by Noelle Adams
She’d always liked sex quite well, but it had never, ever been like this.
He kissed her until she could barely breathe, and then he trailed little lines of kisses down her jaw and neck, lingering on her collarbone until she was whimpering, and then finally moving down to her breasts.
And that same alien force somehow had taken possession of her vocal chords too. She couldn’t seem to keep quiet as he kissed and fondled her nipples. Her gasps and little moans soon turned into uninhibited cries of helpless need.
She was never this loud, but she couldn’t seem to help it as Chris kept teasing her into deeper arousal.
It was clear from his hot, tense body that he was just as turned on as she was, but he didn’t appear to be in a hurry. He was still suckling at one breast as his hand finally slipped down lower to feel between her legs.
When he found her clit, she made a loud sound, almost like a sob. And she kept up the helpless sounds as he worked her over with his mouth on her breast and his hand between her thighs.
Then she jerked in surprise when she heard a fierce little growl. Lucy suddenly jumped on the bed beside them, and the little dog started barking viciously at Chris.
Chris turned his head to stare at her. “What’s her problem?” he asked hoarsely. His face was slightly flushed, and his eyes were a little dazed, like he’d been just as caught up in the foreplay as she’d been.
Heather made a slight choking sound of amusement as she realized what was wrong with her dog. “She thinks you’re hurting me.”
Chris stared at the angry little dog for another minute, and then he gave a soft chuckle. “Well, just wait until I really get going and you’re screaming your head off. She’ll probably attack me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not going to scream my head off.”
Without speaking, Chris adjusted his hand so one of his fingers slid inside her, rubbing against her tight inner walls.
She let out a sharp cry of pleasure. Not quite a scream, but close.
Chris chuckled again.
“Shut up,” she told him. “That didn’t count.”
Lucy, evidently decided Heather was now both tortured and angry, growled again and advanced on Chris, her paws making little dents in the comforter. Heather reached out for her. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “I’m not in trouble. It’s okay. You can go lay down.”
Lucy looked suspiciously between Heather and Chris, who was still on top of her, but Heather’s tone must have mollified her. After another minute, she sniffed at Chris indignantly and then jumped back off the bed to curl up on her cushion in the corner of the room.
Heather was still giggling, when she felt a little flicker of knowledge.
What was she doing? Was she really having sex with Chris? What the hell was she thinking?
Before any of these questions could really pierce through the fog of desire in her mind, Chris had kissed her again and she forgot them completely.
They kissed for a minute or two until they’d built back their momentum, and then Chris lowered his mouth to her breast and found her hot arousal with his hand. It felt just as good as it had before, and it wasn’t long before she was losing control completely, coming hard all around his fingers as she cried out even louder than before.
She was panting as he raised himself up to kiss her again, and she started to pull off his clothes too.
Soon, they were both naked, and Chris had retrieved a condom from his pocket and unwrapped it. She stared at his gorgeous body—hard muscles, smooth lines, dark, coarse hair, hot flesh—as he rolled the condom on and reached over to part her legs.
She wanted this—more than she could remember wanting anything. But she still had no idea why.
“Damn, you’re gorgeous,” Chris muttered, staring at her body, the way he had earlier, as he pulled her hips into position.
“You’re not too bad yourself.”
He smiled as he held himself in place and slowly started to enter her, watching her reactions to make sure she was comfortable.
That little gesture—the way his eyes checked out her face—was surprisingly sweet and sensitive, and it made her want him even more.
Both of them were gasping when he’d penetrated her fully and was holding himself above her on straightened arms.
“So good,” he was murmuring roughly. “So good.” He made a little thrust, like he couldn’t hold himself back.
She arched and sucked in a breath at the friction.
“So good,” he repeated, rocking into her again. “Wrap your legs around me, baby.”
The sound of the words made her clench, and she couldn’t help but obey them, raising her legs to wrap them around his hips and hook her feet to keep them in place.
Both of them groaned as the penetration deepened, and then Chris started to thrust for real.
She followed his rhythm, moving her hips with his. He was staring down at her with a strange kind of intensity, and she didn’t know what to make of it.
She closed her eyes and tossed her head as the sensations intensified and his motion accelerated.
Everything felt good. So good. But she was still surprised when she felt the momentum of an orgasm tighten inside her after not very long.
“Oh God,” she gasped, her eyes flying open and her hands clutching at his shoulders.
“Yes,” Chris muttered, still staring down at her face, perspiration starting to bead on his forehead.
“Oh God! Gonna come again.” She tightened her legs around him, trying to chase the feeling.
“Yes.” His voice was low and thick and possessive. “You’re so good. So responsive. Come for me again. I love that you’re so eager.”
This briefly distracted her. “Eager?” She tried to huff and articulate how wrong this word was, but he was taking her harder and faster now, and it felt so good she couldn’t stop herself from babbling, “Oh, God, yes! Make me come. Please, please, Chris, I’m so close!”
His motion had built up until it was almost rough, but it was exactly what she wanted. She clawed her fingernails into his bare back and stifled a scream as the sensations finally peaked.
Chris let out a guttural exclamation as pleasure and release twisted on his face. Then he was letting go completely too, and both of them were gasping and shuddering as their climaxes worked their way through them.
When she’d finally come down from what might have been the best orgasm of her life, she was smiling like a fool.
Chris raised his head so he gazed down at her, stroking her cheek gently. “Definitely eager.”
This time, she managed a real huff. “You were pretty eager yourself.”
“Guilty as charged.”
They smiled at each other, and Heather felt incredibly good all over—body and mind—until Chris pulled out of her at last.
It was only then she started to feel awkward, kind of achy. Naked.
She reached for the covers as Chris got up to take care of the condom and clean himself up some. She didn’t know what to say when he came back to the bed.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to say anything. He crawled back into the bed with her and took her in his arms, so she felt good again.
So good, it wasn’t long until she drifted into sleep.
***
Heather slept surprisingly well. She didn’t wake up at all until she heard Lucy whining from the floor beside the bed.
Blinking her eyes open, she realized it was morning. Sunlight was starting to stream in from the edges of the blinds, and the clock said it was after six.
Lucy was ready to go outside.
When she rolled over, she realized she wasn’t alone in bed. Chris was still beside her, his eyes closed and the covers pushed down to his waist.
He looked softer in sleep—like the hard edges of his body and soul weren’t really as hard as they seemed. When she felt her heart melting, she jerked her eyes away from him.
She had been so incredibly stupid.
But she
wasn’t going to overreact. It wasn’t the end of the world. Yes, it had been a mistake. Nothing had changed between them. Chris still could never be a long-term partner. He would leave her—just as surely as he’d left her father three years ago.
She couldn’t let herself be hurt like that.
But she wasn’t going to act like this was the end of the world. It was one night of sex. It didn’t have to mean anything. Chris would probably be relieved that she wasn’t taking it seriously.
When she heard him make a throaty sound, she turned to see he was waking up. He smiled at her as he opened his eyes, looking young and almost sweet.
She couldn’t help but smile back, but she soon remembered her resolution and pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts as she sat up.
“Don’t hold that sheet up on my account,” he said, a smile in his voice.
“We need to get up.”
He seemed to wake up a little more and was peering at her face closely. “You’re thinking last night was a mistake.”
She sighed. “It was. It wasn’t the worst mistake in the world, but it was probably kind of stupid. It’s just going to complicate things between us.”
“Why does it have to?”
“Sex tends to do that.” She straightened her shoulders and reminded herself to be mature and reasonable about this. “But I’m sure we can deal with it. We just need to agree it’s not going to happen again.”
“Why not?”
She blinked. “What do you mean, why not? Because we’re never going to be in a relationship, and we don’t need things to get messier between us.”
“So that’s it?” There was no real expression on his face, so she couldn’t tell what he was feeling. He didn’t look upset or annoyed, though, so that was a relief.
“What else is there? We need to work together as business partners. Partners with benefits is totally out of the question.”
“That’s really what you want?”
She frowned. “Yes. What do you want?” She was suddenly worried that he thought she’d fallen for him and he was trying to be sensitive about it. “We’re never going to be in love, and casual sex isn’t really my thing. And on top of all that, it’s not like you’re looking for a commitment or anything permanent.”
“Okay.” He glanced away from her for a moment, down at Lucy who was still scuttling back and forth on the floor. “Okay.”
She had no idea why she felt bad about things, but she did. “Okay. Good.” She got out of bed, dragging a throw blanket with her so she wouldn’t be naked. She glanced back at him. “It’s not that I didn’t enjoy last night. You’re great and all. It’s just that…”
“We can never be in love. Got it.”
He sounded basically matter-of-fact, so Heather sighed in relief. “I’m going to take a shower.”
“I’ll take Lucy out.”
Heather stayed in the shower longer than normal, trying to wash away the memory of Chris’s hands and lips on her last night, his body above, against, inside her. She should be relieved that they’d dealt with the situation as maturely and painlessly as they had.
But she wasn’t.
Ten
We’re never going to be in love, and casual sex isn’t really my thing.
That chant went on and on in Chris’s head all day. Even now, as he was lending a hand hanging drywall, he couldn’t think of anything else but Heather’s words that morning. More than anything, he wanted to force her to talk to him—to figure out why she felt that way about him. About them. But he knew her well enough to know that the harder he pushed, the faster she was going to run.
It’s not like you’re looking for a commitment or anything permanent.
That was where she was wrong. Not that he’d thought much about it in the past, but now that he was back and was getting to know Heather again, Chris knew what he wanted. He was going to pursue this—of that there was no doubt—but he had to do it carefully.
He just wished he knew how.
How the hell was he supposed to show her that they could be in love and that he was looking for something permanent?
With her.
Patience wasn’t his strong-suit, and his gut was telling him to not let this go. What they had—even before the mind-blowing sex—was worth it. Heather had always had a piece of his heart. When she was younger, he’d always thought she was one of the sweetest girls he’d ever known. Coming back to Preston and seeing the woman she’d become, just made her all the more appealing.
By the time five o’clock rolled around, Chris was exhausted and feeling more than a little anxious about going home. Maybe he could go to the office and kill some time there or…damn. Chances were Heather would still be there too. Groaning, he took off his tool belt and walked out to his truck. He tossed his stuff onto the passenger seat and slammed the door, still unsure about what he was going to do.
He drove around aimlessly for a little while. There was no way he could face Heather right now while his mind was still reeling. He knew she had a point about last night—he had purposely sabotaged her date. And he didn’t regret it for a minute. Janet was a nice enough woman, but he’d known fairly early on in their date—like the first ten minutes—that she wasn’t for him. So when Heather had walked in with her date, it seemed like divine intervention.
Someday, hopefully, she’d see that too.
That still left him no closer to knowing what to do or where to go right now. He was on the outskirts of town when he saw a piece of historical property they had bid on about a week ago. It was a residential building that was vacant, and the town was looking to have it rehabbed. This was the kind of stuff Chris loved the most—the historical homes and properties. The chance to bring something like that back to its original splendor was a major high for him. There was a town truck parked out front, and he decided to pull over and see what was going on.
Climbing out, he was about to call over to see who was walking around when his neighbor Jace Foster appeared around the side of the house.
“Jace!” Chris said, walking over and holding out his hand. “What brings you around here? I thought the town kept you chained to your desk.”
Smiling, Jace shook his hand. “Occasionally they let me out to see what’s going on.”
Chris chuckled. “Glad to hear it. But seriously, what brings you to this site? Is the town ready to make a decision on who they’re going to let do the work?”
“That’s why I’m here,” Jace replied. “I can sit and look at all of the proposals at my desk and run numbers—which oddly enough, I love—but on a job like this, where it’s a renovation, I needed to see it for myself. All of the bids were so different in price that I couldn’t wrap my head around it.”
“Really? They were that off?”
Jace nodded.
“Any chance of you being willing to tell me where we stand on the short list?”
With a laugh, Jace shook his head. “Believe me, I’m pulling for you. But on a job like this, it will all be presented to a committee for final approval. And it’s not a matter of who comes in the cheapest.”
“Sometimes that’s a red flag in and of itself,” Chris quickly said.
“Exactly. We want to make sure that the materials being used are in line with the era of the home, and that everything being done is going to work with what the town is looking for. This particular home—when it’s finished—will serve as a museum for Preston. We want everything to be nice, but also be able to stand large crowds and reasonable maintenance.”
“All while looking good.”
“Yup.” Jace looked over his shoulder, toward the house. “Any chance you have time for a quick walk-through with me to answer some questions?”
“Won’t that be a conflict of interest? I mean, I could use that time to sway you toward making a decision in my favor.”
“Well, shit. I hadn’t thought of that.”
Sometimes it sucked being honest, but it was something Chris prided himself on. “I
’ll tell you what. Why don’t we go and grab a beer, and should you happen to casually ask a question or two, I’ll try and answer it to the best of my ability.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jace replied. “Flanagans is just around the corner. Want to walk?”
“Sure.”
They walked and talked about some general work topics, and Jace only asked a few questions about structural concerns for the house. By the time they grabbed a booth at Flanagans, Chris decided that maybe the key to figuring out what to do with Heather could be found while asking for a little advice from a friend.
“This place is like an institution,” Jace said, taking a pull of his beer. “So, how are you liking being back in town and living in Preston’s Mill?”
“Preston has always been home. And really, living in the building has been great. Tom did a fantastic job on the apartments. Can’t ask for a nicer place to live.”
Jace nodded. “Hell, yeah. I was lucky to get in when I did. It was like a frenzy when they were being renovated. Everyone wanted in.” He took another sip of his beer. “And you’re still living there with Heather, right?”
Chris nodded and gave him the abbreviated version of how they ended up living together.
“So it was her dad’s idea?”
Nodding, Chris took a drink of his own beer.
“Was he trying to set you two up or something?”
Chris blinked. He’d actually never considered that before. “You know, I have no idea. But I guess it is strange for a dad to arrange something like that for his daughter. Maybe he…” He trailed off, caught up in the new thought.
“And how’s it working out for you?” Jace asked, after a moment. “It’s gotta be a little bit strange.”
Chris hesitated, just enough for Jace to figure out that something was up.
“So are you like…in to her?”
That made him laugh softly. “You could say that.” He paused. “I’ve always been kind of in to Heather. But she was younger, and back before I left town, it seemed like she was too young. But now…”