“Sorry, babe.” Taylor Jane dropped the hose and hugged Hunter, kissing him and soaking herself against his waterlogged clothes. He shook his head, mumbling it wasn’t the first time she’d shot him with a hose, and he proceeded to take his shirt off too.
“Wow, that was different.” Winnie stood there, taking it all in. I wasn’t even sure she’d met my parents yet and this day was only getting better.
A naughty idea formed in my head because when in Rome... “Come here,” I said, walking up to her.
“Oh no, you keep that over there, Doctor. I’m not doing another sans clothing episode with you.” She was laughing and suddenly I was laughing. We’d all got a little crazy going on, so I decided to join in ripping my shirt off too and chasing after her.
Nine
WINNIE
Chase was soaking wet, no shirt and taking rapidly increasing steps toward me as I backed away. I was afraid I might trip on my clumsy ass again, but he kept smiling like a goofball. “What? Shit. No! Chase! Stop it!” He chased me around the backyard while I squealed like a farm animal. Exhilaration coursed through me, and I wasn’t sure if I should let him catch me or not. My shoes prevented me from running full out, and he seemed more bent on stalking me than he did catching me at the moment.
“Come here.” He taunted with his arms open as I was dodging him around a picnic table filled with food. His wet hair curled over his forehead and the urge to push it back distracted me just enough that he caught me. Arms looped around my middle and his bare chest and wet shorts seeped through the back of my sundress.
“Chase!” He was laughing against me and the rumble made me squirm against him suggestively, forgetting how recently I met him.
“Careful, Win.” The playfulness changed, and I felt his fingers graze my sides close enough to the side boob.
“Chase…” This time saying his name was less censure and more invitation when I laid my head against his shoulder, forgetting we were at his parents’ house amid guests in the backyard. His friends seemed to be gone, caught up in their own whirlwinds while a game of badminton was played by some younger cousins across the yard.
“You know, Son, if you had run like that in football practice, you might have gotten somewhere.” We both jerked apart hearing the comment from behind us, and Chase tensed against me.
“Good to see you too, Dad. Come on, I’ll get us some towels.” Chase dragged me toward the house, an unrelenting grip on my hand. I could barely keep up with him, but I was leery of saying anything from the scowl marring his beautiful face. Instead, I squeezed his hand back to let him know I understood.
Chase took me inside to the mud room, pulling towels down from a shelf. He wrapped one around me and used another one to dry off his bare chest and hair.
“Thanks,” I told him as I brushed the water from my arms. My dress was soaked as were his shorts. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do when a chill from the cranked air conditioning gave me a shudder.
“I’m, uh, sorry about that.” He looked sheepish and my big mouth followed by asking him a question.
“About which part?” He was standing close, maybe too close, and the mud room quickly heated up with the two of us breathing out of breath.
“I’ll start with my sister, Kristen, her strange relationship with Damien none of us can figure out, and my dad being a jerk.”
“Wow, and I haven’t met your mom yet.”
“Do you think we should leave now, quit while we’re ahead?”
“Oh no, I’m committed to see this through,” I teased him, pulling him closer to me.
“Of course you are.” He moved back and we parried a little dance in the confined space.
“It wasn’t that bad, but did you really have to chase me around the backyard?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“And now?”
“Well, I think we might need to dry our clothes a bit before we go back out there.”
“Hmm. It seems like you’re just trying to get another free peep show, Dr. Calloway?”
He mocked looking offended. “Me? I would never do such a thing.” He grabbed the towel around me and pulled me in close. “But I might do this if you’re agreeable.”
My heart fluttered and my body felt like the pressure in the small room changed as Chase got closer to me. His head leaned down and rose up until our lips met in a kiss that had me sinking deep against him. Chase tasted like sweetly carbonated beer and summer, and I wanted to get drunk off his lips.
“Is this okay, Winnie? Can I kiss you like this?” Oh my God, if he stopped I’d probably cry and pitch a fit.
“Are you going to try and take my dress off?” I whispered into his open mouth that was kissing and catching my lips between his.
“Probably, but only because I think we should put our stuff in the dryer.”
I snorted. “Likely story.”
“That’s the one I’m sticking to.” Chase’s fingers crept down my sides and slowly pulled my wet dress up my body until I let go of the towel, dropping it on the floor.
He picked up the towel, wrapping me up and then dropped his shorts, and I mean everything in one shot. He was too beautiful to be human. At least that was the last neural connection I had before I was stunned looking at him. “Oh!”
“Sorry, everything is soaked.” He was not the least bit bashful or apologetic. I bet Chase and Roswell were in cahoots in another life.
“I’ll say.” I fanned myself and tried to not think of my damp panties. Chase dropped everything inside the dryer and put it on air dry for twenty minutes. That didn’t seem like a long enough time to take care of business, but what did I know? Chase grabbed his towel, wrapping it around his waist, and then locked the door of the mud room from the inside.
“I should have done that first.” He laughed. “Just in case.”
“Mmmhhhmmm.” Was all I said when he picked me up, propping me on top of the dryer currently spinning under my ass.
“Now, where was I?”
I pointed to my lips. “Somewhere around here, I think.”
“Oh yeah.” Chase went in, swooping down, taking my lips in another soul stealing kiss. My hands needed some place to go because I felt like I was about to fall back. I let go of the towel and grabbed onto his shoulders, letting my fingers tangle up in his hair. My nails scraped through his thick dark hair and pulled gently on the ends.
I should be shocked hooking up in a mud room of all places, but all I could do was concentrate on the feel of Chase against me and in my hands. His own hands traveled around my body, making stops to trace my spine, tickling me first. He gently pried my legs apart and stepped between them, pulling me close to the edge of the dryer. He didn’t rub all over me, but instead treaded lightly, grazing my skin. One hand stayed planted on my hip, his finger stroking under the elastic band of the silk panties I was wearing. The other hand went back to my side and his thumb traveled north to stroke against my side boob, teasing me. I wiggled, trying to get his finger closer to my nipple because he was making me nuts.
“Chase.” Half whine, half groan, pure frustration, I didn’t know, but it was driven by this desire for more that he was not giving me.
“Shhh.” I’m wiggling to the end of the dryer’s ledge, ready to crawl over him, but all I got was a hip and his side when I tried wrapping my legs around him. I was about as close to a bitch in heat the way he was teasing me and tears pricked my eyes because it felt so good I didn’t want him to stop.
Deflated, the buzzer of the dryer dinged, sending zings of vibrations straight to my center when he reached behind me to shut it off while kissing me senseless. It was enough to push me just over the tip of the edge, but not enough to sate the desire he built kissing me. I was breathing heavy pants and sank against his shoulder, weak and angry.
“I hate you,” I mumbled against his neck as those damn fingers slowly petted me back down to a reasonable
level of sanity.
“Ah, Winnie. I know how you feel.”
“I doubt that very much.”
He smirked, turning his hip, and I finally felt his erection through the towel, long and hard.
“No doubt I’d like more, but I don’t want to rush you.”
Crestfallen, I leaned back, looking up at him. My eyes, damn them, were tear filled and ready to spill over.
“You don’t?” Should I be upset? I was upset, but should I be? He’d twisted me in a knot that only got tighter with each encounter with him.
He used the pads of his thumbs to brush away my tears. “No, Winnie, I want to take my time with you. You’re worth taking the time.” He pulled me to the edge, slowly letting me slip against the soft towel on the smooth warm metal frame of the dryer. His lips touched mine in a scorching hot kiss, pressing his hips deep into the cradle of mine, rubbing himself against me and torturing us both all over again.
Heat built between us, and I thought we might actually take it further when inhuman sounds found us. “Arrggh!” Banging on the door shook the shelves above me.
“Hey, open up, Mom wants the cloth table napkins. You better not have gizzed all over in there.” Chase’s sister killed the mood, rapping on the door relentlessly, demanding linens that must be kept in here.
Chase made a smacking sound of frustration with his lips, shaking his head no. “So, uh, have you met my sister Kristen? She’s a pervert and a pain in the ass.”
“Hmm. I wonder where she gets it from.” I bit my lip, willing my face to stop blushing, but it was useless because I felt the fire coating my skin.
“Now you see why?” he asked with an incredulous grin.
Slapping him on the chest, I pushed him back and hopped off the dryer on wobbly knees. “Give me my clothes back.”
He laughed, yelling at Kristen to get her panties out of a wade before opening the door. He held it open for me to exit less than gracefully into the kitchen and open-mouthed stares of both his sister and mom.
Oh hell.
Yeah, because nothing else would have been more awkward.
Ten
CHASE
“Oh shit.” My mother narrowed her eyes at me, tapping her heeled foot while Winnie smoothed back her messy hair no thanks to me and my man hands tangling the locks.
“Chase Miles Calloway. I raised you better than to maul a house guest in the mud room.” She’d put on her legal stare, and I felt my spine withering under her censure. “Hello, dear. I’m Chase’s mother. Judge Calloway.” Mom held out her hand, shocking me. Mom wasn’t touchy-feely, and I wondered what she did with her Lysol spray. Poor Winnie shook it hesitantly. I couldn’t blame her. Who the hell introduced themselves as “judge?” My mother, Catherine Ann Calloway, the germophobe, that’s who.
“It’s a new appointment. Mom’s a lawyer in town,” I whispered in Winnie’s ear, feeling like an idiot trying to explain.
She grimaced with a wide fake smile, continuing to shake my mother’s hand. “Not helping, Chase,” she muttered under her breath with clenched teeth for my ears alone.
“It’s Kristen’s fault. We got sprayed with the hose because she attacked Damien. We were drying our clothes.” I tried looking innocent, but my mother wasn’t stupid, and the look on her face suggested she’d call me later and chew my ass out.
“Way to throw me under the bus, bro.”
“Anytime, KC. Looks like the food is out. Catch you later.” I pulled a disheveled Winnie, wrinkled dress and all, away from the firing squad.
“So nice to meet you, my dear!” Mom called after us, requesting Winnie have lunch with her and the girls.
Yeah, not on my watch.
Walking away, I found some tables and chairs set up by the fire pit as other folks passed by introducing themselves. “I think that went well, don’t you?” Winnie disentangled herself from me and walked alongside.
“Sure, if you call getting the stink eye from the woman who birthed you good, then we’re classic, baby.”
She smiled, pinching my side. Winnie wasn’t mad, so that was something.
“They can be intense.” It was lame, but I honestly had nothing else to go with.
Winnie let out a deep breath, shaking her shoulders out dramatically. “Well, thank God my hand hadn’t been down your pants or anything else. It would have been really weird shaking your mom’s hand after that.” There were so many ways to interpret that statement, but I let it go, nodded, and hoped she was kidding. Mom had hand sanitizer stationed all over the house, but I wasn’t going to tell Winnie that.
“Yeah, we already saw enough of each other today, huh?”
“Oh my God, like three dates’ worth. I think we’re good for another month at least.”
That was a sobering thought. I didn’t want to wait three dates to make another move, and I hoped she was joking. Winnie and I parred back and forth trading quips when I guided her over to a table laid out with food. We picked up plates and filled them with ribs, corn, salads and the usual BBQ fare. Hunter and Taylor Jane joined us at the table and we ate in easy comradery.
“You never did tell me what you girls got into when you left us.” I turned, directing the question at Taylor Jane while I slipped my hand under the table, resting it on Winnie’s bare knee. Screw waiting three dates, I was going to test the waters now while I had the opportunity.
“As soon as we got inside we were put to work shuffling all this stuff outside. I don’t think I even saw your mom. Winnie, did you get to meet her yet?” Taylor Jane had no idea her innocent question left the door wide open. I let my finger stroke her leg, sneaking under the fabric to touch her higher where she was warmer.
Winnie pushed her hand against mine under the table, but I squeezed her leg firmly, keeping my hand in place while I watched her color rise and her eyes spark. “I did meet her briefly.” Winnie cleared her throat, smiled, and pinched the soft spot on my hand under the table, forcing me to let go of her as she crossed her legs, blocking my efforts.
“They got to shake hands and everything.” I rubbed my hand up her leg, lifting her dress as I went, and she tried to push it away again.
“Really? No offence, but your mom keeps hand sanitizer in her pockets. She must have really liked you, Winnie.”
Winnie froze and snapped her head to mine, chewing her food slowly.
“Hmm. Maybe,” Winnie said.
Taylor Jane ate her food, and I was trying to not laugh with the dirty look I got from her. She speared a potato roughly with her fork and bit it cleanly in half, her eyebrow raised, giving me a clear message.
“Mom was a little busy fending off Kristen. We’ll catch up with her later, I’m sure.” I rubbed her back and changed the topic. “Hunter, how’s the construction business going?” Changing topics, my friend launched into his newest project while we compared the cost of houses growing up to now. He and Taylor Jane had just finished embarking on this historic house flipping project recently that was a part of a design contest. The old Victorian home had sat vacant for years until Taylor Jane bought it and decided to fix it up. Hunter still seemed a bit shell-shocked over the endeavor.
“You know, I was thinking maybe we should do something with that shed in your backyard, Chase. I don’t think it’s a very stable structure and it’s probably increasing your home owner’s insurance needlessly.” Hunter nodded, forking a large cut of grilled steak into his mouth.
I agreed with him completely, thinking over what to do with the structure. “Come over next weekend and have a look at it. I’d hate to tear the whole thing down, but whatever needs to be done, I guess.”
“Ohh! Can I come? Please?” Taylor Jane was clapping her hands excitedly, which amused all of us. “I’m looking for old clap board to use and I’ll pay you for it.”
“Honey, you can have it. I wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway. I was just going to have Hunter build a new shed from the ground up.” Taylor Jane got up
from the table and came over to my side, tackle hugging me.
“Thank you so much!” I’d be happy to give her the whole shed if it made her that happy. I wasn’t as close to these guys as my sister was since I’d gone to veterinary school, but I’d missed them all.
“Saturday it is!” Hunter pointed his fork at me, smiling when Taylor Jane went on to tell him the one hundred and one things I was sure she wanted to do with the clap board or whatever it was.
Winnie nudged me with her elbow, and I looked over at her. A kind smile brightened her face as opposed to the scowl moments ago when I made my moves on her under the table. “You’re a good friend, Chase Calloway.” She winked at me, and I felt a peaceful happiness settle over me. I liked Winnie Gray. I liked her a whole damn lot.
Eleven
WINNIE
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, thank God for that. Krazy-Kristen as I nicknamed Chase’s sister left and came back with some guy named Evan, who worked in town as a police officer. That must have been the guy she was screwing according to Damien, who seemed to be sulking near the fire pit, nursing a beer. Hunter tried to get him to join us on the blankets out back, but he declined. It was probably best because Kristen and Evan were petting each other hot and heavy in a mix of micro-brewery beer and Hugo Boss cologne. I was here barely a few hours and already immersed in the tight little group’s drama. The rest of us lay back and waited for the fireworks to start.
The breeze came, raising goosebumps on my bare arms. I’d left my wedged shoes by the fire pit and walked barefoot up the hill to where Chase had set up everything. “Cold?” Chase leaned up on his elbow, looking at me.
“A bit. I keep forgetting I’m technically in the mountains up here.” He picked up a folded blanket and opened it up, spreading it out over us. The wool blanket was soft and must have been owned and washed for years the way it enveloped over us in a cozy cover.
“How’s that?” He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me back against his warm chest. He felt like my own personal furnace between the cool ground and breeze. I pushed out the thoughts that this was all temporary.
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