If You Dare (13 page)

Well hell.

What kind of man got upset over a blowjob? The same man who’d wanted to talk instead of fuck earlier.
 

He wiped his forehead on the back of his hand and tried to get control of his emotions before looking at her. Because if Cordelia saw one ounce of what he was feeling, she’d ask what was wrong. And just how in the hell was he supposed to answer that one when he didn’t have a clue himself?

Cordelia sat in the water watching Joe and bit her bottom lip. Great. She’d blown it. Literally and figuratively.

Damn, damn, double damn.
 

She didn’t know what to do now. What did one say after a blowjob that didn’t end well? Especially when it seemed to end exactly the way it was supposed to.

She hadn’t expected to enjoy it, but she had. Shoot, she’d practically come again just watching him. She’d been so sure she was doing it right.

But then he had said he wanted to wait. Maybe she should’ve just followed his lead. But dammit, she only had a few more days, and he was going back to work Monday.
 

Just as she was looking around the room trying to figure out a way to leave, his voice surprised her. “Well, darlin’, I’d say that pretty much answers that.”

Cordelia tried to remember what it was they’d been talking about before she’d convinced him to…”Answers what exactly?”

“Whether or not you enjoyed earlier. I’d say you had a damn good time. And I’m betting you’re not feeling a bit tense either.”

If he only knew!

When he held out his hand, she felt all the new tension ease from her body. Everything was okay after all.

She put her hand in his and climbed out of the hot tub after he did.
 

He wrapped her in a white hotel bath towel that hung from her shoulders to below her knees and then he shocked the heck out of her.

With one quick swoop, he picked her up and carried her into the fantasy bedroom. Parting the curtains, he lowered her gently to the covered bed and climbed in after her.

She felt like the luckiest princess in the world and she wondered how he knew just what to do. This was her fantasy week, but he didn’t actually know that. But somehow, it was as if he did. This room, this night, him.

It was all almost too good to be true.
 

When his lips touched hers in a light kiss, she felt the shivers straight to her pink toenails.

And then he stretched out beside her and pulled her into the crook of his arm. “Tell me more about your dreams.”

She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of his heartbeat. What dreams had she told him earlier? Probably only an hour ago?

It felt like days. She felt like a different woman. But she still didn’t want to destroy his image of her.
 

“Oh you know. I have the normal dreams. Tell me about your singing. You have an incredible voice.”

He strummed his fingers down her arm and up again. “Yeah, that’s what the choir teacher back home said.”

“Every time you say home, your nose wrinkles up. Was it so horrible?”

“No and yes.”

“But your family is there.”

He nodded. “That’s the no part.”

“Hmm.” Cordelia knew how close-minded small towns could be. But she also knew the good part. The fact that kids could still play outside. That people took care of each other. That authority figures still held a high place in the community.

She wanted to ask him more. Wanted to know why he objected to his sister staying in Vegas. Wanted to tell him why he should let her stay and find her own place in life.

But she didn’t want to reveal that hidden part of herself.

So instead she spent the rest of the night learning he liked Italian food best. That he loved country music and he could stomach blues when necessary. That his dream vacation was a Caribbean cruise.
 

And that contrary to his earlier proclamation, thank you, thank you, thank you, her book on multiple orgasms applied to him just as much as it applied to her.

As Joe watched her sleeping, he wondered if he’d ever been as completely confused and sexually spent in his entire life.

He wanted to kiss her closed eyes, but she’d only just drifted off. Through the open curtain, he could see the pink and purple streaks that signaled another gorgeous Vegas sunrise.

Maybe he should wake her up to see it.

Hell, who was he kidding? If he woke her up it’d be to make love, again.
 

They’d spent all night alternately talking and making love. He’d never talked so much to woman he wasn’t related to. But she asked a million questions and listened when he answered. She was easy to talk to.

And he’d never brought a woman to orgasm so many times in one night either. He’d barely touch her and she’d be right there. Hot, slick and ready.

She’d even gone in the bathroom and used the phone next to the bathtub to try out phone sex. In the end, he’d lifted her up onto the bathroom counter and taken her.

That was another thing. He’d never had so much fun with sex before. Maybe it was her high comfort level with her body. Or maybe it was her easy self-assurance. Whatever it was, they’d spent most of the night laughing.
 

From the moment they’d christened the foyer to their pre-dawn raid on the cash bar for six-dollar bags of M&Ms and three-dollar sodas. It didn’t seem to matter what they did, she ended up making him smile.

In the back of his mind he’d known he was being used for sex, but after he’d resigned himself to the fact, it didn’t seem to matter. Or at least it hadn’t mattered until right this second.

Now as he watched her sleep he felt a combination of wonder and a strange disappointment. It didn’t make sense. But he wasn’t going to waste time worrying about it. He had today and then it’d be back to the normal routine. She’d leave a few days later.

In the meantime, she could use him pretty much any which way she wanted.
 

Cordelia woke to the sound of Joe’s voice singing about mommas, babies and cowboys. The song made her laugh. For someone who ran away from small town life as quickly as possible, he’d certainly hung on to the roots with that old song.

She opened her eyes and held her hands up to cut the glare as sunlight streamed in through the now open curtains on the bed. Fantasy night over.

Oh well.

But then he walked into her line of vision and she figured fantasy day was just as good anyway.

He looked down right yummy with his shirt off, the top button on his jeans undone, the hair extending from his navel straight down to….

Oh man. He was going commando.

She heard his laugh and looked up at him.
 

“Caught you looking.”

He winked as he spoke and she could only shrug as her stomach flipped straight down to her toes. Oh Lord. “I’m not denying it.”

She didn’t stop looking at him as he slid the button into the top hole of his pants. The air felt heavy. Hot. Expectant.
 

“I’m taking a page from your book, Miss Lewis. Or should I say sleepy head.”

She threw her arms over her head and turned to see of she could spy a clock. “You exhausted me last night. So what time is it anyway?”

She felt the bed sink as he kneeled down and then she laughed as he covered her hands with his, holding them down as he lowered himself slowly, slowly until he was directly above her. His taught arm muscles flexed with the movement and she really, really wanted to kiss his chest.

But she couldn’t because he had her hands trapped.

And then he lowered his head for one quick kiss before sitting up and moving away. “Time to rise and shine. I figure we can do brunch or whatever you want to do. I’ve got to be back by this evening, though, so we’ve got to get a move on.”

Why had she slept? She’d wasted precious hours sleeping? And he’d settled for a quick kiss. Ugh!

She sat up on bed and watched him pull on a shirt.

Clothes. She had to have…

He must’ve seen the horrified look on her face because he pointed to the closet. “I wanted last night to be a surprise, so I had to prepare early. I put a couple outfits in there.”

She grabbed the sheet, wrapped it around her and walked across the room, kicking aside the towel from last night and sidestepping candy wrappers to get to the closet.

When she saw the tailored short sets she felt her mouth drop. How did he find her regular clothes? These certainly weren’t the clothes she’d brought to Irene’s.

She turned to ask him just that only to find him watching her with a curious smile.

“What?”

He shrugged, sat back against the top of the dresser and crossed his oh so sexy jeans clad legs. “The sheet’s a nice touch.”

The sheet. She looked down and saw the trail behind her, saw the way she’d bunched it around her shoulders. Now that was sexy all right. Ugh!

With quick fingers she let the sheet drop to the floor. “So where’d you get the clothes?”

Even as she asked the question she felt his eyes on her body, felt hot little lines as they moved over every inch of her skin.

“Taylor. She was pretty sure y’all wore about the same size, something about cat pajamas, and I figured you’d be happy to have something.”

Cat pajamas? He knew about her pajamas?

She grabbed the shorts off the hangar and turned her back to his so she could draw them up her legs.

He stopped her with one word. “Wait.”

She turned around to face him. “What?”

He shrugged again, his eyes never leaving her face. “I was just hoping you’d put those on last. I kinda like watching you dress. I guess you could say it turns me on. And that Miss Wild Woman tattoo of yours just about drives me crazy. So what do you say? Hm? Give a poor guy a break?”

His words zinged right through her body and she felt her mouth open in response. Felt her body tighten. But for all his sexy words, he didn’t seem too interested in sex. She let the shorts drop to the ground and stepped out as she grabbed a pink button up shirt.
 

Usually she’d put pink cotton on the last of her sexy things to wear list, but the way the starched material rubbed against her sensitive bare nipples had her rethinking cotton.

Oh man.
 

She carefully buttoned the shirt, taking her time, making sure he had plenty of time to look at that wild woman tattoo she’d regretted until yesterday.

And then she bent and slid the shorts up over her bare legs, her bare bottom. Turning to face him she buckled the brown belt his sister had supplied, but instead of him, she saw her own reflection in the mirror.

These might be the same kind of clothes she usually wore, but the reflection in that mirror didn’t look like her at all.

Her slightly whisker burned cheeks practically glowed. Her tousled hair screamed sex and lots of it. And with her hard nipples pressing against the fabric of the shirt, it was kind of hard to miss the fact that she wasn’t wearing underwear, again.

Lord, she looked like a sex goddess. And she loved it.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

She wished she could do a jig, but Joe would never understand. And she couldn’t very well tell him.

But she sure as heck could show him.

She stepped over the sheet and stood in front of him, just out of reach, hands on her hips. “So, you said brunch or whatever I want. Right?”

Even though he still sat propped against the dresser, legs crossed, she knew she had his attention.

Maybe it was his eyes looking at her with such appreciation, or the fullness of his bottom lip or the scar over his right eyebrow. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but something about him made her stop mid step.
 

He looked absolutely yummy, just like her fantasy man come to life. And she was so incredibly grateful for this weekend.
 

If her fantasy had to come to an end this very second, it would be fine. It simply couldn’t get any better than it had been already.

She’d had more sex in hours than she’d had in her life. More than that, she’d had a good time. And he made her, even the her standing in front of him in an outfit right out of a Ralph Lauren catalog, feel sexy.

Joe Sterling wasn’t just a fantasy man any more. He was real. One day she hoped she’d be able to call him friend.

And in that moment, Cordelia felt a shift in everything she’d felt up to this point.

Judging by the questioning smile on Joe’s face, she wasn’t doing a very good job at the seduction she’d been intent on only seconds before.

So she did what any girl as thankful as she would do. She hauled him off that dresser and settled in for a rock-his-world-Hel-lo-Darlin’ kiss. The kind that would hopefully surpass week long fling status and rank up there at the number one kiss of all time slot in his mind. One that would hopefully leave him a whole lot hot and bothered. The way she seemed to be at all times now.

After she was done, she pushed him right back against the dresser and smiled up into his face with absolute innocence. And then she picked up where she’d left off before the kiss. With her hands back on her hips she took a deep breath. Making sure her bare nipples showed through the front of her shirt, she said the words that seemed to surprise him almost as much as they did her, because they sure weren’t what she’d had in mind when she’d started toward him.

 
“Well good. Because I’m suddenly feeling super hungry.”

When they finally climbed back in the limo for the return trip home, Cordelia knew she’d never had such a wonderful time in her life.
 

Better yet, she had souvenirs. She held a stuffed knight in shining armor, and in a plastic bag, she had a pirate patch and a plastic treasure chest filled with plastic gold doubloons.

Plus her pockets were weighted down with all the nickels she’d won.

Big spender Joe had tried to convince her to at least play the dollar slots, but she refused. The nickel machines were just more fun.

But black Jack had been the best. Joe stood beside her the entire time, explaining the instructions, pressing his hand on her leg, leaving her breathless when he said words like double down and hit me in the same way he’d whispered that he wanted to watch her come.