Eamon couldn’t quite believe what a glorious upturn the night had taken. He hadn’t laid eyes on Cat Moore in four years. Had thought of her from time to time since, always pleasantly. And yet, the reality of her there as she occupied the space across from him, seemed so much better than his memories. She wasn’t hard to look at and after a man had spent any amount of time with her, it wasn’t hard to like her either. Smart and funny, she was the best part of the last summer before his father had fallen ill.
“Tell me about what you’ve been up to in the last four years.” He grinned.
“You first. What brings you to Seattle? You said you had a job here?” She studied him through glasses with smallish, rectangular lenses. They lent her something indefinable but it really worked for him. Funky, unusual, they made her look like that smart girl you talked about obscure Scottish bands with until three in the morning back when he was at university.
Even better, the lenses emphasized the flecks of hazel in her eyes, the pale lashes he knew were ginger colored against her pale-as-cream cheeks when she slept. He’d enjoyed watching her sleep. When awake she was constantly moving, laughing, talking, her hands flying as she went about her work. But asleep, he could really see her, take in her features as she breathed deeply and stored enough energy for the next day of nonstop activity.
He took a sip of the very tasty Vietnamese beer as he savored the memory. “I’m a photographer. Mostly commercial work. I’m here to do shoots for a few clients. The owner of that bar we were just in? His wife makes jewelry and we spent the day today down at Golden Gardens park. It’s a gorgeous place. Got loads of work done. They treated me to a few drinks along with my fee. I’ve also got a few-day shoot for a local record company. I’m doing publicity for some of their artists. In between, well there’s enough beauty here to keep the purely artistic part of me busy.”
She nodded and a tendril of that pale red hair slid forward. Unselfconsciously, she tucked it behind one of her ears and used her chopsticks to bring noodles to her mouth like a pro.
“When did you take up photography?”
“You mean, how did a publican from Dublin end up in America shooting alternative rock bands and jewelry makers?”
“Yeah.” She smiled in her way, drawing his attention back to that mouth of hers. She’d been the kind of woman, despite that need to constantly be on the move, to kiss for hours.
He took in the way she moved, deliberate and economical. There was a kind of grace in that. She’d changed from the free-spirited young woman he’d bedded for three months. He supposed everyone did as they got older.
“My dad got sick and died two years ago. He gave me my first camera when I was eight. I gave up photography when I took over the pub, didn’t have time.” He shrugged. “Anyway, he made me promise to use my camera again. How could I refuse him? My mother supported me trying it out and my sister and her husband have taken over running the pub so it’ll stay in the family. Once I decided to take the leap, it took a year before I realized I could make a go of it. I made some sales. My sister-in-law is American, you remember? She arranged for papers. I came here and did a show. One thing led to another and here I am for at least the next little while. I just opened a studio in Los Angeles three months ago. Well it’s in my house, but a studio just the same.”
“I’m sorry about your father. I really enjoyed his company. Taught me how to pull the perfect pint. And of course your mother supported this, she was so proud of everything you all did, if I remember correctly.” She smiled and those pale, pink lips exposed perfect teeth. He remembered the way she’d nip at his shoulder when he was inside her. A shiver worked through him and their eyes met.
Long, slow moments passed between them as the air heated, sizzling with chemistry. Eamon couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted a woman so bad.
“My apartment is not very far from here,” she murmured and he knew what she meant.
He stood, tossing a tip on the table and she took the hand he’d held for her.
Yeah, the perfect solution.
“We can walk. Your car is as close as you’ll get anyway. It’ll be safe if you’re concerned.”
He turned to her as they walked down the sidewalk toward her building, his arm around her shoulders. “Darlin’, the safety of my car is the
last
thing on my mind.”
She grinned, leaning into his body a moment before they crossed the street and turned right.
“That’s my building up there on the other side of the street.” She pointed briefly, hoping he didn’t notice the slight tremble in her hands.
“And what brings you down to this part of town then? The University is a bit away, yes?”
“It’s a pretty quick bus ride. Most downtown busses head straight to the University District and my job is down here anyway.”
They crossed again and she pulled out her keys to unlock the front door. He followed her to the elevator.
“What do you do?”
Oh how casual she could be. Just chatting about work when they were on their way up to her place to have sex.
Mmm. Sex
. She was glad she’d shaved her legs earlier to prepare for going out.
She blinked up at him, realizing she’d been off in her happy place for long moments. “I’m interning at the Attorney General’s Office, in the SHS Division.” She quickly added, “Social and Health Services. It deals mainly with abused and neglected children. I’m a Rule 9 Intern. That means I can do trials with supervising attorneys around.”
He smiled approvingly. “Ah, you did go ahead and go to law school, then.”
“I did. After a fashion. I’m in my second year now.” She indicated he get out of the elevator on her floor when the doors opened up and they walked down the long hallway. Caitlin loved the building, loved her studio apartment. It wasn’t as grand as the showplace she’d shared with Adam for two years, but it was hers and it felt like home. And it didn’t have Adam in it. Bonus.
Her door beckoned, bright gleaming red. She unlocked it and waved him inside, locking up behind herself.
Eamon filled her small entryway with more than just his physical presence. His heat, his vitality took up every inch of the place, sliding over her skin, seeping into her pores. The man was potent. Caitlin hesitated, unable to remember if he’d always been so. She seemed to recall his sexuality had been more casual, playful. Then again, hers had too. Four years had been a lifetime for her. In that time he’d lost his father and had taken on a new life’s path. That would change anyone, deepen their focus. It worked on him, she decided after taking a long look.
He put his bag down—he’d told her earlier it contained his camera—and hung his coat up before taking hers.
“I like it here,” he murmured, drawing her into the main room. “I don’t suppose I’d have imagined you in a room with these deep purples and golds. And yet, looking at you now, here, it works. It’s regal.” He stood in front of her, the bed only steps away. He drew the backs of his fingers down her cheek and she relaxed. She knew this man, he knew her. Everything would be fine.
“You still with me, Cat?”
She reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and off, tossing it on the chair behind her. Releasing the clip that held most of her hair, she sent it cascading down her back and shoulders.
“Yes. You?”
“Good Lord, you’re beautiful.” He bent his body, dipping his head to brush his lips across her bare shoulder briefly.
“Would you like a beer or a glass of wine? It’s a bit chilly, I thought I’d start a fire before we got naked.”
“I approve of your priorities. What sort of beer and or wine do you have?”
“Take your sweater off first. I want to see you. Or part of you for now.” Caitlin realized her voice had shifted lower, into a sort of purr. It had been a while since sex had been more than a perfunctory meeting of a need. A long while since she’d truly felt sexual, especially sexy herself. Perhaps it was that he represented a part of herself she’d lost.
“Pleased to oblige you.” His sweater joined her shirt and she sighed happily. His upper body was beautiful. Hard but not bulked. Just the right amount of muscle. She was unwilling to stop herself from sliding her palms across his pecs, delighting in the way they jumped at her caress. Just the right amount of hair on his chest, lovely, flat nipples she remembered were very sensitive.
“You’re still so very delicious.”
He groaned when she scored his nipples with her short fingernails. “I don’t think I’ve been called delicious since I had a very satisfying fling with this American who worked in my dad’s pub a few years back.”
“Hmm. Sounds like my kind of girl.”
Laughing, he kissed each one of her hands and she pulled him toward the kitchen.
“I’ve got some merlot, a decent cab.” She stuck her head in the fridge. “And Corona. I even have lime.” She closed the door and laughed. “Ah! And I’ve got some Jameson.”
“You and me, naked, and Jameson. There’s a fine memory. Come on then, I’ll pour us a stiff one while you get the fire started.”
She indicated where the whiskey and her glasses were and headed to the fireplace, flipping the switch. The gas fireplace burst into life.
“Ah, you cheated. I thought we’d have wood smoke and everything.”
She laughed, taking the glass he held out, downing the amber liquid in two swallows. The heat of it spread through her body. It was a good thing she didn’t have to be at work the next day.
“Gas. Flip a switch and it’s on. No fussing with kindling, no pollutants, just instant fire.”
“Let’s get down to business then, my fine lass.” He winked.
One arm caught her about the waist and hauled her against his body. Both of them gasped at the sensation of naked skin meeting naked skin. Well, almost naked.
He must have read her mind because as his lips met hers, he reached between them and popped the catch between her breasts and she shimmied out of her bra, never breaking the kiss.
The warmth of his hands slid up her spine as his work-hard palms moved upward, kneading, holding her against him as he kissed her.
Caitlin would have said he seduced her with that kiss. Slow at first, gentle, almost teasing. And then it deepened as his tongue danced into her mouth, sinuously caressing hers. It was as if that kiss bloomed her back into life, brought her sexuality back from a long nap into full awareness.
Her breathing sped as her heart pounded. Blind need filled her. Her nails dug into his shoulders, making him groan. She eagerly swallowed the sound, taking it into herself.
“Oh, Cat, you need this, don’t you, darlin’?” He broke away before kissing from one shoulder to the other, a feather-light combination of lips and breath. Gooseflesh broke out in waves as her gut tightened and heat settled between her legs.
Desperate for relief, she squeezed her thighs together but the rub of the denim and the lace of her panties only made things worse.
“Shhh, let me take the edge off.”
Caitlin lay down on her bed and looked up at him as he pulled her jeans off and then her panties. His hair, dark and long enough to have a bit of curl at the collar of his shirt, called to her fingers.
“I like the facial hair you’re working.” She tipped her chin to indicate the soul patch just below his luscious bottom lip.
“Thank you.” He held the lacy thong he removed, dangling them from a finger. “Very pretty, these panties.”
She bit her lip to keep from begging, trying hard to rein in the wave of desire threatening to drown her into senselessness. The casual sense of camaraderie they’d had even just moments before bled away. She needed him, needed the touch of someone who knew her and desired her.
He must have sensed the change. “I know.” He got to his knees next to the low bed and slid his palms up the inside of her legs, pushing them apart.
Soft, sure lips met the back of her knee, the tip of his tongue darted out to taste her there. He followed with a nip of his teeth and she felt herself grow wetter.
Lips pressed against her inner thigh, higher and higher until, hallelujah choir, he went exactly where she needed him most.
She wanted to close her eyes, to lose herself in the darkness. But she couldn’t tear her gaze away from him, his mouth on her, the olive tone of his hands against the pale skin of her thighs. Big hands. Sure. Strong.
If there’d been a more erotic sight, she wasn’t sure she’d ever beheld it.
Higher and higher he drove her until pleasure burst through her system and sent her spiraling as she whispered his name, clutching her comforter, her hips moving restlessly.
Drugged with that climax, she watched lazily as he stripped off his jeans, boxers and socks before turning back to her. No doubt he was interested in continuing the evening in her bed. Which worked for her just fine.
“Please tell me you have condoms,” he murmured as she pulled the comforter back to expose the sheets.
That snapped her out of her orgasm-induced coma. “Yikes! Let me see.” Jumping up quickly, she scrambled into the bathroom and rifled through three drawers until she found a strip of them.
She held them aloft as she returned and he laughed. “Victory. I don’t usually leave it up to the woman, you know. I’m not a cad. It’s just I didn’t expect to see you in a bar in Seattle of all places.”
“You weren’t on the prowl for hot chicks?”
He snorted. “I’ve got the only hot chick I need right here. Naked and holding several condoms.”
“Works for me.” After checking the expiration date, Caitlin tossed them his way. He caught her as she moved to crawl over him to the other side of the bed.
“No, Cat, stay right there. I like you perched on top of me. I hope three will be enough.”
She did too. It’d been a while for her, more than three times and she might have some difficulty moving in the morning.
“Let me do the honors then.” Balancing herself over him, she grabbed one of the foil packets and ripped it open. “This has aged quite well.” She slid her fist down and around his cock, slowly rolling the condom on, loving the way his pulse throbbed against her palm as she did.
“Who knew watching a woman put a condom on me could be so hot?” Desire laced his voice, making his accent thicker.
Rising on her knees, she reached around, guided him to her entrance and slowly moved her body down his.
The hands he had resting on her hips tightened as he hissed. “Tight, good Lord, so very tight.”
He didn’t know the half of it.
Once she’d stretched a bit, they entwined their fingers and she began a slow rise and fall on his cock. Each time he filled her, electric arcs of pleasure shot up her spine.
All the while, their eyes remained locked on one another. The intimacy of the moment was stunning and admittedly, it shook Caitlin. She tossed it aside, chalking it up to the length of time she’d done without sex and also her former connection to Eamon.
It wasn’t long before the muscles in his neck corded and he’d begun to thrust up into her as she moved down. The movement brought the length of him over her clit repeatedly until ripples of climax began to echo through her. She let her head fall back on a moan.
Eamon felt her body as she came around his. It was all he’d needed after tasting her, after watching the sway of her breasts as she’d moved on him. Caitlin, this Caitlin, was older and wiser and there was something heady about her sensuality. Barely leashed. He liked being the one to test it. And in truth, she tested him as well.
All thought drained away as orgasm, powerful and intense, shot through him.
She fell forward across his upper body, her sweet-scented hair draped over his lips. Kissing her shoulder, he pulled her off gently and got up, returning in just moments.
“Will you stay or do you need to get back?” she murmured sleepily. He recalled the comment about how she’d just finished finals, she had to be knackered. But he didn’t want to leave.
“Do you mind if I stay?”
She turned, putting her arm over his waist and her head on his shoulder. Half-lidded green eyes blinked into his. “I’d like that.”
“Okay then. I will. Much more convenient when I get to wake you up in an hour or two for the next round.”
She quirked up a smile. “It does indeed. Wouldn’t want to waste those condoms.”
Her eyes closed and she snuggled into him with a satisfied sigh.
He lay there in the dark and looked up at her ceiling trying to figure out just what was different about Caitlin Moore. Or even what was different about being with her now.
He’d taken over running the family public house after a stint in the army. His father had been getting on in years and his older brother had met a very fine lady from America and had been traveling back and forth a lot. His baby sister had started a family and had little ones to raise. Eamon had been the logical choice and he hadn’t resented it.