’s smiled disappeared immediately. Interesting how each time he’d been on the brink of kissing her, she’d brought up his parents and his mood changed in a blink.
He stepped back. “Why do women have this fascination for things in the past?”
“Just a quirk of genetics, I guess.”
Jake was silent.
“Your father?” She pulled the sheet off the sofa as she waited complacently for him to answer.
“Okay fine.” Jake shrugged. “My dad was the town doctor. Respected by all. Loved by his patients. How’s that?”
Lilah folded the sheet slowly. “Doesn’t tell me what kind of father he was.”
“He was a lousy father.” Jake glared at the sofa, then plopped down on the creaky leather. “The town Saint, Doctor Forrest was a lousy father. Are you happy?”
Lilah placed the sheet on the end table and sat down beside him. His scent, unique to him, drifted closer. Ignoring the way her heart sped up at his nearness, Lilah tried to understand him.
“What did he do?”
“Nothing. That’s the whole point. He did nothing.”
Jake looked defiant as he propped his feet up on the coffee table, the muscles in his legs flexed against the black dress pants. Lilah tried not to remember how those legs had supported her while she’d been wrapped around him. Naked.
“I’m luckier than most kids. He didn’t beat me or,” he tossed a significant look at her, “verbally abuse me. He just didn’t pay any attention to me–beyond making sure I stayed out of his office.”
Her heart ached for that little boy. But it was the man she needed to soothe.
“It must feel nice to realize that Brandi really did want you.” Lilah subtly tried to draw a parallel between Brandi and his father, but working with men wasn’t something she was familiar with. She mostly counseled young girls who, overall, were a whole lot more in touch with their feelings.
“Let’s just drop it.”
Her heart was breaking for the rejected boy still trapped inside of him. “This room has a lot of bad memories for you, huh?”
Jake edged closer to her. He uncrossed his arms and slung one over her shoulder. “You wanna help me?” He smiled.
Lilah licked her lips. She’d seen that smile, right before he’d suggested they do something wicked. “Depends.”
Jake edged closer. His palm dangled in the air, hovering over her breast. Her nipples tightened.
“Depends on what?”
“How.” Lilah tried to form a coherent sentence, but Jake’s other hand had come up to toy with a strand of her hair. His fingers brushed the sensitive line of her collarbone. Who knew? Oh, she wanted him to touch her. “How you want me….”
Lilah trailed off as his hand cupped her breast, and his thumb brushed back and forth against the sensitive peak of her nipple.
Jake leaned over to trace his tongue around the shell of her ear. “I do want you, Lilah.”
She moaned and arched into his touch. Lilah twisted to face him and pulled his head to hers. And when her mouth met his, it was like coming home. This beautiful sense of rightness. This wonderful sense of belonging.
But she could feel Jake holding back. As if her response had surprised him. As if he wasn’t sure of her. “I want you too,” she said breathlessly.
At her acceptance, something changed in Jake. He shifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips then he eased her back against the leather cushion. Jake drew the long, flowing material of her dress up to pool around her hips.
He spread his palms and fingers wide, as he slid them along the sensitive skin of her thighs. Oh my. That felt wonderful. His thumbs edged underneath the edge of her panties. Back and forth, he traced the sensitive mound, drawing nearer to her core, but never quite touching.
Lilah moaned and tore at the buttons on his shirt, needy and near frantic for the sensation of skin against skin.
Jake began to unbutton her dress. While his hands were occupied, he kissed her nipples through the layers of material shielding her body.
Heat pooled low in her belly. She arched into him, and his hot erection seared her stomach. They had on too many clothes. Lilah ripped his shirt down his arms and tossed it to the floor. His fingers finished with the buttons of her dress, and parted it to reveal her slip.
“Lilah, honey. You wear too many clothes.”
She ignored him. She wiggled out of her too many clothes and tossed them over the back of the sofa. His fingers deftly unsnapped her bra, as her hands moved for the button of his pants.
Lilah wiggled again. The friction of their bodies caused a burn deep inside her. His mouth attacked her breasts, sucking on her
nipples, and created an answering tug deep in her womb. He made her feel things she didn’t even know were possible. She needed, oh, she needed him inside her.
Lilah shoved at his briefs as he pushed down her panties. Her shoes were gone, lost somewhere in the tumble of their clothes. As he freed her from the last of her clothing, Lilah wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him home.
As the hot, hard length of him pulsed at the entrance of her body, she gasped. “Oh Jake. Now.”
He pushed inside, just a little bit. “Wait. Hell. Hold on a minute.”
Jake hopped up off the sofa and grabbed the box out of their gift basket sitting next to the doors where they’d left it yesterday. Thank God, they hadn’t taken it upstairs.
He rolled on the condom as he strode back to the sofa.
Lilah reclined against the warm brown leather like a Nordic goddess, propped up on one elbow, her leg bent seductively, her breasts peaked and wet from his lips, her body flushed with the rose of desire.
“Christ, you’re beautiful.”
She was. Only it went much further than the surface of her skin. She was beautiful on the inside as well.
Jake ignored the urge to just push into her and take satisfaction. He didn’t just want sexual release. Although hell he certainly wasn’t going to turn it down.
Her languid, relaxed limbs left her white blond curls and the pink lips of her sex exposed to his gaze. Jake bent down and paid homage to her the only way acceptable.
He knelt on the floor and used his hands to hold her hips, and nudged legs open for his assault. With a long lazy lick he lapped at the juice from her body. Lilah’s hips rose and her breath caught. The sweet musk of her perfumed the air and beckoned him further.
Jake explored her sex, varying the stroke of his tongue from slow long licks to short intense thrusts. Her moans filled the air. Jake curled his fingers in the the soft skin of her butt and lifted her closer so he could devour her pussy. Jake stabbed his tongue into her sex, delighting in the uncontrolled whimpers he elicited.
He kissed and laved and caressed her until he shoved Lilah over the edge into orgasm. Her thighs tightened around his face and her butt clenched as she screamed.
Jake grinned against her slick wet folds.
“Please, Jake.” She begged.
Jake surged to his feet and covered her body with his, mindless with lust. He wanted that slick channel around his cock. Finally, finally he probed the wet folds of her, torturing both of them with restraint.
“Oh my gosh.”
Jake thrust into Lilah once, then twice, reveling in the hot, tight fit. The intense squeeze of her around his cock sent all the blood in his body to his groin. He hardened until he thought he would crack. As one they began to move in a hard, driving rhythm until Lilah’s body clenched around his cock as she orgasmed again.
She screamed.
Her fingers clawed at his back as he thrust into her again and again. Jake stared at her face, at the ecstasy in her eyes, and his body exploded with passion.
Lilah’s legs gripped his hips and anchored him to her as they both came down from the explosion that rocked them.
Lilah’s arms curved around his shoulders and a shuddering sigh went through her. “Oh my gosh.”
She could devastate him and then make him laugh, all in the same minute. He couldn’t keep the laughter from his voice. “What?”
“It’s broad daylight,” she proclaimed.
Jake wiped a tendril of hair from her damp cheek and kissed her tenderly. “And?”
“And we’re on the sofa. Naked.”
Miss Priss was back. He grinned.
Jake looked down at their two bodies, intimately joined. The sight of her pale white legs wrapped around his tanned hips did things to him. He hardened again. And thought he just might be able to get rid of Miss Priss for a few more minutes.
“Jake?” The wonder in her voice did plenty for his ego.
“Hmmm?” He slid leisurely in and out, stroking the still trembling folds of her flesh with his now hard erection.
“Oh my.”
Lilah’s eyes closed and her back arched, her nipples scraped the hair of his chest as they rocked back and forth.
Jake’s hands came underneath her buttocks and pulled her closer. Their tempo changed. Jake stroked slow and sensual. His chest rubbed against her breasts, and he slid his tongue along the seam of her lips until she opened for him. The kiss was soft, reverent, and tender. And they slipped over the edge together. No screaming this time, just a gentle fall of ecstasy.
“Oh Jake.”
Jake used his elbows to prop some of his weight off her. He didn’t want to crush her.
“Don’t go.” She hummed and held on. Lilah opened her eyes, the blue shimmering wickedly in the soft, afternoon light. “Guess you have a better memory now.”
He kissed her softly. “I most certainly do.”
The doorbell rang.
Lilah stiffened. “Oh my gosh.”
Jake nipped at her lips. “Ignore them. Maybe they’ll go away.”
“They’ll see your car.”
“We walked somewhere.”
“If they peer in that window, they’ll see everything,” Lilah hissed. “What were we thinking?”
Jake pushed off of Lilah and hunted for his pants. “We were making new memories.” Jake paused and brushed her lips with a gentle finger. “Thank you.”
Her expression softened. Lilah opened her mouth. Jake waited eagerly for whatever she was ready to say.
Someone pounded on the front door.
“Come on guys. Open up. I know you’re in there,” Tom said through the door.
Tom. Could the guy have worse timing?
“Tom?” she cried softly. “Coming,” she yelled.
Jake paused and grinned wickedly.
“We already did that.” He waited a beat. “Twice.”
“Shush and get your clothes on.” She pawed through the pile of clothes on the floor. “Did you notice this keeps happening to us?”
“Which part?” Jake zipped his pants. “You screaming or someone interrupting?”
Lilah kicked her slip under the sofa and speared him with a sharp glance as she buttoned up her dress.
Jake nudged her panties under the sofa before she could grab them. He might as well get a few vicarious thrills imaging her naked underneath that prissy dress.
Tom pounded on the door again.
“Be right there.” Jake called out.
Lilah smoothed a hand over her hair. “How do I look?”
“Great.” With self preservation in mind, he wasn’t about to tell her she looked like she’d just had hot sex. Tom wouldn’t say anything to Lilah.
He hoped.
TWELVE
Lilah pulled the door open smoothly and prayed Tom wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“Hello, Tom. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Lilah.” He blinked twice. “Ah, I’d like to talk to you.”
Phew. Tom hadn’t noticed. Jake walked up and stood behind her. Heat radiated off him and flowed into her body. She tried to toughen herself to the sensation, but a small part of her melted.
“Hey Tommy.” Jake rested his hand on her hip. Lilah blushed knowing her panties were under the sofa instead of properly covering her body.
“You were in the study?”
“Yeah,” Jake answered softly.
“But you never go in there.” Tom’s gaze widened.
“Things change.”
Tom walked further into the entryway and paused awkwardly before turning around.
Lilah wondered what he’d seen. And suddenly she knew. Jake’s briefs hung awkwardly from the spire of the lamp next to the sofa. A tiny sound of distress escaped before she could quell it. Maybe Tom hadn’t seen them.
Tom glared at Jake. “In the middle of the day?”
Nope. He’d seen them. Lilah wanted to sink into the floor.
“We were….”
She made a chopping motion with her hand.
“Getting rid of old memories,” Jake said blandly, but with a smile on his face. A happy smile.
Lilah softened. They had made new memories.
“Oh.” Tom seemed at a loss for words. He stared at the briefs for another minute.
She resisted the urge to hang her head. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Making love with her husband wasn’t wild or wrong. She conveniently ignored the fact that he wouldn’t be her husband for much longer.
“Can we help you with something, Tom?” Lilah used her best lady voice. The one her aunt had made her practice and practice, trying to stamp out the hint of huskiness she had no control over.
“Jake.” Tom hesitated. “Leave Lilah and I alone for a few minutes. Please.”
Jake looked as if he were going to refuse. Lilah gave a tiny shake of her head to let him know it was okay. She needed to speak with Tom, even if it was going to be awkward.
Jake stared hard at Tom. “Don’t forget. You owe her.”
Lilah wondered what that was all about.
Jake threw her one last concerned look and bounded up the stairs. “Call if you need me.”
Tom placed a hand on her arm. “I came to apologize.”
“Let’s go into the,” Study was out. “Kitchen.”
Tom held her arm solicitously as they proceeded through the house. She thought about what Jake had said to her before. When he asked her if she’d really loved Tom. Shouldn’t she be sad right now? Angry? She felt nothing. She processed that information slowly.
In the kitchen, Lilah poured another glass of lemonade.
“I’m not sure how to approach this.” Tom tiptoed around whatever subject he wanted to speak about. This was not like him. But Lilah didn’t know what to say. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
“Then why did you?” she asked baldly.
He winced. “When I met Marion, no, let me back up.”
Tom fisted his hands and turned toward the floor-to-ceiling fireplace covering the far wall. “I asked you to marry me because it was time for me to get married. And you’re perfect. You’re beautiful, sincere, good, and I knew that you wanted to get married. It seemed perfect.
But then Marion came. It was like fireworks, like I’d been hit with a bomb and I could see only her. I tried to resist. Neither one of us acknowledged it. Because I think we knew deep inside that if we did, we would do something we’d both regret.”