What a Woman Wants (18 page)

Shannon sat on
a pier with her legs dangling over the edge while she sipped a cup of coffee and looked out toward the ocean. It was Sunday morning. She had surprised even herself at how early she had awakened, and since going back to sleep hadn’t been an option, she’d decided to put on some clothes and mosey on down to the beach to one of the coffee shops.

She knew Faith was still asleep after having read her killer thriller novel well into the night. When Shannon got up at midnight to raid the fridge of the leftover lasagna, she had seen the light shining underneath the door to Faith’s room.

Shannon stood and dusted the back of her black shorts, thinking that with no plans for the day, it would probably be a boring one. In a way she wished she could do like Faith and read for pleasure, but there was pleasure and then there was
pleasure.

Despite not wanting to do so, she glanced down at her watch. It was a little past eight. She wondered what Adam was doing. Had he gotten out of bed yet to begin his day? Was he still planning to spend his entire Sunday working on that car?

Why am I even thinking about him?
she wondered, feeling annoyed with herself.

But then she knew why. Her body was remembering how it felt to be in his arms, his bed, to be pinned beneath hard muscular legs, to have her body stretched to the hilt while he entered her, and being thrust into, over and over again just in that right spot, dead center, that made you moan, groan, and throb for release. And when the explosion hit, it came and shook your body to the core, making you fight to keep your sanity while absorbing multiple shock waves and fiery sensations that rocked the living daylights out of you.

And yet you still wanted more.

Shannon hugged her arms around her middle, shivering despite her best efforts to control it. She released a long-suffering sigh, getting angrier by the minute at her lack of willpower. She could not get Adam Corbain and his sexual abilities out of her mind.

But that was her problem. She couldn’t stop thinking about him because in all her thirty-two years, she had never met a man quite like him. He was a man whose incredible body could turn raw sex into a masterpiece, a work of art.

But then there were those times in between their lovemaking sessions when they had actually talked. To her surprise, he was well versed on economics, probably from all those
Wall Street Journals
he read, no doubt. But that showed he had potential to be a lot more than what he was.

And she didn’t like it when he gave orders as if he actually expected her to follow the line, like him mentioning for her to come help him work on that car today. Did he actually think she would show up?

There was no man alive who could make her do anything without asking nicely first. It was time Adam saw that.

“
Line, it’s clean,
man,” Adam said into the phone to his brother, while glancing over at his GTO. “Another three weeks, and this baby will be in excellent running condition.”

Moments later he nodded. “Yes, I still plan to stop by D.C. to see Sydney and Tyrone before returning home.” He smiled. “Tell Raven that I’m going to hold her to that. A home-cooked meal is right up my alley. Okay, I’ll see you soon. Give Grant and the folks my best, and tell them I’m doing fine.”

He hung up the phone and sighed deeply. Hell, he wasn’t doing fine. His mind, his thoughts, his entire being were wrapped in the memory of a woman with an incredible mouth. But that wasn’t all Shannon Carmichael had.

She had a face with the beauty of an angel, a body that made a Coca-Cola bottle weep, a tongue that was sharp and delicious at the same time, and inner muscles that clenched him better than any pair of pliers when he was inside her. She pulled everything out of him.

She was a sex vixen if ever there was one. A snooty sex vixen at that. And like it nor not, she had gotten under his skin and no amount of washing could get her out.

Damn.

Ever since the last time he’d been with her, he had prowled around like a caged lion pining for his lioness before finally calling himself all kinds of fool. Even this morning he had moped around before finally picking up the wrench to start working on his car. But that hadn’t kept his mind from wandering every so often to remember the sound of her moan when he kissed her, the sound of her groan when he entered her, and the depth of her scream when she came.

The raw sensuality of what they shared suddenly had his jeans feeling tight in one particular spot. A hot pulsing ache had him almost bursting out his zipper. Hell. This was as crazy as it could get. No woman had ever affected him this way, to make him perform like a stallion in heat, as uncultured as she actually thought him to be.

And that’s what really had him pissed. He didn’t expect her to show up today to help him work on the car, hadn’t figured she would when he’d asked, but he’d done so anyway, thinking he might catch her in a weak moment. He’d been disillusioned to think that women like Shannon had weak moments. She was as boogie as they came, with an emotionally wrenched heart on top of it. Over the years, someone had convinced her that she was all of that and a bag of chips, and she measured a man’s worth by his academic echelon and his bank account. She haughtily believed that she had an automatic right to the best of everything, and anyone she considered less than her equal didn’t stand a chance.

And she assumes I am less than her equal.

The very thought should have him rolling on the floor laughing, but he was hard-pressed to find a damn thing funny. In fact, anger seared through him. He could very well do without a woman like Shannon Carmichael disrupting his well-ordered, uncluttered life. She had gotten what she wanted from him, and truth be told, he’d gotten what he wanted from her. Unemotional sex. While she might have enjoyed all the physical pleasures he’d given her, he knew she had inwardly loathed and resented what she thought he represented.

Deciding to dismiss Shannon from his mind permanently, he began getting the tools together that he would use today. Since it was Sunday, most of the businesses in the area were closed, which meant without a lot of noise, he would be able to get some work done.

He felt his muscles tense as he turned around slowly, thinking he’d heard a sound. Although he didn’t want it to, intense pleasure gushed through his veins and a deep feeling of heat rushed through every pore. His snooty sex vixen was standing at the window, staring at him.

Shannon had always
prided herself on total control, but as her gaze locked with Adam’s she suddenly discovered she had none left. Somehow, the man had done something no other man had been capable of doing. He had tempted her beyond reason, given her a taste of what real sexual delight was all about and had brought to life any fantasy she’d ever possessed.

Because of him she was breaking rules she’d never broken before, not thinking logically, throwing common sense to the wind, and shedding certain principles and values that she’d acquired over a lifetime.

On the drive over here, she’d known she’d made a choice. She would sacrifice everything for another night in Adam’s bed. And she quickly dismissed the icky feeling that it was more than that. As heat began spreading through her limbs from the way he was staring back at her, she refused to believe this strange attraction could be based on more than just sex.

Don’t dismiss that thought, because it could be.

Shannon’s chest tightened at the familiar voice that had sounded quietly in her ear: Cely’s voice. Thinking she had really stepped over the deep end in more ways than one, she continued to be locked into Adam’s gaze. His expression was unreadable, so she couldn’t tell if he was glad to see her or not. But through the clear windowpane she couldn’t dismiss the look in his dark eyes. Hot, unadulterated desire. Whether he was glad to see her didn’t matter. He wanted her. Just like she wanted him. And although she wondered if she’d made a mistake by coming here, some deep womanly instinct assured her it wouldn’t be a waste of her time.

Adam stood immobile.
Almost glued to the spot. It was hard to believe she was back, and the magnetic pull between them was more potent, fiercer, and more intense than ever. And knowing she needed him to make the next move, he took a step forward, then another as he headed toward the garage door.

He opened it, thinking that today it took longer than usual to go up. While he waited, a prickle of anticipation flowed up his spine, that part of him pressing against his zipper got harder, and he could barely pull in a normal breath. And when the door was finally up all the way and she begin walking toward him, his gaze raked her from head to toe. At that moment he knew that Shannon Carmichael had become his obsession.

She was wearing a pair of black shorts and a T-shirt, hardly an outfit for messing around in a garage, but definitely one that could take his mind off the work he was supposed to get done today. The shorts were almost too short to be considered decent. They showed too much of her legs, legs that could wrap around him, lock him inside her, refusing to let go even when the warm gush of his release flooded her insides. Those long, gorgeous legs carried a sexuality that was more intoxicating than the strongest whiskey.

She was stunningly beautiful, annoyingly confident, and snobbish as all outdoors. But at the moment, the latter didn’t matter. It was something he intended to work on. Starting now.

When she stepped over the threshold, she didn’t stop there. She kept walking until she was standing directly in front of him. And when he pushed the button to lower the garage door back down, he knew the last thing he intended to do was to ask why she was there. Like the other times, it was clearly obvious. And like before, no matter how much his hormones ached to pick her up and carry her up to the apartment and make love to her all day, he intended to do things his way.

But first things first. He reached out and pulled her to him, and before a gasp of surprise could escape her lips, he had those lips smothered under his, greedily lapping up any sigh she was to make. On instinct, his tongue went deeper into her mouth, moved all around to taste and possess while his hands moved down to her narrow waist, bringing her closer to the fit of him, wanting her to feel the pressure of his desire for her.

Damn and damn all over again. He wanted her. Here and now. His arousal was so intense, he knew if he didn’t have her at that moment, he would go insane.

Within minutes he had unhooked his jeans and pushed them and his briefs down past his knees. She had quickly gotten the idea and had removed her shorts and panties, tossing both aside. He surprised her when he flipped her around, and to keep from stumbling she placed hands, palms down, on the hood of his car. And then he was directly behind her, molded skin to skin to the delicious curve of her buttocks while his fingers eased between her legs.

He heard the sound she made deep in her throat the exact moment he touched her wetness, caressing her intimately with his fingers over and over. She whispered his name ...
his name
... between clenched teeth, and the sound pushed him over the edge.

Aroused to the Nth degree, he cupped her bottom in his hands, tilted her hips upward, and on an urgent groan he drove into her from behind. He thrust in and out, frantically stroking her, and her satisfied moans only made him increase the pace. Over and over he pounded into her, felt her clench him, milk him, demand that he let go and explode inside her, and his heart was thumping at the realization that for a minute he’d been able to read her thoughts. And with that another slow, nearly painful realization struck him, one he refused to acknowledge at that moment, one he refused to acknowledge ever. Instead he continued thrusting into her, and when she let out a loud scream of pleasure that almost shook the windows, he exploded, shooting deep inside her womb. He felt it. Thick. Hot. He felt her clench him with her inner muscles, milk him more fiercely while he gave her just what she wanted, what it seemed her body needed.

He didn’t pull out of her until there was nothing left to give; then he turned her around and captured her mouth in his, tasting each and every one of her aftershocks, and at that moment all he could think about, although he didn’t want to, was the fact that he wanted this, all of it—her—for the rest of his life.

Shannon let out
a deep satisfied sigh as she wiped down the leather interior of the car. After making love to her and then delivering such a torrid and passionate kiss, Adam had given her the key to his apartment so she could use his bathroom to freshen up a bit. When she returned downstairs, he had been waiting for her and handed her a cloth and a bottle of leather cleaner and told her what he wanted done.

She glanced out the windshield at him. He had an intense look on his face while he worked on some auto part she wasn’t familiar with. Hell, she hadn’t known a car had so many parts, and he seemed to know them as well as he knew the parts of a woman’s body. He definitely had a way with women, and his expertise spoke of what was probably years of experience. Although she didn’t know his exact age, she would figure he was no older than thirty-five.

She then realized of all the things they’d shared, mostly sexual, there was a lot she still didn’t know about him and figured since they had a lot of time to kill, now was just as good a time as any to start asking questions. “How old are you?” she called out, getting his attention.

He glanced over at her through the windshield, and the grin that spread across his face was full of sin and sensuality, a deadly combination. She wished it didn’t set off this rush of desire spreading through her.

“Old enough to make what we just did an hour ago perfectly legal,” he said before turning his attention back to what he was doing.

“I’m sure of that, but just how old are you?”

“How old do you think I am?”

“Umm, around thirty-four or thirty-five.”

He threw his head back and laughed.

Shannon looked bemused. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re off by a couple of years.”