Deciding hers was a very good idea, Michael raised himself so he could help her get them off. Once he’d shed the last of his clothes, he reached to tear open a condom packet.
As he rolled it on, he couldn’t help but notice the way Allison’s eyes lingered on his naked body. The hunger and admiration in her eyes made the primal part of his nature want to howl, and it further intensified the urgency of his arousal.
This one, erotic night with Allison was exactly what he wanted. She'd always been passionate and responsive, and she'd only grown more so in the intervening years.
The condom in place, he took her face in his hands and kissed her again, easing her back so he could settle himself between her legs.
Then he lined himself up at her entrance and sank inside her slowly, her flesh around his tight, hot, and sweet.
She gasped and pressed up into his weight as Michael held himself very still and tried to rein in his driving need. “Allison, you feel incredible,” he muttered, his voice raspy from his efforts at control.
She shifted beneath him, her green eyes wide and deep in the flickering light of the room. “You too. Now, Michael. Please, now.”
He choked on a guttural sound and began to thrust, beginning a slow, deep motion that quickly spiraled out of control into hot, fast, panting thrusts. Allison was with him all the way, her hips rocking in sync to his, her fingers digging into his skin, her little gasps and moans transforming to breathless cries of pleasure as their frantic rhythm built up toward release.
Michael’s vision blurred over as he felt completely surrounded by Allison—her warmth, her scent, her flesh, her passion. He was flooded by sensation and by memory as his mind flashed back to seven years ago. Allison wasn’t as nervous and inexperienced now, but she was just as real, just as eager, just as intoxicating.
She started to gasp out his name as her body shook helplessly beneath his. She arched up and clawed at his back as she climaxed hard, her body tightening deliciously around his.
Michael choked on a muffled groan as she shuddered beneath him, and the wild abandon of her release pulled him over the edge as well.
With hard, jerky thrusts, he came too, a rush of intense pleasure overtaking him as he let himself go.
In the hot breathlessness of the aftermath, Michael managed to take care of the condom before he collapsed back in bed beside her, reaching out to pull her soft, pliant body into his arms.
He loved the way her body fit itself against his, and he loved the pleased satisfaction that relaxed his body and flooded his chest.
He could feel her smiling as her cheek rested against his chest. It made him smile too. “Now you seem rather proud of yourself,” he murmured.
“I am,” she said unabashedly, idly stroking one of his arms. “That was great.”
“No argument here.”
“I mean, that was really good.”
He laughed softly. “Once again, I concur.”
His dry tone seemed to amuse her, although she didn’t lift her head or meet his eyes. “I even forgot about the storm for a while.”
“Was there a storm?”
Still laughing, she finally raised herself up enough to look down into his face. Her tumbled hair hung down around her shoulders, her cheeks were deeply flushed, and her eyes sparkled with humor and satisfaction. “Seriously, you know what? I don’t even hear the wind as much now. I think maybe it has finally past.”
Of course, this was good news. If they’d made it through the storm relatively unscathed, they would have a lot to be grateful for, but Michael couldn’t bring himself to think of much else besides a soft, warm, laughing Allison in his arms.
He brought her down into an embrace, kissing her for a minute before he settled her beside him once more. She appeared pleased with the arrangement and relaxed comfortably at his side.
After a few moments, he asked, “Who were you planning to use these condoms with?”
He supposed it was a sign of his innate egotism, but he didn’t like the idea of her intending to use them with some other man.
She slanted him a curious look. “I’m not sure that’s any of your business. We're just together for the evening, aren't we?”
“Right.” He didn’t object to her elusiveness, although he still wanted to know. She was right, though. They both knew this was just a one-night stand. It was exactly what he wanted. It was only the primal, possessive part of his nature that resented the thought of her passion and sweetness being claimed by anyone but him.
Plus, he didn’t like that she wouldn’t tell him, even though he'd asked directly. He was used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it and—even in this small way—it was frustrating not to be able to do so now.
He wasn’t fool enough to believe his reaction meant anything significant. He certainly didn’t want a serious relationship—with Allison or anyone else.
But still, when she offered no further explanation, he couldn't hold back a scowl.
* * *
It didn’t take Allison long to fall asleep. Her body was deliciously satisfied, and she felt warm and cozy next to Michael in bed. So she fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until morning.
When she did awaken, her cheek was uncomfortably hot, and one of her hands was asleep. As she oriented herself, she realized why. Her cheek was still pressed up against Michael’s chest, and her hand had somehow ended up under his weight, where it had lost circulation.
She shifted uncomfortably, lifting her head to look down at him. He appeared to be just waking up himself because his eyelids were heavy and his features unusually relaxed.
She couldn’t help but smile, absurdly pleased at catching him looking so groggy and human—instead of as unnaturally controlled and observant as he normally was.
“Hi,” she said, trying to retrieve her hand from underneath Michael’s lower back.
He rolled over slightly to relieve her hand of his weight. Then he smiled back at her, desperately in need of a shave. “Good morning.”
“It sounds like the storm is over.”
“Good. The weather forecast said it should be over this morning.” He reached up and pushed some of her tangled hair back from her face.
Allison tried not to imagine what her hair must look like, after having sex and sleeping on it damp. She shook out her prickling hand. “Is your arm asleep too?”
“A little,” he admitted, moving his arm from where he’d been holding her body against his.
“Thanks for last night.” She blushed a little, thinking her comment had sounded kind of silly. “I mean, I had a good time.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Me too.”
She wondered if he’d had as good a time as she had. It might have been the best sex of her life.
All she said was, “Hopefully, we can get out of here today.”
Michael didn’t respond. At least, not with words. His smile turned hot all of a sudden, and his hand lowered from her hair to her shoulder. He trailed his fingers tantalizingly across her skin, his eyes lingering on her breasts, which she belatedly realized were naked and exposed in her position.
“Michael?” she asked, already a little breathless as her body responded to the smolder in his eyes.
His fingers slid down to twirl around her tightening nipples. “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?”
Her skin flushed with pleasure as her breathing quickened from his touch. “I thought this was just for the one night.”
Michael nodded and met her eyes. “It is. But who’s to say the night has to end this early?”
* * *
Later, as Allison was getting dressed, she was torn between delighted thoughts about the erotic interlude she and Michael had just enjoyed and memories of seven years ago.
They'd had sex again before they’d gotten up, and once again Allison had been swept away in passion and pleasure. This time, he’d turned her over and taken her from behind, making her come so hard she’d had to sm
other her cries of release in the pillow.
Michael was a skillful, experienced lover, but it was more than just that. He seemed swept away too, like he lost himself in the experience, like he wanted to drown in her.
Like having sex with her mattered to him. A lot.
She’d felt the same way before, after that first night they spent together. When they’d gotten ready to leave the office, very late, she’d been shy and a little awkward—since everything was so new to her—but she’d never felt so special, so beautiful, as she had in Michael’s arms.
He’d smiled at her and told her she was incredible. Then he’d asked if she’d wanted a late dinner or early breakfast.
And that had been it.
Even at eighteen, Allison had slept with him with her eyes wide open. She knew the sex had been a spontaneous thing for him, and he’d never given her any hint that he wanted more than the one night.
But it had felt special, meaningful, absolutely wonderful. She didn’t know how to read the look in his eyes—that deep, instinctive hunger—in any other way.
She’d seen that same look in Michael’s eyes last night, and it awoke exactly the same kind of feelings in her now as it had back then.
Despite her pleased gratification over a night and morning’s worth of really great sex, flickers of anxiety flared up in her chest.
She would have to be very careful about how she handled things from here, since she was experiencing those familiar pangs of attachment.
Allison was older now. She was smarter.
And she wasn’t going to fall for Michael again.
Chapter Five
Allison stood in front of the kitchen window of their borrowed house and stared out at the wet, branch-littered lawn. The morning sun streamed from in between thick clouds, and patches of blue sky were visible—a refreshing sight after the dark turmoil of the weather the day before.
When the kettle screamed on the burner, she removed it and poured out two mugs of tea. She was sick of tea, but the electricity still wasn’t working and she hadn't been able to find any coffee anyway. The only thing she’d been able to scavenge from the pantry that would do for breakfast was some canned fruit.
Not the most appetizing of breakfasts, but it was better than soup or green beans. She’d found one other pack of chocolate cookies that hadn’t gone past the expiration date, but she figured she better save them in case they weren’t able to get out today after all.
Michael had gone out to take a look at the road.
Allison was drinking her tea and spooning mixed fruit into bowls when he came into the kitchen. His clothes had dried, so he was once more wearing his expensive dark trousers and blue dress shirt. They were slightly wrinkled but made him look more himself than the jeans and t-shirt he’d worn last night.
“The road here looks all right. Some branches have blown off but nothing too dramatic.”
“Good,” she said, handing him a cup of tea. “Maybe we’ll be able to get out today.”
He nodded and reached for the portable radio, turning it on and tuning in the station more clearly. “Let’s hope.”
As they had breakfast, they listened to the news and found out that a lot of roads in the area were still flooded. They didn’t hear any specifics on the back roads they would need to take, so they’d have to just chance it and see whether or not they were clear.
Eventually, when there was nothing more to hear on the radio, Michael switched it off, and they sat in silence for a minute.
Allison felt a little awkward. The sex the night before had been intense and deeply pleasurable, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it now. In a lot of ways, Michael was still mostly a stranger to her.
He’d been engaged to Gina Lane for several months—the girl who’d always been most popular in her class all through school—something she still had trouble wrapping her mind around.
“How’s Gina?” she asked out of the blue, surprising even herself with the question.
Michael arched his eyebrows in a skeptical look.
“I knew her pretty well,” Allison explained. “We lost touch pretty quickly when we graduated high school, but we were sort of friends. I was just interested in how she’s doing. It wasn't a snide commentary or anything.”
Michael was silent for a long time before he answered. “She’s changed a lot since high school.”
That told her absolutely nothing. Her natural inquisitiveness prodded her into continuing the questioning. “So she’s no longer the most popular girl in every room she walks into?” There was a faint edge of cynicism in her voice, but it wasn’t palpably bitter.
Allison had been insecure as a teenager—particularly when she compared herself to Gina, but she’d grown up a lot, and she couldn’t work up a lot of angst about not being as pretty and desired as Gina had always been.
“I suppose.”
Allison studied Michael’s guarded face and, for the first time, felt a twinge of jealousy. While she didn’t mind the fact that she would never be one of the Ginas of the world, she didn’t like the idea of him being hung up on her old classmate—even after they’d broken up. “What did you do to make her fling your ring back in your face?”
Michael eyed her evenly and didn’t respond.
“Assuming that actually happened. Did the papers make it up?”
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” he murmured, rather bitterly. “But it happened. Yes.”
Allison tried to think what would have provoked Gina into something like that. She must have felt betrayed or insulted to be pushed to the point of throwing her notoriously expensive ring back at him.
Allison didn’t think he would have cheated on Gina. She had no idea what Michael’s feelings had been, but she just couldn’t believe him to be a cheater. Unless he wasn’t anything like the guy she used to know.
“Figure it out?” he asked wryly, cocking an eyebrow at her with a half-smile.
She made a face at him, vaguely annoyed that he’d read her so easily. “So you’re really not going to tell me what happened?”
Michael gave a casual shrug. “She was angry with me—for the way I’d ended the engagement.”
“So you ended it?”
“I did.”
Allison was secretly relieved. She didn’t like the idea of Gina’s stomping on Michael’s heart. Something about his broken relationship with Gina had caused him to raise his guard, though. If it wasn’t important to him, he probably wouldn’t have eluded her questions as obviously as he had. The situation must have hurt Michael in some way.
But it didn’t matter. Allison pushed it out of her mind. She wasn’t going to work herself up about figuring it out or caring about the outcome.
After today, Michael would no longer be a part of her life.
To change the subject, she asked, “Do you keep up with anyone else from Whitesville?”
He gave a half-shrug. “Not much. You heard what happened to Daniel Lawson?”
“Yeah. That horrible accident. Is he…is he all right?”
“I don’t know. He’s basically a hermit now. He lives on that island off the North Carolina coast that’s been in his family for ages. He never leaves.”
“Damn. That’s awful.”
Daniel had been a classmate of Michael’s. They’d been on the basketball team together. Allison had never been close to him, but she still hated the thought of his being damaged so terribly in a boating accident.
By comparison, having great sex with Michael and then not knowing what to do afterwards wasn’t really such a serious a problem to have.
* * *
Michael wondered why Allison didn’t push the issue.
Curiosity had always been at the heart of the girl he remembered. He knew she wasn’t satisfied with his evasive answers about Gina, but she hadn’t kept prying or trying to get the real story out of him.
Something about her restraint triggered his interest. He wanted to know why she didn’t care enough to pursue h
er questioning.
After last night, Michael felt closer to her. He was sure she did too. He wanted her even more now than he had yesterday. She sat across the kitchen table from him—frowning and composed, with tousled hair and clean face, wearing jeans and a simple, fitted t-shirt. Nothing about her was provocative or overtly sexy.
But his attention lingered on flush of her cheek, the curve of her hips, the gracefulness of her hands. And the look in her eye—somehow both knowing and deliciously untouched.
Allison was a mystery to him. Foreign and familiar at the same time. He wasn’t about to tell her the truth about Gina, but he wasn’t ready to be rid of her yet, as he’d half expected to be after satisfying his physical desire last night.
He smiled at her, using the seductive expression and tone of voice that had never failed him in the past. “If the roads are flooded out, we might be trapped here another day.”
Allison looked eminently unimpressed. “Do you ever think of anything but sex?”
He blinked in surprise at her blunt question but recovered quickly. “Of course, but we might not have anything else to do. I believe in turning circumstances around to their best advantage.”
“To your advantage, you mean.”
“You think I’m the only one who would enjoy another round of sex?” His voice was slightly husky as he remembered the intense pleasure of sinking inside Allison’s body.
Her cheeks reddened in a delectable way, but she replied gamely, “Let’s see if we’re able to get out of here. Then we can discuss who will enjoy what and for how long.”
* * *
A half-hour later, they got into Allison’s SUV and headed down the road in the direction they’d both been originally driving. It didn’t take long for them to discover that the bridge was still washed out.
So Allison turned the car around, and they made their way back down the road, intending to backtrack until they were able to hook up with the interstate.
Storm Front (Reunited Hearts) Page 5