Rough Play (7 page)

She only continued to stare at him. “Trent and I aren’t….” Her cheeks colored. Lips parted. “We’re not like that. He shredded paper for me last night. That’s it.”

“Shredded last night and now he’s making himself comfortable in your kitchen.”

She only shrugged. “Trent has helped me out before with odds and ends around the diner. He’s known his way around here for months. He says he owes me because I fed him a lot when he had the flu this past winter. Besides, I’m seeing someone else.”

“Oh.” Not that it was any complete surprise Trent talked to a woman just for the sake of talking. Or helped just for the sake of helping. That was Trent. And the fact that Tonya had indeed fed his brother pretty well nonstop while he was sick, Trent would be repaying that debt until he thought it was paid in full. Which would be for the rest of his life. Never mind they’d all picked up the tab on the food, it was a matter of nursing time involved. Tonya was a good woman. Sucks his brother was fucked up when it came to women.

Jacob just shrugged and pushed food in his mouth. Normally the gravy had this hint of spicy sausage in it. The biscuits fluffy and just a taste of butter softness strong enough to stand over the white peppered gravy. Not today. It was all just bland and not what he wanted. “Sorry.”

She smiled. “It’s okay. Guess it makes sense. You and Lane are partnering off with my friends. If Trent and I hooked up it’d be easy to triple date.”

He choked on his food and chugged half his drink to clear his throat. By the time he finished, she was easing out of the booth and chuckling. “God, you and Flora both. It’ll be a miracle if either of you ever speak to each other again.”

He ate quickly as she started off, because, like hell. Flora was too fresh in his mind. A craving for her had settled in his bones. Last night had been explosive. There was too damn much he wanted to do with her still. That didn’t mean they were going to be anything else. Definitely not corny things like triple dating. That was the end of it no matter what other people said or thought.

Flora had made herself clear. He agreed. More than agreed with her idea of temporary. Unless she had meant temporary in terms of just one night. If that was the case, he’d just have to change her mind. He left money on the table to cover the food and headed to the manor. It was the only place he knew to look and hoped she was there working on the plumbing.

Of course finding her would be the damn near easy part. After she fled his house last night, who the hell knew what kind of mood she’d be in when he got there. It didn’t matter though. No matter what she said about getting right to it and being done, things were too damn good when he touched her to stop now.

He drove down the long narrow drive leading up the manor they’d inherited on their mother’s death. Large oak trees lined the gravel drive. Green leaves hung over like thick clouds and grass grew along the edges of the freshly graded road. Right up until the last moment when the trees parted and at last, the white, plantation style mansion stood. Workers were around the outside, repairing the crumbling bits. Others were on the roof and likely a couple more were inside somewhere too. The house and land had come a long way in the seven months they’d been there, even with the months of work they’d missed over the wet winter. What used to be a crumbling building hidden by acres of brush was now almost a home.

Grant and Lane’s trucks were parked to the side. And there on the end was Flora’s little faded red pickup.

He threw his truck in park behind hers and stepped out with his vehicle still rocking to a stop as he cut the motor. No escaping him so easy this time.

Hammering and pounding filled the air. A comforting noise, signaling steady work and progress. Which to him meant wealth and stability. Four single guys
roughnecking
it week-in and week-out year after year, they’d each built up quite the nest eggs. All of them knowing what it was like to be dirt-ass poor, saving was all they did. While he was on the fence over the whole idea of moving to this Podunk town and settling in, Jacob couldn’t deny the appeal of having something permanent that no one could take away. Something that was theirs, forever. For the chance to have a solid place to call home again, it was worth spending some of that money he’d been making. The land and house were all inherited. The only thing they were shelling out for were the massive amount of repairs.

Voices echoed through the wide foyer opening. Some called out instructions and measurements as they built. Others cracked jokes. The only part of the building that was completely intact was the floor he currently stood on in the foyer. The old tile managed to survive and was nearly all that was left of the original house.

He checked the kitchen first. It was completely unchanged aside from missing a slender stacked woman in a stained tool belt. The rest of the rooms on this side were empty, so he started across the hall where soft feminine curses sounded from deep in the house. A grin tugged his lips as he followed the sound through a short hallway, around a back corner and into what would one day be a bathroom to a guest bedroom.

Bare sheetrock lined the bedroom walls. Plywood stretched over the floor of the bedroom, but the walls separating this room from the bathroom were nothing more than framework.

And there she was. Standing on the ground between the framework where he’d guess a shower, toilet or sink would go. Her tape measure was out. Worn notebook peeking out from her tool belt. Careful of how his steps would echo, he eased across the room.

She was in jeans. They were baggy and loose on her legs, but then she squatted and it took his breath. The oversized saggy pockets covering her ass molded and curved to her hips and thighs. That damn sexy as hell tool belt was cinched tight on her hips. She wore a blue shirt this morning and it was tucked in her jeans, blocking any view of her skin, but his memory of her flushed and stretched beneath him filled her in just fine.

He leaned on the doorway, the only exit in the room and completely blocked it. “Need some help?”

She stilled. Didn’t stumble. Didn’t stand. Didn’t even look over her shoulder at him. “No, thanks.”

“You can’t honestly think after you fled last night I’d leave you alone, did you?”

She whispered something. He couldn’t make it out. Just a mix of hushed sounds skating across her lips.

“I didn’t catch that.”

She continued working, using a wrench to twist something in place. “I said that wasn’t sex.”

He frowned as the night instantly drifted back through his mind. His pulse picked up. Heat filled his jeans. “Sure as hell felt like it to me.”

The tool dropped from her hand. It clattered to the floor and she stood. “If you think last night was ‘just sex’, then you’ve never actually had ‘just sex’ before.”

A bark of laughter raced up his throat and echoed in the small room. “I promise you darling, I’ve had ‘just sex’ before.”

She shook her head. “No you haven’t.”

His brow cocked. Now this was what he was talking about. This teasing seduction of words. “Want me to prove it?”

She grabbed the clasp of her belt and the light tan leather dropped to the floor with a clank and a thud. “I don’t think you can, but I know
I
can show you.”

He wasn’t going to ask, but he sure as hell could let her.

Chapter Seven

Oh, my God. What was she doing? Flora didn’t know. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything but stare at him from across the room and want him more than anything. Wanted him in the way
she
wanted him. Not that bullshit from last night.

Raw. Quick.

Safe.

All morning long she’d divided her time between cursing herself for leaving and cursing him for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on. For taking her to his bedroom. For totally and thoroughly and completely satisfying her.

It was stupid to be angry with him. It was stupid looking back on the entire thing and how she’d run naked with her clothes clutched to her chest to escape. But last night when he’d slipped to the bathroom seconds before tossing that sexy grin over his shoulder, she’d had one clear thought: Get the hell out.

Instead of seeing his smile for what it was—a satisfied, happy smile—she’d looked at the smile and tried to read his mind. Wondered about his plans. Looked at that smile and recognized it as the one she’d been seeing.

As the one he was giving her right now. Jacob continued to lean against the open doorway between what would become a bedroom and attached bathroom. His arms open and waiting for her to make her move. “I’m all yours.”

Her heart all but pounded in her throat as he held out a hand and pulled her out of the foundation. Bringing her up to standing eye-level with him on the bare flooring of the bedroom. Last night had just thrown her for a few moments. With Jacob, it wasn’t the cut and dry encounters she was used to. It wasn’t bad, the smile was more than fine, it was just different. And she still wanted different.

She snapped open her jeans and something on the floor above clanked, stopping her.

He smiled. “They’re all outside or on the second floor. Bottom floor is deserted. No one on this end, nobody in this far off corner. They’ll never know.” The corner of his mouth seemed to pull up a bit more. His eyes darkened to sinful black depths. “Unless you scream.”

“Ha.” She kicked off her slip-on boots and pushed her jeans down. Heart thumped against her chest. Heat and desire pooled in her belly. She was doing this. She was stripping at work and having sex when people were just steps away. It was nuts. It was crazy. It was her life since talking to Jacob. “Unless
you
scream.”

His eyes dropped her to hips. “Like the panties.”

She touched the peach colored lace with rhinestones around the top. “I like to feel pretty even though I’m knee deep in sewer sometimes.”

He crocked his finger at her. “Sexy as hell with the mud on your arms.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a quick kiss. His taste, the same flavor from last night, soaked through her mind, loosened the knots in her stomach into liquid warmth and need. He wasted no time. Took no extra caresses or strokes.

Hunger cried out from his mouth and she eagerly pressed to him, taking all she could. Feeling all she could of his rounded, firm shoulders. Hard, unforgiving chest. His abs were flat and like rows of river rocks against her fingers as she reached between them and grabbed at the snap of his jeans.

She stopped. “You do have a condom, don’t you?”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all.” He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He tapped the packet on her nose.

She plucked the package out of his fingers, opened it and covered him. His knuckles caressed her naked arms. Chills trickled across her body and left her shuddering and wanting him to do it again. Wanted her fingers on his abs again, to feel him thrust between her thighs.

She took a firm stroke of his cock as she released him. His breath shuddered against her cheek and a shiver of flutters eased through her veins.

He grabbed her by the waist and spun with her, putting her back against the raw, cool sheetrock and lifted. Muscles of his arms flexed as he moved her effortlessly. Such power and raw, core strength. So much about him that took her breath. So much that continually surprised her. The way he could just handle her. How his touches pulled at her, wound her up tight, sucked her in deeper to wanting more from him. She wrapped her legs around his hips. Her ankles hooked and held as he traced down her belly and dipped the tip of his finger under the edge of her panties.

So close to falling apart in his arms. Just, almost. Craved and needed him deep inside. Now. With no waiting. No more teasing. Raw and hard as the man who held her who somehow sent a burst of warmth through with how his thumb caressed her belly. She pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him without reservation. With complete abandonment as she stroked her tongue past his lips and into his mouth to experience his taste again.

His rough-tipped finger moved the edge of her panties aside and she panted, unable to kiss him further as he tested her opening with a sudden push of his fingers. She arched into him. He left open mouth kisses down the side of her neck and to her shoulder. The tips of his fingers curled up then pulled out, leaving her empty and needing.

She squeezed her thighs on his hips to lift up and he angled himself. In a quick thrust, he filled her deep. Breath was gone from her chest. Her pulse beat a fast throb she’d never catch as he pumped. Her ass slapped the cold wall. His grunts filtered in her ear and she squeezed him for all she could.

Wouldn’t dare let him go. Release hovered close. Everything inside her squeezed small and tight. A ball ready to explode and burst. She sank her nails into his shoulders. His thrusts quickened. Heartbeat was lost and she fell apart in his arms with a release that fogged over her mind. She bit down on her lip to keep from yelling out.

His mouth found hers again as he thrust one last time. A moan moved from the back of his throat. Warmth spread through her limbs. Their kiss broke for much needed air. Her legs were nothing but limp as she unwound from his waist. The hand that had been supporting under her ass released and he used it to prop himself on the wall.

She eased off him and fell against the wall at her back for support as she reached for air that wouldn’t seem to come. His breath against her shoulder seeped into her skin, kept her heated and warm. He gave it to her fast. He gave it hard. Everything, exactly how she wanted it.