Carved in Stone (23 page)

His praise swelled her heart to bursting, but it also embarrassed her.

“There are a lot of women like me looking for men like you,” Jessica said sincerely. “Now you wouldn’t even have to pay attention to see them. You look so good, they’ll fall at your feet.”

“I think you have me confused with my son, Shane,” Will said on a laugh.

“No—I know exactly who you are,” Jessica said. “You’re a great father, a good friend, a nice man, a very talented sculptor, and the most patient, thorough, enthusiastic lover I’ve ever had.”

Jessica smiled and traced his lips with her fingers and then felt his smoothly shaven face. He had shaved with his shower. He had shaved for her. Mating rituals, Jessica thought, stroking the line of his jaw and down his neck. She had always appreciated them.

“I like your shirt. You can wear it again tomorrow,” Jessica said, pulling it up and over his head before running her fingers through the smattering of black and silver curls that lightly covered his chest. She pressed her breasts into Will’s chest, her nipples peaking against the friction of being that close to him.

“I’ve thought about being with you all week. I kept telling myself it couldn’t have been as good as I remembered,” Jessica whispered. “Now show me how nice it can be Will, but don’t be so nice I can’t remember it clearly tomorrow.”

“Just promise me you’ll tell me if I do anything you don’t like,” Will requested.

“Okay. I don’t like this—I don’t like the constant worry you have. You’re making me apprehensive when two minutes ago I just wanted your mouth on me,” she complained.

Then she sighed in approval when Will lightly pinched and stroked her nipples until she was aroused again.

“That’s much better,” Jessica said sincerely, looking at him through mostly closed eyes.

Will growled in response to her praise, lay back on the bed, and then lifted her hips to literally throw her over his head.

Jessica landed face down just below her pillows and was still laughing when Will crawled up on the back of her and slid his hands under her to cup her breasts again. He nudged her hips with his, and she spread her legs in both reaction and anticipation.

“You have definitely got some great moves,” Jessica told Will, enjoying the way he made her feel so completely female and completely wanted.

“Me? If you keep bending your knees and backing into me, I’m going to go insane. Next time, I’m getting us both completely naked before we ever hit a bed,” Will declared, removing his hands from her breasts and easing himself off of her to kneel behind her.

He lifted and pulled her hips backward as he surged against her, already imagining just how it would be to thrust in and out of her in this position.

“Can we please
—
for the love of God
—
lose our clothes, Jessica?” he pleaded roughly, all but insane with lust.

Her muffled laughter against the bed clothes captured Will’s attention.

“What’s so damn funny?” he asked, letting her go, and rolling her over so he could peer into her smiling face.

“You don’t have to beg, Will. Just let me go long enough to undress,” Jessica said, laughing. “I’m just as bad off as you are. I want you even though you’re a crazy man in bed.”

Will rose to his knees again and pulled Jessica to hers. He unsnapped and unzipped her jeans and let her do the same to his. He pushed her jeans off her hips, but stopped at her thighs when she took his now aching erection in her hand.

“I honestly have never wanted a man so much in my entire life,” Jessica whispered. “It’s shocking to me that it’s always like this with you.”

Will leaned his head weakly on Jessica’s shoulder as she stroked him to a level of arousal he hadn’t had in years. Her hands were blissful. And this woman, Will thought, this was the right one to be touching him.

“Okay. On the count of three we’re going to let each other go, fall to our backs, get the rest of our clothes off, and then find the damn condoms I threw somewhere over here earlier,” Will ordered.

“Fine,” Jessica said, turning loose of him reluctantly, running fingertips along what she had created. “One. Two. Three.”

They moved apart, lay down, and shed their jeans at the same time, throwing them off the side of the bed to the floor. Then they were both on their knees again looking for the condoms.

“I swear I tossed three over here earlier,” Will vowed.

“I know you did. I saw them hit the bed,” Jessica agreed.

“Damn it,” Will said, when they were nowhere to be found.

“Look, I can’t get pregnant,” Jessica said at last. “If you don’t mind my past, I certainly don’t mind yours. I don’t usually do this without protection, but I’m willing to make an exception with you, Will.”

“Jessica,” Will whispered, crawling over and pushing her to her back. She let her legs fall open in welcome and Will accepted the invitation with gratitude, sliding into her welcoming wetness with incredible relief. “I wanted this level of intimacy all along. I’m falling in love with you. I know you don’t want to hear it yet, but you’re going to feel it every time we do this anyway.”

“Will,” Jessica said brokenly, arching up and straining against his hardness, all the while struggling to put aside his confession. “God it feels amazing to have you inside me. Less talking, more moving.”

Will laughed at her demand. After what he’d just admitted, he was grateful Jessica wasn’t asking him stop, because he couldn’t have. Like her, he could feel everything so much more without the condom and was lost in the wonder of it.

When Jessica brought her knees up alongside his hips and raised herself up to him to wrap arms around his chest, he felt himself hit the bottom of her with a possessive thrill that shocked him. It was like finding the place he belonged at last.

They moved together, and then took turns moving around each other as they enjoyed the smooth slip and slide of their bodies with nothing but skin against skin. Their movements were slow and sure in the late afternoon light as they watched each other climb and climb.

And just as Will feared Jessica wasn’t going to get there before he did, he felt the throbbing inside her begin. He let himself follow her over the edge and rocked against her until the waves had passed for both of them.

“We’ll try a new position next time,” Will said, kissing his way across her cheek and down her neck. “I just couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Neither could I,” Jessica said breathlessly, running her hands over Will’s hips. “Neither could I.”

Chapter 15

A couple hours later, they ordered Chinese food and ate in Jessica’s large kitchen with it’s ancient but sturdy farm table and six less sturdy mismatched chairs.

Will couldn’t stop looking at her. Jessica had put on cropped leggings falling just below her knees and the white gauzy shirt she’d worn to the art show last weekend. She’d left the bra off and her breasts swayed gently with every movement. She was so utterly sexy and feminine, it was all Will could do to be civilized and keep his hands to himself while they ate.

“So do you own this house?” Will asked, forking in bites of sweet and sour pork, and trying to distract himself from watching Jessica’s breasts.

“No,” Jessica admitted. “I rent. I’ve thought about buying but just couldn’t bring myself to buy a house I barely like. I mean—it’s a nice house, just not my dream home.”

“No offense, but this house doesn’t seem very supportive for your art. Where do you do your work?” Will asked, truly wanting to know.

“I have a friend who owns a glass blowing business in Richmond. I borrow his work area when the mood hits,” Jessica said with a shrug. “I’ve been apathetic lately about my work and don’t have a strong enough desire to create anything. I’ve only managed one art piece every six months.”

She stopped eating her cashew chicken and sighed. “My life feels stagnant. I have enough time served in the school system to retire, but what would I do then?” she asked, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m not making a living from my art the way you or your sons do. Glass vaginas are not exactly in great demand, no matter how pretty or sensual.”

“I like your vagina art. Keep doing it,” Will ordered, laughing. “I also like what you did for Melanie and Brent. The café has been hopping busy since you put up art there. I bet other businesses would pay you for similar efforts.”

“Yeah, that was really fun. Do you know I’m afraid to go to the cafe now for fear they’ll put me to work again? They keep threatening to hire me when I retire,” Jessica said on a laugh. “Somehow slinging chicken salads and pouring gallons of iced tea every day just doesn’t appeal to me as a job. I’m waiting until Brent and Melanie hire real help before I visit again.”

Will laughed. “They miss you. I know this for a fact because they ask about you every time I go there.”

“I miss them too,” Jessica said, smiling.

“Would you still have to work if you retired?” Will asked, trying to dance around the bigger financial questions, but he wanted to know her situation because he cared about her.

If he went by the furnishings of her house, Will would guess the answer was yes to his question. Jessica was straining the meaning of “shabby chic” in just about everything he’d seen except the bed and kitchen table. At his size and weight, pretty much everything else in her house was at risk around him. He was surprised it wasn’t around her.

“No—I guess I wouldn’t have to work. I could live okay on my retirement. I also have some investments left from my early artwork even after I paid for Brooke’s college education with a large chunk of them. She’s done the last four years on assistantships and awards, and she worked part-time. I don’t have champagne tastes in much of anything, so I’ve found it easy to live within my means,” Jessica said with a shrug. “I worry more about boredom than anything else. I like to keep busy.”

“I hear you. When I’m working on a piece, I get physically tired long before I lose the desire to stop carving. I’m also getting slower as I get older,” he said, laughing. “I pad my contracts with an extra month now just in case something takes me longer than it used to.”

“Well, your work is worth the wait. I’m sure you hear that all the time,” Jessica said with a smile. “And your ex-wife told me about the perk you get watching women cop a feel of your statues’ assets. I know I couldn’t keep my hands off the first time I saw how realistic the anatomy was on the statue in Berea.”

Damn Ellen and her mouth, Will thought. He had all but forgotten Jessica had talked to her. Now Will had to admit that if his ex-wife had told Jessica about him laughing over the women, Ellen probably wouldn’t hesitate to brag to Jessica about what happened in the bedroom today. It made him mad at himself all over again for responding at all.

Will frowned and put down his fork.

“Well, it was always fun for me to see the delight on their faces as they touched a statue’s marble penis with reverence, but I never took advantage of anyone’s innocent pleasure,” he told her sincerely.

Jessica stopped eating as she realized Will’s tone was much less relaxed now. She picked up her soda and sipped as she watched him look for words.

Will hated that he was going to have to risk the easy camaraderie between Jessica and him so soon, but this kind of secret was far more significant than simply not telling her about a previous job. “This discussion reminds me of something more serious I guess I need to share with you.”

“Well, the expression on your face is more scary than anything you could tell me. Just say it quickly,” Jessica suggested. “Be honest and brave. That’s all we can be with each other. Trust me, I know. I’ve in been therapy for thirty years.”

“First, let me just say that nothing of any significance happened,” Will said, holding her gaze.

Jessica lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head. “The old
nothing really happened
story, huh? That’s ominous, but let me guess. Did Ellen try to seduce you?”

“Why in the world would you guess that?” Will asked, shocked at how fast Jessica had guessed.

Jessica sighed and went back to her cashew chicken. “Oh, I’m not guessing. Your ex-wife warned me this afternoon she was going to try and get you back. What did she do? Wait for you and try to cop a feel when you got out of the shower?”

“Did you have a damn camera installed in my bedroom the night you spent with me?” Will asked, looking pained and upset at her accuracy. “Yes. I forgot she was there and she was waiting in my bedroom after I showered. My brief response to her hands on me was just an old habit that came back to haunt me momentarily. I shook her off and came over here to you.”

“Good,” Jessica said, licking her fork and favoring Will with a lusty gaze. “I’m not done with you yet. Ellen had her turn. Now you’re mine for a while. I told her that this afternoon.”

“I guess now I understand how freaked out you were when I talk to Steve Lipton,” Will said, surprised when Jessica only laughed. He studied her for a few moments, amazed when Jessica resumed eating as if nothing shocking had been discussed.

“You don’t seem very upset about it. Why are you not wanting to kill me—or her for that matter?” Will asked, wondering if he’d been wrong about how much Jessica liked him.