Secrets of the Tulip Sisters

The cook waved and left. Helen pushed aside the guilt she felt for lying, then made sure everything was turned off in the kitchen and that the back door was locked.

Starting tomorrow, she would come up with a plan, she promised herself. She would start exercising. She’d seen Olivia jogging all over the place. Maybe she could talk to her about how to begin a walking program. Walking was healthy. She would give up sugar and daydreams about men who didn’t appreciate what was offered. Then she would go online and find someone who was even hotter and who wanted her with a fiery— She walked into the front of the café and stopped short when she saw Jeff standing by the counter. She stared, aware of the silence except for the ticking of the old-fashioned wall clock.

They looked at each other. His expression was unreadable, his body language tense, which didn’t make her feel as if he’d shown up to tell her anything she wanted to hear.

“How did you get in? I know I locked the front door.”

“I have the key you gave me.”

That was true. She had given him a key in case of an emergency. Because they were friends and she trusted him. At least she had.

She raised her chin and squared her shoulders. She was self-actualized, or she would be once she got her plan working. She could get through whatever he had to say.

“We need to talk,” he told her. “Can we go into your office?”

No. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to hear it. He was going to hurt her. He was going to rip out her heart and stomp on it. He was going to leave her gasping and bleeding and a lot of other things that were incredibly painful.

She led the way. After flipping on the light, she stood in front of her desk, close enough that she could lean on it if she had to, and waited for him to talk.

He stood by the open door. His arms hung loose at his side. His dark gaze was more intense than before. His jaw clenched.

“Did you mean what you said?” he asked, his voice low. “About wanting me?”

“Yes.”

“In bed?”

She wasn’t sure where he was going with this. Did he want more details so he could humiliate her more completely? She sucked in a breath.

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“Oh, my God. What’s wrong with you? What are you trying to get me to say? Yes, I want to sleep with you. Yes, I think you’re incredibly hot and while I like being friends, I want more. I want you in my bed and I want to be in yours. I like you and I want to make love with you. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Every word.”

He closed the distance between them, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. She was so shocked, it took her a few seconds to respond and when she did she couldn’t help throwing her arms around his neck. Which turned out to be a good thing because when Jeff kissed her, he did it with heat and need and tongue, the result of which left her more than a little weak in the knees.

He dropped his hands to her shoulders, then lowered them down her back to her butt. He gently squeezed the curves, which made her instinctively arch against him. Her belly came in direct contact with what felt a whole lot like a very large, very hard erection.

I... You... What?

Helen drew back enough to stare into his fire-filled eyes. “I don’t understand.”

He reached for the front of her shirt and started unfastening the buttons. “What’s not to understand?”

Any answer got lost when he leaned in and began kissing along the side of her neck. Tingles joined the confusion. There was a brief tussle for dominance, then the tingles won. They were joined by heat and need and a growing sense of Holy crap, this is really happening.

It took him all of five seconds to get her shirt off. Her bra followed, then he was kissing her breasts, licking, loving and sucking until she was clinging and begging him to never stop. Somehow his shirt was off. He put her hands on his chest and then she was stroking everything she’d dreamed about. Okay, not everything, but a lot of it and he felt good. All muscles and heat.

He kept stopping to kiss her over and over, his tongue dancing with hers. Their lips clung, their hands reached. Without really trying, she found herself naked and sitting on her desk. His hand was between her thighs rubbing her to a fast, hot orgasm that had her writhing in pleasure.

He pulled a condom from his jeans front pocket, put it on, then pushed home. By the second stroke she’d wrapped her legs around his hips and was pulling him as close as possible. Their eyes locked and she came all over again.

When they were both breathing like normal people again, Jeff leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

“For real?”

He smiled. “Let’s get dressed and head back to your place. I didn’t intend to start things this way. I had a slow seduction all planned.”

“We wouldn’t want that to go to waste, now would we?”

He kissed her. “Absolutely not.”

*

“I don’t understand,” Helen admitted nearly an hour later, when she could breathe again.

They were lying in her bed, in her room, naked. Completely and totally naked, which wasn’t nearly as surprising as the fact that the reason they were naked was that she and Jeff had just had sex. Again.

She turned her head and stared into his brown eyes. “What happened?”

He smiled, then leaned in and kissed her. “You’re so beautiful. I’ve wanted to tell you for months now, but wasn’t sure I should. And if you have to ask what just happened, then I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.”

“You’re not. I’m still dealing with aftershocks.” Little jolts that zinged through her girl parts, up to her breasts, then made a happy return trip. “But I really don’t understand.”

He supported his head on one hand and rested the other on her belly. Not her favorite place to be touched, what with it being, you know, not flat, only the light pressure of his touching her felt too good for her to complain. Plus she was already totally naked, something she generally avoided. She was a master draper. Nightgowns, sheets, you name it, she could drape it such that very little actual nakedness was ever seen. But somehow with Jeff, that had all gone away. Here she was, in the middle of the afternoon, buck naked in her bed. And they’d already done it in her office, on her desk, where she’d also been naked. So much for her draping skills.

“You mean when did I first realize I liked you?” he asked as he leaned in and kissed her.

She closed her eyes and reveled in the warmth of his mouth on hers, in the way passion quickened and how it was perfectly okay for her to put her fingers on his face or his shoulders or his chest or his dick. Although technically she hadn’t really touched the latter, except to guide him inside, so she slid along his thigh until she could take him in her hand and lightly stroke him. He flopped back on the bed and groaned.

“I need at least an hour.”

“I’m just playing.”