Pleasure for Pleasure (18 page)

She looked down to see that she was still wearing her jeans and top from the day before. Yikes. “It's okay, I just have to hurry, get cleaned up and dressed, if you don't mind.” Josie spotted the bathroom and hur
ried to it. A few minutes later, as she was brushing her teeth, Trent knocked and poked his head inside.

“I put the coffee on the table. We'll meet up tonight, after I finish leading the evening hike?”

Josie rinsed her mouth out. “I have a late-night seminar tonight. ‘Keeping the Marriage Fire Burning.' You're welcome to attend.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Sounds riveting. I'll see you later.”

She watched as he turned and left the doorway, his wide shoulders sagging a little. It surprised her to realize that he was disappointed that they couldn't spend time together.

Trent? Wanting more of her time? Wow. She thought back to Erika's advice. Was he just looking for more opportunities for vengeance or was he longing for something more? Was it just sex, or could it be possible that Trent the Playboy wanted a real relationship?

Josie didn't want to consider the possibilities. She had work to focus on. She just wanted to keep things simple with Trent. And most of all, she didn't want to start analyzing her own conflicted feelings.

Some hornet's nests were better left undisturbed.

 

T
RENT SWATTED
at a mosquito on his arm, then glanced at his watch. It was seven-thirty, time for all the over-sexed seminar attendees to be here in the pavilion, not off scaring the wild animals somewhere. But so far only a few couples had appeared.

Josie glanced up from some papers she was flipping through and flashed Trent a weak smile. She knew he wasn't happy to be playing her assistant again. He'd only agreed to it after getting her solemn word that no tools of torture or restraint would be involved. Not that
he'd mind being restrained by her, or even tortured a little bit, but
not
in front of an audience.

So far this weekend had been too busy for them to really spend any time together. With the two of them being responsible for making sure the entire trip ran smoothly for everyone, all the while performing their official teaching and tour guide duties, they'd done little more than pass each other on the way to one place or another. Josie's request for his help had come only an hour ago over dinner.

Trent tried to keep his disappointment in check. He couldn't expect anything from her. Not three years ago, and not now.

Several more couples arrived by way of a path through the nearby woods, and Trent realized that Josie still hadn't told him what exactly the seminar topic would be. She'd simply revealed the rather cryptic title, which was also written on a dry-erase board a few feet away. Love Talk.

It sounded benign enough, but now he realized its vagueness could mean trouble. He got up from his seat at a picnic table and went to Josie. She glanced up from her notes again and blinked at the setting sun that peaked through the trees.

“What exactly does ‘Love Talk' mean?” he asked.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I have a little script here for you to go by during the seminar.”

Trent took the piece of paper she handed him and frowned at it. His first line was, “I'm feeling unsatisfied with the lack of oral sex in our lovemaking.”

Huh? “You didn't answer my question.”

“We'll be discussing ways to have clear and loving communication about sexual issues in marriage. I'll
need you to help me model appropriate ways to discuss sex issues.”

Oh, yippee. “Couldn't you just have one of the couples in the seminar do this modeling stuff?”

“This is a topic that will help you with your own love life, so I want
you
to do it.” She smiled sweetly. “Please.”

“Well, since you said ‘please'…”

Josie checked her watch. “We'd better get started.” She turned to the group of seven couples that had gathered at several picnic tables in the pavilion. “Are you ready to revolutionize your sex lives?”

Half the attendees responded with enthusiastic whoops and hollers, while the other half nodded to affirm their readiness for a sexual revolution.

“One of the greatest hindrances to a satisfying sex life, even within marriage, is lack of communication. We're afraid to ask for what we want, afraid to be specific, and unsure how or when to broach the subject.”

Hmm, another wild idea was forming in Trent's head. He and Josie had been suffering from their own lack of communication. Maybe this was his chance to set things straight between them. Either that or get her really, really mad.

He looked down at his script again, at the lines Josie wanted him to repeat.

Josie continued. “I'd like you to listen as my assistant and I engage in a conversation about our hypothetical married sex life, and as you listen, take note of what you think goes right—and wrong—in the conversation.”

She pulled up a chair next to Trent and read from a script of her own. “Honey, is something wrong? You've been acting distant lately.”

Trent glanced at his oral sex line, and then made up a line of his own. “Yeah, something's wrong. You've been using me for sex, haven't you?”

Josie stared at him, her jaw sagging. “W-what?” She leaned in and whispered, “That's not on the script!”

He ignored her and continued. “Sex, sex, sex. All you ever want from me is sex. I'm tired of being your pleasure toy!”

She blushed an explosive shade of red. This was turning out to be fun, after all.

“Would you please follow the script?” she said through clenched teeth.

“I have needs, too, you know. I'm not just a sex machine.”

Their audience was clearly enjoying the show, judging by their undivided attention on the unfolding skit.

“Y-you're the one who wanted sex lessons!” she blurted, then realized her error. Josie turned to the class. “I'm sorry, my assistant is being a bit uncooperative.”

“I demand emotional satisfaction!” he said in his best indignant female voice, trying hard not to laugh.

“You can go now. I'll do this seminar without you.”

Trent held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I'm sorry. I was just having a little fun.”

“Go!” she said, but he could tell she didn't really mean it.

“Aw, come on, let him stay!” someone in the audience called out. “We want to hear more about those sex lessons.”

Trent grinned. “I'll follow the script now, I promise.”

“One more deviation and you're out of here. Understand?”

Okay, so maybe he'd chosen a cowardly way to
broach the subject of their relationship. Maybe it was time for him to get serious about Josie, if she could prove she was finished with running away.

 

S
O FAR
, the Lovers for Life Center's first-ever Sensual Adventure Retreat was a success. Attendees had been approaching Josie all weekend to thank her for sponsoring it or to express their interest in going on another. She'd already decided to offer retreats on a regular basis, maybe even once a season, if she managed to make the center profitable again.

Josie walked along the path that led from the cabins to the pavilion. Today was the last day of the retreat. She didn't have any more seminars scheduled and she was eager to spend some time with Trent. They'd hardly gotten a moment alone together all weekend, with his leading adventure excursions and her leading seminars.

But today she'd set aside the afternoon to go on the bike ride he'd requested. He had a morning bike tour that was supposed to be wrapping up now, and then he'd take her out for their ride alone together.

Although she and wheeled vehicles didn't get along, she was looking forward to the day. For an afternoon alone with Trent, she'd happily endure a few bumps and bruises.

There was still an odd tension between them, something she couldn't name, but she figured it would work itself out in a day of relaxing together. She'd come to see Trent as a friend in the past two months—a fact that still sometimes amazed her—even with his embarrassing little performance yesterday at the seminar.

She wasn't sure what all that had been about, but knowing Trent, she'd written it off as his sense of hu
mor getting a little out of control. He did love baiting her, after all.

He'd always stood as a sort of mythical figure in her past, someone untouchable, and now she'd touched him in just about every way imaginable. Somehow, in the midst of all their flirting and foreplay and lovemaking, they'd become friends.

Friends who were also lovers.
So what was the name for that? Certainly they didn't have a real romantic relationship. Theirs had been a student-teacher arrangement, nothing more. Trent was incapable of maintaining a long, meaningful relationship, and Josie was uninterested in one.

She spotted Trent up ahead in the pavilion, and she waved to him. He had two bikes there waiting for them.

After he'd given her a few pointers, they were off on what Trent called “a fairly easy trail.”

Josie firmly believed that if humans had been meant to ride around on two wheels, they would have been born with wheels instead of legs. She hated riding bikes, and she especially hated riding bikes on muddy paths near trees that she might at any moment crash into.

“Keep your eyes focused ahead on the trail, not down at your feet,” Trent instructed from behind on his own mountain bike.

“It's these feet-holder things. They're uncomfortable.”

“Just ignore them and keep going. You'll get used to the sensation after a while.”

Sure. Right after she got used to having a skinny bike seat jammed up her rear. She had an intense fear that she was going to develop blisters in the most painful place imaginable after a day on this godforsaken contraption.

“My hands hurt now. Can't we stop and rest?”

“Your hands will get used to it, too. Stop complaining. Our next break is in an hour.”

Josie rolled her eyes. Take Trent away from the city and suddenly he was Survival Man, determined to whip everyone he encountered into tip-top shape so they could ride bikes around the woods for days at a time if they wanted. She couldn't imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing. The wilderness was nice and all, but that's what the Discovery Channel was for. No ugly bugs to encounter in person. No mud to get one's foot stuck in. No trees to crash into.

Okay, so there were trees in the city, and so she had once crashed her car into one. But it had been a minor crash, and a small tree, and Trent certainly didn't need to know about it.

But she had to admit, following Trent around the woods on a bike wasn't the worst way to spend a day. And maybe she was enjoying the mountain biking a tiny bit during those occasional moments when she was able to forget about all her discomforts.

Up ahead Josie saw a clearing and she wondered if faking a crash might buy them a few hours' rest in the nice, sunny field. She didn't have long to wonder, though, and she didn't have to worry about faking it, because the front wheel of her bike hit a tree stump. Suddenly Josie was sailing through the air, experiencing both sheer terror and that wonderful sense of free fall that comes in the moment before hitting the ground.

She landed in a patch of mud on the trail, which had the advantage of cushioning her fall and the disadvantage of being, well, mud. When she tried to right herself, her palms slipped in the ooze and she wound up going down face first.

“Josie, don't move. Let me check you out. Are you hurt anywhere?”

She would have answered except she had a mouth full of mud.

Strong hands grasped her, tested her legs, her arms, then pulled her up from the brown muck. She spit and hacked and spit some more, until most of the gritty substance was gone from her mouth.

“I think I'm okay.”

Trent eased her down onto a dry grassy area and kneeled next to her, worry creasing his brow. “Nothing hurts?”

This was her chance to get a break from bike riding, so she jumped at it. “Well, I don't know. I think I hit my knee. It's starting to feel a little stiff. Maybe we could rest awhile and make sure it's okay.”

“Sounds good. I'm getting hungry for lunch anyway. There are some wet wipes in my backpack, but I'm pretty sure there aren't enough to get you cleaned up.”

“What about the water bottle? I could use that.”

He shook his head. “We need it to drink. One of the first rules of wilderness survival—never waste your water.”

“I can't just go around coated in mud all day.”

“We passed a creek a little ways back. I think it runs along this way.” He pointed toward the clearing. “Think you can walk a bit?”

She debated how much of an act she should put on. Being injured might come in handy later in avoiding further bike rides. And it might be fun to have Trent play nurse to her for a while.

“Let's see.” She extended a hand for him to help her up, but once she stood, she winced in pain at her pretend-gimp knee.

“Too painful to walk?”

“No, no. I'll be fine, but maybe some support would help.”

Trent slid his arm around her waist and she leaned into him, suddenly seeing all sorts of possible advantages to being injured. The close contact made her forget how miserable she'd felt a moment ago, and her mind occupied itself with fantasies about what might happen out here between the two of them, all alone.

Maybe getting close to nature wasn't such a bad deal, after all.

T
RENT FELT LIKE A JERK
. He never should have taken someone as awkward on a bike as Josie on an intermediate trail so soon. He'd just assumed since she was young and fit that she could handle it. He hadn't counted on her being bicycle-impaired.

And now he wondered how they'd make it back to the campground if her knee was seriously hurt, though it didn't look bad. No swelling, no intense pain. Yet she was limping around pretty badly and as they made their way to the creek, she put quite a bit of her weight on him.

Not that he minded. Even covered in mud, she had the power to turn his mind to mush, and he had a hard time focusing on the fact that she was injured when her body was pressed against his. He could think of a dozen ways off the top of his head to make her forget about her knee, but he doubted she'd be in the mood for any of them after sailing headfirst over her bike the way she just had.

Josie cast a glance over her shoulder. “Are you sure our bikes will be safe back there?”

“Positive. No one will even be able to see them hidden under that bush, so stop worrying. We're almost there. You doing okay?”

“Yep, fine. Sorry I'm getting you all muddy, too.”

“Maybe we'll just have to take a bath together.”

“Aren't there snakes and leeches and things in the creeks out here?”

“Have you ever even been out of the city before today?”

“Sure, we went to Calistoga when I was a kid.”

“I mean, really out of the city. To a farm or to go camping?”

“Does my mother strike you as the type to take her daughter on nature encounters?”

He chuckled. “No, definitely not.”

“I did go to camp one summer, when I was eleven. I hated every minute of it, and I was nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. Mother Nature and I are not on speaking terms.”

“You just haven't had the right nature guide.”

“Oh, yeah? What sorts of things could the right nature guide do for me?”

Oh, lots of things. Lots of bad, bad things. “Guess you'll just have to see for yourself.”

Up ahead Trent spotted the glittering water of the creek, and then they could hear it, too. As light as she was, hauling Josie through the woods had still managed to get him sweaty and thirsty, so the water was a welcome sight.

When they reached the creek's edge, Josie knelt next to it and peered down as if inspecting its contents.

“The critters generally stay hidden when you come stomping up like we just did.”

“So there
are
critters.”

“Yeah, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. This water's all of four feet deep at its deepest point. You can see clear to the bottom.”

She jumped back. “What are those things swimming around?”

He looked down to see that the source of her alarm was a fierce school of tadpoles. “Those? They're deadly baby water moccasins, but don't worry, they usually don't bite unless provoked.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Really, I lost a toe to one of them a few years back.”

She smiled, and Trent noticed she was resting her weight equally on both legs.

“How's the knee?”

Her grin grew wider. “Oh, that? All better.”

“Were you faking?”

“Never!”

“You were, too. I bet you just got tired of riding bikes.” Trent took off his helmet and tossed it onto the shore.

“Well, you're a bit of a tyrant for a beginner like me.”

“Sorry, I'll go easier on the trip back. I promise. We'd better get you cleaned up, though, before the mud dries.”

Josie eyed the water again with suspicion.

“Such a city girl,” Trent teased, shaking his head as he stripped off his shoes and socks.

A minute later he'd rid himself of his clothes and was wading in, the water lapping at his shins. “Come on, your turn.”

But when he turned back to her, he saw that her expression had changed. She looked as if she were just now seeing the creek and its surroundings for the first time.

And then he realized, she was probably thinking of his fantasy. Him, her and a creek in the woods. Only
she didn't know she was the star of that particular movie.

His whole body went on sexual alert as he realized this was his chance to act out that fantasy. Right here, once and for all. Chances like this were rare indeed.

“Remember that fantasy I told you about?” he asked.

She was taking off her mud-caked helmet now. Then she bent and removed her shoes and socks. Moments later he watched as she slipped out of her entire bike outfit, and stood on the shore naked. Waiting for him.

“I remember. Every detail.”

Trent forgot how to breathe. When he finally recovered, she was wading out to him, splashing the remaining mud off of herself as she went. She bent and splashed her face in the water.

He reached out and wiped a streak of mud from her nose. As she stood only a few inches away, naked, wet and willing, he told her, “You are the woman in the fantasy, you know. It's you every time.”

She smiled, then splashed him. Trent wiped the water from his eyes and laughed as Josie began to back up, retreating. “I'm not sure we can really stick to the specifics of your fantasy. I don't see any vines around here.”

She was referring to the vine in Trent's creek fantasy that she'd use to tie him to the tree.

“That's okay, I have another wilderness-watering-hole fantasy.”

“Oh?” She stopped her retreat, her perfect chest heaving from the exertion.

Not really, but hey, this could be fun. He improvised. “We're out in the woods together biking, and it's really hot, so we stop by the creek to cool off.”

“Then we get undressed,” Josie added.

Trent took a step, and then another step, closing the distance between them. “And we take turns rubbing the cool water over each other's bodies.”

He cupped his hand and dipped it into the water, then brought it up and let the liquid drip down over her breasts. Her erect nipples contracted even more, and Trent let his thumb brush one of them, then trace the underside of her breast.

Josie reached up and let her wet hands glide over his shoulders, his arms, his chest. Then she reached behind him and splashed water onto his back, letting her breasts brush his abdomen. His whole body strained to possess her, but this was too much fun to rush.

“And then what happens?” she asked as Trent ran his hands over her silky skin, taking time to appreciate how sumptuous Josie looked wet.

“We spread out our clothes on the bank and lie in the sun to dry off.”

Josie arched one eyebrow. “All we do is lie there and dry off?”

“You'll just have to wait and see,” he said, lifting her into his arms and making his way toward the bank of the creek.

He set Josie back on her feet next to his pile of clothes, then arranged his garments and hers into a makeshift blanket as best he could. He kneeled and pulled Josie down beside him, then pressed her to the ground with his body.

“Then I do what I've been dying to do all weekend.”

Josie gasped as his mouth claimed one of her damp breasts then the other. He trailed kisses over her chest and abdomen, watching gooseflesh appear wherever he kissed, savoring the sweet torture of wanting her so badly and not taking her.

“What exactly have you been dying to do?” she finally whispered in a tight voice.

“This,” he said just before spreading her legs wide, lowering his mouth between her thighs and plunging his tongue into her.

She was already swollen with desire for him, slick and ready for lovemaking, but the taste of her was just too sweet to pass up. Josie bucked against his tongue, squirming as he explored her, teased her, branded her as his own.

When he couldn't wait another minute, Trent stopped. “And now we do what men and women have been doing in the woods together since the beginning of time.”

She sat up on her elbows and gave him a speculative look. “Not so fast.”

“What's wrong?”

“I've got a few wilderness fantasies of my own, you know.”

She pushed Trent down onto the clothing and slid her hands over his chest and belly, torturously slow. She eventually trailed her fingers down to his cock, then stroked it with a feather touch. Just when he didn't think he could take another second of sweet torture—when he was about to pounce on her—she dipped her head and took him into her mouth.

Trent stifled a loud moan, aware on some level that they were out in the open, where anyone might hear. And that thought only increased the thrill.

Josie coaxed him just to the edge of orgasm, then stopped. Brought him to the edge again, then stopped again. The third time, he grasped the back of her head and in a weak voice that came out as more of a croak, begged her to quit.

She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with pure mischief. It took all his willpower not to mount her right then.

Instead he dug into the pocket of his shorts on the ground beneath them for a condom, then put it on. Having felt how hard and uncomfortable the ground was to lie on, he decided they'd imitate the animals, since they were out in the wild anyway. He turned Josie around and guided her hips against him to enter her from behind.

His cock slid into her as if it were going home, as if their bodies had known each other for years, not just weeks. As it always should have been.

And they moved together so naturally, Trent wished it wouldn't have to end. Nothing had felt this right before, this easy, this perfect.

When they came, her climax following his by seconds, it seemed as if the entire wilderness had paused. Trent heard no birds or insects, nothing but the sound of their quickened breaths.

He pulled Josie up against him and showered her shoulder and neck in kisses as he wrapped his arms around her waist. If they could only stay this way…

A breeze picked up and cooled their fevered skin, and it seemed that the wilderness came to life again. A few nearby birds chirped. A cricket sang in the grass. As they remained locked in that intimate embrace, Trent held Josie tight and let his fantasy take over again. In the fantasy, she was his, now and forever.

 

J
OSIE RETURNED
from the weekend trip feeling as though she needed a retreat to recover from her retreat. Thanks to the biking trip, she ached from head to toe.

She'd come home to find a message on her answering
machine from the local counseling center to which she'd sent her résumé months ago. They had an opening for a marriage counselor and were interested in her for the job.

So here she sat in the lobby of Family Counseling Associates dressed in the navy suit she always wore to interviews. She scanned her résumé out of nervousness, glanced over at the oblivious receptionist across the room, smoothed her wool skirt over her legs, stilled her bobbing foot, wiped the dampness from her palms, and wondered for the hundredth time if she was making a mistake.

She should have been thrilled. It was the perfect opportunity, with perfect timing. The center still wasn't completely financially stable, and Josie was at her wit's end trying to save it. This job could be her way out. But whenever she thought of escaping the center, it felt more like she was abandoning it.

Sure, she'd come to enjoy the people there, even the work, but… But what?

Her thoughts kept circling back to Trent. Their afternoon together at the creek in the woods had been amazing. She still had trouble believing that
she
was the woman in his fantasy.

Maybe he'd said it to make her feel good…but no, there was something in the way they'd come together, something reverential about their lovemaking. She believed him.

But he was still the same Trent as before, and she was still the same Josie. Being good together in a physical sense didn't mean they could have a real relationship. She'd seen plenty of marriages fall apart when couples got married and discovered they had nothing in
common except great sex. Josie didn't plan to make that mistake.

Confused about her feelings, Josie had called Trent a day after they'd gotten back to the city and told him she needed to reschedule their last lesson for a later date. She wanted to make sure she went into their final session with no illusions. Theirs was a business relationship that would be coming to an end—not a complicated romantic entanglement that she should feel any need to hang on to.

“Ms. Marcus?” a woman called from a nearby doorway.

Josie looked up to meet the smile of a matronly woman with steel-gray hair and a well-tailored pantsuit. When she reached the woman's side, they shook hands and Josie felt instantly at ease.

“I'm Eleanor Griffith. I hope you're not nervous. We're quite impressed with your credentials, and we've already gotten great references for you, so this interview is really just to see how our personalities mesh.”

Josie kept her surprise in check. “Oh, that's good to hear.”

She followed Eleanor into a comfortably decorated office and took a seat on a couch where the woman indicated for her to sit.

“We have five other counselors here at this center, all specializing in various areas of family counseling. I primarily work with children, and you would be one of two marriage counselors.”

Josie nodded. She tried to focus as the woman went on about the work environment and the job, but her mind wandered back to Trent. Would he care if she took a job here? If she left the center and severed that final tie to him?

It was a question she shouldn't have desired the answer to so badly. She had let her ego get too involved in their lessons. To correct the problem, she would simply force herself to face their final session together as a professional task to which she owed her best work.

Trent had to be a client to her, nothing more. If she could remember that, she could enjoy their last night together for all it was worth.