by Stacy Eaton
Sherry had been like that, too. When we’d first started dating, she used to wonder what I saw in her when she wasn’t the prettiest girl in her class. I’d told her a hundred times before she’d believed me that I didn’t want pretty on the outside, I wanted beautiful on the inside—and that was Sherry to a T. She’d been an attorney before her illness, and instead of charging astronomical fees or doing corporate stuff, she had preferred to do pro bono work for families or help elderly clients with wills and estates. We had enough money from my modeling and investing that she could have never made a dime, and we would have been just fine.
I loved that she wanted to help the less fortunate, so maybe that was why I wanted to help Finley. She was a waitress, living in a small rental home, driving an older car. She’d never had a lot of money, but she was smart with what she had.
There were a lot of people who would be bitter to be working as a waitress, but Finley didn’t appear to be like that. The little I’d seen of her working showed me that she seemed to enjoy serving the customers, and during our meeting for Autumn’s wedding, she’d been very detail-oriented and professional.
As Finley and I talked, and she said that her ex hadn’t ever hit her, I had an odd feeling that he hadn’t needed to strike her to extract pain, and her hesitation was too long to be deniable. That little piece of shit. Man, he’d better be glad he was gone because I would have no problem showing him what it was like to intimidate someone.
I wasn’t going to second-guess my asking her to stay at my place now, not when I knew he was an abusive bastard. Finley was welcome to stay as long as she needed so we could put that guy in his place and get him out of her life for good.
Maybe I’d even reach out to my friend, Thad Wagner, a cop in Celebration Township. We’d met several years ago at an internet safety and investigation training class and had immediately hit it off. Her ex was from over that way. Maybe Thad knew a few cops in Middletown who could help us out.
I made a mental note to reach out to Thad later tonight and dove into my lunch when Finley set it in front of me.
“Um, if you don’t mind, I’m going to start cleaning so we can get out of here.”
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket. “Go right ahead. I need to check messages and emails anyway.”
I ran through my emails as Finley began doing her after-hours cleaning. While I tried to focus on my food and phone, my gaze kept straying back to her. At one point she removed her apron and set it on the counter and took her cellphone from the pocket.
“Do you mind if I put music on?”
“What kind of music?”
She paused and studied me. “Um, I was going to put on alternative rock, but I’d be just as happy putting on country if you’d prefer that.”
“What makes you think I’d prefer country?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess you just seem like a country kinda man.”
I laughed and picked up my roast beef sandwich. “Put on your alternative rock.”
A moment later, she set her phone down and began to clean as the music filled the room. As the song progressed, she began to sway her hips, her lips moving soundlessly to the words. I was transfixed, and it only got worse when she pulled her short-sleeve work shirt off over her head and tossed it on a chair.
Underneath she wore a plain, black cotton tank top that hugged her voluptuous breasts and incredible curves. I swallowed as I took in every single inch of that simple piece of fabric and wished like hell I could trade places with it. I chomped on a bite of my food as I adjusted my position in the chair.
Damn, the woman was making me hard as a rock as she bent over the tables and rocked her hips to the beat. I was going to have no problem adding her naked and bent over the table to my fantasies.
Since I’d seen her last, I’d had quite a few fantasies—most of them taking place inside my car. One of them had her leaning over my console and taking me into her mouth as I leaned back in the driver’s seat. In another one, I’d put the seat all the way back, and she’d mounted my lap, driving me as hard as I liked to drive my cars.
Damn—
I wiped my mouth, tossed my napkin onto the plate, and pushed them both back. I needed to get away from her for a few minutes, or I wasn’t going to be able to keep my hands to myself.
It had been years since I’d gotten this hard so easily, and I didn’t trust myself right now. I turned to speak to her, and she was wiggling her ass back and forth as she straightened the salt and pepper shakers. Lord, help me.
“Hey, Finley, I’m gonna step outside and make a phone call while you’re finishing up.”
She startled as if she had forgotten I was there and then waved. “Okay, I should only be another fifteen minutes or so.”
I glanced over my shoulder so she wouldn’t see the tent in my pants. “Take your time, Finley.” I went to unlock the door. “Don’t forget to lock up behind me.”
I heard her call out that she would, and then I hightailed it out of the café, sucking in a fresh breath of air as I adjusted myself in my pants. How was I going to be able to survive with her in my house—alone—when I couldn’t even be in the same café with her while she was cleaning?
I needed to think of something else besides Finley, or I was never going to get this raging hard-on under control before she came out. Just as I reached my car, my cell rang and I glanced down to see Autumn’s face—and damn if that didn’t wilt me like hot lettuce.
“Hello,” I added as much excitement to my voice as I could muster, “how are you?”
“Have you heard from Rye?”
I rolled my eyes at her greeting. “No, actually I haven’t heard from him today. Isn’t he getting home tonight or tomorrow?”
“He was supposed to be home this morning, but I haven’t heard from him.”
“I assume you have called him.”
She made a noise of disgust. “Of course, I called him, Roan. I’ve called him, texted him, tried to video chat with him, I even called his stupid secretary.”
“Hey, Rose is not stupid. What did she have to say? Has she heard from him?”
“She told me she hasn’t heard from him, but who knows. She’s kind of in love with him, so I assume she’d lie for him.”
“Why would she need to lie, Autumn?” I leaned against my car and scanned the parking lot, looking for anything suspicious.
“Duh! I just told you she loves him. She doesn’t want us to get married.”
“Autumn, you have no clue what you are talking about.”
She cut me off before I could say more. “It’s women’s intuition. I do know how she feels, and I know she would lie for him.”
“Okay, you’re right. You know better than me, but tell me this, why would she lie to cover his whereabouts? Is she hiding him for herself?”
She barked a strained laugh, “Yeah, like he’d touch that.”
Sometimes I really wanted to smack Autumn just to see if I could get the rose-tinted glasses to fall off her face, or the stick out of her ass. She could be nice at times, but man, she was a bitch to others—mostly a bitch—especially these days. I really tried hard to see the best in her since we were going to be family, but there were days when she made that exceptionally hard.
I wasn’t sure if I should give my brother props for loving a woman like that, or if I should try to knock some sense into him. As much as I wanted to say something, this was his life, not mine, and he could make all the mistakes he wanted. Once he realized his mistake, I’d be happy to hand him a few beers and laugh at him.
“Roan, call him and tell him I need to speak with him.”
“Why can’t you just be patient until he returns your call, or better yet, comes home?”
“Roan—” she dragged out the N in my name as if she were groaning, “I’m worried about him, aren’t you?”
I laughed. “Autumn, I stopped worrying about Rye when he was fifteen. Fine, I will try to call him.”
“Okay, tha
nks.” She hung up without another word, and I stared at the screen and shook my head before I pulled up my brother’s contact information and dialed. It went right to voicemail.
“Yo, dude, it’s your big brother. Give me a shout, or better yet, send your future wife a message to let her know you’re alive so she stops calling me. Talk at you later, bye.”
I was rounding my car to sit inside when my phone rang, and Rye’s ugly mug filled the screen. I laughed as I answered it. “So you are alive and just screening your calls. Is it just Autumn you’re ignoring or everyone besides me?”
His deep laugh vibrated through the phone line. “I literally just got out of a six-hour meeting. She’s called at least fifteen times and left me six messages, and I can’t tell you how many text messages she left, wait—” I heard him juggling his phone for a moment before he laughed, “she left me fifty-two text messages—fifty-two freaking messages!”
I couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Better you than me, bro.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said jokingly, or at least I thought he was joking.
“You’re not changing your mind, are you?” Oh, please tell me you’re changing your mind.
“Come on, man, you know I’m getting married in, like, two weeks. I’m not backing out.”
“You know you can back out right up to the point where you say, ‘I do,’ right? You really don’t have to go through with this.”
His voice sounded sharp when he spoke again. “Why are you trying to talk me out of this?”
“I’m not. I’m just telling you that you can. You’re not married yet.”
He sighed heavily, and the air buzzed over the microphone in a loud whoosh. “I know.”
“Alright, well, are you heading home tonight or tomorrow?”
“I’ll be back tomorrow. I need to have dinner with the client tonight, and I need to book a new flight.”
“Okay, we’ll grab a beer this weekend, then.”
“Yeah, okay. Hey, Roan, do me a favor.”
“Sure, what do you need?”
“Let Autumn know I’m fine, and I’ll talk with her tomorrow when I get home. It’s been a super-long and stressful day, and the last thing I want to talk about is the wedding veil or the color of the nail polish for the bridesmaids.”
“Seriously, she talked to you about that? I thought it was going to be maroon to match their dresses.”
“Burgundy, not maroon, get it right, man. I think she changed it to cream or white or pearl or some shit like that, I don’t know. Seriously, who gives a fuck what color they have painted on their nails.”
“She does.”
I heard a woman’s voice in the background, and Rye chuckled. “Hey, I gotta go, Roan. I’ll catch up with you later.” I told him goodbye, and as he was hanging up, I could have sworn I heard him say, “Yeah, I’m ready, baby.”
I stared at the phone for a moment as the line went dead. Was my brother having an affair?
“You ready?” Finley’s voice grabbed my attention, and I dismissed thoughts of my brother as I turned to find her standing a few feet away, her hair now piled high on her head and still wearing the black tank top. “I assume we are taking your car, right?”
I glanced from her to my car and the fantasies I’d been having of us inside slammed into me with a vengeance.
Chapter 11
Finley
I couldn’t keep my gaze from drifting to the windows as Roan walked through the parking lot. His body was like a magnet that I couldn’t deny no matter how much I tried. It had been worse when he’d been in the same room with me. In fact, I could practically feel him watching me, and I was dying to know what he was thinking as he did.
That was one of the reasons I wanted to put music on. It helped me relax, and I could get lost in it and hopefully forget about Roan sitting at the counter eyeballing me. It didn’t work very well, but it did get rid of the awkward silence.
I wasn’t one to scrimp on cleaning the café, but I did today. It could live without mopped floors just this once. I raced around the room with the broom, put the rest of the dishes away, and made sure the counters were clean and everything was turned off out front. I yelled a goodbye to Martin who was finishing up in the kitchen and pulled out my shoulder bag that held my notebooks and other things that I needed to meet with Robin.
Thinking of Robin, how were we going to explain why Roan was with me? Roan and I were going to have to come up with an answer to that before we arrived. I locked the front door behind me and walked slowly toward Roan as he said goodbye to someone on the phone. As he hung up, he looked either a little confused or concerned.
Roan’s head snapped to his car when I made a comment about taking his car, and he inhaled quickly as if he were trying to control something.
“Yeah, we’ll take mine.” He opened his door as he answered.
I climbed in and latched my belt. “I was thinking: What are we going to tell Robin when we get there together?”
He glanced at me briefly before he put the key in the ignition. “I actually thought of that already. I know Chris is home, I talked to him earlier, so I’ll say that I came to talk to him, and that you had some car trouble, so I brought you over since I was already heading that way.”
“Do you think she’ll buy it?”
“Robin? Yeah, of course she will.” His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, and his knuckles turned white.
“Roan, are you alright? Was that phone call something bad?”
He released the wheel and his face snapped toward mine, “No, I’m fine. It’s just that—” he paused, and I watched his face change from closed off to wide open and filled with a wanting I couldn’t believe. He cleared his throat, “It’s just that the last time you were in this vehicle, we kissed, and I’ve thought a lot about that over the last few days.”
“You have?”
“Yeah, I have.” His gaze dipped to my chest, and I suddenly realized that I was still in my tank top and had forgotten to pull on my short-sleeved polo shirt. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed, and my nipples hardened as the desire in his eyes grew heavier. “I’ve imagined a few scenarios of us together in my car.”
“You have?” The words came out breathy, and my heart began to thud against my chest wall as his eyes traveled deliberately down my body and back before he stared out the windshield and swiped both hands over his face.
He turned suddenly and took my hand. “Look, Finley, I’m sorry if what I said was too forward, or too much. I have no clue how you feel about any of this, but I tend to say what I’m thinking or feeling.”
“That’s fine,” I said softly. “I appreciate it, actually.”
“I want people to know what’s on my mind without beating around a bush. I’m too old to care what people think or to waste time.”
“I agree with you. I prefer straightforward, too.”
He nodded. “Okay, well then know this: I haven’t been this turned on around a woman since my wife passed away. I don’t know exactly what it is, or why, but when I’m around you, I think of all kinds of things that I’ve missed these last few years.”
I swallowed as his words filtered into my dazed brain. “I think I get it.”
“You do? You understand what I’m saying?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I do. While we are being straightforward, may I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Did you invite me to stay at your place because you want to sleep with me?”
A shuttered expression passed over his face. “No. I asked you to come to my house so you would be safe. I can’t promise you that I will be able to stay away from you, or keep my hands off you while you’re there, but if you say no, then I’ll back off. I swear. I would never ask you to do something that you don’t want.”
There was that gentleman again, and my heart sighed. “And if I did want?”
“Damn—” he growled as he let go of my hand and slipped it aro
und the back of my neck, pulling me forward. “Then I’m willing to give, baby, anything you want.”
His lips crashed against mine while my hand went to the buckle of my belt and released it. I went to him, threading my fingers through his wavy hair. My god, it was so soft.
My lips opened, my tongue clashed with his. He moaned—or did I? I leaned over his console, he pulled me closer. I felt more than heard his seat shift as his body moved backward, and he practically dragged me onto his lap. One arm was around my back, his hand cupping my ass while his other hand found my breast and squeezed. I almost lost it right there as I whimpered into his mouth.
The sensual assault went on for a few minutes as his hips pressed against my thigh. Our position didn’t allow me to touch him, and I was tempted to jump in the back and drag him over the seat to join me so that I could. I hadn’t had sex in a car since I was a teenager—and damn if the thought of that didn’t excite the hell out of me.
His lips were on my neck, on my chest, everywhere. I was going to go up in flames if I didn’t get more from him.
“Finley—” he murmured against my ear.
Whatever he was about to say was interrupted as my cellphone began to play a song I used as a ringtone. We both stilled as the music continued, and then a horn blared from somewhere nearby. We broke into laughter at the same time.
“I guess we got a little carried away,” I said as I stared at him. He was so gorgeous with the heat of desire fresh in his eyes.
“Yeah, I guess we did. How about we take this back up when we get back to my place later,” he chuckled, “or at least until it gets dark out and people can’t see what we are doing?”
I nodded with a chuckle. “Sounds like a deal.”
He helped me get back to the other side of the car and was adjusting things, himself included, as I retrieved my phone and called Robin back.
“Hey, sorry, I couldn’t reach my phone in time.”