The Accidental Encore (25 page)

“Damn you, Allie. You don't know what you're asking.”

“You wanna bet?” She lunged. There wasn't any better word
for the way she simply threw herself into his arms. Their mouths met in kiss
meant to destroy. There would be no tenderness with Craig. No soft words or
coaxing from his mouth as it streaked from her lips to scrape greedily along
her neck.

“It's your smell,” she heard him mutter. “You always smell
so damn good.”

“Put your hands on me, Craig. God, I need your hands on me.”

She didn't have to ask twice. When they streaked over her,
under her coat, down her dress and up, she felt the sting of the cold air
against her legs. “The door.”

He shoved it closed with his foot and pushed her back
against the carved wood. He dragged the coat from her shoulders and stood back
to look at her. “Good God, Allie. It's a wonder the man could put two words together
with you dressed like this.”

His words, spoken through ragged breaths, had alarm bells
ringing in her head. She pulled his lips back to hers and tried to lose herself
in his kiss, but the ringing in her ears wouldn't stop. She pushed him far
enough away to catch her breath. “Do you remember me telling you I'm quitting
teaching and going back to school?”

His brows drew together and his unfocused eyes narrowed.
“You never told me that.”

It was all she needed to hear. She smiled, giddy with
relief, and flipped around in his arms to spread her hands against the door as
if he were going to do a pat down. “Zipper runs right down the middle.”

***

He'd lost his mind. As he ordered his hands off and down,
they went up, seeking her zipper, and down to expose a column of pale white
skin, the contrast made all the more stark against the black of her bra. Before
he could push the material off her shoulders, he ran his lips along the base of
her neck and nipped at the nape. The dress slithered like a snake over her curves
to land in a puddle at her feet. He could only marvel at the beauty of Allie in
her underwear and three inch heels.

He unfastened her bra before letting his hands feast on
every inch of her milky skin. Everything. She was everything he feared, everything
he desired. She leaned against him, a moan of pleasure on her lips. She covered
his hands with her own as they cupped her breasts, pinching at her nipples, her
bottom snug and swaying against his groin. A man could die from just the feel
and taste of her skin.

Who was this woman in his arms, coaxing, urging him to
touch, to feel, to take? She turned, and if he'd thought her beautiful before,
this Allie, aroused beyond good sense, was magnificent. She tugged urgently at
his sweatshirt, yanking it up and over his head. She tossed it aside and made
quick work of his jeans as he slipped his fingers inside her panties and found
her more than willing, but ready. His jeans fell with a thud on the floor.

“Allie,” he croaked as she wrapped her long fingers around
him, guiding him toward her. “I'm not going to take you against the door.”

“Just take me, Craig. I can't stand it,” she panted. “I
can't wait. Don't make me wait.”

He swallowed her moan as he lifted her leg and rammed inside
her. When she cinched around him in a torturous vice, the animal inside of him
broke free. Flesh pounded flesh as teeth nipped and fingers plundered. There
were no tender words or gentle grazes, only man and woman mating in a fight for
the finish. Every breath he took, every thought he had was of her. When she
exploded around him, it was her name on his lips as the world narrowed to a
pinpoint and he emptied his soul.

***

Allie felt as exposed as a live wire. She had both feet on
the ground, but it would be a while before she felt steady on her feet. She
gulped air into her lungs and fought the urge to slide bonelessly to the floor.
The sound of Craig's breathing echoed in her ear as his hair tickled the raw
skin of her neck. They'd battered and battled and somehow remained vertical when
the world crashed around them in an explosion of glorious smoke.

He shifted and rested his forehead against hers. “Christ,”
he said in a whisper. “Are we still alive?”

She chuckled and let her hand drift along his nicely muscled
back to rest on his butt. Everything about the last few...minutes,
hours—God only knew how long they'd wrestled against the door—was a
blur. She knew she'd need more from him even as he pulled back and left her
shaking. “If we're dead, I'm doing pretty good in the afterlife.”

“Blondie, you're more than good.”

Was it possible to blush when she'd just begged for and been
ravished to within an inch of her life? “I'm feeling just reckless enough to
admit I want more, but since I can't stand up much longer, I'm going to have to
insist on a bed.”

He did the unthinkable. Just when she expected him to push
her toward the couch, he scooped her into his arms and began carrying her up
the stairs. Oh, yes, she thought. She was going to need to spend some serious
time getting a good look at this body of his. So strong, he carried her as if
she weighed nothing. He set his lips on hers in a kiss of devastating
tenderness before dropping her like a sack of wheat on the bed. The room was
lit only by a small lamp along the wall in the adjoining seating area.

He climbed over her and slung onto his back, his breath
coming out in pants. “I’m going to need a minute or two.”

“Take your time,” she said. Too late to feel shy or awkward
around him, she didn't want to waste a second on such worthless emotions. She
leaned up and cupped her head in her palm as her other hand stroked along his
abdomen. “Yeah,” she said. “I’d say you're more than average.”

He chuckled and sucked in a breath when her hand reached
lower to tease. “Ummm, much better than average.”

It took more than a minute, but less than five to have him
reversing their positions and working his way over her. Here was the man who'd
fixed her porch, the man who read her moods and heard her words, the man who
could read her mind if the direction of his mouth were any indication. Both of
him, all of him, the Craig who'd taken her with abandon against his front door
and the one who suckled tenderly at her breast and beyond were the man who'd
won her heart. She gave herself to him in a way she'd never done with another,
body, heart, and soul.

Chapter 29

He'd forgotten to shut the blinds. That was the first
thought Craig had as the sun slanted across his face and his eyes fluttered
open. When his arm wouldn't budge, the cloud lifted from his brain and he
whipped his head around to find Allie, gloriously naked, sprawled along the
edge of the bed, her hair like a riotous halo over his arm and the pillow.

He rubbed his hand over his face even as other, more potent
parts of his body sprang to life. What had he done? What in the name of God had
possessed him to carry her upstairs to his bed and into his life? When she
stirred, he shimmied his hand out from under her head and stared as she turned
over and nestled on her back. She fisted the sheet in her hands on her stomach,
leaving her breasts exposed and as tempting as a tallboy filled with bourbon at
an AA meeting. He sprang up and dashed into the bathroom. It would be a cold
shower for him this morning. A very cold shower indeed.

***

Allie stretched as muscles, long unused, heated. Her
conscience flared to life. She reached her hand across the bed and found it
empty. Blinking against the sunlight that streamed through the up drawn blinds,
she sat up and gasped as the bathroom door opened and Craig appeared, still
dripping water from his shower, a towel hanging low on his hips.

“Good morning,” she said. She couldn't read his expression.
It teetered somewhere between annoyance and shock. She wasn't sure, on so
little sleep, which she preferred.

“Morning.” He averted his eyes and made a beeline for the
closet.

Okay, Allie thought. He's uncomfortable. Not exactly the
reaction she expected after they'd spent half the night wrapped around one
another. But this was Craig she was dealing with, which meant she needed to
proceed with caution. “What time is it?” she asked.

“After nine,” he called from the closet.

“Nine?” She couldn't remember the last time she'd whiled the
morning away in bed.

“You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, but I've got
to get to the house. I'm meeting a contractor in half an hour.”

“Oh.” It hurt. Unquestionably it hurt for him to rush out of
his house with her naked and more than willing in his bed, but he did have a
job to do. So did she, when it came right down to it, even though she'd chuck
all responsibility out the window to feel his hands on her again. “Okay.”

“There's not much in the way of breakfast. Couple boxes of
cereal that Leah likes and maybe a box of frozen waffles.”

“I'm not worried about breakfast, Craig.”

“Good.” He emerged wearing a fresh pair of jeans and a worn
red flannel shirt. He wouldn't look her in the eye. “I mean, have whatever.” He
sat on the bench in the sitting area and laced up his work boots.

This wasn't good. He was back to running scared. This wasn't
about her, she told herself as the seconds slipped to minutes in absolute
silence. She let the sheet fall where she'd held it clutched to cover her
chest. It was weak and shallow, but she'd use any trick in the book to break
him out of that infuriatingly distant mood.

She should be pleased to see he wasn't immune after all. The
swell in his crotch was unmistakable as he moved past the bed on his way to the
door. When she pulled the sheet away from her body and slid to the side of the
bed to stand up, he practically jumped for the door handle.

“I'll buzz you later,” he called over his shoulder.

Naked and more exposed than she'd ever felt in her life,
Allie dropped to the side of the bed and cried.

Chapter 30

Melissa rushed into the restaurant as fast as she could
maneuver the stroller through the throngs of holiday shoppers. She searched
over the crowd until she spotted Allie in a corner booth by the window. She
left the stroller by the entrance, snagged a booster seat on her way, and
wrestled with Henry as he bucked and fought the enclosure. She hadn't gotten
more than a glimpse of Allie's face, but she knew something was wrong.

“He's really feisty today, huh?” Allie said.

“Unusually so.” She fished a toy out of her bag and he
thanked her by throwing it at her head. “Okay, how about nothing, then.”

With an exasperated sigh, she eased into the booth. “Oh no.
What's going on?”

“What do you mean, oh no?”

“I mean I can tell something's wrong. So spill. I might not
have much time.”

The waitress showed up and deposited silverware and took
their drink order. Allie had that glazed over look like she had in the weeks
after Nick had dumped her. “So?” Melissa asked as soon as the waitress turned
her back on the table.

“I slept with Craig.”

“Okay. Why do you look like you've lost your best friend?”

“I haven't heard from him since.”

“When did it happen?”

“Two weeks ago.”

Melissa tried, but failed to keep the surprise from her
face. “Two weeks. Yikes. Have you called him?”

“Yes.”

“And? Come on, Allie. Don't make me pry this out of you
detail by detail.”

“We made love, repeatedly, and in the morning, he bolted
from his own house like his pants were on fire. He said, 'I'll buzz you later,'
and I haven't heard from him since.”

“How many times have you called?”

“I waited three agonizing days before calling him. I left a
message on his cell, which is always with him. No answer, no return call. I
waited until the following week, a week ago Tuesday, and left another message
on his cell. Nothing. I called him once at home, but didn't leave a message.”

“So you have no idea what happened to scare him off? Was the
sex bad?”

She let out a mirthless laugh. “No. It was
not
bad,
for either of us.”

“Okay, tell me what happened in the morning.”

“I woke up and he was in the bathroom. He came out, freshly
showered, and wouldn't even look at me. He hid in the closet and emerged fully
dressed while regaling me with the various breakfast items I could help myself
to after he left for a work appointment.”

Melissa pulled a container of Goldfish out of her purse and
dumped a few on the table when Henry began his Houdini routine. “Let's back up,
since it sounds like you didn't have time to say or do something the morning
after. How did you end up together?”

“I went out with Jamie. You remember Jamie Morgan? Beth's
brother?”

“Yeah, big guy, dark hair?”

“Yes. I told you we went out and had a good time. We went
out four times in one week. I was getting stars in my eyes the way I always do
when someone I like is interested. On Saturday night, he took me to Bones.”

“Very nice.”

“Yes, it was. But...I had this feeling that something wasn't
right. I mean, we'd been on four dates and I knew he expected to take me home.
I was okay with that—I thought I was, but something didn't feel quite
right. So I tested him.”