Charlie All Night Read online

  “I know.” Charlie’s hands smoothed over her. “You just don’t like being out of control.”

  “Maybe.” Allie was distracted; he was moving under her now, pulling her hips up to his, spreading her thighs apart with his legs.

  “Whenever you’re ready.” Charlie kissed her shoulder. “Just don’t wait too long, or I’ll lose my mind.”

  Allie propped herself above him, dizzy with heat. “What do you want me to do?”

  He pulled her closer. “Just ease yourself over me and make me the happiest man in this city.”

  She laughed softly. “There are other guys in this city making love right now, you know.”

  “Not with you.” He smiled up at her, and she wanted him so much she ached with it. “Allie, I want you so much.”

  Allie blinked at him, surprised out of her own thoughts. “Me?”

  He laughed softly. “Yes, you. Can’t you tell I’m interested?”

  He was hard between her thighs, and she rocked a little against him and watched him close his eyes. “Yes,” she told him, laughing again at how easy he was to distract. “I can tell. But I thought for a guy, it didn’t make any difference who…”

  His eyes snapped open. “You thought wrong.” His hands were suddenly tight on her waist, as if he were trying to make her listen harder. I’m going nuts right now only because I’m with you,” he told her, and she lost her breath at the intensity in his voice. “You make me crazy. I’ve been thinking about you all day.” He let his head sink into the pillow. “Now, will you please get a move on here? I’m not kidding about the crazy part.”

  She took a deep breath and found him with her hand. He held her hips so tightly she knew she’d have fingerprint bruises the next day, but it was erotic to have his hands on her that hard. She guided herself over him and eased him a little way into her, carefully, tentatively. He felt wonderful, and her heart pounded and she felt her blood begin to rush and she stopped, trying to keep from lurching out of control.

  Charlie made a sound way back in his throat, but he didn’t push.

  She was doing it all.

  “Oh,” she said and sank her hips down to his, and he felt so good that she moaned, and Charlie threw his head back on the pillow and bit his lip.

  “Charlie,” she whispered.

  “Don’t mind me,” he said through his teeth. “This is just ecstasy.”

  Allie moved against him slowly, holding him hard inside her, feeling her skin heat, trying to keep her breathing slow as she watched his face. He wasn’t kidding. He was in ecstasy. And I’m doing this, she thought. She squeezed him with the muscles inside her and her heart pounded as she watched him suck in his breath. Then she moved her hips against his, and he moved to meet her, and her blood began to bubble. She licked her lips and breathed in and thought, God, I’m powerful. No wonder men love sex so much.

  She eased herself up until she was sitting, straddling him until he was high inside her. He ran his hands up her body, cupping her breasts, and she leaned against his hands, relishing the pressure there and in the center of her body, and the prickling in her veins, and she began to move against him. She could feel the pressure growing, little flames of heat licking inside her as she rocked against him. The licking flames flared into a hot spiral, and she knew that it was going to explode, that she’d feel him everywhere, that she’d lose herself in him and be gone again, and she wanted it more than anything and still she clutched, just a little, as it began to go. Then Charlie arched up to hold her, dragging her down to his warmth, and she was wrapped safe in his arms as he moved convulsively inside her. “Come on, Allie,” he breathed in her ear, and she pressed herself hard down against him and then everything did explode in a kaleidoscope of surge and flame, and she rocked against him over and over, sobbing, until he cried out in his own climax.

  She clutched at him until even the tiny aftershocks inside her were gone, and when they were both breathing again, Allie whispered, “I don’t want you to move to the couch,” and Charlie held her tightly and said, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  * * *

  “Bill wants to see you,” Karen called to Charlie when he strolled in late the next afternoon.

  “I bet he does.” Charlie stopped at the counter and grinned at her. “Did you bake cookies?”

  “No, that’s Mrs. Wexman. She brings them in for Grady and he shares.”

  Charlie bit into the cookie. Chocolate chip with pecans. “Good for Mrs. Wexman. What does Grady do to deserve this?”

  “Drives her to chemotherapy.” Karen blinked up at him. “Grady does that a lot for the people his mom met while she was going through it. We get a lot of stuff in here because of it. You should taste Mrs. Winthrop’s almond cookies.”

  “He drives Mrs. Winthrop, too?”

  Karen nodded. “He helps out with other stuff, too. Mrs. Winthrop came in one day all upset about her grandson yelling at her, and I called Grady, and he told her not to worry, that he’d take care of it. The next day, she brought in a devil’s food cake.”

  “That’s what I like, grateful women who bake.” Charlie peered over the counter. “Where’s Sam?”

  Karen brought the basket up on the desk, and Charlie turned back the blanket to see Sam’s little black head. “How’s he doing?” He rubbed the puppy gently behind the ears, his broad index finger covering the back of Sam’s head by itself, and Sam moaned a little.

  “I’m scared for him.” Karen sniffed. “He’s so little, and he’s not eating much, and-”

  “I’ll pour the stuff down him tonight.” Charlie pulled the blanket back over Sam’s head. “He’s just getting the hang of it, that’s all.”

  Karen caught his hand. “Charlie, this is so sweet of you.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Charlie retrieved his hand and picked up another cookie. “You’d have to have a heart of stone to refuse to feed Sam.” He glanced at the clock behind her. “Which reminds me, I’ve got to go see Bill. Am I getting fired?”

  “I doubt it.” Karen put Sam’s basket back under her desk. “But you’re gonna have to listen to some yelling.”

  Charlie turned and almost fell over a stack of boxes next to the desk. “What’s this?”

  “Bumper stickers,” Karen said. “Mark’s idea. They’re really popular. The college kids from Riverbend love them.”

  Charlie frowned. “College kids listen to Mark?”

  “No,” Karen said. “They just like the stickers.”

  Charlie put his cookie down and pried open the top of the first box and pulled out a sticker. It was neon blue with a slash of orange lettering that said WBBB: Turn Us ON! He turned back to Karen. “You’re kidding.”

  She shrugged. “Who knows from kids?”

  Charlie started to laugh. She couldn’t be much older than twenty-five herself. “Well put, old lady,” he told her and she grinned back at him.

  “At least I’m not going nuts for a dumb bumper sticker,” she said.

  “Good point.” He folded the sticker and shoved it in his pocket as he turned for the hallway. “Now for the yelling. Wish me luck.”

  “You won’t need it,” she called after him. “I heard your show. You were great.”

  Terrific. Just what he needed. A fan. He was really going to have to get a grip on things or Allie would make him a star.

  * * *

  “Come in,” Bill yelled when Charlie tapped on his door. “Oh, it’s you.”

  Charlie folded himself into the chair opposite the old man’s desk, ready to listen to a litany of his faults. It would be like old home week, his dad all over again.

  Bill looked out at Charlie under bushy white eyebrows. “The papers are calling about that mess last night. Don’t talk to’em.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it. Believe me, if I’d had any idea-”

  Bill flapped a hand at him. “I’m not blaming you. Alice already told me it was her fault.”

  “Well, I was there, too,” Charlie said mildly. “The city buildin