When Kevin had first moved to Jupiter Point, he’d imagined that he and Holly would be spending lots of time together as they got used to their new town. In the past, that was how it had been. When he’d first left the Air Force, he’d lived off his savings for three months so they could get used to each other.

But this time was different, maybe because Holly was older now. She was spending time with her new friends, and enjoying her new volunteer position at the observatory. When she was at home, she tended to hole up in her room with her homework and her earbuds.

She was developing a whole independent life, he realized. Right under his nose. And yet, out of his reach.

It was unnerving, to say the least.

But it had one big benefit. Free time.

And what better way to use that free time than by calling up Cassie to see how she and her mom were doing? Of course, he could ask her at work. But what fun would that be? He wanted to be able to say things like…

“So, it took about three showers to get the sand out of my balls. And we didn’t even spend any time on the beach. How does that happen?”

“Poor baby. I guess that’s the chance you take when you walk on the wild side. Maybe you’re not cut out for ocean-based sex.”

“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “I can take it. Sand rash, shark bites, bring it on. It was all worth it.”

She chuckled on the other end of the line. It was a Thursday night, and Holly had gotten special permission for a weekday overnight so she could work on a lab project with one of her friends. So there he was, alone in his waterfront loft, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the starry night sky. He’d turned the lights off so he could get the full effect, and as soon he did so, he thought of Cassie.

Naked under the stars.

Then again, a lot of things made him think of Cassie. That list was a lot bigger than the list of things that didn’t make him think of her.

Better get back to the original purpose of his call. “How is your mom doing?”

“Fine, as far as I know. I haven’t seen her. But Will has.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes, she filled him in on some facts about Matthew Dearborn.”

He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “And?”

“I’m still trying to process it all.”

The forlorn note in her voice tugged at his heart. What was it about Cassie that made him want to curl his body around her and shield her? She was tough and independent, she didn’t need a man to protect her.

But it wasn’t about that. It was something else. Something that had nothing to do with toughness.

“Come over here, you can tell me all about it,” he said impulsively.

“Are you an expert on confusing parents?”

“Not at all.” He stretched out on the couch, making himself comfortable. “My parents are completely ordinary in every way. I learned everything I know about dysfunction from my ex-wife.”

“Okay then.”

He laughed, wondering if he’d scared her off. “Hey, I told you I wouldn’t lie. Things between us were a mess. The main thing I learned was that I don’t want that kind of relationship.”

“Or any kind, right? Didn’t we determine that the other night?”

To be honest, he wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. Except that he hadn’t been alone with Cassie in two days and he missed her like crazy. “If we were in a relationship, I wouldn’t be lying here alone on the couch staring at the stars. I’d be with you in a bed somewhere, avoiding shark bites.”

“Are you sure about that? Maybe I bite.”

“I do remember a little nibble on my biceps,” he teased her.

“Oops. Sorry. I must have been really carried away because I don’t even remember that.”

Damn right she’d gotten carried away. He’d never forget how she looked coming apart in his arms. “I liked it. I liked everything about that night. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since,” he ended softly. “Which seems like kind of a problem.”

Silence from the Cassie end of the phone. He’d noticed that she could talk about sex just fine, but when things veered into the emotional side of things, she got skittish.

“You know where I stand,” she finally said. “And you’ve got Holly to worry about.”

“I do. Or at least I did. I barely see her anymore, she’s got ten jillion friends here in Jupiter Point. She’s always busy. She actually has a life, unlike other members of our family.”

“Where is she tonight?”

“Spending the night at a friend’s house. Some project they’re trying to get done for tomorrow. She gave me her friend’s cell, her friend’s parents’ landline, both of her friend’s parents’ cell numbers. And of course, her phone. And I still feel abandoned.” He put an extra dose of pathetic into his voice, hoping to play on her pity.

“Poor baby,” she repeated. Ha! It was working. “It’s too bad we can’t take advantage of the opportunity with some meaningless, casual, land-based sex.”

He winced, his cock responding to her use of the word “sex” in a completely predictable manner. “Now you’re just trying to torture me.”

“Is it working?” she asked cheerfully.

Yes. All too well. He touched the bulge lifting his cotton sweatpants and groaned out loud.

“I recognize that sound. It’s a sex groan.” Her voice filled with laughter and, he was pretty sure, lust. “I remember it very clearly from the other night. What are you doing right now?”

He rubbed himself again, needing to relieve some of the tension coiling in his cock. “Lying on the couch, like I said. Just an innocent, lonely boy, alone on the couch.”

“With his penis.”

His erection expanded with another big surge of blood. It was a good thing he was lying down. “Yeah, it pretty much goes where I go. So what are you doing? Give me a visual here. Are you naked? I picture you wearing nothing but starlight.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I just got out of the shower. It’s a super-fancy one, too, at this place where I’m house-sitting. It has multiple showerheads. My whole body is tingling.”

He groaned again.

“There’s that sound again.”

“Yup, that’s my Cassie sound. My ‘turned on by Cassie’ sound. My ‘Cassie drives me crazy’ sound.”

She was laughing now, her delight radiating through the phone. “I have my own sound, do I? I’m honored.”

“You should really hear it in person. It’s even better.” He made it again, low in his throat, a rumble of lust and desire and Cassie-want.

“I have, remember? I liked it. A lot. It made me feel sexy and beautiful.”

“Which you are. You don’t need a sound from me to tell you that.” His slid his hand under his pants and met familiar hot skin. For a lot of years, he’d relied on his own hand to satisfy himself. It was safer that way, less disruptive to Holly. He’d used various sexy images to inspire himself. But now he had a real-life memory replaying itself in his head, and it starred one woman only. Cassie Knight.

“But I like thinking that you see me that way, that’s all.”

“Never doubt that. So you just had a shower, are you wearing a towel? A bathrobe? Naked? Is your hair all loose and wet, or is it wrapped up in one of those turbans?”

“Wait one second here,” came her laughing voice. “Wouldn’t this be considered land-based sex?”

Why did she have to keep mentioning sex? Groan.

“No, because it’s all happening over the phone line,” he said. “That’s like, just air. It’s air-based sex. We never talked about air-based sex. No rules about that.”

She burst out laughing, the waves of amusement crashing over him as if they were back in the ocean together. “Air-based sex? I didn’t know there was such a thing.”

“It’s another loophole.”

“You’re crazy.”

He was, when he let himself be. But it had been so long since he’d allowed that side of himself to come out. It was the side that had led him into wild times in the Air Force, that had pursued Sylvie. The side he’d grown out of. Or so he’d thought.

“Is that a bad thing, to be crazy? Because you might as well know that about me from the beginning. I know you can’t tell from the outside, but I have this wild and crazy streak that only gets activated in certain situations. Like when the woman I’m lusting over tells me she just got out of the shower.”

“So now we’re talking both water- and air-based sex.”

“That’s right. We’re swinging both ways now.”

She laughed again…actually it was more like she hadn’t stopped laughing since they began this absurd conversation. “Well, if you really must know, I’m half dressed.”

“Which half?” he asked quickly. “It’s all in the details.”

“My lower half is dressed. When I got out of the shower, I put on a pair of baggy terrycloth shorts that are so old they’re practically see-through. And by the way, if you want me to embellish this at all, you’re going to have to cough up a dinner or something.”

“Yes to dinner. No to embellishment. Don’t need any. Those see-through shorts are totally working for me.” In fact, his breathing was already coming faster, his hand moving up and down his shaft.

“I mentioned that they’re old and baggy, right?”

“Shhh. I’m busy here.”

Her husky laugh was like life itself to him. “Busy doing what?”

“Jacking off to every word you say.” Hey, no reason to dance around the issue. If there was ever a woman he could be totally blunt with, it was Cassie.

Just as he’d expected, she gave a snort that didn’t sound at all offended. “Maybe I should start reciting the Declaration of Independence or something.”

“Believe me, whatever you say in that sexy voice of yours is fine. Got a phone book handy?”

“Well, I probably do, somewhere.” Her voice rose into a breathy moan. “Let me just walk around the room topless while I look for it.”

A spasm jolted through his cock. “Did you say topless?”

“I haven’t found my teeny-tiny ribbed tank yet, the one I like to sleep in because it barely covers anything. So I’m just letting it all hang out. Too bad the air is kind of cold in here and my nipples are getting so hard. And bouncy.”

“Bouncy?” His voice came out in a squeak.

“Yes. Well, walking around the room bare-breasted makes my boobs kind of jostle. Sometimes I have to hold them steady.”

“Hold them?” This time his voice cracked like a teenager’s.

“Yes, I like to cup them. Squeeze the nipples between my fingers. But they’re too big for my hands, really. They kind of spill over, you know?”

He closed his eyes, the image of Cassie walking bare-breasted around the room filling his imagination. There she was, in baggy old cotton shorts and nothing else, strutting in slow-motion, a wet dream come to life, her long hair flowing over her shoulders, her lips parted in a come-hither smile, her pretty blue eyes somehow both sparkling and sultry.

His climax exploded, hot liquid pumping into his hand. The orgasm started at the base of his spine and gripped his body in a hard fist of ecstasy. Eyes closed, he soaked in his mental image of topless Cassie. Miraculously, she became naked Cassie halfway through the orgasm, and somehow he even wound up inside her, at least mentally. Instead of his own hand, he was releasing his essence into her, pounding his cock right up to the hilt, burying himself deep within her.

It was the best air-based sex he’d ever had.

When he finished, he realized that his phone had slipped away from his shoulder and was half-buried in the couch cushions. He dug it out and put it back to his ear. On the other end, Cassie was laughing her ass off.

“Oh my God. Was that as good for you as it sounded?”

“You have no idea.”

“Uh, think again, mister. I heard you. You got me all hot and bothered too. I think I might get back in the shower now. Want to shower with me, long-distance?”

“Contemporaneous showers? I like it. The only downside is we’ll have to hang up.”

“Yeah, we’ll have to do our post-orgasm cuddling virtually. That’s okay, I’m not much of a cuddler anyway.”

He sat up, then swung his legs over the side of the couch and headed for the bathroom. “Well I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m a champion cuddler. So don’t write it off until you’ve done it with the best.”

She laughed, and he realized that throaty sparkling shower of delight might be his favorite sound in all creation. “You’re boasting about your skill at cuddling?”

“Yes, it’s second only to my skill at the stuff that comes before cuddling.”

“Oh ho. I see how it is. You realize that a claim like that has to be put to the test?”

“I am ready for that challenge.” He pushed open the door to the bathroom and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. All bedhead and sex-flushed. Apparently air-based sex was nothing to scoff at.

“On land,” she said firmly. “That’s the only place cuddling works properly.”

Good point. Well, now he’d painted himself into a corner. And not one bit of him regretted it.

Oops.