Burned Gasoline (6 page)

              “I’m fine.” He said with that low male mumble that made her insides rumble in silence, then hinted down to Nova whom, to her great surprise, had actually fallen asleep in his arms the short distance to the stairs.

              She eyed him suspiciously, then turned and continued her stride up the stairs and into Nova’s bedroom, which was just across the upstairs hallway from the stairway. A few steps away was her own room… where she suddenly noticed had both her used underwear and last night’s pj’s in a not so neat pile on the floor. Fully visible to anyone passing by the door. Inside her head she cursed herself again, trying to remember the phrase her mom had always told her, “always keep your home tidy in case there is an accident and people have to come inside without a notice.” Yeah, she should have remembered that.

              At least she had closed the drawer where she kept her toys… she would’ve factually died having him see what she was secretly hiding. No one should see those, ever. Sometimes
she
even felt embarrassed looking at them, touching them, buying new ones. But some nights, when she was alone, and missing someone having her close, either her hand or one of the technological wonders hiding deep down in the drawer would slide underneath the comforter of the bed and work some twiddling magic right where she needed it. For the last months, the cheer exhaustion and release had been what put her to sleep at night. Much better than any sleeping pill in the world.

              Nova’s room lay in darkness, as for the moonlit sky leaving nothing but shadows on the bedroom walls. As if utterly competent, Jefferson placed Nova gently to bed, and pulled the thin blanket up over her small frame, and walked out of the room with Raylyn right at his heels. As soon as she’d closed the door she turned around and an instant flame of heated fire went through her body. Jefferson was in her bedroom. Crap.

              “Um, this… I should have cleaned this up.” Instantaneously she picked up the items thrown over the floor. A bra, completely un-sexy white cotton underwear, which she had promised herself no one should ever see, and a stack of magazines. She placed them all in a heaping pile on the dresser by the wall, and quickly eyed the goodie drawer and was glad to see it closed.

              “So, this is your bedroom?” He said, with hands in his pockets he looked around where he was standing in the middle of the room, close to the side of her unmade bed. And fuckety-fuck-fuck… she had completely forgotten about turning off the iPad peeking out from underneath one of the pillows. What was even worse was that her movement of magazines had incidentally touched the screen which was now publicly broadcasting the last page she’d visited last night before falling asleep: ‘
Sensual situations’
-
the
worst website name in history. Something a girl of her style should never, ever watch. At least not so anyone knew it.

              He still hadn’t seen it as he was more interested in everything else in the room. “This used to be the master bedroom of the previous owners too. I was here a few times to help them out with car stuff, and once the old man fell on some ice outside and I helped him up here and put him to bed. It looks nicer now thought, lighter somehow. You painted?”

              Raylyn quickly shifted her idiot stare from the lighted up item hiding half-way under the pillow and stared into his eyes instead.

              “Yes, yes! I painted. A lot. Brighter, whiter, what have you.” Her voice must have given her away, as he followed the path of her eyes and, damn him, landed on… the iPad. Hopefully the webpage was fuzzy enough and wouldn’t publicize what she had been getting off to last night. But as she nervously stared back at him, her luck was going straight down the drain, and far beyond the open sea.

              “Well, I should be getting back home.” A hint of a smile crept over his face as he turned to meet her eyes but she had her face down on her shoes in total embarrassment. Perhaps the philosophy of a toddler would work, if she closed her eyes he couldn’t see her? She highly doubted that, and managed to look up to watch the back of him walking out of her room and down the stairs.

              “Thanks for coming, and thanks for helping me with the car, and thanks for not being afraid of Nova.” She said rapidly following his tall, lean, and noticeable muscular frame to the front door. God, even the muscles on his upper back moved slightly under the fabric of his t-shirt, and she found herself mesmerized, until she slammed right into him, back muscles and all. He had apparently stopped and she hadn’t noticed.

              “Oh, shit! Are you okay?” He said and grabbed her by her arms and pulled her up right next to his hard body, letting her feel his chest heaving against hers. She didn’t know where to look. He was close enough that if she moved her face it would without a doubt touch his. His hands were still gripping her arms, holding her in place, but her voice seemed stuck in her throat.

              “Why would I ever be afraid of Nova?” His question startled her. She was expecting something completely different to come out of his mouth.

              “Um, I’m just not used to a man taking her, holding her, without my instructions.”

              “Instructions? It’s a child. There aren’t too many ways to hold children.” His eyes caressed her face and she noticed she’d been holding her breath and released it. Right then, he kissed her, the same way he had done that one day in her car at his shop. His lips were so warm, and full, and simply… wonderful. The moment she decided to open her mouth and give in his lips were gone, and so was he. The door slammed behind him and as if swallowed by the ground she sank down on her knees to lay flat on her back staring up in the ceiling.

              “Holy shit.” She mumbled, and ran her tongue over her lips, trying to comprehend the heat that just recently touched them.

              “Sorry, forgot my jacket and my keys…” The door had opened. Damn it.

Her entire being froze on the floor, as if there was anything else she could do than simply lie there.

              “Are you okay?” He asked, not stepping in quite yet. His eyes went over her entire body than back up to her eyes.

              “Yes!” She said a bit too loudly, and was on her feet in no time, handing him the jacket hanging over the stair railing next to her. “Here you go. You better be off now. Bye bye.” With that she practically forced the jacket in his hands, pushed him out the door, and slammed it shut behind him before she once again sank to the floor and let her face fall into her hands. “Why am I such an idiot around men? Good looking, hot, tasty men I should say.”

*              *              *

              Later that night, without a chance in the world to fall asleep Raylyn tried the last resort she could think of to make her forget the last few hours.

              “Dear God,” she started, sinking further into the pillow, folding her arms over her face, hiding from the world. “Today I shook my booty in a very distasteful way in front of our dinner guest. I also let him see my… you know, secret website, and then I made a fool of myself crunching on the floor in embarrassment, just to have him walk in on me asking if I was okay. He also might have seen my bare belly sticking out below the hem of my t-shirt at that time, and unfortunately my baby weight makes me less fit than I should be by any means. Got any help here?”

              Quietly she waited while the cool breeze outside the window howled down the spouts along the wall, making the outside sound occupied by a flock of Barred owls. In the back of her mind she noted the rough spiky grass giving away slight crunches, but decided the weather was playing a joke on everything to night, including her hearing, and went back to what was most important at the moment; getting the embarrassment of tonight of her shoulders to be able to sleep for a few hours.

              “Nothing, God? Okay, I guess there is no recovery from this. I’m just going to hide under here until he doesn’t remember me anymore. Goodnight.” In utter shame she pulled the thick comforter over her head and cursed the day and all of the events. What on earth would he think of her?

              But still, sleep wouldn’t come, and the spinning thoughts of the day became more and more mixed with the different times she’d met Jefferson. How he nicely filled out both his t-shirts and his jeans. The dark angel sitting on one shoulder kept feeding her possible images of what he would look like without those jeans on, or what his strong hands would look like unbuttoning the fly of his pants. Suddenly one of her hands moved from behind her head and slowly slid down her body, across her breast, and over the fabric of her stomach, until she reached inside her pajama bottoms to place a soft hand between her legs. Just what she’d thought, all those pictures of Jefferson swimming in her head had soaked the fabric of her pants, to the point where small drops moisture ran down to land on the sheet beneath her.

              Her breathe hitched and shit her eyes tight, as her fingers entered her warm, wet pussy, helplessly imagining it being Jefferson’s fingers instead of hers. It shocked her that simply her fingers and the ongoing images of a tall, man, in dirty jeans, wearing a baseball cap, made her orgasm faster than any of her toys had ever done.

              “Oh shit…” she whispered as her hand rested heavily on the side of her thighs, and her breathe slowed down to normal. “God, that felt so good.”

Chapter Seven

              “Alright, we need some diapers, some vegetables, and probably something yummy to eat for breakfast tomorrow.” Nova was sitting in the shopping cart eyeing the surroundings of the store. Even though the stores in New York City had been quite a lot bigger and carried items from far places all across the world, the one and only store here in town started to really grow on her. Was it really necessary to always eat organic and clean, whatever was classified as that, or buy salted seaweed chips to snack on when the hunger for chocolate had to be kept on a tight leash?

              Eying the items already in the cart the difference from her previous life was quite shocking, but the biggest eyedroppers were not only the two candy bars but what they were laying next to - the butter. Yeah, real butter made from cow’s milk. Not soy, not almond, not low fat, or non-fat. Imagine that: full on, high fat, delicious, yellow butter. Swirling around the corner to the frozen aisle her heavily stocked cart bumped into someone else’s.

              “I’m so sorry!” She snapped and quickly pulled it back against her waist.

              “Hey, how are you doing?”

              Oh, no. She knew that voice far too well, and she had managed to successfully avoid it for the honorable length of five whole days. But she knew this would all come to an end, in fact, in a town with a mere population of nine-hundred she was surprised it actually hadn’t happened sooner.

Don’t blush, don’t blush, don’t blush.
The never ending mantra played on repeat inside her head.

              “You okay? Look a little flustered there. Running a fever?”

Damn it. Her brain wouldn’t listen to her urgent command.

              “No, no. Just fine.” She still hadn’t dared to look up and meet his eyes, eyeballing her from slightly above, while he placed a few more frozen dinners in his cart.

              “Is that what you’re having for dinner tonight?” She surprised herself commenting on the content of his haul.

              “Yep, it sure is. Chicken Fried Steak at its finest.” He answered and placed another load of four on top of the rest.

              “Hold on,
this
is really what you’re eating?” She couldn’t stop staring at the items he would be purchasing tonight. Frozen dinners, frozen veggies with sauce for the microwave, Lays potato chips, beer, and three lonely bananas.

              “How do you stay in such good shape when you eat things like this?” She asked and pointed to the three portions of Hungry Man’s Boneless Fried Chicken Dinner.

With a smile he stopped loading more frozen awfulness into his cart and closed the door to the freezer. “You think I’m in good shape?”

Please ground, swallow me now, and don’t blush, don’t blush, don’t blush…
Damn, her mind didn’t work this time around either.

              “You sure you’re not running a temp, you look… hot. Again.”

              She felt her face heat up even more from his words, even the top of her ears were catching on fire. If she didn’t walk away soon, or literally put her head in the freezer, her face was going to erupt in flames.

              “Anyway, I’m done with my shopping. See you around.” Quickest get away, down the frozen aisle, to the closest check-stand, then drive far away from any lean, tall, muscular, dark haired, blue eyed… man. Especially from men named Jefferson, who always wore t-shirts in fabric thin enough for every muscle movement to be noticeable. Who always seemed to wear jeans hanging just right over those hips, accentuating that most magnificent ass…”

              “Maam, I can help you over on this check-stand.”

Her imagination had once again made her drift away from reality and left her standing in the middle of the aisle between two check-stands.

              “Oh, thank you.” She managed, as if nothing had happened, and unloaded everything from her cart on the belt.