The Plan

by Tawdra Kandle

  As his words filtered into my brain, I felt tension drain from my neck and shoulders. Boyfriend. Suddenly the way Alex had his arm draped over Emmy’s shoulder didn’t make me want to break it off and beat him.

  “Emmy?” A guy wearing jeans and a long flannel shirt came over to us. “We’re ready to go on, whenever you’re ready to announce us.”

  “Perfect. I’ll do that now.” She patted Alex’s cheek as she stepped away, pausing just long enough to look over her shoulder at me. “Cooper, are you staying for the show?”

  Country music. Seriously? I took in Emmy’s bright eyes, red hair curling around her face, and the way the thin cotton of her tank hugged those luscious breasts. Yeah, I could tolerate some twang and whining for that. “Yeah, I’m staying.” I lifted one eyebrow and smirked. “Actually, I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Her expression didn’t change, but she gave me a brief nod and pivoted to walk away. I leaned against the bar, watching her go.

  “So. How long’ve you been tapping that?” Alex grinned at me.

  “What? No, I . . . wait, how’d you know?” Here I thought I’d been so careful about what I said and how I acted around her.

  He punched my shoulder. “It’s a sixth sense thing. I saw her face the minute she spotted you—her color went up two levels, her heart rate skyrocketed and her temperature, too, I’m pretty sure. And you looked at me like you wanted to do bodily harm. Plus, the sparks between you two—whoo, baby. I’ve seen that before.”

  I rubbed my jaw. “We’re not exactly—well, we had a one-night thing.”

  “When was that?”

  “A month ago.”

  Alex laughed. “Yeah, well, I don’t think you got her out of your system, buddy. And who can blame you? Look at her. Let me tell you, if I didn’t dig the dudes, I’d be giving you serious competition.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re a little young for her, aren’t you?”

  “Age is just a number, my man.”

  Anything else Alex was going to say was lost in a drumroll. Emmy stood in the middle of small stage on one side of the restaurant, and as all attention turned her way, the room was filled with whistles and catcalls. She shook her head, smiling.

  “Okay, y’all. Enough of your nonsense! I want your attention right here—”

  “You got my attention, baby!” A man in a baseball cap cupped his hands and yelled. “And anything else of mine you want, too.”

  I balled my fists, but Emmy handled it, shaking her head. “Simmer down there. Thanks for being here tonight at the Riptide. On behalf of Jude and the whole staff, I’d like to welcome tonight’s band. They’re from a sweet little town in Alabama, and their first single is going to debut tomorrow in the top ten of the country chart. We were lucky enough to snag them now—in a few months, y’all are going to have to pay big bucks to enjoy their music. Ladies and gentlemen, and you there in the hat—” There was a wave of laughter. “Put your hands together and give a big Crystal Cove welcome to Tumbleweed!”

  The bar shook with the vibration of the yelling and screams. Alex covered his ears, laughing, and I found myself hoping I wasn’t doing permanent damage to my eardrums. The band took the stage and immediately launched into their first number.

  I hung in there for the first three songs, and I had to admit, they weren’t bad, for a country band. The lyrics were more poetry than I expected, and the vocals didn’t have the twang I was used to hearing.

  They slowed things down for the fourth song, and I spied Emmy leaning against the wall on the other side of the bar. Strands of hair were blowing around her flushed face, and the glow of the lowlights shone on her eyes. Intense need pulsed between my legs. I needed to get to her, and now.

  The rest of the room only had eyes for the band, so it wasn’t too hard to push past them. She didn’t see me right away, not until I’d nearly reached her. Her eyes fastened on mine, and she didn’t look away.

  I laid one hand on her shoulder and trailed it down her arm. She shivered, despite the heat of the room and the press of bodies around us. I slid my hand into hers and leaned to whisper in her ear.

  “Step outside with me for a minute.”

  She hesitated, looking back up at the stage. I could see her weighing her responsibilities against her desires. Finally she looked back at me and nodded. “Five minutes, tops. They’ll be getting to the end of this set by then.”

  I didn’t wait. I tugged her hand and led her to the back door that opened onto the deck.

  The cooler air hit me like a wave of refreshing water. I didn’t stop until we’d reached the far end of the wooden platform, and then I turned Emmy around and pressed her against the railing.

  The darkness around us was black velvet, and a million stars glittered in the clear sky. I couldn’t see the ocean, but I could hear waves crashing onto the sand. None of it mattered, though. Nothing mattered but Emmy and getting my mouth on her. Touching her.

  Gripping her tight little ass, I ground my body against hers until she moaned and dropped her head back. I took advantage of that position and used my lips to map a trail up her exposed neck until I reached her lips. Touching my tongue to one corner of her mouth and then to the other, I paused, lifting my head to drink in the view of Emmy, in my arms, totally surrendered to me.

  I took her mouth then, desperately, like I’d been without my one sustaining force for far too long. Emmy made a small noise in the back of her throat, and I swallowed it, sucking her lower lip between my teeth and nibbling it. I skimmed my hands to her hips, up her sides, spanning her rib cage and letting my thumbs tease the bottom of her breasts through the tank top.

  Dragging my lips away from her mouth, I whispered into her ear. “Emmy. Let me come home with you tonight.”

  She tensed, freezing for a beat, and then I felt her swallow, hard. Her chest rose and fell in rapid breaths, and I thought my heart had stopped beating while I waited.

  “Yes.” She breathed her answer and lifted her hands to pull my head back down to hers. Her kiss was aggressive and bold, although it ended too soon for me.

  “I have to go back in. They’ll need me when the set ends, and I have all my regular stuff to do.” She rested her hands on my chest, her fingers tracing the ridges of my muscles, making them jump. “Do you want me to call you when I’m done? I know you don’t like this kind of music.”

  “How do you know that?” I leaned my forehead against her, needed to be closer.

  She lifted one shoulder. “You said it once. I told you, I have a gift for remembering things people say. Their preferences. It’s a bartender thing.”

  “Hmmm.” I kissed her again, fast and hard. “No, I’m not leaving until you do. I’ll stay and help you close up.”

  She looked up into my eyes, and something bright glowed there. “Thank you. I—I need to go back in. Find me after.”

  And then she was gone. I heard the brief roar as she opened the door, letting the noise and light spill onto the deck. I took a few minutes to calm down my aching body before I followed her inside, one thought pulsing in my mind.

  Tonight. Tonight I’d be with her again.

  “I thought they’d never leave.” I swiveled on my bar stool, watching Emmy as she stretched her back. The material over her boobs pulled tight, and coincidentally, so did the fabric covering my crotch.

  “Saturdays are always later. And in season? They’re all on vacation. No one wants to go home. Or back to their hotels, whatever. They’d stay all night if I kept pulling beers and playing music.”

  “The band went over well.” I’d listened to the second set, surprised to find how much I enjoyed it.

  “Oh, yeah.” She smiled. “This was a huge deal for us, to have these guys play the Tide. Tomorrow, when their song plays on thousands of country music stations as part of the top ten, they’ll be nearly impossible to book, and definitely not for a tiny place like us. I owe Mason big.” Emmy began punching numbers on the register, running the report.

  “Remi
nd me who Mason is again?” I’d heard his name before, and I had a vague idea that he was someone Jude’s daughter Meghan had met up in Georgia, where she lived now with her fiancé.

  Emmy leaned her hip against the bar, her eyes on the register display. “Holy shit, we made bank tonight. Jude’s going to be very happy.” She glanced back at me, distracted. “Oh, Mason? He owns a big bar and dance club up in Burton. He was a friend of Sam’s, I guess, growing up, and now he and his wife are pretty close with Meggie, too.”

  “Ah.” I nodded. “Okay, want me to check the kitchen?”

  “Sure.”

  We both focused on our chores, the silence between us companionable rather than tense. I liked this feeling. I could get used to it, I mused. Maybe I could handle something a little more defined with Emmy. Something more than a hookup, and something less than a commitment. Meeting on Saturday nights, going home with her after I helped her close up—I could work with that.

  It was little déjà vu, leaving the Tide with Emmy, following her back to her house. But when we both stood in her living room, a hint of awkward crept in. Emmy bit her lip, her eyes on the floor.

  “Do you want to go back to my bedroom?”

  “How about a glass of wine?”

  We both spoke at the same time, and then laughed. Emmy turned toward the kitchen. “Wine sounds like an excellent idea. Come on.”

  “Hey, I liked your suggestion, too.” I sat down, straddling the chair.

  “I didn’t mean to sound like that’s all I wanted.” She poured us each a glass of her favorite red and corked the bottle. “I just thought that’s how you wanted it. Sex, and nothing else.”

  I blew out a sigh. “Emmy, I’m not a nice person. I know I’ve said that before, but it’s true. I was upfront with you last time, and you were with me, too. But maybe there’s more to this—to us—than just a hookup. That night—it was incredible. I’ve been avoiding you since then because I didn’t know how to deal with how much it meant to me.” I took a sip of the wine she’d set down in front of me. “Tonight I couldn’t stay away anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’ve changed what I am. Who I am. I still don’t do relationships. But what if we made this more of a regular thing? You know, like friends with benefits. No one has to know. But maybe it’d be good for both of us.”

  Emmy regarded me, her gaze steady but inscrutable. “Friends with benefits.” Her voice held a vague tinge of irony, but she nodded slowly. “What would that look like? We call each other whenever we’re in the mood for sex?”

  “In theory, yes. But given your schedule, it might work better if we just planned to meet every Saturday, like tonight.”

  Emmy sat down, her face still expressionless. “Okay. Every Saturday? What if you have Lexie overnight?”

  I shrugged. “Then we adjust. I’m not saying I have this all worked out. It was just an idea.”

  “I see.” Em leaned forward in her chair, reaching back to rub her shoulder. “God, my back hurts tonight. It must be tension, worrying about the band getting there and set up.”

  “You need a massage.” I stood up and moved behind her, brushing her hands out of the way as mine took their place. “Drop your head onto your chest. Yeah, just like that.” I lifted her hair off her back, draping it to hang forward over her shoulder, and rubbed the bare skin between the top of her shirt and her neck. She hummed a little in pleasure as I dug my thumbs into the knotted muscles.

  “Right there. Yeah, that’s the spot. Oh, God—yes. Right—yes.”

  She sounded way too erotic right now, and my cock was definitely paying attention. I slipped my fingers under the material of shirt, running them down her spine until she shivered and then bringing them back up to continue working her tight shoulders.

  When she seemed to be totally relaxed, I leaned down, sliding my hands into the front of her shirt to palm her tits. The sound she made threatened to undo me. I tugged the cups of her bra out of the way, desperate to find her nipples. When my fingers began to roll the stiff peaks, she arched, her hips moving up and away from the chair.

  I bent and lifted her into my arms, finding her mouth as I carried her to the bedroom, just as I had last time. I’d never carried a woman before Emmy, I realized, but there was something so perfect about having her body tucked against my chest, her head on my shoulder and her mouth under mine.

  In the bedroom, I laid her across the mattress and stripped off my clothes. Emmy’s eyes opened halfway, watching me with a smile.

  “I think this time, I’m the one who has on too many clothes. But I’m too relaxed to take them off.” She rolled her head to look at me as my knee made the bed dip. “Any ideas of how to make this work?”

  “I think I might have one or two.” I pulled at the hem of her tank top and stripped it from her, making short work of her bra after that. She lay in only her shorts, making it easy for me to unbutton them and slip them down her legs and onto the floor.

  “Now what?” Her whisper tantalized me.

  “Now, I make you feel good.” I dipped my head to capture one rosy-tipped breast. Emmy gasped and gripped the back of my head with her hand, pressing me closer. When I moved to the other side, I replaced my mouth with my fingers, teasing and tweaking.

  “Tell me, baby. Tell me what you want.” I licked the lobe of her ear as I murmured. “Tell me, and I’ll make it happen.”

  “I want you . . . between my legs. Lick me, Cooper. Make me come like that.”

  My mouth curled into a smile. “I can do that.” I slithered down her body, pausing at crucial spots to suck, lick and bite gently. When I lay between her legs, I turned my head to run my mouth over the soft skin of her inner thighs, blowing on her between kisses, moving closer to the wet heat of her core until she was trembling. I parted her with one finger and brought my lips to her clit.

  “Yes. There. Oh, God, Cooper. Harder, please. Harder.”

  I sucked at her, bringing the small bundle of nerves into my mouth and using my tongue to press hard. Emmy groaned, her hand against the back of my neck. As if I were going anywhere.

  I could tell she was getting close. Without moving my mouth, I plunged two fingers into her, pumping them in and out, hitting the spot that made her cry out my name.

  “That’s it, baby. Come for me now. Come against my mouth, Em. Ride my hand and come into my mouth.”

  Whether it was the feel of my voice against her or the words I spoke, something seemed to push her over the edge. She arched, lifting her hips as her channel clenched hard on my fingers. I stayed with her, moving slower and stroking to bring her down.

  I expected her to be sated and limp as I kissed her stomach, but instead Emmy gripped my shoulders.

  “Roll over.” There was something in her voice, an authority that I had zero desire to disobey. I flipped to my back, watching as she leaned over me, her hair hanging in a curtain around us.

  “It’s my turn to be in charge, Cooper.” Her hands roamed over my chest, down my arms and teased the skin on my stomach, just barely avoiding my throbbing cock. “Do as I say and no one gets hurt.”

  I grinned. “Em, baby, you had me at ‘in charge.’”

  She laughed, soft and sweet. “I want to make you feel so damn good.” Her hand gripped the base of my erection, fisting up and down a few times before she bent and took me into her mouth.

  There was nothing shy or halting about this. Emmy’s mouth consumed me, sucking so hard I thought my eyes would cross. She trailed her tongue down the sensitive underside and then took me deep, swallowing so that the head of my dick hit the back of her throat.

  Just when I thought I couldn’t take another second without coming hard into her beguiling mouth, Emmy sat up, slung one leg over my hips and positioned herself above me. She held my cock near her entrance, rubbing the head over her own swollen flesh.

  “Cooper, are you clean?” She asked the question in a breathless voice.

  “What?” I was so intent on her hands and mouth on my body that I had troubl
e figuring out what she meant. “Oh. Yeah. I haven’t been with any woman without a condom since my first divorce. Tested, too. Healthy. Ohhhh, God, Emmy . . .”

  I spoke the last words in a long groan as she sank down onto my cock, taking me deep and sure into her body. Leaning her hands on my chest, she whispered to me. “I had my tubes tied after Dee was born. We’re safe. I wanted to feel you in me, with nothing between us.” She rocked, lifting her hips and then dropped back onto me. “It’s incredible.”

  She was right. It was more than incredible; it felt like nothing I’d ever experienced, my dick bare inside Emmy’s tight little pussy. I wanted to stay like this for the rest of my life. I wanted to feel her sliding herself up and down on me, finding her rhythm, her beautiful tits in my face, for fucking ever.

  I lifted my head to suck one of her nipples into my mouth, and Emmy hissed. I could tell she was trying to find her own pleasure, which was fine with me, as long as she kept up the search as she was now, moving different ways, circling her hips, grinding against me.

  “Touch yourself, baby.” I knew she needed that permission to find her own release. “Touch your clit while you ride me. Oh, God, Emmy. You keep doing that—it’s making me fucking nuts. I fucking love that, baby. Oh—God, yes.”

  She sat up a little, slipping two fingers between her legs. I watched her press against her clit, felt her knees tightened at my waist as she surrendered to the pace that had found her. Digging my fingers into her clenched thighs, I let the orgasm sweep over my body, destroying me. Emmy dropped down against me as I came hard into her. She ground herself on me, making the most delectable little noises as she climaxed with a shudder and a gasp.

  She fell onto my chest, her ribs heaving as she panted. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her as tight as I could, and tried to remember why doing this—with her—all the time wasn’t the very best idea I’d ever had.