Shannon drowned in his eyes radiating lust, need and desire, and she melted, not giving her safety another thought. Words were no longer needed. Cole possessed her lips, and Shannon lost all coherent thought except for the taste of his delicious mouth. The feel of his warm hard body wrapped around her soft pliant one. Their tongues did the dance of lovers gone way too long without each other’s nourishment. Their bodies entwined in desperation, the need for the joining of two lost souls finally coming together as one. His warm hands traveled up the back of her shirt as she heard someone clear his throat. Cameron. She’d forgotten about Cameron. Shannon released Cole and turned to face her son.
“Honey,” she said a little breathless. “You remember Cole?” She felt herself blush from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. How stupid she mused, of course he remembered Cole. Her nerves were rattled over having her son find her in such a steamy embrace. Not to mention what Cole’s kiss had done to her. And his hands, his body. Oh God, his erection!
Cole shook Cameron’s hand and smiled at him. “Good to see you again, Cameron. I hope you’re working on your music,” he said with a deepness to his voice Shannon had heard only a few times before.
Cameron beamed with admiration. “Yes.”
“Cameron, why don’t you go back in your room and finish your homework,” Shannon said, hoping her son got the hint that she wanted some privacy with Cole.
Cameron glanced from his mom to Cole and grinned. “Sure. I’ll catch you both later.”
Cole looked uncertain once they found themselves alone. “Jesus, how stupid of me for not thinking about Cameron. Is there a hotel nearby I can stay in?”
She took his hand in her trembling one and led him up two flights of stairs to her bedroom. After turning into him and kissing him until they were both breathless once again, she looked at him, knowing all her feelings spilled out from her eyes and she didn’t care.
“Your hotel room awaits. If you don’t mind a roommate?”
He yanked her up against his chest. “Cameron. You mean him right?” he said with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
“If you want to be his roomy, but I had someone else in mind,” she said as she held him tightly back, never wanting to let him go. Not quite believing he was here. Whenever she started thinking she’d never see him again, he showed up. Their weird connection coming through.
Shannon left Cole to shower while she finished cooking supper. When she approached the stove, she found the chili boiling hot and ready to eat. Cameron came and sat at the kitchen table, his eyes watching her with a teenager’s curiosity. Damn, she could feel herself flush, and it had nothing to do with the spices from the chili she’d just sampled.
After serving up two bowls of chili topped with cheese and heating cornbread in the microwave, she sat down at the table opposite Cameron. His face beamed with exuberance as he babbled on and on about Cole and how cool it was he was staying with them and not to worry, there stood two floors between her bedroom and his, he wouldn’t hear a thing.
She dropped her spoon in shock and her jaw opened.
Cameron continued, “Besides, no one can make as much noise as Dad and Cheryl.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s a screamer and Dad, he howls like a werewolf during a full moon. I’m surprised they don’t wake the neighbors. Old Ms. Smart would have a stroke if she ever heard them. The old lady probably never had sex in her life.”
Shannon stared at her son in shocked disbelief as he went on and on about John and Cheryl’s sex life. She could not possibly be having this conversation with him. And was she not mistaken, but did he just give her permission to sleep with Cole? Not that she needed it, nor was it any of his business. Or was it? Shannon never got a word in edge-wise as Cameron talked, ate and left the kitchen for the family room before she could find the words to express her thoughts, never mind, having eaten any of her supper.
Alone at the table, she buried her face in her hands and laughed at the absurdity of their dinnertime conversation. Not a typical mother, father, two-point five kids and a dog conversation. At least she didn’t think so. Sitting at the table and laughing was how Cole found her.
“Care to share the joke?”
She looked at him and laughed more. “Why not, sit down and I’ll fix you supper and tell you all about it.”
She told him what Cameron had said. He laughed and grinned at her, pinning her with his sexy eyes. “You said Cameron’s bedroom is two floors down.” He winked. “That might be far enough for what I have in mind to do to you.”
She threw her napkin at him, laughing. “You have no idea if I make any noise, and what about you?”
He grinned at her and she melted. “Care to come upstairs with me now, and we’ll see who screams the loudest? We can make it a contest to see who can be the quietest. But I guarantee,” his voice became soft and downright sexy as sin, “you’ll lose.”
Oh my God! She tingled all over from his offer. She’d love nothing more than to go upstairs with him, but she couldn’t now. Not until Cameron went to bed. And even then, could she? Hell it was only seven—she’d never make it, not with her body burning up. This was something she’d wanted since she first set eyes on him in the hotel suite playing his guitar. His muscles rippling, his intriguing tattoo fascinating her, and oh, she couldn’t forget his molten brown eyes sucking her in like sweet, creamy chocolate. Oh, he’d definitely done something to her the night they met, and she’d never been the same because of it. No. Never the same. And at some level that thrilled her. On another level it terrified her as it tore her heart wide open.
While she cleaned up from dinner, she heard Cameron ask Cole if he would jam with him. Cameron went to his room and brought up two acoustic guitars. They spent hours playing together while Shannon sat curled up on a large overstuffed leather chair beneath a fleece blanket. She listened with love and pride to the two men in her life create beautiful music together. Watching Cole strum his guitar was like watching him make love. He looked all intense and gentle, using his long graceful fingers to make the instrument sing for him. She couldn’t wait to be the one his fingers made sing. She fidgeted in the chair as her body craved his fingers on it.
At one point Cameron brought out a pen and paper, and they created a new song together. A beautiful song. The lyrics were potent and sad, causing Shannon to shed silent tears every time Cole glanced her way, which was often. The lyrics were about a boy’s lost love and finding her again later in life, only to lose her again to a terrible tragedy. She wondered what inspired her son and Cole in their songwriting. At midnight, she finally made Cameron go to bed. He had school the next day and he would be exhausted.
After he left, Cole looked at her from his position on the couch with his eyes so hot and intense Shannon squirmed in her seat. In that instant she knew he would make her sing tonight. Finally, she would know what it felt like to make love with Cole. And suddenly she couldn’t wait any longer. She jumped up and gave him a sultry look that had him following close on her heels.
Once inside her room, she quickly shut and locked the door, then lit several candles on the nightstand. It amazed her she could accomplish the task with her hands as unsteady as they were. She was nervous, anxious and downright burning up with sexual need. And her voice had deserted her.
Cole watched with heavy-lidded eyes and a tightness in his groin as she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. It took longer than it should have, but she finally slid it off her shoulders and Cole sucked in air. Her arms reached behind her back and unclasped the black lace bra she wore, and it joined her blouse on the floor. Once again he sucked in air to his desperate lungs. She was breathtakingly beautiful standing in front of him naked from the waist up. Her blue eyes dark with lust, her skin flush, and her breasts small, round and perfect.
The candlelight flickered around the room, casting shadows, making her seem more erotic. Neither of them moved as Shannon continued to undress down to nothing but creamy white skin causing Cole to nearly drop to his knees as his body went weak at the beautiful, sensual picture she made. He wondered if he touched her just so, would she be wet and warm and waiting for him? Oh yeah! Cole undressed, taking his time as he enjoyed the sight before him, a sight he’d waited far too long for. He couldn’t wait to taste, touch, love and possess every luscious creamy inch of her.
He stood fully erect ready for the feel of her body sheathing his. Slowly he went to her, not quite believing this was happening and whispered her name, “Shannon.” He put his hands on the nape of her neck and kissed her. Slow and teasing. He sucked on her bottom lip and nibbled it. She moaned into his mouth, waiting for him to deepen the kiss. He didn’t. He left her mouth to discover uncharted regions. He lingered as he found her pleasure points, behind the ear, the hollow of her neck and the spot between her breasts.
“Cole,” she purred out.
“Yes, my love?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he tore his mouth from her breast and dropped to his knees to explore lower into exotic territory, wet as a tropical rain forest. He parted her thighs with his warm hands and made the most incredible discovery known to man. He discovered the innermost core of a woman’s body, the sweet nectar that drove men crazy. He’d dreamed about this. Her taste, her scent, but it paled compared to having the real thing. He drank from her, tasting and teasing with his tongue, unable to quench his thirst. He was like a man gone days in the desert without water, and this woman was his savior. Her fluids were his nourishment. He drank from her deep well and was rewarded when her body trembled with release. He continued to drive her higher and higher until she cried out for mercy and collapsed down to him, breathless and shaking. Cradling her to him, he caressed her breasts as she recovered. And he wondered what he’d done in this lifetime to deserve her?
“Hmm, that feels so good,” Shannon murmured. “You have the most talented hands. When I watched you play tonight and you made your guitar sing, I wanted it to be me. I imagined your hands on my body, making me sing.”
When she opened her dreamy eyes, they were nearly black and so sensually erotic he knew he needed her now. He laid her back on the floor and groaned out as she parted her thighs in welcome, causing him to nearly lose it at the sight of her. “Condom,” he mumbled. Shit, he needed a condom. He scrambled to his backpack and frantically hunted for the box he’d put in there. After putting one on, he covered her body with his and spoke her name as he thrust deep and hard into her wonderfully warm and welcoming body. As they joined as one he knew he would never be whole again without her in his life. This woman he’d known for such a short time, completed him. She was the other half of his soul, and he’d been searching for her his entire life.
He moved slowly at first, pulling out almost completely. His eyes locked with her dreamy ones, and he noticed they became a mesmerizing shade of black when she was in the throes of passion. Reaching for her legs, he wrapped them up over his shoulders and buried himself so deep inside her, he thought he would be lost forever. He wanted to be lost forever.
One more hard push and he felt her body spasm around his and she cried out, “Cole,” repeatedly. He finally lost it, his body tensed, then trembled as he came, filling her completely. They lay collapsed together, naked, and on the floor. When Cole crashed back to earth, he mumbled.
“Shannon?”
“Hmm?”
“That was better than any dream I’d conjured up these past weeks. But I have something to ask.”
“Ask away.”
“The floor’s hard—can we go to your bed?”
She giggled and kissed his neck. “Why not?”
Cole, in one quick move, scooped her up into his arms and laid her back on the bed, snuggling her into the curve of his body and burying his head into her hair. He loved the way she smelled. He could never smell jasmine ever again without thinking of Shannon. And before he knew what he was doing he breathed out, “I’m so in love with you.” Then he drifted off to sleep, for the first time in forever feeling content and loved.
Shannon smiled to herself as she pulled Cole’s arms tighter around her waist. Tears pooled in her eyes and her heart pounded with love for him. Never, ever, had sex been like that for her. This was the stuff dreams were made of, and she hoped this dream went on indefinitely. She couldn’t believe he loved her. He not only showed her with his body, his actions, his tender touch, he told her as well with incredible words that stole her breath away. She knew it must be hard for him to love and trust after what he’d been through with Lindsey. The fact he trusted her with his delicate, once broken, and discarded heart, caused emotions to well up inside her she’d only written about.
She hadn’t known she could feel emotions this strong or a love so intense. And to know he felt the same only added to the sensations racing through her veins, causing her heart to swell against the confines of her chest.
Feeling the steady beat of his heart thump against her back, the tickle of his breath on her neck, the warmth of his hard body pressed against hers caused Shannon to slowly drift and join him in contented sleep, not to wake until morning.
Early the next day, Shannon slowly awoke and smiled as she remembered Cole’s lovemaking. His warm body still pressed close to hers. He hadn’t let her go even in sleep. He still held her possessively and lovingly, making her heart swell. Regrettably, she untangled herself careful so as not to wake him. After donning her robe, she went downstairs to make certain Cameron was up and getting ready for school. She found him on the couch eating dry cereal and watching the sports channel.
“Are you all packed?”
He hopped up from the couch and put his dish in the sink. “Yup. And, by the way, the milk’s bad, and can I have a few bucks for lunch?” he said, his hand in that palm up and out way he did so well when he needed money, which was more times than not. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t have his hand out.
She found her purse on the counter and handed him a ten-dollar bill. “Do I need to pick you up?”
He pocketed the money in his wallet. “Nope, Tom’s driving me home.”
Just then they heard the beep. Tom arrived on time as usual. “Bye, Mom,” Cameron said as he went out the door.
Shannon hummed and danced to a BlackJack tune around the kitchen as she made coffee and toast, then put the fireplace on to shake the morning chill. She curled up on the sofa with her toast and coffee, snuggled under a fleece blanket as she watched a Boston news station. Only, the television might as well have been off. Her mind was busy replaying last night in minute detail. It had been well worth the wait. She hugged her quivering body as it reacted to her memory, and her eyes drifted closed. Cole was an incredible lover, selfless, giving, gentle at the right times and not so gentle when she didn’t want him to be. It had seemed as if he could read her mind. He knew how to play her body in all the right places, and boy did he make her sing.
As for the noise bet? She definitely lost it. He’d caused her to scream out dozens of times. The only disappointment was she’d not been able to explore his body, and she planned on remedying that the first chance she got. She wanted to hear him yell out as she tortured him with her fingers, mouth and tongue as he’d done to her.
A short time later, she headed back upstairs to shower. She didn’t want to disturb Cole, so she crept softly into the room as he slept soundly on his back. One arm out from the covers, the one with the fascinating tattoo, and her heart lodged in her throat at the sight of him sleeping in her bed. She’d dreamed about this for nearly two weeks. It was hard to believe it was real, that their coming together as one finally happened. He looked so young in the relaxing state of sleep that she found it difficult to picture this warm, loving, caring man spending fifteen agonizing years in prison. Her hand clutched her suddenly aching heart, and she wondered how had he ever survived? It was several minutes later before she forced her eyes off Cole and entered the bathroom. She dried her hair and dressed in jeans and a sweater. After putting on a warm jacket, she headed down to the beach, but not before she left Cole a note on her pillow.
“Down at the beach. There’s coffee in the kitchen. Love S.”