Boys Next Door (13 page)

* * *

‘You should do it,’ Joy said when I walked in.

I looked around, thoroughly confused, which is never how you want to be on your first day of a job. ‘Me? Do what? Dip, clip, paint, walk, poop patrol?’

Donna snorted and said, ‘Look who’s here, Brutus!’

Brutus promptly started to vibrate like someone had flipped his ON switch. Then he trotted up to me, turned in a circle and when I bent to stroke his black fur, promptly left a silver dollar sized pool of pee on the floor.

‘That’s the breed,’ Donna said, waving a hand. ‘Paper towels are on the counter.’

I bent to wipe up the nervous offering even as the offerer attacked me with an eager tongue and a huge amount of affection. ‘What is it I should do?’ I said to the dog but talking to the women.

‘The charity show. We have one every year to benefit a local charity. Sometimes it’s a school or a family that’s suffered hard times or some such. This year it’s a family out by the county line whose house burned to the ground. Squirrels in the attic. They chewed the wires and the whole place went up in flames.’

‘That’s awful,’ I said.

‘It is,’ Joy sighed. ‘So we have a benefit show, sell tickets, the locals bake and make appetisers and people pay for those. Some of the local families that make wine or microbrew beers for themselves set up a bar. Everyone gets drunk and stupid for a good cause.’

‘Joy!’ Donna said, blushing and tsking simultaneously. ‘The way you make us sound. No one gets drunk and stupid,’ she said to me.

‘Old man Samuelson tried to ride a goat home last year,’ Joy said straight-faced.

Donna frowned. ‘One small incident. Anyway, you being an actress and whatnot, we figured you could participate.’

‘I came here to
not
be an actress.’ Brutus wouldn’t leave me be, so I picked him up and held him while he licked every inch of my face he could reach with his long pink tongue.

‘But for charity?’

I sighed.

‘Surely we can find something for you to do. It can be something else. Can you sing?’

‘Dear Lord, no,’ I snorted. ‘Do you want people to leave with bleeding ears?’

‘Why not just think about it? Brutus can help you,’ she said, winking.

I eyed Brutus. He was literally shimmying with love. His little wiener dog tail flying back and forth at a mile a minute. ‘Do you want to come home with me, studly?’

I had to put him down he was wagging so hard. Donna crossed her arms, eyeing him. ‘I think that might be a yes.’

‘Jeesh, ya think?’ Joy said.

She looked at her watch. ‘Gotta go, D,’ she said.

Donna glanced at the wall clock. ‘Me too. Will you be okay alone?’ she asked me.

‘Alone?’ I tried not to sound like I’d just sucked all the helium out of a balloon. I was a big girl, I could do it. Right? I didn’t have to panic. ‘I mean, yeah, sure, I guess.’

‘Joy has a doctor’s appointment and I have a dentist’s appointment. We didn’t schedule that so well, did we?’ she laughed, and rooted around under the counter for her purse. ‘If you weren’t here, we’d have to shut down for a few hours. But don’t panic.’

‘Me, panic? Never,’ I said, but bit my lip to keep from laughing.

‘All you have to do is answer the phones, sell anyone dog food or such should they come in for it. Prices are on the packages, tax paper is taped to the desk and don’t be frightened but we do it the old-fashioned way.’

‘Pardon?’ My stomach was in knots but I breathed. It was really no big deal.

‘Cash box. Cash only. So anyone who comes in here will know that. Just write down what you sell and make change from the cash box. Key is underneath the box.’

‘Because we are state of the art,’ Joy said. Then she saluted us and left.

Donna laughed. ‘We are. We are state of the art. For 1911. Out I go. I’ll be back in an hour. Doctor Hanstrom’s number is on the blotter. I left it for you should you need me. Good luck!’

‘You’re not worried!’ I asked as she was walking out. ‘I could be … a nefarious person.’

She winked at me. ‘Farrell, honey, you are a lot of things, I bet. But nefarious isn’t one of them.’

She left and the bell over the door tinkled.

‘Well, hell,’ I said to Brutus.

He turned in a circle and wagged his tail so hard he almost fell over.

When the bell tinkled again twenty minutes later, I looked up nervously. A big breath rushed out of me to see pretty Stephen Vogel standing there.

‘Is this a bakery delivery?’ I teased.

He didn’t smile and I suddenly felt foolish. I came around the counter and touched his arm. ‘Hey, you okay? Did I say somethi –’

‘I saw you with him,’ he said.

Brutus came up and plopped at my feet between me and Stephen. Stephen promptly squatted to pet the dog.

‘Him?’ I asked. But my stomach had knotted up and I knew what he meant.

‘Cooper. I saw you with him after you left and then later that night, I was up, getting ready to go in and bake – I couldn’t sleep much last night. I saw him leave your house early.’

His grey eyes showed some hurt but there was more in there. Something that had nothing to do with hurt feelings.

‘Look, I thought I had made it clear to … well, to everyone so far, that I’m not looking for anything serious. Or for anyone to be tracking me.’ I tried to keep my voice even and not sound annoyed.

But I was a little annoyed. I didn’t need anyone questioning me or making me feel guilty.

They can only make you feel guilty if you let them …

He shrugged, dark hair falling over his forehead. It was endearing and sexy all at once and I had to clench my fist to keep from reaching out to brush it away. Any excuse to touch him. He did that to me – being so close to him – gave me the urge to touch.

The door jingled again and a small woman with her hair dyed Raggedy Ann red came in.

Stephen nodded and smiled. ‘Mrs Rogers.’

‘Hello, Stephen!’ she boomed and I flinched. But then I noticed she had hearing aids in each ear and tried to stifle the need to cringe when she continued to speak. ‘I just need some kitty food! That food that Donna sells is the only thing that doesn’t upset Bobby’s belly. She carries cat food as a courtesy, because she is a wonderful animal lover!’

Stephen reached up on the high shelf and grabbed the cans she indicated. ‘Four?’

‘Better make it six,’ she shouted.

I tallied her purchase and put it all in a Donna’s bag. ‘That’ll be $8.84, please.’

‘You’re new!’ she yelled and I saw Stephen suppressing a laugh.

‘I am. My name’s Farrell.’

I took her ten dollar note and counted out her change. She left in a wave of lavender perfume and happy vibrations. ‘Nice to meet you, Carol!’ she called from the door and left.

I snorted.

‘It is nice to know you, Carol,’ he said.

‘Christ, my ears are ringing from her. She’s a bit loud.’

Someone rang the back doorbell and I went to see who was there. Stephen followed. The delivery man had left a few boxes of flea dip and dog brushes and food by the back door. Stephen helped me haul them in.

I straightened and he took a step toward me, backing me up to the counter. ‘I know what you said, and I get it. But he’s such a jerk sometimes. That Cooper. So I wanted to just tell you, he can be sort of a jerk and …’ He leaned in further, looking terrified but intent, and then he kissed me.

His tongue as warm and gentle and it sent such a rush through me, the way he kissed me, like he needed me.

‘Just be careful. He’s not a nice guy for the most part. You deserve better.’ His hands were firm on my hips and I pictured him kneading bread and rolling dough and handling buttery pastry. I wanted him to handle me that way. Touch me that way. I wanted him to touch me and touch me until some of that goodness he seemed to carry in him rubbed off on me.

I took his hand and pressed it to my zipper. The heat of him flooded the centre of me and I hummed low in my throat, the vibration working through my lips into his.

‘Jesus,’ he said. Then he pressed his body to mine and I felt how hard he was. How ready.

‘Here. Come here. Hurry.’

I pushed him into a small restroom with a sliding door. I shimmied my jeans to my knees and kept an ear peeled for the door. The women hadn’t been gone but 25 minutes, but this would take massive luck and speed.

But lust and need rolled fiercely in my belly and I wondered if I was losing my mind. I seemed to be always aroused, and by men so extremely different it was mind-boggling.

‘Fuck me. Hurry.’

Stephen groaned, his fingers working the button of his black and white chef pants. ‘Farrell – are you sure?’

‘I’m sure. Hurry.’ I grabbed one of his strong hands and splayed it on my ass cheek. I was wet. I was ready. I could feel how ready by the insistent hot thump of my heartbeat in my cunt.

‘I don’t have – do you have a condom?’ he sighed.

I turned and looked him in the eye. ‘No. But I’m clean. And I’m on the pill. Are you clean?’

‘I am.’

‘Do you promise?’

His eyes flicked down my body, tracing the line of my back and his hand followed suit. ‘I’d never lie about something like that, Farrell.’

I believed him. ‘Touch me,’ I said. My voice was broken and demanding.

He touched me.

We faced each other in the reflection of the small mirror over the washbasin as he cupped my breasts, teasing my nipples to taut peaks. The hair on my scalp prickled and my throat tickled with need. But I didn’t rush him. I wanted those hands on me. Hands that dealt in silken smooth flour and raw sugar, honey and spices, butter and molasses.

Hungrily, I eyed the flex of his forearms, how the muscles bunched and danced when he skimmed my skin with his palms. Stephen pushed his pants down further, turned and put the small hook latch into the eye so the door could not be opened.

‘Bend forward for me.’ His voice was rough. I’d never heard him sound that way – not that we’d known each other forever, but I had heard him speak, had marvelled at his soft, controlled voice.

I did as I was told. Willingly, I bent forward, keeping my eyes on him in the mirror as he spread a single large hand along the small of my back – his touch warming me and making the flex and thud of blood in my pussy that much worse.

His grey eyes drifted down my body again and I watched him watching us as he teased my soaked opening with the tip of his cock. Feeling his skin there, sans condom, was a thrill. I pushed back just enough to take the tip of him into my wet heat.

He made a noise deep in his throat and his steel gaze jumped back up to meet mine. ‘You know the minute I’m in you – fuck.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m not going to last long.’

‘This is a quickie,’ I reminded him. ‘I’m at work.’ Then, ‘Hurry.’

He pushed into me on one superbly controlled stroke. My body was flooded with his warmth and my fingers curled to the cool porcelain sink.

All I could think was, please, oh God, please don’t let Donna or Joy or a customer come in. Please let us get off and do this and feel good and all that stuff without traumatising anyone.

Stephen gripped my hips so tight my skin tingled and he drove into me hard, my toes left the floor briefly. His mouth came down on the back of my neck and I had a babbling internal moment where he wasn’t one of the three little pigs, he was the big bad wolf, not me.

I crushed my pelvis to the front of the sink and the friction was perfect. Just what I needed. I rotated my hips just a bit, pushed my finger between myself and the sink and pinched my clit.

When I moaned softly, grinding back against him, Stephen rumbled. It was heart startling, when he put his hands around my throat. There was barely any pressure. He didn’t squeeze at all. It was the visual that did me in. The taut forearms and the big hands and my thin throat and
fuck
– the potential.

The potential for damage was enormous and thrilling. Especially from a man who was the epitome of sweet.

We never really know each other, do we …

‘I’m coming,’ I gasped, surprising myself.

But Stephen didn’t look surprised. He watched me as I came, eyes calm. He seemed to take in every flicker, every grimace, every sigh and every soft laugh as I rode out the spasms that filled my pelvis and made my cunt grip tight to his thrusting sex.

And it was only when I let my head fall back into his loose grip, that he came. It was only when he was sure that I was done, that he let himself go. Emptying into me, pounding into me so I bit my tongue to keep from making any noise.

When he came, his gaze was locked with mine and his mouth was against the back of my neck.

We froze, no sound, no nothing, just two people who had just fucked and were still joined, staring at each other in a tiny, faded mirror.

And then the bell jingled over the door and we were scurrying to dress.

* * *

‘There she is –’ Coop started. ‘Oh, and lookie here. The baker is here too. Come to warn her off me, Stevie?’

Stephen flushed at the words but stood his ground in the doorway between the front room and the back. Coop smacked of a man who was either annoyed or hurt, but had decided to cover it by being a dick.

‘Would be a shame for all of you if Donna found out, eh?’ Coop said, grinning, toeing an iron doorstop shaped like a bulldog with his work boot.

‘Found out what,’ Stephen said. ‘Nothing to find out.’

His way of saying he’d never cop to it and how would Coop prove it.

‘What do you want?’ I asked, clearing my throat.

Brutus was making a day of sniffing Cooper and I almost smiled but caught myself.

‘Nothing. Was just passing by and figured I’d say “hey”. Didn’t know you’d be busy.’ His tone was light but his jaw was rigid. He was pissed.

Which pissed me off.

‘Hi.’ I waved, being rather bratty if I do say so myself.

He frowned. Picking up Brutus he said, ‘Oh, and I wanted to let you know about the community show for char –’

‘I know about it.’

Stephen fidgeted in the doorway and I almost felt bad for him. But Jesus, Coop was just a man. No need to cower in his presence.