The Barn-Dance (4 page)

Too bad he only smiled when she offered not to disrobe.
He should do that more often.
She put him to work on the potatoes while she searched the kitchen for sandwich makings. Leo ditched the peeler she’d given him and reached into his back pocket. When he pulled out his pocket knife, Mindy cocked her head.

“What are you doing?”

He put his thumb on the edge of a blade and pried it up. He settled the knife in his right hand, a potato in his left, and started to cut the skin away in one long strip. “Peeling potatoes.”

“You can’t do it with a peeler like the rest of us?”

Although his concentration was obviously on the sharp blade in his hand, he managed to smirk at her without meeting her eyes. “You have your ways, I have mine.”

Still, something about the movement of his reaching into his pocket and retrieving a carving tool thrilled her. It felt primal, earthy. Like men had been doing it for millions of years in exactly the same fashion.

Like sex.
Get a grip, girl. Your job is on the line
. She busied herself with finding baggies, counting them out into piles, two for each man, including her and Leo. Then she filled one of each of the bags with potato chips and gathered all the baggies into a pile.

“You’re doing it the hard way, Min.” Leo had a puzzled look on his face when she met his gaze. He pointed to the bags. “You could just bring the big bag and we can all share.”

“You have your ways, I have mine.”

He laughed. “You do like to twist my words back on me, don’t you?”

Ignoring his baiting, she pulled one of the white towels off a pan of readying buns and waved them in front of Leo. “Do these look ready?”

“Do you have the oven pre-heated?”

“You said to leave it heating and put the buns on top so they’d rise faster.”

Leo chuckled . “I’m surprised you listened to me.”

“Well, I don’t want to lose my job.” She waved the pan again. The little white balls had almost tripled in size since she put them under the cloth over an hour previous. “So, are they ready?”

He nodded slowly, surveying the lot with careful attention. His gaze traveled to her hand, up her arm, then lingered on her chest and at last made it to her face. “Looks perfect to me.”

The heat from the oven as she put the first tray in wasn’t even close to the heat that roiled inside her at his comment. The man couldn’t make up his mind. Well, truth be told, neither could she. As much as she wanted to keep her job, Leo was looking more and more appetizing.

All he’d need to do would be pull another knife out of his pocket, and she’d be about ready to knock herself over the head with a big stick and let him drag her off to his cave and have his way with her. And then she could have her way with him.

Or maybe she’d have her way with him first.

Either way, there would be having. And much of it. Probably a lot of coming, too. And having, and coming.

God, it was hot in that kitchen.

***

Mindy stood in front of the oven, fanning herself and watching the buns bake. It provided him with a delicious view of her backside. And the fact that she regularly bent over to look into the oven didn’t help the already tight confines of his pants. She had no interest in making this easy on him.

“You know what they say about a watched pot, Min?” His voice was lower, huskier than he meant it to be.

“I don’t think it’s the same with bread.” She pointed to the oven window, bending deeper. The jean shorts rode up the backs of her thighs, perching just high enough that he knew what they were hiding, but low enough that her tan lines weren’t even showing yet. “I can see them getting brown on top.”

“Still, you don’t have to watch.”

Mindy stood, the globes of her butt shaking a little with the quick movement. It was almost like she knew her ass provided an enticing target for his lapsing attention.

“I just want them to be done.”

Leo concentrated hard on the last potato, peeling the last of the brown skin off in one long strip. “We both want to be done.”

“You don’t like spending time with me?” Her voice had that innocent-but-not-quite-innocent quality to it, as though she knew perfectly well why he wanted to be done, but wanted him to say it.

If he’d looked up at that moment, she might even have had a little pink finger at the side of her mouth, and those big blue eyes open wide, mocking his pain. That would have sent him over the edge.

“You don’t have anything better to do?” he finally said.

She crossed the kitchen to stand beside him and the sheer physical presence of her was like a magnet for his sight.

He placed the peel on the pile with the others and slid the white potato into the water. The plop it made when it settled into the liquid was almost as loud as the thudding of his heart with Mindy so near.

She leaned over him. “I could help you.”

“I’m finished.” He pressed the blade against his jeans, cleaning the potato juice from it, then flipped it over and repeated the movement.

Her eyes followed his hand. She was weirdly obsessed with that knife. With a quick flick of his wrist, he sheathed the blade and slipped it into his pocket.

The pocket not far from his growing erection.

Leo shifted uncomfortably in his seat as she reached for one of the potatoes, her other hand on his shoulder. Mindy examined the white globe, turning it nimbly in her fingers and keeping her body close to his.

“I can’t believe how smooth this is, Leo. You’re a little too good at this.”

“Of course I’m good at it, I used to do it every day.”

“You were in the army?”

Leo chuckled. “No, I was the cook here, after Aunt Linda moved to Denver.” He swallowed as she put the potato back. “Before you.”

Her high, tight little breasts hovered inches from his chin. He could easily have dipped his head and made her right nipple his chew toy. The very thought of having her breasts in his mouth again made the blood flow even faster to a certain rapidly hardening organ in his crotch.

It didn’t even have a mind of its own this time. Nope. This time, he was ready. Desire clustered in his throat. He tried to swallow it away, but it wouldn’t move.

Mindy rubbed her fingers together, the potato water coating them, making them look pinker than they were. She looked down at her trendy, fitted pink shirt, then to his grease-stained T-shirt. With unbelievable slowness, she reached for him.

He had no idea what she was about to do, but he was ready for whatever she planned. This was enough. His dad be damned. He wanted to be with Mindy again, and she wanted to be with him.

Leo gasped as her hand made contact with his shirted chest. The wetness on her fingers seeped through the thin cotton and onto his skin, mirroring the spreading warmth underneath. But instead of fisting his shirt and pulling him toward her, as he fantasized she would, she benignly wiped her hand clean of the water.

Leo groaned. “God, Min.” The rhythmic motion of her hand rubbing his chest sent shocks of anticipation through his body. If he didn’t kiss her now…

The friction stopped and she met his gaze. Her blue eyes widened into two pools of recognition and desire. “I’m sorry, Leo,” she whispered.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to him. “I’m not.”

Her lips were tight at first, almost unyielding as he met them with his own. She made a tiny sound of struggle in the back of her throat, but the vibration against his own heated breath was more encouragement than deterrent. When he released her wrist and wrapped his arms around her, a tiny sigh escaped her lips.

This was all the encouragement he needed. He grazed his tongue against her partly opened mouth. Her arms snaked underneath his and her palms pressed to his back, bringing his body flush against hers.

When her nipples grazed against his chest, her mouth opened wider and she whimpered, an invitation for him to go even deeper. This was just how he remembered her. Hot, insistent, almost wanton. He was harder for her than he had been for anyone else, before or since. And he wanted her more than he had even the first time.

Mindy’s tight little ass wriggled in his lap, providing the most exquisite jolt through his cock. If she moved against him like that any longer, things were gonna get a whole lot messier.

Chemistry hadn’t abandoned them. Just the pressure of her body on his, the feel of her lips against his, he wanted to part those sweet little legs and burrow deep inside her.

Consequences be damned.

Chapter Five

Mindy loved the way Leo groaned when she pressed herself into his erection. It reminded her of the first time they were together, when she’d teased him about being a screamer. She’d been waiting all these years for another screamer, and finally found one again.

The fabric of her jean shorts started to feel wet, which made that itch come back again. It was worse than it had ever been.

Just need to get laid, Min. That’s all
. Well, if they were gonna do this, it’d better be now, while she knew the rest of the men would be gone.

Without breaking the deep, searching kiss, Mindy reached between them and pulled up Leo’s T-shirt, purposefully scraping her nails across his chest as she did.

“I know you want me, Leo,” she said into his mouth, as he paused to breathe. His hands left her back and stopped her progress with his shirt.

“Doesn’t take a rocket scientist, Min.”

In her deepest, most sultry voice, she said, “You’re hard for me.” When he stopped pushing at her, she moaned, “Please.”

He pulled his head back, meeting her eyes. “You know what my dad said. He’ll fire both of us.”

“This isn’t fraternizing.” She placed an open-mouthed kiss on his stubbled neck, loving the scrape of his whiskers. “We’re just friends.” She kissed his jaw, near his ear, then whispered, “And we’re only going to do it once.”

“I can’t do this at all.” Leo pushed at her hands again.

Instead of fighting him, Mindy released his T-shirt and went for the button of his Wranglers. “I need this as much as you do, Leo. Please.”

His hesitation told her he warred between doing the right thing by his dad and doing what he wanted. Right now, she only cared that he wanted her.

She pressed her body into his, keeping her hand on the button of his pants and sidling into his neck so that her head was next to his. She wanted to remind him of how perfectly they fit, almost like they were made for each other. Her knuckles grazed her sensitive clitoris as she stroked against him, moving her hand lower.

Mindy rotated her pelvis against her hand, groaning into his neck. The smell of his skin, the smell of hot bread, and the smell of their arousal tangled in her nostrils and sent a shiver through her. Leo was assault enough on her senses, but being in the kitchen, with the bread baking, it was like a full-out war, driving her appetites mad.

“I want you inside me,” she whispered.

From somewhere deep inside him, a roar erupted. Almost caveman-esque. He grasped her shoulders and wrenched her mouth toward his, frenzied and wild. She smiled into his ravaging kiss.

One of her hands slipped into the feathery hair at the nape of his neck, and the other started unbuttoning his pants. Then undid his zipper. And instead of pulling off his pants, she reached into the waistband of his boxers and put her hand around his cock.

Leo groaned. “Jesus, Min.” But he didn’t stop her.

His hands molded to her breasts, and the friction jolted her eyes open. She hadn’t even realized she’d closed them in her southward excursion, but she couldn’t very well close them now. The sight of Leo’s heated gaze focused so intently on her breasts was almost more erotic than the sensation of his fingers kneading her nipples.

A bubble of warmth exploded inside her chest and she had to exhale, for fear it would make her burst as well.

She pulled his boxers down and freed his cock, stroking it softly. He kissed her again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as his hands wandered over her breasts. In one quick move, she tugged her shirt off to give him better access, and put her hands back on his warm erection.

With heavy breath, Leo whispered, “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to make short space of this one-time thing.”

A quiver raced up her spine and she smiled. “I think you can hold off.”

She climbed off his lap and sank to her knees, coming face-to-face with his cock. There was something unexplainably hot about seeing it poke out of his open fly while the rest of him was still covered in the grease-stained work clothes he’d been wearing all day.

Before he could argue, she took most of his length into her mouth, and she felt more than heard the choked sound he made deep inside. Her hands rested on his thighs, and she used the leverage to move on him.

His breath quickened, and he laced his fingers in her hair. But there was no pressure on her head. He didn’t push her down, like some of her previous lovers had done, as though it’s all she was good for. There was just the gentle pressure of his hands tensing against the oncoming orgasm.

She looked up to meet his eyes. Instead of the straight heat that had been present before, his dark gaze shone with an emotion she couldn’t quite place.

“Please,” he choked out.

She stopped suckling the head of his cock and raised her chin in an affirmative gesture. “You can come in my mouth if you want. I don’t mind.”

“No.” His hands drew from her hair to the side of her face. “I want to be…inside you.”

Her heart stopped, then raced, then stopped again. Something about the combination of those words and the heat of the moment silenced her. All she could do was stand and nod.