Paradise Encounter (4 page)

For now, he took her hand and pulled her down beside him. She lay back on the towel and watched as he grabbed his wallet from his jeans pocket and took out the condom he carried there. As he rolled it on, she smiled and let her knees fall wide. Then she opened her arms and drew him to her.

Maya moaned as she felt the warm tip of Andy’s penis slide along her slit. He teased it back and forth, using her own juices to prepare her body for him. And oh, was she ready!  His cock brushed across her engorged clit, sending spirals of pleasure through her entire body. Then he nudged her opening and eased in, filling her eager pussy with his full length. She felt her inner flesh expanding as he pushed deeper, her body snug around him. They were a perfect fit.

Heaven!

Then he went still. She looked up into his face. His gray-blue eyes seemed to be lit with some unnamed emotion. He smiled down at her.

“Hello,” he said.

She smiled back, but his leisurely approach made her uneasy. Just outside, a dozen construction workers might be noticing their absence, might come looking for them at any time. The locked bedroom door would be a dead giveaway. And she had to work with those guys – if she managed to keep her job!

Now Andy planted tender kisses on the tip of her nose, her eyebrow, and finally gave a light brush across her mouth. He lifted away and moved lower to pull one of her nipples into his lips. He tugged and suckled, savoring it as if they had all the time in the world. She whimpered at the skillful pull of his mouth, her hips moving restively beneath his weight.

“I know we should hurry,” he murmured, finally releasing the distended, wet tip of her breast, “but this is our first time. I want it to be something special.”

Maya struggled to relax, to be fully open to the delicious sensations coming from her breasts, her pussy, and deep in her core. All the while she battled the distracting awareness of their situation.

“Just fuck me,” she begged, reaching around to cup his firm ass cheeks in her hands.

He regarded her silently for several seconds. Then he grinned.

“Okay, Maya. We’ll do it your way this time. But you owe me a long, slow one.” She felt him ease out of her, and then he thrust home again.

Fabulous!
She closed her eyes and relaxed as he filled her again and again with the hard velvet heat of his cock. As he moved above her, the friction of their flesh and the regular cadence of his motion fully ignited her desire. Her clit was being tugged and taunted in a most irresistible way. After only a moment, Maya forgot where they were and became lost in the feeling of intense pleasure building and building inside her. She lifted her hips to his, straining to increase the contact. She heard him groan, felt the tension in his body growing too.

“Kiss me, Andy.”

His lips took full possession of hers, seeking, plundering, his warm, silky tongue delving into her mouth, mimicking the plunge of his cock into her body. It was too much, too much. She felt her orgasm approaching just as his whole body went rigid above her. She heard his rasping groan. In the next moment her own release took her, spinning her out to the very edge of awareness on a sensuous thrill ride unlike anything she had experienced before. She let go of thought and just rode the waves, lost in the delicious sensation of Andy’s cock pulsing inside her.

She barely noticed when he went still. And in a moment he rolled off her and stretched alongside. His palm came to rest on the rise of her belly. He nuzzled her ear.

“All the times I’ve imagined that,” he whispered, his lips brushing her cheek, “it didn’t even come close to the real thing,”

It took a moment for his words to trickle into the warm daze of her consciousness.

All the times…? What the hell?
She opened her eyes and stared at him.

“Wait. You’ve imagined us having sex? How does that work? We just met today.”

“In person,” he reminded her. “Doesn’t mean I haven’t fantasized about you.”

She laughed to hide the uneasy feelings stealing over her. Something about the situation felt familiar to her, and not in a good way. She sat up and grabbed her bra and panties. He watched without speaking as she shimmied into her underwear, seeming to be in no hurry to cover his own nakedness. His eyes rested on her bare breasts with frank admiration.

Waiting until she had hooked her bra, he reached out and encircled one of her wrists, grabbing her full attention.

“Hey. Relax, Maya. It’s not like we’re strangers. We’ve known each other by phone for almost a year.” He pressed a kiss to the back of her captive hand. “I really enjoyed talking to you. I got curious. I looked at your Facebook page. That’s all.”

“My Facebook page?” In a distant part of her mind an alarm bell went off.

But his broad grin seemed to give him a harmless, boyish air. He shrugged.

“I liked what I saw.” His eyes twinkled. “What man wouldn’t? Don’t tell me you really
mind
that you’ve been the subject of my erotic daydreams.”

Put that way, it didn’t seem so stalkerish. Really, she should be flattered. Right?

She managed a weak smile, even though the knot in her belly wasn’t getting any smaller. “I guess you’ll need to give me a little time to catch up, Andy.”

Harmless as his interest in her might be, she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was light years ahead of her in this brand new relationship of theirs. Hell, for that matter they didn’t
have
a relationship. Up until a couple of hours ago, he was just Handy Andy, the short, pale, bookish guy who helped her be a rock star at her job. Her phone pal. The last man on earth she could ever have pictured having sex with.

Now come to find out he’d fantasized about her sexually for God-knows-how-long. Stared at her picture on Facebook. No doubt read her posts. How often had he checked on her? Was he keeping tabs on her, like Derek did? A shiver ran down her spine. Frankly, the whole thing was creeping her out.  

“We need to get out of here.” She didn’t mean to sound quite so brusque. He released her hand and she stood up quickly and pulled on her dress. Then she went to the mirror above the dresser and checked her makeup and hair, combing her fingers through her messy curls to disguise the effects of their lovemaking. Her lipstick was only slightly smudged. She took the tube from her purse and repaired the damage, watching past her shoulder in the mirror as he got dressed. He seemed oblivious to her scrutiny, and she found herself appreciating once more the sheer masculine perfection of his body. The memory of Handy Andy’s unexpected “transformation” would probably always boggle her mind. No wonder she’d let herself get carried away today!

But forgiving herself for today’s lapse in judgment, and feeling comfortable knowing Andy had pretty much been spying on her were two very different things.  

Andy sat on his deck, overlooking the pool and lush expanse of lawn that was his back yard. He still had an hour before the nursery opened this morning, and he was determined to enjoy his cup of coffee and Sunday paper. As he thumbed through the pages, he spotted a piece about the Unforgettable Homes Show, which had closed the weekend before. The article named the award-winning entries. “Best in Show” went to Wilson Superior Homes.

His eyes skimmed the article for Maya’s name, but the piece focused mainly on the architects, builders and designers. Probably very few people knew how hard she had worked behind the scenes.  He would make sure to send a card of congratulations and a showy bouquet as soon as he got to the nursery today.

Setting the paper aside, he drained the last swig from his mug and stood up. As he gathered the newspaper into a neat stack and opened the sliding door to the kitchen, he tried not to think about how long it had been since they’d said their somewhat strained goodbyes. Well over two weeks. As he did the math, his gut tightened into an uncomfortable knot.

Maybe she was just concentrating on show-related stuff.

But the show had been over now for a week.

Maybe Wilson Homes simply hadn’t needed any materials lately.

Yeah right, during the busiest part of the building season.

What was much more likely was his worst fears had come true. He knew better, damn it!. He never should have let himself get carried away.

When she had dropped him off at the nursery gate that Thursday afternoon a lifetime ago, she seemed kind of quiet. When he asked about it, she gave him a strained smile and said she was just thinking about all she still had to do for the home show. So he had kissed her quickly on the cheek and told her he’d talk to her soon. The next morning, anxious to hear her voice, he put in a call to her at the office. He was told she was at the show, where she would be all weekend. Since he didn’t have her cell phone number there was no way to reach her there, and it was his weekend to hold down the fort at the nursery.

The following Monday he’d tried again to reach her at the office. Now she was in a meeting. He left his name and number, but she had never returned his call. A couple days later he’d made one more attempt. Once again the receptionist had assured him Maya would call him back.

She never had.

Maya struggled to the top of sleep as her cell phone rang again. She forced her eyes to focus on her bedside clock. Quarter after four in the morning! Who would be calling at that hour?  Had Grandma Bertha had another stroke?

“Hello?” Her heart tapdanced against her breastbone.

“Hey, baby.”

She recognized the long, slow drawl immediately.

“Derek. What do you want?” She purposefully put a hard edge in her voice. The last thing she wanted was to encourage him.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about you, baby.”

“It’s not even five in the morning.”

“I told you, girl. I’ve been up all night just thinking about you. Why don’t I come on over? Give you a taste of what you been missin’.”

“No thanks.”

“What’s your problem, baby? You forget how good we are together?”

“We’re not good. That was all in your head.”

He laughed, a low, oily sound. “Now you know better than that, baby girl. This is your man Derek you’re talking to. You liked it plenty. You think I don’t remember those sweet red lips of yours? I still dream about lookin’ down and seeing my dick going in and out of your mouth.”

Maya gasped and clicked the disconnect button. It was at times like this she wished for an old fashioned phone receiver she could have slammed down in his ear.

She lay in the dark, staring at the grainy ceiling for several minutes. Her heart was still pounding in her chest, and a twist of nausea held her tummy hostage. Now that he’d reminded her, it was almost impossible to shove away the mental images he’d planted in her mind. Derek had never been shy about what he liked best in the bedroom.

And the car.

And any other place where he could talk her into getting down on her knees for two minutes. That she had gone along with him as long as she had was still a source of shame.

A second wave of nausea hit and Maya shoved back the covers and padded down the hall to the apartment’s front door. Yes, the deadbolt was set. She had moved since she and Derek broke up, but a girl couldn’t be too careful.

Next thing she knew, she was at the open refrigerator door, reaching for the bottle of Riesling she kept for emergencies. She stood at the sink, taking little sips of the cold wine straight from the bottle. The black square of kitchen window gave her an excellent view of the street three stories below, where the lights of an occasional car knifed through the dark. Who the hell was up at this hour, anyway, besides a half-crazy, egomaniacal sports celebrity and his beleaguered ex-girlfriend?

Eventually the wine began to do its work. Her heart slowed and her mind got a little fuzzy at the edges. Should she go back to bed and try to sleep a couple more hours? Or maybe get started on that new e-book she’d downloaded last night?

As she put the wine back in the fridge her eye fell on the red bandana folded neatly on the kitchen counter. Handy Andy’s bandana. She’d washed it after that day at the home show, and had been meaning to mail it back to him. Then, two days ago, the flowers had arrived, a gorgeous arrangement of lilies and gladiolas and huge white mums. The card that came with it was too personal to leave at the office, so she’d brought it home. She picked it up from where it lay near the bandana, and by the nightlight over the stove read the words once again.

Congratulations, Maya, on your Best of Show Award. No one deserves it more than you. I think of you every day and the time we spent together in our own “paradise”. I’ll never forget it. I wish you the best. -- Andy.

Andy tightened the blue bandana around his forehead and took a long pull from his water bottle. It was another scorcher, somewhat atypical for the last part of July in Portland. But even in the temperate Pacific Northwest, there could be a few days each summer when the mercury hit the century mark. During those times, the staff was hard pressed to keep the potted shrubs from drying out, and the more delicate shade plants had to be moved under cover. He had just checked to make sure the guys had secured the ferns and hostas under a tarped area. Now he headed toward the office. His walkie-talkie crackled on.

“Uncle Andy, there’s someone here to see you.” For once Tiffany didn’t sound like she was dying of boredom.

“Thanks, Tiff. I’ll be right there.”

“It’s a woman.”

“Uh-huh.”

“She says her name is Maya.”

Maya!

He came to a dead stop as his heart somersaulted in his chest. The surrounding yard, the customers, the scorching sun all seemed to recede; everything got blurry at the edges. Then, like an automaton, he felt himself making his way to the office building and going through the glass doors.

She stood near the front counter, dressed in a snug pink t-shirt and a pair of shorts that showed off the smooth golden length of her legs. Her hair was gathered up in a messy knot on top of her head. Her amazing eyes were hidden by big black sunglasses. And around her neck she wore his red bandana, which she was fingering nervously.