Friends and Lovers (17 page)

He raised their laced fingers and kissed her hand tenderly. “Okay.”

“That doesn’t intimidate you even a little?”

“Nope.”

As soon as they got home Wes changed into his swim trunks and Lauren languished in a silky slip. Even though it barely touched her body, she still felt overdressed. The heat made them both sluggish and lazy.

The only air conditioner Wes had was in the bedroom so they’d drawn all the shades to keep out the sunlight, opened all the interior doors, and set up fans to circulate the cool air through the house. It wasn’t ideal, but it was tolerable. The kitchen, being the farthest from the bedroom, was the worst.

For the last several days they’d avoided cooking inside. Luckily this Sunday dinner wasn’t an issue because Mrs. Dunlop sent leftovers home with them. Wes and Lauren stood directly in front of the open refrigerator and ate it unheated, right off the shelf.

He picked a cold bottle of Worcestershire sauce out of the door and rolled it along Lauren’s bare shoulders. Her nipples popped out like mushrooms after a rain, and Wes smiled and slid his palm over her breast.

She moved it away. “Too hot.”

“Let’s take a cool shower.” He insinuated himself against her bottom.

Lauren sighed. “I don’t have the energy.”

“Come on, I have an idea.” Wes tugged her away from the fridge, shut the door, and led her to the bedroom.

The mattress was already stripped to just the fitted sheet and Wes ordered Lauren to undress and lie down.

He went into the bathroom and she could hear the tap running. When he came back he was carrying a basin of cold water and a washcloth. He’d left his trunks behind. Wes set the water on the nightstand and climbed onto the bed beside her. After wringing out the washcloth he wiped it over Lauren’s face and down her neck. Turning the cloth cool side out, he swirled it between and around her breasts. Lauren sighed with relief. Wes smiled and swept it over her stomach before dropping the washcloth back into the water. Dipping down he blew softly across her damp skin and Lauren chilled instantly, goose bumps rising with the fine hairs. Her nipples puckered tight and he toyed with one, easily sidetracked.

Lauren’s eyes fell closed. “Mmm, this is nice.”

“I’m getting into it. Hang on. I’m not done.”

Wes wrung out the cloth and pressed it between Lauren’s legs and held it there like a compress, cooling her down even more. He flipped it over and ran it down her legs all the way to her feet. Again he blew over Lauren’s naked skin and she shivered even more.

He sat back up on his heels and said, “Turn over.”

Lauren groaned when Wes pressed the refreshed cloth to the back of her neck and slowly ran it over her shoulders and down the small of her back. Once more he wet it, this time concentrating on her bottom. His free hand floated just above her skin, barely a whisper of a touch. By the time he reached the backs of her knees, she couldn’t remember ever feeling hot.

Lauren rolled over and pulled Wes down for a kiss. Then she took the cloth out of his hand and sat up. “Your turn. Lie down.”

She repeated the kindness, going over him in exactly the same way. Chilling Wes with the lightest of touches was easy because he had more hair to ruffle. All it took was the barest of brushes and she had his attention. By the time she was finished they were both impossibly aroused.

Even if Lauren wasn’t sure yet where she stood in his heart she knew his body certainly worshipped her.

“I need to be inside you,” he said, rolling her onto her back and stretching out his hand to reach a condom. He pulled the entire box out of the drawer and dumped the last two onto the sheet.

“Say it isn’t so,” he gasped in horror.

“We’ve been busy.”

“We better remember to pick up more tomorrow.”

“It’s on my list. Here, let me.”

He handed her a condom and fell back on the pillows. “I love it when you offer.”

Lauren smiled and leaned over to kiss him. He grabbed the back of her head and took over, and drew her under until her heart was fluttering like a hummingbird’s. Her hands were shaking when she ripped the package open.

Safely encased, Wes pounced and Lauren gave, gratefully, eagerly. The weight of his body drove her into the mattress, and her knees dropped open. Wes’s hands came up from under her bottom and he lifted even as he pushed into her.

Lauren’s head rolled back and her throat arched up at him, and Wes licked her heated skin.

“You’re salty,” he told her, taking another deliberate taste.

It sent shivers down her spine whenever he dropped his voice like that. She scraped her fingernails up and down his chest as he drove deep, giving them both what they wanted, what they needed.

“Oh,” Lauren gasped, her nails scoring down his sides, leaving pink trails across his skin. They bit hard into his muscular ass as it flexed into another deep thrust. “There, hit me there!” she cried, tilting up to meet him.

Wes obeyed her command and won a shaky nod of approval from Lauren.

“Do
not
deviate from your course, or I’ll have to kill you,” she warned.

He laughed but then the levity vanished, overshadowed by what they were feeling. The flavor of their lovemaking shifted to heated and intense. Sweat sizzled and popped between their naked torsos as they strained to weld themselves into one body. It was as if they both needed to make some sort of declaration. Even unspoken, their message to each other was getting through loud and clear as they clung to each other.

Wes was all purpose now, his hot, coiled body responding to a need so basic, so elemental, Lauren half hoped he’d roar as he collided savagely with her. She gripped his arms, bit his shoulder, and grunted to keep up as her eyesight began to blur.

Then Lauren felt it, that promising flare at her core, and she rose up to claim it, taking Wes deeper still. She threw back her head, releasing a triumphant cry as she shuddered in his arms. Groaning in surrender, Wes planted himself deep and trembled as Lauren wrung him dry.

Utterly spent, Wes dropped to Lauren’s side and lay on his stomach, obviously too exhausted to even turn his face out of the pillow. She laughed softly and, taking pity on him, tugged the pillow out of his way before it suffocated him.

Lauren looked at Wes with amusement. “Well, that was one for the diary. Too bad I don’t keep one. How many more orgasms do you think we can fit in before ten?”

He groaned and turned his head. “Give me a few minutes to recover.”

She climbed off the bed and he looked up. “Where are you going?”

“To get something to drink. Want anything?”

“A Coke?”

“Be right back.”

Wes was stretched out on his back with his arm thrown over his face when she returned. Seeing he was dozing quietly, she stood over him, her heart expanding to an impossible size for the man she’d fallen in love with. She’d hit the jackpot.

She always had a soft spot for his luscious heart-melting eyes but now, knowing all the tender expressions they were capable of conveying, Lauren was indeed a goner. Her gaze traveled over his wonderful mouth and chin, down his throat, and stopped at his broad chest. As a young man, he only had a little hair but it had spread since she’d seen him that fateful day at the pool and now encompassed his tiny brown nipples and joined up with the line of hair aimed at his groin. She could still see the pink imprint of her nails crisscrossing his chest and the fading half-moon imprint of her teeth on his shoulder.

Her eyes moved on, seeking his sex. It was flaccid now, his limp cock resting on his inner thigh, but that didn’t make it any less impressive. Just looking at it made her blood surge, her fingers twitch. How could she tell him how perfect he made her feel, both emotionally and physically? She’d never experienced that total sense of completion she found in his arms, and when he was inside her, she felt more than just connected to him, she felt whole. Lauren didn’t think there was one inch of Wes she didn’t love.

Feeling frisky, she ran the dewy cold can along his penis. It jumped and the arm covering his face flew up.

His startled eyes stared at her. “What are you doing?”

Lauren laughed. “Science experiment.” She threw her hand out dramatically at his swelling cock and announced, “Life, I have created life!”

“You’re doing a Gene Wilder impersonation?” Wes glanced down his body and grinned. “Congratulations, you got a rise out of him. Something on your mind?”

Lauren gave him a nonchalant shrug. “Maybe.”

“You’re voracious.”

“Luckily you’re nonfattening.”

He laughed and caught her wrist, yanking her on top of him. A minute later his tongue was having its way with her mouth and he was all hands. How the worm had turned.

Rolling one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger he stole another kiss and pushed up against her. He was back and in fine form.

“Are you looking for something in particular? I believe I’ve got something in your size if you’d care to try it on,” he said with a devilish grin.

Pretending disinterest she said, “Thanks, but I’m just looking.”

“The hell you are.”

He was right. She was buying, and she was ready to pay any price for the privilege of ownership.

Chapter 16

Lauren stirred in her sleep, her legs sliding restlessly against Wes’s as she moaned softly. Her head thrashed back and forth on the pillow. Wes wrapped her close, securing her to his chest, and spoke low, soothing words into her ear until she relaxed against him and went silent. He curled his leg around her and dropped back to sleep, exhausted. This was Lauren’s second nightmare tonight. They were increasing.

The alarm went off three hours later. Wes slapped it off and rolled onto his back with a groan. He wanted another hour of sleep, just one lousy hour, but duty called. Slipping silently out of bed, he left Lauren to sleep a little longer. She probably needed the rest even more than he did.

These nightmares of hers were wearing them both out. Even one per night was one too many, and now she was having two? Wes stepped into the tub and faced the spray, scrubbing his face, knowing full well it was going to take more than a shower to revive him today. He needed coffee—lots of strong, black coffee.

Shuffling into the kitchen a little later, he got down two mugs and poured himself his first cup of the day. Whoever thought to put a timer on coffee makers deserved a medal. Stifling a yawn, Wes took his first bracing sip. Better.

Damn it. These hard nights had to end. Wes’s humor wasn’t improved by the fact that he’d failed to discourage Lauren from going to the hearing. There was no reasoning with the woman. He had to convince her that not only was it unnecessary she attend, but it could be downright risky to provoke the man.

That murdering jackass was really pissing Wes off. William H. Stovall was the one thorny issue in their otherwise smooth transition to couplehood. He had to keep Lauren from going, but Wes knew it was going to be their self-defense argument all over again.

He never dreamed he could fall for such a stubborn woman. Hell, he never imagined sweet Lauren would turn out to be such a stubborn woman. Even faced with her inevitable resistance, he wasn’t about to drop the subject. As her…what—boyfriend, lover, significant other?—it was his job to protect her. He didn’t take that responsibility lightly. He’d try reasoning with her once more, but if that didn’t work he was prepared to lean on her harder.

Wes set the watering can in the sink and while it filled, poured himself another cup of coffee. Then he carried both around the house, watering all the plants Lauren had brought over from her apartment. They were thriving in his windows, a tangible allegory of how the two people tending them were thriving together. His little house finally felt like a home.

He liked the changes Lauren brought to his life. For a guy who’d always protected his private domain, guarded his borders from incursions, it was startling to see how readily he’d cleared space for her. Lauren’s clothes gradually migrated to his closet and he’d emptied dresser drawers for her too. There were cosmetics and Kotex in the bathroom and moisturizer on the dresser and he couldn’t be happier.

Aside from the nightmares, the transformation he saw in Lauren was even more apparent. Her serenity had given way to vivacity. Her face was animated, her eyes sparkled, and she was quick to laugh. Even her walk was different. There was a lilt in her step that hadn’t been there before. Lauren was a woman in full bloom now, beautiful, arresting, and downright sexy.

His morning rounds complete, Wes went back to the bedroom and woke his lady.

She shot up in alarm. “It’s six forty-five? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

He bent and gave her a light peck on the top of the head. “Honey, you didn’t even hear the alarm. We both know you needed more sleep.”

She threw her legs over the edge and bounded out of bed. “Now I have to hustle.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen.”

He was reading the morning paper, sipping his coffee when she joined him.

Wes looked up and smiled. “You look really nice. That’s your coffee on the counter.”

Lauren smiled when she saw the toasted bagel sitting on the plate beside it. “Thank you. Do you want half?” she asked, holding it out to him.

“I already had one. You eat.”

She leaned back against the counter and took a bite, washing it down with coffee. “I’m sorry about last night. Were you able to get back to sleep?”

“Eventually.” Of course he was talking about the first time. He wasn’t even sure she knew about the second dream.

“Maybe I should stay at my place for a few nights. Let you rest.”

Wes closed the paper and stood, walking over to her. “No. I don’t want that. I’d rather have you here.” He tipped her chin up and gave her a soft kiss.

Lauren melted against him. “But you have to stay sharp. Your job is dangerous enough without me making it worse for you.”

“You’re not. Do you honestly think I’d sleep any better with you camped out at your apartment? Think again. I’d be worried sick the whole time. At least if you’re here I can turn over and assure myself you’re okay.”