by C. C. Wood
“What?” I asked, hunching my shoulders.
“I guess if anyone deserves an entire bottle of wine, it’s you.”
“Damn straight,” I muttered.
I took a huge bite of the slice of pizza I didn’t even want and moaned. It was the best pizza in the history of mankind. I’d never had better.
“Oh my God. Where did you order this from?” I hummed in the back of my throat as I used my tongue to pull some of the stringy cheese into my mouth. “I don’t think I’ve ever had better.”
When Troy didn’t answer, I shifted my focus from my pizza to his face and almost choked. He was sitting in his chair, his hand clenched around his beer bottle so hard his knuckles were white, and he was looking at me in a way that made hot, sharp tingles spread across my entire body.
Unable to continue meeting his eyes, I snatched up Big Mama and took a huge gulp of wine. When I lowered the glass, Troy’s eyes were no longer hungry, and he looked much more relaxed.
“It’s Fifth Street Pizza. They get a special type of cheese from Wisconsin. That’s why their pizza tastes so good,” he said, taking a bite of his own slice.
“Hmm.” I decided to never order any other kind of pizza again.
“I want you to spend the night at my place tonight,” Troy said.
This time I did choke. Coughing, I took another drink of wine to help wash down the lump of cheese and crust stuck in my throat. “Excuse me?” I asked, my eyes watering.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” he said. “You can have the bed, alone. I’ll sleep on the couch. I just mean that you shouldn’t stay here alone tonight. And probably not any other night until whoever is systematically destroying your life is caught.”
I waved a hand in the air and drank more wine to give myself time to come up with another solution. I knew that I would end up sleeping with Troy if I stayed with him.
“I’ll go stay with Cat and Patrick. Or Nat and Aidan.”
Troy shook his head.
“You have no right to tell me what I will or will not do, Troy,” I snapped.
“Shut up,” he barked. Leaning forward in his chair, he rested his arms on the table. “Didn’t you say that Cat and Patrick have a little boy?”
I nodded.
“And isn’t your friend, Nat, pregnant with a little girl?”
I nodded again.
“Do you really want to go stay with them and take the chance that whoever is doing this shit to you will follow and fuck up their lives or even hurt them?”
I shook my head, tears threatening to fill my eyes. I hadn’t thought about any of what Troy was describing. But he was right. He was so right. If I went to my friends, I would be putting them in danger.
“Then you’re staying with me,” he stated.
What else could I do but agree.
Later that night, exhausted from the stress and physical labor, I followed Troy to his side of the duplex. He was carrying a duffel bag full of my clothes and what few cosmetics hadn’t been destroyed. I was hauling my shopping bags and purse.
At Troy’s insistence I had called in sick to work the next day as well. He hadn’t had to push very hard. I was tired and stressed out to the max. With the two of us working non-stop, we had managed to clear everything off the floor. The chaise and my mattress would have to be hauled off on bulk trash day. My sheets, comforter, and about fifty percent of my wardrobe were destroyed and stuffed in my city waste bin.
All I wanted now was a horizontal surface to stretch out on and about eight hours of unconsciousness. I wouldn’t even care if Troy were in the damn bed with me because I was too freaking tired to do anything about it.
I got the same feeling of surprise when I entered his side of the duplex as I did the first time. While his place was definitely masculine, it was clean and smelled like cinnamon. His sofa and chairs were dark brown leather. Oak mission style tables were at each end of the couch and between the two chairs that stood at an angle next to it. He also had a huge flat screen affixed to the wall facing the couch.
Troy carried all my stuff back to his bedroom, the one room I hadn’t seen. I stopped in shock when I saw it. The room was warm and cozy, with a deep red comforter set on the bed, dark brown furniture that was almost black, and cream colored paint on the walls that carried just a hint of gold. This room was not completely masculine. It was actually something I might have done myself if I hadn’t been crazy about the zebra print bed set I originally had.
“I love this room,” I said.
Troy dumped my bag on a padded leather bench at the end of the bed. “Thanks. My mom and my sister decorated it.”
I put my purse on the dresser and my shopping bags on the bench by my duffel. I watched as Troy opened a door and switched on a light.
“This is the bathroom. There’re fresh towels in the cabinet above the toilet. I have a new toothbrush in the medicine cabinet.”
“Thanks,” I sighed. I could not wait to take a hot shower. I wanted it to be a long one, but I knew I was too tired for that. I would be happy with a five minute bath just to wash the grime off my skin.
Troy left the room, and I stripped off my clothes. I went into the bathroom and turned the water on to let the shower warm up. While the water was warming up, I found the toothbrush and cleaned my teeth. I checked his shower. There was shampoo and body wash on the little shelf in the stall. I decided I could do without conditioner for tonight.
I stepped under the spray and heaved a huge, deep sigh. The hot water felt heavenly after the day I had. I shampooed, washed, and rinsed until my entire body was squeaky clean. I turned off the water, dried my body, and realized I didn’t have deodorant. Mine had been smeared into the bedroom carpet.
Well, I’d used everything else that belonged to Troy, might as well use his deodorant too. I found it in the medicine cabinet and swiped it under my arms. I went into the bedroom with the towel wrapped around my head and saw that Troy had picked up my dirty clothes off the floor. One of his T-shirts lay on the bed and I realized it was for me. All my cute nightgowns and pajama sets, including my favorite sugar skull flannel, had been destroyed.
I pulled the shirt over my head and it swamped me. After I dug undies out of my duffel, I found my wide-tooth comb and pulled the towel off my head. Once I dried off most of the water, I started combing the tangles out.
There was a short rap on the door and Troy came in, carrying a glass of water and two white pills.
“I brought you some ibuprofen,” he said.
That was an extremely nice thing to do. Considering his past asinine, inconsiderate behavior, it surprised me in a very good way.
“Thanks.” I took the pills and glass from him and took both pills at once. My head and back were pounding from the combination of stress and hours of cleaning.
I put the glass on the nightstand, not sure what to do or say. I wore nothing but his T-shirt and my panties. I felt extremely awkward.
Suddenly, I felt the knot that had settled in my chest earlier that day start swelling. I couldn’t breathe. My heart began to pound against my sternum so hard I was surprised that I couldn’t see it. I struggled to suck in air, but my throat tightened and I wheezed each breath. I felt as though an elephant had stomped on my chest.
“Amy?” Troy’s face appeared in front of me.
I blinked at him rapidly, still struggling to breathe.
His hands cupped my face. “It’s okay, Amy. You’re having a panic attack. Just try to breathe slowly. I know it’s hard, but try to relax.”
With his face the only thing I could see, I focused on his eyes and his voice. After a few more scary seconds of struggling for air, I no longer felt like I was being strangled by invisible hands. Little by little the tightness in my chest loosened until I took slow, yet stuttering breaths.
When I finally had control, Troy kissed my forehead and released my face. “Better?” he asked.
I nodded. “That’s never happened to me before,” I whispered.
“You’ve had a rough couple of days. I wondered when you’d break down,” he murmured.
My spine stiffened. Break down? That wasn’t a break down, just a few moments of weakness. I thought I had been holding up really well, and he made it sound like it was a bad thing because I fell apart for a little while.
“Calm down, calm down. It’s not a bad thing to have a meltdown in your situation. Considering what’s happened to you in the last three days, you have been incredibly tough but you need to let that tension out somehow or you’ll lose your mind, Amy.”
I let my shoulders relax. I knew I was being extremely touchy, but I couldn’t help it.
“Go ahead and get into bed,” Troy said.
He held the covers back so I could climb under them then tucked them around me as though I were a child. Troy bent and turned out the lamp. As he started to straighten, I grabbed his hand.
“Lie down with me for a few minutes,” I asked.
Oh my God, why had I said that? What the hell happened to my hard-to-get strategy? I started to tell him that I was kidding, when he sat down next to me and gently shoved me over. He slid under the covers next to me, shoved an arm under my neck, and rolled me into his side. Troy’s body was warm, and I was so cozy and comfortable that I immediately decided I didn’t give two shits about my hard-to-get strategy, I wasn’t kicking him out of the bed. Besides, he was dressed in flannel pajama pants and a cotton tee, so it wasn’t as though he presented a huge temptation.
Actually, he did, but he was less of a temptation fully clothed than he had been when he was shirtless last week. I shoved my face into his neck and smelled his skin.
“I smell like you,” I muttered against his skin.
“I know,” he replied quietly.
“You smell good.”
He chuckled softly. “So do you.”
I fell silent and just enjoyed the sensation of being held close by a man. It had been a while since I’d been held like this. Several of my ex-boyfriends had just not been the cuddly type. There had been a couple that liked to snuggle from time to time but usually only in postcoital bliss.
The nightmare next door was beginning to seem like the nicest guy I knew. He wanted to help me clean up the mess the vandal left behind the last few days. He made sure I ate. Now, he was insisting I stay with him so he could protect me and he was holding me like I was important to him just because I asked him to.
“Troy?” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
“Were you asleep?” Crap, I sounded like an idiot.
“No.”
His one word answers weren’t exactly encouraging, but I went on anyway. “Thank you for your help today.” I paused. “And for giving me a place to stay, especially since it might mean that your furniture is in danger.”
His arm squeezed me a little tighter. “You’re welcome, Amy. You need to sleep.”
“And thank you for making sure I ate today.”
“Just go to sleep, baby.”
I liked hearing him call me baby in that quiet voice. It was sweet, and it made my belly flip over.
“I can’t,” I said. “I can’t shut my brain off. I’m so tired, and I want to sleep, but I can’t relax.”
Troy’s fingers stroked my scalp, running through my hair. I was asleep after the third pass of his hand.
The next morning I came awake slowly. My face was pressed into Troy’s chest, right between his collarbones, with my head tucked under his chin. One of my arms was under me, and the other was thrown over his waist. My leg was thrown over one of his. Troy’s thigh was pressed up against my girlie parts. That gave me a tingle in that exact same area that was touching his leg.
I moved my head back slowly, not wanting to wake him. He looked peaceful. And still asleep. I managed to climb out of the bed without waking him up. I tiptoed into the bathroom and took care of typical morning business.
Feeling refreshed after washing my face and brushing my teeth, I padded out of the bathroom. Troy was still on his side, eyes closed. Grateful I was going to be able to avoid an awkward conversation, I made my way down the hall to the kitchen. I was desperate for coffee.
I looked around the kitchen and saw Troy had a single cup coffee maker. He had everything set up like a little coffee making station. There was a tree with mugs hanging from their handles, a big glass jar was filled with different flavor pods, and there was a sugar bowl sitting in front of the jar. I wondered bitterly if one of his other ‘babes’ had arranged his kitchen.
Then I shook my head. I shouldn’t be so harsh. He had been so great to me the last few days. And a complete gentleman. If he had come onto me last night, I probably would have let him do whatever he wanted.
With a sigh, I grabbed a mug off the tree and stuck it under the brewer. I chose a pod, stuck it in the coffee maker, and hit the brew button. While I stared at the machine, waiting impatiently for the first cup, I let my mind drift.
I heard a toilet flush in the back of the duplex and stiffened. Shit, Troy was awake. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. Last night I asked him to sleep with me because I was afraid, and I didn’t want to be alone. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to go back to my slightly distant behavior. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Troy. I just wanted to know that he wasn’t just after yet another girl to add to his group of friends that he liked to bang. He’d said he wasn’t interested in what he had with other women, that he wanted to get to know me. Still, I had been burned enough in my life to want him to prove it.
I doctored my coffee with sugar and looked in the fridge. He even had coffee creamer. I wondered who bought it for him. Most of the men I knew could barely remember to pick up toilet paper at the store, much less coffee creamer.
I leaned against the counter. I was taking my first sip when Troy rounded the corner. Holy shit, he was hot first thing in the morning. His short hair was a mess and his dark brown eyes were heavy.
He walked right up to me, took my coffee cup out of my hand, set the cup on the counter, and kissed me. Really kissed me. As in, I felt that kiss all the way down to my toes, which curled into the hard wood floor. All my thoughts of being careful and wanting Troy to work for me so he would appreciate me more flew straight out the window and were probably on their way to Tahiti.
My hands slid up the back of his T-shirt without any direction from me. I dug my fingers into his shoulder blades, trying to pull him closer. Troy took my invitation one step further. His big hands cupped my ass, and he lifted me so I was standing on my toes and our pelvises lined up perfectly. My breath caught in my throat. He was hard everywhere.
As suddenly as he kissed me, Troy released me, his hands holding my hips just long enough for me to get my legs back underneath me. Which, embarrassingly enough, was several seconds. Probably closer to a minute. The man could kiss. Then he stepped away and went to the coffee maker to make a cup of coffee. How could a man with a hard-on that visible be so casual? I stared at him for a moment and snapped.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Huh?” He seemed distracted by watching the coffee drip into the cup.
“You can’t just come in here, kiss me like that, get me all turned on, and then walk away!” I yelled. “Now get your ass over her and finish what you started.”
Oh shit. I shouldn’t have said that. I had a game plan, dammit. Troy was driving me crazy. That was the only excuse for me saying something so stupid.
My thoughts were cut off when Troy’s hands landed on my hips, lifting them so I was sitting on the counter top. I gaped at him for a second, but it didn’t last long since his mouth landed on mine and his tongue slid inside. Just like the kiss on my car the other night, my arms and legs wound around him instinctively.
Grabbing my ass, Troy pulled me to the edge of the counter so our hips were plastered together. Moaning into his mouth, I moved against him, grinding against his erection shamelessly. A moment later I was no longer sitting on the counter. Troy lifted me and sta
rted down the hallway toward the bedroom.
When he set me on my feet next to the bed, I had a second to start freaking out again. His hands yanked the tee over my head, leaving me in my brand new hot pink satin panties. I opened my mouth to tell him that we needed to slow down, that I wasn’t ready for this when he reached over his head, between his shoulders, and pulled his own shirt off.
One look at his naked torso and I was totally ready for this. My eyes took in his tanned skin, trailing down his tight abdomen. His pajama pants rode low on his hips, revealing the V of his lower stomach muscles. I always felt like that V should point to something good. Usually I was disappointed.
Troy’s thumbs hooked his waistband and pulled his pajamas and underwear down, and I knew this time I would absolutely not be disappointed. Once again distracted from my plans to call this to a halt, I ran my fingers down the ridge of muscle that started at his hip. Before I could reach my destination, Troy’s hand wrapped around my wrist.
He brought my palm up and placed it in the center of his chest. I started to complain, but he kissed me again. We fell onto the bed with me on the bottom. The kiss was insane, teeth nibbling, and tongues tangling. I wrapped both legs around Troy’s hips and arched against him. The ridge of his erection pressed exactly where I needed it.
I gasped as his hand cupped my breast. Troy’s fingers were callused and slightly rough on my nipple. When he tugged gently I thought I felt it all the way to my clit. My entire body grew hot, and a light sweat broke out on my skin. Restlessly, I moved my hips against his. My hand drifted down his side and to the front.
My fingers closed around his cock, and he groaned in my mouth. His hand left my breast and hooked into my panties. Troy yanked them down. I lifted my hips, then my legs, so he could pull them off completely.
“Spread your legs, baby,” he murmured.
When I did as he said, his fingers slid up the inside of my thigh. I held my breath as they moved closer and closer to where I needed them. At the first touch of his fingertips against my clit, I whimpered. It had been a long, long time since a man who knew what he was doing had touched me.