in your system?” That was good to know, since she was definitely in his. Some of the blood seemed to have returned to his brain because he was thinking again, and he was pretty sure he could move.
Nodding, she drew a deep breath, then hurried on. “I know that you may not be as attracted to me as I am to you, but maybe there’s something that I could do. Some particular fantasy that you’re into. I’d be willing to experiment a—”
“Hold up.” He was tempted to let her go on, just to hear what she’d say, but he was even more tempted to see her eyes. He reached over and pulled off the sunglasses. Her eyes were almond shaped, like a cat’s eye. Funny that he’d never noticed that when she’d worn the owl glasses. And this close, they were the color of rich, dark chocolate flecked with gold.
“Why did you do that?” Zoë asked.
“I was curious about what you would look like without glasses,” he said. “In reality. In my fantasies, you’re always underneath me and I’m inside of you when I take them off of you.”
“Oh.”
He had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes darken and cloud.
She blinked. “Well…then, I suppose…” She blinked again. “Are you saying that you’ll have sex with me?”
She was so damn cute. He had to touch her then, drawing one finger along her jawline as he’d done so often in his fantasies. Her skin was even softer than he’d imagined. “You had me at ‘Would you like to have sex with me?’ Since then, I’ve been fighting off the impulse to drag you to the ground and take you right here.”
She blinked again and glanced back at the houseboat. “That’s probably not a good idea. We could be interrupted.”
“Good point.” Taking her hand, he drew her into the trees.
ZOË SWALLOWED hard as she walked with Jed. She was going to have sex with Jed Calhoun. In a minute, he would sink in. To her. In a minute, they’d actually do it. When he’d touched her, just that gentle stroke of his finger along her jaw, heat had arrowed through her, and her toes had curled. No man had ever made her toes curl before.
So why was there a little knot of panic forming in her stomach? She stopped short, and he glanced down at her.
“Having second thoughts?” he asked.
“No.” She looked up and met his eyes. He suddenly seemed taller. Sunlight was filtered through the leaves overhead, and in the shifting shadows, Jed Calhoun looked more dangerous, too. For some reason, that made her want him even more. The thought occurred to her that she might just be getting in a little over her head.
“What then?” he asked.
She moistened lips that had gone dry and searched for something to say. “Protection.” She tugged her hand away. “I have some condoms in the car.”
Before she could even turn, he had her hand again. “I’ve got it covered.” With his free hand, he patted his pocket. “And that’s not the only thing that’s got you hesitating. We don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, we do.” She met his eyes then. “I don’t think I could stand it if we don’t. It’s just nerves. I haven’t done this in a while.”
“Good.”
She watched in fascination as his lips softened and curved. Something inside of her eased.
“That means we’re in the same boat, because I haven’t done this in a while, either,” he said as he drew her farther into the woods. “But you know what they say? It’s like riding a bike. I’m banking on the fact that it will come back to me.”
They’d reached a small clearing where a hammock swung between two trees. It was so quiet that she could hear leaves rustling overhead.
“I never learned how to ride a bike,” she confessed as nerves fluttered again in her stomach. There’d been too many classes, all that extra math and science that her parents had insisted she take so that she could live up to their expectations.
Jed squeezed her hand. “Not to worry. From the time I was about seven, bikes were my passion. I had dreams of racing in the Tour de France.”
She met his eyes. But he didn’t say any more. He seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move. She moistened her lips and cleared her throat. “I did offer you a fantasy. Just how kinky do you like them?”
He was studying her now, and she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. What was he seeing?
But she knew the answer to that. He was seeing a plain-looking woman. She didn’t kid herself that in the short amount of time after Sierra’s phone call she’d had time to transform herself.
Suddenly, he wiggled his eyebrows at her. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being very kinky, I’d say I like my fantasies at about a twelve.” Then he shot her a quick grin. “Just kidding. Why don’t we try this?” Leaning down, he gripped her chin and brushed a quick kiss over her mouth.
A dozen little explosions of pleasure shot through her. His lips couldn’t have been touching hers for more than an instant, yet every single atom in her body seemed to be reaching out to him, and a delicious weakness had attacked her limbs. If he hadn’t been holding her up by her chin, she just might have sagged to the ground.
“Truthfully, on the kinky scale, I’m pretty flexible,” he continued. “How about you? You did say that you’d be willing to experiment a bit. Did you mean it?”
When she moistened her lips this time, she tasted him—something dark and male and delicious. She thought that with Jed she just might be able to get to a twelve herself. “Sure.”
“Good. Because I’ve been having these recurring fantasies about making love to you in this hammock.”
Zoë shot the hammock a quick look. Then she checked out the two trees. They looked pretty sturdy. Still…“What if we fall out?”
“We won’t. I’ve explored the possibilities pretty thoroughly in my mind, and I have a plan.”
“Oh.” Zoë drew in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Great,” Jed said. “But first, we have to strip.”
4
“STRIP?” Zoë swallowed hard.
Jed unsnapped his shorts. “Yeah. It’ll be challenging to get our clothes off once we get in the hammock. It’s pretty close quarters.”
Her gaze froze on his zipper as he lowered it. Then his cutoffs slid to the ground. He wore only the thinnest pair of black briefs. For a moment, she simply stared. If she’d had any doubt at all that he was enthused about her proposition, it was put to rest.
“Need some help?” he asked.
“No.” She wasn’t going to think about her body. Just do it. She had a wild side. All she had to do was tap into it. Gripping the edges of her tank top, she pulled it over her head and dropped it on the ground. Then she ordered her hands to unsnap her jeans, pull the zipper. Somehow, she managed to wiggle out of the jeans.
“You don’t wear underpants.”
The hoarseness in his voice had her eyes flying to his. “Yes, I do. Usually.” She just hadn’t been able to put on the sensible cotton briefs she usually wore, and…“I didn’t have time to buy anything sexy.”
He smiled at her in that slow way he had. “My good luck. One of my favorite recurring fantasies is about a girl who never wears underpants.”
She stared at him. “That’s…so adolescent.”
He laughed then, the rich sound filling the air, and Zoë felt some of her tension ease.
He took one of her hands. “Are