Asking for Trouble (20 page)

“Get my pants off,” he told her,
so she did. And then she showed him how much she appreciated what she’d found,
and he grabbed her head, wound his fingers through her hair, and she was
forcing some sounds out of him, too.

“Stop,” he finally said. “Stop
now. I can’t . . . I can’t keep from . . .”

She came up on her elbows, slid
up so her breasts were over him, let them enfold him, and his hands came down
over her back, held her there like he couldn’t stand to let her leave.

“Once you do it, how long does it
take you, in between?” she murmured, her hands playing over the ridges of his
belly.

“Uh . . .” He groaned. “Fifteen
minutes. Maybe twenty.”

“Think you could find something
to keep you occupied for fifteen minutes?” she asked, her hands still stroking
his skin, gliding over his chest, finding their way down the happy trail of
hair that led from his navel to where she could feel the weight of him pressing
into the valley between her breasts, and she wanted him so much. She wanted to
do this.

“You don’t have to . . .” he got
out.

“Oh, but I do,” she assured him.
And she did. And when she felt his hands tightening around her head, heard the
long, agonized groan beginning, she smiled a little around him, and finished
it, and enjoyed every bit of it.

“Oh, God,” he sighed, still on
his back, when she rose back over him and kissed him, her tongue licking into
his mouth, savoring all the tastes of him, her hands on his arms where they lay
splayed over his head, her fingers circling him there, and she loved the idea
that she’d satisfied him that much.

“Mmm,” she said, kissing the
corners of his mouth. “Don’t go to sleep on me, now. I’ve been waiting a long
time for this. Don’t let me down.”

“We need a bath,” he sighed.

“A
bath?”
She sat upright and stared down at him. “Uh, Joe. That
wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

He smiled up at her, slow and
satisfied. “Don’t worry. You’ll get everything you want.” He pulled her down
over him and gave her a long kiss, his hand moving over her back, tracing the
curve of her waist.

“You did a really good job,” he
told her. “But I can take it from here.”

He got his bath, finally. He got
Alyssa just the way he’d imagined her the night before, on top of him in his
giant tub, her firm, full breasts in his soapy hands, feeling her giving him every
delicious response a man could ask for.
 
Then he was sliding his hands down, feeling
all her beautiful curves, rubbing her over him, lifting his head to pay some more
long-overdue attention to her breasts, holding her still for him, and she was
loving it, and letting him know it.

He pulled her out of the tub at
last, once he was sure he was going to be able to do her justice. He dried her
off, got her back between the sheets of his bed, and worked her over for real.
He paid back every attention she’d lavished on him, showed her what he’d meant
when he’d told her she was his.

He had what he’d always wanted.
He had Alyssa on her back in his bed, and he was doing things to her that he’d
been imagining for fifteen long years. And it was all good.

Maybe he wasn’t the best guy at
talking, but he was pretty good at listening, and he was very, very good with
details. He read the movements of her hips, the frantic reach of her hands for
his shoulders, the sighs and moans and downright directions she was giving him.
He listened, and he learned everything about her. How to touch her, how to please
her, and how to drive her crazy. How to make her grab his head in both hands,
the same way he’d grabbed hers, and how to push her so far she couldn’t even
form words. And that was the best of all.

He got her going to the point where
her hips were trying to pump underneath him, where she was crying out so loud,
she sounded as if she were in pain. And then he stopped. He lifted his mouth
from her, stilled his fingers, and felt her buck against him.

“Joe,” she gasped, “don’t stop. Please.”

“This is for that doctor
yesterday,” he told her. “You going to let him flirt with you again?”

“No,” she moaned.

He smiled, and started again. Got
her even closer. And stopped.

“No.”
It was almost a scream.

“That guy you were out with, the
one you ran out on. You going to be going out with anybody else?” he demanded.
“Anybody but me?”

“No. No, Joe. I’m not.”

“Because you’re what?”

“Because I’m yours.” He heard the
truth of it, and he felt the evidence of it, and thrust his fingers inside her
harder, and felt her hips jerk in response. And then he set his mouth to her
again, and that was all it took. She was there, and if her first orgasm had
been strong, this one had her rising in the bed, letting it all go, calling out
with what he could tell was the nearly unendurable pleasure of it.

He kept going until she was done,
until she was lying back, just as undone as he had been, breathing hard. But he
didn’t intend to let her rest. He rolled over and reached in the candlelight
for the condom in the drawer, and then he was over her, inside her, sliding
home, taking it easy, because it sometimes took a woman a while to accept all
of him.

Not tonight, though. Not this
woman. She took all of him and asked for more. He kept it slow at first all the
same, rocking her easy, and her arms wrapped around him and her legs came up to
do the same, and he knew that she needed him in her as much as he needed to be
there. He knew he had Alyssa Kincaid taking him inside her body and begging for
more, and he gave her what she was asking for. Thanks to her, he was able to make
it last, to take the time he needed to do every wonderful thing he needed to do
to her.

He shifted her position again and
again, did her every way he knew how, until she was shaking and he was, too,
until nothing could have kept him from her, until the need in him was a wild
thing, clawing at him, roaring in his head, until she was bucking and sweating
under him. And then, finally, he gave her all of himself. And he made her his.

Alyssa woke from the doze she’d fallen into, reached a hand
out and groped for Joe, but he was gone. She raised herself on her elbows, but
the bathroom was dark. Well, of course it was, because the lights were out, and
now the candles were, too.
Joe must
have blown them out after she’d fallen asleep. But there was no flashlight glow
coming from the bathroom either, and now she could hear faint sounds from
below, a metallic clank, a thud. She thought about getting out of bed and
seeing what he was doing, but it was way too cold out there, so she snuggled
back in between the flannel sheets, pulled the thick down comforter over her,
and, despite her best intentions, fell asleep again.

She woke again to the disturbance of Joe sliding into bed
beside her, reached sleepily out for him, and encountered an arm like ice.

“Brrr,” she complained. “What were you
doing?”

He pulled her close to him, and she settled her head on his
chest, clad in a T-shirt now, with a sigh. “Building a fire in the stove,” he
said. “Going to get awfully cold in here without it. It won’t stay going all
night, not unless I manage to wake up a few more times, and I don’t think
that’s happening, because somebody wore me out, but it’ll take the edge off.”

“Always thinking,” she said.

“I know how cold you get. Just doing my part.”

“You found a good way to warm me up at last.” She snuggled
in a little closer, because he was so
comfortable
.
“I wondered if you ever would. I wonder if you even realize how hard I tried.
I’ve never been that forward with anybody
.
I thought, maybe if I actually stripped naked and lay down for you, you
might get the hint. But then I thought you just weren’t interested.”

His hand was stroking over her hair. “Yeah, well, there were
reasons.”

“Oh, yeah?” It was so cozy, talking to him in the dark like
this, her body humming with bone-deep satisfaction. “What kind of reasons?”

“Well, at first, you were too young. I was . . .” She felt
his chest shake, heard the low sound of his laughter. “I was feeling pretty
perverted, those first couple years. Good thing you can’t be arrested for your
thoughts, because I’d have been in jail for sure.”

She sat up a little. “You liked me then?”

He sighed and pulled her closer with his other arm, forcing
her to lie down again, but that was all right, too. “I’m not sure
like
is the word, but yeah, I’ve always
liked you, since the first moment I saw you. You were so pretty, and so . . .
lively. So funny and sweet and . . . did I mention you were pretty?”

The glow filling her wasn’t just from the warmth of his body
anymore. “You mean we’ve wasted all this time? Do you realize how many not-Joes
I’ve dated since then?”

“Probably not as many as the not-Alyssas I’ve been out
with.”

“So why not? Why
not
me?”

“Because you’re Alec’s sister. Because you’re your parents’
daughter. Because Alec is my partner, and you lived in a different part of the
state, and I only saw you at Christmas. What was I supposed to do, kiss you
under the mistletoe in your parents’ living room?”

“Yes,” she said.

“No,” he answered firmly.

“All right,” she said, “OK, but I’ve lived in San Francisco
for six weeks now. A little pokey, aren’t you?”

He laughed again. “Pokey? Six weeks? Alec’s still my
partner, you know. And you were dating other guys. How was I supposed to know
you wanted me?”

“I don’t know, maybe by the hundred-and-one hints I gave
you? And
one
other guy.”

“Well, we’re here now,” he reminded her. “The damage is
done. No un-ringing this bell.”

“Because I’m yours.” She gave his chest another stroke.

“Yep. That would be the one.”

“That was a really hot thing to say. Who knew you were such
a good dirty talker?”

Now he was the one raising his head. “That wasn’t dirty
talk. I mean, yeah,” and she couldn’t see his smile, but she could sense it all
the same, “it was, I hope, but I meant it, too.”

“Joe.” She laughed. “I am not marrying you just because you
compromised me.”

She felt the withdrawal in him, his hand stilling. “Joking,”
she hastened to explain. “I mean, if you mean we’re together, then yes, that’s
what I want to be, too.”

“Good,” he said, and she hummed a
little in contentment, and felt his hand stroking over her shoulder. She
stopped talking, then, and fell asleep again.
  

The next time she woke, it was light. Still cold, but maybe
not quite as cold, and Joe was gone again. The power was still out, she found
when she made it down to her bathroom, but at least there was enough light to
take a shower, and luckily, water heaters ran on gas.

He was on one knee in front of the wood stove feeding the
fire when she came downstairs. In heavy canvas pants, with a woolen button-down
over his usual T-shirt, he was looking more like a logger than ever.

“Power’s out for this whole area,” he informed her, shoving
another log in and arranging it with the iron poker. “Looks like it’s all right
in town, though.”

“I guess we picked a good time to leave,” she said, zipping
her coat up.

“Well, that’s not happening either,” he said, closing the
door to the stove and straightening. “All the passes are closed.”

He’d pulled the drapes back, and the outside world was
snowy, but no worse than the day before.

“Really?” She thought with a pang about Helene. She wasn’t
going to be happy. “It doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Wind,” he said. “That’ll be why. And it’s supposed to blow
all day. Looks like we aren’t going home until tomorrow, and we’re not skiing,
either. They’ll have closed the lifts, weather like this. Guess we’ll have to
find something to keep us occupied.” The rough planes of his face softened into
a smile. “I can think of one or two things.”

“You can, huh?” She forgot all about Helene and went for
sass, because she loved to sass Joe. “You got Monopoly?”

“Nope.” He pulled her into his arms, got her standing on
tiptoe, then kissed her like he meant it, and she wound her arms around his
neck and kissed him right back.

“Poker?” she asked against his mouth.

He laughed a little at that one. “Maybe. Maybe strip poker,
though I should warn you, I’m a pretty good poker player. You’d be the one
doing the stripping. Or I could take you back into town and watch you play pool
some more. But if you do that bending-over-the-table thing again, I can’t
guarantee that I’ll behave this time. You might just find me following you into
the ladies’ room and taking you up on that invitation. You might want to
re-think that, if you don’t want it that way.”

“You noticed?” she said, trying to keep herself from asking
him to take her up on it right now. “I didn’t think that was working.”

“Oh, it was working. It worked on me, and it worked on every
other guy in the bar, too. Because you’ve got one hell of a body, in case I’ve
never mentioned it.”

“Hmm.” She was kissing the corner of his mouth, nibbling at
him, because he tasted so good, and he was so damn sexy. “I don’t believe you
have. You’ve got some catching up to do, don’t you?”

“We both have some catching up to do. Going to be hard to
keep this place heated with one wood stove. We might have to get some blankets
down here, stay in front of the fire. But first . . .” He let go of her, stepped
back with obvious reluctance. “Breakfast.”

“Oh, man,” she complained, “you mean I have to wait to get
some more of you?”

He laughed again. “You’re going to get all of me you can
handle,” he promised. “And you’d better look out, because I plan to get every
bit of you, too.”

 
“Plug your phone
in first,” Joe said when they were in the car the next morning. The pass was
finally open, and they were headed back, though the going was slow.

“You don’t need to check in?” she asked.

“Nah. Alec and Rae know I’ll be back this afternoon. That’s
all I needed to do. They’ve got it. So go on. Plug it in.”

“Thanks,” she answered in relief. She’d tried not to let her
concern about her late return intrude on the magic of her unexpected holiday,
but the niggle of unease had refused to be silenced as soon as they’d begun
packing up.

“What” Joe asked when she checked her messages and still sat
silent.

“Can I read this to you?”

“Sure.”

Inconvenient,
Alyssa
read aloud,
and I wish it hadn’t
happened. Today was your deadline on the fundraising package, and we have the
Forester Pharmaceuticals meeting later this week. Were you able to give that
any attention this weekend?

“I
didn’t
work on
it,” she said wretchedly. “How could I, with no power? Anyway, I didn’t even
bring my computer.”

“Why should you have?”

“Because of what I just read you. Because of what you just
heard.
Because she’s going to see this
as another screw-up.”

She was right, she found when she finally made it into the
office well after two that afternoon. Joe had waited for her to drop off her
stuff and change clothes, telling her that he’d store her ski gear at his place,
and then had driven her to work. She’d told him he didn’t have to wait, but it
sure made her feel good that he had.

“Don’t let her bully you,” he said when they were in the car
again and headed toward Van Ness. “You can work extra this week. Storms are an
act of God. What are you supposed to have done?”

“I need to show her I’m committed, though,” she tried to
explain. “What I really need to do, what I’ve been trying to do, is come up
with a killer idea. I’ve had the start of one rattling around at the back of my
head, that there must be a better way to raise money. Something better than
mass mailings and one-on-one appeals. Something like the Race for a Cure idea,
but different, because everyone does those runs and walks, right?”

“True. So what do you have in mind?”

“I’m still working it through. But can I talk to you about
it, when I get closer?”

“Sure,” he said, and she held on to that, when she went into
the office at last.

“Oh, finally,” Helene said with a sigh when Alyssa showed
up, and Alyssa marveled that the other woman could say so much with two little
words.

Alyssa didn’t apologize again, because what was the point?
She gave Helene her letter, she got to work on the Foster Pharmaceuticals
proposal. She tried, once again, to become indispensable. She tried to fit in.