Seducing the Old Flame (18 page)

This weekend wasn’t about introspection or major life
discoveries.
 
Sex, she reminded
herself.
 
Sexual excess with Jason to
heal her.
 
Let the healing continue.

“So, the way I see it,” she flattened her palm over his
heart.
 
“If you talk dirty to me, I’d
have to clean your mouth first, right?”

“Dirty, eh?”
 
His
heartbeat picked up pace beneath her hand.
 
“I can do dirty.”

She waited.

He let out a frustrated breath.
 
“Aw hell.
 
For the life of me I
can’t think of a single dirty thing to say.
 
At least not anything fit for a lady’s ears.”

She arched a brow.

“A lady’s ears?
 
You
calling me a lady, Jason Kelly?
 
Shame on
you.”
 
She would play the role he
expected of her.
 
The role she usually
played without pretence.
 
“You know good
and well I’m not a lady.
 
A she-cat
maybe, but a lady?”

She rolled her eyes upward as if he’d said the craziest thing
she ever heard.

“And you cursed, you naughty man you.
 
That definitely rates washing your mouth out
with,” she moved closer to where her lips hovered millimeters from his, “my
tongue.”

She slipped her tongue between his lips into the warmth of his
mouth.
 
He tasted of smoky bacon and Jason.
 
A delicious combination.

His hands dropped from her waist to cup her bottom and he ground
his hard body against her.
 
Or was she
grinding herself against him?
 
It was difficult
to tell when she kissed him.
 
Her mind
melted into mush.

He swayed to the rhythm bouncing between them.

“Dirty dancing,” she softly scolded.
 
“You do realize that’ll mean more cleaning.”

“I hate that,” he whispered against her lips as she tugged his T-shirt
from his jeans.
 
As soon as the material
was free, she snaked her hands over his abs.
 
The man really should model for calendars or something.
 
Regardless, his chest should never be covered
up.

She tugged the material over his head.
 
He lifted his arms to help her, and she
couldn’t resist a light tickle across his ribs.

He squirmed.
 
“Now who’s
playing dirty?” he accused.

“Ohhh,” she purred.
 
“Does
this mean I have to be cleaned, too?”

“More like that you need spanked.
 
Something I should have done years ago.”

“All in the name of good, clean fun, right?”

“Right.”
 
His lips covered
hers and his mouth plundered the deepest recesses of her mouth.

Tabitha’s fingers twined in his hair, pulling him as close to
her as she could.
 
Still she wanted him closer.

Jason’s fingers worked the knot on the apron loose and tossed
the beer loving frogs onto the counter.
 
Her shirt and bra quickly followed.

“You’re right,” he agreed.
 
“You do look better without the apron.
 
Much better.”

He lowered her pants, bending to lift her foot and tug the jeans
free from one side and then the other.

 
When she stood with just
her skimpy cheetah print panties on, he whistled.
 
“You are one hot woman, Tabitha Sterling, and
I want you now.
 
Right here, right now.”

“More dirty talk.
 
Get
over here and take your punishment, I mean, your cleaning.”

He chuckled.
 
“You can
punish me like this every day for the rest of my life.”

For the rest of his life.

Did he realize what he was saying?
 
How wonderful his words sounded to her
heart?
 
How he tempted her with his
careless remark?

“You better watch what you wish for,” she warned, inhaling as
his palms brushed down her sides to clasp hold of her hips.

“Or what?” he challenged.
 
“You’re going to clean me some more?”

“Precisely.”
 
She dragged
his mouth to hers and kissed him with all the passion within her, gave the kiss
all her heart and soul.
 
More.

His hands tightened, lifted.

Tabby curled her legs around his waist and accepted his mouth’s
assault.

When he stepped forward, positioning her bottom on the kitchen
countertop she sighed into his mouth.

Oh yeah
.

She fumbled with his jeans, unsnapping them and sliding the
zipper down.

“Touch me, Tabby.”

As if he had to ask.

Her fingers stroked over the cotton briefs.

He sucked in a breath.
 
“You know, I’m pretty sure I hit the dozen mark on Friday night.
 
Last night definitely put me over.”

She blinked, what was he saying?
 
Surely, he didn’t mean…
 
“I
thought you wanted me touching you.”

“I do, but I also want you at my mercy.
 
Surrender to me, Tabby.”

Adrenaline kicked in, rushing her blood through her body.
 
“If that’s what you want.”

But could she?
 
She really
had no choice.
 
She promised him he could
tie her up if he made her orgasm more than a dozen times.
 
He was right, he far exceeded that just on
Friday night.

Jason tying her up.
 
The
thought thrilled and terrified.

She pressed more firmly against him, stroking her fingers up and
down, maybe she could convince him that his interests were better served by her
hands being free.

“It’s what I want.”
 
He
glanced around the kitchen.

The only thing within sight that would work to tie her up was
the apron.
 
Both of them stared at it for
long seconds before Jason grinned.
 
“Froggie went a courting and he did ride, mmhmm.”

Tabitha laughed as he grabbed the apron.

Holding her breath, she held out her wrists and watched in
trepidation and fascination while Jason used the strings to bind them
together.
 
Not too tight.
 
She could probably slip free if she wiggled
her wrists back and forth, but still enough that he was in control.

That she was at his mercy.

She waited for the claustrophobia, the fear to take over as it
had when he’d been condomless.

It didn’t.

She trusted him that much.

More than she ever had any other person.
 
Only in herself had she put this much
faith.
 
Because trust involved exposing
yourself to anything the other person wanted to toss at you, knowing they could
hit you were it hurt most.

She and Jason stared at her clasped hands and bound wrists.

“Now what?” she asked, determined to see this through, wanting
to see it through.
 
This was Jason’s
fantasy.
 
She’d give him whatever he
wanted.

“Put your hands around my neck,” he ordered.

She did, breathing in another deep lungful of his scent.

“Now, don’t move.”
 
He kissed
her forehead and shoved his pants over his hips.

Don’t move?
 
Was he nuts?

She glanced down, her lips curved with pleasure at the sight of him.

“Condom?”

Why was he tempting her like this?
 
Didn’t he know how difficult it had been to
have him inside her that way without having his love?

“Just one stroke?
 
To see
if it feels as good today as it did last night?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head no.
 
One stroke and she might give in to the urge
to cry at all she’d lost.

“You’re sure?
 
Because I’d
really like to feel you around me, Tabby.”

“I can’t.”
 
She bit the
inside of her lip

“You can.”
 
He teased her
with the tip of him.

Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, Tabitha sucked in air.
 
“No, Jason.
 
Please don’t.”

He sighed and she heard the crinkle of him tearing into a condom
package.
 
Thank God.

He thrust inside and Tabitha’s eyes opened.

“Did you—”

He silenced her with a kiss.

Tabitha started to pull away, but then his hips moved and his
hands pulled her closer.

She’d swear they were flesh to flesh.

Must just be her overactive imagination remembering what he felt
like, because Jason wouldn’t make love to her without a condom when she’d asked
him not to.

Not in a million years.

Chapter Ten

Almost, Jason made love to Tabby without a condom.
 
He stared into her sated eyes and wondered
what she would do if he slid in without one.

It’s what she asked for, then changed her mind.
 
Because it had been too personal.
 
He felt it and apparently so had she.

No matter.
 
He hadn’t.

Odd that he even wanted to.

Then he remembered how they’d felt flesh to flesh.
 
Maybe not so odd after all.

With every stroke, he imagined nothing between them.
 
Nothing but his body to hers.
 
Nothing but them as one.
 
No past, no one else, no dreams of a wife and
kids and an ordinary life.
 
Nothing but
his man to her woman.

“Tabitha,” he gritted, collapsing, his forehead resting against
hers.

“Wow.
 
That was
amazing.”
 
She kissed the corner of his
mouth.
 
“Thanks.”

Jason grimaced.
 
Thanks?

Well, what had he expected?
 
Undying words of love?
 
From
Tabby?
 
Not hardly.

Her gaze dropped to where he removed the condom and tossed it
into the trash bin.
 
Why was she staring
at it so?
 
Had she wanted nothing between
them as badly as he had?

She slid off the counter top and held out her wrists.
 
“Untie me, big boy.”

Shoving his thoughts away, he zipped up his jeans.
 
“What’ll you give me?”

“Excuse me?”
 
She waved
her wrists in front of him.
 
“You dare
ask me that after I just put out for you?
 
Puh-leeze.
 
You should be a
satisfied man.”

“For the moment,” he admitted, ignoring her hands.
 
“I’m not sure I want to untie you, though.”

“Why not?”
 
Her lashes fluttered.

“Something about you at my mercy turns me on,” he admitted.

“At your mercy?”
 
She
laughed.
 
“Is that what you think I am?”

Now he laughed.
 
“You’re
right.
 
You’ve never been at anyone’s
mercy.”

“Come on, Jason.”
 
She
wiggled her hands within the confines of their frog apron binding.
 
“This is starting to chafe.”

She was lying.
 
He hadn’t
tied them that tight.
 
But he undid the
knot all the same, pulled her wrists to his mouth, and kissed the steady pulse
beating there.

Her gaze met his and the beat sped up, increasing in rhythm and
intensity.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think you were trying to
seduce me, Jason Kelly.”

“The seduction of a she-cat?” he teased, lowering her wrists.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Would I succeed?”

“Always.”

She lied again.
 
He wouldn’t
always succeed where Tabby was concerned.
 
After this evening, she’d be gone from his life as if this weekend had
just been a dream.