Dreams & Desires. Kat Cantrell

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СКАЧАТЬ it a car or a refrigerator, when the salesman gave his rock-bottom price, she always managed to talk him down just a little lower. When they were rebuilding the house after the tornado she’d haggled the builder into paying out of pocket for the upgrades the insurance refused to cover. People just had a hard time telling her no.

      “What brought you home so early?” Clare asked her.

      “Claud and I had a fight. He asked me to marry him again.”

      “I take it you said no?”

      She sighed, shaking her head. “Some men never learn.”

      She could have been talking about Parker, but Clare didn’t bother to point that out.

      “Are you hungry?” Kay asked. “Let’s order dinner.”

      “I could go for sushi.”

      “Hmm, sounds good,” she said, pulling out her phone. Neither of them cooked, so her aunt had the number of every restaurant in Royal that delivered on speed dial. “You want the usual?”

      “Yes, please. While I’m waiting I’m going to go upstairs and get out of these scrubs.” She was exhausted, thanks to a certain someone waking her at the crack of dawn that morning. But in all fairness it had been worth it.

      “I’ll let you know when it gets here,” her aunt told her.

      With sore, tired feet Clare climbed the stairs. A soak in the tub sounded good, but with the food on the way she took a hot shower instead. And though they were barely stubbly, she shaved her legs and cleaned up the bikini line, as well.

      Just in case.

      After her shower, as she was drying off, she took note of her new svelte figure. She looked damn good. Not that she’d been overweight, per se, but she hadn’t exactly been healthy before.

      She was still standing at the mirror naked, brushing the knots from her wet hair when her aunt knocked on the bedroom door. “Come on in! Just leave it on the bed.”

      She heard the door open, then close again, and a second later saw movement in the bathroom doorway. She turned and her breath caught in her lungs.

      It was Parker standing there.

      He grinned, his eyes raking over her from the top of her head all the way down to her pink-tipped toes, and every inch of her skin came alive all at once. He looked sexy as hell in faded jeans and a black T-shirt with the hospital logo. She had never seen him dressed so casually. She took in the way those biceps stretched the armholes of his shirt, and the way the jeans hugged his lean hips. But as good as he looked in his clothes, she knew he looked even better out of them.

      He held up the sushi bag and said with a frustratingly sexy smile, “Special delivery.”

      Clare would have grabbed her robe to cover herself, but by the look in his eyes, and the fact that he had put the bag down and begun to peel off his clothes, she had the feeling the damage was already done.

      “Your aunt sent me up,” he said, taking off his shirt and dropping it on the floor. “Remind me to thank her profusely.”

      Aunt Kay would hear about it later, all right. Because she was meddling. Unfortunately she was really good at it.

      The jeans went next, and Clare just stood there like a dummy watching, when she should have been kicking him to the curb for being so presumptuous. But then the boxers dropped and that was all she wrote. She couldn’t tell him no now if her life depended on it.

      “Come here,” he said, taking her hand and leading her to the bed, walking backward so he didn’t have to take his eyes off her. “You are so sexy.”

      Before she could censor herself, she said, “Look who’s talking.”

      With a grin, he pulled her in and kissed her. And kissed her. Oh, did she love kissing him. He smelled freshly showered and his chin was smooth. And as he hauled her up against the length of that ripped physique she was no more sturdy than her trembling hands. Lucky for her he wasted no time getting her off her feet and into bed.

      He laid her on her back. Typically she didn’t like being on her back, but as he climbed in beside her, she decided to let it slide. Then he started to kiss her again and she ignored that irrational need to be in control. She liked the feel of his weight pressing her into the mattress, his hands skimming her body, igniting a trail of fire across her skin. Then he began to kiss his way downward. It felt so good, and she wanted to relax and enjoy it, but as he reached the lowest part of her stomach, she automatically tensed.

      Parker froze and lifted his head to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

      “Nothing.”

      He frowned and pushed himself up on his elbows. “Don’t lie to me.”

      Damn it. Why did he have to be so intuitive? So concerned about her needs and her weird hang-ups. He needed to stop being so wonderfully thoughtful. “It’s nothing.”

      “The hell it is. Talk to me, Clare.”

      The tone in his voice when he said her name sent shivers across her skin. After months of listening to the annoying nicknames he came up with for her, he had to choose now to start using her real name? When she was feeling most vulnerable? And did he have to say it with so much...feeling?

      “What you’re doing, what you’re getting ready to do, it makes me feel very...”

      “Vulnerable?”

      “Yes. Very vulnerable.”

      “Do you want me to stop?”

      “Yes. And no. I don’t know, it’s weird. I’m weird.”

      To his credit he didn’t ask why she felt that way, because that was one big ole can of worms she would rather not spill just yet. Or maybe ever. He was just so darned open and honest, it was difficult not to give him some sort of explanation.

      “You’re not weird.” He kissed her stomach once more, then made his way back upward. “And I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. This is supposed to be fun.”

      “I don’t want you to think that I don’t trust you.”

      “Clare, you barely know me. Trust is earned.” He kissed her so sweetly she could have cried, or punched him, then he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him, grinning that devilish smile. “Better?”

      “You don’t mind?”

      “I get to lie here while a gorgeous woman rides me like I’m a rodeo bull. What do you think?”

      She leaned down to kiss him, for fear that if she didn’t do something, she really would cry. Why did he have to be so wonderful? So understanding?

      So damn hot.

      He clearly had no reservations about being dominated, because she did ride him like a rodeo bull. He let her take the lead and set the pace, and even though he was on his back he didn’t just lie there. He kept his hands and his mouth and his hips plenty busy making her crazy, СКАЧАТЬ