The Rebound Guy (7 page)

She laughed. “I bet you are.”

“I mean, I’m sorry for what I did. You may have been right about my intent and I was wrong to allow something like that to happen.”

Lauren sat on the edge of her bed. Her eyes fluttered closed and she rubbed them and pinched the bridge of her nose. “All right. I accept your apology. You’re admitting your mistake, and that’s good.”

“Great. Can I come over so we can talk?”

“No.”

“Why not? You just said—” His voice rose in that petulant way he had. Lauren hadn’t realized until now how much it annoyed her.

“I accept your apology. It doesn’t mean we have anything else to talk about.”

“That’s it, then? You’re dumping me for Eric because he was there to give you a free ride when you wanted to get back at me?”

Anger flared in Lauren, not because of Mark’s crass remark or his harsh tone, but because she feared he might be right. Her own feelings made no sense to her. Could she fall out of love with Mark in the space of a few seconds and fall in love with Eric just as quickly?

The answer was at least partially clear. She hadn’t loved Mark. The pain she felt at finding him with Sandy had been a mixture of shock and indignant anger, but had he really broken her heart? No. He’d opened her eyes.

“Mark, let’s just leave it, all right? If you had ‘intent’, then maybe you should be with someone else. I know I should be.” She hung up without waiting for Mark’s reply. She held her breath for a moment, waiting for him to call back with his closing arguments, but the phone remained silent. After a few minutes, she lay back on her bed, relieved and a little out of sorts.

Mark wasn’t right for her. No need for cross-examination there. But his words still stung. What could she do to convince Eric he was more than a rebound guy? What did she need to do to convince herself? 

Eric contemplated the bouquet of pink roses he’d picked up on the way to Lauren’s apartment.
How cliché
, he thought. She’d probably think he was a sap for bringing her flowers.

Maybe he should have gone with red ones, or perhaps a single rose?

He laughed to himself. Why was he worried about her reaction? He’d already shown up on her doorstep with a box of condoms. Any kind of flower could only be a step up in class.

He rang the bell, straightened his tie and waited. He hated ties.

Lauren would think he was an ass, showing up with flowers and wearing a tie to impress a girl who’d thrown herself into his arms a week ago.

Maybe that’s what this was all about. She’d chosen him then; he wanted her to know he chose her now.

When the door opened, he knew he’d made the right choice. She looked incredible.

Her sexy black dress had barely-there straps and her shoes laced around her ankles. She’d put her hair up and her lips were wet and red as sin, like she’d been sucking on something juicy and sweet.

How was he supposed to concentrate on dinner when she looked like that?

“You’re early,” she said. He watched her mouth, caught by the shimmer and thought wicked things.

“No traffic.” He handed her the flowers.

“Thank you.” She seemed to hesitate, bit her lip as she took the roses and stepped back. “Do you want to come in?”

Oh, yes. But if he did, they’d never leave. He wanted to see how that hot little dress looked on the floor. “The reservations are for seven-thirty.

We need to get going.”

“Okay.” Disappointment flickered in her eyes. Who was he kidding?

They’d never get through a meal. Just looking at her, the curve of her shoulder, creamy against the thin black strap of her dress, made him hard as a rock. He wanted to taste her , dip his finger down into the tight cleft between her breasts and run his hand up her thigh under the flowing hem of her skirt.

“I’ll get my purse and put these in water,” she said as she turned toward the kitchen. As she moved, her hips swayed and her dress whirled around her thighs.

Eric licked his lips and tugged at his collar. His cock stood at full attention when she stretched to reach for a vase from a high shelf next to the sink. Her fingers just missed it.

“I need to get the step stool—”

“Don’t bother. I’ve got it.” He crossed the living room in three strides, barely aware of the fact he’d shut the door behind him when he entered.

He reached over her head to retrieve the vase and all logic fled.

With her body pressed between his and the kitchen countertop, he felt every curve. The scent of her perfume, a musky, warm floral, seeped into his brain and kicked his libido into overdrive.

As they set the vase on the counter, he brought one arm around her waist and drew her body tight against him. She moaned when his lips found the soft spot under her right ear.

“What about dinner?” Her question ended in a sharp sigh of surprise as he burrowed his hand under her skirt, searching for her heat.

“We should…go. Now.” His body refused to obey his words. He craned his neck around to make sure he actually had closed the door behind him. He hadn’t really meant to, but maybe instinct had taken over. Some part of his brain had known that if he crossed the threshold, the gentleman he’d wanted to be tonight would be left outside in the hall looking in while bad Eric took over. At least the neighbors wouldn’t be doing the same.

“Maybe we…can change the reservation?” Lauren murmured the words through a silky sigh. She backed against him, giving him unspoken permission to do as he pleased. His fingers found the lacey band of her panties and tugged down. He cupped her and seated his erection between her legs.

“This isn’t what I had planned for tonight,” he told her as he ground his hips against her. She spread her legs and leaned forward. One strap of her dress fell from her shoulder, and Eric was lost.

He held her against him with one hand while the other found the zipper of her dress and yanked it down. When the satiny bodice fell open, he filled that hand with her breast. Her nipple grew hard against his palm.

He planted kisses from the nape of her neck down her spine as he sank to his knees behind her. The dress fell, inch by inch, until it pooled around her ankles, and she kicked it aside.

She braced her hands on the counter as he dragged her black lace panties down to her knees and farther, kissing the sensitive skin behind her knees as he went. She kicked them aside as well, and turned around.

“How do you want me?” she asked. His body seemed to catch fire, burning under his clothes as he gazed at her. He’d been prepared to worship her, but her question transformed him from supplicant to plunderer. A growl bubbled up around his reply.

“On the floor, on your back.”

Lauren’s knees buckled at Eric’s command. A small part of her brain that was still lucid thanked the stars that her kitchen floor had carpeting.

She lay back, watching Eric as he dragged his loosened tie out of his collar. He trailed the strip of silk over her thighs and between her legs.

The rasp of fabric set her clit pulsing with need. She arched and dug her heels into the carpet, writhing for him as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled off his belt.

He peeled his fly open and released his erection, already glistening at the tip. She wanted him inside her so badly she almost suggested they forget the condom, but that lucid part of her mind wouldn’t allow her to be completely irresponsible.

She flicked her gaze in the direction of the bedroom and he understood her telepathic signal.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got one.” He produced a foil packet from his back pocket and ripped it open with his teeth.

Had he planned this all along? Did he know she’d be so hot for him after two days apart that she wouldn’t care about dinner? She’d worry about that later. Right now…

She reached for his cock, pumped him as he settled over her.

Together they rolled the condom down over his shaft. “In me…now!”

He didn’t question her directive. Instead, he plunged inside, his hot, hard length filling her. She gasped at the sensation. With no mattress to cushion her hips, no give to the floor, she felt him all the way. “Ah!”

Lauren pulled Eric’s body down on top of her and threw her head back. He kissed her neck, her breasts, and began to move. She clung to him, riding the wave of sensation that built higher each time he crashed against her. Her moan became a whimper as her ass slid along the carpet. He pumped harder and she rose to meet him, titling her hips to take him in as deep as she could. His breath rasped in her ear and sweat covered his chest. At the moment his body went rigid, Lauren’s orgasm claimed her. She gasped at the sensation of his cock pulsing, thrumming inside her tight channel. She held him while he emptied and he stroked her gently, easing her back from the brink as her inner spasms subsided.

They lay panting, wrapped in each other, Lauren’s dress beneath her head and her panties at arm’s length on the floor beside her. Eric’s tie trailed between her thighs, christened with the essence of their lovemaking.

It had never been that good with anyone else. Eric thought his heart would give out from the intensity of his orgasm and from the overwhelming need to feel Lauren around him. When his racing heartbeat finally slowed and the sheen of sweat that had lubricated their movements cooled, he pushed himself up, straddling Lauren as she lay spent beneath him. He didn’t yet trust his legs to hold him, so he rolled to the side, pulling the used condom off carefully for disposal.

“I really wanted to take you to dinner tonight,” he said finally. “I didn’t plan this.”

She rose on her elbows. With her legs now crossed at the knees and one sexy foot dangling, she looked both heavenly and sinful. “So the emergency condom is a throwback to your Boy Scout training?”

“It is.” He tried to sound sober and determined. She laughed.

“Do you get a badge for that?” She rolled to retrieve her panties and handed them to him. “Put these back where you found them, please.”

“If I must.” He slid the lace over her thighs and she shimmied them back into place. He looked at the clock above the dinette. “If we hurry…”

“Hurry? And go out looking like I just had sex on the kitchen floor?

No way.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“Not hungry enough to go out with my new rug burns showing.” She reached around to massage her shoulder and when she turned her back, Eric saw some of the damage they’d done to her creamy skin. He traced a reddened patch with his finger and she shivered.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s all right. You can be on the bottom next time.”

“No problem.” He caught her gaze then zeroed in on the slight trembling of her bottom lip. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and turned away to gather her dress. Eric’s heart missed a beat and he scooted across the floor to pull her into his arms. “What’s wrong? You didn’t…I didn’t…”

“You did. You proved your own point, I guess. Or maybe it was my point. I didn’t mean for this to happen when I showed up at your apartment last week. All I wanted…” A deep, shuddering breath interrupted her confession, and hot tears spilled on Eric’s chest. “All I wanted was to be with someone I trusted. I didn’t want to hurt you or lead you on.”

“It’s okay.” Ah, the truth. Lauren didn’t want to date him. He was good for a roll on the kitchen floor, but that was it. Beyond the incredible sex, they were nothing more than friends, drifting apart now because sex had replaced the easy trust they’d built with each other. He smoothed her hair and swallowed a bitter, self-deprecating remark about not minding being her rebound guy.

“It’s not okay, Eric. I want more than just this.” She shook a handful of black satin at him. “I want to be with you. I don’t care about fancy dinners or keeping a respectable distance during the week. I want you here, all the time. I know that doesn’t make sense. I know it’s stupid to think I’m in love with you after one week of—”

“You think you’re in love with me?”

“No.
Yes
! How can I be sure? Is this love?”

Eric looked around the kitchen. His pants lay under a chair. His tie smelled like sex and the roses he’d brought lay wilting on the counter above their heads.
God, yes.

“Maybe not
this
,” he replied. “Sex in the kitchen might just be sex.

But this…” He kissed her, each cheek, her nose, her lips. He folded her body against him and kissed her hair. “I think this might be.”

“How can we tell?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t we start by getting dressed? Then we can order some Chinese food and watch a movie, or talk…and then go to bed, alone or together. Whatever feels right at the time.”

Lauren smiled through her tears. “You sound so wise. This is why I always come to you for advice.”

“Well, no more of that. I’m not going to help you deal with your man problems anymore.” “What will I do…if I have man problems?” Lauren nuzzled his ear, kissed him, and her head dipped down, seeking access to the smooth skin above his collarbone.

“If I’m your man, you won’t have any problems.”

She laughed. And laughed.

“Hey.” He tapped her nose.

“Sorry. It’s a sweet sentiment. I guess I’ll just have to rely on Tara and Roxy to get us through the rough patches in our relationship.”

“Heaven help us.” He kissed her again and cradled her in his arms as he lowered her back to the floor.

“I thought you said kitchen sex was just sex,” she said as he tucked her dress behind her shoulders and dove in to taste the sweet spot beneath her collar bone.

“It is. But I think I have another condom in my other pocket—and the only rough patches we’re going to have will be on your butt.”

She bit his earlobe and rolled on top of him.

“Or maybe mine!” he said.

“Burn, baby, burn!” Lauren giggled as she straddled Eric and set to work giving him a few rug burns of his own.

About the Author

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