Chapter Sixteen
The Oregon state line loomed in the distance, mocking him as they drove on. He had at best a half hour before he’d be dropping her at her parents’ house and saying au revoir. She’d made it clear she didn’t want her family to think anything had happened between them, and he had to agree.
The timing was wrong for anything substantial to continue. If they sauntered in as a couple it would steal the spotlight and that wasn’t fair. Their focus had to be on the wedding. After all, that’s what had brought them together in the first place.
He pulled into the slow lane, no longer in a hurry to get anywhere. “Will you be teaching next summer?”
“Depends on how badly I want to buy a house.” She twisted in her seat to face him. “Why?”
“I take a vacation every August. We could drive Route 66. Or maybe Maine to Florida.”
“You want to do this again?”
“I’ve enjoyed myself.” He reached for her and ran his fingers along the smooth skin of her cheek. “So have you.”
“Yes, but a year is a long way off. A lot is going to happen between now and then.”
He snapped his fingers. “I know. You’ll come to France and I’ll show you everything.”
Jaime moved as far from him as she could in the tiny car, pressing against her door. “That sounds amazing, but let’s not make any promises we can’t keep.”
“Why can’t we?” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“For one thing, I have no idea where I’m going to be living.”
“You lined up interviews for next week. You said you thought the job at the Spanish immersion school in Seattle was locked in.”
“I don’t think I’ll be unemployed, but I moved back to the West Coast to get my life in gear. A job, a house, a future.” He heard the unsaid threat of replacing him with another man. “Besides, you might be seeing someone who wouldn’t take too kindly to your vacationing with another woman.”
“I won’t be seeing anyone.” He swallowed and reached for a bottle of water, his mouth suddenly parched. He drained almost half the bottle in one gulp.
“It’s okay. I’ve guessed you’re not exactly celibate.” Jaime took the bottle from him and wrapped her full lips around the top for her own drink.
“I’m never with anyone who makes decisions for me. I want to see you next summer, to show you France. Maybe the year after that you can show me Mexico.”
“My father is in Mexico.”
“My father is in France.”
“Xavier stop, okay?” Her voice sounded strained as if she were fighting tears. She’d turned to the window so he couldn’t be sure.
“What’s wrong? I don’t understand.”
“I know.” She smoothed her hands through her hair, held back by a white headband in the same eyelet pattern as her sundress. “I’m way out of my element here. This is a fantasy trip from real life, but I can’t plan on making the same departure every year. The kind of life I want is more stable than that.”
“You don’t want to come to France next summer?” He cleared his throat and took the next exit. Ashland, home of the Shakespeare festival, Southern Oregon University and Lithia Park. He needed someplace where he could look her in the eye. He just hoped they hadn’t moved the park in the decade since he’d been in the state.
“It’s not that I don’t want to. Who wouldn’t want to spend a month in France? It’s just that I don’t want that carrot dangling in the future, you know?”
He didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. Since she didn’t say more until he’d pulled into the parking lot of the wooded park that spotlighted two miles of Lithia Creek, he guessed she wasn’t going to elaborate.
“My mom is having Shabbos dinner tonight for our family and Trent’s,” Jaime said after he killed the engine. “She wanted to invite you.”
“But you don’t want me to go.”
Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “We have a couple hours until then, but I want to be clear. We are strictly platonic once we get to Medford. I don’t want to deal with being chastised for having an affair with someone I knew was leaving. My mother wants me to get married, and every time I break up with someone she takes it personally. I just went through that a few months ago and I’m not doing it again.”
Oh, now he was getting it. She thought they were over. There were three more days before he had to fly home, and he had no intention of missing her before he had to.
His heart stalled at the realization he would miss her. When they weren’t bickering over timelines, they’d gotten along amazingly well. He’d even talked about losing his mother, which he’d never done before, with anyone. She was intelligent and well read, kind and adventurous, not to mention she indulged him more than anyone ever had.
“You want an ice-cream cone?” Jaime opened her door and climbed out of the car. “They have huge ones here, and we can get them dipped in chocolate. Then we’ll take a walk, okay? I haven’t been here in years.” She closed her door, so he took a slight moment to look around.
Close to town, there was an ice-cream stand on one side of the road, a playground on the other. He’d come here during his year in high school with other students. They’d truly been kids that day, feeding the ducks, hiking the park and climbing playground structures they were much too old for. He’d felt free and happy, the way he’d felt on this trip with Jaime until right now. Something dark and heavy loomed in the distance, and he did not care to examine what that might be.
Gathering his thoughts, he slid from the car and met Jaime to cross the street. He reached for her hand, but she pulled away. She ordered their cones, handed him a chocolate-covered mountain of swirling vanilla, and started to walk.
Without a word, they kept going, past where the sidewalk turned into a paved trail and then into a dirt path. The rich aroma of earth and freshly cut grass hung in the air, the creek tinkling in the distance. Their cones were gone, and so were the sprinkling of people they’d passed on the way.
“J’aime? What’s wrong?”
She kicked a stone with her flip-flop, pausing on the deserted trail. “Reality is just hitting me. There’s so much to do and the enormity of it is crashing down.”
“What would help?”
She ticked the items on her fingers. “A job, a place to live, a car, knowing which town I’ll be living in.”
He reached in his pocket for the keys to the convertible and handed them to her. “One down. Nothing you can do about the others until next week when you have your interviews.”
“You can’t give me a car.” She thrust the keys back at him.
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “I can as long as you put my name on whatever wedding gift you got for Trent and Allison.”
“Getting you to town was my wedding gift.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll write them a check then.”
“I can’t accept a car. It’s like making plans for next summer. In my head it will keep us in a relationship that’s going to be over in about an hour.”
“What is so wrong with staying in touch, J’aime?”
“My baby sister is getting married and wants to have a baby right away. I may not want that today, but I do someday.” Her dark eyes turned glassy and she started up the path again.
She had him there. Marriage and children weren’t on his foreseeable horizon. He needed to make sure the transition went smoothly when his father handed over the reins of Marie-Chloe, and give Natalie some more time to feel confident in her position as lead designer. Natalie ran off every woman he ever dated, thinking they wanted to usurp her. Though, to be fair, many women pursued him with just that hope.
They’d all tried to manipulate him, just as Jaime was doing now. Sad really, he hadn’t expected this from her. Things had been going so well. He caught up with her in a few long strides.
“You’re expecting me to propose marriage here, right? Throw off my career, my family and my country to state my undying love for you?”
She spun on her heel. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what your little performance is about.” He stepped to her, needing to look into her eyes, the warm brown so deep and kaleidoscopic he didn’t know how to read her.
She took a step back. “You seem to be the one that’s confused, inviting me on trips, giving me a car. I’m trying for a clean break.”
“So you’re upset I expect us to be friends?” He closed the distance between them. “You’d rather be discarded like garbage? I won’t do that.”
His mouth came down to claim hers once more. Silencing whatever argument she might try. The faint smell of cinnamon that always enveloped her rose on the warm air. He thought she might resist, but she opened willingly for him, her fingernails scratching at his scalp as she pushed a hand over his cropped hair.
Wrapping her up in his arms, he kissed her with every unnamed emotion he felt. Whatever was between them couldn’t be all she wanted, but he couldn’t let it be over.
He pulled back but didn’t release her. “You asked me to teach you how to do this. There is no reason to end things before we have to.”
A charming smile curved her lips. “It’s not what I want. But I’m the one left here to deal with my family, and they’ll chalk this up as another mistake I’ve made. I don’t want us to be a mistake in anyone’s eyes.”
“There is no need to avoid one another. I come to New York a few times a year. You could―”
She silenced him with a finger on his lips. “No, I couldn’t. I want to be in a relationship that is going somewhere, and visiting you would get in the way of that. I understand that you can do that, carry on more than one affair or―”
“I never carry on more than one affair, but I understand what you are saying.” He took her hand in his and pulled her flush against him, her belly a soft cradle for his erection, her full breasts teasing his chest. “I can’t give you more, so you see no point in continuing our friendship.”
“You really think we can be in the same room and not have people realize we’ve been together? At the last two hotels they signed me in as Mrs. Moreau. It’s obvious.”
Had they? He hadn’t noticed. Though, usually at check in he was more concerned with getting her horizontal than anything a desk clerk had to say.
“Let’s head back. I want to take a shower before dinner tonight.” She moved to go, but he held her firm.
“No one will know. We’re amazing at bickering. No one will suspect we even get along, let alone more.”
“That is a big risk for me, not for you. I’m the one who looks like a fool when you leave.”
“Do you feel like a fool, J’aime?” He lowered his face to hers, trying to comprehend why he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He’d never bothered to pursue a woman before, and yet now he couldn’t stop. He was playing with fire, and one of them was going to end up burned. Odd how he knew that, and yet he still lit the flame.
A swift current of passion rushed at him, creating a blinding sense of urgency. He’d learned her body so well in the short time they shared together he was able to convince her to step off the path and deeper into seclusion without a word.
Her mouth was so generous, so lush and soft he might have kissed her all day. Except they had a timeline now, and every kiss, every touch held the threat of being their last. Jaime must have felt it too. Her hands were already beneath his shirt, fingers grazing over his ribs.
The thoughts clouding his mind drifted on the breeze, and he only felt. Felt all the tension leave his body, felt his blood heat at her nearness, and felt something deeper stirring that had nothing to do with his erection on the rise. Every heartbeat insisted that he was male and she was female and the entire universe demanded they join. He’d never felt so masculine or virile as he did with her, and he always took what he wanted.
The trees rustling overhead and the possibility of being discovered by someone out for a hike set his awareness on high. He had to have her now, quickly and silently. And that was unacceptable as their final time together.
He drizzled the kiss off her mouth, his lips dripping kisses along her jaw and down her neck. He teased his way across her collarbone, pulling her dress aside to free one of her breasts.
Jaime’s fingers dug into his shoulders. “I’m not―”
“I’m not waiting.” He pulled her nipple into his mouth, his tongue dancing over the tip.
“Hurry.” She shifted and he caught her tugging her panties off her hips. He crouched down to help her step out of them and tucked the sensible cotton in the pocket of his cargo shorts. She was the first woman he’d ever been with who wore white cotton. Nothing would ever compare.
He ran his hands back up her legs, enjoying the silky feel of her soft skin. Her body crackled with sensual power, and every time he touched her he absorbed the energy. His cock pulsed for attention, but he knew prolonging his release would increase his arousal, and remind Jaime why this couldn’t end a second before it had to.
“Step wider.” His hands on the front of her thighs, he brushed his thumbs on the sparse hair hiding her sex.
“We can’t. I won’t be able to stand.” Despite her protest, she widened her legs and he dove beneath the loose skirt of her dress.
With his thumbs, he pulled back her outer lips, exposing her womanly flesh, the telltale scent giving away her desire. He leaned closer, teasing her with hot puffs of breath and pointed flicks of his tongue before moving in to feast on her.
Soft gasps blew through the trees as Jaime gripped his head with her hands. He didn’t know if it was to hold him there or steady herself, so he nestled his mouth between her thighs, freeing his hands to grip her buttocks. She started to tremble, her body quaking around him.
Not waiting for her to finish, he stood quickly and pulled her to him when she started to swoon. He’d never forget her expression in that moment, eyelashes feathering over her cheeks, her lips swollen from his kisses parted and whispering delight in her rapturous haze.
His heart pumped double time and he knew this was more than lust, more than enjoying a vacation. He never knew that he was capable of letting someone in, of taking that kind of risk, and now he’d gambled on something doomed to fail.
Unless he could think of a solution where everyone was happy. He was good at negotiating, compromising, getting exactly what he wanted, which right now was to be deep inside Jaime.
He freed his diamond-hard erection from his shorts. Lifting her by her bare buttocks, he entered her with a swift, driving thrust. Her gasp in his ear tore the breath from his lungs, her arms twining around his neck and her legs locking behind his back.
Not a position that would set records for stamina, but he wasn’t going to last long anyway. Her lips nipped at his ear, her hums of pleasure at his every movement drove him harder. She felt so submissive in his arms this way, so completely his he couldn’t fathom why she’d give this up willingly, why she expected him to.
Her kisses over his face and neck tore at his last shred of self-control. He chased his own release in the depths of her body, only to be blessed with the sweet pain of her inner muscles gripping him fiercely as her teeth sank into his shoulder.
The orgasm he’d been holding at bay barreled out of him, his hands pulling her closer while his hips pushed deeper. He nearly fell at the power of it, taking two steps back to lean against a tree for support. Jaime dropped one leg to help steady them.
He rested his head on her shoulder, breathless from the effort. He wrapped his arms around her body, keeping her close. Sunshine caressed his cheek, reminding him where they were.
“You’re amazing.” He straightened up, a whisper of regret filling him as he pulled free of her body and tucked himself away. He rolled his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Are you all right? That was pretty intense. You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”
He smiled, dipping his head for another teasing kiss. “I’m fine. Better than fine, actually.”
The blush still present from her orgasm deepened. “You make me do the craziest things. We could have been caught.”
“You didn’t seem to care about that at Mt. Rushmore, or two minutes ago.”
“I wasn’t thinking either time.” She looked down, smoothing her hands over her white dress. She was a vision of innocence, nothing out of place in spite of what had transpired.
“I’m glad I can keep you from thinking.” He reached into his pocket and retrieved her panties. “Missing something?”
She grabbed for them, but he held them higher. “Allow me.”
She stepped back. “Oh no, that’s how this started in the first place.”
He knelt in front of her. “Either I put them on, or you go without. As much as I’d love for you never to wear panties again, I’m betting you can’t walk into your mothers’ house and act like nothing is happening between us without them.”