Sleeping late was a rare thing for Leena. They lingered over a cozy breakfast and discussed the upcoming gathering, trying to find a way to share a room without offending everyone. They mulled over what they saw the night before, mostly the important parts, and seemed to be of the same opinion the next gathering wasn’t going to be worry-free, and they really didn’t want to linger on it too long.
When Owen brought her the folder of pages to the story, she almost ran to the couch to read it. “I’m so excited! I’ll be the very first person to read this story. Well, after the people paying you, that is.”
Owen stood and watched her get comfortable on the couch. She tucked her feet up under her. She looked so cute in his big shirt and didn’t seem to want to get dressed. He could get used to this. “Ah, I was going to go get some work on the next one done. Is that okay?”
Leena looked up from the pages she had resting on her knees. “Oh. Yes, I don’t want to distract you from your work. You have a contract to fulfill. Go write.” She smiled when he grinned and leaned down to kiss her tenderly.
“Just come shut the laptop when you miss me.”
Leena couldn’t put the pages down. It was certainly a fast-paced story. A good, fast-paced one. How do authors do this, she wondered when finally she moved to stretch her legs. She glanced at the clock, he’d been working for a few hours now. She’d make him a coffee.
She stood watching the coffee brew, and her mind went back to her earlier thoughts. She would never be able to create all those characters, those scenes, and make it seem so real and so believable. That was something she’d always noticed about Owen’s books, even though they were complete fantasy, they always seemed have a realism to them that made you believe anything was possible.
She chuckled as she poured the coffee. She of all people knew almost anything was possible. With the magic she could do most would think her fiction as well.
Walking slowly into the room, she watched Owen for a moment. His large fingers flew over the keyboard, not pausing for thought or correction. She didn’t want to startle him or to stop what seemed to be a fast flow and was thinking of backing out silently when his head came up and he turned.
“Is that coffee? You made me coffee?” He rolled toward her in the chair. Stopping only when he was close enough to take the cup, he set it on the table. Then he reached out and pulled his chair closer by holding her hips and pulling himself closer. “Thank you.”
“I hope I didn’t ruin your train of thought.”
“No chance.” Owen rubbed his face into her stomach and hugged her. “It’s gotta be you, baby. The characters run, the words flow. Before I met you, it would take me months to put a story together and make it work.” He rubbed his hands over her lower back and nipped her skin through her shirt. “Now I can’t seem to stop.” He looked up at her. “I may have to keep you, pretty lady.” He smiled as she bent down and kissed him.
“Yeah, well, you’re turning out to be a keeper, too.” She hugged his head into her. “The other story is beyond fantastic, Owen. Really.” She kissed him again quickly and spun his chair back toward his desk. “I’m going to read more. You get back to work so your characters don’t quit on you.”
He chuckled and watched her leave the room. Coffee, she brought him coffee. And told him to work. He definitely could get used to this.
Owen had no concept of how much time had passed when he paused and reached for his coffee cup. It was empty. Hadn’t he just set it down? Flexing his stiff shoulders, he stood up and grabbed the cup again. Maybe he could persuade Leena to make him some more. Hers was better than his own great coffee. Working out the next scene in his head, he wandered toward the kitchen.
When he reached the living room, he just stood there and looked at the couch. His pages were neatly on the floor in front of it, and she was curled up sleeping on the one end of it. She looked so innocent in sleep, yet so soft and sexy he had to grin.
He checked the time. Dinnertime? Where had lunchtime gone?
He looked back at her. His chest ached as he watched her sleep soundlessly. She was so beautiful curled up there in his shirt, with those long legs bent, the slope of her perfectly curved hip. He actually sighed.
Moving over, he knelt down in front of her and ran his hand slowly over her hair that covered her shoulder and fell across her waist. She belonged here, like this, in his life. He bent down and gave her mouth a feather-light kiss. Sleepy, sexy amber eyes opened and looked at him, and then her lips curled into a smile.
“Hi. Guess I fell asleep.” Leena rolled onto her back and stretched slowly. “I finished the book. I couldn’t put it down, then I tiptoed to see how busy you were and you were muttering away.” She smirked at him. “So, I decided not to disturb creative genius at work and stretched out. Owen?”
Owen couldn’t bring his voice louder than a whisper. “I look at you, Leena, and I want. When I watch you, I ache, I just ache with so many emotions.” He ran his hand down her hair softly. “You look so right curled up there wearing my shirt, you make me want.” He swallowed. “Want things I’ve never been able to want before.”
She smiled and reached up to him to wrap her arms around his neck. “Those are such beautiful things to say, Owen.” She whispered into his neck
“I mean them.” He kissed her until they were breathless. When he pulled his head up, she was watching him.
“Can you write anywhere?”
He nodded. “Pretty much, why?”
She slid to the edge of the couch and swung her legs over. “Bring your laptop and come home with me. I’ll make dinner and get some laundry done before I have to go to work tomorrow.” She searched his eyes. “Come home with me.”
He pulled her to her feet and held her tightly. “Yes,” he told her with a lump in his throat.
Kasey paced across the carpet again. “I really am sorry I just appeared here. Thanks for dinner, by the way.” She looked at Owen cuddling Leena on the couch for a second. “I’m sure you’d both rather be alone, but I was just so mad. The longer I sat there alone, the worse it got.” She dropped down on the chair quickly. “He just made me so mad! Jerk!”
Leena sat forward. “It’s fine, Kase. You’re always welcome, and you know that, but you need to take a deep breath and tell us again, in logical order, what you were going on and on about all through dinner. I think we lost the plot somewhere with all of this.”
“Chris is a jerk!”
Owen grinned. “Yeah, that much we caught.”
Kasey puffed out her cheeks for a moment then exhaled. “I left last night, well, you know why. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. Anyway, when I realized why he was so crabby, I left before I slapped him up against a wall or something.” She twined her fingers together. “My temper is kind of bad at times. So, Cora takes me home, and I debate on calling him. While I’m debating, he calls me, but of course I’m too embarrassed to answer after what happened, so he leaves this message and it starts off all, Chris like, “Hey, Kase, thought I’d call to say you did good tonight and most my age couldn’t have pulled that off. Yada yada’ and then...” She had to stand again. “Then he suddenly gets all huffy and goes from telling me how great it was we got to see the calendar and everything to suggesting... suggesting that I not try to take that on again until I’m able to keep my fantasies and sex life out of my head long enough to do a ritual!” She stomped her foot. “He’s such a jerk!”
Owen smacked his hand over his face and groaned. “Oh, Chris.”
Leena sat there silently for several moments. “How is it he is, and I’m not trying to embarrass you again, how is it he is the only one that didn’t recognize himself in that... vision last night?” She looked at Owen, who threw his hands up and shook his head. “Kasey, do you have any idea how you went from totally focus, I mean, that was the clearest vision I’ve seen, to Chris so quickly? And it was in a flash more or less, as Dade said, it was kind of like you clicked the remote and changed the channel.”
Kasey dropped down and put her face in her hands, taking deep breaths. “His hand touched mine when we had them around the bowl.” She looked up at them both for a moment. “How pathetic am I that all it takes is his hand to brush mine and I have thoughts of us naked and, well, like that?” She leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “I can’t call him, can’t talk to him right now. I’ll turn him upside down and shave his head if I see him right now.”
Owen jolted and looked at Leena briefly. He looked back to Kasey and took a deep, calming breath. “I’d like to give you words of wisdom on the male mind, but I don’t have any. Sometimes our brains work exceedingly well. Then other times, not so good.”
Leena glanced at him, as though astonished he was of so little help. “We’re all meeting in a few days’ time. How are you going to handle that?”
Kasey sighed again. “I’ll be fine by then. I just need to blow off some steam before then.” She stood up and stuffed her hands in her back pockets. “I had just always hoped that someday, you know, before I’m too old to walk, Chris and I would... well, that he’d...” She puffed out her cheeks again. “I’m going to take my embarrassment one step further, and I might as well say it to both of you, ’cuz she’ll just tell you later.”
Kasey looked at the silent man in front of her. “I’m a virgin and I always hoped, dreamed that Chris would be, that it would be him...” She sat down again and looked at her feet.
Leena was up and then knelt by her. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed. I often wished I’d never started that part of my life so early.” They all knew she was referring to Tyler, so she didn’t have to say it out loud. “Just give it some time, Kase. Let Chris cool off, and maybe his mind will realize the truth.”
Kasey nodded and hugged her.
Owen sat there, he knew his comments were not required. Which, of course, was good because the only thing he could think was, “Wow. You’re twenty-six and still a virgin?” Did things like that still happen? Then of course his next male thought was, “Lucky bastard, Chris.” At least he would be if he got it together. He was, however, old enough to understand he couldn’t ever repeat a word of today to anyone, most particularly the men... not if he wanted to stay living. If he pissed off the little witch across from him, there would be hell to pay. And of course, he could never say a word if he wanted to be with Leena. But wow, you sure got the good inside secrets when you were part of a couple.
“I’ve made him speechless,” he heard Kasey say and looked over at them and grinned.
“No, not really. Okay, yeah, you did. Half-a-dozen things to say came to mind, but none I could possibly say that wouldn’t make me runner-up on your jerk list, so I opted for silence,” he offered innocently. When they both laughed at him, he knew he got to live another day.
Together they watched her pull out of the driveway.
“Poor Kasey.”
Owen grinned, “poor Chris if he ever pisses her off face to face.”
“Do you think you could talk to him?” Leena whispered against his mouth seductively.
Owen blinked down at her. “And say what? ‘Chris that was you banging virginal little Kasey in the copper bowl. Maybe you should go kiss her feet and it will come true’?”
He got smacked for that.
“That was crude.”
“Crude but true, baby. I think just staying out of things is the best plan for all involved this time.” When she sighed in defeat, he almost sighed in relief knowing he wouldn’t have to go near the angry male witch.
Leena quickly hopped up and gripped his waist between her legs. “So, are you going to do some work for a while?” She ran her mouth over his throat. “Or do you have some time for a lonely lady?”
Owen squeezed her hips and grinned; work was forgotten. “Oh, I think work can wait an hour or two.” He lowered his lips to her neck and nibbled as he started up the stairs. “Baby, I need to do some research for the next book. One scene won’t play out for me.”
She nipped his ear lightly. “Research how?” she whispered.
“In that large bathtub of yours...”
She wiggled against the hardness in the front of his jeans. “Mmm, I think I can help you there. Anything to help you.”
Owen sat her on the bathroom counter and devoured her mouth as he reached for the taps on the tub. “I need...” he gasped as she undid his pants and reached inside. “I need images to...” He groaned when her hand began sliding up and down his throbbing erection. “To write a scene...” he said between clenched teeth. Her hot mouth was against his chest as she pushed his shirt to his neck. He palmed the back of her head and gripped her hair to slow her movement.
“Baby, we’re not going to make it to the water.” Leena stopped and looked up at him with those deep amber eyes, they were so clouded with desire, he lost all interest in the bathtub. “We’ll try the water after,” he moaned against her mouth as he fumbled to turn the taps off.
She pulled his shirt over his head then her own quickly.
His mouth immediately bit into the soft flesh of one lace covered breast. Groaning, she undid the clasp and let his lips touch her skin.
He lifted her long enough for her to pull her shirt free then set her back against the cool countertop. When his hands slid up her thighs, she gasped into his mouth. His hand paused for a moment when he felt the lace thong she was wearing. With a growl, he ripped it in a quick motion from her body and lifted her to the edge of the counter.
She shoved his jeans farther down over his hips and almost screamed as he thrust into her in one smooth motion.
Leena was so wet he groaned against her throat. Lifting his head, he leaned back and bunched her shirt up higher, so he could watch as he entered her body slowly again. He gritted his teeth to maintain some control and looked up at her leaning back on her hands and opening her legs wider to him. Gripping her thighs roughly, he slid her back on the counter then pulled her forward to meet his thrusts.
Leena’s head fell back as she gasped loudly. Her breasts shook with each thrust, and his eyes blurred with the straining need he felt. Moaning, he pulled her forward so he could suck a hard nipple into his mouth as he continued to move frantically. She started panting, and his head flew up to watch her face when she groaned deep in her throat and the muscles clamped around him in spasm. He felt the wetness wash over him, and the feeling sent him flying with her until he shook in her arms and panted to catch his breath.
“You... destroy my entire control, woman,” he gasped against her throat. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to walk so he leaned against the counter and reached for the taps again. With his every movement, her muscles clenched in aftershocks so hard it made him shake more.
Finally, she leaned back against the wall and smiled at him. “That’s a good thing, that I can get to you, isn’t it?”
Owen grinned. “Good, yes. Bad, because I never get to enjoy you for very long.”
She licked dry lips. “Quality or quantity... Hmm.” Leena closed heavy eyes and smiled. “Which would you prefer?”
He stood there, still inside her, and watched the relaxed breaths and her satisfied expression as her dark eyelashes created little shadows over her skin, and he wanted her all over again. “You are so beautiful.” He lowered his lips to brush soft kisses over her face. “I love you, pretty lady.”
Her arms circled his neck and she rubbed her face against his chest. “I love you, too, Owen.”
He’d never felt love before, but he felt it when she said it. He felt loved. Whole. Complete with her in his life. He scooped her up and lowered himself into the hot water settling her across his lap with her head still on his shoulder.