Too Sexy For Marriage Page 9

  As Jason drove her home, she prepared herself to be calm and collected when or if he kissed her. She opened her front door and turned to say something, and his lips brushed hers.

  Rational thought went out the window. She and Jason ended up on her couch, she wasn’t sure how. She was too busy being kissed, gently, rapidly, successively. There and gone, there and gone, until she reached both hands around his head and held his teasing mouth in place atop hers.

  Jason deepened the kiss without hurrying it. Timeless kisses. Inventive kisses. Slowly tasting the inner curve of her lower lip with his tongue, he reverently paid tribute to her mouth, treating it as if it were a warm subterranean temple with arched ceilings. The delicate yet torrid caress on the roof of her mouth made her shiver with desire.

  It was as if she’d never been kissed before, as if she were discovering the process for the very first time. He caressed her with soul-stealing longing, using his lips, tongue and teeth to express every nuance of need and passion.

  The circle of his arms grew smaller as he molded her more tightly against him on the welcoming softness of the couch. Pressed against him from shoulder to thigh, her body hummed with anticipation. The thin cotton of her shorts provided no protection from the hard ridge of his desire.

  Bending her knee, she cradled him against her. She could feel the muscles of his thighs flexing against hers as he shifted against her, causing her to gasp in undisguised passion.

  The expression of Heather’s pleasure was Jason’s reward for his leisurely, intimate movements. He remembered Heather telling him that nothing worth doing wasn’t worth doing slowly. So he’d deliberately paced himself. Knowing his intense arousal put him in a time warp that turned one minute into ten, he repeated every movement, telling himself he had all night to explore every inch of her mouth, and her body.

  Moving too fast meant he might miss something, like the delicious hollow at the base of her throat. She tasted like strawberries as he licked his way to the open V-neck of her T-shirt. Nudging aside the warm cotton, he nuzzled the shadowy hollow between her breasts.

  He could feel her response as her full breasts thrust softly against his chest, her nipples urging him to visit them next. But he took his time, lifting her T-shirt until he felt the beat of her heart against his open mouth. There he lingered until he’d undone the front fastener of her bra.

  Now there was nothing to interfere with his erotic travels. Stroking the underside of her breasts with the tips of his fingers, he directed the rest of his attention to kissing each creamy rise, leisurely ascending all the way to the rosy tips. Once there he staked his claim, wetting her with his tongue before blowing gently on her skin.

  He took his time to suckle and tease, brush and graze, until she was utterly steeped in passion. He discovered that a flick of his curled tongue applied just so made her purr.

  Heather was in heaven, driven there by a devilish angel who taught her what it felt like to be truly adored. She slid her fingers through Jason’s hair as he bent his head yet again. How much more of this could she take? She was already damp between her legs.

  As if to answer her unspoken question, he slid his hand beneath the wide cuff of her shorts and up her thigh to the heart of her femininity. He teased her there, too, exploring without hurrying, advancing and retreating.

  His finger stole beneath the elastic of her silky panties to brush against her hidden curls. His touch was just like his kisses, there and gone, there and gone, there…there…lingering, gliding, sliding, closer…closer…until he parted the soft folds between her legs to stroke her inside and out. His skilful fingers practiced their blissful magic while his sexy mouth surrounded her breast. Jason lavished her with attention, with tiny thrusts and provocative swirls.

  The tension spiraled, thrusting her into a world of suspended anticipation of almost unbearable pleasure. Crossing her legs only trapped his hand more intimately against her. One brush of his thumb against the tiny nub hidden in her crisp curls and she was a goner. Her orgasm took her, showering over her, expanding and contracting until she was flooded with sensual fulfilment.

  Jason thought he’d never heard such a wonderful sound as her voice, rich with satisfaction, murmuring his name. Looking down at her, he gently smoothed her hair away from her face. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were different. So open and honest.”

  Open and honest. The words echoed in her head with mocking repetition. Open and honest. Not true. Sex and lies. A dangerous combination.

  Even more dangerous was the fact that Heather now knew this was more than just sex. She’d never let another man do what Jason had just done. She’d never shared that much of herself, left herself that vulnerable. Love. Passion. Infatuation. She was in way over her head here.

  What had ever made her think she could manage a mixed-up mess like this? Her love life had been rocky before, but nothing like this. She had no experience with this kind of blind panic. Jason had a way of touching her soul that scared her spitless. If he knew the truth, if he found out about the damn bet, he’d hate her. She knew it. She had to stop this before the pain became something she’d never be able to recover from.

  “If there’s one thing I hate it’s lies,” Jason was saying, hammering more nails in her emotional coffin. “But enough talking. Where were we…?” He leaned down to kiss her again.

  “You were just leaving!” Heather declared, frantically pushing him away.

  7

  “OUCH!” Jason yelped, landing on the floor with a thump. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “You’ve got to leave now,” Heather repeated, smoothing out her mussed clothing with frenzied fingers.

  “Leave?” Jason repeated in confusion. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No.” She leaped from the couch as if it were an instrument of the devil.

  Things had gotten completely out of control. And she’d let them. She’d allowed herself to be carried away in the tidal wave of grand passion. And more.

  She’d fallen in love with Jason Knight. A man who valued honesty. A man who had zero tolerance for lies. A man who didn’t approve of betting and hated surprises. A man who thought she’d been honest with him. A man who knew nothing about the incriminating bet she’d entered into with Bud.

  There was no way upstanding, honorable Jason would understand that she’d tried to snag him to prove a point. God! She wished she’d never heard of the word snag, and wished more than ever that she’d just blown Bud off when he’d baited her into agreeing to the bet.

  Instead she was the one who’d learned a painful lesson. Bets and romance didn’t mix.

  Jason sat on the floor and eyed her warily. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t do this. I think it would be best if we didn’t see each other anymore.”

  “Is this some kind of sick joke?” he demanded, running an impatient hand through his dark hair before getting to his feet with catlike grace. “A minute ago you were with me all the way. Are you saying that I imagined your response to me? That you were an unwilling participant?”

  “No.” She looked away. “I’m sorry. I can’t explain.”

  “Try.”

  Heather couldn’t try. She was too concerned with trying not to cry in front of him to be able to explain things to him. Besides, explaining meant telling him the truth and she couldn’t do that. Call her a coward, but at that moment she couldn’t bear to see the censure in his eyes. So she said the thing that would get rid of him the fastest. “I’m in love with someone else.”

  Sure enough, two minutes later Jason was gone. He didn’t even slam her front door. Instead he closed it with controlled emphasis.

  “CALL BACK LATER,” Nita mumbled into the phone.

  “Don’t hang up!” Heather yelled, sitting up in her bed. “I need your help.”

  “Do you know what time it is?”

  Heather glanced at her clock. “It’s seven in the morning.”

  “On a Sunday. My day off
,” Nita groaned.

  “You called me yesterday morning at seven,” Heather said defensively.

  “So what is this, payback time?”

  “No, it’s panic time.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Nita grumbled. “This sounds like something I’d understand better with some caffeine in my system. Hang on while I switch to my cordless phone. Okay, I’m heading toward the kitchen. I’ve got the coffee machine turned on. Until it starts perking, you better start at the beginning and speak slowly and clearly. Remember, you are speaking to someone who is just about comatose.”

  “It’s all over,” Heather tragically declared.

  “That’s the beginning?”

  “The end.”

  “I said to start at the beginning.”

  “I’m not going to see Jason anymore. This entire situation has gotten way out of hand. I should never have agreed to this ridiculous wager in the first place. I must have been temporarily insane.” Trying to stay calm, Heather leaned back against the pile of pillows she’d stuffed behind her.

  “I don’t think that defense is going to stand up in court,” Nita said matter-of-factly.

  “Don’t mention courts. It makes me think of Jason.”

  “Forget starting at the beginning,” Nita decided. “Skip to the chase. What’s the bottom line here?”

  “I’m calling the bet off.” Heather’s voice rose as panic took hold.

  “You can’t do that. If you do, you’ll lose.”

  “I don’t care,” Heather said grimly.

  “Easy for you to say, you don’t have five hundred dollars resting on this!”

  “You shouldn’t have bet that much if you couldn’t afford to lose it.”

  “What are you, a representative of Gamblers Anonymous?” Nita retorted in exasperation. “I’m telling you, you can’t quit. The women of WMAX are counting on you. Do you know what kind of hell Bud will make of our lives if you give in now? We’ll never hear the end of it. And that’s not all. He’ll start rumors about how the show host of Chicago’s most popular relationship talk show can’t even handle her own romantic relationships. I’m telling you, there’s no going back now.”

  “Nita, listen to me.” Heather’s voice was becoming increasingly more frantic. “I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Something happened last night. What was it? Jason didn’t attack you or anything, did he?”

  “No. If there was any attacking going on I did it.”

  “Was he protesting?” Nita asked.

  “No.”

  “Then it wasn’t an attack, it was a seduction.”

  It had been that, all right. And so much more. He’d stolen her heart. “It’s not a game anymore. This has gotten serious. I think I’m falling for this guy.”

  “And what’s wrong with that?”

  “Everything,” Heather wailed. “Do you know what he told me was one of the things he admired most about me? My honesty. That I’ve always been upfront and straight with him.”

  “Uh-oh. You didn’t tell him about the bet, did you?”

  “No. Don’t you see? I’ve been deceiving him from the very beginning.”

  “So wait a few months—or better yet, years—and then tell. him. It will be something the two of you will be able to laugh about with your kids and grandkids.”

  “I thought I could keep things under control, but I’m way out of my league here. I’m in over my head.”

  “Okay, okay, I get the idea.” Nita said. “Just calm down and tell me what happened in the past twenty-four hours to change things. Yesterday you were handling the situation just fine.”

  “Jason and I made out on my couch. Big-time.”

  “And that was a problem?”

  “I liked it.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Nita stated with wry humor.

  “Too much.”

  “Trust me, you can’t like making out too much.”

  “You can when your heart is in jeopardy.”

  “So what did you do?” Nita demanded.

  “I told him I couldn’t see him again. And I told him another lie—that I was in love with someone else. To cover my first lie, I had to tell a second. I thought it wouldn’t hurt, but it does. It hurts so damn much.”

  Somehow Nita was able to follow her disjointed rambling. “Aw jeez, you do have it bad. Falling for him wasn’t part of the plan, kiddo.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Heather shot back.

  “You’re sure it’s not just a case of raging hormones? I mean, you haven’t known the guy all that long.”

  “You know how I tease callers about love at first sight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, the joke is on me this time, and I’m not laughing anymore.” In fact, she was on the verge of tears, her voice cracking with the strain.

  Nita’s voice softened. “You don’t think he’d understand if you explained the bet to him?”

  “No. Trust me, he would not be amused. I know enough about his character type to know that. And he’d find out, I know he would. I didn’t have any other choice. I had to stop things from going any further before any more damage was done.”

  “But if this guy is the one for you…” For the first time, Nita sounded uncertain.

  Heather wanted to yank the covers over her head and weep. “Maybe it is just raging hormones, after all.”

  “And maybe the earth is flat. I don’t think so.”

  Heather sighed. “Me, either.”

  “YOU’RE LISTENING to Love on the Rocks and we’re talking to Annie from Aurora this afternoon. Go ahead, Annie.”

  “There’s this guy who lives in the same building I do. I knew the first time I saw him in the elevator that he was the one for me. I know you don’t believe in love at first sight…”

  Heather shot a killer look at Nita through the booth window. If Monday’s weren’t already hard enough to deal with, now she had Nita tweaking her broken heart. “Well, actually, Annie, I’ve had a change of heart on that subject. I’m now willing to admit that love at first sight might exist, after all. So you fell for this guy the first time you saw him. Your toes curled and your heart actually did take a flip or two.” Heather certainly knew how that felt. “What’s the problem?”

  “Do you think it’s really love I feel for him?”

  “Only you can know that for sure. Tell me how he makes you feel,” Heather asked, while typing on her computer link, You’re dead meat, Nita!

  Heather listened to the caller’s comments with one part of her, while the other part reflected on the fact that Nita had chosen this call deliberately, hoping to make Heather change her mind about seeing Jason again and not cancelling the bet.

  After Annie had waxed eloquently about how her loved one made her feel, Heather had to silently admit that she and Annie shared the same symptoms.

  “Sounds to me like you love him, Annie,” she said when the woman paused for breath.

  “I’m scared because there’s something. I haven’t told him. About myself, I mean,” Annie said, her voice trembling.

  “What haven’t you told him?”

  “That I’m really a man.”

  Heather recovered quickly enough to hit the so-low-it’s-in-the-basement deep-pitched-voice tape, the one that exclaimed “Oh, no!” whenever she needed it, before wryly noting, “Well, you might have a problem there, Annie. But as I was trying to explain to a dense friend just the other day—” Heather gave Nita a meaningful glare “—the truth is bound to come out, sooner or later. So good luck to you and your Prince Charming, Annie.”

  Once they’d made the break to commercials, Heather stuck her tongue out at Nita, who opened the adjoining door to pop into the studio.

  “I didn’t know Annie used to be a man, I swear. I hope you won’t hold that against me,” Nita added before making another pitch to save the bet.

  Heather cut her off. “Forget it.”

  “Think of all I’ve done for you,” Nita
said.

  “I am thinking. Of Omar. Of you at the restaurant right before I ran into that waiter.” Heather tapped her fingernails on the console.

  For once, Nita was speechless. She simply shrugged and returned to the production booth.

  Once Nita was gone, Heather leaned into the mike and adjusted the slide volume control on the console. “And we’re back with—” she checked the computer screen ahead of her “—Bob from Burbank. What can we do for you, Bob?”

  “A few minutes ago you were talking about the truth coming out And I was wondering, how important is honesty in a relationship?”

  “Depends what you’re talking about If she asks you if she really looks fat in a certain dress, then honesty may not be the best course of action. If she asks you if you’re seeing another woman, then we’re talking about something else again.”

  “So you’re saying honesty isn’t necessarily important?”

  “If you’re not afraid of the truth, then you have nothing to worry about.”

  But Heather was afraid of the truth. She was also afraid of having fallen in love with a man who loved control in his life and hated lies and surprises.

  “What about private investigators?” Bob asked. “Do you think it’s fair for a woman to hire one to check up on me—I mean, to check up on a guy? Isn’t that entrapment or something?”

  Heather quickly activated the slide on a sound effect she hadn’t used for a while, the thump, thump, thump of footsteps approaching. “If you’ve got nothing to hide, then investigating you won’t reveal anything, aside from the fact that you and your significant other have a problem with trust. You might want to talk to her about that issue, Bob. Thanks for calling.” She punched the next phone line. “Go ahead, Sue from Streamwood.”

  “I was just wondering why men are so sensitive about criticism from a woman. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but each time we go out he acts like such a jerk that I could die.”

  “Don’t die, Sue. We need all the callers we can get. Tell me, what kind of things does he do?”