by M. C. Cerny
“Oh yeah, well you’re a hot-headed bitch sometimes!” Whoa, now Damien was getting on my nerves calling Kristen names.
“What did you call me, unicorn dick?”
Yeah, this was headed downhill super quick and maybe Kristen did deserve the hot-headed part. Hunter and I looked at each other, silently saying, “You get that one, I got this one,” and made to grab our respective relatives before they could jump each other, claws out and scratching. I didn’t need another war wound peeling my immature sister off the one guy I didn’t want to admit she probably should be with. It would probably take my sister another decade to figure that out.
“Argh!” Kristen went full psycho in my arms.
“Calm down!” I told her squeezing her around the middle, but it fell on deaf ears.
“Dude, we don’t talk to women like that.” Hunter reminded his cousin slapping him in the back of the head.
“She’s not a woman, she’s a hell-beast!” Damien yelled, half struggling in Hunter’s grasp. God only knew what set these two off this time.
“Tell me how you really feel, pig-fucker!” Kristen just kept going, and I was partially afraid she was going to hit me with her flailing arms.
“I’m not the one fucking a cop!” Damien yelled. Jesus, he really was caught up on Kristen seeing Evan right now. This was bad.
Real bad.
“Cool your jets! Both of you! I’m tired of two of my best friends acting like idiots!” Taylor picked up the garden hose and aimed true spraying all of us with water that quickly turned from hot to freezing cold in seconds. .
“Arrrgh!” She shot each of us full blast with water until they stopped fighting, either too exhausted or too wet to keep going any longer. Unfortunately, both Hunter and I ended up as casualties.
“Done?” she asked, squirting us all again for good measure. Damien held his hands up and stalked off, ripping his T-shirt off that clung to his body.
“Sorry, babe.” Taylor dropped the hose and hugged Hunter, kissing him and soaking herself against his waterlogged clothes. He shook his head, mumbling it wasn’t the first time she’d shot him with a hose, and he proceeded to take his shirt off too. I guess this BBQ was officially a skins versus shirts affair.
“Wow, that was different.” Winnie stood there, taking it all in. I wasn’t even sure she’d met my parents yet and this day was only getting better.
A naughty idea formed in my head because when in Rome... “Come here,” I said, walking up to her arms out wide.
“Oh no, you keep that over there, Doctor.” She wagged her finger at me. God, I wanted to bite the tip of it for starters. “I’m not doing another sans clothing episode with you.” She laughed dodging and suddenly I laughed stalking her around a patio table. We all had a little crazy going on, so I decided to join in ripping my shirt off and chasing after her too.
10
Winnie
Chase soaking wet, no shirt, and taking rapidly increasing steps toward me as I backed away was a sight to see. The good doctor had muscles and definition outlined in the afternoon sun and water glistening down to his flat stomach into shorts that hung low on his hips. I had seen his chest earlier, but something about the context of now, the picnic, and the people watching us magnified my response a hundred times. Dry Chase was amazing, wet Chase left me thirsty and desperate to control myself from reaching over to lick his skin.
I was afraid I might trip on my clumsy ass again, but he kept smiling like a goofball. “What? Shit. No! Chase! Stop it!” I hissed at him as chased me around the backyard while I squealed like a farm animal. Exhilaration coursed through me, and I wasn’t sure if I should let him catch me or not. My shoes prevented me from running full out, and he seemed more bent on stalking me than he did catching me at the moment.
“Come here.” He taunted with his arms open as I was dodging him around a picnic table filled with food. His wet hair curled over his forehead and the urge to push it back distracted me just enough that he caught me. Arms looped around my middle and his bare chest and wet shorts seeped through the back of my sundress.
“Chase!” He was laughing against me and the rumble made me squirm against him suggestively, forgetting how recently I met him.
“Careful, Win.” The playfulness changed, and I felt his fingers graze my sides close enough to the side boob, but far enough away to remain respectable in broad daylight at a family gathering.
“Chase…” This time saying his name was less censure and more invitation when I laid my head against his shoulder, forgetting we were at his parents’ house amid guests in the backyard. His friends seemed to be gone, caught up in their own whirlwinds while a game of badminton was played by some younger cousins across the yard.
“You know, Son, if you had run like that in football practice, you might have gotten somewhere.” We both jerked apart hearing the comment from behind us, and Chase tensed against me.
“Good to see you too, Dad. Come on, I’ll get us some towels.” The coldness between father and son was chilling to any observer. Chase didn’t bother with an introduction as he dragged me toward the house, an unrelenting grip on my hand. I could barely keep up with him, but I was leery of saying anything from the scowl marring his beautiful face. Instead, I squeezed his hand back to let him know I understood.
Chase took me inside to the mud room, pulling towels down from a shelf. He wrapped one around me and used another one to dry off his bare chest and hair.
“Thanks,” I told him as I brushed the water from my arms. My dress was soaked as were his shorts. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do when a chill from the cranked air conditioning gave me a shudder.
“You want to talk about what happened out there?” I asked.
“I’m, uh, sorry about that.” He looked sheepish and my big mouth followed asking him another probing question.
“About which part?” He stood close, maybe too close, and the mud room quickly heated up with the two of us breathing out of breath.
“I’ll start with my sister, Kristen, her strange relationship with Damien none of us can figure out, and my dad being a jerk.”
“Wow, and I haven’t met your mom yet.” My hand traced a path down his chest distracting us both.
“Do you think we should leave now, quit while we’re ahead?”
“Oh no, I’m committed to see this through,” I teased him, pulling him closer to me.
“Of course you are.” He moved back and we parried a little dance in the confined space.
“It wasn’t that bad, but did you really have to chase me around the backyard?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“And now?”
“Well, I think we might need to dry our clothes a bit before we go back out there.”
“Hmm. It seems like you’re just trying to get another free peep show, Dr. Calloway?”
He mocked looking offended. “Me? I would never do such a thing.” He grabbed the towel around me and pulled me in close. “But I might do this if you’re agreeable.”
My heart fluttered and my body felt like the pressure in the small room changed as Chase got closer to me. His head leaned down and rose up until our lips met in a kiss that had me sinking deep against him. Chase tasted like sweetly carbonated beer and summer, and I wanted to get drunk off his lips.
“Is this okay, Winnie? Can I kiss you like this?” Oh my God, if he stopped I’d probably cry and pitch a fit.
“Are you going to try and take my dress off?” I whispered into his open mouth that was kissing and catching my lips between his.
“Probably, but only because I think we should put our stuff in the dryer.”
I snorted. “Likely story.”
“That’s the one I’m sticking to.” Chase’s fingers crept down my sides and slowly gathered my wet dress up my body until I let go of the towel, dropping it on the floor.
He picked up the towel, wrapping me up and then dropped his shorts, and I mean ever
ything in one shot. He was too beautiful to be human. At least that was the last neural connection I had before I was stunned looking at him. “Oh!”
“Sorry, everything is soaked.” He was not the least bit bashful or apologetic. I bet Chase and Roswell were in cahoots in another life.
“I’ll say.” I fanned myself and tried to not think of my damp panties. Chase dropped everything inside the dryer and put it on air dry for twenty minutes. That didn’t seem like a long enough time to take care of business, but what did I know? Chase grabbed his towel, wrapping it around his waist, and then locked the door of the mud room from the inside.
“I should have done that first.” He laughed. “Just in case.”
“Mmmhhhmmm.” Was all I said when he picked me up, propping me on top of the dryer currently spinning under my ass with warm vibrations that teased me.
“Now, where was I?”
I pointed to my lips. “Somewhere around here, I think.”
“Oh yeah.” Chase went in, swooping down, taking my lips in another soul stealing kiss. My hands needed some place to go because I felt like I was about to fall back. I let go of the towel and grabbed onto his shoulders, letting my fingers tangle up in his hair. My nails scraped through his thick dark hair and pulled gently on the ends.
I should be shocked hooking up in a mud room of all places, but all I could do was concentrate on the feel of Chase against me and in my hands. His own hands traveled around my body, making stops to trace my spine, tickling me first. He gently pried my legs apart and stepped between them, pulling me close to the edge of the dryer. He didn’t rub all over me, but instead treaded lightly, grazing my skin. One hand stayed planted on my hip, his finger stroking under the elastic band of the silk panties I was wearing. The other hand went back to my side and his thumb traveled north to stroke against my side boob, teasing me. I wiggled, trying to get his finger closer to my nipple because he was making me nuts.
“Chase.” Half whine, half groan, pure frustration, I didn’t know, but it was driven by this desire for more that he was not giving me.
“Shhh.” I’m wiggling to the end of the dryer’s ledge, ready to crawl over him, but all I got was a hip and his side when I tried wrapping my legs around him. I was about as close to a bitch in heat the way he was teasing me and tears pricked my eyes because it felt so good I didn’t want him to stop.
Deflated, the buzzer of the dryer dinged, sending zings of vibrations straight to my center when he reached behind me to shut it off while kissing me senseless. It was enough to push me just over the tip of the edge, but not enough to sate the desire he built kissing me. I was breathing heavy pants and sank against his shoulder, weak and angry.
“I hate you,” I mumbled against his neck as those damn fingers slowly petted me back down to a reasonable level of sanity.
“Ah, Winnie. I know how you feel.”
“I doubt that very much.”
He smirked, turning his hip, and I finally felt his erection through the towel, long and hard.
“No doubt I’d like more, but I don’t want to rush you.”
Crestfallen, I leaned back, looking up at him. My eyes, damn them, were tear filled and ready to spill over.
“You don’t?” Should I be upset? I was upset, but should I be? He’d twisted me in a knot that only got tighter with each encounter with him.
He used the pads of his thumbs to brush away my tears. “No, Winnie, I want to take my time with you. You’re worth taking the time.” He pulled me to the edge, slowly letting me slip against the soft towel on the smooth warm metal frame of the dryer. His lips touched mine in a scorching hot kiss, pressing his hips deep into the cradle of mine, rubbing himself against me and torturing us both all over again.
Heat built between us, and I thought we might actually take it further when inhuman sounds found us. “Arrggh!” Banging on the door shook the shelves above me.
“Hey, open up, Mom wants the cloth table napkins. You better not have gizzed all over in there.” Chase’s sister killed the mood, rapping on the door relentlessly, demanding linens that must be kept in here.
Chase made a smacking sound of frustration with his lips, shaking his head no. “So, uh, have you met my sister Kristen? She’s a pervert and a pain in the ass.”
“Hmm. I wonder where she gets it from.” I bit my lip, willing my face to stop blushing, but it was useless because I felt the fire coating my skin.
“Now you see why?” he asked with an incredulous grin.
Slapping him on the chest, I pushed him back and hopped off the dryer on wobbly knees. “Give me my clothes back.”
He laughed, yelling at Kristen to get her panties out of a wade before opening the door. He held it open for me to exit less than gracefully into the kitchen and open-mouthed stares of both his sister and mom.
Oh hell.
Yeah, because nothing else would have been more awkward.
11
Chase
“Oh shit.” My mother narrowed her eyes at me, tapping her heeled foot while Winnie smoothed back her messy hair no thanks to me and my man hands tangling the locks. She hadn’t turned around yet to see my mother’s censure.
“Chase Miles Calloway. I raised you better than to maul a house guest in the mud room.” She’d put on her legal stare, and I felt my spine withering under her censure.
“Sorry mom.” Like a decent son, I felt the need to apologize.
Winnie turned suddenly looking pale and confused.
“Oh. Um Catherine?” Her mouth dropped open and I felt like I was in a bad television show.
“Hello, dear. I’m Chase’s mother. Judge Calloway.” Mom held out her hand, shocking me. Mom wasn’t touchy-feely, and I wondered what she did with her Lysol spray. Poor Winnie shook it hesitantly. I couldn’t blame her. Who the hell introduced themselves as “Judge?” My mother, Catherine Ann Calloway, the germaphobe, that’s who.
I felt it necessary to explain, I didn’t think everyone had a gavel wielding parent as common place.
“It’s a new appointment. Mom’s a lawyer in town,” I whispered in Winnie’s ear, feeling like an idiot trying to explain.
She grimaced with a wide fake smile, continuing to shake my mother’s hand. “Not helping, Chase,” she muttered under her breath with clenched teeth for my ears alone.
“Actually, we met at the Bridge club with your grandmother. So nice to see you again, although, it would be nice to know why my son is soaking wet.”
I stepped between them to break up the tension. We were definitely leaving as soon as possible.
“It’s Kristen’s fault. We got sprayed with the hose because she attacked Damien. We were drying our clothes.” I tried looking innocent, but my mother wasn’t stupid, and the look on her face suggested she’d call me later and chew my ass out for having naked guests in her house despite me being a man who turned thirty.
“Way to throw me under the bus, bro.”
“Anytime, KC. Looks like the food is out. Catch you later.” I pulled a disheveled Winnie, wrinkled dress and all, away from the firing squad.
“So nice to see you again!” Mom called after us, requesting Winnie have lunch with her and the girls.
Yeah, not on my watch.
Walking away, I found some tables and chairs set up by the fire pit as other folks passed by introducing themselves. “I think that went well, don’t you?” Winnie disentangled herself from me and walked alongside.
“Sure, if you call getting the stink eye from the woman who birthed you good, then we’re classic, baby.”
She smiled, pinching my side. Winnie wasn’t mad, so that was something.
“They can be intense.” It was lame, but I honestly had nothing else to go with.
“Then I’m guessing your grandmother must be here somewhere? She’s a doll.” Winnie winked.
“Yes, Nana Halle has that way about her. I haven’t seen her. She might be laying down, but if she’s here we’ll say hello to the little conspirator.” I j
oked.
Winnie let out a deep breath, shaking her shoulders out dramatically. “Well, thank God my hand hadn’t been down your pants or anything else. It would have been really weird shaking your mom’s hand after that.” There were so many ways to interpret that statement, but I let it go, nodded, and hoped she was kidding. Mom had hand sanitizer stationed all over the house, but I wasn’t going to tell Winnie that.
“Yeah, we already saw enough of each other today, huh?”
“Oh my God, like three dates’ worth. I think we’re good for another month at least.”
That was a sobering thought. I didn’t want to wait three dates to make another move, and I hoped she was joking. Winnie and I parred back and forth trading quips when I guided her over to a table laid out with food. We picked up plates and filled them with ribs, corn, salads and the usual BBQ fare. Hunter and Taylor Jane joined us at the table and we ate in easy comradery.
“You never did tell me what you girls got into when you left us.” I turned, directing the question at Taylor Jane while I slipped my hand under the table, resting it on Winnie’s bare knee. Screw waiting three dates, I was going to test the waters now while I had the opportunity.
“As soon as we got inside we were put to work shuffling all this stuff outside. I don’t think I even saw your mom. Winnie, did you get to meet her yet?” Taylor Jane had no idea her innocent question left the door wide open. I let my finger stroke her leg, sneaking under the fabric to touch her higher where she was warmer.
Winnie pushed her hand against mine under the table, but I squeezed her leg firmly, keeping my hand in place while I watched her color rise and her eyes spark. “I did meet her briefly. Actually, we played a round of Bridge earlier this week unknowingly.” Winnie cleared her throat, smiled, and pinched the soft spot on my hand under the table, forcing me to let go of her as she crossed her legs, blocking my efforts.
