Chapter 22
And…they were off and running again.
Somehow, during their few encounters, neither she nor Trask had been able to keep a lid on their attraction, and she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
She’d thought that when they’d been in each other’s company, it had been pure pheromones that had made them so attuned to each other, but unless she was holding a smell-o-phone—which she wasn’t—there was clearly more to this attraction than hormonal scent.
“Phone sex sounds…interesting, Jett, but I’d rather take care of this in person.”
Trask’s gruff voice had her nipples standing up and taking notice.
“So, I should stay here? In Maine?” Jett asked, almost not recognizing her own voice that held an unaccustomed tremor of anticipation.
“Yes. Stay. I’m about to point my truck toward home.”
“Home, as in the office, or home as in your parents’ house?” she asked, her mind picturing them having mad sex on the floor behind the display case after everyone here had gone.
A yummy idea, but she’d wait to hear his verdict.
“Um, are my brothers still there?”
Oooh. Was he a mind reader now?
“Yes. But they’re thinking of closing up soon,” she answered almost breathlessly.
“Can one of them give you a ride to my folks’ place, then?”
Ahh, crap. That’s what he was getting at.
Too bad.
“Uh, yeah. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind,” she answered, a little deflated.
“Okay. Then I have a few more pertinent questions.”
“Shoot,” she said.
“Did you bring enough stuff to stay for a while? Do you need anything from home? Do you want me to bring the dogs? As soon as I’m on the road, should I call my mother and let her know to expect you?”
Jett quickly got over her disappointment.
Trask was rambling, and that meant he was out of his comfort zone. For a man who’d declared himself to always be in control, it sounded like he was currently slipping off those very strict rails. For her.
She wouldn’t tease him about it.
This time.
She’d play it straight so he wouldn’t clam up.
“Yes to everything,” she answered his query patiently, “I’m sure I can get a ride to your mom and dad’s place. I brought enough stuff to see me through a couple weeks, and you should bring my dogs and all their belongings.”
Crap. There was something she needed to add.
“If, and this is a huge if,” she warned, “you can stand driving all this way with Tinker and Langly, who, uh, often have a little gas problem after they’ve been with my father. He tends to feed them table scraps, so beware.”
Trask actually chuckled again, sounding much lighter this time.
She couldn’t wait to witness him in full-on laughter, in person; something she’d previously figured would never happen, but now she had hope.
“Good to know. I’ll keep a window cracked,” he told her.
Jett looked up at the sky, which was now filled with small flakes drifting down.
“Or maybe not. You’ll get snow on your new upholstery.”
“It’s snowing there?” he asked.
“Yup. So you’d better get on the road pretty fast,” she apprised. “It’s starting to come down steadily.”
“Damn. It hasn’t begun here yet. I thought I had more time,” he complained. “But no worries. I’ll hit the highway in minutes, and I promise I’ll keep your dogs safe.”
“Keep yourself safe, too,” Jett responded gruffly. “I want some more of what we’ve been dancing around, and not just over the phone. I need the actual, physical you. So, for that reason, I’m giving you three hours to get here, buddy.”
Trask huffed. “Listen. It might make me an asshole, but you have to stop calling me that. It…annoys me.”
“No problem,” Jett teased, because she’d already known that. “I’ll just start calling you…stud-muffin, or devil-daddy instead.”
He groaned. “Please don’t.”
Jett gave a huge, overblown sigh that he couldn’t miss. “Okay. I guess I’ll just have to call you ‘sir’, then.”
Oh, yes. It was so much fun to get cheeky with him.
If that didn’t get Trask’s dominant-engine humming, nothing would.
“Cripes, Jett. Do you want me to have an accident on the way home?” he questioned huskily.
“Why? You can’t drive with a hard cock?”
Oh, she was really enjoying this, now.
He growled. “Now, you’re just pushing it.”
Jett snickered, continuing with the innuendos “Pushing it in and out? A girl can only hope.”
“Don’t you ever give it a rest, woman?”
Fine. It was time to let him know she wasn’t normally such a player.
“Seriously? I’ve been resting it for three freaking years now, or at least I had been until someone’s head was between my legs. But I’m hoping that was just the beginning of foreplay, sir.”
If he’d been able to see her, she would have saluted as she kept going.
“I’m currently looking forward to the main event.”
His words stumbled over each other. “Three years?” he squeaked. “Seriously? What the hell? Are the men in the Air Force blind?”
“Aww, shucks. Thanks for that. It was a really nice compliment, Trask,” Jett purred. “I’ll make sure I reward you for it when you get here.”
Trask groaned. “Do…do you want me to hit the road anytime soon, or not? Because now my dick is so hard I can’t go back in to get the dogs, or your father will get an eyeful.”
“Like he’s not in that constant state with Bunny these days,” Jett informed him primly. “But I digress. I want all your parts here, as soon as possible, and intact. My dogs, too, of course.”
“Geeze. I’m glad my assets come before your canines,” he told her. “Now please stop being fresh and let me get my ‘little soldier’ to stand down.”
Jett knew just how to help with that.
“What are you afraid of?” she asked him abruptly.
“Wha…? Is that a real question?” Trask puzzled.
“It is indeed. Everyone has something. Spiders? Snakes? Hairless cats?” she prompted. “I’m not too fond of pudding.”
“Uh… Okay. I sense a story there, which we’ll discuss later. But as for me… Okay. Here it is. You can’t tell my brothers what I’m about to say, though. And you can’t make fun of me,” he added.
“Deal,” Jett agreed.
This was going to be good.
“Okay. Doilies,” he admitted.
“Doilies?” she responded incredulously. “Is that a real word?”
“It is.”
“Well, I don’t know what they are,” Jett admitted.
“You do too,” Trask explained gruffly. “They’re those evil things that grandmothers put on the arms of furniture.”
“Oh. Those.” Jett pictured what he was saying, then wanted to laugh because it was a damned strange phobia.
But she’d promised…
Jett kept herself under control, barely, then somehow managed to get her next words out. “Uh, what’s scary about them?”
“Well, when I was really little, I had this great-great-aunt. She was ancient, and smelled like…medicine, and some kind of horrid mints, and a nasty, stale old perfume. Occasionally I’d get dropped off at her house to be babysat, and I’d immediately be surrounded by doilies.”
She could almost see Trask shiver.
“They were on every chair, every table, the couch, and even on the pillow where I was supposed to nap. And they all smelled exactly like her. It scared the fuck out of me, and to this day, when I see a doily, I almost can’t breathe.”
Jett had been blindsided; not expecting Trask to admit to any fears. She was happy he had, though, and was sure it had done the trick.
“How’s your dick, now?”
“My…?”
It took him a second before he snorted. “Behaving at the moment. Thank you. But you are an evil woman, Jett. Very evil. Did you know that?”
“You say evil, I say creative,” she countered with a shrug he couldn’t see. “But at least now you can go fetch my dogs.”
“I can, indeed,” he agreed with a chuff.
“Good. Do that, then get your cock home to me as fast as you can without crashing.”
“Jett—”
His voice held a warning, but before he could call her on her renewed impertinence, Jett hung up.
Let him chew on that one.
Jett knew she was grinning when she walked back into Diver Downeast, and right on cue, the grilling started immediately.
“So what did the big grump-ul-upagus have to say?” Spence asked.
“Yeah. Was he pissy?” Buck added.
“Nope. He says he’s happy that I’m Diver Downeast’s newest employee. He’s actually picking up my dogs for me, then I’m to meet him at the family homestead if one of you can give me a ride there.”
“We can,” Tabitha responded.
“But seriously,” Buck prodded, clearly not buying it. “What did he really say?”
Did she keep them in suspense, or did she…?
Ah, hell. Jett was so excited by the unexpected turn of events with Trask, that she needed to share.
“He actually admitted that he likes me,” she thrilled. “And that he’s not averse to finding out if we can be a thing,” she told them.
“Be a thing, or do a thing,” Spencer questioned with a raised brow. “Those are two very different concepts, and you need to be careful.” Jett knew he spoke in code because Sheila-the-innocent was still in the room.
Jett thought for a moment, and answered in kind. “Well, it might end up being more of the latter, but I have hope he’ll become so enamored of me, that he’ll eventually start to appreciate all my other stellar attributes. I’m not a bad person, you know. He could do so much worse.”
She’d wondered how his brothers would feel about her dating Trask, so she put that out there to test the waters.
“Hell, yeah, he could,” Buck concurred, having swear-credits with Sheila.
“For sure. We really like you,” Spence added.
“And Trask could have hooked up with some stuck-up bitch…” Spence groaned and pulled a ten out of his pocket, stuffing it in Sheila’s jar without prompting.
“…who’d worship the hallowed ground he walks on and stroke his already overblow ego.
Then he’d be even more insufferable than his is now, so I’m all for you being his chick-of-choice, Jett.
You’re not going to let him get a swelled head. ”
“Orrr…perhaps he—” Spencer dragged out.
Tabitha slapped a hand over her husband’s mouth. “That’s enough of that. We don’t need to hear anything more about swelled heads.”
She shot a cautious look at her sister, then sent one around the room that told them all to shut up.
She should have saved her breath.
Sheila jumped all over it. “Spence actually means Trask’s penis, Tabbi,” she interjected, not missing a beat. “Penises have heads. Heads swell sometimes. For sex. Are Jett and Trask going to have sex?”
Tabitha spluttered while the rest of them stood by, trying not to laugh, wondering how Tabbi would handle this.
“I’m, uh, not sure Sheila,” she finally managed. “That’s something Jett and Trask will have to decide between themselves,” Tabitha answered carefully. “They’ll probably get to know each other better over the next few, um, months…”
Or hours, Jett thought with a snort.
Tabitha gave her a crabby side-eye. “…then they’ll decide if they want to take things further.”
Sheila thought about that for about half a second.
“I hope they have sex. I hope they have sex soon. Trask will be nicer. He’s nice now, but mostly he’s grouchy. He’s grouchy and sex will make him happy. It makes people on TV happy. Then they have babies. Babies would be fun. Trask and Jett would make pretty babies.”
None of those listening could hold it in a minute longer.
Laughter filled the room.
Sheila looked around at them all like they were lunatics, then went calmly back to her computer, which made them bust-a-gut even harder.
“And on that note,” Spencer finally said, “I think it’s time to close up the office and go home.”