I smirk at her as I release her hand and slide out of the booth. After fishing a twenty out to cover the coffee and an extremely generous tip, which I throw down on the table, I hold my hand out to her. Still snickering, she places her hand in mine and looks up at me with amusement.
“Come on, Goldie,” I tell her as I pull her from the booth. “You can laugh all you want, but I’m right about that. I’m going to prove it to you.”
“Oh yeah?” she asks with a giggle as we start to walk out of the diner hand in hand. “How are you going to prove it to me?”
“I’m going to take you back to my hotel room and I’m going to fuck you hard into submission,” I growl at her in a low voice so as not to distress the waitress who waves goodbye to us.
“Mmmmm,” Casey moans dramatically as we hit the parking lot. “That sounds nice.”
“You’ll be walking funny tomorrow,” I warn her ominously.
“Even better,” she chirps and starts pulling me faster through the lot to my bike. When we get there, I reach out for her helmet to put it on her, but she grabs ahold of my wrists. “But I have a better idea.”
“Oh yeah… what’s that?”
“You come to my house instead,” she says quietly, and my body goes still.
This, I know, is huge. Given the boundaries that Casey sets with men… the fact that she doesn’t let them in personally at all… there’s no way in hell she opens her house up to them.
“Am I the first?” I ask her gruffly.
She nods her head as she nibbles on her lower lip.
Pleasure and an odd sense of accomplishment rushes through me. Actually, it’s euphoric.
I jerk Casey into my body and crush my mouth down on to hers, showing her how much I appreciate the tiny bit of trust she’s placed in me. I know this is a monumental moment for her, and I want her to see how special it is to me.
Christ… I feel like she just awarded me her virginity or something.
Chapter 9
Casey
Oh, boy… this was not a good idea. What was I thinking inviting Tenn into my home?
Stupid¸ stupid, stupid.
I opened the door to my house and metaphorically opened up a boundary that had been sealed tight.
Wringing my hands, I nervously walk through my small living room. “Um… not much to it. Just a small living room and kitchen. Two bedrooms and two baths.”
“It’s nice,” Tenn says as he looks around and then walks to the back sliding glass door. “Cozy in fact.”
I watch as he opens the door and steps out onto my minuscule deck. My tiny beach house sits two streets off the ocean, so most of my view is of other beach houses with just a tiny glimpse of the Atlantic. My house faces south so from the back deck, you can actually see not only a little bit of the ocean to the east but also a tiny bit of the sound to the west. It’s all I could afford as beachfront is definitely not within the budget of a down-and-out realtor turned bartender.
Tenn puts his hands on the deck railing and leans over it, craning his neck slightly to the left to look toward the ocean. A soft breeze filters in through the door, but my skin feels chilled.
I kind of thought Tenn would jump on me the minute we walked in. I didn’t expect him to ask me questions or look around with interest. I certainly didn’t expect him to mosey on out to the deck and check out the scenery by moonlight.
This is not good. This is all too friendly and intimate. It’s all just too much, especially after the way I prattled on to him at the diner… letting him in on a secret not one other person knows about me.
I feel itchy and tense and fuck… now my palms are sweating. I rub them furiously on the hem of my shorts and realize that I need to get this turned around. Quickly trotting over to my stereo, I put on some music and completely luck out with R. Kelly’s Bump N’ Grind.
Straightening up, I turn toward the back door and see Tenn standing just inside of it. I get a sinful pull of his lips upward as he gives a nod of his head toward the stereo. Sliding the door shut behind him, he says, “That’s some pretty sexy music you got on there, Goldie.”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out. I also let out all the warm and fuzzies I’ve been feeling for Tenn this evening. The friendship and bonding. I empty it all out and as I suck in a deep breath to replace it, I fill myself up with sensuality. I think about all the things Tenn has done to my body, and I let the need to feel it all again cram the void. I turn myself into the sexual creature that has sustained my need for touch by questing for an orgasm. I’m Casey Markham… the woman who only cares about physical pleasure, leaving the joys of the heart to other poor saps.
As Tenn takes a few steps into the living room, I start to prowl my way to him, sexily rolling my hips as I let my fingers flirt with the edges of my shorts. He comes to a stop and watches me, his eyes running down my body appraisingly. He even mimics my patented move—pulling his bottom lip in between his teeth while he imagines all the dirty things we’ll do to each other—and fuck… that’s really, really hot when he does that.
No wonder it works so well.
Stepping up to him, my fingers dip down into the waistband of his jeans. I crane my neck to look up at him and my breath never fails to get robbed by his sky blue eyes, those provocative lips, and that kick-ass goatee.
“Something occurred to me,” I tell him with a throaty purr.
“What’s that?” he asks, his eyes heating up over the promise in my voice.