by Rebecca Rose
“Yes… I mean… I work here.” Damn, why do I always have to stutter?
“Oh?” The man backed up a little and Kathy let out the breath she’d been holding. “I’m Ben.” He extended a hand.
“Kathy.” Uncrossing her arms she shook his hand. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, I’m not fragile. So are you a waitress?” He winked.
“No. I’m… umm…”
“Adorably shy?”
Kathy rolled her eyes. “Why do people always say that? Being an introvert isn’t adorable, it’s torture.” She straightened her shoulders and pushed her quiet voice up an octave. “I’m the manager.”
“Neat. I heard the Halloween party last year was a blast. You havin’ another one?”
“I think so.” Not knowing what else to say, Kathy moved around Ben. “I have to… get back to work.”
“See ya around?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Hey Kathy, can I talk to you for a minute?” Dave’s voice vibrated through her body. She hadn’t even seen his approach.
“I’ll be right there, Dave.”
“Boyfriend?” Ben asked.
“Boss.” With a weak smile she said, “See you around.”
My God! How corny can I get? “See you around?” Why can’t I ever come up with something sharp and witty? Even as a child Kathy had been the quietest out of every group. Her parents, “the hippies” as she liked to call them, certainly weren’t mice. Heck, they’d even gone to Woodstock, the hippie fest of the sixties, with their own parents.
“Yes, Dave?” she asked, while walking into his office. Don’t look at him then he might see how much you’ve been thinking about him. Kathy sat in a chair across from his desk and pondered. The man before her was still Dave. Nice, responsible, understanding, dependable Dave. Yet hearing his voice for the first time today, remembering the look in his russet eyes before he kissed her yesterday, proved he affected her more than she wanted to admit.
“About yesterday.” He took the chair next to her and turned it so they would have to face each other. “I have to apologize for being such a jerk.”
“No need. I was being pushy. I don’t know why. I guess curiosity got the best of me.” Kathy clasped her hands together on her lap and Dave covered them with his good one.
“Doesn’t matter. I was wrong and shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you.”
“Is it possible for you to get any nicer?” She laughed. “It’s okay. I just want to make sure you’re taking care of yourself.” Kathy bit her lip then moved on. “I’m the one who pushed the issue, Dave. Yes, you were a jerk, a big one, but you did have a good reason.”
“That’s it? I’m forgiven?” Dave sat back in the chair and smiled.
“Only if you forgive me for being so pushy with you.” A painful lump formed in her throat but Kathy pushed on. “I’m sorry about everything.”
“Everything?” He winked at her.
She shifted in her seat while her body heated in response to him referring to their kiss. “Umm… yes. I wish you’d take better care of yourself and not worry so much about the people around you.”
“I was thinking about you last night.”
“Oh. Well, that’s nice but you’re there for everyone but yourself, Dave,” she responded, trying to change the subject. “Who helps you out? Why do you try to push everyone away who wants to help you?”
A crease formed between his brows. “I don’t get you, Muffin.” Kathy watched and said nothing as Dave stood and began to pace the office. “When we first met, it seemed like you liked me. Then you backed off for what reason, I don’t know. Now you seem interested again but when I kissed you, both times, you basically ran away from me. And I’m the one pushing everyone away? It looks to me like you’re doing the same thing,” Dave froze for a moment to turn and look at her. The passion she saw in his eyes melted all the reserve she had left.
“Dave… I—” She rose from her chair and in a flash was wrapped around him, needy and wild. His lips were a delicious flavor, salty yet sweet, and she wanted more of it. Plunging her tongue in, she invited his to dance. Dave answered her fiery craving by pulling her close. The internal blaze combusted into a million tiny fires and caused every nerve in her body to blaze sensitive and hot.
Dave gently drew back. “Kathy, what the hell was that?”
“I’ve never felt this before.” She confessed against his avid lips. He pulled her closer forgetting about his bad arm and grunted in pain.
“I’m so sorry. I hope I didn’t hurt you. It’s just…” Her eyes met his. “I have this need to touch you, have you touch me everywhere. It’s overwhelming. I don’t know what to do anymore because it seems like I’m starting to lose control. Damn it, I was just sitting there, Dave, listening to you, and the next thing I know I’m throwing myself at you.” She covered her mouth in shame. “I’m so embarrassed. I’ve never done anything like this.” She felt her face redden at the declaration and Dave’s questioning eyebrow.
“You fooled me. I started thinking you weren’t interested because you kept blowing me off. But then you do something like this and I don’t know what to think.”
Kathy stood quietly trying to figure out what to say. Why couldn’t she be the smooth talker Sophie always was with men?
Dave took a step closer. “What is it? What turned you on? ”
She laughed at him before lowering her eyes and picking at her shirt. “I don’t know what just happened but it never has before.”
“Interesting.” Dave rocked back on his heels.
“ ‘Interesting?’ Are you serious? It’s mortifying. I’m telling you that I’ve never had a man do that to me before, that I’ve never, never…”
“Never what?”
He’d been so good to her, such a gentleman. Damn Todd for pointing out what a failure at sex she was—how turning a man on and keeping him interested weren’t attributes she possessed. Kathy raised her chin and took a deep breath. “I’ve never been with a man who’s given me what I needed.”
“As in?”
“Really? You’re gonna make me say it? Bastard,” she whispered.
“Now that kinda talk is just a turn-on,” Dave joked and Kathy attempted a smile.
She couldn’t believe how easily Dave stimulated her with just a kiss. She could only imagine the things he could do with her body. The thought drew a wave of lust over her.
“I’ve never… you know.” She motioned with a hand for him to finish the thought.
Dave blinked once, then twice. An astonished realization covered his face and Kathy hid her humiliated one.
“You mean you’ve never been aggressive with a man? Just taken what you wanted,” he asked. “Not even with your ex-husband?”
“My marriage to Todd was a huge mistake, Dave. I was so young when we got together and he was so much older that I thought my lack of sexual knowledge was the problem. After him I dated a few men and still had the same problem.” Kathy sank to her seat in palpable shame. It burned hot, acidic, and made her head thump. “The truth is, I’m a miserable failure in the sex department. Defective.”
Dave sat next to her and placed a good-natured arm around her shoulder. “Anytime you want to sexually harass me, I’m more than willing to let you. But—”
“Here it comes.” Kathy closed her eyes tight. “This is mortifying.”
“I’m not the nice guy you think I am. There’s a lot you don’t know and a promise I’m keeping.”
“Like what?” With her interest piqued, Kathy looked at him. “Did you forget to put the toilet seat lid down?”
He laughed hard. “Man, I wish it was that easy.” The corners of his serious eyes crinkled while he stroked a finger down her throat to between her breasts then around each of them in a figure eight. “Let me show you you’re not defective, Kathy. Your inadequate ex couldn’t handle a woman like you. You need a man who will want to please you. Strip your clothes off slowly, and kiss every inch of that incred
ible body while you beg for more, discover what it takes to drive you wild beyond reason, that’s what I want to do for you if you let me.”
She knew her mouth had dropped. No man had ever touched her like that or suggested doing such erotic things to her body. Kathy wanted more. She yearned for Dave to do it all, every naughty thing he could think of until her body rejoiced, exploded, and became his. But could he, or was he all talk like every other man she’d been with?
With a possessive hand to the small of her back, Dave leaned into her and began to nibble on her neck. Next he moved to her earlobe where he gave it a gentle tug with his teeth.
“Dave, I really want that but I’ve always failed the men I’ve been with and I don’t want to do that to you.”
“Stop thinking, Kathy. Just feel,” he told her while kissing her eyelids.
“Dave, everyone I’ve ever let in has hurt me and giving into this desire for you… I don’t even know what will turn me on. How are you supposed to?” With heat swirling in her most private parts, Kathy closed her legs tight to try and ease the need to be touched.
Dave moved his mouth to her ear. “That’s the most exciting part. Learning your body and watching you go over for the first time after you’ve begged me for relief; being witness to this discovery, as I slide deep inside you.”
Dave’s words had Kathy burning with desire, a thought that was both scary and thrilling. She turned to him knowing the heat in her face, for once, wasn’t from shyness but from passion.
“I want that, Dave.” Courage overcame her and brought with it a sense of freedom. Feeling brave, she began to nibble on his chin as her hand snaked its way up his leg toward his crotch. He stopped her inches away from its desired destination.
“What?” she asked in confusion.
“Not yet. You have to work for it,” he told her.
Stricken by his bravado, Kathy sat rigid in her chair. “Excuse me?”
Dave winked at her then stood. “I’ll see you later.”
She couldn’t believe he had the audacity to walk out on her. The nerve of that man! Storming out to him seemed like the logical thing to do. He’d stirred her up, made her body pulse, and then left. How dare he? And to say she’d have to “work for it”? Challenge accepted, though not in the way he imagined.
It was at that moment she decided to make him beg for her.
Chapter Four
Walking through the house toward the kitchen, Dave’s thoughts turned to Kathy. He couldn’t get the image of the way she bit her bottom lip out of his head. It was a tell sign when she was concentrating on something. He could go on and on when it came to all the adorable things Kathy did and it made him want her more. And then he thought about the kiss they shared.
Dave couldn’t help but think about all the ways he was going to have her in bed and decided it would only be his imagination that held him back. And maybe time. He flexed his shoulder in response. And what the hell was up with her ex? How could the man not see what had been right in front of him? She was beautiful, smart, funny, sensitive, and deserved to have a man dote on her every chance he got.
Despite how hard she tried to fight it, he knew she had feelings for him. He could see it in the way she looked at him when she didn’t think he noticed. Or the way her body responded to his touch. “But maybe you should stop this whole thing before one of you gets hurt,” he grumbled. The fact of the matter was sooner or later she was going to find out about his past and then she’d dump him like every other woman had. And yet he couldn’t help how he felt about her.
Grabbing a can of tomato soup, Dave struggled to get it open. “Damn it!” Things just weren’t that easy when you only had one arm to work with. After the lid popped, he poured its contents into a pot and turned on the stove.
“Meal for the rich?” Jake’s voice boomed through the silence.
“As a matter of fact, it is. What brings you by, besides making fun of my handicap cooking abilities?”
“If you didn’t want to live with us anymore, you only had to say so.” Jake placed his hand over his heart. “It broke me a little to know you weren’t honest with me.”
“It wasn’t personal.”
Jake may have been the little brother but they watched over each other as best friends would. There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t say or do for one another—and Dave thanked the heavens for that every day.
“Nothing personal? Psss. That’s not how it feels.”
“Jake, if I tell you the truth you’ll just get mad and try to beat me up. I’m not feeling up to it.”
“So you want me to wait until the shoulder is better?”
“Well, that’s the nice thing to do.” Dave’s lips cracked into a smile. “But of course, you’ve never been nice.”
“And you’ve always been ugly. Where’s the beer?” Jake plopped himself down in one of the kitchen chairs. “The least you could do is offer me one.”
“I don’t have any.”
“What!”
Dave shrugged his brother’s exasperation off. “I forgot to pick some up.”
“Bullshit. Come on, Dave, where’s the—wait a minute, why are you still smiling?”
Dave couldn’t stop grinning, and knew it had nothing to do with his brother’s impromptu visit. “I’m happy to be home and out of yours.”
Jake glared at him. “Why out of mine?”
“Because your cat sucks. Schnitzel is the meanest, fattest, most territorial cat I’ve ever met and I couldn’t stand sharing space with his smelly butt anymore.”
“He’s not smelly,” Jake grumbled. “And you were in his space, how would you react?”
“It’s a cat. Not a human. See, I told you you’d get upset if I said why I couldn’t stay there anymore.”
“Because of my cat.” Jake seemed to think this over. “Bullshit.”
“Fine. You and Sophie were starting to smother me. Not that I don’t appreciate what you’ve done for me but damn, Dude…”
“Oh, you mean Sophie was smothering you? Well, when you see her, you better make sure to tell her you left because of Schnitzel,” Jake said with a look of amusement.
“No problem. I’ll lock it in the vault for when I need her on my side. ‘No really, Sophie, he told me not to tell you.’ ”
“You do that and I will beat your ass. So why are you smiling?”
Dave threw a pot holder on the table then brought his small pot of soup over. “I already told you.”
“Eating right out of the pot, eh? Classy man. No wonder Kathy is thinking twice about you. You’re a real catch.”
With the spoon halfway to his mouth, Dave stopped and studied his brother. “Who says Kathy’s thinking twice about me?”
“No one.” Sitting back with his arms crossed, Jake grinned at his brother. “Although she did call Sophie right after you left work today.”
Dave stirred the soup in front of him and pretended to take this little bit of news lightly. “So. She calls Sophie all the time.” He shrugged and ate.
“She was excited.”
Now that news got his attention, and before he could cover up his concern, it seeped out of him. “Really? About what?”
“You tell me. When she first came to work for us you were all puppy-dog in love with her. Then… I don’t know what the hell happened and now you two are smiling and happy and shit.”
“We’ve decided we’re both mutually interested in each other.”
“How mature,” Jake teased.
“Hold on a minute.” Dave walked to his basement door, threw it open, marched down the steps, and grabbed the case of beer he’d been holding out on. “I think we’re gonna need this.”
Jake took a bottle with a mini-salute. “Sometimes I don’t think you want me drinking your stuff.”
“Most of the time I don’t,” he said with a laugh. “Now what was she excited about?”
“Should you be drinking that with pain pills?”
“Stop stalling. And I haven’t t
aken the pills in days. Haven’t needed them. Now, spill.”
“Okay. I guess Kathy’s had some…” Jake scratched under his chin. “Unsuccessful relationships.”
“Yeah, she told me.” Dave wiggled his brows. “I can help her with that.”
“Ummm, not sure I want to know what you’re talkin’ about but I meant that she gets rid of them before it gets too serious.”
“And you think she’s gonna get rid of me?” Dave ate his tomato soup and followed it up with a chug of beer.
“I just don’t want to see you get your hopes too high and—”
“She got rid of them because they weren’t fulfilling her needs. If you know what I mean.”
At the announcement, Jake spit his beer out like a water sprinkler. “Come on, Dude!” Dave jumped up and began to try to wipe the splatter from his clothes. “You could have led up to that.” Grabbing the dish towel, Jake began wiping his mouth and then the table.
“Yeah, you better clean up this mess. Damn, you even got the floor.”
“We’re off subject. Geez, no wonder she got rid of the ex and those guys. What kind of men has she been dating?”
“None like me.” Dave concentrated on the label of his drink. “She hasn’t said much about the former husband. Do you know anything?”
“Nope.”
Dave could visualize the two of them together walking through the park holding hands, laughing, smiling, and planning their future. Whoa, slow down buddy!
“Hey, you took a side trip on me.” Jake waved his hand in front of Dave’s face. “I said she’s never had a reformed troublemaker before.”
“ ‘Reformed troublemaker,’ not sure how I like that.”
“It’s what you are, big bro, and should be proud. Not too many people can say they lived and changed their life.”
Dave scratched his head. How much should he tell her? A little? A lot? All? “You know, the weirdest thing happened today. Yesterday Kathy saw me talking to the cops. Before that she pretty much wanted nothing to do with me. Today she’s all over me. I mean, attacked me.” He gave a slow whistle. “Insane, all… over… me. It was awesome. Hot. If I could have stripped her there, I would have. Unfortunately I got only one arm for the next few weeks.”
