Hot and Bothered (11 page)

“ ‘I am tired,’ ” she finished.

The conversation dwindled after that. Paul couldn’t get Judith’s real life out of his head. He assessed what he knew of her since her arrival at the cove and what she’d told him about her life, and still didn’t quite believe her story. Maybe he didn’t want to.

He excused himself shortly after to secure the yard and house, then retrieved some bedding for his night on the couch, finding it easier to keep busy. Judith and he made big detours around each other when she went to bed. His bed.

He settled down on the couch and turned out the light. The one thing he didn’t feel was tired. He wished he could laugh at how far his imagination had taken him in speculating about her troubles.
He wished he could be angry. Anything but the sadness filling him now. She lived in a world he would never inhabit. He hadn’t looked beyond a few days with her.

Now she was only a few feet away, and he knew he had no business looking at all.

Judith didn’t feel any better than she had in her trailer.

She felt worse.

She shifted gingerly in the big wide bed she had slept in once before. She was careful to lie on the side Paul hadn’t slept on the night he was drunk. He wasn’t there, so she ought to be more comfortable, she thought. Instead, her insides were wound tighter than a watch’s.

She had shared her problem finally with him, and he hadn’t understood. She supposed his solution of just telling the family to back off would be normal for him. He was a former cop, after all, and used to being listened to and obeyed. No one listened to her. Even now she resented her parents’ domination, although on a logical level she saw living at home as a compromise worth her accommodation. She did love her parents. They meant well. They just didn’t see beyond their way. Ultimately, she was to blame, having allowed the situation to fester by drifting along. She wasn’t drifting any longer.

Thank you. Aunt Edna
, she thought wryly. She
hadn’t seen much of her great-aunt in recent years, but Edna had always been right in the center of any Collier Chocolates fray, stubborn and unbudgeable. Judith wondered if Edna had left the shares to her just to thumb her nose at the rest of the Colliers. That made sense.

She shifted again, flipping to her other side, facing the middle of the bed. She immediately flipped back, her mind’s eye automatically conjuring up Paul’s image next to her. Heat built up under her skin and she fanned her face. Her real problem tonight was being in his bed like this, with him only a few steps away in the living room. Pondering her own troubles couldn’t force the awareness from her mind … and body.

She listened to the quiet house; nothing disturbed it. She shouldn’t be staying there, but she hadn’t been able to resist his persuasion.

“Ha,” she mumbled under her breath. Some persuasion.
Stay
. She could have been a cocker spaniel the way she’d jumped to that command.

All their past conversations swirled through her head. Danced around in her head was more like it. She wanted him … wanted to feel his body on hers … wanted to feel his muscles under her palms. He created such a fire in her whenever he kissed her. When he looked at her, she felt she would burn up. She finally understood why people followed this kind of sexual impulse. The obsession grew stronger with each denial.

A perverse voice inside her asked what she was denying. She wanted Paul and Paul wanted her. He had said so. They could barely keep their hands off each other. No man made her feel the way he did. She would be leaving the cove soon, probably never to see him again. She had said she wasn’t equipped emotionally to have an affair, but how would she feel if she left Sunset Cove
without
making love with Paul?

She turned back to face his side of his bed and acknowledged the truth. She would regret it, regret it for the rest of her life. Being noble and taking the high moral road had its place. But so did need. Maybe the time had come to get back into life again. Maybe Paul was the first step.

She got out of bed, standing still for a moment, trying to find some courage for what she was about to do. She wished she had on something more than her T-shirt. Something infinitely sexier. Her sex appeal acumen was on par with her business and cooking acumen.

“Be a man for once,” she muttered, loathing her failing boldness. She would never know if she didn’t try.

She walked out to the living room.

“What’s wrong, Judith?” Paul asked the moment she set foot in the room. His voice was strong and clear, and she could see his shadow when he sat up on the couch. “I heard you get up.”

“I—I couldn’t sleep.” She came to stand in
front of him. “Remember how we talked about an affair?”

He sucked in his breath audibly. “Yes.”

“I … This is so hard.…”

“No, I am.” He pulled her down next to him, but didn’t touch her further. “Are you trying to say you want to stop dancing?”

“I think so … yes.”

“That’s a hell of an answer.”

She reached out and touched his cheek. His jaw hardened under her palm, as if he were struggling to control himself. She couldn’t go back to her trailer. She couldn’t go back to his bed alone. This man needed caring. He needed someone who knew his past and wouldn’t turn away. She might not be equipped to deal with the aftermath, but she wanted to deal with the present. “I want you. I can’t walk away any longer.”

She stretched to kiss him, and he pulled her across his naked chest. His mouth burned like a fire, his tongue melding with hers … flicking … tasting. His hands spread across her back, warming her through her thin T-shirt. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, digging her fingers into his muscles.

The kiss was heady, filled with a need that swept her along in its wake. She was helpless under it. Any thought of resisting was lost in the emotions that washed over her.

When the kiss broke, they were both gasping
for breath. “You amaze me,” he said. “You always do things I never expect.”

She smiled, pleased that she confused this man.

“I won’t hurt you,” he added.

“I know.” But he would, she thought. In the end, when she left and he was satisfied to let her go, then she would be hurt. Yet she would not ask for promises. She couldn’t and still be fair to him.

He kissed her again, more slowly this time, with a longing that nearly broke her heart. Judith gave herself up to it, wanting all she could have for the short time she would have it.

His hands crept under her shirt, smoothing their way along her flesh. His fingers followed the curve of her hipbone and spread across her stomach. Judith shivered deliciously at his touch. Her breasts ached. Paul seemed to sense her need, for he took the weight of them in his hands, his thumbs caressing her already tight nipples.

Judith moaned, loving the feel of his hands on her. She ran her own hands along his shoulders, his chest, loving the way the hairs were surprisingly silky. So incongruous for a man. The muscles underneath were like steel, hardened and tight as his skin moved over them. His body, so different from hers and yet so compatible, like iron against satin.

Paul slipped her shirt farther up and bent his head, taking her nipple into his mouth. His
tongue swirled around the sensitive tip, sending urgings throughout her body. She pulled her T-shirt over her head, not caring that she was naked. She wanted his touch everywhere, his warmth on every inch of her body. She needed it.

She pressed herself against him, then with a boldness that took them both by surprise, she straddled him. His hair-roughened thighs brushed against her intimate flesh, causing every nerve ending in her body to tingle. Only his thin cotton briefs separated her from him totally. But his hardness, his wanting her, was unmistakable. Knowing he did only escalated emotions already pushing at her, leaving her more than physically vulnerable to him. She didn’t care. She needed him so desperately, she couldn’t stop herself.

She guided his mouth to her other breast. He spread soft wet kisses across it, then ran his tongue around the aureole until Judith thought she would die from the sensations he created inside her. He pulled her tightly against him, and she wondered if he would smother against her breasts. The thought conjured a sense of feminine power within her, a feeling of control even as she was being drawn completely out of control by this man.

His fingers reached lower, stroking her lightly, intimately. Each touch was lightning, electrifying her. She throbbed and burned. She gasped for air, crying out, even as she was swept into a whirlpool of black velvet, swirling her in its
soft folds. She had no need of breath, but fed off the explosions deep inside her.

Every muscle in Paul’s body tensed when Judith convulsed in his embrace. He had wanted to pleasure her first, not knowing if he could even control his body’s response, but her own was so rapid and so deep at his lightest touch, he hadn’t been prepared for it. His mind reeled. Just minutes earlier he had been lying on his lonely sofa, wondering how the hell he would ever survive the night, when she had come to him. He had been helpless against her, shocked at her boldness and desperate to take what she offered. And to give back tenfold. His daydreams nowhere matched the reality of her like this. Under the elegant clothes was a woman of tremendous passion with an unexpected earthiness.

“Oh, Paul,” she whispered, her voice like silk. She pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “What you do to me …”

“What you do to
me
,” he echoed, gently caressing her thighs, giving her time to recover.

She pressed herself against him, arching over him and kissing him with a fervor already renewed. He gladly gave himself up to her. Her fingers were soft and unsure as they stroked his chest, but her innocent eagerness was his undoing. He crushed her mouth to his, his tongue demanding as he mated it with hers. Her nakedness was like a fire, burning him everywhere. He guided her fingers lower, around him intimately.
She touched him in wonder, exploring, until he thought he would shame himself. Never had he felt like this. His first time all over again, but better because he now knew how precious a gift he was receiving.

Judith moaned when he finally lifted his hips to shed his briefs. Before he could stop her, she took him inside herself. Her flesh was moist velvet, engulfing him. He grasped her hips, digging his fingers into the tender curves of her bottom. She rocked over him, and then they rocked together, their lips and bodies joined in a lovers’ embrace. Over and over they met in the most intimate and ancient of ways of men and women. The heat they created built to an unbearable level, then burst in a shower of white sparks deep within them, whirling between them, binding them together.

When Paul finally emerged from the soft blackness of their lovemaking, he felt disoriented. Everything was the same but yet so different. Judith stirred, pressing her lips to his throat.

“You are the amazing one,” she murmured. “I wanted you so badly, but I had no idea. No idea …”

He stroked her hair, the dampness at her temples a reminder of their lovemaking. “You are unique, Judith. I think every bone in my body melted on impact.”

She chuckled. “So did mine.” They were unmoving until she finally added, “I didn’t think of
all those things one should ask now before love-making.”

“We didn’t talk about a lot of things,” he admitted. “But I think we already know the answers to those questions. We’ve argued about them enough in the past.”

She shifted, and the intimacy of the movement nearly sent all the breath from his body even in its depleted state.

Mindful of her position, he laid them both down on the seat cushions, tucking her between him and the sofa back. She didn’t mention other things they should have taken care of, and he didn’t want to think about them now. To give her more room, he moved toward the edge of the narrow sofa. He nearly fell off.

Judith giggled, then sighed and pulled him fully on top of her. “Talk about great bodyguarding.”

“Mmmm.” He kissed her lightly. Her body was soft and warm under his and he intended to guard it as long as he had the energy.

“I read somewhere that men peak sexually at eighteen, while women peak after thirty,” she said. “Do you think it’s really true?”

“Shatter my libido, why don’t you?” he groused. A thought occurred, as devastating as any statistic. “I know it was quick. I was … lacking, wasn’t I?”

“Oh, no. God, no.” She snuggled against
him, kissing his jaw. “Why ever would you think that?”

“Tell a thirty-five-year-old man he peaked seventeen years ago and he’ll think he’s now the Wrong Way Corrigan of sex.”

She laughed. “Not you.”

“We’ll see.”

He began to kiss her again, slowly, longingly. Each kiss was drawn out until she was gasping for air. He drew out each touch, too, each movement, until she was writhing uncontrollably. He had no doubt in his mind, and created none in hers, that he would leave any eighteen-year-old in the dust.

But most of all, he loved her. He wanted her to know it in ways she would never forget.

Paul raised himself on his elbow. Judith was still asleep beside him in the wide bed. She looked contented, and nothing made him more content than seeing her so.

He loved her … and it scared him to death.

The sun streaming through the windows must have triggered her subconscious, for she stirred, then rolled over to face him. She rubbed her eyes like a little girl before opening them. He waited for her first expression.

She smiled.

Paul almost sagged in relief. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been, waiting for that all-important morning-after reaction. He was opening himself up for pain again, yet he couldn’t help himself. He kissed her. “Good morning.”

She looked around and frowned. “How did we get in here?”

“I carried you in early this morning.”

“I didn’t even know.” She lifted her arm, then flopped it back on the bed. “I think I’m jelly inside.”

He grinned. “That’s what you get for making comments about over-the-hill men.”

“You aren’t even close to being over any hills.” She grinned back. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a … not like what you did to me.”