And that chemistry between us led to the most intense orgasms I’d ever had.
As though the hotel room surrounded us in a bubble, separate from the outside world, we didn’t talk about anything personal between rounds. No last names, no hometowns, no careers. It was like a dream, a fantasy where nothing existed outside of touch and taste and overwhelming sensation.
Eventually, after we used up the row of condoms she had in her purse, she fell asleep sprawled across my chest. I drew mindless shapes over her hip, nuzzling the wild mess of curls haloing her face, until I drifted off, too.
After the best night of my life, I opened my eyes to glaring sunlight that highlighted the generic decor of my hotel room. The only proof it wasn’t a dream were my clothes scattered across the floor, and there, tangled with my crumpled tee, a bright pink daisy.
This time, I was the one left utterly alone.
Chapter Two
Eden
Iwouldneverlookata cat the same way again, not after spending three weeks trying every natural and chemical odor removal on the market in an attempt to get the smell of cat pee out of the back corner of my new store.
Ringing in the new year with cleaning products was not how I’d imagined life in my thirties.
“Why me?” I asked aloud, throwing a rag soaked with enzyme spray down on the stained carpet. “I have always been a friend to feline-kind. My dream is finally coming true, and now customers will be hit with this god-awful smell while they shop for lingerie. Perfect.”
“Are you talking to yourself again?”
I leveled a glare at my cousin, Adelaide, though it melted away when I saw her brother standing behind her. A toolbelthung low on his hips and he tossed a measuring tape up and down with one hand like it was a baseball.
“Rob! Please tell me you’re here to work your construction magic on this freaking floor.”
He winked at me as he playfully bumped Adelaide aside. “That’s exactly why I’m here. It’s going to get loud, so I suggest you ladies go get some lunch while I work. Bring me back a roast beef sub, would you?”
“Get rid of that smell and I’ll provide a year’s worth of subs. You’re a lifesaver,” I yelled over my shoulder as Addie tugged me out the back door of my new shop.
It wasn’t much to look at just yet. We’d papered over the picture windows at the front to stave off curious passers-by. The clothing racks were still empty and crammed into one of the back rooms, and my stock covered every available surface in the other one. The cat pee had taken more time and attention than anticipated, much to my dismay, and I needed to see what miracles my cousin could work before Addie and I started on the decor.
There was a chance the shop would be an epic failure. I warned myself of that fact every seven minutes or so since I’d first secured the location in a cute-but-slightly-rundown plaza with street parking only. Spruce Hill was a bustling small town, but I knew some of the residents wouldn’t be particularly happy about a lingerie store popping up out of nowhere.
My own parents were among those who’d hate the store’s existence, if they’d known about it.
Fortunately, I was an adult. I no longer needed their permission or their approval, and they didn’t live near Spruce Hill, so they’d probably never find out what I was doing. After washing their hands of me years ago, I wasn’t even sure they’d care about my shameorsalvation anymore. As far as they—and their church—were concerned, I’d been a lost cause for a long time before I left home.
I’d spent the last ten years working a variety of jobs, scrimping and saving and researching and planning for this moment—ever since getting the hell out of Dodge the minute I heard my parents discussing potential husbands to throw me at after high school. I’d thought my years of rebellion up to that point would convince them to let me go my own way, but in that moment, I realized I was wrong. They spent my entire childhood telling me I was sinful, trying to shape me into the kind of woman my mother had become, and I wasn’t about to let some stranger from their church step in to “guide” me the way they wanted.
So I left home immediately after graduation, took a bus to seek out my cousins in Spruce Hill, and moved on with my life—without any contact with my parents. They might see a lingerie store as further proof I was destined for damnation, but as for me? I was ecstatic about finally opening Garden of Delights.
The shop would be more than just a retailer for size-inclusive lingerie, it would be a haven for those who needed it.
Addie and I left town together for college, rooming together in the dorms and then sharing an apartment for over a decade in the city, but she’d recently moved back to Spruce Hill to work for a rape crisis center. When I followed her here to bring this dream to life, she offered to help me out part-time with the store as well as hosting weekly support groups for survivors of sexual assault in one of the back rooms. Her friend and coworker, Monique, would be offering sex ed classes—and the occasional sex toy party, since she was a sales rep for Pleasure Players, a company that sold all kinds of fun accessories that went well with the shop’s theme.
“Once Rob is done, I’ll draft up the layout we talked about,” Addie said as she pulled me down the sidewalk.
I’d scored a prime parking spot just in front of the shop, so we bundled up and walked down Main Street to get lunch. Parallel parking was not my forte, but hopefully my parking luck would continue. That was the only downside to this particular location—no parking lot.
However, it was also a big factor in the significantly lower rent than the other places I’d scoped out further into town.
“Do you think we’ll need to replace the whole carpet?”
The calculations running through my head were not promising if that was the case. Not only would that cut into my budget for getting the store up and running, it might mean weeks more in delays.
The rent was low, but notthatlow. Every day I spent waiting would cut into my savings—every dollar I wasn’t earningwith the shop was one that might mean the difference between affording my own place and having to accept Adelaide’s offer to share the loft above her parents’ garage, which she’d moved into when she returned to town.
We’d lived together long enough for me to value my new one-bedroom apartment in Spruce Hill, even if it was on the dumpy side. Finally moving forward meant I didnotwant to take a step back.
