Editor's Choice Volume I - Slow summer Kisses, Kilts & kraken, Negotiating point (24 page)

He just laughed harder.

Chapter Five

Cam had done everything he could think of to do in the house, which meant it was time to go outside. After several days of successfully keeping his distance from Anna, he felt a little more confident in his ability to resist kissing her again. Constantly berating himself for being an idiot had helped. A little.

And it was not only lawn-mowing day, but it was perfect weather for it. Just a little overcast, with a light shower forecast for the overnight. If he didn’t do it now their lawns would look like crap and he’d end up having to do it during a surprise heat wave.

After putting on his ratty old lawn-mowing sneakers, he went outside and headed for his shed. But he couldn’t stop him himself. He glanced next door to see if he could spot Anna.

He did, and his heart almost quit beating. She was painting the top edge of the window trim. And she was doing it by standing on a step stool, which was balanced on the table she must have dragged over to the wall. She was going to break her neck.

“Dammit,” he yelled without thinking.

She stopped painting and looked over at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Why are you doing something stupid while I’m trying to avoid you?”

“Why are you trying to avoid me?”

He growled and shoved his hand through his hair. “So I don’t kiss you again.”

“Oh. Painting’s not stupid, by the way. It helps preserve the wood, which I’m pretty sure you know.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. Jim doesn’t have a stepladder in the shed?”

“Didn’t see one. And I’m being careful.”

Shaking his head, he went to his own shed and pulled out the stepladder. Then he walked over to her deck and leaned it against the wall so he’d be ready to catch her if she fell getting down, then took the paintbrush and bucket from her to set on the plastic she’d spread to cover that part of the deck from splashes. Once she was back on the ground, he dragged the table back where it went and opened his stepladder.

“You don’t have to avoid me,” she said. “If you don’t want to kiss me again, don’t kiss me.”

“I do want to kiss you again. That’s why I’m avoiding you.”

“Ah,” she said, as if it made any more sense to her than it did to him. “Maybe you should just kiss me again and get it over with.”

“Just like that, huh?”

“Yup.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, just like that.

His body reacted immediately and his brain was giving him a
go
signal, but he’d barely raised his hands with the intention of pulling her closer when she stepped back.

“See?” she said. “Just like that. Now you can stop avoiding me.”

“You rushed through that like it was something on your to-do list to check off.”

“I did not.”

“You can’t rush kisses. You have to slow down and savor them. Lose yourself in them.”

“There’s no right or wrong way to kiss, Cam.”

“There may not be a wrong way, but there are better ways than standing in Home Depot or kissing so fast I thought a bird flew by and smacked me in the mouth.”

Her eyes got big and for a second he thought
she
might smack him in the mouth. “It was not that quick.”

Cam took a half step closer to her, definitely crowding her space a little, and ran his hand from her elbow to shoulder. “A kiss should be anticipated. You should know it’s coming so your heart can beat faster and your skin can flush with heat.”

Anna was watching his mouth as he spoke, her tongue flicking out over her lip as if her mouth had gone dry.

“I’m going to kiss you again and it’s not going to be rushed. I’m going to take my time and savor your mouth.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“You’re beautiful when your skin gets that hot, flushed look. Is your heart beating faster?”

“Yes.” Her voice was little more than a soft exhalation now.

He buried his right hand in her hair and lowered his mouth to hers, barely brushing her lips with his. She sighed and tried to deepen the kiss, but he held back. He teased her, flicking his tongue over her bottom lip while he slid his free hand across her hip.

Not until she whimpered for more and pressed her body against his did he give her what she wanted. As the kiss deepened, his fingers slid under the hem of her T-shirt, touching bare skin. He groaned as her tongue danced over his and pulled his hand out from under the shirt before he started trying to round the bases. It wasn’t time for that yet. If ever. He was really hoping for
yet.

He kissed her until she felt boneless in his arms and he wasn’t sure he had the strength to hold her up—until their mingled breaths came shallow and fast. One final flick of his tongue across her lips and then he broke it off.

He moved back a step because his body had had about all the contact with Anna’s body it could take without exploding, and he smiled at the dreamy expression on her flushed face as she opened her eyes.

“
Now
I’ve kissed you,” he said, his voice rough with anticipation of something that wasn’t coming next.

“Yes.” She smiled and he thought it was even prettier when she’d just been thoroughly kissed. “Now you can stop avoiding me.”

“Now I can mow the lawns,” he said, and she wrinkled her nose. “And you can get back to painting—safely this time—before your brush dries out.”

With a dramatic sigh, she retrieved the brush and the paint bucket and started up the step ladder he’d placed for her. “Painting’s not as fun as kissing.”

“Better for the wood.” When she snorted, he rolled his eyes. “You know what I meant. So…later, you want to sit out on the dock with me and listen to the Red Sox game on the radio like we did when we were kids?”

“I thought you had cable.”

“I do, but there’s nothing more pure than listening to the game on the radio.”

“Sure. I’ll want to shower first and make sure I’m not covered in paint, but it sounds like fun.”

A few hours later, Cam set his favorite webbed chair in place, followed by a small cooler and his radio. He usually parked himself in the center, but he set up mostly on his side so Anna would have room for her own chair.

Not quite ten minutes later, he heard the slider open and close and he knew she was on her way down.

When he heard her footsteps on the dock, he turned, intending to ask her if she remembered the bug spray, but that question died in favor of a far more pressing one. “What the hell is that you’re wearing?”

She looked down at her shirt with a confused expression. As if she didn’t know. “My shirt? It’s pretty old, so I usually only wear it for sleeping now, but my stepdad bought it for me years ago.”

“It’s a Yankees T-shirt.” He could barely get the words out.

“That’s because we’re Yankees fans.” She snapped open her chair and set it next to his as if that was still okay. “We never watched sports when I was little—the games I listened to with you was about it—but then Mom married Kent and we moved to Connecticut. He loved baseball and he taught me to love it, too.”

“You’re a Yankees fan.”

“Yup.”

“I kissed a Yankees fan.”

“Yup. Really well, too.”

It was too late for mouthwash, so he did the next best thing and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Get off my dock.”

She paused in the act of arranging her cooler and snacks to glare at him. “It’s
our
dock.”

“Fine. You stay on your half. Move your chair over.”

He didn’t even make it to the first inning. The radio announcer was going through the line-up and, when he got to Jeter and Anna made a little
woo-hoo
sound, Cam got out of the chair and walked away.

“Damn Yankees fan.”

Her laughter followed him all the way to the house.

* * *

Anna couldn’t believe Cam wasn’t coming back, but after five minutes passed—the first couple of which she spent laughing at him—she figured out he’d abandoned her.

Well, he’d promised to listen to the game with her and she wasn’t letting him out of it that easy. Leaving her chair and cooler on the dock, she walked up onto his back deck and knocked on the metal frame surrounding the slider’s screen door. She could see him sitting on his couch, facing his television.

“Go away,” he said without looking at her.

“Cam, come on. You promised to listen to the game with me on the dock, like we used to when we were kids.”

“When we were kids, you weren’t a goddamned Yankees fan.”

She laughed again, though she tried to stifle it. The man had no sense of humor when it came to baseball. “How about I come in and watch it with you?”

“I’m not watching the game with you.”

“Okay. What if I lose the shirt?” She lifted the bottom of the T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

He was looking at her now. Staring, actually, and she shivered in her lace bra and shorts. If he turned her away now it meant he wasn’t as attracted to her as she thought he was, and that would be embarrassing. Humiliating actually, considering how she’d practically melted into his arms when he kissed her.

“Now you’re playing dirty,” he said. “Not that I’d expect anything less from a Yankees fan.”

She heard some excitement on the television. “Who’s winning?”

“Me.” He picked up the remote and the TV went silent.

Taking that as an invitation, Anna slid open the screen and stepped into his living room, wisely leaving the offending T-shirt outside where she’d dropped it. Cam started to get up, but she pushed him back onto the couch and straddled his lap.

“You’re going to rush this, aren’t you?” he asked, putting his hands on her hips.

“Sometimes taking your time can be nice, like when you kissed me. But sometimes you get blindsided and want it hard and fast so it takes your breath away.”

Cam let go of her hips and cupped the back of her head, hauling her lips down to his. This was no gentle, savoring kiss. It was hungry and demanding and she opened her mouth to him while grinding her hips over his, causing a delicious friction. He rolled to his side so she ended up on her back on the couch, with him between her legs.

“Hard and fast works for me,” he said against her mouth and she smiled. Then he lifted his head and frowned. “Hold on. I need to go rummage through my bedside stand for a sec.”

“Right-hand pocket of my shorts.”

“Even better.”

Cam slid his hands under Anna and she arched her back so he could undo the clasp of her bra, and the breath he sucked in as he slid the lace away from her breasts sent heat curling through her body. He ran his thumb over one nipple, then traced its path with his tongue. Goosebumps tingled her skin and she raised her hips, hoping he’d get the hint. But he took his sweet time, lavishing attention on one nipple, then moving to the other. The moist heat of his mouth felt good, but she was beyond ready for the harder and faster part.

“If you keep that up, I’m going to get bored and turn the game back on,” she told him, while simultaneously dragging his T-shirt up his back. He had too many clothes on.

“Really? Bored?” He drew her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard, sending a jolt through her that almost made her cry out. “Woman, you’ve been a pain in my ass since the day you got here. I’ve earned a little extra boob time.”

He yanked his shirt off first, though, and then went back to torturing her with his mouth, stopping just shy of that pleasure-pain line. Just as she was sure she was going to lose her mind, she felt him reach between their bodies and pop the button on her shorts. Together they managed to shimmy her shorts and panties down and she kicked them off—rescuing the condom packet along the way—along with the flip-flops, and then she gasped as his fingers stroked the moist flesh between her legs.

“You’re still wearing too many clothes,” she told him as her body strained for that delicious moment it knew was coming soon.

“Trying to make it last.” There was tension in his voice and she watched his jaw clench as she scraped her fingernails gently down his back. “Once I lose the shorts, it’s as good as over.”

“We can take our time later. Right now I want you inside me.”

“You’ve always been bossy.” But he lifted his weight off her and lost the rest of his clothes before she even had time to catch her breath. He took the packet from her and, after a few seconds of crinkling, Cam stretched out on top of her again.

She wrapped her legs around his hips, trying to communicate just how urgent the situation was becoming, but he just smiled that slow, lazy smile of his and shook his head. “You have to kiss me first.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. You’re supposed to be learning to relax, remember? You don’t feel very relaxed to me.”

Rather than explain to him she’d be
very
relaxed in a few minutes, she threaded her fingers in his hair and claimed his mouth. With his body pressed warm and heavy against hers, she lost herself in the kiss and then the hard length of him was slowly pressing into her. Anna rocked her hips, taking more of him with each stroke, and his breath was ragged against her lips.

Once he was deep inside her, Cam paused and flicked his tongue over her nipple. “I hope you meant the harder and faster part.”

In response, she thrust her hips up and he groaned. She was so close and she dug her fingertips into his hips, urging him on. Burying his face in her hair, he reached over her head and grabbed the arm of the couch, using the leverage to drive into her until she came, crying out as the orgasm blew her away.

Cam wasn’t far behind her and his body shuddered as the aftershocks rippled through him. As he collapsed on top of her, he turned his face so he could kiss her neck. She wrapped her arms around him and reveled in the very relaxing post-orgasm haze as their breathing slowly returned to normal.

Anna was pretty familiar with how these things went. With the itch scratched and the stress busted, she’d get dressed and they’d exchange some kind of inane banter and then go their separate ways. At least, that was how she’d been doing it for years.

“Two more minutes,” Cam murmured against her neck. “Two more minutes and I’ll rustle up some snacks and we can watch the rest of the game.”