Heartburn

by M. C. Cerny

  “We can make out later.” I nipped her neck and pressed her against the wall. Yeah, I was definitely going to fuck her if she let me. “Tell me what else you think about the closet.”

  “It’s dark.” She made a full turn inside the circle of my arms before settling back in against me. Grinding against her, because why not. I was definitely bending her over something when we finished in here.

  “True, but is it dark enough for your work?” Lia had been taking photographs while working for a studio in town so she could use their dark room to develop her private stuff like weddings and baby portraits. I had something in mind here in my house, which I wanted to make into our house if she let go of her independent streak just a little bit. I hated that she kept her apartment with Dinah even with Ryder out of the picture.

  “Umm? Yeah, it would totally work. Just needs a cover for the door so light doesn’t get in around the edges.”

  “Like one of these?” Holding up a door stopper she takes it and moves over kicking it under the door.

  “It would be perfect, but I’d probably want to test it out with some photos I took bumming around.”

  “And the counter, with the sink for rinsing developed photos?” I turn the water on enough to let it run showing her the new plumbing.

  “Ahh very nice. Whit what is all this?” Her angel wing eyebrows arched high in a question and I shrugged. Suddenly, I felt unsure, not of us, but what this next step meant and if we were both ready for it. We had fun, lots of sex, and did everything committed couples did, but the question I had yet to ask her was if she was truly mine one hundred percent. To me, that meant moving her stuff in and doing laundry together and cooking together, making decisions together, but mainly waking up together every single day. Being each other’s half.

  “Whittaker Jones, what are you doing?” She posed the question forcing my hand. I was going to ask her anyway, but it was totally happening, and if I was honest with myself, I felt appropriately queasy.

  “Maybe, I uh, want you to move in and develop photos here.” I shrugged playing it casual. “Like all the time?”

  “Really, huh?” She roped her arms around me resting her hands on my shoulders. I propped her up on the counter. I would definitely like to be developing something in this room that’s for sure. Our bodies were mere shadows in the dim light, but I could see every gentle slope of her face and I cupped her cheeks in my hands.

  “Really.” I rested my forehead on hers.

  “Really, really?” She parroted. Her question was more of an unsure probe and I knew this was huge for us. A dresser drawer spoke volumes, even a key, but I had yet to find her here when I wasn’t, and I wanted that significant difference. I wanted her waiting for me to come home, and I wanted to be the one expecting her to come home here, to me.

  “I like having you here.” I said with all the sincerity I could muster standing flush against my hot girl waiting for the right moment to slip her shirt off and lick her nipples. So I was little deviant in my motivations, but I loved this girl.

  “I can tell, but you want exactly what?” Her fingers found my neck and moved into my hair slowly tugging sending shocks of arousal straight to my dick.

  “I kind of think I want you here more often.” I chuffed. I’m not ready to propose, nowhere near that, but I did build my girlfriend a custom darkroom inside my house, a house that only feels complete when I share it with someone else, specifically her.

  “Every day is a whole lot more often. Can you handle that, Ranger Jones?”

  I pondered the possibility. “I think I could manage, we’ll have to see what develops.” I didn’t have to see her face to know she rolled her eyes in the dark room over my lame pun. “But you’ll have to pay the toll.” We’re playful stripping shirt offs and tossing them to the floor. I nipped the tip of her nose earning me a mousey squeak in the dark.

  “What’s the charge for crossing the bridge?” Her breath hotly whispered against my face and I turned my head so our mouths grazed one another and our words drew on each other’s lips.

  “Kisses, lots of kisses and love. I love you, Amelia.” Hungrily, I took her lips in mine and kissed her deeply tasting mint and something sweet like chocolate. My sweet tooth feeds me with her love, and I planned on spending the rest of our day devouring her piece by piece until we developed into something deeper, joined together.

  Excerpt from Tailwind

  “All right, Precious is here.” Sharon closed the door while I still faced the counter, getting all the needles out for the acupuncture procedure from the cabinets above the sink.

  I heard someone clearing their throat and turned around, expecting old lady Helen and her menagerie. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see a young woman who looked a bit disheveled trying to control the excited dogs.

  Hello, beautiful disaster.

  “Whoa, Roswell! No! Bad dog!”

  A small pug jumped my dress pants, a little too excited to see me. Slim hands with pink nails pulled the little dog back. The Husky wooed loudly, clearly offended by the chaos, and the Basset Hound woofed, his too long nails clicking on the tile floor.

  “It’s all right, I’m used to it.” Nothing like a dog humping my leg to make the day go by.

  “Oh God, I’m really sorry. He’s kind of a little shit. I forgot my aunt keeps refusing to get him fixed.” She held the wiggling pug with an ugly face only Helen could love and a sharp bottom tooth sticking out giving him an even homelier half vampire look.

  “I’m Dr. Calloway.” I held out my hand to introduce myself and instead of her palm she handed me the dog. The little shit Roswell wiggled as I scratched gently behind his ears, earning me a foul smelling lick. I checked his teeth for plaque buildup but found none and put him down to wander around the room.

  “I’m sorry. I’m Helen’s niece and I’m pet-sitting this summer. Clearly, I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  Chuckling, I looked her over appreciatively. I didn’t usually check out the owners of my patients, but Helen had been coming since I opened the vet clinic in town and her niece-name-unknown intrigued me. She looked bowled over, windblown, and covered in dog hair against her black Lululemon yoga pants and tank top my sister Kristen would envy. Perky breasts swelled over the top and the edging of a nude lace bra peeked out. The dogs barked, distracting me from my perusal.

  “Down, Bailey. Sit, Roswell.” Using my firmest tone, the dogs all sat on the floor, complacent tails wagging.

  “Oh wow, that is the best trick ever. They never do that for me.” Nameless girl put her hands on her hips, looking annoyed, and I was guessing the dogs had been giving her a run for her money, making her earn every penny of pet-sitting pay. She was exotic looking with tiny curves that packed a gut punch with her dark hair and almond-shaped eyes over a pert nose. I wondered if she was part Asian, but it didn’t compute in my brain the way chocolate shouldn’t have wasabi on it. This one was different and intrigued me in a way I hadn’t been since dating Shweta in veterinary school.

  “So…does Helen’s niece have a name or are you Precious?” I watched her skin blush with my inappropriate joke, and she shook her head no. I could kick myself for the incredibly lame and forward question after it left my mouth.

  “Definitely not. Pumpkin here, aka Precious, is getting acupuncture, which is not my thing.” The Basset Hound, upon hearing his name, woofed loudly.

  “So what may I call you then?”

  “My name is Winnie.”

  She was definitely not a Winnie from The Wonder Years. Pretty in a refined sort of way. Expensive clothes, accessories, and a haughtiness that came with her snappy attitude reminded me of a city girl out of her element. It was a contradiction to the vortex of chaos she arrived with, and I found that curiously endearing.

  “All right then, Winnie, let’s get this big guy some relief for his achy joints.” I pulled out some alcohol swabs and lowered the table to the floor to help the big dog who would definitely be getting a dietary recommen
dation from me later onto the table. “Hold his head and the table will lift him. Do you know if he’s generally nervous? Our regular acupuncturist is out, but I’m trained and certified.”

  “Oh uh, I have no idea.”

  The other dogs stayed sitting, and Pumpkin groaned as the table lifted him up to my reach.

  “Keep his head near you and rub behind his ears. That usually calms them and the needle is small so they don’t feel pain, more like a pinch as the pain receptors start working to relieve the joint and muscle pain.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Prepping what I needed, I glanced up to see Winnie looking decidedly green. This wasn’t good. I’d never had someone faint, but I’d heard stories about it. Her eyes focused on my hands holding the needle.

  “Winnie?” I stepped toward her, but she didn’t move, not even a blink.

  “Y-yes?” Her throat worked down a swallow, and I had to keep her talking and alert.

  “Winnie, look at me. I’m Dr. Calloway.”

  Her eyes remained focused on my hands, not my face as I had hoped.

  “No, you’re looking at the needle.” I snapped my fingers, causing her eyes to blink and look at me. “You can call me Chase, but look at me.” I put the acupuncture needle down, trying to gauge her level of faint readiness.

  “Are you afraid of needles? It’s okay if you are.” I was worried I had a fainter on my hands and my hands were already full of dog, keeping Pumpkin who wanted to roll off on the table.

  Her face scrunched with a sarcastic response. “No.” Her head shook. “That’s ridiculous.”

  I didn’t believe the weak refusal when she kept talking.

  “Um, that’s a really big needle and you’re going to stick that where?”

  My mind wandered a second before coming back realizing her eyelashes were fluttering dangerously close together.

  “It usually is pretty big.” I slid the first needle in, and Precious blew out a shuddering breath. “Are you all right?” I was trying to not think about inappropriate things, but Winnie was swaying against the table and now was not the time for my dick and my brain to cross signals at work. Making sure she didn’t pass out was a priority to any flirtation I might be entertaining.

  “Okay, yeah, I’m good.”

  I doubted it, because her voice had gone up a note or two.

  “Hey, did the lights go dim in here?” Winnie wobbled, and I reached for her, catching her in my arms before she fell.

  “You’re fainting, Winnie.”

  She mumbled something, but I was too late to warn her, and she was out cold before she finished whatever it was she wanted to say. I rested my cheek against hers, feeling the soft clammy skin that smelled of coffee and expensive shampoo. Yeah, she definitely didn’t like needles. I carried her over to a chair and sat her down, calling for Sharon. This looked all kinds of bad with whimpering dogs and an unconscious girl snuggled against my coat.

  The dogs started barking again when the door opened, and Sharon gasped. “What’s going on?”

  “Can you take these guys to the boarding area while I get Winnie revived?”

  “Is she all right?” Sharon tried to take her pulse from her wrist, but I moved Winnie in my arms, keeping her firmly in my grasp.

  “She’s fine. Just a little woozy from the needles, I’m guessing. There’s always one.” Awkwardly, I laughed, and Sharon took the leashes, leaving me with a passed out pet-sitter and one stinky hound dog thumping his tail happily on the table.

  Looking over, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me she was a fainter, Pumpkin?”

  The dog didn’t respond except to let out a massive dog fart on the table.

  Chase Calloway’s career ending football injury gave him the out he needed.

  * * *

  Switching gears from being the star quarterback with a shot at the NFL to checking anal glands of furry senior patients wasn’t exactly the plan. However, it gave him the purrfect excuse to stop pursuing dreams that were never his.

  * * *

  Winnie Grey got exiled from her posh existence to the boondocks as pet-sitter extraordinaire.

  * * *

  It wasn’t her fault she stopped a shoplifter by pulling the fire alarm and got fired from her job. She can’t help that dog acupuncture makes her faint, but lucky for the city girl in exile, the town’s hottest veterinarian catches her, literally.

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  Books by M.C. Cerny

  DESIGNED BY LOVES SERIES

  First Love - Prequel

  Love Under Construction

  Unlovely Things

  Heartburn

  Tailwind

  Love Actually

  Mission For Love

  Mine To Keep

  Love On Tap

  * * *

  GOLD BEACH DUET

  Summer Ever After

  Remains of Winter

  * * *

  THE MATCHMAKER SERIES

  Under The Mistletoe

  The Naughty List

  Own The Night

  The Matchmakers - Boxset

  * * *

  THE CLUB

  An Eye For An Eye

  Branded

  Blinded Love - Boxset

  * * *

  RESCUED BY LOVE

  Rescue Me

  WTF

  * * *

  THE VAULT (Dockside Devils)

  Declan’s Demand

  Sydney’s Submission

  LeHavre’s Lover

  * * *

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  Deviation

  Night Owl

  Dream Catcher

  The Warden

  Angel

  Mr. Huntley’s Wife

  Hollywood Lover

  Royal Disaster

  Stolen September

  Secret Obsession

  Wedding In Waiting

  * * *

  NEWSLETTER EXCLUSIVE

  Officer Big Daddy

  FOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF M.C. CERNY BOOKS, VISIT:

  www.authormccerny.com

  About the Author

  M.C. Cerny is a USA Today Bestselling author of fresh and sexy books. She fell in love with books after experiencing her first real ugly cry reading, Where The Red Fern Grows. Her debut romantic suspense novel, Flashpoint was written in a series of post-it-note ramblings that would likely make her idol Tom Clancy and her mother blush. She calls rural NJ home with her menagerie of human and feline fur-babies. When M.C. is not writing, you’ll find her lurking in Starbucks, running stupid marathons, singing Disney show tunes, and searching out the perfect shade of pink nail polish.

  www.authormccerny.com

  Acknowledgments

  Heartburn is for the girls who ever had a crush on that guy and never felt worthy enough. You are so worthy and tons better. Don’t wait around to be noticed, go out and do you, do you in a bold way and never apologize for who you are. If a partner can’t take you at your worst, they sure as heck don’t deserve you at your best. Life is full of ups and downs, and no person designates your worth, only you have the power to do so.

  * * *

  Okay, now that the pep talk is out of the way… *wink*

  * * *

  This book originally appeared in the MOUTH Anthology under the original title, Twenty, as a ten thousand word novella. My deepest gratitude for the ladies who let me tag along and write about a girl lost in the woods with a hot guy. I promise no B rated horror flicks were used in the plotting of this book. Those early pages have since demanded more and here you have the complete story in Heartburn. These New Paltz kids have taken over the Love By Design series, and I have like zero say in what happens.

  * * *

  Emily Lawrence–editor extraordinaire. You all worked diligently behind the scenes and without you–I couldn’t put this book front and cen
ter.

  * * *

  To the ladies who gave me tits on a bull: Emily, Jennifer, Brandy, Michele, Lisa, and Jodi… it was a group effort! Love you to the moon and back! xoxo My personal assistant, Angie, and special thanks to my reader group–you are undeniably FRESH and SEXY!

  * * *

  My cover whores. Yes, you ladies who picked and prodded over photos and fonts. You created this cover! Whit and Lia couldn’t have had a better group of ladies judging them.

  * * *

  And to the Mr. for answering my research questions day or night. When are we going to the range?

  XOXO

  m.c. cerny

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locals is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or use of this work in any part is forbidden without the express written permission of the author.

  Heartburn © 2016-2019 by M.C. Cerny

  Edited by Emily A. Lawrence

  Cover Design by Q Designs