5. Arlo
5
ARLO
“For you.”
Kalen handed me a take-out coffee.
“Thanks.” He’d discovered I enjoyed a cappuccino and starting yesterday had brought me one on his way here.
I took a sip. It was so good. Thick froth on the top that was like a dessert. Who didn’t love a sweet for breakfast? And beneath the sweetness was strong coffee that got me ready to face the day.
“You like your coffee strong and black.” Kalen drank Americano, and he’d thrown it back as though it was a thimbleful of espresso.
He raised his cup to mine, and we clinked them. “To a good day—no, a great one.”
“I just baked apple cinnamon muffins. They pair well with coffee.”
He glanced at me, his plump kissable lips parted slightly, and I strained to see his tongue poking through. The same tongue that would make me scream if it got close to my nipple, belly button, or hole.
Oops! Maybe I shouldn’t have invited Kalen for something to eat because slick was streaming out of my hole. I’d need a change of clothes.
“Then you should have one. Or maybe two.”
His words pierced the vision of his mouth on me. “Oh, I intend to.” My mind rewound what I’d said. “But I was offering you some.”
“You enjoy cooking?”
“Enjoy might be too strong a word, but I had apples that needed to be used up.”
“I’d love to taste something you made with your two hands.”
I gripped the porch railing as my knees buckled. Every word out of his mouth, no matter how innocent, I interpreted with a slice of lust and shiver of desire.
“I hope they don’t disappoint.” It’d be awkward if they were dry and crumbly.
“Never.” His eyes grew dark, and he licked around his mouth. If he was trying to kill me, he was more than halfway there.
I brought a plate of muffins onto the stairs, and we sat chatting and eating. The muffins got Kalen’s seal of approval, and I decided I’d bake something every morning.
“The garden looks so empty without my tree.” There was a gaping hole where my baby had stood, one I hadn’t filled in. I’d been putting it off, thinking once I did, all traces along with my memories would be erased. But life was full of gains and losses, hellos and goodbyes. Nothing could take away my memories, and I had tons of pics of the garden with my tree in it.
“But you can plant a pretty shrub there or put a bench. It’s the perfect location to drink coffee in the early mornings.”
Maybe he was right.
With the broken shingles removed and a tarp over the roof, Kalen had been fixing the damaged sections. Instead of working in the attic, I’d been in a small room off the living area in case he needed to ask me something. That was what I told myself.
But it’d been distracting having him bounding up and down the ladder, and from the corner of my eye, I’d been observing his physique, his hands as they gripped the rungs, the floppy hat perched on his head and a blob of sunscreen on his nose.
Since he’d started the repairs, I’d been working at night to make up for what I hadn’t done during the day. Spending hours staring at my handyman instead of the computer screen didn’t pay the bills. Who knew?
“Arlo?”
My body was on high alert at my name on Kalen’s lips. More than once since we’d met, his lips had been on mine and my cock swelled, but only in my dreams. I fanned my face, hoping the hot-pink blush would fade before Kalen and I came face to face.
“Coming!” I dashed onto the porch. My handyman had pushed his hat back and was scratching his scalp. His shirt was dotted with sweat and he had one foot on the porch stair, emphasizing the muscles in his thigh.
“I need to come in and examine the ceiling in the kitchen.”
“Sure. You don’t need to ask permission.” But I was glad he did.
Kalen removed his boots and padded inside at my heels. His presence behind me sent goosebumps marching over my skin and flaunting their spiky tips. I shivered.
“Are you cold?” he asked. He’d been outside in the sun, which after days of rain was making up for lost shiny time and blazing down, soaking up any remaining puddles and hardening what had been mud.
“The room I’m working in doesn’t get much sun,” I fibbed.
“Shame you don’t make use of the attic. Seems like a perfect place for a home office.”
My office had been spared any damage thanks to the design of the house.
“It is, but I like to change things up. I get bored being in the same location. There’s always something new to see.” Like a handsome handyman flexing his muscles.
“Mmmm. The same old same old breeds boredom. I get it.”
He peered at the ceiling as I made my way to the sink. “How’s Princess?”
“Doing well.” As the mature tree had been female—I’d discovered the tree’s red flowers indicated it was female after I moved in—so Kalen had named the cutting. She needed a mixture of sun and shade at this stage, so I moved the pot a couple of times a day.
“Glad to hear our baby is okay. Look after her because we want her to grow big and strong.”
“I will.”
He tramped outside, and I leaned over the sink and tossed water on my face. Whenever I was near Kalen an inferno ignited in my belly and sweat slid down my spine. Jealousy stabbed at me as I wondered if he affected other omegas in the same way.
I returned to my makeshift office, determined to get to work and not pay attention to Kalen. He hadn’t given me a reasonable explanation of why, when a random guy called asking for help, he upped and offered it. It was his summer vacation, and he should have been at the beach or hiking or partying with friends. Not sweltering under the summer sun.
The phone buzzed. Stephen.
“How did you fare during the storm?” He didn’t bother with greetings but jumped straight into the conversation.
“Hmmm, shame you didn’t call me after it had passed.” Stephen and I were the same age, and we often teased and riled one another up.
“I was busy with, you know… flooding.”
I told him about my roof and how my favorite tree was now firewood.
“What?” I held the phone away from my ear as he screeched. “Why didn’t you come here? There’s always a bed or sofa free.”
I explained the structure of the house was intact.
“Did you get hold of Mackie?”
Oh, that was the handyman’s name. “Mackie. No. I…”
“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re living with huge holes in your roof.”
“You’ll never believe what happened.” I related my mistake and how Kalen had turned up and he was great. “We’re parents!”
“What? He put his dick in you and you’re already pregnant? My head hurts.”
I explained about Princess.
“You’re a freaking jerk,” he scoffed. He ranted about Kalen not having the proper credentials and he could have ripped me off. “And what if he steals your valuables?”
Other than a computer and a phone, I didn’t have many because I’d sunk all my savings into a mortgage.
“Is he hot?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
A slap resounded through the phone. I knew Stephan well enough to know what that was. He’d whacked his forehead.
“He is. You can’t hire someone based on a hotness scale.”
“I don’t know about that.” I’d had crappy building work done by professional companies, so taking a chance on Kalen didn’t seem to be a big risk.
“I guess you’ll have to learn what happens when you hire someone off the street with no references.”
I was certain Kalen had plenty of those, though they might not be from house owners. Again tiny slivers of jealousy threaded and burned through my veins. I clenched my mug of tea, the warmth seeping into my hands as I closed my eyes until the green-headed monster slithered away.
After Stephen left, I concentrated on work, my fingers flying over the keyboard as I pushed Kalen out of my head. After downing mugs of tea and more tea, I traipsed back and forth to the bathroom, determined not to look at what Kalen was doing.
He didn’t have to come inside to pee because there was a toilet in the shed, as it had once been a sort of in-law apartment. It was too ramshackle to house a guest, but the bathroom was in working order. And Kalen disappeared during his lunch hour.
Was he visiting a significant other and enjoying a quickie?
Maybe it would be better if I took my computer and worked at a coffee shop, because Kalen, like a virus—a very nice one with amber eyes and a sexy body—had invaded my mind.
This obsession with Kalen had to stop!