Chapter 3 #2
A glance at the clock confirmed that it was almost time to leave for the day. Her shift at the library ended at five, and since she’d woken up in his bed, not a day had gone by that he hadn’t at least said hello to her.
“Well, it’s not like we’re dating,” she said aloud, her voice barely more than a whisper. “He’s Carter Hayes. He doesn’t do relationships, anyway. It’s just harmless flirtation that’s not intended to go anywhere.”
“Shhhh!”
The admonishment had come from the head librarian, Doris Byers, who was glaring at her from the opposite stack as they re-shelved returned books.
Josie ducked her head and returned to the task at hand.
She was already on Doris’s bad side. The woman hadn’t wanted to hire her to begin with, since she’d been eyeing the assistant librarian position for her own niece, who barely knew the alphabet.
The city council had intervened, though, and the not-so-subtle hostility that had resulted was damn near impossible to live with.
Josie picked up the last book, and a piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Bending over, she picked it up and immediately smiled. The surprisingly artistic rendering of a single high-heeled shoe was accompanied by the words, Have you missed me?
It had to be Carter. Sparing a glance for Doris, who was staring disapprovingly at a couple of teenagers ensconced in one of the reading nooks, Josie pulled out her phone and tapped the text message on the touchscreen.
Josie
Did you find my shoe?
Carter
Come over and find out. You can park out back, and no one will see you.
Josie considered her options. She really wanted that shoe back. She’d been holding on to the other one in the desperate hope that its mate would be found. And seeing Carter, alone, in his apartment, with no prying eyes…That had an appeal all of its own.
The decision to go to that seedy-ass bar in Cincinnati with a guy she honestly didn’t even like had come about because she wanted to have fun, because she wanted to do something wild and totally unexpected. What could be more unexpected than Carter Hayes?
Josie
I’ll be there at six. You better have my shoe…and my panties.
Carter
I have no idea what you’re talking about. You should be more careful where you leave your lacy Victoria’s Secret panties.
Josie
I never said they were Victoria’s Secret. Liar.
Carter
It’s just an assumption. You look like a Vickie kind of girl. Sexy, but still totally respectable. More satin with a hint of lace than black leather and fishnet.
She didn’t want to be respectable, and she sure as hell didn’t want him to think about her that way. Carter made her want to be all kinds of things she’d never considered before. Leather and fishnet didn’t seem quite as farfetched to her as they might have at one time.
“Are you going to shelve that book or just stare at your phone all afternoon, Josephine?” Doris demanded, her voice sharp and hateful.
With a guilty flush staining her cheeks, Josie dropped her phone back into the pocket of her shapeless khaki pants.
Doris had imposed a dress code almost as soon as she’d been hired, and it was intended to strip every employee of sex appeal, confidence, and the will to live.
Josie refused to wear them outside of the library, wearing her own clothes to work and changing in the ladies’ room before starting her day.
“Sorry, Doris. It was a reminder about an errand I have to run after work.”
“After work, Josephine. That’s an important distinction,” Doris retorted spitefully.
Josie didn’t say anything else. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t be wrong, so instead, she just kept her mouth shut.
Placing the book back on the shelf, she wheeled the cart back to its home behind the circulation desk and then used the computer there to log herself out for the day.
She needed to change back into her own clothes before she saw Carter.
If he ever saw her in the mom pants she was currently not rocking at all, she’d die of shame.
There was a dress hiding out in the back of her closet. An impulse buy at the mall in Lexington that she’d never had the courage to wear. It was now or never, she thought.
Heading home, she took a quick shower and shaved her legs in record time.
After applying lotion and perfume, she touched up her makeup and then went to her closet and retrieved the secret weapon.
Slipping the dress on over her head, she tugged the zipper at the side, sucking in everything she possibly could until it finally closed.
One look at the mirror and she almost chickened out.
It was cut low—impossibly, indecently, terrifyingly low.
It hugged her breasts, pushing them up and amplifying them to epic proportions before nipping in at her waist and then flaring over her hips.
The skirt was full but impossibly short, revealing more of her thighs than she’d ever done other than when she was at the beach.
On her feet, she wore her second favorite pair of heels—black, strappy, and a mile high.
If she were lucky, the top of her head would actually reach his shoulder. God, she hated being short.
Before leaving the house, she grabbed her trench coat and slipped it on. The last thing she needed was her nosy neighbors seeing her slipping out of the house looking like the Whore of Babylon. They’d be on the phone to her father, reporting her sinful ways, before he could even ask for an amen.
Driving through town, most people were already home for the day.
Luckily, Fontaine practically rolled up the sidewalks after five.
Josie pulled her car around behind Revision.
There was a small alley there where Carter kept his truck.
It was cut off from the street, and the only way anyone would see her car was if they actually walked behind the building.
It was about as private as you could get in Fontaine, where everyone on the street knew when you peed simply because your next-door neighbor saw the bathroom light turn on and then called in a report.
Climbing from the car, she paused at the bottom of his steps and looked up. Carter stood in the doorway, looking straight at her, a smirk curving his lips.
“What are you looking at?” she demanded. Lord, but he got under her skin.
His smirk stretched into a full-blown, devastatingly sexy grin, right down to the crinkly lines at the corners of his eyes. He looked like a pirate—like a hot, sexy, fantasy pirate.
“The fruits of my labor. I knew if I told you how respectable you were, you’d do your damnedest to look the opposite. You are a contrary creature, Josephine Marcum, but at the moment, that is totally working in my favor.”
She hated him. She was still going to seduce him, or maybe let him think he was seducing her. That had yet to be determined. But at some point, they were going to be naked together, and she was going to come back to that whole pirate thing in a big way.
Now or never, Josie. Now or never.