Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Betsy
The next day marks a return to the Betsy I’m striving to become.
I’m wearing a black skirt, short this time, made from three ruffles.
The top is a tight black-and-pink floral, that’s both edgy and feminine at the same time.
The Doc Martens are back, but I’ve curled my hair again.
I never thought I’d say this, but it looks pretty cascading over my shoulders.
I have half a mind to grow it out and get a few caramel highlights.
Rest assured, I can’t see myself going full Southern.
I still don’t enjoy pastels as a whole, and I can’t stand wearing a dress every single day of my life, but I can feel myself changing just in the short time I’ve been in Heaven.
It feels safe here to embrace some feminine accoutrements I never would have in the city.
Silas is already working in the boutique when I arrive twenty minutes early for my shift.
I store my purse behind the register and find myself seeking out his warm smile and greeting.
He never fails to look happy to see me, which is something I’ve come to look forward to every morning.
Today he’s back to a polo, a forest green matched with deep gray shorts.
His skin is getting more tan every day. A vision of him shirtless, running outside has me blotting my upper lip.
“Hey, so I was thinking…” I begin, fidgeting with the hem of my skirt.
Silas puts down some jewelry he’s stocking at the front of the shop. He looks like he’s been berating himself since yesterday. “Listen. I just want to say I’m sorry for yesterday. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. You have done a great job here at the boutique.”
I hold up my hand and he stops talking. “It’s not about that. I just wanted to address your comment about wanting to ask me out on a date.”
Silas winces. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t. But I don’t want to date you.”
He winces some more, but gives me a quick nod. “Understood.”
I have to bite back a grin. Leave it to Mr. Nice Guy to take my rejection well. He didn’t argue the point or try to belittle me to make himself feel better like most men would. His reaction just makes me like him even more.
“No, hear me out.” I lean over the counter on my elbows to get a little closer to him. My hands land on his forearms. “I’m not looking for a relationship. You’re not looking for love. So…let’s just fuck.”
His eyes go wide and then he pulls away from me, coughing like he’s choking. I grin at the response.
“Did I break you?”
He nods, still hacking. He has to turn away to clear his throat. When he turns back to me, his face is pink. It’s fucking adorable.
I point to my chest. “I like sex. You?”
He shakes his head as if to clear it. “Fuckin’ love it.”
I shrug. “Okay, well then, that’s settled. And it doesn’t even have to affect our working relationship because we’re not in a relationship.”
Silas licks his lips. “We’re just…fucking?”
“Exactly!” Gosh, this is going better than I expected. “Like a one-night stand whenever we want. Either of us can end it at any time.”
“Okayyy.”
I smile. “Okay.”
My hands go to the hem of my shirt. Silas’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. His face is downright red. Interesting.
“Oh, you mean now?”
“Why not now?” I check the time on the clock against the far wall. “We have like fifteen minutes until we open.”
Silas looks around the boutique. For what, I’m not sure. “Don’t you want to go out first? Get some breakfast or something?”
“No! That’s a date and we’re not dating.”
He nods, eyebrows still drawn. “Oh yeah. Right. Um, okay.” He’s still looking around the boutique. Maybe he just can’t look at me? “Since you live with your grandmother, why don’t we go back to my place?”
I gape at him. What part of a quick fuck is he not understanding? “No, that’s too much like a date.”
Silas finally looks at me, confusion written all over his face. “Okay, so how do you want to do this?”
I look around and nod my head toward the back. “How about back there?”
Silas’s mouth drops open. He points a finger down at his feet. “Here? As in, the middle of my boutique? Where anyone walking by could look right through that glass and see?” He scoffs. “No. Absolutely not.”
Well, shit. This is not going as well as I thought.
Silas doesn’t seem to have any idea of what casual sex means.
“It’s a quickie, Silas. It’s supposed to be spontaneous and take place anywhere with even a modicum of privacy.
You’re making this fucking difficult. If not here or your place or my place, where the hell are we supposed to do this? ”
“You decide,” he says. As if he’s given me some good options. He’s the local. He would know of any private make-out spots, not me.
“I don’t know!” I throw my hands up, thoroughly frustrated.
“Really?” He walks closer, the redness leaving his face. He looks down at me, all serious. This casual-sex thing isn’t feeling all that casual now. “Fine. I’ve decided we’ll go back to my place after work and do it there.”
“No!” I fold my arms across my chest. Why is he trying to make this something when it’s not? Going back to his place after work is calculated. This is supposed to be spontaneous and in the heat of the moment. Not. A. Date. “I’ll decide.”
Silas rolls his eyes at me. “That’s what I said in the first place.”
“Well, I didn’t realize you have zero concept of fucking.”
Silas moves suddenly. I blink and he’s right in front of me, dipping down and picking me up like I’m light as a feather. The room tilts and I let out a whoosh of air as he throws me over his thick shoulder.
“Hey!” I beat a fist against his ass but he doesn’t break stride.
I crane my neck to see what he’s doing. He walks over to the front door, twists the lock, flips the sign to closed, and then marches to the back storage room.
The curtain flaps closed behind us and then the world tilts again as he sets me down on my feet, my back pressed against a wall. All the blood has rushed to my head.
Silas crowds me, his hard chest barely giving me room to breathe.
His deep blue eyes are boring into mine as his hands slide to my hips.
A shiver runs down my back, feeling his whole length pressed against me.
All this time together in the boutique and we’ve never crossed that line.
So many times there was sexual tension in the air that I ignored because he was my boss, and clearly he wasn’t attracted to me. Right?
“You’re wrong, storm cloud. I have very good ideas about fucking. I just prefer to make love to a woman I’m dating.”
“We’re not dating!” I manage to wheeze. I’m having trouble breathing and it has nothing to do with how tightly he’s holding me.
Silas bends his head so close, his nose brushes against my cheek. “So. Shut. The fuck. Up.”
My eyes go wide. Mr. Nice Guy has some teeth.
Before I can make a snarky comment, his mouth attacks mine, his tongue immediately demanding entrance.
I give it to him, mostly because I’m so shocked at his level of aggressiveness.
I fucking love it. Shivers rack my entire body, my muscles both locked up tight in anticipation and melting into a puddle at his touch.
His hands slide up my sides to cup my breasts, not that there’s much to cup.
Silas zeroes in on my painfully tight nipples through my shirt, twisting them between his fingers until I cry out in pleasure into his mouth.
He lets one nipple go to grab my leg and hitch my knee over his hip.
My skirt hikes up at the movement and now he’s the one groaning.
He grinds himself against my center, the long hard length of him making my eyes roll back in my head.
Oh dear God, the man is everywhere, overwhelming my senses in an instant.
All the while I’m in shock. Who knew the level-headed, smiling gentleman, Silas Grey Winthrop, had it in him to drive a woman absolutely wild?
I sure as hell didn’t.
“Condom,” Silas pulls back enough to whisper against my lips. “Back pocket. Get it.”
My eyes fly open and I see Silas’s half-hooded stare above me.
He rips his polo off and his hands are already unbuckling his belt.
I swallow hard and reach around to find his wallet in his back pocket.
I flip it open and reach inside with shaking fingers.
There’s a foil packet I take out, trying to hand it to him. He shakes his head with a grunt.
“You put it on,” he orders. Another shiver runs up my body.
Fucking hell. He’s ordering me around.
And I like it.
His hands, having done the job with his shorts, are now pulling my shirt from my body.
It goes over my head and I almost drop the condom in my hand.
Silas groans as he pulls the tiny cups of my bra down to expose my breasts.
There’s not much there, I know, but I’m not worried about that right now.
Not with the way he’s looking at me and licking his lips.
I glance down at his hard cock between us, admiring the length and girth, a slight tilt to the left.
I wrap my finger and thumb around the head and give it a firm tug.
There’s something deliciously dirty about his pants being around his ankles while he has me pinned to the wall.
Silas grunts and drops his head to kiss his way up my neck.
The fine hair on his chest tickles my skin.
“No time for that, storm cloud. Make it quick,” he growls against my skin, giving back my own words.
I can barely get the packet open, but I manage it eventually, placing it on the tip and rolling it downward.
I can feel Silas’s shiver as I go and it makes me feel powerful.
Before I can tease him any further, Silas lifts me higher up, my back still against the wall and my legs around his waist. He tugs my lacy black underwear to the side and he’s right there, the head of his cock teasing my entrance but not giving me what I want.
“You sure, Betsy Mae?” Silas sounds like it’s taking everything in him to pause.
I grin up at him, already dripping wet. It’s been two weeks of constant Silas, battling back my attraction for him. To know he wants me too is enough to have me out of my mind with need.
“Give it to me, Silas,” I whisper.
His answering grin is downright lecherous.
He dips his head and claims my lips again, tongue dipping into my mouth the same time he pushes inside my body.
The stretch is delicious and so is his grunt when he bottoms out.
He pauses there, trembles racking both our bodies.
Then his lips are teasing mine and his hips are flexing while he pistons in and out of my body in a mad rush for the orgasm that’s already barreling toward us.
There’s no finesse and no room for sweet things to be said.
It’s fucking and it’s exactly what I wanted.
His pelvic bone grinds against my clit each time he presses fully into me. One of his hands is branded to my hip and the other is twisting the hell out of my nipple. It hurts so good I’m whimpering. How the man can kiss me while doing everything else is one of life’s great mysteries.
Suddenly Silas pulls back just enough to glance down at our connected bodies.
I flutter my eyes open to watch him. His face is flushed and his eyes are wild and lazy at the same time.
Each time he sinks into me, his lips twitch with a grin.
To know he likes what he sees is enough to send me flying over the edge.
My whimpers turn louder and then his thumb is right there, pressing against my clit and making it last even longer.
The second I go quiet and limp he removes his thumb to grab my hips.
He flexes into me one last time and groans, his forehead coming to mine, his panting exhales the only sound in the room.
We stay locked together like that, both of us breathing hard for several minutes.
Then Silas lifts his head and gives me a brilliant smile.
He opens his mouth to say something, but a knock from way out in the front of the boutique has me gasping.
Silas closes his eyes for a moment, but then opens them, all business.
He pulls out of me in a hurry, stepping back to set me on my feet and pull up his shorts.
He takes care of the condom and finds his shirt.
All the while, he looks at me righting my bra and putting on my shirt, his eyes still hooded with lust.
He crowds me against the wall again, oblivious to the second knock at the door that has my heart hammering in my chest. He cups my jaw with one hand, dips down and kisses me quickly.
He locks eyes with me and I want him all over again. “Don’t clean up. I want to know you still feel me between your legs as you’re working.”
And with that astonishing demand, he leaves the break room to answer the door and open up the shop.
I clunk my head back against the wall and try to breathe.
Heaven help me, that was hot. Arguably the best sex of my life.
And I want it again.