Famous: A Small Town Secret Romance

by Emily Bishop

  “Is that a command or a request?”

  My eyes bugged even more. He had to be messing with me.

  “Neither,” I told him, reaching for a can of paint and turning my back, effectively ending the conversation.

  As if on instinct, he bent down to help me. That damn gentleman thing that I hated kicked in again. Only, he reached down just as I was rising and his bicep brushed against my breast, causing both of us to stop breathing for a second.

  We froze. The air between us crackled. Electricity buzzed over my skin where it had grazed his. It wasn’t fucking normal.

  Mystic was finally living up to its name, as far as I was concerned. I jumped away from him, and he stepped back as if he had felt that dangerous current, too.

  “You sure we shouldn’t get together?” he asked. Probably as a way to ease the sudden tension.

  “No. I can’t believe that he told you that. I need to be a better wing woman to him. He needs to butt out of my life, and maybe finding him a girl will help with that.” I glared at him. Drew would be getting a solid earful as soon as tall, medium, and irritating left.

  He moved up behind me, reaching for the can of paint I was hoisting. His arms went around my waist, lingering before they lifted it to the shelf.

  Neither us moved to break contact that time. My breath caught in my lungs from the feel of his broad chest behind me. His clean, masculine scent enveloped me.

  He was close enough for me to make out hints of ocean and pine and something else in his smell. Along with something absurdly him. The absurdity stemmed from the fact that I didn’t even know his name. But somehow, I seemed to think that I knew his smell.

  The heat between us was unmistakable, though. It was a hypnotic feeling that drew me closer to him, my womanhood aching. I hadn’t ever been turned on that fast, without so much as a word and barely a touch.

  The next moment, his breath was on my ear. “What do you say? Want to give us a chance?”

  “Fiona, where’s that good-for-nothing friend of yours?” Adrian, the owner, interrupted us.

  I jumped away from the cocky stranger like his skin had caught fire. My own cheeks burned with embarrassment at Adrian walking in on me like this. He might not care about me getting cozy with a customer, but I cared. It was inappropriate.

  At the same time, Adrian’s interruption bothered me for another reason. Whatever had been happening between me and the cocky stranger, I hadn’t been ready for it to stop. As much as I had always liked Adrian, I wanted to rip out his voice box in that moment.

  The good-natured grin on his face was exactly why I liked him, though. He was a genuinely good guy who loved Drew almost as much as I did and indulged the cigarette breaks that he took and the ice cream runs that I sent him on without question.

  He knew that we both worked hard, so he didn’t micromanage us. Until he saw me nestled up to a customer, he had never so much as furrowed a brow at me. Adrian eyed me curiously but didn’t say anything about it.

  “I, uh...” I wasn’t quite sure if I was answering Adrian or tall, medium, and irritating, so I shut my trap and tried to gather my thoughts.

  “Ah, well, I’m sure he’ll be back with ice cream in a jiffy,” Adrian said. “Could you come help me with inventory while he’s out?”

  “Sure. Be there in a second,” I said once I’d caught my breath.

  Adrian turned and walked back to the storeroom, leaving me with a really awkward flush and an ache between my legs that absolutely should not have been there.

  I wanted to say yes to my irritating new admirer, but it hardly seemed appropriate now. The moment had slipped by.

  “Go ahead,” the guy urged. “It’s your job, as you keep reminding me.”

  He turned on his heel and marched out of the store without having purchased anything, and I reluctantly headed to the storeroom after Adrian.

  I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but he’d looked mildly disappointed when he had taken off. I, for one, hadn’t forgotten the intense feeling of desire that we’d shared, and I wasn’t likely to any time soon.

  Much later that night, I laid back in my bed, exhaustion overcoming me. But the lingering feeling of his touch on my skin refused to let me cool down or go to sleep.

  He was still on my mind when I finally managed to drift off, his intense eyes lighting up the dark, and his smell so vivid, it was as if he were lying next to me.

  My dreams took over, much less inhibited than I was. In them, he had those luscious lips parted as he surveyed my naked body. He stood at the base of my bed, naked and gloriously erect, stroking himself, watching me, imploring me to touch myself.

  I had never been good with my fingers, hence my frustration with the dead batteries of my vibrator but under his gaze, I found myself wanting to please him with nothing but my own body.

  I was suddenly naked, too. The pajamas I’d put on minutes before were lying in a heap next to my bed.

  Reaching down my body, I teased my nipples under his watchful and guiding presence, and slid my hand to my aching pussy.

  “Not yet,” his deep voice growled in my mind.

  I obliged him immediately, trusting him inexplicably with my pleasure. I surpassed my most aching bits and slid my fingers into my slick wetness, slowly easing in not one but two fingers. I felt so stretched. So full.

  Obeying his commands, I pumped them slowly into myself, my hips rocking up of their own accord. I circled my fingers around, then he told me to press my thumb to my clit. I nearly came off the bed with the force of the pleasure thundering through my veins.

  Doing what he ordered felt better than anything I had ever experienced. I kept following his imagined demands. Increasing the pressure when he allowed it and slowing down when he told me to. After minutes or hours or seconds or days, I was so wet and desperate that I started pleading with him.

  “Please,” I moaned, my eyes burning into his. “Let me come. I need to come so badly.”

  “Let go for me, baby,” he whispered, still stroking himself as I toppled into the abyss. He followed me, with a groaned shout of my name.

  I woke with a start. My fists clutched the sheets, and sweat drenched my body. My nipples were peaked, and slickness pooled between my legs. It dawned on me that I’d just had a sex dream about a guy whose name I didn’t even know. The mere thought of him had just caused me the most powerful orgasm that I could remember having.

  I groaned. As much as I hated thinking about Drew when I was still breathing hard from a spectacular orgasm that I’d had no control over, Drew had been right. I desperately needed to get laid.

  Chapter Six

  Shane

  I was out of bed before sunrise, as I was every morning. It was disconcerting to wake up on a Monday morning, knowing that I wasn’t going to the office. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt this way since I’d arrived back in Mystic, but it was safe to say that I was still having withdrawal symptoms from a lifetime of leading the pack in the race.

  Even though I wasn’t going into the office, that didn’t mean I couldn’t get some work done. I answered all my pending emails and replied to all the inquiries from the EPA, but by the time that was all done, it wasn’t even noon yet.

  Wandering around the house aimlessly, I discovered the old fishing rods. I decided to head down to the slip to revive the tradition that I had started with my mother all those years ago.

  One of my fondest memories of our time in Mystic was fishing with my mother. The slip next to the marina was quiet then because everyone else was off keeping the economy going. That was probably also close to the last time that I wasn’t one of those people, frantically running in the rat race. Even if the deck had been stacked in my favor from the very beginning.

  I was surprised to find a lone, familiar figure angling from the slip when I arrived. Fiona’s dark hair was pulled back in a thick braid, and her delectable little body was clad in cut-off jean shorts and an oversized tank top. Aviator glasses protected her eyes
from the glare.

  She started when she heard me approaching, yanking back on her fishing rod.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” I greeted her and set down my tackle box.

  “Of all of the gin joints in all of the world,” she returned, a wry smile playing on her lips.

  Sunlight glinted off the water, reflecting wavy lines of illumination on her face. It gave her an ethereal look. Like if I blinked or looked away, she’d disappear like a forgotten dream.

  “This makes two,” I said as I started rigging my gear.

  She looked at me over her shoulder, her brows furrowed. “Two what?”

  “Two things we have in common.” I smirked.

  “Yeah? What’s that?” Fiona returned her attention to her line but angled her body slightly toward mine.

  I knew it. She felt it, too. That pull between us. The tension.

  “Building boats and fishing,” I told her, taking up a space close beside her on the narrow slip.

  “How did you know that I build boats, too?” she asked, looking up from the water.

  I tugged a sand worm onto my hook. “Something Drew said the other day.”

  “Fucking Drew,” she muttered under her breath, but I was close enough to hear her.

  “Is that supposed to be a secret or something?” I asked.

  A deep, rosy hue crept onto her cheeks. “No, I just, I don’t know. I don’t know why he’s talking to you about me.”

  “I told you, he suggested that we should go out,” I said simply, omitting the fact that he’d also told me that I wasn’t her type.

  “He’s such an ass sometimes!” she burst out.

  Was the thought of going out with me that fucking revolting to her?

  “For suggesting that you go out with me?” I asked.

  She worried her lower lip, shooting a quick glance at me before blushing and returning her gaze to the water. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong. It’s just that I don’t even know your name. I know nothing about you. Why would he even suggest that?”

  “He’s your friend. You would probably know the answer to that question much better than me.” I then extended my hand to her. “And my name’s Shane. Shane Perkins.”

  She stared at my hand for a beat before placing her own soft hand in it. “Fiona Hall.”

  I was surprised by the strength of her grip. Women’s handshakes were usually relatively limp. Fiona’s was not. Of course, it took my mind no longer than a millisecond to conjure up an image of that same grip around my dick.

  I willed the image away before it could take hold and forced myself to focus on the conversation instead. “See? Now you know my name. What else do you want to know?”

  “I don’t know, where are you from?” she asked, dropping my hand.

  “At the moment, I live in Houston,” I answered, missing the feel of her hand in mine almost immediately.

  “What do you do there?” Her gaze lingered on mine before she tore it away and focused on something on the horizon.

  “I run the family business.” I kept my answer purposefully vague. If she noticed, she didn’t mention it.

  “Are you in Mystic for business or pleasure, then?”

  “A bit of both. I’m taking a break, but I do have some work to do here.” Work which wasn’t getting done nearly as efficiently as it ordinarily did, as evidenced by the fact that I was fishing on a Monday morning.

  Fiona paused, and I took the opportunity to turn the tables. “Drew mentioned that you moved here when you were seven.”

  “Did he? Wow, he’s just a well of free-flowing information, isn’t he?” Sarcasm laced her tone.

  “It was just a comment in passing,” I told her. “Where did you move from?”

  “Near Houston, actually. Conroe.” A soft smile played on her lips, as if she was replaying fond memories. Then her expression turned bitter.

  Interesting. “Why did you move?” I asked.

  She shut me down almost immediately, clearly avoiding a sensitive topic. “It’s a long story.”

  I didn’t push her for more than that. I was actually enjoying getting to know the mysterious and stubborn girl that had become a bit of a thorn in my side since I’d arrived. I didn’t want her guard shooting back up, the way it was at the store.

  She seemed more relaxed out at the water, less volatile than when she had been with me in the few short weeks since I’d arrived in Mystic. Her shoulders didn’t seem as tight. She wore a soft, easy smile, and she didn’t shy away from me when things got personal.

  I noticed, from the corner of my eye, that she carefully studied my profile, like she was trying to figure out what to make of me. Or maybe she was just checking me out. I didn’t have a problem with either but I was partial to the latter, considering the fantasies I’d had about her.

  Something tugged on her line, drawing her attention to the water. She gasped and squealed in delight. It was fucking adorable.

  “Yeah! I got a bite before you.” She stuck the tip of her tongue out at me with a smile and maneuvered her reel, walking to the very edge of the slip.

  I was behind her in an instant. Everything that I had seen from her pointed to the fact that she would resent my trying to help her but I wasn’t going to let her fall in the water or hurt herself if there was too much of a struggle.

  The heat from her back radiated on my chest. I was so close to her that my dick was only inches away from her ass. A sweet, citrusy scent wafted from her hair, intoxicating me.

  She was skillfully reeling in her catch, so focused on it that I doubted that she even noticed how near I was to her. In her excitement, she also didn’t seem to notice the metal eyelet bolted into the floor of the slip and hooked the toe of her shoe right underneath it.

  As if in slow motion, I saw her angle shift and her body start tumbling toward the smooth surface of the water, her eyes wide and disbelieving.

  Without conscious thought, I reached for her, snaking one arm around her waist and pulling her to my chest. My other hand grabbed her fishing rod and held it firmly so that she wouldn’t drop it. There wasn’t time to savor the feel of her body tucked against mine. I was too focused on getting her catch reeled in before she and the rod joined it in the water.

  The fish fought for another couple of minutes before I finally managed to wrestle it out of the water. I laughed and punched the air victoriously, feeling just as happy as I had been every time that I caught something as a child.

  “Is that...” Fiona trailed off, peering at the olive green back of the fish that blended in to its silvery sides, floundering at our feet. “Is that a bonefish?”

  I lowered to my haunches, and Fiona mirrored my movement, excitement shining in her bright blue eyes.

  “Yeah, I think so. They’re rare around here though, aren’t they?” If memory served, which it always did, bonefish were a species native to the extensive flats of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico and weren’t commonly found in this region.

  Fiona nodded and clapped her hands. “They are. Want to capture the rare moment before we throw it back?”

  My eyes widened, and I stared at her, waiting for the second head to grow. “You want to throw it back?”

  “Of course,” she said, fishing her phone from the pocket of her jeans and snapping a few quick pictures. “I almost always catch-and-release.”

  “Who would have known that underneath the tough exterior lay a soul that was gentle and compassionate?” I teased.

  Fiona rolled her eyes but giggled softly. “I don’t have a tough exterior. I just know boats better than you do. And I’m not shy about it.”

  I smirked, shaking my head. “We’ll see about that.”

  She carefully unhooked the fish without harming it, her nimble fingers making quick work of preparing the creature to get it back to the water.

  “Help me get him back in, will you?” She smiled up at me once she was done with the hook.

  “Sure.” I struggled to get a grip on the slimy fish for a
second but together, we finally managed to get it back to its natural habitat with barely a splash.

  “That was awesome!” she exclaimed, watching the spot where the fish disappeared. She turned to face me. “Thanks for your help.”

  “For keeping you out of the water or getting the fish back into it?” I joked.

  A genuine, radiant smile lit up her eyes—and did other things to my body. “Both, I guess. He was quite the fighter, wasn’t he?”

  “He was,” I agreed, then couldn’t resist teasing her just a little. “Just like the woman who caught him.”

  “I’m not a fighter,” she protested laughingly. “I only fight against wrong choices.”

  “Or what you perceive to be wrong choices,” I added with a grin.

  “Can I help it if my perceptions are right?” Her hand went to her lean hip but she was still smiling while she argued.

  “Only time will tell.”

  Time would tell that she was wrong but I’d learned better than to point that out to her.

  “Yeah, I guess it will,” she said, then glanced at her tackle box. “Thanks again for all your help but I think I’m done for the day. It doesn’t get any better than that catch.”

  “Agreed,” I said, though I could think of one better catch. It had long dark hair and startlingly blue eyes and was staring at me. I had to give it one more shot. “What do you think the odds are of catching that this far up?”

  “Apparently, better than you might think,” she mused.

  “What’re the odds that you’d go out with me to celebrate?” I asked, suddenly feeling more nervous than I had back when I was about to lose my virginity.

  I fixed my gaze on hers, laughing when she gave me her answer.

  She smiled. “They’re apparently better than you might think.”

  Chapter Seven

  Fiona

  “I’m here, Daddy!” I called out, stepping into my childhood home two days after finally agreeing to go on a date with Shane.

  The date was scheduled for later that night but I had the day off, so I had plenty of time to visit with my dad and get ready later. Especially since I’d spent the past two days agonizing about what to wear and already had my outfit laid out on my bed.