Back for Seconds (Lone Star Second Chances Book 1)
Page 15
“Then what is it?”
“Like I said. Lesson One. You needed to know it’s okay to fulfill your own desire. It’s the only way you’ll ever know how to demand it from someone else.”
She touched his hard chest with her hands. “So when’s Lesson Two?”
He pushed her hand away, lifting it high above her head as he stole another burning kiss. “I’ll tell you when we get there,” he promised. “Do you trust me?”
She lost herself in those incredible dark eyes. He had her prone, her arms above her head, his leg across her lower body, keeping her pinned under his weight. She was at his mercy, like she had been from the day they met. Finally she nodded. He rewarded her with a long kiss that teased her lips and made her loins fire up all over again.
She felt cold when he lifted away. “Where are you going?”
“To get your dress,” he answered with that familiar smirk as he fastened his trousers. “I still need four dozen cookies by tomorrow.”
He held out a hand for her, which she stared at for a long moment. As shaky as her ego felt, she decided to trust him. She allowed him to guide her, naked, back to the living room. He dressed her slowly, in between kisses and caresses that promised what was to come.
She still wasn’t entirely sure she could believe him as they drove back to her mother’s house. She was quiet and pensive, which only got worse the closer they got to Old Elmwood. He was silent as he eased into the driveway and put the car into park. Before she could open the door, he reached across her and slammed it shut. There, in her mother’s driveway in the middle of the night, he captured her lips for another scorching kiss. She gasped as she felt his hand disappear under the flared skirt of her dress, inching closer up her creamy white thigh. She was dripping wet by the time his inquisitive fingers parted her legs, diving in to find that sensitive little nub. He buried his face in her neck, his breath hot against her ear. “Is that it, baby?” he murmured. “Is that what you wanted?” He mimicked exactly what she had done to herself in his bedroom. “That’s how you like it, isn’t it, Joely?” She nodded as she bucked against his hand until he finally penetrated her with two strong fingers. He didn’t stop until she was coming hard, clamping down on his fingers as she cried out in the car, barely drowned out by the music playing on the stereo. She was breathless as he withdrew his hand, bringing one finger to his lips to lick away her juices with a triumphant smile. “That was Lesson Two,” he declared.
Her voice trembled as she spoke. “What’s Lesson Two?”
“Showing you how fucking irresistible you are, Joely Morgan. So start acting like it or next time you pout, I might have to give you a proper spanking.”
He kissed the tip of her nose as he opened her door. “Four dozen cookies,” he instructed with that familiar smirk. She finally responded with one of her own.
“Yes, sir,” she said before she slipped out of the car. He waited until she was safely inside before he sped away.
Chapter Thirteen
Russell regretted Kari’s pool party that Saturday five minutes after it started. Overseeing a gaggle of giggling teenagers was not exactly how he had wanted to spend his day off, but Kari had proven especially moody that day and he was willing to do just about anything to fend off another meltdown. Normally she had saved all those for her mother, but the second he told her that he wouldn’t take her to Lillian’s Place to check her schedule, merely suggesting that she could simply call and get that information, she had pitched a giant fit.
“Why do you need to work anyway?” he had asked her. “You’re fifteen.”
“I just want to, okay?” she had screeched back. At that point, as she stood across from him, hands on her hips, dark eyes burning like coal, fuming much like Joely could do when she really got going, Russell would have agreed to swimming with live alligators if it had just calmed her down.
They compromised on inviting three of her very best friends to the house for an impromptu pizza party. He thought, momentarily, about leaving Kari in charge of everything while he snuck in a round of golf. She was certainly old enough to watch her little sister, especially if she was responsible enough to hold a job. Russell formulated a rebuttal to every argument that Joely could lob his direction, to excuse him from Dad Duty for the afternoon.
It would have been so much easier if Jena had agreed to stay the weekend. She had no problems staying at the house now that Joely and the kids were gone, but after their trip to the lake, she had decided that spending her weekend looking after someone else’s kids wasn’t on her short list of fun things to do. “You be Dad,” she had told him with a juicy kiss that kept him coming back for more. “I’ll be back Sunday night.”
He couldn’t really say he blamed her. His normally ordered world was turned upside down the minute the kids got there Friday night. There were toys and clothes scattered everywhere, opened food left on messy, sticky counters, and elevated voices as the kids fought for control over the TV in the family room. He never realized how much work Joely had put into keeping the place in order. Everything was all in place whenever he walked into the room, just like magic.
Now he found himself constantly cleaning up after them, defusing fights and managing three very different children until he fell into bed, alone, at night. This left him in serious need of an afternoon away at the club, but he was scared shitless of what he’d find when he got back home again.
So he grinned and tried to bear it. He did his level best to maintain his Best Dad Ever image. He ordered pizzas, got all sorts of unhealthy goodies he knew that Joely would never allow the kids to have in copious quantities, like soda and candy. By Saturday night he understood why. The kids were practically bouncing off of the walls. Nash stayed to himself, like usual, but Hannah was needier and clingier than normal. She glued herself to his lap, demanding he read her stories or play games with her. He encouraged her to spend time with her sister’s friends, but they weren’t any more interested in babysitting than Jena had been.
In fact, all three of Kari’s friends disappeared with her up to her bedroom, to hide behind a closed door and talk about what teen girls liked to talk about.
Angela, Brianne and Lori all spread out on Kari’s queen-sized bed draped in purple, doing each other’s nails. “So how are things at Abilene High?” Angela asked, referring to the rival school across town that Kari now attended, thanks to her moving in with her grandmother.
Kari promptly made a face. “It sucks,” she said. “The kids there are so stuck-up. I hate my teachers. I hate my classes. Nothing is good about that place. Nothing.”
“Not even any cute boys?” Lori prodded with a smile.
“Boys,” Kari scoffed. “So immature. They don’t care about anything important. Just football and sex.”
“Sounds good to me,” Angela giggled. She had just hooked up with her first boyfriend, and it had been a magical time.
Kari just shook her head. “Not me. I want someone who knows how to treat a lady. Someone older, you know? Someone with experience.”
Brianne knew that look. “What’s his name?”
All the girls turned to Kari, who couldn’t hide her smile if she tried. She pulled out her phone and dropped in the middle of her friends on the bed to share. “Xander,” she said as she pulled up a photos she’d stolen after her shift that week.
“Oh my God,” Brianne breathed. “He’s hot!”
“Right?” Kari replied with a big, happy smile. “His name is Xander Davy. He works at my Nanna’s restaurant. And he’s British. He’s got this accent. It’s so sexy.”
Angela didn’t know about all that. “He looks old.”
“He’s only twenty-six,” Kari said. “Eleven years isn’t that bad. When I’m eighteen, he won’t even be thirty yet. It can perfectly work out, just like Adam Levine and his wife,” she added, using one of their shared crushes to make her point.
They all nodded. Adam Levine was totally hot and not old at all, and he was about ten years older than Xan
der.
“So does he like you?” Lori wanted to know.
Kari just shrugged. “It’s complicated. I’m underage, not to mention his boss’s granddaughter. I’m sure he’s just being careful. But he always finds excuses to hang around me. He drives me home all the time. He even fought for me to work at the restaurant. Check it. Here’s his last text to me.”
She held up the phone so everyone could see.
Have fun this weekend at your dad’s. Try to stay out of trouble!
The girls ooh’d and aw’d over the vague message. They all promptly agreed that he was wisely hiding his attraction to Kari, which, of course, made him even hotter. He was already taking care of her in his own special way.
“So what are you going to do?” Brianne asked.
Kari heaved a dramatic sigh. “I don’t know. Right now I’m just trying to show him how mature I am. I’m doing the work at the restaurant and then some. Plus I’m helping my Mom out with her cookie thing. I think he really likes that most of all. I’m not just some employee at the restaurant. I’m a vital part of a growing business. My mom even told him that the last time she dropped off our cookies.”
“Your mom?” Lori echoed, incredulous.
“I know, right?” Kari responded. “Ever since she found this cookie thing she’s just been… I dunno. Happier.”
That brought up a sore subject. “Do you think your folks will ever get back together?” Angela asked.
Kari shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. I thought Dad was dating that one girl, Jena, but who knows? Maybe we scared her away after the last trip.”
“I hope they do get back together,” Brianne announced. “That way you can come home and go back to Wylie and things can finally get back to normal.”
Kari nodded, but deep in her heart she was no longer convinced coming back home, going back to her old school and her old life, was what she wanted. Xander had changed everything. It had only been a few weeks but she already couldn’t imagine a day without him. Just a weekend apart was painful enough. Every time he smiled at her, she felt important. She felt… visible. Like someone could see her for the very first time.
Little did she know that was the same feeling that her mom had. After their date Friday night, Joely hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep. She made the four dozen cookies like he asked (demanded,) and planned to take them to the restaurant herself that next morning. Why not? She couldn’t get any sleep anyway.
Her body still sang with the pleasure he’d shown her at the tips of his fingers. When she’d gone to his house, she had expected him to sleep with her. Maybe a one-night-stand to satisfy their mutual curiosity and then it’d be over. One and done. What he had done was much, much more insidious. He had implanted himself in her brain so that every time she touched her body, she’d see his face. She shuddered hard every single time she thought about that look in his eyes as he stroked himself, watching her intently as she pleasured herself like a wanton tease.
For someone who had regularly been denied foreplay over the years, that one night of nothing but had turned her on more than she’d been in a long, long time. She couldn’t wait to see him again, to feel the heat of his body close to hers, the warmth of his breath right before those lips touched her skin.
He had turned up the intensity on everything. Even the simple act of showering and picking out a dress to wear for him had erotic overtones now. She was preparing herself for him and she knew it.
She decided to spend Saturday at the restaurant, and dressed accordingly. She wore flats, because she knew she’d be minding the counter for most of the afternoon. She stayed with the retro theme, dressing in 1950s-era Capri pants with a red, button-down, sleeveless tunic. She pulled her hair back with a red headband and applied neutral makeup she could wear all day.
He was pleased with the results as she arrived that morning with her mother and Granny Faye. They couldn’t really acknowledge the night before in front of her family, but the knowing glint in his eyes said all that needed to be said, especially when she handed him the plastic bin full of cookies. “Just like you ordered,” she said.
“Good girl,” he replied with a barely concealed wink.
Joely happily threw herself into helping out around the kitchen, familiar duties from when she was young. She helped roll out and cut biscuits, cut vegetables for the afternoon rush, and she would appear behind the counter whenever a customer expressed any interest in the mastermind behind the special artisan goodies for sale.
But if she thought about standing around, mooning over Xander all day, she had another thing coming. That afternoon they were slammed by not one, but two busses that kept the restaurant jam-packed and hopping till well into the dinner hour. She sold out of all four dozen cookies by six o’clock, but she didn’t have a spare moment to catch her breath, much less make any more, when the third bus of the day arrived.
It was such a busy day that Granny Faye fizzled out by seven o’clock, and Lillian was more than happy to take her home just so she could get off of her own feet for an hour. Both Joely and Xander insisted that they could rest at home for the rest of the night, promising that everything was covered. Both Granny Faye and Lillian were too tired to argue. A quiet night at home was just what the doctor ordered.
The last customer left a little after eleven o’clock that night, and the tired crew got the place cleaned by midnight. Joely and Xander were the last to leave. He didn’t even have to offer the ride as she walked with him, carrying her empty plastic bin, to his car.
Likewise he didn’t have to ask if she’d like to go home with him. He simply kept driving past the freeway off-ramp to her mother’s house. She glanced his direction, but he stared straight ahead. They were on his schedule now and she knew it. He was the boss, he was in control. Though she didn’t want to admit it, it gave her such a thrill to follow where he led.
They returned to his house way out on the edge of the boonies. He fetched her plastic bin from the back and walked purposefully for his front door. He let them in and she followed him into the house, through the familiar foyer and towards the homey living room and open kitchen.
He didn’t stop walking until he reached the kitchen, where several bags now sat on the granite countertops. “I guess you better get cracking,” he said. “Six o’clock comes awfully early in the morning.”
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
He nodded towards the bag, prompting her to look inside. It was filled with bags of flour, sugar, spices and decorating supplies. “What is this?”
He rounded the counter to reach for another bag. “Sunday’s our busiest day. You’re going to need at least five dozen cookies.”
Her face fell. She had only had maybe thirty minutes of sleep from the night before. She’d been standing on her feet all day, aching from her lower back all the way down to her toes. And now he wanted her to work? “Are you kidding?”
“I never kid about business,” he assured as he pulled a long black apron, covered in a colorful cherry design, from the bag. “I think I got everything you’re going to need for your special cinnamon rolls and some more fabulous note cookies. I even bought you something to wear.” He handed her the apron with a look on his face that nearly dared her to defy him.
She bit back any retort as she reached for the apron to put it on. She didn’t know what kind of ‘lesson’ he was teaching her now, but her mood was darkening by the second. Just as she lifted the apron to put it on over her head, he shook his head with that aggravating smirk.
“Uh uh,” he said as he pulled it away. “I want this to be the only thing you wear.”
A volt of electricity seared her insides all the way to the soles of her feet. “What?”
He took another step closer to her, undoing the first button of her top easily with his forefinger. “I have a confession to make,” he said softly as his eyes pierced hers. “I’ve wante
d to see you baking, naked, in my kitchen since the first time I tasted your cinnamon rolls. Tonight you’re going to make that fantasy come true.”
She shuddered. Suddenly she didn’t care how tired she was or how much her feet hurt. “Okay,” she relented.
He stepped back, leaned against the counter, feet crossed at the ankle, hands linked together right above that hardening crotch, as he waited for her to comply with his sexy demand. He watched as she unbuttoned her shirt and discarded it on one of the bar stools across the counter. She reached behind for her bra, and he said nothing as she made quick work of that as well. She wiggled out of her capris and her underwear, kicking off her shoes before she turned to him, completely nude.
He smiled as he stepped forward to drape the apron over her trembling body. He practically folded her in an embrace as he tied the strings in the back, his hand slipping down to caress the swell of her ass before he stepped back out of her way. “Good girl,” he murmured. “Now show me your secrets.”
At first she was nervous. Her hands shook, which caused her to fiddle and drop things much more clumsily than she did at home when she cooked on her own. He said nothing as he watched her measure her ingredients into a large mixing bowl. She knew all her recipes by heart by now, after making them for weeks solid. She could have baked them in her sleep, and often did.
But she was awake now as she became aware of every movement she made, bending over, twisting and turning, giving Xander quite a view from where he sat. Finally she pulled out a bottle of wine to pour them both a glass, simply so she wouldn’t be so self-conscious. He said nothing as he sipped from his glass, which only made her drink more.
“If these are ruined,” she said, referring to the cinnamon rolls she popped in the oven, “it’s your fault.”