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She gasped. “Is it five or six already?” She turned down the radio and let him in, then lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
“You taste sweeter than sweet.” Kurt licked his lips and then went in for another kiss.
“I taste good, too. Wanna taste?” Bella hollered above the music with a wiggly wave of her fingers.
“No,” Leanna answered for him. She took his hand and led him farther inside the crowded cottage. “I’m so sorry. I lost track of time, but I came up with a new flavor.”
“She’s meeting with Mama’s Market on Thursday,” Jenna explained while struggling to confine her breasts in a bikini top that looked like two thongs trying to trap Beyoncé’s butt against her chest.
With the smell of sugar in the air, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, and wearing streaks of jam like camouflage, he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around Leanna from behind and kiss her cheek.
“Mama’s Market? That’s impressive. Congratulations.”
Feeling proud, she turned to him. “Guess what else?”
“You came up with a new flavor?” Then he leaned down and kissed the jam from her cheek. “Strawberry and something?”
She blushed and stumbled backward, knocking the spoon from her hand onto his white shirt. “Oh gosh.” She reached for a towel.
Kurt gently grabbed her wrist. “Slow down and tell me.”
“Strawberry-apricot, but that’s not what I was going to tell you. Daisy Chain wants to meet with me next week about carrying my jams.” Her smile reached her eyes, and Kurt pulled her close.
“Ah, babe. That’s fantastic. I’m so happy for you.” When he pulled back, the streak of red jam that was on his shirt left a trail between her breasts. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it as all sorts of dirty, sticky ideas came to mind. Dirty and sticky had never been words that he’d found alluring, but when he was with Leanna, everything he thought he knew about himself was beginning to look different, and after last night, he doubted there was much he wouldn’t consider trying with her.
“So, what’s your plan?” he asked.
“Plan?” She washed the spoon that had fallen and was dabbing at his shirt with a wet sponge, deepening the stain in the process. “I’m going to bring the new stock of jam with me and talk to them.”
“Do you have brochures? A marketing plan to show them?”
She looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language and went back to work on the jam on his shirt, which was now ground into it.
He pulled the shirt over his head and was rewarded with gasps from the other women as he rinsed it under cold water.
“Now we’re talkin’,” Bella teased.
“Where have you been all my life?” Jenna added.
“You guys, that’s Leanna’s boyfriend. Give him a break.” Amy placed her hand over the tattoo on his arm. “Sorry, just had to touch him once. Now he’s all yours.”
“Oh my God. Sorry, Kurt. And he’s not my boyfriend,” Leanna said.
Kurt’s hands froze beneath the water. He looked up at her and saw the worry in her eyes. “I’m not?”
“Well, I mean, we didn’t talk about it.”
“Hey, girls. Let’s go walk Pepper.” Amy dragged the others out of the cottage. Pepper followed on their heels.
“You’re right. We didn’t talk about it. I’m sorry.” Kurt rinsed his shirt, trying to ignore the tightening of his gut. Maybe he had jumped the gun. He grabbed the baking soda he’d given her and worked his shirt clean. “I didn’t mean to assume…”
Leanna leaned her back against the counter, her eyes trained on the towel clenched between her hands. “I know. Do you want that?”
“To be your boyfriend?” God, yes.
Her eyes remained trained on the towel. “I haven’t had a real boyfriend in forever.”
“I haven’t had a real girlfriend in years, and I didn’t realize I was even thinking in terms of boyfriend and girlfriend until just now.” He leaned his hip against the sink and placed his hand on top of hers. He felt them relax beneath his touch.
“Yes. I want to be your boyfriend, Leanna. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel something for you that I’ve never experienced before.”
Her lips curved up. She lifted her worried hazel eyes.
“Even after I ruined your shirt?”
“Even after you ruined my shirt.”
He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her like he’d been wanting to since he left last night. He felt himself getting hard, and Leanna dropped the towel to the floor and cupped the back of his neck, deepening the kiss. Her touch sent heat right through him. He buried his hands in her hair, kissing her hungrily, pressing his chest to her beautiful, soft, full breasts. Without thinking, he lifted her into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“Bedroom,” she said against his lips.
He carried her into the bedroom and kicked the door shut. Kurt couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman the way he wanted Leanna. He longed to be close to her. Her friends’ voices filtered through the window screen, and he pulled back, breathing heavily.
“We can’t. Your friends. Your jam.”
She nodded. “Right. Bad idea, unless we want three sets of eyes watching us while they eat popcorn outside the bedroom window.”
“Popcorn?”
“My friends, they’ll…Never mind.” She leaned her forehead on his. “The bathroom.”
“What?” Oh yes. Holy hell, yes. Anywhere.
“Bathroom. There’s no window in there.”
“Your jams?”
“They’re cooling. The stove is off.” She kissed him and said, “Bathroom,” in a breathy voice.
He carried her into the bathroom, and with the door closed and locked—because Bella knows no boundaries—Kurt hooked his thumb into Leanna’s skirt and drew it down, then stepped from his shorts. Leanna reached her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up again. She slid down upon him, taking in every inch of his desire, and they both sucked in a breath at their bodies coming together. Her hair fell over their faces like a curtain as he moved inside of her.
“Jesus, Leanna. You’re so hot and so wet.” Sex hadn’t ever felt that—fuck! He stilled. “Holy shit. Don’t move.”
“What? Why?”
“I forgot a condom. I’m not used to carrying them.”
She began moving up and down, and he stilled her hips.
“Leanna. Don’t. I’ll come.”
She leaned back and looked him in the eye. “I’m almost thirty, not fifteen. I’m on the pill. And before you, it had been almost a year since I’d had sex, so unless you’ve had some worrisome sex partners, I think we’re okay.”
He shook his head. “Same three women for the last few years and always with protection.”
“Then shut up and kiss me.”
Their lips met, and Kurt backed her up against the wall for support, thrusting deeper, harder, relishing in the feel of her body embracing him like moist velvet. He wanted to be in a bed with her, on top of her, with hours ahead of them to love and touch each other, to taste every inch of flesh and tease her until she couldn’t remember her name. He didn’t have a chance in hell in lasting here. Now. With no condom and Leanna moaning his name into his ear in a husky, lust-filled voice. He slowed his pace, hoping to draw out the sensation, and pulled back from their most delicious kiss to take her breast into his mouth and tease her taut nipple.
“Oh God. Oh God.” She closed her eyes, breathing heavily.
He ran his tongue around her nipple, then moved to the other breast as she clawed at his shoulders and writhed against him in one frenetic thrust after another. Her insides tightened around him, and she cried out as she’d done last night—a loud, sensual cry—which drew the come right out of his loins.
Kurt held her close, their bodies shuddering against each other with little aftershocks from their lovemaking.
With a sated look in her eyes, Leanna whispered, “I want to be your girlfrien
d.”
It was another first for him. He wanted Leanna in his life, even if it meant giving up a few hours of writing each day.
Chapter Thirteen
BY THE TIME they took a quick shower and dressed, the sun had nearly set. Thankfully, Leanna knew her friends would allow them whatever privacy they needed and care for Pepper without complaint. She had enjoyed showering with Kurt and dressing together. He was so much more relaxed than when they’d first met. She began noticing all sorts of things she had missed, like the way he watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking and the quirky smile when she caught him looking. She loved the way his eyes went dark and intense before they kissed and how his hands were always finding their way to her in some way—reaching for her hand, her hips, her shoulder. Now he was reaching for a jar. She knew it had to be killing him to have the kitchen in such disarray. She touched his hand.
“We can’t move them. They have to cool overnight.”
“Really? You’ll just leave them out here? What if you need your counter? Or your table?”
He furrowed his brow in the serious way that Leanna was quickly coming to love, because what seemed serious in his eyes was never serious in hers.
She shrugged. “I have the table on the deck.” She moved to the sink to scrub the big tub, and Kurt embraced her.
“Let me do that.”
“I can do it.”
“I know you can. I want to. You can do whatever else needs to be done.”
She felt his eyes on her as she moved through the cottage gathering the utensils she needed to run through the dishwasher and the dish towels she needed to wash.
“I like having you here,” she admitted.
“Yeah? I like being here.” He smiled over his shoulder at her.
She was drawn to his thoughtfulness, this man who had a whole life without her and was finding ways to fit her in. She ran her hands up his flanks and over his shoulders; then she pressed her cheek to his back. His skin was warm, his muscles firm, and though he’d used her body wash, his masculine scent came through.
“Do you need any help preparing for the meeting with the market?” he asked.
Preparing? Even the thought of preparing made her stomach queasy. She sucked at preparing, and besides, this was a jam and jelly business, not a million-dollar corporation. “No, I’m ready. Just nervous.”
“They’ll love you.”
“It’s my products I hope they love.” She leaned on the counter beside him as he handed her a tub to dry and began washing another. She hoped the market did love her. It would be that much easier to sell them on carrying her product if they liked her as a person.
“How was your writing today?”
He turned off the water and began drying the tub he’d just washed. “Great. I was really inspired and wrote a few suspenseful chapters. Dark and scary.”
“How can you write dark and scary? Doesn’t it creep you out?”
He set down the tub and picked up his T-shirt from the counter. “Nope. I mean, it puts me in a dark frame of mind for a while, but it doesn’t scare me.”
Leanna placed her hands on his gloriously sexy chest. “I should tell you that while it’s totally cool that you write thrillers, I am so not a thriller reader. I don’t like scary stuff, but I respect what you do.”
“Somehow that does not come as a surprise.” He leaned down and kissed her. “Where’s your laundry?”
She knew he was expecting her to have a central laundry basket with a tidy little pile of laundry. She trapped her lip in her teeth instead of answering.
“This, I have to see.”
She took his hand and brought him into the bedroom; then she led him to the far side of the bed, where there were two piles of clothes. She pointed to them as she spoke. “Clean. Dirty.” She wondered if he might turn and leave. Just like that. See ya. It’s been fun, but you’re a mess.
“You’re kidding, right?” He had an amused look on his face—eyes wide, lips curled slightly up in disbelief.
“Nope.”
In one swift move, he picked her up and laid her on the bed, then settled in on top of her. “You need me in your life.”
Oh, hell yeah, I do. “I don’t need any man in my life. But I want you in it.”
“Fair enough.” He eyed the laundry. “Does your laundry room take quarters or dollars?”
“Quarters.” She pointed to a plastic container full of quarters on the dresser.
“Mind if I throw in your whites?”
“That’s like me asking if you mind if I sweep your deck.” Only better, because you’ll do a good job and I can’t sweep worth shit.
He kissed her again and pulled her up by her hand. “I know better than to ask you to sweep anything. Come on. We’ll do it together, so your girlfriends don’t think you’ve hired me as your houseboy.”
“They’re more likely to think I’ve hired you as a sex slave.” She swatted his butt as he bent over to pick up her laundry.
“You’re pretty cute.”
“You won’t think I’m so cute when you’re picking up the pile of laundry for the seventeenth time, or when I turn all your clothes into jam rags, or—”
He captured her words in his mouth with a passionate kiss.
“Let me determine how long I’ll think you’re cute.”
“Okay,” she said dizzily.
BELLA COOKED CHICKEN on the grill, and Jenna and Amy made a salad. Leanna brought out homemade bread and jam, and Kurt shared the wine he’d brought with him for the evening. They ate dinner by the fire in the grass behind Leanna’s cottage and talked. The air smelled sweet and ashy, and Leanna’s cheeks were pink from the warmth of the fire. Her friends were friendly and in good spirits, and Kurt noticed how comfortable they were with one another. They passed knowing looks like inside secrets, and they welcomed him into their tight-knit fold seamlessly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent time relaxing with friends. In fact, he wasn’t sure he really had friends who were as close as these friends were to Leanna, and he wondered if he was missing out on something. But friendships like theirs took nurturing and time, and time was something Kurt hadn’t been able to spare—until he met Leanna. He thought about the time he spent with his siblings and the family dinners with his parents. Those were events he enjoyed, but they were different from this. Sitting by a bonfire under the moonlight, enjoying the company of people other than his family, with his arm around his girlfriend? Another first.
He was surprised that Bella hadn’t razzed them for disappearing earlier in the evening, but he assumed that although she was brazen, she also knew when not to embarrass Leanna.
“So, Kurt, can you tell us about the book you’re working on?” Jenna asked.
“It’s darker than my others, set in an old mining town in West Virginia.” And I don’t really want to talk about it because then I’ll start thinking about the next chapter, and then I’ll want to write it. He pulled Leanna closer to him. She wore a sweatshirt and shorts, and when her leg pressed against his, her skin was hot from the bonfire.
“Do you base your characters on real life?” Amy had on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and her feet were tucked beneath her on the bench where she sat.
“Only the ones I don’t like. Then I kill them off.” That brought a round of laughs, as was to be expected. He needed to change the subject. “So, how long have you known one another?”
The women exchanged smiles and glances.
“Years,” Bella said. “There are other people who own here in the community, but this summer has been weird. It’s been so empty here. Jamie Reed’s grandmother owns that cottage.” She pointed to the cottage on the corner. “She’s eighty, and Jamie’s our age, but he usually comes down to take care of his grandmother, and Vera hasn’t been well this summer. Then there’s Tony, who owns the blue cottage that faces the pool.”
“Tony,” Jenna and Amy said with dreamy smiles.
Bella continued. “He’s the community hot
tie, and he’ll be down in a few days, I think.”
Kurt made a mental note about Tony being the community hottie.
“Yeah, that’s right. He had that thing in Maui this week, remember?” Leanna said.
“Maui?” Kurt asked.
“Yeah, he’s a motivational speaker and a pro surfer.” Leanna ran her finger in circles over Kurt’s thigh, and he silently noted her nervousness.
“And, of course, Clark and Vanessa. They own that three-bedroom over there.” Bella pointed to the cottage next to Amy’s. “And Grumpy Gus, but he’s almost never here.”
“And Pete,” Jenna added. “Our maintenance and pool guy.”
“Yeah, we can’t forget Pete, can we, Jenna?” Leanna poked Jenna with her toe. “She’s sweet on Pete.”
“Oh, please.” Jenna swatted the air.
“Anyway, we’ve known each other forever. Where do you live, Kurt?” Bella asked.
“New York,” Jenna answered.
Kurt laughed. “Yes. I do live in New York, just outside the city.”
“Sorry. I Googled you,” Jenna admitted. “You have three brothers and a sister who’s a famous model. One brother owns a gaming company, another’s an Olympic skier, and then there’s a survivalist, and…” She snapped her fingers.
“You’re good at the PI stuff. My other brother, Sage, is an artist, and he owns Creation for Hydration, a nonprofit that builds wells in developing nations. He and his girlfriend, Kate, run the company together.”
“When do you go back to New York?” Amy asked.
“In about two weeks.” Kurt kissed the top of Leanna’s head.
“Gosh, if I had a house on the beach, I’d live in it year-round,” Amy said.
“That might be nice, but my life is in New York. My family, agent, all of my publishing contacts. It would be inconvenient to live here year-round.”
“That makes sense.” Amy moved closer to the fire to warm her hands. “Leanna? If you get these contracts, are you staying at the Cape or…? Where will you live?”
“I haven’t thought about it.” She sat up and yawned.
Kurt felt a pang of curiosity. Where would she live? How would he see her? He tucked the worry away. He’d make damn sure he saw her.