Seducing the Old Flame (2 page)

He’d worked damned hard to put Tabitha behind him.

Her smile faltered only for a second, lowered to his
mid-section, and returned full force.
 
“Are you saying you aren’t glad to see me?
 
Because your body says otherwise.”

“Good thing I’ve learned to think with more than my body, isn’t
it?”
 
He leaned against the doorjamb and
watched as she absorbed his comment.
 
Obviously, not what she expected him to say.

“I find that hard to believe.”

He shrugged as if what she thought didn’t matter in the
slightest.
 
It shouldn’t.
 
He hadn’t seen hide or hair of her for over
two years.

What possessed her to show up on his doorsteps now?
 
Tonight of all nights?

Brash as all get out, she leaned forward and stroked her fingers
down his stomach until she hovered above his zipper.
 
He stiffened, caught his breath, and fought
the urge to strain into her touch.
 
A
touch that took him from zero to a hundred in one lazy caress.

“Seems that’s not all I find hard.”
 
She flashed her pearly whites in a Cheshire
smile.
 
“Invite me in, Jason.”

Like hell he would.

“I recall hearing that creatures of the night can’t enter one’s
home unless they have an invitation.
 
You
should leave.”

She tapped her high heel, glanced at the ceiling, huffed out a
long breath, and latched her fingers onto his jeans belt loops.

Before he had time to so much as inhale she jerked him to her
and planted her mouth over his.
 
Her
strength never ceased to amaze him.
 
Apparently, Tabitha still worked out.

Soft, warm lips caressed his, tasting, challenging, demanding he
kiss her back.

Whether it was an innate ability or came from more practice than
he cared to consider, Tabitha knew how to kiss a man.

Jason was a goner from the moment her tongue slid between his
lips, prying its way into his mouth, just as she seemed intent upon prying her
way back into his life.
 
If just for the
night.

Her tongue dueled with his, teasing, tormenting him to respond
to her dare.
 
A pleased sound that could
only be called a purr trilled from deep in her throat.

Damn.
 
What could one
little kiss hurt?

Besides he was tired of giving her control.
 
He wanted control.
 
Of his mouth, but more importantly of
her
mouth.

Jason plunged his tongue between her talented lips and met her
parry for parry.

“Invite me in,” she breathed.

Her long, curvy body melted
against his, practically singeing the material trapped between them.

Heat, hot and liquid, surged through his veins, boiling his blood
to a raging pitch.

He had forgotten how sweet she tasted.
 
How sassy.
 
How her unique flavor intoxicated a man’s senses beyond reason.

No, he hadn’t forgotten.
 
He’d crammed the memories down deep in his psyche so he could move on
with his life without memories of a volatile wildcat repeatedly tearing him
inside out.

Greedy fingers curled into his hair, twisting somewhere between
pleasure and pain as she tugged him closer.
 
Explosive starbursts erupted, tightening his muscles, hardening him to
the point he expected his zipper to give way.

Maybe her pelvis molded against his groin was what kept the
straining zipper teeth in place?
 
Although he suspected that’s what had him so damned hard to begin with.

His hands brushed down her
waist, pressed into the curve of her back, and pinned her to him from mouth to
where her leg curled around his in a possessive hold.

“Invite me in,” she demanded.
 
“And I’ll remind you what you’ve been missing out on.”

“My memory’s just fine.”
 
But his mouth covered hers, conquering the sugary recesses of her mouth
once again.
 
His memory obviously
retained only the Cliff Note version of Tabitha’s kisses, though.
 
She took his breath away.
 
Literally.

She wiggled against him, her heavy breasts smashed against his
chest.

Longing to rip off her clothes and take her right here, right
now, he lowered his hands to her hips.
 
Instinctively she sensed what he wanted and wrapped her legs around his
waist.
 
Or perhaps she just wanted the
same thing.

The spikes of her ‘do me’ high-heels dug into his back, her
fingers tugged on his hair, and her mouth marauded his.
 
All he could think about was that it had been
too damned long since he’d been inside this woman.
 
A problem he intended to rectify.

“Uhm, Jason, if this is a bad time I can come back later,” a
feminine voice said from a few feet away.

His neck snapped around.
 
A petite blond with innocent, but curious blue eyes stared back.
 
Guilt slammed him.

Damn.
 
How had he
forgotten about inviting Annie over to review the construction progress for her
daycare facility?

Long nails raking the back of his neck told him exactly how.

Chapter Two

Reluctantly, Tabitha looked at
the unwelcome interruption.

A sweet young thang wearing
cheery, if shapeless, clothes stared back with avid interest, and more than a
touch of admiration.

If not for her untimely appearance, Tabitha would have liked the
woman instantly.
 
As it was, Miss Wide
Eyed Innocence interfered with the cure to all her ailments.

Not relinquishing her leg’s hold around Jason’s waist, she
extended her hand.
 
“Tabitha Sterling.”

The woman smiled.
 
“Annie
Oswald.”

Annie?
 
Even her name rang
with innocence.

Innocent, something Tabitha hadn’t been in eons.

Jason’s muscles stiffened beneath the arm she draped around his
neck, warning he preferred her not to have met Annie.
 
Tough cookies.

“Annie, I’m sorry.
 
If you’ll step inside, I’ll be right
in.”
 
Jason found his voice, but Tabitha
wished he’d lose it again if he planned to invite the other woman where he’d
refused to invite her.

Jealousy, green and vivid, streaked down Tabitha’s spine.
 

Totally irrational.
 
All
she needed Jason for was what pressed enticingly against her womanhood.
 
He was welcome to whoever he wanted once he cured
Tabitha’s affliction.

Annie hesitated.
 
“Maybe I
should come back later.”

“Monday morning would be nice,” Tabitha offered helpfully.
 
She should be finished with Jason sometime
Sunday evening.
 
Annie could have him
after then.

But she was lying to herself if she believed that because the
thought of Jason with another woman sparked flames of possessive envy.

Envy she had no right to feel.

For two years, she’d avoided thoughts of what he might be doing,
who
he might be with.
 
She wouldn’t start thinking about it now.

Even if confronted with Miss Goody-Two-Shoes great wife material
in the flesh.

Unbidden her fingers slipped back into Jason’s inky hair and
tightened possessively.

Just for this weekend.

That’s all she wanted him for.

So why the acidy feeling burning her throat?

Jason was the bossiest, he-man neat freak she’d ever dated and
the only one who ever stole a piece of her heart.

She didn’t want him back.

Not really.

Did she
?

She swallowed.
 
She
couldn’t
want him back.

“Annie.”
 
Jason looked from one woman to the
other.
 
“Despite what you may think, this
isn’t what it looks like.”

“Yes it is,” Tabitha interrupted before he could go
further.
 
Perhaps she was going too far,
but she’d already come too far to accept defeat and slink away.
 
That wasn’t her style.
 
“If you’d shown up five minutes later, Jason
never would have heard your knock.
 
Not
over the purring in his ears as he—”

“That’s quite enough, Tabby.”

“Tabby?”
 
The blond woman
blinked.

Tabitha refused to give in to any semblance of guilt.
 
One weekend, that’s all she was asking
for.
 
Whatever it took to make that
happen, then so be it.
 
It wasn’t as if Jason
was over her either. Not with the way he’d been kissing her. Maybe the weekend
would set them both free.
 
She pursed her
lips and shrugged.
 
“What can I say?
 
He likes to stroke my fur.”

An exasperated breath blew from Jason’s lips.

“That’s it.”
 
He pushed
her legs from his waist, steadied her on her feet, and shoved her inside his
apartment.
 
“I’ll deal with you in a
minute.”

Before she could murmur a word in protest, he slammed the door
shut, effectively blocking out whatever he said to Annie Innocence.

Tabitha stomped over to the door and peered through the
peephole.
 
Didn’t he know he couldn’t
shut her out?
 
She wouldn’t let him.
 
She didn’t understand all the reasons why,
but John and Jenny were right about one thing.

She did need Jason.

His hands curled in his jeans pockets.
 
In an attempt to hide his hard-on?
 
She grinned.
 
He rocked back on the heels of his bare feet—-man, oh, man, did he have
sexy feet--as he talked a mile a minute.

The woman nodded in response to whatever Jason said.
 
He gestured toward the door, and launched
into more explanations.

Another wave of guilt washed over Tabitha.
 
One she couldn’t ignore.

Was the woman someone important to him?

Lori assured her brother wasn’t involved with anyone, but maybe
Lori didn’t know about Annie.

Despite Tabitha’s many sins, moving in on another woman’s
territory wasn’t listed among them.
 
There were plenty of unattached fish in the sea.
 
She didn’t need to go trawling in someone
else’s tank.

Even if she’d once racked up the frequent fisher miles with this
particular king of the sea.

Unwilling to watch Jason with the woman any longer, she spun
away from the peephole.

The faint scent of citrus tickled her nose and she glanced
around the room.
 
A large overstuffed
L-shaped sofa with a drop down table divided the living room from a dining area
that appeared neglected.
 
Various sports
magazines were stacked neatly on a solid appearing oak coffee table.
 
An elaborate sound system monopolized one
wall along with a big screen television.
 
Was he still a die-hard Tennessee Vols fan?

How many afternoons had they cuddled on the sofa watching the
college team kick football bootie?

All and all the room was spotless except for a few cardboard
tubes propped against a wall.
 
Mr. Clean
would be proud.

Tan Berber crushed beneath the heels of her shoes as she crossed
over to the muted colored sofa.
 
She sank
onto the scratchy material and looked around the void of color room.

Right down to the pictures that hung on his walls, the whole
room looked like the color fairy skipped right on past when she’d been painting
the world.

How could he stand it?

She squinted in disgust at the dull room.

What had Jason done after
they’d split up?
 
Thrown all his things,
his colorful possessions including the oil portrait she’d had done for him,
into the back of a Goodwill pickup?

She really should have insisted upon having that particular item
back.

Then again, he could have it hanging in his bedroom.
 
After all, it wasn’t the kind of painting
he’d want publicly displayed.
 
And the
bedroom is where he’d hung it when they’d dated.