Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 (20 page)

Emma’s eyebrows went up. “No, she didn’t say
that
.” She peered up at him. “Is that what happened the other night?”

Now his eyebrows went up. “Isn’t it?”

“You tell me.”

He sighed. Emma Dixon could exasperate a nun. He was far from that patient. “This is
Olivia
,” he said. “Love-romance-butterflies-and-lollipops Olivia. Of course that’s what happened.”

“So you believe that sleeping together equals a declaration of everlasting love and a marriage proposal in Olivia’s mind,” Emma summarized.

“Doesn’t it?”

He knew Olivia. With him, that was absolutely what that would mean. Which was one of the reasons he’d stayed away from her—or tried to—for so long. Because when they crossed that line, it would be the last line, the finish line, the point of no return.

And now that it had happened, he was okay with that. This was Olivia. He didn’t need any more lines.

But he needed
her
.

Finally Emma nodded. “Yes, it does. Big time.”

She kept studying him.

“I mean huge,” she said after a moment. “Really, really big.”

Okay, this was…weird. He knew this was big. Emma knew that he knew that it was big. Why did she keep saying that?

Cody crossed his arms and looked down at her. “Emma, what the fuck are you talking about?”

She narrowed her eyes as if she was contemplating something important.

“Yes, she told us about last night,” Emma said, letting go of him. “
All
about last night. And I’m thrilled that you’re taking it seriously. But there are two things about last night that I know that you don’t.”

“You mean the orgasm thing and the virginity thing?” he asked, proud that he didn’t stammer. Or blush.

Emma blinked at him.

He took a moment to appreciate what had happened—surprising Emma Dixon was a feat.

“You heard that?”

“You didn’t say it because you knew I was listening?”

“No, I didn’t know you were listening.”

“Yes, I heard,” Cody told her.

“Oh.”

“So—” He swallowed. “That’s for real?”

“Yep.”

“Oh.”

They stood there awkwardly for a moment.

Cody felt his mind whirling. It was true. She really was—had been—a virgin. But she didn’t act like a virgin. But he wasn’t even sure what that meant. He’d never been with a virgin before. And there was no way Olivia didn’t know all about sex. The Dixon Divas didn’t even brush their teeth without telling each other all about it. She’d heard it all, he was sure. She’d been so tight, but it had felt so good. It had been like heaven to press into that tight, sweet body and…

Finally, Emma reached out and punched him in the arm. “God, Cody, I was thrilled you were her first. I knew she was waiting for you. And then you didn’t even give her an orgasm? What the hell?”

He frowned. “I didn’t know.”

She raised an eyebrow. “About the virgin thing or the orgasm thing?”

“The org—”

Someone stepped into the hallway on the way to the ladies’ room and he moved aside. When the woman had disappeared into the bathroom, he lowered his voice. “The orgasm thing
too.”

“Yeah, she didn’t have one.”

“But…what? Each time?”

Emma gave him a don’t-be-stupid look. “At all. With
you
. Her one and only. The guy she’s been waiting for. The womanizing firefighter football player. Yeah, Mr. Big Stuff. No. Orgasm.”

Fuck.

Her words sank in and Cody wanted to deny them. Olivia had made those sweet, sexy little sounds. She’d grasped his shoulders so tight. She’d been breathing fast and she’d said his name…like that. Like she couldn’t help it. Like he was rocking her world.

He closed his eyes and shoved a hand through his hair.

Damn. He’d truly believed he was rocking her world. He always rocked their worlds. Or so they said.

But…okay. Maybe he hadn’t noticed every detail. He’d been so caught up in the moment, in Olivia, in being with her
finally
that he’d gone for it. He’d assumed she was right there with him. He’d thought that…

But no. He knew Emma was right.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

He looked up at Emma. “Is she mad?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Olivia? She doesn’t get mad. She’s sweet and trusting and in love with you, Cody. No, she’s not mad. She thinks
she
might not be capable of having an orgasm.” Emma pointed a finger at his nose. “And
that
might be the least cool thing of all.”

His heart squeezed and he felt his face flush with heat. He’d dropped this ball. Big time. Big, big, big time.

Dammit.

“Fix this,” Emma said firmly. “You’re the only one who can.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I got it.”

“Well…” The corner of Emma’s mouth curled. “Go give it to
her
.”

He would. He most definitely would. Right now. Tonight.

Cody started for the door, digging his car keys from his pocket. As he crossed in front of the bar, he caught sight of Jen. Jen was a nurse at St. Anthony’s and they’d hooked up a few times here and there.

He made a beeline for her, taking her elbow and turning her to face him.

Her smile brightened when she saw who it was. “Hey, Cody.”

“Hey. I have a question for you.”

“No, I’m not busy tonight,” she said flirtatiously.

“Did you have an orgasm the times we slept together?”

He’d obviously surprised her, but she recovered quickly and gave him a sexy smile. “Well, yeah. Though I’d be happy to prove it to you. Right now in fact.”

And two weeks ago, he very likely would have said yes. Now, he was never going to want a woman other than Olivia.

He was in trouble.

“Thanks,” he told Jen. “I was just checking.”

He saw another past fling across the room and started in her direction.

“Shari, hey.”

The redhead grinned at him. “Hi, Cody.”

He leaned in so he could whisper in her ear without her friends hearing.

She pulled back after he asked the question. “Yes. Of course.”

“Of course,” he repeated, satisfaction sweeping through him. Those two words combined with her sincerely puzzled expression, as if he’d asked the craziest question ever, were perfect.
Of course
she’d had an orgasm. Duh. “That was exactly what I needed to hear.”

He headed for the exit again, ignoring the urge to ask all of the women in Trudy’s that he’d slept with about their orgasms. But there were several, and that would take too long.

He kept repeating
of course
as he turned his car toward Olivia’s house.

The pounding on her front door was definitely not one of her sisters.

Olivia knew who it was. And he had a key. So he was trying to make a point.

She wrapped her robe around her more tightly as she went to the door.

She’d known he would show up. She’d figured it would be tonight. So she’d called in sick so she could use the day to prepare.

She was as ready as she was going to get.

With a deep breath, she pulled the door open.

“Evenin’, sunshine.” His lighthearted greeting was in direct contrast to the way he’d been banging on her door. And the way he was scowling at her.

“Hi, Cody.”

He held up a plastic grocery sack. “It’s baking night.”

So it was. It was Wednesday. They always baked on Wednesday.

“I, um…was about to…”

His gaze raked over her and his eyes reflected a strange combination of heat, anger and determination. “About to take a bath?” He met her eyes again. “Little sore maybe? You got quite a workout last night.”

So that was how the whole topic was going to come up. She had been half expecting him to swing her up into his arms and carry her to the bedroom.

She raised her chin. “Maybe a little.”

Anger flashed in his eyes and he stepped forward, crowding her and forcing her to step back. “A virgin? Really, Liv? That might have been something you could have mentioned.”

Surprise shot through her. “Who have you been talking to?” But then she knew. “Emma.” It had to be Emma.

“I should have been talking to
you
about it, dammit,” he said, dropping the bag of baking items on the floor and kicking the door shut. “For fuck’s sake, Liv. I could have hurt you last night.” His gaze flickered over her robe. “I
did
hurt you.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “I was only a technical virgin and it didn’t matter.”

“How the hell can that not matter?” he demanded. “That’s…a big deal. A huge deal.”

She crossed her arms. “And if I’d told you, would you have gone ahead with it? No. And I wanted it, Cody. I wanted
you
.”

His expression softened and he lifted a hand to her cheek. “I don’t think I could have stopped. But I could have…made it…better.”

She felt a lump in her throat and swallowed hard. “It was great. It was
you
. That’s all it needed to be.”

He gave her a half smile. “Well, thanks for that but—” He stooped and swung her up into his arms. “That’s bullshit, babe.”

He started for the bedroom.

She wanted to squeal with happiness. He
had
swept her up and carried her to the bedroom.

But… Hey. She frowned.

“What’s bullshit? Our lovemaking is bullshit?” she asked her voice rising on the last word.

“It’s bullshit that you think that’s the best I can do. Trust me—you’re about to have the time of your life.” He tossed her onto the bed and pulled his T-shirt over his head, tossing it to the side.

Olivia felt her stomach flip at the look of hot, cocky promise on his face. She reached for the belt tie on her silky robe and pulled the knot loose. The two sides fell away, and she was gratified to see Cody pause in unzipping his pants.

“You’re so damned beautiful.”

His gaze traveled over her new teddy. There wasn’t much to it. It was a pale pink, almost flesh colored. The silk cups on top came up barely high enough to cover her nipples, but left the upper swell of her breasts bare. The center panel dipped in at the sides, covering her with only a narrow strip of see-through lace, and the panties were the same pale-pink silk, cut high on her legs, forming a narrow
V
over her mound.

The heat in Cody’s eyes suddenly made every ache in her previously well-used muscles disappear, and anticipation spread through her, making everything grow soft and ready.

“Take your hair down,” he said gruffly.

She reached up for the messy bun. She pulled the clip loose, her hair falling around her on the comforter.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

But she knew it was a heartfelt, good
fuck
.

“I’m going to lick, suck and kiss every inch of you.”

Her body flooded with heat.

“Like I should have the other night.”

“It’s not like I had a
bad
time,” she protested.

He looked her in the eye. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Liv. It was…amazing. So amazing to be with you that I lost my mind and couldn’t pay attention to anything but how fucking good you felt around me and under me and…” He trailed off and took a deep breath. “I’ve replayed it in my head a hundred times, and I still can’t believe how hot it was. For me.”

She loved all of that. It made her feel powerful and yet fully contented at the same time.

“I love that I could drive you that crazy.”

“I hate that I didn’t make you come. Hard. More than once.”

She blew out a long breath. She was almost there now. Just lying here and having him so clearly consumed with desire and regret. It was stupid that regret could be sexy, but it was. That it mattered to him so much was sexy. That he was here now, so determined to make up for it, was sexy.

A surge of power and mischief went through her.

Her sisters had encouraged her to tell Cody what she wanted. What she needed.

She lifted a hand to her breast and pulled one of the teddy’s cups away. “You know, a guy doesn’t have to
make
a girl come or
give
a girl an orgasm. A girl can take care of that all on her own. I could have helped. But I was pretty overcome by everything too.”

His eyes were fastened on her fingers playing with her nipple. She traced her finger around the stiff point, then rubbed back and forth over it before tugging on it. The action always made her clit tingle, and having Cody watch her do it made the tingle into an outright jolt of electricity.

“Is that right?” he drawled, moving a step closer to the end of the bed and hooking his thumbs in the waistband of his jeans, pulling them lower on his hips.

She licked her lips. “That is right. Before you go thinking that I’ve
never
had an orgasm, I want to assure you that is not the case.”