Just like that, p.4
Just Like That, page 4
“I’m thinking that might help.”
He glanced over and chuckled. “They aren’t exactly instructional.”
“They could be. The things they do in those videos are things I need to learn. Watching someone else do it might help.”
He could barely walk as it was, yet he still heard himself ask, “Things like what?”
She stepped closer so she could lower her voice. “Blow jobs.”
He nearly swallowed his tongue. “Wh-what?” he coughed.
“I don’t know how to do…that. What to expect. I thought surely one of those videos would have a scene or two…”
“I can’t believe this was my idea. I can’t believe that I’m standing here…” Sam continued muttering as he stomped to the wall of DVDs, quickly scanned the titles, pulled two out, read the back of each, returned one to the shelf and handed Danika the other.
“Thanks, Sam.”
She said it with such enthusiasm he looked at her suspiciously, but her eyes were focused on the DVD cover.
He had to nudge her toward the cash register. Once there he started to pull Ben’s hundred-dollar bill out of his pocket then stopped. He couldn’t stomach having another man buy these things for Danika. Not even Ben.
The only man who was going to provide Danika with sex toys was him.
At least while he could control it.
He pulled out his own wallet and watched as the girl put Danika’s treats in a black bag with Tease in hot pink letters on the side.
Tease, indeed.
What a stupid idea this had been.
He glanced at Danika, who was clearly over her earlier embarrassment and was now looking around the store like a kid who had stumbled upon Santa’s workshop.
A stupid idea that had been more fun than he’d had in far too long.
They were nearly back to the restaurant and Danika couldn’t believe how hard her heart was still pounding. She would have never walked into Tease by herself, because she wasn’t interested in what the store had to offer. At least, she hadn’t thought she was. Before Sam.
She wasn’t in the market for hot sex or an orgasm either. It didn’t bother her that she didn’t have them. In fact, she would never date a guy like Sam, a guy who could make her feel the way he did, and think the things she was thinking so easily. There was way too much potential for big-time emotions there. Already she could tell that she could easily feel desperate for Sam. For the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, the way he talked to her, the way he kissed her. One kiss and she was having a hard time imagining never kissing him again without feeling a pang in her chest.
No matter how totally stupid that was.
She didn’t even truly know him. She had been with him for about an hour and already she felt more with him than she had with any of her boyfriends.
She had to stay away from Sam.
Eventually.
She could risk one night. After all, not wanting wild sex and intense climaxes on a regular basis didn’t mean she shouldn’t know about them. When someone was trying to diet, they were coached to identify their triggers, the things that made them lose control. The more time she spent with Sam, the better prepared she’d be for guys like him. Guys who could make her feel all of the things she was determined to stay away from. She’d recognize them more easily…and could more effectively avoid them. In the future.
That rationalization was working for her. This was good.
She could use Sam like a tutor. And Tease was like the library.
She giggled. Yeah. Exactly like the library.
Sam looked at her with a half-smile. “What’s funny?”
“I feel better already.”
“Better about what?” He was holding her hand.
“Better about the orgasms.”
“Just being with me, huh? That’s pretty good for my ego.”
She laughed. “You’ve certainly given me hope.” She lifted the Tease bag and shook it. “Not to mention paraphernalia.”
“Right.” He sounded pained.
“I have to pay you back,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “This was fun, but there’s no way you should pay for this stuff.”
He squeezed her hand. “I can’t think of anything I would have rather spent that money on.”
Somehow she believed him. Which was ridiculous. They’d known each other for seventy-eight minutes. They didn’t even know each other’s last names. Yet he’d bought her the most intimate stuff anyone ever had and knew things about her some of her closest friends didn’t. This was crazy.
And she loved it. Though Sam turned her on more than any man ever had, she had definitely felt the thrill of turning him on as well. It was certainly playing with fire. But she couldn’t help it. She always kept the upper hand in her relationships with men and the look on Sam’s face when she’d asked for a video about blow jobs had ensured that she had as much effect on him as he did on her. Which was the only reason she’d let it go on. She suspected that Sam had finally caught on to the fact that she was messing with him but he’d continued playing.
“I do appreciate it. I can’t believe you left your dinner to do this for a stranger.”
“I can have dinner with Ben any time. It isn’t every day I get the chance to help a gorgeous woman find her sexual chi.”
“Do you think I found it?”
“I can’t tell you that for certain unless…”
He grinned at her and Danika felt heat spread…everywhere…as he tugged her closer still.
“Unless?” she asked, knowing full well that this was going to lead to more kissing. At least.
“Unless I give you an exam.”
Images of Sam dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck, looking her over, touching and testing, maybe even the use of stirrups, all floated through her mind and she was confused as to whether she should be nervous or turned-on. “Exam?” she repeated.
“Isn’t that what an instructor does after a lesson to see if the student understands the material?”
Ah. An exam. Right. She felt her smile stretch even as anticipation sparkled along her nerve endings. “You are exactly right…Professor. But I think I might need some more lab time…” she held up the bright blue vibrator, “…before the test.”
Just then his phone started ringing. “Sorry,” he muttered, looking at the message. “Damn.”
“Everything okay?”
He lifted his head. “I, um…” He glanced back at the phone, then up at her again. “I have a stop I have to make. I would take you back to the restaurant, but I’m on a deadline with this…thing I have to do. Do you mind?”
Prolonging her time with Sam was probably not smart. But she still wanted to do it. “No problem.”
“You’d better call your sisters and let them know where you are. I don’t want them to worry. And in spite of my instructions to the contrary, I have a feeling they’re going to call you later.”
She smiled. That was nice. He was a good guy.
She frowned. He was a good guy.
Not a good thing to realize. It would be much easier to have a fling with him and let herself go physically—a little—if she didn’t like him too.
Sam turned right at the stoplight while she sent a text message to her sisters about the change of plans. Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of a quaint blue two-story house.
“Is this your place?”
He gave her a grin, resting his arm along the back of her seat. “I wouldn’t have made up a reason to bring you to my house.”
She smiled back. “So where are we?”
“This is Natalia’s house.”
“Girlfriend?”
He laughed. “Female friend, yes. Come on.”
The house was dark and Sam took her up to the garage door. “I don’t think she’s home,” Danika said.
“Exactly.” He lifted the cover on the keypad next to the door. He punched in six numbers and the wide door slowly rumbled up. He took her hand and pulled her into the interior then to the door leading into the house.
“Should I have brought my black ski mask?” she whispered.
“You don’t just carry that with you?” He opened the door that led from the garage into the kitchen. “And you don’t have to whisper. She isn’t here.”
“Sam, what’s going on? You do know this woman, right?”
“I know her very well. I’m here to check her light bulbs.” He flipped on the kitchen light. “This one works.” He grinned at her and crossed the room to the switches next to the sink. He flipped one up, starting the garbage disposal. “Sounds good to me.” Then he turned on the faucet. “No trouble there.” He shut the water off and faced Danika.
“What are you doing?” She couldn’t help smiling at him.
“You want to help?”
“Do what?”
“I’m checking the place over. Making sure everything works, nothing needs repaired or replaced.”
“Why?”
“To help Natalia out. She lives alone. She’s eighty-three and can’t take care of a lot of this herself.”
“Why are you breaking into her house when she’s not here?”
“I’m not breaking in. I have the code. And because it’s easier when she’s not here. If she’s home she’d insist on cooking for me and hearing about my job.”
“Poor baby,” Danika said dryly. “How dare she be interested in having a friendship with you?”
He just chuckled. “You want to help or not?”
“What do I do?”
“Go around and turn on anything that’s supposed to turn on, open anything that should open, close anything that should close… Look for anything that’s not working the way it should.”
“Got it.” It was a strange routine, but it was kind of sweet.
“I’ll meet you back here. Let me know anything that needs attention.”
“Sam, seriously why don’t you do this when she’s home?”
“Because she would never let me do it. She’d insist on hiring someone else or paying me.”
“So instead she just thinks that her light bulbs never burn out?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
Danika headed for another room and spent the next twenty minutes checking light switches, running water, opening and closing windows and drawers and checking the vents.
“Find anything?”
She looked over her shoulder to find Sam leaning against the door jamb. She was standing on the kitchen countertop, scrubbing the high window over the sink. She gave it a final swipe, then climbed down. “I fit all of her jewelry in my pockets, but I’m going to need some help carrying out the silver.”
He chuckled. “I’ll get the burlap bag.” He pushed away from the door and came into the room, not stopping until he nearly stood on top of her. “It was sweet of you to help me.”
“This is the most interesting evening I’ve spent in a long time,” she said, smiling up at him. “Did I hear a vacuum running?”
“Yeah.”
“You clean to?”
“I only did the steps. If I did the whole house it would be too obvious.”
She shook her head. “And why the steps?”
“We do the stuff she can’t, or shouldn’t, do. Like hauling the vacuum up and down the steps.”
“What about the second floor?”
“She has another vacuum up there. It’s the stairs that are tricky.”
“So she also believes that her stairs never get dirty?”
He just shrugged again. “I guess.” He glanced up at the window she’d just scrubbed. He took the dirty paper towel from her hand and tossed it onto the counter. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. But it saved you some time doing it.”
He glanced up at the window again. “I’ve never scrubbed those windows.”
“Why not?”
“Never thought of it.” He looked back at her.
“Hmm.” She tipped her head. “Glad I could contribute.”
His eyes dropped to her lips and he lifted his index finger and traced it down the length of her throat. “Anything else I’ve missed?”
The heat of his finger against her neck distracted her to the point of having to swallow twice before saying, “There are high windows above the front door too.”
His finger traced along her collar bone. “Uh-huh. What else?”
She searched her mind for something that an older woman couldn’t do by herself to keep her home going. But her mind was much more interested in Sam’s finger. “I’m guessing that she can’t…turn her mattresses.”
“Now I have thought about mattresses since you’ve been around.” He bent and placed his lips at the base of her throat.
She half chuckled and half groaned as she tipped her head back. “Then there’s the fireplace,” she breathed.
“We cleaned her fireplace last fall.”
“Great.” She let her eyes drift closed. “How about the drains? They should be cleaned out. All kinds of grime—dirt, hair—get in there.”
Sam lifted his head and her eyes struggled to open. “You’re thinking about clogged drains while I’m kissing you? I’m definitely doing something wrong here.”
“No, you’re… Oh!” Her protest ended as he cupped her butt in both hands and lifted her up against him, pressing his very evident erection against the soft spot between her legs and capturing her lips with his.
He kissed her hot and hard for several long moments, angling his head so he could stroke his tongue even deeper. When he lifted his head, it was difficult to make her eyes focus.
“What were we talking about?” he asked.
“Mattresses,” she replied automatically.
He grinned a cocky, I’ve-got-you-where-I-want-you grin and set her back on her own two feet. “That’s better.”
Danika struggled to bring air into her lungs. Sam invaded every molecule of the space around her. She could smell him, feel his heat. And she wanted more. Of all of it.
She needed a distraction. Now. “By the way, the ceiling fan in the dining room doesn’t work.”
He thought about that for a few seconds. “I guess I’ll check the wiring.” He didn’t sound all that certain about the statement.
“Do you know about electrical wiring?” she asked.
“I’m better with light bulbs and loose screws, but if I can’t figure it out, Mac can.”
“Mac?”
“One of my buddies. He helps with the houses. He’ll come over and check it out.”
“Houses? Plural?” she asked.
“There are four ladies we check on.” Sam ran his palms up and down her upper arms.
Danika loved the feel of his hands on her. The firm heat gliding over her shoulders made her want his hands everywhere else she had skin.
“The gals play cards every Thursday. They rotate whose house they play at. We check the other three houses while they play. I usually take care of Natalia but Ben wanted to have a drink tonight.”
He grinned at her and she realized that his friend, Ben, had been in on them both being at the bar tonight.
“Kevin agreed but then got called into work, so asked if I could come over after all. And we don’t have much time before Natalia gets home.”
“That’s…nice.” Dammit. Sam was a nice guy. Who made her tingle just walking into the room with her. She had to stay away from him. “Do you have a screwdriver?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll check the wiring.”
“You’re going to check the wiring?” he asked with a smile.
She raised an eyebrow. “Not if you’re going to act like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you can’t believe that a woman would know how to check the wiring in a ceiling fan.”
“I guess while you’re up on the table I can check out your butt.”
“Good. Be chauvinistic. That will help.”
He chuckled. “I was just kidding. What will it help?”
“Me not like you so much.”
“You can’t help liking me, Dani,” he said, huskily, pulling her closer.
He was right. Unfortunately. “Get me a screwdriver already,” she said, pushing him back before she got too comfortable up against him. “And don’t call me Dani.”
He let go of her, turning to rummage in the toolbox on the counter next to the microwave. “No one calls you Dani?”
“Men don’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t let them.” It was too familiar and she didn’t like getting to the point of nicknames and endearments with the men she dated.
Sam said nothing to that and he did, indeed, stand behind her as she crawled up on the dining room table to check the ceiling fan. He shut off the electrical switch on the wall and then held the flashlight for her. Along with the light coming from the kitchen it was plenty to see what she was doing. But she felt his gaze on her backside, and her body heated and she had to force herself to focus on the job at hand.
“How do you know how to do that?” he finally asked.
“I make it a point to know how to do things for myself.”
There was a long silence as she removed the cover from the center of the ceiling fan, then stripped the plastic coating back from the end of one wire where it had frayed and come unconnected, then reattached it to the one next to it. She lifted the cover back over the inner workings of the fan and inserted the tiny screw into the hole to hold the cover on.
“You already have a vibrator at home, don’t you?”
She wobbled and dropped the screw. “What?”
What a way to break the silence.
“You didn’t need that blue dildo, did you?”
Unable to come up with anything other than, “Um,” Danika looked down at Sam. To find him looking at her butt, which was just about eye level for him.
He handed her the screw from where it had bounced across the table. “You said you haven’t had an orgasm.” He wrapped a big, warm hand around her calf to steady her and looked up. “But you just said that you make a point of knowing how to do things for yourself.”
She quickly turned her attention back to the ceiling fan, which made a lot more sense than the riot of sensations that this virtual stranger was stirring up. “I said that I haven’t been with a man who gave me an orgasm.” She tried to turn the screw but it wouldn’t go in straight, just as she couldn’t ignore the way his touch seemed to tingle up her bare leg and a very specific spot higher.
