Chapter 12
The next morning Cade dressed for work and watched Sunny lay sprawled, mostly on his side of the bed, dead to the world. She wasn’t faking it because it’d be fairly impossible for her to fake that little snoring/sighing thing she did. But then again, he had first-hand experience that Sunny didn’t fake anything.
It was…different to wake up to her in his bed, her legs intertwined with his, her hair tickling against his chin, her hogging the covers. He’d never brought a woman to his house over the years. He’d never shared his bed with a woman. He’d always gone to the woman’s place or the occasional hotel. It was the same keep it simple, keep it uncomplicated theory behind the four weeks.
Sunny issued one of her little snoring sighs. Just as he’d known from the beginning, she was nothing but complication.
The sheet twisted around her, one long leg lay outside the covers. She was ticklish behind her knee. And when he nuzzled that spot on her hip between her hip and her belly she came unglued. He leaned forward to flick his tongue against that spot and watch her squirm in her sleep but caught himself. If he did, there was no way in hell he was walking out that door. Instead he tugged the comforter over her leg and left the room.
He stopped off in the kitchen and pulled a pen and notepad out of the junk drawer. He wrote a brief note reminding Sunny to take the car if she needed it and giving her Jones’s name and number. He hesitated for a moment and then added a line that he’d be back midafternoon—not to account for himself but so she’d be ready. Linc would give him hell for working banker’s hours but screw him.
He shrugged into his jacket and closed the back door behind him. He started across the grass. It looked like the forecasted late-afternoon snow would show up. Dense, light-gray clouds blanketed the sky. Snow clouds.
He was almost to the garage door when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head. At the edge of the woods abutting the meadow stood an animal that looked like a wolf. Shaggy coat, broad chest, watchful eyes. For a second, it was as if the animal looked Cade straight in the eyes. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Cade blinked. The wolf was gone. He shook his head and laughed at himself. It must’ve been a stray dog. Once, years ago, he thought he’d seen a wolf but then he’d done some research. There were no wolves in western Tennessee.
* * *
Sunny opened a bottled water from the fridge and settled back down on the bar stool, determined to get through her daily to-do list. Classic jazz played on the laptop, courtesy of satellite radio. The house felt happy this morning. Some of the loneliness and melancholy she’d sensed on her arrival had disappeared. What the heck? She felt happy this morning. She glanced at her watch. Well, technically it was now afternoon.
She was amazed that she’d accomplished as much as she had today. She’d had to focus because a night of great, tilt-your-world-on-its-axis sex could be a little distracting the morning after. She’d called Danny Jones, Cade’s PI and then gotten a call from her attorney. Meeks had officially dropped the charges.
Sunny picked at the label on the bottled water. As awful as the last month had been, as much as she hated that Meeks was still in office, she wouldn’t go back and change any of it if she could. If things had unfolded any differently she wasn’t sure that she would’ve ever met Cade. He might ultimately break her heart if she wasn’t careful but for now, he was the silver lining in the past month’s thundercloud.
Yearning bloomed low in her belly and spread through her. She ached for him to fill her once again, to feel his weight between her legs, to have his heavy cock buried inside her, his tongue mating with hers, his scent on her skin, his hands pleasuring her breasts. How was it that she was so thoroughly infatuated with him so quickly? She’d never been this way before.
As if the very force of her desire had called to him, she heard the rumble of his car outside. Anticipation flashed through her.
She finished up her e-mail correspondence and closed out of the program. She ran a hand over her hair as a sudden onslaught of self-consciousness flooded her. Yesterday and last night had been wonderful but was it an anomaly? What if…
Her what if insecurity was lost to her when her entire body quickened as he stalked across the yard, sure of what he wanted. She sensed the sexual energy radiating from him, and he wasn’t even in the house yet.
Her self-consciousness fell to the wayside when he walked in the door. She was out of her chair and met him halfway. He dragged her up hard against the length of his body and she wrapped her arms around his neck. His lips took hers in a kiss that had her straining against him and tangling her tongue with his in an intimate greeting. He followed the curve of her back to cup her bottom in his big hands, kneading, squeezing. She strained against him, aroused by the way he touched her. It was as if he awoke every animalistic, carnal impulse in her, sloughing off all restraints, every civilized nicety she’d ever possessed. He’d issued the call of the wild and she’d responded. She wanted his hand in her pants, stroking her, fondling her.
She made a sound in the back of her throat and he raised his head.
“Um. I like your hello,” he drawled. He rubbed his face next to hers, his mouth mere inches from her ear. “Did you sleep in? Did you get some rest?” His low gravel tone scorched her.
“I’m fully rested.”
“I brought you something.” He reached down and grabbed a bag off the floor that she hadn’t even noticed before. He handed her a gift-wrapped box.
Sunny’s heart thumped against her ribs. Wasn’t he the man who didn’t give gifts? “A present? Did I have a time lapse? It’s not even Christmas yet.”
“I thought you might want to celebrate Meeks dropping the charges.”
“You know?” She paused, holding the bag in her hand.
He shrugged. “I made a few inquiries. It helps to have court and police connections.” He nodded toward the bag. “Open it.”
She glanced at the wrapping and laughter bubbled up. “I bet you caused quite the stir when you showed up to shop there.” There was an upscale, slightly risqué boutique. She’d bought a friend a bridal shower gift there once. She didn’t want to think about how he knew to shop there. The salesgirls had probably fallen all over themselves to help him. Then again, maybe he hadn’t picked it out. “Or did you send Marlene?”
“Uh, no. That would ruin my no-presents reputation and I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t like the same thing I like.”
“How do you know I’ll like it?”
“I don’t. But I liked it.”
“Typical male.”
“Open it. If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back tomorrow.”
She opened the package.
Black lace and mesh panties with a purple bow at the center. Crotchless. A matching black lace bra, with slits in the cups over the nipple area, matching purple bows holding them together. A pair of black lace slippers on four-inch heels completed the outfit.
“Crotchless. Slitted. Heeled. How positively Neanderthal.” How positively titillating.
He grinned, that slightly crooked, baby-I’m-going-to-rock-your-world grin. “What about the purple ribbon? I thought it matched your eyes.”
“I’m so sure you’ll be looking at my eyes.” She hoped he wasn’t looking at her eyes. If she had her way, his attention would be somewhere else.
“I’ve got a deal for you. You go put them on and I’ll take them off.”
* * *
Sunny’d worn sexy undies occasionally before but she’d never had a man pick out something specifically for her, something he wanted her to wear expressly for him, and nothing quite so daring. The thought knifed through her that this might be standard procedure for him and she quickly tossed the idea aside. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he’d bought this for her and she wanted to wear it for him.
She shimmied out of her clothes and stood naked for a moment. She did not have a lingerie model’s body. She bit her lip and
turned to the side, looking at her reflection in the mirror.
Why hadn’t she spent more time doing ab work and less time eating? Then she wouldn’t have that round little pooch and maybe her butt wouldn’t jiggle when she wiggled? But she hadn’t and what the hell, most women didn’t have a lingerie model figure. What she had was one sexy bad boy waiting on her to come out wearing what he’d brought her.
She pulled on the panties and her self-consciousness fell away. It was a nice fit. She was grateful they weren’t thongs. She didn’t think she could wear a thong even for him. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. If he gave her a thong, she’d wear it, but this was a much sexier, much more flattering cut. Black lace rode midway down her hip and cut to a vee in the center. She turned one way and then the other. She looked pretty damn hot. And she felt very damn hot. There was a lot to be said for the sexy quotient of crotchless underwear.
She slipped on the shoes and immediately felt deliciously, wickedly sexy. Before she put on the bra—because it felt pretty hot to stand around in crotchless panties and hooker heels—she decided to touch up her makeup. More than once in the past two days—had it only been two days?—yep, she’d rammed Cecil on Monday and today was Wednesday—she’d been grateful that she always carried touch-up eye makeup in her purse. Mascara-less was not her idea of her at her best.
This outfit called for a little drama. She heavily outlined her eyes. It was different, exotic. Darker eye shadow in the crease of her lids. She outlined her lips with a lip pencil, having to correct it twice because her hand shook slightly. Yeah, she was nervous, excited, aroused.
She dug in her makeup bag until she found the tube of long-lasting non-smearing lipstick with the wand applicator. Dark mango. She filled in her lips. It even had the faint taste of mango.
She squeezed a dab of hair gel on her hands and leaned over, running her hands through her hair for a messed, wild look. She slowly raised her head and looked in the mirror. She looked like someone else, a foreign, exotic siren. She reached for the bra and she looked from her exotic face to the pale tips of her nipples and she had an idea. She was going for wild, dramatic, exotic.
Nah. She couldn’t. She glanced again from her wild mango-darkened lips to her too-demure crests. That would be sort of…erotic. For centuries women in the Far East had adorned themselves with rouges and hennas.
She opened the lipstick and darkened first one nipple, then the other, stimulated by the sight of her rouged breasts. She blotted any excess with a tissue. She hoped Cade didn’t have any fruit allergies. Sending him into anaphylactic shock could definitely put a damper on things.
She put on the bra. Another perfect fit. He’d obviously checked her sizes before he left this morning. Smart man.
She was totally, thoroughly turned on just by dressing up for him.
She slipped a finger between her thighs and then dabbed her finger on her wrist and then again along her neck. Sometimes a woman had to make do with what she had available.
Now if she could just make it down the stairs without killing herself in these heels. Tripping wasn’t sexy.
* * *
Tension corded his muscles when he heard her crossing the upstairs landing and he leaned against the door frame of the parlor. Her heels echoed on the wooden treads as she made her way slowly down the stairs.
He’d known she’d be hot in the outfit, but he’d really had no idea just how sexy until she appeared. An instant, ball-busting, suck-all-the-air-out-of-his-lungs inferno swept through him and his dick sprang to immediate, ready-to-serve attention.
He pushed away from the wall and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Sunny was smokin’ hot. She stopped one step from the bottom. With the heels on, she stood at eye level with him.
He opened his mouth but his brain seemed to have shut down and the only thing that came out of his mouth was a cross between a moan, a groan and a grunt.
Sunny wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and leaned in close, nuzzling his jaw. “It fits. Do you like it?”
God, she smelled like sex.
“Fuck me.”
“That was the plan,” she said with a soft laugh.
He didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until she murmured that against his ear. He hadn’t actually meant to say it. It had just popped out, a subconscious exclamation.
She cupped his face in her two hands and kissed him, a slow, sensual journey of her tongue exploring the contours of his mouth. She smelled like sex and tasted like some exotic fruit. He finally gathered enough wits about him to kiss her back.
He ran his hands up the back of her legs to cup her luscious rear in his hands. She uttered a mewling noise into his mouth and sucked on his tongue, which arrowed straight to his crotch.
Her eyes were heavy-lidded with arousal when she broke away from the kiss. “The ’Vette. I want to do it in the car.”
“Now? You want to do it in the Corvette?”
“Uh-huh. I’ve got a thing about sexy muscle cars.” Somewhere in the back of his mind, where he could still connect a few functioning brain cells he remembered. “I would really, really like to do it in that car.”
He’d been thinking right here on the stairs would work out just fine. “Woman, are you crazy? It’s thirty-something degrees outside and the garage isn’t heated.”
“We could heat it up.” She said, her mouth right next to his ear. She smoothed her hands over his chest and nipped his ear lobe, sending a fireball of lust through him. “I promise it’ll be hot.”
“It’ll be tight.”
“Tight is best. Tight and hot. How can you turn that down?”
“You want a ride in my ’Vette, then I’ll take you for a ride.”
Chapter 13
“The passenger seat is the only way this is going to work,” Cade said, so revved up he wasn’t even feeling the cold. He stood Sunny on her feet outside the car.
She snuggled into the jacket that he’d thrown around her, which hit her midthigh, and smiled. “That’s fine by me.”
He opened the passenger door and climbed in the car. He’d thought she was sort of crazy, but now he was thinking it was a pretty hot idea. Some parts of him were thinking it was a very hot idea. He patted his lap. “Climb on in, baby and I’ll take you for a ride.”
“This is so hot,” she said and climbed in on top of him, which was no small feat of maneuvering. Finally, she was astride his lap and he pulled the car door closed.
This was a very good position. Her open thighs nestled against the hard ridge of his erection. Even through his pants he could feel her heat, feel her juicy mound against him.
She let the front of his jacket fall open, but kept it around her shoulders. She reached down and tugged his T-shirt free from his waistband, sliding her hands beneath the material. She explored the ridges of his muscles, her touch affecting him like an aphrodisiac. “Can you take off the shirt?”
He pulled it over his head and tossed it into the other seat. She offered a satisfied sigh and cast an appreciative, incendiary glance at his bare chest. “You have the most gorgeous body,” she said, her voice a low, seductive purr. “Sexy guy. Sexy car. It works.”
He stroked his hands up the outside of her legs. “It definitely works for me.” Her skin was like a soft chamois cloth. “So, how long have you had a thing for muscle cars?” He cupped his hands around her hips.
“I’ve always found them—” she shifted her sex against his “—exciting.”
He caressed the tops of her thighs with his thumbs. “And how about the guys that drive them?”
“Hmm. I’ll have to think about that for a while.”
His jacket joined his T-shirt in the other seat.
“Maybe I can help you make up your mind,” he said. He reached behind her, between her nicely rounded cheeks, and found the opening in her panties. He slid his finger farther into her drenched curls. She dropped her head onto his chest and made a soft mewling sound in the back of her throat. She shifted farther up
onto her knees, allowing him access. He slipped a finger inside her silky hot channel. She gasped and lightly bit his bicep. He added another finger and she clenched around him. “What is it you like about muscle cars?”
“Muscle cars are sexy—” she fingered his flat, male nipples and pleasure arrowed all the way through him, tightening his balls “—raw—” she rocked back on his fingers “—with a little bit of a rough edge.” He slowly pulled his fingers almost all the way out and then slid them back into her, loving the way she bit down on her lip and threw her head back. The way she clenched around him. “I’m partial to a big block engine with a manual overdrive.” He found her button with another finger and she was panting. “I like—” she reached between them “—driving with my hand—” she grasped him through his pants “—on the gear shift.”
He kept a slow measured rhythm. “You find that exciting?”
“Immensely.” She canted back, taking him deeper, a small moan escaping. “What is it you like about driving this car?”
“She’s unpredictable and temperamental. You’ve got to know just the right way to handle her—” he withdrew his fingers and she whimpered a protest “—but once you figure that out—” he brushed his finger, glistening with her essence, over her lower lip “—she’s responsive.” She captured his wrist in her hand. She swirled her tongue around his finger and then took it in her mouth, sucking on it. First one finger, then the other. He groaned aloud and she uttered her pleasure in the back of her throat. “The harder and faster you drive her, the better she handles,” he managed to say.
She leaned into him and kissed him, letting him taste her. He suckled her lower lip. “Delicious,” he murmured against her mouth.
“You like driving hard and fast?” she asked. She scooted back far enough to lean down and swipe her tongue against his nipple.
The Big Heat Page 12