Downunder Heat (7 page)

Kitty took it and ducked into the change room. After shedding her outer clothes, she slid the dress over her head. The zipper at the back presented a problem but Kitty refused to call for help. It took twisting her right arm like a contortionist, but when she finally turned to look at herself in the mirror her breath faltered.

Everything about the dress played to her best features and minimized her worst. The A-line skirt accentuated her small waist and disguised her full hips. Tiny cap sleeves drew attention away from her underarms. The V pattern of flowers on the squared-off bust line lent the illusion of youthful cleavage. The fitted bodice gave her shape without bulk.

The dress made her look and feel ten years younger.

When the assistant poked her head in to ask if she required anything, Kitty nodded. “I’ll take it.”

“An excellent decision,” the woman said. “It suits you and it fits perfectly.”

“I know.” Kitty sighed.

The assistant helped her to remove the dress and left with it while Kitty donned her everyday clothes. When she got to the counter, the assistant had already packed the dress in sheets of tissue paper and placed it into a heavy paper bag, embossed with the name of the shop.

Kitty pulled her credit card out of her wallet and stepped up to the cash register. The assistant pushed forward the card reader and just before Kitty stuck in her card named a price that made her heart jump. The dress cost more than two weeks’ wages. More than she could afford.

“Does madam have a question?” the assistant asked.

Although her tone remained impersonal, Kitty detected a hint of scorn—an awareness that Kitty had really had no idea how much the dress would cost… That now she knew, it mattered. The assistant’s hands stilled on the bag, and she raised one penciled eyebrow.

“Er, no,” Kitty said, trying her best to sound calm. “I thought for a moment I had forgotten my PIN, but it was just a memory lapse.” She thrust the card firmly into the chip reader and finalized the transaction before she could think better of it.

With the bag swinging from her arm, she strode from the shop and headed straight for a shoe store. If she was going crazy, then, hell, she would
really
go crazy. Besides, compared to the dress, the shoes she wanted were cheap.

One pair of matching bluish–green high-heeled pumps later, Kitty had finished shopping.

Chapter Four

Zakk’s reaction when she opened her door on Saturday night justified every cent of the outrageous price. His eyes widened and his face broke into an appreciative grin. “Wow, you look fantastic.” He took her hand, a devilish look on his face. “Nice dress. Take it off.”

Kitty laughed. The blatant admiration sent her confidence, already boosted by the dress, soaring. “No way. I just bought this dress and I intend to be seen in it.”

“Fair enough… Dinner first, take it off later.” He winked. “Anticipation is going to make it better.”

Zakk looked pretty delicious himself, his dark pants and blue cotton shirt highlighting his broad shoulders and narrow hips. If he wanted her out of the dress, she damn well wanted him out of his clothes as well. The thought of his naked body made her heart pound. Zakk might think anticipation was going to make it better, but she was afraid it might kill her.

Her pulse raced as she accompanied him to his car.

“I thought we’d go a little north, to Austinmer,” he said. “Have you been there yet?”

She shook her head.

“You’ll like the café,” Zakk said. “It’s small—only open during the day, and on Friday and Saturday nights—but the food is great and it’s right on the beach.”

“Sounds lovely,” she said without adding that right now anything would sound lovely. Even a burger chain in the city would have made her happy tonight.

The meal she ordered at the café was far, far better than any burger—the pumpkin and sage risotto with walnuts, baby spinach, leeks and shaved Parmesan was almost good enough to distract her from her preoccupation with Zakk.

His
attention remained fixed on her the entire time. The waitress flirted with him but as far as Kitty could tell, he didn’t even notice. He was friendly and polite, but his gaze stayed on Kitty except for the few seconds it took to give his order.

“How long are you planning to stay in Australia?” he asked and the intensity burning in his brown eyes made sure she knew it was more than a polite enquiry. Her answer mattered.

“It’s open-ended,” she replied. “I don’t have any plans to leave at the moment.”

He took her hand and squeezed it gently. “Good. I want to see where you and I go from here.”

“Is there anywhere to go?” With a roll of her hand, she disengaged their fingers. “I’m fifty. And you’re what? Thirty-five? That’s too big a difference for anything long term.”

“First of all, I don’t see what age has to do with this,” he said, picking her hand back up again. “Oh, it might if I were twenty something and looking for a couple of kids, but I’m not. I’m thirty-eight, not twenty-five. Twelve years is nothing.” He looked deep into her eyes. “Be honest—if I were fifty and you were twelve years younger, would you think it mattered then?”

“No, but it’s different,” she protested.

“Yeah, it
is
different,” he agreed. “Women live longer than men on average, so the older man and younger woman pairing hasn’t made any biological sense since women stopped dying in childbirth. Come on, Kitty, you need to get over this. Say you don’t want to be with me because you don’t like me, or because you want to be with somebody else, but not because you think I’m too young for you.”

When he put it that way—his voice firm with conviction, his hand holding hers—she lost her will to argue. He wasn’t a child. He was a responsible adult who seemed to have his life more together than she, with her lack of organization and her insecurities and impulses.

Outside, night fell as they ate, the sky fading from blue to amber, clouds flashing gold and crimson before fading out into star-speckled black. When they’d finished and the bill came, Kitty reached into her purse. Zakk’s brow furrowed. “I’m paying.”

“But it’s only fair—” she began.

“I asked you out, I’m paying,” he insisted. “Besides, you only work three days, you’re new to the country and you must have had lots of expenses.” He smiled. “And you bought a dress especially for tonight, where I just grabbed something from my wardrobe, so I’d say you’ve done your share.”

Kitty laughed. “Good point. You can pay.”

Once Zakk had settled the bill, he stood and helped Kitty to her feet. “Let’s walk on the beach for a while?”

They walked hand in hand into the warm summer night. The lights of the restaurant faded behind them, along with the chatter of voices and the occasional rumble of a passing car. Only the swish of the waves where they kissed the shore, breaking into sparkling beads of silver phosphorescence, punctuated the silence.

Slowly, Zakk drew her to a stop. He turned to her, stroking her arm, his fingers caressing the inside of her elbow as he went. Kitty’s skin fizzed with its own phosphorescent sparkle.

He cupped her chin, reached his other arm around her and drew her in. His head lowered and Kitty lifted hers to meet him. In the darkness, his eyes were as black as the night sky and she felt herself being drawn inwards, falling into him as she fell into his kiss.

Their mouths met, his lips closing over hers, opening them. Their tongues touched and she tasted the tart sweetness of the lemon gelato he’d had for dessert and the subtler sweetness that owed nothing to what he had eaten but was an integral part of him.

His arms tightened and he pulled her closer, the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her an unmistakable signal of his desire. Needing to get closer, she rocked her hips, wanting the feel and the heat of him.

He groaned and lowered his hands to her bottom, pulling her in hard against him. He thrust his tongue in and out, in time with the surge of his groin against hers. She widened her stance, opening herself, giving him access to…

A chorus of laughing voices crashed her into awareness. Zakk lifted his head, dropped his hand from her bottom and eased back. Through dazed eyes Kitty watched a group of about twenty people, male and female, coming along the beach laughing and shouting to each other, some carrying baskets and insulated drinks carriers, some picking up pieces of driftwood as they went.

“A beach party,” Zakk whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”

Kitty wasn’t sure her shaky legs would propel her across the sand, but Zakk’s arm around her waist gave her the support she needed to walk.

Without another word, they reached the car, got in and headed back toward the city. Tension, stirred into life by the wild kiss, made her breasts tight and achy, and her hardened nipples rasped against the lace of her bra, keeping her on edge. Moisture dampened her panties and she smelled the musk of her own arousal. The hard lines of Zakk’s face, the tight set of his lips and the twin slashes of red on his cheekbones, told her that he felt the same need, the same urgency. The silence between them became part of the tension, too heavy, too redolent with meaning to be broken by triviality, too sexually charged to be ignored.

At her apartment building, Zakk pulled into a parking spot, leaving the car at an angle in his rush to get out and open the door for her. He took her hand and marched up to her flat. As soon as she opened it, he spun her inside and body-slammed her up against the door, his mouth locking onto hers. He searched with his hands for the zipper of her dress, pulling it down, unclipping her bra, cupping her breast in his hand.

He pushed her dress up to bunch around her waist and reefed her panties out of the way. Kitty felt the brush of his knuckles as he undid his belt and shucked off his pants and underwear, then he was there, his hard cock nudging at her entrance, hot and impatient. Once more she opened herself to him, hot and wet and ready.

He thrust hard, sliding inwards on her moisture, his thick cock stretching her. His legs, longer by far than hers, lifted her and her weight pressed downwards, seating him deeper. Her back pressed up against the door and, with each flex and surge of Zakk’s powerful legs, she rose and sank back down, her clit throbbing and rubbing against the base of his cock as he drove into her. Zakk clamped his hands around her bottom. Kitty wrapped her legs around his hips.

His breath rushed in and out of his lungs, the harsh rasping sound combining with the heavy thudding thrusts of this wild abandoned mating until she screamed and convulsed, her back arching, her vision going dark and her entire body pulsing in a tsunami of pleasure.

A deep groan broke from Zakk, and he dropped his head and closed his teeth on the tendon of her neck, sending aftershocks rocking through her. He pushed hard and deep and held there as his cock pumped out hot cum. His hands clamped her to him as if he was trying to meld their two bodies into one.

At last he lifted his head and Kitty slid her legs down to the floor. In a half-stunned, replete and dreamy state, Kitty watched as Zakk bent once more and withdrew from her body.

“Oh shit.”

Zakk’s expletive burst her out of her post-coital stupor.

“I didn’t use a condom.” He banged his head against the door. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!”

“Zakk, it’s okay. I don’t have any diseases, I promise you. And if you don’t—”

“What? No. I don’t have any… But that’s not the point. I should have protected you. If you get pregnant…”

She wrapped her arms around him and stroked his back, trying to comfort his obvious distress. “It’s not likely, Zakk. Not likely at all. Even if it were the right time of the month, which it’s not, I am old enough that, even if I were trying to get pregnant, it would be very, very difficult.”

“I hope you’re right, but we won’t do it again.”

“We won’t?” she squeaked. “I was really hoping we would—not right away, I mean. But later. Another time, maybe. I bought a box of condoms and everything.”

Zakk’s eyes went wide and Kitty felt the heat rushing to her cheeks. What must he think? He’d just said he didn’t want sex again and she’d blurted that out! She tried to pull out of his grasp, to pull her dress down, lift the top to cover her breasts—anything to armor herself.

A choked sound drew her attention back to Zakk. His eyes danced and he dissolved into laughter. “We won’t have sex again
without a condom
! That’s just common sense. How could you think I wouldn’t want to have sex with you again after what we just did? Hell, that was one of the very best experiences of my life and I am ready to go again right now.” He bumped his groin against hers. The hard rod poking into her stomach proved he was not lying. “So, you bought a whole box of condoms, huh? Wanna go test ’em out?”

Without waiting for an answer, he scooped Kitty up into his arms and strode with her to the bedroom. No one had
ever
carried Kitty anywhere before. If anyone had asked, she would have described it as a silly, pointless gesture and probably gone on to say something about the likelihood of back damage to any man foolish enough to do it. But, cradled in Zakk’s strong arms, it suddenly seemed like the most romantic gesture she could imagine, and the ease and care with which he carried her made her feel weightless and cherished.

“Where’s the bedroom?” he whispered in her ear, and she stretched one arm out and pointed. He slipped inside the open door. He placed her on her feet, stripped the dress away then lowered her to the covers. “This time we take it slow.”

“I liked it wild and fast,” Kitty felt compelled to tell him. “It was one of the best experiences of my life, too.”

“Good.” Zakk smiled. “We’ll do it wild and fast again later. You drive me crazy, woman. But this time I want to explore every inch of you.”

He put actions to words by nibbling her ears, nipping and licking until she hunched her shoulders and shivered. After a slow slide down her neck, he took a nipple in his mouth and sucked gently. The soft tug sparked a live wire sizzle down to her still wet and sensitized pussy.

She squirmed restlessly and slid her hands down to cup his balls, the heavy roundness an erotic weight in her palm, her fingers stretching up to stroke the base of his cock.