Serenades (Whispering Cove)

by Nikki Duncan

  Alone with Kendall, Aimee stepped to the crib and rubbed her fingertips over her daughter’s forehead. “We’ll be okay, baby. You won’t grow up without a parent who loves you.”

  After turning out the light, Aimee stepped into the hall. Josh stood there. Surprise gripped her in a chilly fist.

  Refusing to break, determined to stand strong for her daughter, Aimee met his gaze. The naked vulnerability shining in the dark depths smacked her.

  Not anger. Not hurt. Not betrayal. Pure passion pulsed in his eyes and it made no sense. “Josh?”

  He shook his head, a single jerky shake, and then closed the distance between them.

  Her heart detonated. Pressure built until her ribs ached.

  He gripped her hips and backed her against the wall. His mouth came down on hers in a kiss that was more forceful than the last. Forceful in that it tasted like years of pent-up frustrations that had popped free of their seal.

  She gasped. He took advantage of the weakness and plunged his tongue into her mouth. Hunger and doubt, hope and desire warred in her heart. Passion overtook her body and had her clinging to Josh, answering his kiss with equal fervor.

  A guttural groan rumbled from deep in his chest. He moved his hands from her hips to her waist and up her sides until they cupped her breasts. Arousal flooded her stomach. Wetness flooded her panties. She answered his groan with one of her own.

  She’d always been sensitive to Josh’s touch, but nursing had made her more so. He could take her over the edge and to orgasm without removing her clothes. As much as she welcomed the release, the escape his touch offered, she couldn’t ignore the circumstances.

  Steeling her resolve, she broke the kiss. “We have to talk about this. About Kendall.”

  “Oh, we will.” He turned her toward the bedroom with his hands continually exploring her body. “First I think we need to make love.”

  “Josh…”

  “Tell me you don’t want me, that you don’t crave the pleasure we find together. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to be touched by me. That you don’t want to let go of everything for just a little while.” His stare dared her even more than his words. “Say it and we’ll sit on the couch and talk.”

  “I want to say it, because we need to talk.”

  “But you can’t.” His dangerous smile appeared, weakened her resolve to talk. She shook her head.

  “Then let’s see if we’re still as good as we remember.”

  His playfulness was infectious. Or it could simply be the desire to postpone a potentially ugly confrontation. If he wanted to have sex instead of talk then fine. She’d been honest, leaving him no reason to think she was trying to trap him.

  He backed her into the room and to her bed, but he didn’t lay her down. Treating her to continuous kisses, gentle brushes of his lips against hers or her neck, he reminded her with every touch why she’d fallen prey to him. A flick of his thumbs stiffened her nipples as he moved his hands and pushed her robe off her shoulders.

  “You have the softest skin.” His murmur blended with the warmth of his breath as he sank his teeth tenderly into her shoulder. Molding her body to his, pressing his erection against her for the briefest moment, he moved his hands to the hem of her tank top without ever breaking his touch.

  His palms glided along her stomach and over her ribcage as he raised her tank. “You’re curvier than before. More sensual, though I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”

  “A side effect of pregnancy.”

  “It suits you.” Josh pulled her tank over her head and tossed it aside.

  His eyes glimmered as he lowered his head for another kiss. She expected the caress on her lips. He ducked his head at the last second and kissed the tender skin beneath her jaw. She dropped her head and moaned. Her thong grew wetter as her sensitized body moved into hyper drive beneath his touches.

  Growing hungrier, Aimee grabbed the edge of his sweater and tugged it over his head. She’d dreamed of touching him, making love with him. Having him in her bedroom, gifting her with his touch after learning about Kendall, was a bigger turn on than anything she’d dreamed.

  You suit me.

  Josh dropped to his knees and pressed his mouth to her stomach, to the slight bulge she hadn’t been able to lose after Kendall. His fingers dug into her hips and pulled her closer.

  The image of him kissing her that way when she carried his child snapped into her mind and flooded her with a depth of feeling she’d never expected. Her hands dropped to his shoulders, seeking support as if she were drunk. She bit her lips to keep from crying out and dragging him onto the bed for a hurried round of sex.

  He was clearly content not to rush. Who was she to argue?

  “If I’d gotten your messages I would have been here.” He eased back and looked up. “You sure as hell wouldn’t have been alone.”

  His earnestness wrapped around her heart like a fist. Her veins pulsed and her breath stalled beneath the grip of his words.

  “I had Carmen and friends.” Guilt flashed in his eyes. The need to soothe flared, so she brushed her fingers over his forehead, like she often did with Kendall. “You’re here now.”

  Josh lost himself in the warmth of Aimee’s touch. If she remembered their talks from before she was likely worried he would accuse her of trapping him. She could be worried he’d try to take Kendall away or abandon them both like her own parents had.

  Fear should be overwhelming her, but she was instead giving him the kindness of comfort.

  For a man who made his living by stringing the perfect words together, none were coming to him. He was enraged to just now be learning about Kendall, but the blame wasn’t to be laid at Aimee’s feet. He’d have to find a way to show her he didn’t judge her. He would have been at her side if he’d known, and he wasn’t running now.

  Tears clogged his throat. Before they overtook his eyes and showed his underbelly, he broke Aimee’s gaze and returned to his exploration of her body. Nibbling a path along the waist of her pajama pants, he loosened the tie and tugged. The flannel pants joined her robe in a pool at her ankles. All she was left wearing was a nursing bra, silk thong and Christmas-red painted toenails with silver stockings dancing on her big toenails.

  Practical, sensual and funny. It was the perfect combination for the honest woman most people saw as a free spirit. She didn’t play games; even when she’d had the right to push for more she hadn’t.

  Josh brushed an index finger over each of her big toes and smiled. “No clichéd snowman for you.”

  She wiggled her toes, teasing him with memories of her ankles locked behind his head. He was smiling at the memory as he bent down and kissed her toes. “I never thought toes could be sexy until meeting you.”

  She twitched as if he’d tickled her, which only made him smile more. With his bottom lip pinched beneath his teeth to keep from laughing, he rubbed his nose up the front of her leg while tracing his fingers, just the briefest touch of the tips, up the backs.

  She giggled, trying to escape his tickling without actually moving away. Responsiveness was never a problem with Aimee. She was as outspoken with her body language as she was with words during conversation. Rarely had he questioned what she was feeling.

  Her fingers slipped through his hair when he was high enough. Light tugs turned into radiating pulses of awareness. Each follicle throbbed. Every nerve sang.

  His cock twitched against his zipper, seeking freedom he wasn’t ready or willing to grant. Well, he was ready. And willing. He’d been ready and willing since kissing her in the living room.

  This lovemaking needed to be more meaningful than a hurried rush to roll on a condom and find release. It needed to be more emotional than the lighthearted explorations of each other’s bodies.

  They stood at a precipice. A moment in time when everything could change and how they reacted to each other would determine if it was for better or worse.

  “Josh.” Aimee dragged his name out with the grum
bling roll of hunger. “It’s been a really long time. If you keep tickling me… Ahhhh.”

  “Go ahead, Aimee.” Loving the power he had over her body, he blew a long, unsteady breath along the tender skin of her pelvic bone. Then he followed the same path with his fingers. “Let yourself go.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can.” Turning herself over to orgasm without him being in her was the one thing he’d never talked her into. She’d said once it was too personal. He’d known the truth. For her, orgasming from a lover’s touch or kiss required a level of trust she wasn’t ready to give.

  Tonight, though, she was on the edge. Her body quivered. Her skin pimpled with gooseflesh. Her fingers fisted harder in his hair. She wanted everything he wanted to give and damn if he didn’t want to give more than he’d ever thought possible.

  Instead of rising, exploring her body until he once again stood before her, he settled back on his knees. A wet spot darkened the silk covering her mound. Gripping her hips, Josh dug his fingers into the flesh of her ass and pulled her closer.

  He covered her with his mouth and breathed a long, warm breath. An instant before backing away he nipped her clit through the silk and grinned delightedly when she popped her pelvis forward, angling for more.

  “Josh, please.”

  “I’ve wanted you since the last time I had you.” As hungry to please her as she was hungry to be pleased, he closed his mouth over her again and wiped his tongue across her thong. Her flavor seeped into his soul. He still couldn’t name her taste, but the muscles in his lower back fisted with the need to share her release.

  He wouldn’t share this one, though. This time was all about the surrender she trusted him with.

  Josh ground his back teeth with the effort to restrain himself. Dizzy, he slid her panties off. Tiny lines—white, barely visible—tracked the upper part of her thighs. As perfect as she’d been, the stretch marks from carrying Kendall somehow made her more so.

  Looking at the slightly risen scar no more than four inches long that stretched left to right at the top of Aimee’s pubic hair line, he finally understood what people meant when they talked about emotions making their ribs shrink.

  His rib cage shrank, or maybe his heart swelled.

  She’d carried Kendall and her body bore the marks. Then, instead of a normal labor to recover from, she’d had a C-section, which according to his sister, meant months of discomfort.

  Placing a kiss to the scar, he took a moment to breathe her in. She could have handled things so differently. She could have aborted the baby or called the tabloids or made it her mission to shatter his reputation. She’d done none of that.

  “Josh?”

  Her voice quivered. The quiver shook him from his thoughts and made him more determined to win her trust. With her legs trembling beneath his grip, Josh again closed his mouth over Aimee and took her straight to orgasm.

  Chapter Five

  Aimee trembled with the need to pull Josh to his feet, or sink to her knees. Anything that would put them on an even footing had to be better than standing nearly naked and at his mercy while her body trembled with orgasm.

  She tugged on his hair. At first he didn’t move, but then he shifted so his head rested on her stomach. The simplicity of the moment brushed Aimee’s soul. She dropped her head and smoothed his hair. “Josh?”

  “You’re so beautiful.”

  Her cheeks flamed. There was nothing beautiful about stretch marks covering her thighs or an ugly scar that felt weird to the touch or the tummy bulge she couldn’t get rid of.

  “You worry more about other people being happy than yourself.” He stood and brushed a kiss to her cheek. “It’s time for someone else to make you happy.”

  Her knees buckled. She would have fallen if he hadn’t been holding her hips.

  Vibrations ran through her. “Josh. Please. We need to talk.”

  “I told you we will. Later.” The cocky chuckle that suited him perfectly, that stated on a deeper level how comfortable he was with his bedroom skills, rumbled into his fingertips and shook them.

  Aimee’s excitement grew. Her breasts hardened and told her if she didn’t keep things slowed down she’d begin leaking. Getting wet during sex was okay as long as it was isolated to her panties.

  She dropped her head to Josh’s shoulder and sighed. She’d felt comfortable with him from the first moment. Now, it seemed, she trusted him. When she’d been a girl in foster care, robbed of every choice as easily as she’d been robbed of her sister, despite promises to keep them together, she’d promised to only trust herself. Recently, she’d trusted a few people with the truth about Kendall’s father, but no one beyond Carmen had gotten into her heart deep enough for real truth.

  He was doing nothing more than hold her, yet warmth shrouded her, seeped into her pores. She tingled, but it didn’t start at her core and radiate throughout like it had every time they’d made love before. This time the tingling began at the tips of her fingers and toes. At the nail beds.

  Post-pregnancy hormones could be playing with her body. Or it could just be Josh’s nearness.

  Her knees shook. Josh moved his hands to them, offering her support. The brush of his fingers, of the lightly guitar-callused spots against the small of her back weakened her.

  Euphoria that came from an inner peace encased Aimee and had her believing for the moment that her dreams could come true.

  She sank onto the edge of the bed and settled on her side. Josh joined her, brushing his fingers over her shoulder. Thoughts whirred through her brain, too many to settle on any one, especially when she looked into his dark gaze. She’d told him about Kendall, and he’d said essentially nothing. He’d walked out of their daughter’s room, but instead of leaving he’d stayed. He’d stayed, made love to her, taken her to a place she’d never gone before.

  He’d shown her she trusted him. But did he trust her? Did he believe her?

  “You were right, Aims.” Josh’s cocky smile returned to his mouth as he leaned forward and kissed the corner of hers. “You are different.”

  She swallowed. “I’m not sure if you think that’s a good thing.”

  “I liked who you were.” He kissed the other corner of her mouth and leaned closer, suggestively nudging her back until she lay on the mattress. “I like who you seem to be now.”

  He continued caressing her with gentle kisses as he toed off his boots. Aimee reached between them and released the buckle of his belt and slipped open the button of his jeans.

  Eager for more of him, she lowered the zipper, releasing one row of teeth and then the next with aching slowness. Like a whisper, she stuck the tip of her thumb into the opening and slid it along his cock as she moved the zipper farther down. When she wrapped her fingers around him and her gaze met his, she found sparkling laughter. She found fun.

  With an unexpected curse, Josh claimed her mouth in another kiss. He wasn’t as gentle as he’d intended. Aimee returned the kiss with a matching fervor.

  She didn’t pump her hand up and down. She didn’t raise her hips, maneuvering to be closer. She only squeezed with the smallest increases and decreases of pressure as she held him.

  With her free hand, Aimee shoved at his jeans. He managed to snag his wallet from the back pocket before kicking his pants to the floor. He pulled the condom from it.

  “Let me.”

  “Really?” Aimee had never been shy in bed, but she’d always waited for him to cover himself. Unsure why, she had a craving for being the one to sheathe him.

  She held out her free hand and smiled. “Really.”

  He handed over the packet.

  Still gripping his dick, still squeezing teasingly, she lifted the foil to her mouth and ripped it open with her teeth. She only broke her gaze when she wiggled away a little and looked down to position the condom at his head. She rubbed the pad of her thumb over the end of his dick. His lower abs twitched.

  “Memories lie,” she whispered, inching the condom
over the swell of his head.

  He swallowed. “Yeah?”

  She nodded, easing the condom down ever so slowly. “You’re bigger than I remember.”

  “Does that mean you’ve been thinking of me?”

  “Occasionally.”

  A grin unlike any she’d ever seen spread across Josh’s lips. In that moment, the heartthrob became drop dead sexy.

  “What thoughts did you think?” he asked.

  “I could tell you.” She rolled the condom the rest of the way down. “Or I could show you one.”

  “I always liked show and tell.”

  With a laugh that reached warm and liquid into her veins, she nodded toward the pillows and crushed the convulsing urge to hurry. “Move up.”

  As eager to indulge as she was to rush, Aimee scooted closer until she knelt between his ankles. Locking her gaze with his, she rested her fingers on the tops of his feet. In a tickling sweep she moved her fingers up, over his ankles and along the length of his calves. She would never admit that she collected tabloid images of him, especially the ones when he was running shirtless, or that she traced his picture while picturing him in real life perfection. Pictures and imaginings failed to capture his vibrancy.

  He was sheathed and ready for her. She was wet and eager for him.

  Their breaths came in synchronized gasps. She slid her fingertips across his hip, brushed her thumb along the edges of his erection without touching him. His hips popped off the bed as his teeth sank into his bottom lip.

  In a bid for control, she dug her nails into his hips, dropped her head back and moaned. She rolled her hips, reaching for him with a growing lack of control and the resulting need for release.

  Josh leaned up enough to grip her hips and pulled her onto him. She wanted him to drive home, to thrust deep and fill her. One look into his eyes said he wanted the same.

  With a lift of his hips he rubbed against her. They moaned. She shifted position and without a second’s hesitation she sank down.

  “Ahhh.” He filled her completely, and not just physically. With steady, perfect rhythm, as if they’d been together a thousand times over the course of years, they drove and rode each other as they gave up all pretenses at restraint and raced toward orgasm.