by Sarah Hegger
Hands that had petted and stroked her into a frenzy of desire. Hands that knew where all those secret sweet spots on her body were.
Her belly dipped and swooped, and her skin heated. Her nerve endings tingled and demanded she press her body closer to his.
They were both breathing hard, and the notion that she affected him like he affected her made her girl parts scream at her. Her nipples hardened and pressed against her bra, and it had nothing to do with the cold. She wasn’t feeling any cold right that moment.
Their steps matched perfectly, their bodies finding a natural rhythm. Just like they had the other night.
She had to stop thinking about it.
Vince! She owed it to herself to see where things with Vince could go. There might never be another time.
They stopped in her parking lot, with Kelly not really registering the time between the bar and there.
“Kelly.” Gabe faced her. His breath misted into hers on the cold night air. His gaze asked the question.
Stamping on her clamoring libido, she whispered, “We shouldn’t.”
“You’re right.” He dipped his head and pressed his mouth to hers, softly, coaxing.
There was only so much a girl could take, and Kelly opened her lips to the slight touch of his tongue.
Groaning, Gabe gripped her skull and took her mouth. The kiss leaped from a tentative query to a mind-numbing, ovary-blasting assault on her senses.
Ending it was not an option, and Kelly threw herself into the kiss. Tongues tangled, teeth clashed, lips mashed as she pressed her body to his.
A light blinked on in a condo opposite hers.
Kelly grabbed what few wits she could locate and ended the kiss. “We can’t.”
Running a hand through his hair, Gabe chuckled. “I think we’ve established that we can. The issue is more if we should.”
“No.” She didn’t have enough words to gather. “We shouldn’t.”
He stepped away and shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’re right.” He jerked his head at her condo. “But for fuck’s sake, get in your condo, Kelly. I’m hanging on by a thread here.”
Chapter Nine
Kelly gave herself a good talking to as she opened the Koffee Klatch the next morning. Kissing Gabe last night had been a reaction to the conversation about Vince, a confidence booster to help her make the first move with Vince.
She still didn’t want to be the one leaping first, but somebody had to, and after fifteen years of circling each other, the worst case was letting another fifteen slip past before one of them did anything.
If they kept that up, Vince would be shuffling into her coffee shop on his walker and she’d be turning up her hearing aid to get the orders right.
She could ask him out. She was a strong, assertive, independent woman. No biggie. Women did it all the time. The days of Rapunzel waiting in her tower were over. Rapunzel was rappelling the hell outta that tower and finding her man.
There! She got ready for the day, turning on the coffee machines, filling the shelves with cups, setting out the pastries the bakery had delivered.
She opened the door, and her customers drifted in, mostly regulars but a few new faces as well.
A ginger-haired man with a slight paunch and a Star Wars T-shirt stood at the counter and leered at her. “Hi. What’s your name?”
“Says it right here.” Kelly pointed to her badge. “What can I get you?”
He grinned and eyed her boobs. “Well, Kelly—”
“Coffee.” She didn’t need a psychology degree to see where ginger ninja was heading. “What can I get for you coffee-wise?”
“Oh.” He blinked and colored bright red. “I’m new in town? Is that what I’m supposed to say?”
“No idea.” Customers were backing up behind him. People there to order coffee, not ogle her.
He cleared his throat and dropped his head. “Right then. Sorry. Do you have any herbal teas?”
“Peppermint, ginger, African red bush.”
“Peppermint.” He dug out his wallet. “Please. Kelly.”
“You got it.” Now that he wasn’t trying to eye hump her, he looked kinda dorky, sweet and shy.
A regular replaced him. “Hey, Kel!” He plopped his travel mug on the counter. “Fill her up.”
“Got a long haul today?”
“Nah.” Dean adjusted his ball cap. “A load of tires up to Denver. Picking up another trailer there. Someone’s household goods.”
She filled his mug and made sure the top was secure. “You drive safe now, Dean.”
“Will do, Kelly. You stay pretty.”
“I always do.”
Word of her coffee shop had hit the trucker grapevine, and they often came the three miles off the highway for a decent cup of coffee.
Vince might have had something to do with it.
She kept a steady pep talk going in her head as she served her customers.
Of course, all her careful preparation blew to hell when Vince walked through the door at his normal time.
“Good morning.” His big sweet smile encouraged her. “You look pretty today.”
“Thank you.” She’d was glad her bit of extra effort this morning was appreciated by its intended target. “The usual?”
He took a seat at the counter, which she took as another good sign. The universe was giving her the great big thumbs-up. Not wanting to leap straight into it, she put his coffee in front of him. “How’s your day going?”
“Not bad.” Another sweet smile. “All the better for seeing you.”
Opportunity had presented itself. It wouldn’t get more fortuitous. “So, I was thinking.” She leaned her elbows on the counter and got close enough to him that her voice wouldn’t carry to the rest of the coffee shop. “About seeing me. Or me seeing you.” This was Vince, for the love of God. Vince! She needed to untangle her tongue and speak to the man. “I mean, seeing each other.”
Stellar job!
Vince looked at her over his coffee mug, confusion clouding his brown eyes.
She took a deep breath. “I was wondering if you’d like to see more of me.” Shit! That had come out all wrong. “I mean not more of me more of me, but more of me.”
Vince blinked at her.
Grabbing her courage, she went for it. “I’m asking, and really badly I might add, if you would like to go out with me sometime.”
“As friends or like a date?” Vince cocked his head.
Relief surged through her. Stage one complete. “No, not as friends, but on a date. I was thinking it might be time.”
“Yes.” His grin grew bigger. “Kelly, I would like nothing better than to go on a date with you, and yes, we have both waited long enough.”
“Really?” She wanted to tango around her shop.
Vince leaned his elbows on the counter and got closer. “Yes, really.”
“Great.”
“Great.”
They grinned at each other for a long moment. A customer broke the stare down and Kelly filled his order.
Vince stood and dropped some money on the counter. She nearly told him not to bother, but that might be sending the wrong message. Like she could be bought.
For two dollars. Damn! She needed to get a grip.
“I have to get going.” Vince jerked his head at the door. “Busy day.”
“Sure.” She made a flapping motion with her hands that she hoped like hell didn’t look as dorky as it felt. “Take care out there.”
Nodding, Vince yanked the door open.
At the same time Gabe walked in and they did an awkward directional tussle in the doorway.
Vince stopped suddenly and turned. “When?”
“When?”
“For our…um…date.” Vince stepped aside and let Gabe walk in.
Shit. She hadn’t thought about that. “Friday?”
“Can we make it Saturday night?” Vince made a face. “I have the kids on Friday.”
She could totally do that. “Saturday night it is.”
“Seven?”
“Seven.” She nodded, almost putting her neck out in her enthusiasm.
Vince grinned back. “I’ll pick you up and take care of the rest.”
Another thing she hadn’t given much thought to. She now had far more empathy for men everywhere.
The bell above the door tinkled on Vince’s exit.
Gabe raised an eyebrow at her. “Hot date?”
It gave her great delight to confirm his assumption. “Hot date.” And she’d screwed up all the details. “How the hell do guys do this all the time?”
*
Gabe schooled his features as he took a seat at the counter.
In jeans that hugged her dangerous curves and a tight pink sweater that made him want to rub against her like a cat, Kelly looked one hundred percent fuckable this morning. “So, you took my advice and did the asking?”
“I did.” She blushed as she nodded and looked so adorable in the process he wanted to…
Back that truck up. Kelly liked Vince, and Vince liked Kelly. Ergo, Kelly and Vince would go out on Saturday night, at seven—because now he had the details in his head to drive him crazy—and they would start where they left off in high school. If memory served, that was a long way down the road to happily ever after. Next time, he should think things through before he tossed advice at people.
Kelly leaned her elbows on the counter and tipped her pretty face toward him. “I asked a man out on a date. I am now a fully actualized, bad ass bitch in charge of her own orgasm.”
“You’re a praying mantis.”
She scrunched her face up at him, which he also found cute AF. “Did you call me a bug?”
“I called you the bad ass bitch bug of the bug kingdom.” He needed to keep it light before he started pounding his chest like a silverback or pissing up her leg to mark his territory. Because she was not his. Not his territory. Not his anything other than his friend.
“Aren’t they the bugs that rip their man’s head off and eat if after mating?” She put a mug of coffee in front of him.
He liked that she didn’t need to ask to get it right. Of course, she didn’t need to ask. She owned a coffee shop. Of course, she knew what her customers drank. “Yup. Poor dude doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Seems a lot to pay for a roll in the hay.” Her big blues sparkled at him, drawing him into her laughter.
He gave her his best nonchalant shrug. “It depends on the roll in the hay.” He sipped his coffee, meeting her gaze square. She needed to get his meaning loud and clear. “Some females are worth it.”
“Oh.” She blushed and couldn’t meet his eye anymore. “Oh.”
Counting that as a win, he didn’t stay much longer. What had happened between him and Kelly had been mind-blowing and hot as crap, but it was history. The future belonged to Vince and Kelly.
Hands in his pockets, he walked toward home. The weather was turning, growing colder each day. The sharp bite of ice in the air presaged more snow. The weather pundits were warning of a snowy winter. Colorado needed it after the last few dry years.
In Australia, he’d forgotten the joys of a snowy winter. Sure, the ice and the cold sucked, but nothing beat the feeling of lying in bed as the intense silence of a snowy morning blanketed the world. It had been a long time since he’d opened his eyes to a winter wonderland.
Maybe he remembered winter in Twin Elks so fondly because there had been no snow that morning he’d insisted Dad go hiking with him.
Gabe slammed the shutters down on that memory. He’d spent his adulthood not going there, and he was not going to fix what wasn’t broken. Some shit hurt too damn much.
He needed to act, do something to get his head in the right place. All this hanging around, stagnating, didn’t work for him.
Flipping through his contacts, he found the one he wanted and dialed. “Cara.”
“The other veterinarian in town.” She chuckled.
This felt better than dwelling on stuff that couldn’t be changed. “I’m calling to take you up on that game of pool.”
“When?”
He liked that she cut straight to the point. “Saturday night?”
“Meet you at the Elk.”
They hung up, and he continued his walk home feeling better. That was what he had needed. The thing with Kelly was circumstantial. They were both at a crossroads in their lives and had crashed into each other.
Granted the crashing made his nether regions throb, but sex didn’t mean anything. He was a veterinarian for God’s sake. Survival drove the need to procreate.
Ma had left the kitchen door open, so he let himself in and locked the door behind him. Her dog crashed into his knees and lolled his tongue at him.
She really needed to give him a name. He was a great dog, big and untrained, but a great dog nevertheless.
On his way to his bedroom, he passed India’s door. Years before, it had been Ben’s room. Gabe remembered to this day the intense jealousy he’d felt at Ben getting his own room.
A soft noise, like a sob being stifled, stopped him.
The door was ajar, and he backtracked three steps to see if everything was alright.
India sat crying in the middle of cardboard boxes and pieces of wood.
Gabe had never been able to resist a hurt creature, and he pushed the door open. “India?”
“Gabe.” She started and gave her cheeks a hasty swipe. “I thought everyone was out.”
He stepped into the room. A piece of paper lay at his feet, and he picked it up. It was the instructions for assembling a crib. He held it out to India. “Is this for Jacob?”
“Ye-e-s.” Big tears welled in her eyes and crept down her cheeks. “He can’t keep using Poppy’s crib. I bought this one.” She threw her hands out. “Only, I can’t seem to work out how to assemble it.”
Gabe crouched beside her. “Let’s see if two heads are better than one.”
“No, I can’t ask you to do that.” India sucked back a big breath and straightened her shoulders. “You’ve already been so kind to us.”
Picking up piece A, Gabe located piece B and slotted them together. “You didn’t ask. Bolts?”
She handed him one. “I think these are the right ones.”
“Looks like it.” Gabe bolted the pieces together, nudged her over and took a seat beside her. “Now we have to find more pieces that look like those two. We have to do the same thing three times.”
“Three times?” India gaped at him, her blue eyes wide and startled.
India and Kelly had the same eyes. Physically, at least they did. Except, India looked at him as if he could slay a dragon. Kelly’s eyes, on the other hand, yelled that if he took her sword to slay her dragon, she’d nut punch him.
The thought made him laugh as he found the pieces and put the crib together.
“Thank you so much.” India blinked at him.
Sure, a look like that made a man feel like he’d done good, but he much preferred the look that he had to work for. “No worries.”
Chapter Ten
Kelly opened her door that evening and stared at the man standing on her doorstep. “Piers!” Adrenalin prickled through her system. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Don’t slam the door.” He held his elegant, long hands up. From his hundred-dollar haircut to his designer shoes, everything about Piers was neat and elegant. “I only want a chance to talk to you.”
Kelly gripped the door, not sure what to do. Her gut said to slam the door anyway, but she had some questions for the son of a bitch. “Speak fast.”
“Can I come in?
” Piers adjusted the pale blue sweater knotted over his shoulders.
“No.”
He blinked at her and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pressed chinos. “Fair enough. We can talk out here as well.”
“What makes you think I’m interested in hearing anything you have to say?” The preppy exterior was dress up on the bona fide dickhead it concealed. You could slap a dress on a pig, but that didn’t make it a beauty queen. “You have a crap ton of nerve showing up here.”
“I couldn’t get our telephone conversation out of my mind.” Piers grimaced. “We’ve always gotten along, and I thought I could come here. Explain. Clear things up.”
“I’m very clear on things. And as for you and I getting along, that’s over.” She’d bet her last dollar he had those eyebrows done as well. Definitely took his Brooks Brothers ass down to the salon for streaks and a monthly manicure. “After what you did to India, you’re lucky I’m not giving you the same back.” She jabbed her finger in his chest. “You.” Jab. “Took.” Harder jab. “Your fist.” Thump. “To my little sister.”
“Kelly, stop!” He caught her hand in a strong, but not bruising grip. “Please stop. It’s not like that. You don’t understand.”
She yanked her hand from his toxic touch. “There’s not much to understand, you motherfucker. You hit my sister, and then you threatened Jacob.”
“No.” Piers gaped at her. “What? You can’t think I would do that. Any of that. Give me a chance to tell you my side of this.”
“You don’t have a side.” Kelly started closing the door.
Piers caught it. “India hasn’t been herself. We had some trouble finding the right balance to the medication. It made her irrational. She makes up stories.”
“Like she made up those bruises?” Of course, he would say India was lying. “Let the door go.”
“What bruises?” He frowned. “What bruises? Who hurt her? Who the hell hurt her?”
“You did. The bruises are the ones you put on her.” Kelly pushed at his arm to loosen his grip on the door.
“I swear, on my mother’s life, if India has bruises, they didn’t come from me.” He let go of the door and ran his hand through his perfectly cut and styled brown hair. “Jesus! No wonder you don’t want me near her. I thought it was something she had told you, but…” He turned tormented eyes her way. “She has bruises?” Stepping away from the door, he turned and looked at the sky. “God, this is a nightmare.”