Chapter 5 #2
Holly purses her lips, flushing the tiniest bit of pink. I must’ve interrupted something juicy. I hold out my hand for her earbud.
“May I? I’m curious.”
“I don’t think you’ll like it. It’s romantasy.”
“Hmm, it has smut in it,” I declare more than ask. I move my fingers in the universal ‘gimme’ motion. She smirks back.
“Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two.”
A deep rumble of amusement bubbles from my throat as I insert the bud into my ear. Her brow cocks, and my dick twitches.
“As you wish.”
The narration fills my ears, and I listen for a whole five seconds before my jaw drops.
I lean my forearm against the shelf and let the smut smut for several minutes.
I’ve all but cleared my throat, pulled at my shirt collar, and discreetly shifted my legs to mask the wood I really don’t want anyone else to see.
The other bud is in her ear, so she is hearing exactly what I’m hearing, and, fuck me, that’s hot.
She bites her lip and pulls the bottle of red wine from my hands, depositing it into her basket with a straight face.
I grab the white and hand it over to her nonchalantly. She’s thirsty.
“How? He did what with his shadows?” I pull the bud from my ear and reluctantly hand it back to her.
She snickers. “I came in on the middle of that and you weren’t even breaking a sweat.
How do you do that? I’m practically indecent here in the middle of the aisle, and for you it’s– ‘Meh, I’ll just browse these wines while this character gets stuffed relentlessly with shadow cocks. ’ Holy. Fuck.”
That gets a boisterous laugh from her that zings throughout my body, lighting me up brighter than that… um, book did. I want to hear it again. It doesn’t escape my attention that she was discreetly, or not so discreetly, trying to catch a glimpse of the goods. I refrain from calling her out on it.
“Well, medicine’s your superpower, and a killer poker face is mine. Your face was priceless.”
“Glad I could amuse you. That was filthy. Is there a plot?”
“Of course. There’s just some good ol’ fun and spice peppered along the way.”
“Ha, spice.” I look up at her with real questions. “You really think men could learn a thing or two from that?”
She laughs hard again, turning to walk down the aisle. Her flirty smirk reaches me from over her shoulder.
“Oh yeah. I know you could.”
Damn.
I jog to catch up.
“Send me a list.”
“Ask Trystan. We got him hooked last fall. Brynleigh says he’s learned quite a bit, and he’s happy to pass along the knowledge.”
“Oh, I’ll be asking. I’ll have a lot more time to read now.”
“So, what are you doing here? I thought you were moving in next weekend.”
She chews on the inside of her cheek like she wished she hadn’t asked.
“Keeping tabs on me, Sweetheart? I kind of like it.”
She scoffs at me.
“No.” Her face says otherwise. I grin wider. “Brynleigh told me, and I’m not your sweetheart.”
“Not yet.” I toss her a wink. She huffs again, glancing away quickly, but her eyes can’t stay away from mine for long.
My internal maniacal laugh is having a heyday.
“Trystan gave me the keys. I’m working on getting my things over here slowly.
I have the next month off before I start here.
I was already going stir-crazy. It’s hard going from breathing and sleeping medicine for years to absolutely nothing. ”
“You can catch up on sleep,” Holly notes.
Maybe I’m not interested in sleeping.
“I can.”
“What else do you have planned?”
You.
“I have absolutely zero ideas.”
Lie.
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
“Would you like to have dinner one night? Show me around Kittery? Give me all the deets on where the best eats are?”
She freezes, and I want to kick myself. No, no, no! Things were going so well.
“Umm, I don’t know.”
“What do I need to do?”
“What do you mean?” she queries like she has no clue what I just asked her.
“Going the coy route? Okay. I’ll entertain it.” I step closer into her space, watching as her breath catches. Man, oh man, do I enjoy seeing her breathless. Nervous in a good way. I step closer. She takes one step back against the shelf.
“I want to know exactly what it’s going to take to get you to take a chance on me and say yes.
I’m not giving up.” I breathe in deeply, loving how her scent fills my lungs.
Fills my being. “I need to know you. What makes you laugh, what you dream, what fills your heart with joy. The urge to claim your lips right here and now to reacquaint myself with how sweet you taste is driving me wild.”
The breath she was holding puffs out quickly against my skin, and she licks her lips.
I watch the motion, letting out a throaty sound of desperation that’s barely discernable as she drags her eyes back up to mine.
She whimpers lightly in return, and I’m teetering along that ‘fuck it’ line again, grocery patrons be damned.
“I don’t know,” Holly whispers before pulling herself away from the shelf.
She runs her fingers through her long locks in a desperate attempt to compose herself.
Walking quickly across the aisle, she snags another bottle of wine, looks down at her basket and sees the other two, then puts the bottle back, clearly beside herself.
Without another word, she leaves me standing in the aisle, mesmerized by how her hips command the space around her as she walks away.