One Stormy Night Read online

  He kissed her.

  Shane savored the lingering tartness of the wine as he kissed her lips. Bursts of simmering raspberries and cherries tingled over his mouth, adding to the fire growing deep within him.

  For a few seconds after slipping his tongue inside her mouth, he thought he’d found relief from the gnawing ache.

  Then she kissed him back, sweeping her tongue over and under his in slow, tantalizing circles. How many nights have I dreamt about kissing her like this?

  “Damn.” He snapped his head back, excited by the tickle of the murmuring sounds coming from deep in her throat, and lifted Alexis into his lap.

  Clink. The swing creaked from the sudden movement, but he wasn’t going to let go just yet.

  “Oh.”

  He covered her mouth with his and caressed her breast. The lush mound was as firm, yet yielding to the squeeze of his hand, as he’d always imagined.

  But he needed more than the feel of fabric to satisfy the awful thump between his legs. He slid his fingers under the dress’s crisscrossed neckline until he reached her nipple. Her tender skin shrunk into a point, making it easier to pluck while his tongue danced over hers.

  “Shane.” Alexis moaned out his name.

  He kissed down her the smooth skin of her neck, now wet from the rain splattering over them.

  “Yes,” she whispered into his ear.

  I’m not letting her go now. He licked closer to the spot where his fingers played.

  Clunk. Clunk.

  “Oh, shit.” Alexis tore away from him, staggering to her feet as the swing plummeted.

  Clunk. The chains gave a final rattling groan before stopping inches from the floor.

  “Damn.” Shane reeled backward and closed his eyes. It didn’t matter if he hit the ground or not. His head pounded as if he’d run full speed into a brick wall.

  “Alexis?” He looked through the large windows of the lobby to see her taking the steps two at time.

  He slumped on down on the hard bench, praying there was some cure for what ratcheted through him with the torque of a man-sized wrench.

  Chapter Four

  For ten minutes, Alexis lay in bed staring up at the whirring blades of the ceiling fan. Her crush had been something she hadn’t shared with anyone at work, with her friends or her family back in Maryland. Before tonight, Shane hadn’t given her any indication he may be interested in her.

  Then there was the kiss that weakened her knees, sped up her pulse, and raised her body temperature to boiling.

  He’s down. And this place wasn’t helping. The oaks, the rain, and the barely visible full moon. All of its dark beauty drowning her in a tidal wave of romantic ideas.

  “Oh, God.” A sense of regret and longing ebbed through her, threatening to send her into an all-night crying jag.

  The chime of her phone with the show’s theme song stopped her mini-breakdown. Shane was calling.

  “Hi.”

  “I want to apologize, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry,” Shane spoke quickly, robotically.

  “I can tell you’re going through something and it’s okay.” A lie. It wasn’t okay that she wanted to cry.

  “That’s it. Listen, how about we head out early in the morning? Get some shots before we start the interviews?”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Good night, Joplin.”

  “Good night, Fowler.”

  She went back to staring at the ceiling when all she wanted was to be with him. What would it hurt to have that if only for the night?

  Perhaps, it could be their special good-bye?

  Alexis jumped out of bed and hurried over to her suitcase. She grabbed a pair of lacy pink panties, a robe and a wrinkled sleeve of three condoms.

  Either she was going to embarrass the hell out of both of them, or Shane wasn’t going to let her spend the night alone.

  ****

  Alexis pulled her door closed behind her, wearing only the short and the panties, and stepped into the dimly lit and empty hallway. Only the rumbles of thunder outside broke through the hushed stillness, concealing her quick tiptoe next door to Shane’s room.

  She knocked way too many times, but it was okay because the drum line beat drowned out her harsh breathing.

  Shane opened his door. “What’s—” His gaze drifted down her legs while his mouth hung open.

  “I wanted to ask you something.” She scooted past him further into the room decorated exactly like hers. An old fashioned, dark wood writing desk sat to the left of the door with a tufted maroon leather chair, and an armoire stood in the opposite corner. She needed the bed, though. Not for anything amorous at the moment, but for a comfy place to sit down before her knees buckled.

  “Can you close the door?” she asked, tucking her legs under her body to sit on her feet.

  “Wh-wh-what?”

  She pointed out into the hallway.

  “Yeah.” Shane released his grasp on the doorknob. “Yeah, so what’s the question?” Shane glanced around the room, not letting his focus settle on anything in particular and scratched at the neckband of his shirt. She was making Shane Fowler nervous.

  Alexis knew the feeling. Her stomach wound into knots. Still she recited her rehearsed speech. “Shane, you’re so special to me. Tomorrow morning, I’ll go back to being the naïve girl you charmed into doing your laundry, and you can be the guy too nice to complain about driving me everywhere, but for tonight I want to be with you.”

  She expected something. Anything, but the sickening silence falling over the room as Shane moved to the edge of the bed with his head down. He wound his arm around the bed’s carved post as if he needed it to stand.

  Could I have been embarrassingly wrong?

  “Alexis, listen. I don’t want you to think that you’re not sexy and all those things I told you outside. But this isn’t a good idea.”

  He tightened his fingers around the post, sparking a pinkish rush to his skin. When his smoldering gaze met hers, she knew.

  He wasn’t holding on to brace himself. He was holding back from her.

  “I’m more experienced in things like this.”

  She listened as he continued. With each word, the gold rims of his eyes dazzled and the front of his pants tented. She smiled, though. He kept his voice professional.

  “I know this will ruin what we have. We sleep together and then what? Long distance dating? We break up. Then I’ve lost my girlfriend and my best friend.”

  “You won’t lose me. I won’t let you.”

  Silence again. This time his gaze meandered over her in a lust-filled path.

  “I don’t have protection.”

  “I’m prepared for anything. I told you that.” She tossed the condoms on the nightstand, and removed her robe. “You don’t have an excuse unless you don’t want me.”

  “Tomorrow we’re friends?”

  “Yes.”

  She barely voiced the word before Shane lifted her onto the bed and scraped her panties down her thighs.

  Fully dressed, he held her firm around the waist, clinching her nakedness against him. The heated glide of his fingers down her body pricked and tingled over her skin. His eyes, darkened to swirling ebony orbs, locked her into place, giving him the power to touch her anywhere. Everywhere.

  He lowered his gaze to where his hand stopped to rest on her stomach.

  “Oh.” Alexis tensed as Shane’s splayed fingers inched down to palm over her sex.

  “Slow, Alexis,” he whispered. “I want to go slow.”

  He parted her nether lips with his finger, grazed her sensitive nub and sent a warm flow of liquid down her thighs. Alexis gasped as he pushed further into her slick channel, stroking the passion that raged within her.

  He looked up, his lids slightly lowered and panting. “I want to see when you come.”

  Her inner walls clamped around his fingers as he pulled them all the way out and pushed them in deeper than he had before. Over and over again he plung
ed into her wetness, until her mouth opened into a silent cry and her body shattered around his hand.

  The moaning sounds filling the room were hers. The hoarse groans were Shane’s as he sat up, cupping her wet mound, gaze locked on hers. “We can stop if you want.”

  “No. No.” She needed him even more, and reached for the zipper of his jeans.

  “Let me.”

  He stood and quickly undressed, revealing his long, lean legs and the tight butt she finally had the chance to squeeze. Alexis licked her lips in anticipation.

  As Shane settled in next to her, she glided her hands over the hard plane of his back down to his trim hips, snaking her body over his and sparking a fire in her core. She ran her hand around his waist, grasping his cock while she licked across his chest.

  A low growl started in his throat, rumbled across his chest. He thrust into the slow twist of her hand as he pushed his fingers into her wetness from behind and closed his eyes.

  “God, yes.” He deepened the jab of his fingers.

  She rocked against him, keeping a steady stroke on his hardening cock as an intense pressure built within her. Soon she’d be flying again. She closed her eyes in anticipation.

  “Damn.” Shane tore away from her and grabbed a condom packet.

  “I’m ready.” Alexis watched as he rolled it on, her body primed for him.

  Not waiting for a response, she pulled him on top of her and guided him inside her slick channel. Shane plunged deeply into her until his balls met the curve in one motion.

  “Oh, my God.”Alexis wriggled against Shane’s body, twisting the comforter into her hands. An immense tremor spread through her body, bucked her hips off the bed, as he withdrew fully and entered her again.

  “Remember, slow,” he grunted into her ear and eased back on his haunches to hold her hips in place. “Just like that.” He draped her legs over his arms, spread them wide apart, and pounded into her again and again.

  “Oh, God.” Alexis braced one hand against the head board and slid the other between her legs to massage her engorged clit.

  “Shit, Alexis.” Shane deepened his thrusts. “Keep rubbing, baby.”

  She did as he asked, crying out with each wave crashing through her body. She was lost in the steady thrust of Shane’s hips against her ass and the maddening flick of her fingers across her clit. She tensed, released and shattered around Shane.

  “Just a little more.” He bent low to kiss her and continued his pounding.

  Alexis kissed him back, holding tightly around his bowed back until he crumpled down next to her and gasped for air.

  ****

  “Don’t leave.” Shane unhooked Alexis’ limp hand from around his waist. He doubted she was going anywhere since she hadn’t opened her eyes in the last fifteen minutes, but he had to be sure. “I’ll be right back.”

  He scrambled into the bathroom. His reflection in the mirror showed what he’d expected: mussed hair, red blotches on his skin, and a wired appearance in his eyes. It wasn’t too much caffeine or a wild night of partying which caused the look, it was Alexis.

  Damn, his best friend was a fireball in bed. She’d let him flip her onto her stomach and fuck her from behind, something he usually reserved for later. However, this is our first and last time. Quickly disposing of the condom, he silently mourned the fact that they’d used the last one then headed back into the bedroom.

  Alexis had turned in the opposite direction, her hair splayed in all directions over the pillow. Shane slid in next to her and stroked the strands back into place.

  “That feels nice,” she murmured.

  “It does.” He traced his finger behind her ear, to the sharp point of her jaw to the deep hollow of her throat. Every part of her felt nice, especially the slumberous notes of her voice falling like rain over his skin. He urged her to keep talking. “Are you up?”

  “I’m tired. I want to sleep.”

  “I thought only guys fell asleep afterwards.”

  She laughed. “There’s something you don’t know about me. I get very sleepy afterwards.”

  “Tell me something else I don’t know about you.”

  “Like what? I think we’ve shared everything we could in the last two years.”

  In two years, he’d learned about her first friend in elementary school, her first failed attempt at sneaking into a bar on the Jersey Shore as a teen, and her first crush in college in DC. He knew a lot, but it couldn’t be everything. “Who did you go to senior prom with?”

  “I don’t even remember his name. He was my best friend’s cousin.”

  “Why not a boyfriend?” He imagined a line of guys wanting to be next to her.

  “I wasn’t really into guys by senior year. I was concentrating on being on TV, working as an intern with local station and learning everything I could.”

  Her voice trailed off and Shane was sure she falling back into sleep. “Now, you ask me something.” He pulled her body closer to his.

  Alexis yanked the comforter up to her nose. “I don’t have any questions.”

  “You have to ask one.”

  She was quiet for a moment before speaking. “Well, Brittany. Did you really break up with her because she snored? I think I snore. Will that end our friendship?”

  His relationship with Brittany Wallis, the gorgeous marketing director with long flowing black hair, sparkling green eyes and a killer body, began and ended shortly after Alexis started on the show. “I lied about Brittany. She broke up with me.”

  Maybe there was something about this place, something in its gothic beauty that only wanted the ugly truth.

  “Why?” Alexis flipped over in his arms, staring up at him with her usual concern.

  Once he’d thought the look was cute, but he’d missed the fierce protectiveness behind her eyes. “She accused me of cheating.”

  “That’s not true. Not you.”

  Alexis snuggled against his chest, wrapping her arms around him in pure sweetness while he replayed the final argument with Brittany.

  “You called Alexis?” she’d screamed. “It’s been ten minutes since you made love to me and you called her? Who the fuck were you thinking about?”

  Though he’d denied it at the time, he had been thinking about this moment with Alexis curled his arms, and his fingers twirling through her hair.

  Chapter Five

  Alexis eased upright in bed. Even with the tingle of Shane’s heavy hand down her arm into her lap, the early rays of morning sun made it impossible to forget their agreement. Back to friends in the morning.

  And friends didn’t spend their day in the nude, fondling each other.

  She allowed herself one last look at his sleeping face, masculine in its angles yet softened by his curvy, kissable mouth. Her heart sped up at the thought of those lips brushing behind her ear, and then the end hit her dead center in the chest leaving her woozy.

  The end? That’s what she’d thought the feeling was last night, but maybe she’d been wrong all along. Maybe it was deeper than that?

  She leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed her robe. After searching through her pockets for the keycard to her room, she realized she didn’t remember picking it up. “Crap.” She tossed the flimsy fabric onto the bed and tucked the comforter under her arms.

  “What’s wrong?” Shane’s eyes didn’t open, but he pulled her closer.

  “It’s morning.”

  “Huh?” He bolted up, twisting around to the balcony as if he didn’t believe her. “Morning?”

  The headboard shook slightly as he leaned heavily against it. Still turned toward the balcony, he mumbled, “Morning.”

  The weight of the word crushed against her chest, stopping any attempt at a response.

  Shane was also quiet, staring ahead as if he needed to note every inch of the painting hanging on the far wall.

  Sadness? Embarrassment? She couldn’t figure out the meaning behind the intent look. Normally she’d hold his hand and ask, but for the firs
t time, she felt as if she shouldn’t.

  Snap out of it. She needed to leave, now. Get some space between them, except she couldn’t. “I don’t have the keycard to my room.”

  He chuckled, shaking his head as if to further bring him back to the present. “Let me find some clothes. I’ll go get you one.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed, started to stand and stopped. “Close your eyes.”

  A hot flush flamed her face at the sight of the broad plane of his tanned back angling down to his paler waist. “Right.” She complied with his request.

  From the sounds of his stumbling steps and mumbled curses, she guessed she was still making him nervous. Even with the knots beginning to twist in her stomach, she smiled.

  “Okay, you can open.”

  He was dressed in the jeans from dinner and the rumpled shirt. His short hair lay flat against his head, giving him the appearance of ruffled college student. “Call down to the front desk, and tell them I coming to get your keycard. I’ll get you some clothes and breakfast.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  He hurried out without saying anything else.

  “Crap.” Alexis slumped forward.

  How in the hell were they going to be just friends after he’d rocketed her into the heavens? Maybe her crush wasn’t a simple crush after all.

  ****

  Shane jogged down the staircase, not letting his mind process anything other than the need for Alexis’s keycard. Upon rounding the corner of the large desk, he saw George Ballard holding out a room key.

  “Your lady called.”

  “We are working on some notes. She left the key in her room.” By rote, his brain switched into explanation mode.

  “I don’t need a reason, son. But you probably should get back upstairs before Margie snaps a picture.”

  “I can’t. I’m supposed to get breakfast, too.” For a second, he was disarmed by what seemed like a knowing grin from George.

  Did his face somehow betray exactly why Alexis was stuck in his room?

  “I’ll bring something up.” George stepped from behind the desk. “And I’ll get around to securing that swing this afternoon. Just in case y’all feel like stepping onto the porch this evening.” With that, the older man practically skipped through the empty sitting room.