New Life (12 page)

“My folks say exactly what they mean. There’s
no doubt about it,” I said. “My neighborhood is too dangerous. I’d
be safer moving back home. The message is that I’m disorganized and
bound to screw up eventually, and they’ll be left picking up the
pieces again.”

“But you’re doing all right on your own,
aren’t you? I can understand you not wanting to be dependent on
them. Still, they almost lost you in an accident, so you can’t
blame them for worrying.”

“I
can’t
blame them. That’s the
problem. So I don’t say anything when they start in on me.”

“Gotta love parents.” She smiled, and I
stopped thinking about my parental problems as my mind filled only
with her.

“You’re so hot.” The words popped out before
I could stop them.

Her eyes widened. “Uh, thank you.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” I dug myself in
deeper.

Dimples flashed. “You didn’t?”

“Well, I did, but I didn’t mean to say it out
loud. Sometimes that happens. Bad impulse control.”

She laughed. “That’s all right. I think
you’re hot too.”

Even if she was just being polite, I enjoyed
the ego stroke.

Katie had told me more than once that I used
to be a hopeless flirt, but I didn’t remember that life. Flirting
was all new and shaky ground to me now. I continued petting Baby
and kept my mouth shut the rest of the drive to Anna’s
apartment.

She lived in a nice neighborhood. Her monthly
rent must’ve been about what I earned in six months. I couldn’t
help but be impressed and a little intimidated by the building and
the décor of the apartment, which looked like something out of a
magazine. Everything was clean and new, except the antiques, which
were supposed to have a patina of age.

Anna unleashed Baby, and the dog scampered
across plush cream-colored carpet. That carpet would be dirty gray
pretty soon, I thought.

“Nice place.”

“Thanks. I haven’t had a chance to decorate
yet so the colors are neutral. I should’ve painted before I moved
all my stuff in, but I couldn’t decide on colors, and I ran out of
time. Now I’m too busy.”

She led the way to the living room. I sat on
the couch while she went to get us something to drink. I gazed out
the window at the beautiful architecture of an old church backed by
the glass faces of office buildings. The view was quite a contrast
to the crumbling brick wall that faced my window.

Anna returned with wineglasses and handed one
to me before sitting beside me on the couch. “Are you hungry yet? I
could get the grill going.”

“I’m in no hurry,” I said, though my stomach
was growling. I just wanted to sit there with her for a while. If
sitting happened to turn into kissing, hell, I’d be happy to
postpone dinner for the rest of the night.

We sat close but not touching, side by side
on the couch. I sipped wine and considered putting the glass down
and lunging for her, but damned if I could bring myself to make a
move. Every cell inside me was vibrating with the need to kiss her.
I moved my leg as if trying to get more comfortable and pressed my
knee against hers. Progress but hardly passionate.

Baby returned from the kitchen with dog-food
breath and jumped up on the couch between us. We both reached to
pet her, and our hands touched. My gaze met Anna’s, and I stopped
thinking and simply leaned to kiss her. The wine tasted better on
her tongue. The soft skin at her nape was hot beneath my hand. I
closed my eyes and did what came naturally—tasted the lips of a
beautiful woman and pulled her body closer.

Baby growled, as she was trapped between us.
Time flowed, formless and free, seconds or maybe eons passing,
distilled to this intimacy of breath and touch. I lost myself in
Anna, the solid warmth of her body, the texture of her hair, and
those soft sounds she made, moans of pleasure and whimpers of
desire as my hand slipped underneath her shirt and stroked her
back.

Annoyed by our moving bodies, Baby jumped
down.

Sometime later, Anna broke off in the middle
of a kiss. Her hair was mussed and her eyes heavy lidded. Somehow
we’d shifted until I was flat on my back and she was lying on top
of me.

“Um, shall I make dinner, or do you just want
to maybe go to my bedroom?” she whispered.

I laughed at the obviousness of the
answer.

She got up and offered her hand to pull me to
my feet; then she took me to her bed, which had the softest sheets
I’d ever lain on.

Chapter Twelve

I could tell you about the sex, about how
Jason’s hands glided over my body with a sort of reverence and his
lips traced a burning trail from my throat all the way down to my
pussy. I could tell you how I shivered when he touched me there,
how exactly right his tongue and fingers felt, how quickly and how
hard I came. I could say how I gasped and gripped his shoulders
when he entered me; how I watched his face as he came and the
unguarded joy in his expression moved me to climax a second
time.

If I told all that, you still couldn’t know
what it felt like.
Oh yeah. Sex—I’ve had that many times. An
orgasm? Dime a dozen.
But unless you were in that moment with
us, inside my body or Jason’s, you couldn’t know what it felt
like.

It’s not as if I’m some blushing virgin who’s
never had good sex before, but this was different. As Jason pushed
inside me, our eyes met, and something happened I can hardly
describe. Afterward, when I collapsed back on the bed, breathless
and perspiring, I felt like a different person, one who was both
thrilled and alarmed about the way her world was tilting.

Jason also lay on his back, breathing
heavily, eyes closed and one arm flung above his head. I wanted to
ask if he was okay. I’d gotten the impression he hadn’t been with
anyone since his accident. This must be like discovering sex all
over again. If it had been as powerful for him as it was for me, he
might feel a little overwhelmed. Plus, there was his sore hip. Our
lovemaking hadn’t been exactly gentle.

But I knew how Jason felt about being fussed
over, so I offered a more casual, “So whaddya think?”

He smiled without opening his eyes. God,
those adorable crinkles at the corners made me want to start all
over again. He was unbearably cute and sexy. I rolled to my side
and kissed his shoulder.

He opened his eyes to look at me. “Was it
good for you?”

“Hell, yeah.” I scooted closer to his side,
and he slipped an arm around me. I would’ve been happy to stay that
way all night, but his stomach gave a tremendous rumble. “You must
be starving. I’ll go make something.”

He held me back when I started to rise. “Not
yet. Let’s lie here a little longer.”

How many men liked cuddling after sex? Not
most of the ones I’d dated, who seemed anxious to get to the next
item on their agenda. Maybe that was one of the hazards of dating
ambitious men who, like me, were in the habit of juggling fifty
things at once.

Baby had been a good first step in reminding
me how to slow down and enjoy each moment. Jason was an even better
reminder to stop and breathe.

I settled back into his warm embrace and lay
quietly for several moments. “Tell me something. What was the rehab
like after your accident? What did you have to do?”

Too personal? But then we’d done about the
most personal thing two people can do, so surely I could ask more
of him than what kind of movies he liked.

“Physical exercises to regain strength in my
injured leg and shoulder, but also memory training. I learned to
split every task into units, write each step down, then repeat it
until I don’t have to check the list anymore.”

The whining outside the bedroom door grew
louder, and Baby began to scratch at it. I sighed in exasperation.
“She’s going to dig her way right through.”

Reluctantly, I climbed out of bed and let the
dog in. She bounded through the doorway, raced around me several
times then jumped onto the bed. Jason let out a yelp as her claws
scraped his bare torso. He roughed her up, rolling her and tickling
her belly until she growled.

I was tempted to crawl back into the love
nest, but, since I was up, decided I might as well make our dinner
at last. I put on my robe and went to fire up the grill on my
little balcony. Gathering everything I needed from the kitchen, I
headed back outdoors just as Jason emerged from the bedroom with
Baby frisking alongside him.

He looked so hot wearing only a pair of jeans
with his black hair bed-tousled. He wasn’t muscle-bound but sinewy
and lean, the way I like. Scars marked his right side where he’d
had several surgeries to repair his shoulder and collarbone. I’m
embarrassed to admit I found the scars kind of sexy, as if he were
a wounded warrior rather than a college kid who’d gotten
stupid-drunk and cracked up his car.

He followed me out to the balcony and watched
me spread chicken on the grill. Steam rose from the sizzling meat,
the smell making me salivate.

“You want to get something to drink?” I
asked. “There’s pop, bottled water, and a few beers in the fridge.
I’ll take anything diet.”

He disappeared inside and was gone long
enough for me to have to turn the chicken over. I was about to
check on him, when he returned with a pair of glasses. I urged him
to sit at the patio table while I turned on some music. The sun was
setting, and a romantic pink glow filled the air as I filled our
plates and placed them on the table.

“Would you rather have wine with your
meal?”

“No. This is good.” He sipped his drink, and
a drop of condensation fell from the glass to his chest. My gaze
traced its course down the plane of his chest. By the time the
water droplet disappeared below the edge of the table, my appetite
for chicken had fled, replaced by a much stronger hunger. I focused
on serving up the dinner.

Baby sat on the floor beside me, gazing up
with the eyes of a starved dog and whimpering.

Jason smiled. “You feed her from your plate,
don’t you?”

“Sometimes.” Like every meal. I was a
horrible disciplinarian.

“I used to slip things I didn’t like to
Skeezer underneath the table.” Jason paused with a forkful of
chicken halfway to his mouth. He blinked, breaking out of a trance.
“Sorry. Whenever a new memory pops up, it sort of takes me by
surprise. It’s like finding a lost piece of a puzzle.”

“I get it.” I pictured him assembling a
massive jigsaw with big hunks missing. Every rediscovered piece of
his past must be precious.

“Anyway…” He dismissed the topic and resumed
eating. I understood we couldn’t ignore Jason’s disability if our
relationship continued, but it wasn’t something he wanted to touch
every aspect of his life. So I changed the subject to the song
playing over the speakers, one of my current favorites, a duet
about the end of a love affair that was both poignant and
catchy.

“Do you like this song? I have it on repeat
on my MP3 player when I’m running. It reminds me of every breakup I
ever had, so why would I want to relive the pain, right? Guess it’s
cathartic.”

“Who’d be stupid enough to break up with
you?” The hot stare Jason leveled at me set my pulse beating
faster.

“Tim, for one. And there was somebody I dated
back in college who...really broke my heart. Other than that, I
guess the rest were really just flings.”

“Like this one?”

“No,
not
like this. This is something
more, I think. Maybe.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed as happy creases
bloomed around them. “Maybe.”

Damn, our second date and we were already
discussing what it meant. Was I ready for this?

Chapter Thirteen

The grilled chicken was great, but it was all
I could do to choke it down since Anna sat across from me, naked
underneath a lightweight robe. Every time she leaned forward, the
gaping top offered tempting glimpses of her breasts, distracting me
from our conversation. I was easily unfocused that evening,
spending God knew how many minutes in her kitchen trying to choose
a couple of drinks from the fridge but actually reliving every
detail of the sex we’d had.

Sex! In her bed. Inside her. Naked skin. Soft
moans. Anna’s thrusting body. Her breasts filling my mouth and my
hands. My cock surrounded by her flesh. It was no wonder it took me
a while to pick out a couple of sodas, close the fridge door, and
pour glasses of diet cola.

After we finished dinner and were clearing
the table, I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I caught hold of
the tie of Anna’s robe and tugged her toward me. She dropped the
plate she was holding on the table with a clatter and came into my
arms, her hands snaking around the back of my neck and pulling my
face down for a kiss. She acted as eager as I felt. Good to know I
hadn’t been the only one sitting politely through dinner when what
I wanted to do was sweep the table clear and fuck right on top of
it.

I considered doing exactly that as I pushed
aside her robe and reached for her bare skin underneath, but this
was an apartment building with a lot of windows, other balconies,
and no privacy. As hot as public sex sounded, we could probably be
arrested. I stumbled backward through the sliding door into the
house, pulling Anna with me.

The moment we were inside, I tore off her
robe and touched every inch of her. I wished I had more hands so I
could feel more of her at once. Naturally, I was horny, but there
was more to it than sex. It just felt so good to touch someone and
to be touched, to feel the warmth of Anna’s body against mine.

I tasted teriyaki on her tongue as I stroked
my hands down the sleek line of her back to cup her rear. I
would’ve liked to lift her up and pin her against the wall, but I
didn’t know if my legs would support us both. Instead, we lurched
across the living room to the couch, groping and grabbing all the
way. I let go of her only long enough to strip off my jeans; then
Anna pushed me onto the couch and straddled my lap. She ground
against my straining erection, and I came close to losing it right
then. I gritted my teeth and held back, determined to prolong the
wonderful agony throbbing in my cock. But it was hard as she slid
her body over mine. The curtain of her hair brushed my face, and
her eyes burned into mine. I gripped her hips as she rose and fell,
and the tension inside me grew unbearable.