Instead, she put even more effort into her ministrations to Ian’s body. She rode her hand up and down his shaft, using her thumb to tease the head of him.
With a groan that tore from somewhere deep inside him, Ian came.
She couldn’t wait to make him do it again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE LIGHT ABOVE THE BREAKFAST bar in Miriam’s apartment flashed off and on. “Oh, I can’t believe it. I’ve called that in. The super told me he’d fixed it.”
Jeremy looked above his head. “It’s probably just a loose connection. I’ll take a look at it after breakfast.”
She flashed him a skeptical look. “Don’t worry about it. I hire someone to take care of things like that.”
He glanced upward again. “Really, I could check that in a minute.”
“There you go again, trying to save me. Honestly, the last thing I want you doing is wasting your time here with me fixing stuff.”
His neck reddened. How she loved that about him. It was as if he was slightly embarrassed by their reaction to one another.
“When you put it like that…” Jeremy finished off the omelet Miriam had made him, and set the plate aside. “This was great. Thanks.”
Miriam smiled, pleased she’d satisfied one of his hungers. “Glad you enjoyed them. Scrambling eggs is about the only domestic thing I do.”
He stood, lifting his plate off the counter. “In that case, I wash and dry. You can sit down.”
Wash and dry? By hand? What kind of person did he think she was? Miriam waved his comment away. “Just stack it in the sink. I have someone that comes in every morning to tidy up and prepare a meal for dinner. Takeout gets old.”
“You’re missing out on one of life’s greatest times between two people.” His blue eyes grew darker. “Outside of bed.”
“Takeout?”
Jeremy shook his head. “Dishwashing. My dad insists it’s the key to a happy marriage.”
Another knock against the institution. Besides, Miriam couldn’t fathom for a moment how dishwashing could be in any way joyful. Housework equaled drudgery in her mind.
“I can see from your face you’re skeptical. Every night after dinner, my dad would wash and my mom would dry. They’d talk about their day, the meal, whatever. I could usually hear laughter coming from the kitchen.”
Miriam squirmed in her chair, uncomfortable with where this conversation was leading. The illusion of martial bliss. “Couldn’t they do other things together?”
“I don’t think it’s the same. Last year, I bought them a dishwasher for their anniversary. I think mom uses it during the day or on holidays, but for the most part, it’s them together at night.”
Her eyes widened. What was wrong with these people? “I still don’t get it.”
“I didn’t, either. My father told me it’s one of those tasks that your body can do on autopilot. So you talk. You’re close, and you stand side by side. The way a relationship should be.”
This kind of reminded her of the doc’s writing that Ian had been sending to her via email. About how generations of men and women spent time together quietly, doing little more than just being together. How going through life’s journey seemed somehow easier when completed with someone you love.
Miriam smiled at him, but for some reason felt melancholy. Wow, happy parents in a happy marriage. Who knew they still existed? Certainly none of her friends came from any intact home life.
She was struck, and not for the first time, by how different she and Jeremy really were from each other. Oh, they connected in bed on a level that was beyond believing, but out of bed?
They were so very different, and not only the age thing. She’d graduated from Wharton, ran a company. Jeremy didn’t even have a job, and didn’t show much of an inclination to search for one, either.
He believed in domestic bliss.
Her business published articles on flings and long-distance relationships. He—
The telephone interrupted her thoughts. Jeremy handed her the portable phone, his fingers caressing her hand. She decided right there and then she’d get rid of whoever was on the other end of the line. Fast. “Hello.”
“So, tell me immediately why you are still not at work.” It was Jenna, Miriam’s best friend. Best friend and she still hadn’t told her about Jeremy. Not about the weekend in Oklahoma, and not about now, either.
“I was due a break.” And Jeremy was the long, tall vacation she’d needed. She watched him as he straightened up in the kitchen, running a damp paper towel over the counters she’d left covered in crumbs.
She could watch him unobserved. Jeremy looked fantastic this morning, shirtless and with his dark hair mussed. A flutter of desire began to unwind inside her. Not a bad way to start her morning.
“I’m coming over there.”
Miriam whirled away from the sight of Jeremy in her kitchen, trying not to panic. “No, you can’t. I mean—”
“Miriam Cole, what is going on over there? Are you sick? Running away from the law? Have a naked man tucked away folding your towels?”
Miriam gasped. Close. Almost naked and cleaning her kitchen.
“You naughty girl, you have someone there right now.”
“No,” she insisted. In full panic mode.
Jenna snorted. “Okay, however you want to play it. I expect all the juicy details later. Hey, bring him along tonight.”
Oh, damn. This was the night of her monthly book club meeting. It was Pride and Prejudice, and at her suggestion. She could talk about that book for hours. And despite that it provided not one, but two romantic endings, sometimes she yearned for a time in her life when she believed in love.
Yes, she could talk about that book for hours, but she’d rather be with Jeremy. And it didn’t matter what they were doing, in bed, out of bed, he beat out Jane Austen.
Her heart raced. She was getting in deeper than she’d thought. Remember the article. The odds of a long-distance relationship working weren’t high. That’s when she realized she’d secretly been hoping…what? That they could have something that lasted? The idea didn’t make sense.
“I’m going to have to cancel out on you tonight,” Miriam said slowly, not happy with the way her heart was turning against her logic.
Jenna made a sound. “I understand. Jane Austen not his scene? Bring him around later. I’m making fondue.”
“I’ll let you know.”
“Wow. That means no, and that you’re having great sex. Well, at least one of us is. Enjoy it, Mir.”
Miriam replaced the receiver in the charger and took a deep breath. What was she doing? Why was she breaking long-standing commitments for a short-term love affair?
For just one second, she’d almost taken Jenna up on her offer to bring Jeremy over. And then it hit her…how could she take Jeremy? He had little enough in common with her, let alone her friends. He was more than fifteen years younger than any of them.
Which raised the question again, just what was she doing? They’d avoided any real discussion of where their relationship was going. Correction, she’d sidestepped Jeremy’s every attempt to bring it up.
He’d said earlier he was game for wherever she saw it headed, and she was holding him to that. But the nagging fact remained, there was some real intimacy here between them, and she didn’t want to examine their relationship too deeply.
She dropped her head into her palms.
Strong hands gently rested on her shoulders. “Everything okay?” Jeremy asked.
She nodded, not turning around. “Sure.” I’m just starting to act really irrationally around you. Because of you.
He tenderly spun her to face him. “I couldn’t help overhearing. You know, you don’t have to change your routine just because I’m here. I know you have a life. I can head back to my hotel, and—”
Her lips stopped his words. It took him a moment to respond, her actions probably shocked him. Then he hauled her up tight against his chest and deepened the kiss with his tongue.