Just Sex (9 page)

“Why didn’t you divorce him?” he asked.

“When we got married, I made him a part of the family trust. I didn’t want him to bankrupt it.”

“He couldn’t have.”

“I was stupid,” she said. “I let him talk me into letting him rework the trust.”

Her father shoved aside his meal. “Katherine, I never knew. Why didn’t you come to me?”

“I was ashamed. After Sam and the hysterectomy, Gary never touched me again.” She played with her food. “We were just business partners, I guess.”

“But when your mother and I would visit, you slept in the same bedroom and acted married.”

“Gary wouldn’t let me move into the guest suite,” she said, ashamed. “When I tried, he took twenty thousand dollars out of the trust and bought his mistress a necklace.”

He stood and paced the office. “I wish I knew. I would have reined in your mother.”

“Dad, you can’t control her.”

He grinned and sat back in his chair. “You’re right.” Axel picked up a fry and waved it at Kat. “Sam says you’re seeing someone.” He bit into the fry. “Something about a man named J.J. coming to his play and staying after to help you and coming over late at night.”

Heat ran up Kat’s spine. “I’m kind of seeing someone, but it can’t go anywhere.”

“Why not?”

“He’s much younger.”

“So?” Axel cleared his throat. “You’re a lovely woman.”

“After Gary, I can’t put myself out there like that.”

“Out there like what?”

She wasn’t going to explain to her father all the reasons she and J.J. couldn’t be together. “I can’t give a twenty-five-year-old a life.”

“Did he ask you for a life?”

“No.”

“Why can’t you just date the boy and have fun?”

Embarrassment hit Kat in the solar plexus. “Dad.”

“Katherine Elizabeth, I might be an old man, but I know the ways of kids today. Go and have fun.”

It felt good to laugh with her father. “That’s sounds like something Grandma would say.”

“It is.” He took her hand. “You remind me so much of her.” Axel brushed a curl off Kat’s face.

The fatherly gesture warmed Kat’s heart. “How?”

The chair creaked when he rested back. “Well, you look just like her. You think of others as she did. The one big difference between you two is you never put yourself first.” Axel crumpled up his food containers. “Put yourself first for once.”

“I think I will.” She crumpled up her food bags. “Let’s get this done, shall we?”

* * * * *

J.J. walked into the Shady Horse. He had spent the afternoon helping his mother re-arrange her dining room, which kept him from thinking of Kat all damn day. J.J. needed a stiff drink and some greasy food. He spotted Ron and Patricia. He lumbered up to them. “What are you two doing out?”

“We do this every year. How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

Patricia and Ron laughed. “You look like shit,” she said.

Ron motioned for him to sit. J.J. flopped into the seat opposite them. “God, I miss her.”

“Kat will be home in a couple of days,” Patricia said.

“How is she, really?” J.J. asked.

Patricia’s eyes widened. “Haven’t you talked?”

“Yes, every day. She tells me everything is fine, but I can hear it in her voice that something’s wrong.”

Empathy swelled in Patricia eyes. “Let’s get you a beer and I’ll tell you another story about our Kat.”

Anger and hurt flashed hot in his heart. “I don’t understand why Kat doesn’t tell me herself.”

“Kat’s too proud,” Ron said. “She doesn’t want you to have to deal with her issues.”

He would have to work on making Kat trust him. “Tell me what’s been going on with Kat this week.”

“Her father wants Kat to take over the mill sooner than she expected.”

“Is she going to do it?” An unpleasant sense of doom washed over J.J.

“She will eventually,” Patricia said. “But I think Kat can run the business from here. She can’t live in Maine. Kat and her mother would kill each other.”

Ron ordered another round of drinks. J.J. watched Ron and Patricia.
They have what it takes to make it forever
, he thought and wondered if he and Kat could make it work.

* * * * *

J.J.’s phone rang at one thirty in the morning. He fumbled for his cell in the dark. “Hello.”

“Hi!” Kat’s sexy voice caressed his ear.

He cleared the sleep out of his brain and sat up in bed. “How are you?”

“Better now.”

“What happened?” His dick twitched to full staff.

“Mill stuff.” Her words slurred with fatigue. “How was your day?”

“Busy. I saw Patricia and Ron at the Shady Horse tonight.”

“I thought you were going to help your mother get ready for Thanksgiving.”

J.J. arranged his pillows. “I did. Then I went to the Shady Horse for a beer. Ron and Patricia were there, so we had drinks.” His dick pulsed and jutted up to his navel. “Where are you?”

“I’m in my room, sitting on the bed, why?”

“What are you wearing?” He took his stiff cock in his hand.

Her sexy chuckle caressed his ear. “Jeans and a T-shirt?”

He stroked his dick in a slow rhythm. “Take them off.”

“You are so bad!”

The sound of her taking off her clothes sent waves of pleasure down his spine. “Did you bring your vibrator with you?”

“No! My mother’s very nosey.”

“I want you to run your hands all over your body and tell me how it feels.”

“Only if you tell me how you feel.”

“Kat, you make me so hard it hurts.”

“I’ll have to kiss it and make it better.”

He pulled open his nightstand drawer. His hand trembled as he searched for the bottle of warming lube. He poured the slick fluid in his hand. “Tell me how your skin feels.”

“Soft and smooth, and when you talk to me like that, my nipples get hard.”

He rubbed the warm lube over his rock-hard member. “Run your hand down to your pussy and tell me how that feels.”

J.J. heard the hitch in her breathing and began to stroke harder. It drove him crazy. His hand made a sucking noise when he rubbed.

A soft moan came through the phone. “My pussy’s wet and my clit’s a hard little button, waiting to be touched.”

He sat at the brink of ecstasy. “Touch it and make yourself come.” He cleared his throat to steady his voice.

“Only if you come too! I can hear you’re close. It makes me hot.”

He didn’t care that she could hear him beating off. “Deal.”

“Oh J.J., I’m so close. Tell me you’re close, please.”

Her whimpers of ecstasy raced to his beating cock. A moan came up from his throat. “Oh yes, Kat.” The sound of her soft cries ripped his climax from his soul. “I need to fuck you soon.”

“I think when we do make love, you’re going to kill me,” she panted. “Can I call you tomorrow?”

The thought of fucking her made him hard again. “I’ll be at my mom’s all day helping her prepare for Thanksgiving dinner.” He turned on his side. “But you can call me anytime.” J.J. wiped his hands with a towel he found on the floor.

“Okay. If for some reason I don’t talk to you, have a great day with your family.”

“Talk to you later.” J.J. pushed his phone off. “I love you, Kat,” he said into an empty room. J.J. rolled over and fell asleep.

Chapter Nine

The heat and humidity of the Florida sun had Kat’s black T-shirt and yoga pants sticking to her sweaty body. She stood outside the airport and waited for Patricia. Her hot pink suitcase tipped over. “I’m too tired too deal with this.”

Between the tension with her mother, the business at the mill and how much she already missed Sam, Kat felt wrung out and at her breaking point. She knew she had dark circles under her eyes and a pale face. She glanced at her watch. “God, I want to go home and take a bubble bath.” Kat had retrieved her cell phone to call Patricia when she saw Patricia’s black Lexus hybrid SUV. The car parked and Patricia barged out. She ran up to Kat and enveloped her in a hard hug. “I’m so happy you’re back.”

She sagged into her friend and let Patty’s happiness flow into her. “I’m glad to be back. I couldn’t take my mother one more day.”

Patricia grabbed her bag and tossed it in the back. “Let’s get you home.”

Thirty minutes later, Kat and Patty turned into Kat’s driveway. Patty slapped Kat’s arm. “Look who’s here waiting for you.”

Anticipation zinged to her core at seeing J.J.’s truck. Kat hopped out of the SUV before Patricia put it in park, grabbed her bags out of the back and headed for her front door.

Patty rushed after her. “Hey, wait up.”

Kat hurried up the walkway. She had waited months to be with J.J. and needed to get him in her bed before she chickened out. “Make yourself scarce.”

“You need to put your hormones in neutral for a minute. Your house sitter probably doesn’t want to watch you jump J.J. in the foyer.”

Shit, she was right.
Kat slowed and reined in her overactive libido. “I don’t think Amy would mind,” she teased.

They staggered into the foyer, giggling like schoolgirls. The two women stumbled into the kitchen. Amy and J.J. sat at the table, laughing.

Her pretty, twenty-something house sitter gazed adoringly at J.J. They looked good together. A wave of jealousy split Kat’s heart in two. Sadness overwhelmed her. Amy could give J.J. everything she couldn’t. Kat made up her mind. She would let J.J. go when she moved to Maine. Kat just needed to find a way to tell him.

“Hi, you two,” Patty said.

Amy stood and grabbed her purse. “J.J. stopped by to see you, Mrs. Henderson.” She turned to look at J.J. “You never said why you came by.”

She almost hissed and clawed at the younger woman. “Thank you so much, Amy. Did you have any trouble?”

“No. It was nice to have the place to myself.” Amy looked at her watch. “I need to go, Mrs. Henderson.”

Kat wrote her a check and thanked her.

“We’ll be at the new club on Main Street when you get done with your paperwork,” Amy said to J.J.

J.J. sent Kat a pointed stare. “I’ll be doing paperwork
all
night.”

A bolt of lightning-hot desire reverberated through her body.

“Well, I’ll see you later,” Amy said and left.

Patty winked at her. “I better go. Ron and I have plans tonight.”

Kat’s gaze locked onto J.J.’s. He looked
so
good. “Give him a kiss for me.”

Patty turned and walked back to the front door. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. I’ll call you tomorrow,” she called over her shoulder.

Since Ron and Patty were into freaky stuff, she thought she and J.J. were safe. “Thanks.”

J.J. stood and ran his eyes over her. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned. “You look tired.”

She ran her hands through her frizzy hair to smooth it.
What if he’s changed his mind?
“You really know how to charm a lady.”

He flushed red. “Sorry.”

“I need to take a bath and have a big glass of wine.”

Remorse covered his handsome face. “We don’t…”

“Oh J.J.” She placed her hand to his cheek. “If you think you can get out of having sex with me that easy, you’re sadly mistaken.”

A wicked smile covered his face and he turned his face into her palm. “I don’t want to be mistaken.” He pressed a kiss into her hand. “Are you hungry?”

She slid her hand to his shoulder. You didn’t do some things before you had sex for the first time in almost twelve years. Eating was one of them. “Not really.” At that moment, Kat’s stomach decided to announce how it felt about her lie by rumbling. She bit her bottom lip and hoped he hadn’t heard her traitorous belly.

He smiled. “I’ll go get something from China House.” J.J. stepped back. “You get in the tub and have that wine.”

Her mother’s comments about her weight echoed in Kat’s mind. “You go ahead. I don’t want anything.”

The heat in his eyes almost burned her. “I don’t want to hear about you not eating.” J.J. moved closer. “I love your body. I want it, all of it. I want to feel you under me, over me, beside me.”

Her hormones had a dance party in her core. Kat stepped back. “I want to be sexy for you. I don’t want to be all bloated.”

J.J. yanked her against him and kissed her hard. “Go take a bath, I’ll go get dinner.” He cupped her face. “I think you’re beautiful as you are. I don’t want you to change.” He kissed her softly on the lips, turned and walked out.

Kat had to admit J.J.’s words flattered her. It had been way too long since she’d felt this sexy. Kat jogged up the stairs and hustled to the master bedroom. She didn’t have much time to get herself sex ready.

She drew a bath. She shimmied out of the sticky clothes, smeared anti-ageing goop over her face and neck, stepped into the large tub, settled in and put cooling pads on her eyes. The bubble bath she’d poured in earlier smelled like oranges. Kat turned on the jets. Hot water pummeled her stressed muscles into relaxation.

The bath took longer than she had intended. Kat had forgotten how long it took to shave certain areas of her body. Kat now knew why Patty spent all that time and money on electrolysis. She cringed at the thought, wrapped herself in a towel and dried her hair. Kat walked into the bedroom and entered the closet.

Kat gazed around the large space and sighed, realizing she had nothing sexy to wear. Her stomach tightened, then it dawned on Kat that Patty had given her a baby doll a few years ago. When she was still trying to seduce Gary.

She sent up a prayer that the red silk nighty still fit. Kat slid on her pink fluffy robe and fuzzy pink flip-flop slippers that Sam had given her for Mother’s Day and started for the stairs.

J.J. pulled into Kat’s driveway forty-five minutes after he left. Excitement pulsed through his veins. He grabbed the bag of food and ran to Kat’s front door. He went to knock, thought better of it and blew out a rush of air.

He hadn’t been this nervous since he met his first date’s father. He opened the front door and stopped short. Kat stood on the stairs in her pink robe and fuzzy slippers.

“Eeeekk,” she yelped.

Heat ran to his groin.

“You weren’t supposed to see me like this,” she said.

The robe and slipper ensemble turned him on in ways he’d never been before. He placed the bag of Chinese food on the entry table. “I like seeing you like this.”

Kat stepped down the rest of the stairs. He pulled her into his arms. “I think I love you.” The words came from his heart and shocked him. J.J. had never told a woman he loved her.
Shit.
He had just given her the power to rip his heart out.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

J.J. hadn’t expected her to say that. He wanted her to feel the same way. “You could never hurt me,” he lied as his heart ripped open.

Kat’s eyes brimmed with unshed tears. “This can’t be forever.”

“Shh.” He would prove her wrong. J.J. put his finger to her soft lips. “All I want is now.” He kissed her, clasped her hand and led her to the pink room.

“Don’t you want to go upstairs?” she asked.

“No, I want you in the room where you feel the sexiest.”

She blushed and chuckled. “Is there anything you don’t know about me?”

He hoped not after tonight.

She stopped suddenly. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

J.J. stumbled to a halt and drew in a deep breath. Didn’t Kat know she was the best thing to ever happen to him? “Just you being with me is more than I could ever ask for.” He tugged on her hand. “I don’t want to let you down. I don’t want
you
to be disappointed with me.”

Kat stepped toward him. “I could never be disappointed in you. You have given me so much already.”

He almost lost it. “Only a fool wouldn’t want a beautiful, sexy woman like you.” Oh God, now he sounded like a dumb-ass. J.J. needed to get control of himself.

He started down the hall and pulled her into the pink room. He switched on the lamp.

“Could you turn that off?” Kat’s brows shot together, she held her robe closed and nibbled at her lip.

His dick pressed against his jeans. He had never seen anyone so gorgeous in his life. “No, I want to see you.” He untied her robe. “All of you.”

“I wanted to have something sexy on, but you came back too soon.” Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of red.

He slid the robe off her shoulders. “You must have gotten lost in that bath.” J.J. ran his hands down her silky bare arms. “Your skin’s so soft.” He inhaled her intoxicating scent. “And smells nice.” He stepped back and fingered the pink material. “This robe and slippers look fucking hot on you.” He ran his tongue over his top lip. “I could eat you like cotton candy!”

She laughed. “Should I be flattered you think of me as fluffy?”

“Oh yeah.” J.J.’s voice was hoarse to his own ears. He took Kat’s hand and moved it to the bulge in his pants.

Kat’s eyes widened and a sexy grin covered her beautiful face. “I love that I do that to you. It makes me feel good.” She massaged his cock through the denim.

The desire to see more of Kat had J.J.’s hands tugging on her robe. It pooled at her feet. His head spun. He placed a soft kiss on her lips. Kat’s mouth parted for him.

She fumbled with the zipper on his pants. He stepped away and yanked his polo shirt over his head. “You make me so hot.” J.J. flipped off his shoes and unzipped his pants.

He shucked everything and captured Kat’s mouth. J.J. made himself pull back and led Kat to the soft, cloud-like bed.

Kat sat breathless. “Kiss me again.”

With pleasure, J.J. leaned in, touched his lips to hers and made love to her mouth. How was he going to keep his control when she tasted so good? He lifted his head. “Lie back, baby.”

She slid on the bed. He kissed his way to her breasts, making sure not to lick the rosy pink bud. He wanted to savor that little treat last.

Kat arched into him. “Please, J.J., I can’t stand it.”

J.J. needed to hear her tell him what she wanted. His first priority was getting her off. “What do you want?”

“I don’t know. Everything.”

He sucked at her soft flesh.

“Please,” she gasped.

He finally took her delectable pink nipple into his mouth. She cried out and started to shake.

The feel of her made him want to scream with triumph. He made his way up to her neck, nipped where her pulse pounded and licked his way to her ear. He found the spot that made her moan.

J.J. kissed his way to her mouth. Kat tasted sweet and hot, he gazed into her clouded eyes and ran his hand down her curves. J.J. found her pussy. “I want to bury myself deep inside you.” He fingered her wetness.

Hot cream flowed from her. “I want to feel you inside me,” she said, her voice raspy with pleasure.

He launched himself off her to find his wallet in his pants pocket. When he finally stopped shaking enough, J.J. pulled out a condom and knelt between her legs.

Too many feelings he didn’t understand ran through him. He buried his mouth in her creamy cunt. The salty sweet taste of her drove him to the edge. J.J. ripped the condom wrapper and lapped at her sweet pussy. He rolled the condom on his thick hard cock. Kat whimpered. J.J. took the hard button of her clit, sucked it into his mouth and felt her break apart in rapture. He lifted his head and smiled. “I love the way you taste.” J.J. moved over her and plunged into Kat hard and fast, too fast.

“J.J., wait,” she cried.

Holy shit, she was tight. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she was a virgin. His chest ached. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” She wiggled her hips. “I liked it.”

Guilt pulsed through his veins as tender flesh stretched around his cock. “I’m sorry.” He rested his forehead on hers. “I didn’t know you would be so tight.”

“I didn’t know either. Can you do that to me again?”

He smiled, pulled his rod almost all the way out and pushed back in, slower this time, and gazed into her eyes and plunged in again.

She reared up to meet him. He hit the top of her canal. Every muscle in his body strained against the feel of pure ecstasy. “I want you to come for me.” J.J. found a rhythm that Kat liked and she matched him stroke for stroke.

J.J. levered himself over her and stared down into her pleasure-filled face. The need to feel her come with him inside her threatened his control. “I want you to play with yourself while I’m inside you.”