Spectacular Rascal: A Sexy Flirty Dirty Standalone Romance (22 page)

As the words leave her mouth, my father lights up. He literally turns a lighter shade of tan as some cranky-old-man filter is lifted from his features by the pure joy of meeting a fellow angler and fish aficionado. Of all the things Cat could have said to this man, she picked the absolute perfect thing, the one guaranteed to un-mudgeon the curmudgeon.

“Four feet, ten inches, and eighty-eight pounds,” Dad says, his barrel chest puffing out. “And that’s no fish story. Biggest striped waterdog our safari guide had ever seen that wasn’t a goliath.”

“Jesus,” Cat breathes, the proper degree of awe in her tone. “That must have been one hell of a fish fight. What kind of tackle were you using?”

My father launches into the war story of Jim versus the Striped Waterdog with Teeth as long as a Man’s Finger, one of his favorite stories in the world, and by the time we’ve dropped our bags inside the door and joined Julie on the back patio for wine, my father has arranged to steal the seat next to Cat’s. But I don’t mind.

I’ve only brought three women home in my entire life, and never in the course of my dating career have I given two shits what my father thought about the girl I’m with. My father doesn’t care much for me, his own son, and I’ve learned not to have feelings about
that
. I’m so far beyond caring what my father thinks of my taste in romantic partners it’s laughable.

Or so I’d thought…

But as I watch my father smile—smile, like a normal human being capable of being amused and not grunty and scary—at Red, I can’t help hoping the spell won’t wear off. I like that Jim realizes that she’s something special. I like hearing Cat talk fish and African safaris and old cars with my father and realizing that this is the way she must have talked to her own dad. It’s a part of her I’ve never seen, and it makes me like her even more.

“Good job, big guy,” Julie whispers as she refills my glass with her latest pinot noir. “I’m so happy for you, sweetheart. You deserve love with a wonderful girl.”

She squeezes my shoulder and moves away to refill the other glasses before I can respond.

And I’m glad. Because I don’t know what to say.

I’m not ready to name what I feel for Cat—certainly not something as big as love—but as she meets my eyes across the table with a smugly triumphant look that clearly says “see there, Curve, told you I’d make them love me,” I can’t help but smile.

She’s a pain in my ass.

She’s always been a pain in my ass.

But I’m beginning to think it’s a pain it would be terrible to live without.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

By the time we drink wine, eat dinner, and drink some more wine while watching the sun set over Lake Cayuga, it’s almost nine o’clock, I’m feeling no pain, and Cat is flushed and giggly.

“I’m fading fast,” I finally whisper just after nine-thirty. “If we don’t find our way to the cabin soon, I’m going to pass out on a lounge chair.”

“Oh, thank God.” She laughs again, a rich, round sound that sends happiness bubbling through my blood. “I’m so drunk and
soooo
tired. I’m going to pass out the second my head hits the pillow. I don’t see how you’re still awake. At least I had a nap in the car.”

“Awesomeness,” I say, or try to. The word is so badly slurred it inspires another giggle from Cat, attracting Julie’s attention.

“Are you two ready to turn in?” she asks. “I made up the guest room for you upstairs.”

“I thought you had a cottage free,” I say. The thought of sleeping down the hall from my father and stepmother, where they will be able to hear everything I say or do to Cat, is enough to sober me up pretty quickly.

“I do.” Julie stands, stretching her arms over her head. “But that was before I knew the friend you were bringing home was a
girl
friend. I had you two in one of the kid cabins, the ones with the bunk beds. It’s the only one I have free.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” Cat says, clearly not liking the thought of being under the same roof with my parents any more than I do. “We love bunk beds. It will be like the hostels we stayed at back in college.”

“Yeah. It will be great.” I nod enthusiastically, glad my father headed up to shower an hour ago. As smitten as he is with Cat, I’m sure he’d lobby to have us stay here so he could talk fish with her over coffee in the morning.

Julie shakes her head. “Are you sure? I mean, those mattresses are narrow and you’re—”

“We’re sure,” Cat and I both say at the same time, before she adds, “Yes, ma’am, we’re sure. And if it isn’t too rude I would love to head over to the cottage now. I’m starting to feel like the walking dead.”

“Of course.” Julie sets her glass of water on the deck table—the wise woman stopped after two glasses of wine, like the professional she is. “I’ll give you a ride over in the golf cart. It’s on the far side of the glen, so you should have privacy. The other cabins are full, but it’s a quiet crew. They turn in early, but they’ll be up early, too, so you two should get your rest.”

I pull her in for a hug, giving her an extra squeeze of thanks. “Will do.”

Fifteen minutes later, after driving Cat and I over and giving us a brief guided tour of our cottage—a kitchenette, sitting area, bathroom, and a bedroom with two sets of bunk beds on either side of the cozy space—Julie waves good-bye and zips away up the hill.

Cat and I stand in the doorway, watching her go, silent for a moment.

A moment in which my exhaustion vanishes in the wake of the knowledge that I am alone. With Cat. And there’s a bed less than ten feet away.

She glances up at me, her eyes glittering in the dim light. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

I pull her inside, locking the door to the cottage before bracing my hands on either side of her face. “If you’re thinking you’re not ready to go straight to sleep anymore, then yes. I am.”

“Right?” Her lips part as her hands come to my waist, trailing up under my shirt. The second her cool fingers brush across my hot skin, I’m hard. Hard, aching, and desperate to have her. “How could I even
think
about sleeping without taking a shower first?”

“A shower?” I bite my lip as her hands drift higher, molding to my chest. “You’re sure a shower is all you want?”

“I haven’t showered in over a day, Aidan,” she says in mock horror as she brushes a thumb across my nipple, adding another item to the list of things on my body that are hard because of her. “That’s disgusting. I’m a disgusting person.”

“That’s not the word I would have used.” I move in closer, dropping my hands to her waist.

Her eyes darken, and her fingers curl until her nails dig into my chest. “It’s not?”

I lower my head, bringing my lips inches from hers. “I was thinking…delicious. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of you.”

“Which makes
you
disgusting,” she whispers in a husky voice I can feel in all the places I desperately want her to touch. “Can’t you smell me?”

“I can.” I inhale, humming in appreciation as her hands smooth around to my back, urging me closer. “You smell like sunshine and that sweet white wine you spilled on your shirt and…buttered popcorn.” My lips curve in surprise. “When did you eat buttered popcorn?”

“I didn’t.” Her palms find my ass, and I flex my muscles beneath her grip, loving the way she touches me—without hesitation, without any doubt that every part of me is hers to explore. “That’s what my sweat smells like at first, before it transforms into a more funky popcorn smell.”

“That’s amazing.” I smooth my hand up her ribs, cupping her breast in my hand and finding her tight nipple through her tank top. “Your body is a fucking miracle of sexy evolution.”

“So, buttered popcorn turns you on.” Her breath rushes across my mouth as I intensify the pressure on her nipple. “Good to know. I’ll invest in a popcorn machine for my living room and crank it up before you come over.”

“Fuck buttered popcorn.
You
turn me on. Everything about you.” I curl my fingers into the top of her shirt, tugging it low enough to bare her breast, drawing a soft gasp from her lips. “I need to get my mouth on you, Red. I need every part of you pressed against me.”

She arches into my fingers as I find her nipple again, this time with nothing between us to mute the electricity that leaps between bare skin and bare skin. “Then you’re going to have to get what you need in the shower, Mr. Knight.”

“I’ll fuck you in the shower.” I reach for the bottom of her tank top, ripping her shirt and bra over her head in one smooth motion before pulling her back into my arms. “I’ll fuck you anywhere, anytime. Dirty or clean, sweet or kinky, any way you want it, as long as I get to feel you come on my cock.”

“How about sweet and dirty?” she asks, as I lift her up and turn to carry her into the bathroom, my hands braced beneath her fantastic ass and her legs wrapped tight around my waist. “I don’t want too kinky tonight. I just want to make love to you.”

My heart does a hard flip in my chest. I pause in the doorway to the bathroom, staring deep into her eyes. “I want to make love to you, too. So don’t hide from me, okay?”

She blinks, but she doesn’t tell me I’m crazy.

Instead she leans in, kissing me softly, deeply. Kissing me until my pulse races and I start feeling drunk all over again. But this time, I’m drunk on her, this woman who makes me feel things I’ve never felt with anyone else, who makes me want to stand still and dig deep and tell the truth.

“I mean it,” I mumble against her lips as I set her down by the shower. “You ran away too fast last night.”

“I was just taking precautionary measures,” she says, working her words in between kisses as we dispose of the rest of our clothes as quickly as possible. “Running before you could beat me to it.”

“Do I look like I’m running?” I reach past her to start the water, but keep my eyes on hers. “Even a little bit?”

She shakes her head slowly. “No. You look…beautiful. Have I told you that just looking at you makes me feel like I won some kind of lottery? How lucky am I? That I get to be with you, even for a night?”

“It’s going to be way more than a night,” I promise, heart skipping another beat as she steps close, pressing her warm skin to mine. “And you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Red. Especially like this.”

“Like what?” Her breath comes faster. “Naked and willing?”

“Naked and willing. And looking at me like there’s nowhere else you’d rather be.”

“There isn’t.” Her gaze softens the way it did for Fang, but better, because she’s looking at
me,
and she’s turned on, and I know that I’m going to get a lot more from her tonight than a scratch behind the ears. “Don’t you know that by now? That you’ve always been one of my favorite people?”

“And you’re one of mine.” My cock throbs, hot and hard, against her belly, and I want her as much as I did last night, but it’s not my dick that aches the most. There’s a fiercer, painfully sweet ache spreading through my chest.

It hurts, but it’s a good hurt. A hopeful hurt.

Maybe there has always been a girl out there who was made for me. And maybe I’ve found her again. And maybe now I’m going to be smart enough to hold on tight and give this one-in-a-million woman a hundred different reasons to stop running away.

“So stay with me,” I whisper. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while, feral squirrel.”

She smiles, a big, beautiful smile that turns to a laugh as I take her hand and pull her into the spray. She’s still laughing as I cup her ass in my hands and lift her off her feet, drawing her up my body until our lips are level.

“Be careful, Knight,” she says, pressing a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Or I might just have to start falling hard for you all over again.”

“Good,” I say gruffly. “It’s about time you caught up.”

Her smile fades, and her eyes search mine for a long moment, while the warm water beats against our shoulders and my heart beats out a rhythm that’s probably Morse code for her name, and I pray that she sees there’s no reason to hold me at a distance.

In the end, I’m not sure what she sees, but she must like it, because pretty soon her smile is back, bigger and brighter than ever. “Then kiss me, sexy. And fuck me against the wall of the shower like you mean it.”

“I’m always going to mean it,” I promise, crushing my lips to hers.

And pretty soon I’ve got her pinned between the cool shower tiles and my burning skin, and I’m soaping up her breasts like it’s my job. I let my fingers tease over her slick flesh again and again until she has the cleanest nipples in the Tri-state area and she’s so wet I can feel the difference between the hot water splashing against my thigh and the hotter, stickier heat of her pussy as she grinds against my cock.

I wait until her breath is coming fast and she’s moaning into my mouth as we kiss, but I don’t hold out for begging tonight. I don’t want to wait, and I don’t want to make her wait. I just want to feel her tight and slick around me and know that I’m as close as I can be to the woman in my arms.

“Oh, God, Aidan. I love this. This moment, right here.” Her head falls back against the tiles as I slide inside her, pushing deep until I’m buried to the hilt and she’s pulsing around me, every throb of her pussy assuring me I’m welcome, wanted, wonderful.