If You Dare (25 page)

When he touched her clitoris with his tongue, she cried out his name. And that call made him even more determined.

Within seconds he’d brought her to the brink, but this time he held control.
 

“Look at me, Cordelia.”

He waited for her to open her eyes, waited for her to lift up on her elbows, look down to where he sat between her legs.

“Friends don’t do this.” He ran a finger between her folds, watched her gasp as she pressed her hips against his hand.

“And they don’t do this.” He lowered his mouth to her again. Tasting, teasing, thrusting. Until she shattered.

Cordelia let the hot water of the shower pound on her back as she rested her head against the wall.

Joe was right. They couldn’t be friends.

This was really the end.

He’d offered to take her to the airport, but she’d refused.
 

She finished washing his shampoo out of hair and stepped onto the cold tile to dry off.

When she walked into the kitchen, she found him sitting at the table, three newspapers folded in front of him. A cup of black coffee untouched.

She pointed to the coffee pot and tried to act like this wasn’t the worst morning ever. “Breakfast?”

He nodded. “That and you have a choice. Some crazy fruity cereal or English muffins.”

She dropped a muffin in the toaster and poured a cup of coffee. “You expect a formal announcement about partner before the holidays?”

He set his coffee on the table beside the papers. “I’m sorry, Cordelia.”

Absolutely not. They were not going to have this conversation. “Don’t be.”

“I wish we could be friends. I wish I could sit here and talk about the partnership. About maybe seeing you at Christmas. But if you come here for the holidays it won’t be as my friend.”

Heat suffused her cheeks as she remembered exactly how well she understood his words.

“We settled this already, Joe. And you’re right. You don’t need to be sorry.”

He closed his eyes and brushed his hand through his hair. “Let me drive you to the airport.”

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see it. “You’ve got to work. And I don’t want to make this worse than it already is.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” He looked up at her and she knew what he was going to say before he spoke. “Stay.”

“I can’t.”

He looked down at the table before looking back to her. “You could.”

She shook her head. “I don’t belong here.”

“It sure looked like you belonged here last night.”

She opened her mouth and he stopped her. “Don’t say that was about sex. We both know better.”

 
She turned away, reached for the muffin, anything to stop the conversation. But he reached her first and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. Just ignore me.”

She let herself relax in his arms. Rested her head against his chest the way she had earlier against the shower wall. And then she asked the question that had been taunting her the whole night. “What is this about, Joe?”

He didn’t say anything for the longest time and she wondered if he was even going to answer.

What did she expect when she couldn’t answer the question herself.

“Well, I pretty much walk around with a constant hard on when you’re around. So I guess sex is a part of it.”

“You asked me to stay.”

She felt him nod. “I did.”

“Why?”

Joe knew this was a trick question. But damn if he didn’t go right ahead and answer it. “I like you. I’ve never laughed so much in my life. And the sex is incredible.”

“But eventually that’ll wear off and then what?”

And then what he didn’t know. “Are you looking for an I love you?”

She stepped away and looked into his eyes. “Do you?”

How the hell was he supposed to answer that one?
 

“You’re the one leaving, Cordelia.”

She turned his words on him. “Are you looking for an I love you?”

Damn.
 

“Because if you are, I can answer that honestly enough. I love spending time with you. I love the way you want to protect your sister. I love the way you make me feel. So, I guess I do. I love you.”

What was she saying? “So you want to stay after all?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. I love you, but I don’t belong here.”

“Well God knows I don’t belong in some small Texas town either.”

She nodded sadly. “Exactly.”

Jesus she was ending him on one hell of an emotional roller coaster today. “So don’t stay.”

She turned away and grabbed the now cold English muffin from the toaster. “I’m not.”

What did she want from him? He was so freaking lost in this conversation. Dammit.

And he had to leave in less than ten minutes. She was driving him crazy.

“What’s going through your mind, Cordelia? Quit playing games.”

She threw the muffin on the counter and turned back toward him. “I’m not playing games.”

Why were they fighting again? This was nuts. He brushed his hand through his hair. “Okay. Just quit…I don’t know. Why are we fighting about something that’s settled already? This is crazy. I have to leave in a couple minutes. You’re going home…” He let his words trail off because he didn’t know what else to say.

What else was there?

Cordelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He was right. Why waste the last few minutes like this. But damn it hurt that he didn’t say he loved her.

It shouldn’t. After all he’d loved who she pretended to be, so what did she expect.

At least he’d asked her to stay again.

But she wasn’t staying, so the whole tension filled conversation was pointless.

Ugh!

She felt him pull her close again. Felt his arms wrap around her in a hug and she wanted time to stop again.

But it wasn’t going to happen.

This time when his lips touched hers, she heard the silent goodbye and she hoped he did to.

As Irene helped her unload her suitcases she shook her head. “I can’t believe you won’t even consider staying.”

Cordelia reached over and gave her sister a quick kiss on the cheek. “Vegas is only big enough for one of us.”

The attendant tagged her luggage for DFW and she gave her sister one last hug. “Thank you so much for this week, Irene. If you wouldn’t have sent that dress and that dare I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

Irene shrugged. “I don’t know. I figure you would’ve kept on lusting after the UPS man from afar. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Cordelia forced herself to smile. “Positive.”

Irene didn’t fall for it for a second. “He’s just a stupid guy. You have six more times to fall in love before you reach the average.”

The last thing she ever wanted was to feel this way again. But she wasn’t about to tell her sister that. “I’ll be fine. Don’t forget you have to corrupt Taylor. She needs a big city adventure before she goes back home and marries JD.”

Irene laughed. “As if I could corrupt that girl. Don’t forget to call when you get home. And don’t forget what you’ve learned. It’s okay to have fun.”

Cordelia waved as she entered the airport. Once she boarded the plane she thought about what her sister said.

Fun.

The week had certainly been that. And it was her own fault for falling in love with her fling.

The books were all wrong about that. Sex with Joe in the beginning had been great. Making love had been awe-inspiring.

Every time she closed her eyes she could see him kneeling between her legs. Could hear him telling her they couldn’t be friends. Could almost feel the way he’d touched her.

Oh man.

He’d definitely changed her.
 

Because of him, her life would never be the same again.

One day maybe she could thank him.

Joe tried to ignore Taylor’s stare. But finally it was too much. “What?”

She shot him an evil sister glare. “You’re an idiot.”

Great. Twenty questions. “And I’m an idiot today because…”

“You just are.”

Without a doubt this was another of her diatribes about Cordelia. “News flash, Taylor. Cordelia left after I asked her to stay, twice. I’m not the bad guy.”

“Of course she did.”

He just loved the fact that his twenty three year old sister had decided to indulge in the mysteries of psychobabble. Ever since she’d started her direct sales job, she spent all her time dissecting human actions and reactions. His came under her microscope way too often.

“Don’t you have a party to give or something?”
 

“Quit trying to change the subject.”

As if he had a choice in the matter. Taylor was going to say what was on her mind regardless of what he said.

“Say what you’re dying to say. Go for it. Enlighten me, oh great and mighty baby sister, with your unending wisdom.”

She threw a dishtowel at his head but she still took him up on it. Walking over to the table, she pulled up a stool. “Honestly Joe, I’m worried about you.”

So he was a jerk, but she was worried. Good. He still had his touch. “Don’t be. I’m fine.”

She didn’t buy it. “No you’re not. You spend all your time working. You don’t bother to talk to your friends. You’re not yourself at all.”

She was right in a way and he knew it. In the past he’d always been driven to succeed in business and in play. The last month he’d forgotten to have fun. In fact he’d avoided fun as much as possible. It left too much time to think.

“And you never ask about my job or my dates. I can walk in the door at three in the morning and not see you for two days because you’re always working. And then when I do see you, you don’t even mention it.”

“That’s the way you want it.”

She shot him a look that said he was crazy and he knew it. “I might not want you acting like a parent, but some interest would be nice. You can’t switch like this over night just because your heart’s broken.”

That’s exactly what it felt like. Broken. One week and Cordelia’d wormed her way into every inch of his mind. Now he couldn’t forget.

“So what exactly were you doing until three in the morning?”

“Talking to Irene, who you haven’t bothered to see in a month.”

He hadn’t stopped in to see Irene because he didn’t want to think about Cordelia. Didn’t want to remember what they’d done, how he’d felt.

“I don’t even want to know why you were talking to Irene until three in the morning.”

Taylor shrugged. “Okay. I won’t tell you that Irene said Cordelia is just as miserable as you. That she made Irene promise not to talk about you. And I won’t tell you how Irene said Cordelia rarely acts on impulse. That she’s reasoned out everything in her entire life except some tattoo and you.”

Joe felt instant heat at the mention of Cordelia’s tattoo. And he felt gratified that she wasn’t living it up having the time of her life in Texas.

“I won’t tell you that she has a top ten list of reasons she won’t ever take her sister up on a dare again and that your name is listed beside every number.”

Taylor reached into her back pocket and took out an envelope. “And I won’t tell you we were up so late because we were concocting the crazy scheme.” She threw the envelope addressed to him on the table and stood up.

“Like you said, I’ve got a party to give. I’ll see you later.”

And just like that she was gone and he was left sitting at the table looking down at a folded envelope.

Reaching out, he slid the envelope open and shook out a piece of paper scrawled on with blue ink pen and signed by Irene and his sister.

If You Dare

 
1.Cordelia lives in Texas not on Mars

 
2.You love her

 
3.She makes you laugh

 
4.She makes you crazy

 
5.She had sex with you in a public place (Are you kidding me?! And you yelled at me for KISSING Keith!)

 
6.She won’t make the first move

 
7.She owns an unopened bottle of cotton candy flavored body dust

 
8.You’ve never felt this way about anyone

 
9.If you don’t at least try, you’ll never forgive yourself

 
10.You’re driving us all crazy

After their signatures, Irene had attached a map and his sister had added a neat postscript. The e-ticket’s on your dresser. Don’t think. Just do. It’s the weekend. Hurry. Your flight leaves in two hours.

They were nuts. Crazy. The idea was insane.

But then everything about what he’d experienced with Cordelia was insane.
 

And number two on their list was the most important of them all. He did love her. This was a chance. Maybe that’s all he needed.

Two hours.

He could do this. But first he had some calls to make.

Cordelia took off her hat and wiped the sweat from her forehead. School started in one more week and she still had peppers and tomatoes in her garden.
 

She’d have to bag some up and give to the neighbors. Especially Mrs. Reeding who’d applauded when she told Mr. Norseworthy she wasn’t picking up his trash anymore.

And she’d have to give a bag to the school secretary who’d given her a high five yesterday when she’d told the principal no she would not serve on the abstinence based only sex education committee.
 

And she supposed she’d have to give a bag to the UPS man because once she’d worked up the nerve to talk to him, he’d told her all about his wife and kids. TO think she’d wasted all that time lusting after a married man.

She settled her wide brimmed hat back on her head and let the water run over the plants.

Perfect time to think about the last cryptic message she’d received from her sister in the box of novelty items Taylor had sent.
 

Irene wanted to thank her for reminded her about taking chances. Right.
 

And she’d be there in two weeks to explain more.

Mother would love that.

And Taylor’s box of toys was hilarious. How in the world had Joe’s sister ended up selling sex toys at home parties? He was probably having fits over that one.