Intermission (4 page)

Then I felt my body bucking against his. Steep spikes of
pleasure took me on a wild ride as I cried Miles’ name over and over until the
words were incoherent moaning.

Miles slowed down his thrusting as I partially collapsed,
panting, my head resting on the picnic blanket. He quickly surmised that the
orgasm he’d given me had left me undone. Deftly he withdrew, turned me over and
laid me down as he positioned himself between my thighs. “Time for a ride to
the station, ma’am.” He kissed me as he pushed inside me again.

With other men I was a “one and done” kind of girl. Get me
where I need to go and then get off me. With Miles everything was different.
His hips slammed into mine, making that delicious
smack smack smack
sound
of skin against skin that you only get when someone is fucking you like
this
is it
.He was looking at me with unbridled hunger, watching my
breasts jiggle in time with his thrusts. Bright heat started building up in me
again. Desire shot through me. I reached up for him and balanced my bare feet
on his muscled calves and met his hip thrusts with everything I had.

Still sensitive from the first orgasm, I came before Miles
did, sucking a breath between clenched teeth as I skimmed along this new
plateau of pleasure. I heard a low groan turn animal and Miles’ hands clenched
on to my hips as his thrusts sped up.

His body went to marble hardness with a holler of euphoria,
triumph, the relief of release and pure man-pleasure. He stayed there,
shuddering, and then slowly fell like Icarus with his wings singed off, and I
was there to catch him in my arms.

Together in the afterglow again, we held each other as our
breathing slowed. He had to withdraw because of the condom but he stayed close
everywhere else, his head on my chest, listening to my heartbeat. My hands on
his back kept track of the beat of his.

Then Miles drew himself up enough to lean on his elbows and
gaze into my eyes. There it was again, the look that said this was more. I let
myself look back for a while. His eyes were the blue of the lake in the valley
below us and when I looked into them, I saw my reflection.

The sun was still warm on my face as it began making its
lazy way down toward the mountain peaks in the distance but the air on my skin
was getting cooler. I shivered a bit in my thin sundress as Miles and I stood
kissing by the door of my pick ’em up truck.

He left my lips to smile. “You’re prone to chill,” he said,
referring to when we’d met at the overly air-conditioned movie theater and how
he’d taken me into his arms. He did that again now, cuddling me close. “You
need to keep a warm man handy. Want to head back?”

I spoke before I had a chance to think, or truth be told, to
feel. “Maybe we’d best say goodbye here.”

The look of happiness that had been on Miles’ face all
afternoon fell away. “We heading in different directions?”

“Reynard’s that way,” I said, pointing west toward his
hometown. “So’s Hollywood.”

“I hadn’t planned on returning to either all that soon,”
Miles said, waiting for me to look at him again.

Shifting in his arms, I meant to push him away but my hands
just rested on the slopes of his muscular chest. “You ought to spend at least
some time with your folks, Miles. You came back here to visit with them and I
don’t believe they’ve seen much of you lately.”

“I had a week with my folks before I met you,” he said. “And
I’ll have some time with them before we go the premiere of my movie in the
city.”

“And after that?” I lifted my head to look him in the eyes. “You’ll
be heading back to Hollywood.” I didn’t want to sound like I did. I’d heard
this petulant tone used by women trying to convince Riley to be true to them.
He placated them with sugared words and I’d always thought them fools for
believing his half-promises. I saw no way I could kid myself here. I looked up
at Miles with defiance. “Might as well say goodbye now.”

His jaw was set as stubborn as my own expression. Unlike
other men I’d kicked to the curb in the past, Miles chose to argue. He’d
already been standing close to me when we were kissing. Now he leaned me
against the door of my truck, squaring his boots outside mine and putting his
hands on my waist to keep me from moving away. “This about the situation with
that guy you sent packing?” he asked. “Because I’m not him, Josie, and I won’t
be punished for him doing you wrong.”

Then his hands fell away with a suddenness that made me look
up at him at last. “Unless,” he said, “you didn’t send him packing.”

“Aw, stop that right now,” I said. “You know that’s not the
case. Me with you this whole time hasn’t been an act with a secret on the side.”
I took his hands and put them back on me. That was the opposite of what I’d
been aiming to do but it was at the heart of what I really wanted. Miles’ hands
on me, warm and possessive. Not just for today. For tomorrow. For a bunch of
tomorrows. And that was exactly what I knew I couldn’t have. “That’s not what
this is about.”

“Then clue me in, cowgirl,” he said, warming to me again. He
brought his body against mine, a body made of steel that flexed sensually under
my touch, a body I knew to be sheathed in skin that felt like satin. A body
holding a heart that had showed itself to be big and strong and sweet. I wanted
him all over again but when he leaned down to kiss me, I turned away.

“Miles, the more we stick around together, the worse it’s
going to hurt when you go back to Hollywood. And you have to go,” I said,
unable to keep from reaching up to stroke his manly jawline. The tip of my
thumb fit into the cleft in his chin so naturally, damn it all. “You’re on your
way to something good. You’ve got the spark, Miles.”

“So do you, Josie,” he said, holding my hand to his face.
“Maybe you don’t like being called an artist, but you’ve got a way with a
paintbrush like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

My eyes fell away from his. “Yeah, well, all that did was
chase me right back here. You could go far.”

“It’s no good to go so far you can’t remember where you’ve
come from,” Miles said. He angled for my evasive eyes. “Maybe you just needed
some more time here, where the Earth revolves a little slower underfoot.”

I scoffed, thinking that Mayfield surely did turn at a pace
more leisurely than the rest of the world, but I knew what he meant. Here, it
was easy to be who you were. People didn’t ask for different. I also knew that
what he said didn’t apply to me. I harbored no regrets about coming back to the
place I’d grown up in and loved but the way I came home never sat well with me.
I’d turned tail and run scared.

“Josie,” Miles said, bringing me back from the memories. “I
didn’t come to Mayfield again just to see my folks. Hollywood’s a hard place.
Like I said, people have ideas of what I ought to do, who I ought to be. I came
here with a question about who I was, Josie. You’re helping me find the answer.
Maybe I can help you find some answers too.”

Still holding my hand to his face, Miles looked at the
tattoo on my inner forearm,
To thine own self be true
, and then he
tenderly kissed each word. “Maybe we can do this for each other, Josie.”

His arms gathered my body up and into his and when his mouth
went to mine, soft but certain, I didn’t pull back this time. His kiss made my
worries sound like the distant whistles of birds returning home to the trees at
the day’s end. The solid feel of his broad back under my arms was something to
hold on to in rough going. His warmth felt as reassuring as a hearth that would
never go out.

After a time he pulled back a tad to smile at me. “I don’t
know what’s going to happen, Josie,” he murmured. “But we can make up this
script as we go along.” He touched his lips to my forehead. “Come with me to
the premiere on Wednesday.” He kissed one cheek then the other. “Meet my folks,
see my terrible movie again.” He brushed his lips against mine as he said, “Don’t
cut me out of the picture yet.”

When I put my arms around his neck, the only tattooed word
on my forearm that remained visible was
true
.Could Miles stay
true to himself and to me? I wasn’t sure but I had the same feeling as when
Miles had walked me to the edge of the balcony at the Hawthorne Cinema Palace.

My fear of heights had kept me from ever looking out at the
theater’s grand domed ceiling, painted like a night sky with hundreds of small
twinkly lights pretending to be stars. They weren’t real. No guarantee that
wishes on them would come true. But to me they inspired a deep wonder all the
same.

I’d finally seen their beauty because I’d found someone I
could put my trust in. It had been too long since I’d felt that. Strange that
it came from someone who made a living pretending to be other people but Miles
felt as true to me as the good green earth of Mayfield County under my cowgirl
boots.

As I looked up at Miles I felt a smile warming my face. “Okay,
maybe we’re not ready to fade to black just yet,” I said, “but I think we need
to shoot that kiss scene again. This girl’s not a very good actress.”

“That’s one of best things about her,” Miles said, grinning.

He took direction well, his lips eagerly rushing to mine.
Within our deep and sweet kiss I closed my eyes and saw a constellation of
twinkling stars.

Erika Almond is the secret identity of a multi-published
author. A mild-mannered former rock journalist, Erika now uses her powers to
write super-sexy love stories. Visit her blog and follow her adventures on
Twitter.

Erika welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
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at
www.ellorascave.com
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Intermission

ISBN 9781419947490

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Intermission Copyright © 2013 Erika Almond

Edited by Beverly Horne

Cover design by Syneca

Cover photography by vishstudios/shutterstock.com

Electronic book publication December 2013

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