MisplacedLessons (7 page)

His fingers found her clit, rubbing with enough pressure to
rouse a flame from what she thought were dying embers. She groaned, fresh
moisture easing his path as he pushed deep.

“Jesus, Amy.”

She loved the way her name sounded in his American accent.
A-mee.
Andrew’s thrusts were slow at first, but soon his pace increased, dragging her
arousal along with it. She pressed the palms of her hands against the tabletop,
trying to find purchase as she countered with an assault of her own. He was
taking her with a might that spoke of his own overwhelming need. Desire gave
way to greediness.

“God. Fuck me harder, Andrew. Deeper.”

His hands gripped her hips tightly, pulling her into his
plunges. Stars formed behind her eyes.

“Yes,” she hissed.

Andrew grasped a handful of her hair, using his hold to pull
her upright. He continued to pummel her with hard shoves while he gripped her
breast with his free hand, squeezing the sensitive flesh until she cried out.

Her second orgasm took her by surprise, flashing hard and
fast. Andrew joined her, yelling out with his own release. Both of them froze,
their joined bodies creating an erotic statue as they struggled to return to
normal.

What was normal anymore? A week ago, she was a lonely
schoolteacher in Australia who spent most nights masturbating to fantasies she
thought were scandalous and wicked, but that now seemed lukewarm and
unimaginative compared to Andrew’s lessons.

If
that
was normal, she’d sell her soul to the devil
to avoid returning to her old life, to being that woman.

Andrew slowly pulled out, taking a step away when he was
certain she’d found her footing. He placed a gentle hand on her back, the
gesture one of protection and care.

“Okay?”

She turned to face him, nodding. “Sort of nice to confirm
last night wasn’t a fluke or a lucky first attempt.”

Andrew laughed, the happy sound filling the quiet room.
“Yeah. That’s good to know. Even so, I don’t think we should rest on our
laurels. Might need to try that another dozen or so times just to be sure.”

Now it was her turn to laugh. “Cocky bastard.”

“Let’s eat and take that nap. Then we’ll see just how cocky
I am.” As he spoke, he wrapped her hand around his dick. She was surprised to
realize it was already starting to stiffen again.

Captivity certainly had its advantages.

Chapter Four

Andrew followed Amy into the house, watching as she dropped
her souvenir bags on a chair in the foyer. He was probably the worst kidnapper
in history. His far too willing captive still wouldn’t tell him where his
sister was, and after spending most of yesterday in bed, alternating between
sleep and sex, Amy had roused him early this morning, insisting that he take
her sightseeing.

He’d grumbled about playing tourist in his hometown, but
he’d eventually given in, gotten dressed and taken her around the city. His
little Australian handful was slowly wrapping him around her little finger,
something no woman—with the exception of Harper—had ever been able to do.

He’d anticipated being bored all day, but seeing Chicago
through Amy’s awestruck eyes had rejuvenated his love for the place. Her
interest in the history of the city was genuine and he’d actually learned a few
things he didn’t know. She hadn’t lied about doing her homework prior to
traveling. Several times during the day, she’d consulted her list, checking off
different sights after their visit. Her efficiency was mind-boggling.

Her enthusiasm as she explored Chicago made him realize he’d
become jaded lately. He used to feel the same rush Amy had every time he
stepped off the plane in a new country, but that passion had been absent on the
past few trips. He was currently in contract negotiations with the cable
company that produced his show and he’d spent several sleepless nights in the
last month trying to decide if he wanted to continue.

One day exploring a city he knew better than the back of his
hand with Amy had given him the kick in the pants he’d needed, proven to him he
still possessed that same sense of wonder. He wasn’t ready to retire yet.

Andrew glanced at the grandfather clock. It was nearly nine.
Damn. Talk about making a day of it. They’d boarded the train, heading into the
city at eight this morning. Amy had been tireless, practically bouncing from
one landmark to the next. He couldn’t understand it. She had to be suffering
from serious jet lag like him.

“How old are you?” he asked.

She gave him a funny look. “Where did that question come
from?”

He shrugged. “No idea. Just dawned on me that I don’t know.”

“I’m twenty-five, same as Harper. And you’re thirty-five,
ten years older.”

He grimaced. “You seem to know more about me than I do about
you.”

Amy slipped off her shoes. She’d only been in his childhood
home two days, but it already felt like she belonged here. He suspected she was
one of those people who were at ease anywhere. “Harper talks about you all the
time. Didn’t she ever mention me?”

Andrew gave her a guilty look. “She talked about you quite a
bit. I just wasn’t as good at paying attention as you were. Truth be told, I
never anticipated meeting you.”

Amy laughed. “Typical male. Only listen if it directly
pertains to you. Keith and Marc are exactly the same. I swear I have to repeat
myself three or four times before anything sinks into their thick skulls.”

“Keith and Marc?” He’d heard her mention the same men
earlier in the day as she’d searched for souvenirs.

“My mates back home. They’re the ones looking after Harper
right now.”

He scowled.

“Don’t worry, Shaw. They’ll take
really
good care of
her.” She threw a little too much emphasis into her reassurance. Damn Aussie
enjoyed trying to get a rise out of him.

“Yeah, well, you’d better hope for their sake they take care
of her just enough, but not too much.”

“Actually, I have a little bit of a confession to make.”

He narrowed his gaze. “About your friends?”

“No,” she said, giggling. “About you. I used to pump Harper
for information about you all the time.”

“Why?”

She lifted one shoulder. “At first I wanted to hear about
your adventures at work, the places you were going, stuff like that. But she
always added in extra details without realizing it, personality things.”

“What sort of things?”

“Like how you’re overprotective of her. How you call her
almost every single day to check up on her.”

He sighed. “I haven’t spoken to my sister in three days.”

“I know, but I truly believe you need to give Harper this
time, this space.”

“Why?”

She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know why exactly. I just
know that Harper was looking forward to escaping her real life for a little
while. It’s not that she doesn’t love you. Honest. She adores you. I don’t have
a brother, but I always used to think that if I did, I’d want him to be just
like you.”

“Great.” Andrew winced. “So you see me as a brother figure?”

Amy laughed. “Bloody hell, no. I may be a country hick from
out Whoop Whoop, but we’re not into incest.”

“Aha. So my sister isn’t in Sydney.”

Amy didn’t look concerned. “Oh yeah. That really narrows it
down for you. All I’m saying is I used to wish I had a brother like you. Then
Harper told me some more, um, personal stuff and my brother fantasy morphed
into one that was a lot dirtier.”

“Dirtier than what we’ve been indulging in the past two nights?
Details.”

Her smile remained. Amy was far more forthright than most
women he’d been with in the past. She didn’t possess a single ounce of modesty.

“Harper sort of let it slip that you belong to a sex club.”

Andrew closed his eyes. “How in the hell did that come up in
conversation?”

“I told her I wanted to visit one when I came to America.”

He thought he was beyond the point where anything Amy said
surprised him. He was wrong. “Why?”

Her eyes widened with excitement. “Why not?”

He sighed. Why not indeed?

Her face was still flushed from the chilly evening air. She
looked vibrant, healthy, beautiful. Despite his bone-deep weariness, nothing
was going to stop him from taking Amy to bed, stripping off her clothing and
losing himself in her body. He’d spent most of the day flying at half-mast
thanks to her skin-tight jeans and the game of cleavage peekaboo her blouse had
played with him. Hell, she even smelled good. Every time he caught a whiff of
her citrus-y perfume, he’d been forced to readjust his pants.

Amy, the little minx, had known all about his pained
condition and went out of her way to make it worse by
accidentally
brushing against his dick with her ass or her hand no less than a dozen times.
She’d treated him to a healthy dose of his own medicine after lunch when he’d
suggested they cut the sightseeing short and catch the next train home. She’d
given him a wicked grin, pointing out that “anticipation makes the reward
sweeter”.

Even now, she appeared to be in no hurry to move their party
to the bedroom. Instead, she walked straight toward the kitchen. He followed,
watching as she pulled a couple beers from the fridge.

“Want one?” she asked, holding them up.

He nodded. “Sure.”

Uncapping the Bud Lights, she tapped her bottle against his
before taking a sip. She winced. “What the hell is this? Tastes like piss.”

“Harper likes it. I prefer Blue Moon myself. Let’s see.
You’re an Aussie girl, so I’m guessing you’d prefer—”

She held up her hand. “If you say Foster’s, I will grab my
suitcase and walk out of this house right now.”

He rolled his eyes. “I was actually going to guess Carlton
Draught or maybe VB.”

“Wow. Very good, Mr. Shaw. I’m a Toohey’s fan, but I’m
impressed with your knowledge of Australian beer.”

He shrugged. “Like I said yesterday, I’ve been to your
continent three times thanks to work. I hope you won’t take this the wrong way.
It’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Her hands flew to her hips, defensively, angrily. There was
no doubt Amy was proud of her country. Last night he’d been treated to a
glimpse of her pajamas, a tank and panty set that sported the Australian flag.

“What’s wrong with Australia?”

He raised his hand, counting off on his fingers as he made
his list. “It was ungodly hot. Something tells me it would be cooler living on
the sun.”

“It’s not always hot. The winters can get downright cold.
Not Australia’s fault you were a bloody dickhead who traveled there in the
summer. I think we already determined that your producers are a bunch of
tools.”

“Fine.” He lifted a second finger. “The spiders there are
bigger than our goddamn cats.”

She laughed. “Not a fan of spiders?”

He faked a shudder. “Not at all.”

“Good to know my American Superman has a Kryptonite. I’ll
have to remember that.” Amy claimed a seat at the kitchen table, so he joined
her.

He took another sip of beer before continuing his list. “The
air is filled with the scent of eucalyptus. Reminded me of the nasty stuff my
mother used to rub on my chest when I had a head cold.”

“Are you kidding? If I had to name the number one thing I’m
missing about home right now, it’s that smell.”

“Guess you never have to worry about stuffy noses.”

“I prefer the fresh, cool honey scent of eucalyptus to your
smoggy, sewage-y city smell.”

“Hey now. Chicago doesn’t stink.”

She crinkled her nose. “Maybe not to you.”

“Fair enough,” he conceded. “It sounds like you and I are
just going to have to agree to disagree about whose country smells the best.”

She picked at the label on her beer bottle. He noticed she
hadn’t taken another sip. He’d probably end up finishing his beer and hers.
“You know,” she said at last, “Oz is my home and I love it more than vegemite,
but I’d leave it in an instant to do a job like yours.”

“You’d want to travel for a living?”

She nodded. “There are so many places I’m dying to see. This
will probably sound weird, but when I was eleven, the number one thing on my
Christmas list was a subscription to a travel magazine. I started to catalog
all the cities and countries I wanted to travel to in year eight of school.”

“I don’t think there’s anything strange about that. I have a
travel list of my own.”

“At least you’re making progress on yours. This trip is my
first and, given my rather limited income, I think it will probably be my last
for years.”

Her comment made him realize how little he actually knew
about Amy. “That’s right. You’re a teacher. Like Harper. Guess they’re
underpaid all over the world.”

She hesitated for a moment, then replied with more detail
than he’d expected. “I’m a teacher on a cattle station.”

“That’s like a ranch, right?”

“Except it’s a station,” she teased. “Full of jackaroos and
stockmen. Not a cowboy in sight.”

“Gotcha.” He took another swig of beer. “Sounds like an
interesting place to live. I haven’t seen an Aussie cattle station on my
travels. Maybe I need to add that to my list.”

“If you ever want a tour, just ring me up. I think my bosses
would get a kick out of being on American TV.” Amy looked around the kitchen.
“Although my little cottage is nowhere near as nice as your house.”

“It’s more accurate to say this is Harper’s house. I’m not
here more than a dozen weeks or so each year. The rest of the time, I’m either
on the road or at my own apartment in L.A. Feels sort of odd to be here this
week without her. Unlike you, my sister has an aversion to traveling.”

“I know she hasn’t done a lot of it, but she was super
excited about traveling to Oz.”

“Really?” Andrew frowned, wondering when Harper had started
changing. The sister he knew would never drop everything for two weeks to head
off for parts unknown alone. He could only assume Amy had been a big influence
on her. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He worried about Harper’s
introverted ways.

He and his sister were long overdue for a chat. “Usually
she’s a homebody. While she’s done some traveling in the States, she’s never
ventured into another country, with the exception of the time our family went
to Niagara Falls in Canada. Even then, she was only little. I doubt she even
remembers it.”

Amy noticed his empty beer bottle and handed hers to him
with a grin. “Harper loves you, Andrew, but that doesn’t mean she has to tell
you everything.”

Damn. So much for his poker face. Amy must’ve recognized his
concern. “I used to think we were really close. This secret trip of hers is throwing
me for a loop.”

“She’s a big girl. Heading out on her own is probably a good
thing for both of you.”

He knew his sister was an adult, but that didn’t make it any
easier for him to let go. There was too much history between them, too many
painful memories. “Harper’s the most important person in my life. We tend to
cling to each other, considering our family fell firmly within the
dysfunctional category. Did she tell you she’s actually my half-sister?”

“No. She didn’t. What do you mean by dysfunctional?”

He stretched out in the chair, leaning back, grateful for
the downtime. He felt like he’d run a marathon today rather than merely going
sightseeing with Amy. “My parents were married for several years before they
had me, then my mom died when I was eight.”

“Oh Andrew. I’m sorry.”

“Cancer.”

Amy reached over and grasped his hand, squeezing it. “That’s
what got my dad too. Just a couple years ago.”

Her kindness touched him, made him want to open up to her.
Typically his past was one of those books that remained firmly closed. He
hadn’t spoken about his parents in years. “My dad waited all of four months
after burying my mother before he married his secretary. Dad and the secretary
had Harper, which is why I’m ten years older than her. She’s the product of a second
marriage.”

“The secretary? She doesn’t have a name?”

Andrew hadn’t called the woman by her given name in years,
and he was using the term secretary to keep things clean for Amy. Truth was
nowadays he usually thought of his stepmother as
that whore
or
the
bitch
. It was one of the reasons he never talked about family matters,
especially with Harper. He never wanted his sister to know how much he despised
her mother, even though he suspected the feeling was somewhat mutual.