Rough Play (12 page)

“I meant, let’s go out for dinner.”

Oh.

“I’ll pick you up.” He frowned. “You know, I don’t even know where you live.”

Yeah. She knew because she hadn’t wanted him at her house when this whole thing started. Their pattern began of her going to his house and it had remained that way.

“I know you live in the big neighborhood behind the courthouse, but that’s it.”

“I do.” She stared at him.

He stared back. “So if you’ll give me your address, I’ll swing by around six?”

She blinked. “Sure. Okay.”

“Something wrong?”

“I’m fine.” It was fine. It was just dinner. And hell, what was the big deal about her house anyway. Nothing. This was her being weird again. She gave him her address.

After he dropped a kiss on her head and walked away, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Different. She tried shaking it off and got on with work. As she laid pipe, connected pieces and worked through lunch, there was nothing she could do to get rid of the oddness that’d settled in her.

Oddness was the best way to describe it. It was warmth and tight all at once. A jumpy stomach and yet she couldn’t say it was dread, but rather, dare she say anticipation? But of what? It was stupid. It was dinner. Eating together in the evening.

When she was stepping into her panties that night, sudden realization struck. Oh holy hell, she’d walked right into agreeing to
a date
. She stumbled backwards and landed on her bed. Breath rushed. Heart pounded and she swallowed it down.

A date.

She reached for her phone and dialed. There was a click and she didn’t wait. “I think I’m going on a date.”

“You think?” Tonya asked.

She leaned over and breathed. “No. I am. A dinner date. And I didn’t know it.”

“Okay. Have fun.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

Tonya laughed. “You’ll be fine. Smile a lot. If all else fails and the silence gets awkward, make fun of someone’s clothes in the restaurant.”

“Aren’t you funny.”

“This is good advice.”

“Thanks. But….” Flora sighed.

“But…what?”

“I don’t know. It’s been years since I went out somewhere and Jacob tricked me into a date.”

“He…tricked you.”

“Maybe tricked is too strong a word.” Maybe she was overreacting. It was just food. They had food together all the time. “I don’t know what to do. Dating isn’t what we do together.”

Tonya groaned. “Tell me you’re not hiding in the restaurant bathroom right now.”

“What? No. I’m at home getting dressed.”

“Oh. Well then don’t go if you don’t want to.”

“But I want to go.” Maybe. There was an appeal there. She couldn’t deny that. And he would probably be looking nice when he walked in. All cleaned up. Clothes fresh and so unlike the normal work gear of dirty jeans and stained shirts.

“Then why are we having this conversation?”

“I don’t know.” It was just food. That they would eat together. It was just at a different time, that’s all.

“I don’t either. You called me.”

Flora pushed wet hair from her face and knew the problem. It was just food, but it was still a for real date. Her last actual date, as in picked up and taken somewhere then brought back home was her junior prom.

“That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, Flora. Instead of running from it, why don’t you try seeing what happens?”

“You make it sound easier than it is.”

“That’s because you’re making it out to be more than what it is. This is Jacob. He’s crazy about you. He’s not your jackass mom. Or your drunk dad or messed up uncle, okay?”

“I know.” He was her something. Not her boyfriend. Not anything lasting. But he definitely wasn’t an ass like her parents.

“Do you?”

She pulled on the elastic of her panties wrapped around her knees and let it pop back. “Yes.”

“Next time you start thinking you’re going to die from having dinner, keep that in mind. He’s not them. He’s not going to just kick you to the curb and leave you with little more than a handful of things and the clothes on your back.”

Oh, but how he could. In a way Flora had never imagined before. She’d still have a roof over her head and money in her pockets, but what about this oddness in her chest? This anticipation? The way just thinking of him could pump blood through her veins at rates she didn’t know possible. Just his breath on her neck or his touch on her arm woke her in ways she’d never known.

And he could just kick her to the curb. Leave her without all those things. Only a handful of tears to her name. Been there, done that.

Or she could end this before it all got worse.

She pulled up her panties and her doorbell rang. Shit. He was early. She tossed on a robe, belted it and looked through the peephole to make sure it was him before flinging it open.

She pasted on a smile, tried to forget about her worries and opened the door. “Hey. Still getting ready.”

“I don’t mind waiting.” His gaze swept down the front of her and her belly did that funny flipping thing again. And my, he was looking very nice in his dark jeans and tucked in blue shirt that made his skin look darker and his eyes bluer.

Even though she didn’t want it to happen, all those reservations flooded up her throat and choked her. This was her moment. She could get out of this. After he stepped in, she pushed the door closed and reached for the belt on her robe. “We could always skip dinner. I’d be ready a lot sooner for the bedroom.”

Red seeped up his neck and wrapped around his ears. His eyes darkened and he cleared his throat. “Food first.”

“Food.”

He turned away from her. “Yeah. Food.”

“All right. Give me a few minutes then.”

He just turned her down for sex in favor of food. Holy shit, things were changing and not just on her end. She sat on the edge of her bed. Her slender black phone stared up at her. She started to call Tonya back, but Flora already knew what her friend would say.

And in the end Flora would end up going on this date, so she tossed her phone aside and saved herself some time in getting this over with. She dressed quickly and headed to the front of the house where she found Jacob leaning on a windowsill and staring out into her backyard. Late afternoon sun coated his tanned hard body in a golden glow. A moan hummed up her throat. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

There was the after date portion to look forward to and that part was going to be worth the next hour or so.

Chapter Twelve

Something was off, and not just with him. Flora was different too. Stiff. Jumpy. All through dinner she’d busied herself with stroking the sweat off her glass or staring at the table. Jacob talked about the weather. She’d talked about some too-tight, too-short, too-small dress some woman was wearing. He didn’t know. He hadn’t seen it.

While she’d been looking around, he’d been staring at her in the dim lights of the small Cajun restaurant. He wanted so much, so much he couldn’t even put a name too, wasn’t even sure what all he wanted. Something involving more Flora. But now, after tonight, he wasn’t so sure.

Maybe he was imagining things that weren’t there. Maybe they were only good in the bedroom and nothing more. Perhaps that was enough. Probably was. It always had been, at least. He pulled open his truck door and she stepped in. Silent, again.

It shouldn’t be this hard. Since he’d met her, it had not been this hard. Never once had there been any of this weird nothingness. Of course before, every conversation had been about sex. Or happened before sex. Or after just having sex.

He frowned. Well, eighty percent of them at least. But the other twenty percent of them together had been good too. He just didn’t get what the hell happened tonight. He started to close the door, but stopped. “
Wanna
catch a movie?”

She blinked. Eyes wide, lips parted. “Uh.”

“Do you have a curfew?” He forced a grin and hoped like hell it was genuine and not a scary branding of all teeth.

She swallowed. “Of course not. I can stay out however late I want.”

Then she cleared her throat, buckled her seat belt and sat ramrod straight in the seat, head forward, gaze focused somewhere on the landscaping store across from the parking lot. Hands flat on her thighs.

He rested an arm on the roof of the truck and leaned toward her. “Great. I was thinking we could grab an action movie, sit in the back row and make out the whole time.”

And finally that stiffness in her shattered. Her hands shook and she swung around and faced him. For a moment, she stared him down, and he stared back.

A smiled bloomed across her face. “If that’s all you want, then skip the movie and park along a trail somewhere and we can make out right here in your truck.” She lifted the center console to make another seat. “Bench seat. Handy.”

He chuckled and shut the door as she unbuckled and slid over to the middle. Now this was more their speed. He climbed in his truck. “So where to?”

“Up to you. You’re the driver.”

Possibilities. “No opinion?”

“Well maybe just one.” Her hand caressed the top of his thigh, fingers dipped between his legs and stroked up high.

“I like this opinion.” He headed out of the parking lot and directly toward her home. He had one thing in mind. Or maybe a couple. Either way, it involved the privacy fence surrounding the swimming pool and the hot tub in her backyard.

Her fingers curled against his inner thigh. A short caress that went clean through him. “So where we headed?”

“I’m thinking of your swimming pool, under this bright moon.”

Her fingers paused for the barest seconds then picked up again. “I like this idea so far.”

The more she kept caressing his leg and the zipper of his jeans, he was too. He tried analyzing her hesitation, but between trying to stay on the road and her ever-pressing hand, hell, little else was coming through.

And when did this drive from El Dorado to Apple Trail get so damn long? It was a twenty-minute trip, tops, but he’d swear he’d been driving at least twice that long. He made the last turn into town, crossed the railroad tracks and was of course, stopped by the only damn red light in town.

She chuckled. “Someone’s antsy.”

“Want to trade spots? I’ll be happy to let you drive.”

She petted the dash. “You’d let me drive your baby?”

“With your hand on my lap, I’ll let you do any damn thing you wanted.”

Her grip tightened. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Yes, this. This was what they were good at. Sex. Just sex. Anything else was too much. Too weird. Too complicated. So what if she made him think things no one else ever had. So what if the things she occasionally said made more sense than anything else. Tonight was a test to see what else was there.

And, as a normal couple, they completely failed. He pulled into her driveway and sat back a moment to let that sink in. A heavy plop landed in his gut, and he didn’t like that at all. He just…didn’t even know anymore. This had felt like something. Something different and new. Something he’d been missing when he hadn’t even realized he was missing it.

She touched his shoulder. “You okay?”

“I have a beautiful woman I’m about to strip, why wouldn’t I be?” Shit that came out snappy. Maybe she hadn’t noticed.

By the frown on her face though, she had. “Okay.”

And there was confirmation.
Okay.
But not just okay, more like ‘okay, fine, asshole, next time I won’t ask.’ He stroked over his face and across the top of his head with a heavy sigh. “Sorry. I’m just, I don’t know.”

And that was all he could get to come out of his mouth. A non-answer. Perfect. Great way to end the night.

“If you’re tired, we can just rent a movie. Or watch something on TV.”

“Over skinny dipping? I’m fine. It was just a long drive back.”

But then she smiled and eased closer. “It was a long trip.”

“Frustrating too.”

“How so?”

He opened his door and climbed out, not wanting to bog the night down with his sorry ass mood, but then thought better of it. This was one of those rare glimpses he kept having with her. In the weeks they’d been together, this was the third time they’d really talked. Or were close to talking. At least, this conversation didn’t involve a bed and getting naked.

Maybe he just needed more time to see what was going on with this thing between them. He wasn’t Grant. He couldn’t just wake up one day and decide he liked the person standing next to him enough he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That’s basically what he’d done. So why the hell was he trying to
do
anything between him and Flora?

He shook his head, not even making sense to himself. Which was just more confusing. “Lane’s not normal.”

She laughed and opened her front door, letting him in.

“He’s not an alien or anything.”

“I’ll give Gretchen the heads-up that the man she loves isn’t
E.T
.”