Frenched Series Bundle (64 page)

“Fuck yes.” Charlie’s voice had that deep, intense tone I adored, although less controlled now. “You were all I fucking thought about today. I had to get inside you again. I had to be right there,” he said, staying deep and holding me tight to his groin, his cock buried to the hilt. He circled his hips, grinding into me. “Right there. Right there…oh fuck.”

Apparently Charlie’s
right there
was the same as my
right there
because right as his body went stiff, I came hard, my insides clenching rhythmically around his throbbing cock.

Confession: I was getting a little attached to Charlie Dwyer. Or at least to sex with Charlie Dwyer.

But I was having a hard time separating the two.

While he used my downstairs bathroom, I used the upstairs one, wondering exactly how to handle this situation. We hadn’t spoken yet.

In my room, I pulled on a new pair of panties before hanging up my blouse and putting my jeans back in a drawer. I felt like being more comfortable, and if Charlie and I were going to eat leftovers, I definitely required looser pants. Pajamas were too intimate, so I settled for leggings and a big slouchy cream-colored sweater. Pulling it over my head, I considered my options.

A.
Say nothing and plate up the turkey. Maybe we’d both be glad to just gloss right over the fact that we hadn’t lasted one day on the no-sex plan.

B.
Get angry before he did. Blame him for starting this by showing up here and attacking me with his ridiculous hotness on a cold, lonely night.

C.
Laugh it off.
Guess it wasn’t out of our systems, huh? Now how about some real pie?

Yes, that was it. C, definitely.

By the time I got back downstairs, he was waiting in my kitchen.

With his coat on.

“You’re leaving?” I asked, thrown off guard.

“Don’t you want me to?”

“No. I mean—I brought leftovers home for you. Did you eat Thanksgiving dinner today?”

“Not really. By the time I got off work and went to see my granddad, he’d already eaten. We just played cards and hung out. I started to drive home to get something to eat but I drove here instead. I don’t even really know why.”

Oh hell. What was I supposed to say to that? Somehow this felt different than last night, when he’d retreated right away into his smart-mouth persona, teasing me and cracking jokes. I decided to keep it light and breezy. “Well, you must have been psychic because I was just picking up my phone to call you and invite you over for leftover turkey dinner. Of course, I was thinking of tomorrow night, but tonight works too.” While I was talking, I went to the cupboard and pulled out two big dinner plates.

“Didn’t you eat already?”

I shrugged, braving a shy smile at him. “I worked up some more appetite.”

He nodded slowly. “Me. Too.”

“Then take your coat off. I’ll fix us plates. Anything you don’t like?”

“Is there cilantro in the stuffing?” he asked, eyeballing the potted herbs on my windowsill, which were so thirsty they’d turned half yellow.

“No.”

He slipped his coat off and hung it over the back of a chair. “Then I’m good.”

“You don’t like cilantro?” I took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.

He made a sour face. “No, it tastes like a sneeze.”

“It does not. You’re crazy.” I elbowed him out of the way and watered the herbs. “Here, little fellas. I’m sorry if I accidentally tried to kill you like I’ve killed all your cousins. Please don’t die.”

“You murder plants? Now who’s crazy?” He gave me a swat on the butt, and I laughed, feeling good again. Things were OK. We were OK.

Ten minutes later, we sat in front of my couch, plates on the coffee table, eating Thanksgiving leftovers, drinking wine, and watching Breaking Bad on Netflix. I’d never seen it, but Charlie was a huge fan.

After one episode, I was dying to watch another, even though we’d finished our food. Charlie said he could stay for one more, so we poured a little more wine and moved up to the couch. I was careful to stay on my side, curling up in the corner and covering myself with a blanket when I got chilly rather than moving closer to him.

We ended up watching three entire episodes before Charlie yawned. “Man, I’m exhausted. I better go.”

“Do you have to work tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Early.”

“Yeah, I have to be over at the studio by nine.”

“Oh, that’s right. The dumpster’s coming. How late will you be there?”

“Not sure. However long it takes to get all that crap cleaned up and the new subfloor down. But that’s just plywood, I think. Shouldn’t take long.”

“OK. You’ll call if you need help?”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine.” I picked up the remote and turned everything off, startled at the quiet darkness once the electronics were silenced and the television screen was black.

We sat there a moment, neither of us speaking nor moving. Finally I felt Charlie’s hand on the top of my bare foot, which peeked out from beneath the blanket.

“You’re freezing,” he said, rubbing his hand back and forth.

“Not really. I just get cold easily.”

“You should turn up the heat.”

“Nah. Then you’d have been too hot.” I stuck my foot out and nudged his thigh. “Wasn’t that considerate of me?”

He laughed, circling my ankle with his hand. “Yes. What nice manners you have. Unlike me, showing up here uninvited.”

I clucked my tongue. “That’s right. You scared me to death, too. I nearly dialed nine-one-one!”

“Oh yeah?” Suddenly he pulled my ankle so I was lying on my back, tossed the blanket aside, and stretched out above me. “And what would you have reported?”

I giggled, a little drunk, a little delirious at his weight on me, at his face above mine in the dark. It struck me that I’d never been beneath him this way. “Help, help, there’s a man here with a large erection!” I yelled. “Who knows what he wants to do to me?”

Charlie laughed, setting his hips on mine. “I know.”

Widening my knees, I twined my legs around his, tucking my feet between his calves. “I thought you had to go.” My hands crept beneath his sweater and undershirt, sliding around his lower back.

“I do.” But he lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me softly. Kissing each lip and each cheek, and each eyelid. “I should.”

“Don’t.” I slid my hands lower, beneath the waistband of his jeans, and kissed the underside of his jaw. I put my face in the crook of his neck and inhaled his scent, my entire body shivering.

“You still cold?” He picked his head up and looked down at me.

“Yes, in fact, I think I have hypothermia and I need mouth to mouth.” I trailed kisses along his jaw, which was starting to feel scratchy under my lips.

“You don’t give mouth to mouth for hypothermia.”

“Then I need a hot injection of some kind,” I said, laughing as I dug my fingers into his ass.

“Oh, Jesus.” He kissed my nose. “You’re a bad girl, Red. I gotta go before I end up throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you up to bed.”

“Mmm, do it.”

He hesitated, and I knew he was thinking about it.

“Come on, it’s all freezing and snowy out there, the roads will be bad.” I picked my head up and tugged his earlobe with my teeth. “You know you want to stay with me.”

Groaning, Charlie got to his feet. “No. Now that’s enough, you. Quit trying to trap me here. I’m not the sleepover type.”

A second later, I sat up, bringing my feet together on the floor. “God, Charlie. I was just kidding.”

“I know.” Gone was the warmhearted, teasing Charlie of a minute ago. This one was cool and detached. “But I have to go, so no more.” He disappeared into the kitchen, and again I marveled at his ability to make it seem like somehow it was
my
fault we kept fooling around, and
I
was the only one who needed to be reminded to behave. I followed him to the kitchen, squinting at the light.

“You know, I didn’t ask you to come here tonight.” I leaned against the doorway, crossing my arms. “You’re the one who showed up saying you couldn’t stop thinking about me.”

Charlie was buttoning up his coat. “I never said I didn’t.”

“You just accused me of trying to trap you. Like I have some master plan to trick you into being my boyfriend.”

“That’s not what I meant at all, Erin.” He pulled his gloves from his pocket. “Look, I wanted to be here tonight. And I had a great time. I’m just making sure you remember what this is.”

Steam had to be coming from my ears by now. “You’re unbelievable. Get out.”

“What’d I say?”

“Get
out
!”

He rolled his eyes. “Erin, come on.”

“Charlie Dwyer, if you’re not out of my house in ten seconds, I’m setting off the alarm.” I closed my eyes. “Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Fourthreetwoone.”

The back door slammed.

I opened my eyes.

He was still standing there.

“You are
so
annoying,” I seethed through my teeth.

“I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes and exhaled. “The truth is, Erin, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here.”

“You’re insulting me. That’s what you’re doing.”

“I’m sorry for that. I don’t mean to. I actually really like you, for whatever reason.”

I put my hands over my ears. “Oh my God, you just made it worse!”

He put a hand up. “Can I just say this, please? I know I’m fucking this up, I know we have very little in common, and I know you don’t want me here, but I like you and I
did
think about you all day. I really wanted to see you tonight.”

“Fine. Great. I was happy to see you. I even played your little game,
asking
you to fuck me after I’d tried to say no.”

“You didn’t enjoy it?”

“You know I did. But why’d you have to ruin it with all the bullshit about trapping you, like I’m just pretending to be cool with what we’re doing when really I’m…” I steepled my fingers and lowered my voice to a sinister whisper. “Picking out china patterns on the sly.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Yes, it is. It’s the same thing you did last night, warning me about the mistakes in your past and how emotionally incapable you are, so I better not get attached.” I held my palms up. “In all honesty here, Charlie, the danger here isn’t my falling in love with you. It’s going back to how I used to feel about you.”

“Which was?”

“I couldn’t stand you.”

That got a wry smile.

“And right now I’m barely tolerating you, so just quit with all the nonsense. If you want to be friends, let’s be friends, but I think we were right last night—no more sex. It muddies things.”

“We did say that, didn’t we?” Charlie slapped his gloves against his hand. “Why did we say that again?”

“Because of this.” I gestured back and forth between us. “This is not fun.”

“So let’s do something fun.”

I crossed my arms in front of my thighs. “No!”

“I don’t mean that. And I don’t mean right now. I mean another day. Let’s do something fun together. Like friends do. Let’s go…skating!” he finished, like it was the best idea in the world.

“Skating?” My upper lip curled. “Skating is not fun. For me, anyway.”

“It will be with me. We’ll go downtown to Campus Martius.”

“I’ll watch you.”

“No, you have to skate with me. I’ll buy you a hot chocolate afterward. Or one of those desserts in a cup you call coffee.”

I groaned. “Do I have to?”

“Yes. And then next time, you can pick the something fun.”

“Something to torture you with, you mean.”

He winced. “Just not opera. It hurts my ears.”

“Too bad—if I decide opera, that’s what we do.”

He pulled on his gloves. “Fair enough. I’ll call you.”

“I might answer. I might not.”

He grinned. “You’ll answer.” He was out the door before I could even say good night.

I locked the door, set the alarm, and turned off all the lights before going up to bed. Curled up in my cozy white flannel sheets that had been washed so many times they’d basically taken on the texture of fleece, I held my overfed stomach and hoped the roads were OK. I didn’t want Charlie to get into an accident.

God, he was irritating. One minute he was pouring himself into all my nooks and crannies like melted butter on an English muffin, the next minute he was all aloof. Rude, even. What the hell was his problem?

Thank God I had my head on straight where he was concerned. I liked him—mostly—and I liked sex with him, but he just had way too many wrongs to be right for me.

I grabbed my body pillow and held it close, tucking it between my knees and under my head, one arm looped around it.
I’m glad he didn’t stay. He’d probably be a crappy cuddler anyway.

For heaven’s sake, the guy didn’t even know how to give someone a hug. He really had to get over that.

Maybe I could teach him.

#

The next morning, Nick and his friend in the construction business helped me take all the trash out to the dumpster, and Coco swept up. Lucas and Mia showed up around noon, full of apologies for being late, but explaining that Mia hadn’t been feeling well this morning.

Coco and I immediately turned our hawk eyes on Mia and then exchanged glances with each other. This was the second morning in the last week that Mia hadn’t been feeling well. She looked OK now, maybe a little pale, but she seemed in good spirits. Without speaking at all, Coco and I communicated that we had Suspicions that needed to be Discussed and we would sit Mia down later for a thorough Q & A.

While the guys and I laid the plywood sub floor, Coco and Mia ran out for sandwiches to bring back for lunch. We took a break when they got back, then worked through the afternoon and got the job done by the time Lucas and Nick had to leave to get ready for work. Mia, Coco, and I agreed to meet up at eight for a drink at The Green Hour, and Coco and I exchanged one last meaningful look that said If She Doesn’t Order Wine, She’s So Pregnant.