He walked into the room and only had enough time to notice that Renee hadn’t turned on the overhead light, leaving the room in only the dim sunlight filtering through the window, before the door was closing behind him. He turned around just as the door clicked shut and Renee rushed back into his arms, picking up right where they’d left off.
Every curve of her was touching him, driving him wild. He pressed against her until she was backed up against the door, slipping one hand under her shirt. She moaned deep in the back of her throat as his hand slid up from her waist to her breast, and he echoed the sound as his fingers found her nipple, hard and erect.
He teased the peaked tip as he moved his mouth to her earlobe, eliciting another moan from her, and his unoccupied hand moved down to her thigh. Jeremiah knew they didn’t have much time, but he planned to take full advantage of this moment. The skirt she was wearing had ridden up dangerously high, leaving so much of her shapely legs exposed for his viewing pleasure. He drank in the sight as he pulled the skirt even higher, wishing the room was brighter so he could see Renee in all her glory.
When his fingers slid past her lacy panties to her folds, she gasped, and his entire body tensed as he felt her wet heat. He put his mouth to the place on her neck where her heartbeat throbbed as he stroked her with his fingers, dipping first one inside her, then two, and continuing to rub at her mound until she was holding on to him tightly, her head pressed back against the door, her eyes closed.
* * *
RENEE COULD BARELY stand as Jeremiah continued stroking her core, kissing along her throat and teasing her breast. He was playing her like a violin and damn if he wasn’t good at it. The growing tension low in her belly built until she couldn’t resist the wave as it crashed over her. She came hard, her entire body shivering with it as it ran through her.
She opened her eyes and saw Jeremiah smiling at her, his eyes smoldering with barely controlled need. And how she wanted to fill that need.
Renee reached down to the button of his jeans, anticipation boiling inside her. Just as she pulled down the zipper and moved to expose what, from the feel of it against the fabric, was a huge erection however, Jessica’s voice floated in from downstairs.
“Dinner’s ready! Time to eat!”
Damn. Renee stopped what she was doing and looked at Jeremiah. His expression was so pained that it made her laugh.
“Really? This is funny?” he asked, a smile crossing his own lips.
Renee leaned her head forward, letting it rest against Jeremiah’s chest as she tried to take a few breaths to calm herself down. But when she breathed in his scent, a mixture of some cologne that made her think of the outdoors and his own masculine smell, she had to lean back again. She wasn’t ready to go be around her sister and talk wedding so soon after that spectacular orgasm.
As if Jeremiah knew what she was thinking, he took a deep breath of his own. “I’ll head down first,” he said. “I can tell them you’re getting settled in your room and washing up.”
He sent one last smile her way as she moved away from the door, and then he was gone.
One thing she could say for him: Jeremiah was a good sport.
RENEE TOOK A shuddering breath and moved away from the door Jeremiah had just closed behind him, flicking the light on as she went. The house was large and had several guest rooms, each a different color. She suspected this was Jessica’s doing—it seemed very much like her sister to tell someone that they were staying in “the blue room,” and then give them a set of towels that matched.
Renee was in the green room, the mint-colored walls bright and friendly in the light thrown from the bedside lamp. Green vines crisscrossed the white background of the bedspread, and even the white chest of drawers had green accents. It was all so sweet and pretty that she had to smile.
She opened her suitcase on the floor and grabbed out a pair of pants and some fresh underwear, sliding out of the clothes that were suggestively mussed from her interaction with Jeremiah and putting on the new outfit, trying to flatten her hair as she did so. After a glance in the mirror and a swipe at her smeared makeup, she readied herself to go back downstairs.
She took one last calming breath, opened the door and made her way to where the rest of the group sat. When she stepped into the kitchen, she found quite the happy scene: Aaron’s arm around the back of Jessica’s chair, her body leaning into his and both of them laughing at something Jeremiah must have just said. He looked a little embarrassed, but was laughing, too. Everyone seemed comfortable and content, almost like a little family. How did she fit in here?
Her good mood sank a little as she realized that she didn’t. They were all Texas, and she was New York.
But then Jeremiah looked in her direction and his eyes lit up at the sight of her, and she was able to push those thoughts aside. She didn’t need to belong here. She would have a great week, fulfill a few fantasies, and then go back to New York to her dream job.
That was better than belonging in this little group, she told herself.
By the time she’d gone through these thoughts and felt reassured that her life was already everything she could want, really, Jessica had spotted her. She gestured at the full plate and empty seat clearly meant for her. “Come and get some food. I’m sure you haven’t had a decent home-cooked meal since...when was the last time you ate at Mom’s?”
Renee thought for a second as she sat down. “Almost two weeks ago.”
“What have you been living on since then?”
Renee didn’t want to answer, especially with Jeremiah watching her, that perpetual grin on his face, as if he was enjoying the interaction. “This and that,” she answered vaguely.
Jessica raised her eyebrows. “Sandwiches from the deli down the street and leftover pizza?”
“Veggie pizza,” Renee added, knowing that it didn’t make it sound any better. “I’m busy. And I don’t know how to cook. This looks amazing,” she said in an attempt to change the subject from her terrible eating habits.
Jessica smiled, clearly proud of herself. “It’s just an easy chicken recipe. Now get to eating,” she said, pointing at the plate.
Renee took a bite, reveling in the taste of fresh vegetables and roasted chicken. She really needed to eat real food more often, but after working all day, she was too exhausted to do more than grab something on the way to her apartment or toss old pizza in the microwave. Another thing to push from her mind. This was not the week to examine her faults.
“What were you laughing about when I came in?” she asked, trying to get the conversation going on another topic.
Aaron smiled at her. “Jeremiah was telling Jessica about the time he was hitting on our waitress at a diner in Tyler.”
Renee forced herself to smile, trying to tell herself that it was good to remember that Jeremiah wasn’t a settle-down kind of guy. According to the stories Jessica had told her, in fact, he was more of a hit-on-any-female-with-a-pulse kind of guy.
And that was very good, because there was no way she’d be falling for him. Fantasy sex only.
* * *
“TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED,” Aaron prompted, hitting Jeremiah lightly on the shoulder.
Jeremiah looked down at his plate, his blood pumping hard. Aaron had brought it up in the first place, and now he had to tell Renee about hitting on other women. Great.
He wanted to punch Aaron “playfully” on the arm, at least hard enough to leave a bruise, but he didn’t want to raise any eyebrows. There was no way he’d forget Renee’s number one rule and ruin the possibility of an amazing week.
“It was