Private Parts (6 page)

L
ATER THAT NIGHT,
K
ENDALL
sat on her bed at the B and B, pillows propped up behind her, trying to focus on the revisions in the contract in front of her. She picked up her cell phone from the bedding and checked the display, but it showed her nothing more than it had half a minute ago. Namely, that Troy hadn’t tried to contact her.

It was just after nine and she was beginning to think that perhaps she had come on a little too strong at the motel. Had she freaked him out? Made him wonder what she had in mind for next time?

She put the torturously quiet cell phone back down and turned the page of the contract, making another notation in the margin. It was storming outside, insulating her further from the world around her. Something scratched against the window and she looked in that direction. Probably a tree branch blowing in the wind.

She sighed.

Whereas Troy seemed completely capable of forgetting about her, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him.

Of course, it didn’t help that she was sitting on a bed in which they’d had some of that hot sex she wanted more of. But it wasn’t just the sex. More and more she found herself wondering about things that had nothing to do with his chiseled body and more about his psychological makeup. What had he been like as a child? Had he always been so serious? The boy on the Little League team with the determined grimace just waiting for his turn to knock the ball out of the park? The kid with the route who delivered his papers five minutes after they were distributed to him? The cute Cub Scout that appeared at your door outlining how many more candy bars he had to sell to earn his next merit patch and refused to let you go back inside until you bought something?

She smiled and snuggled down a little further into the pillows. There was something immensely satisfying about getting him to act outside his comfort zone. She merely had to think of him with his hands bound above his head to get hot all over again.

Had he ever intentionally taken a walk in the rain? Or called in sick when he wasn’t?

Her gaze drifted from the contract pages to the silent cell phone again. She reached out to pick it up, and jumped when it rang in her hand.

She hurried to answer without looking at the display.

“Hello?”

“Kendall?”

Troy. She sighed against the pillows. “Are you looking for someone else?”

“What? Who…oh.” His warm chuckle filled her ear and shivered all over. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.”

If she felt a little too happy about hearing from him, she wasn’t going to acknowledge the fact. At least not to herself. Right now, it was better just to feel. So what if the mere sound of his voice made her squeeze her thighs together? Chased away the damp chilliness of the day?

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Mmm…nothing much. How about you?”

“Same here.”

Kendall moved the contract from her lap to the nightstand and curved against the pillows. “Did you call for some phone sex?”

“Phone…er. No.”

She made a face.

“What was that?” he asked.

The same ting she’d heard earlier sounded against the window. “What was what?”

“That sound?”

Another
ting,
this time louder.

Kendall got up from the bed and stepped barefoot to the window.

Standing below it in the rain was none other than Troy.

“I thought you’d never look out,” he said.

She put her hand over her mouth to muffle her laugh. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to get your attention, of course.”

“You could have rung the bell.”

“Not without getting Mrs. Foss’s attention.”

“You could have called.”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing?”

Another voice sounded. Kendall leaned her forehead against the window, watching as Mrs. Foss appeared through the back door. What was that in her hand? A broom?

Kendall gasped as the old woman landed a solid whack against the back of Troy’s legs.

“I gotta go,” he said into the phone. “Meet me around the side on Maple. I’ll be waiting…”

He hung up.

She stayed at the window for a long moment, watching as he ran toward the street, Mrs. Foss shaking her broom after him.

The old woman looked up. Kendall moved quickly away from the window, laughing harder than she’d laughed in a good long time…

T
ROY SHRUGGED OUT OF HIS
soaked suit jacket and hung it on the back of his leather car seat, then ran
his hands through his dripping hair. He’d never done anything so spontaneous in his life. Of course, it would serve him right if he was made to pay for it with a nasty cold. He grinned. But it had been so worth it if just to see Kendall’s beautiful face peering at him through the window.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then the skies had opened up and he’d been caught standing there on the Fosses’ lawn, a major target. He could only hope that the rain had spotted Mrs. Foss’s glasses enough to make him little more than a blurry mass. He figured it was a good sign that she hadn’t addressed him by name. Merely shouted something about no good teenagers today and walloped him with her broomstick. He could still feel the sting across the back of his legs.

The passenger’s door opened and Kendall slid onto the passenger’s seat next to him.

In that one moment, he knew his questionable actions had been worth it.

“Did you actually throw stones at my window?” she asked.

“I did.”

“That’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me. Corniest, but romantic.”

“I’ll take romantic.”

Her smile warmed him despite his damp clothes.

She settled in more comfortably against the seat. “So where are we going?”

Now that was a question he didn’t have an answer to. “The motel is full.” He’d driven by on his way here to see the No Vacancy sign flashing, a neat row of motorcycles parked one after another in the parking lot. Apparently a club had stopped there for the night when the rain had started.

“Of what?”

“Of motorcycle riders.”

Her smile turned decidedly naughty. “Sounds kinky.”

“Sounds out of bounds.”

She laughed and he started the car.

He didn’t dare take her back to the Metaxas estate. Not with the open house preparations in full swing. Not only was Elena there with Ari, so was her mother. And Caleb was actually staying over for the first time in a guest room, although not even Percy was naïve enough to think that would hold.

“We could always sneak back up to my room,” Kendall suggested.

“And have to worry about being quiet.” He shook his head. “No thank you. I’ve already suffered Mrs. Foss’s wrath enough for one day.”

He pulled away from the curve as she pushed up the console between their two seats and scooted closer to him.

“Mmm…this is nice.”

He curved his arm around her shoulders, agreeing with her assessment. This was, indeed, nice. Very
nice. She smelled of warm peaches and toothpaste. All he wanted to do was run his tongue along her smooth teeth.

“You’re soaked,” she commented, running her hand over the front of his shirt.

“My jacket caught the brunt of it.”

She reached up and tousled his wet hair and then reached for the dash controls, turning up the heat and aiming the blowers at him. He was instantly glad for the attention as she ran her fingers through his hair slowly, tantalizingly.

He hadn’t had a girl cuddle up to his side while he was driving since he was a teen. He wondered why that was. Could it be because once you were older, and had unfettered access to a bedroom, car canoodling was no longer necessary?

The question presented him with a solution their problem.

“Makeout Cove,” he said aloud.

“Makeout what?”

He grinned at where she was popping the buttons on his shirt. “Makeout Cove. It’s a place I used to go when I was a younger.”

“By yourself or with others?”

“You’re being facetious.”

“I’m being facetious.”

He rubbed his hand down over her shoulder to her arm and back again. Damn, but she was sexier than any woman had a right to be.

He pointed the car in the direction of his destination, glad for the rain for more than privacy issues. Last summer, the area had experienced as close to a drought as they’d ever gotten. Add in an unusual heat wave and the combination had left Earnest and the surrounding counties ripe for mudslides. Just this morning he’d heard on the radio that one had blocked access to Route 6 for three hours while bulldozers cleared the road and rescued a woman trapped in her sedan when the slide hit.

After a few minutes, he reached Makeout Cove and pulled down the long, gravel road toward the dead end many Earnest residents knew intimately. His headlights bounced along the uneven ground, illuminating the overgrown trees whose limbs were weighed down further with tonight’s rain.

He’d expected the area to be deserted. Instead, he found two other cars parked, their windows steamed over. He pulled into a spot away from them and put the gear in Park, leaving the engine on to provide heat against the chilly night.

“This is Makeout Cove?” Kendall asked.

“You were expecting something different?”

“A view, maybe?”

Troy ran the back of his knuckles over her cheekbone, brushing her hair back. “The purpose of a place like this is the person you’re with is all the view you need.”

Her eyes darkened in the amber glow from the
dashboard lights as her gaze shifted from his eyes to his mouth and then back again.

“I feel like I’m fifteen,” she whispered. “First the stones against the window—”

“That took a cell phone call for you to respond to.”

“Never mind that.” She looked around. “Now Makeout Cove.” She leaned her forehead against his and whispered, “Can we go for ice cream afterward?”

“Only if you want to.”

He leaned in, taking a lingering taste of her lips. She smiled. “I want to.”

“I figured you might.”

She finished unbuttoning his shirt even as she kicked off her shoes and straddled his hips. She freed him of the damp fabric and asked, “Where’s the button to push the seat back?”

He blindly found it, her fragrant hair brushing against the side of his face as she kissed him.

“God, this is so incredibly hot,” she murmured, pushing her skirt up so that he glimpsed her panties. She pressed herself against his hard-on and he stretched his neck back, suppressing a groan.

He’d never ached for a woman physically to this almost painful degree before. He slid his fingers up the hem of her skirt and grasped her hips, holding her still even as she fumbled with the catch on his belt.

Were they really going to have sex in his car at Makeout Cove?

She reached inside his pants and took his pulsing length in her hand. He swallowed thickly.

Yes, they were….

H
AD IT ONLY BEEN A SHORT
time ago that she’d thought Troy lacking in spontaneity? Had pictured him as an unadventurous youth given to serious grimaces rather than toothy grins?

As Kendall settled her bare flesh against his, she was happy to stand corrected.

For the first time she became aware that a CD played at low volume. Was that Muddy Waters? It seemed Troy was surprising her around every corner tonight.

And as he directed her hips so he could enter her, edging her down until he filled her to the hilt, she found herself wanting him to surprise her even more.

He pressed his thumbs against her clit and she nearly burst right then and there, so unexpected was the move, so sensual.

She shifted her hips forward and then back even
as she framed his striking face in her hands and leaned in to kiss him. His hair was ink black in the dim light, his features in shadow. His breathing was shallow, his skin smelled of rain and limes and tasted of sin as she ran her tongue the length of his jawline and then welcomed his insistent kiss.

His hips bucked upward, filling her again. She stretched her head back, bearing her breasts to him, bracing herself against him with her hands on his thighs. He cursed under his breath and then caught a swollen nipple in his mouth, suckling deeply. Kendall cried out, a red-hot heat swirling within her from multiple directions, leaving her control in strained tatters.

Yes…oh, yes.

There had been so few men who satisfied her to the extent that Troy did…again and again and again. She kept waiting to be disappointed. To kiss him and have the heat no longer there. To feel his hard arousal pressed against her soft flesh and not be moved.

Instead, her need for him increased rather than decreased.

And he appeared to take special pleasure in bringing her to climax, strumming her body like a well-played instrument, plucking and sliding and urging.

Each of his upward thrusts sent her senses soaring, her internal thermometer rising. She squeezed her thighs against his hips, trying to hold off, yearning
to prolong the sensations merely having him inside her brought.

But Troy allowed her no quarter. His hands grasped, his hips moved and before she knew what hit her, Kendall was hurtling headfirst into a deliciously wet orgasm….

S
OME TIME LATER,
K
ENDALL
lay sprawled in the passenger seat, out of breath and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Outside, the rain continued to pound the car, rivulets running down the steamed windows. Inside, it was warm and cozy.

“Wow…”

Beyond her wildest imaginings, sex with Troy kept getting better and better. Yes, she admitted, it could be the unusual setting. Getting it on in a car had made her feel like a rebellious teenager out past curfew. But somehow that explanation didn’t hit the mark. She suspected the reason for her heightening need for Troy Metaxas lay in a place she had yet to explore. And, frankly, was more than a little afraid to.

“So, tell me about this holiday open house.”

The words were out of her mouth before she realized she was going to say them.

She froze, cursing inwardly at herself. Where had that come from? And how, exactly, did she go about snatching the words back from midair?

She chanced a glance at Troy. Thankfully, he
didn’t appear to find anything curious about the question as he tucked his shirt into his slacks, knocking his knee against the steering wheel in the process.

She, on the other hand, was shocked. By both the query and the motivation behind it.

Yes, she admitted to herself, she’d been a little upset when Bryna had told her about the party. A party Troy had not mentioned to her, much less invited her to attend.

That was unusual enough in and of itself. She usually accepted circumstances at face value. So he hadn’t asked her to come. That shouldn’t be surprising. They weren’t officially dating. She understood that. Moreover, she’d initiated the purely sexual nature of their relationship.

Why, then, was she suddenly feeling like the slighted girlfriend?

Yikes!

She lifted her hand to do up her blouse. “Forget I asked that.”

If Troy hadn’t been suspicious before, he was now. “Why?”

Kendall bit her bottom lip. This wasn’t happening. “Because it’s not any of my business.”

“Philippidis didn’t pass on that you’re both invited?”

That should have made her feel better. But it didn’t.

“You’re upset.”

She sighed and then ultimately nodded. Okay, so she wasn’t happy with herself and her reaction. But she’d never pulled a punch before. Why start now? So this was unfamiliar territory. She’d figure it out as she went along.

“I’m…disappointed,” she admitted.

He squinted at her in the dim light. He’d finished putting himself back together and looked painfully, handsomely disheveled. To her chagrin, she wanted to climb on top of him all over again.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

She straightened her skirt. “That makes two of us.”

He remained silent.

She had hoped by putting her feelings out there, the pocket of unexplainable emptiness that filled her chest would dissipate. Instead, it appeared to grow larger, pressing on her from the inside out.

“I know,” she whispered. “It makes no sense. I mean, what did I expect? An engraved invitation?”

“That’s so not what this party is about—”

“You don’t have to explain,” she interrupted. “I’m not even entitled to one.”

“Will you let me finish?”

She snapped her mouth shut.

“What I meant is that this open house is exactly that—an open house. My family’s been hosting the event for decades. Everyone in Earnest takes part.
No invitations are issued. It’s generally understood that anyone who comes is welcome.”

“That’s nice.” A little too much sarcasm? She mentally cringed. Where was all this emanating from? He’d just told her without telling her that she was invited. Welcome.

Perhaps it was his generalization that stung.

Everyone was welcome. Including her. Not her particularly.

“Oh, this is just stupid,” she muttered more to herself than him. “Can you just take me back to the B and B, please? Where I can see to screwing my head back on properly.”

She stared resolutely through the windshield. A pair of red taillights indicated that one of their fellow cove visitors had finished and were on their way back home.

Troy reached a hand out, fingering a tendril of her hair that was pasted against her cheek. “Are you all right?”

She brushed the hair back and pushed his hand away in the process. Something she hadn’t meant to do, but now that it was done….

“I’m fine. Everything’s perfect.”

No, it wasn’t. Who was she kidding? Suddenly it seemed as if everything was far from being okay.

She shifted in her seat to face him more fully.

“What am I to you, Troy?” she asked point-blank.

She suspected that he couldn’t have looked more shocked had she just told him he fell well short in the lover area.

“What…?”

Was it the closeness of the holidays? she wondered. Was that why she was getting all sentimental? But she’d never been the mushy type outside of her immediate family.

Perhaps it was because the official signing of the contract was set for tomorrow. Meaning that she would no longer have a reason to see Troy every day. Or at all. Indeed, her presence would no longer be required in town. She’d go back to Portland and…and what?

“Am I even someone you’d consider dating?” she asked.

He blinked, appearing not to know how to respond. Which bothered her even more.

“Oh, just forget it. Take me back now, please.”

“What’s going on here, Kendall?” he asked softly. “You’re not even giving me a chance to answer your questions.”

She stared at him, ridiculously close to tears.

What was the matter with her?

“Is this about tomorrow?” he asked. “About the termination of our business arrangement?”

“Excuse me, but I think that’s asking questions of your own, not answering mine.”

A ghost of a smile. “You’re right.” He cleared
his throat. “Would I consider dating you?” he repeated. “I consider this…our relationship…beyond dating…”

“Beyond dating how?”

“Beyond dating in that what I feel for you goes beyond ‘I’d like to take you out to dinner.’”

“And where do you feel this?”

His brows rose high on his forehead. And then he chuckled as if caught off guard.

“Where?” He shifted uncomfortably.

She leaned over, cupping his manhood in her hand. “Is this where?”

He groaned and despite her best efforts, Kendall experienced a renewed desire to cradle him between her thighs.

“This minute? Yes, there.”

She moved to jerk her hand back. He caught it, staring deep into her face. “But I also feel it here.”

He budged her hand upward until it rested against his chest.

The empty space within Kendall filled with sunshinelike warmth.

A brisk knocking on the driver’s side window caused them both to jump.

She pulled her hand back and watched as Troy pushed the button to lower the window. Standing next to the car was what appeared to be the same sheriff who had given her a speeding ticket the week before.
He had on a plastic protected hat, the rain running from the front brim as he considered them.

“Troy,” he said.

“Barnaby.”

“May I ask what you’re doing here this late?”

Kendall felt the irrepressible desire to laugh.

“Oh,” Troy said, looking to her and then back at the sheriff. “I’d say we’re doing what other couples do. We’re sitting here watching the rain.”

“Uh-huh.” Barnaby shined his flashlight inside the car and onto Kendall. “The rain.”

“Are you going to charge us with something, Barnaby?” Troy asked.

“I could ticket you for public indecency.”

“But you didn’t catch us in the act.”

He shined the light in Troy’s face. “I have the feeling that if I got here five minutes ago, I would have.”

Kendall did laugh, quickly lifting her hand to her mouth to muffle the sound.

The flashlight flicked off and the sheriff straightened. “It’s raining everywhere, so why don’t you enjoy it back in town?”

“Yes, Sheriff,” Kendall said. “Thank you.”

The tall, good-looking law enforcement officer shook his head and walked back toward his car.

She and Troy enjoyed a laugh as he rolled up the window and put the car in gear.

“I can’t believe we got caught,” he said, following the sheriff’s taillights out of the cove.

“I don’t think that really qualifies as getting caught,” Kendall said quietly. “I think full coital is the only thing that meets that criteria.”

He glanced at her with a grin. “Or really great oral sex.”

She smiled, looked at the sheriff’s car in front of them, then down at where Troy’s erection tented the material of his slacks….