Then he muttered, "All right, babe, now tell me about Kentucky."
I bit my lip.
Brock grinned.
I quit biting my lip and grinned back.
Then I whispered, "I have to take my contacts out and get my gla.s.ses."
His eyes went warm and his mouth got soft as his arm around me loosened and he whispered back, "All right, darlin", I"ll be right here."
That made me grin again.
Then I jumped up to take out my contacts and get my gla.s.ses.
Chapter Six.
Drawback Cancelled
"f.u.c.k," I heard muttered and my eyes drifted open to see Brock"s tee-covered chest.
We were still tangled together on the couch. Apparently we fell asleep there because early morning sun was shining through the blinds.
I also knew that it was morning because I could hear Fiona Apple singing "Fast as You Can" coming from my bedroom and I knew my alarm had gone off.
"d.a.m.n," I mumbled, shifting and preparing to push up, getting a knee underneath me and a hand in the cushion when suddenly two strong arms locked around me, I found my soft body colliding with Brock"s hard one, his hand slid up into my hair and it guided my mouth to his.
Then he kissed me, long, sweet, deep and wet.
My toes curled, my belly got warm and my body melted into his as one of my hands slid up his neck into his hair curling around the back and holding on.
When he broke the kiss, my head lifted away an inch, my eyes lazily opened and I heard Fiona Apple was getting way louder (and I didn"t care).
"You pa.s.sed out before we got to the fun stuff, babe," Brock informed me in a deep, s.e.xy, sleepy, rough whisper.
"I did?" I asked.
"Yeah," I watched his mouth grin, "right in the middle of talkin" you just faded away."
c.r.a.p.
How embarra.s.sing.
I stared in his s.e.xy, sleepy eyes and bit my lip.
Brock"s eyes dropped to my mouth.
Then I found myself on my back in the couch, Brock on top and he was kissing me again, longer, sweeter, deeper, wetter and he added some pretty freaking great hand action.
Mm. It felt nice waking up this way.
Fiona quit singing "Fast as You Can" and "Get Gone" started sounding loud from my adamant alarm clock that was a fancy one where you could shove in an MP3 and it woke you soft and nice with music you liked but the longer you let it play, the louder it got.
And we"d let it play for a long time and Fiona"s changing tempo in "Get Gone" from sweet and melodious to p.i.s.sed off and pounding was filling the house so much even Brock"s fantastic kisses couldn"t block it out.
Clearly mine couldn"t block it out for Brock either since his mouth broke from mine and he muttered, "f.u.c.k, babe, sorry but I gotta turn that s.h.i.t off."
"Fiona Apple isn"t s.h.i.t," I told him, he gave me a look then knifed off me and prowled to my bedroom.
I watched his a.s.s as he went thinking it would not be good if that look meant he didn"t like Fiona because I loved Fiona. It wasn"t like I played her twenty-four, seven but she got a lot of airtime in Tess O"Hara"s house.
No, that wasn"t entirely true. I was thinking about Brock and Fiona Apple but mostly I was thinking about how great his a.s.s looked in his faded jeans.
Once I quit thinking of this (around about the time he disappeared), I looked around for my gla.s.ses, saw Brock had taken them off and put them on the table at the side of the sofa, I nabbed them, slipped them on my nose, got up and walked to the kitchen.
I was at the sink filling the coffeepot with water when he made it into the kitchen.
It took a bit of effort but I didn"t drop the gla.s.s pot into my ceramic sink when I saw a smokin" hot, clothes disheveled, usually s.e.xy, unruly-haired now s.e.xier, unrulier-haired (due to sleep and my hands running through it), heavy-eyed Brock Lucas saunter into my kitchen.
Whoa.
I"d never woken up with Brock but just looking at him in the morning was nearly as good as one of his kisses.
Nearly.
I turned off the water and moved to the coffeemaker covering this reaction by asking, "Do you not like Fiona Apple?"
His response was, "Is this a deal breaker for you?"
I"d flipped up the top of the coffeemaker and turned to him while I poured the water in seeing he was preparing to open the fridge.
That was when I said, "I"ll take that as a no."
He stood, fingers curled around the fridge"s door handle and his eyes leveled on me.
"Babe, I listen to Credence, the Eagles, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Thorogood, s.h.i.t like that and pretty much anything country if a chick ain"t singin" it. Does that sound like a man who"d like Fiona Apple?"
"No," I replied. "It sounds like a man in dire need of a crash course in three decades of music. The boys are back from Vietnam, Brock, follow me into the new millennium."
He grinned at me and muttered, "Smarta.s.s," before he opened the fridge door and stuck his head into it.
I was feeling warm gushiness in my belly due to his grin and seeing his head stuck in my fridge when I heard my cell ring.
I shoved the coffeepot under the coffeemaker and moved to my purse on the kitchen counter wondering who was calling me at that unG.o.dly hour and why. Then I pulled out my phone, looked at the display and saw it was Martha.
d.a.m.n.
I hit the b.u.t.ton on the screen to take the call and put it to my ear.
"Hey, honey," I greeted. "What"s up?"
"His filthy, rusted, beat up, in desperate need of a trade up truck is still in front of your house, that"s what"s up," was Martha"s greeting and my eyes moved out the kitchen doorframe toward the front window which was still covered by closed blinds.
Then I asked, "How do you know that?"
"Because I swung by your place on my way to work to check and see how crazy, stupid you"re being with a smokin" hot guy and I found out you"re being off-the-charts crazy, stupid with a smokin" hot guy."
"Martha!" I snapped.
"Am I wrong or did his truck not start last night and he hitched a ride home?" she asked.
My eyes went to the microwave then they went to the kitchen counter. "I cannot believe you. You are the one who"s crazy. First, you don"t leave for work for an hour and second, my house is thirty minutes out of your way to get to work."
"I am committed to the mission of stopping you from making another very bad mistake,"
she returned.
I heard the fridge close but I didn"t need to hear it to be very aware that Brock was in the room and he could hear every word.
"I can"t talk about this now," I told her. "Come by the bakery tonight after work. We"ll have a cupcake and a chat."
"Girl, I"m single and my best friend just dropped ten pounds and got a three hundred dollar hairstyle. There is no way I"m eating one of your cupcakes because eating one means eating four and I don"t need those cupcakes on my fat a.s.s when I"m out on the prowl with you. No one looked at me before, what with you and your bodacious ta-ta"s and the look on your face that says to all comers, "Isn"t it sweet, the whole world is like Disneyland!" I eat your cupcakes which never fail to settle on my a.s.s, I"ll become invisible."
"That isn"t true," I told her.
"Which part?" she shot back.
"All of it," I answered instantly.
"Girl, wake... up. "
I sighed. Then my eyes moved to Brock to see him, hips against the counter, open jug of milk in his hand and I was pretty certain I missed him drinking straight from it.
A drawback.
He grinned at me and I felt the sweet hum in the air, saw his eyes dancing and knew he was grinning in order not to burst out laughing.
Okay, cancel drawback. He could drink straight from the milk jug all he wanted as long as he filled my kitchen with that great vibe and grinned at me while looking all morning hot guy.
"h.e.l.lo!" Martha snapped in my ear and I jerked my eyes away from Brock.
"I"m here," I told her.
"OhmiG.o.d, he"s right there muddling your head," she muttered.
She wasn"t wrong about that.
Time to get serious.
"Martha, really, honey, we need to talk."
"s.h.i.t." She was still muttering.
"It"s important," I whispered and felt the amused Brock vibe flatten but the kitchen filled with warmth.
Martha heard my tone, read it and immediately gave in. "All right but we"re not meeting at the bakery for cupcakes. You"re coming over and I"m making salad."
I blinked at the counter. "You"re making salad?"
"I"m making salad."
"Honey, the last time I had dinner at your house, you fried celery."
The warmth in the room remained but the hum came back and it was heralded in by Brock roaring with laughter.
My eyes cut to him and I bugged them out but he ignored my hint, kept laughing and did it shaking his head.
"I hear he found that amusing," Martha noted irritably.
I looked away from Brock and pointed out, "Martha, babe, you fried celery. Anyone would find that amusing."
"I"m an experimental chef," she fired back.
This was true. But she was not an altogether successful one.
I sighed again.
Then I suggested, "How about you come over here and I"ll make salads."
"Will smokin" hot guy be there?"
"His name is Brock," I whispered.
"Will smokin" hot but bad for you Brock be there?" she amended.
"I don"t know," I told her the truth. "But what I have to say won"t wait and he knows about it anyway so if he is, you"ll deal. If he isn"t, he isn"t. Yeah?"