She Likes It Irish (7 page)

Zoe wasn’t in the room, which was good, since Kristin needed a quick release to ease what Sean had started. She stripped, got under the comforter, and pulled her vibrator from its resting place in her little Friends Never Die pillow.

Centering her mind on Sean’s face, the feeling of his mouth on her, his large, warm hands on her skin, made it easy to imagine him beside her, touching her, ready to take her. Her heartbeat pounded through her tense body as she slid the vibrating plastic cock between her legs.

At the first touch to her throbbing pussy, she cried out Sean’s name. In her mind, it was Sean’s tongue vibrating against her, inside her. Her temperature spiked and sweat beaded her forehead. Burning up, she kicked off the covers. She spread her legs wide, wanting to feel every nerve clenching and releasing inside her. She closed her eyes at the pleasure surging through her pussy, rode the spiral up, up, higher than she could go and still breathe. She cried out, the powerful release wringing the pent-up tension from her body. Her core pulsed from the intensity of her orgasm.

After a minute, her heart slowed its crazy rhythm. Her eyes began to focus again. She came back into herself—relaxed, but not fully satisfied because it hadn’t been Sean who had given her what she needed.

She heard a key in the door, and she quickly covered up and put her little friend away.

Zoe came in, took one look at Kristin lying on the bed in the middle of the day, and knew what she’d done. “You and Sean didn’t fuck today either, huh?”

Kristin avoided her eyes. “What makes you think that? Maybe he just left here.”

Zoe laughed. “No, he didn’t.” She slid her jeans off her hips and kicked them toward the laundry basket in the corner of the room. “Don’t you want to fuck him?” Her shirt and bra followed.

“Of course I do!” Kristin’s words were sharper than she’d intended them to be. Frustration sharpened her tongue.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to fuck you,” she shot back without missing a beat.

Hearing the words said aloud that she had been thinking sent a jolt of pain through her, but there was a real possibility it was the truth.

“I thought of that. He kisses me like he wants to. But when I ask him to come up here or suggest we go to his room, he always has a reason not to. I mean, he told me from the beginning we wouldn’t be deviating from the plan, but I want him so bad I feel like I’m going to explode.”

“Yeah, and he probably knows it.” Zoe pulled on her big, soft sleep shirt and curled up on Kristin’s bed.

“You think he’s doing it on purpose?” Kristin asked as she scooted over to make room for her.

She laughed. “Yeah, I do. But that’s okay. When you guys finally come together, they’ll be able to hear the explosion from Cruces to Raton.” She grabbed Kristin’s vibrator from where it was half hidden under the pillow, held it up, smiled. “I’d offer to take care of you, but it looks like your Little Friend here has already taken care of things.”

Heat washed over Kristin’s face and she smiled. “Shut up! Bitch!”

Chapter Five

Kristin wiped her drenched forehead with the back of her wrist but the action did little more than smear the salty beads of sweat, since her entire body was slick with moisture. Her heart pounded in her ears as she pulled cold morning air into her burning lungs to feed her oxygen-starved body. Her legs were the only part of her not burning because they were ice cold, and she cursed the decision to wear shorts instead of sweats or leggings.

She glanced at her watch. An hour down, half an hour to go, and she’d be done. Her time was way off today—probably because her mind wasn’t on her daily run. It was on Sean. His touches. His kisses. How he made her melt with a look.

Deciding to lift weights for the remaining half hour of her workout, she cut across campus toward the gym, smiling as she thought about their walk yesterday. How his hands had slid up her shirt and touched her skin. How the fingerprints he left on her still tingled in warm little swirls on her back. How their wet kisses lasted for eons and unlocked the doors to her desire. She couldn’t wait for their movie date tonight, couldn’t wait to see what part of her body he’d touch or kiss.

She’d never wanted a man the way she wanted Sean, but it wasn’t just about sex anymore. She liked being with him. It felt right, easy…perfect. Destined. Yikes! Her heart pitched. No. She wouldn’t go that far.

She skirted a small group of students filing into the little sixty-something-year-old adobe campus chapel, the one Sean said he sometimes went to hear himself think.

Her family wasn’t religious in the traditional sense of the word. Her mother followed pagan rituals that worshipped the seasons, and her father worshipped the almighty dollar. She hadn’t yet discovered what she was going to worship, but was pretty sure it wouldn’t be done in a church with a mere mortal deciding she was wrong for wanting to share herself with Sean without benefit of marriage.

That said, she felt that she and God were good. They talked regularly. Their latest talk—just last night—had been about Sean. About how much she wanted something with him that lasted beyond his debt.

“Kristin!”

She stopped and looked around. Speak of the vision that haunted her dreams day and night! Walking toward her in black jeans, black shoes, and a black leather jacket over an oatmeal-colored sweater was the man she had asked God to give her.

Before turning to walk toward Sean, she glanced heavenward.
Ask and ye shall receive, yeah, thanks. But couldn’t I have been clean and dressed nicer before he was delivered?

“Hi.” Sweat ran into her eyes, and she swiped her arm across her brow, the sleeve of her sweatshirt absorbing some of the moisture from her flushed face. Her breath was ragged, as much from seeing him as from her run.

“How are you, darlin’?” he asked.

“Good. A little sweaty,” she said with a laugh, “but good. You?”

“I’m good, too. Nice shorts.”

His eyes on her legs warmed them a bit. “Thanks. I like your outfit, too. Where are you headed this early all dressed up?”

The grin on his blushing face gave him an endearing look that caressed her heart. “I’m headed to church.” He nodded toward the chapel.

She loved the sound of the word coming from his mouth—it sounded like “charch.” But she wasn’t as crazy about his being religious enough to actually step into the chapel for a service. One of God’s tricks—sending her a pious man? Her mother always said that the universe sends you what you need. Maybe Sean would tap an undiscovered part of herself.

“Oh.” She dropped her eyes to the sidewalk, nodded, swallowing her laughter. “Right.” She raised her eyes to his. “Going in to confess your sins?”

His smile grew and he nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on hers. “I am.”

“Any of them about me?” she asked.

“All of them.”

Those three little words squeezed her heart and tossed it into the air. She moved closer to him, ran her hands up the front of his knobby sweater, and settled her palms atop the thudding beat in his chest.

“Am I the evil temptation you’re praying God will deliver you from?”

His blue eyes grew dark and heavy, and he stepped closer to her so that their bodies touched, chest to thigh. He smelled clean and fresh and innocent, and she felt like the forbidden fruit.

“You are my temptation, Kristin. But God won’t keep me from you. He and I made a deal about that the night I first laid eyes on you.”

Before she could protest how sweaty she was, he cupped his hand at the side of her face, leaned in, and gave her a very non-pious kiss on the mouth that made her blood run hot.

Organ music rang out from the small chapel, which seemed to be the signal to end the kiss, because he did. He touched his forehead with hers. “See you tonight, darlin’,” he whispered against her mouth.

“I’ll be clean by then,” she whispered back and brushed her open mouth across his lips, just barely touching them.

“So will I.” He kissed her once more, twirling his tongue with hers, then backed away. Giving her a cherubic smile, he heeded the hymn that called him to come to the table.

Her muscles seemed to have atrophied at his confession, locking her in place as she watched the man of her dreams slip into the chapel. For a split second, she felt a tug pulling her to join him. To share something pure with him. Only when the doors closed was she able to shake off the feeling and move toward her dorm. The gym would have to wait. She needed a long, cold shower to get her body, if not her soul, clean.

****

Kristin shut off the blow dryer and listened intently. Sean’s ringtone blared from her phone. Wearing nothing but a smile on her face, she raced to grab the device from the charger on her nightstand. The time was 7:02. He was early.

“Hey, darlin’. You clean?”

She chuckled. “I’m clean, but I need another twenty-eight minutes to get ready.”

“I’ll take you as you are right this second…gorgeous or merely beautiful.”

“Right this second, my hair is wet and I’m naked.”

“Naked’s good…Heloise.”

She laughed. “No! See you in twenty.”

“Hurry! I can’t wait to see you.”

She couldn’t wait to see him, either, and that was the only reason she made it downstairs fifteen minutes earlier than their agreed upon time.

****

The smell of popcorn and candy, perfume and cologne, sex and desire greeted Sean and Kristen as they strolled hand in hand into the tiny but packed makeshift theater in the Student Union Building a little before eight. They had kept stopping along the way there to kiss and touch or they would have arrived sooner. Sean pointed to a few empty seats in the last row by the corner. Kristin nodded, and he led them that way.

Zoe, her boyfriend Mason in tow, intercepted them, grabbing Kristin’s hand.

While Kristin tried to withdraw her hand from her grip, she noticed Sean and Mason did the fist pumping male greeting ritual as if they knew each other.

“Come sit with me up front,” Zoe insisted. “We have a whole row of seats saved, and we’re going to throw popcorn at the screen.”

“Thanks, but we’ve already got a couple of seats picked out.” Kristin nodded to the dark corner.

Zoe stared at the seats with disgust. “You can’t even see the screen from there.”

“We’re fine, but maybe we’ll catch up with you guys later.” She hugged her and stepped away to give Mason a brief hug. “Bye, Mason.”

“But—” Zoe started.

“See ya, Kris. Sean.” Mason interrupted Zoe’s protest by taking her hand and leading her away before she could throw a fit.

“Mason’ll have his hands full tonight,” Kristin whispered to Sean. “She is
not
happy.”

“Hey, if you want to go up front—”

“No, I don’t. I mean, unless you want to?”

“I don’t want to share you tonight.”

She smiled. “Good answer. Let’s get to our seats.”

They slid into the back row and headed toward their seats, but only one chair remained. Someone had nabbed the other while they’d been fending off Zoe.

Kristin stared at the chair, then at him. “We could take turns sitting.”

He shook his head. “You take the chair. I’ll sit on the floor.”

“You won’t be able to see the screen.”

He looked toward the front. Sighed. “There’s always those seats up front with your friends.”

She put her hands on his chest and moved in close to whisper against his neck. “I could sit on your lap. If it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable for you.”

“I like the way your mind works…Hermione.”

Laughing, she shook her head.

He sat in the chair, she eased onto his lap, and he wrapped his arms around her. Cradled in his arms with her back resting against him, she could hear his heart beating, could smell the just-from-the-shower-clean of his skin, could feel the heat of his body wrapping around her like it always did when they were together. With a smile and a contented sigh, she held onto his hands, which were clasped around her waist.

“How do you know Mason?” he asked out of the blue, his breath brushing her ear.

“We went to high school together, and he’s Zoe’s boyfriend. How do you know him?”

“He’s on my floor…right next door, actually.”

She grinned. “No kidding?”

“No, why?”

“That night you walked me home from Randy’s and I couldn’t call my roommate because she was with her boyfriend somewhere in your dorm?”

“Yeah.”

“She was with Mason.”

He grinned. “Those two have kept me awake many nights, her instructing him how to do it better, him calling out his thanks to God.”

She chuckled. “Sounds about right.” Her mind flew back to Randy’s comments about the screamers who had visited Sean’s room, and she couldn’t resist. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you keep your neighbors awake at night?”

The room went dark and the movie started, but their eyes remained locked.

“Not since I met you.”

Her heart skipped a beat and, in the space of that missed beat, she fell a little more for Sean O’Neill. She touched his face, kissed his mouth, softly, tenderly, letting him know he was the only one she wanted to make noise with, too.

They settled in to watch the loud, action-adventure. From their corner seat in the back row, only the upper half of the screen was visible and a pole bisected the screen, which made it difficult to keep up with what was going on and who the characters were.

“Is that the bad guy?” Sean whispered against her hair about a third of the way through the movie.

She turned her face toward him to whisper back and found his lips inches from hers.

“No, that’s the hero.”

Nearly a half an hour later, he whispered again. “How can he be the hero? He just shot that woman.”

“She’s a bad woman.”

She saw his gaze fall to her lips as she responded.

“Oh, yeah? What did she do?”

She licked her lips. “Cheated on him.”

“With the bad guy?”

“Yes.”

In the middle of a love scene, he again whispered. “Anybody watching this movie would think American girls like bad guys.”