Defy the World Tomatoes (28 page)

Blushing slightly, she took the rice off the stove and fluffed it with a fork. “Thank you. Intellectually he might agree, but he still believes that I’ll ‘come to my senses’ and return to him.”

Jeremy struggled to make his question sound casual. “Is that even in the realm of possibility?”

“No. What he wants is a Barbie doll wife he can trot out to impress his partners and clients, not someone like me who’s always up to her knees in one project or another and far too busy to keep having acrylic nails redone. Believe me, it was a spectacular mismatch, and if we’d not had Twink so soon, I’d not have stayed with him as long as I did.”

“Then J. Lyle will have to get used to me, or another man, being with you sometime. What’s the J. for?”

“John, which he claims is far too common to use. He’s a gifted attorney, there’s no doubt about it, but he’s never made a decision without first considering his own self-interest. Now let’s just forget him for the rest of the evening, please.”

“That’s fine with me.” Jeremy stepped out of her way as she prepared their plates, then he carried them to the small dining table at the end of the living room. It was covered with a yellow-and-blue tablecloth, matching napkins and set with sterling silver utensils with a floral design. The blue water glasses were already filled, and he again refused the offer of wine.

Christy Joy removed a tossed salad from the refrigerator and then swore, “Oh, damn. I forgot to heat the rolls.”

“We don’t need them,” Jeremy assured her.

“I know, but I wanted everything to be perfect.” She sat and filled his salad plate with a generous scoop of green salad topped with cherry tomatoes, avocado slices and croutons.

He winked at her. “Relax. It was already perfect when you were serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

She spread her napkin across her lap. “If I’d known that, I’d not have tried so hard to impress you tonight.”

He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “I’m already impressed.” He released her to take a bite of chicken and murmured appreciatively, “This is every bit as good as it smells. Thank you for doing this. I know a dozen ways to prepare fish, and it’s so nice to have something else.”

She also thought everything tasted especially good and attributed it to the charming company. Jeremy was not only handsome, but helpful and sincere, traits sadly lacking in J. Lyle, and she made a hasty vow not to compare the men any further. After a few bites, she thought of her daughter.

“I don’t want to put up obstacles, but I’m worried about leaving Twink to go out on dates. One of our clerks has offered to babysit, and I could leave her with George and Marge, but when she spends so much time either in preschool or with a sitter…”

“I understand the two of you are a package deal,” Jeremy replied. “I’m also sure there are a lot of things the three of us could do together. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s just have a good time tonight.”

“Yes, thank you for being so sensible. I’m afraid I like to line up problems and then check them off, but the worst problems, like Twink getting lost, can’t ever be foreseen.”

Jeremy wasn’t sure how to respond to that ghastly reminder. He reached for a forkful of salad, but barely tasted it as he chewed. He glanced toward Christy Joy, who was still eating as though she hadn’t just lobbed a grenade into the middle of the table, and realized she didn’t blame him for the incident at all.

She looked up and caught him observing her. “I know I talk too much, but you really seem too good to be true. If there’s something important you’ve not told me, I wish you’d reveal it now.”

Jeremy sat back in his chair and took a sip of water. “You mean if I have four illegitimate children with four different women, you’d like to know?”

“My God, you don’t really!”

He laughed at her shocked expression. “No, not even one, but no one expects guys in the Merchant Marine to be saints. I pulled my share of wild stunts in foreign ports, but there aren’t any I recall clearly enough to share now. Which is undoubtedly a blessing.”

Christy Joy could so easily imagine him being a cocky twenty-one and avoiding arrest by mere seconds. “You’ve not served any time in jail, then?”

“Nope, not a day, and insanity doesn’t run in my family either.”

“That’s certainly a relief,” Christy Joy teased. “It looks as though the two of us are downright normal.”

“Normal’s good.”

Christy Joy reached over to catch his hand. “Then why am I so scared?”

That she would admit to being afraid caught him by surprise, but he squeezed her fingers and managed a smile. “Maybe you just need a little time. I’m willing to take things real slow.”

“I thought you were just shy.”

“Well, that too.”

She released his hand and continued eating while she gave her options some serious thought. J. Lyle had been so damn smooth. They were married before she’d realized there was nothing beneath his glossy veneer except another thick layer of gloss. It was her own emotions she doubted, not Jeremy’s, and that realization made everything clear.

“Maybe the danger is in being too cautious,” she announced suddenly. “Maybe we ought to just jump right in.”

Jeremy nearly choked, but caught himself before launching into an uncontrollable coughing fit. “Wait a minute, are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

Christy Joy felt her loose curls brush her shoulders as she nodded. “I sure am. I bet you’d look twice as good out of that uniform as in it, and you needn’t worry, I bought a box of condoms at the market.”

Jeremy nearly lost it right there. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Then he thought he might be the first in his family to be institutionalized that very night, but with Christy Joy so unexpectedly inviting him into her bed, he just couldn’t get his thoughts to run in any coherent direction.

“Wait a minute,” he finally begged. “Could we at least finish this wonderful dinner first?”

“Of course, you’ll need your strength.”

She looked so incredibly sweet, but now Jeremy suspected that she’d be a tiger in bed. He couldn’t even hold on to his fork with that possibility rolling around inside his head. He tossed his napkin on the table and shoved back his chair.

“Oh hell, come here.”

Christy Joy rose and moved to his lap. She looped her arms around his neck and then bent her head to suck his earlobe. “You see why I don’t dare drink wine?”

He didn’t care if she never drank anything other than milk when she made such enticing suggestions cold sober. He framed her face with his hands and kissed her long and hard. “You’re absolutely right,” he breathed out against her lips. “We’ve waited too long as it is.”

She reached for the shiny brass buttons on his jacket and thought of all the lonely tourists who had gone back to their staterooms alone. When he shrugged off the coat, she yanked his undershirt off over his head. His tan reached to his waist, and his chest was covered with thick, blond curls. She leaned down to lick a leathery nipple, and he stood with her still in his arms.

“That’s it, lady. Where’s your bed?”

She waved him toward the rear of the apartment, and he quickly strode past Twink’s toy-filled bedroom to hers. The walls were the pale pink of dawn, and the bed was covered with a white crocheted spread dotted with ruffled pink roses. There were matching pillow shams topped with more ruffled pillows in pastel prints. It was a feminine bonanza, and he couldn’t wait to climb in.

“Did you make the spread?” he asked.

“Sure did. It took me almost a year, but it’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but not nearly as pretty as you.” He set her down, then tried to figure out how best to remove her dress.

“Wait a minute,” she urged. “Let’s fix the bed first.” She grabbed for the pillows, flung them aside and peeled the crocheted spread down to the foot of the bed. With another quick yank, she pulled back the pink blanket to reveal white ruffled sheets adorned with tiny pink roses.

Jeremy was afraid he’d fallen into a fantasy she might end long before he was ready, but she came back to him and reached for his belt buckle. He slid his hands over hers. “Wait a second. I’ve done this before, and my shoes have to come off first.”

“Good idea.” She kicked off hers then raised her brows.

Jeremy sat on the side of the bed to untie his shoes. He was suddenly so clumsy his fingers felt the size of bananas, but he finally freed his feet and ripped off his socks. He’d expected to take her out to dinner on Saturday nights, to hold her hand in the movies and spend weeks getting to know her before she would let him anywhere near her bedroom. Now he wondered if anything he’d ever imagined about her was true.

When he stood, Christy Joy slid her fingers through the crisp curls on his chest. “You have a really nice build, and I’ll bet it doesn’t come from workouts at the gym.”

“Never joined one,” Jeremy mumbled before wrapping his arms around her tight. He kissed her hungrily and lifted her clear off the floor.

That he could have kept so much passion under wraps all the months he had done little more than wave to her amazed her now. She ran her hands over his broad back, then slyly went to work again on his belt buckle. “I sure hope you’re not wearing Sponge Bob Square Pants boxers,” she teased.

He grabbed her wrists. “And if I am?”

“I’m going to keep them to sleep in.”

He rubbed his forehead against hers. “I’ll buy some tomorrow.”

“What makes you think I’ll let you leave here tomorrow?” Christy Joy had him out of his pants and boxers before he could think of a reply, and then she shoved him back on the bed. She removed the box of condoms from the nightstand, tore it open, then set it back down where he could reach it.

“Just get comfortable,” she urged in an enticing whisper. “I want to try something.”

Jeremy managed only a strangled gasp before she climbed over his outstretched legs and lowered her head to brush her tousled curls across his hips. He was already hard and when she sat up to wrap her hands around his cock with a slow spiraling grip, he feared he was about to embarrass himself, and badly.

“Christy Joy, wait
—
”

She flicked him with her tongue, then sucked him deep, and he was positive she’d been reading more than
Better Homes and Gardens
. The sensation she created was more intense than anything he’d ever felt, and that this was the same beautiful woman he’d longed for for months made it even better.

An instant before he was completely undone, he grabbed for her curls. “Stop,” he begged hoarsely.

Christy Joy sat up and brushed her hair aside. “Am I hurting you?”

“No, yes, clear to my soul,” he gasped. “Now let’s get you out of that dress.”

She raked her nails up the inside of his thigh as she moved off the bed and felt him shiver. “You’re ticklish. I like that in a man.”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

Christy Joy giggled as she slid her dress off over her head. Her lace-trimmed slip followed. She worked too hard to have much appetite, so she was thinner than she’d once been, but she still had nicely rounded boobs. She’d worn a sheer bra not expecting to remove it, but she unhooked it slowly just to make Jeremy wait. Then she remembered the stretch marks and turned off the overhead light. The night light cast a friendly glow up the wall by the door, but it wasn’t enough to reveal more than she wished to show.

Jeremy came off the bed to roll her panties down over her hips and, eager to taste her, he ran his fingers along her slit. He pulled her close and kissed her, then twisted to pull her back down on the bed under him. He pushed a finger up into her, then withdrew and licked it clean.

“God, you taste good,” he moaned before nuzzling her breasts.

J. Lyle had loved the feel of her mouth on his cock, but he’d never gone down on her. She knew Jeremy would, though, and arched to thrust her nipple deeper into his mouth. His fingers dipped into her again, then traced teasing circles around her clit. She slid her knee along his hip, then spread her legs to invite more.

His next kiss tickled her belly button, and she squirmed and laughed. “If I’d known sailors were this good, I’d have joined the navy.”

“It’s just us captains, love,” he corrected.

He shifted positions again, and then his tongue found her clit, already swollen in anticipation. She grabbed a handful of his hair to press him closer still and tried not to pass out from the thrill. She felt him twist two fingers inside her core and rolled her hips in time with his gentle lapping.

When the pleasure he gave bordered pain, she slapped her hands over her mouth rather than scream out loud, but she’d never felt anything half so good. Her cream flowed over his hands, and he drank it up hungrily. This was what sex was meant to be, she thought numbly, absolutely spectacular and completely exhausting.

He sat back for a moment, but before she could utter a soft moan of complaint, she heard him tear open a condom. Utterly limp, she reached out with a graceful stretch to draw him back down into her arms. He nudged her legs apart with his knee, then settled himself between them. He entered her with a first shallow thrust, and she shoved down to meet him, then wrapped her legs around his hips.