Dirty (14 page)

             
A piercing cry broke through the air. Little Liver had made it around the corner and was demanding to be held by Sawyer. He’d sat between Sawyer’s feet and scratched at his jeans.

             
The whines had the girls on hands and knees crawling from the fort. 

             
Riley gasped, “It’s a puppy!”

             
“Murph, you got us a puppy?” Jess said clutching her chest.

             
“Actually, Courtney got it for us.”

             
“Who’s Courtney?” they asked in unison as they played with little Liver, not looking up.

             
“Come here and meet her.”

             
Their heads popped up at once. Riley took in her attire from head to toe, her smile growing all the while. Jess observed with a reserved frown. “Courtney?”

             
“Yes. And you’re Jess?”

             
“Jessica, but everybody calls me Jess.”

             
Jess stood, looking from Courtney to Sawyer. “You’re my brother’s friend?”

             
Courtney shrugged. It was the first time he’d seen her unsure about anything. He intervened, “Yes, she’s a very good friend of mine.”

             
“I didn’t know,” Jess said, puzzled.

             
“I like your shoes.” Riley said as she gave them a good look, and then stood.

             
“Courtney works in real estate right next door to the cheese shop.”

             
Jess smiled. “Cool. Murph needs friends.”

             
“Your dress is real fancy,” Riley smiled, and then reached out to run her hands down the material of Courtney’s skirt.

             
“Riley,” Sawyer admonished with a shake of his head.

             
Courtney giggled, “That’s okay. And thank you for the compliment.”

             
“Do you have a fancy bag too?”

             
Sawyer nodded. “She does…A Michael Kors.”

             
“Murph, you know Michael Kors?” Jess asked on a cocked brow.

             
“Of course. Everybody who’s anybody knows Michael Kors.”

             
Riley squealed in a fit of laughter and Jess giggled. Next to him Courtney stood beaming…at him. He knew he was in trouble when his heart sighed at the vision before him.
Shit!
He was going to fall hard and fast, if he hadn’t already.

             
They migrated to the living room—Riley’s arms full of the liver-colored sleeping lab. Dropping the fat-bellied pup into his white wicker basket, Riley stood admiring the infamous MK bag. She hefted a large gold lock apparatus from the front of the bag into her palm and tested its weight. “You can lock it up?”

             
Courtney looked on the lock as if seeing it for the first time. “Huh, I guess you can, but it would make it extremely difficult to grab your wallet or phone.”

             
“Maybe it’s for when you travel. Like on a plane,” Jess added.

             
Courtney nodded and Riley laced her arm through the hole made by the straps of the bag and slid them onto her shoulder. She moved back, effectively sliding the bag from the coffee table, and then sagged under its weight. “Whoa, this is heavy!”
             
Sawyer nodded in affirmation. “Courtney likes to carry her rock collection around with her.”

             
“Really?” Riley asked with wide eyes.

             
“No. I have no rocks in the bag.”

             
Courtney and Sawyer sat on the couch while Jess sat cross-legged on the floor, stroking the sleeping pup’s back. “I think we should call him Levi.”

             
“Levi?” Sawyer questioned.

             
“Yeah, it’s still close enough to Liver, but no one can replace our Liver.”

             
“Levi. I like it,” Courtney smiled.

             
“Me too,” Sawyer’s gaze met hers and locked for several beats. “Thank you for coming.”

             
“You are most welcome.”

             
“I’m really sorry about Saturday night.”

             
She shook her head. “Don’t mention it because I’m not.”

             
With a crease between her brows, Jess scrutinized their interaction and their words. “You guys were together on Saturday night? I thought you were working at the cheese shop.”

             
“He was, but once the bachelorette party started, he took a break and went to dinner with me.”

             
He sat back and listened as the girls discussed him like he wasn’t in the room. Courtney was great at communicating the facts that were needed and leaving certain details of their night private.

             
“So were you like on a date?” Jess inquired.

             
He was so not getting into this conversation!

             
“It was a date—with a very handsome, hardworking man.”

             
“Is Sawyer your BF?”

             
What the hell is a BF?

             
“Hmm, you know Jess, I can’t answer that. We haven’t used that word yet.”

             
“Do you want him to be?”

             
“Well I can’t tell all of my secrets now, can I?”

             
“What’s BF?” The girls giggled at his question.

             
“What?”

             
Riley froze, striking a catwalk pose and said, “It means boyfriend.”

             
His eyes bugged while all of the women in his living room laughed.

             
“Oh my God, you have the chocolate bar!” Riley set the bag that was half her size down on the coffee table. “I heard it smells like chocolate…does it smell like chocolate?”

             
“Take it out and give it a sniff.”

             
She started rummaging through Courtney’s bag and pulled out a long, brown cardboard box. She flipped the top and took a huge sniff. “Mmm.” If he wasn’t mistaken it was a box of eye shadow or blush.

             
“I wanna smell it.” Jess joined her and they sniffed the box repeatedly. “It smells like hot cocoa with mini marshmallows.”

             
“Do you wear it?” Riley asked.

             
“I do.”

             
Jess pulled a shiny, flowered bag from Courtney’s purse. “Wow, you have so much makeup.” She pulled three tubes from the bag. “I love lip gloss.”

             
“Hey, Courtney may not appreciate you going through her things.” Both girls dropped their hands and looked intently at Courtney.

             
“I don’t mind. If it’s okay with your brother.”

             
He shrugged.
What the hell was he going to do?
It was girl power in the living room. He was outnumbered and he recognized a lost cause when he saw it. “As long as you’re okay with it.”

             
She leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I was thinking I could apply light makeup to Jess.” Her moist breath had him going hard. Not good…this was most inappropriate in front of his sisters. He grabbed a throw pillow.

             
“I think she’d love that.”  

             
Sawyer leaned back against the couch and clasped his hands to the top of his head. He watched as his sisters and Courtney sat on pillows in the middle of the cozy living room and painted each other’s faces. Courtney graciously allowed them to make her into an eighties goth creation. Wiping away the excess makeup on her right eye, Courtney was in the middle of teaching Jess that less was more when applying eyeliner. Riley’s fingers never left Levi’s back as she continued to slowly stroke him into a deep comfortable puppy dog sleep. He’d be dreaming of biscuits and bacon, and of chasing rabbits.

             
Sawyer had a few dreams of his own. He constantly tried to push them to the back of his mind, but as he watched Courtney receive the stabbing brunt of the lip gloss wand in Riley’s hand, his dreams floated to the forefront of his mind.

             
He could see Courtney advising Jess on the perfect dress to wear to the dance, and on how to tie back her hair. Riley would be in the middle of the two, soaking up every ounce of essence that oozed from Courtney’s pores. But there were other dreams…dreams that were too close to reality, dreams that had him anxious and needed to remain hidden. An image of Courtney in his arms across the conference table, her back perfectly arched to accept him. Sparkling eyes shining with lust and satisfaction.

             
“And then you blot like this.” Courtney grasped a tissue and demonstrated while he felt the precum drip from his cock.
Shit
. He snuck into the restroom. Looking at himself in the mirror he gasped. He looked more like his father than he wished to. The rugged lines, the bronze skin, the devilish smirk. That smirk that cost him a few swats on the hand from Mrs. Ellen’s ruler back in grade school. She’d thought he was misbehaving, but his face had been frozen in a snicker until he’d become an adult.

             
The responsibilities of life had sucked the youthfulness right out of him. Now he looked hard, controlling, and aggressive. He bared his teeth to the mirror. Women had told him before that he had a great smile and he thanked the Murphy genes for their blessings. He tested his breath against his hand. His arm froze in its quest for the toothbrush and paste.

             
Why was he going to brush his teeth? Was he hoping soft pink lips would descend over his?
Why yes…yes he was.

***

             
Courtney knocked on the bathroom door. Tapping her foot in the hallway of the warm home, she stood and waited for any sign that her greeting was going to be acknowledged. She pursed her lips and knocked again. This time there was a scurry and the door cracked open to reveal a smiling Sawyer beyond.

             
“Can I come in?”

             
His eyes widened slightly before he gave a little frown of confusion. Flattening his back against the wall he gestured her in with his hand. Courtney leaned against the counter. “I left the girls with the bags of doggie goodies that I brought. There are toys, snacks, food, shampoo, a collar, and a T-shirt.”

             
“A T-shirt?”

             
She nodded. “It says,
It’s good to be king
.”

             
Sawyer chuckled and leaned next to her. “He will be king, so it’s perfect.”

             
“Jess tells me she’s got her first school dance coming up.”

             
The lines in his face deepened, the bronzed skin aiding the effect. “I can’t believe it. Honestly, I don’t know where to go to get the things she needs. She doesn’t know either, but Riley has some ideas.”

             
“Mind if I butt in?”

             
“I would value your input.”

             
“Riley mentioned Forever Twenty-One. It’s not where she needs to go to purchase her first school dance dress.”

             
“Oh?”

             
“Nuh-uh.” She moved to stand before him, toe to toe.

             
“Where then?” He turned expectant eyes on her.

             
“I know a place. I’d be happy to take her.” She skimmed her fingers up and down his bicep.

             
“You would?”

             
“I’d be honored.” She leaned in and took his lips in hers. He tasted like mint and smelled like the bath soap her grandmother used…Irish Spring. They pulled apart and she saw a bar of the green soap in the soap dish. She smiled like an idiot in wonderland.

             
“What?”

             
“Nothing, I’m just happy.”

             
His index and middle finger fiddled with her elbow as he leaned in to place a long, lingering kiss on her lips. “Please tell me it’s past nine o’clock.”

             
Glancing at her watch she said, “nine fifteen.”