Southern Seduction (52 page)

Zoey

“It looks good, but I’m pretty sure he should make an appointment with a doctor,” Miller taunted, bumping his shoulder into mine and sending me careening away from him, only to be stopped by his strong arm wrapping around me and slamming me back into the firmness of his body. He snapped a picture on my phone with his other hand, before sliding it into the front pocket of my hoodie when he was done.

“Hey, I’ve never done this before. And lots of guys have one ball that’s bigger than the other.”

The sound of his mirth was throaty, husky even, and it took me back to our tryst in the alley and the war he had waged with his eyes in order to keep them open when he came.

God, it was sexy.

Actually,
they
were sexy. The laugh and the face.

“Alright,” he murmured as he got control of his laugh. “Work your magic fingers into my back pocket and get the next clue, babe, and don’t shy away from a little bit of groping while you’re back there.”

I told myself that I was going to have a talk with him about the commands and orders, but I knew I was shitting myself. Truth was, I liked it.

At least for now. If he started telling me to do things I didn’t actually want to do, I would probably have a problem.

Working my hand in behind the paper of the clue, I gave his tight ass a significant squeeze before moving back to the clue, grabbing it, pulling it around his body, and unfolding it in front of my face.

Lucky pennies

Shiny in the blue

Take it all off

Even your skivvies, too.

After my first read through, I still didn’t understand the meaning. I wasn’t sure if it was the clue or me, but I had no idea if Colonel Mustard did it in the study with the candlestick or what.

I shoved it at Miller, muttering, “Here,” before throwing my hands in the air in defeat.

“I have no idea what that means. I was hoping you could use your smart old man skills to decode it.”

Every feature of his face took on the characteristics of his smile, so much so that it looked like even his eyelashes curled upward at the ends.

He read it to himself, a smug air taking over his previously flirty smile. Clearly, the fucking smarty pants knew what it meant.

“Alright, let’s hear it. What’s it mean, old man?”

“Well, most importantly, I get to see you naked again. I choose to focus on that.”

“What?!” I shrieked, not so much horrified that he was going to see me naked again, because really, what was the difference? But I hadn’t followed along even remotely close enough to understand that when I read it, and it caught me off guard.

“Skinning dipping in the fountain in front of the Courthouse. All of this stuff is pretty standard, actually. I’m pretty sure the cardinal elements of any good set of pranks are animals, dirty depictions of some sort, and nudity.”

I was about to respond, but it was probably going to be with something that would lead into another drawn out conversation that we didn’t have time for.

That was why it was helpful when he cut me off before I even started, leaning in and pressing his plump lips to mine, his tongue demanding immediate entrance and then rewarding my capitulation with measured caresses.

He took just enough time to hit all of the right spots before licking his way out, the tip of his tongue running along the seam of my lips as he retreated.

“Come on, Zo.”

I went. My body was humming with excitement, which meant that my muscles were warm and compliant, following him through town with the same ease as a river carving gently through a valley.

We made it there pretty quickly, and I managed to keep my heavy breathing to the level of a stage one stalker. All this activity was painting me as very out of shape, but I was at an unfair disadvantage. The man was more than a foot taller than me! He was running a marathon, and so was I, except my speed was set at sprint.

A tiny piece of hair fell forward to his forehead, the sheen caused by the slight layer of sweat covering his whole body sticking it to the top of his face.

It was cute, and imperfect, and not the least bit unsexy. If anything, the veins of his arms stood out like he’d been oiled, outlining his corded muscles perfectly and highlighting their size. He wasn’t bulky, just built. Every dip, swell, and curve stood out without being swallowed by extraneous mass.

“Here,” he said, pulling a penny out of his back pocket. He turned my hand palm up and dropped it there, stating, “I already got my wish tonight, so I’ll let you hold on to my lucky penny.”

His eyes met mine, and his meaning was unmistakable.

I was his wish.

Holy shit, that was cool. A little mushy, but he said it in such a manly way, that it lost most of its squishiness. Happiness filled me, expanding and smothering each and every cranny and hole like that spray-in insulation.

I searched his green depths, trying to decipher if he wanted something from me in return, but the only desire I found was for me to get a move on.

So I did.

“Where does one put a lucky penny for safe keeping while skinny dipping?” I pondered curiously.

With the twitch of an eyebrow and a mischievous smirk, Miller muttered, “I can only think of one place,” adding a lascivious double eyebrow pop at the end for extra emphasis.

“You’re sick!” I spouted, shoving him in the shoulder and laughing as I unzipped my hoodie for the second time that night, and then peeled it off of my arms. I plopped it gently on the ground, careful of the contents of my pockets.

“What?” he queried, playing the role of innocence perfectly. “I was talking about your hand. What were
you
thinking?” he teased.

“Take your clothes off,” I ordered, rolling my eyes and once again shucking my boots, socks, and tight jeans.

“Nuh uh,” he uttered, shaking his head. “I have to take your picture first. You know, for the contest.”

“You’re not taking a nude picture of me!” I snapped, standing there in my tank top and panties, hesitantly moving my eyes back and forth between the phone resting in the pocket of my hoodie on the ground and the twinkle in his eye.

“Okay,” he consoled, his hands facing palm out in surrender. “You’re not into starring in erotic pictures. Noted.”

I could tell he was just messing with me, egging me on on purpose, hoping to get a fun little spat out of it. He was testing the limits, pushing and pulling, but doing it with care. Passion runs deep in successful relationships, but the ones that can’t control it burn bright just before exploding into a fiery death or fizzling out.

He was just making sure he knew how to get to both the extinguisher and the matches.

“Okay, look. You need the picture or there’s really no point in doing the prank, right?” he asked, annoying me with his rational thinking.

“Yes,” I whined petulantly, my lower lip rolling out dramatically into a pout.

He couldn’t hold in his laugh, and I could tell he tried by the fragmented sound of it.

“Just hide behind the statue part and peak your head and hands out. No one will see anything that we’d both rather keep hidden. I’m not looking to have to fend off scavengers because they’ll be wanting to feed on your delicious body when they get a good look at it.”

“Oh, good idea,” I responded, ignoring all of the wacky over exaggerations of his explanation and focusing on the important part. Hiding behind the statue.

Crossing my arms and grabbing the hem of my camisole in both hands, I started to pull it off before stopping right after exposing my belly button and the blue jeweled ring in it. “Wait. You’re going to take off your clothes and get in here with me after you take the picture, right?”

Serious disappointment flashed through his features, saturating his brows and weighing them down with dismay. “I wish I could, Zo. No time, though. Not to mention, I get in there naked with you, and there’s a really good chance it’s going to degenerate into defiling public property.”

I pouted again, making sure my lip was pronounced in a way that he couldn’t miss.

The distance between us disappeared, his feet carrying him to me and closing the gap faster than I could process. His hand sifted into my hair, weaving in between the strands and cradling the back of my head with his palm.

“Plus, I think our next time should be in a bed.”

My mind flashed to a bed, sheets and limbs tangled, tongues tangoing, hands groping, and a steady rhythm working between our hips.

Yeah, that did sound pretty nice.

“Okay, a bed it is.”

“Good, now hurry up and strip.”

I could tell he got a kick out of ordering me to take off my clothes. I suppose that’s the kind of reaction you would get from anything male.

Repeating my actions from earlier, I crossed my arms, grabbed the hem of my shirt, and pulled it over my head, giving a little shimmy as I did to make my boobs shake a little just to see his reaction.

When the fabric cleared my face, I looked straight to his, and just as suspected, his eyes were zeroed in on the prize and just barely managing to stay smaller than saucers.

“Predictable,” I muttered to myself.

“Don’t care,” he stated, obviously having heard my mumble.

I pushed my panties down my legs, the penny he gave me still securely in the clutch of my hand. I knew it was dangerous to carry it with me into a fountain full of its comrades, the chances of losing it increasing exponentially if I failed spectacularly and dropped it, but I didn’t want to put it down.

Ignoring my glaring nudity, I turned to the fountain and carefully scaled the rim, stepping inside gently as to avoid slipping and busting my head open on the unpredictable bottom.

Once inside, I clomped through the water rather gracelessly after looking down at my watch and realizing we really were running out of time.

I rounded the statue, my knuckles turning white from the sheer force with which I gripped my new favorite keepsake, and then peeked my head around the side. “I’m covered, right?” I checked before giving him the go ahead to take the picture.

“Yep,” Mill confirmed. “All bits and pieces are unaccounted for. You’re completely androgynous. Is it a man or a woman?”

“Spare me the commentary, John Madden,” I griped, trudging back through the water, around the statue, and out of the fountain to my pile of clothes.

Only when I bent to pick up the first piece of clothing did Miller find it necessary to remind me of what I was forgetting. Of course, he waited until I was done bending, unwilling to give up even a second of his free peep show, to speak. “Looks like the clue is still out there on the statue, Zo.”

My head whipped around in disbelief, confirmed his statement to be true, and then rotated itself back my sidekick. “And you’re just telling me now?” I complained.

“You’re naked. This keeps you naked longer,” he enunciated with a shrug.

Grumbling the whole way, I climbed back into the water and made my way over to the center of the fountain under protest.

After peeling the tape off of the stonework of the statue, I finally made my way back out of the fountain and got dressed with record speed while Miller held onto the clue.

I vaguely noticed him reading it while I pulled my socks and boots on, doing my best to shake the water free of each foot before encasing them in my socks.

When I finally got everything situated, I flipped my hair back over my head, tucked it behind my ears, and looked up to see Miller’s face looking way different than it had looked all night.

For the first time, he looked seriously unhappy.

“What’s up?” I asked when he didn’t give me any other indication of what his problem was.

“You can’t do this,” he said, handing me the paper before running both of his hands through his hair in distress.

I felt a frown curve my lips downward at the sight of him upset, but I still took the paper from his hand, opened it up, and read it for myself.

One last clown

On the guy who runs this town.

Uh oh. This wasn’t starting well.

Grab the keys from his office.

This isn’t for a novice.

Beware of lurking dangers

As there will be sleeping strangers.

“Is this saying what I think it’s saying?”

“Well,” Miller started, his disposition turning so sour that I thought I would gag on my pucker. “If you think it’s saying to break into the Mayor’s house, while he’s sleeping upstairs, and steal the keys from his office, then yeah. It says what you think it says.”

I knew he was angry at the situation and not me, but his tone of voice was pissing me off. He was making it sound like some horrible plan to murder everyone in town while they slept.

I knew this wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do, but it wasn’t on par with murder, and I wasn’t the one who plotted it.

He needed to ease up a little.

“Easy, Mill. It’s not the end of the world. You’re getting so worked up, and I don’t think it’s worth that much emotion.”

“You can’t actually be considering doing this?” he asked condescendingly, stirring up some irrational anger and pressing on the same nerve he had when he started giving me orders earlier. Only, now he was doing it harder.

“Don’t do this, Zo. The other stuff was innocent and fun, but I can’t be a part of this. It’s dangerous, stupid, and highly illegal.”

I heard what he was saying, but if I didn’t do all of my crazy stuff now, I would never do it.

“Just give me a minute to think this decision through,” I requested amicably, trying to ease some of his tension and keep the peace between us.

“You don’t get it,” he said immediately instead of giving me time to think. “You don’t have to fit every last bit of rebellion into this one little night. When you put too many eggs in one basket, you lose your way.”

He shook his head at his mix of metaphors, corrected himself with, “Or your eggs. Whatever. The point is that you’ve got to spread it around. Follow the important rules, break the little ones. Have fun, but be
safe
. Live your life. Fucking
love
your life. Don’t just go through the motions.”