“Thank you so much for agreeing to show us the suite on such short notice, Mr. Spencer. I know it’s a bit last minute, but we have been so busy making plans.”
He raised his hand in understanding.
“Not a problem, my dear. Follow me and I’ll show you to the suite.”
Mr. Spencer took the lead and Jonathon and I fell into step behind him. I hooked my arm around my beloved fiancé’s elbow and let him lead me, feeling his body relax slightly. And looking at the quaint decorations of the little inn, I thought that it was even a place I might consider honeymooning at. Under different circumstances.
“You know, Olivia, I checked our register and your grandparents stayed in this very room on their honeymoon.”
Although that just made it weird in a hurry…
He was stopped in front of the door and fumbling with a key, and a second later we were standing in the entrance.
“OK dear, you take care of what you need to do. Just let me know when you’re finished.”
Spencer closed the door behind him and I turned to look up at an astonished Jonathon.
“He thinks we’re going to screw in here.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Did you hear him? He said to what you need to do. He thinks we’re going to screw…”
“I called him yesterday and told him we needed a place in private to finish our wedding plans. And if he let us use the suite we would rent it for our honeymoon.”
“Oh. You’re not going to be happy until you spin this entire town into your little web of lies, are you?”
I watched him start to take off his tweed jacket and saw that he had his thermos in his hand.
“More tea?”
“Grandma heard you coughing in the courthouse again. I’m pretty sure at this point she thinks you have pneumonia.”
“Your grandmother is sweet. Are you sure your father isn’t adopted?”
I got a ceramic mug from the honeymoon suite’s sink and poured myself some of Grandma McAllister’s tea. I was savoring the feeling of the sweet elixir in my throat when I looked over to see Jonathon watching me.
“Well? What’s the plan, Olivia? You have a way out of this?”
“Yes, yes I do. Okay, we have two weeks until we’re due back in court.”
“Yes, we knew that already.”
“Right. And if we go to court, we’re both screwed.”
“Again, we knew that, but duly noted.”
“Right. But they think we are planning to get married. So, we have a dinner next weekend, before we’re supposed to go to court, to get the two families together.”
“This plan is starting to scare me already…”
“Just go with me here.” I took a sip of Grandma’s tea, but it didn’t have the calming effect I was looking for. “If we get both families to dinner, around the pretense of us getting married, it should be a warm and fuzzy affair.”
“Oh, I’m sure…”
“A little drinking, some food…”
“It sounds expensive.”
“And then, we spring the agreement on them and get them to sign it before we’re scheduled to go to court.”
I gave him the ‘ta-da’ gesture, but he was still looking at me like he was waiting for something more.
“I’ve already checked with Huddy’s. We can use their banquet room. My cousin Frank had his bachelor party there last year, and…”
“Oh, it sounds lovely, Olivia.”
He got up from the bed and walked to the window overlooking the pond. It really was a beautiful property. And Jesus, he was tall…
“That’s it? That’s your plan? Now we have to pony up for a dinner at Huddy’s so that our fathers can fight over beers?”
“I’ll split the cost with you, Jonathon. You’ll just need to spot me—all of it. I’m broke. I’m down to my last nickel.”
The sob story wasn’t helping. He was still looking out the window. I put down his grandmother’s tea and stood up to speak to him.
“Look, it’s not great, but it’s the best shot we have. But it should be fine. You know how parents are around this wedding shit. They’ll be putty in our hands after a couple of drinks and then we’ll be golden.”
He refused to turn from the window.
“My father isn’t exactly thrilled with me for being engaged to you. It’s going to be no picnic trying to get him to a ‘feel good’ family dinner.”
I knew my plan had holes but that wasn’t the response I was expecting.
“He’s not thrilled with me? Why not?”
“He’s still got a bug up his ass about me being involved with a Hawthorne. He still thinks I should have married Carla Jean Sullivan.”
For reasons that I couldn’t understand, I was suddenly furious at Carla Jean Sullivan. And maybe a little jealous. But mostly furious. And I didn’t do furious very well.
“Well your father and Carla Jean what’s-her-face can both go fuck themselves.”
He blinked when I said it because he wasn’t expecting the outburst. And his poker face wasn’t any better than mine.
“Maybe it’s true what my father said.”
“Oh yeah, Jonathon? What’s that?”
He paused before speaking, and for a moment I thought he would say nothing.
“He told me I was throwing away the rose of the county to marry the dirty neighbor next door.”
He didn’t see it coming. I wasn’t sure that I even saw it coming. It was a motor reflex born from the most animal of instincts. My right hand came up fast and connected full across the left side of his face. If my fist had been closed I might have knocked him out. But the sound of my open palm across the bare skin of his face created a smack that echoed off the walls of the honeymoon suite to my pure satisfaction.
“Ouch. Jesus Christ!”
The second hand had already fired and was on its way. And this one had a ring on it that was a symbol of our fake love and devotion. I had my left hand balled into a fist and was aiming for the right side of his face when he reached out and grabbed me by the wrist.
It was a slick move. He was fast for a big guy.
“Easy, easy, easy…”
I still had the adrenaline of a fresh McCallister insult ringing in my ears and I raised a knee to get him in the balls. But he was anticipating that. A smart guy always would. He turned his body and took a glancing blow to his hip and used the momentum of his body weight to launch me onto the bed. No amount of fighting was going to save me now, because he made sure to crawl on top of me fast.
“For fuck’s sake, Olivia. I don’t think beating the shit out of me is going to accomplish anything.”
He should have been pissed because I could see the scarlet finger marks on his cheek, but he was trying not to laugh.
“What the hell has gotten into you? Why are you upset over what my father says about you or Carla Jean?”
I was still fighting him, but he had my hands pinned above my head and his big body was holding me down. I knew he was right. I knew it was stupid for me to be upset, but I was looking at his dark hair curling down his neck and I wanted to pull on it. But struggling against him was only making me more tired, and looking at him was only making me want him. And he must have seen it too, because his demeanor had suddenly changed.
“Wait, are you jealous? Are you jealous of Carla Jean?”
He was smiling as he said it, and I was mad at him all over again. And I was mad at myself because I knew that he was right. I was still squirming, but he was way too strong. My feeble attempts to struggle were made more humiliating by the fact that he had both of my hands pinned above me with his left hand now. I could feel his right hand on my thigh. Not quite moving.
Yet.
“Tell me, Olivia. Tell me you’re jealous.”
He was at least making it easy for me. He wasn’t looking directly into my eyes anymore because he was starting to nibble at my neck. When he spoke, it was in a whisper that was right against my ear. I decided to not use the
little bit of energy that I had left to fight him, but I didn’t want him to let me go yet, either. He still had my hands pinned over me and his lips were on my neck and that other hand was moving up my body.
Fuck you, Carla Jean…
“Tell me you’re jealous of her.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Jonathon.”
The hand had passed my waist and was working its way up my midsection. It paused for a second, as if it were thinking about where to go next. And then it was caressing my neck—the side of my neck that wasn’t covered with his lips. He rubbed my neck for only a minute, and then I felt the hand dropping back down to my chest.
I struggled against the hand that had me pinned helpless over my head, but it was all for show. I still didn’t want him to see what he was doing to me, and his other hand was inches away from blowing my cover. I felt it running over my shirt, cupping my breasts, and then it moved lower and started to tug my shirt free of my pants.
I wondered if he felt how hard my nipples had been, but I knew he did. My hard nipples weren’t any more of a secret than the enormous bulge that I was feeling between his legs. I had stopped fighting, and I knew even the most cagey of guys needed two hands to take off a woman’s pants. And then right on cue, he released me and he had both of his hands at my waist.
“If you’re not going to tell me the truth, then you’re going to force me to fuck it out of you.”
He unbuckled my pants, proving his hands were not only fast, but nimble. He was pulling them off me a second later but he couldn’t take them off fast enough. Although as he stood up to take off his shirt, I wanted him to slow down. I wanted him to take it off slowly.
I fucking loved it when a guy took off his shirt…
The shirt was off and it joined my pants somewhere on the honeymoon floor. His hands were at his pants and I had my hands on my shirt and it was like we couldn’t get naked fast enough. I had my bra off my body and I could feel the cool air on my nipples and I started to get off the bed as he stopped me in my tracks.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?”
“I want to be on top.”
“Not this time, Olivia. Not this time. Lay down.”
He grabbed my hands as he said it and he was pushing me back onto the bed. I struggled with him briefly, because it was the playful thing to do. It was also enough to force him to trap my hands over my head again.
He had his mouth against my neck again and I could feel his hardness against my leg. I needed his hands on my body but at the same time, I loved that he was holding my own hands above my head. His big left hand was over my wrists and a second later, his right hand was back along my body.
“Why’d you hit me, Olivia? What are you so upset about?”
He was looking at me as he asked it, but his hand was busy running up and down my thigh. The only thing I had left on my body was a pair of panties, and his fingers kept tripping across the elastic band.
“Tell me. Tell why you’re angry.”
He started to kiss me and I kissed him back. Hard. But his lips only lingered on mine before tracing their way back to my neck. He was kissing, but it wasn’t his lips I was focusing on. It was his fingers as he moved to the inside of my thighs.
“I want to hear you say it. Tell me why you were angry.”
He was right against my ear. He spoke in a whisper and I could feel his breath on my neck. He was nibbling now, helping himself to a full serving of my lower ear lobe. And his fingers had worked their way underneath the hem, against my innermost thigh. I knew what he would find there. I knew that I must be soaking wet. And I knew a moment later that he wasn’t going to make it that easy for me.
His finger slid just over the top of me with no effort at all. It didn’t push inside, because he knew that was what I wanted. He was teasing me, feeling my wetness and all the warmth that was between my legs. I felt my hips move in spite of myself and he was looking at me again.
“Go ahead, tell me.”
I wanted to tell him a lot of things, but none of them was what he was looking for. So I kept quiet and let him continue to work on me. I tried moving both hands, in a bad effort to see if I could still break free. And he just kept on moving that damn right hand of his.
The hand between my legs came up suddenly with a fist full of silk, and he pulled my panties off me in one swift move. As quickly as his hand had tossed my panties on the floor, it was back, inching its way back up my bare thigh. I could feel his cock pressing against my leg, and I could feel the cool air of the room on my wet pussy. And when he looked me in the eyes again, I felt my willpower starting to wilt.
Just a little…
“Are you jealous of Carla Jean, Olivia? Is that why you got so upset?”
His eyes looked through me, while that hand worked its way up to my chest. I felt his palm against my breast and then his fingers on my nipples, teasing me. Just enough to let him know exactly how hard they really were.
“Why are you so upset? She and I are through and you and I aren’t real. Are we?”
It was plenty real right now. His hand left my breasts and was moving back between my legs. It was an easy move for him now because I had them spread wide open, trying to draw him in with an unspoken invitation. His left hand released my wrists and I had both hands between my legs, trying to grab the thing that I wanted most. He was still pushing me away playfully and I finally felt the need to speak.
“Put it in, Jonathon. Put it in me now.”
The hand that had just been between my legs was now between his, holding his hard cock as he dragged it up and down against me. I could feel his warmth and his wetness, mixing together with mine. I would have told him anything at that moment to get him to go further, and I opted for the thing he was waiting to hear.
“Yes goddammit, I got upset hearing you talk about Carla Jean, OK? It was stupid, I don’t understand why. Is that what you want to hear?”
Still rubbing, back and forth against me. With hands that were now free, I reached out to grab onto his hips. He opened his mouth to speak and I cut him off, because I knew exactly what he was going to say.
“I told you not to worry about it. I’m on the pill…”
“That’s not what I was going to say, Olivia. I was going to tell you not to worry about Carla Jean. On her best day she’s got absolutely nothing on you.”
It was a strong statement made stronger by the thrust of his hips that followed. I felt him push inside of me as all the breath left my body. I felt my fingernails digging into his back as he started to move back and forth on top of me.
“I told you before, Olivia. I’ve never been with another woman like you. There is no other woman like you.”
He leaned forward and I heard myself squeal. He was pinning me down when I was used to being on top and it was making me lose my mind. Going faster when I wanted him to slow down and I cried out not to stop. I felt him continue to thrust as my body started shaking and I realized he was looking me right in the eyes.
“There’s never been a woman like you.”
Chapter 15
Olivia
“He’s invited Aunt Millie, sweetheart. I’m sure she’s going to come.”
I was pacing back and forth, doing a good job of working a groove into a one hundred year old kitchen floor. I was doing mental calculations on a dinner that was starting to become more expensive by the minute.
“Aunt Millie? Oh, for crying out loud. This wasn’t supposed to be a big thing, Nanny. This was really just supposed to be for us. I can’t risk having it get out of hand.”
She nodded at me in understanding as I kept going back and forth across her kitchen floor. One more person Jonathon would understand. One more person wouldn’t be so bad.
“I heard your father speaking to her on the phone, sweetheart. It sounds like Aunt Millie will be bringing the twins too.”
“The twins? Oh, for the love of…”
Another groove in the kitchen floor. Another two heads
added to our dinner head count. I had lost track of the numbers. Jonathon would know, he was good with numbers. But this thing was growing. He was going to be upset.
“I didn’t plan on Daddy telling a bunch of people, Nanny. This is going to screw us up. We’re running tight as it is. I just need to get us through this dinner, but Daddy’s making even that difficult.”
“He’s excited, dear. I think it’s sweet. He’s finally coming around and is actually getting to grips with you getting married. You ought to be pleased. You have him right where you need him to be.”
She looked at me and I looked at her and I started pacing again.
“Your father’s not a brute, Livy. He’s a reasonable man. Even when it concerns affairs of the heart. I’m not sure I can say the same about those McCallisters.”
Nanny’s tone changed when she said the name. Dear sweet Nanny— I knew she was on the edge of a rant and I tried in vain to cut her off.
“Do you really think both twins are coming, Nanny? I thought Aunt Milly only needed one of them to drive her?”
“The grandmother—she’s the worst one of the bunch.”
Nice try, Olivia…
“I knew that woman when she was knee high to a grasshopper and she’s been trouble from day one, I tell you. Did I ever tell you about the time she tried to dance with my boyfriend at the grade school dance?”
“Yes, Nanny, you’ve told me. Plenty of times. That was a long time ago though, and she seems kind of nice…”
“Hogwash! Bite your tongue, girl. She’s as evil as the day is long.”
I continued pacing the floor, hoping that was the end of it. It wasn’t.
“The old man’s no better. Saying what he did about you. Even if this relationship of yours is one big charade, that was no way to speak about a lady, Olivia. The man’s a lout, he ought to be ashamed of himself. Your father never would have said such a thing.”
I let her tear into Jonathon’s father because I hadn’t cared for what he said either. Plus, I had moved on to mentally tallying the cost of the roast beef dinners we were serving. I had told them salads too. That would cost another dollar fifty a head, another thing I hadn’t told Jonathon about…
Dirty Neighbor Page 9
