Anna
The difference, she supposed, was that Charlie didn’t seem like a stereotype to her anymore.
She’d seen his strengths and weaknesses and learned a bit about his past. He was a real person, and she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather get caught in a rainstorm with, including all those romantic heroes from the books she’d read in the past.
By the time Charlie returned with his own drink, she had made herself quite comfortable on his couch. He sat at the other end and cleared his throat. “Fine weather we’ve been having today,” he said with a crooked smile.
“I did when I was a kid,” he said. “My dad taught me that one.”
Charlie knit his brow as he stared across the couch at her. “Did you not have parents who loved you?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t tell. The two of them never really got along.
They stayed together, though, which I suppose was a good thing.
We moved around a lot for my mom’s work.
For a long time, that’s what I wanted, too.
I guess I was used to it. And it was always fun to meet new people, see new places, and never get bored.
When I was a kid, I decided I never wanted to stay in one place longer than a year or so.
I thought putting down roots was boring.
” She paused and glanced at the room around her.
Charlie had grown up here, and now he owned the place.
All his memories were packaged neatly into this beautiful property.
If she was ever going to put down roots, she hoped it would be in a place like this one.
“Hmm.” Charlie thought a moment before responding. “I think it would be interesting to move around a lot, but I wouldn’t give up my home for it.”
“Nor should you.” She took the last sip of her drink, and he immediately took the cup from her hand.
“Can I pour you another?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Oh, why not? We’ve got to wait until the dryer is done anyway, right?”
He nodded. “Unless you think it would be fun to drive home in moist underwear.”
“Oh, absolutely not!” she practically shouted. “We are not using that phrase around me. I hate that word.”
“What?” He chuckled. “Moist?”
She made a gagging sound, and that seemed to please him. “All right,” she said. “If you’re going to be like this, you’d better pour me another. Looks like I’m going to need it.”
Without another word, he disappeared with her glass into his kitchen. Also without a word, she followed him. She entered the kitchen in time to see him pour the last few drops from the bottle into her glass. “Sorry,” he said. “Looks like I don’t have a full shot left.”
“Oh, no.” She felt genuinely awful. “I didn’t mean to finish off your dad’s whiskey. You can… you can pour it back if you want.”
“Why?” He cocked his head. “I’m not going to drink it. Dad would probably have preferred if someone enjoyed it.”
They sat and talked a little longer while Anna finished her drink. As the evening wore on, she felt heat crawl into her cheeks. She wanted to blame the alcohol, but she knew she could handle a lot more than she’d had.
After another half hour, Charlie suggested, “Maybe you should just spend the night here.”
“Only if you have a spare toothbrush,” she said, strongly suspecting he didn’t.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stood, walked into his bathroom, and came back out with a brand-new toothbrush, still in the packaging. “I always keep a spare around.”
She had no choice in the matter, then—or that was what she convinced herself, even though it wasn’t exactly true.
If she was being totally honest, she would admit that part of her actually wanted to spend another night in his cozy spare room, in his incredibly comfortable extra bed.
“Guess I’d better brush my teeth, then,” she said with a grin.
She set her cup in the kitchen and headed back toward the bathroom.
Before she could even get the toothbrush out of the packaging, there was a knock on the bathroom door. She opened it to find Charlie waiting on the other side. The look on his face threw her off. She’d never seen him looking like that before.
“Anna,” he said, “before you do that…” He didn’t finish his sentence. In seconds, he had pulled her back out of the bathroom and into his arms. Then he bent down, paused right before he met her lips, and when she didn’t back away, he kissed her.
It was a kiss unlike any Anna had experienced before. There was so much desire in it, mingled with a kind of slow gentleness she wouldn’t have expected could accompany so much heat. Little by little, they edged toward the spare bedroom.
Once, when she stopped to take a breath, Anna asked, “Why would you want to kiss me before I brushed my teeth?”
“Maybe I wanted to taste my father’s whiskey one more time.” It was a nonsense answer, and she knew it. He probably knew that she knew it, too. Neither one of them cared.
They fumbled their way into the guest room. His hands slid up the shirt she was wearing, and he found her breasts. She frantically started unbuttoning the shirt he was wearing, while he started helping her to remove hers. Then she sat on the bed and tugged him down after her.
Anna knew she was attracted to him, but she’d had no idea how much she actually wanted him until the opportunity presented itself.
In truth, she wasn’t even thinking straight anymore.
Her legs were around him, her hands on his chest. He was kissing her all over, her breasts, her stomach.
His hands gripped her thighs, and the feel of his calluses against her skin drove her so crazy that she couldn’t even think anymore.
He had her out of her clothes in seconds, and he pulled her body into his so easily that he made her feel weightless somehow.
The sex was frenzied, hot, and thoughtless.
She found herself biting down on his shoulder at one point, half to quiet her own voice, and half to hold him between her teeth.
He groaned at the feel of her teeth on his skin, and his pace sped up, but he kept himself from finishing until she did.
A true gentleman in every way, she thought.
He waited for her until she thought there was no way he could stand it anymore.
The sounds he made were driving her crazy, and when she finished, he let go completely.
He was like an animal, raw and wild, and before she knew what had hit her, he was lying heavily on top of her, breathing hard into her ear.
It was probably the most reckless thing she’d ever done, but she wasn’t at all sorry for it.
She was too relaxed, too hypnotized by postcoital bliss to care.
She didn’t even let him go before she fell asleep, holding him with her arms and legs, not wanting his skin to part from hers ever again.
He felt so good to her. He felt like home.
The calm she felt lasted through to the next morning. Even when she woke early and found herself alone in the bed, she didn’t care. She could hear him moving around outside her room, and she easily fell back asleep, still in a cloud of bliss, knowing he was there.
The next time she woke, the place was quiet enough that she knew he was already outside, feeding and caring for his animals.
She got up and found her own clothes folded on the dresser, ready for her.
His thoughtfulness only surprised her a little, as she now knew what kind of lover he was, and thoughtful would have been a perfect description.
She showered and dressed, feeling more at home than she had in any of her actual residences.
When she went out to the kitchen, she found breakfast waiting for her with a little note. It said, Help yourself. I’ll bill you later, with a heart just below. This time, she knew he was joking and laughed to herself.
She ate slowly, enjoying the food—eggs, bacon, biscuits and honey—and the hot coffee he had left for her. After a while, he came back inside, smiling when he found her up and eating.
“Good?” he asked.
“It tasted expensive,” she said with a grin.
“That’s because it was,” he answered.
It was good to joke with him after last night, even though it was awkward. It let her know he wasn’t regretful about what had happened between them. Instead, he was laughing, spoiling her. She couldn’t wait to tell her cousin about this man. Poor Ellie was going to die of jealousy for sure.
Whatever this was, this new relationship, Anna couldn’t tell, but she didn’t want to spoil the morning by asking.
She wanted to bask in Charlie’s thoughtfulness, the way he clearly adored her.
She wanted to feel everything out organically and let things happen in their own time.
He seemed to feel the same, so she didn’t overthink her decision to avoid the question.
There was a chance she was making a huge mistake by not asking the hard questions right away.
But everything felt so right, she couldn’t imagine that a little patience on her part would go too wrong.
The trouble was, she couldn’t ask Charlie what his preference would be, since that, in itself, would have been one of those hard questions that ruined the morning.
So, she had to assume, despite the fact that she knew better.