Roommating (Preston's Mill #1) (9 page)

She merely stared at him with a tight smile and practically
dove for the check when it arrived.

“What’s the hurry?” Chris asked.

“We have a movie to get to.”

“Ooo! A movie!” Janet said with delight. “That sounds like
fun. Chris, we should go too!”

His thoughts exactly.

By the time Dave got back to the table, things were already
in motion, and he seemed equally pleased for them to be continuing with their
double-date.

“We’ll meet you over there,” Chris said.

“Nah, the parking is going to be crazy. It’s such a small
lot. Goes with the whole one-tiny-theater-in-town when there’s a new movie out.
You can just ride with us.”

“That’s not really necessary,” Heather argued lightly, but
no one was listening. Within minutes, they were all seated in Dave’s SUV and
heading across town to the theater.

“So we’re seeing that new Western, right?” Chris asked.

“No,” Heather interrupted. “We’re seeing the romantic comedy.”

“Oh, well that’s too bad. Because I heard the Western—”

“Is not what we’re seeing.” she quickly cut in.

“I didn’t think you were serious, Heather,” Dave said,
glancing over at her as he drove. “I mean, I guess it’s not the worst thing to
see but I’m with Chris on this one. I’d really like to see the Western.”

If he could have high-fived himself without looking like a
complete ass, Chris would have done it.

They made it across town, parked, had their tickets in hand,
and were walking into the theater in no time. Janet tried to hold his hand, but
Chris didn’t want to lead her on. Better to keep it casual. He already knew
they weren’t going to go on a second date, so he wanted to at least be decent
about it.

As they made their way to their seats, Chris felt like he
was stuck in a time warp. The theater was tiny, and although there were two
screens in the building, each theater was small and out of date, carrying
movies released several months earlier. He thought about some of the massive
multiplex theaters he’d seen while he traveled and couldn’t help but wonder how
Preston had stayed behind the times. Although, as he looked around, he noted
how the building would benefit from a historical-style rehab. Maybe they’d have
to look into that.

He turned to mention it to Heather, but she was glaring at
him.

As she had been for the last eighty-seven minutes.

They found seats and—as it turned out—he ended up sitting
next to Heather. “What do you think about a rehab on this place?” he whispered.

“What do you think about going to hell,” she replied
pleasantly.

“Aww, don’t be mad. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this movie just as
much as that chick flick. You want some popcorn?”

Heather looked at him like he was crazy. She looked at Dave
and then Janet. Then to her lap and back at Chris. “Do you see any popcorn
here?”

He rolled his eyes. “I meant that I was going to get some
and was asking if you wanted any too. Sheesh. Unclench.”

“Un…” she sputtered to say something else, but he simply
patted her hand and stood up.

“Believe it or not, I know we just finished dinner, but I
can’t watch a movie without popcorn. Anyone interested?”

Dave was just about to answer when his cellphone rang. He
held up a hand to them and Chris turned to Janet. “You want anything? Soda? Candy?”

But she was looking over at Dave. “Um, no. I’m good.”

He shrugged, stepped around her, and went out to the lobby
and bought their largest bucket of popcorn, a Coke and a box of Snow Caps. Everyone
liked them, right? With his arms full, he made his way back to his seat and
noticed that Dave was still on the phone, Janet was texting on her phone, and
Heather was looking extremely peeved at the whole situation.

“Snow Cap?” he asked, shaking the box in her direction after
he sat down.

“No, thank you.”

He turned to Janet, but she declined too.

The lights went down, and Dave excused himself to go finish
his call. So Chris was left sitting between Heather and Janet and was suddenly
not feeling so comfortable. Janet had noticeably started leaning away from him—as
did Heather—and he had enough junk food to feed all four of them, but no one
was eating.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

The movie started, and then Chris forgot all about the
ridiculous situation and let himself get sucked into the story. He noticed that
after a little while, Dave had come back and Heather was sharing his popcorn. Two
hours later, when it was over, they all stood and stretched. The popcorn was
long gone, his drink was empty, but the Snow Caps remained. Not a big deal, he
thought. They certainly wouldn’t go to waste.

Heather was quiet as they walked out. Janet had enjoyed the
movie and was talking about it, a lot.

With Dave.

What the…

It didn’t matter. If anything, it made things a little less
awkward right now. They climbed back into Dave’s SUV and returned to the
restaurant where Chris was parked.

“Look, maybe this is a bit…strange,” Dave said, “but it
would probably be easier if I took Janet home and the two of you went together
since, you know, you live together.”

“You live together?” Janet cried. “You never mentioned
that!”

“It’s not what you think,” both he and Heather replied at
the same time, but then neither bothered to explain. What was the point?

In minutes, they were climbing out of Dave’s SUV. Janet
thanked Chris for a nice night but made no mention of doing it again. And from
what he could hear, Dave wasn’t asking for another date either.

They stood and watched Dave and Janet drive off before Chris
shrugged and began to walk over to his truck. He had it unlocked and the door
open before he realized Heather hadn’t followed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She didn’t answer.

He sighed wearily. “Come on, Heather,” he began. “We should
get home. Lucy’s probably dying to go out.” He knew that the mention of her dog
would get her to move.

And it did.

They drove in silence. Weird, tense silence. The kind of
silence that made you dread what was going to happen next.

By the time they were back at the apartment, Chris didn’t
even wait for her. He made his way inside, up the stairs, and down the hall—thankful
that Estelle was probably asleep—and straight to their door. Sure enough, Lucy
was dancing around anxiously, and rather than wait for Heather, he grabbed her
leash and made his way back down the stairs, passing Heather along the way, who
didn’t even stop to acknowledge the dog.

Definitely not a good sign.

When Lucy had done her business, they went back inside, and
dread was slowly creeping up his spine. As an act of preservation, he picked
the dog up and cradled her to his chest—certain that if Heather was going to do
anything to him, she’d reconsider if he was holding the dog.

He was perfectly fine with using the dog as a shield.

And being a coward.

Back in the apartment, all was quiet. Too quiet. He kept
Lucy in his arms, and she was licking his chin, perfectly content that she was
getting this attention. He walked around a bit and tried to figure out where Heather
was and what she was going to do.

Behind him, he heard a noise and turned and saw Heather
standing in the doorway to her bedroom. She looked at him, then Lucy and then
back at him, one perfectly arched brow mocking him. “Give me my dog.”

He shifted and held Lucy a little more securely against him.
“Why?”

“Because I’m asking you to.” Her voice was very calm. Eerily
so.

“Um, she can just hang with me for a bit. We’ll watch some
TV.”

Heather took a step toward him. “Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“Give me my dog,” she repeated.

Crap. Slowly, he crouched down and let Lucy go. He stood up
just as slowly. “Look, Heather, about—”

“Where are the Snow Caps?”

“What?”

“The Snow Caps. Where are they?”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled the unopened box
out and held it out to her. “You want some?”

She took the box from his hands and smiled tightly at him. Chris
thought he was out of the woods, that maybe he was making more out of this than
there was, when she called his name. He turned and was hit square between the
eyes with the box of candy.

“Dammit, Heather! What the hell?”

Heather couldn’t remember ever being
so angry with anyone.

In her entire life.

Except maybe Chris himself, when he’d walked out on her dad
and the business three years ago.

She wasn’t even sure where the anger had come from. It had
just been building throughout the evening and culminating her conflicted
feelings over the last few weeks. She’d tossed the Snow Caps, thinking they’d
land on the floor and make a satisfying thud.

But the box was heavier than she’d expected, and her aim had
been surprisingly good. She blinked in surprise when the box hit Chris in the
face.

She’d been furious, but she certainly hadn’t intended to hit
him in the face.

“What the hell?” he growled again, looking genuinely angry
for the first time that evening.

“Sorry,” she gasped, still processing her surprise at the
accuracy of her aim. “I didn’t mean to…I mean, not that you don’t deserve it,
but—”

He scowled at her. “Why the hell did I deserve that?”

He sounded so sincerely outraged that she suddenly
remembered all of her righteous indignation. How dare he make himself sound
innocent and her sound guilty, when he was the one who had always been an ass?

“You know damned well why you deserve it,” she snapped.
“What were you thinking, sabotaging my date that way?”

“I didn’t sabotage your date. I was just being friendly.
What the hell?” He muttered out the last words, and he was actually turning
away, as if he were fed up with her.

As if he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Heather didn’t know what had gotten into her. She never lost
control, and she almost never reacted with anger. She was normally a
peace-maker, trying to make sure everyone else was happy. But this was
absolutely the last straw with Chris—acting like she was unreasonable and he
was completely blameless. It was like some sort of alien force had taken over
her body, and there was no way she could stop her hands from clenching into
fists at her sides or her mouth from saying what she knew would only make the
argument worse. “You were
not
being friendly! Do you really think I’m
that stupid? You can act innocent all you want, but I know you did it on
purpose.”

Chris turned back around with a jerk, his eyes narrowing
over obvious resentment. “You’re imagining things,” he said, slightly more
controlled than she was.

“I am not imagining anything. You knew I didn’t want me and
Dave to hang out with you and Janet, but you maneuvered it anyway. You managed
to ruin the whole evening for me, and you did it on purpose.”

“Why would I try to ruin the evening for you?”

“I have no idea, but you did! And now you’re acting like you
didn’t do anything. Go ahead and make me sound irrational and melodramatic,
just like you did before when I was mad at you for leaving my dad the way you
did. But you were wrong then, and you’re wrong now, and I’m not just going to
put up with it anymore.”

That was another thing she hadn’t intended to say. Best not
to bring up their conflict from the past, since it was a sure way to cause
things to unravel between them now. But she’d done it anyway. She just couldn’t
seem to help it.

His eyes flashed darkly. “So now you’re throwing that in my
face too? What the hell do you expect from me, anyway?”

“I expect you to be a decent guy. I expect you to care about
other people’s feelings. One day, I’m going to have to learn that’s just way
too much to expect from you.”

“Damn it, Heather. You know that’s not fair.”

“Not fair? You’re the one who pushed his way into my date,
just to be an ass.”

“I didn’t do anything to your date.”

“If you didn’t do anything, then why is my date going home
with another woman?” Heather actually didn’t care that much about Dave. She
wouldn’t have minded at all if this was the only date she ever had with him.
She didn’t even mind that much that he’d seemed, at the end of the evening,
more interested in Janet than in her.

What she minded was that Chris had somehow engineered the
disaster of the evening.

“He was just taking Janet home,” Chris said, sounding more
natural now, as if he’d gotten his own feelings under a tighter rein.

“Yeah, sure he was. Maybe your date was just a prop to you,
but Dave wasn’t just a prop to me.”

Chris immediately snapped back into anger. “What is that
supposed to mean? You really think I just use people that way?”

“I don’t know. Do you?”

“No! And I didn’t realize Dave was the love of your life, or
I would have kept Janet away from him.”

She made a frustrated sound and reached out to clutch the
doorframe to her bedroom, mostly to keep her from lashing out again. “He’s not
the love of my life! That’s not even the point.”

“Then what the hell is the point?” Chris had stepped a
little closer to her, and he was glaring just as hotly as she was.

“The point is you were acting tonight like a spoiled child
or a jealous ex-boyfriend, and I’m not going to put up with it.”

He took another step closer to her, so she could almost feel
the hot tension radiating off his hard body. “A child?” he asked in a low,
rough voice.

She gulped, suddenly hit with the knowledge of how far from
a child he was. He was a man. A big, handsome, masculine man who was suddenly
making her think all about sex.

All. About. Sex.

“Or an ex-boyfriend, I said,” she managed to reply, hoping
she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt.

“Oh, you’d know if I was your ex-boyfriend,” he murmured,
even more thickly than before.

“How?” That wasn’t at all what she’d wanted to say, but she
couldn’t hold back the slightly trembly question.

He moved even closer to her, so there were only a few inches
between their bodies. “I’d make sure you knew. Although, I’m pretty sure I
wouldn’t be an ex.”

She was shaking now and hoping he couldn’t see it. “Yes, you
would. If I was ever crazy enough to go out with you, it definitely wouldn’t
last very long. You’d be an ex before you could blink.”

“It would never happen.”

“Yes, it would. There’s no way I would put up with you for
long. You might delude yourself into thinking all your arrogance is sexy, but
it’s mostly just obnoxious.” She had no idea why she was saying this. This
wasn’t at all how the conversation was supposed to have gone.

“But you like it,” he said with a hint of a smile.

“I like what?”

He moved even closer. “My arrogance.” And then even closer.
“And my obnoxiousness.”

She was holding herself perfectly still because she was
struck with the most powerful desire to touch him. “I do not,” she whispered.

“Prove it.”

“How?”

“Like this.”

Before she knew what was happening, he’d grabbed her head
with both of his hands and pulled her into a hard, urgent kiss.

Again, it was like that alien force had taken possession of
her body, but instead of rage, it was now throbbing with a bone-deep hunger.
Her body was out of control again, pressing itself against the hard length of
his and clawing at his shoulders as his tongue delved into her mouth with a
possessiveness that thrilled her.

Her head spun as Chris slid his hands down to her bottom,
cupping her there as he claimed her mouth completely. Then he was lifting her
up, and she was wrapping her legs around his waist, and he was carrying her
into her bedroom.

Over to her bed.

It was exactly what she wanted. She pulled him down on top
of her after he lowered her to the bed, trying to feel his body in every way
she could.

Chris seemed to be just as on fire as she was. His body was
tight and hard, and his hands and mouth eager and skillful. He climbed over her
so he could kiss her again, and she rubbed herself shamelessly against his
weight.

She was hot and throbbing all over when he finally raised
his head. He raked his eyes over her sprawled body and hot face. “Damn, you
drive me crazy, Heather.”

“You drive me even crazier,” she said, gasping as he began
to strip off her clothes, so quickly she was naked before she knew it.

He stared down at her hotly some more, his deeply possessive
eyes missing no cleft or curve of her body. “No one could drive a person
crazier than you drive me.”

“You think that because you’ve never had to put up with
you
.”
She gasped again, squirming as he reached out to caress her, his hands stroking
from her hips to her breasts.

He was smiling slightly as he leaned back down to take her
in another kiss. She responded eagerly, fisting her hands in his hair and
rocking her body up into his. She was already so aroused it was almost painful,
and she couldn’t understand how it was happening.

She’d always liked sex quite well, but it had never, ever
been like this.

He kissed her until she could barely breathe, and then he
trailed little lines of kisses down her jaw and neck, lingering on her
collarbone until she was whimpering, and then finally moving down to her
breasts.

And that same alien force somehow had taken possession of
her vocal chords too. She couldn’t seem to keep quiet as he kissed and fondled
her nipples. Her gasps and little moans soon turned into uninhibited cries of
helpless need.

She was never this loud, but she couldn’t seem to help it as
Chris kept teasing her into deeper arousal.

It was clear from his hot, tense body that he was just as
turned on as she was, but he didn’t appear to be in a hurry. He was still
suckling at one breast as his hand finally slipped down lower to feel between
her legs.

When he found her clit, she made a loud sound, almost like a
sob. And she kept up the helpless sounds as he worked her over with his mouth
on her breast and his hand between her thighs.

Then she jerked in surprise when she heard a fierce little
growl. Lucy suddenly jumped on the bed beside them, and the little dog started
barking viciously at Chris.

Chris turned his head to stare at her. “What’s her problem?”
he asked hoarsely. His face was slightly flushed, and his eyes were a little
dazed, like he’d been just as caught up in the foreplay as she’d been.

Heather made a slight choking sound of amusement as she
realized what was wrong with her dog. “She thinks you’re hurting me.”

Chris stared at the angry little dog for another minute, and
then he gave a soft chuckle. “Well, just wait until I really get going and
you’re screaming your head off. She’ll probably attack me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not going to scream my head
off.”

Without speaking, Chris adjusted his hand so one of his
fingers slid inside her, rubbing against her tight inner walls.

She let out a sharp cry of pleasure. Not quite a scream, but
close.

Chris chuckled again.

“Shut up,” she told him. “That didn’t count.”

Lucy, evidently decided Heather was now both tortured and
angry, growled again and advanced on Chris, her paws making little dents in the
comforter. Heather reached out for her. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “I’m not in
trouble. It’s okay. You can go lay down.”

Lucy looked suspiciously between Heather and Chris, who was
still on top of her, but Heather’s tone must have mollified her. After another
minute, she sniffed at Chris indignantly and then jumped back off the bed to
curl up on her cushion in the corner of the room.

Heather was still giggling, when she felt a little flicker
of knowledge.

What was she doing? Was she really having sex with Chris?
What the hell was she thinking?

Before any of these questions could really pierce through
the fog of desire in her mind, Chris had kissed her again and she forgot them
completely.

They kissed for a minute or two until they’d built back
their momentum, and then Chris lowered his mouth to her breast and found her
hot arousal with his hand. It felt just as good as it had before, and it wasn’t
long before she was losing control completely, coming hard all around his
fingers as she cried out even louder than before.

She was panting as he raised himself up to kiss her again,
and she started to pull off his clothes too.

Soon, they were both naked, and Chris had retrieved a condom
from his pocket and unwrapped it. She stared at his gorgeous body—hard muscles,
smooth lines, dark, coarse hair, hot flesh—as he rolled the condom on and
reached over to part her legs.

She wanted this—more than she could remember wanting
anything. But she still had no idea why.

“Damn, you’re gorgeous,” Chris muttered, staring at her body,
the way he had earlier, as he pulled her hips into position.

“You’re not too bad yourself.”

He smiled as he held himself in place and slowly started to
enter her, watching her reactions to make sure she was comfortable.

That little gesture—the way his eyes checked out her
face—was surprisingly sweet and sensitive, and it made her want him even more.

Both of them were gasping when he’d penetrated her fully and
was holding himself above her on straightened arms.

“So good,” he was murmuring roughly. “So good.” He made a
little thrust, like he couldn’t hold himself back.

She arched and sucked in a breath at the friction.

“So good,” he repeated, rocking into her again. “Wrap your
legs around me, baby.”

The sound of the words made her clench, and she couldn’t
help but obey them, raising her legs to wrap them around his hips and hook her
feet to keep them in place.

Both of them groaned as the penetration deepened, and then
Chris started to thrust for real.

She followed his rhythm, moving her hips with his. He was
staring down at her with a strange kind of intensity, and she didn’t know what
to make of it.

She closed her eyes and tossed her head as the sensations
intensified and his motion accelerated.