His Kind of Perfect (Sugar Bay #1) (18 page)

Silence reigned once the cloud of Chanel
No. 5 dissipated.

“That was awkward.” She grimaced in
apology.

“I’ve been in worse situations.”

She remembered he’d seen combat, so the
crazy mother and daughter skirmish was nothing to him. “Right.”

She palmed her hot cheeks and massaged her
temples. Think Zen thoughts.

“Is it wrong to contemplate matricide?”

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. “What
would the judge say?”

“If the judge knew my mother, they’d
consider it a public service.”

He chuckled. “Na, she’s not
that
bad.”

She pulled back and eyed him askance. “That’s
like saying to a girl, ‘Your butt’s not
that
big honey’ because they know you’re lying your ass off.”

He grinned but said nothing further. The
man was smart like that and refused to incriminate himself. “Come on, let’s
dance.”

He led her to the dance floor and wrapped
her in his arms. They moved to the music of Bruno Mars crooning about when he was
her man. She exhaled, wanting the tension to melt away. She hated
confrontation.

“You know, we can stop your mom from
worrying right now. Marry me and we can get started on Operation Grandbabies,”
he whispered in her ear.

She stopped, the music faded away as a loud
roar took place in her ear. In an instant, her stress level exponentially increased.

“That’s not funny, Derek.”

He met her eyes. “I wasn’t joking.”

The light was dim but she could see he was
serious.

“Derek—“

“That doesn’t sound remotely close to a
‘Hell, yeah’.”

“You know we’re just-”

“Just what? Fuck buddies?”

“Don’t say that. It’s more than that.
You’re young and you’re going to want to share life’s experiences with someone
young as well.”

“Bullshit. You’re not exactly ready for
assisted living Anabelle.”

“My mother was right. I was being greedy in
wanting more time before reality intruded.”

“You can have more time. I’ve always said
that.”

“I’m not sure.”

“So because Ethan and Heath are closer to
your age, you’d entertain thoughts of marriage with them?”

“No, but at this point in their lives it’s
more natural for them to want marriage.”

“And is this timeline you and your mother both
reference to set in stone?”

“No, but—“

“Come on, let’s go somewhere less public.”

He pulled her through the crowd, led her
inside the facility. He opened and closed doors before he shoved them inside a
small office. He moved away and stood a few feet away from her as if he didn’t
trust himself to touch her. The lights remained off but the twinkling lights
from outside filtered through the blinds and lit the space. Muted sounds of
music and laughter reached their cocoon as the gala continued. He turned to her
with narrowed eyes.

“At the risk of sounding like a needy
person…where is this thing going?”

“Can’t it keep on as it is?”

“I find it ironic that I’m the only one here
that has an aversion to remaining fuck buddies.”

“You make it sound bad.”

“It’s not? Because it’s feeling a whole
hell of a lot like that.” He glared, his chest heaved with his frustration. “Are
you ashamed of me?”

“No!”

“No?”

“So you’ll take me to your cousin’s wedding
then and make a public statement that we’re a couple?”

Oh Jeez.
Anything but
that.
She’d never hear the end of it. She scrambled for another event to
appease him.

“That’s an awful long silence, Anabelle. Sounds
like a big ‘Fuck, no’.” His voice was tight with anger.

“How about the charity fashion show next
week?”

“No.” This time he didn’t sound angry. This
time he sounded resigned.

“Or what about—“

“Sorry Anabelle. This isn’t working for me
anymore.”

“What?” She caught her breath. “Why?”

“The situation has changed. I thought I
could change your mind and you’d get over this need to satisfy public
perception but you haven’t and I’m no longer interested in being your boy toy.
The fact you don’t find me worthy of marriage is unappealing.”

His words stunned her. Her brain lacked the
speed to process the details of what he was saying. All she grasped was the
fact he was leaving her.

She wanted to stop his words, to deny he’d
spoken them, to demand he retract them.

She stopped thinking and reacted instead by
kissing him. It had the desired effect of shutting him up but he wasn’t
participating.

He groaned as if he wanted to push her away
but she pushed back and used her body to say what she couldn’t articulate. After
a blessedly brief resistance, at last he joined in the kiss.

Anabelle touched any part of him she could.
She’d hurt him and she hated it. But he’d changed the rules. Weren’t guys
supposed to like the no strings attached approach?

The kiss spun out of control. It burned.
Hands tugged, pulled and pushed clothing aside. She smoothed a hand along his corded
stomach and he muttered a curse. She struggled with the fastening and he moved
her hands aside and took over the task. His hard length sprang between them and
she caressed him. He was hot and very hard. She stroked the smooth steel and
did what she wanted to for a long time. She dropped to her knees and took him
in her mouth. He was big and she couldn’t manage the entire length but she
breathed him in, sucked and caressed him until he pulled back, muttering about
not being able to take anymore. He lifted her from her knees and pushed her
against the door. He pulled up her dress and tugged aside the thong she wore.

“Anabelle.” He entered her in a smooth
stroke and she gasped at the deep impalement. He paused. “You okay?” His gaze was
searching.

She nodded and didn’t care that her once
beautiful updo, the one she and Charlie had spent hours on earlier, fell across
her face. She stroked his chest. The touch spurred him on and he thrust deep,
calling forth a groan from Anabelle. He hiked her leg higher on his hip and
spread his legs for leverage. It wasn’t enough because he gripped her other leg
and hauled her into his arms. He wrapped both of her legs around his waist and
anchored her against the door, pushing deeper. The rhythmic thud and answering
groan were the only sounds in the room. He covered her mouth with his, sucked
in her moans. He cushioned her head to protect her yet used his body as a
weapon of pleasure as if to punish her for denying them.

Her body clenched in orgasm, her sheath
gripped his cock hard, pulsing, and she screamed into his mouth. Her
unrelenting pleasure triggered his release. The pounding cadence was no longer
rhythmic but climaxed in brief, staccato like thrusts that rattled the door
until he groaned into her mouth, and gave her all of him, spent. With foreheads
pressed together, they struggled to catch their breath.

Anabelle looked down. They were locked and
as intimate as two people could be. He pulled out, the slow movement triggered
post-orgasmic tremors and she shuddered against the door.

He set her on her feet with a hand on her elbow
while she steadied herself. She pulled her dress down her thighs and liquid
warmth ran down her thighs.

Grandbabies
indeed
.

In the heavy silence that surrounded their
orgasmic aftermath, he tucked and zipped himself into a semblance of normalcy.

He paused as if he wanted to say something
but then thought better of it and brushed a kiss to her forehead.

“Good bye Anabelle.”

The soft click of the door closing signaled
the end far louder than if he’d slammed it.

The familiar ritual of cooking soothed the
anger in him and he poured the dry noodles into the pot of boiling water. The
girls had requested his signature mac and cheese and he would deliver. Odds
were they’d soon graduate to a more sophisticated palette and he wasn’t certain
his skills could keep up. For now Uncle Derek’s Famous Mac and Cheese was king
and he’d take it.

The sound of little girls bickering drifted
from his sister’s family room.

“Keep it down, girls. Your mom is trying to
work up there.”

“Okay Uncle Derek,” three sweet voices
chimed.

He nodded; satisfied even though he knew
the silence would be short lived. The bickering would soon escalate again, but
for now Dani and Joe could handle it. Although if those two started sniping at
each other, chaos would reign and Dylan would have his balls for being a crappy
babysitter.

He sort of liked his balls where they were,
so he tried his best to contain chaos. He stirred the pot and retrieved the
remaining ingredients from the refrigerator. A debate on which princess was the
best began in the next room. He smiled at Esme’s fierce defense of Snow White
and Jane’s points for Belle. Alex voted for Mulan since she was taking Karate
and knew a kick ass heroine beat one who waited for some guy to come along to
save her. Alex was
gonna
be a handful for some lucky
guy. Her debate turned into a demonstration as she showed Joe the latest moves
she’d learned.

The fact that it took three adults to babysit
his nieces was a testament to his sister’s skills. She was a freaking wonder of
nature as far as he was concerned because after an afternoon with his nieces,
he fell into a comatose state but his sister switched gears and continued to
work on her
masters
degree in Illustration.

Tonight they’d offered to watch the kiddos
while Dylan holed up in her home office drawing or painting or whatever digital
technique was required. Thoughts of her creative mind led to thoughts on
another creative mind, one
who
was never far from his
mind.

Shit.

It was a real pain in the ass, this habit
of his.

“What’s with the growl, big brother?”

“What growl?”

“The growl that says ‘
beware
…unless
you want to be chewed up and spit out’.”

“Can’t be that bad, man.
”
His best friend grabbed a beer from
the frig
and sat
on a kitchen stool, at home in his sister’s farmhouse while Esme tried to hand
from his biceps.

“Anabelle problems?” Usually Dani teased
and basically tortured him, but not today. Today she was gentle, like she
didn’t want to kick him when he was down.

“We’re no longer seeing each other.” He
hated how pathetic he sounded.

“Sucks man.”

“Yeah.” He stirred the pot a few times.
“She wasn’t interested in pursuing a deeper relationship with a boy toy.
Thought of me as a boy toy.”

“Ouch.”

He shrugged. If he slammed the strainer in the
sink a little harder than necessary, it was because of the weight of the damn
thing, not because he was frustrated. He poured the noodles through the
strainer and got a free facial from the steam. The noodles got tossed back into
the pot before he measured and added milk and butter.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure considering she shot me down
when I asked her to marry me.”

Dani, in the process of chewing stolen
cooked noodles, spewed out a mouthful. “Geez. That was fast.”

“Geez. That was gross.” Joe handed her a
paper towel.

She made a face at him. “Bite me.”

“With pleasure,” he said and waggled his
eyebrows.

“That’s my sister, man. Come on, not
today.”

“Sorry.”

“Maybe you were going too fast, Derek,”
Dani said.

“No way.”

“It’s possible.”

“You’ve been panting after her for a long
time now. Finally pinned her down for a few dates and you’re rushing
towards—“

“Towards what? I want to be public. Acknowledgement.
Not be her dirty little secret.”

“You don’t like being a boy toy?”

“I hate that label.”

“She’s been burned, Derek. Badly. Do I need
to remind you? That crap must have been difficult to get through. This is a
small town, with small town gossip. It may not be a big thing to you but to her
and a lot of folks around here, your age difference is going to be something to
talk about. Some people are old, old fashioned, old thinking and you’re not
going to change it. She’s sensitive about that. She’s been the source of gossip
in this town for years now. She’s going to want to avoid gossip as much as she can.”

“Dani has a point, man.”

He groaned.
Their
points were valid yet all he had seen was she hadn’t want to be with him. His
hurt was such that he hadn’t thought of why she felt that way.

“Where’s the mac and cheese, Uncle Derek?”

He looked down on the sweet face of his
niece. “Almost done sweetheart.”

“I know how to get Anabelle to like you
again,” she said, showing him how efficient she was at dipping into adult
conversations.

“How’s that sweetheart?”

“Get her a Barbie dream house with an
elevator. She will love it!”

He laughed. Esme had Christmas on the
brain. “I’ll consider it.” He kissed her sweet smelling cheeks. “If only it
were that easy.”

But now at least, he knew how to please one
female in his life. Now if it were that easy to please another stubborn female,
he’d be golden.

“Will you stop it already?”

Anabelle ignored her mother and adjusted
the table arrangement one last time. The junior league was sponsoring a women’s
empowerment event and Anabelle was in charge of event design. Guests loitered
in small groups, powdered, perfumed and pumped to network.

“What is it mother?” Anabelle considered
the possibility of her mother simply going away if she ignored her but knew it
wouldn’t happen.

She
wasn’t that lucky.

“Stop and look at me.”

She exhaled and turned. “Yes?”

“You look terrible, by the way.”

Anabelle felt her eyes bug out and growled
in frustration. “Once again, thank you, for your kind observations.” She forced
a smile and moved away.
Where was
Charlie?
She was supposed to act as decoy. She searched for anyone she
could throw in front of the Mack truck that was her mother.

“You’re not still seeing that young man,
are you?”

“By young man, you mean Derek?” She picked
up an arrangement of orchids from the cart.

“No need to play dumb, young lady.”

“You’ll be happy to know I am no longer
seeing him.”

She slammed the orchids onto the console.

“I told you it wouldn’t last. He saw a
lonely older woman and took advantage.”

She was going to kill Charlie, or better
yet, find a new best friend. Could Charlie still be annoyed with her? They’d
had a long conversation about what a mess Anabelle had made of her love life.
Charlie thought she was insane to walk away from Derek and his proposal and had
started wearing a custom printed t-shirt that said…Team Derek.

“Jeez mother!”

“What?”

“He broke it off because he wanted more
than I could give.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Is it difficult to believe
someone might want to be with me?”

“No, but…but he’s so young. At that age he
needs excitement. He’s not ready to settle down.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him what
you
think he needs, but the irony is,
he wants marriage and babies.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Anabelle grabbed a lighter and lit the
candles, needing to keep her hands occupied or she’d murder her mother.

“What will happen when the newness is over
and he wants a new adrenaline rush?”

“Not all men are built that way.”

“Your dad was.”

Which
explained so much.

“What’s so bad about Derek beyond his age?
He has a successful business, loves kids, is close to his family and isn’t into
drugs.”

“He has a motorcycle.”

“So do other people.”

“It’s dangerous.”

She rolled her eyes.
All
this because of a bike.
“He has a Harley, Mother, to ride for pleasure,
not for speed. He’s not one of those speed demons that zip in and out of
traffic for the thrill.”

“But he could get hurt.”

“True, but I could get hurt jaywalking
across Main Street. Should that stop people from dating me? Does that make me a
risk?”

“Ethan, on the other hand, doesn’t own a
motorcycle. He’s a safer bet.”

“I don’t have a motorcycle, but I’m
thinking about getting a jeep.” A deep voice interrupted.

“Ethan, darling!” Claire hugged him like a
long lost child. Anabelle rolled her eyes. But since she was desperate for a
distraction, so she was happy to see him.

“Hello Ethan.”

“Anabanana!” He lifted her off the ground
and she let him because he’d saved her from further grilling.

“See, Mother, does this greeting look
remotely like a guy interested in pursuing a romantic relationship?”

“You children are simply being difficult.
If you would only listen.
Ethan’s perfect.”

“Now that’s something I can agree with.
Your mother loves me Anabelle. It’s hard not to, so what’s wrong with you?” He
slung an arm over her shoulder and winked.

She groaned. “Do
not
encourage her.”

“Well, Claire, if Anabelle won’t marry me
and make me your son-in-law, you could always adopt me. I am a poor motherless
child.” He hung his head like a pathetic puppy.
The goober
.

“Yes, please,”
Anabelle
pleaded. “Be my new brother so she can meddle in your life.” She lifted her
hands in supplication. “Save me.”

“Very funny Anabelle.” Her mother crossed
her arms over her chest. “A mother knows best. Tell her Ethan.”

“Well now—“

“Hello son. Sorry it took me so long. The
damn GPS took me down the road to a country bar featuring line dancing. It
looks fun so I might go back later. Want to come?”

“Dad!” He hugged his father. “Let me
introduce you to my sister.”

“Sister? Well now, that’s news.”

“Hi. I’m Anabelle.”

“Hello. Lovely to meet the daughter I never
knew I had. Ethan couldn’t have picked a prettier sister.”

She grinned. Ethan’s dad was handsome and
had a charming smile. The apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

“Yep, yep. Come here Dad. This beautiful
lady is—“

“Claire?”

“You know each other?”

Her mother had been silent during the
exchange. Unusual considering Claire was the social spearhead of all
conversations.

“Hello Tomas.” Her mother’s cheeks were
beyond a bashful pink, they bordered on Pepto Bismol pink.

Well,
hello.

Her inner demon rubbed its hands in glee at
this fun twist.

Since she could remember, her mother
steered clear of gentlemen of a certain age, her age, because she preferred
being solo and thought men were nothing but trouble. She was charming to anyone
else that didn’t approach her as interested. Men noticed her, she was still
quite attractive but her mother had a distinct way of looking at those brave
enough to approach that made them slink away cupping their privates.

Her
mother had skills.

This blushing creature was foreign to
Anabelle. “Who are you? And what have you done with my mother?” The foray into
an alternate universe was fun considering moments ago she’d been verbally
slain.

“Really Anabelle. Is that necessary?”

“It’s nothing. We shared a drink and
conversation on the Emerald Princess.”

“You dog, dad.” Ethan shoulder bumped
Tomas.

“You didn’t tell me you met anyone,
mother.”

“It wasn’t like that Anabelle. Do you
really think I’d hare off with someone I just met?”

“No Anabelle, to my regret, it wasn’t what
you’re thinking. In fact, we spent time talking about you.”

“About me?”

“Yes. Your mother loves you very much.”

Right.
Loved
to drive her insane, maybe. Tomas grinned as if he read her thoughts.

“In spite of her machinations, she means
well.”

Well
damn
. It was hard to respond to that. Sort of took the wind out of
her righteous sails.