I smacked my cousin’s arm, which only made both men laugh.
“Let me take those from you. I’ll never hear the end of it if I let a guest carry his own bags,” Joel said, only half kidding.
Once he’d started toward the house, CJ caught my eye. Zare-bear, he mouthed.
“Call me that and I will bury you in the orchard.”
He laughed at me again, the bastard. The bitter cold had sent most of my family back into the house, but my grandma remained. When we reached her, I hugged her tightly. She was crazy as a loon, but damn did I love her. She always smelled faintly of apples and cinnamon and hugged like she hadn’t seen you in decades.
“How’ve you been, darling?” she asked quietly.
“Good,” I said, pulling back. “Really good.”
She smiled broadly at me before turning to CJ. I opened my mouth to introduce him properly, but she beat me to it. “And you’re CJ, I presume. I’m Zara’s grandmother. Name’s Mable, but you can call me Meemaw.”
Tilting my head a bit to see if that would help me process her words, I watched as she leaned in to hug CJ. When they separated, I asked, “Why would he call you Meemaw? No one has ever called you that.”
“I know, but I always liked it. Figured this would be my only chance to try it on for size. Come on in. I got hot apple cider in the kitchen.”
We stared after her before looking at each other. I shrugged. “Well, that wasn’t as weird as I’d anticipated.”
CJ’s face slackened a bit in surprise, but I didn’t dwell on it. Following my grandma to the kitchen, I braced myself for what awaited us. Most of my mom’s family lived and worked on the farm, so I had no doubt they’d all be here. And I wasn’t disappointed.
It was almost comical how casual they were all trying to appear. My uncle Hank was inspecting a spot on the floor with his boot while my aunt Lindy wiped the spotless counter. Their daughter Abigail was leafing through a magazine while their other son Bobby—who was a few years younger than Joel—shook the table, seemingly trying to see if it wobbled. My own mom and dad stood together with my sister and her husband looking at a painting of the orchard that had been hanging in that exact spot for as long as I could remember. And my grandpa and Uncle Travis were opening and closing a kitchen cupboard that seemed to be doing its job just fine.
The scene looked like a typical family congregated at the hub of the house. Except you could’ve heard a damn pin drop. It was like walking onto the set of Get Out if the movie’s goal had been to lure city boys into the farm life.
I cleared my throat. “Hi, everyone. This is CJ. CJ, this is…everyone.”
And with those words, my family came to life. It was as if CJ’s appearance was some kind of surprise gift none of them had known they wanted until they’d received it. It was a horde of shaking hands and exchanged pleasantries. Even I was overwhelmed by their convergence, and I knew these people.
CJ held his own, though. Plastering a wide smile on his face, he shook every hand and answered every question thrown at him. From what he did for a living to where he lived, no scrap of personal information was safe from my very own information army.
Joel reemerged and said, “I put your stuff in the Chuckie room.”
Groaning, I very nearly whined, “Why did we get the Chuckie room?”
“Last to arrive…” Joel ended the statement with a smirk, which I wanted to smack off him.
My grandmother waggled a finger at us. “I told all of you to stop calling it that.”
“What’s the Chuckie room?” CJ asked. When Grandma scowled at him, he added, “Sorry…Meemaw.” His lips stumbled over the name, as if he wasn’t sure he should actually use it or not.
“Who’s Meemaw?” Uncle Travis whispered, though his voice was so deep, the words rumbled through the entire kitchen anyway.
Ignoring him, I turned to CJ. “The china doll room is where Grandma’s collection of porcelain dolls is stored. In their various states.”
“Various states?” CJ asked, looking confused and a little wary. He would deserve a nationally recognized award after the weekend.
Joel cut in. “Think of it as more of a doll hospital. Grandma…or Meemaw?” He turned his attention momentarily to my grandmother. “Is that a thing we’re calling you now? I’m into it.” Shifting his gaze back to CJ, he continued. “Meemaw over there buys dolls and uses them for parts on her more prestigious ones.”
“I wouldn’t say prestigious. Some just mean a little more to me is all,” Grandma clarified.
“When they come to life, it’s going to be like a zombie army,” Bobby muttered. “We’re all goners.”
CJ looked a little pale. “So we have to…sleep…in the room with the…dolls?”
“I wouldn’t,” Bobby warned.
“All of you stop right now,” Grandma scolded. “Those dolls are beautiful and wouldn’t hurt a hair on your heads.”
All of us paused and looked around at one another, but by seemingly unanimous agreement, no one commented on the fact that she’d just implied the dolls did in fact come to life.
“It’ll be fine,” I said, attempting to reassure CJ. “I’ve slept in there a few times. It’s no big deal.”
CJ didn’t look convinced, but he offered me a small smile anyway. I hoped he’d still be able to smile once this weekend was over.
Chapter Twelve
Zara didn’t let the interrogation in the kitchen go for much longer. She pulled me away so we could freshen up. I wasn’t sure I’d ever freshened up before, but I was only too happy to start.
“Sorry about them,” she whispered when we’d started up the stairs toward the bedroom. “They’re just excited. I haven’t brought anyone up here before.”
The words warmed me even though they shouldn’t have. She hadn’t brought me here willingly. But still, the fact that I was the first made me feel proud to be there. “No worries. I like them.” And I did. They were intense and maybe a little crazy, but there was obviously a lot of love between them. My family was incredibly small: just Corey, Dad, me, and an aunt who lived in Florida who we never saw. It was fun seeing how the other half lived.
“They like you too. Which I should’ve considered, since they’ll probably be bummed when I tell them we broke up.”
There was a pang in my chest at her words. It felt like maybe I would be bummed too, which made no kind of sense since we weren’t even together. “Let’s worry about that when we have to,” I said, hoping to convince myself as much as her.
I followed her down a hallway that had green walls adorned with family pictures. She stopped at a door and put her back to it, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m not sure how to prepare you for this room,” she blurted out.
“You could try just letting me see it.”
Biting her lip, she seemed to ponder that as she looked at the floor. “It’s a little…jarring.”
“Zara.” I waited until she lifted her eyes to meet mine. “Open the door.”
Without turning around, she twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Since she didn’t move from the doorway, I had to practically push through her to get into the room. But once I was inside, I understood why she’d been nervous.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“We can stay at a hotel,” she said.
“This is… Wow.” There were dolls on every surface. And there were a lot of surfaces. Dressers, desks, and tables were all around the room, with dolls standing, sitting in rocking chairs, having tea, and every fucking thing in between. But that wasn’t the worst of it. There were also doll parts hanging from clothesline strung across the room in a seemingly haphazard fashion. “It’s like a Pet Sematary for dolls.”
Zara nodded as she looked at the porcelain mortuary above our heads. “It’s definitely a thing of nightmares.”
“I hope you weren’t hoping to have sex in this room. Because I’m pretty sure this is going to haunt my dick for a long time.”
A laugh burst out
of her, which was what I’d been hoping for. She’d been looking worried as we stood there, and there was really no need to be. Yeah, this was weird as hell, but it was also going to make for a great story when I got home. As long as these dolls didn’t actually come to life and slaughter me in my sleep.
Moving in front of me, Zara slid her arms around my neck and pressed her body into mine. “Think I can help it get over its fears?”
Judging by the twitch I felt in my jeans, I was pretty sure she could. But where was the fun in admitting that? “I don’t know. I think it would take considerable protection from the demonic forces in this room for him to consider getting with the program.”
She looked up at me through long, thick lashes, and my cock was suddenly completely with the program. A fact she must’ve felt but ignored for the sake of the scene we were letting play out. “What if I kissed it? Would it feel better then?”
Jesus fucking Christ. The image of Zara on her knees with her mouth on my cock made my groin throb with want. I had to clear my throat before I could push words past my lips. “I think that would be a solid way to start.” My voice was raspy. There was no denying it—this woman really did it for me.
She dropped her hands to my waistband and slipped the button free before dragging the zipper down. Keeping her gaze on mine, she pushed my jeans and boxers down to midthigh before slowly lowering to her knees. The look she gave me was seductive before she turned her attention to my cock. She put a soft kiss on the flushed head, which caused a moan to rumble up from my chest and fly out of my mouth. I ripped my sweater over my head so I could see her better because I had a feeling I wasn’t going to want to miss a second.
Wrapping a hand around the base of my erection, she began licking my dick like it was a lollipop. Intermittently she would swirl her tongue around the head, which felt amazing, but it wasn’t enough. My cock needed to be enveloped by the heat of her mouth.
Her eyes sparkled like she knew exactly what I wanted, but she wasn’t going to give it to me anytime soon.
“Please,” I groaned.
“Please what?” she asked, looking at me innocently. She was more evil than the creepy-ass dolls surrounding us.
“Do…more,” I answered stupidly because evidently all my focus was farther south than my brain.
“Hmm.” The hum vibrated up my shaft, and my head fell back before I remembered I wanted to watch. She took her mouth off me long enough to say, “I’m not sure what ‘more’ is. You’re going to need to be more specific.” Her voice was soft and calm. She worked her tongue on my balls for a second before resuming her torture on my dick.
I tangled my hand in her hair, pulling it just enough to let her know I was approaching the end of my rope with her teasing. Even though I wasn’t—not really. Sex with Zara was fun in a way it hadn’t ever been for me before. It wasn’t just a means to an end. With her, the means mattered almost as much. Getting off was the cherry on an already delicious sundae.
But the way her eyelids fluttered closed when I tugged on her hair let me know that she was into the role reversal, which made me into it as well. “Zara.” I ordered her to look at me for the second time in about five minutes, and watching her gaze instantly cut to mine made my arousal hit new heights. Tightening my grip on her hair a bit, I said, “Suck me.”
Her lips fell open on a moan, and she plunged down on me, taking as much of my shaft into her mouth as she could. She bobbed on me with urgency, as if she was enjoying it as much as I was, which didn’t seem possible. Sliding into her wet mouth was heaven, and even though I’d never imagined an afterlife with doll corpses surrounding me, I wasn’t in the least put off by it. I’d happily stay in this room forever if it meant getting more blowjobs like this.
“Fucking beautiful,” I whispered as I watched her devour me.
She whimpered, and her hand began jacking me in time with her mouth. The onslaught made a tingle spark in my balls and begin to emanate out from there—up my spine and down my cock. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to begin and end where her mouth and hand worked in tandem to bring me release, and I was lost to it. Lost to the sensation of her working me like it was her favorite thing to do and lost to the feelings I was developing for this funny, smart, driven, gorgeous woman who enjoyed being on her knees in front of me.
“Close,” I warned, even though I knew it wouldn’t slow her down. I knew it because I knew this woman, even though she’d worked hard to make sure I wouldn’t. How was it possible two people who knew so little about each other could also know each other so well?
I would’ve explored that thought more if my brain hadn’t whited out as my orgasm barreled down on me. My entire body tensed as my cock pulsed my release into her mouth. She closed her lips around me and continued to suck me through my climax, swallowing my come like she craved it.
My body twitched and shivered as I came down from the high, and she pulled off me with a pop. Her lips looked shiny and red, and it was possibly the most erotic sight I’d ever seen. I reached down and pulled her up, taking her mouth with mine and liking the fact that I could taste myself there.
When we pulled apart because breathing was sadly necessary, she smiled. “Did I help you get over your fears?”
The joke was clear, but the words struck a chord deep within me. Because nothing about what had happened had alleviated any of my fears. If anything, it had ratcheted up all of them.
But there was no way to tell her any of that. This thing between us was convenient and fun and casual. That’s what we both wanted, and I’d damned well better remember it. The smart thing would be to pull back and get some distance.
But it had been established long before that I wasn’t a smart man. So instead of moving away, I kissed her again and hoped that losing myself in her for a little longer would make me forget how scared I was.
Chapter Thirteen
Zara
I figured a blowjob would be just the thing CJ needed to loosen up, but even after our earlier tryst, he’d remained a little tense. He had been relaxed enough to return the favor, but where I had been turned into a boneless glob, he’d almost seemed restless as he bounced around the room examining doll parts. He was more himself after returning from a shower.
“Your grandparents have surprisingly good water pressure for a farm. I almost lost an eye when I washed my face.”
“It’s well water, but I don’t know what that means for the pressure.”
He hummed but didn’t otherwise reply. He only had a towel around his waist, but I was disappointed to see he was wearing boxers underneath when he let the towel drop to the floor so he could get dressed. “So what’s the plan for tonight?”
I rolled over in bed where I’d been sprawled on my back and rested my head on my palm. “Those of us who are already here will have dinner. It’ll be casual. The big party is tomorrow. But that means you’ll likely be the center of everyone’s attention tonight.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I like being the center of attention.”
I giggled but thought of how that didn’t seem distinctly true. In high school, he’d always seemed to like everyone’s eyes on him, but that image didn’t quite jibe with the man I’d come to know. It wasn’t that he came off as opposed to attention, but he didn’t seem to revel in it like I always thought he had in school. Maybe he’d changed, or maybe I’d always had a false impression of him.
Either way, I liked the man he’d become—likely more than I should. It was easy to see CJ in my life, even though I was the one who had been more adamant about not wanting anyone in that role right now. But there was no denying I was drawn to him, a feeling that only became stronger the more time we spent together.
“What time do we have to be down there?” he asked.
Looking over at the clock, I saw that it was approaching three. “We should probably head down sooner rather than later and help out. I don’t want them to start gossiping about what we’re doing up h
ere.”
“Would that gossip be inaccurate?” he teased.
“No. But I’d also like it not to be totally obvious.”
He laughed. “Hate to break it to you, but it’s already totally obvious. We’ve been up here over an hour.”
“We could’ve been taking a nap.”
“Maybe. Hopefully they weren’t listening at the door. You’re not exactly quiet during your ‘naps.’”
I hurried off the bed and stepped in front of him as he looked in the mirror at the cream sweater and dark-gray chinos he’d put on. “And you were?”
“As a mouse,” he replied. I would’ve thought he was being serious if it hadn’t been for the twitching of his lips.
“If you say so.” I stood there for a moment longer and drank him in. He really was supremely sexy, but my deepening attraction to him was beginning to scare me. He returned my gaze, and I detected a softening in his eyes, which was enough to get me moving. “I’m going to take a quick shower, and then we can head downstairs.”
I barely heard him mumble an affirmative as I scooped up my toiletry bag and hightailed it out of the room. It wasn’t until I was under the spray that I began to relax. Though relax probably wasn’t a great word for it. I was wound too tight, like my skin couldn’t quite contain all that was going on inside my body.
I was pretty sure I was falling for Corey Jensen. And what a goddamn mess that was.
COLTON
I didn’t know what sent Zara running from the room, but I couldn’t help but think it was the same thing that had caused me to hide out in the shower. This…thing between us was growing beyond our control. Or maybe just my control. I had no idea how she felt and had no plans to ask. Voicing it out loud would make an already complicated situation even more muddled.
The smart thing to do would be to pull back. Situate us firmly in the friends-with-benefits zone again and make sure we damn well stayed there. But that was a difficult task when we were pretending to be in a relationship.
Misadventures with a Twin Page 9
