mouth on her breasts. His mouth everywhere, oh, yes. No need for pretty words.
He slid her panties off with deliberate slowness, grazing his fingers along her bare thighs as he removed the wispy garment, making her whimper with wanting. He slid off her heels, too, but he left her thigh-high stockings on.
She was coming unglued. If she didn’t have him inside her in the next ten seconds, her whole body was going to go up in flames. She beckoned him to her, grasping his muscular hip with one hand and his beautiful arousal in the other as she opened herself to him.
“Wait, honey, wait.”
“Wait?” Did he have no idea how desperate he’d made her?
But then she realized he was reaching for the bedside drawer. He was thinking about protecting her, and all she could think about was getting her satisfaction.
Thank goodness one of them had a shred of sanity left.
He took care of that little detail in one smooth movement, no fumbling, which reminded her that Max wasn’t exactly inexperienced when it came to women. The image of his little black book sprang to her mind for just a moment, but she banished it.
Who cared about the past? Or the future, for that matter. Max was here and now, and in moments he was going to be inside her and she was positive it would be the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Max resisted the urge to just dive into Jane’s luscious body. He’d dated a lot of women, gone to bed with quite a few, too. But none had made him feel like this, like he wanted to sip and savor and create an experience that would live in their memories forever.
Moments ago he’d been in a rush. He couldn’t get her or himself naked fast enough. But now that they were committed, he wanted to take it slower, to look and touch and taste.
“Max?” Jane asked a little desperately, and he realized he’d gone still while poised above her and was just looking, taking it all in.
He leaned down and kissed her, hoping she could feel even a fraction of what he felt right now.
Again she opened herself to him, and this time Max accepted the invitation, taking it slow, letting her grow accustomed to him. Every time he moved she made a little noise in the back of her throat, like a wild creature. The sounds only inflamed him further.
When he was perilously close to losing control, he plunged all the way in.
“Ah, yes, finally,” Jane said, and he smiled, thinking she probably hadn’t meant to speak aloud.
His movements steadied into a rhythm. Jane met him thrust for thrust, her eyes open and gazing into his, trusting, giving, generous. He pressed his cheek into her hair, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance as he tried to make it last.
“Oh…oh…” She seemed to hold her breath, then looked almost surprised as the spasms overtook her body, taking them both over the edge of sanity to a place Max had never been before.
Max rode the crest of the wave for what seemed like an eternity. By the time it was over and they lay together, limbs entwined, sweaty, her hair in glorious disarray, Max wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He discreetly glanced at his bedside clock and was amazed they still had thirty minutes left of their lunch hour.
He fingered a strand of her hair, then tickled her nose with it. “Wish I could lie in bed all day with you.”
“Mmm.”
“On the other hand, showering with you would be nice.”
Finally she opened her eyes, looking a little dazed. “That was crazy good, wasn’t it?”
He laughed. “I’d say so. Maybe even worth the possible lawsuit.”
She frowned. “Lawsuit?”
“When you sue me for sexual harassment.”
“Oh, Max.” She pulled her hair out of his hand. “You know I would never do that, right?”
“Sure, you say that now, when everything’s all rosy.”
She sat up and thumped him with a pillow. “Stop it. I’m not the suing type. I’m going into this knowing there might be consequences. What happens, happens.”
“So what is ‘this’?”
“What? What’s what?”
“You said ‘I’m going into this…’ and I want to know what you think we’re getting into.”
“Jeez, Max. If you don’t know, I certainly don’t. It’s a thing.”
“A thing?”
“A hot, sexy, what-the-hell-are-we-doing thing.”
“Is it a continuous thing?”
She grinned mischievously. “I don’t know. Is it?”
He grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on the mattress. “I hope you didn’t do this just to satisfy an itch. I sure didn’t.” Then he kissed her, just to make sure she knew he meant what he said. “I’m not ready for marriage. The agency has to be my priority for a few years. But that doesn’t mean I want this to be a one-night stand.”
“One-lunch-hour stand.”
“Jane…”
“Sorry.” She maneuvered herself away from him, and suddenly she did look serious. Almost too serious. “I don’t want this to be an isolated incident, either. But I understand about priorities. I’m not one of those single moms shopping for a daddy for her kid.”
Max hated hearing his words thrown back at him. “I never imagined you were.”
She sat up, wrapping the sheet around herself. “Just one other small matter, Max.”
“What?”
“I think…while we’re figuring this thing out…you shouldn’t spend a lot of time around Kaylee.”
The thud of disappointment in his chest seemed all out of proportion. He rolled back onto his own pillow. “Oh.”
“It’s all that stuff we talked about at the fish fry. She’ll get too attached, and-”
“You don’t have to go over it again, Jane. I really do understand.”
“Really?”
“Really. I had another little girl get attached to me once. Her name was Hannah.”
Jane said nothing.
“As uncool as it is to bring up old girlfriends when you’re in bed with the new one, I’ll tell you anyway. Her name was Alicia, and we were together a couple of years.”
“You stayed with a woman for
“I know everyone thinks I’m some kind of womanizer, and maybe that’s what I became. But I was happy with Alicia. Satisfied. She offered me something that was sadly lacking in my life, and that was a family. You know, that warm, family thing?”
“But you have a family.”
“My parents got divorced when I was five. My mother had a string of boyfriends, even married a couple, but they never lasted. My dad had a couple more marriages, too. Eddie and I got bounced back and forth between them like ping-pong balls.”
“Oh, Max, I’m sorry.”
“Alicia was nurturing and warm, and she was a great mother to Hannah. And Hannah-what a great kid. The two of them made me feel I belonged in a way I never had before.”
“And yet something went wrong.”
“Alicia wanted more from me than I could give. She wanted marriage, and I wasn’t ready. I was only twenty- eight, still focused on my career and hanging out with friends. And I didn’t love Alicia. I wasn’t in love with her, I mean. Looking back, I think I stayed with her as long as I did because I cared about Hannah, not because of Alicia. All in all, I was pretty selfish. I wanted what they could give me, but I didn’t want to provide what Alicia needed.”
“We all make relationship mistakes.”
“And sometimes we hurt people in the process. I devastated Hannah when I broke up with her mother. She’d never even known her real father. I was the closest she’d ever had.”
