Exposed to You (One Night of Passion 2)

Rill leaned back when Katie came up behind him and put her arms around his neck. He leaned his head against her breasts and tilted his head up. Katie kissed his mouth.

“She’s down,” she murmured next to his lips, referring to their daughter. “If you all are okay out here, I think I’ll try to get some sleep before she wakes up again.”

“We’re fine. I’ll get Daisy the next time she wakes up. You get some sleep,” Rill murmured.

“Wake me up when you come to bed,” Everett heard his sister say softly.

Everett hadn’t meant to overhear Rill and Katie’s intimate exchange; it’d just filtered in like hushed background noise. He’d been staring at Joy. She smiled at him as she approached the head of the table.

“How are things going out here?” Joy asked.

“Great. Seth has come up with some terrific designs. He’s really got a grasp of the look I’m going for,” Rill said.

“Joy helped me out. I worked in her studio this week,” Seth said, rolling up one of the drawings. “She’d taken her students to an exhibit on Genghis Khan at the Art Institute. She showed me the program, and it was the inspiration for some of these helmets I drew, the hairstyles and the body art.”

“Mongol-chic. Brilliant,” Rill muttered.

“Where’s your studio?” Everett asked Joy, his chin resting in his palm as he studied her. The light from the chandelier hanging over the table made her skin the color of a golden peach.

“It’s in my apartment—the room across from the bathroom,” she explained. “It’s small, but it gets good sunlight.” She directed her attention toward Rill. “Seth and I brought our kits. If you’d like us to demonstrate any of the makeup or body art, we can do that.”

“Thanks. What do you think? Up for a paint job?” Rill asked Everett.

Joy glanced at Everett and immediately dropped her gaze. He saw the subtle stain of pink on her cheeks. He hid a smile.

“Always,” he murmured.

Apparently, Rill’s word choice had brought the memory of the studio center stage to Joy as well. He stood. Everyone glanced around, startled, at the loud scraping of his chair on the tile.

“We’ll be going to bed now.” It took him a second to realize how abrupt he’d sounded. “I mean, if you’re ready, Joy.”

Rill smirked, Seth looked like he was considering beating him up, and Joy’s cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. He wondered if there was something he could say to disguise his overeagerness, but hell—that ship had sailed.

“Good night,” Joy said to everyone when Everett took her hand and stalked to the front door.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbled as they walked down the front porch steps, hand in hand.

“It’s okay,” she replied, her low voice tickling his nerves.

He cut into the yard, leading her through the still, pitch-black summer night. Clouds must have rolled in, because usually Everett never saw so many stars as he did on the top of this hill.

“I can’t see a thing,” she said when they cut around the corner of the big house.

“I’ve got you.” He tightened his hand and she returned the gesture. His cock quickened like she’d squeezed it instead of his hand.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said.

“So am I,” she replied.

Had that been excitement vibrating in her voice? God, he hoped so. He hated the occasional uncertainty, the somberness he occasionally caught in her soulful eyes.

She rubbed her thumb between his knuckles. He felt the innocent caress along the root of his cock. “I left the light on in the guesthouse so that we could make it out when we came out tonight. There it is,” he said, pointing to the golden glow of a lamp in the window, even though he knew Joy couldn’t see his hand.

“Do you always stay in the guesthouse when you visit?” she asked.

“No. They just finished it last spring. I usually stay in the house, but Seth is staying in that room. Besides, I’d rather have some privacy, with you here.”

She didn’t reply, but he felt her warm hand in his, felt the brush of her hip against his thigh.