Rough Play (15 page)

She closed her eyes and searched for the soothing comfort she’d found poolside. It wasn’t there. In fact, the only thing she found was the even pattern of his breathing, his softening arms and twitching of his shoulder all saying one thing. He’d fallen asleep.

“Jacob,” she whispered. Yes, she knew she whispered. It was irrational. She wanted him out. She ought to yell his name and shake the heck out of him.

She whispered his name again. Maybe if he woke up on his own, then he’d leave. But he didn’t wake. He flipped to his back. And snored. Oh, no. She didn’t do sleepovers. There was the thing by the pool. That was one step out of her comfort zone. Just a little bit.

Sleeping over was more than a step. It was a big fucking leap. She did not do sleepovers. They were involved and meant things. Were the opposite of quick and easy. His hand curled along her shoulder and pulled her against him.

Yeah, no way. She slipped out of bed and hurried to the front of the house where she’d left her purse and phone.

Without waiting, she dialed Tonya again. What else was she supposed to do? There had to be a tactful way to do this. She crept back to her bedroom and peeked in to confirm he was still asleep. He was. And sprawled across her bed.

Tonya answered sounding more awake than Flora had expected. “Yes Flora?”

Flora moved away and crouched in a corner. “He’s asleep in my bed.”

“Okay.”

“How do I get him out?”

There was a pause. “Did you try waking him?”

“No. I tried getting him to leave before he fell asleep, but he said “just a minute” and went to sleep instead. Who does that?”

Tonya chuckled. “Someone who’s tired?”

“I’m being serious.”

“Let me ask Trent.”

“What? No!” But it was too late, Tonya was already relaying the message. To be honest, hearing someone else ask the question, hearing the long pause before hearing an answer, she had to question what the big deal was here. It was him. Jacob. They were just, well. A fling. A really good fling.

Tonya chuckled and interrupted her thoughts.

“Trent asked if you tried punching him in the balls.”

She pulled the phone back for a moment, as if she could see Trent on the other end. “What?”

“Well,” there was no missing the humor in her voice. “He says if a woman punched him the balls, he’d get out of her bed.”

She rubbed her temples. “Very funny.”

“You asked.”

She pushed hair back. Great, now Trent would probably tell Jacob about this conversation. “What’s he doing there anyway? I thought you told him you were dating your imaginary boyfriend?”

Tonya sighed and told Trent she’d be right back. There were footsteps and a door closing. “The ice machine was leaking, so he’s looking at it for me. And I did. We’re just friends. He thinks I have a boyfriend and that’s it.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah, it kind of is. He doesn’t hit on me, say tacky things or any do any of the other things stupid guys have tried. He respects my boyfriend and treats me like one of the guys.”

“I don’t know much about him, but that’s really good of him.”

“What are you going to do about Jacob?”

She peeked back in and breathed a sigh of relief at his closed eyes and soft humming snores. “I don’t know.”

“Did you try crawling in and going to sleep?” Humor laced her tone.

“I can hear you laughing at me. It’s not funny.” The air conditioner kicked on and blasted out the vent underneath her. She jumped and moved a step away. Geez, she was freezing her naked ass off while he was cuddled up in her bed.

“It kind of is. You never have man problems, and you’ve called me twice today.”

She never had man problems because she’d never had one like Jacob. “He’s not like other guys.”

“Good.”

“Not exactly.”

“Did something bad happen at dinner?”

“No.” Little awkward at times, but she wouldn’t call that bad.

“Anything after you got home?”

“It was fine until he fell asleep.” And it was fine. Even the talk in the pool was fine. Maybe even a little good. Or great.

“The way I see it, you can either punch him in the balls as Trent suggested, sleep on your couch or get in bed with him and probably have wake-up-good-morning sex.”

She paused and glanced to her cracked bedroom door. That space next to him looked awfully tempting. “I’ve never had wake-up-good-morning sex.”

“Try it. Maybe you’ll be less moody in the morning when you stop for coffee.”

She smiled again. “Aren’t you funny today?”

Tonya laughed. “I’m here to please.”

“All right, fine.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” She clicked her phone off and eased back into her bedroom. Jacob was on his back, arm flung across her side of the bed now. His body angled and taking up the other half. Even if she squeezed on the edge, there would still be touching. And with his hot body, she’d probably sweat right through the covers and fall off the bed like it was a water slide.

She eased in under the covers. As expected, it was a furnace from his body heat. A furnace that felt so damn good. No sooner did she get comfortable, and he rolled to his side, an arm draped across her hip.

“Tonya has a fake boyfriend?”

She startled and glanced up. His eyes were closed, but his lips were curved in a smile.
Shit.
“You could hear me?”

“Clearly.”

Awkward. “Uh, sorry.”

He chuckled. “What advice did you get for kicking me out?”

“Trent suggested I punch you in the balls.”

His breath across her shoulders stopped. “That’s not the best way to have wake-up-good-morning sex.”

She forced herself to relax before biting a hole through her lip. It wasn’t the end of the world. They were still on the same page. Still wanted the same things. Nothing had changed. This was just a bonus. In the morning would be the bonus. She liked being with him. Liked being wrapped up with him like this. “I suppose not.”

“If you’re really going for that, just let me know and I’ll leave first.”

“Promise not to tell about Tonya’s fake boyfriend?”

“Not my secret to tell.”

“Not even to Trent?”

He was silent for a moment. “Especially not to him. He likes her because he thinks she has a boyfriend.”

She sat up. “He would make a move because she’s dating someone?”

He laughed and rubbed her waist. “No. She’s off-limits to him. Just friends. If he finds out the boyfriend is fake, he’ll pull away.”

“That’s weird.”

“All my brothers are weird.”

Uh-huh. He was doing that caressing thing on her side she liked so much and some of the tension eased. His hands just felt so good. “You act like that doesn’t include you.”

“Someone has to be special out of the group. I got lucky.”

She chuckled and lay back down. Right away, he curled up close. Good and physical. All that hard body. Being afraid of this was nearly laughable. Being naked together—hell that’s what they were good at.

“What did you decide?”

She sighed. “Wake-up-good-morning sex.”

“Good pick.” He dropped a kiss on her shoulder. “Relax. I know I’m a big guy, but I’m not going to roll over and smother you in your sleep.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“Relax then.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then try breathing.”

And she did. Air whooshed out of her chest bigger than she thought it’d be. As the breath left her, so did the tense muscles in her shoulders. She closed her eyes. The warmth of his body seeped through her skin, further relaxing each limb one by one and putting her back in that sated mood like she had going on poolside. This actually wasn’t so bad. She yawned a breath in deep and slowly let it out, settling in against his chest and found a place for her head on his arm.

He kissed the top of her head. “If you ask, I will leave you know.”

She smiled as her eyes fell heavy. “I know.”

And despite her better judgment, she did know that. Problem was, she wanted him to stay more than she wanted him to go.

Chapter Fourteen

Jacob thrust one last time and Flora moaned that happy little purring sound she made at climax, then settled back against him. This was the second time he’d stayed the night in her bed. Second time he’d gotten wake-up-good-morning sex.

He’d learned if he wanted more time with Flora, he had to be more aggressive to get it. At his house, she wasn’t staying the night. If he managed an excuse to be at hers, which wasn’t a picnic in itself to accomplish, then he was golden as she wouldn’t outright ask him to leave. And until she did, he wasn’t going to. He was taking what he could.

He’d seen her every day since they’d started up this little sex arrangement. Then he stayed over that first time two weeks ago and then not again. She’d stayed at his house a couple times, but was always quick to leave in the mornings. And then little else happened.

Life got in the way a few times. Nothing major, things they could have easily worked around and still seen each other, but she was ‘fine and couldn’t wait to see him the next day’. From seeing her seven days a week to four if he was lucky, it was hard to miss the signs that she was pulling away. After knowing her history, he wasn’t going to complain too much and offered the space she needed.

And the space did him some good too. On the days he was away from her, he didn’t like it, further proving to himself that this thing with Flora was different and interesting and worth putting up with as she tried to figure a few things out.

Another sigh escaped her and she stretched, sitting up, arms going far overhead. He’d never considered a back sexy before, but Flora’s was. Long, lean. Curvy, too. The outer sway of her waist, down to the hourglass roundness of her hips. He traced the edges of her body and grinned at the sight of little bumps peppering over her skin until she shivered them off.

She tossed the covers back and jumped from the bed, naked as the way God made her. “Need to get to work.”

“Work sucks. Let’s skip it.”

“Ha ha ha. Easy for you to say. I have a job to complete on a timeline.”

He leaned back with his hands crossed behind his head. “One call to my brother and I can explain away why you’ll be late.”

Her narrowed eyes were the last he saw of her before she disappeared in her bathroom where he knew dressing would be happening. And if this went like usual, she’d be ready to go in three minutes flat.

He slid out of bed and tugged on his clothes from last night. He got the jeans buttoned as she stepped from her bathroom in cutoff shorts, tank top and hair on the top of her head. He didn’t know if she normally ate breakfast or not but in three…two…one….

“Ready?” Her head cocked to the side, hands pushed in her pockets. “I’ve got to run.”

He kept his head down and silently chuckled. “No breakfast?”

“No time to. I’m checking in on Gretchen this morning before heading out.”

Uh-huh. It was six a.m. Everyone had time for breakfast at this hour. “How about an omelet made by yours truly?”

“Sounds great, but uh, I think they’re calling for rain this afternoon and I want to make sure I’ve got the outside pipe laid first.”

It was almost comical. Almost. One, she’d finished the outside pipe three days ago. He knew because he’d been around the manor that day. Two, there was no rain in sight. Anywhere. Not even on the extended five-day forecast. Instead of pointing that out to her, he merely smiled through it. “We better go then.”

“You have everything you came with?”

Translation: you’re not leaving anything behind as an excuse to come back? Which, granted, that’s how he got back here last night. He’d thought ahead and left his pocketknife last time. He had waited to use that. Tried other things to get here. Didn’t work. Which was pretty damn amusing to watch her blush and sidestep with one excuse or another without actually verbally saying
I don’t want you in my house
. For some reason she was more okay at his house than him at hers.

Did he tell her that? Of course not. He wasn’t stupid. He waited until she was home at least twenty minutes, showed up with supper last night and thinking he left his knife behind.

He patted his pockets to humor her. “Got it all.” And just because he wanted to needle her a little. “I think.”

She stopped. “You think? You can’t remember if you got everything?”

“Flora, you say that like you don’t want my stuff around.”

“I….” Her cheeks colored.

“Your panties get left at my house and you don’t hear me complaining.”

She threw her hands up and marched out the bedroom. “One time!”

He chuckled and followed after. She didn’t make a single stop on the way to the door. Not that he overly expected her to. She was in morning-after awkwardness and he wasn’t. So he let her have it. This would all be solved by a simple conversation, but by the state of her shaking hands, shifting gaze and fast talking about her plumbing, he decided the less the conversation, the better. Best not to catch her when she was ready to implode. Before he met her, he would have thought he invented
temporary
in terms of a relationship.