Carter eyed the shoe for a minute and then smiled. That was his in. She wanted that shoe back, and she’d have to see him to get it. He laughed. “She said she lost that in here. I thought she made it up to have an excuse to come back!” he joked.
“Who?”
Carter shook his head. He was keeping that to himself. Not just because Josie would never want anyone to know but because he didn’t want the humiliation of having it blow up in his face when she more than likely rejected him. “Like I’m gonna tell!”
“So you can butt your big ass nose into my business but I’m not allowed to know yours?” Bennett groused.
Carter took the shoe and tossed it behind the seat. “That’s not ‘business’. That was one wild, crazy and fantastic night that will never be repeated. No harm, no foul,” he lied. Deciding to turn the tables, he said, “This thing with you and Mia is going to bring hell down on all of us. You know that, right?”
Bennett sighed. “I know.”
For the longest time they sat there in silence until Carter finally turned the key in the ignition. Carter thought about Josie, about the scandal he was courting, about the risks and about all the things the upright citizens of Fontaine would have to say about both of them. So he asked Bennett the burning question, “Is she worth it?”
“A million times over,” Bennett admitted.
It wasn’t Mia Darcy on his mind then. It was Josie Marcum standing in the middle of his bedroom in a t-shirt that covered her to her knees. He was starting to understand where Bennett was coming from. “Then do what you gotta do and we’ll sort out the mess later.”
Carter drove the short distance to the farm and turned onto the rutted gravel road, the truck bumping so furiously that Bennett very nearly came off the seat.
“You gotta get a new truck man. This thing is a death trap.”
It was true, but Carter loved that truck. He held on to it out of nothing but sentiment. They all knew it. He could have bought another one years earlier and chose not to. Bennett was still shaking his head as he climbed out. “Fine. Keep this junk heap. And keep your secrets about whatever girl it was who lost a Barbie sized shoe in there.”
Carter shook his head as he eased the truck into a parking space beside Emmitt’s monster SUV. “I’m not giving up this truck. It’s a classic. Do you know how many hours Papaw and I spent working on this thing together?”
Bennett shook his head. “Not a damn one of us can count that high. From the time you were old enough to hold a wrench, you were covered in grease… Let’s go make Emmitt do all the work while we drink all his beer.”
That had been Carter’s plan all along.
Josie glanced at her phone for the fourteenth time in the last hour. She’d gotten used to daily texts from Carter. Now that they’d stopped, she missed them terribly. She missed him.
Carter had always say something that just hovered on the edge of inappropriate. That boy—no, he was not a boy. He was a man. He was definitely all man. And a master of the art of the double entendre. If she even questioned him about anything he’d said, he’d lay the blame squarely at her door and call her a pervert. It was infuriating and frustrating and… fun.
He’d given her the one thing she’d been missing in her life. Not the only thing. The unhelpful voice at the back of her mind reminded her of their last conversation and the offer that was still on the table. It’d expire eventually. He wouldn’t wait forever for her to decide and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why she was being such a coward about it.
Because once he has you, he won’t want you anymore. Again with the unhelpful voice. Well, it was helpful, but way more truthful than she wanted to admit. That very idea terrified her. She didn’t want to be just one of Carter’s women. She wanted to be different and special, and it terrified her. Because Carter Hayes, while he was a good time and not just in the phone number on a bathroom wall kind of way, was also special. He was funny and far smarter than anyone, including him, gave him credit for. And while she’d always thought he was good looking, she had entered full blown crush territory and was watching her phone like an idiot teenager.
A glance at the clock confirmed that it was almost time to leave for the day. Her shift at the library ended at five and since she’d woken up in his bed not a day had gone by that he hadn’t at least said hello to her. “Well, it’s not like we’re dating,” she said aloud, her voice barely more than a whisper. “He’s Carter Hayes. He doesn’t do relationships, anyway. It’s just harmless flirtation that’s not intended to go anywhere.”
“Shhhh!”
The admonishment had come from the head librarian, Doris Byers, who was glaring at her from the opposite stack as they re-shelved returned books. Josie ducked her head and returned to the task at hand. She was already on Doris’ bad side. The woman hadn’t wanted to hire her to begin with, since she’d been eyeing the assistant librarian position for her own niece who barely knew the alphabet. The city council had intervened though, and the not so subtle hostility that had resulted was damn near impossible to live with.
Josie picked up the last book and a piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Bending over, she picked it up and immediately smiled. The surprisingly artistic rendering of a single high heeled shoe was accompanied by the words, ‘Have you missed me?’
It had to be Carter. Sparing a glance for Doris who was staring disapprovingly at a couple of teenagers ensconced in one of the reading nooks, Josie pulled out her phone and tapped the text message on the touchscreen.
* * *
Josie: Did you find my shoe?
Carter: Come over and find out. You can park out back and no one will see you.
* * *
Josie considered her options. She really wanted that shoe back. She’d been holding on to the other one in the desperate hope that its mate would be found. And seeing Carter, alone, in his apartment, with no prying eyes… that had an appeal all of its own. The decision to go to that seedy ass bar in Cincinnati with a guy she honestly didn’t even like had come about because she wanted to have fun, because she wanted to do something wild and totally unexpected. What could be more unexpected than Carter Hayes?
* * *
Josie: I’ll be there at six. You better have my shoe… and my panties.
Carter: I have no idea what you’re talking about it. You should be more careful where you leave your lacy Victoria’s Secret panties.
Josie: I never said they were Victoria’s Secret. Liar.
Carter: It’s just an assumption. You look like a Vickie kind of girl. Sexy, but still totally respectable. More satin with a hint of lace than black leather and fishnet.
* * *
She didn’t want to be respectable and she sure as hell didn’t want him to think about her that way. Carter made her want to be all kinds of things she’d never considered before. Leather and fishnet didn’t seem quite as farfetched to her as they might have at one time.
“Are you going to shelve that book or just stare at your phone all afternoon, Josephine?” Doris demanded, her voice sharp and hateful.
With a guilty flush staining her cheeks, Josie dropped her phone back into the pocket of her shapeless khaki pants. Doris had imposed a dress code almost as soon as she’d been hired and it was intended to strip every employee of sex appeal, confidence and the will to live. Josie refused to wear them outside of the library, wearing her own clothes to work and changing in the ladies’ room before starting her day. “Sorry, Doris. It was a reminder about an errand I have to run after work.”
“After work, Josephine. That’s an important distinction,” Doris retorted spitefully.
Josie didn’t say anything else. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t be wrong, so instead she just kept her mouth shut. Placing the book back on the shelf, she wheeled the cart back to its home behind the circulation desk and then used the computer there to log herself out for the day. She needed to change back into her own clothes before she saw Carter. If he ever sa
w her in the Mom pants she was currently not rocking at all, she’d die of shame.
There was a dress hiding out in the back of her closet. An impulse buy at the mall in Lexington that she’d never had the courage to wear. It was now or never, she thought.
Heading home, she took a quick shower and shaved her legs in record time. After applying lotion and perfume, she touched up her makeup and then went to her closet and retrieved the secret weapon. Slipping the dress on over her head, she tugged the zipper at the side, sucking in everything she possibly could until it finally closed.
One look at the mirror and she almost chickened out. It was cut low—impossibly, indecently, terrifyingly low. It hugged her breasts, pushing them up and amplifying them to epic proportion before nipping in at her waist and then flaring over her hips. The skirt was full but impossibly short, revealing more of her thighs than she’d ever done other than when she was at the beach. On her feet, she wore her second favorite pair of heels—black, strappy and a mile high. If she was lucky, the top of her head would actually reach his shoulder. God, she hated being short.
Before leaving the house, she grabbed her trench coat and slipped it on. The last thing she needed was her nosy neighbors seeing her slipping out of the house looking like the Whore of Babylon. They’d be on the phone to her father, reporting her sinful ways before he could even ask for an Amen.
Driving through town, most people were already home for the day. Luckily, Fontaine practically rolled up the sidewalks after five. Josie pulled her car around behind Revision. There was a small alley there where Carter kept his truck. It was cut off from the street and the only way anyone would see her car is if they actually walked behind the building. It was about as private as you could get in Fontaine where everyone on the street knew when you peed simply because your next door neighbor saw the bathroom light turn on and then called in a report.
Climbing from the car, she paused at the bottom of his steps and looked up. Carter stood in the doorway, looking straight at her, a smirk curving his lips.
“What are you looking at?” she demanded. Lord, but he got under her skin.
His smirk stretched into a full blown, devastatingly sexy grin right down to the crinkly lines at the corners of his eyes. He looked like a pirate—like a hot, sexy, fantasy pirate. “The fruits of my labor… I knew if I told you how respectable you were, you’d do your damnedest to look the opposite. You are a contrary creature, Josephine Marcum, but at the moment, that is totally working in my favor.”
She hated him. She was still going to seduce him, or maybe let him think he was seducing her. That had yet to be determined. But at some point, they were going to be naked together and she was going to come back to that whole pirate thing in a big way. Now or never, Josie. Now or never.
4
Carter watched her walking up the stairs. He wasn’t sure what the hell that dress was made of but he’d remember to say a prayer of thanks, though that would probably finish paving his road to hell. There was lots of jiggling. Why the hell women tried to avoid having things jiggle when to his mind it was the best damn thing about their bodies, he had no idea.
Every step and her perfect breasts threatened to spill out the top of that piece of lingerie that was masquerading as a dress. By the time she reached the door, he could barely breathe. He sure as hell couldn’t talk. So he just stepped back and ushered her inside.
“I’m feeling a little underdressed,” he finally managed as he walked into the kitchen and flipped the steaks he’d put on.
“Dinner? Were you expecting someone else?” she asked.
“Just you. I thought since you’d had to come all this way to retrieve your shoe, I could at least feed you,” he replied. It was a way to keep her there longer, a way to get her relaxed enough and at ease enough to charm her right out of that dress and whatever delicious things she was wearing under it.
“Carter, do you really want to have dinner with me?”
He looked back at her. It was a confusing question but she was a confusing woman. He’d learned that about her the hard way. “Why wouldn’t I want to have dinner with you?”
She perched on the arm of the couch, one leg draped over the other. How the hell she could be that short and her legs could look that long was a mystery. “Carter, we both know I’m not here for my shoe, and you didn’t invite me here for dinner… And we both know it isn’t steak that I’m hungry for. You’ve got me where you wanted me. Do something about it.”
He turned off the burner. If she wanted to be direct, that was fine with him. Closing the distance between them in three long strides, he closed his arms around her and hauled her against him. Her Cupid’s bow lips had been driving him crazy for two damn weeks, but he didn’t plan on rushing a thing.
“What are you waiting for?” Josie asked.
“Anticipation isn’t a bad thing,” Carter replied. “If you’re doing it right, it’s part of the fun.”
Carter slid his hands over her back, mostly bared by the sexy cut outs of the dress. Christ Almighty. For such a very good girl she sure as hell had a bad girl’s wardrobe.
“What did you come here for, Josie?” he asked.
“You know,” she said, her tone low and accusatory.
He did. But he wanted her to say it. He needed that. “You’ve got to be the one to say it, cupcake.”
“I want to be in your bed, Carter… and this time I don’t want to be in it alone.” Her reply was little more than a whisper as she strained towards him, coming up onto her tiptoes. “I know you’re not shy.”
He grinned at that, twining his fingers through the cascade of her dark hair. “No, baby, I’m not shy at all. But when it’s all said and done, I want us both to know that you didn’t just fall from grace… you jumped willingly.”
She laughed. “I squeezed my ass into this dress so you could peel me out of it… Think we can get to that sometime tonight?”
Carter lifted her completely and then tossed her back onto the couch. Her skirt hiked up, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of black panties. But he didn’t linger too long to enjoy the view, instead he knelt on the couch above her, his knee sliding between her silken thighs and his palms bracketing her head, caging her beneath him.
“I’ve been picturing you like this since the night I saw you dancing on that bar,” he said. “Right before you threw your shoes at me.”
The last thing Josie wanted to be reminded of was puking all over his truck and herself. That particular humiliation was dying a slow death. “Can we not talk about that now? Can we not talk right now, period? Jesus, Carter, just kiss me already!”
He did. Oh, Lord, but he did. His lips settled on hers, firm but undeniably gentle, molding to hers so completely that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. It was a slow kiss, just lips, tasting, pressing, nuzzling against hers. But still, it made her burn. Then she felt his tongue sliding between her lips, tangling with her own and she thought she’d die from it.
No one had ever kissed her that way. It was like every nerve ending in her body had simply lit up at the same time. Only their lips were touching, he was till holding himself above her. But that wasn’t what she wanted. She needed to feel the hard press of him against her, to feel the weight of him on her as she locked her legs around him.
She lifted her hands and locked them behind his neck, trying to tug him down. He was as immovable as a mountain.
He pulled back from her then, breaking that perfect kiss. “I’m too heavy for you.”
It was the story of her damn life. Just because she was little, just because she was short, everyone underestimated her, everyone thought she was some delicate little thing that needed to be handled with care. She needed Carter Hayes on her. Hell, she needed him in her. “No, you’re not. I’m short, Carter. Not fragile… Now would you please just fuck me, already?”
The look he gave her was scorching. His eyes raked over her and his hands followed suit. Then his mouth was on hers again�
��hotter, hungrier, more demanding. And she gave it back to him measure for measure. He stood suddenly, taking her with him and strode to the bedroom. Josie was still clinging to him, arms around his neck and legs locked on his hips when he laid the two of them down on the bed, his mouth never leaving hers for even a second.
Somehow, without any guidance from her, his managed to find the zipper of her dress. She couldn’t hear the rasp of the zipper sliding free over the pounding of her own heart. A low moan escaped her as his hand slipped beneath the fabric, his perfectly callused fingers grazing her ribs.
Even after she’d said the filthiest thing to him that she’d ever uttered in her life, he still wasn’t in a hurry. He was just taking his time, drawing lazy circles on her skin with the pad of his thumb. Not that it didn’t feel amazing. It did. It really did. But there were other amazing things they could do and she wanted to get to them. Preferably before she died of old age.
Then he deepened the kiss, parting her lips and sweeping inside. The sensual glide of his tongue against hers, the not so gentle nip of his teeth at her lower lip only heightened everything she felt already. Heat rushed through her, blood pooling in sensitive places, creating that delicious ache that she knew he’d ease in his own good time.
Somehow, the dress simply vanished. He’d slipped it off her arms until it was bunched around her waist, leaving her clad only in the black strapless bra she’d worn beneath it. Then it was gone entirely, stripped off her and tossed aside and she lay beneath him wearing the skimpiest lingerie she owned. He was still fully clothed. She could feel the soft, faded denim of his jeans against her thighs, the buttons of his shirt against her. It was too much. She wanted his skin on hers—she needed it.
Carter (Bourbon & Blood Book 3) Page 3