“Drew…” She looked down, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. “I…I guess I’ll try. If for no other reason than to save my job—our jobs, I guess I should say—since I got you into this mess.”
“Hey.” He leaned down and kissed her gently on one hot cheek. “There is no place on Earth that I’d rather be than here in the middle of ‘this mess’ with you,” he murmured. “Okay?”
She smiled. “Okay.”
“Good, that’s settled.”
Drew smiled and sat up. He wanted to kiss her again but he knew if he did he wouldn’t want to stop. And despite Genevieve’s promise to try and step outside their normal, proscribed relationship, he sensed that he couldn’t rush her if he wanted to win her over.
And suddenly he did, very much want that. He wanted to see his ice-cold boss thaw and he wanted to be the one that thawed her.
“It is?” Genevieve looked at him uncertainly. “All settled, I mean?”
“Sure it is.” He grinned at her and looked at his watch. “But in the meantime, didn’t Phillips say dinner was at seven?”
“Oh, yes. Yes he did.” Genevieve frowned. “But it’s only…six thirty now.”
“Which gives us just enough time for a quick round of role playing.” Drew grinned at her. “Better practice your cowboy language, lady. Because the naughty school girl is prowling around tonight and anyone caught with their boots off will be riding into the sunset with a red bottom.”
“Gotcha partner.” Genevieve was smiling again. “I guess I’d better look for some boots to go with my chaps then.” She laughed out loud. “Can you imagine the look on Phillips’ face if we really did switch roles like that?”
Drew laughed with her. “He’d probably just diagnose us both with gender confusion and prescribe some other weird exercises he could watch. Where did he get his degree anyway—Voyeur U?”
Genevieve shook her head. “I don’t know but I doubt it was anyplace very reputable. I wish I could tell Stuart exactly how creepy he is but, well, we’re stuck with him for now. Him and his exercises.”
“Mm-hmm.” Drew nodded, trying to keep a straight face.
He could only imagine what it was going to be like to do those exercises together. He had to admit he was looking forward to them—he just hoped he could get Genevieve to feel the same way, in time.
Chapter Four
“Okay, that other couple at our table was just weird,” Drew complained as they walked in the door of their suite. Dinner had been in the grand dining room downstairs which was filled with little round tables just big enough for four. Before the first course was served, Phillips had stood up and made an announcement that he hoped they would all make special friends among the other couples before leaving the retreat.
“Remember, making friends with couples who are confronting the same intimacy issues that you and your partner are, is beneficial to your own journey toward oneness. I encourage each of you to try a new table every meal until you find some couple friends you feel comfortable talking to,” he’d concluded.
Unfortunately Mitzie and Myron, the couple Genevieve and Drew had wound up sharing a table with, were a little too comfortable talking.
“So have you watched yourselves making love yet?” Mitzie, a redhead with bright green eyes somewhere in her early forties, had asked the moment introductions were over. “Myron and I just couldn’t resist—we had to see what we looked like as soon as our personal therapist explained how the equipment worked.”
“Yes and it was damned sexy,” Myron, an older man who looked to be in his late sixties boomed. “Of course we have a May-December romance but you two look like you have a little of that going on yourselves.” He grinned and wiggled bushy eyebrows at Drew. “You have a thing for older women, Junior?”
Drew smiled politely. “Actually I have a thing for intelligent, sexy women. I’ve wanted Genevieve from the first time I met her.”
Genevieve had felt her heart catch in her throat as he gave her an unmistakably lustful look across the table. God, if only there was a way to know how much of this he was faking and how much he really meant!
It doesn’t matter either way, she told herself sternly. He’s too young for you and he works for you. So don’t get too carried away, Gen. Just take it one step at a time so you can get through this.
“That’s so romantic.” Mitzie sighed and smiled at them. “I felt the same way the first time I saw my Myron.” She turned to Genevieve. “So what’s it like having a younger man? Is he unstoppable in bed?” She giggled.
“I, uh…” Genevieve could feel her cheeks getting hot. “Yeah he’s, uh, pretty amazing.”
“So is Myron since he got his penile implant pump.” Mitzie leaned across the table and put a hand on her arm, as though imparting some fabulous secret. “You oughta see it, hon. He just pumps it up and it can stay hard for hours. I haven’t had so much fun since my second husband back in the nineties!”
“Wow.” Drew smiled at her. “Sounds like you two are just burnin’ up the sheets.”
“You know it, Junior.” Myron laughed again. “My Mitzie has to have it twice a day—she just can’t wait to get started on that list of kinky exercises, either.”
“Oh my Gawd, that list!” Mitzie put a hand to her obviously fake breasts. “It looks like so much fun! I think we’re going to do the body painting tonight and then maybe the bondage. You know we have handcuffs and blindfolds in our room? It’s so naughty!”
“It, uh, certainly is,” Genevieve agreed weakly. By then the first few courses of dinner had come and gone and she’d barely tasted a thing.
“So what are you gonna try first?” Mitzie asked excitedly.
“We thought we’d mix it up a little—maybe combine them,” Drew answered before Genevieve could think of what to say. “I’m planning to tie Genevieve to the bed and paint her all over with chocolate sauce while I’m dressed like a naughty school girl. Gen, of course, will be playing the part of the cowboy so what I’ll probably paint on her is a mustache and beard—maybe some sexy sideburns. Then I’ll give her a sensual massage with the rest of the chocolate sauce while I stuff her mouth with luscious strawberries and sing the dirty version of Home on the Range in her ear.” He grinned at the other couple. “Sounds hot, right?”
“Uh…” Mitzie looked confused. “There’s a dirty version of that song?”
“Don’t you think that might be a little too much to start with?” Myron demanded.
“Not at all.” Drew shook his head seriously. “We like to overdo things. The kinkier the better. Right, baby?” He looked at Genevieve who had tried to nod without laughing. Trust Drew to break the tension even in a weird conversation with people like Mitzie and Myron…
“You really had them going, you know,” she said as she took off her watch and laid it on the end table beside the oxblood leather sofa. By unspoken mutual consent they were both avoiding the bedroom, at least for now.
“Yeah, they were going all right.” Drew sighed and sank down on the couch. “And we should be too—to a whole different table next mealtime. Somehow I don’t think that Mitzie and Myron are going to be the ‘couple friends’ we’re looking for.”
“I think you’re right. This is a couples retreat that focuses on sexual intimacy issues and they certainly don’t seem to have any problems in that area. What are they even doing here?” Genevieve sat on the sofa beside him, careful to leave space between them.
“Actually, Mitzie told me that while Myron was talking about how beautiful the mountains are this time of year.” Drew had the manila folder with the intimacy exercises in his lap but he hadn’t opened it. “She said they thought it sounded like a fun way to spend Christmas since they didn’t want to spend it with the family. Apparently Myron’s children don’t approve of her—I think because most of them are a few years older than her.”
Genevieve nodded. “Oh, well that makes sense.” Suddenly something inside her snapped she couldn’t stand the tension anymore. “Okay,
give me that and let’s get this over with,” she said, snatching the manila folder out of his lap and turning to the list of exercises. “We have to do at least two of these tonight so how do you want to do it?”
Drew gave her a wide-eyed innocent look.
“I thought we were going to fake the ‘doing it’ part. Or did you change your mind?”
“Drew! This isn’t funny.” But she smiled a little as she said it. It was a good thing he had such a sense of humor about this whole thing. It made everything easier somehow—even if it was unbelievably awkward.
“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Honestly, I don’t know. If we’re supposed to do two a night that means we’ll work through most of the list. So I thought…maybe you could pick one and I could pick one. We’ll get them done, then go to bed and do our act for the camera, get a good night’s sleep and wake up to do the whole thing again tomorrow.”
“I guess that sounds fair. So, we’re each going to pick one to do tonight.” Genevieve looked over the list in her hand, praying Drew wouldn’t pick mutual masturbation or the edible body paints. “Well, we just had supper so any kind of picnic is out,” she murmured. “So I think the Tandem breathing sounds good.”
“Okay, I’ll go for the non-sexual touching/talking exercises.” Drew smiled at her. “You thought I was gonna go for the soft bondage, didn’t you? Or maybe the body paints?”
“I…” Genevieve could feel her cheeks getting hot but he laughed and shook his head.
“I’m just teasing you. I think it’s a good idea to start slow—especially considering your track record of jumping every time I touch you.”
“Hey, I’m doing better about that,” Genevieve protested. “And besides, it’s not that I don’t want you to touch me. I…” She trailed off, realizing what that sounded like.
Drew laughed softly, a deep, warm chuckle she could feel all the way down her spine.
“Don’t worry. Let’s just get this breathing exercise over with here and we can do the other thing in the uh, bedroom.” He shrugged apologetically. “Only because I think we have to stretch out for that one.”
“All right. Well…what does it involve?” Genevieve answered her own question by flipping to the page number indicated in the list and reading the instructions aloud.
“In our busy world, it’s easy to overlook the fact that your soul mate’s presence in your life is the oxygen you breathe, the air you need to live. To illustrate this, one partner takes a deep breath and seals his/her lips to those of the other partner. The first partner breathes out as the second partner inhales. Breathe back and forth until you need a fresh breath, remembering how important your soul mate is to you.”
“Okay, sounds simple enough.” Drew smiled at her. “Good thing there was nothing with onions in it at dinner.”
“Uh, yeah. Good thing,” Genevieve said faintly. She knew they were going to have to get down and dirty eventually but she’d been hoping to put it off at least until the second night. When she’d read “Tandem breathing” on the list, she’d been envisioning some kind of Yoga thing where they both took deep breathes at the same time.
Well, might as well get it over with. It probably won’t be as bad as kissing him was. Not that it was bad, just…disturbing.
Looking up, she saw that Drew was watching her closely.
“You ready?” he asked softly, curving one arm around her shoulders. He was still wearing the dark trousers and crisp white shirt he’d had on at dinner, which was a formal affair at Whispering Pines. But he’d discarded his tie and jacket. The top two buttons of his shirt were unfastened, giving a tantalizing glimpse of his hard chest.
“Um, sure. You start.” Lacing her fingers together in her lap, Genevieve tried to compose herself.
“My pleasure.” Drew’s voice was low and dark and all the teasing had gone out of his piercing blue eyes. He leaned forward and gathered her into his arms. “Relax, Genevieve, I’m not going to bite you.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” In fact she was tense, not because she was dreading the feel of his mouth on hers, but because she was anticipating it.
There is no way I should be looking forward to this!
And yet she was.
“Breathe out,” Drew instructed. “Since I’m going to be breathing into you.”
Genevieve did as he said, trying not to notice how hot and wet she was already getting between her thighs at his low, commanding tone. As he tilted her chin toward his, she closed her eyes and parted her lips, ready to take what he was going to give her.
The warm rush of air from his mouth tasted like the chocolate mousse he’d had for dessert. Genevieve breathed it in, taking as much as she could before returning the air, wondering if he could taste the raspberry sorbet she’d had for her own dessert.
Something certainly seemed to taste good to him because when he took a fresh breath and pressed his mouth to hers again it wasn’t only air that slid between her lips. Genevieve felt the tip of his tongue flicker lightly against hers, a gentle invitation but filled with longing nonetheless.
Shouldn’t be doing this, she thought and then returned his action with one of her own.
Drew groaned softly and crushed her to him and just like that the breathing exercise was history. They were all over each other, exactly as they had been earlier that day only this time there was no prying pseudo-therapist to interrupt.
Genevieve’s heart felt like it was beating in every part of her body and she couldn’t seem to get a deep enough breath. Her nipples were so hard they ached and her pussy was wet and swollen with need.
What was wrong with her, acting this way? Was she really that starved for sex? Or was it that she’d been repressing a much deeper attraction to Drew than she’d ever let herself realize?
Either way if she wasn’t careful they were going to go too far. Way too far.
Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she forced herself to pull away.
“Sorry…” Genevieve was nearly gasping and she had a hard time meeting his eyes. She put a hand to her pounding heart.
“Me too. Got a little…carried away there.” Drew grinned at her unrepentantly. “We have to make it look good for Phillips though, right?”
“Right, absolutely,” she said, nodding hastily. She couldn’t help noticing that a good portion of the Clinique pink-chocolate lipstick she’d put on earlier for dinner had transferred itself to his face and mouth. Reaching up, she started to wipe it off with her fingers and was surprised when he caught her hand and kissed her palm gently.
“I lied to you just then,” he said quietly and there was no teasing in his voice. “I acted like I kissed you to make a good show for that quack who’s going to critique our performance tomorrow but that wasn’t true.” He cupped her cheek and looked at her. “I kissed you because I couldn’t help it, Gen. I kissed you because I wanted to.”
“Oh…” Genevieve wasn’t sure what to say. She’d wanted to kiss him too but it seemed dangerous to admit it. Almost like saying she wanted to do more…much more. “Thank you,” she said at last. “But Drew, we shouldn’t be talking like this. We can’t let ourselves get…get carried away here.”
He dropped his hand but continued to hold her gaze.
“Of course not. I just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed kissing you.”
Genevieve could feel her cheeks getting even hotter. God, was he trying to drive her crazy? Tearing her eyes away from his, she looked pointedly at the envelope.
“We might as well get the second exercise over with. What does it say?”
Drew picked up the manila folder again. “‘Non-sexual touching,” he read out loud. “Often we concentrate on the sexual parts of our soul mate’s body to the exclusion of everything else. It’s important to remember that there are many beautiful parts that are sensual as well as sexual.
“‘Take off your outer clothing but keep your underwear on. Partner A should lie on the bed on h
is/her back and close his/her eyes. Partner B should straddle the first partner’s hips. Beginning at the face, stroke downward, paying attention to all non-sexual parts of your partner’s body. As you proceed, try to remember the time in your relationship when these areas were all you were allowed to touch.’” He looked up. “Well that part should be easy enough.”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Genevieve nodded, thinking guiltily of all the times she’d watched Drew’s ass when he wore tight jeans on casual Friday and wished she could give it a squeeze. Did he have the same illicit thoughts about her? From the look in his eyes it was entirely possible.
Take it easy, she reminded herself sternly. It would be very easy to go too far but you know you’ll regret it later if you do.
“At least they’re really specific,” she offered lamely.
“Very.” The hungry look was back on Drew’s face. “So…do you want to be partner A or partner B to start with?”
“Um…” She bit her lip uncertainly. Would it be less embarrassing to touch Drew all over or to let him touch her first? At last she admitted to herself that it was better to be in control of this awkward situation—at least for as long as she could. “I think I’d rather be partner A,” she confessed. “If that’s okay with you.”
His eyes were half-lidded with obvious arousal. “Whatever works for you, works for me.”
Genevieve got off the couch. “Okay, well then I guess I’ll go in the bathroom and get uh, undressed. And I’ll meet you back in the bedroom in a sec—”
“Wait.” The hunger in his voice stopped her as much as his hand on her arm.
Genevieve looked at him, one eyebrow arched in confusion. “Yes?”
Drew pulled her back down to sit beside him.
“Let me undress you,” he murmured, running one finger down the collar of her blue silk blouse. “It’ll make a good show for Phillips.”
“Oh…” Genevieve felt the breath fall out of her as she looked up at him. She’d been thinking that she was glad she had on her white lace bra and underwear—it was pretty without being overly sexy and it covered a lot more than the black lace set she also had… But now all those ideas were blown away like cobwebs and all she could think was, he wants to undress me.