DISCLAIMER: Yes, this story does have a NC-17 rating (It's sort of borderline, so I erred on the side of caution)... so keep this in mind if you choose to read... Thanks.
Yes, another long wait, I know. I'm finding it a little harder finding time to write lately. However, I hope you will think the wait was worth it...grin. As usual, feedback is highly appreciated. I especially like hearing what your favorite parts of the stories are! You can let me know either by writing me and e-mail at [email protected] or by leaving me a message on the NBK message board.
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Sam was so stunned by Josie's statement, he breathed when he should have swallowed and ended up coughing and sputtering. He pounded himself on the chest hoping that would help the coughing subside. Then he gasped, "What!? What did you just say?"
Josie watched Sam's reaction with amusement. She simply smiled a slight, mysterious smile and repeated patiently, "I said�I will be 25 when it happens."
Oh, God, Sam thought. What did that mean? Was that just 'wishful thinking' talking? Or was it supposed to be construed as some sort of invitation? This was one call he didn't want to get wrong, so he played it safe and went for the humorous response. "And when do you turn 26? And don't say next week unless you want to give me a coronary�"
Josie laughed, shaking her head. Then she put Sam out of his misery, saying, "My birthday is in October, Sam. October 6th, to be exact."
Sam let out a huge sigh of relief. He placed his right hand on his forehead for a moment before sliding his fingers through his hair in a nervous gesture. "God, Josie, don't scare me like that! I thought that maybe you were trying to give me a hint or something."
Josie laughed again at the very idea. Her? Hinting about jumping into the sack? Why, the notion was ludicrous! "No, Sam�I simply meant that I'm that sure about us. I'm sure that when it happens, it will be with you; and that day will probably be in the not-too-distant future."
Sam was very touched by her words. But he needed to clarify how he felt about this as well. "Josie, I assure you that �contrary to what you might think after our 'pillow fight' tonight�I am in no hurry here. If I have to wait three months or three years, I will wait with no complaints. Because I want you to be very sure that this is what you want and that the timing is right."
Josie patted Sam on the arm and said, "I never had any doubts about your intentions, although it is nice to hear. You are an honorable and trustworthy man and I know you would never push this situation to your advantage. Thank you for understanding how important this is to me."
Sam smiled softly at Josie, captured her right hand with his left and pressed the back of it to his lips, murmuring, "You're welcome."
After a moment, Sam reluctantly let go of Josie's hand. Then he turned his wrist to look at his watch. It said 11:23pm. Looking back up to lock eyes with Josie, he said with a smile, "It's almost 11:30, and some of us have to go to work in the morning�so maybe we should call it a night. Besides," he admitted with a laugh, "I don't know if I can take any more questions �or answers�like the last one�"
Josie laughed gleefully and said, "Okay, you're off the hook for tonight�" Then, she got up from the loveseat, stretched out the kinks in her back, and grabbed Sam's glass, carrying it to the kitchen sink with her own.
Sam sat staring after Josie thoughtfully. He had to avert his eyes as she stretched; he didn't need any reminders of how curvy and sexy she was. He was having a difficult time controlling his reaction to her as it was. "Hey," he called out softly, "is it okay if I go get ready for bed first?"
Josie looked over her shoulder from the kitchen sink, where she was rinsing out the glasses and placing them in the drip strainer. "Sure, go ahead. I'll just take care of a few things out here."
Sam nodded his response and pushed himself off the loveseat to crouch before his duffel at the end of the couch. Digging through the bag, he pulled out a pair of navy blue sweats and a large white T-shirt. Then he padded off to the bathroom to wash up and change.
Josie heard Sam's retreat and peered over her shoulder again to watch him walk into her bedroom and disappear. She almost hated the idea that he had to change out of those clothes. He looked dangerously handsome in black, she decided. It was no wonder he liked to wear that color. She had certainly succumbed to his charms, she thought, smiling. Josie's cheeks colored as she remembered their passionate embrace on the floor after she had attacked him with the pillow.
Yet, Josie found that she really was not that embarrassed about her behavior. With Sam, doing those things felt right. Closing her eyes, she could almost feel the soft touch of Sam's lips to her neck again and she sighed in response. She thought back to that morning when she had seen him without his shirt on and instantly wished she'd had the chance to touch him there. She opened her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, almost giddy with the feelings of love and desire coursing through her.
Sam sat on the edge of Josie's bed and reached down to remove his socks. Putting them aside, he stood to unlatch his belt buckle and, unzipping the pants, let them drop to the floor. His keys in the front pocket thumped softly against the carpet as they landed. Then he sank back down on the bed to slide his legs one at a time into his sweatpants. After standing momentarily to slide the waistband up over his hips, Sam again sat. Absently, he began to unbutton his shirt, but his thoughts were on Josie.
Kissing and touching her had been heaven, even better than he had imagined�if that were possible. After all, he had spent many a late night thinking of the very things they had done tonight (as well as many they didn't, but he didn't think it was wise to dwell on those things too much right now). He very much meant what he had told Josie about waiting for her. But after getting a taste of the passionate nature that even Josie didn't know she possessed, he realized keeping that promise would prove to be quite a challenge. Especially considering how incredibly attracted he was to her. He sighed heavily, shrugging his black shirt off his shoulders, letting it pool around him on the bed. Grabbing his oversized T-shirt, he put his arms through the holes and pulled it on over his head, letting it drape down to his waist.
Shaking his head a little at the lack of self-control he had shown earlier, he pushed himself off the bed and turned to collect his other clothes. Then, opening the door to Josie's bedroom, he crossed the living room and placed his discarded clothes in a heap on top of his duffel bag. Glancing into the kitchen, he saw Josie struggling to push the cork back into the bottle of the mostly-empty champagne bottle. Striding toward her, he asked, "Do you need any help with that?"
Josie looked up from the bottle, which she had placed on one of the stools to get better height leverage, and replied, "Thanks, but I've got it�I think." When she removed her hand, she found the cork protruding from the bottle at a strange angle and was barely in at all. She sighed.
Sam came around the corner of the breakfast bar into the kitchen and stood behind Josie. He reached his arms around her and placed one of his hands on the neck of the bottle and the other over Josie's hand, which was again poised on top of the cork. Then he applied gentle pressure to Josie's hand until the cork slid noiselessly into place.
Josie reveled in Sam's closeness, even in this most innocent of circumstances. She leaned her weight back onto him just slightly, making more body contact with his.
For just a moment, Sam allowed the now familiar feeling of desire for Josie flow through him before he cleared his throat self-consciously and backed away a step, allowing Josie access to the refrigerator. As Josie moved to place the bottle inside the fridge, he asked softly, "So, where do you keep the extra blankets and pillows? I'd be glad to get them myself if you would just point me in the right direction."
Josie froze for a moment, her back still toward Sam as she closed the refrigerator door. Then she replied carefully, "I�um, wasn't planning on having you sleep on the couch tonight�That is, unless you want to�" she blurted awkwardly.
Sam wasn't sure what to say, but he was sure he didn't like the sudden jump in his heart rate at the suggestion. Maybe this wouldn't be such a great idea. But even as his mind was protesting, he heard his traitorous voice say, "No, that's fine with me, as long as it's fine with you."
Josie turned to face Sam, although she wouldn't raise her eyes to look at him. She twisted her hands together in front of her nervously. Trying in vain to explain, she said, "I just meant that it was so nice having you hold me last night, and the couch was rather cramped and�and�"
Sam smiled softly and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "Josie, it's okay, I know what you mean," he reassured her.
Immensely relieved, Josie finally made eye contact. They clearly read that she was completely guileless in her suggestion. She placed both her arms around Sam's waist in a loose hug and laid her cheek against his chest trustingly. "Thank you. I'm glad you understand."
Sam wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her closer. "I do understand. I enjoyed holding you, too, and I'm glad you're allowing me to do that again tonight." He chuckled a little as he rested his chin against the top of her head. "And it'll be nice to be able to move around without worrying if one or both of us will fall off the side of the couch�" Josie laughed a little, too, and he could feel the vibrations of her movement against his ribcage. Pulling slightly away from her, he looked down at Josie and said, "I don't want to be any trouble� Which side of the bed do you normally sleep on?"
In response, Josie slipped out of Sam's embrace and turned to exit the kitchen, cross the living room, and enter the bedroom, leaving Sam to trail along in her wake.
Watching Josie moving in front of him made him think of that dust smudge he had seen on her pants earlier� 'I wonder if it's still there?' he pondered, before he caught himself mid-thought and shook his head.
Josie pointed to the right side of the bed (the side closer to the bathroom door) and commented, "I usually sleep on this side, although I'm flexible if this is a problem for you."
"Actually, Josie, that's perfect, because I usually sleep on the left side anyway," Sam explained. "If you want, I'll turn down the bedcovers while you get ready�"
Josie shrugged one shoulder and said, "Sure, if you want to� Actually, I've got one or two more things to do out in the other room, so it will be a few minutes. Go ahead and get comfortable if you want."
Sam nodded and said, "Okay, thanks. I think I will." He walked around to the far side of the bed, folded down the covers, and crawled inside.
Josie smiled down at Sam, remembering how cute he had looked asleep on his couch earlier. With a small, awkward wave of her hand, Josie turned to leave the room. At the doorway, she turned back for a moment and said, "Be back in a few�" Then she headed out around the corner and disappeared from sight.
Sam laid his head down on the soft but firm pillow on his side of the bed and snuggled into the covers. Part of him hoped he could fall asleep before Josie returned� because as much as he would love to hold her right now, he wasn't sure he could trust himself to not want more. For a moment, he lay with the covers up to his neck, trying in vain to convince his body to relax; instead, he found himself growing more and more tense by the second.
After tossing and turning and not being able to get comfortable, Sam sat back up, searching his psyche for some reason why he would be so uptight. Looking over at Josie's side of the bed, which was still as yet untouched, a bell went off in his brain, and then he knew. The bed. It smelled like Josie; just a hint�almost not enough to notice, but it was there. And when he had been lying down, it had been literally surrounding him. His body couldn't relax because of its automatic reaction to her scent. Oh, boy, he thought, he was in really big trouble here. Maybe he should rethink this idea of staying with Josie in her bed tonight�
But just as he was trying to work up the courage to go out to the living room and tell Josie he'd changed his mind about their sleeping arrangement, the lights went out in the other room and she appeared in the bedroom doorway. At the cozy sight of Sam sitting in her bed under the covers, she smiled shyly and said, "Hi."
Sam took one look at Josie's sweet, innocent face and knew he couldn't tell her. There was no way he could explain the situation to her without making her feel that she was responsible for his need to leave, and she was already feeling enough guilt over his problems. 'You're just going to have to suck it up and deal with it, Sam,' he told himself. 'You're not going to hurt Josie's feelings just because you can't seem to pull it together.'
He smiled tentatively and returned, "Hi. All done out there?" 'Yeah, really brilliant comeback, Sam,' he berated himself, mentally shaking his head at his own stupidity.
"Yeah, all done. I even closed the glass on the fireplace, in case you were worried," Josie said teasingly, knowing he wasn't. When he didn't reply, she continued, "I think I'm coming to bed now, too." She crossed the room to stand in front of her dresser, which was located in the corner of the room near Sam's side of the bed. Sam watched, fascinated, as she opened the second drawer to the top and rummaged around for a moment, inspecting a few promising garments before placing her hand around something blue and removing it from the drawer. She shoved the drawer closed with her hip and walked around the end of the bed to sit on her side.
For a moment, Sam almost panicked, thinking that Josie was going to get undressed right there in front of him. But she simply removed her knee-high stockings before rising off the bed again and heading toward the bathroom with change of clothes in hand. "Be back in a minute," she said, as she closed the bathroom door behind her with a tiny click.
Sam flopped back against the pillow heavily, breathing a sigh of relief. His imagination must have been working overtime if he seriously thought that Josie would have teased him by undressing in his presence; she was much too shy for those kinds of games. 'Sure, that's just what Josie would do,' he thought wryly. 'A little wishful thinking there, Sam?'
Sam placed both hands under his head as he lay listening to the sounds of Josie washing up in the bathroom. It seemed so natural to him to be lying in her bed like this, listening to the sound of Josie preparing herself for bed. At that moment, it was hard for him to believe that this was only the second night he'd spent in her company; he felt like he'd known and been with her forever.
However, Sam's domestic thoughts soon fled as the water was turned off and he heard the rustle of Josie's lace blouse being pulled up over her head. Heat flushed his cheeks as he recalled the stellar view down the front of that blouse he'd gotten at dinner. He could easily envision the sight of Josie in that white, lacy bra�
Sam bolted upright in the bed again, desperate to find something � anything � to take his mind off the torture of Josie's imagined striptease. He glanced at his nightstand to find nothing, but on hers, he found a hardcover book of poetry by assorted authors that had a paper bookmark sticking out of it. Reaching over and grabbing it, he opened the book to the page where Josie's bookmark had been placed.
Josie had been in the middle of reading a rather long poem, or so it seemed by the look of it on the page. He glanced at the top of the left page and began to read: "This is the female form, A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot, It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction, I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it�"
Sam instantly recognized the passage as part of "I Sing the Body Electric" by Walt Whitman, one of the most graphically descriptive love poems of the 19th century. His heart pounded so loudly that he swore Josie must be able to hear it from the other room. Muttering an oath under his breath, he bunched the covers up around his waist to hide his growing discomfort. 'Great,' he thought wryly, quickly flipping to another spot in the book, 'that helped immensely�'
Luckily, Sam's new spot in the book proved to be more calming. He'd stumbled upon "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by one of his favorite poets, John Keats. Sam let line after line of his melodious, ethereal words wash over him. Soon, he was completely immersed in the rhyme and rhythm and forgot entirely his uneasiness of a moment ago.
Upon finishing the poem, Sam flipped to the Table of Contents to see if there were any more Keats poems listed. As he scanned the list, he heard the sound of the bathroom door being opened a crack. He heard Josie's voice through the opening, sounding a little embarrassed. "I hope you won't mind that I didn't pick anything pretty, but I just felt like being comfortable tonight."
"That's fine," Sam answered without looking up from the book. 'Good,' he thought to himself, thinking that maybe she had chosen sweats or something equally amorphous to wear. He went back to searching for more Keats and did not immediately notice as Josie entered the room. After a moment, however, he felt her presence hovering at the side of the bed, shifting her weight from foot to foot nervously. With a smile, he looked up to speak to her; but at his first sight of her, the words died on his lips.
The view of Josie that greeted Sam would definitely not be considered amorphous. She was standing there in nothing but an oversized button-down shirt�specifically a man's blue dress shirt. She had left the top button undone for comfort, which left a large section of her throat exposed. She had smoothly rolled the sleeves up to her elbows, giving the impression that she'd worn this shirt before. The shirt hung loosely on her�but only after clinging to the curve of her bosom. And although the tails in the front and back of the shirt covered her down to the knee, the high cut sides showed almost the entire length of her legs and even allowed a small portion of her white cotton underwear to show as she shifted her weight from side to side.
Sam's jaw dropped as he stared at her dumbly. The book of poetry that had diligently held his attention just a moment before slipped from his slack fingers and plopped face down in his lap. The soft impact of the book on his leg brought Sam out of his reverie. He clapped his mouth shut and hastily gathered up the book to lay it down on the bedside table nearest him. While he had his eyes averted, he reminded himself to breathe. After a couple shuddering breaths, he turned back to Josie and attempted a friendly smile.
Josie watched Sam's response to her attire in confusion� What had made him react so strangely? She opened her mouth to ask, but then decided that if Sam wanted her to know, he would have said something. Still, she felt self- conscious about her outfit now. Maybe Sam thought it made her look too boyish for his taste, she thought. The "Josie Grossie" in her wanted to sprint for the bathroom, but the newer, stronger Josie insisted that if Sam didn't like her choice in nightgowns, that was his problem, not hers. This was not a fashion show; it was sleepwear, and she wanted to be comfortable.
As Sam struggled to regain control of his addled senses, he realized from Josie's expression that she had absolutely no idea she looked so incredible in that shirt. Seeing a woman dressed in (practically) nothing but a man's shirt was incredibly erotic for a guy, and it was even more so on Josie, who didn't know it. He swallowed hard and continued to stare, as he could not tear his eyes away from the sight of her.
Finally, after a half a minute had passed and Sam continued to stare at her without saying a word, Josie got irritated. "What? Is there a problem with the way I'm dressed or something!?"
Sam opened his mouth twice before he was able to find his voice. "No, nothing's wrong. There's no problem at all with what you're wearing," he lied, not wanting Josie to know how profoundly he was affected by her. Then he thought to himself, 'No, there's too damn much right about what you're wearing�That's the problem�' To Josie, he fibbed, "I guess I was daydreaming�sorry."
Josie took that statement at face value. She cracked a smile and said, "Okay, then stop staring at me! You're making me nervous�"
Sam, chastened by his own guilt, lowered his eyes to his lap and repeated meekly, "Sorry."
Josie turned and sat, as if she was about to get under the blankets. Sam heaved an internal sigh of relief, glad that she would soon be covering up that outfit. But that sigh, as it turned out, came too soon. Instead of crawling inside the covers, she got up on her hands and knees and crawled playfully across the bed to settle herself across Sam's thighs, a knee on either side of him.
If Sam thought the sight of Josie from across the room was incredible, then having her literally right under his nose was almost more than he could take. He would have bolted out of the bed if it had not been for the fact that Josie was sitting on him, a fact that made him intensely aware of his highly aroused state. Sam cleared his throat nervously and asked, "Uh, Josie, what are you doing?"
Josie smiled flirtatiously before answering, "There's something I meant to ask you during Truth or Dare tonight, Sam Coulson, but I never got the chance�"
Uh oh. Her expression made him wary. "And what was that?"
She feigned an innocent expression, but the twinkling in her eyes gave her away. "I forgot to ask you if you were�" After a pregnant pause she squealed, "ticklish!" She grabbed the sides of his shirt and tugged them up to expose his midriff, and then started tickling furiously.
Sam was caught completely off guard by Josie's attack, and unfortunately, he was also very ticklish. He tried in vain to squirm away from her hands, but with her full weight resting squarely on his thighs, he was at a decided disadvantage. "Josie�no, wait! � Stop! �" he gasped between giggles. In an instinctual move, he brought his knees up to try and protect his stomach, which ended up tilting Josie (who was still sitting on him) so that she fell into him, knocking him onto his back on the bed. Seeing this as an even greater advantage, Josie laid her weight on him as she continued to fight off Sam's hands and repeatedly tickle his sides.
By now, Sam was laughing hard and gasping for breath. He had tried to handle this like a gentleman, he thought, but now he realized there was no other way out; he reached up under Josie's nightshirt and started tickling back.
At the first touch of Sam's hands on her waist, Josie squealed and jumped away from him, slapping at his hands, laughing. When he fended off her hands and continued to tickle her, she started laughing in earnest and fell over sideways onto her side of the bed, trying to pull her knees up to protect herself. But Sam, who had just taken plenty of abuse from Josie, was not about to give up yet. He wanted to make her suffer a bit, too; so when Josie rolled off of him, he followed her and leaned over her trying to reach around her curled up legs to tickle her sensitive stomach some more.
"Sam! �No! �cut it out�please�" Josie breathed after panting for more air. She kicked her feet at him playfully, trying to push him away from her, but only succeeded in getting them pinned, which now exposed her bare belly to his torture.
"Aha! The shoe is on the other foot now, and you don't like it, eh?" Sam asked, grinning wickedly. He paused in his tickling to wait for her response.
"Sam, come on�it was only a joke, please?" Josie begged, knowing she was at his mercy and he didn't look too inclined toward letting her off easy.
"Well, I don't know�after all, I'm not sure�Are you only ticklish here?" he asked. He poked her left side with a finger and watched her flinch, "Or are you also ticklish here?" He splayed his fingers on her stomach and dragged them oh-so-softly across it.
Josie sucked in a deep breath and bit her lip, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of making her laugh. Still, the feel of Sam's fingers as they grazed her sensitive skin made her gasp. "Please, Sam, I give up." Now, why did her voice sound all breathy? she wondered.
Sam leaned further over her until his face was just inches above hers. Smiling triumphantly, he asked, "Are you sure?"
Josie stared up into Sam's incredible green eyes, and could only nod her reply. It was happening again, the thing that always seemed to happen when they looked deeply into each other's eyes�and she was helpless to stop it. In truth, she didn't want to stop it.
Sam's smile faded into an intense awareness. Josie's bare legs were wedged beneath him, twisted in the blankets of the bed. He could feel the smooth cotton of her underwear and silky soft skin of her stomach against his, as both their shirts had ridden up during their tickling. Her breasts, thinly covered by the dress shirt she wore, were pressed against his chest with every breath she took. Her hair was mussed enticingly, begging his fingers to touch it. And her eyes�her eyes called to him like a siren's song. And like all those ancient mariners that crashed their ships on the rocks trying to reach the source of such beauty, he was powerless to resist.
The incredible need for Josie he'd been trying to contain all evening exploded into an inferno of feeling and emotion. He could no more control his actions at that moment than he could stop the winds from blowing off Lake Michigan in the winter.
Laying his full weight down upon her, Sam grasped Josie's face in both hands and devoured her lips with his own. This was not a gentle, sweet kiss, like what they had shared earlier before the fire; this was burning, bright desire at its apex.
Josie shivered at the intense sensations bombarding her from all directions. Under Sam's onslaught, she felt very much the untutored innocent, yet she had never felt more like a woman. She slid her hands slowly under Sam's shirt and up the center of his chest, fascinated by the feel of his smooth skin contrasted by the light sprinkling of chest hair against her palms.
Sam's skin burned where Josie touched it and he groaned deeply against her mouth. Sliding down slightly, he took Josie's bottom lip into his mouth and lightly scraped his teeth back and forth across it, eliciting a breathy sigh from her. Sam slid his right hand up to Josie's ear and lightly circled it with his fingertip as he now suckled at her lip. Needing desperately to feel her bare skin again, he moved his other hand to her waist and slid his fingers beneath her, using his thumb to lightly rub the sensitive side of her waist.
Josie squirmed restlessly at the near ticklishness of Sam's caresses. But because it did not quite tickle, his touch instead caused a molten heat to grow in the pit of her stomach and move upward and outward throughout her body until she felt as if she were glowing as bright as any star in the heavens. Instinctively, her body arched up just slightly toward Sam's, begging for more.
Sam felt Josie's move upward beneath him and in answer, he rolled off her body to the side and pulled her up tightly next to him. Then he lined soft, lingering kisses down her jaw and then replaced his fingertip on her ear with his tongue.
In response, Josie kneaded Sam's chest muscles for a moment before sliding her arms around his back and pulling him closer, tilting her head so that Sam could more readily reach her ear. All she could hear was Sam's hot breath against her ear and the frantic pounding of her own heart as it drowned out all else, even the breathy moans that were torn from her throat with every touch of Sam's tongue.
Sam was astounded by the incredibly honest, passionate responses he was getting from Josie. It was wonderful and beautiful�and it was driving him insane.
He buried his right hand in the hair at the back of Josie's head, and placed the other firmly on her bare skin at the bottom of her spine. Sam held her to him as he rolled onto his back, pulling her over to rest the length of her body on top of his. He slid his left hand lower to cup her bottom and pressed it down against his hips. As Josie opened her mouth in a surprised, excited gasp, he trailed the tip of his tongue down the length of her neck to rest his lips at the place where her neck and shoulders met.
As Sam began to kiss her neck, Josie untangled her arms from inside Sam's T-shirt to slide her hands into his hair and hold his head to her, not wanting him to ever stop. Her chest pressed down against his, and the skin of her stomach touching his, as both their shirts had pushed up from their embraces. She squirmed delightedly as Sam brushed past the more sensitive spots on her neck with his lips.
Sam felt a jolt of pleasure as Josie moved against him enticingly in response to his caresses. He slid his left hand slowly up and down her spine underneath her shirt. Her skin was so soft and wonderfully touchable�it made him ache to touch more of her skin than just her back. Sam sighed against her neck at the mere thought of it.
The sudden rush of Sam's breath against the sensitive skin of her neck made Josie shiver. "Oooh, Sam�watch it, that tickles�" she whispered in his ear huskily.
Sam smiled at the deep, sexy sound of her voice. But as he coaxed Josie's head down with his hand to again place his lips on her neck, something in what she had just said struck a nerve in him� He heard her voice replay the words "that tickles�" in his head.
As his brain made the connection that had been hovering in the fringes of his consciousness, he went completely still. He dimly recalled that just a few moments ago they had been in the midst of an innocent tickle fight, and just how very far they had come from there�
Sam closed his eyes briefly against the shock and disbelief at his own behavior in the last few minutes. This had to stop; he had to stop�right now. Reluctantly, he slowly slid his hands out of her hair and off her back. He cleared his throat and hoarsely half-whispered, "Josie, Josie�we have to stop. We can't do this. Please�"
Josie was beyond all reason and therefore could not hear the wisdom in Sam's words. She lifted her head, pouted, and said, "Sam, you promised you'd stay here and sleep with me tonight. Please don't go."
Sam groaned aloud at the supreme effort he knew it was going to take to actually get up from the bed and leave when he wanted to be with Josie more than anything else in the world. But he persisted, observing dryly, "Josie, in case you haven't noticed�we aren't sleeping�" He'd shoved both his hands surreptitiously under his thighs to keep from touching Josie again.
But Josie was not about to be swayed. She could think of nothing but the way Sam made her feel and she knew she didn't want to stop now. And if she had to do a little convincing, then, that's just what she'd do�
Josie sat up, her legs straddling Sam's hips. Relieved that Josie was cooperating with his request, Sam pushed himself up on his elbows, preparing to sit once Josie had extricated herself from his lap. But to his surprise, Josie did not get up. Instead, she leaned forward so that her shirt gaped open invitingly for his view. And her change of position did not go unnoticed in his lap, either. With Josie leaning so close, Sam could not gain the leverage needed to extricate his hands and sit up to push her away. Sam grimaced in an attempt to control his reaction, his breath hissing out between clenched teeth. "Josie? What are you�?" Still, he could not help but stare at the creamy expanse of her neck exposed between the V of her shirt collar.
Sam watched helplessly as Josie smiled seductively, then leaned further forward, placing both hands on the bed and holding her weight up with her arms, effectively wedging her chest against Sam's while still allowing him an incredible view down the front of her nightshirt.
Josie closed her eyes momentarily, thinking of Sam's words earlier during Truth or Dare, "I get lost in your eyes and then I just have to kiss you�" She fervently hoped that would be the case, because she didn't want this gloriously glowing feeling to end. Then, letting all the love, emotion, and desire she felt for Sam shine in her eyes, she opened them and trapped him in her gaze. "I don't mind that we're not sleeping�" she crooned with a low and sexy voice, "Suddenly, I'm not that tired�"
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