Bad Girl by Night (29 page)

But she could scarcely think anymore when Jake’s warm touch descended from behind her again, this time to her chest. He smoothed the fragrant lotion in, working from her neck downward . . . onto the inner curves of her breasts. She drew in her breath and once more felt all those male eyes drinking her in as Jake worked slowly, thoroughly, even letting his fingertips ease inside the edges of her bikini top as if to make sure he covered every inch of skin. She knew her nipples jutted against the thin top now—her pussy tingled too much for her breasts not to be getting in on the act, showing Jake and his friends how aroused she was. She even heard another sigh of pleasure echo from her throat unbidden.

When finally Jake’s hands moved lower, to her stomach, he dropped a soft kiss to the side of her neck. And when he’d covered that area, as he began to stand back upright, he skimmed his fingertips over her breasts. She felt it
everywhere
.

Carly barely knew who she was in this moment. She felt . . . like someone she didn’t know—and yet she didn’t really want to change a thing. She was a hot, vibrant, bold, sensual woman. And still, in her mind, she remained completely herself.

She murmured a soft “Thank you” to her lover, but kept her eyes closed. Because Desiree would have opened them, would have met all those hot, piercing male gazes, would have said something saucy or inviting or obscene. And she wasn’t quite
there
yet—and wasn’t sure she ever would be or even wanted to be. The truth was, she liked everything about who she was in this very moment. Sexy, bold—but still herself.

Finally, she heard Cameron say, perhaps a bit awkwardly, his voice low but breathy, “Um, anybody ready to eat? Maybe I should, uh, start getting the grill ready.”

“Uh, yeah—good idea,” Quinn answered, equally as uncomfortable.

And then everything changed—the awkwardness ended as the guys resumed going about their business, a couple of them getting the grill fired up as someone else said, “I’ll grab the burgers and dogs from the fridge.”

But it all confirmed Carly’s suspicions that his buddies had indeed been as transfixed by Jake’s sensual sunscreen application as she herself had been. She’d officially turned them on.

 

 

B
y the time darkness fell across Lake Michigan, dinner was over and the boat’s passengers stood around the deck drinking, laughing, having fun. Everyone remained in their swimwear from earlier—there’d been no reason to change. While the guys all drank beer, Carly indulged in strawberry wine coolers.

Her mind kept drifting back to what she now thought of as “the sunscreen incident.” It had been hours ago, and certainly no one had mentioned it nor treated her any differently, so it was almost as if it had never even happened—yet she couldn’t forget it had. Now, as she stood at the railing, admiring the ribbon of sparkling light the moon cast on the rippling water, a pleasant lull of intoxication wafted over her and she found herself wondering . . . if she’d made them hard, all these manly men. Was it possible?

Of course, maybe she was blowing it out of proportion—maybe watching was just watching. It didn’t necessarily equal a hard-on. But the very idea still made her feel sexy all over.
Sexual
. Hungry—and not just for the brownies and cookies and chips they’d all been nibbling since dinner.

Music still played, and she recognized the song just coming on—a very sexy older tune she remembered giggling about with Dana when they were kids, called “Naughty Naughty.” The beat was intense and powerful, sensual in and of itself—and when a warm hand closed on her wrist and spun her around, she didn’t expect it to be Shane. “Dance with me,” he said, all confident smile and seductive eyes.

It caught her off guard as he pulled her into a rather close embrace, already moving to the music, but she laughed and went along with it, seeing no real reason not to. A couple of the other guys stood across the deck absorbed in conversation, and Jake had just headed off to the bathroom a minute before.

It felt strange now to be in another guy’s arms. Shane was at once lean yet masculine, his arms and shoulders bulging with just the right amount of firm muscle, his chest peppered with only a smattering of pale brown hair. The way he moved to the song was nothing more than playful, yet she remained very aware of her body from the day’s events. She let her palms rest high on his chest as his hands molded to her hips, making her cunt tense slightly.

“So tell me about this girl—Tara,” she said.

His light grin seemed to chide her for asking, and it was laced with some sadness he couldn’t quite hide. “Like Rogan said, probably not really the love of my life. But I cared about her. A lot. I saw it going somewhere. She was practically living with me already.”

She liked that he was really answering her—not just joking through it or playing it off.

“What happened?”

He shook his handsome head. “Just came home the other day to find her stuff gone, and a note. Seriously. A note. Saying she’d gone back to Phoenix to her old fiancé. It felt like a kick in the teeth.”

She nodded, truly sorry for his pain. “That stinks. I’m sorry.” She slid her hands slightly upward, onto his shoulders. “But she doesn’t sound like a very nice person if she’d leave you without even a word.”

He shrugged softly. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. But it still sucks. To find out she’s not who I thought she was. I mean . . . I don’t get . . .”

“What?”

His gaze narrowed slightly. “I don’t get serious about girls. Not often anyway. So guess I’m just pissed this is the one I let myself really care about.” His eyes told her he’d just confided in her, which touched her. “But enough about that,” he went on, breaking the moment. “What did Jake the Snake do to get himself a sweet, sexy girl like you?”

She grinned, raising her eyebrows. “Jake the Snake, huh?”

Smiling back, he slanted her a conspiratorial glance. “Don’t let his mature, upstanding demeanor fool ya—back in the day, he was a snake in the grass.”

Carly weighed the information, trying to decide how seriously to take it. “Should I consider that fair warning?”

But then Shane shook his head. “Naw. He’s a good guy, Jake. We were all young back then, all sowing our oats—and maybe not treating every girl as nice as they deserved. We were all about to be cops—we were full of ourselves and tomcattin’ around to prove it. But we’ve all grown up since then. So no worries—Jake’s a solid guy.”

As if on cue, she looked up to see Jake moving in behind her just then, grabbing onto her still swaying hips, teasingly joining in their dance. “Still trying to steal my girl, huh, Delacorte?” he asked over her shoulder.

Shane just shrugged again, not letting go of her. “How can I resist? Pretty girl. Smokin’ bikini. Moonlit night.”

“And she’s nice enough to dance with my drunk, lonely friend,” Jake ribbed him.

Yet Shane only let out a good-natured laugh. “I’m not any drunker than you.”

“But I’m cuter. And I give her what she needs,” Jake said, rubbing against her from behind, the beginnings of a hard-on pressing into her ass. She couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed—clearly he
was
drunk, maybe they
all
were—but he felt so good it hardly mattered. In fact, it
all
felt good.

Jake’s growing erection against her ass made her wiggle her hips a little—not a decision, just a reaction—and she found herself enjoying being sandwiched between two strong, hot men. Shades of that night with Colt echoed back to her—it was the only other time she’d ever been in such a position in her life. But like always with Jake these days, this felt very different from that. Because this was real. Not a one-night pretense. This was her real life now.

Ignoring Jake, Shane freed a hand from her waist, lifting her chin with one bent finger to draw her gaze to his. And with an arrogant glint in his eye, he said, “Well, honey, if you ever
need
anything this guy can’t give you, I’m at your service.” Then he winked and walked away.

Biting her lip to crush back the sensual little thrill he’d just delivered, she turned to wrap her arms around Jake’s neck, shimmying up closer to him. Again, not a decision—just a response, made easier with alcohol.

“Kiss me, you sexy animal,” he said, as playful and confident as his friend.

Her eyes widened. “Animal?”

He flicked a glance down at her bikini. “Zebra girl,” he called her.

Yeah, he was drunk all right. But sexy as hell. So she kissed him for all she was worth, not giving a damn if the whole world was watching.

 

 

W
ithin another hour, a day of drinking in the sun had begun to take its toll—Shane had conked out, then dragged himself off to bed, and a bleary-eyed Cameron had said good night soon after. Quinn and Rogan, however, both none the worse for wear, decided to try out the hot tub on the boat’s rear deck, and they invited Jake and Carly to join them.

But as the pair sat cuddled in a lounge chair, Jake answered for them both. “No thanks—we’re good here.”

Once they were alone, Carly leaned back and looked up at the sky, dotted with a million shimmering stars. The night hadn’t cooled as it usually did this time of year in northern Michigan, and the air hugged her skin like warm velvet. “This is nice,” she said, leaning against her man.

“So you’re having a good time?”

She nodded, curled in his lap, head against his shoulder. “Your friends are nice. I was silly to be nervous.”

“Nah,” he said, “it’s cool. And even if they
are
good guys, I’m glad to finally get some time alone with you out here under the stars.” And with that, he gently lifted his hand to her cheek and kissed her.

Jake kissed her in so many different ways depending upon his mood, and this one was soft, yet potent and sexy. She felt it spreading down through her like a warm drink. “Mmm . . . you were right earlier,” she told him. “You do give me what I need.”

His grin held a hint of mischief, those blue eyes sparkling. “When I heard myself say that, I was afraid you’d slug me. Glad it didn’t freak you out the way . . . well, the way it could have.”

“Lucky for you, I was a little drunk,” she teased him, their faces close. “And besides, if something was going to freak me out, it probably would have been the sunscreen incident.”

He didn’t even pretend not to know what she was referring to. “Ah. Yeah. That.” He nodded, his smile now half-naughty, half-guilty. “It started out totally innocent, I swear. And then . . . I guess instinct took over.”

She swallowed, still both excited and embarrassed by the memory. “I, um, had a feeling your friends were all watching, but I couldn’t make myself open my eyes to see.”

“They were,” he told her, his voice a hot whisper in the night. “And . . . it kinda turned me on. Did it kinda turn you on, too?”

The Carly of a couple of months ago—if she’d ever somehow found herself in such an unlikely situation—would have automatically lied, too uncomfortable with the truth. But now, with Jake, that didn’t even occur to her. She’d gotten so used to honesty with him. “Yeah.”

“Good,” he murmured, and then he kissed her again—using his arms to shift her body until she was straddling him in the lounge chair. He let his kisses lengthen, deepen, until their tongues were twining and Carly’s whole body tingled with the same hunger from earlier. But that hunger had been there, lingering in the background, for many hours, and now it became more consuming. She kissed him back just as hotly, and when his hands lifted to her breasts, a short moan escaped her.

She gasped upon remembering where they were—but Jake whispered, “It’s okay—they’ll never hear.”

And that was likely true. Music still played low nearby, and the loud shushing noise of the churning hot tub could be heard from the front of the boat.

Clearly seeing she was appeased, Jake resumed caressing her tits, murmuring, “Mmm, baby, these are
so
hot,” and soon pushing aside the two zebra-striped triangles like he was opening a curtain.

Fresh heat coursed all through her at having her breasts suddenly on display. She glanced down in the moonlight to see new tan lines seeming to highlight them, her skin still slick from old sunscreen, her nipples dark and fully pointed. “Unh,” Jake groaned softly at the sight, then framed them with his hands as he leaned in to lick one.

He licked and swirled his tongue around the sensitive peak, and when he moved in to suckle the other deeply, she hissed in her breath, her pussy pulsing.

And then Jake did something he’d never done before. He backed off—just a little, just enough to gaze upon them again, his eyes lusty—before beginning to touch them once more, but this time with the softest, lightest, airiest caresses she’d ever felt.

From the start, it made her bite her lower lip to keep from gasping, moaning. He grazed his fingertips ever so gently across the soft, round flesh, at other moments raking delicately over the beaded nipples. No matter where on her breasts his touch roamed, it was featherlight and utterly exquisite. “That’s . . . so nice,” she managed between thready breaths. “So . . . so . . . good.”

He said nothing, just remained squarely focused on his task, appearing committed to her heady pleasure. Sometimes they kissed as he touched her—other times they both just watched his skilled fingers play over her skin. And before long Carly realized her nipples weren’t the only things that were erect—a long, hard column had grown in his swim trunks, so without forethought, she reached down between them, wrapping her hand around it through the fabric.

A low groan left him before he said, “You like that hard cock, baby?”

“Mmm, God, yes, I love it. You know I love it.”

“Aw,” he breathed. “Then why don’t you rub that pretty pussy against it.”

Without hesitation, she slid her torso closer to his until her crotch pressed to his gloriously stiffened length and they both emitted hot sighs. She began to grind then, her instincts taking over—and Jake’s petal-soft touches deepened slightly.