by Conn, Claudy
“Um hm.”
“Good.” He turned and headed to one of the kitchen barstools. Pulling it out, he sank down and laid his towel over his thighs. He told himself it meant extra warmth for her when he got her on his lap, but closer to the truth was that it was an extra layer between her and him and what he was dying to do with her. “Come here.” When she did, he turned her just before he pulled her up on him.
“Now.” Settling her so her back was against his chest, he used the excess from his towel to cover her legs and dipped down to ask, “Why shouldn’t you be doing this?”
“Guilt.”
She fiddled with the edge of the terry while an elegant foot, tipped with sparkly pink polish, swung out in a less than elegant bop. He could tell she wanted to say more, but was holding back. Hooking a finger under her chin, he lifted until she twisted and their eyes locked.
“Just about your parents, or…?”
Her cheeks bloomed in a stunning pink that rivaled her polish. “I should probably just come clean about all my nefarious plans.”
He smiled. Nefarious? He highly doubted that.
“This is the first weekend my parents aren’t around to check in on me. They went to meet friends at our beach house in the Keys, but I couldn’t go with them because I had to look after the complex for Martha. So this was going to be my first taste of freedom. Without them or a boyfriend of their choosing breathing down my neck, you know?”
He didn’t since he’d pretty much been on his own from the age of sixteen but he nodded anyway. “Sure.”
She bumped her shoulder against his chest and said, “But then you showed up in the laundry room handing out invites and I was all drunk with power. I started making plans and talking myself into things. Thinking I could go through with them. I am an adult, after all.”
“You are.”
“I’m twenty-four,” she rushed to assure him when she looked up again. “Almost twenty-five. And I’ve always been a goodie-two-shoes. Do you know how exhausting that is? Especially when it doesn’t come naturally?” She shook her head. “Anyways, the point I’m trying to make here is that I’d love to hook up with you and have one really dirty, and I mean totally filthy, night-I’d-never-forget kind of sex with you but I can’t. I already live with guilt over hiding one bad thing I do from them.” She leaned up and whispered close to his ear, “Let’s just say they’d die if they found out about that one. I can’t add a one night stand to the list, because then it would become a list. Does that make sense?”
He opened his mouth to answer but she was faster and beat him to it.
“I shouldn’t be telling you all this. It’s not your problem. I’m sorry.”
Here again he had to corral her. “Hang on a minute. You don’t get to leave. At least not before I say something about this.”
“You probably think I’m jerk. Twenty-four and I’m still scared of my parents.” She stopped fidgeting and if he weren’t mistaken she was currently holding her breath.
“You’re not a jerk.” He heard the air rush out of her lungs and he frowned. “So, why are you afraid of them?”
“I think afraid is the wrong word. I’m in awe of them. Yeah, that’s a better explanation. I don’t want to disappoint them. They have this great relationship. They are both successful, and if I want to be a part of their team, I have to live up to that, you know? Find the right guy that fits.”
“I see.” He figured this had something to do with her being the only child. “They have high expectations for you I’m guessing?”
“Oh yeah. My dad has only approved of one guy I ever brought home. And man, do I curse the day I made that huge mistake.”
“The sunset crier?”
“Yup.” She hugged the towel tighter. “Don’t get me wrong. Ken’s an okay guy but definitely for someone else. It’s just that Mom and Dad don’t see this. They absolutely love him. Dad kind of helped him get his insurance license and a job with one of the biggest carriers in Florida.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
More than she knew. When she looked up he nodded. “They want the best for their girl. A man who has a good and stable job so he can take care of her.”
“Exactly.” It was her turn to nod. “But I don’t want to marry him and they can’t expect me to just because they love him. Wow, now that I think about it, I should speak to someone about my parent problem. Their expectations of me are ruining my life.”
“You could look at that way.”
She tilted her head back. “I hear an or hanging there.”
“Or maybe you could stop worrying about what they think and do what you want to do instead.”
She blinked and then scowled. “Yeah, no. I thought we covered that. Nefarious plans, remember? Normally what I have in mind to do is bad.”
“According to who?”
Now her eyes widened. “Everyone.”
“Not everyone, darlin’.” He gave her a squeeze and reminded her, “I happen to love bad.”
She sat up so straight she almost fell off his lap, but he was fast and caught her before she slid off him. “Whoa. What’s the matter?”
“When your voice goes husky like that it—I—it makes me breathless.”
Breathless? Right on. “What’s so bad about that?”
“Do you want the clinical answer? The lack of blood to my brain makes me want to forget about being a good girl.”
“Whose version of good?” She continued to look at him. Frowning, but she didn’t answer, so he added, “As in, your parents’ idea of a good girl or mine?”
Her frown deepened as though she were really, really paying attention. “There’s a difference?”
“Oh yeah.” He curled down and rubbed his nose against her forehead before he pulled back. “Where your parents want you to be a happy well-adjusted daughter who behaves accordingly, I’d want you to be a happy well-adjusted woman who doesn’t behave according to anyone but herself.”
That thought bubble was back over her head, and if he was reading the byline correctly, it said eureka.
“I’ve grown up. Moved out of their house and started making a life for myself, but I’m still living by their rules.”
“It’s not unusual. Although normally in college the umbilical cord gets chopped freshman year.”
“I went to Florida State.”
Even though she was staring at his chin he winced, “Too close, huh?”
She looked up. “Yes.” She searched his face. “Wow, I need to start pleasing myself.”
And judging by her look he knew what, or more precisely who, was going to be the first on her list to do that with.
“I’ve never said that out loud before.” She sank back and settled her head against his shoulder with a sigh. “Not that I haven’t thought about it, but as they say, it becomes real when you hear it. Thank you for that.”
The brilliant smile she flashed at him was touching. “Why thank me? You worked it all out on your own.”
“Yes, but wanting to hook up with you so badly was the catalyst. I just wish…”
Now he was the one holding his breath.
“I wish…”
He let it out slowly. “What?”
“I wish I could put the guilt aside and please myself. I really do. Just this once. That’s what I want.”
Riker thought about all she’d said earlier. What she’d just admitted and how sheltered she’d been by her well-meaning parents and scowled. By her striving to please others she never really captured what did it for her. And right now what she wanted most was to seize an opportunity. He got that.
It was a pickle though, because now that he knew her situation he wasn’t about to take advantage of it. “I think you should take some time and think about what you want besides ditching the guilt. There’s more to it than that. Then maybe, who knows. We’ll see.”
Her foot was back to bopping. Only now he could tell it was out of frustration instead of uncertainty. “I hav
e thought about what I want. God, have I ever. If you only knew how many nights I…I watched you in that pool wanting so badly to go down there. I never had the nerve.”
When her shoulders slumped he gave her a squeeze. “Sid?”
“It’s like a physical ache.”
“Excuse me?”
She looked at him. “Have you ever wanted something so bad you ache for it? That’s what it’s like for me. I think I’m totally in lust with you.”
Well, hell, how could he turn something like that down? “I tell you what. How about we just mess around a bit. No sex à la Bill Clinton.” He tapped her nose three times and smiled as she blinked with each touch. “No pressure. Just some intimate petting. The kind of stuff cheerleaders do with their guys behind the bleachers at high school.”
He’d give her some room to back out if she wanted to and if she didn’t? They’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
“I didn’t have a guy at high school.”
She was staring at his lips so hard and licking her own, and worse, the thought bubble was back over her head. This time it said “kiss me” and he was tempted. God was he tempted. He held her tight. “That doesn’t matter now.”
“I think it does.”
“Why?”
“I have no comparison.”
He leaned down and rubbed his nose against hers. “You have to start somewhere, darlin’.”
She closed her eyes and wiggled her butt in his lap. “Yes, and this is a good place, I’m thinking.”
“Me too.”
Before she wiggled some more he adjusted them, until her back was once again to his front and she was staring straight ahead instead of up at him. It was probably best this way. The visual of her pulling his hair, opening her mouth and sliding all over him when they were in the pool wasn’t far from his every thought.
It wasn’t him who moved the towel though, it was her. She shrugged it off and brought her hands down to grip his outer thighs. “Riker?”
“Yes.”
“What do the cheerleaders do with their guys behind the bleachers?”
“Lots of fun stuff.”
She closed her eyes and breathed. “Tell me.”
“All right. But first let me say that they go there for only one reason.” She frowned so he whispered this next in her ear, “To drive their boyfriends crazy.” A ghost of smile played over her lips. He loved watching her and as he spoke, he slowly pushed his palms between her thighs. “It starts with a kiss. The two of them standing together in dusty, tiger-striped shade. They’re so close to each other their thighs meet. Her chest is crushed into his and when their lips touch it’s electric because they both know that someone could see them, catch them at any moment.” Gently, he used his hands to open her, until her legs were hooked over the sides of his knees. He didn’t spread his legs to a V right yet. Instead he massaged her kneecaps and continued his story.
“If the guy’s lucky his girl will be generous. She’ll open her mouth and let him taste her. Hot mint and heaven as their breaths increase and they need more of each other. He knows he can’t go too fast because he might scare her away. So he keeps focused on her mouth even though he wants to taste other things. Badly.” Riker kept his tone and movements steady as he continued with the fantasy and slowly parted his legs. Steeling himself as he watched hers being opened in the process.
“His girl sighs, just a little breathless sound that dares him to push things further.” As he spoke, he skimmed his palms up and down her arm from elbows to shoulders and back again. “Need drives the guy as he leans into his girl, using his weight, praying she’ll get the hint. That she’ll take it.” He slipped his hands down Sidney’s forearms. Caressing as he travelled, until he reached her hands. Then he grasped them, entwining their fingers together. “And when his girl does, things get interesting. The landscape changes. They’re on the ground. In the grass and dirt, but all he can smell is her sweet vanilla perfume and his own sweat, while he stretches out beside her and the whole world comes down to just the two of them and this one moment.”
Riker loved how she shivered against him. Her eyes were still closed and when he spotted her lower lip caught between her teeth, his pulse picked up speed. He pressed his cheek to hers. Forcing her back until her head rested against his shoulder. “This is do or die time for the guy. He’s aching by now. Desperate for more of her and if he’s careful, really careful, he’ll get it.”
He let go of her hand and brushed a slow path up her thigh with just his fingertips. Trailing the lightest touch imaginable over her leg, hip and ending at her abdomen where he stopped and splayed his hand in a pressing caress. “Right now he’s honed all his interest on that small, tight band of ribboning around the bottom of his girl’s sweater. There’s soft warm flesh under there and he wants to feel it beneath his fingers. He slides his hand up. Slow and steady as he kisses her breathless. Hoping to keep her distracted and it works because his hand eases under that soft cotton-knit. His palm brushes along that satiny flesh until he slides his hand on her breast over her bra.”
“Riker…”
Sidney trembled when his hand mimicked his words and cupped her breast over her bathing suit. Not wanting to lose momentum, he curled down, gathered her in and spoke softly, “She’s quivering. He can feel it. He can feel her heart racing beneath his touch and he’s psyched. He hooks one finger over the tiny scalloped lace and pulls down.”
Riker released a soft breath in her ear. “God, her nipple against his fingertips is hot satin but hard as she’s turned on and he wants to keep her that way. He uses his finger and thumb to roll that pebbled flesh until they’re both aching. Her because of what’s being done to her and him for what he hasn’t done yet.”
His breath rasped in and out as he watched Sidney arch into his hand. The sight sent lust barreling through him. Never mind the kid behind the bleachers. He was that guy now as he played with her and she let him. He highly doubted she was aware of how she moved into his touch to silently beg for more of it. Dragging his thumb over her puckered nipple, he whispered, “Now is the time for him to test the boundary. To do what he’s wanted to do all along.”
Riker’s gaze was trained on the path his hand took, from her breast to her rib cage and stomach. He followed the slow descent southward. “He wants to get his hand between her legs and feel her heat. She’s going to be wet.” Sidney made a small sound, but he didn’t look up. “And hot. The question in his mind is will she open for him. Will she let him slide his fingers under the material covering that beautiful pussy, so he can—?”
He groaned and didn’t finish his sentence because his hand was under her bathing suit, colliding with the center of her and she was all of what he’d just described. Hot, wet, and open.
“Relax. That’s it.”
God, she was drenched. Primed. Just the thought that he had unlimited access to her swollen flesh had his cock filling. Thickening. And when she brought an arm up and wrapped it around his neck, massaging his hair with an edgy touch, he wanted to make her burn inside out.
“You have to go slow. Easy with just enough—”
“Mmm…”
Her flex was sexy as fuck as she moved in perfect rhythm with his hand.
“Not too fast, darlin’, there’s plenty of time.”
“I don’t think there is.” Her tone was low and husky. The sound went right through him. Landing with a tempting squeeze around his balls. Anticipation. That’s what it was. God, it felt good to need again. To savor the build. To want without getting. It was good.
“There’s always time for this.”
She drew in a breath and then sighed it out. “Please…”
“Here you go. Deep breath.”
“Oh, so…wonderful,” The phrase tumbled out, and her whole body quivered, as he slipped a finger into her until he touched something great. Better than great and highly sensitive. Maybe too sensitive.
“Riker?” She scrunched her fingers in his hair and
used her fist to push his head forward. Moaning when he nuzzled her neck. “That feels nice. So…so nice.”
He shifted to kiss her and every bone in her body went to rubber. He tasted like hot spice and heaven. A wicked concoction that caused a rush of adrenaline to build inside her. The tingly euphoria was amazing. And when his tongue skillfully coaxed her mouth to open and his blazing wetness met hers, she gave into the moment and became a part of it.
“God, I love this.” He pressed into her higher. “You’re drenched. And hot. Soaking,” he whispered against her ear. “Come apart for me. Let me feel it when you do.”
Those words combined with his actions sent a thrill straight through her. Her legs shook against his outer thighs as an ache began in her belly. The luscious wave spread outward and kept going as those earlier tingles worked from her molten center upward.
Until every nerve ending in her body twitched for attention, making her hot and restless. She gained a tighter hold of his hair with one hand and used her other, digging her nails into his thigh until she was anchored and increasing pressure going deeper with each wave of exhilaration that washed over her. Pushing her up and into his caress. Wanting more. Needing.
“Pour yourself on me. Let go. Let me take you there.”
When he punctuated that last statement with a groan in her ear she lost it. The sexy chills rocketed from her toes to shoulders and crashed with blood pounding sensations between her legs. All the tingles centered and converged over the spot he patiently stroked until that spot came alive with heavy vibrations and every muscle in her body tensed. Expectant and ready.
“Yes.” She was so close, climbing higher. “Yes.” Closer still, teetering on top.
“Mmm…”
His husky purr did it. She gave one final thrust into his hand as pin dots burst behind her eyes and she came.
Her inner muscles contracted sharply and squeezed him so tightly she gasped and had to swallow a few times to catch her breath. Then a second later her eyes flew open and she stared right at him. “W-what are you doing?”