28. Dishing Dirt
Chapter 28
Dishing Dirt
The following evening, they were blissfully alone. They cuddled together on the couch watching an old holiday movie— Christmas in Connecticut —their awkward dinner at the Hunnicutt holiday gathering and shadowy figures dressed like ninjas pushed to the back burner for now. Reece relaxed his frame into the couch, his bare heels resting on the coffee table, while Neve half-sprawled against him on her side, her torso a comfortable weight, legs bent on the couch and tucked under a blanket with Mr. Whiskers making himself at home on her hip. A tranquil, domestic scene his soul readily sank into.
Neve pointed at the TV. “That could be us.”
Reece idly sifted his fingers through her hair, one of his new favorite things to do. “How do you figure?”
“Well, she’s a career woman pretending to be married—”
“Big difference: You are married. Like irrevocably, solidly married.” You’re mine. “And you’re not falling for a soldier.”
She rotated her head and blinked her denim blues at him. “What are you saying?”
His thoughts went one way while his mouth went another. Let’s not get a divorce sounded in his head, but doubt and common sense kept him from saying it aloud. Instead, he gave her what he hoped was a seductive eye waggle— hoped because he was new at this relationship stuff and didn’t have a bank of experience to draw from or measure against. “I think it’s time I drag you off to bed and lick my way up your body.”
Her eyes widened, and no wonder. He wasn’t the kind of man who said shit like that on the regular. Then again, he hadn’t been the type of guy to lay around and play with a woman’s hair for hours with I love yous rolling around in his head. This was a level of intimacy he’d never indulged in. Only with Neve did this side of him come out.
And he liked it.
Judging by the flare of lust in her eyes, Neve liked the new guy too. At least she was excited by him, a fact reinforced by how her nipples tightened under her tight-fitting, silky long-john top. To confirm what his eyes reported, he circled his thumb pad over a peak—which made his mouth water like a Pavlov dog. The sight also fired up the man in his pants. So did his imagination when it shifted to how her body was a supple, pliant, welcoming thing he couldn’t get enough of. And fuck, was she responsive! His cock thickened even more merely thinking about it.
He’d never been with anyone who reacted to even his smallest touch the way she did. Or were his touches simply different with her? He didn’t know, didn’t care. He just knew he loved making love to her. Sex was no longer a means to a physical end. With her, it had become something greater than both of them; it had also become an addiction. A way to show her how he felt about her. A way to let her know what his words couldn’t: that he was falling for her, just like Dennis Morgan was falling for Barbara Stanwyck on the screen.
But fuck the movie.
Real life snapped into place when Neve rolled fully onto her back, inviting him to touch more. Meanwhile, Mr. Whiskers adjusted his position so he lay across the lower part of her pelvis .
Reece snaked his hand under the top, inching it up to expose her sweet skin as he went. Yeah, he’d deal with the conundrum that was their relationship later. Right now he had his gorgeous, vibrant woman to take care of, and he couldn’t wait to climb inside her.
As he leaned over her parted mouth, ready to lick into it, he gave Mr. Whiskers a gentle shove. The cat complained loud enough that Neve sat up and lowered her brows at Reece. “What did you do to him?” Mr. W gave him a one-eyed glare from the other side of the couch.
Reece widened his eyes as innocently as possible while his fingers continued caressing Neve’s silky stomach. If he played his cards right, she’d settle back down and forget all about the damn cat. “Nothing. I have plans for that part of your body, and he was making an obstacle of himself. Better I move him now than later. Now lie back down so I can show you exactly what I have in mind.”
His phone chose that moment to chime with a tone he reserved for his parents.
Neve scrambled from the couch as if they were teens and his parents had physically walked in on them. “You better get that.” She snatched the phone from the table and handed it to him.
Reece grumbled about interfering parents and scanned the message from his mother. He read it aloud for Neve. “Jill Carlisle has time tomorrow at two for a phone conference, and Dad wants to know if he should book the time.”
“The attorney? She works on Saturdays?”
“Apparently. So do you. Does that timing work with your schedule?”
“Yes,” she lamented. “It’s not like I have clients beating a path to my door lately.”
“Well, you should take weekends off. You work too hard,” he muttered. “I’ll let Dad know we’re available.” After he texted back the answer, his grumbling continued. “I hope he’s not planning on joining us.”
Neve canted her head. “Your dad’s trying to be helpful. Why are you so irritated?”
Reece tossed his phone toward Mr. Whiskers, who hopped off the couch with an annoyed mewl. “Not only is Dad interfering by ‘arranging’ meetings for me, but his timing sucks.” He gave her a regretful look.
“We’ve got all night, big fella.” She settled her knees on the edge of the couch beside him, grasped the hem of her shirt, and shimmied out of it. Then she removed her bra, tossed it over her shoulder, and climbed into his lap, draping her arms across his shoulders and angling her tantalizing tits in line with his mouth. With a sinuous arch of her back, she languidly brushed his lips with her perfect pink buds, and breathlessly said, “Maybe I can cheer you up.”
Oh hell yeah!
“You just did,” he croaked.
While he drank in the sight of her, she slid her hands to the top button of his shirt and popped it open, then moved to the next … and the next.
“Ready to show me exactly what you have in mind?” Her voice was husky and low, sex dripping off it.
Forgotten were his parents’ meddling, Stowe Mountain, and the old black-and-white on TV. He had all the cheer he needed right here in his arms.
Twining his fingers in her hair, he pulled her mouth down to his and claimed it with a scorching kiss. A needy moan rose in her throat as she spread his shirt open and pasted herself against him, hot skin on hot skin, igniting an insatiable hunger for her deep in his belly.
He craved this woman. He had to have this woman. He was in love with this woman.
While he’d never been here before and had nothing to compare to, he simply knew , deep in his soul, where all his truths lived.
As he lay staring at the ceiling in Neve’s bedroom, the corners of Reece’s mouth creased with a satisfied smile. Neve lay beside him under the covers, her warm body pressed against his and her head resting on his chest. Her arm was draped across his abdomen, and her soft hair tickled his skin. What could possibly be wrong when they were snuggled together in her bed? The fact that he was married to her added an unexpected layer of contentment. How was it possible that what had once seemed incomprehensible now felt so … right?
His entire being was at peace.
Well, maybe not totally at peace because his body began buzzing the instant her fingertips moved across his skin. His focus narrowed on a burgeoning temptation to push her hand down his stomach to his cock, which was growing from the mere thought of her stroking it. Taking it in her soft, supple mouth and sucking him dry, erasing the not-so-pleasant thoughts trying to break through.
Christ, he had a disease!
Her quiet voice pulled him from his fantasy. “What are you thinking about?”
“Huh? Oh, nothing.”
“Nothing? A total blank?” she teased.
“I was thinking about how disappointed my mom was tonight.” Did he really just do that? Bring up the mood-killing subject again?
“Disappointed about what?”
“About us being married but planning to end it. About me moving away.”
“Far away,” Neve echoed.
“Yeah. Far away.”
She propped her chin on his chest, and his fingers automatically tangled in her silky hair. “I know you hate disappointing your mom, but she’ll get over it. You’re her baby.”
His chest caved under the realization he wouldn’t have many more intimate moments like this one. Three weeks. They were all he had left.
“Some baby,” he scoffed. Eager to avoid scrubbing away the last vestiges of the afterglow effect, he tapped the end of her nose. “What are you thinking about?”
Her eyes traveled to the ceiling and back down again while her mouth wiggled side to side.
Uh-oh. Big thoughts going on in that pretty head.
“I’m thinking about those deposits that keep showing up in my account.” She drilled her big blues directly into his greens. “Are you or are you not behind them? I’d like a straight answer.”
“Does it really matter one way or the other?”
“Uh, yeah.” She flicked his forehead.
“Ow!” He rubbed at the spot. What was with the women in his life abusing his head? Without warning, he flipped her on her back and yanked her hands above her head. “You’re about to find out what happens to naughty girls who don’t mind their manners.”
“You’re trying to distract me,” she laughed.
“You bet your cute little ass I am. It’s sooo much fun.” He began blowing raspberries on her neck, and she exploded in a fit of giggles. The happy sound filled the room and his chest right along with it.
“Okay, okay!” she gasped. “You don’t have to answer. Yet.”
Good. Wrapping her up in his arms, he drew her against him and held her there, chest to chest, stomach to stomach as she curled into him, and he savored the way she fit him. Soon he drifted along a warm undercurrent overflowing with affection.
She pulled him from it when she murmured, “So what are we going to do?”
He didn’t need to ask what she meant. He understood, all too well, and she deserved an answer as much as he needed to figure one out. Problem was, he loathed the only practical solution facing them. “I don’t know what we can do. I’m in a shit-storm of my own making that I have to ride out. Unfortunately, I dragged you into it with me.”
“It’s not only your making. I was there that night too. I think I should shoulder some of the blame.”
He didn’t bother reminding her she’d had nothing to do with his decision to move halfway across the country, which was arguably the part of the mess that bothered him most.
Ever eager to muscle down the nettles pricking him, he grinned down at her. “You sure were. And some damn good things came out of that night.”
Her lips curled into a sexy smile. “Such as?”
“Such as this.” He rose up on his side and with his other hand, gripped her chin and took her mouth. The kiss turned heated and hungry, like it usually did, as if they were two starving people who were trying desperately to get to a banquet they could see through metal bars but couldn’t reach.
He rolled her to her back and stretched out on top of her, letting his weight sink their two bodies into the mattress. Her leg slid up and hooked over his hip, her fingers biting into his scalp, urging him on. God, he loved how she melted into him, body and soul. One touch, one look, and fires lit inside her pretty blue eyes, igniting a lava lake of passion inside him that had been unknown and untapped before her .
With her intoxicating moans and mewls in his ears, he seized control and took them to that blissful state where the rest of the world dissolved away, where it was only her and him, in their impenetrable shell, shielded from every bad thing.
The following morning, Reece stood beside Shane and pointed up at the clinic’s eaves. “So you think there and there?”
“Yep. Between the ones in back and in front, we should have good coverage.”
They talked about types and brands and where Reece could get his hands on cameras today .
“You’re going to have to go to Montrose or Durango, dude, but I’d call ahead to make sure they’ve got ’em. Then I’d pay for them and make sure they put them aside.”
They walked the perimeter once more, and Reece made notes on his phone. “Were you able to make out anything from the pictures Neve texted you?”
“No. Too dark, too blurry. I tried sharpening a few of the images, but it looked like the license plate was missing or blacked out.” Shane rocked on the balls of his feet. “So.”
Reece glanced at him. “So?”
“Why isn’t Neve here?”
Reece’s hackles went up. “She was sleeping when I left, and I didn’t want to wake her up after everything she went through yesterday.” Let Shane figure out which bed she was sleeping in and whether Reece had shared it with her.
Silence stretched between them; Reece ignored it as he completed his list.
“When were you going to tell me you two got married?”
Reece slid his phone into his back pocket and eyed his friend. “How did you find out?”
“You’re kidding, right? This is Fall River. It’s all over town, bro. People are buzzing about it at Mountain Coffee, Dell’s, the rec center, the visitor’s center, you name it. Hell, I even heard about it at Silver Summit the other day, but I said, ‘No way. He’s my best friend. He wouldn’t hold out on me with something that important.’” Shane lowered both brows at him.
Reece sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. We didn’t plan it, it was a drunk mistake, and Neve wanted to keep it quiet until we figured out what to do.”
“What do you mean, ‘what to do’?”
“It’s not … We’re not … We have a phone conference with an attorney later today to figure out our options for, uh, undoing the mistake.” The words left a bitter taste in Reece’s mouth.
Shane’s eyes widened. “You mean, like a divorce?”
“Or an annulment.” Except that ship had sailed days ago.
“Well, I guess that explains your move to Vermont. I had to ask myself, since I hadn’t heard it from my best friend , why you’d marry the doc right before moving clear across the country.” Shane fired another pointed look his way.
Reece shifted his weight foot to foot. “Sorry, man. If it makes you feel any better, my parents found out about Neve and the move through the grapevine too. Guess I had too much faith that word wouldn’t get out.”
Shane snorted. “What kind of an idiot convinces himself secrets that big will or can stay secret in this town? Oh, never mind. I’m looking at him.”
Reece returned a glare. “Speaking of secrets, what were you and Amy up to yesterday after yoga?”
“Amy and …? Oh, when Neve walked in to get the cake.” A grin spread across Shane’s mug. “As a matter of fact, we were talking about you two.” He barked a laugh. “I was afraid Neve had overheard us, but I guess she jumped to a different conclusion.”
“So there’s nothing between you and Amy?”
“Hell no,” Shane scoffed. “I mean, if Micky weren’t in the picture, then maybe I’d find out if I had a chance with her, but she’s only got eyes for him. Which makes no sense because she’s one of the sweetest, most beautiful women I know, and he’s a total asshole who doesn’t appreciate what he’s got. He treats her like shit.”
Reece didn’t miss how Shane’s expression morphed from surprise to dreamlike to disgust in the space of his comment. “You like her,” he observed .
“Of course I like her! Everyone likes her. She’s … likable.” Shane shrugged, but his cheeks flushed red.
“All right. Now that we’ve determined Amy’s nice and Micky’s a dumbass, I’m gonna go make some calls and chase down these supplies.”
“You do that. And tell your wife I said hi. In fact, bring her to Miners Tavern tonight. In case you didn’t get the memo, the pipes are fixed and Noah’s celebrating that, along with his and Hailey’s wedding—you and Charlie too, I guess—by throwing a private party.”
Reece had learned about the bash in a text from Noah a few days ago, but Neve and he had flipped, then flopped about going. Being the brother, he should go, they decided. Plus, she was Hailey’s best friend and a town fixture too, so she should go. Maybe they should go together. Walk in like the married couple they were. Or separately, pretending Vegas never happened.
“Better be there,” Shane warned, “so we can all toast to you tying the knot.” With a snort, he shook his head, turned, and flipped Reece off over his shoulder as he strolled toward his SUV.
“What the hell’s that for?” Reece called after him.
“For not trusting me.”
Reece’s shoulders drooped as he watched his friend drive away.
Reece’s mood lifted the moment he stepped into Neve’s house and pulled off his boots. Pearl rushed to greet him, along with Mr. Whiskers. The smell of bacon and something sweet wafted from the kitchen. He tiptoed toward the scent and spied Neve in yoga tights and one of his search and rescue T-shirts, her loose hair like spun gold curling on her shoulders. She pivoted on her bare heel, spatula in hand, and smiled at him.
“How did you know I was here?”
“My alert systems.” She pointed the utensil at the animals.
“Something smells good.” He leaned in for a kiss, catching a whiff of her floral shampoo. “Whatever you’re cooking smells good too.”
She turned back to the stove. “Pancakes and bacon, but I just started the pancakes, so they’ll take a while.”
He slid behind her and rested his hands on her hips, burying his nose in her hair. He began to sway with her. “Can I help?” Soon his hands were under the shirt, heading north. He grinned the instant he discovered she wasn’t wearing anything but the tee.
“Yes,” she laughed, leaning against him. “You can help by letting me cook.”
He dropped a kiss or three on her neck and released her. “I’ve got to do some research anyway.”
She pointed her elbow toward the full coffeepot. “Coffee’s fresh. How did it go with Shane?”
Filling a mug, he brought her up-to-date on the security plan and the pictures that didn’t pan out. “He told me to say hi.”
“Hi back.”
Reece raised the cup to his lips and took a sip. “He knows we’re married. That’s what he and Amy were whispering about when you showed up.” She turned to him and blinked.
“Um, what did he say?”
“Besides giving me shit for not telling him, you mean? He says the whole town knows, and that we should drop by Miners tonight so everyone can toast us.”
“Oh.”
“We might as well since the cat’s out of the bag.” He studied her as she twisted her mouth side to side. “You don’t want to go?”
“I do, but I’m not sure how we’re supposed to act.”
“Like we always do.”
She turned the bacon. “Oh, so you’re going to ignore me while I sneak wistful peeks at you?”
He set the mug down, stunned. “Is that how we normally act?”
She batted her eyes at him. “Yes.”
A grin creased his mouth. “Wistful peeks? How the hell did I miss those?”
“You’re blind, Reece Hunnicutt.”
“Not anymore.” He lunged for her, spun her, and crushed his mouth on hers, swallowing her squeals.
The bacon sizzled and popped, and she broke the kiss. “The bacon’s going to burn,” she gasped .
He grabbed her chin and pecked her lips. “We don’t want that.” Feeling about ten feet tall, he traipsed to the living room and began scrolling on his phone. By the time she called him to breakfast, he had discovered none of the stores in this or the neighboring counties had what he needed, and he’d tossed his phone to the side in frustration.
Then he remembered a different something he needed to check on. “Be right there,” he called back. To his delight, the special gift he’d ordered for Neve would arrive in time for Christmas. Perfect. If he placed an order for the security equipment today, he could pick up everything next week and still have plenty of time to install the cameras and wrap Neve’s present. He couldn’t hold back a smile. His plan was coming together.