Against the Wall (Stoddard Art School Series Book 3) (17 page)

Closing the bedroom door behind him, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Kay was sitting in bed, a sheet tucked provocatively about her breasts. Her shoulders were bare. Was she wearing anything under that sheet? She set aside the book she’d been reading.

“I thought you might have fallen asleep.”

“After three cups of coffee?”

The dress she’d worn to dinner was lying over the back of a chair. “I don’t suppose you’d like to put that back on so I can know what it’s like to take it off?”

“It’s simple. No zipper. Just untie the bow and unwrap.”

“Like a present?”

“Just like a present.” She rose off the bed, dragging the sheet with her. “I saved you a couple of bows you could untie.” She held the sheet to her with one hand and slipped the other around his neck. She stood on her toes to kiss him. “I’m so sorry about earlier.”

“Don’t apologize.”

“I don’t generally drink so much. I’m an idiot for letting Todd’s phone call get to me.”

“He’s the idiot.” He ran his hands down the bare skin of her back. “Could we not talk about him any more tonight?”

“Deal.” She unbuttoned his shirt. Using both hands caused the sheet she held to fall to their feet. The bows Kay referred to earlier were strategically placed, low on each hip. They were thin purple lacings that held the tiniest scrap of multi-colored silk in red, purple, and gold. His brain lost a good amount of blood flow.

“Sweet God.” He crushed his mouth to hers. When he reached to grab at her hips and pull her to him, his hands found nothing but skin. Running his palms over the naked rounds of her ass, he groaned into her mouth. Bear eased himself toward the bed, taking her with him. He lay back. Kay stood before him and finished undressing him before she straddled his hips.

Not a thing separated him from her heat save a bit of silk and a fragile length of string. His impatient fingers traced the length of string from where it disappeared to follow the crease of her ass, to where he found the first bow. The tiny tail knotted when he tugged on it. His cock pulsed in frustration as his fingers worked at the tangled silk. Bear snarled. His patience spent. With one swift yank, he ripped the panties from her.

Kay gasped into his mouth. He braced himself for her to be upset, but shredding the delicate thong only seemed to heighten her passion. The fervor of her kisses deepened. He drove his hands into her hair, holding the back of her head as her hand raked down his chest. She reached between them, grasped him, and encircled him with her fingers before caressing him from root to tip in slow torturous sweeps. Bear moaned and rocked his hips against her strokes. The ache for his release raged.

Her body trembled beneath his hands as she continued to fondle him. She kissed his panting mouth. “Did you make a wish?”

His brain was in a sexual fog. “I…don’t understand.”

Kay reached over to the nightstand and lifted the Styrofoam container from the restaurant. Dipping her finger into the sweet filling of the blueberry pie, she spread it over his lower lip before licking it away. “You need a wish before you have lucky pie.”

She fed him a piece of flaky crust with her fingers before breaking off her own bite. “I’m already feeling pretty lucky,” he breathed. She painted a sugary swath across the pink of her nipple. A fiery surge rushed to his sex.
Good God.
Purple stained her skin. Kay lifted another bite of pie and held his gaze.

She curved the corner of her mouth and blinked. “Oops.” A good-sized portion tumbled from her fingertips to drop warm and sticky into the middle of his chest. “Oh, I’m so clumsy. Let me clean that off.” Before she lowered her mouth to him, she
clumsily
fumbled more fruit and crust down over the ridges of his abdomen and across the head of his penis. Her fingers painted the inside of one his thighs.

Bear arched his back and ground out her name as she proceeded to lick blueberries from his chest and stomach. She moved lower. He closed his eyes to the sensation of her mouth and tongue driving him wild. “Kay!”

Clutching her arms, he lifted her and rolled them both over. He peered down into her face. His breath coming so hard it fluttered the hair on her cheek. “No fair,” he huffed. “Hand over the pie.”

Chapter Twenty

Kay stuffed the ruined sheets into the trash with a smile. They were past saving. Last night had been one of the wildest nights of her life. How she would ever eat another piece of Dottie’s lucky pie without blushing to the roots of her hair was beyond her, but it was worth every intensely sultry, sticky memory. By the time they both hit the cramped little shower upstairs, the sheets were a total loss to their passionate pastry frenzy.

The shower had been wonderful as well, cleaning away the blueberry smears on their bodies under the warm rush of water. Bear had washed her hair and soaped her already sensitive skin. His slick fingers insistent on bringing her to yet another orgasm.

After, they’d stripped the bed and wrapped themselves in a clean quilt. They slept in each other’s arms until all hell broke loose downstairs.

Shadow met Hope. Or, at least according to their best guess, he tried to make her acquaintance through the glass door of the slider when she’d come up onto the deck to eat.

At the first explosion of rabid barking, Bear was out of bed, pants-ed, and down the stairs before Kay could comprehend what was happening. By the time she’d joined the party, Hope had vanished back into the safety of the underbrush. Her food scattered across the deck. Bear had Shadow firmly by the collar as he continued to bark as if they were under attack.

“I’m sorry,” Bear yelled over the din. “He probably scared the crap out of your cat.”

“Poor Hope. Poor Shadow.” She patted the dog. “It’s okay. She scared the crap out of you too, didn’t she?” Shadow settled down, and Bear was able to release the death grip he had on his collar.

Bear groaned and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her forehead. “I’d love to go back to bed and work on a friendlier, gentler wake up, but he needs his breakfast and a run. I should go.” He didn’t move, but held her gaze before lowering his mouth to hers again. “Really, I need to go.” His arms wrapped tighter as she opened her mouth to the sweep of his tongue. “Really.”

Kay lifted onto her toes, hanging onto the solid span of his shoulders. “Right…bye…” She tipped her head to the left angling the kiss, opening her mouth to the invasion of his tongue. The heat coming off his body sent a delightful shimmer through her.

When his hands lowered to cup her ass, her body purred. Giving a small arch to her back, she pressed her chest against the wall of his, before she rolled her hips forward again. His hands gripped her stronger, hauling her against the hard length of his erection.

Shadow bumped into them with a whine and a sharp bark. Bear huffed against her mouth, “We hate this dog.”

“We love this dog,” she countered.

Bear glared down at Shadow. “You’re lucky she’s here to save you.”

Kay peeled herself away from Bear’s body and closed the robe he had skillfully untied without her knowing it. Robe ties and bra clasps were no match for Bear. It was as if they dissolved at the touch of his fingers. “We can meet up later at the inn?” She ran her fingers through the crisp hair on his chest. “I have to drop some more cards and sketches at Polka Dots, but I should be there by noon.”

Bear cocked a mischievous eyebrow. “Let me know if Dottie is making pie.”

Packing up the last of her things, Kay heard Bear come back a short time later. He used his key. She called to him from the living room. “Did you think I snuck back to bed, or were you hoping to drag me there yourself?” She laughed. “You will never guess where I just found a blueberry.”

She came around the corner into the kitchen and froze. “Mother?” She slapped a hand to her heart. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question. You obviously were expecting someone else.” Claire Winston stood stock straight in her signature linen sheath dress with a classic strand of real
rub-them-on-your-teeth
pearls. “I thought we had an understanding. You’d let us know when you planned to use the cottage. Seeing as I haven’t had a word from you in more than six months, I had no idea you’d be here.”

“I-I’m here on a job,” she half-lied. It was easier that way. “I’m painting a mural at the Bell Harbor Inn.”

“And I’m here meeting with my Realtor.”

Kay’s world tilted.
Realtor?
“You can’t mean…”

She looked around the kitchen and gave a slow disapproving shake of her head. “I’m thinking of selling the cottage.”

“You can’t,” Kay gasped.

“I think I can.” She frowned. “Does Dottie know you’re here?”

Kay wouldn’t throw Dottie under the bus. She turned her back on her mother and moved into the living room. She was too good at spotting a lie. “I’m not sure.”

Her mother was still too shrewd. She followed Kay. “Of course she knows. You tell her everything. She probably found you the job at the inn.” She ran a pale hand over her forehead. “I’m so tired of her running interference for you. Protecting you.”

“Someone had to,” Kay murmured.

Her mother’s eyes flashed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Kay was still reeling. Even though she had spent the last six years putting as much distance between her and her mother, here they were again. Stuck in the same endless groove. As far apart as they could be, yet still attached. The ultimate game of tug of war with no hope of there ever being a winner. Kay sighed, “It means, Mother, if I hadn’t had Dottie and Walter all these years, who knows where I’d be.”

“Don’t be so melodramatic. Your stepfather and I have done everything we could to give you a good life.” Kay opened her mouth to argue, but her mother beat her to it. “It wasn’t what
you
wanted. I understand. We’re horrible.” Her patronizing tone stung.

“I’m not getting into this with you.” She gathered her things to leave.

Two strides into the kitchen, Bear balanced a take-out cup holder with two giant coffees and a waxed bag in one hand. In his other, a stack of folded fabric tied with a large blue bow.

“Surprise, I’m back with all essential provisions, coffee, donuts, new sheets. Two sets, in case we want to get crazy again.” He frowned when he saw her face. “I…left Shadow with Skippy. What’s wrong? Somebody die?”

“I’m what’s wrong.” Mother stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking as if someone had just crashed into her BMW. “I’m Kay’s mother. Who the hell are you?”

Bear coughed, looked back at Kay, and set the things in his hands onto the table. He wiped his palms on the front of his jeans as he straightened and stepped forward with this hand extended. “Mrs. Winston, forgive me. Kay didn’t tell me you might be visiting.”

“Kay didn’t know,” she shot back. “That still doesn’t answer my question.”

“Barrett Coulter. Most people call me Bear, ma’am.”

Kay closed her eyes and winced. If there was one thing her mother hated above all, it was being called “ma’am.” She opened her eyes and beheld her mother’s face. She knew this face. It was not a good face.

The vein running down the center of her mother’s forehead could have cut glass. “Other than bringing my daughter sheets to
get crazy
on, why are you here?”

“I live here,” he blurted.

Kay rushed to add. “On the point, Mother. Bear lives in the house on the point.”

“I see.” Frost formed on the inside of the windows.

“I also own the Bell Harbor Inn downtown.”

Kay was hit with bone and brain matter as her mother’s head exploded. She spun on her. “He’s your
employer
?”

“Yes. And my neighbor. And, not that it’s any of your business, the man I’m dating.”

“You mean, sleeping with,” her mother snipped.

Kay folded her arms and nodded. “Yep, that too.”

“I think I’ve heard quite enough.” Her mother held up one manicured hand and marched past them and out the kitchen door.

“Mrs. Winston—” Bear called.

“Don’t bother.” Kay caught his arm as he turned to follow her out.

He looked back at Kay. A deer in the headlights look frozen on his handsome face. “What the hell was that?”

She hugged him. “Claire Eustace Fenton Winston. Of the Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Winstons.” Kay rubbed his arms. “I’m so sorry you had to experience her, but trust me, the searing headache will subside soon. The eye twitch takes about a week to stop. Good news is you
will
see color again.”

“Shit.” Bear looked back at the kitchen door. “The woman is scary.”

“Yep, that’s Mom.”

“Were you adopted? Did you see her face when I called her ma’am?”

“I know, sweetheart. You need to just walk it off.” She gave him a quick kiss.

“Does she pop in often?” Poor man looked slightly panicked.

“We haven’t spoken since December. I haven’t seen her in two years. I can’t even remember the last time she was up here. I’ve been the only one to use this cottage for years, but she’s putting an end to that. She’s probably listing it as we speak.”

“She’s selling?”

Kay nodded. “Looks like it.” She dropped into a chair. “I had some foolish notion they’d hold on to it for a few more years, then I could buy the place.”

He sat next to her and frowned. “What if you talk to her, tell her how much you love it here?”

Kay threw her head back and laughed. “I do love you. You think like a normal person.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“You’re very sweet, but no. One close encounter with Claire Eustace is enough for you. I’ve had twenty-four years of conditioning.” She placed a fingertip under her eye. “See, no twitch.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She smiled at the handsome man who was ready to tilt at windmills for her. How was it possible, in the midst of the storm which was her mother, she was more in love with him now than when he’d left her just a few hours ago? “I never did thank you for the coffee, donuts, and sheets. No man has ever given me sheets before.”

He pulled her onto his lap. “Ever get lucky with any other man?”

“Not lucky pie, lucky.”

“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”