Home To You (18 page)

“I know that’s not the case. How many men did I fix you up with?”

“Way too many. What did you expect? They were all
carbon copies of David, and not to stereotype or anything, but firefighters are hot, whereas financial analysts . . . not so much. And before you break your arm patting yourself on the back, you never fixed me up with Cam.”

“It was a fix-up. You two just didn’t know it. When I recommended you for the home–health care position, I had a feeling you’d be perfect for Cam and Janie in more ways than just caregiving.”

“No, it was worse. I seduced my boss, or maybe he seduced me. But, then, it could have been Henry.”

“Henry?”

“Henry the Eighth. We started watching
The
Tudors
. Who knew history was such a turn-on?”

“Erin, I feel as if I’m missing stuff.”

“Explain.”

“Well, David wasn’t very—”

“Good?”

“No, not good. Not very interested. He was mechanical at best.”

“And that’s all you know?”

“Well, except for what Jack and I . . . and what I’ve read. But I didn’t think it was real. Not until now. I just thought, it was . . . you know . . . fiction.”

“It’s not. Kendall, we read the same books, and I can attest to the fact that it’s all very real. The only things that might be exaggerated are the length and girth of the hero’s erection, and his staying power, but I do like to try to make Cam lose control.”

“How do you learn to do that?”

“You experiment. Believe me, he’ll enjoy it. Good luck, and call me later and tell me how it goes.”

“Wait . . . I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Kendall, you’re such a lady. Jack’s not going to see
you as anything else unless you take matters into your own hands and show him.”

“But what if he doesn’t want that?”

“Believe me, Kendall, all men want that.”

“David didn’t.”

“It’s like that famous Jerry Hall quote: ‘My mother said it was simple to keep a man, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen, and a whore in the bedroom.’ You just need to show him you’re not always such a lady.”

*

Jax ripped the rest of the plaster and lath off the ceiling and, with Kendall’s help measuring, together they cut and installed the furring strips perpendicular to the ceiling joists.

He thought Kendall would take off as soon as the measuring was done, but she stuck around, and she stuck tight. She even helped him hold up the large sheets of drywall as he hammered them onto the furring strips.

He had to hand it to her: the woman had some serious upper-body strength, and he already knew she had strong legs. Visions of her riding him had left him hot and distracted all day.

Kendall wasn’t averse to getting her hands dirty either. She was great with a pencil and a drywall saw, and she had a blast helping him mud and tape the joints. By the time they finished up for the day, they had the drywall installed, the first coat of mud was drying, and they were covered with dirt and dust.

He folded the ladder and rested it against the wall and turned to her. “Thanks for your help. I think it would have taken me three times as long to get it done alone.”

“You’re getting better, you know.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant, and it must have showed on his face.

“You just said it would have taken you three times as long to do this alone.”

He shrugged. He used to be the king of hiding his thoughts, but either he’d lost the ability, or Kendall just got really good at reading him.

“I spent the day asking how many of whatever it was you needed, and you told me. And except for a mistake or two—which I think is completely normal—you were able to calculate small numbers pretty well.”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

She obviously had, and the look of pride on her face made him want to kiss her, so he did. She tasted like drywall dust and Kendall—he never thought he’d find dirty, dusty, and sweaty sexy, but she rocked it.

Even after a hell of a kiss, she still beamed at him. Damn, he hadn’t had anyone look at him like that since his mother watched him make the Olympic Trials. “When was the last time you tried to do anything math-related?”

“Before you came here. I got so frustrated looking at things and not being able to make sense out of them, I stopped.”

She pulled the damp T-shirt clinging to her chest and abs away from her skin in a vain attempt to cool off. “I think after we get showered and fed, we should pull out the cards. I also bought a few books when I was at the store. They had a pretty good selection of grade-school math primers.”

Shit, looking at children’s math books was the last thing he wanted to do—except maybe have that discussion he had been trying to have during breakfast. He’d
never had to have a Where Is This Relationship Going? talk, and his first try failed miserably. Still, he didn’t have to know how to do algebra to know his window of opportunity was closing at an alarming rate. And, for the first time, he wasn’t looking for a relationship escape hatch. He was looking for just the opposite, although since he’d never wanted a relationship to work before, he didn’t hold out much hope. Still, he had to try, didn’t he?

He couldn’t take his eyes off Kendall—she was a mess. She had a big dollop of drywall mud on her shirt right above her left breast, and her hair was covered with so much dust, she looked like she wore a powdered wig. He reached over and peeled the clump of mud off her shirt. “Close your eyes.”

Kendall closed her eyes and raised her face to his, her mouth tipped into a secret smile.

“Keep them closed, okay?”

The smile got bigger, and he stepped closer, her body warm against his. She smelled like drywall dust, clean sweat, and wildflowers. He couldn’t help but kiss her again while he ran his hands through her hair, trying to dislodge most of the dust. When the kiss turned deeper, he wrapped her long hair around his hand and tugged her head back to get better access to her mouth and swallowed her moan. All thoughts of cleaning her up were replaced with thoughts of stripping her out of her clothes.

“I’m getting in the shower.” She slid out of his arms and stripped off her T-shirt on her way out the door and looked over her shoulder. “Are you coming?”

No, but he planned on coming right after their shower.

She had her jeans slipping down over her hips before she made it out of the room, and kicked them off in the
hall on the way to the bathroom. The bra came next, and then she shimmied out of her panties.

Jax followed her lead, wondering where this side of Kendall had come from. Sure, the first time they’d kissed, she’d taken off her top—he’d just about lost it when she had—but he also remembered the uncertainty and doubt he saw in her eyes even before he pushed her away. It didn’t help her confidence any when he told her to put her shirt back on. Yeah, he probably could have handled that better, but, damn, he’d just wanted to get her covered up before he started listening to his little head instead of his big one. The way he’d wanted her scared the crap out of him; he’d never felt the urge to possess someone before. He’d always liked sex—who didn’t?—but what he’d felt for Kendall went way beyond lust. It was animalistic. He’d wanted to rip the rest of her clothes off and grab her by the hair and take her. He had to get a grip. Right now, he figured all the blood in his body was racing south, and there wasn’t enough blood in his head to even think.

Kendall started the water, stepped into the shower, and pulled him in behind her. He’d been dreaming of Kendall in the shower ever since she put on that little show of hers that had him hard for hours. Now she stood under the spray, washing her hair, eyes closed, her face turned up, her back arched, her breasts with nipples pebbled in the cool air, and rivers of soap sluicing down her body in interesting streams.

“You are so damn beautiful.”

“I’m a mess, but thanks. This water feels so good.” She pulled him under the spray with her. “Your turn.”

He turned into the spray and let the water wash over his hair and face and shampooed the dust out of his hair.

He was in the middle of rinsing when Kendall slipped
her arms around his waist, her front to his back, and soaped him up—everywhere.

He blew a stream of air through his teeth. “Kendall?”

“Jack.” One soapy hand slid up and down his erection while the other slid lower and cupped his balls, gently rolling them in her hand.

It felt way too good. He groaned and knew he needed to put a stop to it before she had him shooting all over the tile wall. He grabbed her wrist and turned around to face her, taking control of the soap. He had fun washing her breasts and the rest of her body—paying special attention to every nook and cranny.

She bit her lip and spread her legs a little more.

Jax let the water rinse over all the places he washed before his fingers teased the sensitive flesh at the apex of her thighs, where she was hot and wet. He slid a finger deep inside and swirled his thumb lightly against her.

Kendall bit her lip. “This isn’t going according to plan.”

“You had a plan?”

She tried to hold back a moan, but he coaxed it out of her.

“Are you disappointed?”

She grabbed onto his shoulders and rested her head against his chest as she ground against his hand. “No. Not . . . Oh, God. Yes. Just like that. Oh, Jack.”

He loved watching her come, feeling her muscles convulse around his fingers, or, better yet, his dick. “Sweetheart, we need to move this to the bedroom.”

“Why?” The question came out on a moan, and his dick jerked like he’d been hit with a live wire.

“Because I didn’t bring a condom.”

“You don’t need one.”

Jax’s face froze in the steam, and he stepped back.
“Um, sweetheart?” He wasn’t sure how to proceed. He could almost hear his sister Rocki’s voice in his head saying,
Awkward!
“Are you on birth control?”

Kendall sat on the shower bench, and her face turned cherry red. “Yes, but that’s not what I meant. I don’t want . . .”

Jax frowned. “You don’t want what?”

“I mean, I want . . . You see, David never wanted . . . so I’ve never tried to do it . . .” She stared at his dick, shot him a quick glance, and then ping-ponged her gaze off the three shower walls she could see.

He pushed back his irritation at hearing her ex’s name. “David never wanted what?”

“He never wanted me to . . . you know. So I’ve never . . . And I was thinking—I mean, if you want me to. Umm.”

Jax felt dizzy and grabbed the shower stall door. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve never performed oral sex on a guy?”

She nodded her head, her face still flaming.

“You wanted to and he said no? Was he gay?”

She looked at him as if she’d just wondered the same thing. “No. No. No. He couldn’t be.” She was doing some serious talking herself out of the idea.

Maybe the guy was just asexual. “He’s probably not gay, because from what I hear, gay guys like blow jobs just fine.”

“Do you?”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Is that a trick question?”

“No. I was just wondering, because, well, David never . . . and you never asked . . .”

“It’s not something that’s easy to ask for, especially since not everyone feels comfortable doing it or even wants to. Besides, when it comes to pleasure, it’s definitely one-sided.”

“But so is what you do to me.”

“I love making you come with my mouth. I love the taste of you. It also serves to relieve the pressure of the Ladies Should Always Come First rule. But with a guy, it’s different. A woman can have multiple orgasms—men can’t.”

“You have.” She wore a very self-satisfied grin.

“That was an anomaly, believe me. That’s never happened to me before. So, there’s the recovery time—not that it has to go that far. It’s one thing to start, and a totally different thing to finish.” He’d always had stellar control, and he’d had only one lover who liked taking him all the way in her mouth. He’d never worried about being able hold back before, but everything was different with Kendall. He didn’t seem to have much control over his reaction to her. He wondered if he’d be able to keep himself in check when just the thought of her mouth on him had his balls drawing up.

“I didn’t think you wanted me to.”

“I thought if you wanted to, you’d do it. Believe me, sweetheart, I wouldn’t stop you—ever.”

She reached for him, sliding her hand from base to tip, dragging up a groan from the soles of his feet. She licked her lips, “I want to . . .”

The sound of her voice made the base of his spine tingle. “Sweetheart, if you keep talking about it, I’m gonna be the one needing to sit down.”

The water was growing cold, so Jax turned the taps off.

“Come on, let’s go to bed.” He pulled her up against him and kissed her. She was still so red in the face, it was almost comical. “Next time we’ll do it in the shower. This time, though, let’s start off somewhere more comfortable and closer to condoms.”

“But we don’t need—”

He tugged her out of the shower, tied a towel around his waist, and wrapped her up in another. “Believe me, sweetheart, the thought of your mouth on me makes me so hot, I don’t trust myself to behave. I can just about guarantee we’re going to need several.”

She grabbed another towel and ran it over her hair and walked out of the bathroom. “I guess it’s a good thing I bought some then, huh?”

He did a double take. “You bought condoms?”

“When I was in the grocery store.” She went to the bedside table, opened the drawer, and took out three large boxes. “I didn’t know what size, so I bought a variety.”

“Well aren’t you just the good little Girl Scout? And you look so innocent.” Jax couldn’t help it—he laughed so hard, his eyes watered.

“It was pretty embarrassing. The look on the clerk’s face was priceless. I told her it was for a gag gift.”

That got him laughing even harder. He grabbed the box of large and, in case they ran out, tossed the others back in the drawer.

“I was trying to be responsible.”

“Me too. I ran over to the pharmacy while you were in the grocery store. Where do you think I got my stash?”