No longer. She was tired of being a doormat. Tired of having men like Todd and every other idiot who passed through her life lead her on a journey that seemed filled with promise only to be filled with lies and heartache. She wasn’t taking it any more, just like she wasn’t going to think of men any more this weekend.
“You’re up.”
At the sound of Natalie’s voice, Kelsey turned to find the woman looking at her through night-rimmed eyes. She had noticed her eyes the moment she’d stepped up to the side of the Jeep back in the parking lot. They were a striking shade of amber, almost gold, and fringed with long, thick lashes. Right now the firelight danced in them and cast shadows over the harsh angles of her face. To put it nicely, her new friend was put together very oddly. She wasn’t really ugly, or even homely for that matter. She was just…different. In a big sort of way.
“My turn for what?” she asked, realizing she’d lost track of the conversation.
Natalie smiled. “Tina just went through a rough break-up. We were sharing bad experiences with dating or men in general to help her see she isn’t alone.”
Natalie’s smile grew wider with her words and flames from the fire flickered light through her eyes, making them appear mischievous. It was a strange reaction to have when someone was clearly upset, but even stranger was the warmth that stirred to life in Kelsey’s belly.
She pressed a hand to her stomach and turned to face the group. The warmth in her belly had nothing to do with the light in Natalie’s eyes. It was more likely she was suffering indigestion from a supper of bratwurst and beer.
From all sides of the fire, women looked her way, expectancy in their eyes, as if they were hanging on her every breath and cared about what she had to say. The idea they could care was enough to prompt Kelsey into making herself a liar. She had just told herself she wouldn’t think of men any more this weekend and yet she was about to do so aloud, because for whatever reason she felt comfortable and like herself around this group of near strangers.
She took a quick drink of beer, then set the can back in the holder built into the armrest of her canvas chair and once more looked out at the women. “My experience with men… To sum it up quickly, it’s been pretty bad. I have this uncanny ability to attract jerks. The kind that like to romance you with candles and wine, and then you find out a few dates or maybe weeks later that they’ve only been after one thing all along and that thing isn’t romance or love.”
“Sex,” a chorus of voices rang out.
Kelsey couldn’t stop her smile. Maybe it was Natalie and the odd bond they seemed to share that made her feel confident or maybe these women just honestly understood her. Either way, she found she wanted to keep talking. To get all those things that had been eating at her for weeks off her chest. “Right, sex. And to make things worse I can never see it coming. I’m too trusting I guess, taking men at their word when I should be taking them at the action going on beneath their belts.”
“You got it, honey. They couldn’t talk to us with their little heads, they wouldn’t talk to us at all,” a woman called out.
At the sound of Natalie’s very unladylike snort, Kelsey turned to see her mouth was tipped in a wide grin and her eyes filled with what could only be laughter. Obviously she found something about this conversation funny. It wasn’t funny. At least not to anyone who had ever been on the receiving end of the pain. She couldn’t keep the emotion out of her voice, so she didn’t even bother to try. “What about you, Natalie? Do you find this conversation amusing?”
Natalie’s lips fell flat and she glanced at Kelsey, sympathy replacing the amusement in her gaze as their eyes locked. Her lids narrowed slightly and she shook her head. “Hell no, I don’t find it amusing. I would never do something like that. I make damned sure we both know it’s just about sex going in.”
Laughter cascaded around them, and where she’d been upset moments before, Kelsey found she had to fight to contain her own laugh. “I actually meant what were your experiences like, but I guess that pretty well tells us.”
“Oh. Yeah. I guess so.”
It was hard to be certain in the light of the fire, but it looked as though Natalie was blushing. She was embarrassed because Kelsey had accidentally put her on the spot. Recalling how Natalie had said she found the group of women intimidating, Kelsey waited until the conversation started back up around them and then leaned over in her seat.
Bracing her hand on the arm of Natalie’s chair, she whispered near her ear. “I’m sorry about putting you on the spot. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
A barely audible hiss escaped Natalie’s mouth and she jerked in her seat. Her arm shot from her lap lightning quick and clasped Kelsey’s wrist in a painfully strong grip as she spun to stare at her. A squeak came from somewhere in Kelsey’s throat. A squeak that faded to stunned silence as Natalie’s gaze meshed with hers. The intensity of the look had her stomach doing flips. The heat that chased from Natalie’s hand up the length of Kelsey’s arm had her mind turning circles. Then Natalie’s thumb moved, trailing ever so gently along her pulse point and Kelsey’s stomach stopped doing flips to curl with sizzling warmth she couldn’t pass off as indigestion even if she wanted to. And she did want to. Desperately.
Her heart galloping in her chest, she tugged at her hand until Natalie’s grip lessened enough to pull her wrist free. She placed it in her lap and continued to stare at the large woman beside her, shaken, stunned, and mostly mortified at the carnal sensations rioting through her body. Her blood sizzled with awareness and her sex tingled with a desire evident in the dampness of her panties.
Just that look, that simple touch, and her pussy throbbed so badly she felt as if it had been stroked deep inside.
Kelsey swallowed back a gasp with that last realization and swore under her breath. Oh, God, she was aroused from another woman’s touch. Judging by the suddenly anxious look in that other woman’s gaze, she knew it too.
Wasn’t that just the way her life worked? She’d managed to make a friend in less than an hour, a friend she felt comfortable around, and the woman thought she was a lesbian. What the hell was she supposed to say now?
“Sorry about that,” Natalie said. “I was listening to Pat talk and the sound of your voice so near startled me.”
If only it was just the woman’s quick reflexes that had her cheeks aflame and the rest of her trembling with a desire she refused to think any farther on. For now she would be thankful that Natalie was oblivious to her discomfort. “Right. Uh…right.”
Natalie’s blonde eyebrows winged together and she frowned. “Is something the matter?”
Kelsey bit back the nervous laughter that bubbled up in her throat. Wonderful, she wasn’t out of the woods yet, and it was her own fault because she couldn’t stop staring and wondering how she could possibly feel this stimulated. It had to be the beer affecting her or…something. It couldn’t be actual attraction for the simple fact she did not get turned on by other women. Not that she had a problem with homosexuals. She had friends who were, but she wasn’t one.
“No. I…” Am clearly losing my mind.
Frantic to move past the awkwardness of the moment and clueless as how to do it, she could have cried when a raindrop pinged her in the nose. She tipped her face upward to the starless sky and was greeted with several more drops. “I thought I felt a raindrop.”
“You did,” Carla, one of the event coordinators said from beside her. “They were predicting we might get another shower tonight. I was hoping it would hold off a few more hours, but it looks like that won’t be happening.”
The rain picked up, coming down in fat, cold drops. The women vacated the quickly dying fire in a mass, some scurrying for cover while others hurried to put up a tent they hadn’t gotten around to assembling before dinner.
Unfortunately Kelsey belonged to the latter group. By the time she and Natalie had arrived the women had already been starting to prepare dinner. Not about to lose her chance for some early bon
ding, she’d set her gear aside to assist with the food. Natalie had followed suit and now their equipment and bags were being drenched.
“We should have waited to help out with breakfast I guess,” she yelled as they ran to where they’d left their gear, and started pulling out their tents.
“Hindsight,” she heard Natalie mumble, then ignored her completely as she went fast to work on getting her tent assembled.
Thankfully, she had camped in it many times and within a couple minutes she was hooking the rain cover in place and tossing her duffel bag and sleeping gear into the tent. She crawled inside and shivered at the sudden chill that had overtaken the night. Rain plastered the canvas over her head, and her T-shirt and shorts clung to her body. Feeling soggy, miserable and, thanks to Jan’s desertion, alone, she reached for her duffel bag in search of dry clothes. Loud swearing stopped her mid-search. It was Natalie’s voice. And she didn’t sound happy.
Unzipping a side window, Kelsey looked across to where Natalie had left her gear. A large, dark figure dashed around, and blistering curses singed the air.
“Damn.” She obviously couldn’t figure out how to put up the tent. The darkness and biting rain couldn’t be helping things.
She should leave her out there to fend for herself. After all, the woman had come to an outdoor event where sleeping in a tent or under the stars was mandatory. It therefore followed the attendees knew how to assemble their gear. It might follow, but at the moment logic wasn’t going to solve a thing.
Neither was putting off the inevitable.
Even if to do so would ease her mystified state of mind and more so body, Kelsey was too nice to leave Natalie out there on her own, shivering in the rain. Nice and sensible. Natalie was a woman she had befriended and already felt a connection with, she assured herself. A connection that was about friendship, not sex.
Opening the front flap of the tent, she poked her head out and shouted toward the small flash of light she presumed to be coming from a flashlight. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t seem to figure this out,” Natalie yelled back, her irritation clear.
“Well, by the time you do, you’re going to be soaked.” Kelsey unzipped the canvas door the rest of the way and flung it back. “Get in here. You can share mine for the night. It’s a two-person.”
Natalie halted her erratic movements and stared at her. “Share yours?”
She couldn’t make out her face, but her tone sounded stunned, as if the idea were the worst thing she’d ever heard. It confirmed what Kelsey had guessed back at the fire. Natalie thought she wanted her. Nerves reawakened in her belly with the notion, and she was determined to bring her into the tent and prove otherwise by not groping her while she slept. “Yes. Unless you’d rather stand around and get wet.”
Natalie remained still for another few seconds then shook her head. “No. I don’t want to do that.”
“Then get in here.”
“Okay. Just let me grab my stuff.”
Kelsey watched long enough to see the other woman grab her bags and start toward her, then moved back into the warmth and dryness of the tent and prayed she hadn’t just made a terrible mistake.
* * * * *
He had never felt more incompetent in his life. If Duane was here right now he’d be laughing his ass off. Nate had put up hundreds of tents through the years, possibly thousands. He’d never put a single damned one up when he was wearing a bra with enough padding to sink a ship. And more notably, more than enough to prohibit him from maneuvering the tent poles into position.
It was Duane’s fault he had such a damned big chest. Duane just kept stuffing the bra, saying how big-boned woman were typically big-breasted too. Duane, who he had to thank for the long night ahead, in the last place he wanted to be. In Kelsey’s tent. With Kelsey’s warm, tempting body mere feet away from him. Kelsey’s vivid eyes closed and her ripe, lush mouth susceptible to his kiss while she slept.
Hell, he shouldn’t be going into that tent. Not after the jolt of pure sexual arousal he’d gotten from the heat of her breath in his ear. Her whispered words had done far more than awaken his cock from the flaccid state he’d managed to keep it in throughout dinner. They had momentarily turned him stupid, enough so to make him reach out and caress her pulse, feel it pounding beneath his touch. The heat that sparked in her eyes ensured she hadn’t missed the magnetism between them. It also ensured she’d been scared as hell by the idea of finding another woman physically appealing.
No, he shouldn’t be going into that tent. Not by a long damned shot. But into that tent was exactly where he was going.
It was either that or sleep in the truck. So long as he had breasts the size of melons he couldn’t put up his own tent to save his life. While he’d planned to use the excuse his presence here was a marketing tactic should he be caught, he realized now using this weekend to gain professional insight was actually a good idea. He understood women just fine, that didn’t mean he knew what they wanted from a sports outfitter. He would spend the next two days making a mental list, starting with a chest-friendly tent.
Reaching Kelsey’s tent, Nate tossed his belongings inside the front flap. He shook the excess rainwater from his wig, then climbed in backwards and tugged off his muddy boots, leaving them beside hers by the entrance. He zipped up the door and blackness surrounded him. Darkness broken only by the slight rustle of what sounded to be clothing, and barely audible breathing coming from just behind him.
Both sounds were way too intimate. They made him think of rumpled sheets and sweaty skin. Of breathy sighs and frantic moans. Of the hungry look in Kelsey’s eyes when he’d touched her at the campfire, of the cries of ecstasy he’d evoked when he tongued her in his vision hours ago. He groaned inwardly at the way his penis responded to his thoughts, growing hard in an instant, then turned when a light flickered to life. He blinked, adjusting to the sudden intensity, and followed the beam to its source. An oil lantern was settled off to one side of the tent, and two short feet from it was Kelsey. Naked.
Oh, Christ.
“What the fuck are you doing?” The question was automatic, and the second it was out of his mouth, Nate regretted it. Even more so when she turned to frown at him. She wasn’t naked, which if he’d been looking anywhere but at all that smooth, supple skin exposed for his viewing pleasure he would have known. She’d just taken off her shirt to reveal the sheerest looking black lace bra he’d ever seen, and he had seen plenty.
His aching cock grew harder yet within its snug confines, and he cursed the fact she wasn’t wearing camping underwear. He could have handled camping underwear. Damn it, why the hell wasn’t she wearing camping underwear!
“Getting out of these wet clothes. I’m soaked and don’t care to get sick.”
Hearing the slight edge to her voice, he dropped his gaze from the small, firm breasts that were even more appealing than they’d been in his vision and focused on her belly. He sucked in a breath at the silver and purple ring adorning her navel, and his penis stiffened to an entire new level of painful hardness. “Oh, hell, that is so hot.”
“What?”
Nate’s gaze flew to Kelsey’s face. Her forehead was creased with fine lines and her eyes held something between horror and shock. Not that he would look any different if the situation were reversed and it were a man ogling his half-naked body with such open appreciation. Actually, he would look different. By now he’d have that man by the throat and be leveling a few choice words his way if not a fist or two.
He struggled to form conversation that didn’t involve sexual connotations. “Ah, your belly button ring is…hot. I’ve…ah…been thinking of getting one for myself. Now that I’ve seen how sexy they make a girl look, I know I want one for sure.”
“Oh.” Her forehead evened out and she shrugged. “It was either that or a nipple ring. I figured with my tendency for bad luck a nipple ring would catch on my clothing and get ripped off. And frankly, I’m not into that kind of pain.”
>
He sucked in another breath as the candor in her words took their toll on his body, cramping his balls so tightly in the cup there was a good chance they would never be the same again. He was here to make friends, Nate reminded himself sternly. He was here to prove to Joe that he could handle getting to know a woman he found attractive on a personal level without wanting her on a sexual one as well. He was not here to indulge his overzealous libido. Yet, as much as he knew all that, he still couldn’t stop his attention from roaming back to Kelsey’s breasts.
It was her own damned fault. The way she was all but asking him to look at her nipples, he just couldn’t say no. He could be objective. After all, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen plenty of nipples in his life.
Just not any quite as dusky pink and visibly standing on end the way hers were right now, Nate realized on a hasty gulp. Damn, the thin lace of her bra held so little back she might as well not have bothered with one at all. Her erect nipples pointed straight toward him, looking exactly as they had in his vision earlier tonight. Only in his vision he wasn’t nearly so far away. In his vision he was right in front of her, pulling those tight, hot buds into his mouth and aching to fondle her pussy with his fingers. In his vision he’d proceeded to do just that, only with his tongue.
His hand came up on instinct, ready to reach for her. The barely audible squeak that escaped Kelsey’s mouth had him dropping it back to his side. He lifted his gaze slowly to find pale red streaked over her upper chest, then looked higher and found the shade had taken over her neck and face too. He connected with her eyes then and the blend of panic and hunger that burned there couldn’t have been any more clear.
He was a bad, bad man to make her have such awful thoughts as the ones that must be going through her head right now. He ought to come clean with her, only to do so would ruin the entire point of this weekend. If she knew the truth, the odds she would stand by and help him were slim. And then there was the fact that if she knew the truth, she wouldn’t let him into her tent any more. As much as that would probably be a good thing, at the moment he couldn’t convince himself of that fact.
Wild Hearts: One Wild Weekend Page 3