Sets Appeal. Virginia Taylor
isn’t a date.”
He lifted his palms. “So, you’ve answered your own question. I suppose I could go out and buy some, but I don’t have a car. You would have to drive me.”
“I might as well go home if I have to dress and leave.” She glanced at his semi-naked, beautiful body, and her insides curled with frustration. “Perhaps this was meant to be.”
He put the remains of the condom on the table. “The hand of man moves in mysterious ways.” He gave a soft laugh. “At least this takes the pressure off. We don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do.”
“Don’t have to?” she echoed hollowly. Her feet found his cold floorboards again, this time more decisively. “I’ll go.” She reached for her skirt, determined not to look at him again.
“This is great,” he said in a morose voice. “JD. Just Dick.”
“Look, I came here for sex. I don’t want another glass of milk. We don’t know each other well enough to have a deep and meaningful convers—”
He tipped her onto the bed. “We can rectify that.”
She stared into his strong-boned face, and he dropped a wonky kiss on the side of her mouth. One muscled arm lifted her and gathered her against his warm chest.
“We can do quite a bit of getting to know each other, or if you won’t let me touch you, you can do quite a bit of getting to know me. By touch.”
“And why would I want to do that?” Her insides began to jitter. From the very first, he had put a smile on her face and a hot tickle in her belly. He made her hope, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had hoped for anything. Mainly, she had endured, and she had expected to endure forever, because she was, after all, a Tremain, a member of a family known for sheer hard work since the days of colonial settlement.
His warm breath heated her ear. “Because I feel good.”
And because he did, she slid both palms over his back, noting that he flexed each muscle she touched. His confidence and his encouragement helped. To have half a sensuous experience doubled that she’d had previously.
“What do you do when you’re not building sets?” she said against his hard, warm chest, palms resting lightly on his smooth skin.
“Any sort of construction.” He switched off the bedside lamp.
She lifted herself onto one forearm. “I’m supposed to be touching you.”
“Yeah, well, too much touching, and we won’t get any sleep.”
He pulled up the cover, circling an arm around the small of her back. She relaxed into him, resting her head on his shoulder, her hand comfortable on his bicep. He was warm and calm, and he breathed slowly and deeply. When he fell asleep, she could have left. But she felt safe.
And she, too, slept.
* * * *
“Hey, JD!”
Jay moved his face out of the pillow and opened his eyes.
“How was last night?” called the same female voice that wasn’t coming from the startled blonde nestled against his chest.
“You have a visitor,” Vix said in a whisper, looking panicked.
Curling his hand over her hip, he kissed the tip of her nose. She looked as lovely in the morning as she had the night before, and he wanted her as much as he had the night before. Maybe he could…
The fridge door slammed. “Champagne. Can I open it?” he heard from the kitchen.
He lifted himself on one elbow, focused, frowned, and rolled over to face the door. “No,” he shouted as he sat up and leaped out of the bed in two quick motions. “Shit.”
“Don’t be pathetic,” Ilona yelled. “You bought it for me. I’ll bring in two glasses.”
“No!” He pulled on his jeans. “I’ll come out there.” He sped out of the bedroom, in full grump mode, arriving in the kitchen in time to see Ilona slide a bottle of champagne onto the table. “Put that back.”
She gave him a sideways, flirtatious smile and found two clean champagne glasses. “You dressed just for me?”
“Give me a break.”
“Normally you sleep naked.” With an uncaring expression on her face, she finger-combed her long blond hair, arranging the bulk over one shoulder and giving her seductive pout.
“What do you want?”
She wore panda eye makeup and her short tight skirt looked like a bandana, missing only the knot. “Something to eat. Were you saving that pizza for anyone?”
“Couldn’t you simply raid the fridge and leave me to sleep?” He put the champagne back in the fridge but took out last night’s leftover pizza and placed it on the table for her.
“Don’t be a grouch. Give me a cuddle.” She walked into his arms where she stayed, rubbing her face against his bare chest. “Mm-mm. I love you, Jay. You’ve got the tightest behind in the world.” She groped the aforesaid, which annoyed the hell out of him, but remaining patient, he put her hand behind her. She laughed softly.
“Take the pizza and go.” He kissed her forehead, messed her hair, and moved out of her reach.
“Where did you get the car? Did you rob a bank?” She picked up the slice of pizza and took a bite. Her expression looked too casual.
He blinked, remembering Vix’s Mercedes outside. His shoulders stiffened. “It belongs to a friend.”
“Who?” She glanced towards the bedroom.
He suppressed the urge to guard the door. If these two women ever met, the last place should be in his bedroom. Knowing women, he would be the one attacked for a situation not of his making. “No one you know. What’s the time?”
“About eight. I’m on my way home. Late night. I thought I’d stop by and tell you I won’t be going today. You don’t mind, do you?” She took another big bite of the pizza.
“No. That’s okay.”
Her focus again on the bedroom, she nodded. “See you later, then. Thanks for the breakfast.” She snatched up the remains of the pizza slice and, with her high heels clattering across the floorboards, she left by the back door for which she had a key.
One day he would ask for his key back, but he couldn’t abandon her yet. She needed him, if only for champagne and pizza breakfasts, and while she was free to drop by whenever she chose, he knew she was okay.
Now he had to make his explanations in the bedroom, which he approached cautiously, wondering why. He’d slept with Vix, yes, but that was all. The crisp underwear she’d arrived in had barely been disturbed, unfortunately. He found, despite his body having other ideas, that he couldn’t casually screw a woman who was afraid of sex. This said nothing for her ex-husband. Nor did her lack of confidence, which he’d spent his waking time last night trying not to erode further, and he also wondered why.
“Keep looking,” he said, cheered by the way her big blue eyes skimmed over him as he walked through the doorway of the bedroom. “I don’t mind being admired.”
“So who admires you?”
“Too bad about that condom.”
“Too bad about your mother.”
“Who?”
“No doubt that was your mother in the kitchen?” She gave him a faked smile.
“Nope.” He moved towards her, knowing she’d been married to an unfaithful prick who clearly hadn’t treated her well in the bedroom. Jay was a sucker for a woman in distress. Vix also had body issues, which she hadn’t changed by making her figure into one