“And that sounds like you’re going to give out blow jobs with every book checkout.”
“No. Don’t advertise that I’ll do that. I don’t have time. I’ve got a business to run,” I laughed.
“Fine, there went my grand reopening promotion plan. Now I’ll have to get somebody else to hand out sexual favors with every new library card,” she teased, taking a Diet Coke out of the refrigerator and popping it.
I went out back and flipped the meat on the grill and made sure the potatoes were almost done as well. When I came back she was looking at the pictures on my fridge. They were mostly of cars I’d restored and of Greg and Katie and me in Chicago on my last visit. There was one of all of us at my parents’ house on my dad’s birthday, and a postcard Greg had sent me from when he and Katie went skiing in Canada last winter.
“Mine is just pictures of my friends’ kids,” she said. “Maybe I should take a page from your book and take pictures of the book displays and stuff at work Maybe a shot of the preschool storytime crafts or something.”
“How’d that go today?” I asked. “I know it’s the first story time you’ve been able to have since the storm.”
“It was good. I only had about nine show up, which is less than I usually have, but I only put it on the library social media yesterday. Once word gets out, I think attendance will be back up. We did Good Night, Good Night Construction Site and then the craft was using brown paint to make a pile of mud on the picture of the big equipment.”
“Did you just use real mud?”
“We use nontoxic paint.”
I brought in the steaks and baked potatoes and put them on plates. She got the butter and sour cream from the fridge while I opened the wine and poured it into cups.
“I don’t have wine glasses. I’m an old bachelor.”
“Just used to swigging out of the bottle?” she said. “I’m single and I have wine glasses.”
“Yeah, but you probably inherited them and they’re from France or something,” I said.
“Guilty as charged. They’re Baccarat crystal, from my mom’s wedding china and crystal set. I would’ve brought them if I thought of it.”
I just nodded tightly and sat down.
“What?”
“You’re used to drinking out of crystal glasses, Chel. You learned Italian before you could ride a bike. It just reminds me how far above me you’ve always been.”
“What does that mean? Above you? I had different parents, and they had money, and my mom died when I was little. So I did everything prim and proper like my dad expected me to do. Do you remember when I couldn’t have shirt that showed my stomach? Not even when everyone had crop tops and stuff. I had to have a one piece bathing suit till I was sixteen.”
“Did he think that showing your stomach was going to make you go wild?” I said.
“I don’t know. He may have thought it was slutty, or he may have thought it was common, that I’d look trashy like everyone else. He didn’t know I was getting naked in the back of your truck or sneaking you in my window every night. And that a crop top wouldn’t have changed that.”
“What does that matter?”
“It means I had a conservative upbringing. My dad was rich and controlling, and I still did what I wanted to. Your parents gave you more freedom. But neither of us was above the other one.”
“Are you kidding me? You were in the homecoming court every year!”
“Yeah, you’re right. That’s obviously the secret to my success as an adult.”
“How’s your steak?”
“It’s great, thanks. And you know I love a good baked potato. Which, this one is huge.”
“I’m a guy. Size matters,” I said.
“It does. No lie,” she said, arching one eyebrow at me. A ripple of heat ran through me. “Not to change the subject, but I really appreciate how much you’ve helped me out since the storm. Just driving me there when Damon called about the damage was a big deal. I didn’t have to face it on my own. I could have handled it. It’s my job, but it was really emotional to me to walk in there and see what all was ruined and wet and just a disaster. It isn’t easy for me to ask for help, but it meant a lot to me.”
“You realize what a thrill that was for me, right? Part of me—maybe the Chuck Norris loving part—" I said wryly. “But some part of me always wanted to protect you and be your hero or something. And if driving you a few blocks and holding your hand, or getting you a flashlight was enough to help out, that was easy. I liked that I got to be the person there for you then. When you needed somebody.”
“Ever since my dad passed away, I’ve been on my own. And when he died, Trixie was there for me and helped me go through his stuff and everything. She’s family. But she also has her own family now. I don’t like to just call her whenever I need something or whatever. Because she has Ashton. It’s a hazard of getting older, I guess. My friends are married and have families of their own. It’s not a bunch of single girls going out for drinks a couple times a week. It’s changed.”
“Well, I don’t have a family of my own. You can call me whenever you need me,” I said. I wanted to say more, but I didn’t. I also didn’t say I was single, because I had started to consider myself very taken.
“I’m not going to draft you as my single friend and treat you like you’re always available.”
“If you want me, Chel, I’m there,” I said. I didn’t say any more. The temptation was too great, but I knew her from way back, and knew that pressuring her was the surest way to get her to run.
“I’m back on my feet. I was a little wobbly after the library got damaged in the storm. You’ve been great helping me sort books and everything, and getting those fans in there the first day. I’m saying thanks, and I’m also kind of assuring both of us that I’m not going to become dependent on you or something.”
“I dunno—first the starter on your car went out and you needed my help, then the library—are you sure?” I teased.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said, “This steak is really good, Drew. When’d you learn how to cook?”
“About fifteen years ago I got sick of takeout and frozen dinners and learned how to make some simple stuff. My mom taught me how to make spaghetti and meat loaf. Just some basics.”
“Is it just me or should fifteen years ago be like when we were in the fifth grade? Because the idea that I’ve been an adult that long is terrifying. I thought I’d be better at it by now.”
“You’re pretty great at it. You even fold your laundry. I’ve seen your laundry baskets,” I said.
“Look at you, running a business, making me dinner, going through damaged poetry books. You’re pretty damn good at it yourself,” she said with a sweet smile that ran right through me.
“I like seeing you happy,” I admitted, “And I got you something. It’s not a big deal but I’m pretty proud of it anyway. Here.”
I got up from the table and went and got the cardboard mailing tube from the hall closet and handed it to her.
“What’s this? You have helped me so much and then you ordered all those books for the library. You didn’t have to do this,” she said, obviously flustered.
Michelle pried the plastic cap from one in and reached inside. She pulled out the coil of glossy paper carefully. Once she had prized it from the tube, she unrolled it.
“The fox! You found the fox?”
“No, I had it printed from a photo. I found a used one online but it was ratty. So I just had a new one made.”
“What photo? I don’t even think I have a picture of it.”
“A picture from when I was a kid. I knew I did the summer reading program at the library a couple times, and my mom had saved a clipping from the newspaper that I was in the group picture and the poster was in the background.”
“You had it printed from an old newspaper clipping? Wow.”
“Not exactly. I sort of called the newspaper office and got them to get the original negative out of the archives a
nd we printed and scanned it and zoomed in on the poster. I think it turned out pretty well considering it’s a copy of a copy.”
“It’s perfect. I can’t believe you went to all that trouble. You called your mom, and the paper, and had them find an old photo?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To see that smile on your face,” I said simply.
She was grinning from ear to ear, the poster stretched out in front of her. She rolled it up and set it on the table. Then she stood up and kissed my cheek, stretching onto her tiptoes.
“Thank you, Drew,” she said.
“You’re welcome.”
“I love it.”
She was hovering right against me after kissing my cheek. It took me a second to realize she was waiting to be kissed. I didn’t waste another moment after that. I slipped my fingers into her blonde hair and tipped her face up to mine and kissed her.
21
Michelle
Drew replaced the vintage fox poster about reading that hung in my office. The one that was ruined by the storm damage. The one I’ve always loved. He went through like seven different steps to get a new poster made for me that was just like the one I lost. It was perfect and glossy and brand new. It was like a fresh start with the thing I loved that had been torn up. I felt like there was a metaphor going on for starting over with Drew, for something being beautiful and whole again. It felt amazing.
I kissed his cheek. Then I lingered there, my shoulder brushing his arm until he took the hint. Drew brushed back my hair and kissed me, a sweet kiss, one that matched the thoughtful gift and making me dinner. I pulled back from him.
“Okay, that’s the I’m-a-sweet-boyfriend kiss. I like it. Really. But could I get the we’re-lovers-but-no-one-can-know kiss instead?” I said playfully.
One thing about Drew, he wasn’t playing around. He went so hard on that kiss that he rocked me back off my feet, his mouth on mine, his tongue searing my mouth with urgent, erotic strokes. I held on to his shoulder to keep from melting to the floor. He was that good of a kisser, and it was that blatantly sexual from the start.
Drew picked me up and set me on the table. I leaned back on my arms and watched as he pulled up a chair and sat down, my legs on either side of him. He unfastened my jeans and peeled them off with me lifting my hips to help. Then he draped my legs one over each of his shoulders and pulled me closer until my hips rested on the edge of the table. Drew slid one hand up my thigh, grabbed my panties and just ripped them off. I caught my breath.
“I’ll buy you new ones. Those were in my way,” he said archly. I shivered a little in anticipation because my bare sex was inches from his lush mouth. I leaned back on my elbows, bracing myself as he ran his tongue up my sex all the way to my clit in one smooth stroke. Drew’s tongue was hot and wet, rough and sexy. I clenched involuntarily at the first lick. Then he set his lips over my clit and started kissing me there, his lips and tongue and occasionally his teeth working my swollen clit until I was writhing and mewing under his ministrations.
I begged him never to stop, to keep eating me out until I came. I was desperate, losing my mind with hunger for him. He pulled me up to sit on the edge of the table, bet my legs as he surged up from the chair and mouthed my nipple through my silk blouse. I loved the hot wet fabric clinging to my hard nipple, the nip of his teeth through the yellow silk, the sexy edge to his sucking and licking my breasts. With one hand he fondled my breast, rubbing the nipple, cupping the whole breast and kneading it in a sensuous torment. When he had sucked and nipped my nipple into a painful, sharp point, he moved to the other breast and did the same, setting me so hard on edge that my teeth chattered. I wanted more, but I wasn’t sure I could take it. I was telling him to stop, that it was too much.
“Do you really want me to stop?” he challenged, his eyes dark with intent.
“No,” I babbled urgently, “no, never.”
“Then let me do what I started out to do.”
“What was that?”
“Being your lover, isn’t that what you wanted?” he teased. Then he jerked my hips toward him again, my head falling back as I caught myself on my elbows. He feasted on my pussy, and I mewed and whimpered as he licked, sucked and stroked me to an orgasm that sent my legs straight out over his shoulders, rigid and stiff as the climax hit me.
When the thrashing stopped and I regained control of my limbs, I noticed that Drew was holding me up, his arm under my hips where I had slid off the edge of the table in the fury of my climax. He looked very pleased with himself as he stood up and scooped me up. My arms and legs wrapped around him, and he carried me to his bedroom. I was aware that I was completely naked from the waist down while Drew was fully dressed. I felt vulnerable suddenly, as if I hadn’t already spread my legs for him on the table where we’d been eating, wanton and eager. Instead of dropping me on the mattress, he sat down with me in his lap and rolled me to the side. I sat up, self-conscious.
“I got carried away,” I said a little embarrassed.
“You got carried away? I’m the one who just went down on you at the kitchen table. If anyone got carried away, it’s me. And that’s because I want you so much. I wake up in the night dreaming I can taste you. I’m not ashamed to tell you that. I want the taste of you on my tongue, and I want to hear my name in your mouth when you’re coming so hard you can’t see straight, but you know I’m the one doing it to you. That, right there, is me winning at life.”
I blushed, but I smiled at him all the same, feeling like I was glowing and beautiful all at once.
“Can I at least return the favor?” I said, barely bashful at all. I looked him in the face, “Remember when I used to go down on you in your truck? You’d have to pull over and park because you couldn’t see to drive.”
“Do I remember? I haven’t been knocked in the head that hard recently,” he said in disbelief. “You’d be surprised to find how much I remember about us, Chel. I remember you asking your housekeeper to make lemon cookies even though you didn’t like them just because they were my favorite. I remember the way it felt to climb that trellis and find you waiting for me in the window. How we snuck out and ran across yards and out into a field with a blanket and made love under the stars.”
“That was as magical as I remember, wasn’t it?”
“No one ever had a love like that, Chel. I’ve looked for anything like it the last eighteen years and the only time I came close was when I kissed you in the street outside the bar. The only spark I’ve felt, the only thing that makes my chest hurt and makes me smile like I can’t stop is you. Everything was magic. And I was so goddamn arrogant I thought lightning could strike again and again. That it wasn’t a one-time feeling. That you’d find something as good with someone better than me. Did you? Did it happen for you? Because it damn sure didn’t happen for me.”
I reached for him, my heart too full to speak at all. I shook my head and kissed his lips softly, “Never,” I whispered, tears clogging my voice. “Not even close.”
“How could I have not known? How could I do what I did?” he shook his head, the grief showing in every line of his beautiful face.
“You thought you were protecting me. That’s how. Because you thought you were saving me.”
“Who was I to think I could save you?”
“You were the man who loved me. I see how it was. I wish I’d had the chance to tell you that you were wrong, but we can’t go back and change things, Drew. But we can spend tonight together and steal a few hours to rewrite history.”
He kissed me so fiercely, with such passion and sadness that it was almost more than I could bear. “I can’t forgive myself for everything I took from us,” he said against my forehead, stretched out beside me on the bed.
“You don’t have to. I can.” I said. I felt strong and beloved, like I could do anything. Like light suffused me, because I felt in every cell of my body that Drew Casey loved me, still or again or always. In that moment, I knew it was t
he truth.
“Stay with me tonight, Chel,” he said, kissing my hair, my cheekbone, my lips.
“I will.”
With that, I rolled him onto his back and took off his clothes until he was completely naked, every muscle defined, every inch of his tanned skin perfect and smooth. Sliding my hand across his abs, I smiled at him, ran my hand down to his hip and thigh. When my fingers brushed the inside of his thigh, his already hard cock leapt in response. A smile curved my lips as I met his eyes. Dipping my head, I wrapped my lips around his cock. He was as hot and hard and satin smooth as I remembered. Every second of my sexual awakening as a teenager came back as I worked my mouth up and down his shaft, stroking with my hand and flicking the head of his cock with my tongue. Drew touched my face and my hair, his hips rolling with the sensation as I built a rhythm. The salt taste of him, the thrust of his cock as he pushed it deeper in my mouth—I was intoxicated by him. I hummed a little and he stiffened, holding himself back.
“Fuck. Michelle. Stop,” he said.
I looked up at him, puzzled. He grabbed my face and his tongue was in my mouth before I could even ask him why. He was overcome by sensation and like an animal, he bore me down on the bed, spread my legs with his hand and buried his throbbing cock in my sex. One deep thrust and I bowed off the bed, coming hard from his sudden penetration, from the stiff shaft he impaled me with. Shaking, I grabbed his shoulders as he pounded into me.
“Have to. Have you,” he ground out, teeth gritted. Drew shoved my silky top up and grabbed my breast, rolling his hips so his cock hit that good place inside me. He pinched my nipple, making me cry out with pleasure. His cock was so thick, so hard, that I wasn’t sure I could take much more. I spread my legs as wide as I could. He just kept pounding me, and when my body started to burn from his invasion, I let my eyes drop shut and let go. My body loosened, and I was able to take all of him, every fat inch that he wanted to bury inside my sex. I grew even wetter, the slickness easing his way as I heard his flesh slapping against mine. It was like I slid into another plane, my body open and accepting, taking all the bliss I could hold. His thumb rubbed my clit, faster and faster, showing no mercy as he slammed into me all the way to the root of his cock. I screamed and moaned as the orgasm tore me apart, my nails scoring his bare back, his mouth sucking my neck hard enough I knew it would leave a mark. Then as my climax started to recede and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, Drew scooped me up.
Falling in Love: A Secret Baby Romance (Rockford Falls Romance) Page 11
