Best Served Cold

by Emma Hart

  “Is there anything in here to clean up with?”

  “Turn the light on. There should be some tissue in here. It’s where I keep the toilet paper.”

  “Lovely. Remind me never to fuck you in a cleaning closet again.”

  “I didn’t find it that bad.” I patted the wall until I found the switch and flicked it on.

  Chase swung his arm over his eyes. “Fucking hell, that’s bright. Couldn’t you have just opened the door?”

  I hit him with a dark look, wincing in the sudden brightness. “It’s taking all my willpower to stand up right now, thank you very much.”

  He dropped his arm and grinned like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery.

  In fact, he probably had. The sexual one.

  “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me in a long time.” His grin was lopsided.

  “Whatever. Pass me that tissue. I have semen dripping down my leg.”

  That made him stop grinning. “You’re so sexy I can hardly stand it.”

  I laughed, clenching my legs together. “Okay, but seriously! Gravity is a thing, even in vaginas! Move!”

  He snatched the tissue from the small shelving unit faster than I’d ever seen him move. He even ripped open the packaging and passed me an entire roll.

  Thank God.

  I wasn’t lying.

  I could feel it dripping.

  It felt like recklessness and, well, semen. Which didn’t feel all that great, in fairness.

  I tore off tissue and wadded it up to clean up as Chase reached for another roll of tissue for himself. It was gross, and I had nowhere to store the tissue that I’d already used.

  Seriously. This was why public sex wasn’t all that great. It was messier than normal. Not that my cleaning closet was public, but it was public enough.

  “Rae? Where are you?”

  Both of us froze at the sound of Sophie’s voice.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  Chase paused, hand wrapped around his dick with tissue.

  “Clean up and put that thing away before you take out someone’s eye,” I hissed, I quickly wiped and threw the roll at him. It bounced off his chest onto the floor, and with a quick adjustment of my panties, I darted out of the closet and through the store where Sophie was standing with her phone in her hand.

  “Hey. What’s up?” I wiped my hands down my dress to make sure it wasn’t tucked into my panties or something.

  “Oh my God! Where were—” She froze mid-spin as her eyes land on me. “What the hell have you been doing?”

  Panic. Abort mission. Run away. “What do you mean?”

  Soph frowned. “Your hair is a mess, and you have—” She gasped. “You had sex!”

  I didn’t know what to do, so I stood there, eyes wide, totally frozen. “Um.”

  “Hey, Soph. What’s up?” Chase strolled into the room like he hadn’t just had his hand around his cock sixty seconds ago.

  I bit the inside of my cheek.

  Soph’s mouth dropped open, and she made some incoherent noises as she pointed between us both.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Chase nudged me.

  “I think,” I said, watching my mute best friend. “I think she knows we just had sex.”

  “You had sex!” she yelled, still pointing.

  “Say it a little louder,” I drawled. “Not everybody heard you.”

  She clapped her hands over her mouth and stared at us both. She said something, but it was muffled.

  Chase walked over to the fridge and pulled out water. “You need some water over there, Soph? Maybe a shot?”

  She took the water he held out and took a long drink before speaking again. “You—what does this mean? Are you back together?”

  “It means I’ll never recommend sex in a cleaning closet.” I uncapped the water Chase handed to me. “I think I have a lump on the top of my head from that shelf.”

  “Rae! You know what I mean!”

  I sighed and sipped the water.

  “No,” Chase said so I didn’t have to. “It doesn’t mean we’re back together.”

  That seemed to shake her out of whatever haze she’d been in because she snorted and quirked an eyebrow. “Please. You’re in love with her, and she’s obviously in love with you. Not to mention you just banged in a cleaning closet. You’re back together, no matter how much you deny it.”

  I wasn’t going to have this conversation with someone else involved. “Did you come for a reason?”

  “Did you?” A wicked glint flashed in her eyes.

  “What?”

  “I came for a reason. Did you?”

  Chase laughed, and it hit me what she meant.

  I flipped her the bird. “What did you want?”

  “I have no idea, but now I want you to call me later and tell me about this little tryst.” She wriggled her fingers, grinning and backed toward the door. “I’ll leave you to whatever it is you’re going to do now.”

  She left as quickly as she’d arrived, but not without shooting more than one awkward wink over her shoulder in our direction.

  The door shut behind her, and I shoved the bottle at Chase. I stalked to the door and locked it just in case she decided to come back.

  Chase laughed, putting the bottles on the counter and leaning forward, resting his hands flat on it. “She’s discreet, isn’t she?”

  I grunted and grabbed my water. “She’s something.”

  “Are you going to call her?”

  “No. I’m going to be inexplicably busy washing my hair or something.”

  He grinned. “I can help with that.”

  “Seriously? Already? My legs are only just normal again.”

  He pulled me into him, still grinning. “Already. And I swear not to bang your head against the shelf this time.”

  I huffed. “That hurt.”

  “Not enough for you to stop.”

  Flattening my hands on his chest, I looked up at him. “What do you want me to do? Push you away and not have sex when we were already doing it? I think not.”

  What did he think I was? Stupid? No. If you’re as far as we got, you don’t stop because you bumped your head.

  I mean, you usually did that on a headboard anyway.

  He shook his head. “Come to my place. We’ll have dinner. We’ll hang out like we used to.”

  “Chase, that means we’ll eat McDonald's in our underwear, watch trashy TV, and have sex.”

  “Yeah? What’s the problem with that? Sounds like a good night, if you ask me.”

  My lips twisted to the side. “Fine, but you’re going to get the food.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Molly Walker still works there and she always gives you extra fries.”

  “Are you pimping me out for fries?”

  “I’d pimp you out for a cheeseburger if I could.” I grinned and escaped his hold. “Let’s get the lights up. Get to work.” I reached around and slapped his ass.

  He laughed, grabbing my hand before I could escape. He spun me into him and pressed a quick but firm kiss to my lips. “Okay. Let’s do the lights. Also, your hair looks like a squirrel is nesting in it.”

  I reached up to pat it down. “You could have told me that before I came out here.”

  He walked backward with a grin. “I know.”

  Then he stumbled over the drill and fell onto the window seat.

  I laughed.

  Hard.

  “You could have told me that was there,” he grumbled, getting back up.

  I twirled some hair around my finger, smiling slightly. “I know.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR – RAELYNN

  “Okay, but in what circumstance would otters come to rule the world?” I flicked my hair over my shoulder and met Chase’s blue-green eyes. “That’s like saying koalas can run a country or sloths could win a sprint at the Olympics.”

  “Otters are smart. I watched this program on the Discovery Channel about them.”

 
; “Since when did you watch nature documentaries?”

  Chase shrugged one shoulder, crossing his arms behind his head. “Sometimes you get drawn in. But they’re smart. They pick a rock that becomes their favorite rock—”

  “You’re not convincing me of their intelligence with that sentence.”

  “Hush. Let me finish.”

  I didn’t see how a creature picking a rock to be their favorite forever made them intelligent.

  “So they pick this rock, and they use it as both a toy and a tool. They use it to break open shellfish.” He quirked a brow. “And they have huge pockets under their arms that they use to store the rock and their food. Plus, they hold hands while they sleep so they don’t get lost.”

  I blinked at him. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you speak about anything as passionately as you just did about otters. What on Earth makes you retain that information?”

  “You never know when you’ll need random information.”

  “I make ice cream. I don’t think I need any random info, but if I do, I now have otter information to keep.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re so weird.”

  He grinned, rolling onto his side and tugging at my hair. “I am. But you’re the person who’s had sex with me twice today, so what does that say about you?”

  “It says I have questionable judgment, especially since I didn’t get extra fries.”

  “You ate half of mine.” He tapped me on the nose.

  I batted his hand away and rubbed my nose. “I was hungry. We worked hard this afternoon.”

  “You mean I worked hard. I put up about fifteen of those damn fiddly as fuck lights, then I had to fix my sister’s meltdown because she ran out of vanilla ice cream.”

  “And then I made you six tubs of that which is currently in my freezer ready for tomorrow.” I prodded him. “That’s a lot of work. It wasn’t like I sat around on the floor reading a book or anything.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t make my own ice cream.”

  I blinked at him. “You don’t make your own ice cream?”

  Chase shook his head. “I tried once, and it went awfully, so I just make the cones and sundaes. I buy the ice cream in.”

  “You’re swearing at me now. You don’t make your ice cream?”

  “No. I can’t make it. I just said that. It doesn’t come out right. I don’t know how you do it.”

  “I literally showed you how to do it. It’s not exactly astrophysics.”

  He shrugged. “I can’t do it. Don’t ask me why, I just can’t.”

  I shook my head and rolled onto my side, propping my head up on my hand. “I can’t believe that. You’re not even serving real ice cream. First the coffee machine, then the milkshakes, and now this. You, sir, are a mockery to the world of ice cream.”

  He laughed, reaching over and pushing my messy hair away from my face. “I’m sure I am, babe, but hey, my plan worked, didn’t it?”

  I stared at him. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, because technically speaking, he was right. It had. It’d taken a hell of a lot longer than he thought it would, but I was lying next to him in bed, naked, with my hair all mussed and my makeup smudged.

  “But it very almost didn’t,” I reminded him. “In fact, I was against this whole thing.”

  “Yeah, you sounded so fucking against it earlier when you were moaning in my ear.”

  I pushed at his chest. “Shut up. That’s not the point. I still maintain that I was against re-starting this relationship, but you kept on at me like a bad case of thrush and wore me down.”

  “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever been called in my life.” He removed his hands from behind his head and pulled me over on top of his.

  I rested my arms on his chest and gazed up at him. His arms wrapped around my body, his fingers linking at the base of my back. A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his lips, and his eyes were bright and shone back at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Just…you.”

  “That explains it.”

  He laughed softly, tightening his grip on me for a second. “That’s all there is to it. I didn’t think I’d ever look down at you again like this.”

  “Neither did I.” I smiled back and shifted so I was tucked into his side instead. The stubble on his jaw tickled against my forehead.

  “Remember how we used to do this? Just lie down and talk about random shit all the time?” Chase trailed circles on my bare hip with his finger.

  “You mean like otters and how they pick their favorite rocks?”

  “Mmm. Just like that.” He paused. “If I were an otter, I’d give you my rock.”

  “That is weirdly sweet, and I don’t know how to thank someone for that.”

  He laughed, his whole body shaking. “Did you know that lobsters don’t actually mate for life?”

  “They don’t?” I jerked up and looked down at him.

  He shook his head. “Male lobsters are sluts.”

  “My whole life is a lie. No wonder Ross and Rachel were a hot fucking mess.”

  “Penguins mate for life.”

  “Is this the random shit we’re going to talk about today?”

  He nodded. “I actually think otters mate for life, too.”

  “Holy crap, you really like otters.”

  His laugh was deep but loud. “See? Random information.”

  “For a random conversation.”

  “Exactly. That’s why I retain stupid info. For that and quiz shows.”

  “When have you ever been on a quiz show?”

  “Never.” He chuckled. “But it’s fun to beat my family at them when we watch. And your grandpa. It really pisses him off when I beat his ass.”

  I sighed. I knew that much was true. Grandpa hated to lose during quiz shows.

  “I still can’t believe you were friends the whole time.” I leaned my head back and looked up at him. “And I never knew.”

  He shrugged the shoulder I wasn’t lying on. “We both enjoy the same things. Woodworking is fun. I guess it makes me feel as peaceful as you feel when you make ice cream.”

  “That’s not always peaceful. It can be stressful. Like when I have to make six tubs of vanilla for someone who orders his ice cream in, and he didn’t even pay me.”

  “I bought you dinner.”

  “But you didn’t flirt your way to extra fries. So you still owe me.”

  He shifted and looked at me. “Let me get this straight. You’re lying in bed next to me, totally fucking naked, and complaining that I didn’t flirt with another woman to get you extra fries?”

  I blinked. “Yes. Also, six tubs of ice cream. That totally means you should flirt for fries.”

  “That sounds like the working title of one of those stupid girly movies you watch.”

  “What, flirt for fries?”

  “Yep.”

  “They’re called rom-coms, and I would be all over watching that one.”

  “I’m stuck on the part where you want me to flirt with another woman.”

  Sighing, I rolled onto my stomach and met his eyes. “There are three kinds of flirting. One,” I said, holding up my finger. “The casual flirt. You’re just being nice to someone, but if you’re kind of a flirty person, it’s not so bad.”

  “Right,” Chase said slowly.

  “Two, the deliberate flirt.” I held up another finger. “This is when you walk into a bar and deliberately flirt with someone you’re attracted to. This is not okay.”

  “Obviously.”

  I added another finger. “The third one is the kind of flirting where you exploit someone’s attraction to you to get what you want. Totally acceptable, especially if you’re trying to get something for your girlfriend.”

  “I have two questions.”

  I swallowed. “Yes?”

  “Is this like when women flirt with guys in a bar to get free drinks?”

  “Yes. Ten points to Gryffindor.”

  “I’m a Slytherin.” />
  “Then ten points to Gryffindor and ten from Slytherin.” I grinned. “What was your second question?”

  “Did you just call yourself my girlfriend?”

  My mouth opened and closed a couple of times before a weird squeak escaped my lips.

  Chase burst out laughing, wrapping me totally in his arms and pressing me against his body. I grumbled something, but he was laughing so hard at me that it didn’t matter.

  Also because my face was smooshed against his chest so even if he weren’t laughing, I doubted that he’d be able to hear me anyway.

  “You look like I just told you I ran over your kitten,” he laughed into my hair. “Relax, Rae. You don’t need to answer.”

  “I don’t?”

  “No. We both know you are.” He kissed me quickly and bolted, sending me rolling across the bed with an ‘oomph.’

  “Wait, what?” I scrambled up, grabbing the sheet to wrap around me as I chased him. “Chase!”

  He darted out from behind the wall and pulled me into his body, wrapping his arms around me from behind. His arms had mine held in place so I couldn’t wrestle my way out of his grip.

  “What?” he murmured, kissing the side of my neck.

  “We don’t both know I am!”

  “Do I need to drag you back into that bedroom and fuck you again to prove you wrong?”

  I stilled. “You can’t possibly go again.”

  “I bet I could.”

  Yeah, well, I couldn’t. Vaginas weren’t meant for constant pounding, no matter what porn told you.

  “I’m not your girlfriend.” I wriggled against him.

  “Rae…”

  “Fine. Maybe I’m a little bit your girlfriend.”

  He laughed, spinning me in his arms and looking down at me. I was still locked in place against him because he was unfairly freaking strong.

  His lips twitched to one side. “You’re my penguin.”

  I hated the way my heart beat against my chest at that. “Yeah, well, you’re a dork.”

  “I’m your dork.” He wiggled his eyebrows and released me. “You want Pop Tarts?”

  “What?” I frowned. Talk about an abrupt topic change.

  Chase pulled the box down. “Strawberry Pop Tarts. Your favorite. Do you want one?”