One Week of Summer (12 page)

“What are you doing?” I whispered back, trying to ignore the way his nearness made me shiver.

“Making a sacred vow,” he replied.

“A sacred vow?”

“Fucking right,” he said fiercely.

“Does adding the f-word make it more, or less sacred?” I wanted to know.

“I
really
like drunk you,” he replied.

“I’m. Not. Drunk.”

Teekay winked. “She says slowly and drunkenly.”

“Stop teasing me.”

“No.”

“It’s not very sacred-vow-friendly to mock the receiver of the vow,” I pointed out.

“Oh. So now you
want
the vow?”

“Yes, please.”

He put his hand over his heart. “My dearest Maggie. No matter the consequences, no matter how many other dishonest assholes come along, no matter how much spinach you have between your teeth, I’ll always tell you the truth.”

“Thank you. I think.”

“Promise me the same.”

“I promise,” I said softly.

“Good.” He leaned away once more. “Now. Step two. Tell me something serious.”

“None of that was serious?”

“Not serious enough.”

Maybe it
was
the alcohol – or maybe it was just him – but the next thing I said surprised me.

“When I was twelve, my dad died. He drove off a bridge and into a river and he drowned.”

Teekay’s eyes widened. “Maggie…”

I shook my head.  I’d paused only to give myself enough time to take a steadying breath.  I didn’t want to give him a chance to offer his sympathy or tell me I was now being
too
serious.

There was more.  So much more.  But some things I couldn’t say.  And at that moment, I didn’t have to.  One of Teekay’s arms slid around my waist and the other under my knees, and suddenly he’d scooped me into his lap.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. “Or do you want to tell me something sexy?”

“Something sexy,” I whispered.

“Go for it.”

His warm hand rested on my bare knee and I knew I had just the right thing to say.

“When I was eighteen, a guy I’d just met ruined my clothes. So he bought me a dress. When I was trying on the dress, I realized the underwear I was wearing were exactly the wrong ones to wear under that dress.”

“Well. That’s
interesting,” Teekay observed with a smile. “But not all that sexy.”

“You didn’t let me finish. Again.”

“So finish.”

“I took them off.”

“The underwear?”

“Mm hmm. And then I let the guy who bought me the dress take me out for lunch.”

His Adam’s apple moved up and down in his throat.

“Well, fuck, Maggie,” he said. “You’ve got the silly, the serious, and the goddamned sexy down pat.”

“So…I win?”

“Tell me where to put my lips, Maggie. Tell me now.”

I slid my palm over the back of his hand and brought his fingers to my lips.

“Here,” I whispered. “Kiss me here, Teekay.”

“No.”

“No?”

He shook his head slowly, a gleam in his eyes. “Sorry. But that didn’t sound much like begging, darlin’.”

“Please?”

His gaze stuck to my mouth. “Getting closer.”

“But I won!”

“I know.”

And I knew what he wanted.

Unable to believe what I was about to do even as I did it, I slipped from the table to the floor and stared up at him.

“Teekay,” I whispered. “Please, please kiss me.”

And whatever resistance he had fell away. 

“Holy hell,” he growled.

He leaned down and his hand dropped to the back of my neck and his mouth closed over mine possessively, claiming every corner of it.  His tongue teased mine as he tasted me.  He pulled me from the floor back to his lap, and I could feel his desire pressed into me and the harder he grew, the more I wanted to meet that need with a matching one of my own. 

It terrified me.  It thrilled me.

And when he pulled away, it left me wanting.

I wriggled a little in his lap.  I couldn’t help it. 

“Stop that,” he warned. “Or this is going to end in a helluva lot more than a kiss.”

Feeling bold, I nibbled on his ear, then traced my tongue along his jaw until I reached his mouth.  At the last second, Teekay gripped my face gently on both sides and gave me a long, soft kiss.  Once more, my tongue darted out all on its own, revelling in the feel of his lips.

“Maggie, I’m not kidding,” he growled against my mouth. “It’s taking every ounce of restraint I have to
not
throw you across this table, push that
very
pretty dress of yours up, and do things to you that are generally frowned upon doing in public.”

“So what?” I breathed, aware that it was as much the alcohol speaking as it was the desire.

“Maggie!” Teekay barked angrily. “Get off!”

Automatically, I jumped off and cowered against the bench.  My actions sent one of the mostly-empty pasta bowls over the side of the table.  It splattered my chest with sauce.  But I didn’t move.  I just sat in place, gazing meekly in my lap.

“Shit!” Teekay exclaimed. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I whispered.

“It’s not okay.” He sighed. “Look at me, darlin’.”

I brought my eyes up to his hesitantly.  All of the anger had drained from his face.

“If I told you to take off that dress, Maggie, right here…Would you do it?”

My eyes went down again.

“Yes.”

“If I told you to unzip my pants and told you to suck me off…Would you do that too?”

My face warmed and desire licked through me.  There was a quiver in my voice – and a quiver in my body – as I replied.

“Yes,” I admitted without looking up.

Teekay sighed, and it was as angry an exhale as I’d ever heard. 

“Part of me – a
huge
fucking part of me – wants to tell you to do both,” he stated, and sighed again, this time less forcefully. “Come here.”

I was powerless to do anything but obey.  I skidded across the bench so we were touching once more.

Teekay tipped up my chin and met my nervous gaze.

Somehow, all of his features seemed darker.  His dirty blonde hair was the color of mud and the strong cut of his jaw was thick with shadows.  His eyes, which were the brightest point in the room, were stormy.

“I don’t know what it is about you that makes me feel the way I feel right now. Hell. I can’t even pin down what’s in my head. I’m pissed off that you’ll take an order just
because
it’s an order. I’m mad at myself about it and I don’t have a clue why. I want to order you not to take orders.” His accompanying laugh was rough with emotion. “I want you to
want
to do the things I want to do. Not just do them because I ordered you to beg me or because you won a little game. And I’m having a hell of a time holding back.” He ran his thumb over my swollen lips, then pulled back again. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here so I can kiss you properly.”

My heart hammered in my chest at the thought that there was a way to kiss someone any more properly than how we’d just done it.

9)

On the way into town, I hadn’t noticed before that the car was too small and too big at the same time. 

Every time Teekay shifted gears, his hand brushed my knee.  The edge of his fingers rubbed my smooth, bare skin and I could barely thinking about anything else. 

Ridiculous questions plagued me.

Why wasn’t the space between us smaller?

Shift.  Brush.  Shift.  Brush.

A fire lit where his fingers landed and each time they touched me again, it was like a fan to the flames.  I stifled a little moan and kept my gaze out my side window so he wouldn’t read my face and know my desperate thoughts.

Shift. Brush. Shift. Brush.

There was no escaping the rush of want that coursed through me.

Why wasn’t the space between us bigger?

Shift.  Brush.  Shift.  Brush.

But other than that, his hands didn’t cross to my side.

He racedthrough the streets with practiced ease and got us back to the winding, hillside road that led to his house entirely too fast to be safe.

We reached our destination in what I was sure was record time.  Teekay brought the car to a screeching halt in the driveway and, without looking at me, ordered, “Out!”

I complied with his commanding tone automatically and even though I was quick to extract myself from my seat, Teekay was already halfway to the front porch by the time I’d closed my car door.

I had to scurry to keep up.

But when he reached the door and held it open, I slowed.  He’d remained silent through the drive and he was silent now.  But his eyes were burning, dark and fierce. 

I reached the door at what felt like a crawl, heat building with each step.

When my foot hit the threshold, I half-expected to burst into flames.  But Teekay just moved aside so I could enter, then shut the door behind me. 

He spun me so that my arms were crisscrossed over my chest and held in place by his own hands.  He spread my thighs with his knee and pulled me a little closer.  His leg slid between my legs, making me shake with an indescribable need.

“Do you still want me to kiss you?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered back.

“Good.”

He unfolded my arms and guided my palms to his lower back.  He brought both his hands to my face and tilted it up gently.  He leaned down and kissed me so softly I almost couldn’t feel it.  Then, far too quickly, he took a tiny step away from me.  His finger came up and trailed a hot pattern across the pasta-sauce splatters on my chest.

“First things first,” he said. “Let me clean up the mess I made.”

“Clean it up?”

“Yep.”

He scooped me up then, just as he had at the beach, and carried me up the stairs, two at a time.  By the time we reached the top, my lungs were burning as if I was the one carrying him, and my body was alive with the idea of what he might do.

Teekay shouldered open his bedroom door and headed straight for the bathroom.

He set me down and flipped on the steam shower.

“Arms up,” he ordered gently.

Obediently, I raised them over my head.

“Thank you,” he said.

In a fluid motion, he bent, grabbed my dress at the hem, and lifted it over my head.  His eyes travelled the length of my fully exposed body, and though I could feel my face heating up, I forced myself to stand still as he explored me visually. 

“And now, Maggie?” he asked, his voice raw with desire. “Do you
still
want me to kiss you?”

“Yes,” I replied, hearing the breathlessness in my answer.

“Close your eyes,” he instructed. “And stand on your toes.”

I did as I was told, and Teekay’s lips brushed mine softly.

“Your mouth is perfect,” he murmured. “The most perfect I’ve seen.”

He nibbled a little on my top lip, then the bottom one.  He followed his teeth with his tongue and he added, “The most perfect I’ve ever tasted.”

His hands slipped into my hair and he deepened the kiss ever-so-slightly.  Kiss.  Release.  Kiss.  Release.  He deepened it further once more.  He tugged open my lips and explored my mouth, pulling and sucking and making my breathing quicken.  And further.  His fingers entwined with my hair, his tongue laid claim to my own.  He kissed me and he kissed me and he kissed me until I didn’t know where his mouth ended and mine started.  When I was sure that I was nothing more than a clinging, panting mess, Teekay at last eased away slowly.

“I want it to be mine, Maggie,” he told me in a fierce voice. “That pretty, delicious, perfect mouth.”

I didn’t know if I should nod, or answer, or do nothing at all.

His.

There was nothing that appealed to me more.

“You can stop standing on your toes,” he offered with a tiny smile.

I collapsed back on my heels, breathing heavily.

Is there any part of me that isn’t under his control?

“Maggie. Darlin’,” he murmured. “I’m going to take you into that shower now and I’m going to show you what it feels like to be worshipped.”

With deliberate slowness, he unfastened the obsidian buttons on his dress shirt.

One.

A peek at his throat.

Two.

An enticing glimpse of his collarbone.

Three.

The very top of his sculpted chest.

The fourth one popped off and rolled across the floor, and though my ears followed the sound of it as it hit the sink, spiralled down and chinked against the drain, my eyes refused to look away from Teekay.

He slid the shirt from his shoulders and dropped it to the floor, then moved on to his jeans.

Now my eyes didn’t know
where
to look.

His washboard abs were close enough to touch.  I swore I could even feel the heat of them.  The sexy vee that led from his hips to where his fingers clasped the zipper drew my attention too.  And as that zipper came down, my stare found a new place to rest.  Beneath his tight, black, designer boxer briefs, the length of his manhood bulged.  And under my gaze, Teekay’s underwear grew even tighter.

I was so enthralled by his mini-striptease that I nearly forgot about my own bare state.  When his hands grasped the waistband of the boxer briefs, it went out of my head completely.  He dropped the final item of clothing to the floor and a gasp escaped from my lips.  All the blood rushed to my head.  I was dizzy with a need to touch that thick, hard part of him.

But Teekay didn’t give me a chance to act on the need.

He stepped toward me first, one of his hands closing on my wrists and the other on the door of the steam shower.  He slid the glass back, sending a plume of moist air into my lungs.  My breathing, which had been uneven before, grew desperately shallow. 

Teekay pulled my wrists up over my head and he walked me backwards into the stall, where the warm water vapor enveloped us completely. 

It was steamy and my visibility was limited, and when Teekay’s lips landed on mine, it was almost without warning.  It was startlingly erotic.  His tongue darted in and out of my mouth in a quick, covetous dance before he pulled away and moved on to first my ear, then my throat.

“I’m going to put your hands on the showerhead,” he told me in a soft, thrilling voice. “It’s not the one producing steam, so I don’t want you to worry about getting burned. But I do want you to hold on. Tight.”

He guided my fingers to the warm metal, then held his palms overtop of mine and gave a firm squeeze.

“Got it, darlin’?”

“Yes,” I gasped, and even through the steam, I could see Teekay’s grin.

“Keep that word handy,” he said. “And close those pretty eyes.”

I did as I was told, and in just a few moments, he began to wash me.  He started in a slow, circular motion at my neck, using a cloth loaded with a lightly scented soap and even with my eyes closed, I could feel the lather.  It built up in time with my heartbeat. 

Teekay drew the cloth downward, skimming each breast lightly.  My nipples, which had been at attention already, drew up into delicate, hard points.  He strayed back to one of them, letting the cloth lie flat between it and his palm and rubbing it around and around so I couldn’t help but twist toward his attentions.

He chuckled, low and sexy, and then slipped the cloth to my stomach.  He slid it back and forth, lower and lower, until it rested just above my pubic bone.

And ever-so-slowly, he dragged the cloth between my legs.

I bit down on my lip and concentrated on not writhing against Teekay’s hand.  But as he went to his knees in front of me and pushed my thighs apart and smoothed a path across my aching sex, it became impossible not to move.  The cloth in his hands had just the right amount of roughness, the pressure from his fingers just the right amount of firmness.  Over and over, he guided them across me, and with each pass, the wicked pressure inside me increased.  A feverish coil built in my core.  His fingers hadn’t even found their way into me and I was ready to burst.

“Come for me, Maggie,” Teekay commanded, and his voice was all I needed.

My hips drove forward and I cried out as my body let go in sweet release.  My hands slipped from where Teekay had positioned them, and faster than I could regain my hold, he shot to his feet and forced my arms back in place.  The sudden move also pushed his body into mine, and with a gasp, I realized I wasn’t the only one full to the brim with desire.

His erection brushed my belly button and a little groan escaped from the back of his throat.

“Turn around,” he commanded, his voice thick.

I did so, careful to keep my grip where he’d left it.

Teekay dropped the soapy cloth and one of his hands found its way across my shoulders, down my back, and around to my stomach.  It slid up, cupped one breast, then the other, then slipped between my legs once more.  This time, one of his fingers dove into me immediately.  I gasped at how my body responded.  My muscles clenched around him, and though I’d just had one mind-bending orgasm, I was already craving another.

“You’re so wet, darlin’.” Teekay said the words into the back of my neck, then swept aside my hair and followed them with a kiss.

His fingers worked inside me and the fire built up again.  And the heat intensified as he moved just a little bit closer.  His erection rubbed along my lower back, and it only took me a second to figure out that the movement was deliberate, guided there by his other hand. 

Teekay moved a little faster, pushed a little harder, and my chest hit the smooth shower wall.  It was unexpectedly cool, and my eyes opened in surprise.  My gaze found and locked on the tiny gap in the steam-filled glass door.  I could see Teekay in the mirror across the bathroom.  I could see the way one of his hands possessed
me
while the other gripped his thick penis.  What I couldn’t do was look away.  The perfect rhythm of the man behind me held me enthralled.  He thrust his erection forward, and at the same moment, he rocked his fingers deep within me.  The heat building in me was different this time.  Stronger.  More fluid.  Each stroke was perfect and heightened my want that much more.  So I moved too.  I circled against his hand in the front and his hardness behind me, and in reply he growled and quickened the pace once more.  I gladly kept up.  And I gave in to the need to call out his name.

“Teekay!” I gasped.

He drove against me hard enough to ride the line between pleasure and pain.  His knuckles slammed into my lower back, providing a counter pressure to the force between my legs and the blaze that had been building there rose sky-high.  Every bit of my body lit up as Teekay stiffened against me.  And with a final thrust and a ripped-from-his chest moan, he came against my back.  As he did, I let out a desperate cry of my own, and the flames consumed me too.

For several long moments, we stood there panting, before Teekay reached up to ease my hands from the showerhead.  He spun me around slowly, then drew me into his arms.  He smoothed back my hair, kissed my forehead softly, then flipped a few buttons on the shower controls.  Immediately, the steam tapered off and a stream of warm water beat down from the nozzle behind me instead. 

Silently, Teekay grabbed a new cloth from a little rack inside the shower.  He lathered it up and began a gentle scrub down, first on me, then on himself, speaking only to tell me to lift my arms or turn left so he could reach or rinse a particular spot.

When he was done washing us both, he turned off the shower, slipped out, then returned with a large, soft towel that he bundled around my shoulders as though I was a small child.

Why was he so quiet?  I suddenly felt self-conscious again.  Had he been expecting more from me?  Or less?  Should I have resisted him, at least a little bit?

And Teekay must’ve sensed the change in my demeanor, because he tipped my chin up so he could look me in the eyes.  He stared at me, scrutinizing my expression.

“Maggie…I’m so sorry.”

He was sorry?

Of course he was.