True Seeing Read online

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  Atlantic Bridge/Liquid Silver Books

  www.liquidsilverbooks.com

  Copyright ©2003 Leigh Wyndfield

  First Published by Liquid Silver Books, July, 2003

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  Published by Liquid Silver Books, Imprint of Atlantic Bridge Publishing, 6280 Crittenden Ave, Indianapolis, Indiana. Copyright 2003, Leigh Wyndfield. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  October, Richmond, VA

  Susan Rivers sat outside Jake Matherly's apartment with a three-pack of condoms trying to catch her breath and steel her nerves. She couldn't believe she'd turned her car around at a stop light and come to Jake's, stopping on the way to purchase protection. She must be losing her mind. Just get out of the car and go. Now. This is the 21st century and women do things like this all the time. The clock showed that her personal pep talk had now lasted five minutes. This is ridiculous—either do it or go home.

  Susan jammed the condoms in her jacket pocket, opened the car door and hurried up the walk, knocking before she could chicken out.

  Jake opened his door and stared down at her without speaking. Long enough for her to have a flash of worry that maybe he wasn't alone. Susan groaned silently. She hadn't even considered that he might have company. She closed her eyes and mentally built her shields, which were slipping under the stress, back up. They would need to be strong to survive the hailstorm of sensation she would put them through in the next hours. Of course, she would only need the reinforcement if she were lucky enough to get his enthusiastic participation. That suddenly didn't look like a given.

  After a few seconds passed, he said, “Susan,” and leaned against the doorframe, his big body humming with energy even though the pose was relaxed.

  He was speaking, at least, but he hadn't invited her in. Good sign? Bad sign? Damn, this isn't one of my better ideas. Of course, most of her spontaneous moments hadn't turned out to be good ideas in the end, which was why she tended to go the safe and conservative route whenever possible. But it was too late to turn back now.

  “May I come in?” she asked formally. Her brain scrambled for an alternative reason for her presence. She wasn't sure the ‘Can I borrow a cup of sugar?’ excuse would work with him.

  He looked at her for another heartbeat, his brown eyes amber in the direct light of the setting sun, then stepped back, moving his arm in an overstated welcoming gesture. Susan moved past him, walking down the hall into his kitchen on rubber legs.

  “You're amazing,” she heard herself babble. “This is as clean as it was the last time I was here.” She looked at the bowl and spoon on the draining board and knew he had washed up after breakfast. I bet he makes his bed every morning, too.

  “Glad to know it hasn't changed in the last eleven months since you graced me with your presence,” he said, with a slight sneer that had her turning towards him.

  Was he angry with her? Susan's desire to walk right back out the door became unbearable, but she beat it back. She was here. Almost a year of desire had built up to the breaking point and she had had enough. Now was the time for action.

  “Was it eleven months ago? It feels like it was longer.” She wandered over to lean against the cabinets behind the center island, putting herself away from the door, away from the easy way out.

  “What do you want, Susan?” His tone was mild for the harshness of the words, his body relaxed against the wall beside the kitchen doorway.

  Her mind locked in on the way he held himself, the flow of the muscles in his arms, the broadness of his chest that turned into the flatness of his stomach under his T-shirt. She wanted to run her tongue along it all.

  Susan blinked and forced herself to concentrate. She stood there debating her next move, ignoring the urge to look him over again. No time to come up with a plan now. She should have done that in the car before she came in. She hadn't realized turning him down for a date would irritate him this much. To be fair, she had turned him down three times. But the last time was his fault—scaring her into a near heart attack in the produce isle of the grocery store was not a way to get a date. At this point, direct was her only option. She fortified herself with the thought that he was too nice a guy to tell anyone if he rejected her. At least she hoped he was. And he was doing quite a bit of lounging right now. Too much for the snippy tone of voice he was using with her. Which made her think his relaxed pose was just that—a pose.

  She walked around the island and stopped in front of him. “I thought I would come here to see if I could do something about this,” she said, lifting her hands to touch his bare arms below his T-shirt. As it had all three times they had touched before, electricity arced between them, making him jump. Susan stayed still, having anticipated it, lightly running her hands down to circle his wrists.

  “Damn,” he breathed, the word wrenched from his throat. He swallowed, staring down at her.

  She was glad he didn't deny the physical reaction they had to one another. Then again, it would have been impossible to deny it. His lips descended onto hers, his kiss demanding, his arms hanging by his sides with her hands still around his wrists. Her stomach somersaulted when his tongue touched hers. Heat shot through her body, pooling low. Leaning back, she broke the kiss, and released her hands. She took a giant step back. “Why are you so angry?"

  “What in hell are you up to, Susan?” His voice conveyed both his desire and his suspicion. He stepped forward aggressively to fill the space she had vacated, forcing her to step back again. They repeated the sequence until her back touched the island.

  The feel of the counter snapped her out of her daze and a flash of anger went through her, echoing his. Jamming a finger in his chest, she gritted out, “I'm here to get you into bed, Jake Matherly. It's a straight forward proposition."

  He looked at her, incredulous, ignoring the finger poking at him. “Just like that. Out of the blue, you want to sleep with me? After eleven months, you magically show up at my apartment on a Sunday, without even a phone call first, after turning me down for multiple dates? You expect me to believe you want sex?” His chest rubbed against her now-flattened hand in a small caress, his body showing her it didn't care about his mind's questions.

  “It takes me awhile to make up my mind."

  He barked out what she thought was a laugh. Her annoyance level increased with each of his questions and with his attitude in general. He was a guy, damn it. Why was he still talking? He should be happy to have her here propositioning him. She knew he had wanted her since they met in this kitchen eleven months ago at his party, when his arm had brushed hers at the sink, the electricity nearly dropping them both to their knees. Desire like that didn't go away.

  “At first I thought you were turning me down because of John,” he said, bringing her back to the moment, “but you haven't been with him for six months. Your thought process must run slow if you take half a year to come to a decision."

  His sarcasm ate at
her. The fact that he had a point was something she chose to ignore. “I don't go on dates when I'm with someone else and I tend to think long and hard before I get into a relationship with anyone at all.” Susan kept reminding herself that if she irritated him too much, she wouldn't get what they both wanted. Keep calm and stay focused on the goal.

  “Oh ... like you were really dating John anyway."

  Susan's mind went on red alert. “And what is that supposed to mean?"

  “Come on, you didn't even sleep with him. And now you expect me to buy that you want to sleep with me?"

  “How do you know I never slept with John?” Susan put her hands on her hips in frustration. “My God, you men are worse than gossiping old women!"

  Jake shrugged, not giving her an inch. “I overheard him at a bar one night telling a table full of guys. He said it was the reason he broke things off with you."

  Susan was too angry to notice his interest in her answer. “How dare he! That ... that weasel!"

  Jake grabbed her arm as she started to storm by. He gave it a small shake, causing her attention to snap back to him. “Why? Why me and not him?"

  She was so distracted by the slimy, gossiping antics of the male species that she answered him more truthfully than she would have otherwise. “I went out with John because he didn't interest me.” She waved her free hand in dismissal.

  “You what? You dated him because he didn't interest you? Are you saying I don't interest you, Susan?” He was shaking his head in astonishment, obviously not following her logic but the anger seemed to be gone. That was a step in the right direction. Right?

  “Actually, you do. Interest me, I mean. Which means no relationship for us, I'm afraid. This is just a...” She circled her hand while she thought, “...thing.” She forced herself to make eye contact with him, to make sure he understood the rules up front. Jake looked angry again, one of his hands skimming through his hair, while the other tightened its hold on her arm. Damn, one step forward, two steps back.

  “So you only want my body? Is that it?” He loomed above her. “Am I supposed to be flattered?"

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, you should be. I thought this was every guy's dream.” She overrode him when he started to speak. “Jake, I don't want a serious relationship with anyone. I can't have one. I won't. Oh hell, forget it.” She brought her arm down in a twisting motion that her self-defense classes guaranteed would break his hold. Her hand came free, but more because he let her go than because of her action.

  Susan had tried to convince him, but she wasn't going to explain herself any more than she already had. She might want him more than she had ever wanted any other man in her lifetime, but she wasn't telling him secrets she'd kept for 15 years to get him.

  She made it two steps toward the door before his hand grabbed her arm again, swinging her back against the island. “Every bone in my body says I'm making a huge mistake here, but I'm not letting you walk out after coming this close to having you."

  For a heartbeat, she wondered why he had changed his mind, but then his lips were on hers and the thought was forgotten. When he came up for air, he lowered his head to slide his mouth along her neck.

  Touching his lips to her ear, Jake whispered, “We'll talk about the rest later."

  She whispered back, “No, we won't,” and put her lips to his to ensure she got the last word. Her mind went blank, her every thought focused on what her body felt.

  His mouth slanted across hers, his hands participating for the first time, peeling her jacket back from her shoulders. She caught it before it slid free, breaking away from his mouth to rescue the box of condoms from the pocket.

  “Serious about this, aren't you?” he asked, his brown eyes glazed with passion. There was something about his voice, a combination of amusement and something else she didn't recognize. Possibly possessiveness, but she could have misinterpreted it.

  “Yes,” she said, setting the box on the countertop before unbuttoning the top of her blouse. “I have thought about this for months, Jake. I am very serious.” She opened the edges of her shirt, emboldened by the look on his face, the desire that welled up like a cloud around him. “I have thought about touching you until I couldn't drive by your apartment complex without turning around. Until I had to knock on your door and take a chance."

  She stepped away from him slightly to drop her shirt to the ground. Jake backed up to the island, his sweatpants not hiding his erection from her. God, even in sweatpants and a T-shirt, he looks so damn good. “I want you,” she said, letting her bra follow to the floor. She lifted his T-shirt and he finished the motion, shrugging it off with a play of tightened muscles. Susan splayed her hands across his flat stomach and then leaned her chest to his, feeling the electricity jump between them with a punch.

  They both stopped, held still by so much naked flesh making contact, the feeling exponentially more intense than when just their hands touched. She breathed in his scent. Something like vanilla and spice and pure male filled her nostrils. God, he even smelled amazing.

  She wasn't surprised about the intensity. She had thought about this every day, dreamed about this every night, since she saw him two weeks ago in the grocery store. Since he had walked up behind her and hugged her, burning them both through their clothes. She had been angry at the time. How dare he touch her when he knew how hard she was fighting this attraction between them? But she realized he hadn't known how hard she was fighting it and if he had, he probably wouldn't understand. Normal people acted on these kinds of feelings.

  Their lips met again, her breasts gliding against his muscled chest, his hair teasing her nipples into tight peaks.

  “It's too much, too much,” he murmured to her, letting her know he felt it, too. His hands went to her jeans, unbuttoning them. Hers slipped into the top of his sweatpants, stroking his buttocks, making him suck in a quick breath of air.

  She experienced a small warning from the voice of responsible behavior in her head. It said doing this was a large mistake—that she might be in over her head. But the warning was swept away with her jeans as he pulled them down to the floor, his body going into a crouch. He pressed a kiss onto her hipbone and then bit her lightly, scraping teeth in a slow motion that made her gasp.

  She balanced by holding onto his shoulders as he took off her shoes, then her pants and underwear. She looked down at his broad back that tapered into gray sweatpants. Muscles rippled in his arms as he pulled off her clothing. Her stomach trembled with need. Overwhelmed with the desire to run her hands along his body, she ground her teeth to keep herself still.

  Jake stood up, moving against her. She caught his sweatpants and pulled them down. He balanced with one hand on the counter as socks and sweatpants were dispatched. When he was free, he crushed her into the island, kissing her face, neck, collarbone before capturing one nipple in his mouth. They were going quickly now, her hands making circles on his back and buttocks, sliding around to touch his erection.

  He bit lightly on her nipple in retaliation and she caressed the length of his shaft with her fingertips. Her mind registered the fact that he was so hard, that he was so much bigger than either of the men she had slept with before. She felt a flood of wetness in response—wetness that increased as his fingers caressed the mound between her legs.

  “Jesus, you're ready,” he whispered into her mouth, turning her to face the island. She caught up the box of condoms, ripping the package frantically. His hand reached over to take the condom she held and then he was touching her in long sweeping motions, pressing his hard shaft against her back, biting her shoulder. He bent her over the island, widening her legs with his own. Both hands held her hips as he tipped her to meet him, and in one long, slow movement, he entered her. She gasped when his head hit the top of her sheath.

  Jake stayed still, and she instinctively knew he was battling the urge to come. He placed his hand over her mound and slipped a finger inside to rest on her pleasure spot, keeping pressure there. She
moved against his finger, moaning. He joined her, rocking, trying to find a pace for them. Susan felt the tension in her body build to a pleasure height she never knew was possible, then she came, milking the length of him, taking him with her over the edge. His body dropped onto hers, trembling with his own release, folding them both forward onto the island.

  Susan would have fallen if he hadn't trapped her against the counter. Her brain came back from wherever it had gone. Holy smokes! She had thought sex would be good with Jake, but not this mind-blowing.

  Jake moved behind her, grabbing one of the two remaining condoms. He slid out and she heard him changing into the next one. “Jake?” Her voice quivered. Surely he wasn't planning to go again? Didn't guys require a 30-minute recoup time?

  But he obviously didn't, because he entered her, as hard as if he hadn't come minutes before. Susan felt desire sweep through her, returning a heartbeat away from climax. Jake's legs were still between hers, holding her still as he bent her body off the countertop. “Rest your head against my shoulder,” he growled at her, his voice low and needy. Susan dropped her head back, bowing her body into a nearly painful curve. Jake brought her arms up to hold onto his neck. “Stay absolutely still. I'll take care of your pleasure,” he whispered.

  He slid his fingers down her body, parting her, then his fingertips pinched her clitoris rhythmically. Susan moaned. He moved inside her, a couple of inches out then a couple of inches in. The small movements were torture. “Jake, please. More. Please."

  “Almost there, Susan, we're almost there.” He held her body while it shook in fine tremors. “Keep holding onto me.” As he said the last word, she reached her climax, screaming his name. He tumbled after her, bending over her body to rest again on the island in front of them.

  “Oh my God, Jake, oh my God.” Susan tried to breathe normally but couldn't seem to draw enough air into her lungs. Jake turned her around and lifted her to the countertop, putting his body between her legs and holding her close in an embrace she found both protective and sweet after the hot, hard sex they had shared. They stayed still for five minutes before he leaned back.