скачать книгу бесплатно
Oh, and he had to be all hers. Had she mentioned that?
Like Deb and Lisa said, he probably didn’t exist.
But she could dream, couldn’t she?
Flicking the page over, Josie’s darkly winged brows shot up when she saw the topic of the next list. Now this was more like it.
THE TEN SEXUAL POSITIONS MOST POPULAR WITH WOMEN.
AND WHY…
Josie worked her way through the list, her eyes widening as she read the variations and comments attached to each position.
“Oh my,” she breathed huskily at one stage, “I didn’t know that.”
And how would you, girl? Your range of sexual positions in your life so far stands at one. Man-on-top, woman-on-bottom. End of story!
Of course, she’d long known about all these other positions. Well…all except number five, that is. She’d never read about that one before.
It did irritate her, however, that the good old missionary position still made the list, and was raved over by several women. Raving certainly hadn’t been the case in her experience. Still, maybe if she ever found some man who could do it well, she might change her mind. She’d sure like the opportunity to try one of the variations mentioned, the one with the woman’s feet hooked over the man’s shoulders.
Finds my G-spot every time, was the comment.
No man had ever found Josie’s G-spot. She wasn’t sure if she even had one. Still, not too many men had found her clitoris, either, and she was very sure she had one of those!
The next double-page spread held an even more eye-popping and envy-making list.
THE TEN THINGS WOMEN MOST LIKE MEN TO DO TO THEM IN BED!
Josie groaned. Talk about practicing masochism. If there were men out there who did such things to and for their women, then fate had been very unfair to her.
Josie’s sexual partners so far had consisted of two wham-bang-thank-you-ma’am college students, one seriously undersexed and sanctimonious husband, plus a handful of poorly-informed and poorly-equipped boyfriends who didn’t last enough dates to be called true boyfriends.
What she wouldn’t give for one night with one of the lovers discussed in this list, the kind of man who could blow a woman’s mind, whatever that felt like. It was one of the remarks next to the number one thing women liked men to do to them in bed.
Josie could only dream about that activity as well. She’d never had the experience at all. Not once. Which was downright criminal, considering its ranking.
At this point, Josie wasn’t sure if she wanted to read the rest of the article. She hated feeling jealous of other women.
On the positive side, at least she now knew that she wasn’t abnormal. What she’d always wanted in bed was what a lot of other women wanted. And what far too many of the lucky ones got!
But who knew? Maybe some day, somewhere, she’d have some luck of her own and meet a man who would finally fulfil her sexual wish list.
Oh-oh, she was playing the glad game again! Kay would be proud of her. With a self-mocking laugh, Josie turned the page and confronted the last and longest list.
THE TOP TEN FEMALE SEXUAL FANTASIES!
Josie closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. Might as well read the darned thing.
Actually, another small measure of relief came over Josie as she read the kind of sexual fantasies other women had. Not so very different from her own. Some were even wilder. Heck no, most of them were wilder. A couple were quite shockingly outrageous.
Of course, they were only fantasies. And fantasies weren’t meant to be enacted for real. They were just fun for the mind. Vicarious pleasure. Imaginative thrills.
Josie’s imagination immediately obliged and she was off in a highly erotic world when the phone rang.
Her first irritated thought carried regret that she hadn’t thought to bring the mobile phone with her into the bathroom. Josie’s second impulse was to ignore the ringing. But what was the point? The mood of the moment had been broken. Besides, it might be important. Her parents, maybe, calling her from wherever in the world they were at the moment.
Putting the magazine down, she climbed out of the bathtub, wrapped a towel around her bubble-covered body and hurried along to the master bedroom, and the nearest phone extension.
“Hi there,” she answered, sweeping up the handset.
“Josie, it’s Lisa. I know you’re probably busy getting ready for tonight, but Deb and I just wanted to find out what you ended up buying to wear. Did you go and look at those two dresses I told you about?”
Lisa had told her last Wednesday night about two party dresses she’d seen in a boutique window near where she worked in the city, insisting that both would look fabulous on Josie. One was red and one was black, and she’d been right. They had both looked great. They were also a lot sexier than the sort of dress Josie usually wore.
Still, the knowledge that Amber would no doubt show up tonight wearing some fabulously expensive designer gown had prompted Josie to throw caution to the winds.
“You’ll be pleased to know that I tried on both dresses,” Josie told her roommate, “and I bought one.”
Lisa squealed with delight. “Fantastic! Which one? The slinky red or the sexy black?”
“The slinky red.” And slinky it was, with its halter neckline and low, low back, making bra-wearing not an option. The black dress had been equally daring, being strapless and skin-tight, but it had been short. The invitation for the reunion had said black tie, which meant formal gowns—and formal generally meant long.
“Atta girl!” Lisa exclaimed. “I was worried you might buy something conservative. Wow, wait till Angus sees you in that tonight. He’s going to flip.”
Josie flinched. She’d lied by omission last Wednesday night, not telling Lisa and Deb a word about dumping Angus. And she certainly hadn’t told them about hiring an escort to take her tonight instead. They’d never let her hear the end of it. She’d let them think she was still going with Angus.
Silly her. Now she’d have to come up with a real lie tomorrow—the three of them were meeting for Sunday brunch in the city. Maybe she could say that Angus admitted to being bisexual when he brought her home after the reunion and that she wouldn’t be dating him anymore.
Yes, that would have to do.
Meanwhile, she didn’t want to discuss the man. Or the reunion tonight. She was getting nervous again, now that her mind had been dragged back out of her perfect fantasy world and into imperfect reality.
“Are you going to sleep with Angus this time, do you think?” Lisa rattled on.
Josie pulled a face. Deception had a way of escalating, despite one’s best efforts to contain it! “I…er…think I’ll just wait and see how I feel.”
“Gosh, I wish I had your control. But you don’t like sex much, do you?”
Josie shouldn’t have been surprised by this remark. If her roommates thought she was a bit of a cold fish where sex was concerned, then she had only herself to blame. But when she’d first met Deb and Lisa, she hadn’t been long divorced from Peter, and was still suffering all sorts of mental torment from his constant accusations about her desires. It seemed better to give her new friends the impression she was a tad on the stuffy side, rather than have them think she was a sex maniac. Still, Josie now knew she wasn’t a sex maniac at all, just a normal redblooded Aussie girl. Maybe it was time she redressed their misconception about her in that area.
“That depends,” she said.
“On what?”
“On who I’m having sex with. With the right man, I’m sure I’d like sex a lot. It’s just that I’ve been involved with some colossal duds when it comes to lovemaking so far.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean. Most men don’t measure up to our expectations. Still, maybe you’ll get lucky tonight,” Lisa went on eagerly. “You have one hot date there.”
Josie wondered what had happened to Lisa’s man-hating mood, but decided not to ask. Neither of her roommates ever really went off men for too long. They talked tough and bitter for a while after a breakup, but a good-looking guy only had to look their way and they fell in love all over again.
“I have to go, Lisa. I’ve just run a bath and it’s getting cold. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay. Have fun now.”
Fun! Fun was the last thing Josie anticipated having tonight. She’d be happy just getting through the evening without having everything blow up in her face.
4
CALLUM GAVE A LOW WHISTLE as he pulled his red car up outside the Castlecrag address his brother had given him. Ms. Josie Williams must have well-to-do parents to live here, he decided as he switched off the engine and glanced down the sloping front lawn to the large split-level home with its view of Middle Harbour.
Surely she couldn’t own this home herself. Not at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight.
Callum had deduced Ms. Williams’s age from the fact that tonight’s event was her ten-year class reunion. It was a case of basic math, given most graduates of Australian high schools were seventeen or eighteen. He knew no other details about her except she wanted a fake boyfriend on her arm to take with her to said reunion.
Callum tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and speculated once again over the reasons why a girl would want to hire a fake boyfriend.
The one and only logical reason hardly made him look forward to this evening. She was obviously desperate and dateless, a poor little rich bitch with more money than looks or personality. In other words, a plain Jane and a bore, who had difficulty getting a date, let alone a boyfriend, but who was determined not to go to her class reunion all alone.
Which was where he came in.
When he’d expressed concern to Clay earlier this afternoon over being able to pull this charade off, his brother’s advice was that he should simply treat the girl like a normal date.
“You do date occasionally, don’t you, bro?” Clay had almost taunted.
Callum had growled that of course he did.
“I was beginning to wonder. There you go, then. Just do what you do on one of your regular dates.”
Nice idea in theory, but Callum suspected Ms. Josie Williams would be nothing like any girl he’d ever dated. Callum only asked out confident career women who knew what they wanted, then went out and got it for themselves. Girls with balls, for want of a better word. Invariably beautiful, brainy and bold, they liked male company—and sex—but had no desire to marry at this stage in their lives. If ever.
Callum had had relationships with a series of such women over the past few years, and he’d remained friends with almost all of them after he’d moved on. Only once had he chosen poorly, a New York divorcée who had seemed an assertive independent spirit on the surface, but who was secretly a shattered and needy soul, ripe and ready to create havoc in Callum’s life when the relationship ended.
Having a firsthand experience with that kind of Fatal Attraction scenario had made Callum a once-bitten, twice shy kind of guy, partly because he never wanted to be subjected to that kind of personal harassment again. But mostly because he didn’t want to be responsible for hurting another woman like he’d obviously hurt Meg. He always made it his business these days to find out lots about a female before he asked her out, as well as keeping his eyes wide open during their first date. If there was any hint of emotional vulnerability or instability, then it was a peck on the cheek at the end of the night, and a swift adieu.
Callum suspected Ms. Josie Williams would disqualify herself from being a regular date of his on every level.
No, thinking of her as a regular date wasn’t going to work. He’d have to do what he really wasn’t all that good at.
Act.
Oh, well. He could only do his best. With a resigned sigh, Callum climbed out of his car, locked it and headed along the path which led past the garage and down some stone steps onto an L-shaped colonnaded porch.
The front door was in a recessed alcove, not visible from the street, with an elegant lamp light overhead, stained glass windows on either side and a doorbell in its middle. Callum pressed the button and waited. No one came, despite the rather loud chime echoing through the house.
Callum was about to press the bell again when the door was whisked open and he was confronted by a very different Josie Williams than the one he’d pictured. At least, he assumed the ravishing creature standing before him was Josie Williams, given she was around the right age and dressed to kill in a smashing red evening gown.
Wow! he thought, as his surprised eyes took in every inch of his date from the top of her shiny dark head to the tip of her open-toed high heels. This was one great-looking girl. She had it all. Long glossy black hair. Gorgeous olive skin. Sexy cat’s eyes. Cute little turned-up nose. And a mouth to drive a man wild!
And that was just her face and hair.
Her figure was equally sensational, and exactly the way Callum liked a woman’s body. Tall and slender, with narrow hips and breasts that were full without being top-heavy. His gaze returned to linger on those very nice and obviously braless breasts, which were cupped sexily by the cut of the dress, the halterneck style lifting them up and together into a very eye-catching cleavage.
Callum was certainly having trouble taking his eyes off her cleavage. Why such a hot-looking babe didn’t have a real boyfriend to take her wherever she might want to go on a Saturday night was more than a mystery. It was a crime!
Whatever the reason, Callum’s feelings toward the evening took a definite turn for the better. Of course, his date could be a total no-no in the brains department, but spending a few hours with her sure wouldn’t be hard on his eyes. Or his ego.
“Ms. Williams, I presume,” he said with a smile.
She smiled back—if a little nervously.
“Yes. That’s right. And you must be Beau Grainger? Come in for a minute.”
Callum nodded and followed her inside, privately thinking it was going to be difficult answering to such a stupid name all evening.
“You’re different from what I pictured,” she said, a slight frown gathering on her high forehead as she looked him up and down.
He could have said the same about her.
“In what way?” he asked, wondering all of a sudden if she was disappointed. Maybe the agency had described Clay to her and she’d been expecting a real pretty boy. Or maybe she’d just formed a mental picture in her head from talking to his sweet-talking brother the other night on the phone. It was as well that their voices were similar or she’d be saying he sounded different as well.
“You look older,” she told him.
“I’ve always looked old for my age,” he said by way of an excuse. Naturally, he did look older than Clay’s twenty-four. He was thirty, going on thirty-one.
“Does my looking older present a problem for you?” he added, the thought crossing Callum’s mind that maybe she’d wanted a younger boyfriend on her arm. Who knew what her secret agenda might be? She certainly hadn’t hired an escort because she couldn’t get a date herself the normal way.
“Oh, no, no, not at all,” she denied, but Callum thought he detected something in her expressive brown eyes. Guilt, perhaps? No, not guilt. Embarrassment. She was embarrassed by this situation.
Odd, since she was the one who’d orchestrated it.
“Better you do look older, I suppose,” she went on a bit brusquely. “I mean, given that I’m twenty-eight and you’re supposed to be my boyfriend.”
Callum frowned over the puzzle of this stunning twenty-eight-year-old. “Would you mind my asking why a girl like yourself doesn’t have a boyfriend for real?”
She laughed a small, dry laugh. “In actual fact, I did have a boyfriend. Till last weekend.”
“What happened?”
Her eyes flashed with remembered anger. “I found out he didn’t want what I wanted, and we came to an abrupt parting of the ways.”
“Aah…” Callum didn’t need to ask any more questions. Relationships were not easy, and many ended badly and prematurely, especially for the girls who wanted wedding bells and baby bootees. And, let’s face it, a lot of them did.
Most guys weren’t in any rush to get to the altar. Nowadays, the singles scene was a sexual smorgasbord and men tended to put off marriage till they themselves wanted to settle down and have a family. Most girls, however, were different.
At twenty-eight, Josie Williams was already at that age where she’d be seriously looking for a husband, whereas it was highly likely that all her boyfriend had had in mind was more fun and games.
“You didn’t have any other male friend you could ask to take you to your reunion?” Callum continued, wanting to put all the pieces of her puzzle together here.
