PosterBoyForAverage (5 page)

Damn him and his manly chest.

He winked at her and said, “Sure you do. Okay.”

She grumbled, snarling, “Jesus,” under her breath as she
squeezed some lotion in her hand and started to rub it where she needed it to
be. Her hand was shaking and the thundering thump of her pulse had traveled
from her chest down to her pussy. It was damn near impossible to ignore.

He touched her wrist again and she jumped like he’d burned
her. That really pissed her off and she smacked her lotion-white palm down the
center of his chest one-two-three and stepped back. “Rub it in!” she barked.
Then she turned and stumbled from the garden bed.

She heard him chuckle and had to resist the urge to throw
her camera at him. No, her camera was too expensive, but one of her mukluks
would do the trick. Instead, she turned in the warm October sun, raised the
camera and said, “Let’s get started, Mike.”

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?” he said to her through the
eye of her camera.

She bit her lip and took a few shots when he shut his mouth
and no longer looked like he was talking. Poster boy for average her ass. The
camera loved him. It somehow made his good features great, his great features
phenomenal.

“Nope.” Click, click, click.

Focus on the task, Aubrey, not that goddamn kiss. Just
pay attention to the magic you saw in him that first day. Before he ruined it
with a kiss.

The self-coaching was doing little to keep her mind off the
memory of his hand cupping the back of her head, anchoring her to him.

Or just a moment before when he touched her and she wanted
to rub her body against his, kiss him again.

“Yes, you are. It’s in your posture. When you are surprised,
you stand up straighter. When you’re angry you become like a flagpole. Rigid
and straight.”

“I am not a flagpole. And how the hell would you know
anyway? You’ve known me all of three days!”

“But you’re easy to read because you’re passionate.” He dug
the tip of the shovel into the ground and it made his muscles bulge in the
loveliest way. Aubrey’s mouth went dry.

“I am not passionate,” she hissed. Then she captured three
amazing pictures of him that would fit on any romance novel cover on earth.

“Yes you are. You’re an artist. You’re passionate. I can
tell by the way your eyes flash.”

“My eyes do not flash,” she growled, managing to snag the
most amazing picture where he looked both amused and startled. She was also
glad he couldn’t see her damn eyes.

Mike Sykes seemed very astute at reading people. Which meant
he’d probably know right away that he was getting to her.

“They do so.” He grinned.

Snap-snap-snap.

“Nope.”

“Yes. They flashed when I kissed you and they flashed when I
hurt your feelings.”

She dropped the camera. “You did not hurt my feelings!” she
lied. “And if you had, what the hell is wrong with you talking like this then? What
are you? A sadist?”

“No. I don’t mind a bit of the rough and tumble,” he said
thoughtfully. Then he added insult to injury by chuckling when her face
registered shock so blatant even she could feel it.

“Then you just like messing with people?” Maybe she had
misjudged him. She’d thought him such a nice guy. Much nicer than she ever
really showed interest in. Maybe her instinct had been way off.

His face grew serious again and she couldn’t help herself.

“What was wrong with me, Mike? What about that kiss said I
was a bad choice?”

He went from serious to stricken. “Nothing. I—”

“Never mind,” she said. “That’s not important. That’s
personal, this is business. Let’s go back by the oak before we lose the sun.”

The truth was, she didn’t really want to hear what he had to
say. She didn’t want to know what was wrong with her.

* * * * *

The light by the oak only gave them a few good shots and she
waved him inside. They had to go through the house to get to the basement and
Batman would not leave Mike alone. Aubrey wanted to tell him not to get used to
the man—clearly they were not going to get on as swimmingly as she originally
thought.

He followed her down and when they turned into the main
section with its half-done plasterboard and half-done suspended ceiling, he
laughed. “What happened in here?”

“Will happened in here. He was supposed to help me put
together a home office. I have an uncle who does this stuff. I’ll have to call
him. It’ll just have to wait for the moment. Since I just got back.” She
positioned him near some exposed beams and busted plaster. “There, that looks
good and manly.”

He rolled his eyes and did a typical bodybuilder pose that
always made her wonder who the hell thought that pose looked good. It surprised
her by making her laugh. It was more the goofy face that went with it than the
posture of his body.

“How manly was that?”

“That was the least manly thing I’ve ever seen,” Aubrey
snorted.

He picked up on what she wanted pretty fast and she started
to snap off some pictures she knew damn well she could use. “Oh and it wasn’t
you,” he said, bending to retrieve an abandoned hammer.

“What?” Her mind caught up with her mouth and she knew what
he meant. She wished she’d ignored the statement.

“It wasn’t you. There’s nothing wrong with you or your kiss
or anything about you, Aubrey.”

“I— Then…well, okay.” It was the only thing she could really
think to say.

She took a few more and then dropped the camera. “I think
I’ve got plenty right now. I might want to do more in a different setting soon,
but I can give you your advance if you have a minute. There’s a contract and
stuff but that can wait. I just need you to sign the release on the pictures.”

He nodded and picked his shirt up off the ground. “No
problem.”

Gone was the joking and the grinning and the laughing. Now
he seemed to have withdrawn.

“Are you okay?” she asked against her better judgment.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Aubrey said, turning from him.

She heard his footsteps on the dusty basement floor as he
followed her. “So are you.”

“When did I lie?”

“When you said you weren’t passionate. You’re one of the
most passionate people I’ve ever met.”

Aubrey turned to look at him and he surprised her by putting
his finger to her lips to silence her before she could even speak.

“And before you say we just met, it doesn’t take a genius to
see it on you. And I notice more about you because you’re very…noticeable.”

He moved closer and her tongue turned to chalk.

“I’m…” The closer he got, the faster her brain shut down.

“You’re what?”

She could smell the sunscreen on him and the way a man
smells when he’s baked in the sun. He got closer and a strand of his hair
brushed her forehead. He was going to kiss her. At the knowledge the inside of
her mind went as bright and blank as the sun.

“I’m…”

“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, Aubrey,” he said. The kiss
was electric. Just like the first one. Heat and need seared her lips and she
curled her tongue to his when he slipped his inside her mouth.

Aubrey tried not to make any noise, any move that might
scare him away this time. She almost laughed at the thought. The thought that a
kiss with her was like one of those nature shows on TV where all the elements
must be perfect to capture the target on film.

The wild and elusive neighbor-boy kiss…

She smiled despite herself and he pressed his lips more
firmly to hers. Her camera was wedged between them and it was the only thing
that kept his chest from pressing to hers and feeling the pounding drum of her
heart.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because I’m nervous,” she blurted. It was true. She smiled
and laughed when nervous and she was very nervous that whatever she did last
time to make him turn away would happen again.

“Why are you nervous?” His kiss traveled from her mouth to
her jawline. From her jawline to her neck. From her neck to her collarbone and
that was when all the air seemed to whoosh out of the room in a great vacuum,
leaving Aubrey pinned to a half-done wall trying desperately to breathe.

Mike stroked a gentle fingertip from the buttons of her top
to the small, hard knot of her right nipple. He stroked it through the cotton
with the tip of his finger, kissing her again more deeply, his tongue invading
her mouth, his scent invading her mind.

Aubrey found herself arching her back, pushing against that
finger, seeking the feel of his whole palm on her.

He pulled back and a panicky bird seemed to spread its wings
in her chest. But he was just removing the camera and placing it on the
bookshelf by the door to the stairwell.

“There,” Mike said, pressing back against her. She could
feel the heat of his bare chest and the smell of sunscreen grew thicker around
her. “Now I can get closer.”

He cupped her face in his palms and paid close attention to
her mouth. Stroking his tongue over hers, licking softly along her lower lip
and then nibbling so she felt the rush of excitement low in her belly. The rush
of it quickly spread to her pussy and Aubrey knew if he so much as suggested
sex, she’d be in. One hundred and ten percent. It had been quite a while since
she’d gotten laid and there was no doubt in her lust-scrambled mind that Mike
Sykes would be very good at it. And very generous to his partner.

She sucked in air like she was drowning and his big hand
splayed along her rib cage. The heat of his touch seeped into her skin and then
he was pushing his fingers up beneath her shirt and the direct contact was
surprising.

A rush of fluid escaped her and puddled in the crotch of her
jeans. If they got that far there’d be no playing it cool. She’d never be able
to hide how much she wanted him if he saw that. And somehow the knowledge that
she would be so easy to discover made her urgent lust a million times better.

Mike swept his hand higher, pushing her top up as he went.
When he reached her bra, her body trembled. She shook beneath his hands though
she was desperately trying to still herself.

“Are you okay?” he asked conversationally as he pulled her
bra cup down and exposed her right breast. His lips captured the already taut
bit of flesh and he sucked.

More fluid, more heat, more need. A shuddering sigh slipped
free of her even as she tried to convince him she was fine. “I’m perfect,” she
said.

He bared her other breast, raked his teeth along her skin.
Her whole body responded with bright pleasure. Before she could stop herself she
sighed, “Yes.”

He chuckled, bit her so she jumped, licked the skin he’d
just savaged. “Yes, I agree. You’re perfect, you know.” His hands curled
against her waist and he held her firmly there so he could kiss her again.

She parted her lips, met every thrust of his tongue with one
of her own. But when he stepped even closer, pinning her to the wall with his
body, she sank into the kiss. Fell backward into it. Submitted.

“I’m going to touch you now, Aubrey. Is that okay? I want to
make up for that kiss where I hurt your feelings.”

“You didn’t hurt my—”

“I did so and that wasn’t my intention.” His fingers dipped
below the waistband of her jeans and she remembered she was bare beneath. No
knickers to speak of.

His fingers swept back and forth as he nibbled down her
neck. When he found nothing beneath he straightened, looked her in the eye. His
gaze was predatory and she had a flash of “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf”.

“Bare under there,” he breathed. It was not a question.

“I was in a hurry.”

“I’m not.”

His fingers drove lower and she shut her eyes, willing him
with her amazing mental powers—at least the ones she wished she had—to take her
jeans off. To fuck her right here, right now, up against the half-done basement
wall.

He reared back to look at where his hands were on her and
Aubrey had a perfect mental image of him doing the same thing while he was
fucking her. Watching where his cock would slide easily into her body. Watching
where they were joined.

Another sigh slipped out of her and he popped her button,
drew down her zipper, pushed her jeans down on her hips.

Her top was hiked up, her jeans shoved down and he was
studying her like she was art.

“Wow,” Mike said, tracing the curve of her waist with his
hand. The sensation made her jump as if he’d tickled her. “I imagined you to be
amazing. But you are…amazing.”

She bit her lip, shook her head. “Stop teasing me.”

“Oh Aubrey, sweetheart, I am not teasing you at all,” he
said. “Yet.” And then he dropped to his knees.

Her legs felt very uncertain when he did that. Aubrey
imagined them buckling, dropping her forward onto him in a heap in her unkempt
basement. Instead she pressed her palms flat to the wall as Mike kissed her
hipbone. He dragged his lips slowly along the small swell of her belly, grazed
his teeth across the opposite hipbone. He gripped her hips in his big, strong
hands and kissed the side of her thigh, the top of her thigh. Everywhere but
the sweet spot.

“Mike—” she gasped.

He looked up at her, those water-blue eyes honest and
penetrating. His gaze was exciting but humbling too. So much emotion wrapped up
into one glance. “Yes?”

“I…you don’t have to do this,” she said. That was stupid.
Why the fuck had she said that?

He laughed harshly and pressed his forehead to her belly.
His breath snaked down, hot and humid, over her smooth mound. She was still
bare-shaven for summer. Bathing-suit grooming was a bitch. So she usually just
went bald.

Mike swept his thumbs back and forth along her skin and
every stroke brought electric tingles to her skin.

“Is that what you think? That this is penance? For what I
did?”

She had no idea what to say. Her mind had drawn a blank and
her body seemed to vibrate with nothing but want and need. “I just wanted you
to know that…” Aubrey shook her head. “That I’m insane?”

They both laughed at that and she became supremely aware of
his breath again. Stroking over her skin, invading the air around her pussy so
that all she could imagine—all that she could comprehend—in that moment was him
putting his mouth on her.

“So are you averse to this?” he asked. Mike wasn’t looking
at her now. He was using his thumbs to pull back on her labia. To spread her
and look at her and there was that humid tactile sweep of his breath over her
wetness again.

“No,” she breathed. “No, not—fuck no—” She gasped.

As soon as she’d said no the tip of his tongue had touched
her. Pressing wetly to her thumping clitoris so that her hips arched up and her
fingers sought purchase on the smooth dusty wall. Aubrey cried out, trying
desperately for some odd reason to recall the last time she’d had sex. The last
time a man’s mouth had been on her and brought her to orga—