Claimed by a Stranger (Craved Series #2) Read online

  “That’s an understatement,” she said. “But they are handy.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “They’re perfect for when you want a snack but can’t stomach a hot curry in the middle of the day.”

  I shrugged. “I mostly go there to impress women.”

  She tilted her head at me. “How’s that working out for you?”

  “You tell me.”

  “Oh I’m impressed,” she said. “Though I must admit, I’m also slightly terrified.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Terrified?”

  “Yeah,” she said, breaking a piece off her sandwich. “I’m starting to worry that the surprise show is going to be you doing some weird jungle striptease.”

  I laughed. “Would that be so bad?”

  “Meh,” she said, blushing.

  I smiled. If a striptease was what she wanted, I would be more than happy to oblige. In fact, it would probably only be fair. After all, I’d been picturing her naked since our kiss the night before.

  “So how much longer do I have to wait to see the goods then?”

  My eyebrows shot up.

  “Sorry- the show- I mean the show,” she said, glancing down at the blanket between us.

  I checked my watch. “The official show’s probably not for another twenty minutes.”

  She nodded.

  “But I’m happy to get naked anytime.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “For the record.”

  “I’ll let you know.”

  “Please do,” I said, tearing open the broad beans.

  “I haven’t tried those yet,” she said. “But I’ve seen them everywhere.”

  I held out the bag. “They’re my favorite.”

  She put her hands out and I shook some out for her, watching as she put one in her mouth and crunched.

  She raised her eyebrows. “They’re nice.”

  “I know,” I said. “I buy them by the bag full at the market.”

  A few more passed her lips, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous.

  “I’ve got a lady there who hooks me up.”

  She laughed. “You have a broad bean dealer?”

  I shrugged. “I guess you could say that.”

  She tilted her head at me and licked some salt off her lips. “So how long have you been living out here anyway?”

  “On and off for about three years.” I tossed a few more beans into my mouth.

  “Don’t you miss the States?”

  “Good question,” I said, cracking open a beer.

  “I mean, I know you said you miss treating patients, but that can’t be the only thing.”

  I squinted at the sky. “I do miss American sandwiches.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, in my opinion, a good sandwich should have enough filling that you don’t have to separate the bread to see what’s inside it.”

  She nodded. “I agree one hundred percent.”

  “And in my experience, I’ve never been to a country that did sandwiches better than America.”

  “What about your weight loss book?”

  I shrugged. “All things in moderation,” I said, though I was beginning to think she might be the exception.

  “What else do you miss?” she asked, tapping her nails along the top of a can of beer.

  “I miss my favorite classic rock radio station.”

  “What else?” she asked, cracking her beer open and taking a sip.

  I watched as a drop escaped her mouth and dripped down her chin until she reached up and wiped it away with the back of her hand.

  “Well?” she asked.

  I looked into her sparkling eyes. “I’ll miss you when you go home.”

  Chapter 8: Audrey

  I shook my head. His eyes were serious and he was looking at me in a way that made me feel like I had nowhere to hide, like he could see right through me. Like he was already inside me.

  I looked down at the gold can in my hands before looking back at him. Then I exhaled the breath I was holding. “Well, I’m honored to be counted among sandwiches and your favorite radio station.”

  Jack lifted my feet and put them across his lap. “What can I say?” he asked. “You’re a pretty big deal.”

  Normally, I’d be put off by a man getting so close to my feet in less than forty eight hours, but I reminded myself that he’d already been up close and personal with them. Plus, it was a relief to be touching him again after being so close on the bike. Like my personal space was no longer sacred where he was concerned.

  I looked down at my tangerine toenails. “Any plans to go back?”

  “To the States?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Or do you think you’ll live here forever?” I was afraid for the answer, but I had to know. The last thing I needed was to fall for a guy on the other side of the world as hard as I might fall for Jack if I stopped paying attention.

  He sighed. “I guess that depends.”

  “On what?”

  “On whether I get sick of all the sunshine and gorging myself on fresh seafood every night.”

  “It could happen,” I said, sounding more hopeful than I’d intended.

  He shrugged. “True. I suppose if I had a good enough reason, I would go back. But there would have to be something I was really excited about or something I needed.”

  “Or something you liked more than seafood and sunshine?”

  He nodded.

  “Good luck with that,” I said, feeling a totally inappropriate sense of loss over something I never had in the first place.

  He smiled at me. “I haven’t ruled it out anyway,” he said, taking a long sip of his beer before leaning back on his elbows. “What’s your favorite place?”

  “In the whole world?”

  “Sure.”

  “That restaurant we went to last night’s a contender.”

  Jack laughed. “Tell me about it. I’m pretty sure I’m their best customer.”

  “I like Southern France, too.” I let my head drop back and looked at the sky. “Or at least, I remember liking it when I went there as a teenager.”

  “What was it that you liked?”

  “I think it was all the fields of lavender and sunflowers.” I inhaled deeply as if I might be able to smell them.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty tough scenery to beat.”

  “That’s one of the places I go in my mind on rainy Monday mornings in Seattle,” I said. “But there’s so many other places I’d like to visit. It’s just hard to get away when you’re working.”

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to do when you get back?”

  “Not really.” I said. “Not specifically anyway.”

  “Just a general sense of impending doom?”

  I laughed. “Pretty much.”

  “Have you ever considered working for yourself?”

  “You mean freelancing?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not really,” I said. “My Dad always taught me that there’s nothing more important than a consistent paycheck.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed.

  “I know it’s not the most open minded philosophy, and I’m not even sure I agree with it now that I’m old enough to question him, but it is how I was raised.” I thought of my Dad sitting in his wheelchair at home, unable to work for the first time in his life, and felt an ache in my chest.

  “Well, I don’t think freelancing and inconsistent pay necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.”

  “I think in the beginning they probably are though, and I’m not sure I’m a risk taker by nature.”

  “Sure you are.”

  I shook my head. “No, I’m definitely not.”

  “I have to disagree.” He sat up and straightened his arms behind him. “You were very brave to go snorkeling on your own with zero experience in a new place.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “And then you took a pretty big risk coming out here with me.”

>   “You’re not that dangerous though, are you?”

  He gave a wolfish smile. “Depends on your definition of danger.”

  I squinted at him. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

  “All I’m saying is that if there’s a demand, it might be something to think about. Even if it’s just while you look for something more permanent.”

  “Am I being charged by the hour for this career advice or…?”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I know it’s none of my business.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s nice of you to care without acting like my current unemployment is some kind of incurable disease.”

  “Your Mom?”

  “How did you know?”

  “Cause I have one of my own.”

  “Of course you do,” I said. “And is she where you get your good looks?”

  Jack laughed. “She would definitely take the credit, yeah.”

  I pulled my feet off his lap and scooted next to him so our shoulders were touching. “I’m glad I met you, Jack,” I said. “Even if you do take me to fake shows in the woods.”

  “The show is real. You’ll see.”

  I trailed a finger down the buttons of his front shirt. “Should I expect any previews?”

  Jack reached over and pulled my face towards his until I was close enough that he could press his lips against mine. His warm kiss tasted like Thai beer and he moved his tongue so slowly around mine I thought he might be trying to hypnotize me.

  Without pulling away, I moved my leg so I was straddling him and rested my hands along his chiseled jaw line. Then I pushed them up into his hair as I tasted him more deeply.

  And every time his tongue twirled around mine, I felt my panties getting wetter and wetter, and I knew. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was the kind of kiss that started things. And if the way my stomach felt was any indication, he’d ignited a fire in me that I wasn’t going to be able to put out on my own.

  Jack slid his hands around my ass and I groaned into his mouth, forgetting where I was and who I was and everything besides the fact that I wanted this guy as deep inside me as he could go. And from the swelling I could feel below me, I knew we were on the same page.

  He hooked his fingers around the top of my pants and I decided right then that if he wanted to slip them off and have me in that clearing, I wouldn’t stop him. In fact, with every finger of his that he dragged along my skin, I became more determined to have him under that dusky Thai sky until the sun had set and we were under a blanket of stars.

  And then I heard a cough.

  Jack’s eyes popped open at the same time as mine, and I almost laughed from the startled expression on his face.

  But then I looked over his head. “Uh oh.”

  “Tell whoever it is to fuck off,” he said softly, keeping his eyes on me.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Believe me, I would if it were anybody else but-”

  Jack turned his head around and looked at the large party of monks in the middle of the field. “Damn.”

  I scooted off his lap and sat down beside him, smoothing my hair away from my face.

  “They don’t know how lucky they are,” he said. “If they’d come five minutes later they would’ve been traumatized by what they would’ve seen me doing to you.”

  I swallowed, daring not to ask what he’d had in mind while knowing it didn’t matter. I never would’ve stopped him.

  Chapter 9: Jack

  Fucking monks. They were everywhere.

  So much for unraveling Audrey in the middle of that field.

  Sure, it was the first time I’d ever been genuinely unhappy to see them. But considering the ache in my swollen dick, taut against my zipper like an angry snake, it was a grudge I might be holding for a while.

  Worst of all, I knew she wanted it- maybe even as bad as I did. I could fucking tell by the way her tongue submitted to me in her mouth.

  If I asked her to turn around, she would’ve done it. If I asked her to water my dick with her mouth, she would’ve obliged. And if I told her to spread her legs and come in my mouth, she would’ve been too aroused to do anything but give me what I ultimately wanted… proof of her pleasure lining my throat and dripping off the tip of my dick.

  Damn it!

  Her pussy was probably already as wet as her mouth and just as hungry. And the thought of her sitting there and dripping into her panties seemed like such a waste it made my balls hurt.

  I bent my legs and rested my elbows on my knees, trying to take deep breaths to get my heart rate- and my dick- down.

  Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Audrey watching the monks with the same curious intensity that everyone did when they weren’t used to seeing them. After all, there was something compelling about the sight of their bald heads and their simple golden robes.

  “Who knows how long they’ll have to meditate to forget the image of my hands on your ass,” I said, shaking my head.

  “The stuff of nightmares, indeed,” she said, turning her back on them. “But coughing? Seriously? Do they have no tact?”

  “They’re Holy Men, Audrey. You don’t need tact if you believe God’s on your side.”

  “But they’re Buddhist.”

  “You’re right,” I said, leaning back on my arms. “There’s no excuse. Should I ask them to leave?”

  “No, they’re probably just here for the show.”

  “I would imagine.”

  “Which confirms that it’s not a private striptease.”

  I smiled. “Sorry to disappoint.”

  “There’s always later,” she said, giving my arm a little nudge. “Though I hate when I don’t get to see all the previews.”

  “Don’t worry. There’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Audrey scooted her round ass forward and leaned back, mirroring my pose so she could look up at the sky. “So what am I looking at?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  “Or for?”

  Her tits were like ripe melons and I was only a foot away from having my face buried in them. I imagined tweaking her nipples so hard she’d gasp, her voice disappearing into the night sky as quickly as the pain.

  “Trust me,” I said. “When the show starts, you’ll know.”

  “The suspense is killing me, Jack.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “Could you at least make up some bullshit astronomy in the meantime?”

  “Sure.” I pointed straight up ahead. “See that star straight over that highest cliff.”

  “The really bright one?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about it?”

  “Well, if you follow that up to the star above it,” I said, pointing. “And then go straight through those three to the right and then down through the two small ones just there-”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, looking past the end of my finger.

  “That’s a Thai character.”

  “Which one?”

  “The first one in the word for patience.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me and turned back towards the sky. “Do you know that one?” she asked, pointing across my field of vision.

  “Where?”

  “Where that tiny cluster of stars is?”

  I was pretty sure it was a small jet, but I decided to keep that to myself.

  “That’s a little, shrunken penis.”

  My eyes grew wide. “Okaay…”

  “Anyway,” she said, lowering her voice. “Legend has it that it was supposed to get much bigger, but the guy who it belonged to started being a smart ass and ended up spending the night alone.”

  I shook my head. “In terms of constellations, it’s not my favorite.”

  She cocked her head at me and raised her eyebrows. “Still a valuable lesson though.”

  I laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was a threat.”

  “And if it was?”