Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance (14 page)

Wielding the bat, he crept through the house
toward the noise. A floorboard creaked under his feet. He froze and
listened. Again, the snoring. From his den, the room Kelsie called
his man cave. He peeked around the corner of the doorway and
spotted a figure huddled under a blanket on his couch.

Damn.

He could almost understand an intruder
sleeping in his house back when the yard made the place look
abandoned. But now? As a matter of course, he sympathized with the
homeless. Heck, he’d been homeless himself a time or two in high
school. He’d dedicated every Tuesday night for the past twelve
years toward working with homeless kids, but he didn’t appreciate
one sleeping on his couch uninvited.

He paused. A heavenly fragrance floated
toward him and nudged his memory. At least this person didn’t
smell. In fact, he smelled damn good. Maybe some cross-dressing guy
or something.

A little black nose poked out of the edge of
the blanket. A pair of dark, beady eyes glared at him and a small
threatening growl sounded from the little rat. Only it wasn’t a
rat, it was Kelsie’s despicable little foo-foo dog, Scranton. Which
meant the body under the covers happened to be Kelsie’s.

What the hell was she doing sleeping on his
couch?

His dick immediately rose to the occasion,
always up for a pretty woman lying on his furniture. Damn, the
thing needed to learn some discretion. Kelsie was a man-eater, not
a woman to be toyed with if a man planned on keeping his balls
intact and his heart whole. Not that she hadn’t already bitten off
several pieces from both.

Crawling out from under the blanket,
Scranton stood on top of Kelsie’s chest. He growled again and
showed his tiny yellow teeth. The hair stuck straight up on his
back, which looked ludicrous and non-threatening on a scruffy
poodle.

Kelsie moaned and rolled over, knocking the
dog—if you could call it that—to the floor.

Picking himself up, the little shit launched
himself at Zach’s ankles, as if his ejection from bed was Zach’s
fault. His little teeth buried in Zach’s skin like a thousand
needles. He tried to shake off the vermin without really hurting
it.

“Dammit, let go, you little shit.”

Kelsie sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Call this damn thing off, would you?”

Instantly awake, Kelsie leapt up and pulled
Scranton into her arms. The little shit continued to growl and
snarl at him. “You scared him.”

“I scared
him
?”

“Yes, don’t sneak up on us like that.”

“Sneak up on you? You’re in my house.” Leave
it to a woman to twist this around into being his fault. “I heard
snoring.”

“Scranton snores like a big dog.” Confusion
replaced her usual cool demeanor. She stared up at him all rumpled
from sleep and sexy as hell. Her normally perfectly styled blond
hair stuck up in places and was plastered to her head in
others.

“No shit. He woke me up all the way
upstairs.” He found her messiness adorably appealing. Her
vulnerability called to every protective male instinct he
possessed.

“He has a bit of a respiratory problem.”

“A bit? He sounds like my Uncle Wes after
his billionth cigarette.”

She shrugged. Scranton lifted one side of
his lip, showing some teeth.

“What are you doing here? It’s five
a.m.”

“Oh, it is? Sorry. I was working so hard I
didn’t want to quit.”

“You weren’t working. You were wrapped in a
blanket sleeping on my couch.”

“I was just taking a nap before I went back
at it.”

He didn’t believe her, not one bit. Whatever
her reason for staying here couldn’t happen again. Not if he
intended to keep her out of his bed and his heart. After that kiss
a week ago, he’d be hard pressed to do so if she crashed on his
couch again. Funny how life changed. He didn’t have a clue what her
deal was, but she’d definitely come down in the world. Perhaps
she’d sniffed out a temporary sugar daddy and figured she’d move in
and make herself comfortable.

Not going to happen.

This Zach didn’t fall prey to conniving
women. This Zach had been down that road a time or two too many.
Especially with this woman.

If Zach didn’t have money, she’d never give
him a second look. That’s how women like her operated.

Why she’d left her big-shot lawyer husband
with his political aspirations, Zach didn’t understand. Those two
shallow people made a perfect pair. There was a story here, but he
didn’t give a damn what it was. Lord, just get him through the next
several weeks with his heart intact and his dick zipped inside his
jeans.

Kelsie sat on the edge of couch. Even with
the weary lines around her eyes and her defeated gaze she still
radiated a natural beauty which put other women to shame. She
looked so lost and discouraged. He grabbed the back of a chair to
stop his feet from carrying him across the room to her. His ankle
stung like hell where the rat’s teeth had left holes in his
skin.

Squaring her shoulders, Kelsie gazed up at
him, a new resolve in her sky-blue eyes. “Well, time to get back to
work.” She looked him up and down. Her gaze stalled out in the
vicinity of his bare chest.

Zach’s balls tightened and his cock ached to
have her. “Hey, I’m going back to bed. Don’t make noise.”

“Yes, sir.” She shot to her feet, stood at
attention, and sketched a salute.

A chuckle caught in Zach’s throat when he
caught sight of her nipples through the thin material of her
t-shirt. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he wished she wasn’t wearing
anything. Their gazes met. Her eyes turned a dark, smoky blue,
looking a lot like desire. At least he wanted to believe it was
desire.

Zach’s feet carried him across the room in a
few long strides before he could jumpstart his common sense with a
kick to the ass. So much for all his bullshit declarations
regarding staying away from women like her.

He reached out, drew her in and crushed her
tall, slender body to his big burly one.

She stared up at him, as her hands dangled
limply at her sides. Her eyes fluttered shut as his mouth descended
on hers. He couldn’t stop himself, and she made no move to stop
him. He tasted her lips, sweet as his grandma’s homemade vanilla
caramels. He’d loved those caramels, but not as much as he loved
Kelsie’s lips.

She hesitated for a moment, then wrapped her
arms around his neck. Her soft lips moved against his, promising to
make all his fantasies come true. His head denied it all. But his
head wasn’t in charge right now. He angled his mouth, deepened the
kiss. His tongue engaged in a sensual dance with her tongue and the
rest of his body wanted some of that action.

Kelsie let his lips have their way. In fact,
she encouraged him. Her body relaxed against his. Her hips leaned
into his hips. Filling his big palms with her fine butt, he pulled
her midsection against his dick, rubbing her up and down against
him. She hooked one of her legs around his waist, angled her hips
to grind her crotch against his.

Sweet and wild, prim and proper Kelsie had
hidden an erotic streak that would challenge even a jaded man like
him. He nibbled on her lower lip before plunging his tongue back
into her mouth.

“Zach. Oh, Zach.” Her throaty whimper almost
brought him to his knees, while her tongue tangled with his.

Something in her voice struck him as odd and
penetrated into his fuzzy brain. She was using him for his money,
for what he could do for her business. She didn’t care about him.
Sex was just another way to control a man. She knew all the tricks
and most likely had learned quite a few more since she’d been in
high school.

Don’t trust her.

Once he slept with her, it’d be all over.
He’d be her slave, do anything she wanted. Then she’d dump his ass
for the next pretty boy who came along and offered more than Zach.
She was the beauty to his beast. It’d never work. She never meant
for it to. The sooner he got that in his thick skull, the better.
He was a means to an end, not the final goal.

Calling on every ounce of willpower he
possessed, Zach let go and jerked away from her. Rapidly backing
up, he put several feet between them and extended his arms, palms
out, to keep her away.

Kelsie looked up at him through heavy-lidded
eyes and confusion flitted across her features. Worrying on her
lower lip with her teeth, she smoothed her hair back from her face.
Her breasts rose and fell, and her nipples poked against the cotton
fabric. He couldn’t drag his gaze away from her chest until Kelsie
wrapped her arms around herself as if protecting her body from his
ogling. He really was an uncouth beast and an idiot to boot.

Unable to face her or himself, Zach fled the
room like a cowardly kicker as the opposing team bore down on
him.

* * * * *

Shivering in the cold room, Kelsie waited
until minutes later when she heard Zach’s old truck rumble out of
the driveway and down the street. She ran to her car and stuffed a
bag with clean clothes, makeup, and shampoo.

Entering his bathroom, she touched a finger
to her lips where Zach’s rough mouth teased hers only moments
earlier. Dazed, she shook off the aftereffects of an erotic journey
with an untamed man. If Zach hadn’t ended it, she’d be vertical on
the couch right now with his big body on top of hers, moving over
her, inside her.

Such thoughts should’ve horrified her.
Instead, the wetness between her legs increased, and the rest of
her body echoed a resounding “yes.”

The man exuded sex appeal albeit in a
primitive way. Perhaps primitive appealed to her. Perhaps she’d had
her fill of deceptively cultured men, men who knew how to dress and
act while they lied and led double lives. Maybe she’d traded in
that false dream for one of a man who said what he thought and
didn’t fret the consequences. An honest man. A rare breed in her
world. Or at least her former world.

Turning on the water for the jetted tub,
Kelsie stripped off her clothes. Glancing around and not finding
any bubble bath, she poured a generous amount of Zach’s cheap
shampoo into the water and climbed into a warm, soapy heaven. She
pressed the button for the jets, and sank down into the water. The
pulsing jets didn’t cure what ailed her. She needed a man’s hands
on her body, a man’s penis inside her, and a man’s lips on her
breasts. But the man she wanted had just rejected her.

But she had the jets and her
imagination.

As if she’d done this before—which she
hadn’t—she spread her legs wide, bracing her feet against the side
of the tub and positioned herself so one of the jets hit just the
right spot. She pulled her nether lips apart and adjusted her hips
until the needle-tight, pulsing spray of warm water caressed the
folds of her sex. She turned up the jets and slipped a finger deep
inside her. Letting the water stroke her aroused clit, she thrust
her finger in and out. Her orgasm built inside her, compounded by
the water assaulting her clit and her finger creating its own brand
of sexual pleasure. She imagined Zach’s big hands on her body,
running up her sides, cupping her breasts, tweaking the nipples,
finally sliding between her legs. He’d part her thighs and plunge
two fingers to the knuckles inside her, moving them in and out in a
rhythm. Then he’d replace those fingers with his large body. His
penis would slide inside her, filling her, his sweaty, hot body
rubbing against hers.

Oh, mercy. Saints in heaven, save her
from this man
.

Kelsie pumped her fingers harder. Harder.
Harder. She came in a rush, crying out into the large, empty
bathroom. “Zach. Oh, Zach. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

She closed her eyes and let her orgasm carry
her away until her slamming heart slowed in her chest and the blood
stopped pounding in her ears. Far off in the distance, she heard a
noise, like heavy footsteps. She blinked several times, trying to
process her thoughts. A sound much like a man’s gasp penetrated the
haze. She craned her neck toward the door.

“I forgot my wallet.” Zach stood a few feet
away, staring down at her. His brown eyes dilated and his nostrils
flared, he looked every bit the wild, untamed male ready to claim
his mate.

And she felt every bit like the female
wanting to be claimed.

* * * * *

Zach couldn’t move, not even to blink.

Kelsie started to scramble out of the tub,
must have realized he’d see her in all her naked glory, then sank
back into the water. Oh, God, he should’ve kept walking when he’d
peeked in the bathroom to see what all the groaning and splashing
was about.

He’d almost expected to see her getting it
on with one of his teammates, maybe a rookie with a big contract.
Instead, he’d caught her getting it on with his jetted tub.

He couldn’t leave. Not now. He’d die first,
and his randy body would never forgive him. Despite every warning
bell jangling in his head, his body ruled this moment. She looked
so hot and sexy in his tub, her eyes half-lidded from coming. Soap
subs concealed part of her body but not those perfect nipples he’d
dreamed about from adolescence to adulthood. He had to sample her.
Just this once. He had to know if the fantasy came anywhere close
to the reality, had to touch the creamy skin, had to sink his hands
under the water and find her sweet spots.

She started to lift her body out of the tub.
He put a restraining hand on her shoulder. The hot, wet contact
traveled through his fingers, up his arm, and straight into his
bloodstream, immediately disengaging his brain and engaging other
parts. “Don’t move. You look like a woman who could use a man’s
touch instead of her own.” His voice sounded foreign to his own
ears, deep and gravelly and barely in control.

Zach hesitated briefly, giving her a moment
to protest. She didn’t. He shucked out of his jeans, briefs, and
T-shirt in record time. Kelsie swallowed and licked her lips, her
eyes on his erection.