Exclusively Yours (16 page)

“He hasn’t moved any,” Lisa teased after the umpteenth time Keri’s head swiveled on her neck.

He certainly hadn’t. In the glow of Evan’s very enthusiastic campfire, she could see his long, denim-clad legs stretched out in front of him. His head was leaned back against the chair and he dangled a can of Coke idly over the arm.

“Ha!” Terry exclaimed, putting all of her tiles on the board. “And since I
know
neither of you will say that out loud, that’s a triple word score for me.”

Keri dragged her attention back to the outrageous game of Scrabble she’d gotten sucked into after the kids and grandparents had gone inside. “Umm…yeah, I’m not saying that out loud.”

“Is that even a real thing?” Lisa asked.

Terry looked smug, until Keri said, “Yeah, I’ve done that.”

Both women stared at her. “You didn’t! But you can’t say it?”

They spoke in stereo and when Keri shrugged, they both dissolved into laughter again. It lasted long enough for her to sneak another peek at Joe.

He was on his feet—they all were—and he was headed her way. “Uh-oh, looks like the party’s over.”

In the blink of an eye, Lisa had the board tilted, sliding the tiles into the bottom of the box. “If Mike thinks I know some of these words, he might want me to actually
do
some of these words.”

Keri laughed, but she noticed Terry didn’t. She was too busy watching her husband, who
wasn’t
crossing the playground toward them. Evan was heading toward the bathhouse and he didn’t even look their way.

Terry probably didn’t realize it, but everything she felt was playing out across her face and it all added up to heartbroken longing.

“Later, when it’s quiet, you should go talk to him,” she said quickly, while the guys were still far enough away not to hear.

“Or maybe he should come talk to me.”

Keri wanted to say more, but she didn’t have time. Joe was there, sliding his arm around her waist as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do.

“Ready for bed, babe?”

When he said it like that, all husky and hot, she was
definitely
ready for bed. And maybe for a little of that seven letter, double word score verb Terry had laid down across the U in Lisa’s
pubic
.

“I’d like to take a shower first,” she said, but not because she was planning to get naked with him or anything. “Because…umm, bug spray, you know? The DEET’s gotta be a half-inch thick by now.”

“Sure. We’ll grab our stuff and I’ll join you.”

Wet. Naked. Soapy. Slick.
Yes, please.

“Good plan,” Terry said. “She won’t have to worry about the DEET tomorrow since she won’t have any bug spray.”

Lisa snickered, but Joe shook his head. “Relax, sis. I meant to join her at the bathhouse. In my
own
shower.”

Well, damn.

No, that was a good thing. There was a reason she wasn’t sleeping with Joe. What was it? Oh yeah. Only everything she’d spent the last almost-twenty years working for. “Okay.”

Goodnights all around and then she was alone with Joe. Again. He smelled like campfire smoke and bug spray but, then again, so did she.

“Who was winning before Lisa dumped the board so we wouldn’t see?” he asked as they turned the corner toward the cabin.

“I was.”

He leaned close and bumped her with his shoulder as they walked. “You must know some really good dirty words.”

“Oh, I do,” she said in a low voice. “Some were so naughty Lisa hadn’t even heard of them.”

He stumbled, just a little, but enough to merit holding her arm to steady himself. His hand lingered and it seemed like every nerve ending in her body focused on that spot. She was in so much trouble.

“Really? And you know of these things how?”

She smiled at him. “I read a lot.”

“Huh. I’d really like to rummage through your library sometime.”

They grabbed their bags and made the walk back to the bathhouse, where he naturally chose the bathroom right next to hers so she could hear him moving around. The tap-tap of his razor against the sink between each swipe over his jaw. The clink of the quarters in the metal coin box. The shower running. The shower door closing.

Oh God, he was naked.

Shaving one’s legs in a tiny shower unit was hard enough without the distraction of a naked, sudsy Joe on the other side of the partition, so Keri tried to block out the sounds from next door and focus on what she was doing.

And to focus on the inevitable. She wasn’t going to be able to hold out for another week. She’d be lucky if she held out long enough to get back to the cabin at this rate. If she wasn’t in the process of showering off the bug spray, she’d drag Joe behind the nearest tree.

The important thing was making it very clear to him—and to herself, of course—that any little trips down Nostalgia Lane were merely detours. The primary route was still the superhighway to the top of
Spotlight Magazine
’s food chain and she’d hit the on-ramp the second this exercise in blackmail Kowalski-style was over.

She could put her professionalism on hold for an hour…or three. Maybe several times over the course of the night if she was lucky and Joe was aging well, so to speak.

If she was
really
lucky, they’d find out it wasn’t that easy to recapture that Boone’s Farm-fueled, first-love magic, the sex would suck, and she could get back to focusing on what was really important.

Either she’d brought an entire pocketful of quarters or she was taking as cold a shower as he had. Not that it had helped. He was pretty sure the water had vaporized the instant it made contact with his skin.

He’d be lucky if he made it through the night, never mind another week.

When Keri finally opened the door and stepped out into the night, the hot steamy scent of mandarin oranges and something spicy wafted out with her, like she was a warm dessert waiting to be devoured.

“Feel better?” he managed to ask after clearing his throat a couple of times.

“Much, but I’m a little fruit-scented so let’s walk fast before the bugs find me.”

She seemed nervous about something, which he found interesting.
Very
interesting. How many reasons were there for a woman who was freshly showered and scented and shaven—the top of her shaving gel can peeked out of her bag—and on her way to being alone in a cabin with a man to be nervous?

Only one he could think of, but it was a good one. Maybe, while she was mere feet away from him, naked and soapy and slippery, she’d been thinking about the same thing he was.

And, oh there was a Santa Claus and he must have thought Joe Kowalski was good enough to get his Christmas present early, because as soon as the cabin door was closed behind them, Keri dropped her bags and said, “I’m going back to Los Angeles next week.”

“Okay.”

“And I can’t take it anymore. The touches. The looks. Let’s just do it and get it over with.”

She looked so frazzled he almost laughed at her. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“Unless you don’t want to,” she snapped.

“Oh, I want to, babe.” To prove it, he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her close enough so she could feel just how much he wanted to. “There’s really no way you could have phrased that invitation that would make me turn it down.”

A blush spread over her cheeks. “Do you have protection?”

“
Shit.
”

“Please tell me that doesn’t mean no.”

“I left the box in my truck. In the glove box.” And he wished like hell he’d remembered that before he got his hands on her.

“You carry a whole box of condoms in your glove box?”

“I stopped at the drug store and bought them on the way up, so I shoved them in there.” He wasn’t ready when she gave him a little shove, and only grabbing the bunk bed post kept him from going ass over teakettle.

“You bought them because I was coming? What, you just assumed I’d sleep with you?”

Mentally flailing for what he’d done wrong, he gave her a smile. “Babe, it wasn’t like that. Not really.”

She gave him a stern look but, thankfully, amusement was playing across her face. “What was it like, then?”

“Okay, it’s like this…”

“Ha! It may have been a long time, but I’ve heard that before. Fairy tales start with
once upon a time
and Kowalski tales start with
okay, it’s like this
.”

“I wasn’t going to do the interview, but I wanted to see you.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me no over dinner?”

Good question. “It was kind of a joke, and I honestly thought you wouldn’t go for it at first. But then, once we were talking and stuff, I thought the chemistry was still there and that you felt it to. So when you agreed…”

“You thought I agreed to come up here because I wanted to sleep with you?”

It didn’t make any more sense when said out loud than it had in his mind at the time. “No, I thought you agreed to come up here because you wanted an interview, but that you might not be averse to sleeping with me while you were here.”

He watched her, dying inside while he waited for her reaction. He’d been so close to the promised land and if she shut him down now, his balls would explode.

She laughed, then gave him another little shove. “Go get ’em.”

He’d gotten to the truck and had his hand on the glove box when he heard footsteps behind him. No.
No no no
. For the love of his genital well-being, not right now.

“Hey, Joe.” It was Kevin. Not so bad, then. He wouldn’t stay long. “The satellite’s not working on Pop’s camper and Ma’s gonna miss her show, so we’re supposed to go play cable guy.”

Shit
was the cleanest of the many words Joe managed not to say out loud. “Right now? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Dude, it’s not
that
late.”

Keeping his back to his brother, Joe fished out a couple of condoms, which he stuck in his front pocket. Then he grabbed a couple more. Just in case. “It’s late enough so people that old should be in bed.”

“Yeah, you go tell Ma that. I’ll take a picture.”

“Fine, goddammit. Just gimme a sec.” He slammed the SUV door closed and started for the cabin.

“What the hell’s up
your
ass?”

He spun around to glare at his brother. Then he plucked the condoms from his pocket and fanned them out.

Kevin laughed at him. “Cock blocked by Ma’s television. Sweet.”

“Go away, dickhead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Kevin was still chuckling as he walked away, and Joe threw a few more choice curse words into the atmosphere before stepping back into the cabin.

Keri was waiting for him, arms folded across her chest and one eyebrow raised in what didn’t look like a
come and get me, big boy
kinda way. “Proud of yourself?”

“What?”

“Did you have to wave the condoms around, for chrissake?”

Oh, that’s right. The cabin had windows. “Sorry. I was trying to make a point.”

“What point could you possibly be making?”

“That…I’m busy and really don’t care if Ma can’t watch her show because her satellite’s not working?”

The way her shoulders slumped gave him heart. If she was disappointed he had to help his parents instead of bending her over the end of the bed, that meant she still intended to get bent over the end of the bed.

“Right now?” she asked, her mouth a little pouty and begging to be kissed again.

He glanced at the clock. “Her show starts in twenty minutes so I shouldn’t be long. Do
not
fall asleep before I get back.”

“Please don’t be asleep,” she heard him mutter under his breath as one shoe and then the other hit the floor with a thump.

She tried not to laugh at him—she wanted to prolong the torture—but she couldn’t help it.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.”

“You made sure of that, didn’t you?”

“I hope you’re naked under that blanket.”

She shook her head, folding back the covers to reveal her pajamas, buttoned up to her chin.

“Oh. Okay.” He peeled his T-shirt off and tossed it on the floor. “I can work with that.”

“I was cold.” That had stopped being a problem, though, about the time he’d taken the shirt off. Now, with the jeans and socks gone, too, it was time to rethink her current state of dress.

But when she reached up to undo at least the top few buttons, Joe shook his head. “I’ll do that.”

The way he said it make her feel all shivery with anticipation. Not just the normal anticipation that accompanied the knowledge an orgasm was pending, but the thrilling, heart-pounding kind. Eighteen years may have passed, but Joe Kowalski used to rock her world and she was more than ready for him to do it again.

When he slid the dimmer down to low instead of shutting the light off, she felt a little spurt of panic, though. She was almost forty, for heaven’s sake. Darkness was her friend.

But then she remembered the hunger in his eyes when she’d stripped down to her underwear in front of him. If there was one thing she could be sure of, it was that Joe didn’t have the slightest problem with how she looked mostly naked.

“You nervous?” he asked as he rested a knee on the bed and tossed a few condoms on the bedside table, his dimples visible even in the dim light.

“Of course not. As far as this goes, we’ve been there, done that.”

“Yeah, well…my dick’s two decades older than it was the last time we been there, done that.”

“So are my breasts.”

He grinned as he sank onto the bed next to her. “Good. We can be old and decrepit together.”

“Hey! I didn’t say anything about decrepit.” And judging by the strain on his boxer briefs, no decrepitude lurked there, either.

He slid his arm under her neck and scooped her up, leaving her half-sprawled across his chest, looking down at him. Her hair fell forward, making a curtain around her face, but stopping just short of tickling his nose.

Playful though he seemed, his eyes were serious. “Before we get too far into this, what were you drinking tonight?”

So not the time for a QA. “Cranberry-lime seltzer.”

“Accept any funny-tasting brownies from strangers?”

“What? Of course not.”

“Head injury?”

“No.” She scowled down at him, utterly confused. “What are you talking about? Why are you even talking at all?”

He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Just making sure you’re of sound mind, babe. Don’t want you to hate me in the morning. Or yourself.”

“I’m sober and concussion-free,” she promised. “But you totally get brownie points for caring.”

“How many points do I have to save up before I can redeem them for a blowjob?”

“Oh, I don’t even think so, Kowalski.”

“At all?”

“How ’bout not right now?”

His smile was slow and sizzling. “I didn’t mean right now. I have other plans for tonight.”

She trailed her fingertips over his back, loving the feel of his muscles twitching beneath her touch. “Did you lock the door and turn off the porch light?”

“And closed the curtain. Hopefully my family will think we’ve been sucked into a black hole somewhere.”

“Speaking of them…”

“I don’t want to speak of them. I want to see what’s under these pajamas.”

She slapped his hand away from the top button. “Your mother already has ideas where you and I are concerned. This stays just between us.”

“Of course,” he said, but all his attention was still on the button.

She slapped his hand again. “I’m serious.”

With a growl of frustration, Joe rolled until she was pinned under him. Straddling her, he sat up straight and smiled down at her. “I promise I won’t announce over breakfast that I spent the night getting my hand slapped for trying to unbutton your damn pajama shirt.”

A smart-ass reply would have been nice, but Keri was too aware of how close certain parts of him were to the parts of her most looking forward to getting reacquainted. When he reached down for the top button again, causing the inside of his thighs to squeeze her hips a little, she didn’t slap his hand.

“Damn, these are some tiny buttons. Did you bring any other pajamas?”

“Don’t you dare rip the buttons off.”

“It looks sexy on TV.”

“They’re not wearing pajamas like these on the television,” she said but, judging by the steamy but speculative look on his face, her high-end PJs weren’t long for the world.

“They feel nice. How much did you pay for them?”

“Two hundred and eighteen dollars.”

“For something you wear to bed?” The lust became incredulity. “Really?”

“One of my few indulgences.”

When he ran a finger down the row of buttons, she shivered. “Did I happen to mention during any of the times you’ve interrogated me that I’m a very rich man. I can buy you more of these.”

“Throwing your money around?” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down until he was stretched out on top of her. “That’s kinda hot.”

A little of the heat dimmed in his eyes. “You’re not the first woman to think so.”

She wasn’t sure exactly what changed his mood, but she didn’t like it. “These are high quality pajamas, you know. I’m not sure you
could
rip the buttons off.”

That did the trick—the gleam was back. “I work out almost every day. I think I can handle some girly fabric.”

“Prove it.”

It took three tries, complete with laughter on her part and some masculine grunting on his, but he finally managed to send a few of her buttons flying and she heard them skitter across the hardwood floor.

“Oh, I was hoping it was black,” he said as her pajama top parted to reveal another black lace bra.

“You never seemed to mind the white cotton,” she reminded him, shivering as Joe’s hot gaze and the cool air mingled on her skin.

“Babe, you could be wearing saggy old granny panties and I’d still want in them.”

“I might like that flannel shirt a little too much, but I’m not
that
far gone.” She was trying to think of a less clichéd way to say
shut up and kiss me
when he lowered his mouth—and the rest of his body—to hers.

He wasn’t the first boy she’d ever kissed, but he’d been one of the best at it and he certainly hadn’t forgotten how it was done.

His kisses weren’t tentative, but neither did she feel like he was trying to suck her soul out through her mouth. Perfect pressure. Perfect technique. Just…perfect. She sighed and buried her fingers in his hair as his tongue danced over hers, and when he paused to nip playfully at her bottom lip, she smiled against his mouth.

“I can still remember the taste of Boone’s Farm on your lips,” she told him, and he lifted his head.

“I remember everything about you,” he said.

“Not everything.”

“Everything that matters.” He reached one hand to her hip and ran it down the back of her thigh until he got to the hollow behind her knee. “I remember where you’re ticklish.”

“Don’t you dare.” She tried to jerk her leg away, but she was pinned under his body and couldn’t go anywhere.

“And where you’re not.” His hand left her knee to sneak in between their bodies, and then in between her legs.

She closed her eyes and arched her hips, craving the pressure of his hand through the layers of her panties and pajama bottoms. He pressed a little with the pad of his hand and she whimpered. “Nope, not ticklish there.”

“That’s cheating,” she pointed out, trying not to pant. “That’s more of a universal thing, not specific to me.”

He laughed and pressed a little more until she couldn’t help but squirm. “I know if I stick my tongue in your ear, you’ll knee me in the balls.”

“That’s still true, by the way.”

“I know that, unlike most women, you don’t like a lot of foreplay.”

“Let’s not talk about most women,” she said, wiggling her hips a little to keep him from forgetting what his hand was supposed to be doing. “And, no, I don’t.”

“You’re more of a down and dirty kinda girl.”

“If you don’t stop talking and get on with it, I’m going to go be down and dirty by myself in the shower.”

“I’ll talk all damn night if you’ll let me watch. You did once, remember?”

She did remember, and the memory made her cheeks burn. “I was drunk.”

“You were hot.” He sat back on his heels again, straddling her. “You’re still hot.”

“I’m still waiting,” she pointed out.

With another manly grunt of exertion, he managed to rip the rest of the buttons off her pajama top. “I’ve waited almost twenty years to do this again. I won’t be rushed.”

“I’m sure you’ve had plenty of sex in the last twenty years, Kowalski.”

“Yeah, but not with you.” He backed up, dragging her pajama bottoms over her hips. “There was just something about sex with you that stayed with me. Maybe nostalgia. Or maybe it was just that good.”

She knew just what he meant, but he wasn’t supposed to be waxing philosophical. Or nostalgic. He was supposed to be providing a non-battery-operated, strings-free orgasm. Analysis was for relationships and they did
not
have a relationship.

Once he got her pajama bottoms untangled from her feet, she decided to give him a kickstart by taking off the bra and panties. No striptease or finesse. Just getting the damn clothes out of the way.

“I was going to do that.”

“You snooze, you lose, Kowalski. Now yours.”

He peeled off the boxer briefs, she grabbed a condom off the bedside table and they met back in the middle of the bed. She hooked her hand behind his neck and dragged him down for another kiss.

By the time they came up for air, her entire body was throbbing in anticipation of the screaming orgasm about to commence, but there was no ripping open of the condom wrapper. Instead Joe’s mouth started on a lazy journey down her neck.

He reached that hollow at the base of her throat. Flicked his tongue over it. “I always did like this spot.”

“Mmm…that spot always liked you, too.”

When his mouth finally reached her breasts and his tongue flicked over her nipple, Keri arched her back, reveling in the zing that shot through her body.

Joe chuckled. “Foreplay’s not so bad, now is it?”

He closed his lips over the nipple and sucked hard before she could say anything, but that was okay. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath as he turned his attention to her other breast.

She let him linger there a few minutes, then she plucked the condom from his hand and ripped open the package herself. He laughed and took it from her.

“I’d let you put it on me because that’s kinda hot, but if you touch me right now, it’s all over, babe.”

At least he was suffering as badly as she was. Then—
finally
—he hooked his hands under her knees and dragged her down toward him. Her legs draped over his arms as he lifted her hips and knelt between her thighs.

She was so ready for him. Inch by hard, delicious inch he slid into her until she thought the sensation and the anticipation might kill her.

Then he slowly withdrew almost all the way and did it again. “Damn, babe. I hope you’re close because this is
not
gonna take long.”

He pulled his arms out from under her knees so he could lean down and kiss her, holding himself up on his forearms. She wrapped her legs around his hips, urging him on as he quickened his pace.

Then suddenly he stilled, his breath short and the muscles of his back quivering under her fingertips, just like he used to. The same way he always did right before he told her he loved her. Those pretty blue eyes met hers and, as the memories of those backseat days became tangled up with the now, she thought
uh-oh
.

“I’ve missed you, babe.”

She’d missed him, too. And not just the sex, though the sex was definitely worth missing. She’d missed his laugh. His conversation. His friendship. “I’ve missed you, too.”

He kissed her again, and then set about proving there was absolutely nothing decrepit about him. The orgasm was worth waiting for, rocking her world so incredibly well she was barely aware of the suddenly jerky rhythm and growling sound that signaled Joe was being rocked himself.

He collapsed on top of her, his breath blowing in sharp bursts over her heated flesh. “Damn. That was…damn.”

“Damn,” she echoed because her brain wasn’t ready to engage in conversation just yet.