Hidden Depths (19 page)

She moaned and thrust her hips up, her body showing him what
she wanted without words. He needed to be inside her.

"Lift your hips Gia." When she didn't move fast
enough to please him, he barked out, "Now!"

She leaned back on her hands, raising her ass of the
countertop. He popped the button and slid down the zipper on her jeans. Yanking
both jeans and underwear out from under her, he quickly pulled them down her
legs. When they got hung up on her boots, he swore, then yanked those off too,
laces be damned.

When she was finally free of her pants, he wasted no time
sliding two fingers through her folds. She was already soaking wet.

"Aahh, hell baby. You heat up so fast. It drives me
fucking nuts."

She twisted her hips against his fingers, before sitting
upright to undo his jeans. She pushed them off his hips, tugging his boxers
down below his erection.

When the cool air hit his cock, followed quickly by her
fingers wrapping around him, he threw his head back with the pleasure. He
thrust his fingers inside her, matching pace with his hips as he slipped
through her hand.

When he felt her starting to tighten around his hand, he
pulled out, grabbing her hips and pulling as he thrust forward.

With her hand around his shaft, only a few inches made it
inside her wet heat, teasing him, tempting him, spiking his desire even hotter.

He gripped her hips hard, mentally willing her to get her
hand out of the way as he pulled out just a bit, before thrusting in as hard as
his body would allow.

Her hand was gone and he was buried balls deep inside her.

Gia cried out, unable to contain her pleasure, uncaring of
who might hear her through the thin walls of her townhouse.

He thrust again, harder even still, thrilling her with his
unrestrained passion. She leaned back on her hands, pushing against the
counter, using the leverage to meet his thrusts, adding her strength to his.

"Aaahh, fuck Gia. You feel so good. Hot... tight."

He thrust again, obviously giving up on words, his breathing
ragged and fast.

She felt the first tremors of orgasm starting low in her
belly. The little flutter was followed immediately by the tingling warmth. It
broke open before she could even take in a breath, ripping through her core,
tearing her apart.

She felt her pussy walls, clenching him, trying to hold him inside,
though she didn't really want him to stop. Thank God he didn't. If anything, he
sped his pace, driving into her hard enough to clack her teeth together if her
mouth hadn't been so far open seeking the oxygen her orgasm denied her.

Before she could even get one breath, she felt his ass
clench, his fingers digging into her hips, as he plunged into her once...
twice... on the third time he stilled. She felt the hot spurts of his come
pulsing inside her. The heat, his grip, the short little thrusts he used as he
rode out his pleasure all combined to send her body spiraling through another
orgasm of her own. The second one was slower, longer than the first, rolling
through her in waves.

Her arms finally gave up the fight and she collapsed
backward onto the granite countertop, not even noticing the chill against her
overheated skin.

Josh leaned forward, resting his head against her belly
while they both struggled to recover their breathing.

When she could finally form words, she opened her mouth, a
little surprised when a giggle emerged. She never giggled.

After another moment, he finally spoke. "That
was...fantastic. Amazing. There really are no words."

"Seems like you're doing a pretty good job finding
words there, counselor. Pretty good words, too, I might add."

"Trust me, they don't do justice to what just happened.
I've never come so hard in all my life. That was..."

"I know. I'm actually surprised your legs are still
holding you upright. My arms gave up."

Josh chuckled, "Well, I must admit I have my knees
locked."

All of a sudden, he froze, the smile fleeing as his face
settled into a look of shock... or maybe terror.

"Gia, I... fuck. I forgot a condom."

Trying not to be offended by just how terrified he looked,
she forced a smile she didn't really feel. "It's fine, Josh. I get the
Depo shot."

She actually felt his body sag with relief. Finding herself
swinging from utterly sated to seriously peeved, she pushed herself back into
an upright position, giving him a little shove to dislodge his softening
anatomy. When she was mostly free, she swung her leg half over him and hopped
off the counter.

Once standing she strolled naked across her living room and
into the bathroom for a little clean up, leaving Josh standing behind her.

Hopefully staring.

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that yes, he was
indeed staring. It also reminded her just how fast that softening anatomy of
his could recover.

After a quick potty stop, and a moment to clean up, she
emerged from the bathroom to find him standing there, still staring after her,
though he had taken a moment to at least pull up his jeans.

She raised her eyebrows, silently questioning the somewhat
baffled expression he wore. After a moment, he cocked his head to the side,
running his hand through his hair before crossing his arms in front of his
chest.

"You know, I think maybe you took that the wrong
way."

"Took what the wrong way, Josh?"

"Well, of course I'm relieved that you're on birth
control, but not because I don't want..."

"No, I get it. You want kids. Just not...now." Not
with me.

"Well, yes. Kind of. It's not even really not now, just
the timing is bad. We've only been together a week, Gia."

"It's fine Josh, really. I get it, I really do."

"Okay then... so why do you seem angry?"

She sighed. Apparently she could add perceptive to his list
of qualities. "I'm not angry, not really. It was just a gut reaction. You
seemed a bit too happy to hear I was on birth control. It's fine. Honest."

In an effort to convince him that all was forgiven, she
sashayed up to him, adding a little extra swing to her hips.

When his mouth opened, but no words came out, she smiled.
There were definite advantages to being naked.

When she reached him, she went up on her toes, pressing her
body lightly against his, before pressing her lips gently against his throat.
She scraped her teeth down the cord in his neck, nipping at his collarbone.

That was all the more convincing it took.

He tossed her over his shoulder and carried her off to her
bedroom. She knew she should be annoyed by his high handed behavior. He was
developing a tendency to physically move her wherever he wanted her.

She loved it.

Chapter 25

Friday night, the group of friends all decided to meet up
again at The Tavern. Kelly had called and invited Gia even before Josh had
called and told her about it early Friday afternoon. It was to be expected,
really. The longest she had gone without seeing everyone had been the three
weeks Josh had been gone. And that had been her choice, not theirs. She knew
they had all met up at least twice while he was away, she had just opted not to
go.

Which was exactly what she was contemplating doing tonight
as well. She was pretty certain that she could easily be 'too busy' and no one
would question it. Friday and Saturday were her busiest days in the shop. And
evenings were the busiest times. Now, she could easily leave Aaron here with
Billy. They were usually slower by around eight anyway, and they could always
call her if there was a sudden rush of unscheduled tattoos. A highly unlikely
scenario at best. But, it was her shop. It was probably best if she just stayed
here.

Gia sighed. She may be willing to fib to everyone else, but
she really needed to at least be honest with herself. She didn't want to go
tonight. Not that she didn't want to see her friends, or even spend more time
with Josh outside the bedroom. But that time 'in' the bedroom was the crux of
the problem. She wasn't entirely sure she could spend an entire evening with
Josh and their friends... friends that knew them as well as anyone possibly
could... and not give away their secret.

For the next couple of hours, Gia flipped and flopped,
deciding one way, then the other as to whether or not she was going. When Josh
dropped in around six, she was just cleaning up from her previous appointment.
She still hadn't come to any conclusions.

A quick glance at her schedule told her that she had thirty
minutes before her next, and final appointment for the evening. 

"Hi there. So, I wanted to talk to you about the bar
tonight. Can we go out back for a minute?"

"Sure."

Josh followed her through the shop, nodding his head in
greeting to both Billy and Aaron who were still working on their customers.

As soon as the walked through the door to the back alley,
Josh had her pinned up against the wall, his lips against hers.

After an all too brief kiss, that still managed to make her
head spin, he pulled back to smile down at her.

"Hi."

She couldn't stop the little gurgle of laughter. "Hi,
back at ya."

"So, about tonight..."

He let the words trail off, expecting her to fill in the
blanks.

"Ummm, yeah. I'm not sure it's such a good idea for
both of us to go. And since I should really be here anyway..."

"Uh uh, Gia. No way."

"No way what?"

"No way are you going to bail on our friends and use me
as an excuse."

"It's not an excuse. I just don't think it's a good
idea. I mean, there is no way they're not going to be able to tell that
something is going on with us. Look at this! You still have me pinned against a
wall, Josh, in the alley. They're going to know."

"So what if they do?"

"You agreed to keep this just between us..."

He interrupted again, "I know, and I have... and I
will. But, that doesn't mean that we can't be in the same room together. That
would actually be more of a tipoff than anything else. I mean, it might work
for tonight, but long term? No way."

She hadn't thought of that. She puffed out air, blowing her
bangs out of her eyes in the process. Sometime during his little rant, Josh had
finally backed up a couple steps, leaving her free to push away from the wall.
He was now standing in front of her, hands on his hips, looking every inch the
pissed off lawyer.

She gave him a little half grin. "You know how hard
this is for me to admit, but you're right."

"Damn it, you know that would... wait, what did you
just say?"

"I said you're right."

Now he just looked completely puzzled. "I expected you
to argue some more."

"Clearly. But the truth is, that would be a dead
giveaway. So, instead we need to set some rules."

Josh rolled his eyes. Of course they needed more rules. At
least according to Gia. He wanted more rules about like he wanted another hole
in his head.

Forcing a polite tone he didn't feel, he asked, "And
just what exactly did you have in mind?"

He watched while she considered her words, her eyes
squinting a little as she bit her bottom lip. And he waited. As patiently as he
could manage. Especially considering the only coherent thought running through
his brain was to lean forward and suck that lip out from between her teeth.

"Gia, tell me your damn rules!" he barked out.

"Okay, not rules really, just guidelines."

"Okay, then tell me your guidelines."

"Well, we need to behave like we always do, which means
sarcasm. We can't exactly be nice to each other all of a sudden, or people will
know immediately. So, we need to keep up the snarky back and forth thing we've
always done."

Since he was feeling anything but nice right now, that
should be relatively easy. "No problem. Anything else?"

"Other than the basics, like don't mention the fact
that we spent last night together at my house, there's really only one more
thing I can think of."

"And that is..."

"No touching."

"No. Touching." He deliberately pronounced each
word as if it were its own sentence.

"Yes... no touching each other."

There was no way he could get through an entire night with
her near him and not touch her.

"That's a deal breaker."

"What do you mean, deal breaker?"

"I mean, I will touch you."

"But then everyone will know."

Josh squinted his eyes, watching her closely. As he looked,
her breathing sped pace a little. Another few seconds, and he could see her
nipples start to tighten and push against the black T-shirt she wore.

"It's not the touching you're really worried about. Is
it? You're worried about your response to me touching you."

"No! It's not that at all. I just don't want anyone to
know about us, Josh. You know that, and if you walk around with your hands all
over me, they're gonna know."

"Okay. Fair enough. I promise not to put my hands all
over you. At least not where anyone else can see."

"What?"

"Well, I'm not going to promise not to touch you, Gia,
'cuz that would be a promise I would break. But, I will promise to make sure
that I do not touch you in any 'more than friendly' ways if there is anyone
watching. Fair?"

He waited for her answer, watching as she squinted her eyes
at him again.

"Take the deal, Gia. It's the best offer I'm willing to
make."

Finally, she nodded.

When she turned to go back into the store, Josh blocked her
path with his arm, leaning in behind her to whisper in her ear.

"If I'm supposed to keep my hands off you this evening,
then I want a little taste to tide me over."

When she glanced back over her shoulder, he took the
opportunity to seal his mouth to hers. When he pushed her up against the wall
again, she gasped. Her open mouth was an open invitation. One he couldn't pass
up.