by Autumn Skye
“Surprise.”
“Hi, what are doing here? The sun isn’t even up. How early are you?”
“Very early. It’s close to one in the morning.”
“Good. We can do breakfast at the diner.”
“Do you cook at all, Danielle, because I don’t, so that could be a problem.”
“No problem,” she murmured. “I love an excuse to eat out and the food at the diner is all homecooked. You don’t find that too often in the city.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Since you’re here, you should come to bed, ASAP. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too, but I think we should wait. By that I mean, no fooling around,” I said, taking off my shoes.
“Whatever gave you that horrible idea?”
“Wouldn’t it be fun to wait until our first night in the house?”
“No, not particularly.”
“Come on, it would make it special.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Didn’t we already fool around in that house?”
“This is different.”
“Okay, I’ll play along, if it’s so important to you. We can still sleep in the same bed, though, right? You aren’t going to stick me on the couch?”
“No, of course not.”
“I should hope not. This is my cabin, after all. If anyone is sleeping on that lumpy couch, it’s you.”
“No one is sleeping on the couch, Danielle.”
“Then shut off the lights and come to bed,” she replied.
“You sound grumpy.”
“What did you expect? You woke me up to tell me I’m not getting laid,” she quipped.
“You’re not really mad, are you?”
“No, just horny, but you’re right. It’s kind of romantic to wait.”
“You don’t think I’m being corny?”
“I’m horny and you’re corny. Why fight who we are?”
I took a moment to let that settle in before we both broke out into gut wrenching laughter.
“I’m going to like it here with you,” I said.
“Well, I’m going to love having you, especially when I can have you again. Can’t move into the house fast enough.”
“Maybe it was a stupid idea to wait. What’s the point?”
“Oh, no, Lily, it’s too late to change your mind now. Be careful what you wish for next time,” she said smugly.
“You’re not going to let me back out?”
“Nope.” She pulled the sheet up to her neck to make a statement.
“Then we need to get moved in first thing in the morning.”
“There’s just one problem. We need to shop for furniture. It’ll be a few days before we can actually stay in the house.”
“A few days!”
“Yep. You’re going to be awfully hot and bothered by the time we pick out a new bed and have it delivered.”
“I’m going to keep my ideas to myself next time,” I pouted.
As it was, it took us a week of browsing online to choose enough furniture to fill the mammoth house. I’d left most of my possessions behind in Houston and Danielle insisted on having just the right décor that would accentuate the house as we continued the rehabbing. Every item down to the china patterns had to be a perfect fit. I’d have almost thought she no longer planned to sell the place the way she was acting.
“It will be good to have the right look when we put the house on display,” she explained.
“I see.”
“Oh, and just so you know, we’re invited to the town meeting the twenty-eighth of August to help plan the fall pumpkin festival. Missy, the cute blond checker at the grocer’s told me about it.”
“The pumpkin festival? Didn’t we just have the apple butter festival?”
“It’s a very small town. They have to break the monotony somehow.”
“Are we going to ride the Farris wheel again?”
“Is that going to be our thing?”
“I don’t see why it can’t be,” I said. “All couples have a thing.”
“You really are the corny one, aren’t you?”
“You’re the one who wants to go to another festival.”
“I like this town. I don’t just want to live here. I want to be part of it.”
“Apparently, you already are. You’re getting invites to town meetings. You’ll be on the city hall committee before you know it.”
“It’s sweet that they’re including us,” she said.
“It is. I just want you to push for the Farris wheel.”
“Okay, I’ll bring it up.”
“Before you start worrying about the festival, you and I have another place to be.”
“Where’s that?”
“My sister’s baby shower. It’s next week.”
“I forgot about that. I’m psyched to see Sharon again.”
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“I bet I can win your sister over,” she teased.
“Stop it.”
“A day with the family won’t be so bad. I’ll be right there at your side. Maybe you’ll get the courage up to tell them about us.”
“That doesn’t take courage. I never intended to hide our relationship. I’m not sure you understand what you’re in for, though. You could wind up playing referee between my mother and me.”
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’m on your side.”
“I’m counting on it. Don’t let me down. She’ll try to get to you.”
“Never.”
I believed her, because I knew I could, and that felt good.
Chapter Eighteen
It took a week for the furniture to arrive. When the day finally came that we had everything we needed to move into the manor, we got up early and loaded up the SUV with our personal belongings. Most of my wardrobe was already there in the master bedroom, still in boxes. There were, in fact boxes everywhere we looked throughout the house, evidence of our shopping spree, along with unopened cans of paint and wood varnish. I felt immobilized, unsure where to start. The exterior had turned out beautifully, with new siding and a tall iron gate that was charming and somehow managed not to look unwelcoming to would be guests. Little attention had yet been given to the interior, however. There was an overwhelming amount of work to be done.
“What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?” Danielle groaned.
“Do you know what helps panic? Making active progress. We’ll take it one room at a time. It’ll all get done, Danielle. We’ll do it together,” I said, not a drop of fear in her voice.
“I swear, you sound excited.”
“I am. This is the fun part.”
“Says you.”
“This is why you hired me.”
“Yes, that’s why. It had nothing to do with how your ass looks in those jeans,” she joked.
“Are you going to get serious? Do you want to get this house done in record time or not?”
“What I want is to Christen this house, every room. You said we only had to wait until our first night here.”
“Keep up that attitude and I’ll make you wait until every nook and cranny is perfect.”
“Who are kidding? You couldn’t hold out that long,” she mocked me, stepping up behind me and putting an arm around me as she kissed my neck.
“I probably couldn’t, but are you willing to test me?”
“No, I’m not taking a chance on missing out tonight.”
“Then let’s get to work. The living room and kitchen are the most important rooms. We should paint before we do anything else. You get started in here and I’ll tackle the kitchen.”
There, we had a plan of attack. Of course, that didn’t last long. I’d no sooner began transforming the kitchen walls from a dull beige to a luminous country green when she sauntered in to stand at my side.
“We work too hard. We deserve a break,” she sighed.
“Shouldn’t we achieve som
ething before we slack off?”
“We have our entire lives to paint this house, Lily.”
That wasn’t true. She seemed to have forgotten that the goal was to put this house up for sale as quickly as possible. You’d have thought she intended to live here forever the way she was acting. This was only our house until we found new owners willing to pay a fair asking price. Surely, I didn’t need to remind her that the longer we took to finish our work the longer it took to earn her investment back.
“We should make a nice dinner tonight to celebrate moving in,” she suggested.
“Neither of us cook,” I pointed out again.
“All right, we should order a nice dinner from the café,” she amended.
“Then we have a great excuse to work up an appetite.”
“Don’t you want to try out the new bed? It’s a queen, big enough to be roomy and small enough so we’re never lying too far away from each other to cuddle.”
“Now whose corny?”
“I can assure you, I’m still the horny one.”
“I think of you more as the sensual one.”
“All right, I’m feeling very sensual right now. How about you?”
“I always feel that way when I’m with you, but shouldn’t we try to make some headway with this place?”
“You spend too much energy worrying about what you should do and not enough doing what you want to do.”
“Did you even get around to removing the plastic from the mattress?”
“I did. I put on fresh satin sheets as well. Come see.”
I had to admit the idea of lying around all day on soft sheets, my body pressed against her even softer skin was alluring. While we didn’t really have our whole lives to finish this house, one more day wouldn’t hurt. I put my paint brush down and led the way up the stairs. When we got to the master bedroom I couldn’t resist stepping out onto the balcony.
“Just think what the yard will look like if we put in a pool, maybe a couple of palm trees. We could have a lot of fun. We’ll put up a privacy fence so we can skinny dip as much as we want. I can hear the town busy bodies gossiping about what we could possibly be doing behind the fence.”
“It sounds wonderful, except that it won’t be us in the pool, Danielle. It’ll be some other couple. We’ll be fixing up our next house by the time the town starts gossiping.”
“We’re two young, fairly good-looking woman living together in an old, some swear “haunted” house. It’s safe to say they’re already gossiping, Lily. Now come back inside so we can give them a little more to talk about. Please?”
She didn’t have to beg. I’d been regretting insisting that we wait to be together until we moved into the house. It was as if she’d grown more beautiful than ever once I couldn’t have her. Her laugh was huskier. Her perfume, more musky and overwhelmingly arousing than I remembered. Just one kiss was all it took to send shivers down my spine and arouse that wet yearning that I so easily got lost in several times a day whenever I thought of her. The heat between us had risen to a whole new level the past week.
Back inside, she didn’t waist a second before climbing onto the bed, not bothering to take off her dress, but just pulling it up over her hips and opening her legs to me invitingly.
“Hard and fast the first time, and then we have all day and night to go as slow as we want. Okay?” she asked, sounding as desperate for release as I felt.
I wiggled out of my shorts and practically ripped my tank top off, standing nude before her and watching her eyes taking in every inch of me. A month ago, I could never have been so bold and confident, but she made me comfortable in my own skin, something I’d forever owe her for.
I hooked my thumbs around the waistband of her red laced panties and pulled them off, letting them slide slowly down her legs before I bent over and kissed the curves of her thighs. I remembered well the taste of her and I thirsted for it. My tongue glided over her mound. Her hips shot up when I let the tip of it graze her nub. I knew by her reaction I could make her come in a matter of seconds, but I was feeling greedy, craving my own ecstatic release as much as I wanted to give the same to her. I got onto the bed and straddled her, our mounds meshing together as I swayed my hips back and forth, riding her hard as our mews of pleasure filled the air.
“Oh, baby, yes,” she managed to breath before her breath caught in her throat and her body tensed and shuddered.
Caught up in my own climax, completely out of control, I shouted out the secret I’d been afraid to voice until then. “Oh, Danielle, I love you!”
I came in a frenzy, pumping my hips, grinding into her to glean the last waves of bliss before I was spent. Then I collapsed at her side and she propped herself up on an elbow and ran her fingers through my damp hair.
“Did you mean that?”
I nodded. “It probably wasn’t the best way to say it, but yes, I love you.”
“I can’t think of a better way to tell me, and I love you, too.”
“You do?”
“I thought you might know. We’re more than roommates and I don’t just move anyone into my house, but I should have told you by now. I love you very much.”
“I thought you were the type that likes to be free.”
“What gave you that idea?”
“You’re spirited. You don’t seem the kind of woman who likes to be tied down.”
“Free doesn’t have to mean alone. We can be free together.”
“I want that.”
“We already have that. Let’s just lie here and enjoy it, more slowly this time,” she whispered, her hand roaming down to trail over my body.
“Slow is nice,” I agreed.
Chapter Nineteen
Danielle
“Oh, fuck,” Lily sat up in bed, the sheet falling away from her neck to her bare waist.
“Did you have a nightmare?” I asked sitting up and placing a concerned hand on her arm.
“No, I’d have had to have fallen asleep for that.”
“You haven’t slept yet? Lily, it’s two in the morning.”
“We forgot to buy a gift.”
“Is that all? We’re in Dallas. We can find a mall. We’ll go to the Galleria in the morning.”
“We won’t have time.”
“Of course, we will. The shower doesn’t start until one in the afternoon. We’ll go right after breakfast. Hell, if we had to, we could probably find something in the gift shop here in the lobby.”
We were staying at one of Dallas’s finest hotels in a suite on the top floor. Lily had objected that we didn’t need a lavish room with a hot tub and a bottle of the best champagne, but I’d persuaded her to live a little. The girl seemed to have forgotten she’d just come into a fortune. Her love for the little things in life was endearing and something we shared, but it didn’t hurt to splurge on oneself ever now and then. We’d flown to Dallas from the Houston airport the day before and I’d already made reservations for our room. Sharon was staying at Ann’s house in the guest room, so we didn’t have to explain why we were sharing the suite. I liked to think Lily would have stood up and told her we were together in more ways than one, but I couldn’t be sure, especially seeing what mess she was, suffering cold sweats in the middle of the night at the thought of spending the day with her mother and sister.
“Everything will be fine, Lily. We’ll find the most adorable gift and if things go wrong between you and your sister I’ll get a headache and we’ll leave early.”
“I’m being overly dramatic, aren’t I?”
“Just a little bit,” I agreed, unable to stifle the giggle that bubbled to the surface.
“This isn’t funny.”
“No, it isn’t. You’re going to be exhausted tomorrow. You have perhaps five more hours to try to catch some shut eye. Want a back massage?”
“I would love a back massage,” she said rolling over onto her stomach.
“Good, I believe the hotel has a masseuse. We’ll see if we can get you an appoi
ntment in the morning.”
“Tell me you’re trying to be funny again.”
“Naturally, I’ll give you a massage. Where’s your sense of humor.”
“I imagine it’s fallen into some deep vortex my sister and mother created. Together they make one big black hole that just sucks the fun right out of me.”
“Now that really is overly dramatic.”
“I know,” she moaned as my hands kneaded her shoulders.
“Ooh, you really are tense.”
“Look, Mom and Ann aren’t all that bad. The real problem is me. I always feel so damned insecure around them. They never fail to have their act together and I can barely tie my shoe laces.”
“Well, I’m here. I’ll tie them for you.”
“That’s sweet.”
“I’m serious. I have a feeling no one comes down harder on you than you come down on yourself and I’m not going to let you do it this time. You’re a rich heiress embarking on a new business venture with your sexy partner. That would be me, by the way. You’ve got nothing to be self-conscious about, Lily. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of Ann isn’t jealous of you.”
“Now you’re just patronizing me. I assure you, Ann is not jealous of anyone, least of all me.”
“Still, you shouldn’t worry. You can hold your own. Besides, maybe it won’t be as bad as all that.”
“Not for you, anyway. My mother adores you and I’m sure my sister will as well.”
“Is that so awful? If I’m going to be part of the family shouldn’t I fit in?”
“I suppose it’d be nice if one of us did.”
My hands concentrated on her lower back just above the curve of her luscious bottom.
“If you go any lower we won’t get any sleep at all tonight,” she warned.
“We could forget about sleep and pour another glass of champagne.”
“That’s all I need, to show up at my sister’s tomorrow hungover with bloodshot eyes.”