by S. E. Rose
“I think it’s romantic. I love it,” Di says as she puts her hands over her heart.
I roll my eyes. “First,” I start, looking from Kent to Kylie’s boyfriend, Levi, “some of us have a lot of money, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. And second, look around, people. We’re already gutting this part of the house. A few little lights shouldn’t make a massive difference on the budget.”
“OK, fine. But no more holes in the ceiling. I’ll go talk to the electrician. I think he’s downstairs checking the fuse box,” Kent says.
“Fine,” I agree before poking one more hole. Ash giggles and Kent glares at me.
I shrug and hand the sword back to Ash. “Maybe take that outside before your mom kills both you and me.”
He salutes me and runs to the sliding door, throwing it open and then slamming it shut.
Lanie groans. “I swear to God there is not enough patience for mothering on days like today.”
As if on cue, I hear my niece wailing on a baby monitor that is sitting on the coffee table.
I grin. “I’ll go get her. Whose room is she in?”
Tabby sighs with relief because her hands are full of barware. “Yours.”
I walk upstairs and peek inside my room. Vera is staring at me from the crib my parents have for her when she stays here. She immediately stops crying.
“Well, hello there,” I say. I can’t explain it. I’m not much for kids but I freaking love my niece and nephew. Vera is the only baby that I’d willingly change a diaper for. “What’s wrong with my girl?”
She coos at me as I walk up to her and lean over the crib. She’s going over four months old now and she’s getting even more adorable with each passing day.
I pick her up and her little chubby hands clench my shirt. I kiss her forehead and she grins at me.
“Should I be worried?” Megan’s voice comes from the doorway. I turn and see her leaning against the doorjamb.
Laughing, I bounce my niece. “I don’t think so. I mean, no one can compete with Vera-wera,” I say in a baby voice.
Vera giggles and claps her hands together.
“OK, let’s get you changed and fed, squirt.” I walk her over to the changing table and start the gross process of diaper changing.
“Wow. I didn’t know you were so domesticated,” Megan says as she walks over to us.
“Only for my Vera,” I say as I lean down and blow a raspberry on her belly. She bursts into a fit of baby giggles.
Megan laughs. “She really does have you wrapped around her little finger.”
I look down at Megan who’s standing next to me now. Her face is alight with amusement and her eyes glimmer. Her hair is pulled up on top of her head and she looks, beautiful. “Yes, she does,” I say. Megan blushes and looks back down at Vera.
“Come on, cutie-patootie,” I state as I put Vera’s little pants back on her and pick her up again. “It’s time to go annoy Daddy!”
I start toward the door and stop when I realize Megan isn’t following me. I turn and watch as she runs her finger along my old desk.
“Lots of memories in here, huh?” she says as she picks up a trophy on my bookshelf that I won when we played soccer together as kids.
“There are memories everywhere in this house,” I agree.
She spins on her heel and looks at me. “Is the room still there?” she asks.
I grin and motion with my free hand for her to follow me. After bestowing my niece upon her father, I head past the guys removing trim in the breakfast room. Megan follows me down the back hallway and up the stairs to the bonus room above our garage. She follows me inside one of the giant cedar-lined storage closets on either side of the stairs. And then she crouches down and walks through the small door in the back of the closet. I flick on the switch and sit down on one of the beanbag chairs that Ashton surely has deposited here.
She takes the one next to me and we both look around at our old secret playroom that my dad made out of an unused attic over the back of the house.
“I can’t believe it looks the same,” she admits.
“Yeah, I don’t think Mom and Dad ever come in here. Not that it’s super easy to climb through the closet, but Ash comes up here now."
"I can tell," she says with a laugh and points to the drawing on the small kids' table in the corner that reads, “Ash’s Room, Keep Out!”
“Damn, I’m gonna have to talk with little man, that’s harsh.”
“Oh, come on, you and I totally did the same thing. We even told your older siblings they were banned from coming in here because they were ‘too old.’”
I don’t know why I do it, but I reach over and grab her hand. She grips mine back and we both turn our heads to look at the other.
“Thanks for coming to help,” I say.
“Thanks for inviting me,” she replies.
All of a sudden, a realization dawns on me. “Shit, you’ve never been to Kent’s house, have you?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Why?”
“You brought your bathing suit, right?”
She nods and raises a quizzical eyebrow.
I look down at my phone. “Come on, we can bail a little early and head over there now.”
I practically haul her to her feet, and we make our way back down to the nearly packed-up family room. “We’re gonna head over now. You want me to get stuff going on the grill?” I ask my brother.
“Oh, uh, shit, is that the time? Yeah, if you could, that would be great. It’s just us and a few friends, so nothing crazy,” Kent says.
I grin because crazy isn’t exactly what I have in mind…OK, maybe a little crazy.
Chapter Twenty
Megan
“Holy. Fucking. Shit.” The words leave my mouth before I can even comprehend what I’m looking at.
“Just how much money does Kent make exactly?” I ask as I survey the backyard that looks like an architecture magazine and a theme park had a baby.
Clark chuckles and starts pulling off his clothes. “Come on, it’s heated.” Before I can even reply, he’s buck-naked and jumping in the pool.
“Clark,” I hiss as I look around and see some security cameras.
Clark rolls his eyes. “No one is watching that right now, and besides, this corner has no camera surveillance. Kent once told me that when he was drunk. I guess this was his hookup corner.”
I walk over and take my shoes off, dipping my toes in the warm water of the pool. I admit it does feel nice.
“Come on,” he urges.
“Are you sure we’ll be alone for a while?”
“Hell yeah, they weren’t even close to being done.”
I quickly strip and dive into the water. When I come up for air, Clark is in front of me. Our naked limbs tangle in the water, and out of pure instinct, I wrap my legs around his waist feeling his erection against me.
He walks to the corner where his feet touch the bottom of the pool. “I’ve been wanting to do this all fucking day,” he murmurs as he leans in and kisses me.
I feel his erection brush against my sex, and I begin to shamelessly grind against it. “Pool sex?” I ask in a husky voice.
“Fuck yes, pool sex,” he replies as he lifts my hips and gently lowers me onto him. He’s slow and gentle as he thrusts into me. Something about the sensations of the water, the thrill of sex out in the open, and the way our wet bodies glide against each other has me nearing release within seconds.
“God, you feel good,” he whispers as he kisses down the length of my neck while he continues to hold my hips, controlling our speed.
But I want more, need more. “More,” I manage to say as I start slamming with more force against him. I guess I don’t need to ask twice because suddenly our rhythm speeds up and his thrusts become harder, and that combination makes me detonate.
“Clark!” I cry out as I come, my inner walls flutter around his cock.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he groans as he comes a moment later, slamming into me
one last time.
He leans his forehead on mine and we both hold on to each other as our breathing returns to normal.
“Hey, are the burgers on yet?” Tabby’s voice rings out from the small cluster of trees just off the driveway.
“Oh, God!” I cry as I scramble to grab the bag that I dropped by the pool which has my bikini in it.
Clark doesn’t even bat an eyelash. “Not yet!” he calls out as he stands and watches me pulling out items that I’m not even looking at as I try to find the damn bathing suit that I threw in here earlier.
“Chill,” he says and reaches over me and into my bag. A moment later, he hands me my bikini top and bottom just as Tabby clears the tree line with Vera in a stroller.
I slink in the water.
“Couldn’t resist the pool, huh?” Tabby states with her arms crossed as she looks at Clark.
He grins at her. “Oh, come on. You can’t be mad at me. I had to show it all off to Megan. It’s her first time here.”
“I commend you, Clark. I thought I had the younger-sibling thing down, but you win. I can’t even be mad at you. I’m sort of proud. Shit. You somehow weaseled your way out of the last hour of packing. You got here first and haven’t even done anything yet. And somehow, you are still adorable and I can’t be angry. How do you do it?” she asks.
I start laughing and give her my smolder look.
“Uh, no. Just no. And also, I love you, but get your ass up to the grill and get it started,” she commands.
Clark starts to get out of the pool and Tabby averts her eyes. “Commando? Seriously?” She reaches down and covers Vera’s eyes. “Don’t look at Uncle C-Dog’s privates.”
I giggle and finish tying my bikini top that I have been covertly trying to put on for the last minute.
“Megan, enjoy the pool. Seriously, I’m giving Clark a hard time, but you are most welcome to stay in there as long as you want. We have chips, potato salad, and cookies inside when you are hungry.”
“Thank you. I’ll come help you get stuff out,” I say as Clark holds out his hand and hoists me out of the pool.
“OK, I’m going to get Vera settled in the family room,” Tabby says as she leaves the stroller by the back door and goes inside.
I slap Clark’s chest. “I could murder you right now,” I seethe.
He gives me the smolder look again. “Sure about that?”
“Yes,” I grumble.
He increases the smolder and I laugh. “You fucking suck.”
Grinning he roots around in a closet over in the pool house and comes back out with a pair of swim trunks on.
“OK, let’s get this party started,” he says as he heads inside. I follow him and stop when I enter the house. If the outside was crazy awesome, the inside is legit crazy.
“Wow,” I manage.
“You want the ten-cent tour?” Tabby says. I look over and find her on the floor with Vera who is chewing on something that resembles an octopus.
“Sure.”
Twenty minutes later, I’m a hundred percent sure that Kent is most definitely a multimillionaire and also that he spent way too much on this house. As if reading my mind, Tabby opens up a refrigerator that looks like it belongs in a restaurant and starts taking out containers of potato salad. “It’s over the top but trust me when I say that it is way homier now that I live here. You should have seen the crazy artwork he had in this place, and the furniture, or lack thereof. It was like a bachelor designed it and hired a weird interior decorator to administer his concept…oh wait, that is what happened.” She laughs and pulls chips out of a giant walk-in pantry along with a basket of burger buns.
I laugh as I ask her where she wants things. We work in amicable silence, getting all the required items out onto the back deck.
Two by two, all the rest of the Moore clan arrives and lastly Kent shows up, taking over grilling duty from Clark. A few of Kent’s friends, one of which I recognize from the baseball team, stop by and join us as we all eat and play in the pool.
I realize, as the night winds down and Clark and I lean back in the hot tub and gaze up at the stars, that I haven’t once thought about homework, the internship, or anything school-related at all since we arrived here.
“You want to go grab ice cream and head back?” he asks.
“We probably should,” I begrudgingly agree.
He lifts my pruney hand out of the hot tub and kisses the back of it. “I had fun today.”
“Me too.”
He helps me up and we grab the biggest, fluffiest towels that I’ve ever seen and start to dry off before changing in the pool house bathroom.
The pool house has a small bar area, two bathrooms, and a giant room with a sofa that apparently can also convert to a bed. There’s even a washer and dryer out here just for pool towels.
We thank Kent and Tabby and head to the car.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” I admit as we drive toward Main Street in Banneker.
“Yeah, Kent’s house is extra,” he says, pulling over and parking along the street.
We get out, and I immediately freeze. Mrs. Miller is walking our way. Shit. If she says anything to my parents, I’ll be getting quizzed about being with Clark.
“Well, look at you two. I haven’t seen you hang out together since you were little itty-bitties,” she says.
“Hi, Mrs. Miller. How are you?” Clark asks.
“Oh, you know, old, but fine. You kids getting ice cream?”
We both nod.
“Well, you better get in there before Frankie closes up.”
“Yep, good to see you, Mrs. Miller,” I say as we hurry away.
“Dear God, I think we just got outed by Mrs. Miller. We may as well have put out a full newspaper ad letting every citizen of Banneker know that not only did we finally make up, we are also dating,” I add.
Clark looks down at me as he reaches out for the ice cream shop door. “Is there a problem with everyone knowing?”
I shake my head. “No, I just…I haven’t said much to my parents, yet.”
He laughs and opens the door. “Well, mine are somewhere in Colorado, so they don’t know much at all.”
Giggling, I walk up to the counter and order my favorite, mint chocolate chip.
We sit outside on a bench and watch as people walk by us.
“Mr. Walters,” I say, grinning over at Clark.
He looks around. “Ms. Jones.”
“You remember.”
“Of course, I remember the ridiculous name game. How could I forget that shit? By the way, I’m still fairly certain that I’m in the lead.”
I roll my eyes. “Right, like you remember the last head count, which was what, like seven years ago?”
“I invented the game. I absolutely remember. I was up to three-forty-six and you were only at three-twenty-five,” he states with a smug smile.
Clark and I had invented the name game while sitting on this very bench. Whoever could name the most people walking around Main Street won. We had a game, set, and match. Each ice cream watching session was a game. Three games were a set. And the match could only be won by the first person to reach five hundred.
“Mrs. and Mr. Watkins,” Clark announces.
“Maybe we should update the game. I mean, we are adults now. We should know that it’s Mary and Greg Watkins,” I suggest.
Laughing, Clark finishes his ice cream cone. “If you say so. Although, changing the game halfway through seems like…cheating.”
I take my ice cream cone and swipe it across Clark’s nose. His eyes widen at my playful act.
“I didn’t know you had it in you, bunny,” he says. Then his eyes narrow and he smirks. “Better run fast.”
I screech and take off running down Main Street with my nearly finished ice cream cone in my hand. I hear Clark behind me. I haven’t full-on sprinted in a long time and I don’t make it far. I get all the way down a side street and, all of a sudden, I’m jerked back against
Clark’s hard body.
I screech and start giggling.
“I got you now, Megladon,” he whispers in my ear. I shiver and am about to turn around and kiss him when a bright light shines on our faces.
“You OK, miss?” a man says. I squint and realize it’s Chief Tucker Beckley.
“Chief Beckley?” I ask.
He lowers the light and approaches us slowly. “Megan Lennox? And…Clark Moore?”
“That’s us,” Clark answers. “Sorry, we were being silly.”
“That’s alright. I heard a scream and…well, I went into cop mode.”
I giggle. “That was me. But no worries, all is good here.”
“OK, then. You kids have a good night and stay out of trouble,” he says as he tips his hat and walks toward Main Street.
I turn around and slap Clark on the chest. “OMG! Nice going, asshat! You practically got us arrested.”
He pulls me against him and looks into my eyes. “I’d be willing to get arrested, but it better be for something more than grabbing you around the waist.”
And with that, he leans down and kisses me.
It starts off gentle and slow, but then within seconds, it’s hard and fast and inappropriate for the sidewalk. Clark walks us behind some shrubbery.
“Clark, let’s not trespass.”
“It’s Garrett’s house, don’t worry about it,” he says as he continues to kiss me.
“Children? Keep it PG-13,” a voice calls out from the neighboring house.
I jump back and look around. Squinting, I make out two men on the front porch.
“Hi, Ethan. Hi, Sam,” Clark says with a groan.
“Good evening?” one of them asks.
“It was…” Clark mumbles. “Yep. See you all later.” Clark grabs my hand and drags me back to the car.
“We’re heading home now,” he adds.
“Geez, it’s no big deal,” I lament.
He turns and pins me against his car. “Let’s just say, I want to do dirty things to you that quite possibly would have gotten us arrested. So, get in the car, bunny. And buckle up.”
My eyes widen and I follow his command because some part of me likes this authoritative Clark and I’m equally turned on and weirded out with my response all at the same time.
