by Leanne Banks
She felt a twisting ache between her thighs. Her breasts swollen, she arched against him and stroked her tongue over his. He gave a rough groan of approval that vibrated through her mouth and nerve endings. She opened wider, wanting more of the taste of wine on his tongue, more of the heady flavor of his passion. More, just more.
Responding to her stifled moan, he slipped his hand beneath her T-shirt and skimmed his palm upward to cup her bottom, gently rotating his pelvis in the notch of her thighs. His tongue slipped in and out in a devastating rhythm. The sensual movement of his masculinity seeking and seducing, his mouth filling and taking, was too much.
Trembling and hot, she gasped when his fingers rubbed the aching swollen part of her through her panties. Alarm shot through her. What was she doing? She pulled her head away, and their mouths made a sensuous sucking sound at the disconnection. Struggling for breath, she was conscious of his hand still between her legs, his breath on her face. Andie moaned. “Eli—” She was holding on to his shoulders for dear life, so she couldn’t push him away. “Eli, please—”
“I want to,” he growled, and lowered his head toward her again.
Chapter Six
Andie ducked her head. “No,” she said, shaking her head, “we need to—” She swallowed. “We’ve got to stop.”
Eli’s blood pounded through his veins with a fury. “Stop,” he repeated, trying to make the word compute. There was too much of her he hadn’t touched, too much he hadn’t tasted. He wanted to touch her more. He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted inside her. His body clamored for satisfaction, and he knew she could give it to him, knew it deep in his gut. She was like a flower, and he wanted to bury himself in her fragrance.
Stop.
He was breathing as if he’d just run a mile. He reluctantly moved his hand from her thigh.
She risked a glance at him and he saw dismay and arousal warring in her warm brown eyes. Her mouth, swollen from his kisses, drew his gaze like a magnet. He rubbed his thumb over the sensuous puffy curve of her lips and closed his eyes at the need kicking through him. “Are you sure?” he asked her.
Her uneven sigh drifted over his throat. Eli clenched his jaw at the sensation and watched her remove her hands from his shoulders. “I guess things got a little out of hand.” She looked away. “I don’t know what got into me. I meant to pull away, and then I didn’t want to, and then—”
“It was inevitable,” Eli cut in, loathing the guilt he heard in her voice.
Andie blinked. “It was?”
“Yes,” he said a shade impatiently because the ache he had for her wasn’t going anywhere. “I thought about making—” he hesitated and edited the first words that came to mind “—kissing you the first time I met you.”
Her eyes widened. “You did?”
“Yes,” he repeated in a voice that sounded curt to his own ears. He placed a wineglass in her hand. She looked as if she could use it. Eli thought he would benefit more from a cold shower. Her surprise irritated him. “You haven’t thought about it at all.”
Her cheeks bloomed with color and she pushed her tousled hair behind her ear. Her gaze skittered away from his. “I—uh—” She cleared her throat and played with the stem of her glass. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about it,” she admitted in a voice so low he barely heard it.
It was the kind of voice he needed to be closer to hear. It was the kind of voice appropriate for the bedroom. Eli stifled an oath. He wondered if she had a clue what she was doing to him. He took a generous swallow of wine and watched her from beneath hooded eyes.
His silence seemed to make her nervous. “Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been curious about you,” she confessed. “I’ve wondered what it would be like to—to—”
“Kiss me,” Eli supplied when she couldn’t get the words out. Her reluctant confession made him want to take her in his arms and hug the reticence out of her.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a normal curiosity, and—”
“I agree. Normal and healthy.” And he had a normal, healthy curiosity about every inch of her body and mind.
She glanced at him warily. “Yes, and now that we’ve satisfied our curiosity, we won’t need to satisfy it anymore.”
Eli laughed.
“It’s true,” she told him, setting her chin. “We don’t need to repeat this.”
Eli shook his head. Torn between amusement and a heavy dose of regret because he apparently wasn’t going to satisfy the rest of his curiosity about Andie tonight, he wrapped his hands around both of her shoulders so she wouldn’t bolt. Then he teased himself with a brief kiss on her forehead. Reluctantly releasing her, he brushed his finger over her nose. “You’ve forgotten you’re dealing with a scientist, Andie. It takes hundreds of repeat trials to prove a hypothesis.” He dropped his finger to her lips. “Hundreds.”
* * *
The following Friday night, Eli was in a vile mood. There’d been not one single repeat trial of that kiss with Andie. Working four nights out of the past five, she had successfully avoided him.
Since Andie slept during the day, Fletch had missed her and was full of his own crankiness. His housekeeper, Mrs. Giordano, wasn’t feeling well, so she wouldn’t be available for the rest of the weekend. Add to that the fact that he’d forgotten to cancel dinner at Daphne Sinclair’s house tonight, and Eli was ready to chew glass.
On the way to Daphne’s, Eli glanced in the direction of Andie’s house, and saw her car pull into the driveway. Gripping Eli’s hand, Fletch spun around and tugged hard enough to cause whiplash. “Andie’s home! Let’s go see her. I haven’t petted Stud and—”
“Hold on,” Eli said. “We’ve got to eat dinner with Ms. Sinclair, and we’re running late.” He watched Andie get out of her car with a bag of groceries. “Hello,” he called.
She turned and paused. “Hi.” She looked from Fletch to Eli. “Are you two out for a walk?”
Fletch shook his head. “No. We’re going to Mizz Sinclair’s for dinner. Are you finished working? I haven’t petted Stud in a long, long time.”
Eli’s lips twitched at the longing in his son’s tone. “He’s going through withdrawal. It’s been at least four days.”
Andie shifted the groceries to her hip, drawing Eli’s gaze to her bare legs. His gaze flicked over the rest of her, noting the T-shirt and denim shorts with suspenders that curved around the curve of her breast. Cute, but sexy. Although he knew her friendly, nonthreatening manner was sincere, he’d suspected there was more beneath the surface. Much more. After kissing her the other night, he knew. That knowledge and the desire to know everything about her was frustrating the hell out of him.
“You can come over any time, Fletch,” she said, and Eli was in a bad enough frame of mind to notice she didn’t include him in her invitation. “I bet Stud has missed you, too.”
“Dad said I shouldn’t wake you up.”
Her gaze met Eli’s. “I’m usually up by four o’clock.”
“We haven’t seen much of you, and we didn’t want to wear out our welcome.”
“Oh, no. It’s not that,” she quickly demurred, her face shadowed with guilt. “It’s just...”
Her discomfort grated on him. He wanted her warmth. “You’re having some anxiety about the repeat test trials,” he drawled. He watched her blush and knew he’d hit it on the mark. “The slang term for this anxiety is chicken.“
She sucked in a surprised, affronted breath. “I am not chicken,” she told him.
“If that’s so, then you won’t mind—”
“Absolutely not. And you’re not going to goad me into ki—” Her gaze lit on Fletch, then returned to Eli. “Repeating.”
“Cluck, cluck,” Eli said.
She narrowed her eyes, which was a feat, considering how wide they were. “You’re being difficult.”
“I get that way when I’m frustrated,” he said and met her gaze head-on so she wouldn’t mistake his meaning.
Her cheeks bloomed again. She blink
ed and opened her mouth to say something, but just shook her head. She turned to Fletch. “You can come see Stud any time tomorrow. Right now, I’ve got to get inside before my frozen yogurt melts, and both you guys need to get to your dinner date,” she said, tossing Eli an arch glance. “Maybe you won’t be so frustrated, then.”
Eli sighed, knowing he was acting like an ass and he shouldn’t be taking out his frustration on her. He nodded. “Point taken.” Turning, he took a step away from her, then hesitated half a beat and glanced over his shoulder. “Andie,” he said, “we both missed you.”
* * *
More than Andie’s frozen yogurt was melting.
She frowned as she put away her groceries. Her hands were trembling so that she nearly dropped her skim milk. Her heart banged against her rib cage. She brushed her hair back from her face and sank into a kitchen chair, because her knees were still gooey from those last four words. We both missed you.
She might have withstood the pressure for repeat test trials, as he so charmingly put it. Especially if he didn’t step within three feet of her and she had the sense to run when she saw him coming. She couldn’t have dodged Fletch, though, not after she’d seen his vulnerability. But she’d hoped to keep her relationship with the younger Masters strictly separate from her relationship with his sexy dad.
Eli had sent her into a tailspin when he’d kissed her Saturday night. She’d spent the past week trying to create some distance, gain perspective and forget what it felt like for Eli Masters to steal both her breath and sanity.
The memory popped up like toast in a toaster, and Andie tried to remember when she’d felt so deliciously wanton. Idly fanning herself with a folded paper bag, she recalled the sensation of his mouth and hands in vivid detail. Just his kiss had made her more aroused than she’d ever been, which had her wondering what full-fledged lovemaking with him would be like. The thought sent a sudden rush of heat through her. Groaning, she fanned more quickly. When she realized what she was doing, she slapped the bag on the table and stood.
“You’re slipping,” she muttered to herself. “He’s at Daphne’s, and he won’t give you a second thought.” Cramming the lettuce in the crisper, she resolved to focus on cleaning out her refrigerator. That would at least cool off her body.
An hour later, she hung up from a telephone conversation with her mother, who informed her of her plans to take another trip to the Bahamas. Andie smiled at the irony of the situation. Years ago, when she’d wanted to test her wings, she’d been stuck at home with her brothers. Now that she was on her own and had all the freedom a person could want, she tended to stick close to home except for an occasional trip to the shore.
She didn’t resent her parents’ freedom. With her youngest brother ready to graduate from high school and her father’s health finally on track, Andie was delighted that they could go. A trip to the islands didn’t stir an ounce of envy in Andie. Not unless an adoring, adorable man was included in the package, perhaps with green eyes, sandy brown hair and a kiss that could make her bones disappear.
Right, she told herself cryptically, and Elvis is alive and well.
The knock at her front door was a welcome interruption. In a rare display of excitement, Stud barked and ran to the door. “Quiet down,” she told him, gently nudging him out of the way. After flicking on the porch light, she glanced out the peephole and got the surprise of her life.
Andie quickly unhooked the dead bolt and opened the door. Hands stuffed in his pockets, his chin nearly touching the ground, Fletch looked like a stray if ever there was one. She felt a tug at her heartstrings. “Hi there, Fletcher,” she said, glancing around for Eli.
“Dad’s still at Mizz Sinclair’s,” he told her before she could ask. “I got bored, so I decided to come see you.”
He wasn’t quite meeting her gaze, she noted, and felt a dip of uneasiness. “Okay, come on in. Did you tell your dad you were coming?”
Immediately gravitating toward Stud, Fletch took his hands out of his pockets and started rubbing the dog. When Fletch didn’t answer, Andie repeated the question.
The little boy’s chin dipped lower and he shook his head. “No. He might be mad at me. That Mizz Sinclair sure is.”
Concerned, Andie walked over and knelt beside him. “Why do you think they’re mad at you?”
“Mizz Sinclair has a white cat. And it just lays there. It doesn’t meow or anything, so I petted it.” His eyebrows drew into a frown. “And it scratched me.” He lifted his hand to show her the small mark.
She kissed his hand. “I’m sorry, Fletch. But I don’t think your father will be mad at you about—”
Guilt washed over his small features. “Well, I kinda sorta pulled its tail.”
Andie winced. “Oops. I bet it meowed then.”
“Yeah, and Mizz Sinclair’s face got all red. It was after we finished eatin’. The table was pretty. I played with one of the candles till Dad made me stop, but the food was major yukky.” He made a face. “All I ate was the rolls. She gave us gross fishy stuff and I told her I would throw up if I had to eat it.” He looked up at her earnestly. “Why couldn’t she fix hot dogs and hamburgers like you?”
Andie bit her lip at the image of Daphne’s seduction scene going awry. “Sometimes adults like different kinds of foods.”
He nodded solemnly. “Yeah, my dad says as you get older your taste buds die, so you can eat gross stuff without throwing up.”
Stifling a chuckle at his logic, she shook her head. “I think I’d better give your dad a call so he’ll know where you are.”
Fletch began to fidget. “You’re not gonna make me go back over there, are you? Dad told her we were gonna go, but she wanted to show him some pictures of curtains and stuff. Then she told me to color on the kitchen table after I spilled my grape juice on her rug, but...”
Andie grimaced again. She knew that Daphne had decorated her house in white on white. She also knew that a grape juice stain had a tendency to stay forever. Little boys and white just didn’t go together. She looked down at Fletch and ruffled his hair. “I’m glad you came to see me. How about if you pet Stud while I call your dad? Then I’ll think of something we can do.”
Daphne picked up on the fifth ring. Andie wondered if she’d interrupted a passionate kiss and banished the thought from her mind. “I just wanted to let you know that I have a visitor,” Andie told Eli after Daphne transferred the phone to him.
“He’s at your house.” Eli swore. “We’ve been looking through Daphne’s closets trying to find him.”
“He’s fine,” Andie reassured him. “Petting Stud and checking out my CD collection.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“There’s no need. We’ll be fine. Take your time. If he gets sleepy, I’ll put him in my guest bed.”
“But—”
“Really,” Andie said. “I’m fine with this.”
She hung up the phone and an insidious thought crossed her mind; last summer she’d frequently kept her ex-fiancé’s little girl while he supposedly worked late. There were no similarities between that situation and this one, she told herself. She’d been engaged to Paul and he had secretly cheated on her. Andie wasn’t even dating Eli, and she’d practically arranged his dinner with Daphne. Hadn’t she encouraged Eli’s involvement with her? Mentally, she accepted the differences, but she was left with a pang of discomfort that reinforced her inclination to remain uninvolved with Eli.
Determined to wipe away the ugly memory and her conflicting feelings, she turned her attention to Fletch. “Have you picked one you want to hear?” she asked, when she saw him looking through her CDs.
“She’s got red hair like you,” he said, pointing to Bonnie Raitt.
Not the exact shade, she thought, but she was charmed anyway. She smiled. “So she does.” Recalling her brothers’ need for independence, Andie instructed Fletch how to put the CD in the player and allowed him to do it himself. He was extremely interested in her stereo system, check
ing out the various controls, lowering and raising the volume.
A fast song came on and Andie held out her arms. “Wanna dance?”
He looked at her doubtfully. “You’re too tall,” he said, but nodded his head in rhythm to the music.
This kid was just a little too serious for his own good, she thought. She impulsively scooped him up in her arms. “Not anymore. Hang on.”
His face flushed with exhilaration, he hooked his legs around her waist as she placed his right hand on her left shoulder and took his other hand in hers. She spun him around in time to the driving beat of the music.
That was how Eli found them. After knocking and getting no answer, he’d pushed open the door to the sound of Bonnie Raitt singing “That’s just love sneakin’ up on you.” When Andie swung his son into a deep dip, Fletch giggled. The sound grabbed at his gut, and for a moment he just stared. He didn’t think he’d heard Fletch laugh, truly laugh with childish abandon, since he’d gotten custody.
She dipped again, folding Fletch into a hug. Fletch’s hair flew at the movement and that wonderful childish giggle bubbled out again. Andie rubbed her nose against Fletch’s, and Eli was struck with an insane stab of envy. He was envious of Andie’s natural ability with his son, and heaven help him, he wanted his own dance with her.
The loud, fast song ended, and a slower one began. Eli took it as his cue. Stepping behind Andie, he touched her shoulder, then steadied her waist when she swiveled to look at him.
Andie’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t hear you.”
“The music’s a little loud,” he pointed out in a dry tone.
Fletch craned his head forward. “Are you mad at me?”
Eli shook his head. How could he be made at anyone right now? Eli thought. His son had laughed. That sound could keep him high for hours. “No, but we’ll need to talk about this later.” He glanced back to Andie and shifted position to face her. “Any chance I can join in here?”