Inside, the fire took me only minutes. I placed several logs and kindling in the grate and as soon as the crackling fire was built, the air inside the cabin lost its crisp edge. I pulled my sweater over my head, and, dressed only in a tank and my jeans, I sat cross-legged on the hearth rug.

  A glass dangled in front of me. “Thanks,” I murmured. “I was supposed to get that. Sorry.”

  She sat beside me. “This was a good idea. This weekend.”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say, hoping she’d let me know what had been on her mind. We’d been so busy working, too tired and stretched to hook up, that we’d drifted apart. I didn’t like feeling like I was in this alone—the only one worried that our relationship was on its last legs.

  Friends had introduced us, knowing that both Kari and I had dated women before and knowing my preference for waiflike blondes. We shared a lot of the same interests, were close to the same age. I’d ended a long relationship and hadn’t really wanted to fall directly into another, but I did want companionship.

  We’d landed in bed together that same night, the attraction so hot and fast that it took my breath away. She was like that. A bolt of lightning not easily captured. Even from the start, I began preparing myself for it to end.

  I must have stared at the fire too long. A kiss landed on my shoulder. A hand slipped beneath the hem of my tank and glided upward to cup a breast. Kari moved closer and her body snuggled against my back.

  Again, that urgent desperation to connect filled me. I leaned away and drew the shirt over my head, then leaned back again, letting the fire warm my front, her supple body heat my back. I reached behind me and sank my fingers in her silky hair, waiting.

  Lips trailed along my neck. “Wanna fuck?” she whispered and bit my earlobe.

  I smiled, then shivered because her fingers plucked my nipple a little too hard. “So long as I get a taste and soon.”

  Soft laughter gusted against my skin, and she pulled away. I turned to watch as she stripped. She walked naked toward her backpack and drew out a long, thick dildo—one I hadn’t seen before. “I’ve been saving this.”

  I lay on my back and shimmied out of my jeans and panties. Watching her rub the gel-shaft around her lips as she walked to me made me wonder again whether she was seeing anyone—someone with a set of balls, because she did love cock.

  “Shall I?” I asked, rising on my elbows. Kari liked to be shafted while I sucked her clit.

  “Later. I’m going to play first.”

  She pressed her heel into my shoulder and shoved me to my back. Then she placed her feet on either side of my hips and squatted. “You have been way too uptight lately.”

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “You missed this, don’t you mean?” Her eyes narrowed into catlike slits. “Margot’s a grumpy girl when she doesn’t get some.” She dropped the dildo on the rug and leaned over me, the change of angle rubbing her wet pussy against my mound.

  The humid heat seeped into my skin; the scent of her, musky and pungent, lured my fingers down to play.

  Kari groaned as I slid my thumb over her clit. “No fair. I’m supposed to be the one in charge.”

  “You are.” I grinned. “I wouldn’t be tempted if you would quit rubbing your pussy there.”

  Her laugh was sharp and pained. “Fffuck!” Her eyes closed and she jerked her hips forward and back, grinding her clit on my finger while her moisture dribbled through my own pulsing lips.

  She gave one last sexy slide and then pushed down my body. “Did I ever tell you I love a bald pussy?”

  “A time or two,” I gasped. Two fingers stroked inside me, swirling and stretching my entrance. I cupped my breasts and began to rock my hips, trying to lure her deeper or seduce her into putting her mouth where I needed it most.

  The flat of her tongue lapped the swelling folds. “I like it almost as much as I like you.”

  I glanced down and caught her gaze.

  Her nose wrinkled. “I know I haven’t been around much. I needed to think.”

  “You get things figured out?”

  “Almost.” Her fingers slid away and she reached for the dildo. She tucked the first four inches in her mouth and twirled it, then pulled it away. A string of spit, stretching from her lips to the tip of the soft lifelike cap, had me thinking for the first time that I might like to watch her going down on a man. She’d be insatiable. Her hungry little mouth would gobble him up and have him cramming deep into her throat.

  “Yeah, hold that thought,” she said, her expression smug.

  “Now you can read my mind?”

  “Your tits are spiking.” Her wide mouth stretched. “You wanna see me do a dude.”

  “What I wanna see is you doing something with that dildo besides teasing me.”

  Her laughter tinkled. No other way to describe it or her. Kari was elflike—small, slender, her frame so narrow she looked like a prepubescent teen from the rear.

  I was anything but petite. And I liked the fact I could subdue her with just my weight. Liked the way her eyes would darken when I rolled on top and began to pump my hips. Sometimes, I wore a strap-on, because I knew she liked it. But I’d left it at home, wanting nothing but our mouths and hands this weekend, nothing but ourselves.

  I should have known she wouldn’t leave home without one of her own toys.

  The cock kicked to life, humming loudly. The first glide landed on my clit, and she held the dildo there until the vibrations made the sensitive knot swell. She pulled the toy away, bent and latched on to me with her lips and sucked, drawing hard twice, then releasing with a succulent pop.

  My heartbeats slowed to a deep, rhythmic thrum. I raised my knees and planted my feet wide apart, opening to her, nestling into the furry rug at my back and resting my head on both my arms so that I could watch.

  She stretched my folds and tugged them upward, then leaned closer so that I could feel the warm gusts of her shortening breaths against me. Her tongue trailed along the edges of the outer lips, up and down. The tip of the dildo pushed inside me, just past the flanged ridge surrounding the cap, but no deeper. The humming tantalized and a gentle convulsion rippled up my channel.

  It wasn’t enough, and I growled to tell her so.

  A smile kicked up one corner of her mouth, and she twisted the cock inside me. My pussy clasped noisily around it, trying to trap it, but she pulled it out again.

  I slipped one hand from under my head and thrust my fingers into her soft, straight hair, tugging hard to punish her.

  “What do you want, Margot?” she asked, her voice filled with teasing laughter. “Gotta tell me. Gotta make me hot.”

  “Turn your ass around this way, and I’ll make you hot.” I’d wanted to sound surly, but I was panting too hard to be convincing.

  “You’ll get your turn. Promise. But if you want more, you’ve gotta give it to me dirty.”

  “Fuck. You expect me to be articulate when all I can think about is how fucking hot you look, lying between my legs?”

  “There’s a start.” She raised an eyebrow, waiting…

  I rolled my eyes and blew out a deep breath. “Okay…I want that plastic penis cramming up inside me and your mouth sucking my clit.”

  “Cramming? Like this?” She twisted it, gently screwing it into me, but only about three inches.

  My pussy clenched around the shaft, trying to draw it deeper. Again, I growled, frustration making me grind my teeth.

  Her lips were set in a straight line as though she were trying to keep from laughing.

  “I want your hand cupping the fucking base of that plastic prick and you shoving it up until you’re slapping my cunt. I want all of it, bitch.”

  Her lips pursed. Her hazel eyes narrowed. “Callin’ me names, now? What if I don’t like that?”

  “You fucking love it. Fucking little whore. Fucking cunt.”

  Kari giggled and dove down, slurping as she sucked my clit and crammed the dildo deeper.

  “That’s it, bitch,” I breathed. “Fuck, yeah. Bite it. Scrape it with your teeth.”

  I closed my eyes as she ratcheted up the heat, her mouth sliding over my clit, sucking, her tongue feathering over it, then, at last, her teeth chewing it, every scrape making my body writhe.

  “Fucking talented. Oughta sell clit-jobs. Make a fucking fortune.”

  She snickered. “You know you talk like a dude when you get desperate.”

  “I know what the fuck I want,” I said, pulling her hair again. “And you talk too much.”

  Her lips latched harder, and she shoved the whole six inches deep inside me, her hand sliding in the moisture she’d coaxed from inside me when it met my pussy.

  My hips rose and fell; moans, one after the other, ripped from my throat. “Fuck, yeah. Fuck, fuck.” And then the spiraling coil deep inside my belly loosened. I sucked in a deep breath and rode the high, clutching her head with both hands.

  When my fingers slipped away, Kari withdrew the cock and turned it off. Then she crawled upward to rest on her side next to me. She caressed a breast, bending to kiss one of the hard little spikes. “You know we have to talk,” she whispered.

  I sighed. “Yeah, we do.”

  “I want more,” she said quietly.

  “More what?” The words came out flat, with a tinge of annoyance. I winced inside, but I don’t take rejection well.

  “More…company.”

  “You want to see other people?” I closed my eyes, bracing for it. I could do this. I could share her. I just didn’t want to lose her completely. Maybe that made me weak, but I was falling for her.

  “Do you?”

  I peeked at her from beneath the fringe of my eyelashes, trying to gauge what her idle-sounding question really meant. If I said no, would she be afraid to be honest? But I didn’t want to see anyone else. Kari with her spritelike body and small kitten face was the only one I wanted to hover over while I fucked her.

  I gave her a cowardly shrug. My throat was too tight to push words out.

  She blew out an exasperated breath. “Dammit, Margot. You aren’t easy, are you?”

  “How can you say that? Didn’t you have my pants off an hour after we met?”

  “Don’t be smug. I’m serious. Things have to change.”

  I sat up and raked a hand through my hair, feeling frustrated and grumpy. “Can we table this until after I make you come?” Maybe if I proved to her that she wasn’t going to get any better than me, she’d be satisfied. Or maybe she’d just forget about this conversation. I could keep her busy all weekend with my mouth and fingers, keep her turned inside out and fuck-fogged. Then maybe we could put off talking until she loved me as much as I loved her.

  Her mouth twisted and her eyes filled. I bent quickly and kissed her, cupping her head and taking her mouth gently. “Don’t you cry,” I said harshly when I pulled back.

  Her mouth crimped tighter.

  I shoved her to her back and crawled on top, trapping her legs between mine, wrapping my hands around her wrists and pinning her to the floor. “This is good. What we have could be fucking great.”

  She made a noise, but I didn’t want to hear a protest, and I covered her mouth again, eating her lips the way I wanted to eat her pussy. “Just shut up. Talk later. Told you, I wanna taste.”

  When I came up for air, she whispered, “Sometimes, you’re such a bitch.”

  “Who’s talking dirty now?”

  I scooted downward, hovering over one breast. Her nipples were softer than mine, velvety, puffy little cones—pale peach and just a shade or two darker than the soft skin surrounding them. “You’ve got the prettiest tits I’ve ever seen.”

  “If you like them B-B sized,” she groused.

  “I do. Aren’t you lucky?”

  She snorted, but she settled deeper against the carpet.

  I had her now. I ignored the dildo and buried my face between her legs, sucking on her outer lips, sinking my tongue between them to catch the tangy fluid seeping from inside her.

  I thrust two fingers into her pussy and thumbed her clit, rasping my thumb over the hard, rounded knot.

  Tremors shook the thighs tightening around me and made her belly jump. Her head thrashed, her eyes squeezed shut.

  I worked two more fingers inside, cupping them to make them fit, and began the rhythmic push-pull while I bent closer and swirled my tongue over her clit, which had swelled past its hood.

  She came hard, jerking up her hips. I suctioned harder, pulling with my lips until she let loose a breathless, choked scream and settled again.

  Her fingers threaded through my hair and tugged, and I moved up her body, covering her. Resting on my elbows, I cupped her face and kissed her.

  When I broke the kiss, I framed her face with my palms. “I don’t want anyone but you. But if you need more, if you aren’t ready for it to be just about you and me, I’ll wait until you’re sure. I won’t push.”

  Her eyes glittered and her arms wrapped around me. “I was going to ask you if I could move in with you. My lease is up. I need to make plans.”

  I held still, trying not to get too excited. “You’re welcome to live with me. You can take my office—”

  Kari pressed a finger to my lips. “Shut up. I’ll be straight. I don’t know if I’ll never want anyone else again. But I’d like that to be our decision, because I’m with you. We aren’t going to be roommates. I plan to sleep in your bed.”

  The tightness in my chest that I hadn’t been aware of until that moment eased. I grinned down at her, watched her expression soften, watched her flick her tongue around her mouth and knew she wanted me to kiss her again.

  It was enough for now. More than I’d hoped for when I arrived. “And to think we still have two more days….”

  LOVE AND DEVOTION

  Jove Belle

  The crunch-slide of tires on gravel is my twenty-second warning that I’m about to have company. If I had enough time, I would strip and answer the door naked. As it stands, I barely have time to check my teeth for signs of the pizza I’d been eating and run my hands through my hair. Lonnie slams through the door, leaving a string of fucking hells and damnations in her wake.

  “Lon, what’s going on?” I sound like I’m not happy to see her, which isn’t true. I’m mostly just not happy to see her car—a candy-apple red Mustang—slanted next to my beat-up Accord. There’s a trail of dust hovering above the dirt road leading to my house. No way my neighbors won’t recognize it as hers. There are plenty of Mustangs in town, but hers is the only one with a Front Street Baptist Choir bumper sticker on one side and The PTA Gets Things Done on the other.

  She grabs my lapels and kisses me hard. I would have liked it better if she’d been kissing me like she meant it rather than pouring off anger about whatever brought her to my door. I ease back a tad, teasing the edge of her lips with my tongue. This woman is melted-sugar hot and the taste of her makes me weak. I still don’t know why she arrived at my door in the middle of the day for God and all creation to see, and I’m starting to care less and less.

  By the time she releases me, I’d let her add a bumper sticker declaring I’m fucking KC Hill.

  “I’m going to kill that bastard.” Lonnie’s eyes are on fire, and not the good kind of fire that says I’ve touched her in just the right way. Nope, this is more of a spitting-mad kind of fire.

  I step away. No way I want to get caught at ground zero if she decides to give life to that temper of hers. Fortunately, Southern women are simple—a glass of whiskey and a little bit of time is the standard therapy session. I pour four fingers of Jack Daniels, add some ice and pass it to Lonnie.

  “Thanks, sugar.” She closes her eyes and tips the glass. The lines of her face soften.

  I wait until the first sip passes her lips and ask, “Which bastard?” No doubt she’s talking about her husband, but since I like to pretend he doesn’t exist, I force her to tell me.

  She drains the whiskey and hands me the glass before answering. “That no-good, lying, cheating man I married.”

  I debate refilling the glass. If Glen cheated on Lonnie…mercy. She’ll need more comfort than I—and an entire fifth of JD—can offer her. I set the glass on the counter.

  The flush in Lonnie’s cheeks runs down her neck and covers her chest. Explosion be damned, I want to touch, to ride the wave of her slightly labored breathing with my tongue. I move closer to her, bend my face to her neck and inhale deeply. The sweet subtle scent of honeysuckle and lavender surround me, drawing me in. I exhale long and soft against her skin. “Tell me what happened.”

  She tilts her head to the side, opening the line of her neck to me. “Glen’s having an affair.”

  “I’m sorry, baby.” I trace my fingers over the buttons closing the front of her dress and sprinkle whisper kisses across her chest, following the line of her open collar to tease the hint of cleavage.

  “With a woman half his age, no less.” Her words are softer, less combative.

  “Really?” I press in tighter, drawing her to me. That Glen would have an affair with a younger woman doesn’t surprise me. That it would be a condemning point for Lonnie does. I run one hand down her side, over her hips, lower and lower as I inch the fabric of her skirt up with my fingers.

  “She’s younger than Leann.” Lonnie stiffens slightly and I circle her with my other arm, spreading my fingers wide against her low back and holding her firm against me. Leann is Lonnie’s youngest daughter. At twenty-three, she’s a year older than me.

  “Mmm.” There’s not much else I can say. It’s not like I can point out the irony of her last statement. That’d bring a halt to my hand gliding up her stocking-covered thigh right quick. I reach the lace edge of the stocking and trace the line between skin and nylon, barely touching with the tips of my fingers. Normally I’d take the time, drop to my knees, roll them to the floor. I love her legs, love to reveal them inch by inch. Today I want her to stop thinking about Glen and focus on me.

  “I walked in on them in his office.” Lonnie inhales sharply when my fingers make their way to the apex, ghosting over the satin fabric of her panties. I tease it to the side, brushing my index finger over the short curls and soft skin. “His goddamn office, KC.”