Chapter 37
Meeting her at the driver’s side door, I opened it and raised one eyebrow at her as she turned off the ear splitting song. She looked up at me with that golden, beaming smile that made everything else in the world disappear.
And suddenly everything felt like it had finally fallen into place again for the first time all day.
“Hi,” I said, pulling her from the car and then backing her up against the side, pinned between me and the door.
“Well, hello there.” She sighed, letting her smile touch mine as I leaned in to borrow her sunshine. “Mmh, you taste delicious.”
“I taste like missing you.” I replied, leaning my forehead against hers as the passenger-side door opened and Jasper got out.
“Yeah, sure,” he complained, “I see how it goes. Make the man do all the heavy lifting.” He opened the back trunk and started pulling out tinfoil-covered trays. “How very trad of you both.”
Goldie snorted and waved him off. “Go find someone to help.”
“Ah,” Jasper said, with a certain bubbliness in his voice. “Here’s a strapping, strong, capable man to help.”
Glancing over the roof of the car, I saw Thomas lurking inside the bay before giving in to Jasper’s wave for assistance and coming outside.
Goldie put her hands on my hips and turned to watch my friend approach the car, almost as if she were embarrassed to be seen in a PDA moment with me. A twinge of hurt burned in my chest as she waved at Thomas and I backed up a step, separating further, confused by her actions.
“Would you mind helping Jasper get the food inside, Thomas?” Goldie asked, “I’ll be along in a few to get it all set up.”
“I can set it up.” Jasper said, offloading a couple of heavy-looking trays into Thomas’s arms as he silently agreed to help.
“You take your time.” Jasper said with a wag of his eyebrows before grabbing a few bags and following Thomas in through the overhead door, chatting a mile a minute to my usually quiet friend.
Goldie watched them walk in before turning back to me as I stood there with my arms crossed, and when she made eye contact, her face fell, the peculiar smile falling off her lips. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Since when do you pull away from me when someone comes near?” I asked firmly, pushing away the desire to shove my feelings down and swallow them whole.
“Since what—” she stammered and then her eyes rounded and her lips parted in a big o.
“Ooh, no that’s not what that was, Rhea.
” Goldie stepped forward and pulled my arms down before all but throwing herself in against my chest, burying her face in my neck like she was trying to act like a baby koala.
And if she wasn’t so damn cute doing it, I would have stayed stiff and firm against the move. But damn, I didn’t stand a chance.
I wrapped my arms around her and held her just as tight, trying to regulate the emotions in my chest. “Then why did you do it?”
She chuckled against my neck and pulled back just enough to look eye to eye with me. “Can you keep a secret?”
Instead of answering, I simply raised one brow at her and gave her my best get to the point look.
“Jasper thinks Thomas is gay.” She whispered, glancing at the overhead door behind me and widening her eyes as if she were sharing some big conspiracy theory.
“I’m not convinced, but he does act a certain kind of way around Jasper.
So, I wanted to see it, like actually pay attention to it in the moment. ”
“Thomas isn’t gay.” I said, thinking hard about the man that I had worked with the entire time I worked for this department. “No way. Jasper’s wrong.”
“I said the same thing!” She rushed on, keeping her voice low. “But how else do you explain the way he’s always—” She shrugged and shook her head, “around?”
“We work here.” I deadpanned. “Where else is he supposed to be?”
“In a recliner in the living room, like every other male species that works here is right now when I showed up with dinner.” She pushed back, and I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off.
“He’s probably wrong, we both know how Jasper likes to make a big deal about, well, everything.
But I just wanted to see with my own eyes. ”
“So, you turned away from my kisses for—” I faded off.
“For entertainment purposes,” She chuckled, “But I promise not to do it again, now that I know it makes you so fiery.”
“Fiery?” I asked, tightening my hands on her waist and tickling her slightly. “I do not get fiery.”
“If you were a Greek goddess, which I’m not convinced you’re not with your incredible green eyes and flawless beauty,” she rushed on in true Goldie fashion. “Flames most certainly would have been coming out of your eyeballs at me just now when I looked back at you. So yes, fiery.”
I rolled my non-fiery eyeballs and crowded her back into the side of her car again. “We can table that conversation for another time, because I do not want to spend my time talking about other people when I finally have you all to myself.”
She giggled, kissing my neck, and then pulled back for a real kiss, which I was happy to deliver.
There was something about her sweet honey scent and golden attitude that seemed to seep into my pores whenever I had her in my arms like this.
Her presence was the only thing that could break through all the storm clouds in my mind distracting me and making me a grouch.
“How are you?” she asked, laying sweet little kisses across my lips and on my jaw. “And don’t even try to be evasive with your answer either, Hotshot. I want the truth.”
I slid my fingers under the hem of her light sweater and felt the warmth of her stomach, grounding myself to her even more. “I’m fine.”
“Rhea—”
“Goldie.” I cut her off. “I am. I’m fine. I’m not thriving, but I’m not sinking either.” I stared directly into her eyes. “Some days that’s all you’re going to get from me. And if that’s not enough for you—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” She pursed her lips, her cute little eyebrows furrowing over her wrinkled nose as she got serious on me. “Or I will make you regret it.”
“Is that so?” I pushed, liking the fire in her words.
“Yes.” She doubled down, acting tough. “It is.”
“And what exactly will you do to me if I don’t heed your warning?”
She gently pushed me backward, creating space between our bodies, adjusting her sweater with a cocky glare in her eyes. “I won’t let you come over tomorrow.”
“Oh, really?” I smirked.
“Yep.” She confirmed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Which means you won’t get to see the sexy little lace panties I bought that got delivered today.
And it means you won’t get to see me in them.
” I took a step forward, drawn in by her sexy threat, and she grinned, fighting it off to keep in the role she was playing a little longer, even as I closed in.
“And it means you won’t get to taste the sweet—” I pushed myself against the front of her body, pinning her against the car again.
“Delicious.” She whispered as I hovered my lips right above hers, tempting her to finish her words. “Treat I have for you.”
“Sweet. Delicious. Treat.” I repeated, right above her lips, and her breath came out in quick little pants. “Wrapped up in sexy lace panties?”
“Mmh hmm.” She hummed, swallowing and licking her lips.
“Yep. Exactly.” Goldie moaned when I pushed my leg between hers, so my thigh was pressed tight against her hot pussy.
Instantly, she rocked forward on it, and her eyelids fluttered closed before she tensed up.
“I mean not that. Not me. That wasn’t what I meant. ”
I chuckled, loving the way she was so easy to distract. “It isn’t? Then what did you mean?”
“I mean the triple-chocolate fudge brownie I made for you.” She said, and my grin deepened, “It's in my car.”
“I think I want the first option more.”
“Well, you get neither of them if you misbehave.” She said with that firm fire in her voice and her spine lengthening as she tried to be tough.
“Interesting theory.” I said, kissing her firmly, swallowing down her needy moan as she rocked against my thigh again. “Want to hear mine now?”
“Your—” She gasped when I sucked her lip into my mouth. “Your what?”
“My theory.” I said, slipping my fingertips behind the band of her jeans, enjoying her startled panting nerves as she peeked around the empty parking lot.
I knew we were hidden from any of the windows and there were no cameras on this side of the building as I flicked the button on her jeans open and pushed harder against her with my leg. “Do you want to hear it?”
“Yes.” She moaned, nodding against my lips as I pulled her zipper down.
“My theory,” I went on, slipping my fingers into her jeans and under the fabric of her panties to find her wetness waiting for me as I pushed my finger between my thigh and her clit, rubbing it and making her shudder.
“Is that I’m going to not only get this delicious, sweet treat you brought me tonight, but my guess is I’m also going to get invited over tomorrow night, and I’m going to get a private fashion show of you wearing only those sexy little lace panties you bought just for me.
And then I’m going to pin you down in your bed and get the most delicious, sweet treat you have to offer, which is this tight little pussy you’re rubbing all over my fingers and my thigh right now, desperate to come. ”
“Rhea,” She whispered, widening her feet as I twisted my wrist and pushed two fingers up into her. “We’re in the middle of the parking lot.”
“Wrong,” I said, thrusting into her and rubbing her clit with my thumb as she rocked against me.
“You’re pinned against your car, hidden by the door and me.
I won’t ever let anyone see what doesn’t belong to them.
Because you, Marigold, belong to me. And you’re going to come for me, right here. Because I want you to.”
“Yes,” She nodded her head, lips lax and eyes closed as she held onto me. “Please, yes.”