Chapter Thirteen
After dinner, Anna insisted on cleaning up. There wasn’t much to wash, just salad bowls, plates, and silverware.
“Let me help,” Clark said. Even though she’d cut back on her work schedule, she still cleaned a few houses, and he didn’t want her to feel like she had to clean all day and then come home and do the same. “I can wash dishes.”
“It’ll just take me a minute. It’s the least I can do since you cooked the meal.” Anna bent to stack the plates in the dishwasher. “I’ll give the floor a quick mop after I finish these,” she said.
He tried not to notice the firm curve of her ass, but it wasn’t easy. If there was anything sexier than the way the cargo pants hugged her curves, he wasn’t sure he wanted to see it.
His marriage might be a sham, but his attraction to Anna wasn’t. It was a hundred percent authentic. For the hundredth time, he wished Taylor had introduced them before Jake’s accident, wished he’d let her introduce them. Before Jake, he might have been able to make something real work with her.
But now it was all water under the bridge. Too late.
Because now I know that I don’t deserve happiness. Not after what I did to Jake.
Finished with loading the dishes, Anna bent in front of him to pick up a wilted lettuce leaf off the floor. His heart sped up. The V-neck of her T-shirt showed off the tops of her breasts. He fought the urge to run his finger along the line of her cleavage.
He’d never gotten hard watching a woman cleaning, but there was always a first time for everything.
Anna rose and wiped her hands on a dishcloth. After hanging it on the handle of the oven, she said, “Good as new. Do we have any wine left?”
He nodded. “Want to sit on the porch?”
“Yep.”
Clark didn’t want to get used to this domestic bliss. Even after such a short period of time, it was becoming all too easy. He not only liked Anna’s company, he also craved her. But it went much deeper than the physical.
He adored Louie. It was as if they’d been a family forever.
The family he’d dreamed of but never thought he’d be able to create.
He poured the last of the wine into two glasses and placed Anna’s beside her chair. After picking his up, he took a sip. He savored the spicy taste of the syrah as it slid down his throat. The night had been as close to perfect as he could imagine. Good food, pleasant conversation, and companionship.
Startling him from his thoughts, she walked onto the porch and sat in the chair beside him. “About the dog,” she began. “I wished we’d talked about it this morning.”
“I know. We agreed to talk more about it before we made the decision, but when Louie saw that puppy, I couldn’t resist.” He threw his hands up in the air in a show of surrender. “I’m so sorry. Huge screw up. I’m not sure how I’ll make it right, but I will. You have my word on that.”
“It’s okay. I think you were right.” She tilted her head back and took a deep swig of the wine. He tried not to think about the way her neck tasted.
“You do?”
Anna nodded. “Louie loves him, and he’s pretty cute. The kid needs a companion, and it makes our relationship look real. We’ll figure out a way to keep him when this is over.” She reached over and took his hand.
“We’ll find a solution,” he agreed.
Her blue eyes sparkled, and he loved the way her small hand felt in his. Her breasts strained at the flimsy fabric of her shirt.
I have to taste her again. Now. Feel the whisper of her breath. Wrap her hair in between my fingers. Make her a part of me.
The tension of anticipation flashed between them, making the porch feel as small as the tiny bathroom. Every cell in his body was on edge…waiting, wanting.
He pulled her into his lap.
And then they kissed. There was no way to tell who started it, who moved in first, just that it felt like the most natural and wonderful thing ever.
Less than ten seconds in, Clark didn’t give a damn how it happened. He just didn’t want it to end.
…
The heat cycled between them in waves, turning the screened porch into a sauna.
The muscles of his thighs rubbed against her bottom, making her shiver. He pulled her closer and pressed his erection against her. She rocked her hips back and forth, loving the friction building on her clit. The memory of how he filled her floated through her mind, and she wanted that high again.
Every inch of her body pulsed with the need for him. Her panties were wet with it.
Clark wrapped his fingers in her hair and claimed her lips. The heat of his mouth blazed through her, vibrating every cell in her body. He trailed his tongue lightly along her bottom lip, searing the sensitive flesh. She pressed her mouth against his, and when their tongues met, Anna’s muscles contracted, and her arousal heightened.
She inhaled the masculine scent of him, and it went straight to her head. She had to have him. Needed him. Now.
Thoughts vanished. She was a hundred and twenty pounds of desperate want.
Clark stood, taking her hands and pulling her up with him. He placed his hand on her neck and ran his thumb along her jaw. “I want you,” he growled.
Instead of answering with words, she kissed him. Hard. He kissed back. She looped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He ran his hand inside her shirt and toyed with her nipples. She threw her head back and enjoyed the warm heat of his mouth on her neck.
Clark took her hand. “Follow me.” He led her into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him. “I’ve been thinking about your taste all day.”
“I thought about you, too.”
“Knowing you were coming home to my bed. Imagining you wrapping your legs around my waist.” The grin on his face was dangerous. Primal. One hundred percent sexy beast.
A shiver of anticipation ran along her spine. “You like me in your bed?”
Anna ran her finger along his bottom lip. When she got to the middle, he took it into his mouth and sucked it.
“I might.”
Clark gently pushed her onto her back. After tugging her shirt over her head, he flung it to the floor and removed her bra with one deft motion of his fingers. When he took a pert nipple in his mouth and massaged the other breast with his large hand, she cried out.
“I want skin to skin,” she whispered. “Now.”
She ripped at his shirt, desperate to feel the warmth of his broad chest next to hers. He shucked his T-shirt off, and she drew him back to her, running her hands along the expanse of his shoulders. He pressed his body next to hers, and the coarse hair on his chest tickled her breasts, heightening her arousal even more.
He moved down her body, kissing a line down her stomach while he brushed the underside of her breasts with his fingers. When he reached the waistband of her pants, he unbuckled her belt, and she raised her hips so he could take off her jeans. “You know how I feel about pink panties.”
The Redhawk voice.
He ran his tongue along the flimsy elastic waistband of her panties, making her moan again. He removed her panties slowly, kissing the inside of her thigh and sending a delicious thrill up her spine. When she felt the heat of his mouth on her clit, she put her hands in his hair and enjoyed the incredible sensations coursing through her. Her climax began, at first in small ripples, and then in crashing warm waves that consumed her, driving out everything but the feel of Clark’s mouth on her. It was so intense she shook with the aftershocks.
Clark moved up so his head was on the pillow next to hers. “Nice?” He asked with a sinful smile on his face.
“Umm…very nice. Can’t form a complete sentence,” she said with her eyes still closed.
“It only gets better,” he said, trailing a finger across her stomach. His erection pressed against her leg.
After slipping on a condom, he moved atop her and slid into the slick wetness of her. He filled her completely. He began moving inside her, and even though she thought another climax was impossible, a spark of desire flickered inside her. She began to move with him, their hips rotating in lazy circles. Soon, she was at the brink again. She was floating, tethered to the earth only by the rhythmic motion of their lovemaking. Clark moved faster, each thrust deeper and deeper. He moaned. The sound of his voice pushed her over the precipice. She was flying, sailing in a sea of soft clouds and brilliant colors. He quivered inside her, and she pulled his face close to hers, his forehead touching hers. He kissed her, softly with a kind of reverence.
“Wow,” Clark said a few minutes later. “That was incredible.”
Anna smiled contentedly and agreed. “I don’t even have the words for how incredible that was.”
They fell asleep, arms and legs tangled together.