Chapter Nine
Kay had hoped to be lounging on the couch, reading a book, when James arrived for breakfast, looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. Instead she was pacing the living room as much as the corded phone would allow, hair still in a ponytail, arguing with one of her more persistent clients. She waved James into the house the second she saw him coming up the stairs onto the deck. Mouthing the word “sorry” she perched on the arm of the sofa, wishing Barry would stop talking for long enough that she could tell him she had to go.
James raised a hand to say “no problem”. He motioned toward the kitchen with the cardboard tray that held two coffee cups.
Kay smiled and nodded, her hopes peaking as she heard a break in Barry’s near-monologue. “I said no. I’m not taking any new assignments for the summer. I don’t know how else to say it. Find someone else.”
She tapped her pen against the back of the couch, willing Barry off the phone so she could spend time with James. She could see him in the kitchen, setting the coffee cups on the table and putting out plates for the scones. God, he even makes setting a table look sexy.
“Barry, I have to go. You have my answer. If you still need someone in September, call me and we’ll talk. Until then I’ve got a house to pack up and other things to handle.” She hung up, forcing herself to take a cleansing breath then heading into the kitchen. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem. Everything okay?” James moved the tall white cup closer to Kay as she sat.
Kay nodded, taking a sip of the aromatic coffee. Dark and sweet, as she’d requested. “Pushy client. I swear you’d think I’m the only photographer on the planet the way he acts.”
“Not the only one, just the best.” The smile that passed across James’s face made him look so hot she wanted to lunge across the table and tackle him.
“He’s a brat. He’ll be fine with someone else. He doesn’t like being told ‘no’.”
“Not many people do.”
“True.” Kay held out the plate of scones and James grabbed the top one. “So, enough about me. How’s your morning been? Anything new with the restaurant?”
“Stopped by this morning and the guys were putting the new counters in the bathroom. Looks good.”
“Oh. I almost forgot.” Kay jumped up and hurried into the dining room. “I was going through the china cabinet this morning and I found these.” She returned and handed James one of Gram’s miniature antique pitchers.
James gently fingered the small piece of porcelain. “Nice.”
“You said you were thinking of serving Gram’s caramel sauce with some of the desserts. I thought they’d be great for that. Or for maple syrup if you decide to do brunch. Gram had a dozen of them, which you’re welcome to have. And here, look.” Kay reached across the table and pulled her laptop closer. She clicked a tab at the top of the browser and opened a webpage. “They sell lost pieces and they have twenty available that match these. I can order them for you right now, if you want. Sometimes the whole lot sells out all at once.”
James stared at her with a look she couldn’t quite discern. “Wow. Thanks. These are awesome and you’re right, they’d be perfect. But I can order them. I don’t want you to give up your grandmother’s collectibles for me.”
“She’d be tickled pink to know you were using them at your new place. So would I. When I was a little girl I used to play restaurant with my stuffed animals and I’d use these to serve them pretend lemonade.”
The rich, deep sound of James’s laughter filled the kitchen, warming Kay from head to toe. The familiar ding of her email interrupted, drawing her attention back to her laptop. “Sorry,” she said, clicking the pop-up closed.
“Work again?” James asked.
Kay sighed and met James’s eyes, momentarily getting lost in the hypnotic blue. “No, that’s my ex. He’s been pestering me about getting stuff out of the apartment. He can wait. I’m sorry. I’m not being a very good hostess this morning.”
“You’re great. Look, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now.” His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out, scowling as he clicked on the text message and typed a quick reply. He set the phone down next to his plate. It buzzed again a second later and Kay saw the name Patricia.
“Jesus,” James said, typing another fast response then turning off his phone. “And that was my ex. She did a lot of the legal work for the restaurant before we officially split and some of the final papers are still being transferred.”
Exes everywhere. “No worries. Like you said, things are complicated.”
A worried look crossed James’s face, his bright eyes darkening. “I hope I didn’t add to the complications for you when I kissed you last night. Did I overstep?”
Overstep? With a kiss I’ve been wanting for over a decade? Uh, no. She found her voice. “No. Not at all.”
Relief passed over James as he heard the conviction in her voice. He knew there were a million reasons for them not to get involved, but the idea of not kissing her again was unthinkable. “Good.”
“Good?”
“Yeah. Because I kinda thought I might want to do it again sometime.”
“Oh, really?” He could see she was trying not to smile but it wasn’t working. Her mouth curled into such an enticing grin he couldn’t resist leaning forward. For an instant he took in everything, the sparkle of her eyes, the warm scent of her skin, the curve of her lower lip, then he kissed her. Soft. Slow. Sweet enough his mind went blank until he pulled away.
Brushing her hair behind her ear, he looked into her eyes. “You know what we both need?”
Kay shook her head and he realized she was breathless from the kiss.
“Fun. We need to have some fun.”
“Fun is good.” The smile tugged at her lips again.
“It is good. And today’s a beautiful day. Sun’s shining. Supposed to hit ninety degrees. What do you say we spend the day at the beach?”
“I say where’s your bathing suit?”
“As luck would have it I’ve got one in the car. You?”
“Go get your suit. Give me five minutes to get changed.” The mischievous look on her face perfectly blended impish teenage Kimmy with sexy Kay, a combination James found totally irresistible. Fuck the complications. I want her.
Kay looked hot in everything she wore, but nothing had prepared James for the sight of her in a bikini. He shook out his towel and placed it next to hers, thumping down on the sand to get a look at her from a different angle. She bent to rummage through her bag, giving him a mouth-watering view of her cleavage as it nearly overflowed out of the red underwire top. He rested his arms on his bent knees, thankful his board shorts provided good coverage.
She slipped on her oversized sunglasses then tugged them down her nose enough to peer at him over the tortoise shell rims. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s not polite to stare?”
His lips tugged into a grin. So damned cheeky. “If you don’t want to be stared at you’re gonna have to start wearing coveralls. Even then I’ll probably still sneak a peek.”
She knelt next to him, arms above her head as she twisted her hair into a knot and skewered it with a long thin clip. “Have you always been this pervy?”
“Pretty much.”
“I should have known. You always did have some girlfriend or another as I recall.”
“Not always. But a lot.”
She sprawled beside him, tracing her finger in small circles in the sand. “I used to watch you, you know. You’d be on the beach with your friends, girls swarming around you. I’d wish I was old enough for you to think of me that way.” Her cheeks flushed a deep pink. “That probably sounds silly to you.”
He rolled toward her, propped up on his elbow. “Not at all. Can I make a confession?”
Her head popped up. He could tell she was squinting at him from behind her dark glasses. “Yes…”
“Two confessions, really. First, I kinda knew you had a crush on
me when you were a kid.”
Her cheeks blazed brighter. “Great. Glad I was so subtle.”
“It was cute. And flattering.”
“So I contributed to your teenage ego. That’s wonderful.”
“It was pretty nice, until the summer you came home from college.”
She paused, a handful of sand sifting through her fingers. “Which summer?”
“First summer after I got my MBA, so I’m guessing you were nineteen?”
“Ah, the summer of Paolo.”
He groaned just hearing the name. “Yes, Paolo. Which brings me to confession number two. I shared a house with Dave that summer, and the first day I was back in town we all came down to the beach. Dave asked if I remembered you. Said he’d seen you around town and you were a knockout. I told him he should stick to women his own age and leave nice kids like you alone. Then you walked by.”
Kay grinned. “I remember that. I stopped and introduced you to Paolo, my uber-sexy exchange student boyfriend.”
“You sure did. And it was all I could do not to tear his hands off you and flatten him.”
“Why?”
“When I first saw you I couldn’t believe it was you. It must have been at least two years since I’d laid eyes on you and all of a sudden you were all grown up. Your hair was long, the glasses were gone, and your body, Jesus. I don’t think there was a guy on the beach who didn’t notice you in that black and pink bikini.”
“You remember what I was wearing?” Her mouth hung open.
“Every single curve. I was trying to make sense of how you’d gone from braces and pigtails to centerfold and you walked straight over to me. Before I could even wrap my brain around it Paolo appeared, and he had his hands all over you.”
Kay laughed, a soft purring sound. “He did not.”
“Trust me. I was ready to punch him in the head. It was like he was pawing my little sister and stealing the woman of my dreams all at once. It was very confusing to my hormone-challenged brain. I fucking hated him. So of course I ran into the two of you everywhere I went for the rest of the summer.”
“We were pretty inseparable.” She nodded, the grin still firmly planted on her lovely face. “You’ve gotta admit, he was pretty hot.”
“I suppose. If you go for that whole foreign accent, smoldering European bullshit kinda thing.”
“I’ve always favored that Mediterranean look.” She peered over her glasses again, her eyes raking over him in a way that made him want to take her right there on the sand.
“Well, you tortured me that summer, so I’m guessing that’s some measure of payback for whatever crush you had on me as a kid.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure though.”
“Why not?”
“Because as smitten as I was with Paolo and his many charms I’d have dumped him like yesterday’s news for a chance at even one night with you.”
That did it. His mouth was on hers without another thought. Her lips were sweet and tangy, like lemonade. She leaned in toward him, resting her hand against his bare chest, sending shockwaves of heat straight to his groin. He rubbed his thumb against her cheek, tracing the delicate contours of her face, wishing they weren’t surrounded by beachgoers so he could show her exactly how attracted he was to her.
She pulled back, keeping her lips a whisper away from his. “This is a family beach, you know.”
“I know.” He groaned, giving her another quick kiss. “Remind me to petition the town about getting that changed, would you?”
She giggled and rolled away, leaving him aching for more.
He sat up so his desire wouldn’t be too obvious to anyone who happened to look. “You still have that pink and black bathing suit?”
“No. I think I lost that in Italy.”
“I don’t think I wanna know.”
“I lost my luggage. I wasn’t skinny-dipping. At least not when I lost my suit.”
“I had no idea you were such a bad girl.”
She drew closer, her lips brushing against his. “Not too bad. Just bad enough.” Her tongue swept into his mouth for one teasing second then she pulled away. Before he could even form a thought she was up and scampering toward the water, her curvy ass swaying in ways that should have been illegal for a public beach. “Come on, slowpoke. Last one in the water’s a rotten egg.”
Like lightning he bolted up and sprinted toward her, catching her right before the ocean licked at her polished toenails. He scooped her up as the wave washed over his own feet. “So you wanna go in the water, do you?”
She squirmed but he held her tight, carrying her farther into the surf. “Put me down.”
“What was that? I can’t hear you with the sound of the waves crashing.”
She struggled, pushing against him. “I mean it, James, put me down.”
“If you say so.” He smirked and gave her a quick kiss then tossed her into the water.
She disappeared beneath the next wave then rocketed through the surface, her hair streaming down her back, her wet top clinging to her full round breasts. “You’re going to be so sorry you did that.” She made an angry stride toward him, but a wave came from behind and swept her straight into his arms.
“I don’t think so.” He bent and kissed her pouty lips. They were cool and salty and molded perfectly to his, like she was made for kissing him. A second wave knocked them together and he pulled her closer, grounding them both in the shifting sand. Kay wound her arms around his neck and bobbed up in the surf, wrapping her legs around his waist. Even surrounded by cold water the heat between them was undeniable.
She pulled back, a sly sexy smile on her face. “You know what?”
With her legs coiled around him he barely knew his name. “What?”
She answered with a huge splash of water in his face as she swam out of reach.
He sputtered, losing his balance. He could hear her laughing the second he resurfaced. “You are so gonna get it.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.” She dove into the oncoming wave and he plunged in after her, thinking that when he did catch her he might never want to let her go.
Chapter Ten
The sky was deep purple with angry looking storm clouds as James turned onto Kay’s block. Just as he pulled into her driveway, huge raindrops began to splatter on his windshield. By the time he’d gotten the pizza out of the backseat the wind was whipping his truck hard enough that it was difficult to slam the door shut. He trotted around to the back of the house and knocked on the screen door.
Kay rounded the corner, looking radiant from their day in the sun. Her skin had a warm, deep glow, her cheeks and nose highlighted with a rosy luster. “Did you order a pizza?” he asked.
“I did, but I’m afraid I haven’t had time to go to the ATM. I hope you weren’t expecting a tip.” She held the door open and he passed by her, pausing for a quick but decadent kiss.
“I’m thinking we can work something out.” He set the pizza box on the coffee table then pulled her in for another kiss. Their tongues wound together and a bolt of lightning lit up the room followed by the immediate crash of thunder.
“Wow.” She giggled. “That was some kiss.”
“It’s the pizza.” He tugged her closer. “Oysters get all the credit so most people don’t realize what a powerful aphrodisiac pizza and beer can be. Shit. Beer. I left it in the car.”
He started toward the door.
“Wait ‘til the storm passes, you’re gonna get drenched.”
He craned his neck to look at the sky. “Nah, I’ve got a few seconds before it really hits.”
No sooner did he reach the car than the sky opened up. By the time he dashed back onto her porch, six-pack in hand, he was soaked.
She greeted him at the door, a delighted smirk on her face. “What was that you were saying about having enough time?”
“I almost made it.” He stepped inside, rain still streaming down his face. He shook his head, hard, sending sprays of water around like
a wet dog.
She shrieked and jumped back. “You’re dripping all over the place.”
“I know, sorry. Can’t take me anywhere.”
She ran her hand over his chest. His stomach tensed at her touch. “You’re gonna have to take this off.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He set down the six-pack and peeled the soaked shirt over his head.
James had been both shirtless and wet at the beach but somehow in her living room the combination seemed twice as sexy. Kay’s fingertips tingled as she reached for him. Although the T-shirt had been cold from the rain, the planes of his chest were warm and inviting.
“Careful,” he said as she inched closer. “You might get wet.”
“Too late.” She closed the distance between them, feeling the heat radiate off him. Beads of water hung off each spiky tip of his hair, raining down onto her as he lowered his face to hers. He kissed her cheek, the rough stubble of his jaw grazing hers. His warm breath caressed her ear, sending zips of electricity careening through her. He slid his lips lower, his tongue trailing along her neck. Lightning flashed again, heightening the tension she was already feeling. As the thunder shook the room, his mouth took hers, claiming and possessive.
His hand slid from her waist around the curve of her ass. His fingers splayed wide, drawing her closer. She could feel him, hard and ready beneath the thick fabric of jeans. Her hands slithered up his muscled back, delighting in each firm ridge. She ground against him, straining to feel as much of him as possible.
He smoothed her hair back as he peppered her face with soft kisses. Her mind swirled in the mist that seemed to be rising off them. Heat gathered at her core, concentrating in a dense pool between her legs. She took a step back, her fingers twining with his as she pulled him along with her. “Let’s go to my room.” How many times have I imagined saying those words to him? She backed her way down the hallway, James never more than half a step away, his hands everywhere, his intoxicating scent thick in the steamy air.
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