Chapter 19
Allie was stirring the sauce when the doorbell rang.
She turned down the heat, set down the ladle, removed her apron that was protecting the blue floral dress Sandy had loaned her, and went to answer the door.
Carson stood on the other side of the threshold wearing blue jeans and a green shirt under his black leather jacket.
He handed her a small bouquet of daisies.
“Thank you.” Allie held them up to her nose and took a sniff. She loved the smell of flowers. If only they didn’t die so quickly. “Please come in.” She stood back to let him in.
“Thanks, you look incredible.” His eyes drank her in from head to toe.
“Thank you.” Allie’s head ducked back down to the flowers. She wasn’t used to so many compliments. Maybe she needed to reconsider her wardrobe if she and Carson continued to date. “I should get a vase for these.” She headed back toward the kitchen, hoping her sauce wasn’t burning.
“Something smells good,” he commented, coming toward the kitchen a moment later. His jacket had been removed.
“I hope you like spaghetti and meatballs.”
“I love it.”
“There’s also dessert for afterward.” She glanced back at him over her shoulder to see his head snap up from her rear end to meet her gaze. Their stares were full of heat and passion.
“Chocolate cake?” She heard the eagerness in his voice.
“Chocolate ice cream.”
“Sounds delicious. I can’t wait.” He followed her into the kitchen and watched her as she grabbed a vase and filled it with water. A moment later, she felt his arms wrap around her middle, his head resting on her shoulder. “I have to say, I’ve developed a sweet tooth since yesterday.”
Allie turned off the water and spun around in his arms. “That’s funny because I have to say, I like it even more than before.”
Carson’s eyes turned molten as his hands coasted along her back. “If the food didn’t smell so good, I’d suggest skipping straight to dessert.”
“And ruin my dinner?” She gasped in mock horror. “How barbaric.”
“I’m feeling barbaric.” He stepped closer, rubbing his erection against the juncture of her thighs. Allie almost said to hell with dinner, but she was hungry. There would be time for play later. What was the old saying? ‘Absence made the heart grow fonder.’
“Later, you can do it to your heart’s content.”
“Promise?” She heard the eagerness in his voice.
“Promise.”
Carson groaned and took a step back as he readjusted himself. “Damn, this is going to be a long meal.”
“It’ll be worth it.” Allie put the flowers in the vase as Carson served up the plates that were already sitting out. “How was your day?” Allie asked as they sat down at the table.
“It was good. We’re working on a project right now that is keeping us all busy.”
“You and Jack? Or are there more of you?” Allie inquired before taking a bite of food.
Carson took several bites before answering. “Us and a few others.”
This was the most he had told her about his work and coworkers. Like a sponge, she was trying to soak up everything. “How many people do you work with?”
“There are seven of us altogether.”
“You all do clerical work?”
Carson took another bite of food, his chewing slowing down as if he needed time to think about his answer. “We do.”
“Jack said he was a Ranger. I don’t know much about the military, but is it common for different branches to work together?”
Carson froze with the fork halfway to his mouth before taking the bite. “We’re retired from our career fields, so branches no longer matter.”
“Oh, well, that’s cool you all get along. Is it just Army and Navy or other branches as well in your office?”
“All the branches. We rib each other a little, but we get along pretty well.”
“That’s awesome. Where’s your building? Sounds like it has to be pretty big to house all of you guys.”
“It’s on the other side of town; I’ve told you that.”
“Right, well, Jack seemed nice,” she remarked after a moment’s pause, changing the subject since she wasn’t getting the answers she wanted.
“He’s great. All the guys are.”
“No women in your office? What about Charlotte?” She knew she shouldn’t be jealous of this faceless woman, but she was curious about her.
“Not in our department. She works in another state. I never actually see her.”
“As a SEAL, I assumed you were only used to working with men.”
“I was, but I’ve learned to adapt. I hope Jack wasn’t too forward with you. I know he can be a bit of a ladies’ man.”
“He was…” Allie took a bite of food as she struggled for the right word. “Fine. Very confident with women, but he was a gentleman more or less,” she quickly added so Carson didn’t think she found his friend offensive.
“More or less?” he asked with a quizzical brow.
“He was a bit overly flirtatious. It was more directed at Sandy than me though. I think he does it to rile her up.” If anyone bickered like siblings, it was those two.
“Yeah, they have an interesting relationship.”
“It’s not love-hate, but more like siblings who enjoy annoying each other.”
“I agree. It’s most entertaining sometimes. I’m glad you got along with Jack. We should plan something, a get-together for you to meet everyone else from my office.”
“That would be cool,” Allie responded evenly, while on the inside she was jumping up and down. She was finally going to meet the guys he worked with.
“I’ll arrange a cookout at my place and invite everyone over.”
“Can Sandy come?” It would be nice to at least have one other person she knew. “If it’s okay for Sandy and Jack to be in the same room together.”
“They haven’t drawn blood. Yet. So that should be fine. How does this weekend sound?”
“I don’t have any plans.” She never had plans other than to hang out with Sandy. “So, sure.”
“Great. I’ll make the arrangements. Now, how about that dessert?” he asked as he set his fork down on his empty plate.
Allie looked down at her equally empty plate.
She knew she’d been hungry, but she hadn’t realized just how much until her plate was all but licked clean.
“Let me rinse these off, and I’ll bring back the ice cream.
” Allie gathered their plates and took them into the kitchen.
She was setting them down when she felt something behind her.
She turned to see Carson standing a few feet away.
“I came to offer some help.”
“I don’t need help with the dishes.” She chuckled. She’d been doing her own dishes for years. Allie could manage quite easily on her own.
“With two people doing them though, they’ll be done twice as fast,” he reasoned. Ah, the sooner the dishes were done, the sooner they could get to dessert.
“Alright, you can help.”
Carson stepped up next to her at the sink. He made her large kitchen suddenly feel very small. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’ll wash, and you can dry. The plates just need to be rinsed off and put in the dishwasher. The leftover spaghetti needs to go into Tupperware, and the pots and pans rinsed and dried.” He might not mind letting such things sitting out, but not her.
Carson waited for Allie as she cleaned off the plates and handed them to him to put in the dishwasher.
“They go in the back facing the sink.”
“You even put them in a certain way?”
“Yes.” Didn’t everyone?
Carson didn’t argue, but did what he was told. “Where are the containers; I’ll put the leftovers away.”
“I can do it. I like certain containers for certain things.” She realized how idiotic it might sound, but she liked things in a particular order, and when setting containers up in her fridge, she liked them to stack properly and fit to optimize the space.
The lids were also colored so she knew what was in each container without having to open them and guess what was in each one.
“Allie, it’s okay to let me help. I can follow orders.” He grinned and gave her a wink.
Of course, he could. He’d been a soldier. She was just used to doing things on her own. “Under the cabinet next to the fridge. The red lid container is for the sauce and the blue one is for the spaghetti.”
“You don’t mix them up?”
“No, in case I want to do a different sauce or no sauce, I have choices.” Call her an overthinker, but she liked options. Sometimes butter noodles sounded good, but she couldn’t have that if the sauce was mixed in.
“Alright, whatever the lady wants.” Carson shrugged like it didn’t make a difference to him.
As soon as he had the food in the containers, she took the pans from him to start washing them.
“Where do you want the food?”
Allie appreciated him asking instead of just throwing them in there.
She realized how odd she might seem to others, but it was part of her system.
It used to drive Sandy insane, but her organizational skills had come in handy many times when Sandy had misplaced something or they needed research for projects.
However, Sandy had drawn the line at living together again after the dorms.
It was one of the things that had driven previous boyfriends crazy. Her need for order and control.
“Second shelf.”
“Left? Right? Doesn’t matter?”
He wasn’t teasing her, but actually asking. “It doesn’t matter.”
He placed the food on the shelf and came over to her, plastering his chest to her back as his hands coasted down her arms. “I can’t wash the dishes like this,” she protested, though it was half-hearted.
“I can help,” he husked as he took the sprayer from her loose grip, rinsed the saucepan out, and put it on the drying side. He reached for the noodle pot and dumped the water in the sink.
Allie gasped when water splashed on her dress. Oh no, she hoped she didn’t get anything on Sandy’s dress. She looked down, but there were only water spots. Nothing that wouldn’t dry.
“Is that another one of Sandy’s dresses?”
“Yes.” Was it sad that she didn’t have any nice dresses of her own? Everything was business attire, not sexy.
“We better take that off, so you don’t get anything on it.” He retracted his hands from her arms. She missed the loss of his hands on her already, but they weren’t gone for long before she felt his hands glide over her back.
“It doesn’t have a zipper; it just lifts over my head.”
“Hmm,” he purred with his hands coasting down her back, over her butt to the hem of the dress.
“Even better.” A cool breeze kissed the back of her thighs as he lifted the hem.
Allie felt suspended as he slowly lifted the back of her dress.
Liquid heat pooled between her legs. It was so erotic not seeing him, not even feeling him.
Just knowing he was back there exposing her back end.
The dress reached the globe of her ass, and she heard Carson hiss out a breath which made her grin.
“Are you not wearing panties?”
“I am.” She wasn’t that bold, especially with someone else’s clothing.
He lifted the dress higher. The soft cotton between her legs had become saturated. She wiggled her hips back and forth, showing off the dark blue thong she was wearing.
“I could come just from looking at you like this.” The rest of the dress was pulled up her back and over her head. Allie went to turn around, but Carson stayed her with a hand on her lower back. “Don’t move.”
“But the dress,” she started to protest. Allie didn’t want him tossing it on the ground and wrinkling it.
“Don’t move,” he instructed again, then she heard his footfalls disappearing before getting louder again a moment later. “It’s hanging on the back of the dining room chair,” he told her.
“Is it just tossed there where it could get wrinkled or spread out?”
Carson smacked her left ass cheek. She had been so startled by what he had done, she jumped a foot. It hadn’t hurt so much as startled her. No one had ever done anything like that to her before. She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not.
Carson tapped the other cheek before kneading her ass. Okay, she liked it. “Hands on the sink.” Allie wasn’t used to being bossed around like this, but she kind of liked it too.