It was five after ten when I arrived at the Blue Pelican. They weren’t open yet, but I went in through the back like all the other employees anyway. My stomach was a little uneasy since Logan Carter (my soon to be ex) worked summers here too. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d say to him when I saw him again. Maybe I’d tell him off for being such a douchebag of a boyfriend, but probably not.
I found Sonya chatting with one of the cooks. She looked exactly the same as I remembered—straight blond hair framing her delicate, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a stunning blue color and her body…skinny. I used to think her figure was perfection, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Hi, Sonya,” I said, getting her attention. I thought it would be hard seeing her again—since she used to date Ben. I thought the sight of her would remind me too much of my brother, but I felt none of that seeing her.
“Gina,” she squealed. Surprise lit up her face, telling me she definitely hadn’t expected me home anytime soon. But she recovered quickly from her surprise and then gave me air kisses on both cheeks, acting all European. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m home now. I came to see you and to see if I could get my old job back.”
Her blue eyes flitted over my body. “You look…different. What were they feeding you at that psycho place anyway?”
Psycho place? “Food,” I answered.
“Well, at least your boobs are bigger,” she added.
I smiled, mock feeling my chest for a quick moment. “I know. It’s awesome!”
Sonya forced a small, resemblance of a laugh.
“Is Mr. Fletcher in today?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable all of sudden. This wasn’t going as easy as I’d imagined. “I’d love to talk to him and see if he’ll give me my old job back for the summer.”
My friend stuck her hip out and leaned against the counter. Her eyes flickered to the cook for a moment, a guy I didn’t know, and then they settled on me once more. “That’s the thing,” she said. “We’ve already hired all our summer help. You’re out of luck.”
“What?” I was dumbfounded. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
My stomach churned. She was giving me the fucking brush off! And to make this moment worse, her eyes then glanced down at my arms. I’d worn a short sleeve shirt today, momentarily forgetting that the scars on my arms from my botched suicide attempt were still very noticeable. And she’d noticed them. Not only that, she’d made a point of noticing them in front of her cook friend and anyone else who was watching us right now.
I had to get out of there!
Mumbling a quick goodbye, I fled the restaurant as quick as possible. We’d been friends since kindergarten. How could she suddenly treat me like I meant so little to her? I rushed to my car. Tears threatened to pour out, but just like the other night, they never came. Come to think of it, I was not sure if I’d cried since Ben’s funeral.
Getting in my car, I cranked the air conditioning and the music. Several minutes, maybe even a full hour passed. I was lost in a bunch of negative thoughts, counting each breath I took, waiting for this moment of pain to pass. All I really wanted to do was to call Patty, my roommate from The Cove. But cell phones weren’t allowed, and I couldn’t remember the landline number to our room. And then it occurred to me—I didn’t need Sonya.
I didn’t need my old life either.
High school was freaking over. Logan and I were freaking over. And I had a pretty good feeling that Sonya and I were pretty much dead too. Just like Logan, she hadn’t bothered calling or visiting me even once over the past four months. I’d almost died! A true friend would have been there for me.
Maybe I didn’t have my bestie since kindergarten anymore, but I did have someone else. Ellie. Patty had been my ‘ally’ at The Cove—my support system and my rock. My family had frequently visited and called, but they were too far away to be that constant I needed while I was there. I’d leaned on Patty when I’d needed her. I knew she was still only a phone call away, but in this moment I needed someone closer. I needed Ellie. And Ellie had mentioned that her mini golf place recently fired one of their employees. Maybe I could apply for a job there this summer. That sounded like a better idea than the Blue Pelican anyway.
Putting my car in drive, I headed for The Presidential Swing.
CHAPTER 7:
NOAH
Perfect. And now I was imagining things. I was sitting in the back office, putting the finishing touches on next week’s schedule, when I swear to Christ I heard Georgie’s voice. But it wasn’t her voice because she wasn’t here. It was merely Jill helping some customers and me losing my fucking mind.
Reaching for my bottle of water, I took a giant swig and blinked my eyes at the computer screen. I needed to focus and get my work done. It was past lunchtime, and I was starving. Only problem was the words on the computer screen kept blurring, as did my thoughts—it had been over two hours since I started what normally took me less than a half hour to finish.
Shit. The issue was…I was breaking all my damn rules. Rule Number One: No cuddling. Teddy bears were for cuddling (and dogs, apparently) and that was one big fat rule I’d thrown out the window last night. I wasn’t keen on relationships—they were just messy. And if or when I was ever with a woman, I sure as hell never cuddled. And yet, breaking my rules, I’d made an exception for Georgie.
Or maybe I’d made an exception for me.
I was having trouble deciding which.
All I knew was: fuck snuggling with a damn dog. That sounded plain miserable and I still wasn’t sure why Georgie had suggested it. If the way she’d rubbed against me and held onto me was any indication of her feelings—our enjoyment of last night had been mutual.
Seriously, fuck the damn dog.
“Noah?”
Someone called my name and I jumped a little in my seat. My arm bumped my water bottle off the desk, sending it straight into my lap. Liquid soaked the front of my pants. Son of a bitch. Now it looked like I pissed myself.
“Oh my, God! Noah, I’m so sorry,” Jill gasped from the doorway. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine,” I told her, patting my shorts with some computer paper. Yep, it still looked like I pissed myself. “Did you need something?”
“Yeah. There’s a girl here who wants to apply for a job. I need an application to give her.”
I stood up from my chair. Maybe I hadn’t imagined Georgie’s voice after all. I left the office and Jill, walking toward the front of the building. I found myself simultaneously relieved and apprehensive, while also pissed off and slightly turned on, when I spotted a stunning brunette standing with her arms crossed over her chest. Her blue eyes met mine.
Jesus, I had to catch my breath.
It was her hair. Georgie had this long, dark brown hair—straight, silky, and begging to be touched. It had been wet the first night she’d slept in my bed and in a ponytail last night, but it was down now. I’d always been partial to blondes, but I chucked that preference out the damn window, just as fast as I’d chucked out my no cuddling rule.
Or maybe it wasn’t her hair. Maybe the thing about her that had me so strongly wound up was her tight little body. She currently wore a faded, worn-out t-shirt that fit snuggly over her tits. I’d been thinking she’d gained a few pounds the other day and that previously she’d been too skinny. But maybe she’d always been this fucking adorable, and I’d just been the jackass who never bothered to notice.
Well, she had my full attention now. That was for damn certain.
My eyes moved back up her body and met hers once more. I’d been openly staring at her tits and instead of calling me on it or acting embarrassed, she simply smiled. “Hi Noah,” she said, huffing out a little breath of air. She seemed almost relieved to see me.
My thoughts (and my open gawking) were interrupted by the sound of the bell on the front door chiming—followed immediately by Ellie’s laughter. “Noah Clark, did you pee yourself?” She hu
ng on the glass door, our lunch from Subway in her hand, giggling her ass off. “I swear, you’re turning into the biggest klutz lately. Seriously, I need to buy a camera.”
I glanced down at my pants. They were still soaked. I stepped behind the counter where the cash register was, because in all honesty, my dick was semi-hard. I’d reacted so easily to the mere sight of a clothed Georgina that I was sporting not only wet pants but an erection, too, both of which did not need to be Ellie’s entertainment for the day. Good thing my friend was the perfect buzz-kill.
“If you buy a camera just to take embarrassing pictures of me, I will break it,” I deadpanned to her.
Ellie frowned, plopping our bag of lunch down on the counter. “Relax,” she told me. “It was a joke.” Then she turned to face Georgie. “What’s up, kiddo? How did seeing Sonya go?”
“Not as I expected,” Georgie muttered, crossing her arms a little tighter over her chest. “I came to apply for a job here instead. Do you have an application I could fill out?”
“You don’t have to fill out an application,” Ellie answered. “You’re my sister; you’re automatically hired.”
What?
“Thanks,” Georgie said. “You have no idea—”
“Wait.” Part of my brain was yelling at me to shut the hell up, which was usually what I was good at. The other part was yelling at me to do something about this. Georgie spending the entire summer working for me—that sounded like a horrible fucking idea. I was already moving into very dangerous territory with her. I needed to slow the hell down. “Maybe Georgie should have to fill out an application like everyone else,” I suggested to Ellie. “Seems unfair otherwise.”
If looks could kill then I’d be a dead man, because Ellie was gouging out my brain with her eyeballs. But still, being the complete asshole that I was, I reached into the cabinet below the counter where I knew the applications were and pulled one out. I handed the paper to Georgie. “You’ll have to fill this out just like everyone else. Oh, and we check out references so please make sure you list updated phone numbers.”
She nodded and took the paper from me.
Then I opened the Subway bag and grabbed (hopefully) what was my turkey sandwich. “I’m going to head over to the house and check on the rat traps,” I told Ellie, moving away from the counter and toward the door. “If you decide to hire Georgie, then you can be in charge of her training and whatnot.”
And with those closing words, for the first time in my life, I cut out of work early.
When I arrived home, I found that the rat traps were empty. Go figure. Ellie and I had gone to the store and bought eight of them this morning in hopes of catching my fictional rat. All eight traps were set up with different kinds of food as bait—peanut butter, cheese, raisins—in various locations around the house. At this rate, I was probably going to have to go to a pet store and buy a damn rat to release in our house. That seemed cruel though, and I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
I didn’t feel bad about lying about a rodent. Ellie would probably only tease me if she knew the truth. I did, however, feel like the scum of the earth for way I’d treated Georgie this morning. With more time to think, I wondered now what had happened with her friend Sonya. Why hadn’t her morning gone as ‘expected?’ I’d been so busy worrying about myself when I should have thought of her.
So when nine at night rolled around, and I’d cleaned our house twice—excluding Ellie and Rhett’s rooms—I decided fuck it and headed straight over to the Turner’s house. I came in through the lower level (Mrs. Turner had given me a key a few years back) and met a silent downstairs. I heard the faint sounds of people upstairs, but decided I wasn’t in the mood for conversation with anyone but Georgie.
Scribbling a quick note to Ellie, apologizing and letting her know I’d be crashing here again, I popped into my friend’s bedroom and left the note on her desk. I brushed my teeth in the downstairs bathroom, then crawled into the waterbed, hoping Georgie would come to sleep in this bed again.
And if she didn’t come sleep down here…then I was going to go upstairs and get her myself. Last night had been unexpected and not something I was used to, but it had also been special and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that.
* * *
I’d dozed off—for how long, I couldn’t be certain. But I opened my eyes to a pitch-black room.
No Georgie.
I rolled over, grabbing my phone off the nightstand. The time read just after two in the morning. Hell, I guess I was going to have to make good on my threat and bring her downstairs myself. Crawling out of the warm covers, I left the guest bedroom behind. And I was just about to head upstairs when I noticed someone asleep on the tiny couch. Even in the darkness I could tell that someone was Georgie. She was curled up in a little ball with no blankets.
Fuck, I was such an asshole.
I walked across the room and had the girl cradled in my arms a second later. She woke up, mumbling something against my chest.
“It’s only me,” I whispered, using my backside to push open the guest bedroom door and bring her into the room with me.
I gently placed her down in the middle of the water bed and climbed in beside her. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I then pulled that sexy little body of hers against my chest. Screw boundaries. Screw the moral compass inside me that kept screaming at me that this was wrong. Screw my no cuddling rule. I wanted her close to me. I wanted to breathe in the sweet scent of her all night long. And I wanted her pretty blue eyes to be the first thing I saw when I opened mine tomorrow morning.
She didn’t protest or push me away but instead nuzzled closer against me.
My fingers tingled with the need to trace up and down the curves of her body, but I fought off the feeling. Closing my eyes tight, I tried to fall back to sleep. No such luck. I was hyperaware of the girl in my arms. She seemed to be having a similar problem and kept shifting against me.
My cock twitched and strained against my pajama pants. If she was going to keep rubbing against me like this, then pretty soon I was going to act on the impulses that were begging to take control of my body.
“Georgie, sweetheart, you’ve got to stop moving,” I whispered.
Just as I said the words, her leg accidentally brushed against my length. I was so hard I could pound nails. And now she understood why I needed to her stop moving. She sucked in a sharp breath and moved out of my embrace.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“I’m not. But I certainly don’t want more than cuddling to happen tonight.”
“Maybe I should just stay on this side of the bed then…since you don’t want me like that.”
Did I hear a trace of anger in her voice?
I laughed, surprised. I guess this proved it. I hadn’t been mistaken that first morning. Georgie Turner did want me—exactly the same way I wanted her. I caught her waist and pulled back to where she belonged. My erection pushed against her hip and I let it. She needed to know how I felt. “Of course I want you like that. But I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to be a gentleman,” she whispered, so low I almost missed it.
I kissed her shoulder—because it was the closest part of her body to my face and because I wouldn’t dare kiss her mouth. Too many lines had already blurred between us.
“Not tonight,” I said and let my lips linger against her skin. Then I brushed her hair away from her face and tried my best to study her through the dark. Damn, our noses were nearly touching now and I still felt like we weren’t close enough. I licked my lips and pushed my length a little harder against her body.
Shit, I was losing control.
I’d never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life. Her fingernails dug into my arms. She wanted it, too. “Please, Georgie,” I choked out. “Distract me. Now.”
A soft moan escaped her sweet little mouth, and she only pressed her body more tightly against mine. Then, as if to torture me more, she hooked one leg high up around my hi
p. My hand was all over that leg—touching it and running my hand back and forth down the length of her thigh. It was a bare, smooth yet firm, and absolute heaven.
Holy shit.
“Seriously,” I said, moving my hands so they instead cupped her face. “I’m gonna come in my pants if we don’t stop. Tell me something. Anything. And please, stop fucking moving.”
She chuckled and removed her leg from my hip.
Thank, Christ.
“What do you want me to tell you?” she whispered.
“Anything. Whatever.” I dropped my hands away from her face—they were trembling slightly—then rolled from my side to my back. I locked my fingers behind my head so they wouldn’t be tempted to touch her again. I was relieved and sort of proud of myself for being able to stop right then. Another second longer and I would have lost myself in her. “Tell me about this morning. How come you aren’t going to be working at that Rusty Pelican place this summer?”
“The Blue Pelican,” she corrected.
“Yeah, that’s the place.”
She let loose a heavy sigh and rolled onto her back. It took her a few long moments, but then she answered my question. “Honestly, I don’t know. I thought Sonya and I were friends. And even though we didn’t talk on the phone even once while I was away at The Cove, I never expected her to be so cold to me this morning. She said they weren’t hiring at her dad’s restaurant—even though her dad loves me and I’m positive that if I’d spoken with him he would have hired me. And to make it all so much worse, right before I left, Sonya purposely looked down at my arms, in front of some of the other employees there, staring at my scars like I was some kind of freak.”
“Wait, what? Slow down. Who the fuck is Sonya?!” Whoever she was, I was instantly pissed at her. And at myself. I hadn’t been much nicer than this Sonya person when Georgie came into my business for an application this morning. I sat up. Very. Thoroughly. Distracted. And flipped on the bedside table lamp.
“Noah,” she moaned as the light blinded both our eyes.
“Who is she?” I demanded.
Kill Devil Hills Page 5