Down for the Count (10 page)

Whenever she’s ready
, he reminded himself.

He inched away, trying to get a little space between them, but for every centimeter he gained, she scooted two closer until she was almost on top of him. Her warm breath tickled his neck and he grudgingly gave up the fight as the lure of a warm female on a comfortable bed after a long day of sun and surf took over.

He slid his hand into her hair and closed his eyes, letting the image of her in her bikini bottoms, bare breasts streaked with sand, play like a silent film against the backs of his eyelids. His cock throbbed against her thigh and he groaned. Thirteen nights left.

Which was unfortunate, because at this rate? He’d be dead in three.

Chapter Seven

“Unless something’s changed, I’m going to have to ask that you unhand me.”

Galen’s sleep-roughened voice poured over her like honey, and her eyes drifted opened. His handsome face, made even more so by the morning whiskers shadowing his jaw, came into focus. “What do you mean?”

He flipped his heavy-lidded gaze downward, and she followed suit.

“Omigod. I am so sorry!” She jerked her hand away and covered her mouth in mortification. For the second morning in a row, one of her appendages had wound up in up-close-and-personal contact with his manly parts.

“Hey, no harm no foul. I’m not usually one to complain about waking up to a morning cock massage, but I didn’t want to reach the boiling point only to find out you were actually dead asleep and dreaming about milking a cow.”

She closed her eyes and ducked her head under the covers, wishing she could disappear. “How did we end up in the same bed again?” She remembered falling asleep on the couch, but after that, it was all a pleasant blur.

“Cut it out.” His muffled voice became clear as he yanked the blanket off her head. “I can’t even hear you like that.”

She picked a spot on the wall and stared at it, hard. “I asked how we got in the same bed again.”

“I put you in and you didn’t want to be alone.” He shrugged. “Far be it from me to argue with a pretty lady. And frankly, until about ten seconds ago, I was thinking it was a great decision out of me.”

Despite the teasing words, she could feel the sexual tension rolling off him. It took all her strength not to bolt before she jumped his bones and finished what she’d unwittingly started. God, he’d felt good in her hand. Big. Hard. Ready for—

A ring blared from Galen’s cell phone on the bedside table, mercifully derailing her thoughts. She felt the heat of his gaze on her as he reached to answer it, and she knew their discussion was far from over.

“Hello.” He paused and then covered the receiver with his hand. “It’s your lawyer.”

She was seriously going to have to think about picking up a new cell. While she didn’t relish the idea of talking to her mother anytime soon, it was irresponsible to be out of contact like this, and the guilt was weighing on her. She took the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Lacey. I have some news.”

“Okay, let me just…” She gave Galen an apologetic smile along with a finger wiggle and climbed out of the bed, making sure to suck in her belly in case he was looking. She crossed the room in search of some privacy. It was impossible to think straight with him staring at her with that
better to eat you with
smile, and something about Allen’s tone told her that whatever news he had was worth paying attention to.

She went into the hallway bathroom and closed the door behind her. “Okay, what’s up?”

“You’re going to love me for this. In fact, you can send the Dom Pérignon to my penthouse.”

The Fitzhumes had been friends of the family and she and Allen had had very similar upbringings. They’d both been coerced into attending the same events, taking tennis lessons from the same instructor, and resenting the hell out of it all. She had a reasonable amount of filial affection for him, but in that moment, if he were there she would’ve popped him in the gut for toying with her. “Stop dancing around and spill it, Fitz!”

“According to the state of Rhode Island, you’re not married.”

“What do you mean? Reverend Maclan performed the service.” Blood rushed to her ears and her legs felt like wet noodles. She sank to the vanity chair and tried not to let hope overtake common sense. “Marty and I both signed the certificate. And I saw the reverend sign it, too.”

“Right on both counts.
But
…”

The dramatic pause made Lacey want to jump through the phone and strangle him. She dragged a hand over her face. “You’re killing me right now. Killing. Me. Please, just spit it out.”

“
Bu-ut
, Reverend Maclan hadn’t filed the paperwork yet. There will be a fee involved, which I agreed on your behalf to pay, but I have the unfiled certificate here. We tear it up and
voilà
! It never happened.”

She doubled over, suddenly swamped with dizziness. “Are you one hundred percent sure?” she croaked.
Please say yes
. She couldn’t take it if this turned out to be some terrible mistake.

“No doubt about it. Once we get off the phone, I’m going to call Marty’s lawyer and let him know. You, my dear, are a single woman.”

She disconnected and stood. A single woman. Relief sent a cocktail of emotions racing through her, and she started to shake. Hysterical laughter bubbled over and tears sprang to her eyes. Something had finally broken her way, and now there was nothing stopping her from spending the next couple weeks doing the one thing she’d wanted more than anything else. It would hurt when it was over, and she wasn’t about to fool herself into thinking it was anything more than a fling, but suddenly it didn’t matter.

She made her way to the hall and faced the bedroom door, behind which Whalin’ Galen Thomas lay, shirtless and waiting. Like a present, half unwrapped, just for her. She might not be able to satisfy a man like him, but she was going to try her damnedest.

…

Galen propped up the pillows and picked up the remote, trying to forget the feel of Lacey’s hot little hand wrapped around his cock, pumping away. Jesus, it had been so good, though. Artless but enthusiastic, her grip firm and sure.

He clicked on the TV, desperate for something to distract him from the throbbing in his cock, which showed no signs of abating anytime soon. Commercial in Spanish, commercial in English, The Weather Channel. He stopped there. They’d planned to go hiking in the El Yunque rain forest later that morning, but if the temperature was going to climb above ninety-five, maybe they’d skip it for a day at the casino. Unless she wanted to go back to the beach.

His balls grew tight at the memory of her in her bikini bottoms and he groaned. No, not the beach. Someplace else, where she would be entirely clothed. He was cursing the fact that she hadn’t planned to honeymoon in Alaska when the bedroom door swung open again.

“Hey, everything okay?” he asked as Lacey made her way toward the bed. Something about the look on her face made his heart kick, hard. The determined set of her jaw, the gleam in her eye. His instincts were dead-on. One moment she was at the foot of the bed, the next she was airborne. He dropped the remote on the floor just in time to brace himself as she landed on top of him. Air left his lungs in a whoosh, but before he could refill them, she smashed her mouth into his. Their teeth clacked together hard and she drew back, pressing her fingers to her lips.

“Sorry. That was stupid. I could’ve chipped your tooth or something.” Twin red flags bloomed on her cheeks. “Did I chip your tooth?” She pried his mouth open with her thumb and forefinger to inspect his intact enamel.

“My teeth are fine,” he said, hoping he sounded less confused than he felt. What could her lawyer have possibly said that would make her jump his bones like that? He was never one to look gift sexual aggression in the mouth, but these ups and downs were wreaking havoc on his libido. “What’s going on, Lacey?”

“You don’t know?” She flopped off him and onto her back, draping an arm over her face. “God, I can’t do anything right. I was trying to seduce you.”

He smiled and rolled to face her. “I knew that part, but why? Not that I’m complaining. I want this. Damn, you have no idea how bad I want this, but not if you’re going to feel guilty about it in a few hours.” He traced her full bottom lip with his thumb, the need to sink his teeth into it almost overwhelming. “Now’s the time to decide, though, because I’m about to make it impossible for you to form a coherent thought.”

She dropped her arm to her side and turned her head to face him, the interest in his declaration plain on her face. “I want that. Everybody is always telling me what’s best for me, but for the first time, I know what
I
want. And it’s you.”

It took everything he had not to lift the floodgates and take what she was offering with both hands and, hopefully, his mouth. But he had one more question, more for her peace of mind than his. “What about your husband?”

“I don’t have a husband. I have an ex-fiancé. I’m not married,” she whispered. “I never was. The certificate hasn’t been filed yet, so we can tear it up and it’s like it never happened.”

Adrenaline coursed through him, and his muscles tingled, every nerve ending snapping to attention. She wet her now trembling lips, her nerves clearly getting the better of her.

He traced the line of her cheekbone with his finger. “That’s great. I’m sure you’re very relieved.” It was a struggle to keep his voice calm, but he needed to pace this right if he wanted it to go down the way he’d imagined. She was ready to dive in, and he was a man on the edge. A couple more clumsy but effective seduction moves out of her and she was going to find herself flat on her back, chock full o’ cock, and he would end up reneging on his promise to blow her mind. Then maybe, just maybe, she’d think of him as more than just a fling to help her get over Marty. Maybe they’d have a chance to be something real.

Slow, Galen. Take it nice and slow.

He tipped her chin up and lowered his mouth to hers. A soft, brushing kiss, with only the merest hint of pressure. He pulled back to speak, to tell her all the things he wanted to do to her, but she let out a muffled squeak and used the opportunity to dive in, tangling her tongue with his, nipping, licking, sucking. The force shoved him back against the pillow, and he growled low in his throat. Lacey, wanting and hungry for him, was about the hottest thing he’d ever encountered. The urge to go with it and take her hard and fast clawed at him. His cock jerked as she ground her hips against his in a furious rhythm.

He dragged his mouth away. “You need to give me a minute or this is going to be very disappointing, squirt.”

She shook her head, eyes wild. “It couldn’t be. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this forever.”

Even more of a reason to make it worth the wait.

If he still had a hope in hell of pulling that off, he was going to have to slow her down a little. Or maybe speed it up and
then
slow it down. His motto was “ladies first” in the bedroom, after all.

In one swift move, he flipped her onto her back. She yelped but adjusted quickly, running her hands over his back and lower, until she had a grip on his ass. He went for her wrists with a pained chuckle, banding them with his fingers. His full weight was distributed between her torso and his knees so his bottom half could get some space, which finally stopped her from grinding her pubic bone against his already rock hard erection.

“Let me go. You’re squishing me,” she protested, but her pout told a different story.

“I’m not squishing you that much. You just want to maul me some more.”

“You don’t like it?” Her face fell and he tugged her wrists above her head.

“None of that, squirt. I like it. In fact, I love it. But this”—he angled his hips to her again until his cock nestled against the soft flesh between her thighs; she pulsed against him and he swallowed a curse—“is more than I can bear right now. So we’re going to play a little game. It’s called No Hands. That means, for the next ten minutes, you can’t touch me. At all.”

She frowned. “That’s a stupid game.”

“You only think so because you’re a control freak. Humor me, and if you don’t like it we never have to play again.”

She eyed him for a long moment and then nodded. “Ten minutes.” She peered at the clock and then back at him. “Go.”

He said a silent prayer of thanks and released her wrists. “Leave them over your head.”

She bit her swollen lower lip uncertainly but didn’t move. Galen sat back on his heels to look at her. Honey-colored hair decorated the pillow, and he trailed his fingers through its softness.

“I love your hair. It’s so fucking sexy. You looked like a mermaid in the water. Want to know a secret?”

Her breath caught and she nodded.

Maybe it would scare her. Maybe she would think he was a total pervert, but she looked so enthralled, so turned on, he couldn’t stop the flow of words if he tried. “I’ve dreamed of you and that hair. Of you taking my cock in your mouth, real slow. Sucking and licking until I felt like I’d explode. And right when I was about to come, I’d wrap my fist in that beautiful hair and use it to work you faster, harder over my cock until I came deep in your throat.”

She gasped and her arms came down. “Let me.”

Need hit him so hard that his vision blurred and his ears buzzed so loudly he could barely hear. “Ah, babe,” he managed to grind out, “you have no idea how much I want to, but I haven’t had my ten minutes yet.”

Ten had become nine, and he was feeling the pressure. He ran his hand from her wrist, down the length of one arm, over her cheek, to trail down her neck. “Let’s get this off,” he murmured, tugging the strap of her tank top down to reveal the firm swell of her breast. The sight was too enticing to ignore and he bent low and pressed a kiss there. She smelled like sunshine and flowers and he inhaled deeply. “You smell good enough to eat.”

Her whole body was drawn tight, tensed and so ready for what he wanted to give her. He couldn’t bring himself to make her wait anymore.

“Fuck it,” he said on a groan. He stripped off her dress, yanking it over her head, and moved to her underwear. With a few tugs and a helpful wriggle from Lacey, they were off and on the floor a second later.

There she was. Lacey—naked, ready, and waiting. He’d seen her in sections. Her long, trim legs in the summery dresses she favored. Her pert, softly rounded breasts when she’d lost her bikini in the ocean, then later when he’d caressed them in the pool. The flat expanse of stomach on the beach. But all together, capped off by the neat swatch of honeyed curls between her thighs? It wrecked him. The total silence was marred only by the breath sawing in and out of his lungs.

Ladies first.

He repeated it like a mantra in his head as he grappled for control. Trailing his index finger over one hip and upward, he caressed the lean lines of her body until he reached the very tip of her breast. She hissed, gripping the pillowcase with both hands.