Wild & Hexy (21 page)

Even in the dim light from the house, he could see her point. ‘‘Then let’s get it out of sight.’’

‘‘I love it when you talk dirty.’’ She wiggled down onto the seat and made room for him between her thighs.

‘‘This is extremely unromantic.’’ But his penis was throbbing and threatening to detonate any minute, so he made like a pretzel and braced himself above her. ‘‘I haven’t even kissed you yet.’’

‘‘Kiss me now,’’ she whispered. ‘‘Then do me.’’ He followed her instructions, finding her warm, moist mouth in the darkness. She welcomed him with her tongue, which encouraged him to find that other warm, moist opening between her legs. Then he was lost. Connecting with Annie this way fried every brain cell he possessed.

Once he was inside her, he became so involved in the experience that aliens could have landed a space-ship right next to him and he wouldn’t even have noticed. All that mattered was Annie’s hot, pulsing center, where he searched for salvation. Thrusting deep, he celebrated the rhythmic moans that greeted him each time he buried himself to the hilt. All the while he kept kissing her, smothering her cries so that they wouldn’t be heard.

She loved this as much as he did, and he’d carry that knowledge forever. No matter what happened later tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day, he would know that right now, while he lovingly stroked her G-spot with his penis, there was nowhere she’d rather be.

During their dance she’d told him to think about sex. Now, during sex, he thought about their dance, which inspired him to use his hips in new and interesting ways. She responded by rising to meet him with such enthusiasm that he wondered whether the car had started to rock.

He didn’t care. Annie had invited him into the backseat, and he would make it count. Their bodies grew slick with sweat and her fingers dug into his hips.

Their soul-blending kiss ended as they both struggled for air in the final moments. As he felt her tighten around him, heard her breathing quicken, he increased the pace. There. He sensed her orgasm hovering . . . hovering . . .
now
.

The moment she came, he surrendered to the pounding in his groin and surged forward in a shuddering, monumental climax. A red haze swirled in his brain and gradually settled again as the quivering stopped. So this was a quickie. He could grow to like it.

‘‘Jeremy!’’ A guy’s voice penetrated his barely conscious, sex-drenched mind. ‘‘We need you, buddy! They’re gonna do some toasts!’’

He dragged in a shaky breath and brushed the damp hair from Annie’s face. ‘‘Ready to rejoin the party?’’

Even though Annie had repaired her lipstick and combed her hair, she was convinced everyone at the party knew exactly what she’d been up to out in the car with Jeremy. He looked a little mussed, too, and she resisted the urge to reach up and finger-comb his hair back into place.

They’d made a decision not to go inside holding hands or act in any way that would give the gossips even more ammunition. But judging from the smirks and knowing looks as they walked back into the living room, there would be no killing this rumor. Annie didn’t mind so much for herself, but her impulsive behavior tonight could make life tough for Jeremy, and she regretted that.

Still, she couldn’t make herself regret what had just happened out there in the backseat of her car. She’d never been capable of quickie sex before, and she was proud of herself. She was also feeling really, really energized.

The music still blared, but the games seemed to be on hiatus while the guests tucked into paper plates piled with goodies from the Big Knob Market’s deli counter.

‘‘Grab a plate, you two,’’ Maggie called out to them as they walked into the living room.

Annie was starving, but three days before the wedding was no time to abandon her diet. Everything on the buffet table was loaded with calories. Not a celery stick in sight. She recognized Bradley’s famous chicken salad and baked-on-the-premises rye bread. And there were desserts—a cheesecake, a Black Forest cake and little individual éclairs that made her mouth water.

‘‘Let me get you some food,’’ Jeremy said.

‘‘No, that’s okay. I’m not hungry.’’

He gazed down at her, his gray eyes warm with admiration. ‘‘Annie, if this is about losing weight, I hope you realize that you don’t need to lose another—’’

‘‘No, no.’’ She waved a dismissive hand. ‘‘It’s not that.’’

He leaned closer and lowered his voice. ‘‘I love touching you, love holding you. It’s like sinking into soft pillows.’’

She groaned and sucked in her stomach.

‘‘I’m guessing from your expression that was the wrong thing to say.’’

‘‘You’d be guessing right. A girl doesn’t want to be thought of as pillowlike.’’

‘‘I meant it as a compliment.’’

She couldn’t help laughing. His confidence might be improving, but he still had geekish tendencies. ‘‘I know. That’s what’s so scary.’’

‘‘Come have some food.’’

‘‘No, thanks.’’ The entire Big Knob varsity football team couldn’t drag her over to the buffet table now. Pillows, indeed. ‘‘But you go ahead. There’s nothing pillowy about you.’’

‘‘Uh, okay, I will.’’ He backed away from her. ‘‘I still think you should—’’

‘‘Go eat.’’ She shooed him away and glanced around to see if Gwen was nearby. Gwen cared about Jeremy. Maybe she’d have some words of wisdom about this complicated situation.

Annie found her repairing a flower arrangement on a table between the two front windows. ‘‘I’ll bet you brought that arrangement.’’ Annie had seen some of those same flowers in Gwen’s shop the day before.

‘‘I did. Somebody bumped into them and knocked the baby orchids off-kilter.’’ Gwen fiddled with the arrangement some more and stepped back. ‘‘That’s better.’’

‘‘Can I ask you something?’’

Gwen glanced at her. ‘‘Sure.’’

‘‘Is it horrible for me to be involved with Jeremy when I don’t plan for it to go beyond the weekend? Because when I say it like that, it sounds horrible.’’

Gwen adjusted her glasses. ‘‘He knows that’s how you feel, right?’’

‘‘Yes. If anything, I’ve harped on it too many times.’’

‘‘Then it’s not horrible. He’s an intelligent guy and he has all the facts. He could call a halt if he didn’t like the odds.’’

Annie drew in a long, shaky breath and let it out again. ‘‘Isabel thinks I’m taking advantage of him because he used to have a crush on me. She thinks I’m using him for my own purposes. I probably shouldn’t listen, but what she said hit home.’’

‘‘And Jeremy could be using you for his own purposes. Maybe it’s liberating for him to have great temporary sex. You can’t have sex with a girl in Big Knob without strings attached. What am I saying?
Ropes
attached, like the kind they use to moor a cruise ship. You might be giving him a gift.’’

‘‘I’d like to think that. He’s certainly given me a gift. He says I look good twenty pounds overweight. True, he compares me to a pillow, but his heart’s in the right place.’’

Gwen rolled her eyes. ‘‘You can teach a geek magic tricks, but you can’t turn him into a silver-tongued devil overnight. He once told me my nose was nicely proportioned and my nostrils were the perfect size.’’

‘‘Omigod.’’

‘‘That’s Jeremy. But a guy who likes you the way you are is sure good for the ego.’’

‘‘Mine needed some serious plumping up, no pun intended.’’

‘‘Then I say let him plump. It seems as if he’s good at it.’’

‘‘He is.’’ Annie gazed at her. ‘‘Are you sure you aren’t secretly in love with him? Because if I thought so, I would back away right this minute.’’

‘‘I’m not secretly in love with him. He’s like the brother I never had. I watched you two dancing and that was the sexiest I’ve ever seen him, but I still didn’t get a tingle.’’ Gwen smiled. ‘‘But you did.’’

‘‘Uh-huh. Can’t explain why, but he really does it for me.’’

‘‘Then you should let him keep doing it, at least through Sunday. You’re having a positive effect on him, too. He’s like me, way too conservative. You’re expanding his horizons.’’ Gwen ticked off items on her fingers. ‘‘Sex outside by the lake, sex in the afternoon, sex in the backseat during a party—’’

‘‘That’s a pretty comprehensive list. Is someone following us?’’ Maybe Jeremy was right and the lake monster was only a practical joke.

‘‘Not that I know of. We just have superior intelligence gathering in this town. You lived here for eighteen years. You must remember that.’’

Annie lowered her voice. ‘‘Speaking of intelligence gathering, I’m going to tell you something and you have to promise to keep it to yourself.’’

‘‘If Jeremy’s really nine inches, I don’t want to know.’’

‘‘This has nothing to do with Jeremy.’’

‘‘So he is nine inches?’’

‘‘Eight?’’

‘‘Focus, Gwen.’’ For the first time Annie took note of how flushed Gwen was. ‘‘How many cups of punch did you have, anyway?’’

‘‘A few. I’ve never been great with parties, but it helps to get a little looped.’’

‘‘In other words, I might as well disregard all that good advice you gave me because you’re smashed.’’

‘‘No, actually, you should listen to the advice I just gave you, because the booze helps me tap into my inner wisdom.’’

Annie sighed. ‘‘And besides that, you have a great nose.’’

‘‘Nice of you to notice. What’s this top secret thing you want to tell me about?’’

‘‘I saw something in Deep Lake last night. Something huge.’’

‘‘Are we back to the subject of Jeremy’s penis?’’

‘‘No.’’ Annie edged Gwen away from the crowd. ‘‘And keep your voice down. I’m talking about a creature sort of like the Loch Ness monster, only with a smaller head. Looks kind of like a plesiosaur, if you remember your dinosaurs.’’

‘‘I’ll be damned. Maybe Donald wasn’t exaggerating. ’’

‘‘Donald Jenkins?’’

Gwen nodded. ‘‘He claimed to see something big under the surface while he was out fishing last weekend, but you know how he exaggerates. Nobody believed him.’’

A chill shot up Annie’s spine. She knew Donald, who ran the Big Knob Dairy, and he did tend to exaggerate. But now three people had seen a monster. They couldn’t all be imagining things.

Gwen gazed at her with benign tolerance. ‘‘You know it has to be kids, Annie. Don’t be gullible. There’s no such thing as lake monsters.’’

‘‘If it’s kids, they’re a lot more clever than we were.’’

‘‘Oh, they are. I wouldn’t put anything past the new crop. Teenagers get crazy in the spring. Remember how we were?’’

‘‘You were never crazy, Gwen.’’

‘‘Sadly, that’s true. I’ve been thinking that needs to change.’’ With a lopsided grin, Gwen tucked her arm through Annie’s. ‘‘Let’s go get some food.’’

‘‘I’m not eating. If my mother has to let my dress out any more, she’ll have to add that extra piece of material we learned about in sewing class. I think it’s a gussy.’’

‘‘It’s a gusset, and one baby éclair won’t mean you need a gusset.’’ Gwen pulled her closer to the crystal plate holding the éclairs. ‘‘Have you ever thought about how much these are like penises? Or is it penisi?’’

‘‘Gwen, you really are toasted. Plus you’re fixated on male equipment.’’ Annie laughed. ‘‘But I can see what you mean, with the shape and the cream filling inside.’’

Gwen handed her one. ‘‘I dare you to take this over to Jeremy, nip the end off and suck the cream out right in front of him. I double-dog dare you.’’

‘‘And I thought you were a sweet girl.’’

‘‘I am sweet, and getting sick of it. Try the éclair trick. I’ve always wanted to but never had the nerve. A big one would be more effective, but you have to work with what you have.’’

‘‘Why should I?’’

‘‘Because I know Jeremy. We’re way too much alike, which is why we’re so wrong for each other. He’ll be embarrassed and hate it, but he’ll love it, too. Trust me, he wants to break out of his ordinary routine and do impulsive things. There’s a wild man inside there and you can help turn him loose.’’

The concept appealed to Annie. If she thought she was actually benefiting Jeremy this week, that would relieve her guilt about leaving on Sunday. ‘‘I’ll try it, but Gwen, you need a hot guy so you can unleash your inner vixen. If you’ll come to Chicago, I’ll hook you up.’’

Gwen shook her head. ‘‘I think I need a Frenchman. ’’

‘‘I know some guys with French names.’’ Annie could think of two in the newsroom.

‘‘No, I mean from France.’’

That’s when Annie remembered that going to France had always been Gwen’s dream. ‘‘Can you leave the flower shop and just go?’’

‘‘Not really.’’

‘‘Then how—’’

‘‘The Internet. I’ll find someone and invite him here to visit.’’

Annie looked at her friend with new respect. Gwen had a plan and a goal. If anyone could pull that sort of thing off, it would be her. ‘‘Good luck with that. Oh, and about Jeremy, will you keep an eye on him and make sure he’s okay after I leave?’’

‘‘You bet.’’

‘‘Especially watch out for Isabel.’’

Gwen saluted. ‘‘I promise she won’t get by me, coach. Now, go suck that éclair.’’

Jeremy had hoped Annie would decide to eat something. When she wandered over with the éclair in her hand, he concluded that his bumbling attempts to tell her she wasn’t fat had worked.

‘‘I’m glad you changed your mind.’’ He gestured to the full plate he held in one hand. ‘‘As you can see, I went a little overboard.’’

‘‘Overboard is good.’’ Holding his gaze, she bit off the very tip of the éclair.

‘‘I’ll bet those taste great.’’ He didn’t know why he should be nervous. She was only eating an éclair.

‘‘Mm.’’ Then she began to lick the end of the damned thing, and he knew why he should be nervous. ‘‘That’s very cute, Annie.’’ He was getting hard, which wasn’t cute at all. The word
painful
came to mind.