Glitter Baby (Wynette, Texas #3)(58)

“I’m okay.”

He wondered how he could stay so hard inside her. Jake Koranda, king of the shit heads. Still hard as a pike. Sticking it to the kid with the big eyes.

He buried his head in her neck and tangled his fingers in her hair and began moving gently inside her. She shuddered. Her fingers dug into his shoulders.

He stopped at once. “Hurt?”

“No,” she gasped. “Please—”

He drew back so he could see her face. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her lips parted, not with pain, but with passion. He lifted his hips and stroked, deep and long inside her. Once…twice…He watched her shatter beneath him.

He calmed her through the aftershocks. Finally her eyes drifted open, unfocused, and then gradually clearing. She murmured something he couldn’t make out, then she smiled up at him. “Wonderful,” she whispered.

He couldn’t hold back his smile. “Glad you were pleased.”

“I didn’t imagine it would be quite so—so—”

“Boring?”

She laughed.

“Tedious?” he suggested.

“Not exactly the words I’m looking for.”

“How about—”

“Stupendous,” she offered. “Colossal.”

“Flower?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re not exactly done yet.”

“We’re not—” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Oh.”

He watched as her comprehension changed to embarrassment. “I—I’m sorry,” she said with a stutter. “I didn’t mean to be a pig or anything. I didn’t know—I mean…” Her voice trailed miserably away.

He tugged on her earlobe with his lips. “You can doze off now if you want to,” he whispered. “Read a book or something. I’ll try not to bother you.” Once again he began to move inside her. He felt her body relax and then gradually grow tense again. Her fingers dug into his sides. She was so soft and good, so sweet…

“Oh,” she whispered. “It’s going to happen again, isn’t it?”

“You can bet on it.”

Moments later, they fell off the end of the world together.





Chapter 14




“You’re not talking me out of being pissed.”

“Stuff it, Bird Dog.” Fleur had awakened a little after two in the morning to discover she was alone in bed. She’d slipped on her panties and Jake’s black sweatshirt with the sawed-off sleeves, then headed for the kitchen, where she found him devouring a serving bowl piled with ice cream. He started to go at her the minute he saw her, and they’d been arguing ever since.

“You should have told me before we did it.” He dropped his dish in the sink and pulled on the faucet.

“Did it? You’ve got a real gift for self-expression. You should be a writer when you grow up. That would be, what? When you’re fifty?”

“Don’t be such a wise-ass. It wasn’t right, Flower, not telling me you were a…newcomer.”

She smiled sweetly. “Afraid I wouldn’t respect you in the morning?” She was getting good at matching him wisecrack for wisecrack, but she wished he’d stop arguing and kiss her. She began opening drawers at random, looking for a rubber band.

“Damn, it, Flower! I wouldn’t have been so rough.”

“That was rough? You’ve got to be kidding. I could take you with my eyes closed.” She found a rubber band and pulled her hair into a ponytail high on her head. Then she walked into the living room and scooped up a batch of chunky candles she’d seen on the table.

He followed her in as if she were a kid who needed watching. “What are you doing?”

“Getting ready to take a bath.”

“It’s almost three in the morning.”

“So what? I’m stinky.”

For the first time since she’d walked into the kitchen, he relaxed. “Yeah? Why is that?” He almost managed the cocky grin that made her want to slap him and kiss him at the same time.

“You’re the expert. You tell me.” His sweatshirt didn’t completely cover her panties, and she twitched her rear as she walked away from him.

She set the candles around the edge of the sunken tub, lit them, and poured in a generous amount of bubble bath from a bottle sitting on the side. Somehow she didn’t think it was Jake’s. She hated every single woman he’d ever dated.

While the tub filled, she twisted her ponytail into a loose knot and secured it with a clip she found in the makeup pouch she kept in her purse. No matter what Jake said, she didn’t regret what had happened between them. So much of her life had been forced upon her. This choice had been hers alone. And when he’d been inside her, she’d felt as if her heart would burst with the enormity of her love for him.

She slipped into the water. The candles flickered in the wall of glass suspended over the side of the cliff, and she felt like she was floating in space. She remembered that sweet moment when he’d entered her and his tenderness afterward.

“Is this a private party, or can anybody join?”

He was already unzipping his jeans, so the question was rhetorical. “Depends on whether you’re done with your lecture.”