Seducing the Old Flame (9 page)

In the blink of an eye he
reversed their positions to where he half-lay across her.
 
“Wouldn’t I?”

She moistened her lips.
 
“No-o-o, I don’t think you would.
 
You’re too nice of a guy.”

His chuckle shook her
body.
 
“Babe, I’m about as nice as Satan
himself when it comes to you.”

“Are you saying I bring out the
devil in you?”

His eyes danced and he
laughed.
 
“You certainly set me on fire.”

“Mmm, sounds like it has
potential.”
 
She inched her fingers down
his arm.

“Oh, it has potential all right
and you’re still not getting the remote.”

“I don’t want the controller
any more,” she smugly announced.
 
“I got
what I wanted.”

“Oh really?”

She nodded, liking how his
brown eyes sparkled.
 
Liking how
happiness lit his face.

“What was it you wanted?”

“Your attention.
 
On me.”

He let go of the
controller.
 
It fell to the floor with a
thud.
 
She didn’t reach for it.
 
Neither did he.

“Now that you have my
attention,” his lips hovered over hers, “what is it you plan to do?”

“Oh, you know me, I thought I’d
improvise, see what came up.”
 
She
trailed her fingers down his chest, lingering at his waist, lower.
 
“I’m sure something to do will pop up any
moment.”

“Good morning, volunteers.
 
It’s time to rise and shine and bleed
orange,” the alarm on the radio clock chirped what seemed only minutes after Jason
closed his eyes.

He reached over, hit the snooze,
and wrapped his body around the warm bundle in bed beside him.

His eyes shot open.

Tabby.
 
He patted her shapely body that even the
thick comforter couldn’t disguise.
 
She
was really here.
 
In his bed.

It hadn’t all been a dream.

“Tell me it’s not time to get
up,” she mumbled, stretching out beside him.
 
Tabby had never been a morning person.
 
She’d lived for the nights.

“It’s time to get up, lazy
bones.”

She groaned.
 
“Do I have to?”

“I’ve got to go to one of the
work sites.”

“But it’s Saturday.”
 
She glared at him with one sleepy green
eye.
 
Her hair snaked in every direction,
like an early morning Medusa searching for her next victim.
 
Seductive yet deadly.

“I work on the weekends,
Tabby.”
 
Usually all day.
 
Today he wouldn’t.
 
He’d do just what he had to and spend the rest
of the day with Tabitha.
 
Doing whatever
came up.
 
With Tabby around, it was
usually him.

He pushed several strands of
hair from her face, marveling at how the early morning light still managed to
catch the highlights in her red/gold hair and give her a surreal
appearance.
 
“I have to go.
 
I’m meeting with one of the developers to
discuss expansions.”

Both green eyes opened, blinked
sleepily, then stared into his eyes.
 
Really stared.
 
As in searching
his soul.

For what he wasn’t sure, but
apparently she found it because she smiled.

His breath caught.
 
Not a speck of makeup covered her face and
she still shamed every other woman in the world.
 
Each and every freckle on her pert nose
begged for a kiss, for individual recognition.
 
Recognition he’d be sure to give before the sun went down.
 
A man could lose his soul in Tabitha’s eyes.

“Can’t you reschedule?” she
tempted, unaware of how just looking at her affected him.
 
Odd in and of itself.
 
Tabby had built in radar sensors that told
her when a man lusted after her, a sense that she exploited to her advantage every
opportunity she got.

“Not this time.”

“We could spend the day in
bed,” she added.

“It’s not that easy.”
 
He threaded his fingers through her
hair.
 
How many times during the night
had he tangled his hands in her tresses and lost himself inside her?
 
“Although I like how you think.”

“So, you have to go to work and
we have to get up from bed.”
 
She glanced
at the clock.
 
“Exactly how much time do
we have?”

He palmed her scalp, pulled her
closer until she pressed fully against him.
 
“How much time do you want?”

“The rest of my l-”
 
Her mouth clamped shut, her expression
guarded.
 
“The rest of the weekend.”

What had she been going to say?

Not what she’d said.

Life?

The rest of her
life
?

Surely, he was mistaken.

Tabby was a tomcat in female
form.

She didn’t do rest of her life
and happily-ever-after.

More like, your place or mine?

Still, he was thinking too
much.
 
What he needed was to kiss her
good morning.
 
And show her what they did
have time for.

“In bed for the weekend.
 
Sounds like a great idea to me.
 
If only we’d planned ahead and brought food
with us.
 
As is, we’d starve to death
before Monday morning.”

She snorted.
 
“Typical man, always thinking of his
stomach.”

“Always.”
 
He touched his lips to hers and pressed a
soft kiss to her upturned mouth.
 
“Morning Tabby cat.”

Tabby’s eyes watered.

Dear heavens above, a good
morning greeting shouldn’t reach inside and shred her to pieces.

But that’s exactly what Jason’s
did.

Morning Tabby cat, he’d said.

Just like old times.

Only this wasn’t old times.

It was now and she’d come to Jason
with a mission.
 
A mission she’d totally
forgotten about during the night as they’d repeatedly made love.
 
Not once had she considered her supposed afflictions,
although if anything being with Jason might prove that theory correct.
 
She was addicted to sex.
 
With Jason.

All she’d thought about was Jason.

Jason’s mouth.
 
Jason’s hands.
 
Jason’s chest.
 
Jason’s whispered words of praise as they
brought each other to orgasm after orgasm.
 
Jason’s laughter at her teasing.
 
The warmth that spread through her at his teasing.

He kissed her and she closed
her eyes, glad for the excuse to keep him from seeing her tears.
 
Tabitha Sterling didn’t cry.
 
Not ever.
 
Had he noticed the moisture, she’d have covered, somehow.
 
He wouldn’t believe her capable of shedding
tears over him anyway.

Not for the reasons she was.

Not because she suffered a
sense of loss at the demise of their relationship.

Not only had she lost her lover
that awful day, she’d lost her best friend.

His expression furrowed.
 
“Tabby?”

“Make me purr, Jason.”

“Aren’t you sore?”

Was she?
 
She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter.
 
She needed him again, needed the completion
she experienced when her body connected with his.
 
Having him inside her, all his attention
focused on her, warmed an area of her soul that had been cold.
 
Cold even though she hadn’t realized.

Not bothering to answer, she
laced her fingers with his and moved on top of him.
 
Her hair covered her breasts, covered
everything.
 
She leaned forward,
curtaining him with her red curls.

“I take it you’re not too
sore?”

“Maybe we should find
out.”
 
She kissed his mouth, soft,
tasting his lips, loving the unique feel of his mouth against hers.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Hurt her?

Why did she get the feeling
that she was going to be hurt by Jason?
 
More so than the end two years ago.
 
More than she wanted to admit.

But she couldn’t think about
that right now.
 
To do so would spoil the
moment, would snatch away the magic of the present.

She’d go with the flow, go with
her gut instinct and ignore any niggling doubts.

She wouldn’t worry about the
end until it got here.
 
Tomorrow night
when she’d get in her car and drive away.

He didn’t want to hurt her?

“Then make love to me,” she
demanded.
 
“Love me now, Jason, because I
need you.”

#

Jason flicked on his signal and
turned onto the main highway.
 
Once
merged with the traffic, he stole a glance at Tabby.

She looked out of place sitting
in his truck.

Like a glittery diamond tossed
into a gravel pit.

As if she read his mind, she
smiled from the passenger side of his truck and reminded, “We could have taken
my car, you know?”

“I know,” he answered and
braked for a stoplight.

She wore jeans and a tiger
striped blouse with black furry stuff on the cuffs.
 
Her black boots weren’t appropriate for a
construction site, but were safer than any of the other spindly contraptions
she’d brought with her.
 
Did the woman
still not own a sensible pair of shoes?

Her hair hung loose and flew in
the breeze coming in through the cracked window.
 
Occasionally a long strand would slap against
him.

She’d squirted on some exotic
scent before they left his apartment.
 
He
liked it, but didn’t she realize pure Tabby turned him on more than any
manufactured scent ever could?
 
She’d
also put on make-up.
 
He told her not to,
that she looked beautiful without it, but she dismissed him with a kiss and a
fluttery wave.

“The site is likely to be muddy
from last week’s rain.
 
Your car would be
a mess, might even get stuck.”

“Playing in the mud might be
fun.”

Tabby covered in mud.
 
Jason swallowed.
 
“Much safer to take my truck,” he said,
wondering if she noticed his higher than normal pitch.

“Yeah, I suppose, cause I don’t
want to waste a moment of our day digging my car out of a mud puddle.”

“Good point.
 
Besides, everything I need is back
there.”
 
He motioned to the truck’s backseat
where a worn black leather briefcase rested along with multiple cardboard
tubes, hard hats and various tools.

She twisted to look at
him.
 
“Does this mean I’m going to get to
see you wearing a tool belt and a hard hat?
 
I’ve still got a few unfulfilled fantasies about you in your work gear.”

He glanced her way and
winked.
 
“For you, I’d wear my tool belt,
hard hat, and nothing else.”

“Ah, that has
possibilities.”
 
She looked interested,
real interested.
 
“You could practice
hammering, screwing, and drilling.”

He chuckled at her word play.
 
“Yeah, I could do all those things.”

They pulled up to a gated
construction site.
 
Pride filled him at
the sign with bold lettering proclaiming Kelly Construction that announced to
the world this was his job site.

Tabitha gazed out the window;
her eyes wide with interest as she took in the steel framework for what would
eventually be a grocery store.
 
What did
she think about what he did for a living?
 
About how far Kelly Construction had come from the three-man operation
it had been twelve years ago when he’d started the company straight out of high
school?

“This looks like a step up from
houses.”

“I love designing a home for a
family.
 
It’ll always be my favorite
thing to watch from start to finish.
 
Kelly Construction will always build homes, but commercial building is
where the money is and there’s a definite satisfaction to creating architectural
wonders that bring into play things that as just a residential builder I’d
never have the opportunity to do.”
 
He
drove the truck to the portable office trailer and parked.
 
“Come on.
 
You can wait inside.”

He walked around and helped her
out of his truck.
 
He didn’t let go of
her hand, instead clasped her warm fingers with his.

“Yuck,” she mumbled as she
picked her way through the wet red clay.
 
The wet goop clung to her boots, marring the black leather with red
clumps.
 
“You weren’t kidding about
getting stuck.
 
I may be taking a mud
bath before I make it to the steps.”

Mud sucked at her shoes and Jason
fought the erotic mud-wrestling image that once again formed in his mind.
 
His dirty mind.

“Want me to carry you?”
 
He might toss her in the nearest puddle
accidentally on purpose.