That Thing You Do (Whispering Bay Romance 1)

could answer, he scooped her up and carried her over the proverbial threshold.

She should demand he let go of her this instant. What was he thinking? What was she thinking? Letting him manhandle her like some Neanderthal claiming his woman? Trouble was, she couldn’t think at all right now.

He set her down in the middle of the room. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” Then he walked out the front door, leaving her standing there, still too stunned to speak. She thought she’d put the sex idea out there, then they’d discuss the pros and cons. Like rational adults. Not lunge at each other like a couple of love-starved teenagers.

He returned with the inflatable mattress and his backpack.

Allie could hear herself breathe. Raspy, like she was on the verge of an asthma attack. Only she didn’t suffer from any breathing problems. Nope. The only problem she had was standing in front of her. She could hear Tom breathing, too. Good to know she wasn’t the only one having trouble getting air in and out of her lungs.

Then she remembered that they weren’t supposed to be inside the building.

“What about Madame Gloria? Phoebe said the building’s aura had to remain pure, as in no trespassing and certainly no—”

“Fuck Madame Gloria. It’s here, against the side of the building, or my truck. Take your pick.”

Against the side of the building?

Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Or the way he was looking at her. What had Zeke said? Like she was breakfast and Tom was starving. So maybe this wasn’t the way she’d always envisioned this scene. But this was the way it was going to happen. It was probably best not to think too much at this point. Action. That’s what was required here.

She grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and tugged it over his head.

God he was beautiful. A combination of smooth muscle and hard edges that nearly had her drooling. It only took them a minute to get each other naked. Flat on her back on that mattress with Tom Donalan on top of her. Like déjà vu. Only not from last night. It was like the two of them had been whirling around in some weird time machine and they’d gone back twelve years and were eighteen again. Maybe not in body, but in spirit they were a couple of horny teenagers getting down to the business of doing what they’d set out to do all those years ago.

He flicked her nipples with his thumbs. “I remember these.” Then he latched onto one breast and suckled it, slow and thorough, like he had all the time in the world. The first time he’d touched her breast was at the beach, late one night after their fourth date. She’d been shocked to discover how something so simple could feel so unbelievably good.

“They remember you, too,” she rasped.

He chuckled and changed breasts.

She rubbed the soles of her bare feet up and down the back of his calves. He must have taken that as a signal because then he began doing that thing with his hands, touching her everywhere. Sliding his palms over her hot itchy skin until she couldn’t take it anymore.

She wanted to tell him she didn’t need any more foreplay. That she was ready now. That’d she’d spent the past twelve years ready. But there was something she needed to say first.

“Remember…last night when I told you about my life plan?”

“Uh-huh,” he murmured, his mouth still on her nipple.

“About part two…sowing my wild oats. I didn’t mean it the way you probably think I did.”

He glanced up.

It was the twenty-first century. She shouldn’t care what he thought, but she couldn’t help herself. “That is, I don’t want you to think that I’ve been—”

“I know what you meant.”

“But how—”

“Allie, I know.” He shook his head. “You’re…not the kind of girl who sleeps around.”

Their eyes locked and suddenly she didn’t trust herself to speak, because who knew what kind of garble would come out of her mouth? So she grabbed his hand and placed it between her thighs where it was so wet that she should have been embarrassed, except she wasn’t.

Balancing himself with one hand, he reached into his backpack to produce a small foil packet.

Bring a condom. On second thought, bring two.

Allie swallowed hard. “So that’s where you keep the protection, huh? Pretty handy.”

Her voice sounded thin and far away, like it was somebody else speaking. She mentally shook her head. Of course she wanted him to use a condom. She willed herself to relax again. To be in the moment because whatever else might have happened between them in the past, the present was shaping up to be pretty friggin’ fantastic.