In the Middle of Somewhere (29 page)

I let out a breath and nod.

“I love undressing you,” he says. He kisses my neck, his mouth warm against my cold skin. “You always shiver just a little, and your nipples get hard.” He strips my shirt off my arms and pulls my T-shirt off. Then he runs his thumbs over my nipples and my stomach clenches. “You’re so beautiful.” He kisses my mouth and I put my arms around him tentatively.

He undoes my pants and pulls them and my underwear down. He nudges me into the hot shower but doesn’t close the door, and my eyes are glued to him as he strips and gets in with me.

He puts me under the water and rubs his hands up and down my arms to warm me up. Then he washes my hair, careful, as before, that no soap gets in my eyes. I lean back into him, my sleepless night catching up with me, and he wraps his arms around my waist. I turn in his arms to kiss him. As our mouths move together, Rex pulls me toward him, cupping my ass and squeezing with both hands. A bolt of arousal shoots through me. I press kisses up his throat, standing on my toes to reach his mouth again.

Rex kisses the same way he seems to do everything else: with a combination of confident power and gentle sweetness that completely gets to me. He pushes me against the wall with his body, tipping my head up so he can keep kissing me as we grind together. He cups my hip in one hand and runs the other between my cheeks to find my opening. His wet fingers slide inside me and I groan, the heat of his body and the heat of the water mixing with the heat of his fingers inside me to make me a little dizzy. Rex groans when I run my hands down his muscular back to pull him closer to me. His ass is tight as he rocks against me.

I look up into his eyes, the dark lashes clumped with water. I run my fingers across his hole and he shudders. I push gently and he winces. Is it in pain or arousal? His mouth is open and water is running down his jaw, glistening in his stubble. His thick hair is in dark swirls. He looks amazing, like he’s standing under a waterfall in some exotic vacation spot I’ll never visit. I rub a finger against his hole gently, just teasing, and he shudders and gasps.

“Good?” I say against his open mouth. “Or no.”

“Good,” he says, nodding, then he drops his head down onto my shoulder. A jolt of arousal rocks me. I reverse our positions, pushing him into the wall, and squeeze his ass in both hands. Like every other part of him, it’s meaty and muscular and gorgeous.

When I feel him relax, I delve inside him again, my finger sliding in as he sucks in a breath. We thrust together as the water falls over our shoulders like the rain outside. Rex’s hands are at the small of my back, as if to stop me from pulling away, and his head is lying back against the wall. I slide a second finger into him and he whimpers as I stroke over his prostate, his hole clenching down on my fingers.

“Oh fuck,” he says. “It’s been so long.”

Good. A picture of Will fucking Rex in this shower flutters through my brain and I shake my head to clear it, latching onto Rex’s nipples as I explore him with my fingers. His heat is addictive and I push closer to him, our erections sliding together and my fingers sliding deeper inside him. We both groan and Rex grabs our cocks in his big hand, bending his knees a little so we’re the same height. I take the opportunity to slide a third finger inside him and he cries out, his hand tightening on our erections. Everything feels liquid as he works us together, and I massage his prostate with my fingertips, his jaw clenching in pleasure.

“Kiss me, please,” Rex groans, and pumps us even harder. I can feel my orgasm creeping up the base of my spine. I grab Rex’s face in my hand and slam our mouths together, my tongue sliding into his mouth as I push my fingers as deep as I can. He gasps into my mouth and begins to tremble. His thighs are shaking and his stomach vibrates against mine as his ass spasms around my fingers. I press into his prostate and he tears his mouth away from mine, his groans echoing in the small shower. His hand stutters and then heat thicker than water hits my chest and drips down my stomach. Rex’s mouth is open and every one of his muscles is clenched, like some kind of glorious animal caught midjump. Then he lets out a shuddering breath and relaxes, his hole fluttering around my fingers.

“Daniel,” he breathes, and he pulls me flush against him and kisses me so sweetly. He twists one hand in my hair and keeps stroking my erection slowly, watching my reactions. His eyes are molten gold, framed by dark lashes, and he’s looking at me like he wants to eat me up. I lift my chin for another kiss, but he just keeps looking at me, his strokes getting harder and faster, and my breaths turn to gasps. Just as I’m about to come, he slows down a little and I squeeze my eyes shut in frustration, reaching for him as I shudder back from the brink. Instead of keeping me upright, Rex lets me melt into him and pulls me up so I can thrust against his belly. He holds me up with a hand under my ass and seals his other hand over my erection, encouraging me to thrust against him.

The warm flesh and firm muscle drags over my shaft as I hump against him, and he pulls me firmly to him. I cry out, the feeling both familiar and strange enough that I can’t quite anticipate what’s coming. The stretch in my legs and ass is making my balls tighten and tingle. I reach up and put my arms around Rex’s neck so I can have more control and he holds me to him with one hand, the other finally palming my erection and stroking me hard and fast. I gasp and bite down on his shoulder as my orgasm blasts through me, jumping in Rex’s hand as he strokes me through the aftershocks.

I can smell Rex’s scent even with the water rushing down, and his skin smells like home. I squeeze him around the neck and his arms come around me, pulling me into a hug.

We both let out deep breaths at the same time and slump against each other, our hips still flexing a little, drawn together. When I look up, there’s a soft look in Rex’s eyes and he pushes my wet hair back and kisses me on the temple and then the mouth. There’s just something about Rex that makes me feel so safe, so content. I’ve never felt anything like it. I know we have things to talk about, but in this moment, I’m so happy I can hardly breathe.

“D
O
YOU
need to work?” Rex asks.

“Oh shit!” I run over to my bag. In my relief that there was no way my computer would be ruined by the rain, I didn’t think about all the papers I have in there. I pull open my messenger bag, which is sitting in a pool of rainwater just inside the door, and sure enough, some rain got in.

“Shit, shit, shit.” I pull out the stack of paper proposals from this morning, the papers clumped wetly together, and start to peel them apart, cursing myself for not springing for the bag with the roll-top. Fortunately, only the top third of the stack is wet and the ink isn’t smeared, but if I let them dry stuck together they’ll be unreadable when I pull them apart. I start laying out the wet sheets on the floor. Marilyn, curious, trots over and starts nosing at them.

“Here,” Rex says. He spreads two towels over the coffee table and moves the papers there, holding Marilyn off with a word.

“Thanks,” I say, grumbling at my bag and the papers and the rain.

Rex is laughing softly.

“What?” I say.

“You’re just cute, that’s all.”

“What? No way. Why?”

I put the last paper on the table, their wet tops fanned out to dry. Rex is grinning at me. He shrugs a little.

“You’re just…. Sometimes you’re so professional, and you look real intense while you’re working. Then, the next minute, you show up here drenched, with all your papers wet, and you’re a mess.” He steps closer to me, and the soft look is back. “Sometimes, you’re sweet and nervous and you look at me like you have no idea what’s going on. And the next minute you’re all… prickly.” He swats my ass.

“Hey!”

“And sometimes,” he continues, tilting my face up, “you’re so damn sexy I could just kiss you for hours.” He kisses me, and I can feel myself relaxing into his arms, when he pulls away and looks at me again. “Then, I don’t know. There are moments when I think you could kick my ass if you were mad enough.” He looks at me assessingly, but I don’t say anything. I wonder if I could.

Just to be sure it didn’t get wet, I take out my laptop case and look inside. Nope, my piece of crap computer is totally dry, thank goodness.

“So, do you need to work? I have the Internet now, if you need it.”

I look at him, curious.

“Why’d you decide to get it now?”

Rex looks a little embarrassed, but he says, “Well, you said you use it a lot, so I got it. I thought maybe you could do some work here instead of the library. And I know you don’t love your place, so….”

Holy shit, Leo was right.

“You bought me the Internet.”

“Well, in a manner of speaking.” He fidgets. “Is that—I mean, is it useful to you?”

“You….” I don’t even know what to say. I can hear Ginger in my head, yelling at me to just act normal, act like myself, don’t overthink every little thing. What would I say to Ginger? What
would
I say to Ginger?

“You’re so fucking nice,” is what comes out. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Rex laughs and grins at me. Yes! I said the right thing. Note to self: just pretend Rex is Ginger. Wait. That’s a terrible idea in several contexts.

“You’re welcome,” Rex says, and runs his hand through my drying hair, which probably looks like I got stuck in a thresher. “So, do you? Need to work, I mean?”

I do. When I regard the paper proposals drying on the table, though, my stomach growls.

“Well, they’re wet just at the moment,” I say.

“So, dinner?”

I nod and follow Rex into the kitchen. He starts pulling things out of the fridge and the cabinets. I never know what he’s making until he puts it on the table, but I kind of like not knowing. It’s like watching one of the cooking competitions he loves where you get the big reveal at the end.

“Can you cut things up and listen at the same time?” Rex teases. At least, I think he’s teasing. He pushes four apples, a knife, and a cutting board in front of me.

“Oh god, this isn’t one of those things where you’re going to put fruit in all the food, is it? I keep seeing, like, cherries in all the salads here. It’s disgusting.”

“Well, Traverse City is the cherry capital of the world. They find their way into almost everything up here. But, no. I thought we’d make an apple crumble for dessert. Seems autumnal. That’s the word, right? Autumnal?”

“Yeah. You bake too? Damn.” Why is that kind of turning me on? Something about Rex’s big hands and thick shoulders making delicate pastries in a white apron is crazy hot.

“Well, I don’t do anything fancy. But this is easy. So, just take the cores out and the cut them into chunks, okay?”

I nod, and he starts doing… whatever else he’s doing, cutting and sautéing and slicing a million things at once.

“So, how’d you end up here, anyway?”

“Huh?”

“In the cherry capital of the world,” I say.

“Oh.”

“Sorry,” I say when he doesn’t continue. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”

“No, it’s okay. I just—no one’s ever asked before. It was because of Jamie, actually. He was from here, originally. Well, near here. I’d only ever lived in hot places when we met and I used to complain about how I hate the heat. When it was really hot and we’d be in the park or have to walk in the sun, he’d tell me stories about the winter in Michigan. The snow, and how he and his brother would build forts out of it and drink hot cocoa in there. It sounded magical to me. I’d never even seen snow in real life.”

Rex smiles at the memory, his hands gone still and his eyes distant.

“Jamie told me he’d take me to Michigan with him one day for a real Christmas—he said Christmas without snow didn’t even really count. So, I just kind of made my way here after my mom died. I was doing odd jobs. Fixing stuff for folks. I got here just before Christmas one year. I love Christmas,” he says sheepishly.

He starts stirring again and continues.

“Anyway, I lived around here for a few years, really liked it. Then I was walking one day and I saw this place.” He chuckles at the memory. “Man, it was a fall-down mess. Half the wood was rotten and the kitchen was a disaster. I asked around, found out the guy who lived here died and the county was going to tear it down. I convinced them to let me rebuild it instead. Took a while.”

He’s running his hand along the countertop as if he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.

“Jesus. You
built
this cabin?”

He nods.

“Most of it. A bit was salvageable.”

“That’s… amazing.” Rex smiles. “I guess now that I look at it, it does seem like a nicer kitchen than you’d expect to find in a cabin.”

“You have much experience with cabins?”

“Um, no.”

I turn back to the apples, unsure of what to say so I concentrate on cutting them into chunks while not chopping off any parts of myself. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to build your own home. It must be amazing.

“So, about Will,” Rex says, and my knife skids off the skin of the apple and thumps onto the cutting board, coming within a millimeter of my finger. Rex’s head snaps up.

“Are you okay? Did you cut yourself?” I shake my head. “Here, give me that,” Rex says, and takes my knife, tests it on his thumb, and hands me a smaller one. I open my mouth to say something, but he says, “I think I need to sharpen that one; this one’s sharper.”

I go back to cutting the apples up, but Rex is watching me now, probably worried I’m going to require his emergency services. When I look up, though, his gaze is fond. And he seems a little bemused.

“What?”

“It’s not brain surgery, sweetheart,” he says. “You can just cut them up.” I look down at the cutting board. My chunks of apple are perfectly uniform. I cut the apple into rings and then strips and then chunks. Wasn’t that what he asked for? I look back up at him, puzzled.

“Never mind,” he says. “They’re great—they’re perfect. I just meant, you don’t need to try so hard to make them perfect. It doesn’t matter if they’re all the same.”