Two of hearts, p.17
Two of Hearts, page 17
A knock sounded on the door. He closed his eyes. Just keep still and they’ll go away. Like the bogeyman. That’s what his father used to tell him when he was a kid and afraid of thunderstorms. It was a phase, what could he say?
Damn long phase.
I got over it. What the hell—he was answering back now?
The second round of knocking was louder. It couldn’t be either of his brothers. They never bothered to knock. Nor did any of his friends, come to think of it. They all just barged right in.
“Matt? Are you home?”
It was Cassidy’s voice. He threw off the covers, straightened the waistband of his pants, and … more or less fell out of bed, whacking his leg against the steel bed frame in the process.
“Ouch. Coming!”
He hopped out to the living room, his shin smarting from the impact.
“Just a minute!” he shouted. He didn’t want her to leave. After all, he’d just been thinking about her. Even though the prospect of Cassidy-inspired stress relief was gone, if he could get her to hold his hand that would still be a big help. A distraction, at the least.
He yanked open the front door. “Hey.”
She was still dressed all in black—black wool coat over a black silky blouse, black skirt, black suede boots with a small heel. He had changed into nylon soccer pants and a tee shirt at some point, though he was hard pressed to remember exactly when. He stood aside to let her in, then pulled the door firmly shut behind them.
“How are you feeling?” she asked and laid her hand on his bare forearm. Her touch was cold from standing on his porch while he was hiding in bed, but the charge it sent down his spine was decidedly hot. He covered the hand with his own, then wrapped his fingers entirely around hers. He wanted the same calm she had given him in the cemetery that afternoon. He craved it.
“I’m good,” he replied.
The twist of her lips looked skeptical.
“All things considered,” he added. He let go of her hand and brushed the shoulder of her coat. “Can I hang this up for you?” She allowed him to take the coat.
“I was worried about you. I didn’t see you at the school.”
He hung up her coat in the narrow coat closet tucked away in the corner of the room, then turned back to her. “I went to the station to help sort deliveries for the giving tree. Figured there’d be so many people at the school that no one would miss me.”
The look on her face was so tender, so concerned, that even Matt was able to read its intent. She had missed him.
It’s okay to miss people.
Damn. Was that his thought or … well, it had to be his thought. He only had one brain, right? But lately it felt as though his brain was split into two parts.
“You didn’t have to drive all the way out here,” he went on. You could have called.”
“On the phone, you would have just said you were fine.” Then she laughed in a way that said she was laughing at herself. “Besides, I’m having a rebellious moment.”
She laughed again, this time more of an amused snort. Which was so ridiculously adorable. Why was everything Cassidy did so ridiculously adorable? If he was going to spend time with her, he needed to come up with a synonym for “adorable.”
“How so?”
“My mom gave me the whole ‘don’t ruin Christmas for Jack and Becca’ spiel again.”
“Ah. So you’re flipping off your parents by coming here in person?”
“Real mature of me, I know.”
He extended his arm to gesture at the room. “Maturity is a stranger here.” He wanted to hear her laugh again. “I’m glad you’re here, Cass. When you held my hand this afternoon … that really helped.”
She held out her hand and he took it, then pulled her into his arms. He sank into the immediate calm that washed over him. She was like a drug, and every time he touched her it only increased his need for another hit of it.
“Let’s do this, Cass.”
“Do …”
Her words trailed off but she was smart enough to know what he was referring to. And he was smart enough to know that she wouldn’t have come over here tonight if she hadn’t been giving the idea at least some consideration.
“Neither of us is seeing anyone else,” he added. “It makes perfect sense.”
“For me, it makes sense. My love life is non-existent.” She wriggled out of his embrace. “But you have other options besides me.”
“So? I don’t have to choose every option that’s available.”
“But why me?”
“I like you. And I want to prove to you that sex isn’t overrated.”
“You want to indoctrinate me into the pleasures of the flesh?”
“Uh, I don’t know what kind of books you’ve been reading but … yeah. Something like that.”
She considered the idea, focusing her gaze on a spot over his right shoulder. Then her eyes returned to his face. “How would it work? Do I just come over and we hook up? Once a month? Once a week?”
He went into the kitchen and retrieved a yellow legal pad and a pen from the junk drawer. He leaned on the countertop and began to write. “Matthew Dean Wolfe and Cassidy Ann Trevor hereby do consent to a friends with benefits situation for a term of no less than one night and no more than—how long do you want this to last?”
She shook her head at him, a disbelieving look on her face. “You’re making a contract?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Her body began to shake as she tried to hold in her laughter.
“That’s sounds so … legal. How many of these have you written?” She wrapped her arms around her waist as her efforts to rein in her laughter failed.
“I haven’t written any before. So what maximum term do you want?”
She took off her glasses and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Until I leave for business school?”
“Did you get in?” He looked up from the legal pad.
“I submitted the applications. Won’t know for a few more months.”
“I’m sure you’ll get accepted everywhere you applied.” He put pen to paper again. “So for a term of no less than one night and no more than—” He counted off the months with his fingers. “—eight months. That puts us at August, roughly.”
“You’ll be bored with me long before then.”
He looked at the tear-streaked skin on her flawless cheeks and the way her warm brown eyes were adorably—there was that word again!—unfocused without her glasses. He didn’t foresee boredom being an issue in the near term.
He leaned over the notepad on the counter, writing as he spoke. “Either party can terminate this agreement at any time with thirty days’ notice. How’s that?” He held up the notepad for her to see. “Hey, this is a legal pad. That makes it legally binding.”
She squinted at his neat, dark handwriting. “How about thirty minutes’ notice? That way, when you’re on a date, you only have to stall for half an hour before you can take her home.”
She looked away from the notepad a beat too quickly. He set it down and scratched out another sentence.
“This is an exclusive agreement between said parties. Relations with any other party invalidates this contract immediately.”
“No sleeping with anyone else?”
He cocked his head at her. “Is that going to be a problem for you? Thought you said you haven’t had sex in a million years.”
“I was thinking more for you.” Her voice was quiet.
“I’m actually a one-woman-at-a-time kind of man.” He drew two long, straight lines at the bottom of the contract. “Here. Sign so we can get started.”
Cassidy watched as Matt switched on the bedside lamp, bathing the room in a soft glow. That helped the ambience. Some. Still, his bedroom wasn’t exactly the most romantic setting for what they were about to do. Then again, romance had nothing to do with it.
They looked at each from across a divide of three feet. Three feet, physically. Mentally, the divide felt a lot greater than that to Cassidy.
“So how do we do this?” she asked. “Normally, one thing leads to another or someone gets seduced.”
The slow smile that spread across Matt’s face was maybe the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
“Have you ever been seduced?” he asked.
She only had to think for a split second. “No.”
“Do you want to be?”
“Some day, sure.”
“We’ll save that for a more advanced lesson.”
They continued to stare each other down across the three-foot divide.
“I’m getting nervous.”
“I don’t bite.” He mock-leered at her.
Her tiny laugh was nervous, anyway. She shot a glance toward his nightstand. “I know what’s in there.”
“I think we should save those for a more advanced lesson, as well.”
“So we’re back to how do we do this?”
“We can do it anyway we want. If you could start anywhere, where would it be? What would make you comfortable?”
“Are you like this with all women? This nice?”
“I’m a gentleman, Cassidy. I wasn’t raised by wolves.”
Why was she surprised by his good manners? Over the past several months, nothing he had done indicated he had anything but impeccable manners. Well, except for ditching a date in Annapolis. But that had ended well for Cassidy—with him in her hotel room.
Where he had been the perfect gentleman.
“Would you take your clothes off? So I can look at you?” she asked.
“Of course.”
In one smooth movement, he stripped off his tee shirt. In a second, equally smooth movement, he pushed down his soccer pants. She caught a glimpse of black boxer briefs before he kicked the pile of fabric off to the side. Her first instinct was not to look there, but then her eyes dropped to his crotch. He was still soft. This was going to be really awkward if they couldn’t get turned on by each other, she thought.
She let her eyes drift up to his flat abdomen, then to his chest. Dark hair covered the well-defined muscles she found there.
“So far so good?” he asked.
She nodded mutely. She’d never considered herself to be particularly picky when it came to men’s bodies, but it was entirely possible that Matt’s body was going to spoil her for anyone else. He slowly turned around and her breath caught in her throat at the sight of his broad back and his … ass.
“Oh my god.” Her voice was barely above a whisper but he caught her words anyway.
“You’ve never seen a man’s ass before?”
“Not one like that.” She thought for a moment. “Normally, by the time the man undresses, things are so far along that I don’t get to see his body very well.”
Matt turned to face her, then gestured toward the bed. He sat down on the end of the mattress.
“You looked nice in your suit today,” she said.
“Off topic.” He patted his hard thighs. “Sit on my lap.”
She took a step toward him, then reconsidered. She leaned over to pull off her suede boots and knee socks. She straightened and reached behind her back to unzip her skirt. The moment of truth. Or, well, one of what would probably be many moments of truth tonight. If they didn’t abort this crazy mission within the next few minutes. She let the wool fabric drop to the floor.
“You have beautiful legs, Cass.”
She walked toward him and straddled her beautiful legs across his. It was impossible to notice that he wasn’t quite so soft anymore. When his hands slid over her thighs and edged beneath the hem of her silk blouse, she closed her eyes and swallowed a moan. Her breathing was already on the verge of being out of control as his fingers spread around the curve of her hips.
“That feels so good,” she said quietly.
“It’s supposed to feel good.” He gave her hips a gentle squeeze. “If it stops feeling good, say so and we’ll stop. Or I’ll try something different.”
“Just touch me.”
His fingers left her hips and reappeared at the buttons of her blouse. One by one, he worked each button through and pushed the soft material off her shoulders. It landed in a hushed heap on the floor behind her. Then she remembered her underwear. A utilitarian tee shirt bra in a nude color designed to be invisible under clothing. Her bottoms were the same shade of medium beige. At least they matched.
“Sorry,” she said and opened her eyes.
Her apology seemed to fall on deaf ears. Matt’s dark eyes were nearly black as he drank in the sight of her breasts rising and falling with each ragged breath. He ran his thumbs over the edges of her bra and Cassidy felt perilously close to passing out. He was barely touching her skin and yet it felt so damn good. Amazing, in fact.
He leaned in and kissed the swell of her cleavage. His hands slipped around to the back of her bra, and tugged at the band. “May I?” he asked.
“Please.”
She felt her bra release, the straps dropping down her arms, and then his palms grazing her nipples. Her hips squirmed involuntarily on his lap. In one swift action, she felt herself lifted up and flipped around, then deposited gently on the bed. Matt’s naked body was now over hers. And though he most definitely was hard as a rock now, he spent the next half hour touching her everywhere—with his fingers, his lips, his tongue.
It felt so over-the-top good, her body both completely relaxed and exquisitely alert all at the same time. But as the minutes passed and her body stayed resolutely on that knife’s edge of arousal, seemingly nothing he did was able to push her off into the free fall of release. Her thoughts began to stray away from her body. It must be getting late. Natalie would wonder where she was. Matt was probably getting tired and wondering when he’d get his turn. So Cassidy did what she’d done every other time she had found herself in bed with a man.
She faked it.
Chapter 19
Matt turned off the gas burner on the stove and fixed two plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. He poured two mugs of coffee and set out the half pint container of cream. He cocked his head and considered the small breakfast bar, with its rustic wood base and scratched and scorched formica countertop. He folded the paper napkins in half so they formed triangles and added the glass salt and pepper shakers Becca had dug out and filled for him a few months back. Back when Jack was still crashing at Matt’s cabin and Becca was spending time here. She had insisted she couldn’t use salt straight from the supermarket canister, that it poured out too fast. Matt imagined that her sister, who was in his shower at the moment, might have the same issue.
Lordy me. Was beginning to think I’d never see this.
“Not raised by wolves.” Matt stopped, realizing he’d just said that out loud. He really did need to make an appointment with Dr. Smythe to discuss his ADHD medication.
He heard the shower turn off down the hall. He took a sip of coffee to calm his brain. I know how to entertain a woman, Just because I generally don’t doesn’t mean I don’t know how to.
The bathroom door opened and thirty seconds later, Cassidy appeared—dressed in her funeral outfit from yesterday, her long hair dark and damp around her shoulders. Her face was clean and slightly shiny without makeup. It made her look younger. It made him want to see her dressed in more casual clothes.
Like one of his shirts. And nothing else.
“Good morning,” he said as she pulled out a barstool and climbed up.
“You didn’t have to fix me breakfast.” She poured a healthy dash of cream into her coffee.
“Didn’t want to send you home on an empty stomach.” He didn’t want to send her home at all. He pushed that thought aside. They were friends with benefits, which reminded him … he slid the legal pad across the counter toward her. “I made an addendum to the contract.”
“Oh yeah?” She leaned in to read it.
“Yeah. No faking orgasms allowed.”
He watched as her cheeks flamed.
“Sorry. It was taking so long and I didn’t want you to have to wait.”
“The waiting is half the fun.” He shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth and swallowed. “No, make that ninety percent of the fun.”
“So is this your thirty minutes’ notice?” she asked, not looking at him.
He put his fork down and frowned at her. “Hell no. It’s just me putting you on notice that no faking is allowed.”
She still wasn’t looking at him, so he reached out his hand and tipped her face up.
“Have you ever had an orgasm?” he asked.
“Of course I have.” But she couldn’t maintain eye contact, a dead giveaway that she was lying. “Little ones, anyway.”
He released her chin. “There’s no such thing as a little orgasm, Cass.” He took another sip of coffee. “You’re not leaving here until you have one.”
Over on the coffee table, his pager buzzed.
Cassidy chuckled. “Apparently, I am.”
“Shoot,” Cassidy muttered as she pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building. Natalie’s car was parked in the usual spot. She swung around to the back of the building and found an out-of-the-way spot there. How was she going to explain another overnight at Matt’s? She didn’t go over there intending to spend the night.
Upstairs, she turned the key in the door as slowly as she could and held her breath as she pushed it open. She took one step inside, quietly closing the door behind her. The coffee maker in the kitchen was sputtering brew into the glass carafe. Otherwise, the apartment was quiet. She let out her breath and tiptoed down the short hall to her room. Five seconds, that was all she needed. Five seconds of total silence and maybe Natalie wouldn’t notice that she was just arriving home. At the end of the hall, the door to her bedroom was closed—with any luck, Natalie thought she was still asleep.
