Chapter 10 Davis #2
I took a second to appreciate how her dark hair framed her face, the long locks trailing past her breasts, which were high and perfectly round.
In fact, the way they pushed against her shirt, and the way her hips flared, the denim clinging to her toned thighs, I could feel myself getting worked up over how beautiful she was, which was insanely virginal of me.
Clearing my throat, I grated out, “Thanks, I renovated it last year.”
I moved to the Keurig and refilled the water tank. “I have a few flavors of coffee over here, if you want to pick one.”
I could hear her move behind me, slowly. Nervous.
I hated that I made her feel that way, but it wasn’t like Millie and Roger were talking me up to her while she was in New York, like they had been with me.
“I really should be going. I splashed water on my face and feel much better… I think the aspirin is kicking in.”
Fuck, she wanted to leave again.
I lifted my cup, gesturing toward the ceiling. “It’s pouring outside. Just stay for a few minutes…have some coffee.”
Her blushing face told me she was more nervous than anything else—maybe uncomfortable because she didn’t like me—but we were both adults…
We could get past what happened the other day.
I sipped my hot drink, trying to keep my eyes anywhere but on her so she’d relax, but it wasn’t easy.
She was the prettiest fucking thing I’d seen in a long time, and truth be told, it made me nervous.
Finally, she seemed to let out a sigh, and tucked the hair behind her ears. “What sort of flavors do you have?”
She was elbow to elbow with me, and I could smell her subtle floral scent, which had my thoughts returning to her hair and burying my face in it.
“I have about every flavor, decaf too if you want it.”
She nodded while tracing the different tops of the flavored pods. Just then, the rain started hitting harder against the skylight, making her look up.
“I like that.” She smiled, and it caused my breath to hitch.
I wanted to kiss her. Really fucking badly.
Her eyes lit up as she picked up a hazelnut pecan pod and pushed it into the top of the coffee maker.
“So you recently graduated, right?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee but keeping my back against the counter so we still stood close.
“You trying to pick up where we left off at dinner?” She raised a dark brow in my direction.
I tried not to react, but it was obvious she didn’t like me, and that just fucking grated against my pride.
I simply replied with, “Yep.”
Then there was just silence between us, which again, normally I wouldn’t care about, but I wanted her voice. I wanted to hear her, but maybe talking about what we did the other night wasn’t a good place to start.
“What made you want to move back?”
The rain clashed against the roof and glass like rocks, which meant there might be some hail coming down. That, with the wind howling through the cracks and crevices of the house, made the silence between us echo.
She watched her cup fill, ignoring me, until finally she let out a sigh.
“I’m surprised you don’t already know that too.”
Again with that fucking attitude.
“Your parents are protective of your privacy, more than you probably realize.” I sipped my coffee, ignoring the frustration that was beginning to build in my chest.
She made a sound of agreement, finally pulling her cup free and slowly sipping it with a wince, like she didn’t like the taste.
This wasn’t going the way I wanted it to at all.
Roger was wrong; there was no getting through to his daughter, and truthfully, she might be beyond help.
She seemed to have a stick up her ass, and there was not enough lubricant in the world to get it loose.
“How about I just drive you back? My truck is down, but I could drive Millie’s car. I know these roads a lot better than you do.” I didn’t trust that she’d be able to handle the curves of the mountain with that head wound. What if her vision went blurry and she didn’t realize it, or she passed out?
That icy glare cut through me as she set her cup down.
“No thank you. I know these roads like the back of my hand.”
I narrowed my gaze, inspecting her for the lie. “Bullshit, no one knows these roads unless they drive them every day.”
“Well, you don’t know me, at all,” she bit out angrily, before shaking her head and turning on her heel.
I knew she had emphasized the tail end of her comment in response to when I had said I knew her better than anyone the other night in the laundry room.
I probably needed to apologize for what I had said because while she had started it, by the way she’d flushed and almost cried—I had definitely ended it.
“Fuck. Okay. I’m sorry about that comment, and the one I made the other night.”
She paused in the doorway of my kitchen, a pensive expression on her face that crumpled after a moment. “I’ve taken up enough of your time. I honestly just want to go home.”
“I get that, but…” Dammit, I didn’t want to say what was about to come out of my mouth next, didn’t want to show how desperate I was, but I also didn’t want her to leave. “I wouldn’t mind the company; it gets quiet up here.”
Blue eyes flashed, searching mine briefly before she gave me a single nod.
I backed away from the counter and walked over to the back window. I didn’t want to spook her, so I watched the rain instead of inspecting her every move.
“So…” Rae drawled, “How did you meet my parents and get to know them well enough to where you’re all they talk about?”
Adjusting my stance near the window, I looked up, thinking back on when I first met Roger and Millie.
“They have been delivering up here for the last couple of years, trying to make us mountain dwellers feel less disconnected from the town. They started with Thanksgiving dinner, and then Christmas pies. They were so nice, I couldn’t even be mad when they kept showing up.
We struck up a friendship, and then all the sudden both your parents were up here once a week, delivering food and whatever groceries I needed from town. ”
Such a shitty way to summarize my only relationship of substance.
“Wait.” She wrapped her soft coral nails around the ceramic mug, while her brows crowded her delicate forehead. “So they were delivering up here before they even started the delivery business?”
I nodded, sipping from my cup. “We joked about me giving them the idea, actually.”
She made a surprising sound from the back of her throat. It caught me off guard, so much so that I gently set my cup down and glared at her.
“Did you just scoff?”
Mimicking my movement with her mug, she stood away from the counter. “Yeah, I did.”
Was she serious? “Why?”
She shrugged, her face reddening. “Just sounds like my aging parents were endangering their lives a ton just to appease someone who’s too lazy to leave the house.”
Gritting my teeth, I tried to focus on what Roger had said about his concern with Rae, and how badly he wanted her to stay. I could be nice. I would be fucking nice if it killed me.
“That’s quite an assumption.”
“Well, how often did you visit them at their house?” she asked, flicking her wrist out as if to encourage me to answer.
I was silent because the dinner the other night had been the first time. Not that I hadn’t been invited, I just…
I liked my space, my privacy…and I hated town and all the people in it, except for Roger and Millie, but even the idea of being in their home made me anxious.
Rae shook her head. “That’s what I thought. Well, thanks for the coffee, and for…”—her tone took on a sarcastic ring—“helping me.”
“Did I do something to make you hate me?” I asked, not able to hold in my own scoff, because this was bullshit. “Because the way you treated me at dinner, and now this…I have to wonder what the fuck I did to make you so angry.”
Walking toward the front door, her dark hair swaying with the movement, my eyes managed to betray me and drop to her ass.
“No, you did nothing… I’m just glad I’m home now, so I can talk some sense into my parents regarding the hermit up in the mountains.”
What the fuck?
Now I was practically chasing her to keep in step with her.
“Hey.” I placed my hand on the screen frame right as she tugged on it, my posture blocking her exit. This was just a repeat of what we’d done the other night, her saying shit and running away and me not able to let her.
“You don’t know anything about our relationship, or me—and while we’re on the subject, let’s talk about how you’re stressing your parents out.” My voice shuddered from the anger fraying my nerves.
She turned her red face my way, her blue eyes sharp, her lips thin. “What are you talking about?”
“You lied about how bad things were in New York, and now you’re being a snobby bitch to the important people in their life, stressing them out.”
I didn’t actually know if she’d lied about New York, but Roger had implied as much.
Tears gleamed in her eyes as her lip curled in disgust.
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you back,” I snapped, although my voice came out raspier than I intended. My eyes were unable to stop tracking the movement of her lips, or how close we were standing to one another.
Her gaze fixated on my mouth, like mine had with hers.
Her chest rose and fell in heavy rhythm, and if she placed her hand over my heart, she’d realize mine was doing the same.
The silence expanded, stretched, and nearly exploded as we stared at one another, and through her stare I felt something so familiar. Instead of wanting to kick her out on her ass, like I would every other person, I wanted to shut and lock the door with her inside.
“Great, glad we got that out of the way. How about you stay away from me, and I’ll stay away from you,” she whispered in return and turned her face toward the screen door.
Her hand jerked on the metal handle, but mine was still above her, boxing her in, and I wasn’t going to move.
Not until I had a few more seconds of this charged electricity with her. It was the most alive I had felt in…well, ever.
“Stay. Have another cup of coffee,” I whispered, brushing my lips against the shell of her ear.
Her head turned, her lips parted, and those eyes were wide.
“You can’t be serious, you just—”
I did something stupid then.
Something I knew I’d regret.
But she was burning under my skin. So, I leaned down with my hand above her head and slammed my mouth to hers.
The rain poured as I held the door in place with one hand and grabbed her waist and pulled her against me with the other.
She let out a small sound, but it wasn’t a protest because her head slanted to the side, and she moved her lips against mine in a quick, erotic cadence that seemed to match the pounding of the rain.
I’d never kissed someone like this before. I’d never wanted to touch someone as badly as I wanted to touch her, and I had no real reason why. She was like a burn that needed to be soothed. An itch that needed to be scratched. Whatever it was, I needed her mouth, her body…more.
She was flat against the screen door now, both my hands at her hips, and her hands were gathered at my neck, tugging the hair there, her mouth moving with mine, easing enough that my tongue had access to slide inside and move against hers.
Another groan escaped her lips, and when a crack of thunder split the air, resulting in her eyes popping open, and then her hands were moving down my chest and she was shoving me away.
Her surprise mirrored my own.
So much so that I faltered back a few steps, giving her enough time to open the screen and slip through. My chest heaved as I watched her stomp toward the white Rover, and while I wanted her to be okay, I also knew that I had crossed too big of a line to keep her here any longer.
She’d never want to talk to me again.
Running a hand through my hair, I decided I could at least trail her to ensure she made it down the mountain alive—even if that meant doing it from the back of a bike in the pouring rain.