Down for the Count (Dare Me 1)

A puff of cool air from the vent above hit him on the back of the neck and it was settled. She was still in damp clothes and the room was chilly. She really needed to change. He knelt beside her and shook her shoulder gently. “Lacey, wake up.”

“Go ’way,” she mumbled before flipping onto her side with a snuffle.

He grinned and tried again, shaking a little harder. Nada. With a sigh, he bent low and scooped her up. Immediately, her arms circled his neck and she pressed closer. He steeled himself and crossed the room, trying to ignore the softness of her breast branding his chest as he walked. Jesus, maybe it was because his body was still in hyperdrive from their petting in the pool, but by the time they reached one of the bedrooms, he was sporting a full-blown hard-on.

Not bothering to flick on the light, he set her gently on the bed. He tried to disengage himself, but she would have none of it. She kept her arms locked around his neck and yanked until he was sprawled on top of her.

“Don’t wanna be alone,” she murmured, burying her nose into his throat. He rolled to the side, tugging her along with him until she lay in the crook of his arm. With a contented sigh, she snuggled in deeper and hooked her thigh over his hip. Hot blood roared to his cock. What the fuck was he going to do now? Over the past two days, he’d seen a side of Lacey he’d never seen before and, if he was being totally honest with himself, he’d thought she was pretty great before. Now he knew that, on top of her kind-hearted if not somewhat neurotic nature and smoking-hot body, she’d also been hiding a well of untapped sensuality. It was a lethal combination. He couldn’t remember ever wanting to touch someone so badly he could taste it.

She’d made herself clear, though. She wasn’t about to go there with him. Not right now, anyway. And maybe now was all they had. Maybe this was a fluke, an anomaly created by the perfect storm of events that would subside once they left the island. Then they’d go back to their regularly scheduled program. A program that didn’t include him wanting to tear off her clothes and make her scream his name over and over.

Then again, maybe this was always the way it was meant to go. Maybe the timing had never been right. There had been a short period in grade school where he thought she might have a crush on him, but he’d been far too old for her. When they finally bridged the perceived gap, they were in high school. He was way too cool to hang out with his little sister and her friends, and she certainly hadn’t seemed interested anyway. By the time they reached adulthood, one of them always seemed to have a significant other and it had been so easy to fall into the sniping that had become the norm for them. But now, he was single and she was well on her way to the same. Maybe this was their time.

Whenever she’s ready, he reminded himself.

He inched away, trying to get a little space between them, but for every centimeter he gained, she scooted two closer until she was almost on top of him. Her warm breath tickled his neck and he grudgingly gave up the fight as the lure of a warm female on a comfortable bed after a long day of sun and surf took over.

He slid his hand into her hair and closed his eyes, letting the image of her in her bikini bottoms, bare breasts streaked with sand, play like a silent film against the backs of his eyelids. His cock throbbed against her thigh and he groaned. Thirteen nights left.

Which was unfortunate, because at this rate? He’d be dead in three.

Chapter Seven

“Unless something’s changed, I’m going to have to ask that you unhand me.”

Galen’s sleep-roughened voice poured over her like honey, and her eyes drifted opened. His handsome face, made even more so by the morning whiskers shadowing his jaw, came into focus. “What do you mean?”

He flipped his heavy-lidded gaze downward, and she followed suit.

“Omigod. I am so sorry!” She jerked her hand away and covered her mouth in mortification. For the second morning in a row, one of her appendages had wound up in up-close-and-personal contact with his manly parts.

“Hey, no harm no foul. I’m not usually one to complain about waking up to a morning cock massage, but I didn’t want to reach the boiling point only to find out you were actually dead asleep and dreaming about milking a cow.”

She closed her eyes and ducked her head under the covers, wishing she could disappear. “How did we end up in the same bed again?” She remembered falling asleep on the couch, but after that, it was all a pleasant blur.

“Cut it out.” His muffled voice became clear as he yanked the blanket off her head. “I can’t even hear you like that.”

She picked a spot on the wall and stared at it, hard. “I asked how we got in the same bed again.”

“I put you in and you didn’t want to be alone.” He shrugged. “Far be it from me to argue with a pretty lady. And frankly, until about ten seconds ago, I was thinking it was a great decision out of me.”

Despite the teasing words, she could feel the sexual tension rolling off him. It took all her strength not to bolt before she jumped his bones and finished what she’d unwittingly started. God, he’d felt good in her hand. Big. Hard. Ready for—

A ring blared from Galen’s cell phone on the bedside table, mercifully derailing her thoughts. She felt the heat of his gaze on her as he reached to answer it, and she knew their discussion was far from over.

“Hello.” He paused and then covered the receiver with his hand. “It’s your lawyer.”

She was seriously going to have to think about picking up a new cell. While she didn’t relish the idea of talking to her mother anytime soon, it was irresponsible to be out of contact like this, and the guilt was weighing on her. She took the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Lacey. I have some news.”

“Okay, let me just…” She gave Galen an apologetic smile along with a finger wiggle and climbed out of the bed, making sure to suck in her belly in case he was looking. She crossed the room in search of some privacy. It was impossible to think straight with him staring at her with that better to eat you with smile, and something about Allen’s tone told her that whatever news he had was worth paying attention to.

She went into the hallway bathroom and closed the door behind her. “Okay, what’s up?”

“You’re going to love me for this. In fact, you can send the Dom Pérignon to my penthouse.”

The Fitzhumes had been friends of the family and she and Allen had had very similar upbringings. They’d both been coerced into attending the same events, taking tennis lessons from the same instructor, and resenting the hell out of it all. She had a reasonable amount of filial affection for him, but in that moment, if he were there she would’ve popped him in the gut for toying with her. “Stop dancing around and spill it, Fitz!”

“According to the state of Rhode Island, you’re not married.”

“What do you mean? Reverend Maclan performed the service.” Blood rushed to her ears and her legs felt like wet noodles. She sank to the vanity chair and tried not to let hope overtake common sense. “Marty and I both signed the certificate. And I saw the reverend sign it, too.”

“Right on both counts. But…”

The dramatic pause made Lacey want to jump through the phone and strangle him. She dragged a hand over her face. “You’re killing me right now. Killing. Me. Please, just spit it out.”

“Bu-ut, Reverend Maclan hadn’t filed the paperwork yet. There will be a fee involved, which I agreed on your behalf to pay, but I have the unfiled certificate here. We tear it up and voilà! It never happened.”

She doubled over, suddenly swamped with dizziness. “Are you one hundred percent sure?” she croaked. Please say yes. She couldn’t take it if this turned out to be some terrible mistake.

“No doubt about it. Once we get off the phone, I’m going to call Marty’s lawyer and let him know. You, my dear, are a single woman.”

She disconnected and stood. A single woman. Relief sent a cocktail of emotions racing through her, and she started to shake. Hysterical laughter bubbled over and tears sprang to her eyes. Something had finally broken her way, and now there was nothing stopping her from spending the next couple weeks doing the one thing she’d wanted more than anything else. It would hurt when it was over, and she wasn’t about to fool herself into thinking it was anything more than a fling, but suddenly it didn’t matter.

She made her way to the hall and faced the bedroom door, behind which Whalin’ Galen Thomas lay, shirtless and waiting. Like a present, half unwrapped, just for her. She might not be able to satisfy a man like him, but she was going to try her damnedest.

…

Galen propped up the pillows and picked up the remote, trying to forget the feel of Lacey’s hot little hand wrapped around his cock, pumping away. Jesus, it had been so good, though. Artless but enthusiastic, her grip firm and sure.

He clicked on the TV, desperate for something to distract him from the throbbing in his cock, which showed no signs of abating anytime soon. Commercial in Spanish, commercial in English, The Weather Channel. He stopped there. They’d planned to go hiking in the El Yunque rain forest later that morning, but if the temperature was going to climb above ninety-five, maybe they’d skip it for a day at the casino. Unless she wanted to go back to the beach.

His balls grew tight at the memory of her in her bikini bottoms and he groaned. No, not the beach. Someplace else, where she would be entirely clothed. He was cursing the fact that she hadn’t planned to honeymoon in Alaska when the bedroom door swung open again.

“Hey, everything okay?” he asked as Lacey made her way toward the bed. Something about the look on her face made his heart kick, hard. The determined set of her jaw, the gleam in her eye. His instincts were dead-on. One moment she was at the foot of the bed, the next she was airborne. He dropped the remote on the floor just in time to brace himself as she landed on top of him. Air left his lungs in a whoosh, but before he could refill them, she smashed her mouth into his. Their teeth clacked together hard and she drew back, pressing her fingers to her lips.

“Sorry. That was stupid. I could’ve chipped your tooth or something.” Twin red flags bloomed on her cheeks. “Did I chip your tooth?” She pried his mouth open with her thumb and forefinger to inspect his intact enamel.

“My teeth are fine,” he said, hoping he sounded less confused than he felt. What could her lawyer have possibly said that would make her jump his bones like that? He was never one to look gift sexual aggression in the mouth, but these ups and downs were wreaking havoc on his libido. “What’s going on, Lacey?”

“You don’t know?” She flopped off him and onto her back, draping an arm over her face. “God, I can’t do anything right. I was trying to seduce you.”

He smiled and rolled to face her. “I knew that part, but why? Not that I’m complaining. I want this. Damn, you have no idea how bad I want this, but not if you’re going to feel guilty about it in a few hours.” He traced her full bottom lip with his thumb, the need to sink his teeth into it almost overwhelming. “Now’s the time to decide, though, because I’m about to make it impossible for you to form a coherent thought.”

She dropped her arm to her side and turned her head to face him, the interest in his declaration plain on her face. “I want that. Everybody is always telling me what’s best for me, but for the first time, I know what I want. And it’s you.”

It took everything he had not to lift the floodgates and take what she was offering with both hands and, hopefully, his mouth. But he had one more question, more for her peace of mind than his. “What about your husband?”

“I don’t have a husband. I have an ex-fiancé. I’m not married,” she whispered. “I never was. The certificate hasn’t been filed yet, so we can tear it up and it’s like it never happened.”