“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “The entire town will probably know about it before I do. You’ll do something cutesy like drop a change of address card for me at the post office early one morning and word will spread through town like wildfire before lunch.”
“That sounds about right,” I said after mulling it over. “Wait, you’re the one moving?”
Gabe snorted. “There’s no room for a pole dancing studio at my house.”
“It always comes back to the damn pole dancing,” I said, but I couldn’t keep the smile out of my sleepy voice.
“Go to sleep, babe,” Gabe whispered into the darkness. “You’ll have a busy day tomorrow reporting your claim to your insurance company and then making arrangements to have Princess towed to have new tires put on. Unless…”
“I’ll take care of it.” I appreciated that he was going to offer, but I had the day off and was quite capable of doing the tasks he mentioned.
“I’ll leave my Charger for you in case you need to drive someplace. I’ll have Adrian pick me up here in the morning.” Gabe loved that car with the remote start, heated seats and steering wheel. I couldn’t believe he’d let me drive it, but then I realized that I probably ranked higher in his life than even I knew. The scale was leaning majorly toward the thrill side, but there was still an edge of terror remaining when I thought about how close we’d come in so little of a time.Breathe, Josh. Don’t fight it.
“YOU WANT TO TELLme why you didn’t call me last night?” I asked as I toweled dried my hair after a shared shower with Josh. I tried not to be insulted and offended or take it the wrong way, but it was hard to do. He needed help, I wasn’t the first person he turned to, and it didn’t sit well with me. At all.
“It was a kneejerk reaction,” he said with a casual shrug. Truthfully, I felt he was way too nonchalant about the entire vandalism ordeal.
“Kneejerk reaction.” I rolled his words in my mind while I repeated them out loud.
“Yes, when there’s trouble you call 911.” He looked at me like I lost my mind.
“But you didn’t the night that Oscar Davidson broke into your home to kill you. You called me,” I reminded him, as if he could ever forget. I sure as hell wouldn’t forget sprinting through dark back yards in my attempt to save him from a fucking mad man.
“I did.”
I hung up my towel and placed my hands on my hips. “Why?”
“I can’t take you seriously with you standing there all naked and sexy looking,” Josh said. He was clearly stalling because he could barely stand up after the orgasm I had just given him, so there was no way he was ready for more. I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my best menacing scowl. I was freezing my naked ass off, but I wasn’t budging from the topic. “That’s not helping because I can still see your dick.”
“Josh.” My tone said I was done playing.
“Fine!” He snatched his towel off the rack and began rubbing himself furiously. “I wanted to hear your voice one more damn time.” I couldn’t see his expression because Josh kept his eyes focused on what his hands were doing, but the flush on his body told me he was embarrassed. “Even then I knew there wassomethingmore between us, even if I didn’t want there to be. If those were going to be my last moments…”
I closed the gap between us and tugged on his towel until he looked up at me then tugged until he was as close as I could get him considering the side of the bathtub was between us. “They were never going to be your last moments.”
“How do you know that?” he asked skeptically.
The answer to his question was simple: he was meant to be mine. At the time of his attack, I knew only two things about him: he drove me crazy and I couldn’t get enough. We hadn’t known each other long then and we weren’t sure we liked each other. I suspected that my move to Blissville was fated, but to be with him instead of Kyle. I wouldn’t tell him any of that right then because he wasn’t ready to hear it.Soon,I told myself. To him, I said, “I know these things.”
“Yeah? But you didn’t see…”
“… Blah blah blah,” I finished for him. The Wanda Honeycutt jokes were getting old. I wasn’t the only one fooled by her sweet church lady routine and at least I could say I’d only known her for a few months. The rest of the knuckleheads knew her their entire lives and never saw her devious nature.
“Josh,” I said seriously. “Call me first next time.”
Josh scrunched up his nose and frowned. “Damn, I hope there isn’t a next time,” he replied.
“Me too, but if there is…”
“… You’ll be the first to know,” he said obligingly. Josh lowered his voice and whispered, “We’re starting to finish each other’s sentences. Next thing you know, you’ll be wearing…”
“I’m not wearing skinny jeans,” I said cutting him off. I lightly bit his bottom lip then stepped back so he could get out of the tub and get warmed up. I couldn’t help but notice Josh’s nips were hard enough to cut glass. I noticed his hot, naked body even though he had milked every last drop of spunk from my balls in the shower. I figured only death would keep my eyes from feasting on his beauty, but I doubted even that would stop me.
Josh pulled out one of my suits and ties from the depths of his giant closet once we returned to his bedroom. I watched as he opened his underwear and sock drawer and removed a pair of my boxers and dress socks that were mixed in with his stuff. My heart would’ve smiled if it could over the sweet, domestic moment.
“I ironed this shirt after I laundered it, but it could probably use another pass,” Josh said, inspecting the pale blue shirt he held up in front of him.
“It’s fine the way it is.” I hooked my finger in the knotted towel at his waist. “Thank you.” I kept the kiss chaste because I knew Adrian would be on his way and I didn’t want to keep him waiting. The only thing I paused to do was watch Josh pull on a pair of neon green bikini briefs. Again, there was no way I wouldn’t notice the way the fabric clung to the taut globes of his ass.
