Authors: Christa Maurice
“You’re giving up?”
“I don’t have any more moves.”
Cass reached around him and started shifting cards. “One of the great things about long winters trapped on the mountain is you become a world-class solitaire player.” She finished sorting cards into their correct piles and dropped the last king on the top.
“How did you do that?”
She grinned at him. “Sheer genius.”
He kissed her. Her mouth always tasted sweet and wild. Her body quivered as he pulled her closer. Did he want to make love to her now or later? Correction. He wanted to make love to her now, he just wanted to be sure if it would be better now on the couch or later, after the anticipation had built up a little, in her bed. He stroked her curls, lifting his lips from hers. Later. He liked a little anticipation, and in the last three days he hadn’t allowed himself any. “I still think it’s witchcraft.”
“You think whatever you want, mister.”
He brushed his fingers through her curls again, loving the way her hair wrapped around his fingers like silken chains. If he could be sure the chains she offered were all like this, he wouldn’t mind being locked up at all. “So when can we go see this marvelous pasture?”
“Maybe tomorrow, if it warms up enough. I’d like to see some of this snow melt off before I try to drive up the path. Why do you want to see it?”
“The curiosity is killing me now.” By her smirk, he knew he’d pulled off a light tone, but he was serious. This was important to her and it was close. The thought of going into business with her hadn’t left his mind. It would keep her near him and give him the upper hand. He tried to smirk back, but something real must have slipped through, because she gave him a funny look.
“Well, I’ll make sure you see the pasture before you go.” She stood up and walked back to her task.
Jason watched her go. She’d dressed in baggy jeans and an oversized flannel shirt and pulled her hair into an untidy ponytail. It was the least seductive outfit he’d ever seen and yet he wanted to rip it off her and make love to her on the floor in front of the fireplace. He smiled and had to duck his head when she reached the table where she could see him. He shuffled the cards. Wouldn’t she be trying to seduce him more actively if she were trying to get something out of him? He’d asked her to go naked, and she hadn’t done that. Most women he’d encountered would have leapt at the chance. She hadn’t jumped through any of his hoops.
Could it be she wasn’t trying to seduce him and trap him? That he’d fallen ass backward into something real?
He set aside the cards. She had index cards printed with her neat handwriting spread across the table. Standing behind her chair, he looked over the orderly mess. He ran his fingers down her ponytail.
“You shouldn’t do that unless you mean it,” she said, setting a freshly filled out card aside. In neat capital letters she’d written
Star Gazing Wes Wednesday 10:00
.
“I mean it.” He wrapped a bright curl around his finger. “I wish I’d had more time to court you before we made love.”
“Oh?” Her shoulders relaxed. She stacked another card on the first. This one read
Star Gazing Wes Friday 10:00.
The handwriting on this one looked a little less neat.
“It would have been nice to tease and touch, knowing I had to wait.”
“You want to wait?” Her voice sounded warm.
“I would have liked to taste you slowly,” he said, trailing his fingers down her soft neck.
“Just me?”
“Just you,
bella
.” He leaned down and kissed her warm flesh. “Just you.”
She shivered. Her pulse throbbed against his lips. Closing his eyes, he ran his tongue along the vein.
“Mmm,” she hummed. Right now he could lay her down on the floor and she would welcome him. His groin tightened, but without the needy feeling he’d had three days ago. Her breath came in shallow gasps that matched his. Her pen clattered on the table. He ran his hands down her arms until he could lace his fingers though hers.
“Cassandra,
bella
, I have to let you go now.”
“Why?” she wailed.
“You want to let the anticipation build, don’t you?”
She shivered.
He stood up, still holding her hands.
“You just want to torment me,” she complained, releasing his hands.
“That’s the plan.” He smiled and stepped back so she could stand.
“Hmm.” She looked up at him through her lashes. “This sounds like a challenge.”
“A challenge?” He loved the way this woman’s mind worked. Not a passive lover, in any sense.
“Sure. To see who breaks first.” The corner of her mouth curved.
“Are there rules to this challenge?”
“Like?”
Jason looked down into her eyes. Just the thought of a challenge had him feeling hotter. He knew he should have something since he’d brought it up, but the sexual tension in the air muddled his mind. “No wardrobe changes,” he said.
“Fair enough.”
That was too easy. She stood in front of him with a small smile playing on her lips, as if she knew something he didn’t. She probably did. Like, that he was incapable of resisting her for long. “Aren’t you concerned about what you’re going to sleep in tonight?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’ll be the same thing I’ve slept in since you got here. Nothing. I just want to know what I get when I win.”
“When you win?” He’d intended to sound saucy and dubious, but it came out thick with sexual tension. Perhaps he’d already lost this bet.
“I expect to.” She walked past him toward the kitchen. “And I expect to do it well before bed time,” she tossed over her shoulder, shooting him a steamy look.
He followed her. Everywhere on him felt unpleasantly tight now. If he hadn’t introduced this stupid challenge, he would have had her against the wall by now.
She filled a mug with water. “Cup of tea?”
Jason blinked. “What?”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “Would you like a cup of tea?”
“Oh, yeah.” She was cool enough to make tea? He already wanted to cave on the whole challenge.
“You never did say what I would win.” She filled another mug and got out two tea bags. When the microwave dinged, she took her cup out and put his in. “If it is a challenge, there should be a prize.”
“Sex with me isn’t enough of a prize?”
“It is, but I’ll get that anyway.” She dropped a tea bag into her cup. Then she started tracing the lip of the mug with the tip of her finger. He couldn’t stop staring at her finger on the white porcelain. “So what will I win?”
“What would you like?” Hell. If he’d handed her a blank check she could do less damage. Did she know that?
“Oh my. Anything I want?” She licked her lips. That distracted him from her finger on the edge of the mug, but didn’t help any. The microwave dinged, so she took out his cup and put in the tea bag. Then she started adding milk and sugar to the first cup. “Oh, I should have asked if you wanted this one. Do you want it?”
Was she doing that purr intentionally? It didn’t matter. It felt like fingers running up and down his spine. “No. I—it— I’m going to take a shower.”
“A cold one?” She gave him a slow smile.
Yes, a cold one. He summoned some self-control. “I haven’t shaved yet and I want to be nice and fresh when you crumble.”
“Is that so?” She stepped across the kitchen and traced with her finger along his jaw. “Funny, how I didn’t notice you hadn’t shaved yet.”
Why had he tried to lie? She’d seen him shave this morning when they got up. Dammit, how was she keeping so cool? He closed his hand around hers. “Well, I want to be nice and fresh for you.”
“What about your tea?”
Her body brushed against his, she stood so close, and the scent of her lingered in the air. It was maddening. “I can heat it up later.”
“All right. Have a good shower.” She turned away, and her hip brushed against his groin, nearly making him groan. As if unaware of the contact, she went back to her tea.
“No sneaking in on me.”
“Is that one of the rules, too?”
“It is now.” He walked out of the kitchen, passing close enough, he patted her rear.
She squawked and then laughed. “You’re still going to lose, Callisto,” she called after him.
Jason stood under the cold water until his skin hurt and his erection shriveled away. He heard her go out to the garage, which made him wonder what she had up her sleeve. She’d bought something yesterday, and in the chaos, he’d forgotten. It had to be something pretty titillating, but he couldn’t imagine Gaitherberg, West Virginia, having anything kinky. Cass was pretty creative, though. Maybe she was going to MacGyver a sex toy out of gum and an index card.
By the time he came out, she was sitting demurely at the table, talking to someone on the phone, shuffling her index cards. It sounded like event stuff. His skin, pebbling with cold, added to the heat inside, combining into a storm front. While he warmed up his tea, he glanced around the kitchen to see if he could figure out what she’d brought in.
A grocery bag poked out of the top of her bag of bags. What the hell could she have gotten at the grocery store?
Wondering how he’d ended up on the defensive, he took the tea to the living room and looked over her bookshelves for the least erotic thing he could find.
She didn’t own any novels that couldn’t be construed as erotic to his fevered mind, so he ended up reading a tree identification guide. It sort of worked, although puns about wood kept popping into his thoughts. Meanwhile, she made half a dozen phone calls related to the events and her little stack of index cards grew.
“Are you hungry?” she purred, next to his ear.
Jason jumped. He’d dozed off in the middle of the birches. “Hungry?”
“For lunch.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his face and then reached out and pulled her down on top of him.
“Hey!” Cass fell into his arms. “Are you giving up already?”
“No. I’m just getting an appetizer.” He seized her mouth, drawing her lower lip between his, and she shuddered, encouraging him. Slipping his hand under her shirt, he cupped her waist and stroked her velvet skin with his thumb. She plastered herself against him, burying her hands in his hair. Her nipples strained at the cloth of her shirt. Shifting, she ground herself into him. That small motion unleashed a fresh maelstrom of desire. He twisted, trapping her under him. Cass wrapped her arms around his shoulders, arched up and kissed him then nipped his lips. He kneed her legs apart, rubbed against her heat.
She laughed. “I thought you weren’t giving up.”
“Giving up?” Desperate to taste the satin skin between her breasts, he unbuttoned the top button of her shirt.
“The bet.”
Before his lips met her flesh, he caught himself. The bet. He’d meant to tease her, but somehow he’d lost the upper hand. Again. He looked into her eyes, which right now looked smoky. She was close to losing control. “I’m not giving up. Are you?”
“No.” Her voice was breathy.
“Then I guess the bet is still on.” He stood up and hauled her to her feet. Before she’d gained her balance, he pulled her against his chest, kissed her hard on the mouth and released her. “So what’s for lunch?”
She licked her lips, blinking. “Roast beef leftovers. Do you want them hot or cold?”
“I like everything hot.” He leered.
Obviously in control again, she shrugged. “Okay, open face roast beef sandwiches it is.” She walked back into the kitchen.
He hoped he looked as in control as she did, because his hormones were still drag racing through his veins. Now he needed another cold shower. No way would he have lasted through a long courtship with her. Even as he watched her assembling lunch through the kitchen door, she was too sexy.
After their heated session on the couch, she did seem perfectly cool.
A chill came over him. Maybe it hadn’t affected her the same way, and this was all part of her plan to ensnare him with sex. She might not be as turned on by him as he was by her. With that in mind, it might be easier to win this bet, but he wondered what he’d lose.
* * * *
Cass thought she covered her shaking hands pretty well while they ate. She’d almost given into him, even if it meant losing the stupid bet. All through lunch, she’d been throbbing and trying not to spill anything. He, however, seemed cool and collected, like a hunter waiting for his prey to exhaust herself.
Water ran over her hand. She’d chosen to take a bath to give herself a little more time settle down. If he could do it, so could she. She intended to sit in the water until her skin puckered, and she’d brought a good book along to help.
The water swirled into the tub creating mounds of bubbles.
She liked her bathroom. It had dark wood paneling half way up the wall, even around the bathtub. The walls above were painted light blue to match the delft patterned tiles around the tub and on the back splash of the sink. It would be a thoroughly unsexy room, if she could stop remembering Jason had been naked in it a few hours ago.
She sank into the water, opened her book and tried to forget that image.
Two hours later, desire successfully blunted, she was waterlogged and had read the same three chapters three times because she’d kept losing her place.
This wasn’t working.
Cass hauled herself out of the tub and looked out the window. Darkness hadn’t even fallen yet. She’d been saving her big guns for after dark, but she doubted she could hold out that long. Actually, she was surprised she’d held out this long. If she’d been able to resist needling him, she could have won on the couch earlier.
She smiled at her reflection in the mirror. No one had ever made her feel as sexy as Jason did. He made her believe she was the most beautiful woman on Earth. It was worth a little guilt to feel this glorious.
A lot of guilt.
A whole lot of guilt. That was why she kept lashing out at Jason after sex.
She’d only slept with two men in her life and been dumped not a few times because she wouldn’t go all the way. Once, she’d given a boyfriend a bloody nose because he hadn’t caught on to the meaning of no in a timely fashion. That relationship had been over before he’d stopped bleeding. She’d only slept with Michael after they were engaged, and she’d felt guilty until they got married.