Fool for Love: Fooling Around\Nobody's Fool\Fools Rush In (7 page)

She glanced at him. “Want to go for coffee?”

“Not particularly.” As they reached the car he stepped around in front of her, blocking her path. “I want to be alone with you.”

She gulped. “Before we make that kind of move, I need to talk to you about something.”
A couple of things, actually.

Briefly he looked uncertain, but he quickly covered it with a smile. “Please don't tell me you used
to be a guy named Leroy. I'm too fragile to handle that kind of news.”

“No gender switches, I promise.”

“Then whatever it is, I'm sure we can deal with it.” He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers. “I'd like to deal with it. I'm so ready to deal with it.”

“Well…” She wondered how best to tell him about the April Fools. They'd been able to talk freely in the car, so maybe that was the answer. “Let's take a little drive,” she said.

“Great. My apartment qualifies as a little drive from here.”

“Um, I want to drive around some before…” She gazed into his gorgeous eyes and wondered if she was the biggest fool in the world to put off the inevitable. Good sex could make a guy very mellow. Maybe he'd take her revelations much better after a nice satisfying roll in the hay. And if not, at least she'd have one hot memory as her consolation prize. “You know, maybe you're right. Maybe—”

“Let's drive around,” he said softly. “When we get together, I want you to feel good about it. I want it to be right.”

Reality check. So did she. She'd been trying to rationalize the issue because she wanted him as much as he wanted her. “Thank you for not pushing your advantage.”

“You're welcome. But I need to give you fair warning…next time, I'm pushing.”

A
S THEY CLIMBED
into the car, Andre was going nuts trying to imagine what Lena had to tell him before they could have sex. In the time she took to start the car and drive out of the parking lot, he envisioned a dozen horrible scenarios, all of them guaranteed to turn heaven into hell. Meanwhile he tried to act relaxed, as if he could accept anything she cared to throw at him. And that was pretty much true, considering the intensity of his lust.

Lena cleared her throat. “Okay, remember those two women we met at the belly-dancing class?”

“Yep.” What if she was involved with one of them and he was her practice date to see if she could like guys? Well, he was up to that challenge. Bring it on.

“When we met four years ago we decided to start our own special group.”

“Uh-huh.” Maybe involving kinky stuff. Well, some kinky stuff was okay with him, but he had limits. Or did he? She looked so good sitting there in the darkened car, so luscious, so tempting. Ah, limits, schlimits.

“The group is designed to push us out of our comfort zones,” Lena said.

“Oh, really?” Thinking of what that could mean
made his voice squeak with eagerness. He hated it when that happened, when his suave got all screwed up. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a manly pitch. “Like how?”

Lena stopped the car at a red light. “Sometime around April Fool's Day every year, we assign each other an activity that is potentially embarrassing. In other words, we agree to make fools of ourselves. It's amazing how much more confident we've all become in our business lives, and how our careers have benefited from taking those risks.”

“Oh.” Slowly his image of sex orgies faded, replaced by the suspicion that he'd been a means to an end. “So that's what the fast food and belly dancing and goofy golf were all about? Career advancement?”

“No!” She looked flustered. “No, I said it wrong. This is about personal growth, too, and—”

“So I'm like a workshop exercise?” Disappointment settled in his gut.

“No!”

“But the April Fool's thing made you ask me out, not the sudden urge to get together.” Here he'd thought he'd pulled her in on the tractor beam of his manly appeal when in reality all she'd needed was a guy to go along with the program.

“It's not like that. I've been wanting to ask you out for months, but I didn't have the nerve. Then along came my assignment from Brandy and Meg, giving me the push I needed to do what I've wanted to do for a long time.”

He felt a little better hearing that she'd been
dreaming about him for months. “So they thought up the activities?”

“They did.”

Too bad. He'd enjoyed the idea that she was a little wild and unconventional.

“You've been a good sport, going along with this craziness.”

He took a deep breath. “Well, I must be crazy, myself, because I had a good time. A great time. I thought the plan was some brilliant strategy to cut through the usual dating garbage.”

She met that with a moment of silence. “In other words, I'd have been ahead of the game if I hadn't admitted anything.”

And she'd been under no obligation to do that, either. The possible significance of her confession finally made an impression on him. “Why
did
you tell me?”

Her shoulder moved in a slight shrug. “I decided I had to.”

“You had to…because?”

“Because a moment ago it seemed like we were heading toward…oh, never mind. Maybe I should just take you home.”

Oh, excellent. They were back on the right track. So what if she'd been following orders? “We were heading exactly where you thought we were heading, and I don't want you to take me home.” He had a sudden inspiration. “In fact, I have an idea that would fit in perfectly with the spirit of this date.”

Her throat moved in a slow swallow. “What?”

“Let's go parking.”

 

P
ARKING
.
Lena couldn't remember the last time she'd done that. “You mean go somewhere and make out a little?” She quivered with eagerness.

“Or a lot.” He reached over and laid his hand on her thigh. “We've been acting like high-school kids all night.” He rubbed her thigh and the thin material of her skirt shifted under his palm. “Why not stay in character?”

“It's an insane idea.” And she was all for it. Sure, it was risky to her plan of containment. Alone in a dark car with Andre, she might abandon all caution. But if one hand on her thigh felt this exciting, she could imagine the results if he brought both hands into the equation.

Maybe she was rationalizing, but kissing in the car sounded manageable. With no bed in sight, she wouldn't allow herself to get too carried away, as in total sexual immersion. They were too old for back-seat sex, for heaven's sake. It wasn't seemly.

A sense of dignity would keep her from taking that ultimate step until after she revealed Secret Number Two, that she was about to become his boss. She could tell him now, of course. Man, talk about a mood breaker.

No, they could fool around a little, and maybe then she'd tell him.

Or not. She'd really prefer to have that conversation on the phone.

He squeezed her thigh. “Turn right here.”

Hormones took over her brain. If she didn't get some mouth-to-mouth with this guy soon, she'd be a danger to herself and others. She flipped on the turn signal and headed down the street.

“Right at the next light.”

Her skirt had scrunched up, either by accident or design, and now his hand lay on her bare thigh. The heat generated by his palm against her skin was enough to get an Alaskan through the winter.

Somehow she maintained control of the car as he directed her up a winding road that ended at what would soon be a new housing development. A few lots had been graded and one foundation poured. Lena circled the cul-de-sac and parked facing the way they'd come. The lights of Phoenix lay spread out before them.

She shut off the engine and took a shaky breath. “Nice view.” If he moved his hand up about six inches, the view would be wasted on her.

“I looked at property here.” His fingers brushed her inner thigh, but his tone was conversational, as if he had no idea he was turning her inside out with anticipation. “A little too rich for my blood at the moment, but maybe someday.”

“You want a house?” She turned to look at him. The interior of the car was dark, but she could still make out his features, still catch the reflected sparkle of the city lights in his eyes.

“I don't want a house right now.” He ended his subtle caress and unfastened his seat belt. Then he faced her. “Right now I have other things on my mind. Like getting you out of that harness.”

“Oh!” She realized she'd been staring at him without moving, hypnotized by the possibilities. She glanced down, fumbling for the latch of her seat belt.

Gently he guided her hand away. “Let me.”

Her gaze locked with his and her breath caught as
he slowly released the buckle. Apparently this man knew his way around a seduction. She needed to be extremely careful.

Holding the metal fastening, he glanced at where the shoulder strap lay between her breasts. “Has anyone ever told you that you do wonders for a seat belt?”

Her answer was breathy. “No.”

He allowed the seat belt's tension to draw the strap up, bringing his hand with it. “This night's put all kinds of ideas in my head. Just now I was thinking what it would be like to make out with you while you were still belted in.” His hand rested just below her breast. “Sort of Bondage Light.”

Her heart thundered with excitement. She'd imagined Andre as a daring lover, and he was proving her right.

He moved the strap back and forth so it rubbed her breast. “But we can save that for another time.”

The friction teased her already tight nipple and she began to quiver in anticipation.

He leaned closer, still using the strap to caress her as he slipped his free hand beneath the hair at the nape of her neck. “Mmm, you're damp here.”

She was damp in other places, too. She wondered if he guessed. “It seems you're turning me on.”

He smiled. “It seems you're turning me on, too. Kissing you has become my favorite thing.”

Kissing me where,
exactly? She'd have to watch herself. She was consumed with thoughts that went way beyond a simple make-out session. Well, he'd started it with the seat belt bondage comment.

“I knew I couldn't let you get away tonight with
out another taste.” He drifted closer, only inches from her mouth.

She struggled for breath. “As it happens, I'm…getting rather fond of your kisses, too.”

“That's good. Because I plan to give you all you can handle.” His mouth brushed hers as he continued to rub the seat belt strap against her breast.

The scent of him—showered, shaved and very aroused—sent tingles through her system and moisture between her thighs. She leaned into the kiss, wanting more.

With a low chuckle, he gave her what she wanted—his mouth, his tongue, and at long last, his hand cradling her breast.

And still that wasn't enough. She gripped his head in both hands and deepened the kiss, breathing in the musky tang of sexual promise. As she tried to maneuver closer, the awkward bucket seats and the console between them became her bitter enemies.

The solid clunk of his knee connecting with the console clinched the deal; they needed to move. Easing away from his hungry mouth, she whispered “back seat” and reached behind her for the door handle.

“I'm there,” he murmured.

In seconds they'd both exited the front seat, slammed the doors and climbed into the back, where they slid across the leather seat toward each other as if magnetized. Lena had had some teenage experience with back seat make-out sessions, but in those days she'd been consorting with boys. Now she had a fully aroused man thrusting his tongue into her
mouth, untying the scarf from her hips, slipping his hand under her blouse to unhook her bra.

A wiser woman might have tried to stop him, knowing she could easily lose control of the situation. But desire was consuming Lena's brain cells at an alarming rate. And Andre operated with such expertise that a girl could only swoon and give in. To do otherwise would be interrupting the work of a sexual artist.

That explained why she eventually found herself naked from the waist up, even her bangle bracelets gone, with her legs sprawled over his thighs. She leaned her head back and sighed with delight while he used his talented mouth on her breasts. She had a hunch that her dignity was suffering.

The rest of her, however, was having a great time. There were men who knew how to pleasure a woman's nipples and men who did not. Andre belonged solidly in group A. He was working her into a frenzy, and from the bulge nudging her right thigh, she gathered the frenzy was mutual.

Oh, dear. Now she was thinking the unthinkable again, namely, making use of that exciting bulge for even greater pleasure. She'd told herself not to want that. She shouldn't want that. Not yet.

A coyote yipped in the distance. She'd never had sex with a man while coyotes howled nearby. She wouldn't be doing it now, either, if she knew what was good for her. Then again, Andre could be
very
good for her.

He licked and nibbled his way back to her mouth. “You're so delicious.” He continued to stroke her breasts as he moved his lips to her ear. “I want the
rest of your clothes off. I want you naked in my arms, wearing only your ankle bracelet.”

She liked that picture, too, but it sounded dangerous. She clutched his shoulders and tried to think. “Andre, we're not going to—”

“We won't do anything you don't want.” His breath tickled her ear.

With him, she wanted everything. But that was a mistake, at least for now. A huge mistake. Something else was huge, though, and it pressed relentlessly against her thigh. What normal woman wouldn't want to turn that bad boy loose?

Andre made good use of her inner-debate time to work the elastic waist of her skirt down over her hips. Somehow her black thong came along for the ride, and presto, she was exactly the way he'd said he wanted her.

He caressed the curve of her hip. “You're gorgeous. If only I had more light, so I could see as well as touch.”

Lena had turned into a river of molten need. She gulped for air as he propped her against the door and ran both hands over her breasts, down her tummy and along her inner thighs. Dignity be damned. “Touching…works for me.”

“I'm glad.” His voice had grown thick and his caress more deliberate. With a hand massaging each thigh, he used easy pressure to guide her legs apart.

“Andre…”

“Only what you want.” His thumbs stroked the outer folds of her vagina, grown plump and moist, giving him ample evidence of what she wanted.

In a few short moments in this darkened car, he'd
pulled her in way over her head. Now she was drowning in her own urges. When he moved relentlessly toward the center peak of her heated cleft, she whimpered softly.

“Is that a yes?”

She could barely speak. “A…definite…maybe.”

“Let me make you come.”

Sounded great to her. He was in the perfect position. She was in the perfect position. She managed a nod.

He slid a thumb over that strategic spot. “You're close, aren't you?” he murmured.

She trembled, hoping for another caress exactly like the last one. “Mmph.” It was the best she could do.

A groan rumbled from his chest. “Lena, I want…I need to…” He lifted her legs from his lap and sank to his knees on the floor.

For one heart-stopping moment she thought he intended to rip open his pants and enter her. In her fevered state she wasn't sure she would have stopped him. Instead he wedged his shoulders under her thighs, lowered his head and settled his hot mouth on the exact spot guaranteed to drive her around the bend.