PreHeat (Fire & Ice) (3 page)

***

I was nervous as Carter's truck pulled into the lot of the restaurant. It was an establishment long known for its wonderful sunset views over the lake, and really, it was a beautiful thing to see. I guess it could be romantic, but I had never been there on a date before, I'd only come for drinks on the deck a handful of times since it was a bit of a distance from my house. It was already packed with people, though, so maybe Carter had chosen this place to make me feel more comfortable. If that was his intention, it wasn't working. No matter what venue he would have chosen, I'd still have these “new relationship” jitters, even though we’d seen each other yesterday. Tonight was our first “datey” outing.

When we were seated under an umbrella to ward off most of the early evening sun I took a deep breath. We had spent hours on the phone this past week, so there wasn't much of that first date “So, what do you like to do in your free time?” questioning to get through. I was able to skip right ahead.

“How's the 5k artwork coming?” His firm was currently designing the campaign for a charity race to benefit the Children’s Hospital.

“It's coming. I think I'll be through with my part this week. I had to scrap the logo that I was working on this morning and start fresh. It seemed like too much of a downer for this. Too serious. I'm trying to hit the right tone that won't make people feel like crying.” He thanked the waitress who brought out our drinks, a dark microbrew beer for him and an appletini for me. He waited until she walked away before asking, “What's on your blog agenda this week?”

“I made spiced beef tips this afternoon and blackened chicken this morning. I was going to ask if you wanted to take them home with you tonight. I'm not into beef, and I ate some of the chicken in a sandwich for lunch.”

“Uh, yes,” he said as if that should be obvious to me.

“Good. How's your beer?”

“It's beer. I'm going to stick to this one since I'm driving, but by all means, have as many of those as you want.”

“Are you trying to get me drunk?”

He leaned forward and spoke in a conspiratorial tone, “Only if it will work.”

The way I had been feeling, he certainly didn't need to grease the wheels to get some action. “I don't need to get drunk for that.” His brows went up as my meaning sunk in.

“How hungry are you?”

“I've got plenty of food at home.” Omigod. I couldn't believe the words were coming out of my mouth. I was only a step away from propositioning him.

He turned to get the waitress' attention and mouthed “check” when she caught his eye. Now I had done it. I wasn't sure what I had been hoping for, but I wasn't expecting that he would take me up on going straight back to the house when we'd just gotten our drinks. I reached up and chugged some of my appletini, which was delicious, and Carter handed the girl a twenty and told her to keep the change. He left his beer mostly untouched as he waited for me to finish. I suddenly lost my bravado of a minute before, and took a tiny sip of my cocktail to slow things down. Oh hell, what was I waiting for? I wanted this, had been waiting for it all week.

“I'm finished.” I pushed my glass forward even though there were still a few sips left. I didn't care. I knew what I was doing. I stood up and picked up my purse. “Ready?”

Instead of answering, he got up and came around the table, putting his hand at the small of my back. I felt a shiver race up my spine at the light contact. Holy smokes. We walked back to his truck in silence and I waited while he opened my door and helped me inside. His truck wasn't one of those really high ones, but I had chosen to wear a denim miniskirt, and I knew he got a good look as I stepped up to the seat. Since that was the point of the skirt in the first place I just smiled to myself as he walked around and got in.

“We didn't even see the sunset.” I wasn't complaining, but that was the entire point of coming to this place.

“We'll come back.”

“Okay.” I was excited to think he was already planning something for us to do in the future. I knew it was kind of twisted; I had tried to talk myself out of coming out with him a couple of times this week, even if only half-heartedly. In fact, I was finding it harder to come up with the reasons that I had originally thought were insurmountable, namely our age difference, which I hadn't given much thought to. The “issue” of him being Cheryl's brother was only an issue when I found myself wanting to tell her about Carter in an “I'm interested in this great guy” kind of way. That I couldn't share this with her sucked, but I couldn't help my own insecurities about it.

The drive back to my house seemed to take only half of the time it took to get to the restaurant, but that could be because I was reflecting on my choice of underwear—white cotton panties and a matching bra that I had put on instead of trying to sex it up with scratchy lace that I thought would make me look like I was trying too hard. Maybe I'd have time to change when we got home. I wasn't wearing granny panties, but they were definitely not the kind of panties that made men drool. By the looks Carter had been throwing me on the drive, though, it probably wouldn't matter what kind of underwear I had on. If I was reading the signals right, they were about to come off pretty soon. I pressed my legs together as he rounded the corner of my street and I saw my house come into view.

He pulled in behind my car and cut the engine as I hopped out and grabbed my keys out of my purse. We made it to the front door in seconds and I had barely turned the knob before he pushed me in and shut the door behind us. Lucy ran up, but I tuned her out as Carter pressed me against the door, leaning over to capture my lips with his mouth in a short kiss.

“There. That's out of the way.”

I gave him a questioning look as he took a step backwards and into the living room. “Huh?” Surely he didn't think that a tiny peck on the lips was going to do.

“I’ve been waiting to kiss you, but when I picked you up it didn't seem like the right time. I just wanted to make sure that the first kiss of the night happened separate from anything else.”

I smiled and thought back to a little over an hour ago when he arrived. I had been a little nervous and probably spent too much time talking. I had wanted a kiss, though. “Do you want something to eat?” I walked past him and into the kitchen to put down my bag.

“Not right this second, no.”

I turned around and stepped closer where I was rewarded with the scent of him. It sent my senses reeling and I pressed my face against his chest and took a deep breath. He must have been exuding pheromones out of every pore, because my body seemed to go on alert and I lifted my face to his and let my lips wander from one corner of his mouth to the other. In a second he had wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him, opening his mouth slightly and teasing me with his tongue. I could feel the bulge of him on my stomach, and I moved against him, eliciting a moan in response as he deepened our kiss. His hands moved to cup the sides of my face and my mouth opened at the same moment my eyes closed.

I felt lost in him, his firm lips and his hot tongue were working in tandem to make my insides quiver as my mind started to blank out everything but him. I was aching for him. My body was moving on its own, my hands drifted along his sides and up the hard muscles of his back, all while his mouth worked its magic.

By the time I felt his hands on the bare skin below my skirt I was ready to explode. He walked us back a step to set me on the stool in front of the island and stepped between my legs. I wanted to continue kissing him, but my attention was now focused on his hands as he moved up towards ground zero. I felt like I was about to jump off of the seat any second, but that feeling quieted somewhat when he bent his head to my neck, laying kisses from below my ear down to the top of my shoulder.

I couldn't concentrate on one feeling in particular, everything seemed to be swirling together. I grabbed on to his shoulders before wrapping my arms around his neck. His hair smelled clean and felt silky as it slid against my face. I moved my fingers through it and was gratified by the way he seemed to move his head closer to me.

When his hand moved on my leg all I could concentrate on was the scrape of his fingertips against me. A shudder rolled through my body when he grazed the fabric of my panties. I knew I must be wet, and I was long past ready for him, but he took his time, moving back and forth over the cloth. Because of the way he was leaning over me, I couldn't do much, so I pushed him back slightly, just enough to leave a space between us, and reached for the snap of his jeans. I couldn't wait anymore, I was burning up. He straightened and I stood up on slightly shaky legs.

I got a sudden attack of nerves as soon as we were separated. Not enough to stop things in their tracks, but enough to make me feel self-conscious. My hand was still on his jeans and it took me a second to move my fingers enough to work them loose. The zipper was up, but I was able to work my fingers against the inch of bare skin before I hit the elastic of his boxers. His muscles quaked as I moved lower. At that gratifying reaction I used my other hand to maneuver the zipper down, giving myself plenty of room to work. Even as I pulled his boxers down and over him, he was easing my skirt up until it was at my hips. In a swift movement that I hadn't been anticipating, he turned me around and pressed himself against my backside. The soft denim of his pants brushed against the backs of my thighs, but when he pushed me forward against the island, all I could feel was
him
against my still covered butt.

I heard the crinkly ripping sound of a condom wrapper as I put my arms out in front of me, bracing myself against the speckled granite; it was chilly on my skin, a glaring contrast to the heat emanating from behind me and inside of me. His hands were back on my thighs a second later and he shifted the strip of cloth covering my lady parts and rubbed his finger across me without the barrier of fabric. I let out a tiny shriek, more from surprise than anything else. I could feel him nudging against me, and in the next breath he was sliding inside, filling me in one smooth and slow movement.

All of my breath whooshed out through my mouth and every bit of awareness I had was completely on Carter as he took me by the hips and moved me away from him slightly, only to pull me back, pumping into me in slow motion. He leaned forward and his hot breath against the back of my neck made me break out in goosebumps as he pressed in and retreated over and over. As he picked up the pace I pushed back, meeting him thrust for thrust, but not completely able to make it to the edge no matter how hard I tried.

As soon as I had the thought, he moved his hand around the front of me and pressed his finger against me. Almost immediately I was falling forward onto my forearms as I let myself collapse. Carter seemed to speed up after my orgasm, and I was barely able to catch my breath as he slammed into me. What seemed like only a few seconds later he pulled my hips towards him as he pressed forward, holding me in place as he released a scratchy sound. He remained still and I could feel him twitch inside of me. I let my head drop and rested it on the cool granite as my breathing slowed back down to almost normal. Holy crap.

Carter withdrew after a moment and I let myself go limp. He began working my skirt back down and into place so I pushed myself to an upright position and turned to face him. He put a hand to the back of my neck and drew me close, giving me a light kiss that left my lips longing for more contact.

“Now I'm hungry.”

I let out a snorty sounding laugh. “Well, you came to the right place.” I gave him a smacking kiss before I stepped away and dove back into chef mode, a role I was a bit more comfortable with.

CHAPTER THREE

This night sucked. All I could think of as the evening went by was my next website post, King Ranch Chicken, and Carter, and I had been counting the minutes until we closed and the kitchen was cleaned up. It was getting more frustrating to go to work every day, and I wasn’t used to this feeling.

While I was sitting at a stoplight a few blocks from my house I got a text from him asking me if I wanted to have lunch tomorrow.

YES.

The light was still red when my phone trilled in my hand. “Hello?”

“It's Carter.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Are you home?”

“Not yet.” Usually, he called a bit later, once I was getting ready for bed. I wasn’t looking forward to going home to an empty house tonight, and I hoped I wasn’t being too forward, but I found myself asking, “Do you want to come over?”

“Absolutely. I can be there in ten minutes.” His anxiousness made me smile.

“Give me fifteen.” I wanted to take a speedy shower to get the smells of the kitchen off of my person.

“Okay. See you in fifteen.”

I disconnected the call as I pulled into my driveway and practically jogged inside. I gave Lucy some love and kicked off my shoes on the way to the bathroom. I had barely pulled off my shirt when the doorbell rang; it definitely hadn't been fifteen minutes. I put my shirt back on and headed back to the door with a beaming smile, pulling it open without checking the peephole.

“That was fast,” I said a second before I realized it was Cheryl.

“Huh?”

“Oh, I meant I just got home a minute ago.” I surprised myself with my own quick thinking.

“I know. I've been driving around the neighborhood waiting for you.”

By the look on her face I could see that she was angry. “What happened?” I asked hoping that she hadn't somehow found out about Carter.

“Paulo's a dick, that's what happened.”

I relaxed slightly. I knew nothing really bad had gone down because she was only mad, not crying. “Why didn't you just come inside?” She had a key.

“Because driving gave me something to do.” She threw herself onto the couch as I locked the door.

I nodded, but my mind was screaming.
What if she'd come a few minutes later?
“So what did he do?”

“He spent $1600 on a DVD duplicator with money from the wedding fund! He didn't even ask first and every penny is already accounted for. Can I stay here tonight?”