Waking Up

by Carpenter, Amanda

  “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t have my purse in this bag. We’ll need some money for the gift.”

  He walked to her in quick, long strides and curved his fingers around her forearm. “Don’t worry about it, I have money. Let’s go.”

  The weight and warmth of his hand was burning into her arm like a hot brand. He was near, so near, right beside her, and she could smell the faint, fresh scent of him. “I’ll pay you back later.”

  He drew her to the front door. “I said don’t worry about it. Come on, I’m driving. Oh, for heaven’s sake, Robbie, do you want to give me gas money, too? Strain your imagination a little. Pretend this is a real, honest-to-goodness date if you can.”

  That made her laugh, an uncontrollable, nervous burst of giggles as he thrust her outside none too gently, turned back to give Herb an exasperated glance, and then shut the door behind him.

  Shopping for Marilyn’s present was quickly and successfully concluded, and they were soon sitting in Jason’s two-seater sports car, engrossed in the complications of wrapping the box in the confines of the car. Inside, well-packed, was a delicate crystal figurine that Robbie had fallen in love with as soon as she had seen it. Jason’s head bent close to hers as he held patiently in place the overlying ribbon with a long forefinger while she tried to finish the last knot with some composure, agonizingly aware of every accidental contact with his skin, feeling stiff and awkward. She then fluffed up the canary-yellow bow.

  “How does that look?” she muttered while holding the box out for contemplation.

  “Lovely.”

  Robbie looked at him and found his head still close, and his gray eyes looking at her instead of the package. He bent close and pressed his warm lips against her cheek and then pulled away before she had time to react. Then he briskly started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, while whistling tunelessly through his white teeth. She sat in a daze the entire way to Marilyn’s house.

  It was after three when they arrived, and cars lined both sides of the shady street by Marilyn’s already full driveway. Jason had to park a little distance down the shaded street, and they walked back, Robbie carefully clutching Marilyn’s present while Jason let his right hand ride attentively at the small of her back.

  Music pulsed out of the open windows of the large, two-storey house they came to, and Jason had to knock several times quite loudly before anyone answered the door. Marilyn stood on the doorstep, flushed and laughing, and motioned them both in with a cheery greeting. Robbie handed her the wrapped present and introduced Jason, who smiled faintly at the older woman’s frankly interested perusal.

  “Honey, I haven’t the time right now, but later on, I want you to tell me just where you found him, and if there are any more where he came from,” laughed Marilyn with a quick affectionate pat on Robbie’s flushing cheek before whirling away. The blonde threw over her shoulder, “Everybody’s in the backyard or the pool, and John’s out cooking hamburgers! There’s food and drinks on the picnic tables outside…help yourselves!”

  Jason cocked a quizzical eyebrow at her. With an unconscious toss of her head and a sniff, she led him through the house, with which she was familiar, and to the back.

  The noise hit them before they stepped outside. Noise spilling from the nearby crowded kitchen, noise from the backyard, noise from the stereo speakers, and all of it was loud. It was a bit of a sensory overload to take in all at once, and Robbie paused with her hand on the back door’s knob to tell Jason aggressively, “You offered to come. I don’t want to hear a single complaint, have you got that?”

  Quickly he wore a suitably meek expression though his gray eyes were dancing. “I’ll have a good time, I promise!”

  Her glance, thrown over her shoulder, was obviously doubtful, but she hauled the door open anyway and could only hope that he was right.

  People were everywhere, sprawled on the grass, splashing in the pool, and gathered around the two picnic tables which were pulled together, end to end, and filled to overflowing with all kinds of hot and cold foods. Robbie was a friendly person by nature, but quiet, and she found herself stepping instinctively back at the sight, overwhelmed.

  Then Jason’s hand was at her back again, warm and heavy and reassuring. He drew close so that his hip brushed hers lightly, and as she looked up uncertainly, he smiled down into her eyes. She remembered then that if she didn’t know everyone at the party, Jason didn’t know anyone. With equilibrium restored, she reached around her back, tucked her hand into his in a wholly natural way, and took him over to meet John, Marilyn’s husband.

  John Earhart was a big, laughing man with a barrel chest slimming to trim hips and thick, corded thighs. He was blond like his wife, and bearded, and when he saw Robbie, he abandoned his hamburgers to approach and give her a bone-cracking bear hug. She had to laugh, pleased, and then introduced him to Jason while hoping inwardly that they would like each other.

  They did. John eyed Jason’s slimmer figure up and down once and held out his huge hand for a quick, hard shake. The two men exchanged a few comments while Robbie ran her gaze in awe over all the people.

  Suddenly she shrieked, grabbed John’s other hand while they both looked at her in bewilderment, and then flew to the two sizzling grills to flip at the cooking meat frantically. The underside was scorched to a dark brown, and John roared in good-natured amusement. He walked over and slapped her on the back.

  “Now look at what you’ve done!” he told her, and blankly she did just that, staring in puzzlement at the grills. While she was wondering what she had done wrong, John whipped off his apron and tucked it around her slim waist. “You’ve just got yourself elected for the job! I need to check to see how the beer is going, can you take over for me for a few minutes?”

  She had to laugh and she agreed cheerfully enough, while Jason joined them and inspected the cooking meat with a somewhat predatory interest. John barreled off with a quick grin to them both, and for a few minutes Jason and Robbie stood talking quietly together, while she kept a close eye on the meat.

  Then another waitress from the restaurant, a lively brunette named Casey with huge, overly made-up eyes and the morals of an alley cat, came sauntering up. She devoured Jason with an avid look and said, “Hi, Robbie. Who’s your friend?”

  Robbie sent a quick, involuntary glance up to Jason’s face, and found his gray eyes alive with a lazy interest as he perused Casey as thoroughly as she did him. Normally Robbie liked Casey well enough, but something pricked inside her with the sharpness of a needle, and she gritted her teeth, eyes glittering, as she briefly acquainted the two with each other.

  Casey threaded her arm into Jason’s with a coy, enticing smile, obvious aroused and on the prowl, and said brightly, “It doesn’t take the two of you to watch over the hamburgers. Robbie, while you’re cooking, I’ll just take Jason and introduce him around for you. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Do I have a choice?” retorted Robbie, but because she said it so laughingly, so naturally and lightly, she wasn’t taken at all seriously, and the brunette drew Jason away.

  Left alone, she looked down at the half-cooked, half-raw meat sizzling hotly in the sun and scowled fiercely. She didn’t see the quick, unreadable look that Jason threw over his broad shoulder before politely following the brunette towards a knot of people. All she could see in her mind’s eye was the interested, sexual appraisal Jason had given Casey. All she could think was that this party wasn’t fun, wasn’t fun at all, and that she wanted nothing more than to go home.

  Chapter Five

  John carried out two huge ice chests filled with beer to replenish the depleted supply, and she watched, fascinated by the big man’s strength. He paused to talk to a few people while wiping his hand down the back of his blue shorts, and then he came back to divest her of her apron and spatula. He bestowed a hearty, cheek-tickling kiss upon her and then shoved her away, ordering, “Go and swim!”

  Robbie’s footsteps, after the
initial impetus from the push, lagged uncertainly as she looked around the large crowded yard for signs of Jason. She found him lounging indolently against a bordering fence with Casey in close attendance, slinking so near that her thigh brushed his while she said something in his down-bent ear. They were with a small, laughing knot of people either leaning on the fence or sitting stretched out on the short-cropped grass.

  Something angry and energetic pulsed through her then. She would have done better had she come on her own. She turned away in a quick, impatient movement and eyed the swimming pool with a brilliant, hard look. It was full to bursting with all shapes and sizes of people, both large and small, but she was looking specifically at several muscular young men who were playing a riotous game of water volleyball.

  She snapped out of her immobility and headed in quick, long graceful strides to the side of the pool where she kicked off her sandals after unbuckling the straps and then straightened. Fully aware of the interested glances being thrown her way, she looked up at the yellow sun and let the warmth cascade upon her face for a long moment. Then she reached with both crossed hands to her waist.

  With a long, slow, sinuous movement, she raised her cherry-red tank top over her brown head. Silence fell over the masculine-filled end of the pool. She dropped the tank top to the grass by her sandals. Then she smiled and unzipped her shorts at the tailored waist to slide them down over her gently swelling hips in a smooth, provocative movement. They fell in a tangle at her slim ankles.

  She might not be lusciously buxom, but she was sleek. Every line of her body was streamlined, graceful curves and long, long legs, tightly muscled and firm under supple, very dark skin. She drew back her slim arms and stretched lightly before walking to the edge of the pool.

  She was very satisfied with the attention she had received from her audience, but as her back was to Jason, she wasn’t to know that he had abandoned all pretence of listening to Casey, his golden-brown head turned towards her, his light gray eyes dilated and peculiarly intent on every single move she made. His expression was tight and blank.

  Robbie waited until she had a large, open space ahead of her in the pool and then drew herself together for a powerfully executed swan dive. The cool wetness of the water suddenly surrounding her body was a shock from the sweaty warmth of the high summer sun, and she shot through the water very fast with the force of her entry. Then her impetus slowed, and she was carried buoyantly to the surface again where she shook the cascading wetness from her eyes and laughed at the nearby, watching man.

  It was enough to draw him close, circling almost like a predatory shark while he laughed back and asked her name. A few more men drifted over, and soon she was ensconced in the volleyball game, swimming hard and playing enthusiastically. The men deferred to her with great enjoyment, for she was naturally athletic and gifted with good hand-eye coordination from her tomboyish days, and as aggressive as any of them. A few women in the yard nearby stiffened and gazed with sharpening eyes at their escorts and the game they had been too lazy to join, unwilling to mess up their looks while so many people were present.

  The opposite team was serving, and Robbie played the net with two other men while four more were positioned strategically behind them. She squinted over to where she had last seen Jason and Casey, but they weren’t leaning against the fence any longer. Then before she could look searchingly around, the black-and-white-marked ball came sailing over the net. It flew high and slowly, and appeared to be coming just over her head.

  The young man behind her, a dark, good-looking fellow who was a cheerful flirt, was suddenly close to her, his long body sliding against hers in the water, his hands fastening firmly at her slim waist. He shouted and heaved her high into the air, water falling all around in a brilliant, sunlit cascade while she laughingly but not very seriously tried to hit at the ball. To her amazement, her small doubled fist connected, and the ball shot over the net to splash into the space between two of their opponents who couldn’t react fast enough. Robbie felt herself sliding back down, against his chest and unnecessarily close, but the attention was pleasant and good for her morale so she leaned against him for a moment while he slid his hands slowly to the front of her waist and held her close.

  His head bent to her ear, and he seemed about to say something when a large splash of someone entering the pool engulfed them both. She spluttered and laughingly rubbed at her water-blinded eyes while her young admirer lost his slippery grip on her.

  Jason surfaced just beside them then, golden skin sparkling wetly on broad, muscular shoulders. He shook his hair out of his eyes, threw a light, unsmiling glance behind her and slipped his hard arm around her waist to draw her away from the game. Nobody from the volleyball group disputed his actions.

  But Robbie did. She was still resentful of his desertion earlier, and had only just begun to enjoy herself again when he had to interrupt. “I haven’t finished playing,” she snapped, with a glitter in her brown eyes that told him to beware.

  He dragged her, floating on his arm like a piece of flotsam, to the edge of the pool where he let her go, only to place both hands on either side of her. He was standing, but she was out of her depth and had to hold on to one of his forearms since he wasn’t giving her enough room to tread water. Her legs kept brushing against his, which were planted firm and still, and she was immensely disquieted to find that her breath was coming short and fast.

  After searching her face with some shrewdness, Jason smiled at her, white teeth flashing, and he told her cheerfully, “I just thought you might like some attention since that was why you wanted me to come.”

  “You offered to come, I didn’t ask you!” she retorted and then shoved against his arm experimentally. It didn’t budge an iota. “Besides, since you went off with Casey, I’ve found that I can have a perfectly good time on my own, thank you very much.”

  He cocked his head at her quizzically, his expression alive with amused interest, his gray eyes sparkling. She looked into that gaze and then pressed herself against the edge of the pool to avoid touching his wet skin. Something in his eyes was unsettling, intent. “But you wouldn’t want your male friends to think that the chase is free and easy, would you?” he asked, wickedly light. “Let them know there’s a little competition. I hear it whets the appetite.”

  Her look to him was speaking as she replied drily, “I don’t see them exactly flocking to my side. You seem to have a distinctly off-putting air about you.”

  Jason looked briefly, uninterestedly to his right where the volleyball game was still going on, but was now played with an air of absentmindedness as several interested, speculative glances were thrown their way. “I don’t know,” he said consideringly. “There are a few biting fish in the sea. What do you say? Shall we give them something to think about?”

  “What do you mean?” She didn’t know how to curb or hide her skittishness at his close proximity, and so she shoved once again, irritably, at his arm.

  “I mean to indulge in a little pretence. Let’s act as if we are really dating. Let’s say I’m the jealous boyfriend.” Another gleaming smile, as if it were all a big joke.

  “But we both know that you’re not,” she muttered and swallowed against the thought of it. Jason, aroused and angry, hauling her into his arms, driving his hungry mouth down. A bout of excited trembling shook through her.

  “But what would I do if I was?” he asked softly, his question so close to her thoughts that she jumped violently. He brought one hand to the side of her neck. She held herself completely immobile, not even breathing for fear of giving her agitation away. Jason’s eyes took on an electric quality, blazing vividly until she couldn’t look away from his lean face. “Mightn’t I just possibly pull you close, like this, and kiss you long and hard in front of everyone? Mightn’t I want to establish things beyond a shadow of a doubt to people like Casey, and your young, groping friend who’s watching us so avidly now…”

  He pulled close until she was gently sandwiche
d against the edge of the pool and his lithe, wet body. She stared up into his half-shadowed face, her eyes dazzled by the sun and the purposeful light in his eyes. He bent his head. She knew then what he intended, and dropped her heavy lids over her eyes and raised her lips to meet his.

  The noise of the party faded from her awareness until it was no more than a meaningless background disturbance. Jason’s lips caressed hers, brushing, stroking, gently probing his way into her warm mouth. The kiss deepened, and the forearm she had been gripping shifted to her back. As her handhold slipped, she automatically clutched at his shoulders, his skin silken and slippery under her wet fingers. He gathered her against his chest until they were close together, torso to torso, her legs between his. All she could feel was the cool water lapping against her heated skin and Jason everywhere, nothing to hang on to, nothing to hold, nothing to touch but Jason.

  His mouth slanted hard against hers, never brutal, never overly amorous under the heat of so many different gazes, but enticingly, lightly, sensually teasing. He raised his head and her eyes opened slowly to stare at him, blankly. Aware shock rippled through her. She suddenly knew for certain that he was as sexually attracted to her as she was to him. It was in his tense body, the tight, very controlled muscles, that look of banked-down excitement in his vivid eyes.

  She whispered thinly, without even being aware of it, “Oh, my.”

  “That is what I would do, I think, if I were jealous,” he said conversationally and then quickly, uncontrollably, licked his lips.

  She looked away very fast at that and said again, “Oh, my. So many people are looking at us. L-let go of me, please.”

  “Don’t run away from me, Rob,” he said quietly, one arm a tight band around her waist, the other coming up to stroke at her hair.

  “You’re scaring me.” Her face half-crinkled in distress, her stomach a queer, tight knot.