The heat was almost unbearable, rising off the street in waves. Men, Jack included, were shedding their coats and loosening their ties as soon as they left the church; the women, however, were stuck with bras and pantyhose, and Daisy was glad her legs were bare. The slight breeze was hot, but at least she could feel it.
He stripped his tie from around his neck and stuffed it in his coat pocket. “I’ll follow you.”
“Where are we going?” she asked in bewilderment.
“To your house.”
Her heart jumped again. “I always eat Sunday dinner with Mother and Aunt Jo.”
“Call them and cancel. You’ve just moved in; you have things to do.”
And one of those things was him, if she was correctly reading the intent look in his eyes. She cleared her throat. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“I think it’s the best damn idea I’ve had in years.”
Swiftly she looked around. The church parking lot was mostly deserted now, with no one wanting to linger in the heat. Still she leaned closer so there was no chance of being overheard. “You know what would happen!”
“I’m counting on it.”
“I don’t want an affair!” she hissed. “I want a relationship, and you’re getting in the way!”
“So until a relationship comes along, have an affair with me.” He moved closer, looming over her. As hot as the day was, he was hotter; his heat wrapped around her. His gray-green eyes burned. “I’m healthy. I’m normal, nothing too kinky. I’ll try not to get you pregnant’ “Try?” she echoed, outraged.
He shrugged. “Things happen. Rubbers break.”
That should have been an appalling thought. It wasn’t. The fact that it wasn’t told her how far gone she was, when not even the thought of an accidental pregnancy could cool her down. And what was—
“What’s too kinky?” she whispered.
A grin flashed across his hard face. “I’ll show you.”
The old Daisy would have stormed off in a huff. Well, maybe not, because the old Daisy would have been as powerfully tempted as the new Daisy was. But the old Daisy wouldn’t have had the nerve to go with a man for the express purpose of having sex, and the new Daisy couldn’t seem to think of anything else. She wanted this man, and she was afraid that if anyone else came along, she wouldn’t pay any attention to him because she was too busy obsessing about Jack.
“C’mon, try me on for size,” he murmured. “I dare you.”
It wasn’t the dare that did it; it was the thought of trying him on.
“If you get me pregnant,” she said, “you have to marry me.”
“Deal,” he said, and they got in their respective cars and drove to Lassiter Avenue, with him keeping a respectful distance between their bumpers.
She should have been shaking like a leaf, she thought a few minutes later as she put her key in the lock, but her hands were steady. She was only shaking on the inside, where it didn’t count.
Jack stood in the middle of her cozy little living room, looking around, while she went to the phone and called her mother. As usual, she wasn’t very good at lying, and when her mother asked her why she wasn’t coming to dinner, all Daisy could do was look at him and blurt, “Jack’s here.”
He grinned.
“Oh!” said her mother, and giggled. Her mother giggled. “I understand completely. You two have fun.”
Daisy desperately hoped her mother didn’t under-stand completely, but the way things had been going lately, maybe she did. She put the phone down and said, “She told us to have fun.”
“I intend to.” He still stood in the middle of the room, making it look even smaller. “Are you hungry? For food,” he added, feeling the need to be specific.
She shook her head.
“Good,” he said, and reached for her.
She had almost convinced herself she’d imagined how good he tasted, until he kissed her again. She made a little humming sound and twined her arms around his neck, going up on tiptoe to press against him and meet his demanding mouth with demands of her own.
The peculiar melting sensation spread through her again, weakening her knees so that she had to lean against him, let him support all of her weight, and that made the melting spread even faster. Oh, God, he felt good. Her entire body throbbed from the contact. The incredible hardness of his muscles, the heat that practically glowed from him, wrapped her in a cocoon of physical delight that also robbed her of strength and left her totally pliable to his touch.
His arms tightened, and he pulled her even closer, fitting her soft curves to all the hard angles of his body, tilting her so that her pelvis cradled the hard bulge of his erection. She made another little sound, and he deepened the kiss until her breath was no longer her own, until it didn’t matter if she breathed or not.
This was desire. This. The heat and need, the deep throb of emptiness, the tension and lassitude and sharp tingles. This.
She moaned, her head falling weakly back. He took the opportunity offered, his hot mouth trailing down her throat to close on the exquisitely sensitive juncture between neck and shoulder, scraping the tendon with his teeth, sucking her skin. Her entire body jolted at the wild, uncontained pleasure; her knees gave out completely, but it didn’t matter, because he had her safe in his grasp.
His hands moved over her with slow, maddening purpose, stroking her breasts, unzipping her dress and pulling it down and off her arms, then unsnapping her bra and disposing of it. The dress bunched around her waist, unable to drop because there wasn’t even a breath of space between their hips. At last his hands were on naked flesh, and he rubbed her nipples into hard, aching points, then tilted her back over his arm and bent his head to suck them. He wasn’t gentle, but he didn’t have to be. She clasped her hands around his head and held him there, gasping out cries of pleasure as the pressure of his mouth catapulted her to an even higher level of sensation.