Sensual Stranger (21 page)

On the porch plates clattered, telling her Zach was removing
the dripping candles from them. Looking over, she saw he’d turned on the porch
light. Its yellow haze poured through the sheer curtains draping the windows.

Did you enjoy yourself?
he’d asked.

Her heart ached and her tears responded, running down her
face. Leaving him would be one of the most wrenching things she’d ever done,
almost as bad as what she’d faced at fifteen.

She wasn’t the kind of woman he’d ever treasure. Once the
sport of sleeping with her wore off, he’d be far more discerning, seeing her on
her way.

He already had.

Clutching the manila envelope even harder, Toni ran up the
stairs, thinking about his kind gesture in getting her back on her feet, the
insurance she needed.

His first step in saying goodbye.

Zach didn’t mention the insurance again, nor did Toni.

As their pizza baked, she showered, giving him a quick,
forced smile upon leaving the bath. After he’d bathed, they sat on her bed,
facing each other, smelling of soap, not sex, eating their meal.

She kept the conversation light and constant, talking about
obnoxious customers at the shop, Angel’s little boy who was coming to visit him
for a week, Robbie’s new girlfriend, a real babe he’d just snagged.

Through it all, Toni avoided Zach’s gaze, looking at him
only when she didn’t think he’d notice.

He considered she might be pissed he’d used her earnings to
buy the insurance. No doubt, she’d wanted to send the funds to Belle and Lucky
instead. Several times, Zach edged close to asking her, but didn’t, not eager
to start a fight or push Toni even further away.

For the first time since they’d met, she seemed a stranger,
her mood perplexing, her thoughts impenetrable.

Anger flared and so did unquenchable need. He wanted the old
Toni back, realizing instantly how crazy his thoughts were. There was no old
Toni…they’d known each other for such a brief time.

So why then did it feel like they’d never been apart? Why
did it seem so fucking safe and alarming at the same time?

Unwilling to examine his feelings, he took her empty plate
and his, placing them on the nightstand. Reading his mood, she stretched out on
the mattress, lips parted, her mouth waiting for his tongue or cock. Her manner
suggesting she would do all she could to satisfy him…to take care of him.

For how long? And when it ended, what then? Dizziness swept
over him, followed by fury and despair. Zach feared whatever Toni gave would
never be sufficient to still his sprinting pulse and satisfy his impoverished
heart. The longer she was with him, the more drugged he became by her scent and
touch. Curling his fingers around her wrists, he pulled her arms above her
head, holding them there as he unfolded his body over her length.

Confining her. Keeping her close.

Beneath him, her body ground sensuously, offering the
resistance he craved and worried he wouldn’t be able to stop. Someday soon,
she’d be leaving him, though not tonight.

Instinctively, he reached for the silk scarf, at the last
moment recalling he’d left it downstairs in the grocery bag. Cursing himself,
he made do with his hand on both of her wrists, not about to let her go.

With a savageness that reached his core, Zach plunged his
cock into her snug channel—a perfect fit for his rod—taking her again and
again, his body pounding against hers with Toni responding, offering all she
had.

Except time, the truth of who she was, where she’d been and
the places she’d be going once she left him.

Sleeping fitfully through the night, Zach didn’t dream,
awakening finally with a start.

Sun streamed through the curtains. Squinting at the infernal
brightness, he rolled over, his back to the window, his front facing an empty
mattress.

At once, panic gripped him.
Where is she?

Wincing at the stiffness and pain in his leg, Zach padded
into the bath. Dark. Empty.

He went down the hall to his room. She wasn’t in there
either, nor in the other guest bedroom. As quickly as his leg allowed, he
hurried down the steps, checking the living and dining rooms. Nothing. Nor was
she in the kitchen.

Blood pounded in Zach’s ears. His heart drummed so hard he
could barely breathe.

Overwhelming helplessness gripped him. An emotion he hadn’t
felt for years, not since the morning he’d awakened in the hospital, seeing Em
and Hector at his bedside. Listening as they told him about the accident, one
he couldn’t recall, battling his mounting horror as they explained Meg hadn’t
made it.

Nausea rolled over Zach now as it had then. Toni couldn’t
have gone so soon. She had three more weeks to give him so he could become
accustomed to her departure, to accept its inevitability. The best thing for
both of them once he was certain she’d be safe, her future secure.

Dammit, he didn’t want to be blindsided again!

Hands on the edge of the sink, he lowered his head,
recalling the look on Toni’s face last night as she’d read the insurance forms.
Had she fled because she didn’t want to fill out the scant personal information
the company asked for? Or had he misread her hesitation about her former lifestyle?
Was she so eager to return to it, she’d taken off?

Without her cycle.

The thought stopped Zach, then invigorated him. How far
could she get without her bike? Unless she’d gone down to the main road and
hitched a ride, determined to leave the vehicle behind along with him.

No. He wouldn’t accept such a thing. She’d promised him a
month and, by God, he was going to hold her to it.

Ignoring the absurdity of his plan, he pushed away from the
sink to go back upstairs and get dressed—to find her.

He’d taken only a step when something in the corner of his
vision stopped him. Head turned, he noticed the back door was opened slightly.
Padding to it, pushing aside the curtain, he glanced through the glass.

His heart caught.

Stripped bare, Toni lay on top of the picnic table, long
rays of sunlight caressing her flesh, her arms above her head. Somehow, she’d
wrapped the silk scarf around her wrists and placed the ends beneath a stone
lawn ornament, this one of a slumbering cat, trapping her, displaying her.

For him.

Leaving the house, Zach strode to the table, his leg wanting
to hold him back. He wouldn’t allow it. Grass and flowers scented the morning
air, its temperature already balmy. He circled the table, his eyes feasting on
her, his voice tight with a mixture of happiness, fear, melancholy. “How long
have you been out here?”

Toni turned her head, following him with her gaze. Unguarded
desire sparkled in her eyes as though she couldn’t contain her feelings any
more than he could. Need suffused her voice. “Only a few minutes.”

“You left the bed without telling me.”

At his accusation, her eyes widened slightly. “I wanted to
surprise you.”

She’d nearly killed him. He lifted the stone statue and
tossed it. The thing landed on the lawn with a muffled thump, leaving a gouge
in the grass. Next, he pulled the scarf from her wrists, dropping it on the
concrete.

“No,” he warned as she brought down her arms and lifted her
torso, attempting to push to her elbows. “Stay where you are.”

She settled back down, her voice edgy with excitement,
fingers skimming her naked thighs. “What are you going to do?”

Enjoy her for every second she was here and try to forget
her after she left. An absurd idea Zach needed to embrace. He didn’t want
anything to ruin the moment, especially not reality. He’d had too much of that
shit these past years. He couldn’t stomach a moment more.

“This,” he said in answer to her question, lowering his
head, brushing his lips over hers.

She released a small sigh, the sort one hears from a baby or
a kitten, the kind that resurrects a man’s hope in all that’s good in the
world. Her hands slid up his torso to his face. With it cupped in her palms,
she brought him closer.

Lids slipping down, Zach drew his tongue over the seam of
her mouth. She opened it at once, her action summoning him to fill her.

In the trees surrounding them, birds courted each other, or
the day, with their songs. Here, Zach didn’t inhibit his delighted groan. The
indelicate sounds he made matched Toni’s. With his hand roaming from her left breast
to her right, desperate to fondle each, he necked with abandon, unmindful of
anything except what she had to offer him.

For weeks and weeks. He refused to accept anything less.

Forcing his mouth from hers, hauling in a much-needed
breath, he stared at Toni’s lips, bruised from his passion these last days, her
skin rosy from his stubbled chin and cheeks. The man he’d once been might have
asked if he’d harmed her. The man he was at this moment wanted only one answer.

She needed more of him as he did of her.

“Zach,” she murmured, concern in her voice when she saw his
intent.

“My leg’s fine,” he insisted.

She said nothing more as he climbed onto the table, his body
straddling hers, head facing her feet, his balls and cock dangling above her
face.

“Lick me,” he ordered, the edginess in his voice as much
from lust as from the pain in his leg. “Touch me,” he begged.

As though she cherished his cock, Toni cradled it in her
palm and ran the tip of her tongue up its length.

On his elbows, his head between her legs, Zach shuddered in
delight. A swell of heat flushed his skin. It took most of his will to
concentrate on her pleasure rather than his own. With his hands beneath her
legs and his fingers gripping the inside of her thighs, he licked the length of
her rosy cleft.

Toni let out a guttural moan. Her ass left the table,
bringing her cunt closer to his mouth.

Taking full advantage, Zach licked her clit, enjoying its
faint saltiness, the flavor of her and of him from last night’s passion. Not to
be outdone, she cupped his balls in her free hand and drew his rigid cock
inside her mouth.

Lids fluttering, he muttered an oath. To it, she responded
by taking him even deeper.

Her mouth, greedy and loving, embraced him, its heat and
moisture destroying his concentration. Several moments passed before Zach
managed a bit of control. Even then, as he tongued her clit, she tongued the
back of his crown, its sensitivity matching that of her nub. As one, they
aroused each other, delaying climax, indulging in an act both salacious and
oddly sacred.

When Zach came, his climax produced a shout of relief that
sounded like a request for more.

And Toni gave it to him. She delivered herself fully.

Well into the morning, they played…they loved…on the lawn,
in the pool, back on the front porch, stopping only when their growling bellies
tamped down their lust.

As they ate a late breakfast, Zach noticed Toni’s
increasingly pensive mood. He wanted to attribute it to fatigue, but knew
better. Mischief and the sparkle he loved no longer registered in her eyes, the
same as last night, as though she were pulling away from him earlier than he’d
planned.

He fought for the right words to say in the hope of
recapturing their earlier joy. Instead, he recalled what she’d said as this all
began.

This isn’t about my past. It’s about here and now. You
and me. Having some fun. Then I take off. No harm done. You go back to your
life. I go back to mine.

As if reading his thoughts, she finished the last piece of
bacon and pushed away from the table. “We better shower and get dressed.” She
used an impassive tone, the kind reserved for a stranger. “We have to go to the
sheriff’s for my license.”

“Come on,” Robbie said, his voice uncharacteristically
subdued so as not to be overheard. “It’s Angel’s birthday. You gotta help me
celebrate with him tonight.”

Avoiding an immediate answer, Toni finished writing her work
order. She’d picked up her license a week ago. During that time, she’d gotten
her first paycheck. With the money she’d wired to Lucky and Belle and what
she’d been forced to use for the cheapo insurance that wasn’t cheap at all, she
didn’t have much left to blow, especially on a party.

After her next and last paycheck, there was still her bike
to get out, gas and food to buy for her trip out of Indulgence, the money she’d
need for an inexpensive hotel or the Y before she returned to the circuit and
got back to her life.

Away from here. Far from Zach.

Hopelessness and anguish washed over her so quickly, Toni
had to lean against an SUV to hide her dizziness. Not once since she’d been a
scared, homeless kid had she allowed herself this kind of weakness or grief. It
was too unnerving, too daunting. In those early days, she’d had to be strong.

Toni wasn’t certain she could do it again now.

She loved Zach, powerless to deny her feelings any longer.

She’d liked him from the first when he’d bought her
breakfast at Em and Hector’s, treating her with respect, behaving as though she
mattered. The pain he’d gone through in losing Meg endeared him to her even
more. Never had she felt anything as powerful for another man. She’d allowed
other guys to get close in order to quiet her gnawing loneliness. She’d slept
with a few so she might feel connected to another human being, at least for a
moment.

When it came to Zach, Toni carried him with her at all
times, recalling his scent, touch, the impressive thunder of his voice, his
impassioned and endearing caress.

“Come on,” Robbie repeated, breaking into her thoughts.
“I’ll buy,” he added finally.

Toni heard the reluctance in his voice. Forcing a smile, she
said, “You have your girlfriend to think about, not me.”

“She can’t come.” He curled his upper lip in disgust. “They
got her on the night shift at the hospital’s laundry. It’ll just be you, me and
Angel.”