Karen Rose - Secret Admirer

“My mother should mind her own business!” she snapped.

“A lot of people in Red Rock should do that.” He hesitated, grinding his teeth. “I was trying to ask you to go with me to the Spring Fling.”

“What? Us? You and me?”

“Why not us? Maybe we could get past the past if we did that—show the town we’ve buried what happened in high school.”

She turned and her eyes narrowed on his face. “Did you ask me because you and I are both up for director of market research?”

“Hell no.” He felt himself getting mad, too.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “You asked me before when we were kids deliberately to humiliate me.”

“I did not.”

“You snuck up on us and took those pictures. Then you—”

“Like I told you then—I didn’t.”

Like always when he defended himself, she glared at him.

Damn it. He hadn’t. He clenched the steering wheel, remembering the stupid misadventure that had caused both of them so much pain when they were kids.

J.K. had lured him into the cedar-brush country right behind the Snows’ place with the promise of some exciting wildlife. J.K. had been toting his .22-caliber rifle and Matt had his camera.

“I don’t see anything worth wasting good film on,” Matt said when J.K. grabbed his arm and pulled him down behind a huge red rock.

“Just you wait.”

Sure enough, it couldn’t have been more than five minutes before they heard the Snows’ back door close. Next, leaves crackled in the direction of the Snows’ property. They heard giggles and a dog barking. Then the branches parted and Jane and Mindy Snow and their chocolate Lab, Grizzly, stepped out into the sun. The girls wore white T-shirts, and maybe, hell maybe—nothing else! A guy could hope, couldn’t he? Mindy was dragging a gushing hose, which she tossed into a bed of roses.

Matt liked the way the wind blew the girls’ hair, especially Jane’s. When they opened their backpacks and pulled out two towels, the wind caught hold of the towels so that they flapped like orange and purple flags. Slowly, the threesome ambled over to some flat rocks sheltered by a high limestone cliff. The girls positioned their towels and then lay down on them with their legs in the sun and their heads in the shade. They began to read. Meanwhile, Grizzly ran about, sniffing rocks and chasing rabbits. Once when the Lab raised his leg on a rock not far from the boys, they were sure the dog would catch them. Fortunately, they were downwind from the beast, and the Lab trotted back to the girls, who petted him.

Jane looked so beautiful and peaceful as she read and petted the Lab that Matt started snapping pictures of her. Her legs were long and slim and curvy. When she raised her T-shirt a little, he saw she was wearing a pink polka-dot bikini bottom.

Her butt was tight and round, just great. He took a few more pictures and then stopped when she slowly got up and went over to where the hose was. She lifted it. Splashing her face first, she then began to sip.

Then Mindy got up and snuck up behind her. Playfully grabbing the hose, Mindy sprayed her. Jane yelled and the girls began fighting over the hose, drenching each other.

The wet T-shirt revealed Jane’s huge breasts, which she always took such pains to hide at school.

“Hot damn,” Jerry Keith said. “Her nipples are as big as chocolate Oreos. Zoom in on ’em.”

Matt was cold and hot and hard at the same time. When Jerry Keith grabbed his camera, he got so mad he nearly yelled.

Grizzly was the next to get sprayed.

“I’ll be damned,” Jerry Keith said, taking more pictures as Matt lunged for the camera. When the girls dropped the hose and looked over, Matt had it in his hand. Her cheeks reddening, Jane tried to cover herself with her hands. Grizzly started barking. Teeth bared, the animal lived up to its name and raced toward them.

The boys scrambled up the nearest oak tree.

Matt wasn’t concentrating on driving, when Jane screamed.

“Watch where you’re going!”

Instantly he came back to the present.

“Red light!” she cried. “Stop! Or you’ll kill us in this thing!”

He slammed on his brakes and the Porsche skidded to a halt as they hit the last red light before leaving town.

She drew a deep, relieved breath but said nothing. He did the same.

His feelings were overpowering him the way they always did when she was too close. Maybe it was her perfume that had him so crazy. What was it—roses? Or jasmine?

Craving fresh air, while she continued her pout or whatever it was, he lowered his window. But the warm cedar-scented breeze just made him hotter.

He’d tried to be nice. He’d paid for his sins in high school. Boy had he paid. He’d even asked her on a date. He hated rejection and he always had to win. Hell, he was out on a limb here. Nobody but Jane Snow ever made him feel this crazy.

And then it happened.

She’d glanced out her window again, so she didn’t see it coming. Thus, she didn’t flinch or pull away when he leaned closer, cupped her chin and crushed her lips to his.

The second his mouth claimed hers, the same magic that had knocked him senseless under the mistletoe zapped him again, only harder. Must’ve zapped her, too, because her fingers came around his neck and threaded themselves into his hair. As she began kissing him back, he felt her breasts quiver and go soft against his chest. He pressed her closer into his hard body.

“What’s happening?” she whispered, pulling back a little. Her blue eyes were soft and crushed and vulnerable.

“This is what you’re so scared of, isn’t it?” he murmured. “You want me, too.”

“This can’t be happening.”

His big hands worked through her hair. Before she could cry out, pins showered onto her seat. Next came tangles of platinum-blond hair falling onto her shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that the light changed but he was afraid to drive for fear he’d lose her.

“Fire and ice. That’s what you are,” he whispered as he began kissing her again.

He didn’t want to stop kissing her. Not ever. This was better than last Christmas. He’d never felt such mindless lust or need for anyone. Whatever it was, it lit an unquenchable fire in his being.

The guy behind him sat on his horn.

Somehow Matt managed to let her go. Breathing hard, he stepped on the gas and drove carefully, but the first chance he got, he pulled off onto the shoulder—to resume kissing or whatever it was they were doing.

“Work,” she said. “We’ve got to get to work.”

“Later,” he muttered, grabbing her again. “Kissing the enemy is way more fun.”

“This is downright embarrassing,” she whispered on a raspy shudder.

“Yeah, it damn sure is. You’re a witch, and I’m helpless in your spell.”

“Don’t tease me.”

“Can’t help myself, darlin’. Do you have a better explanation?”

“I’m the one girl in town you haven’t slept with yet. You want to add another notch onto your gun belt, so you’re pouring on the sexual charm mighty strong.”

“If you really think that, my reputation as a lover damn sure exceeds the reality. But don’t tell anybody.”

He smiled down at her and for the first time, maybe ever, she smiled back. He caught his breath. His heart beat wildly. He wanted her to like him. He wanted it more than anything.

He kissed her neck, and then the hollow of her throat. Barely conscious of what he was doing, he began un-buttoning her blouse, kissing the tops of her huge breasts until his mouth came to a lacy pink-and-black bra.

“I never figured you for the sexy-underwear type,” he murmured. “Nice.”

“Type. I’m not a type.”

“Of course not,” he agreed, his mouth nuzzling a nipple. He’d spent years dreaming about her breasts. Years. “I’ve been waiting for somebody like you all my life.”