by Amy Vansant
SlightlySweaty
Amy Vansant
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by any means, without the permission of the author. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN-10: 0-9837191-5-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-9837191-5-1
Vansant Creations, LLC / Amy Vansant
Annapolis, MD
http://www.AmyVansant.com
http://www.SlightlyStalky.com
DEDICATION
To Heather and Gary, for all the hilarious times we’ve had with you in Canada, but not Canada.
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Other Books by Amy Vansant
Chapter One
Emily sat up in bed as if she’d been jolted alive by Dr. Frankenstein.
The dog is barking.
Is that someone knocking on the front door?
She glanced to her right to find an unfamiliar, man-shaped lump in her bed. She was no Sherlock Holmes, but the lump brought her to an undeniable conclusion.
There’s a man in my bed.
She smiled.
The dog continued to bark. The man-lump in her bed rolled, pushed to a sitting position and blinked at her, bleary-eyed.
“Is this how you wake up every morning?” he asked.
Her smile broadened.
No, not exactly. For one, you’re in my bed...
The man-lump known as Sebastian had moved into her house the night before. At least, she was pretty sure he’d moved in. He’d brought three boxes of stuff from his old apartment and then slept in her bed, so it felt a lot like he’d moved in.
His boxes sat piled in her living room and he lay tucked beneath her covers. She sat beside him, watching his bare chest rise and fall, his breathing agitated by the early morning commotion.
It would all seem pretty sexy, if it weren’t for a few things.
First, to her knowledge, they weren’t officially dating. Sure, he’d confessed his adoration for her the night before—shortly before moving his stuff into her house— but nothing had happened to cement the deal as of yet. He’d been living in his last girlfriend’s house up until that moment.
Greta’s house.
Greta.
Grr.
Emily couldn’t think the name without a growl rumbling in her chest.
To say Greta had been a complication for Emily’s burgeoning relationship with Sebastian would be like saying icebergs were a complication for the Titanic. Emily had met Sebastian during the bitter end of his relationship with Greta. Greta had been cheating on him, but he’d ended things with her long before receiving confirmation of those infidelities. According to him, their whole relationship had been a mistake from the beginning. Sebastian broke up with Greta, but remained temporarily half-living at her house—which was close to his work—and half-living at his brother’s house, a far away and inconvenient alternative.
At first glance, their break-up sounded very amicable.
During Sebastian’s time in purgatory, he and Emily had grown closer, flirting at the dart bar where they first met. Meanwhile—and without Sebastian or Emily realizing it—Greta was doing everything in her power to win Sebastian back. Since Sebastian still occasionally slept in Greta’s house, she had home-field advantage. She even faked being robbed to gain sympathy.
After several failed attempts to find an apartment of his own, Sebastian appeared to stop fighting his oft stated reticence to hop from one girl’s house to another and appeared on Emily’s doorstep like a lost puppy. The world’s sexiest lost puppy. A lost puppy with three boxes of stuff and dreamy blue eyes.
A puppy Emily had been hoping to find on her doorstep for a very long time.
She knew Sebastian feared the move to her house made it appear he was using her for her roof, but she also knew the feelings they shared. She didn’t care what it looked like. It felt right.
She’d always had the same philosophy about their situation: Get in my damn house and out of Greta’s.
If their relationship was going to stand a chance, that had to be Step One. She wasn’t worried he’d go back to Greta, but living so close to a viper, one was bound to get bitten—one way or the other.
Sebastian had picked an inconvenient night to appear on her doorstep. The evening he arrived coincided with the night Emily’s friend Kady discovered that her boyfriend was cheating, something she’d long suspected.
So that night Emily found herself with two house guests. Why not three? She called her hot friend, Marc—to take Kady’s mind off the cheating boyfriend—and the four of them spent the evening drinking and playing darts in Emily’s basement. It was all tons of fun, but it also meant Emily’s first evening with Sebastian had been as un-sex-filled as their life before he left Greta’s. He’d insisted on abstaining until he was out of Greta’s house, and now there’d be no sexy-time with guests sleeping in the next room.
Emily was about ready to tear off her clothes and run screaming through the streets.
But...she wouldn’t. They were in their late twenties, not teenagers. They had some control. Though, watching him now, sitting in her bed, scratching his head, the muscles in his back flexing...
She inhaled. He smelled good.
What was I thinking about?
Oh, right. Control.
First, Greta had been the chastity belt blocking their involvement. Now guests were.
Maybe tonight she’d spend quality romantic alone time with Sebastian, but first, she had to stop the dog-barking. Usually, Duppy would have stopped by now.
There is definitely someone at the door.
She sat on the edge of the bed and the world wobbled a little. The knocking on her door became more of a pounding. Someone battered on the door with what sounded like a small redwood tree.
I may have had a little too much to drink last night.
“It’s barely six o’clock. Were you expecting someone?” asked Sebastian, grabbing his phone from the nightstand to check the time.
Emily slid out of bed and grabbed her robe from the wall hook. “I’m not expecting anyone. You don’t think Greta came to collect you, do you?”
Sebastian snorted a laugh. “I wouldn’t put it past her.” He swung his long legs out of bed and peered through the shutters. “That looks like my brother’s car.”
“Why would your brother be here?”
Grabbing his shorts from the floor, Sebastian pulled them over his boxer briefs. “I have no idea. I’ll get it.”
Sebastian walked from the room and Emily followed to grab her scruffy white rat of a dog, Duppy.
Dog secured, Sebastian opened the door to reveal his brother Garrett standing on the
stoop, his hand in the air, mid-pound. He looked tired.
“Hey,” said Garrett.
Sebastian rubbed his eyes as the morning light poured into the entryway. “What are you doing here? How did you even find me?”
Garrett rolled his eyes. “You texted me the address last night so I’d know you weren’t at Greta’s anymore.”
“I did?” Sebastian scowled, his face the picture of confusion.
Yep. Little too much to drink.
Garrett continued. “Look, dude, I need your help. Can I come in?”
Sebastian glanced at Emily and she nodded, backing the dog an additional few feet.
Once Garrett stepped inside, Duppy snorfed him and then lost all interest. The mutt was fourteen years old and had little interest in anything that didn’t involve food or sleep. He turned and padded off to find a soft spot to flop.
“Hey,” Garrett said, nodding to Emily.
She offered him a little wave. “Hey.”
“So, what’s up?” asked Sebastian.
Garrett sighed. “Nicole needs help. You know that big contest thing she came up with for the station?”
Sebastian nodded. “Mindhead or something?”
“Minefield.”
“What station?” asked Emily.
“She works for News at Six on channel eleven. She came up with this idea to run a local reality show competition with young couples from the area. Her bosses loved the idea. She’s going to host it too, so it’s a big deal for her.”
“That’s great.”
“Yeah, it was, but it starts today and two couples had to drop out at the last second. If she can’t find replacements the whole thing is—”
Sebastian shook his head. “Oh no you don’t.”
Garrett whined. “Come on, you guys would be perfect for it.”
“Us?” Emily placed her hand on her chest. “You want us to be one of the couples? On television?”
Sebastian waved his hands in front of him as if the motion would make Garrett magically disappear. “No way. We’ll end up looking like idiots no matter what we do.”
Emily scowled. “Hey, speak for yourself.”
“I didn’t mean we’re idiots. It’s the way directors cut things to make everything more dramatic than it really is. You know what I mean.”
Garret slapped his hands together as if beginning to pray. “Dude. You have to. I told Nicky you were a sure thing.”
“Don’t call me dude.”
“You have to.”
“Wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest? Her being my sister-in-law and all?”
“A little, but it doesn’t matter. This is more of a test run than anything. You could still win twenty thousand dollars.”
Emily gasped. “Twenty? Each?”
Garrett hooked his mouth to the side. “Mmm... total, I think. Either way, everyone gets two grand just for participating.”
Sebastian put his hands on his hips and turned to Emily, grimacing. “I guess it’s up to you.”
Her words spilled from her lips before he’d finished his question. “I’m in.”
Sebastian groaned. “We’re really going to have to work on you picking up my silent signals.”
She patted his chest, grinning. “I picked them up. I just ignored them.”
Garrett bear-hugged her and she whooped with the force of his appreciation. “Thank you.”
Emily heard Sebastian sigh.
“I’ll do it, too,” said a new voice. Emily fell from Garrett’s embrace to find Kady standing at the end of the hallway.
Garrett’s eyes grew wide. “I need another couple. You have a boyfriend?”
Emily cringed. Kady’s boyfriend had been caught cheating with Greta the night before.
Touchy subject. But at least they were all on the same page.
Kady gnawed her lip. “Um, funny story—”
“I could do it with her.”
Emily heard footsteps on the stairs and Marc appeared from the basement where he’d slept on the sofa. Shirtless, he stretched, muscles rippling across his ribs, his arms flexing in places Emily didn’t know arms could flex. He looked as if he’d just peeled himself from the pages of a beefcake calendar.
“This keeps getting better,” Sebastian grumbled.
Emily snickered. Sebastian and Marc had known each other in high school and while not enemies, they hadn’t been the best of friends.
Garrett grinned. “You guys would be perfect. They wanted hotties to bring in the audiences, but I told Nicole I could only get you.” He elbowed his brother.
Sebastian shielded his ribs with his arm. “Ow. Thanks.”
Garrett pulled his phone from his pocket. “Nicole’s gonna flip when I tell her I got both couples. I was afraid I was going to have to ask Ralph and Tina. What a nightmare that would’ve—oh—” He stopped mid-dial to glance up at them. “The game is a week long, can you all get off work?”
“Not a problem. I work for my dad,” said Marc.
“I work for myself,” said Emily. She looked at Kady, and caught her staring at Marc’s abs from the corner of her eye.
“Kady,” she prompted.
Kady snapped to. “Huh?”
“Can you get this week off?”
“Oh, yeah. I was thinking about quitting anyway.” She bounced on her toes, visibly excited.
“Bash?” asked Garrett.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I can get off. What exactly do we have to do?”
“I’ll pick you up at eleven, be ready,” said Garrett, cutting him short and heading out the door.
“Eleven today? Be ready, how? What do we—”
Garrett called over his shoulder. “Pack a week of clothes. Bring bathing suits, and shorts and—just bring one of everything. See ya, thanks again.”
Sebastian stood in stunned silence for a few seconds and then shut the door.
“So I guess we’re going to be on TV,” said Emily. Kady’s infectious excitement had her growing increasingly giddy.
Sebastian grimaced. “Mm. Whoopie.”
Chapter Two
Emily opened her refrigerator and peered inside. “We should probably eat something before our big television debut. Who knows the next time they’ll feed us?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “It isn’t that kind of show. They’re not going to throw us on a deserted island or feed us bugs or something.”
“How do you know?”
Sebastian opened three cabinets in rapid succession until he found a coffee mug and retrieved it. “You’re right. Now that you mention it, I have no idea what the theme is and Garrett ran out of here before I could ask him. That’s probably not an accident. He’s probably getting me back for something I did to him in the third grade.”
“Just think, when you’re old you’ll be able to watch this and remember what it was like to be young and healthy.”
Sebastian grunted. “That’s what personal photos are for. I’m only doing this for Nicole.” He placed his mug on the counter and slipped his arms around Emily’s waist. “You know this means no alone time for us.”
His breath tickled her ear and she shivered. He was right. What did the universe have against them getting naked?
She laid her head against his shoulder. “I didn’t think of that. Call Garrett. Tell him we’re out.”
“Done.”
He reached in the pocket of his shorts and manifested his phone. She grabbed his arm.
“No, no, I’m kidding. We lasted this long. We can make it another week.”
He hung his tongue from the side of his mouth and rolled his eyes, pantomiming a petulant teenager. “Whatever.”
She giggled as Kady entered the kitchen.
“I have to run home and pack,” said Kady, grabbing her purse.
Marc entered a second behind her. “Me too. I’ll drive you and help.”
Kady attempted to express surprise at Marc’s offer, but Emily could tell every ounce of her shock was manufactured. The pai
r had clearly been conspiring to find some alone time of their own. They’d hit it off. Emily was about to call them out, when she realized their absence meant alone time for Sebastian and her as well.
Hm.
“You can give me a lift?” asked Kady, sounding as if Marc’s offer was nothing short of magical. As if he’d offered to teleport her to her house.
Marc nodded. “Oh sure, I can do that. We’ll go to your house and then swing by mine.”
Marc delivered his line in a stilted staccato. He was a terrible actor.
Sebastian glanced at Emily and raised an eyebrow. “You’re not buying—”
Emily put her hand on Sebastian’s arm to quiet him. “Okay, we’ll see you guys back here in a bit.”
Kady grinned and she and Marc headed out the door. Emily watched them through her kitchen’s bay window as they climbed into Marc’s ridiculously large pickup truck.
“She loves guys with trucks. She didn’t stand a chance.”
Sebastian chuckled. “So you knew that was all a joke. They’d planned to leave together.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Marc wasn’t the most loyal guy in high school, you know. Shouldn’t you warn her?”
“She knows. He’ll be her rebound guy. He’s perfect for that. He’s just the stupid distraction she needs to get her over her breakup with Joe.”
Sebastian sniffed. “Emphasis on the stupid.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“What point?”
“The point of them leaving. See anyone else around?” She waggled her eyebrows up and down.
He gasped. “We’re alone.”
She nodded and he walked toward her with slow, measured steps, tucking his upper lip tight against his gums to flash his teeth, his hands raised and curled like claws.
“They left you here, alone, with me,” he said in a terrible vampire voice.
“Uh oh. Marc isn’t the only terrible actor around here,” she said, trying not to laugh. “What is it you’re trying to do with your lips?”
He titled back his head, the whites of his eyes flashing, teeth still exposed. “These are the deadly daggers.”
He dove forward and grabbed her, nibbling her neck as she tried to squirm from his grasp.
