Crazy for You (21 page)

“You got any better ideas? I don’t relish the
idea of staying out here all night, particularly if those kids come
back. I’m walking. You do what you want.”

She gathered the blanket around her and
headed for the dirt road leading away from the lake. She didn’t
dare look behind her.

****

Tasha stopped when she realized that they
were about to come upon a clearing. After taking the dirt road away
from the lake, they’d turned left on something that looked no more
than a cow-path and had ended up in a large overgrown area. Now,
there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel--or at least
at the edge of the woods.

Dusk fell slowly around them; the forest took
on an eerie quality. Drew shivered under his side of the blanket.
Tasha glanced sideways at him.

“Sunburn giving you chills?”

“A little,” he grumbled.

“Hand hurt?”

He thrust it between the blanket opening.
“It’s swollen,” he grumbled again, then swiftly pulled it back
under the blanket. Tasha watched as his side of the blanket started
jerking around his abdomen.

“Bug bites?” she asked calmly.

Andrew stopped and turned a pained expression
toward her. Slowly, his eyes closed, he took a deep breath, and
opened them again. “Yes, dammit! I’ve got chiggers, or some kind of
insect bites, okay? What the hell do you care?” Then he started
scratching again.

Taken aback, Tasha simply looked at him.
“Well, you don’t have to be so grouchy. I was only inquiring.”

He jerked the blanket and started walking
again. Tasha had no choice but to follow. “Well, you can stop
inquiring.”

After a moment of studying him out of the
corner of her eye, Tasha decided to risk it again. “I wasn’t going
to say ‘I told you so,’ you know. I was just going to say that when
we get back to the room, I’ve got some stuff that will fix all of
that.”

Stumbling ahead, Andrew kept his gaze in
front of him. “Yeah, and you’re the Little Miss Fix-it aren’t
you?”

Again, rather stunned at his brashness, Tasha
studied him with a questioning stare. Then she stopped dead in her
tracks. Andrew tried to continue on, but she jerked hard on the
blanket, forcing him to stop and look at her.

“What’s the matter with you, Andrew?” she
asked, puzzled as to his reaction to all her questions.

Facing her, she could see all the worried
lines in his face, the tautness of his features, and then heard the
impatience in his voice.

“You’ve got us lost, that’s what. I’m damned
tired of this, you know? This whole entire hellish week has been
nothing but something out of some insane Mel Brooks’ movie. I can’t
believe that I’m stuck out here in the middle of no-man’s land with
you, naked, no clothes, no glasses, lost...with an itching, red
body and a swollen—” Andrew cast his eyes about impatiently,
“hand.”

Tasha huffed out a quick breath and shook her
head. “We’re not lost. I had a map, remember?”

“But this isn’t the way we came.”

“No, I thought we’d try a short cut to keep
us away from civilization. I really think we’re right on target.
There might be a short distance we’ll need to travel closer to the
road, but we’ll get there, Andrew, and all in one piece.”

His head bobbed up and down in agitation as
he looked anywhere but her face. “You don’t understand do you?” he
shouted at her.

“Understand what?”

“You don’t understand what kind of a
predicament I’m in here, do you?”

Confused and exasperated, Tasha dropped her
shoulders in defeat, the corner of the blanket dipping down around
her right breast, exposing the top of it. She watched Andrew’s gaze
fall to her chest, then heard his lips draw in a ragged breath.

“Andrew, yes, I understand. We’re in this
together. We’ll get back to the resort and we’ll buy you some new
clothes. Now, stop worrying. Everything will turn out just
fine.”

Andrew’s eyes clenched tight and then snapped
open. Wild fury bolted out at her. “No! No. No. No! You don’t
understand. You don’t understand! It’s not we, it’s me. I’ve got
the predicament here. Me, dammit!”

More puzzled than ever, Tasha sighed. “We’re
in this together.”

“Together?” He laughed out loud. “I only
wish.”

Tasha dropped her arms further in
exasperation, her eyes searching the trees above them; the blanket
half exposing both her breasts.

“Damn!” Andrew jerked the blanket back up to
her neck.

Tasha’s mouth dropped open in question.
“Andrew. I’m totally confused. I have no idea what’s going on
here.”

“Okay. Then I’ll tell you,” he spouted back.
“Or perhaps...show you.”

Jerking the blanket away from the both of
them, Andrew let it billow to the green, mossy earth. Silence
prevailed around them for a moment and Tasha let her gaze fall to
his hips. She gasped. His hand wasn’t the only thing that was
swollen.

“I’m horny as hell. And embarrassed to death
that someone other than you, is going to
witness...my...predicament. I can’t walk in there like...this!” He
pointed to his groin with the index fingers of both hands.

Ah.

It was true and Tasha could see that. He was
definitely primed and ready. She bit her lip. Flashes of their
earlier encounter on the dock spun through her mind. She should
have realized that their interruption wouldn’t have stifled his
desire for long. Obviously, not even the short time they spent in
the lake did. “Well,” she said quietly, dragging her gaze from his
engorgement to his pained face. “I think I can fix that, too.”

Within milli-seconds they were together.
Andrew’s lips crushed into hers as his palms framed her face. He
threaded his fingers into the long tresses of her hair and pulled
and tugged until their lips melded together as one.

Hot, labored breaths exited their mouths in
short spurts as their lips and tongues frantically traveled from
each other to devour chins and cheeks, ears and throats. Andrew
dropped his hands from her face to her shoulders, then her breasts.
His lips followed, and Tasha felt their warmth, their power over
her as every muscle in her body grew moist and languid.

She trembled, weak with the skill of his
kisses and caressing hands. Her legs were going to collapse. She
didn’t think she could stand any longer. “Andrew...” she
breathed.

Then they tumbled to the blanket, partially
covering the green mossy earth. Tumbling emotion rained over her,
catapulting her into another plane as Andrew’s body slammed onto
hers. His mouth slid down her chin; his hands cupped and kneaded
the sides of her breasts. Urgently, he lowered his mouth to one
nipple, then the other, suckling hungrily of her.

“Tasha...Tasha...” He breathed her name in
coarse and ragged breaths against her heated skin. “I can’t...I
can’t stand this much more.”

Tasha could feel the hard pulse of him
against her thigh as his lips devoured her nipples and as his
throbbing masculinity ground into her near the juncture of her
thighs.

“Let me fix it for you,” she panted, reaching
around him to grasp and pull low on his back, reaching down further
to squeeze and pull at his buttocks. “Let me...”

Andrew raised his face to look at her,
sliding forward to ensure a more perfect fitting of their bodies.
His eyes never left hers as he lowered his mouth to hers, savagely
taking her lips to his. With the tip of his tongue, he urgently
traced the outline of her mouth, then raked it across her teeth,
finally hurriedly parried with her tongue, plundering her mouth as
she knew he would soon do to her body.

As Tasha felt her passion frantically swell
within her, she arched upward, pulling his head closer to her,
delving her tongue deep into his mouth. And he reciprocated.

Then he broke the kiss and pulled away.
Positioning his knees between her thighs, he kissed once more each
of her breasts, then lower, just above her navel. Tasha felt the
wild swirl of passion lick up inside her like flames. She wanted
him...now.

Grasping his shoulders, she pulled at him.
“Andrew...now,” she whispered. “Now.” She couldn’t stand it one
more second. “I want you inside of me. Now.”

With a groan, Andrew dropped to her,
supporting his weight on his elbows, and plunged deep inside her,
satisfying the first of her primal needs—to be filled by him. And
she waited for the second—to be spun into oblivion as he rode her
body there.

Fast and furious, they clung to each other,
lips crashing into lips, hips into hips. Tasha could feel the heat
of him building deep inside her and she arched her body into his,
meeting him thrust for thrust with wild abandon. He pushed and
gave—she wanted and took. Yes! she screamed inside her mind. She
wanted this. And more. She wanted...him. She wanted....

With Andrew’s final shivering, tremoring
thrust, he slumped against her, cradling her to him; the dam burst
inside her as well, fighting to put out the scorching flame inside.
Slowly, slowly, the flame died, leaving her a mass of tingling,
sensitive, fulfilled flesh.

Her eyes opened as Andrew lifted his face to
look at her. With one hand raised to her cheek, he swept a stray
hair out of her eyes and grinned at her. Tasha let her gaze play
over his face for a moment, wondering what he was thinking.

“You okay?” he finally whispered to her.
“That was kind of fast and hard.”

She nodded. “I’m okay. You?”

He shifted off her to ease her of his weight.
Gathering her close into him, he gently ran his fingers along her
spine. “When we get out of this,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m
going to show you the other side of fast and hard.”

“Oh, really?” Tasha cocked her head back to
look at his face.

He dipped his head then to kiss her. “Yeah,”
he growled against her lips. “The next time I’m going to be the one
to do the fixing. And I’m an extremely slow, but methodical, and
exact worker. Sometimes I work late into the night.”

Tasha grinned. “I would expect nothing less
from you.”

Twenty-eight

Room 214, Oceanview

It was dark when they made it back to their
room. Through the forest and under the veil of falling night, they
stole along the paths that wound throughout the resort and entered
the hotel.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Andrew
dropped the blanket to the floor and plopped across the bed, taking
Tasha with him. As they lay on their sides, looking at each other,
Andrew threaded his fingers through Tasha’s long tresses, their
bodies heart to heart, their legs intertwined.

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” Tasha
quietly suggested. “I’ll gather a couple of things together to take
care of your injuries.” She started to rise.

Andrew grasped her wrists and pulled her down
to him. “Oh, no you don’t. I don’t want you two inches away from
me.”

Tasha grinned. “Don’t be silly. I’m just
going to the dresser. Go take your shower!” Tasha broke away and
playfully pushed him toward the edge of your bed.

“You come with me.”

When the skin of their bodies touched, Tasha
was sure electricity had passed through him and into her. She’d
heard, that when a person is electrocuted that the electricity had
to exit somewhere out of the body. She knew exactly where this bolt
was going to end up—sooner or later.

Her lips seared as his gently grazed hers.
Her nipples tingled at their subtle raking over his chest. Her
abdomen tightened when he pressed closer. Her knees trembled. And
her toes curled.

With her fingertips, she explored his neck
and shoulder; the kiss deepened. Andrew wrapped his arms around her
waist, groaned deep in his throat, and pulled her closer. Dragging
his lips down her chin to her neck, he found the tiny pulse-point.
She tossed back her head. He licked. Tasha felt her blood surge
through the artery at the touch of his tongue there.

Breathing in a ragged breath, she cradled his
face in her hands and lifted her head up to look at him.
“Andrew...” she dragged his name out on a wispy breath.

His eyes told her he understood. Breaking
away, Andrew stood, still holding one of her hands and pulled her
off the bed toward the bathroom.

Andrew efficiently adjusted the water
temperature and started the spray. Watching him, Tasha took in the
firm muscles rippling across his back tapering down to narrow hips.
She noticed a mole on his right shoulder and a small scar under one
rib as he turned back.

But when he looked at her, she saw something
else entirely. His eyes were full of desire for her. They were full
of caring and emotion. When he reached out and touched her,
grasping her arm and pulling her into him, she felt it. She felt
everything he was feeling pour out of him and into her. She knew
that Andrew was different. She knew how he made her feel was
different than anything she’d ever experienced in her life.

And even though it was emotion, more than
physical desire or lust that coursed through his body for her, she
didn’t care. She wanted it. It was the same stuff coursing through
her body. More than anything she needed to feel lost in the one
thing she’d tried to avoid for years now—caring so deeply about
someone that everything else didn’t matter.

And for the moment, or for the next few hours
or days, that’s how it would be. She would lose herself in this—in
Andrew. She wouldn’t think about how he made her feel, she would
just feel. She wouldn’t care about how he made her feel, she would
just feel.

But most important, she would not allow
herself to love him. She couldn’t. And she couldn’t let him fall in
love with her, either. They were two peas, different pods. Their
worlds could never collide for long. And they were only setting
themselves up for major heartache if they let their feelings get
too much in the way.