Boots and Lace (9 page)

She glanced down at her skimpy outfit. “Like this?”

“You might want to put something less revealing on in case the Temptation cops are on patrol.”

“Shouldn’t you be going to bed?”

Oh, that was where he wanted to go all right, but not to sleep, and he wanted to avoid having sex with Lacey, if for no other reason than to prove to himself that he was capable of resisting her feminine allure. “I can’t sleep, and I need to burn off some energy. Are you coming?”

She hopped up, leaving the swing swaying in the breeze. “I’ll only be a minute.”

Lacey raced up the stairs, her feet barely making a sound as she climbed to the top landing and entered her open door. In less than a minute, she’d whipped off the nightgown and slipped into a pair of shorts, a tank top and her cowboy boots.

Her body ached for release from the sexual tension she’d been knotted up with since she’d seen Nick earlier in the bar. If she wasn’t going to have sex with him, a walk might help. Then maybe she could go to bed alone and not resort to her vibrator.

The trip down the stairs was noisier than going up, her boot heels clicking on the wooden risers.

Nick stepped out of his apartment, wearing his boots and a T-shirt over his jeans.

Lacey stared at the way his T-shirt clung to his muscular chest, thinking it was a shame to cover it.

“Just for the record, I liked the other outfit better.” Nick didn’t wait for her response. He stepped out onto the porch and held the door open.

Her cheeks warming, Lacey smiled. “I liked your earlier outfit better too,” she murmured as she slipped by him, resisting the urge to touch a hand to his chest and feel the solid muscles hidden beneath the jersey knit.

Nick walked beside her along the sidewalk, his expression hidden in the shadows.

If she couldn’t read his face, he couldn’t read hers. Something about the anonymity of the darkness made her feel more relaxed, more open to a candid conversation, less inhibited.

“I can’t get over how hot it’s been these last few days.” Lacey tugged at her tank, pulling the fabric away from her skin. The movement of air over her breasts made them pucker, the tips turning into tight little beads. Or was it the hot cowboy-mechanic walking beside her?

Either way, the snack at lunch wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy her, now that she knew what Nick had to offer. But he seemed determined to keep her at arm’s length for the duration of their walk.

Lacey would play along…for a little while. “Why haven’t I noticed you before?”

His shoulders rose and lowered. “I haven’t been hanging out at the Ugly Stick much.”

“Not your thing?”

“Not my wife’s thing,” he admitted.

Her feet slamming to a halt, Lacey stood still, her heart thumping against her rib cage. “Your wife?” Shit. She’d thought he was divorced. Had she been screwing another woman’s man?

Nick stopped a couple steps ahead of her and turned back, his lips twisted. “Ex-wife.”

“Oh. Well, then…” Lacey’s pulse returned to normal and she caught up with Nick.

The man beside her chuckled. “I thought you didn’t have any boundaries.”

“I don’t. At least not many. I do have one though, and that is that I don’t poach on another woman’s man, unless they’re both willing. I’m not a home-wrecker.” She scuffed her boot on a pebble, sending it flying across the pavement.

“Me either.” Nick caught up with the rock she’d kicked and tapped it with the tip of his cowboy boot. “I get the feeling there’s a story to go with that anger.”

She snorted. “It would bore you.”

“Try me.”

“I have and there’s a lot to like.” Her gaze slid over him from head to foot. Even in the shadows, his silhouette inspired a flush of heat to wash over her.

“No, really, what happened?”

“I was young and naive. He was having an affair and I couldn’t see it until the ladies of the Temptation Garden Club pointed it out to me.” The remembered humiliation of that day chilled her desire. She wrapped her arms around herself, her shoulders stiffening, her fists clenching.

“Wow. And I thought it was bad enough finding out that my wife was fucking the gardener.” 

Lacey laid a hand on his arm. “Tell me the bitch wasn’t doing it in your bed.”

He nodded. “Call me a fool. I took the vows seriously.”

“And she didn’t.” Lacey squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? Our breakup was a good thing. We weren’t meant to be together. I was too infatuated to realize that.”

“How so?” She slipped her arm through his, hooking his elbow.

“She wanted the posh life surrounded by servants and people.” He sighed. “I wanted a simple life on a ranch with animals that I cared for, out away from everything. Maybe a kid or two.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“Which one?” Nick leaned away from her, staring down at her. “Her idea of how things should be or mine?”

“Yours.” Lacey stared out into the darkness, visualizing her own dreams of a house in the country with a wide front porch lined with rockers. And children playing in the yard. “Guess it takes a fool to know a fool.”

“Right.” Nick resumed walking.

Lacey’s steps matched his as they entered the area of town with the older, larger homes. “Now what?”

“What do you mean?”

“What are your plans? Are you giving up on your dreams of that ranch and the animals?”

“Not really. I had to sell the house and land I owned as part of the divorce settlement.”

“That bitch.”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t a big spread and I couldn’t go back in the house. Not after…”

“After your bed had been violated.” Lacey’s heart squeezed tight when his head nodded. “Man, that was low. At least my ex had the decency to do it in the office or a hotel. As far as I know, he never did it with her in my bed.”

“The man must have been an ass.”

“So we made mistakes.”

“I guess that’s why you’re adamant about not committing to anyone.”

“I, for one, don’t plan on making the same mistake twice.”

“Me either,” Nick said softly.

“Thanks for telling me. I know how hard it is.”

“Same.”

Lacey paused outside the front of a large Victorian home. “You know who lives here?”

Nick shook his head.

Lacey grabbed his hand. “Judge Stephens. Come on.” She dragged him toward the side of the house.

“Where are we going?”

“He’s got a pool in the backyard.” She shot a look up at him, her heartbeat skipping along. “I’m hot and you said you were too.”

“So?”

“We’re going swimming.” As soon as she pushed him through the hedges surrounding the backyard, she dropped his hand and grabbed for the hem of her shirt. “Last one in—”

Nick grabbed her hands, halting their upward progress. “What are you doing?”

“It’s okay, he’s out of town for the week.” She pushed his hands away and ripped her tank top over her head, tossing it onto one of the lounge chairs. “Are you coming in, or not?”

“Not.”

She shrugged, her breasts bobbing up and down. “Suit yourself.” Then she toed off her boots and shimmied out of her cut-offs. Once she was naked, she stood in front of him. “Don’t you wanna?” Lacey grabbed his hand and pressed it to one of her breasts. “See? I’m hot. You’re hot. This will cool us down.”

“It’s not our pool. It belongs to the judge.”

“He’ll never know.” She trailed his hand down her torso to the triangle of curls at the juncture of her thighs. “I promise not to scream.”

When he didn’t move, she dropped his hand and turned her back on him. “Skinny-dippin’ is more fun with two.”

Nick’s breath caught and held as Lacey entered the water, one step at a time. Moonlight glinted off the rippling water and her hair, casting a pale blue glow over her skin. When she was thighdeep, she turned and faced him.

Despite his best intentions to keep the walk platonic, Nick couldn’t stop himself from ripping his shirt over his head.

He could tell when she smiled. The moonlight lit up her white teeth.

“Damn it, Lacey, I wasn’t going to do anything with you tonight.”

“You don’t have to, just come for a swim.” She stepped out farther, the water coming up to that sexy dark triangle of curls.

Nick groaned. If he got naked and in the water with Lacey, there was only one way it would go.

The boots came off next and the jeans followed.

“Now you’re living.” Lacey pushed off from the bottom and swam to the end of the pool.

Nick stepped into the water, his dick as hard as concrete, his body on fire. The cool water did nothing to temper the molten blood flowing through his veins, but it felt good.

“Ever been skinny-dipping?” Lacey floated on her back, moonbeams kissing her face and breasts.

“When I was a kid.”

“Never as an adult?” She clucked her tongue. “Although I have to admit, it’s been a long time since I have.”

“Did you ever skinny-dip with your ex?”

She laughed. “Are you kidding? He would have been appalled at the thought, much less the act.” Lacey moved her arms, sending her body in a straight line toward him. “I like swimming naked. There’s something to be said for being naughty. It turns me on.”

Nick’s hands scooped beneath her bottom so that she stayed floating on top of the water. “
You
turn me on.”

Her brows rose. “Do I?” She reached below the surface, her hand coming in contact with his engorged member. “I do, don’t I?” A smile lit her face, her teeth shining in the night. “So what are you going to do about it?” Her fingers closed around him. “And don’t say nothing, because you know you want to.”

“Is everything about sex with you?”

“No, sometimes it’s about taking walks with handsome cowboy-mechanics.” She arched her back, her breasts rising up from the water, tempting him.

Past the ability to resist her, Nick bent to take one luscious, wet nipple between his lips. With one of his hands firmly attached to her bottom, keeping her afloat, Nick raised his other hand to skim across her flat belly.

“Hmm. I like this.” Lacey let her legs float apart, her free hand rising to guide his hand lower. 

Nick threaded his fingers through the tuft of curls, parting her folds. He tapped the little nubbin, flicking it softly.

“That’s it. There.” She let go of him and swept her hand to the side, positioning herself with her back to the side of the pool. She grasped the edge and held on.

Nick moved between her legs, ducking low in the water until he draped her thighs over his shoulders.

“Isn’t this much better than lying in a hot bed, sweltering in the heat?” she whispered.

“Much.” He tongued her pussy, swirling around the opening then moving up to her clit, flicking it again and again until she moaned softly.

“That feels soooo good.” She writhed in the water, her legs alternately clenching around his ears and falling open, her heels digging into his back.

Her body grew more tense, her muscles tightening and her movements coming in short jerks. “Oh sweet Jesus, you know what it takes.” Her words were strained. She let go of the edge of the pool with one hand and gripped a handful of his hair, holding him steady, urging him to take more, move faster.

He obliged.

When she stopped moving, her breath caught and held, her fingers pulling tight enough his scalp ached, he knew he had her where he wanted her.

“Now. I want you inside me now.”

“I don’t have protection.”

“I’m on the damned pill.” She slid her legs off his shoulders and touched bottom, then grabbed his hand and led him toward the steps. “I need that big dick. Now.”

He chuckled, the sound more like a cough in his tight chest. He wanted to fuck her hard and fast. Julia had never been into manic sex, the kind that left you breathing hard and sore from pounding. She’d been too worried about messing up the sheets. And she hadn’t liked how big his cock was, complaining that he’d hurt her if he went faster or harder.

When Lacey reached the steps, she bent over, raising her ass in the water to the level he could manage. She had no qualms about hot jackhammer sex.

Nick grabbed her hips and rammed his cock deep inside her.

“Yesss.” Lacey moaned and leaned into him, taking him deeper. “Fuck me, grease monkey. Ride me like a Harley. Give me some great monkey sex.”

Nick laughed out loud, then clamped a hand over his mouth, remembering too late that he was trespassing in the district court judge’s pool. “We’re going to jail.”

“Well then fuck me like it’s your last time before they mark you as a pretty boy and make you do it with all the hard-case criminals behind bars.”

He slapped her ass. “That’s not doing it for me. Come up with something sexier.”

Her back arched. “Your cock is so big, it fills me so tight, I could die like this.”

“Don’t. I’d have a tough time explaining why I’m doing a dead woman in the judge’s pool.” He grabbed her hair and tugged on it, pulling her back. “Do you like that?”

“Oh, yes. A little pain makes it all the more exciting.” She raised and lowered herself on him. “Pound me, grease monkey. Make me squeal.”

“Hey, you promised not to scream.”

“I lied.”

“Yup, I’m going to jail.” He pulled free and stood her on her feet in front of him. “If I’m going to jail, at least give me the satisfaction of seeing your face as you lose it.”

Lacey smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips, deepening it as she wrapped her legs around him.

Nick gripped her hips and slammed her down over him.

Lacey’s head dropped back and she let out a soft squeal. “Oh, dear God, yes!”

The way she scrunched her eyes closed and the caress of her hands sliding across his back as she rode him, added to the exquisite feeling of being inside her tight channel, his cock throbbing against the slick walls of her pussy.

Nick pitched over the edge, his body growing rigid, his seed shooting inside her.

For a long moment he held her, half in and half out of the water. He’d never made love to a woman quite like that and it felt so good, he wanted to shout.

When his muscles finally began to relax, he leaned away from her. “Are you all right?”