“I’d love to.”
We went for a stroll and ended up stopping inside a small bookstore that also sold trinkets. Aubrey was eying this bracelet that had some Buddhist peace symbol on it. When she became immersed in a Deepak Chopra book, I took one of the bracelets to the register and bought it.
Once we stepped outside, I handed it to her. “Here. I wanted to get you something so that you remember your first trip by motorcycle. I hope it’s not the last.”
“As if I could ever forget this day,” she said. “But that was really sweet of you. Thank you. I love it so much.”
“I know. I saw you looking at it. I was looking at you, because I can’t keep my eyes off you. So…” I put my hands in my pockets and looked around as my words trailed off.
She placed it on her tiny wrist. “Maybe this will help channel some much needed peace in my life.”
As we stood there on the sidewalk, it really hit me that this situation was equally hard on her. I spent so much time immersed in my own fears that I had a tendency to forget what all of this might have been like for Aubrey. To have me come back practically from the dead just when she was getting her life in order. It turned her world upside down.
So tempted to hold her hand, I grinded my teeth and refrained. Instead, I said, “Hiking is big around here. If we had more time, we could have stayed at one of the cabins, made a weekend out of it. I know you have to get back.”
“Maybe another time.” She smiled.
“Yeah.”
About an hour later, we were back on the open road. Something about the tone of the ride home was much different than the first trip. As the reddish sun was setting on the horizon, her grip on me had definitely relaxed a bit. We were both quiet, and about halfway through, Aubrey rested her chin on my back. It was a small gesture but sent what felt like electricity through me. It meant everything. It was easy to envision us taking trips like this every weekend. There was nothing like the feeling of having your woman on the back of your bike.
She was my woman. Whether or not I was her man was the question that remained.
When we pulled up to her bungalow, the sound of crickets replaced the roaring engine of the bike as I shut it off. We both sat there in silence. She wasn’t getting off and hadn’t let go of my waist, so I didn’t move.
Finally, she spoke. Her voice was quiet. “I won’t string you along forever, Chance. I promise. It’s not fair. I have to figure this out.”
I lifted her hands that were still wrapped around my waist and clutched them tightly around my chest. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, Princess.”
She let out a deep breath and jumped off the bike while I stayed on. I could see Pixy in the window watching us. Blind goat, my ass.
I tugged at the front of her leather jacket flirtatiously. “When will I see you again?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Think about it.”
“Thank you for today. I’ll never forget it.”
Her last comment didn’t sit well in my stomach.
I’ll never forget it.
“You did great, Princess. I can’t wait to do this again.”
On the ride home that night, I made a tough decision. I was going to lie low for a bit, give her some space. They say if you let something go and it doesn’t come back to you, it was never really yours to begin with. But considering I was the one who initially left in this situation, all bets were off.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Two days later, I started to put up the new shed on Aubrey’s property. It was going to be nice to be able to keep all of my lawn equipment in one place without having to transport it back and forth. I had to admit, Aubrey must have had the most beautiful garden in all of Temecula by now.
It was a particularly hot day, and it became necessary to cool off. Starting to feel dehydrated, I was thinking of calling it a day here.
Using my key, I entered the house for a drink and to use the toilet before leaving. Pixy was so used to hearing me come in now, he no longer even flinched when I walked inside.
I hadn’t texted Aubrey at all since our road trip and had no idea where her head was at. It felt like forever since we’d spoken. My only clues would have been inside of this house, but snooping always made me feel like shit. Thankfully, there was no obvious evidence of Dick having been here in the past couple of days, so that was good. The house was Dickless, just the way I liked it.
Sweat was dripping off my body as the goat followed me around. I wondered if Aubrey would care if I took a quick shower in her bathroom. Seeing as though I made a vow not to contact her, texting her to check wasn’t an option. I couldn’t see why it would be a problem, though.
“You won’t tell, will you, Mutton?”
“Baa.”
“Good boy.”
I stripped down and left my dirty clothes in a pile just outside the bathroom. Under the lukewarm water, my thoughts, of course, turned to her. Lathering her fruity soaps and shampoo over me was like bathing in a sea of Aubrey. Sweet, sweet torture. I gripped my cock and started to jerk myself off but stopped after thinking better of it. Even though the urge was intense, there was no way I was going to be able to finish myself off in her shower. With my luck, I’d accidentally leave a trace of spluge behind. Wel-cum Home, Aubrey! She’d know it was me. That wasn’t going to help my cause. Horny as hell, though, I’d definitely need to rub one off back at the motel.
As I exited the shower, the bathroom filled with steam. Wiping myself down, I looked in the mirror at my sculpted body and flexed my muscles.
Shit, I looked good.
With all of the time in the sun and my workouts, my body was truly in the best shape of my life. Sadly, I couldn’t even use it on anyone at the moment.
Rubbing the towel vigorously over my wet hair, I walked back out into Aubrey’s bedroom. A painting on the wall showing a woman with her breasts exposed caught my eye. It wasn’t there the last time I was in here. Must have been new. Holy shit. It was classy but still not something I expected her to have.
As I stared up at it, I thought about all the things I never had an opportunity to learn about her. Aubrey was definitely a sexual being, and it made me sad that I never really had a chance to tap more into that side, to push boundaries with her and take her places sexually that she’d never been. All that we could have done in those two years.
Fuck. I was getting hard again. A bead of precum formed at the tip of my dick. I was really hard up.
My body shook at the sound of her voice.
She screamed, “Oh my God!”
I turned around exposing my fully hard cock in all of its glory. “Shit!” I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist to cover my privates. Not only had she seen my ass as she walked in but also got the full frontal experience when I’d turned around.
She sounded breathless. “What are you doing?”
“I..uh…okay…so, I was really hot. I needed to cool down. I took a shower.” I laughed nervously. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“I guess I don’t mind, but Jesus, do you normally just stand there in the middle of the room stark naked staring at the wall?”
“I was staring at your lovely painting, actually.” My eyes trailed down the length of her body. She was wearing her workout clothes, a purple sports bra that squished her beautiful tits together and tight spandex. Dressed like that, she clearly wasn’t expecting me to be here this late in the afternoon. I normally didn’t stay here so long, but since I’d been building the shed, I lost track of time. She never came home this early.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? This is my house.”
“I know, but you’re normally not home until after five sometime.”
“I had a doctor’s appointment, so I didn’t go back to the office. I went to the gym instead and came home early to shower.”
“I just missed you then. We could have done that together.”
She
rolled her eyes but cracked a tiny smile.
There was nothing hotter than the sight of Aubrey sweaty. My erection was impossible to control. So were my feelings. As I stood there still wrapped in the towel with my dick protruding through it, I slowly approached where she was standing. Her body stiffened and went into some sort of protective mode.
“I’ve missed you, Aubrey. You could probably tell I’ve been trying to give you space.”
Her chest was heaving. “I know you have. Just not right now, apparently.”
“That’s right. Not right now.”
Her eyes lowered to my abs and back up again. She wasn’t just sneaking a look at me. She was blatantly checking me out. Her pupils even seemed to dilate.
Inching even closer to her, I couldn’t help telling her how I felt. “You wanted to know why I was staring at the wall. You know what I was thinking about when you walked in?”
“What?”
“I was thinking about how you present yourself as this prim and proper girl but that secretly you’re a little minx. That picture on the wall there proves it. You’re sexual by nature, someone who will never be fully satisfied by vanilla things. You’re someone who—whether you admit it or not—wants to try everything, push boundaries. I know if we were together, you’d let me do all the things I want to your body. And you’d fucking love it.”
“What kind of things?” she whispered. Her question surprised me.
Good girl. Play along, baby.
“Let’s talk about what I’d want to do right now if I could. I want to slowly lick every ounce of salty sweat off your body, starting with those beautiful tits. I’d clean you off with my tongue and fuck you hard until you come even harder with every drop of my cum inside of you where it belongs.”
She looked like she was squirming. “What else?” she asked as she backed away from me, which only made me walk toward her until my face was only inches from hers.
“Then, I’d fuck you all over again with my mouth. I’d love to try eating you out while you take my cock down your throat. I think you’d like that. I want to have you in every way; on top of me, under me and over my knee with my hand marks in pink on your beautiful pale ass. I can’t wait to fuck you again. When I say fuck, I really mean make love hard, because that’s all it could ever be with us, loving hard and fucking hard.”
“Oh God,” she muttered, closing her eyes.
Capitalizing on her weakness, I pressed my hungry mouth into hers and shamelessly took what I’d been starving to taste for two years. She opened for me as my tongue invaded her mouth, searching for hers. The moan she let out seemed to travel down my throat in a straight shot to my dick. She ran her fingers through my wet hair as I backed her into the wall, nearly knocking her lamp off of the bedside table. Still in nothing but a towel, I knew I needed to pull back but didn’t know how.
Finally, Aubrey pried herself away from me. “Please. Stop.”
In between panting breaths, I shouted, “Can’t you see how you react to me? Isn’t it obvious that we belong together?”
She walked to the opposite side of the room and started to pace. “Relationships aren’t all about sexual chemistry, Chance.”
“Bullshit. It’s extremely important. I don’t care how nice of a Dick he is, if he doesn’t know how to use his dick to please you, he won’t keep you happy forever. That’s beside the point anyway. You know damn well we have chemistry in every way. It’s far more than physical. In fact, the emotional connection between us is what scares you the most. So, what’s missing here? Trust? Because I’d give my left arm at this point to prove that you can trust me.”
She held her hands up and shook her head. “This is too much right now. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“When won’t it be too much? Will it ever be the right time?” I yelled and immediately regretted having raised my voice.
Pixy let out a noise. Bugger was sitting in the corner watching this go down like a movie.
“You’re scaring him,” she said.
“If he hasn’t fainted, he’s fine.”
She headed for the bathroom, and I trailed behind her.
“Stop running from me as soon as you start to feel something.” I put my hands on her shoulders to stop her. “Look at me, Princess.”
She turned around, appearing as if she was about to cry. “What?”
Here it was. I knew it was now or never. I shut my eyes then opened them before taking a deep breath. “I love you, Aubrey. Can’t you see that? I am head over heels in fucking love with you. I love you more than anything in this entire world. When I look into your eyes, I don’t just see you, I see my children. Hell, I see an entire farm of children and deaf, dumb and blind goats. I see my entire future. Without you, I see nothing. Nothing. Even those two years locked up, memories of you were what gave me the strength to go on every day. I know you have to resolve things with him, and I don’t expect a confirmation right now with me standing here in this towel. I’ll wait. In the meantime, I’m here. You have me. The question is, do you want to keep me, or will you throw me away?”
When she opened her mouth, what came out was the last thing I ever expected. “Richard told me some time ago that the firm is dissolving and closing up shop by the end of the year. He was offered a position at a Boston patent law firm as a partner there. I just found this out yesterday. He wants to try to hire me. Either way, he asked me to go with him.”
Adrenaline rushed through me as my body was gearing up for a fight. I swallowed the massive lump in my throat. “When does he leave?”
A teardrop fell down her cheek. “Two weeks.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I barely slept after the bomb Aubrey dropped last night. I knew I was starting to get to her, although she was still fighting it. Two weeks was not a lot of time to gain back her trust. But what choice did I have at this point?
Thirteen days. I picked up my cell phone and stared at the time. The damn minutes seemed to tick away faster than they ever had. In prison, waiting for a day to pass seemed like an eternity. Yet now, it felt like the hands on the clock were spinning at warp speed.
I buzzed by Starbucks, picked up a coffee and paid for Aubrey’s. I also ordered an apple fritter and gave Melanie instructions to warm it for my girl before she gave it to her. I hoped it would subliminally remind her of our bike excursion for apple pie.
My brain was still frazzled, and I needed to work off the growing feeling of frustration, so I headed to the gym. It was noon by the time I finally made my muscles burn enough to think about something other than thirteen days.
Not knowing what else to do with myself, I headed to Aubrey’s with a dozen more flats of flowers. It was busy work, and in only two weeks time, someone else could be appreciating the garden. But I couldn’t let myself think about that now.
I was coming from the backyard with a wheelbarrow full of mulch when I saw Dick pull up outside of Aubrey’s. He looked right at me, and I had no desire to hide anymore anyway.
Maybe the Princess Fucker wouldn’t recognize me shirtless and sweaty. I continued down the driveway as he approached.
“Mr. Bateman?” He squinted, clearly confused by my appearance.
“That’s me. What can I do you for?”
“What are you doing here?”
I looked down at the wheelbarrow and back up at Dick with a face that said ‘can’t you figure that shit out yourself’?’ “Planting flowers.” I shrugged.
“I can see that. But why are you here planting flowers?”
“I guess that would be because Aubrey likes flowers.” Something you obviously didn’t know or give a shit about seeing as what the place looked like when I first arrived.
Dick folded his arms over his chest. “I thought you were going back to Australia?”
My jaw clenched. I was torn between telling off the asshole for not taking care of Aubrey’s property and punching him in the face for trying to take the woman I loved away. Just then, Aubrey’s car tur
ned the corner. No matter how bad I wanted to ruin things¸ I couldn’t do it to her.
“Ohhh.” I nodded my head as if something just dawned on me. “You must think I’m my brother, Chance.”
“Excuse me?”
“Chance. He’s the better looking brother for sure. But we’re identical twins. I’m Harry.” I extended my hand.
He was skeptical for a moment, but the dumb bloke fell for my line of shit easy enough. My hand was hot, sweaty and dirty. The suit wearing snob looked like he wanted to find somewhere to wipe off his hand after we shook. Not used to man hands, are you, Dick?
“Well that explains it then. Your brother was a client of Aubrey’s. I met him in the office.”
“Yes. I referred him to Aubrey. There’s no one else that the Bateman brothers would allow to touch their tockley. Except Aubrey.”
“Pardon?”
“Tockley—it’s an Australian term for important paperwork.”
He nodded and looked over at the curb as Aubrey parked.
Dumb fuck. Suck my tockley.
Now that I wasn’t supposed to know who he was, I could screw with the guy a bit. “So what do you think of the place? Coming along really well, don’t you think? Place was a real mess when I got here. I’m surprised Aubrey doesn’t have a man around the house to take care of things properly.”
Dick cleared his throat. “She does. Just not one who has the time or inclination to do this sort of work.”
“That’s a shame. Aubrey could use a man that takes care of all her needs.”
Dick narrowed his eyes at me, as Aubrey rushed from her car. She looked pale and frazzled.
“You didn’t tell me, Mr. Bateman’s brother was your landscaper?” Dick said to Aubrey.
“Brother?” Aubrey looked to me and I grinned.
“I thought Harry here was Chance when I pulled up.” Then the idiot added, “Now I can see the difference, of course. Twins always look different around the eyes.”
“Harry?” Aubrey’s panicked face cracked a tiny smile.
Cocky Bastard Page 19
