My Favorite Mistake: A Tahoe Nights Story Page 2

  Vibrator?

  No way.

  He slid out of bed and approached the wall that separated their rooms, his head cocked. Yep, he heard it. A low, steady hum, the very distinct sound of a vibrator, which meant Julie was lying in bed getting off at this very moment.

  His cock jerked, and he rested a hand over the front of his boxer briefs. Down boy. He couldn’t freaking believe it. The thought of her possibly naked in the very bed he’d been sleeping in only minutes before, bringing herself to orgasm with a vibrator…holy shit.

  His cock jerked again, lengthening and hardening. He swore he heard a low moan, and he stifled one of his own, slipping his hand beneath his underwear. Fisting his cock, he stroked himself, took another step closer so he was practically plastered to the wall.

  Another soft, whispery moan, as if she was trying to be quiet. Damn, the walls were thin. He’d never realized just how much. The vibrator’s buzzing kicked up a notch, and he realized she’d turned up the setting. Did that mean she was close? Most likely. He’d used a vibrator on a woman more than a few times. He wasn’t afraid of allowing a few sex toys into the bedroom. They could be fun, enhancing the experience when needed.

  Drops of pre-come leaked from the slit at the tip of his cock, and he smeared it all over with his thumb, lubing himself. More soft moans from the other room fueled his thoughts, and he increased the speed of his strokes. He was going to come and quickly if he didn’t watch it but he didn’t care. He was too turned on to care.

  “Yessss.” He swore he heard her whisper, and he swallowed hard, pushing his underwear down so they rested around his thighs. His cock sprang free, his fingers wrapped tight around the length, and he continued to stroke himself. Images of Julie floated through his mind, sprawled and naked across the bed, the vibrator between her legs, her free hand touching her breasts. They appeared decent in size when he’d seen her earlier, or what he could make out considering he was half-blind without his glasses. She was pretty damn curvy from what he could tell, and he didn’t remember her being quite as curvy when they were younger.

  But everyone filled out eventually. He was living proof of that.

  God, if anyone walked into his room at this very moment he’d look like an utter ass. Leaning against a wall, fingers wrapped tight around his dick, underwear falling almost to his knees. He didn’t care. Encouraged by the increasingly louder moans he heard from the other side of the wall, he quickened his pace, knew that he was close to blowing.

  And then he heard it. A low, keening wail, panting, frantic whimpers indicating she had indeed just come. What a sound. The sweetest sound he’d ever heard. Oh yeah, and if he didn’t watch it soon he was gonna come himself…

  Grunting, he felt the first splash of come on his fingers, and he held himself stiff, moaning as quietly as he could as his entire body jerked with his climax. Semen spilled all over his fingers, his body shuddered uncontrollably and when it was finally over he slid down the wall until his butt hit the carpet.

  Tyler shook his head and leaned back, thumping it against the wall. Closing his eyes, he let go of his limp dick, wiped his hand on his underwear. Shit, he should go shower. At the very least clean himself up and put on a new pair of boxer briefs.

  He really hoped she hadn’t heard him. It was bad enough that he heard her.

  It was going to be hard to face her in the morning. All he’d be able to think about was her. Naked. Writhing uncontrollably as she brought herself to orgasm with a vibrator.

  He liked a woman who took control. He always had. Now he had even more reason to like her.

  This weekend was going to be absolute torture.

  Chapter Two

  Julie stepped out of the connecting bathroom and went to her overnight bag, plucking out a pair of panties. Deciding she should unpack the entire bag into the awaiting empty dresser, she slipped on her underwear and went to work. Within minutes, she had everything put away, a few shirts hanging in the closet and her makeup bag resting on top of the mirrored dresser.

  Admiring her handy work while still clad in just her panties, she slipped on a bra and then grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. She was going to take a walk around the lake this morning. Must’ve been the solid night’s sleep or the fresh mountain air, but she felt downright invigorated. First, though, she needed a cup of coffee.

  She could already smell it brewing, and she breathed deep, savoring the rich fragrant scent. Thank goodness for Tyler. There was nothing better than a man who prepared coffee in the morning.

  Julie stopped short, silently chastising herself. If she had any brains at all she’d tell him to hightail it out of there. This weekend was supposed to be for her. Just her. She didn’t need a man to muck it up. Despite the fact that said man was super handsome and an old acquaintance, the son of her parents’ dearest friends which meant he was someone she could trust. Oh, and then there was the fact that while she fooled around with Mister Pinky last night it wasn’t some hot hunky actor she fantasized about as usual, it was Tyler Nichols. In his underwear. In her mind, she’d curled her fingers around the waistband of his navy blue boxer briefs and slowly pulled them off, leaving him standing there in his full naked glory.

  Oh, and it had been most pleasant in her fantasy. Would the real thing measure up?

  As if I’m ever going to find out.

  Rolling her eyes at herself, she tugged her still damp hair up into a ponytail and wound a band around it then deemed herself ready to face him. Emerging from the bedroom, she followed the wonderful scent of coffee and—oh my God was that bacon?—until she arrived in the kitchen. Found Tyler standing in front of the stove, frying up the crispiest bacon she’d ever seen.

  Her mouth watered. Both at the sight of the handsome man in his T-shirt and low-hanging shorts and the sizzling bacon he prepared. He wore his glasses, and she found them mind-blowingly attractive. In that Clark-Kent-I-want-to-rip-them-off-your-face-and-reveal-Superman-sort-of-way.

  “Good morning.” His deep, velvety voice wrapped around her, making her tingle. “You want some breakfast? Coffee?”

  “I’m not usually a big breakfast eater…” That was an understatement. She usually didn’t have time to eat breakfast. Slug back a few cups of coffee and deal with a rumbling stomach until lunch. And normally it was a late lunch where she shoved a sandwich down her throat at her desk in about twenty minutes time. “But that bacon looks delicious.”

  He smiled at her, and her heart fluttered. “It melts in your mouth. What about some coffee? I have creamer too.”

  “You think of everything,” she marveled as she went to the coffee maker. An empty cup sat in wait for her, and she poured the coffee, then added a few drops of vanilla creamer to lightly sweeten it.

  “Like I said last night, I come here a lot during the summer so I like to keep stuff stashed here. We all do. It just makes the visits easier.” He pushed the bacon around with a spatula, shot a quick glance in her direction. “You don’t mind me being here do you? I can bail if you want after I finish breakfast. I don’t want to intrude. I mean, for all I know you might’ve invited someone else up here to spend the weekend with…”

  Was he fishing for information? It sounded like he was fishing. And she really didn’t mind. “No, this was a weekend just for me. All by my little lonesome.”

  He was silent for a moment before he finally spoke. “Right. So I should leave. I really don’t want to interfere with your plans.” He continued to push the bacon around with the spatula, then scooped it up and set it on a plate lined with a paper towel. “I’ll clean up, don’t worry and then I’ll be out of here.”

  “No.” She spoke before she even thought, catching herself unaware, catching him unaware. His head jerked toward her, eyes narrowed, mouth firmed into a straight line. So, so serious, his expression was, reminding her of when he was a teen. Always looking as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  Talk about needing to ease some tension. Maybe they could both scr
atch each other’s itch.

  Ack, her train of thought was downright shocking her this morning.

  “You don’t have to leave,” she said finally after she found her voice. “You can stay. I don’t have a problem with it. It’ll be like old times. We can catch up, hang out, whatever. What do you think?”

  He smiled, and its appearance softened his serious expression of just a moment ago. She much preferred the smiling, handsome Tyler to the serious one. “If it’s like old times then I need to run off and pretend I didn’t want to hang out with you.”

  “What do you mean, pretend?” Unable to help herself she went to the other side of the stove and snatched a piece of bacon from the plate, biting off half of it. Chewing, she closed her eyes, a little moan escaped her at the delicious salty, crunchy taste. When was the last time she had bacon? God, it was good.

  A stifled strangled sound came from Tyler, and her lids snapped open. He was watching her, his expression now tortured. His cheeks turned a ruddy color, and he glanced away, seemingly embarrassed. “I never felt comfortable around you when we were kids.”

  She frowned, finished off the bacon. She could eat ten more pieces of it at least. If he continued to cook like this she was going to gain ten pounds in two days. “You didn’t? Why not?”

  “No, I didn’t.” He shook his head, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger. “I can’t believe I’m confessing this but I had a major crush on you.”

  “You did?” The words whooshed out of her on a single breath, making her chest hurt and she gaped at him. He’d had a crush on her? No way.

  “Yeah, I did.” He smiled ruefully, ran his hand along his stubble-covered jaw. The sight of it made him look even more rugged and sexy if that was possible. “I had a major thing for you. But you never noticed me.”

  “I did too. I mean, it’s not like I purposely ignored you or whatever. I just thought you were super shy. I thought maybe you didn’t even like me. All of us. I mean, I know my younger brother and sister were a pain in the ass so that’s why I thought you always took off. Since you’re an only child and not used to dealing with rotten siblings.” She was rambling, she could tell, but he’d blown her away with his confession. She didn’t know how to take it. Did he still have a crush on her?

  Because she was quickly developing a major crush on him.

  Crap, I sound like I’m sixteen years old again.

  “It had nothing to do with your brother and sister.”

  “So it was all me.” That made her feel kind of lame. That she had driven him away and made him spend a huge chunk of his summer isolated and all by himself.

  “No, it was all because of me. Because I didn’t know how to deal with the crush I had on you when I should’ve just told you. At the very least, I should’ve spent time with you and gotten to know you better.” He shrugged those impossibly wide shoulders. “Live and learn right?”

  She watched as he resumed his breakfast preparations. Pulling out a clean pan, then grabbing a few eggs from the fridge. He cracked them with quiet precision into a small bowl he’d pulled from the cupboard, then scrambled them with a few quick flicks of his wrist and a fork.

  “I had no clue you had a crush on me,” she said, her voice low, shock coursing through her at the thought. God, she really had been clueless as a teen.

  “You were beautiful.” He turned away from the stove to face her, his intense gaze locked on her face. “You are beautiful. Even more than you were when we were younger.”

  Her heart stuttered to a complete stop. She couldn’t believe he said something so…sweetly earnest. Her skin warmed at his words, the look in his eyes. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

  Tyler turned back to his eggs. “You want some eggs with your bacon?”

  Julie blinked, startled by his abrupt change of subject. Okay, so maybe he didn’t want to deal with the sexual tension that suddenly vibrated between them. She could deal with that. “Okay, sure,” she answered with a shrug.

  She tried to help but he wouldn’t let her, telling her he had it handled. So she went to the small dinette table with her coffee and waited, surprised when he served her. A plate of steaming hot scrambling eggs and crunchy bacon was set in front of her, and she dived right into it, surprisingly famished. She couldn’t remember the last time she was hungry at such an early hour.

  Hey what happened to her sleeping away half the morning? It was barely eight o’clock.

  “Good?” he asked as he watched her from across the table. He had an even fuller plate of eggs and bacon.

  She nodded, her mouth full. “Delicious,” she murmured after she swallowed. “Hey, I’m going for a walk after breakfast around the lake. How about I clean up and you come with me?”

  His dark brows rose. He appeared genuinely surprised at her invitation. “You want me to go with you?”

  “Sure.” Julie shrugged. “We can catch up, check out the lake. It’s been years since I’ve been up here.”

  “Really? Don’t you live in Sacramento?”

  “How do you know that?” She set her fork onto the empty plate. She should be embarrassed at how quick she’d stuffed her face.

  “Your mom. I talk to her, well we email, mostly about the schedule and stuff regarding the cabin. She’s mentioned before that you lived in Sacramento.”

  “Well, the Sacramento area. I live in Folsom. How about you? Where are you at these days?” She stood and gathered the empty plates and silverware, taking everything to the sink.

  “Reno. I went to college there and never left.”

  “Oh, so you’re close too.” She opened the dishwasher and started to rinse the dishes in the sink before she set them in. “You like Reno?”

  “I do.” He started putting away stuff in the fridge, tossing napkins and other trash into the stainless steel garbage can that rested against the wall.

  “Do you, uh, have a girlfriend?” It was a completely innocent question. And she was dying of curiosity to know if he was attached or not. Some men found a sort of courage in laying on the compliments when involved with another.

  She sincerely hoped Tyler wasn’t one of those types of guys.

  “No, no girlfriend. Been single for about a year, “he answered, deceptively casual. There was a glint in his eye though. She caught sight of it even with the glasses on. “How about you?”

  “No, no girlfriend.” She smiled innocently and batted her eyelashes.

  He laughed. “How about a boyfriend?”

  “No, I don’t have one of those either.” She slowly shook her head. “I work too much to consider taking the time for a steady relationship.”

  “So I’ve heard,” he murmured. He took a rinsed dish from her and set it in the dishwasher.

  Damn, she could appreciate a man who helped with boring kitchen chores without complaint. “Where did you hear about me? Oh, that’s right. My mom, I’m guessing.”

  Hmm, should she find it creepy he’d discussed her life with her mom? No, more like it was her mother mentioning quick stuff via email to everyone and that was it. Why she focused so much energy on her love life, Julie would never know. It didn’t help that her younger brother and sister were already married.

  He sure had a good memory though. Maybe because he’d always been curious and somehow wanted to keep tabs on her? Because he just might possibly be interested? In her?

  The idea intrigued her. Excited her more than she cared to admit.

  The walk ended up being almost two hours, with them stopping at a dock and sitting on the edge, watching the majestic sailboats as they glided across the crystal blue lake. The sun shone down on them, warmed their skin, the gentle breeze cooling when it almost got too hot, and Tyler realized he couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so at ease. So comfortable, so happy to just…be in the moment.

  He sounded like he was spouting some sort of spiritual mumbo jumbo but, damn it, it was a fine morning. Maybe he’d been hanging out too long with those live-
off-the-land types who claimed they communicated with the mountain. Plenty of them came into the sporting goods store he owned on a daily basis.

  “I can’t believe we both own our own businesses,” Julie said with a slight shake of her head, as if she read his mind. “I never thought I would be so ambitious, I have to admit. I barely made it into college. But once I got there and decided to major in communications, everything just…clicked.”

  “When it feels right, it just feels right,” he agreed. And boy did this feel right, sitting next to her, watching the sunlight glint off her vibrant hair. She’d taken the band out of it once they sat, and it spilled past her shoulders. It wasn’t just red, it was a myriad of colors. The base was a rich, brownish-auburn, with shimmers of deep red, light red, an almost orange color interwoven and golden strands threaded throughout. He wondered if it was natural. If it was soft to the touch.

  He was dying to find out.

  She sighed and tilted her face up toward the sun. He watched as her eyes slid closed behind her sunglasses, and her lips parted invitingly.

  Damn, she looked sexy. The sun warmed her skin, making it appear golden and creamy. She shifted her long, bare legs, the already-short shorts riding up her thighs and giving him a glimpse of pure heaven. Images of those shapely thighs wrapped around his waist as he pounded his cock deep inside her flashed through his mind, and he shifted. Afraid she might catch sight of his sudden erection.

  “I could sit out here all day,” she murmured, her voice so soft it almost got carried away with the breeze. “I can’t remember the last time I sat outside and just did…nothing. I don’t even have my Blackberry on me.”

  “Is it normally attached permanently to your hand?” He could relate. He thought his iPhone was the greatest invention ever created.

  “Oh, yeah.” She laughed, then paused. A look of panic crossed her face. “Maybe I should go back and check it. People are always emailing me, texting me, whatever. Clients, employees, I’ve always told them I’m on call twenty-four/seven.”