Nobody's Fool (28 page)

“Grace has them under her thumb.” Holly opened the door for him.

He clambered in with the grace and dexterity of a rhinoceros.

Donna drove and Holly helped him into the back and rode shotgun.

“And what will happen to them now?” Donna asked.

Here it came. Josh tensed.

Holly merely shrugged and threw him a soft smile over her shoulder. “That depends on what happens when Josh and I sit down to talk.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Josh felt no pain. A hot bath, a couple of magic tablets left for him by his brother, and peace and love reigned. And a sweet Holly was pure honey.

She seated him comfortably on his bed and poured him a very fine glass of red wine.

The rest of the house was silent. The other sisters were off doing something.

Josh didn't ask any questions, too scared he'd jinx the thing. Tonight he had Holly all to himself, and life couldn't get much better.

A surprise she'd promised him in her raspy voice with a glint in her eye had made him hard just thinking about it.

Candles lit the room, their bodies glowing warm amber and honey as they perfumed the air. The light flickered in golden silhouettes against the wall.

A voice ululated gently against a soft, throbbing beat. An
arghul
lifted its reedy voice across the bass throb and sent tendrils of haunting sound drifting through the incensed air.

His exhausted brain had to be making this shit up.

Holly floated in with the melody stroked across the strings of a
kanoun
. But Holly as he'd never seen her, wrapped in gauze, her hair hung in loose waves to the curve of her waist.

He almost asked her what she was doing, but she began to dance.

Josh swallowed his tongue.

Her body inhabited the sensual rhythms of the belly dance, undulating and wrapping the silken skeins of seduction around him.

His gaze stuck. A part of him wanted to laugh, it was so unbelievable, but the larger part stared in silent amazement.

Light and shadow caressed the curves and crevices of her body, shifted and settled and shifted again as she moved.

The music pulsed within the room like a heartbeat, and Holly moved through and with it. The candles gilded her skin to molten gold as she moved. Tiny bells tinkled from her ankles and wrists and coins shimmered as they moved against the skin of her belly. Their sound hit the air in a sweet susurration, weaving a spell around him.

The scent of jasmine lay heavy and teased him with possibilities.

Holly wove and twisted wraithlike through the flickering light. The soft clash of the coins dancing across her belly and the slow, dreamy float of gauze through the air held him captive.

His lids dropped, and he forced them open, but they went right back down. The perfumed air coddled him in a warm embrace as the music settled into the slow beat of his heart.

Josh's eyelids flickered. He'd swum over two miles, followed by a hundred-and-twelve-mile bike ride and, finally, run a full twenty-six-mile marathon. He jerked his eyes open and fixed his gaze on the fascinating woman who moved like a sensual mist through the laden atmosphere.

Maybe if he rested his eyes for a moment . . .

 

 

Holly paused to look at Josh. Her mouth dropped open with a huff of surprise.

He was fast asleep. Not dozing, but man-down, out-for-the-count asleep. His head had dropped to the side and his mouth hung open, noisily hissing air down his throat.

For a moment Holly considered stuffing her gauze scarf down his open maw, but her better nature won out. She'd had big plans for tonight. She'd been belly dancing for eight years now, but this was the first time she'd ever done it for someone. It was the first time she'd ever told a man she loved him. Leave it to Josh to disrupt her best-laid plans. Lucy had helped her set the whole thing up, even found the outfit for her. The other woman was going to have to wait on the details. Actually, Lucy was going to die laughing.

A snore sawed through the air, and Holly laughed.

She approached the bed slowly, her bells clinking softly as she walked.

His breathing came deep and even. Even with his mouth hanging open, Josh Hunter was every girl's dearest wish.

And this beautiful man was hers.

A secret thrill chased down her spine.

He loved her. God knows why and quite possibly he really needed to get out more, but he loved her. She would never get tired of knowing that.

Quietly, she moved about the room, snuffing candles as she went.

 

 

Josh blinked his eyes open to discover morning. He shut his eyes and opened them again, just to make sure. The last thing he remembered was Holly and the belly dancing; he'd shut his eyes for a moment and—

Oh, fuck.

Two things hit him simultaneously, both of them with the approximate force of a Mack truck. Jesus, he'd screwed up with Holly. The second thing sent him reeling back onto the mattress again, as he paid the price for an Ironman time of ten hours and sixteen minutes.

Every single muscle in his body ached. At. The. Same. Time. It even hurt to blink. He lay there and whimpered at the effort it took to pull air into his lungs. The door opened, and he manfully bit back a monster groan and struggled into a sitting position.

“Good morning.” Holly smiled at him.

It was the sweetest, loveliest smile she'd ever given him. A warning niggled in the back of his brain and then went silent.

She carried a tray with a glass of orange juice and the bottle of magic Richard had left behind. And—thank you, Lord—a cup of espresso.

“Good morning.” His voice came out in a god-awful croak.

“Richard thought you might be feeling a bit rough this morning.”

“I'm sorry, Holly.” Best to get the groveling over quickly.

She gave him another sunny smile. “What would you like first, juice or ibuprofen or both together?”

“Now I'm sure I love you.” His eyes fixed on the little blue pills and stayed stuck.

“You have to get out of bed to get them.” She grimaced sympathetically. “Richard said to get you up and moving.”

Josh nearly let the pills go, but in the end he managed to heave himself, hissing, groaning, and moaning like an old truck going uphill all the way. She didn't seem to mind his nakedness, so he didn't do anything about it.

In fact, she looked at him like he was walking chocolate. Apparently there were a few muscles not too sore this morning.

Her eyes widened appreciatively and she gave him a smile laden with promise.

He swallowed two of the pills and drank the juice in one long gulp.

Holly took the glass from him and handed him his espresso. She put the glass down and sashayed back to him. “There was something I didn't get to last night.”

She came up behind him and pressed her breasts against his back. Her hands slid around his waist and spread over the ridges of his abdomen.

Josh's pain melted away as she planted hot little kisses across his shoulders. Her teeth against his shoulder bit hard enough to get his attention but not cause any real discomfort.

“You are a very beautiful man.” Her fingers trailed across his abdomen and left little trails of heat in their wake. She moved around to the front of him and pressed her nose against the skin of his neck and breathed.

Screw Richard's pills, this was what he needed.

“You smell wonderful.” Her mouth replaced her nose and she sucked gently. “Just like my man.” She bit him and then licked the mark to take away any sting. Her hands drifted over his chest, grazed his nipples, and moved lower to stroke the arrow of hair from his navel.

Her soft hands grasped his cock. Heat shot through him. It got better as she stroked her hands up and down his length. Her other hand cupped his balls in a firm grasp.

Slowly, without taking her eyes off his, she sunk to her knees in front of him.

Josh stilled.

She dragged her mouth in a slow, sliding caress down the skin of his chest and then his abdomen as she went. Her mouth was wet and hot, and the soft rasp of her teeth was sweet, sweet torture on his sensitive skin.

She stopped level with his cock. It jumped in her hands and strained toward what he wanted.

Josh forgot to breathe.

She dipped her head. Her hot pink tongue shot out and licked the tip.

He groaned as she blew against the moisture, his hands so tight around the espresso cup it might shatter.

She palmed him firmly and guided her mouth over him.

Josh hissed and tensed as the searing heat of her mouth opened over his erection. Jesus, he was in heaven as she sucked him deeper into the hot, wet cavity of her mouth.

She took him deep and then withdrew, her tongue making lazy circles over the sensitive tip.

As she took him even deeper, his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Her mouth was a thing of glory, wet and scorching as she worked the length of him in and out. Her other hand cupped his balls as her tongue stroked him.

“Holly, baby.” He hung on by a thread. “I'm going to come if you keep that up.”

He tried to grip her head to stop her, but she moved faster, and his fingers tangled in her hair and kept her where she was.

His orgasm built from the very end of his toes.

Her mouth disappeared.

She rocked back on her heels, her beautiful face alight with trouble. Josh reached for her, but she dodged quickly out of his hands.

“There's a good boy.” She stood and gave him a swat on his bare ass. “Payback's a bitch, isn't it? Don't fall asleep on me again.”

She sashayed through the door and shut it behind her. She'd left him here with his balls ready to burst and she wasn't coming back.

Ah, hell no.

Josh flung the bedroom door open and charged down the stairs. Into the kitchen he stormed.

The sisters, clustered around the table, stopped and stared. They took one look at him and scattered, clucking and squawking like hens in battery cages.

Josh tried to cover himself with his hands, his face so hot it was ready to spontaneously combust.

And then he got a look at Holly.

Her dark eyes glinted, evil with mischief and ripe with the challenge.

He reached her in two easy strides.

“You're naked,” shrieked one of the sisters, probably St. Emma.

“It's my house.” He didn't give a shit as he locked in on his target. “Look away if you don't like it.”

Emma was already doing so and Portia stood like a deer in the headlights, while Grace crossed her arms and grinned at him.

He dipped his shoulder and hauled Holly up and over.

She gasped and laughed through a protest. “It was payback.” She wriggled like a trout on the hook. “For falling asleep on me.”

“It's about time you learned who's in charge here.” He jostled her on his shoulder and strode up the stairs. He was breathing fast by the time he reached the bedroom. He slammed the door shut with his foot and dropped his flushed, laughing bundle onto the bed. He came down on top of her before she could move.

“Stop.” She giggled and tried to fend him off with her hands.

Josh grabbed both tiny fists in one of his and held them over her head. “No way.” He loved the way she squirmed and wriggled beneath him. “We're just getting started.”

“I can't believe you charged into the kitchen naked.” She collapsed into a jellied mass of spluttering, snorting laughter. “You should have seen the look on Emma's face.” That brought about fresh peals of laughter.

“Hey,” he said in protest as her body shook with laughter beneath him. “Pay attention here; you're about to be ravished.”

“Ravished? Who says ‘ravished'?”

“Fucked senseless?”

She went still under the profanity. Heat replaced the amusement in her eyes.

“So?”
Gotcha!
“Holly likes it when I talk dirty.”

She wriggled beneath him, pushing against him impatiently with her hips. “You might have to practice a bit to make sure.”

He got down to the matter at hand. “I have the rest of my life, Holly.”

Epilogue

Josh heaved a sigh of relief as the taillights of Grace's SUV disappeared around the corner. Grace and the twins were on their way back to London, Ontario. Holly, his Holly, was still here, tucked under his arm and waving her sisters good-bye.

Grace would stay with Portia until the baby was born.

Emma had received the news with trepidation. Tough shit, Emma, because Grace had turned her formidable energy in the twins' direction.

Josh suspected their lives were never going to be the same.

Holly had loose plans to stay here in Willow Park with him for a while longer and then go home. Then they would take it as it came. London was less than a day away, unless Emma was driving, and there were lots of reasons to stay in Willow Park. Josh was working on one more.

“You should marry me, you know?” He pulled her body in front of him and cradled her from behind.

Holly snorted rudely. “Why would I do that?”

“At the very least, you would get a good wardrobe out of it.”

“You aren't going to go Pygmalion on me, are you?” She nestled under his chin like a small bird going to roost. “Because I'll fight you.”

“I expected no less.” He leaned his cheek on her head. She was exactly where she belonged and where he needed her the most. “But you know you looked good in those shorts.”

“What crap.”

It was still early in the morning and the neighborhood lay peaceful around them.

In a moment they would go inside and she'd get him to make her a cup of coffee, but for now they stood still and listened to the stirring of things in the trees and grass.

His!

His arm tightened around her middle. “Those jeans will meet with an unfortunate laundry accident.”

“Stop trying to change me,” she growled.

Josh hummed a few bars of Billy Joel before he got an elbow in the gut. “You know,” he said to the top of her head, “they're going to kick you out of the US if you don't marry me eventually.” He wasn't too proud to use every weapon in his arsenal.

“I know that.” She laughed softly and wriggled in his hold.

Josh loosened his arms enough for her to turn to face him.

“Are you sure your mother isn't going to come to live here?”

“Trust me.” The only person who wanted that less than Holly was his mother. “My mother has been trying to get her hands on my condo since I bought it. The trouble will be getting her out of it.” Not a total lie, and they had time to work on the rest.

“Are you going to get a job or something?” She narrowed her eyes up at him.

“Or something.” He grinned back unrepentantly. “Sooner or later something new will grab my attention and then I'll do that. You worried I won't be able to support you while you go back to school?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I'm worried you're going to be under my feet.”

“
Cherie,
” he whispered next to her ear. “It's not your feet I want to be under.”

“Don't even try with the French. I know for a fact you only know enough to get a woman into bed.”

“Doesn't do it for you, hmm?” He pulled away from her slightly and grinned. “Then how about I promise to fuck you hard and fast—”

“Get your pretty boy ass into the house right now, mister. Don't make me embarrass you in front of your neighbors.”