Last but not least came the third Jarrod Kline porn sense hit – visually. Tall, shoulders I swear I could sit on one side of, not overly built in an ‘I’m gonna eat a shark’ way but in a natural ‘I’m just this built’ way. He wore thin white t-shirts to work and you could see certain muscle bumps when they tightened across his abdomen. Then there were the moments when he reached up for something and the t-shirt would lift enough to see the sexy hot V muscle thing that only sexy hot men got… again, hallelujah for padded bras. Add onto that his thighs, his butt, and his beautiful face and eyes – he was total porn for your senses.
I lied about there only being three, because there was definitely a fourth sense hit – his personality. Almost shy, quiet, hella loyal, and serious, but then something would happen and a playful side would come out that would melt you down to goo. When he joked around or let out his playful side, it was better than Christmas. I’d heard many a lady, even Linda Townsend, whimper when he did it around them, that’s how awesome it was. Any woman who was lucky enough to win the heart of Jarrod Kline would know that he would be her strength, protect her, stay loyal to her and also give her a life of laughter and hot sex (because I refused to believe that in any world he wasn’t a king in bed).
All of that porn fodder made working around him a bit hard, but I lived for it. In fact, it was my incentive for getting out of bed every morning, no matter what the weather was. We could be hit by a tornado and if I heard that he was in work, I’d crawl through that twister using my nails in the mud to get in just to see him. At least, that was until he moved in next door to me. Now all I had to do was take the trash out, open my door, go to my car, walk Duke, decide the noise I heard was a yellow jacket so I had motive to run out the front door, and things like that – not that I did that seeing as how I had a horse dog to walk now, but hey.
Seeing the time, I picked up the keys for the BMW that was ready to be collected, and took them down to the man in question with Duke following behind me. As soon as I opened the door I heard him singing something that I didn’t recognize, and it pained me to interrupt him, but the guy would be here in two minutes.
Hearing something about a Witcher and tossing coins, I got closer to him and called, “Jarrod?”
His head appeared over the top of the vehicle he was working on and his beautiful eyes focused on me. “You good, Katy?”
Shifting from one foot to the other slightly, I held up the keys. “Mr. Warren is coming in to collect the BMW in a second, so I figured I’d give you his keys. The paperwork’s on the passenger seat so you can go through it with him.”
Straightening to his full height, he walked around the back of the vehicle and reached his hand out for them. “Cool, I’ll deal with it.”
Deciding it was all best left at that, I dropped the keys and turned to go back to my safe place in the office, forgetting somehow about the pain in my ankle. On the first twist it felt like someone had shot me in it, so I compensated as subtly as I could by putting most of my weight on my good foot and reaching out to hold onto Duke.
I’d only taken one step like that when I was swept off my feet, screaming as my legs lifted into the air.
“You’re good, honey,” Jarrod mumbled next to my ear. “I’ll carry you up. If you need to come back down, shout out or text me and I can do that, too.”
Being carried around by Jarrod? Freaking sign me up! Is what I thought, but what I said out loud was, “Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
I didn’t mean one word of it, though. I was all for being carried around by him.
“I’m doing it,” he insisted, tightening his arm that was around my back. “Now put your arm around my neck and hold on.”
Doing as I was told, I uttered a little something to the big man above. God, if you can hear me – thank you! I am now a believer. Love, Katarianne Crew.
As he got to the stairs, I asked what I figured was a pertinent question. “What’s a Witcher and why would I toss a coin to it?”
Hearing a chuckle from him, I turned my head and realized just how close our faces were. Seeing Jarrod smile or laugh from a distance was far from shabby, but up close while I was being carried by him? Whole different ball game.
“It’s from the Netflix series called The Witcher, you haven’t seen it?”
“I’ve played a game called The Witcher, but I haven’t seen the series.”
Taking the steps like he wasn’t carrying around an extra one hundred and twenty-eight pounds of human, he explained, “That’s what it’s based on. I’ve never played the game but I love the series, and that song’s stuck in my head.”
“I love the game, I used to play it all the time. The character Geralt of Rivia in it is hot, and there’s this part where he gets in a tiny wooden tub and…” I broke off when I saw he was grinning even wider.
“Does that in the TV series, too.”
Well shit! “Who plays the character?”
Bending to open the door of the office, he walked in and lowered me gently into my chair. Holy shit that was a nice move.
“You know the dude who was Superman, Henry Cavill?”
Picking my phone up off the desk, I opened the IMDB app on it and looked it up. When I saw the guy looking just like the character in the game and some of the shots from the series I about died. That’s what I was going to blame what I said next on, the shock.
“Holy shit, I dunno about tossing coins, but I would totally make it rain for him,” I breathed, skimming through the gallery of photos and making a plan to cancel anything and everything I had to do after work so that I could go home and watch it.
A deep rumble of laughter got my attention off the screen, and then I was wondering if I could record him laughing and watch that instead.
When it left him, he looked down at me with a huge smile on his face and said something that I swear will stick with me until the day I die. “I used to think working with you was the highlight of every day, but now I live next to you, too, so I have you 24/7. I don’t think life could get much richer than that.”
It’s probably just as well that I wasn’t standing up because I would most likely have dropped to my knees and begged him to take me home with him. Instead, with chin almost hitting my desk, I watched him turn and walk back out again – his ass in faded denim taunting me.
Looking over at Duke who was watching us both with his head tilted, I whispered, “If I die, find a way to type out exactly what happened so that people understand why I combusted.”
Just then my phone beeped with a text from Maya.
Maya: Phase 1 complete. Time for phase 2 to commence.
Confused, I replied to it.
Me: What do you mean phase 1 complete? What are we talking about?
Maya: GYMP – Get Yo’ Man Plan.
My memories of our night out were a bit fuzzy, but that was ringing a bell. Reaching into my purse, I pulled out a wad of napkins with writing all over them. Sure enough, there it all was, all though there was absolutely nothing in phase one about getting a dog.
Me: How does getting a dog fit into phase 1?
Maya: You’ve got his attention. Cole told Ebru that the dog was all over him this morning and he even opened the door of your car for him. Now stop arguing and start planning phase 2.
Me: Someone spilled their drink on the napkin and I can’t read the writing. What’s phase 2?
Maya: Bonding over a common interest. I don’t know what that is just now, but we’ll think of something.
Me: We discussed The Witcher just now while he carried me back up the stairs to the office. Does that count?
Maya: Well shit. Onto phase 3 then. And Henry Cavill is outstanding in The Witcher.
Me: Never watched it, but I’ve played the game and the dude in that would have you sliding off your chair.
Maya: Welp, I just became a gamer.
Me: Before you dive into the depths of The Witcher gaming hotness, what’s phase 3?
Maya: You got his attention o
ver a common interest, now you need to get it onto you. Walk sexy, act intriguing, engage with him, don’t go overboard, but be a magnet for his brain.
Me: That sounds weird…
Maya: No weirder than us finding a game character sexy as hell.
Me: Point taken.
Now what the hell was I meant to do for phase three? I was just me, there was nothing sexy or intriguing about me!
Five
Jarrod
It felt like something had changed between me and Katy since I’d moved in yesterday. The two people who’d danced around each other and who hardly spoke were now talking to each other, and I was carrying her up the stairs so she didn’t hurt her ankle even more. I hadn’t seen her much the rest of the day even though I’d been listening out for her in case she needed help down the stairs, and when the time had come to go home, Ren had given her a piggyback down them as he lectured her on how to look after sprains.
When I’d pulled into my driveway after going to the store, I’d noticed the lights were on in her house and I’d been tempted to check on her, but I didn’t want to make her feel awkward so I left it and came in to unpack a bit more. Now it was ten o’clock and I was lying out on the couch with the television on, but I wasn’t watching it. Instead, I was thinking about what I’d seen in Katy’s house and how she organized things.
OCD intrigued me. I understood the need for things to be laid out in a way that you were happy with, but the fact that she was compulsive about things was what got to me the most. I’d looked it up earlier to try and understand it a bit more, and was relieved when I saw she wasn’t high on the scale of OCD tendencies, but it also made me feel for people who were. From what I could see, Katy liked to lay things out in terms of size, color and subject which wasn’t all that unusual because I did that, too. The difference was, I knew that she got stressed and anxious when shit was moved about at work, so now that I understood it better I needed to try and make sure the guys didn’t mess it all around. That was going to start first thing in the morning.
I didn’t expect the knock on my door right then, but figuring it was one of my brothers I got up and answered it, shocked when I saw Katy standing in a pair of shorts and a huge hoodie that almost swallowed her up.
“My Netflix has stopped working, and I’ve only just started the third episode. Help!”
Taking a step back and opening the door wider so she could come in, I chuckled as she limped to the couch with Duke right behind her. “Make yourselves at home.”
Shooting me a smile, she dropped onto her right side and curled up on the sofa, pointing at the TV. “The Witcher, please.”
I’d watched that shit at least ten times but it was no hardship to watch an episode again, so I took the opposite side of the couch, stretched out with my legs running behind hers, and navigated through the menu on my TV until I got to what she wanted.
“Addictive, isn’t it?”
The opening scenes of the episode had only just begun, but already she was engrossed in what was happening. “That song’s never going to leave my head.”
After that she didn’t say another word unless it was a reaction to what was happening. The third episode moved into the forth, and when it hit midnight we were still watching it. Curled up on a couch with little Katy Crew was far from being a hardship for me I realized. In fact, I enjoyed every fucking second.
* * *
It felt like I could hardly breathe and my body was being held down by a giant as I woke up. I tried moving my legs, but there was a heavy weight across my shins and feet that didn’t move when I did. Then, when I tried to move the top of my body whatever was on it held on tight. Blinking in the soft glow coming from the television, I looked down and saw Katy curled up on me, fast asleep. Lifting my head, I lifted my head up to look over her shoulder and saw Duke on my legs - both of which explained a lot.
Wrapping my arms around her, I rolled onto my side as best I could, and positioned her so that she was against the back of the couch with her front pressed against mine. She wiggled a couple of times, wrapped an arm around my back and that was that. Carefully, I managed to lift one leg out from under Duke and used it to change the position of my lower half and get more comfortable.
And I fell straight back to sleep with the scent of Katy’s hair in my nose, her head tucked under my chin, her body wrapped around me, and her dog on my leg.
It might sound like it would be uncomfortable, but it was the best night’s sleep I’d ever had.
Katy
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
In my dream there was a huge flower above me, dripping water on my cheek. So, in my dream I shifted forward into the cuddly teddy bear that had eyes like Jarrod’s, and nuzzled my face into its chest. The cuddly teddy bear wrapped its arms around me and rubbed its chin on my hair. I loved being in the forest where the teddy bears lived.
“Try dropping it on him now,” a voice whispered in the forest. Probably another teddy bear.
“I think we should just dump the whole glass on them and see what happens,” one of the other teddy bears replied.
I was too comfortable and happy where I was to open my eyes and see what they were talking about, until my teddy bear growled, “I will pull your underwear so high up your ass, you’ll feel it in your eyeballs if you do that.”
Frowning, I blinked my eyes open and saw nothing but a wall of t-shirt seeing as how my nose was pressed up against it. Teddy bears wore t-shirts?
Leaning back slightly, I tilted my head back to see what teddy was angry about, and about shit my pants when I saw Jarrod glaring at something over our heads.
“Ah, the princess is awake,” a voice chuckled. “Morning, Katy.”
Tilting my head further back, I saw three Jarrod’s looking down at me with matching smiles on their faces as they dangled a glass of water above us.
“I thought you were nice when I first met you, now I just think your assh…” I was cut off by the mouthful of water that I got when the glass was tipped over us.
Sitting up, I did what I’d do if it was my brothers who’d done it, and reached for the first thing I could get my hands on – which just so happened to be the remote – and started hitting whatever human I could reach with it.
“Jesus, I thought she was nice and quiet when we met her,” one of them yelped as he jumped back. “She’s like one of those little psycho dogs that…” he broke off on a squeal as Jarrod launched himself over the back of the couch and went after him.
Figuring he’d inflict more pain than I could with a remote, I sat back down. “Huh, that’s what you get.”
The two Klines that had escaped their brother’s wrath stood looking at me in shock. “Seriously, you were so cute when we met you. What happened?”
Looking around me, it started to sink in that I was in Jarrod’s home, that I’d fallen asleep with him on the couch, I’d probably drooled on his chest in my sleep, and I’d been woken up by his brothers pouring a glass of water over me. The screen on my watch said it was coming up to five o’clock in the morning and that confused me even more.
“Why are you guys here?”
Focusing in more closely, I looked at the eye colors to figure out who was who and saw it was Bond and Reid that I was talking to.
Looking quickly at each other and then back at me, Bond explained slowly, “Because our brother lives here.”
“But why are you here at five in the morning?”
“Because we’re on our way to work and wanted to piss him off,” Reid replied.
“And because I’m hangry,” Bond muttered, rubbing his stomach and looking around him. “Do you think he’s killed Canon already so I can go in the kitchen?”
Looking in the same direction, Reid mumbled, “I dunno. Remember when we took the last original glazed donuts that time. It took Mom twenty minutes to stop it.”
The mental image of the four of them fighting as kids was admittedly adorable. “Now that you’re
adults it’ll be different. I used to fight with my brothers and sister when we were little all the time, but now we do it in different ways. You’re probably good to go in and get something.”
“This happened three weeks ago,” Reid told me distractedly, moving closer to the doorway to the kitchen. He only just reached it when he jumped and ran back again, hurdling the back of the couch like his brother had done, and sitting down before pulling me into his lap. “I didn’t do anything, and you can’t hit me because you’ll get Katy,” he yelled as Jarrod came back into the room.
Seeing that his brother hadn’t settled, Bond jumped over and sat beside us, lifting my legs over his. Unfortunately, he forgot about the sore ankle and just dropped that leg, meaning that my foot hit the remote I’d beaten him with. I didn’t make a noise, but I did tip my head back and practice my breathing – if it worked for pregnant women, it would work for this. Also unfortunately, Jarrod read this perfectly and realized that his brother had caused me pain, and in the next second he was pulling Bond over the back of the couch.
“Kick your legs and hurt her sore ankle again and I’ll tell Mom what you really did with Jenny Baker in your room,” he growled.
Bond’s eyes widened and he held his arms up in the air. “I give up! White flag waved, brother. Jesus!”
Before anything else could happen or be said, Canon came wandering in from the kitchen with a donut in his hand. “We ready to go or what?”
And that’s when chaos truly hit as Jarrod saw what he was doing. “That was my last donut, you little shit!”
Hearing this news, even Bond and Reid joined their brother when they jumped at Canon. It was like every woman’s biggest fantasy watching them all roll around the floor. Seeing as how I still had another hour and a half to sleep, though, I committed the five seconds of it I’d seen to memory, lay back down and closed my eyes.
Talk Flirty To Me: Cheap Thrills Series Book 4 Page 5
