I fucking hated that question when people asked me it. My ex in high school had asked me that once when I’d found out he’d cheated on me with one of the cheerleaders. On that occasion I’d replied with a no immediately. With Jarrod, I didn’t know him enough to fully trust him because having a heavy crush on someone didn’t mean you knew all of them, so I guess I trusted some of him, so that’s what I went with.
“From what I know about you, yes, but there’s a lot of you that I don’t know.”
His lips twitched at my answer, and he didn’t even look slightly offended by it. “Ok, in that case let me reword it. Do you trust me to help you get this done and that I will get it done by the time Elodie arrives tonight?”
Now that was easier. “Absolutely.”
And then he blew my mind far away from my problems by giving me a peck on the tip of my nose, before he got up and started ordering me around as he placed me on the chair behind my desk. “First up, shut down your computer, get your shit and I’ll carry you to your car. Do you have spare keys to your house?”
“Not on me,” I choked out.
“Right, give me your keys and I’ll make sure I’m at the house when you’re done. I’ll call Bond to get him to help you out at the store so that you’re not carrying a lot of shit and hurting your ankle more,” he told me, holding his hand out.
And what was a girl to do when a six foot seven hottie was asking for the keys to her house? Well, if she had any sense, she’d drop to her knees and thank the man Maude had been thanking only thirty minutes ago, unless she was crazy and said no to him. I don’t think there was one woman alive who’d say no, though, but it was possible.
Because I couldn’t fall to my knees, I opened the drawer and got my keys out, dropping them in his hand. I had a second to take in the fact his hands were huge and as beautiful as the rest of him before he clenched his fist around them and started walking to the door.
“I’ll be back to take you to your car in two minutes, Katy,” he told me over his shoulder, before he walked out and started organizing whatever he had planned.
I went into automatic mode as I saved and shut everything down. It was only when I was looking at the black screen of the computer and Duke let out a whine next to me that I whispered, “What the hell just happened?”
Jarrod
There was one thing to be said about Piersville, and that was when you made the call for help everyone answered. Mine and Katy’s houses weren’t small, but they also weren’t huge, so having a majority of the Townsend family as well as Tabby, Jose, Rose and their men dropping in periodically to help out… her home was almost busting at the seams.
That said, Elodie’s bed was done and the furniture in her room had been laid out in a way that Maya thought was perfect for her. Unfortunately, stuff that Katy might need for the baby was scattered everywhere, and any semblance of order and organization that Katy had was now shot to shit.
Picking up some of the packaging that the bed frame had been in, I went downstairs to take it outside and stopped when I saw Luke Montgomery’s twins moving things around in one of the shelving units in the living room. It took a lot not to tell them to stop so that Katy wouldn’t have what I’d learned was like a miniature anxiety attack because the careful order that made sense to her had been screwed up, and the reason I didn’t do it was because babies were a big weakness for me. Every time I heard Jose and Ellis’s daughter Olivia cry it broke my heart and holding her was the highlight of the day it happened on, so doing something like telling off two toddlers, that was a hard limit for me.
The longer I stood watching them, though, the more I realized they weren’t just touching things or messing around with them. Far from it. In fact, they’d recognized the way Katy had put them in order and were helping her out.
I was so caught up in that realization that I didn’t notice Hurst standing beside me eating a donut and whispered, “Fuck me.”
Tossing it onto the table, Hurst groaned, “I didn’t think anything could put me off food, but the mental image of me fucking you did it.”
Walking up beside her husband, Linda snapped, “Why do you always have to sink so low, Hurst? Seriously, anyone else would ask what the issue was, but not you.”
Thankfully, there was a knock at the door that interrupted them before the argument could escalate further, although when I saw who it was I did an internal groan. Katy’s grandmother was a trip, and if her comments hadn’t been directed at me, I’d have been laughing my ass off at the person they were intended for. Sadly, they had been directed at me, and here she was again.
Shaking it off, I shot her a grin. “Hey, Maude. We’re almost done getting things together for Elodie.”
Looking around the room, her eyes wide as all the men stopped and waved at her at the same time, she mumbled, “I’m seeing that.”
Before anyone could introduce themselves to her, my brothers arrived carrying bags of shit.
“Yo, we’ve got pink fluffy crap, girly stuff, a teddy bear that was giving sad eyes, lacy underwear for Katy, edible body glitter, and…” Bond broke off when he saw everyone watching him, including two toddlers who were smarter than people knew. “Damn, how come every time we come to Katy’s it’s full of people. It’s like party central.”
Maude spun around to look at the newcomers and her hand shot up to the neckline of her t-shirt like it had earlier. “Sweet Jesus.”
Giving her one of his signature grins, Canon winked. “Name’s Canon Kline. I’m Jarrod’s favorite brother.”
Thus started the fanning. “Sweet Lord.”
Not to be outdone, Reid reached around and held his hand out. “Reid Kline, Jarrod’s best looking brother.”
Slowly Maude reached her own hand out and about fainted when he kissed the top of it. Total Reid.
With a cocky grin tipping up one side of his mouth, Bond leaned down and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Name’s Bond.”
Maude tipped slightly when he straightened back up again and breathed, “Holy Mary in a manger.”
Figuring that I’d help her out before she started going through every name in the bible, I called, “That’s Katy’s grandma, Maude. Maude, those are my brothers, and if you’d like I can introduce you to all the other people helping out?”
Twisting to look back at me and taking in the guys standing behind me, Maude started fanning herself harder than before. “Katy’s got three bedrooms, I’m thinking I feel the need to move in. I’m at that age, you know, the one where I need assistance.”
Holding his arm out to her, Bond said, “Well let me escort you into your new home, beautiful lady.”
I swear I saw her shudder slightly as she reached out to take it. “Jesus take the wheel and drive me to heaven.”
“Don’t go leaving us too soon now, beautiful Maude, you hear?” Bond frowned down at her playfully, making a blush burn on her cheeks.
“Oh, they’re good,” Linda muttered, watching it all. “I mean, they’re good to look at, but when it comes to charming the granny panties off an old woman, they’re really good.”
“That working on your granny panties, too?” Hurst asked, chuckling at the look on his wife’s face.
Shooting him a glare, she snapped, “I don’t wear granny panties, Townsend, something you know well.”
Ok, now I wanted Jesus to take the wheel and drive me away from that information. We could crash and burn and I’d be ok with that.
The sound of car doors closing came from outside the house and I looked around wondering who else it could possibly be. If anyone else turned up, the walls between our homes would probably collapse. Thankfully, this time it was Katy who’d arrived home, and who was carrying in bags of groceries with her eyes looking at the floor. Crossing the room, I was almost at her when she lifted her head and froze in place when she saw everyone.
Reaching down, I took some bags from her. “We got it all done, but people have brought some shit over they thought you might need for Elodie
. I’m not sure where you want it to go, but if you tell us, we’ll get on that now.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered, looking around. I wasn’t sure if it was anxiety because people were in her place and moving her stuff, or if it was shock that there were so many of us there.
“I made some calls and asked for help, but Ren and Cole had also made some calls and asked for help…” I trailed off, trying to explain it all.
“Mom sent us shopping to get girl shit,” Canon announced as he walked past us to go outside again. “It’s on the side in the kitchen. I’ll just go get the rest of your bags out the car.”
With that he walked out, leaving Katy watching him with her mouth open. “Holy shit.”
“Katarianne,” Maude called, getting her focus back on the room. “Neo’s the one bringing Elodie over, so I said I’d be here to get kisses from my son and grandbaby. I was going to offer to help, but the hotties seem to have done that anyway, so now I’m free to just sit and watch,” she announced, sitting down on the couch next to where Linda was now sitting. “Oh, it’s such a good day.”
“Your grandmother says she’s moving in,” Bond told Katy as he carried out one of the boxes from upstairs. “Gotta say, at this rate I’ll be moving in, too.”
That brought her out of whatever haze she was in. “You’re not moving in, Maude,” she snapped, leaning around to see behind me. “Every time you come to stay, I wake up with rollers in my hair that you’ve already sprayed with that cement mix you call hairspray. Last time it took five shampoos to get it out.”
Patting the side of her bouffant nonchalantly, Maude shrugged, “It’s a good look, I can’t help it if you want boring flat hair because you have no taste.”
Straightening back up again, Katy whispered, “She teased my hair so much that I had to sit with conditioner on it for an hour just to get a brush through it. It was out to here.” She held her hands about a foot away from her head.
Judging by the height that the lady had going on with her own hair, I didn’t doubt that there was no exaggeration on this at all.
Bond and Canon came back in, both of them loaded down with bags, and the ladies all appeared from where they’d been upstairs and started working on sorting it out in the kitchen.
Watching it all, Katy kept her voice low. “How many people are in my house?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” I muttered back. “It’s a lot, though.”
Hearing this, she drew in a shaky breath and then looked around the place again, stopping when she saw the twins still working on their creation. It looked like she was about to freak out, but then her head tipped to the side. “Holy shit, I couldn’t figure out why that was bugging me so much. I had them in order of color and author in the individual sections, but something was really wrong with it. It’s the heights of the books I should have gone with, not the author.”
See, those guys had figured it out. Watching them, they stood back and nodded at each other and then turned and moved toward the stairs. My hope was that they were headed to the bedroom we’d just set up to work on the shit waiting to be put away.
“Knock, knock,” a deep voice called from the doorway, and I saw a tall guy holding a little girl with dark brown ringlets. “Someone’s come for a sleepover with her Katy.”
Hearing the name, the girl looked up from where she’d been playing with the collar of the man’s shirt and searched the room, stopping on ‘her Katy’. The smile that took over her face would have melted even an iron heart, and I didn’t have one of those, so I swear mine took flight. She was gorgeous!
“‘Lodie,” Katy cooed, walking up to her and catching her just as the little girl launched herself out of who I presumed was her uncle’s arms. Bringing her close to her chest and leaning her face into the baby’s neck, she sighed, “There’s my precious ‘Lodie.”
A big hand clamped down on my shoulder and Reid muttered, “Shit, man, I’m gonna cry. I don’t have ovaries, but even mine are screaming out right now.”
My brother was a goof, but he wasn’t wrong.
* * *
Five hours later…
We’d left Katy and Elodie to do their thing two hours ago after ordering in enough pizza to feed Nairobi, and now I was looking at the work I did outside of the garage and wondering if Katy knew about it. It was unlikely seeing as how I’d only told Tabby and Jose about it, but never say never.
“So, we’re going to go through chapters five to nine tonight,” Karen, the female narrator for the book told me. “We’re slightly behind so we have to catch up. You good with that?”
This was the first time I’d ever done a narration with someone and so far it had been ok, but now we were getting into the sex scenes of this book and I’d been dreading it. When Tabby had made the joke about me being an erotic book narrator, I’d laughed it off, but over a matter of days the idea had stuck and I’d looked into it. In the space of eighteen months, I’d narrated seven books, with this being my eighth, and I enjoyed it. I also liked the fact that few people knew I was doing it, and for once I didn’t have eyes watching me.
This was one of my biggest hang-ups, and I knew it was something that my brothers sometimes had issues with, too. For as far back as I could remember, I had eyes on me. I was the longest baby the hospital had ever had when I was born and it had made the newspapers. I was the tallest kid in my class throughout school. I had a deep voice and liked to sing – something I did without realizing it – so again, attention. I had eyes that drew attention, too. And I hated it. I wasn’t comfortable with it at all and never had been. When all the guys in my class were planning which girls they were going to ask out, I was thinking of ways to turn dates down. I just didn’t see what they saw and when things were pointed out about my appearance or singing to me, it made me feel awkward and unsure.
That didn’t mean I’d lived like a monk, hell no. I’d had girlfriends, some great - some not so great, but they were all females who were clever, quiet, and who didn’t go out looking for attention. All I wanted was peace.
So having this secret, I could do something for me that no one knew about.
“Ok,” I agreed, pulling up the book in front of me.
I currently had my computer on with the recording equipment and software ready to go, my iPad, which was what had the book on it, and my phone that was on speakerphone with Karen.
“We’re going to switch to the dual recording function, so you’ll be able to hear me while I read, but you can hang your phone up,” she said, and I heard the sound of rustling after it.
Agreeing and going into the recording file, I hung up and got ready to go.
This should be easy enough. I was the main voice for this chapter and she would read the female parts, then she was the main voice for the next chapter and I’d read the male parts. How hard could it be?
Katy
Elodie was finally asleep in her bed in her kick-ass room, so I went about getting ready in my own room. It had been a freaking long day, and I was now running on fumes, so the only thing I wanted was my comfy bed that felt like I was sleeping on a cloud.
Padding across the rug, I’d just sat down when I heard the deep tones of Jarrod through the wall. That was unusual because I was certain he’d said his study was the room I shared a wall with, and it sounded like he was talking to someone.
Leaning closer and trying not to breathe so I could hear it, I listened in. And this is where the saying curiosity killed the cat most likely came from – but it was curiosity killed the Katy heart.
I shouldn’t have listened in, or I should have put the last episode of The Witcher on seeing as how I’d fallen asleep during it when I’d watched it at Jarrod’s.
“You’re going to take five from my hand, baby,” his deep voice said. “Once you’ve had your punishment, I’m going to eat you and fuck you.”
“I don’t think I earned five,” a female voice argued.
“Keep going and I’ll double it. Now take your punishm
ent and you’ll get your rewards.”
“Yes, Master.”
What. The. Fuck.
There was a pause and then he said, “I love my baby’s pussy. It’s so tight, hot, wet… fucking sweet. Never had pussy like it, never.”
There was another pause, and then, “Harder, Master. Baby wants it hard.”
Ever felt like someone had stuck a spoon in your chest, one of those soup ladle ones, and just ripped your heart out? That’s what I felt at that moment. Not only was the crush I’d had on Jarrod shattered, but he was fucking someone in the room next to mine. Did he know I could hear it? Was he doing it to make a point?
Curling up on my side, I put my pillow over my head and struggled to breathe through the tears that were coming. They were at that point where it felt like you had a tidal wave coming up from your chest, so much so that your sinuses were clogged, you couldn’t swallow around it, but you hadn’t even shed a tear yet.
I’d gone from flying high to crashing to the ground in twenty-four hours, as had my hopes and dreams that were based on Jarrod Kline.
Seven
Jarrod
It was fair to say I disliked dual narration books. It might be different if we read the scenes independently and meshed them together, but at the same time? Total dislike.
Closing my front door behind me, I stepped over the short fence that separated my garden from Katy’s and walked to her front door. I’d said I’d watch Elodie while she showered until they established a routine, so that’s what I was doing now.
Knocking on the door, I waited, then knocked again. Finally, it opened, and I saw Katy in a hoodie and shorts with Elodie waving at me on her hip.
“Morning, ladies,” I held my hands out to the baby and waited to see what she’d do. After a short assessment, she held her own out to me, so I leaned in and picked her up. “Have you had breakfast, Miss Elodie?”
She gave back some giggles and head nods as Katy moved back from the door - further than she normally would - to let me in.
Talk Flirty To Me: Cheap Thrills Series Book 4 Page 7