by Jess Bentley
“Psssht,” is my clever response.
“And just because you’re all…” She holds her hands in the air gesturing in a way that I think refers to me, what I look like or something. “You know, ladies’ man and everything… All muscles and whatever… In this frickin’ mansion you built with your own two hands… Don’t go nuts.”
I stop what I’m doing and smile. “You like my muscles?”
She presses her lips together and flares her nostrils, blushing instantly.
Oh my God, this is going to be so hard.
I mean difficult! It’s going to be difficult!
I’m going to have to stop saying the word “hard” ever again.
“Well… they are muscles,” she mutters, her eyes sliding diagonally away. “How can you argue with that?”
“Actually, this induction stove top boils water really fast. Do you mind if we eat right away?” I ask, changing the subject gracelessly.
But when her eyes lift to meet mine again, there is that damn connection. It’s like a highway. It’s that broad, that clear.
Grateful to have a task to distract me, I just start sautéing everything that’s on the plate. The noodles are almost done when I throw some red pepper and garlic into the pan, topping it with some white wine to make a sauce. A couple tablespoons of butter and we are ready to go.
“Can I help or something?” she asks meekly.
As I plate the pasta for three of us, I just shake my head. “Did you wait until I was done to ask that?”
“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt your concentration.”
“A-ha. Do you want to call Ethan for dinner?”
As soon as she trots across the living room toward the game room, I scold myself yet again.
This is too easy, I remind myself. Teasing each other, calling the kid for dinner… Don’t get used to it. Don’t get twisted.
Ethan is distracted and antsy when he sits down, hunching over the plate of pasta and eating with gusto.
“I think he wants to get back to the game.” Penny apologizes on his behalf.
Ethan looks up, blinking as though just waking up. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles. “This is really good, Mr. Corwin. Thanks a lot.”
“You’re totally welcome. Call me Clay, okay?”
I don’t know why I want to laugh, but I do. I’m not going to do it, because I don’t know what she would think if I did, but something in me just wants to laugh. Just let it out.
Penny keeps her eyes on Ethan while he eats, the corner of her mouth twisted in amusement. She looks at him with such unvarnished affection.
In record time, his plate is completely clean. He looks up expectantly.
“Yeah, go. Finish your game,” Penny chuckles. “Rinse your plate and put it in the sink, please.”
Ethan takes his plate and rushes to the kitchen, zipping through the chore at lightning speed. Just like that, he is gone again.
“Great manners on that kid,” I observe.
She grins proudly. “Thank you for noticing!”
We continue to eat in silence for a while. She keeps her eyes on her plate, sighing happily from time to time. I try not to watch the motion in her throat when she swallows.
Finally, when we’re done, we get the dishes in the dishwasher, moving next to each other as though we’ve done it a hundred times. We easily get the chore done in moments.
“Okay, so, when you designed this place,” she asks as we climb the slightly curving staircase to the bedrooms, “did you design it for a hundred people to live here? Or were you just unwilling to let go of any of your design ideas?”
“I designed it for all the roommates I was going to have, obviously,” I answer back, pushing open a door I’ve hardly ever opened so she can step inside. “It’s not my fault it took you fifteen years to get here.”
As soon as she walks in the room, I get the reaction I was hoping for. Her mouth opens as she looks around with delight. She notices the bamboo flooring, the double-plaster walls. She knows her stuff. She gets it.
“Okay, check out the bathroom.”
Making an exaggerated scared face, she tiptoes over to the private bathroom and pushes open the door, then squeals with delight.
“Is that a steam shower? Seriously?”
“All the nozzles money can buy,” I answer wryly.
Darting back into the bedroom, she swings around the perimeter, checking out each of the furniture pieces that I selected.
“Did you have these built?”
“There was a factory built in the 1800s, so it was basically like a solid maple monument. When we took down part of it, I reclaimed these amazing eighteen-inch wide pillars, and had some craftspeople build these pieces. You like them?”
“Are you kidding me? I love them! I dream about getting to put together stuff like this!”
“What’s stopping you?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“Oh, the usual,” she answers with a modest shrug. “About a million dollars. I will get there one day.”
“I know you will.”
She smiles thinly, turning toward me and taking a deep breath, pausing for a long time. Those almond eyes, how they stare right into the middle of me. I’m helpless when she looks at me like that. Whatever she wants to know, I want to tell her.
“I really can’t thank you enough,” she says in a low murmur as she takes a few slow steps toward me. I watch her bare toes trace lines in the carpet.
“Penny, it’s good to have you here,” I answer honestly, realizing how direct I’m being. Usually I would act with a little bit more forethought, but with her all I can be is honest.
My pulse begins to race as she nears me, wondering how close she’s planning on getting. The closer she gets, the harder it will be to pull away.
Chapter 14
Penny
Dragging my toes on the silky carpet, I feel alive, buzzing with excitement. This has all just been so utterly perfect. Everything else in my life has been such a ridiculous amount of struggle. Sometimes I ask myself, what if I just stopped struggling? What if I just followed where nature led me?
Well, I’m going to do it now.
My hands slide first over his chest, so broad and firm now, thick with muscles. His shoulders fit against the hollows of my palms perfectly, encouraging me to explore further.
When I glance back up into his eyes, I can almost see what he is thinking. This is good. This is so good.
Pushing up onto my toes, I slide my hands behind his neck just as his mouth covers mine. His lips are firm and confident, gently sucking against my mouth, his hands pushing up against the back of my head.
Before I know what’s happening, he’s lifted me off my feet, carrying me across the room to the bed. My fingers twist against the button fly of his trousers. I slide them over his hips as we both tumble over each other to the center of the mattress.
His scent fills my sinuses, overwhelming me with memories. It’s like this younger version of him has been waiting inside a secret room in my mind all this time, eager to be released. Now here he is, only better. Thicker, stronger. Overwhelmingly sexy as he kisses a line from the corner of my mouth down over my breasts, swirling his tongue across my nipples, kneading my curves in his hands.
It’s intoxicating.
His mouth trails down over my body, kissing and nibbling and teasing me. Squirming, I weave my hands through his hair as his tongue swipes my pussy as he kisses one thigh and then the others. His hands slide under my body and knead my ass cheeks as he circles, getting closer and closer to my clit. My hips strain upward to meet his mouth, and he plunges his tongue between my folds, making me writhe. I hear myself panting. It’s been so long since I wanted this, since I trusted anyone so much to let this happen, and now it’s overwhelming in the best of ways.
But I want more. I want him inside me.
Luckily, he senses this, and when he surfaces he gives me a sexy, crooked smile before he leans to one side. I love the feeling of his fingers ag
ainst the backs of my knees as he then opens my legs, positioning himself between them. He slides a hand behind my lower back and lifts my hips off the mattress to enter me smoothly, hilting himself in one swift motion. Rocking against him, I cross my ankles behind his firm thighs and pull, wanting to have him all inside me, wanting to be obliterated under his weight. Just for a moment, to be blown away, consumed.
We smash together, grunting shamelessly, tasting and testing every part we can reach. It’s as if we are young again, but with these different bodies. Our tempo increases, perfectly synced, until we finally climax. He explodes with his cock so deep inside me I can feel my pussy clasping all along his length. He grunts and stiffens, waiting for me to finish before pulling out and cumming on my belly.
With a sigh, he lets his weight fall against me, pressing me deep into the mattress. Though I can barely breathe, I don’t want to move. All I can hear is his heartbeat, his breath, obliterating anything else in the world.
For a little while we lie there, wordlessly enjoying the afterglow. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls, burying his nose in my hair.
“I hate to say it,” I start awkwardly, “but I really need to check on Ethan. I mean… Sorry to let reality come crashing in.”
He pulls back to look at me with a happy smile.
“Of course you do,” he smiles. “I bet he is still absorbed in his game and didn’t even miss us.”
He kisses me lightly, breathing softly against my cheeks before I slide from the bed and duck into the bathroom to clean up a little bit.
Just like Clay thought, Ethan is still immersed in his game. I sit on the sofa behind him, pushing his hair to one side and then the other, like I used to do when he was a baby.
“It’s bedtime, don’t you think?” I suggest. “I don’t think you even checked out your bedroom. All your stuff is in there already.”
“Yeah… okay,” he agrees with just a little bit of attitude.
But I am no fool. I stick around and watch him demolish a few more cars before he powers down the game and stands up, stretching his arms over his head. It’s so strange to see him from this angle, when I’m sitting and he is standing. Soon he’ll be an adult. A grown man, even. I still marvel at the fact that I made a person, somebody I am 100 percent responsible for.
“If you need something, I’m just upstairs,” I advise him.
“Aw, Mom, I’m fine,” he rolls his eyes. “You don’t have to worry all the time. Everything is fine.”
I leave his door open an inch after he shuffles into his new room, just out of habit. Suddenly exhausted, I return to my own room, half surprised to find it empty. I guess that makes sense. Clay has a room of his own. It is his house, after all.
Still, as I settle back into the sheets that are slightly aromatic with sweat or lust, I feel something good. Some kind of tight tickle in the middle of my body.
It’s hope. I almost want to laugh out loud when I realize what it is, to take care of the last time I actually had a feeling that I could identify as “hope.”
Maybe everything will be all right, after all.
Chapter 15
Clay
I couldn’t decide between French toast and frittata, so I just decided to make both. From what I remember, Penny will eat just about anything. I hope that Ethan is the same way, but even if he isn’t, I am sure I can whip something up.
As I beat a bowlful of eggs with some cream, I find myself whistling over the sound of the crackling bacon. It’s a lot of food. Way too much, but hopefully it won’t all go to waste.
I feel her watching me from the top of the stairs for a few seconds and don’t respond, giving her time to adjust. She pads down the stairs in her bare feet and out of the corner of my eye I watch her glide over the slate tile floor.
“Good morning,” she murmurs sweetly, settling into a chair on the opposite side of the kitchen island. I let myself steal a glance at her, happy to see that she’s smiling.
I am pretty sure that I am smiling too.
“Good morning. There’s coffee if you want it.”
She sighs with gratitude. The sound reminds me of her moans last night and shivers race down my torso.
“Wow, this is fantastic.” She smiles as she pours herself a healthy cup, topping it off with whipping cream.
“If you have any requests, I usually keep a list on my cell phone. Just shoot me a text and I’ll pick up whatever you need.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Requests? Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I shrug as I pour the egg mixture into the hot pan where potatoes have already sautéed and cover it with the lid. “Berries, snacks, beverages. Whatever you are used to.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she muses. “I guess I just eat the same stuff I always have.”
“So, Cheetos and Ramen?” I quip.
She points a finger at me and squints. “Ah, there it is. I knew you couldn’t just be all sweetness and gourmet cooking.”
Flipping the French toast with the spatula, I suppress a smirk. “And rocky road ice cream. Can’t forget about that.”
“Yeah, actually, we will need some of that,” she admits.
Silence falls between us, and I stubbornly try to ignore it. This doesn’t have to be awkward, I tell myself. Not at all. Everything is pretty smooth sailing for us. It’s just like riding a bike.
“So… about our pact,” she starts awkwardly.
Something in her voice makes me freeze as I open the oven door to let the frittata finish. I turn and catch her eye. She is really staring at me, hard, the smile gone from her face. I see her swallow nervously.
“I mean, I just thought I would go ahead and put it out there,” she continues in a rush.
I can see she’s uncertain, maybe even upset.
“Sorry, what are we talking about?” I ask, keeping my voice even.
Apparently, that was exactly the wrong thing to say. Her eyes widen dramatically and her fingers grip the countertop.
“Our pact?” she says again hoarsely.
I shake my head helplessly, trying out a friendly smile. “Um, you’re going to have to help me out here, Pen. What pact? Do you mean a bet or something?”
She pushes herself back from the kitchen island and begins pacing back and forth, the soles of her feet slapping softly against the slate. I begin to feel like I have done something horribly, horribly wrong.
“Pen? What is going on?”
She mutters to herself for a few seconds before turning to face me with a stony expression, the lines of her jaw suddenly squared off and hard.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” she replies tersely.
“It kind of seems like it really does matter," I reply cautiously.
“No! It doesn’t!” she blurts out. “Because I was going to let you off the hook anyway. So this is better, right? That you don’t even remember? I mean, how perfect is that?!”
I remember back to that moment last night where she was all open and sincere, how that is the perfect Penny moment. This would be the opposite moment: angry Penny is pretty terrible.
“I don’t remember our pact,” I say softly, trying out the words to see if anything floats to the surface of my memory.
“Of course you don’t!” she continues, her voice rising. “Because now you’re a ladies’ man! Now you’re the Beaumont bachelor! Why would you remember a stupid thing like that? We were just kids!”
The timer goes off, and while I am grateful for something to do to camouflage my confusion, my stomach is churning. What the hell is she talking about? If she weren’t so mad, I would just go ahead and ask her.
“We were kids, yeah,” I agree, figuring that is the safest course of action here, no matter what.
She continues muttering while I get food to the middle of the dining table. Maybe food will calm her down? Should I go get Ethan? Really, I don’t know what is going to set her off.
“Just consider it canceled, okay? Just forget ab
out it.”
I meet her eyes, trying to figure out what it is going to take to defuse the situation. Her hair floats away from her face in weightless tendrils, and the skin beneath her eyebrows is reddening, a seriously bad sign.
“So, you’re canceling it.” I nod.
“You don’t even know what I am canceling, so please don’t pretend to have an opinion about this, okay?”
The food on the table looks great. I’m hungry. I know she has the stamina to fight with me until everything is cold, so I might as well just bite the bullet and ask her.
“What was the pact?”
My heart hammers in my chest like a room full of hostages trying to get out.
She narrows her eyes and squares off, holding the pose for a few seconds before her shoulders slump slightly. Gradually her demeanor changes to something more like shyness. Embarrassment, maybe?
“Do you happen to remember the last time we slept together?” she finally says, her voice barely above a whisper.
Like magic, I instantly do. The images come crashing through me like wave after wave of storm surge. That night Ryan dumped her. She burned dinner. She ended up in my arms, fulfilling a wish I hadn’t even really dared to express to myself. It was long before anybody ever even thought about calling me a ladies’ man. She really opened my eyes, tested my heart, and showed me how our connection made all the difference in the world.
And then, the next morning, we agreed it wasn’t such a great idea to continue. I remember now. She was graduating early. I was surprised, because I was comfortable with the idea that we would to be together for who knows how long. But no, she already had a job lined up. After she told me that, we decided that we couldn’t be together, but if life didn’t work out for us…
Oh, wait.
Oh, no.
“Penny, I just thought you were blowing me off,” I explain. “I didn’t think you meant it.”
Her mouth pops open in surprise. “You didn’t think I meant it? You didn’t think we meant it? Because we agreed.”
I walk over to hold her. She must be so upset right now. But she flinches away stubbornly. I let my hands fall uselessly to my sides.