Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) (13 page)

Once they were inside, Joe tugged her toward the left, into the
clothing section.  He wandered a few aisles before finding what he wanted.

“Take your pick,” he said, “although I think this one looks nice.”

He let go of her hand and reached for a soft pink fleece hat hanging
from the display rack.  He pulled it gently over her head.

“Maybe you don’t like pink,” he said.

Sarah looked in the nearby mirror.  “Pink is fine, but it’s kind of
cliché for redheads.”

“Try blue,” Joe said, handing her a replacement.

He kept his arm around her waist as they both looked at the hat in the
mirror.  Sarah found it hard to concentrate.

“Blue’s fine,” she managed to say.

“Here, try these on.”  He handed her the matching one-size-fits-all
gloves.  “Get the whole set for five-ninety-nine.”

The gloves looked more like a child’s size than an adult’s, but as Sarah
pushed her fingers into them, they expanded to fit perfectly.  She wriggled her
fingers to model them.

Joe stood in front of her and gently tugged on the hat, pulling it
lower around her ears.  And with him that close, that kind, after a whole
string of kindnesses all morning long, Sarah couldn’t resist twisting her
gloved fingers in the lapel of his suit jacket and pulling his mouth down to
hers.

Their hunger for each other shocked her.  As if they’d both stood
coiled, ready, waiting for the other to make a move.  Joe captured her by the
hips and pulled her hard against him as Sarah locked her hands behind his
neck.  He was at least half a foot taller, but in her heels she narrowed the
distance.  He spread his hands along the sides of her ribcage, practically
lifting her body into his.  She pressed against the length of him, feeling the
unmistakable hardness that pressed back, and she kissed him, devoured him, made
out with him there in the Walmart accessories aisle, both of them in their
suits, Sarah in her powder blue hat and gloves, Joe with his hands buried now in
the ends of her hair, tugging her head back while he took her mouth, neither of
them caring who in that town might see them or what they might think.

Finally they came up for air.  The two of them stood staring at each other,
panting.  “We were supposed to meet those guys,” Sarah said, surprised she
could even think anymore.

“We will,” Joe answered.  “In a minute.”

But instead of taking her mouth with his again, he reached down and
clasped her hand.  “Come with me.”

Sarah tried not to panic when she saw where they were going.

“A little fast, wouldn’t you say, Burke?” she joked, trying to sound
unconcerned.

“I told you, a gentleman can always say no,” Joe answered, pulling down
a package of condoms.  “But if you ask me, Sarah, I’m not going to say no.”

Was he really going to leave it up to her? she wondered.  Although
considering what she’d just started, he probably didn’t have too many doubts.

“Joe, I’m not sure . . . ”

He squeezed her hand as they walked toward the checkout.  “I just don’t
want to have to come back here in a hurry.”

He studied her face as he paid for their items.  At the last minute,
Sarah realized he’d just pulled out one of the fifties Ellen had given him. 
“No, here,” Sarah said, reaching for one of her own.  “I’ll buy my own hat and
gloves.”  Then she blushed, thinking how obvious she had just made it that the
condoms were on him.

“Next time,” Joe said, gently pushing away her money.  “You can buy my
lunch.”  He finished paying and they left.

On the way back to the car, Joe said, “I’ll never try to rush you,
Sarah.  I’ve already waited all this time.”

“All what time?” she asked, thinking it had only been a few hours since
that morning.

Joe smiled.  “A long time.”  He leaned down and kissed her again, and as
Sarah deepened it, Joe braced the two of them against the side of the rental
car.  Someone driving by honked.  Joe raised a hand and waved, and kept right on
kissing her.

***

Mickey and Ellen were already two beers down apiece and nearly finished
with their meals by the time Sarah and Joe arrived.

“We ordered a pitcher,” Ellen said, “but obviously we weren’t going to
keep waiting.  Where have you two been?”

“Can’t you guess?” Mickey said.  He took a long drag on his cigarette.

Sarah held up her hands.  “Gloves.”  She patted the hat on her head.  “I
was tired of being so cold.”

“Oh, you don’t seem so cold right now,” Mickey said.  “What do you
think, Burke?”

“I think I’m going to get us some food.  Sarah?  What would you like?”

While Joe hunted down the waitress to order them both a few burgers,
Sarah excused herself to go to the restroom.

Once she was safely inside, she let her face finally unleash the huge
smile she had been holding back—even in front of Joe.  What she felt was too adolescent
to let him see.  She duplicated the move she saw Mickey make that morning,
hopping in place a few times.  Then she gazed at her face in the mirror.  Her
makeup was smeared and her lips looked puffy.  Her eyes were bright and alive. 
Such a different face than the one that had greeted her first thing in the
morning, blotchy and ragged with sleeplessness.

But was she really going to sleep with him?

Sarah wasn’t a virgin, but she might as well have been for all the
experience she had.  One awkward night when she was in high school, then two
more very uninspiring encounters with different guys when she was in college. 
Either they didn’t know what they were doing or she didn’t, and she was willing
to believe it was both.

But she guessed from the string of girls she’d seen Joe with since she
started paying attention to him that he had at least some clue how to do things
better.  And their long makeout session in Walmart had certainly backed that
up.  Even just kissing him, clothes on, was already more arousing than anything
anyone had ever done to her before.  If that was what they could accomplish in
public, she could only imagine what they would be like in private.

Actually, Sarah thought, she couldn’t imagine it.  But she didn’t want
to.  She’d rather be surprised by what Joe would show her if she really gave
herself to him.

By the time she returned to the table, a plate of food awaited her.

“I’m not that hungry,” she whispered to Joe.  Then she reached
underneath the table and gave his hand a squeeze.

Joe signaled to the server and asked her to box up the food.

Mickey gulped back his beer and poured himself another.

“So…you two?” he said, taking another drag on his cigarette.

Sarah didn’t answer.

“We’ll see you tonight at the banquet,” Joe told Ellen and Mickey.  He
threw down what was left of his fifty after buying a hat and gloves and
condoms.

Ellen scowled and shook her head.  “Typical.”

“Typical what?” Sarah couldn’t resist asking.

“Horny students after Moot Court.  Happens every year.”

“I’m surprised you don’t get more people signing up, then,” Joe said. 
“You ought to mention that at orientation.”

Fourteen

They drove back to Sarah’s hotel to retrieve the rest of her luggage. 
She wouldn’t be staying in a room with Ellen again, no matter what.  Even if
she and Joe ended up sharing his bed platonically.

Although at the moment that seemed very unlikely.

Joe came with her up to her room, and as soon as they were behind the
closed door, the two of them rushed at each other, mouths and hands exploring,
jackets falling, pants unzipped, skirt hiked up, underwear yanked away.

“Oh, my God,” Sarah laughed on a rush of breath.  Then she helped him
unbutton her blouse because he was taking too long.

“Are you sure about this?” Joe asked.  “Because if you’re not, you’d
better back away right now.”

But instead Sarah pushed her pelvis into his and wrapped a leg around
his hip.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute—”  Joe’s hand shook as he tried to rip
open the package.

Sarah felt remarkably calm.  She laughed again as she popped the condom
free and helped smooth it over Joe’s erection.

Then he was inside her, and Sarah felt a sensation she’d never felt in
her life, at least not when a man was touching her:  purity.  Mixed with
elation.  She kissed him hard while the two of them rode each other, her back
against the wall, Joe supporting both of her legs now so she was free to thrust
against him as he thrust into her.

“Would you please stop laughing,” Joe said at one point, burying his
head against her shoulder.

“I can’t help it.”  Her smile was too big, and there was no other way
to release what she was feeling than to mix laughter in with her moans.

But she was wrong about that:  there was another way.  She just hadn’t
known it before.

As the orgasm ripped through her, Sarah gasped and pulsed against Joe. 
Then, as surprising as the laughter, came a wash of tears streaming down her
face, wetting her mouth as she kissed Joe with even more hunger than before.

“Sarah,” he said, his body tightening, his mouth pinning hers as he
erupted right after.  Then he held her where she was, the two of them still
connected, until finally he gently lowered her to the floor.

Sarah looked up into Joe’s face.  He swiped his thumb below one of her
eyes.

“Oh, my God,” she said, chuckling soft and low, as amazed as she’d ever
been in her life.

She looked down at her clothes, the wrinkled skirt, the beige cotton
bra.  He hadn’t even taken it off—there wasn’t time.

Joe stood looking equally disheveled, dress shirt hanging over his
thighs, his pants and underwear pooled at his feet.

“Let me take care of this,” he said, stepping out of his pants and
moving into the bathroom to flush the condom.  Then he was back, hands
smoothing over Sarah’s shoulders, mouth kissing hers.

“Now this doesn’t seem right,” Joe said, finally taking the time to
release the clasp on her bra.  He cupped both breasts in his hands, then leaned
forward to run his tongue over each one in turn.

Sarah pulled at his hair.  “No, you can’t,” she said, trying to catch
her breath.  “Let’s wait.  Let’s go to your hotel.”

“There’s a bed right here,” Joe said.

“But I don’t want to have to get up again—not until tonight.”  Ellen
would be coming back at some point, she knew, and Sarah had no desire to put on
a show—or to have to stop.

Joe eased back into his underwear, kissed a breast, pulled up his
pants, licked the other breast, tucked in his shirt, dipped his finger in
Sarah’s slickness.

“Ugh, come on,” she said, backing away.  “What time is it?”

He checked his watch.  “A little after three.”

“We have to be there at six,” Sarah reminded him.  “Come on—we can be
in your bed in fifteen minutes.”

“Too long,” he murmured, pulling her to him again.

Sarah agreed, but one of them had to keep their heads.  She pulled her
blouse closed again and buttoned it, but threw her bra and the wad of underwear
into her bag.  There was no point in making it harder to get undressed as soon
as she could.  She added the few other items of clothing from her side of the
room, made sure she got everything out of the bathroom, then zipped the bag
closed and handed it to Joe.

He watched her the whole time, eyes dark with lust.

“Can you drive like that?” she asked.

“Like what?”

She pointed to his obvious erection.

“I should have asked you to bring everything over with you this
morning,” he said.  “We’d already be in my room.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You think I knew?” Joe asked.

“Didn’t you?”  Everything seemed so perfectly timed, so perfectly
planned, from holding her hands inside his hoodie the night before, to offering
her a bed to sleep in that morning, to pulling a hat onto her head so that his
mouth was so close to hers she had no choice but to kiss it.

“Sarah, I haven’t known for months,” he said.  “Believe me, this is a
fantasy come true.”

Sarah stared at him, amazed.

“Come on,” she said, grabbing him roughly by the arm.  “We’re wasting
time.”

And she was done with that, Sarah thought.  From now on she wanted
every minute with him they could spare.

***

It took a little effort to make her suit presentable again for the
judges.  They would be mingling with all the students that night at a cocktail
party before the actual awards banquet.  Sarah wondered how on earth she was
going to keep a straight face.

She had never thought of herself as a sexual creature, but it was
obvious to her now that all she needed was for someone to show her the way. 
And Joe Burke was the perfect candidate for the job.  The way he peeled away
her clothes slowly the next time, tasting as he went, making her gasp more than
laugh, making her moan in agony, punch his arms with irritation when he
wouldn’t give her what she wanted, but just kept drawing it out, making her
suffer and wait, building her higher and higher until she finally exploded with
the kind of complete, pure pleasure she’d read about in books but never, ever
understood.