It threw him for a minute, made him pull back, stop and think. Of course he was angry with his father for hurting his mother, but she had forgiven him. Maybe somewhere deep inside he was also angry with Hal Hayes for never being a father to him,for forcing him to miss out on all the things that other kids took for granted and got to do with their dads.
He didn’t want to feel anger anymore. He wanted to be the better person like his mother and let it all go, leave it firmly entrenched in the past. He didn’t want to become bitter and selfish, the very things he despised in his father.
Josie was between his legs, hair damp and sticking out, skin cool and smelling like the ocean. Her left nipple was visible between two palm trees on the print of her bikini top.
His hand reached out, shook a little, cupped her breast, and held the firm giving swell of her body. “You know, you’re damn near perfect.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Josie shivered at Houston’s sensual touch, at his words, at the insecurity she saw on his face. He was as vulnerable now as she had been after surgery the day before, and she hoped she could give him comfort the way he had her. She wanted him to trust her, confide in her.
“Thank you,” she said, simply. “I’m a work in progress.”
“Aren’t we all? You done with those sutures yet?” he asked, plucking at her nipple, casually, as if he hadn’t pushed her away physically and emotionally over and over.
“No.” Not even close. He had extensive embroidery all over his calf, and she’d only removed about a third of it.
Not that she could concentrate with his finger gliding, stroking, dragging her into desire. A moist want heated up the bottoms of the ridiculous bikini she was wearing, and her hand trembled a little against his leg.
“So hurry up.”
“I can’t when you’re doing that.” His finger had worked its way under the wet triangle of her bikini top, distracting her.
“What am I doing?”
Frustrating her, that’s what. “Oh, just casually touching me.”
Shifting a little so his finger fell away from her breast, she focused on the scissors in her hand and snipped another stitch.
“There’s nothing casual about it.”
A toe pressed against her clitoris through her wet bottoms.
Josie jerked back and gave Houston a dirty look, exasperated. “Are you trying to make me hurt you? I have sharp scissors in my hand!”
He looked unconcerned, resting his feet back on the tops of the sandals he’d kicked off, his expression mild but his eyes lit with lust. “But you know what? I trust you, Josie, to take care of me. And I’ve noticed you don’t drop things around me anymore. I wonder why.”
If he was teasing or not, she couldn’t tell, but his words made her warm, and it wasn’t just from sexual stimulation. She’d actually been stupid enough to fall in love with him, which was sure to go over fantastic, if she were ever crazy enough to admit it to him.
“You don’t make me nervous anymore.” It was true. While he still sent her blood pressure into the abnormal range, and could talk her into joining a nudist colony with at most a little coaxing and a box of chocolates, he didn’t intimidate her any longer.
“So it wouldn’t make you nervous if I untied the strings of your top?”
Okay, so she wouldn’t even need the chocolate as an inducement. A little coaxing and she’d be naked.
“No, that wouldn’t make me nervous.” Horny with hurricane intensity, but not nervous.
She added, “But I still think you should let me finish removing these before you take any string untying action.”
As it was she wasn’t being particularly gentle, but was tugging and dropping half-inch bits of thread on his coffee table with double her usual speed. Yet it didn’t seem to be bothering him or the erection growing steadily in his swim trunks spitting distancefrom her mouth. Or tongue distance, she thought, then berated herself for not behaving professionally while she worked. He was just damn close, that’s all.
And she was almost naked, wearing nothing but a couple of overpriced triangles on her breasts and a swatch of nylon across her butt, leaving the rest of her as bare and expansive as the 1-95 highway.
“I kind of like the idea of seeing you between my legs with no top on.”
Josie ripped out a stitch and willed her nipples not to harden ...too late.Geez, was there really any good response to a statement like that?
Emotions far too close to the surface for comfort, she went with humor, relieved she was two-thirds done removing the sutures. “I don’t mind if you take your shirt off.”