Waiting for Love (33 page)

“I hope so. She may have something else in mind. I don’t want to step on any toes.”

“Can’t hurt to pitch it to her.” They reached the third floor and stopped outside her door. “Where’s the key stashed this time?”

She gave him a saucy smile as she reached into her top to retrieve the key card.

“That’s so hot. You have no idea how hot.” Inside the room, he surprised her when he spun her around to press her back against the closed door. For a long, breathless moment he only stared at her, seeming to take a detailed inventory of her features.

“What?” she asked, unnerved by his intensity. The scent of expensive cologne filled her senses, making her want to get even closer to him.

“You’re beautiful. And you’ve got me thinking about you far more than I should be. Do you know how hard it is to write computer code with a gorgeous, sexy woman occupying so much of my attention?”

Flattered and aroused, she dug her fingers into his hips. “How hard is it?”

“Very,
very
hard.”

Before she could make a joke about whether they were still talking about computer code, he removed his glasses, stashed them in his pants pocket, tipped his head and brought his lips down on hers lightly and gently. “All I could think about today was how you looked naked and spread out before me in bed with your silky dark hair fanned out on the pillow. I thought about how sweet you tasted against my tongue—”

“Stop,” she whispered, mortified by the image he painted.

“Why?”

“It’s embarrassing to think about what I must’ve looked like.”

“How can you be embarrassed when I just told you that thinking about it had me turned on all day?” To make his point, he pressed his erection against her belly.

“All day, huh?”

“All. Day.”

“That must get painful after a while.”

“You have no idea.”

Hearing that he’d thought of her that way and been aroused by the memories of what they’d done together the night before made her feel more brazen than usual. Her hands moved from his hips to the button of his jeans. She tugged on the button, drawing a gasp from him.

“Abby…”

“Yes?”

“What’re you doing?”

“This.” She unzipped him carefully as he was rock hard, reached inside his boxers and wrapped her hand around the thick column of flesh that seemed to get even harder in her grasp.

His head fell to her shoulder, his breathing became ragged, and his fingers dug into her bottom as he pushed against her.

He was longer and wider than she remembered from last night in the shower. Her sex clenched in anticipation of taking him in as nagging worries took hold that she pushed aside to stroke him. She ran her thumb over the head, rubbing the fluid gathered there over his tender flesh.

He bit down on her shoulder, making her cry out from the unexpected shock of it. And then he was kissing her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth to tangle and tease. Adam made her forget all about what she was doing to him until he surged into her hand, harder than ever.

Breaking the kiss only long enough to whip her shirt up and over her head, he made quick work of unhooking the pink bra and pushing it off her shoulders.

Abby’s first impulse was to release her grip on him so she could cover her bare breasts.

“No,” he said, seeming to know what she wanted to do before she even finished having the thought. “No.” He cupped her breasts, squeezing and caressing, making her crazy with the promise of what was to come. Then he bent his head and used his tongue and lips on her nipple, sucking hard enough to cause her legs to buckle.

“On the bed.” He turned them as one and walked her backward until her legs connected with the bed and she fell back, bringing him down on top of her. He began all over again with deep, drugging kisses that sucked every rational thought right out of her head. Her entire world was reduced to his hot mouth, his talented tongue, his hands on her breasts and the press of his desire against her belly.

He left a trail of fire with kisses to her face, neck, throat and between her breasts. Her back arched off the bed, seeking the heat of his mouth on her nipples. With her fingers tangled in his hair, she directed him to where she needed him most. 

“Here?” he asked, dabbing her nipple with his tongue.

“Yes.
Please
…”

“So polite.” His lips vibrated against her nipple. “Such a lady.”

“I was before I met you.”

“It’s okay to be a little naughty.”

“How naughty is a little naughty?”

Laughing, he turned his attention to her other breast. “Let me show you.” Licking and sucking and teasing, he set out to destroy her defenses, to make her forget all about being a lady. The noises he coaxed from her were hardly ladylike, but before it registered that she should be embarrassed by her reactions, he would do something else, drawing more sighs and moans and whimpers from her. 

And so it went, one sensation on top of another, building and growing until she was desperate for completion.

“Adam…”

He raised his face from the hip bone he’d been investigating with tiny nips of his teeth that ratcheted her desire to unprecedented levels. She hadn’t even known that hip bones could be sexy.

“What do you need, honey? Tell me.”

“More. I need more.”

Displaying the same efficiency he’d shown with her top and bra, he removed her jeans quickly, leaving her only in string-bikini panties that matched the bra.

“Should I be worried at how adept you are at removing a woman’s clothing?”

“Not at all. You shouldn’t be worried about anything.” He pulled his own shirt up and over his head, baring a most excellent chest to her visual perusal. Defined pectorals and rippled abs that made her sigh.

She ran her fingers over each of them. “How does a computer geek get muscles like these?”

“Many, many hours in the gym.”

Pressing her lips to the flat disk of his nipple, she said, “Time very well spent.”

He cupped her mound through the silky panties, making her strain for more. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Adam?”

“Hmm?”

“There’s something else I should tell you before this goes any farther.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s more embarrassing than ominous.”

“You’re not getting embarrassed anymore, remember? You’re enjoying a fling with a man who finds you incredibly sexy and desirable.”

While she appreciated the reminder, this particular issue had caused her untold problems in the past. As they were down to his unbuttoned jeans and two pairs of underwear standing between them and the next step in the relationship they weren’t having, she couldn’t postpone this discussion any longer.

“What is it, honey? Put it out there and let’s talk about it so you can stop fretting about it.”

“The problem I told you about the other night… It’s not the only one.”

“Okay.”

She turned her head, avoiding his gaze as she searched for the words. It was easier to say when she wasn’t facing those dazzling blue eyes looking down at her and seeing her in ways she hadn’t been seen before. “Sometimes…well, most of the time…I get nervous about…you know…”

“Having sex?”

“Yes.” She cleared her throat and forced herself to continue. “When that happens, it’s difficult for the guy to… To get it in.”

“So…things dry up?”

An infusion of heat took over her face, reminding her of past humiliations. “No, that’s not it.”

“Then what? It’s okay to just say it. I swear I’m not judging you. Not at all.”

Encouraged by his kindness, she swallowed hard and looked up at him, forcing herself to look directly into his eyes. “It’s like my muscles there seize up and can’t relax enough to allow entry.”

“I see.”

“You do?”

“Uh-huh. All that means is we have to make sure you’re as relaxed as we can possibly get you before we try that.”

“That’s often easier said than done.” Cal, in particular, had become frustrated by her inability to accept him, which had put further strain on an already strained relationship. But Abby didn’t want to think about him now. Not when she was lying nearly naked in the arms of sexy, thoughtful Adam McCarthy.

He brushed the hair back from her face, his thumbs caressing her cheekbones. “We need to find the off switch for that overactive brain of yours. We need to make it so you’re not thinking about anything other than how good it feels when we’re together this way.”

“I wish I could do that. You don’t know how badly I wish I could.”

“It’s not up to you to do that, honey. It’s up to me. If I do my part the way I should, you won’t be thinking about anything other than how good it feels.”

She had to look away again because she simply couldn’t believe how tuned in to her he was after only spending a few days together.

“You’re thinking again,” he said, kissing her neck and nibbling her ear. “Tell me. Let me in.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll have me falling for you when we said we weren’t going to do that. Because you’re already making me wonder how I spent so many years with the wrong men when the right one might’ve been so close. So very close.”

“Abby…”

“Forget I said that. You’ve got me all discombobulated and saying things I shouldn’t be saying.”

“I want to hear what you’re thinking. Do you want to know why?”

She nodded. God help her, but she wanted to know everything about him.

“Because you’ve got me thinking the same sort of things. How could we have spent so much time in each other’s orbit but never known this was possible?”

Tears filled her eyes, the emotional response infuriating her. “We said we weren’t going to do this,” she reminded him again.

He peppered her face with kisses, putting particular emphasis on her eyelids, licking the salty moisture from under her eyes. 

“We both just got out of big entanglements,” she continued, even as his tenderness destroyed her defenses. “We’ve got no business doing this.”

“And yet here we are, thoroughly entangled, all but naked in each other's arms with nowhere else either of us would rather be. Am I right about that?”

Powerfully moved by his assessment, she said, “Yes,” the single word barely a whisper.

“Sometimes,” he said, kissing her so sweetly, “the most important things happen when you least expect it.”

“Is this an important thing?”

“I don’t know about you, but it’s become very important to me over the last few days.”

His admission gave her the courage to offer her own. “Me, too.”

“How about we have a little fun now, take the edge off, and later, after we do our girls’ night and poker night, we meet back here and take all the time it takes to get you relaxed enough to make love?”

Abby trembled at the promise in his softly spoken words. Because she didn’t trust herself to speak, she nodded.

He kissed her, taking it slowly, running his tongue over the seam of her lips until she opened her mouth to let him in. When he sucked lightly on her tongue, Abby nearly died from the pleasure that coursed through her. He coaxed reactions from her that she’d never known possible. He drew her out of her own thoughts and into the moment in a way that no one else had done before. 

She clung to him, wanting him closer, close enough that his chest hair abraded her tender nipples and his hard penis pressed against the pulsating tension between her legs. 

Desperate to touch and feel all of him, she pushed her hands into the back of his jeans, under the waistband of his boxers, cupping his muscular buttocks as he flexed against her. 

He broke the kiss and shifted his attention to her nipple, tugging and biting lightly, but hard enough to make her moan from the pleasure. The tension grew to nearly unbearable heights as he pressed against her and then backed off, and then did it again, over and over until she was lost in the throes of immeasurable bliss, her fingers digging into his backside to keep him right where she needed him until the storm had subsided.

“Abby,” he whispered against her breast. “God.” The heat of his release on her belly was among the most sensual things she’d ever experienced. Watching him let go, feeling the tension drain from his body and knowing she’d done that to him made her feel powerful and aware of herself as a woman in ways that were all new to her.

“I can’t wait to be inside you when that happens,” he whispered, his breath against her neck making her shiver.

A twinge of anxiety settled in her belly as she hoped she wouldn’t have the problems with him she’d had with past lovers. For some reason, it seemed to matter so much more this time around. Despite her intention to be done forever with men, she was falling hard for Adam McCarthy.

After the visit with Laura and her family, Frank spent an hour with his son Shane, and then decided to walk the short distance from the Sand & Surf to his brother Mac’s house in North Harbor. The afternoon sun was warm on his face as he walked past Grace’s pharmacy and up the hill that led to Mac and Linda’s “White House.”

As he walked, he thought of the monumental news Laura and Owen had shared with him. Twins… It was hard to believe that his little girl would soon be the mother of three. But he’d never seen Laura as happy as she’d been since Owen had come into her life. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was his kids who’d lost their poor mother far too young and had known their share of struggles since then.

He’d done his best to be mother and father to them, and he hurt right along with them when things didn’t go their way. Now that Laura seemed happily settled, Frank hoped Shane would find his way before too much longer. His son was still far too withdrawn and quiet after the disaster with his ex-wife Courtney. 

In his work as a superior court judge, he saw daily examples of the ravages of drug abuse. He’d never expected to see the same ravages in his own family. Shane had been blindsided to discover his wife had hidden a raging prescription drug addiction for most of the time they’d been together. 

It had done Shane good to be here with his sister and cousins as well as his Aunt Linda and Uncle Mac, who’d played such a critical role in the lives of his kids when they were younger. Linda and Mac had opened their doors Laura and Shane every summer when they were young, and those weeks on Gansett with their cousins had done wonders for his kids.