hundred cases of his favorite wines.
It was nearly midnight, he was hungry, and the small niggling thought he’d been able to keep at bay with constant activity suddenly surfaced.
He literally muttered, “No,” aloud, rose from his chair overlooking the river, and hied himself upstairs to his kitchen. He’d make himself something to eat, then maybe go for a walk. He was
That stern admonition lasted ten minutes-maybe less. Whether he liked it or not, his cock had other ideas, and his sex drive being what it was, he struggled to keep himself in line. With considerable effort he restrained himself from calling her, flipping through the channels on cable instead, looking for distractions.
Wouldn’t you know-nothing appealed.
For five minutes more, he tried to talk himself out of obsessing over having sex with Liv again. It was totally bizarre how he couldn’t get her out of his mind. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t fucked plenty of beautiful, blonde models before.
So what was the freaking problem?
Was it some voodoo magic? Yeah, right.
Was he just flying high now that he was living his long-unrealized dream? Possibly.
Was Liv Bell hotter than other women? Absolutely.
So there. A simple answer. It was just pure lust. Nothing to angst over. He was experiencing basic male urges. Although his fierce impatience to assuage them did give him pause. For maybe another two seconds.
He glanced at the clock. Midnight. Fuck-it was late.
He picked up the phone anyway and hit 411 for information.
A few moments later, having received her number, he waited for the connection to click through.
Liv answered on the first ring.
“Did I wake you?”
“I should say yes, but no, you didn’t. For some reason, I can’t sleep.” She wasn’t about to say he was the reason nor that her pulse rate had accelerated big time on hearing his voice.
“Same here. Although I slept all day, so I’m not exactly tired. How are Janie and Matt doing?”
“Good. They’re sleeping.” Is that why he called? Hoping to talk to Janie?
“So what are you doing?”
“Trying to sleep.”
“I’ve been thinking about you.”
“I admit you’ve been in my thoughts, too.”
“How far is it out there?”
“It’s too far. An hour.”
“I drive fast.”
“You shouldn’t. It’s really late, and I have to work tomorrow. ”
“You mean it?”
“No.”
“Give me directions.”
She lay in bed after she hung up, shaking faintly, wondering what had come over her that the mere sound of his voice could make her feverish with longing. She’d never believed such feelings actually existed, that another person could provoke such spine-tingling sensations. When other women had talked about the breathless ecstasy some man provoked in them, she’d always thought they were overemotional wing nuts.
Apparently, she’d been wrong.
Which was good and bad. Good, because what she was feeling was fantastic. But not so good that she was wildly out of control.
She’d never been that kind of person.
The man behind the wheel of Chaz’s silver-gray BMW was speeding north with one eye out for the highway patrol. Less introspective by habit as well as circumstance-in this case, his rock-hard cock was serving as power player-he was pretty much focused on consummation. Issues of restraint or the lack thereof would have to wait until a more coolheaded time.
He glanced at the clock on the dash, flicked his gaze upward to check out the rearview mirror, then quickly surveying the wide-open road before him, punched the accelerator.
His voice of reason tried to make itself heard, clamoring,
He had the windows down to the summer night, a prime song was singing the pleasures of foxy ladies and wild sex, and he was on his way to get some.
Really, this was ridiculous.
She stopped just short of her closet, her decision made.
She’d put on an ordinary robe, like the blue seersucker one on her chair. Keep it casual. Don’t make this something it isn’t. Sex is sex is sex.
Or not, as it turned out.
Fortunately, it took Jake nearly an hour to reach Liv’s farm, allowing her the opportunity to try on and discard a dozen different outfits. All of which were now-in her haste-tossed out of sight in her closet. Finally, glancing at the clock, she had no choice but to give it up and race downstairs. She wanted to wait on the porch in order not to wake Matt or Janie.
Just as she stepped outside, car headlights appeared at the entrance to her drive.
She stood at the top of the stairs as the car approached and came to rest at the edge of her lawn. She didn’t move as Jake stepped out and walked toward her unless the faint tremble in her hands counted. When he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and smiled up at her, she thought she might come just looking at him. He was consummate male machismo limned by moonlight. Powerful and assured in what she was coming to recognize as his uniform of jeans and a white T-shirt, he looked up at her with lady-killer eyes.
“Nice,” he said, indicating her dress with a lift of his hand. “The age of innocence in moonlight.” Her eyelet dress was pure white virginal chic.
“Thanks.” She tried to keep her voice placid like his but didn’t quite succeed. She touched the Dolce and Gabbana ruffled skirt with a shaky hand. “I didn’t know what to wear,” she added with a whisper-soft naivete that matched her little-girl dress.
It shouldn’t have mattered to him that she was skittish and trembling. He shouldn’t have felt so pleased she was turned on. After all, he’d come for himself, not her. As always. And, as always, he’d remembered to bring something because women liked presents. “Here,” he said, mounting the stairs, holding out his hand.
He came to rest beside her a moment later, and she saw a small cabochon emerald suspended from a slender braided gold chain lying on his open palm.
“Sorry, it’s not something better.” He shrugged. “There aren’t any shops open this time of night except 7- Eleven. I used these in a promotion once.”
A small silence fell, the sounds of crickets and frogs suddenly shrill in the night.
Fuck it, he thought. This wasn’t business as usual; he might as well be honest. “I tried to stay away,” he said. “And yet…”
She nodded. “I know. I couldn’t sleep because of you.”
