“Is it a lot closer for her to get to work from her place or something like that?” Callie asked.
“No, not really. I get the feeling that she just doesn't like my place very well.”
Callie turned to look at the other rooms. Ryan's house was on the small side with only about 1400 sq. ft., but it had some of the nice details typical of a house built eighty years ago. Hardwood floors, high ceilings and crown moldings added elegance to the rooms. As was more typical in older homes, the dining room was as big as the living room, and Ryan had converted it to the living room and made the living room into a den. A breakfast nook where Ryan had a small table completed the living area of the house, and a hall from the living room led to the two bedrooms.
It was a nice house, but it clearly bore the stamp of bachelor occupation. The den contained Ryan's college desk, a beat up papasan chair filled with odds and ends, and assorted storage boxes piled in a corner. The living room was a little better. Ryan's oversized TV was worth more than Callie's car, and the hunter green cushiony sofa, chair and oversized ottoman had obviously been expensive furniture when new. Ryan's massive CD collection was mounted on the wall above the sofa and added some interest to the room.
The basis was there, Callie thought, but the rooms lacked any homey touches. That, and the fact that all the rooms could use a good cleaning. It wasn't that Ryan was terribly messy, but dusting and mopping were obviously not high on the priority list. It wouldn't take much though, she thought with interest.
Ryan turned to see what she was doing and noticed her thoughtful look. “What?” he asked.
“You might have a little more luck getting her over here if your place was a little more woman friendly,” Callie said.
Ryan looked wary as he hung up the dishtowel. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
Callie smiled. “Lace doilies, crocheted afghans, lots of plants and a cat,” she said cheerfully. She laughed out loud as Ryan visibly blanched. “I'm kidding,” she said.
“You'd better be,” Ryan retorted without amusement, and Callie playfully punched him in the arm.
“Relax. Your masculinity is safe in my hands.”
“I'm not worried about my masculinity being in a beautiful woman's hands, I just don't want to wake up in my grandmother's house,” he returned pointedly.
“I'm talking about small things actually,” Callie said.
She wondered if he really did think she was beautiful. She had always been moderately confident about her looks. Her medium length blond hair, blue eyes and finely drawn features were passable at least. Daniel had said she looked like a mischievous elf, not exactly the compliment to make her swoon with delight, but she'd never had any reason to doubt that he was attracted to her, so she'd accepted it in the spirit in which it was intended.
It was appealing to think Ryan might find her attractive too, but she gave herself a mental shake. It was silly to try and make something out of a teasing compliment between friends.
“I'm talking about a good dusting and polishing, some pictures on the walls, placemats on the table, pillows on the sofa, maybe even a throw, but nothing too frilly,” she reassured him.
He was nodding and the pained look was gone, so she decided to take advantage of his unexpected docility. “Let's look in your bedroom,” she said and headed in that direction with Ryan trailing behind her.
“Just what I would have thought,” she said, surveying the room which had a dresser and bed much like the ones in her room and nothing else except some assorted clutter.
“In here, two nightstands with two lamps would be good, another picture or two and some sateen sheets,” she continued, warming to the subject.
“Satin sheets!” Ryan said incredulously.
“Not satin, sateen,” Callie corrected, amused at the image of Ryan lying between shiny red satin sheets. “Sateen sheets are wonderfully soft, high count cotton sheets that normally would cost you an arm and a leg but usually can be found at T.J. Maxx for around sixty bucks. That way, even if the mattress rumba doesn't go too well at least the sheets feel yummy.”
He cut his eyes at her disbelievingly. “First of all,” he said with exaggerated patience. “Never use the phrase “mattress rumba” again. Second, I do a great mattress rumba and believe me, the quality of my sheets is not going to be the reason a woman returns to them.”
Callie laughed. “Okay, I'll concede that point, but believe me, great sheets are never a waste of money.” She went into the bathroom, and Ryan followed her in.
“Don’t dig around in my bathroom,” he protested, but Callie ruthlessly pulled back the shower curtain.
“Wow,” she said sarcastically looking down into the tub which was gray with soap scum. “Why wouldn’t any woman want to shower in here?” Ryan peered over her shoulder looking sheepish but didn’t comment.
He was close enough that Callie could feel the heat coming off him. “Are you wearing Drakkar?” she said, more like an accusation than a question. He looked surprised.
“Yeah, Misty gave it to me. Can you really recognize it?”
Okay, Callie thought, so Misty at least had good taste in both men and cologne. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting out a little hum of approval at the spicy scent overlaying something subtler that was indefinably Ryan. “I love Drakkar,” she said opening her eyes. She grinned at him. “In fact, you’re going to need to stand a little further away from me or I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”
He looked intrigued and she laughed as he leaned a few inches closer. “Really,” he said with interest. “What will happen if I don’t keep my distance?”
She gave him a playful shove back as she exited the confines of the bathroom. “You’re not going to find out. Misty’s got those long manicured nails, and I don’t want her to use them to scratch my eyes out.”
He laughed. “Coward,” he said good-naturedly. “I’m going to do some of that stuff,” he said. “I think you might be right that I could make it nicer for having a woman here.”
“Great,” Callie said. “We’ll go shopping while I’m here. You can clean when I’m not.”
“I see where this is going now,” he said grimly. “You get to go shopping, and I get to pay.”
“For your stuff, for your house,” Callie interjected. “But basically, yes.” She gave him a pleased smile.
He tweaked her hair as he moved past her. “Alright,” he relented. “Sounds like a fair deal to me. But for now, the basketball game is on TV.”
She went with him into the living room, moving to sit on the end of the sofa, and was surprised when he sat down in the middle so that he was relatively close to her. He leaned across her to grab the remote control from the end table, and she gasped in surprise to suddenly find herself staring at his chest, inches from her face.
She looked up, startled and unexpectedly flustered at his nearness, and caught the mischievous glint in his eyes. Suddenly she knew what he was doing. She had told him she couldn’t be responsible for her actions if he didn’t keep his distance, and now he was having a little fun. Well, two could play at that game, she thought. She leaned back, ostensibly to give him room to reach for the remote, and slightly arched her back so that her breasts were lifted toward him.
His eyes honed in on her rounded curves like a heat seeking missile zeroing in on its target, and she smiled to herself as his hand fumbled the remote. He slowly retrieved it and sat back, but Callie noticed a definite tension in him that hadn’t been there minutes before. Serves him right she thought with satisfaction.
Ryan turned on the TV, and for a minute they both watched the basketball game. Callie was thinking that he had thrown in the towel on their little unspoken game, and that it was probably for the best, when he suddenly put his arm up on the back of the sofa so that it was only a few inches from her shoulders. If she leaned toward him just the tiniest bit, he would be holding her. The intensity with which she wanted that was disturbing, and she decided it
was time to pull out the big guns on their little game.
“I think I’m going to put on my pajamas,” she said chirpily and headed to her room. It only took a couple of minutes to change and dig out some lotion, and she was headed back to the living room ready to wage war.
Ryan was in the kitchen, and she set the lotion down and went to join him. He visibly jolted when he turned to find her standing in the doorway in her nightgown. It wasn’t overtly sexual, just a short cotton knit gown that had a tank top, but it showed plenty of skin. The soft, pale pink fabric draped her curves in a way she knew was flattering. She ignored him and went over to the fridge, leaning in to reach for a soda, feeling his eyes on her and not hesitating to bend over a little more deeply than was strictly necessary. She smiled innocently at him as she headed back into the living room with her drink.
When he joined her moments later with his own drink, she had pulled the ottoman over from the chair and had made herself comfortable. He sat down beside her and promptly put his legs up beside hers on the ottoman. She couldn’t help but notice the long lines of his body. Stretched out on the sofa, even in shorts and a t-shirt, he was a display of masculine perfection to make any woman’s mouth go dry.
She picked up the lotion, sensing his attention sharpen instantly. At the first languid glide of her hand up her leg, she heard his breath catch. She smoothed the lotion on each leg up to her thigh, taking her time. When she finally set the lotion down and looked at Ryan, her own breath caught at the heat in his eyes.
“You’re going to get a penalty for unnecessary roughness on that,” he said evenly.
She smiled slowly as she leaned back into the sofa. “If the play is getting too rough, you can always forfeit the game,” she said, not even pretending to misunderstand him.
He looked at her for a long moment, and then grinned. “Well, unless you want some help with that,” he nodded toward the lotion, “I guess I’m going to call a truce.”
For a moment she wondered if he was serious about the lotion, then decided he was just teasing. “Alright, truce,” she agreed, with a twinge of regret.
They settled in to really watch the game then, although she was pretty sure his eyes returned to her legs on more than one occasion. She likewise found herself putting her periphery vision to the use God must have intended when he gave women superior periphery vision.
When the game ended, she stood up and stretched. “I’d better get in bed or a perfectly good Sunday will be wasted.”
Ryan stood up also. “Yeah, I’m headed that way too.”
She bent over to pick up her lotion at the same time he bent forward to toss the remote back on the end table and their arms brushed. It was just a brief touch, a moment when his skin connected with hers, but for a second tension crackled between them.
“Okay, then, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. If not before work then after,” she said a little breathlessly.
Ryan didn’t say anything, just watched her with a thoughtful expression as she turned and hot-footed it out of the room. It wasn’t until she got back in her bedroom that she realized she had just acknowledged that the next day was Sunday and then told Ryan she would see him after work. Smooth, she thought to herself. Real smooth to be that rattled because she had touched his arm. Her cheeks were pink in the bathroom mirror while she brushed her teeth, and she was still shaking her head at herself as she climbed into bed.
****
Sixty minutes of tossing and turning later, she was still wide-awake. She had tried to force herself to stop thinking and let herself drift off to sleep, but so far it was an exercise in futility. Her mind kept circling around Daniel and Ryan and everything that had gone on the past year.
She and Daniel had been together for nearly two and a half years, and for a while it had been wonderful. She had met him when a friend had talked her into playing softball for a local league. He had seemed perfect. He was smart, ambitious, and good-looking. They had hit it off and become a serious couple relatively quickly. When he had suggested they move in together after dating six months, she had loved the idea of moving forward with their lives together.
During their second year though, the dynamic of their relationship had seemed to change. Maybe she just got to know him better, or maybe he really changed as they settled down into their relationship. But it became painfully obvious to her that what she wanted and needed did not really matter to him. She said she wanted to stay home Friday night. He made plans for them to eat out with his buddies. She asked him to go to a charity event with her. He told a client he would do a dinner meeting that night. She listened to him talk about his job endless hours, but when she tried to get some sympathy from him about something going on with her job, he was dismissive and uninterested. Everything was about him, all the time. She tried to talk to him about it, but it didn’t help, and eventually she had become so unhappy she felt compelled to break it off.
Ryan had been a rock for her over those first few months when the apartment had seemed so empty without Daniel there and she couldn’t help second guessing her decision constantly. When she got over mourning her relationship with Daniel though, she knew she had made the right decision. Life was just too short. It had been stifling to constantly be the only one making sacrifices to make the relationship work.
About that time, she started having distinctly non-platonic thoughts, ok daydreams of the best kind, about Ryan. He was hot, seriously so, and they had been spending so much time together. She loved the easy feeling of closeness she had with him. Unfortunately, he had never given her any indication that he felt anything other than friendship for her, and she generally adhered to the belief that men were pretty simple. If they didn’t ask you out or make a move on you, they simply weren’t interested.
Ryan wasn’t backwards when it came to women. In fact, in high school and college he had dated an impressive number of women and had developed a reputation as someone who was hard to get to commit but was a lot of fun while it lasted. He seemed to be settling down in the years since college, and she had the feeling he was looking for someone to be serious about, but she was pretty certain he had never looked her way on that front.
She had decided to avoid Ryan for a while, just for her own peace of mind, and had been helped along in her goal by Ryan starting to date Misty. Staying with Ryan was not going to change anything, she sternly told herself. Their little semi-flirtatious interludes today notwithstanding. There was no harm in appreciating Ryan as an attractive man, but she was not going to let herself start obsessing about him.
In fact, she was going to start actively pursuing a dating life of her own again. It was time and then some. Her recent attraction to Ryan was nothing but an indication that she was really over Daniel and ready to find someone new. Josie had been doing on-line dating for awhile and had been bugging Callie to join in, telling her what a fun way it was to meet new people as long as you did not expect to meet your future husband on the first date. Tomorrow, Callie resolved, she would join up and start the ball rolling. That is, if she could get out of bed and function at all on the ridiculously small amount of sleep she was going to get if she did not fall asleep soon.
She knew she shouldn’t have taken that nap so late in the day, but she had been helpless to resist it. She sat up, punched her pillow up a little and straightened the covers she had twisted into a semi-knot around her legs. The comforter on the bed was some kind of synthetic blend that made it so light that if she twitched her leg wrong it nearly flew off the bed. Extreme cheapness was probably the attraction when Ryan bought it. Alternating between muggy heat due to its complete lack of breathing ability, and then brisk coolness when it got away from her was not helping her insomnia. An orgasm was what she needed, she decided. If that didn’t blank her mind and send her off to sleep nothing would.
She got up and dug through her suitcase for her favorite sex toy. Glad she had had the foresight to pack it in the suitcase for her first couple of nights at the new place. She laid back
down and slid it inside her, feeling her internal muscles clench in approval at its thick length. Oh yeah, it was time to start dating again. She clicked it on and gladly let her attention shift to the sensations set off by the vibrations. The image of Ryan popped into her mind, the muscles in his back rippling as he picked up one of her boxes and moved it easily into the storage unit, she let her mind drift into the fantasy about what she might have done if they weren’t just friends.
When he walked by her with a box, she followed him into the unit. He bent over and sat down the box, she molded her hips to his, curving her body around the length of his. He froze in surprise, but didn’t speak. Her hands stroked up and down the long lean muscles of his back, enjoying the feel of his hard muscles. His hands tightened on the box as he pushed back hard against her.
His response brought an answering surge of need from deep within her, and she leaned forward, letting his body take her weight so she could slip her hands under his t-shirt. She could feel his breath coming in short gasps as she explored the silky mat of hair on his chest. Her own heart was pounding, and she felt herself growing wet with excitement as she let one hand drift lower to find his erection through his shorts.
He moaned as she stroked him through the thin fabric and her pleasure grew at the feel of the long, hard length of him, the tangible proof of his desire for her. “Callie,” he gasped, and the one word held a note of warning as well as entreaty. She ignored him for another moment, getting too much pleasure out of exploring him to stop. He suddenly stood, turning to drag her against him as he set his mouth on hers.
He kissed her ravenously as if he had been starving for the taste of her, and she matched his passion, feeling almost frantic in her need to meld their two bodies together. His hands were hot on her back under her shirt, clenching rhythmically against her silky skin, then suddenly seeking the clasp on her bra and undoing it. She didn’t hesitate, just pulled back long enough to slip her shirt off, taking her bra with it. He did the same with his own shirt and she gasped with delight at the feel of her bare breasts pressed against his hard, muscular chest as he pulled her back to him.
Sudden Attraction Page 3
