Sweat Equity (11 page)

She leaned her head back, felt her hair hang in the water, and let her orgasm loose, pressing down hard, her entire body clutching him. He moaned, low and loud at the sensation. "Oh God. Sara." He whispered as he came, pulling her close, and held her body tight to his, his lips against her throat.

"Holy shit woman that was," he sighed and leaned his head back.

"I know. I'm amazing. But you're pretty good yourself." She bit his nipple, making him jerk and protest. "But is this gonna be weird now? I mean, I'm not ready for, um," her face flushed with heat at the look in his soft brown eyes.

Craig worked hard to catch his breath. The monster orgasm had caught him by surprise. This woman had been worth the self-imposed wait, but he was alarmed at how his head pounded, how much he ached to have her back, close to him again. He smiled to himself, the natural competitor in him wishing he could send a mental picture to Mr. Gordon right now. He kissed the tip of her nose.

"No. Not weird, at least not to me." He released her and she swam away. He enjoyed the view of her naked body moving through the water. He climbed out, suddenly unsure what to do next.

 He wanted her. All of her. But she'd said she was not ready for much beyond…what? The occasional fuck?

He sighed, mentally smacking himself upside the head for letting her get to him, then reached down to ease her up out of the water, wrapping her in a huge towel and resisting the urgent need to kiss her again. Guiding her over to the cushioned lounge chairs on either side of the table where the wine bottle waited, he kept up his mantra:
Just friends. Just friends. Just friends.
But he couldn't resist taking a deep breath of her, his nose buried in her hair as they sat together and sipped the wine.

"So are you going to drive me home or are we camping out poolside tonight," she asked.

"Why not stay, or do you have early appointments tomorrow," he asked, surprising himself. He hadn't really planned it this way. Figured he'd take her home after his carefully choreographed pool seduction. But the urge to wake up with her in his arms was overwhelming to the point of breathtaking.

"Why, do you cook breakfast?" She ran her free hand down his torso, making his skin pebble.

 "For your information I am the best blueberry pancake maker on the planet; it's a known fact," he shifted in his seat as her hand traced a path towards his towel already stirring in anticipation.

She took another sip of wine.

"You know, I love blueberry pancakes, so if that's part of the deal, I think I'll stay over. But, you'll have to get me home by eight tomorrow," she said softly as she leaned over to kiss the skin of his chest, and nose her way over to his nipple, which hardened appreciably. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the lounge chair, as she licked her way downward, towards the bulge under his towel.

Contentment slipped over her like the soft towel he wrapped her in, as she snuggled in deeper. When tears sprung up, she cursed herself and sat forward.

"Hey, hey, none of that," he swung his legs down to the floor and gripped her shoulders. "I do not make ladies cry. I won't allow it. Seriously. Cut it out."

She giggled and leaned into his arm. Draping a hand over his muscular thigh, she took a deep breath. "Craig," He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him.

"No."

"What? You don't even know what I'm about to ask."

"Whatever it is the answer is no."

"Huh. Well, I guess I can't suck your cock then. Oh well, your loss." She stood, and stretched, yelping when he tugged her back to his lap and covered her lips with his. The kiss left her completely breathless in more ways than one. "So now that we have that covered…" she touched her forehead to his. "This is fun. I'm glad we did it. But you have to know,"

"I know. It's okay. I don't mind being a fuck buddy, Sara. Honestly, I have always had a blast with you anyway; this just adds a lovely, um, element to our friendship, don't you think?"

She smiled and kissed him once more then stood up to reposition herself across his lap, the lovely hard bulge of his resurgent erection warm against her body. "Yes, a lovely element indeed. You got any more of those up here?" She nodded towards the wad of paper towel where he'd placed his used condom.

"Paper towels? Sure, for you anything." He picked her up, locking onto her lips with his and carried her towards the elevator.
            "Smart ass," she insisted but held on for dear life, suddenly wanting nothing more than the calm, handsome, charming man holding her in his arms.
            He set her down and pressed her against the wall of the elevator, his hand reaching under the towel to caress her still pulsing sex. "Maybe. But in the meantime, let's fuck again, eh buddy?"
            "Promises, promises," she sighed as he fulfilled it, once in the elevator and once more on the bed before they fell into an exhausted, sweaty, contended sleep.

Chapter Nine

Sara glanced at the text. Her scalp tingled for a split second thinking it was Jack but she smiled when she realized the number was Craig's.

"Hey yourself"
she sent back.
"Thanks for Friday night; btw. I can't remember if I said that."

"Yeah, you did. About a hundred times already. What about Saturday morning? I don't get thanked for that?"

Her face flushed at the memory.
"I think I get the thanks for that."

"Oh, yeah you do. Thanks."

About an hour went by while she sorted through paperwork for a few closings. His next message tested her resolve to go home by herself tonight. She had a strong need to be alone. She needed to process what was happening to her. Jack had managed to make himself scarce, which had become as annoying as his near-constant presence earlier in the week.

Her psyche still smarted from the last whirlwind of emotion that swirled around her relationship with her ex-fiancé, but Craig was certainly helping. She berated, then reminded, herself that they had completely honest conversations about where she was in her head with regard to their relationship. Craig claimed to understand, wanted to give her space and time to get over Jack, but was unable to resist her, according to him. That did a girl's ego good for certain.

"I'm cooking tonight–dinner is at 7. You bring the wine."

She waited a few minutes–a man who knew his way around a kitchen turned her on almost as much as a man with as talented a tongue as he did. She squeezed her thighs together, sighed and made a snap decision.

"Sure. Sounds good. See you then."

Blake chose that moment to call.

 "Hey" he said.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Not much. You heard from mom today?"

"Uh, no, why?" she felt a knot forming in her gut at the thought of Blake having to ask her that question.

"Oh, no reason really. I just hadn't talked to her in about a week, which is weird, so I wondered if you had."

Sara thought a moment.

"I actually did talk to her almost exactly a week ago. She was fine. Dad was fine, but bitching about taking his heart pills or some shit. I think it makes him impotent. Ha! The irony," she rolled her eyes. Their father had been a serial cheater for as long as Sara had been aware of such things. It boggled her mind that her mother, such a smart, beautiful doctor, would put up with his nonsense for so long. Anxiety pinged her consciousness, remembering how Blake had reminded her of this, the night she'd broken it off with Jack.

"Ok, well, I'll let you go..." he trailed off. Sara knew he wanted to say something else.

"What's wrong Blake?" She had a ton of stuff to do but didn't want him to think she wouldn't listen.

"What? I'm fine," he insisted. "Except, well, I don't want to bother you with this, I know you have your own issues."

"Jesus H. Christ Blake! Since when have you ever been a burden to me? All I ever do is cry on your damn shoulder about my love life," she put the phone on her shoulder and checked her email–full, as usual.

"Oh hell, it's just a fucking mess," he sighed.

"What is?" she asked, knowing full well what it was, but wanting him to tell her himself.

"Look, I really have to go," he insisted.

She could hear someone calling his name out in the brewery so decided not to press it. He'd let her know when he was ready.

"Ok, but I should let you know about my new man sometime," she smiled into the phone.

"Oh, I already know babe," he laughed and she felt her tension release. It was no good when her brother was unhinged about something. That was her job. "Everybody does! Including you-know-who and he's the only one who isn't really happy for you." He hung up.

She stared at the phone. Why in the hell she couldn't just have a private life, she had no idea. She couldn't deny that she enjoyed being the center of attention. She was fine with that, but she still wasn't completely convinced she knew what she ultimately wanted. The fact that so many people had already made up their minds about what her life "should be" grated on her nerves like never before.

Suddenly gripped with a strange compulsion, she quickly dialed "mom" and tapped her fingers on the desk waiting for her to answer. She'd never been that close to her parents, but all the craziness going on in her love life lately made her feel bereft and she needed to ask her mother a question.

"Hi honey!" Sara smiled, soothed in a way of daughters by mothers, despite disagreements and past clashes.

"Hey mom. Um, you busy?"

"No, I don't have to be down at the clinic for another half an hour." Sara leaned back in her chair. "Retirement" for her mother had meant diving into volunteerism and then founding a clinic to serve poor women's health needs in the scary inner city somewhere, nowhere near her expensive beachside condo. Much to her father's early chagrin, then once he realized the only way he'd see his wife would be to help; he'd jumped in with both feet. Now they both worked nearly as much as they once did, gratis.

"Okay." Sara suddenly had no words for what she needed to know. She bit her lip.

"What is it Sara?" Her mother had been her first example of getting right to the point. "Blake okay? I know he's having some trouble with Rob. And I hear you have a new boyfriend. How exciting!" Her mother did not sound excited. Sara sighed.

"If you hadn't married Daddy…" she began, and then started over. "I know you told me once there was another, different guy. Why…oh hell," She put a hand over her face.

Her mother stayed quiet. Sara felt herself getting aggravated by it. She pulled herself together. "Why did you stay with him mom? I mean, Jesus, he…I caught him, remember?"

"Honey, you can't equate the choices I made with anything you're going through right now. It's not fair to, well, to anyone."

"I know how you all feel about Jack." She let defensiveness creep into her tone and hated it.

"No, you don't. I'll admit that your dad doesn't like him and the reasons for that probably lie in some similarities in their personalities. But women who bitch and moan that their lives are ruined because they married their fathers are just making excuses, I think."

"But…why?"

"I love your father Sara. I always have. We have split up three times, that last time when he acted like such an idiot and you had to see it. We stayed apart nearly a year, remember?"

"Yeah. Hard to forget it, frankly."

"Exactly. Since you were only sixteen, I didn't feel a need to share with you or Blake how we had resolved it. I should have. That's my fault and probably set you both up for failure in relationships." Sara let a tear slip down her cheek at the sound of her mother's deep sigh from so many miles away.

"No, no, it's okay."

"No, it's not. Listen, you have to wrap your head around the fact that people are not perfect. No man is without his flaws. There is something very, very real that happens between two people. Blake has it with Rob. You, well, shit Sara, you want me just to come out and say it I will," Sara shook her head, even though no one could see her.

"No mom, I probably don't want you to but I think you are anyway." Her heart pounded in her chest and she held the phone in a death grip to her ear.

"Jack loves you honey. I know it. You know it. He's not perfect but…you are so unhappy when you aren't together."

"But he's, I mean, I'm ready to kill him half the time when we are together." She knew she sounded lame.

"So? And the other half?"

Sara slumped back in her seat. "This is not what I needed to hear today."

"Then why did you call me? You need a reality check Sara. Blake's been filling your ear with the bad and jeopardizing his own relationship by being over protective. I told him that. Now you need to hear something else for a change. Jack is not your father. You are not me. You two owe it to yourselves to at least talk, like adults, about…"

"No. Mom. I'm not. I can't. I have…"

"I know, I know. Blake thinks this other guy is perfect. Whatever. Please realize something though honey. You should never measure your success by what your friends and family think of you. Remember only you hold that ruler. If you want to be married, or not. A businesswoman, or not. That is your call and no one else's."