The Boy Next Door

by ann anders

  Penny was old – and worse than that – she felt old.

  She pressed the unlock button on her key ring, and at the curb in front of her house, the lights on her Sentra flashed. Hell, even her car was responsible and grown up.

  “What do you drive? When you can?” she added. She barely stopped herself from making a joke about him being too young to drive.

  “I have an old jeep. It’s back in Colorado Springs. A little rough, but she gets me where I need to go… usually.” There was that half smile again. “Didn’t make sense to buy something newer when I knew I’d be deployed.”

  “Huh.” Penny grunted.

  Practical and pretty.

  Chapter Two

  Old Enough

  C haz was used to girls fawning all over him. Girls who hung around the base hoping to land a pilot. And then there had been the nurses ….

  The absence of any flirty overtures made this neighbor lady intriguing. Not that she wasn’t already. Intriguing, that was.

  She was hot. In a different way than he was used to.

  No makeup, no glossy hairdo, or skimpy clothing. In fact, her clothes kind of just hung on her. She wore an old T-shirt from a 5K race and some cut-off jean shorts that weren’t nearly short enough…but there was something about her…

  Absolute ignorance as to the sexual vibes she was putting out. She could ignore it all she wanted but she wasn’t fooling him. Not that she was horny, necessarily. But like she’d been lost in a sexless vacuum for years.

  Yeah, she did something for him.

  “What’s your name?” He’d wondered for a while now.

  “Penny. You?” She eyed him across the roof of her car. “Do you need me to get the door?”

  He was now holding the measuring cup in his good hand. He transferred it to his other hand again and opened the door with his left. “I got it. Chaz.”

  And then she laughed.

  “What?”

  But then she shook her head. “Nice to meet you… Chaz. Is that your real name or is it short for something else?”

  “Short for Charles Ezekiel.” He climbed into the passenger seat carefully. Damn, his shoulder was throbbing again. Once seated, he reached across himself to close the door but lacked the flexibility to grab ahold of it.

  God damnit!

  But then she was leaning across him. “I’ve got it.”

  Soft curves squashed against his chest and arms. His bad shoulder nearly had him crying out in pain but everything else enjoyed the sensations her endeavor evoked.

  She didn’t smell like flowery perfume or berry lotion that most girls wore. She smelled warm and sweet, uniquely woman.

  He placed his left hand along the back of her seat, freeing up some space for her to reach the door. She twisted and leaned across him further and he couldn’t help but let his hand fall to her lower back. Her shirt had ridden up so his hand rested on silky skin, just above her shorts.

  Without thinking, he inched it downward, inside the waistband…

  She jolted backward into her seat, hazel eyes wide open. He wasn’t sure if this was from exasperation or outrage.

  “I’m gonna have to get it from outside.”

  Flushed and a little out of breath, she looked everywhere but at him.

  After fumbling with her own door handle a few seconds, she jumped out of the car, ran around it, and without warning, slammed his door shut.

  When she climbed back in and reached for her seatbelt, she was even more flustered than she’d been before.

  There was no way Chaz could reach the safety strap hanging above and behind his right shoulder. She glanced at him as though waiting for him to do up his seat belt and then paused. Did he deserve to be safely strapped into the vehicle? He could almost see her thoughts churning as she contemplated the steering wheel.

  She unstrapped herself and reached across him again. “I don’t want a ticket.” She half grunted, half spoke the words.

  Chaz lifted his left hand again so that it was partially around her. He wondered if she’d kick him out of the vehicle if she realized how much this was turning him on.

  As she bent over and across him, this time he let his hand land on the sweet curve of her denim-clad ass.

  And leaned his face into her throat. The skin there tempted him.

  She froze, half lying over his lap. “Where the heck is it?” She was fumbling around with something at the other side of his seat.

  Chaz lowered his hand to the back of her thigh.

  Those shorts were definitely not short enough. If they’d been a little shorter, he could have slipped his fingers under the leg and… She flinched and flew off him.

  “Got it.” She fell back into her seat and pulled the belt around him.

  More fumbling at his side, and he was safely ensconced in her car.

  He grinned. He wanted to make some sort of comment about being strapped up by a woman but thought better of it.

  She already seemed a little freaked out.

  With the touch of a button, the car purred to life. “Fancy,” he commented. She may have been a little freaked out but she was also as turned on as him.

  Even thru her bra, he could see the change in her breasts.

  A tiny bead of sweat dripped down the side of her face.

  “How old are you?” she asked out of nowhere. A little breathy.

  “Old enough.” He didn’t think about age anymore. He was twenty-seven but seeing so many people die over the last five years had made him realize how inconsequential something like age was.

  All that mattered was today. Now.

  She looked at him and rolled her eyes. “What branch are you in?”

  “Navy,” he responded automatically. But then added, “Was. I was in the navy.” That part made him feel a little sick.

  “You aren’t going back?” Her question hammered him.

  “Honestly, I have no idea. Too many concussions. They don’t like pilots who could black out in the cockpit.”

  She stopped for one of only three traffic lights in town. “That sucks. So, this wasn’t your first injury?”

  “It was but when I was in the hospital, they pulled my medical record. In addition to the head injury I got from the explosion, they discovered all the fucking concussions I’d got playing football.”

  “Oh.” She switched the blinker on and pulled into the City Market parking lot. “Yeah, that pretty much sucks.”

  He liked that. He liked that she didn’t try to console him by listing all the other things he could do with his life. Or that he should be grateful to be alive. He’d spent his entire life wanting to be a pilot, God damnit!

  Chaz swallowed hard. He hated thinking about not flying again. Let alone talking about it.

  She parked, cut the engine, and then didn’t move. She just stared at the steering wheel. “You think you have your whole life figured out, and somehow it just falls apart.”

  He watched her profile. Here was a woman with a past. And then she blinked a few times and twisted her lips into something that was probably supposed to be a smile. A little robot-like, she turned and unclasped both their seatbelts. “Don’t move, I’ll come around.”

  A few seconds later, she pulled the door open and then reached in to help him out.

  “I hate this,” he mumbled. Except he didn’t hate her touching him. He hated that he was injured. He hated that he’d had to come and stay at his parents’ house. It made him feel so fucking helpless.

  “You okay?” She steadied him as he stood up. “You don’t think walking around the store might be too much?”

  Chaz shook his head. Fuck! He felt lightheaded and stupidly weak. Next thing he knew, he’d be bursting into tears.

  “I’m fine.” But his voice sounded gruff.

  He forced himself to stand up straight and take long strides into the store. She grabbed a basket that had been abandoned outside and glanced sideways at him. “You sure you’re up to this? You can wait in the car if you want. I�
�ll get the milk.”

  The idea sounded good in theory. But he liked being around her. He’d pushed himself through worse than this. “I’m good.” Placing his left hand on her back, he steered her through the door.

  She shivered.

  He liked walking behind her, guiding her with his hand. He also would have liked to bend her over the shopping cart and press up behind her.

  “What’s on your list?” he asked near her ear. “Other than milk.”

  She shivered again. The testosterone in him picked up every signal she sent out.

  It was obvious.

  She needed to get laid. Preferably by him.

  She paused as though suddenly confused about where she was, about where she was going.

  Chaz took one step closer. His left hand slid around her waistband and landed on her stomach.

  “Um, Chaz.” She dropped her hand over his and pushed it away. “You’re a really sweet kid, and all that, really cute.” She pushed the cart forward, forcing some distance between the two of them. “But I am way too old for you.”

  He caught up easily.

  “How old is too old?” he probed. This wasn’t anywhere near a problem for him.

  “Thirty-six. Ancient. How old are you? Twenty-one? Twenty-two?”

  “Hah, twenty-seven, nearly thirty.” She turned and headed toward the frozen foods.

  He followed, allowing her a little space this time. He nearly chuckled at himself. The last time he’d rounded up his age to sound older he’d been fifteen.

  “A decade. An entire decade.” She stopped in front of the Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers dinners. Opening the freezer door, she reached in and picked out two lasagna dinners, two spaghetti dinners, and two chicken fettuccine and tossed them all in the basket.

  Chaz flinched at the thought of all the preservatives she was going to consume.

  “You on a diet or something?”

  She counted the meals in her basket and let the door slam shut on the freezer case. “I don’t cook.” She shrugged.

  The next aisle she led him to was the one for sodas and sugary drinks. He was relieved when she proceeded to load the cart up with bottles of Perrier.

  “A decade is nothing. In the grand scheme of things.”

  Then she picked out coffee and artificially flavored creamer.

  “I’m also cynical and divorced.”

  And a box of donuts.

  “You’re a strange woman, Penny.” He carried the half gallon of milk for his mom up to the register before realizing he didn’t have his wallet on him.

  She looked at him, though, and guessed. Grabbing the carton from him, she sat it on the conveyor belt and pulled her own wallet out.

  “Not strange, realistic.”

  He could argue with her. He could tell her about the lives he’d been unable to save, lives of innocent kids who’d witnessed an eternity of hell.

  Death was a deal breaker. All bets were off.

  A decade. A divorce. They meant nothing.

  He’d simply have to convince her.

  Chapter Three

  Absolutely Perfect

  C haz.

  Oh, my god, even his name is too young for me! Except that he wasn’t as young as she’d thought… if he was telling the truth.

  He was sweet.

  And oh my God! So sexy!

  At first, she’d thought it had been an accident. His touching her when she leaned over him in the car. She’d been worrying that her pit check hadn’t been enough and then she’d felt his hand on her back… and then... lower.

  Neither time had been an accident.

  And then in the store, it had taken all the self-control she could muster not to back up against him – the tiniest bit.

  He could not have been any more different from Kent.

  And Kent was the only man she’d been with in over fifteen years!

  Penny hadn’t had boyfriends in high school, and the relationships in college before Kent had been more about experimentation than anything else.

  She’d never even had the chance to consider what it would be like to be with somebody like this Chaz kid.

  Except… he didn’t seem so much like a kid anymore. There was something in his eyes – not sadness but wisdom.

  Which made no sense at all.

  She needed to stop thinking about him. Of course, he was only playing with her. He was a pilot, or had been anyway.

  Pilots were the cockiest species of man that existed.

  And he was a flirt.

  Oh, yeah, he’d wanted to have a little fun. He’d mentioned he was bored, hadn’t he? Nothing like stirring up the old girl next door.

  Penny stripped her clothes off and climbed into the shower.

  She rubbed soap over her neck and arms and let the hot water cascade down her body.

  Closing her eyes, she couldn’t help recalling the moment they entered the store. It had felt so very, very good when he’d put his hand on her back. When his fingers caressed her stomach… He’d done it so tenderly…

  She hadn’t imagined the heat coming from him, his strength and what had felt like protection. He’d stirred more than sexual arousal in her. He’d awakened her need for human contact, damn him.

  Inexplicably, she choked on a sob.

  Being touched, barely touched like that, ought not to affect her like this.

  Crumpling under the weight of unwanted emotion, she slid down the tile and then huddled on the floor.

  Water pelted her from above.

  Another sob, another.

  And suddenly she let out a wail.

  She’d put all of that behind her. Feeling like a woman, feeling just a little bit beautiful, worthwhile… like she mattered.

  It shouldn’t hurt like this.

  Feeling again.

  But she was. Both hurting and feeling. She let the water roll over her. She’d not cried in a lifetime. She’d been pretending everything was okay, living the only way she could.

  Weeping pitiably, she didn’t stand back up until the water turned cold.

  “Fuck!” She fell forward and crawled out from under the spray. “Fuckity frick flipping frack!”

  Nothing like a cold shower to bring her to the end of her bout of self-pity.

  She shampooed, rinsed, scrubbed, and climbed out as quickly as possible. By the time she wrapped herself in her big towel, goosebumps covered her skin.

  She was okay though.

  Now that that was over.

  As she padded, barefoot, across the old wooden floor toward her bedroom, she bit her lip and then changed her route to head for the office. Shadows filled the room, light from outside barely filtering in through the curtains and the blinds. She didn’t flip the light switch on.

  Was he in there now? She adjusted her towel.

  Probably sleeping. He’d probably come home, taken a pain pill and then passed out on the bed.

  She peeled back the curtain just a few inches and peered through the bent slats of her blinds.

  Not sleeping.

  He was sitting on the bed, kind of sideways, but away from her, wearing…

  Nothing!

  The only thing covering the lean sinews of his muscles and all that beautiful skin was that damn bandage.

  He stood up and lifted one foot to the bed. Long and powerful, the muscles in his legs just as defined as his chest, and arms, and abs…

  Penny slid the curtain open wider and pushed the blinds aside. His head bent, his face was turned away from her.

  He could not see her from where he stood. She was safe.

  And then he reached down. What on earth? Oh, God, he’d taken hold of himself.

  A cloud moved and the sunlight hit him perfectly. His manhood jutted out and upwards. Penny swallowed hard and shifted uncomfortably.

  Was he doing what she thought he was doing?

  Just then his head tilted back and his arm began moving in a suggestive manner. Penny froze. She should step away from the window. She s
hould let the window coverings fall back into place and leave the office.

  Right now – this very instant!

  But she couldn’t.

  Her feet refused to step back. Her hand refused to release the blind.

  She just stood there, watching the muscles of his arms and throat as he tensed and stroked.

  She imagined his cock, purple and angry, straining upward beneath his hand. He might be moving his thumb in tiny movements around the tip. Feeling a little short of breath, Penny shifted again and her towel loosened.

  She ignored it.

  Heat spread to her center and an urgent pulsing between her legs grew in intensity.

  Almost without thinking, she allowed her hand to drift downwards – past her belly – into the soft tuffs of her hair – lower.

  The sensitive flesh there was already wet and swollen.

  Next door, in the room across the way, his movements quickened.

  She licked her lips and began rubbing herself, slowly at first – and then faster. It didn’t take long for her strokes to match the rhythm he’d set.

  Gazing into the window from beneath heavy lids, Penny could barely focus now. And then his hips jerked forward. Her towel dropped to the floor but she didn’t care. He couldn’t see her. It didn’t matter that she was standing, naked, leaning into the glass.

  The light was off in the office. This wasn’t real. It was as though she didn’t exist.

  She didn’t want to stop.

  She didn’t want him to stop.

  The speed of his motions increased in vigor and intensity. Penny could barely stand up. Her legs had turned to jelly and her knees nearly buckled, but she was so close. She continued watching him, touching herself, moving in concert with his pace.

  Penny imagined it was him touching her, and her touching him. Tension grew. All of her energy, all of her concentration, focused on the touch of her own hand and the vision that was Chaz.

  She reached up with her other hand and rubbed, squeezed, and then pinched her breast.

  At the same time, he jerked fast, fast, and then hard forward, the muscles in his neck straining.

  She fantasized him coming inside of her, his cock reaching for her womb, spreading her, filling her.