“Chelle...”
“You can keep repeating my name until the cows come home but it doesn’t change the fact I want to do this for you. And, in turn, I get what I need without having to wait until I can afford it. At the rate I can pay you to paint, it would take a long time to get my house finished. It’s the perfect solution for both of us.”
The perfect solution.
Not quite.
“Got a job.” He spent his weekdays at the crematorium and a couple of nights a week hunting and tracking the Shirley Clan. She knew the first, he couldn’t tell her about the second.
“I know. Only during the day during the week, though, right?” She shrugged. “We can paint on the weekends. I’ll teach you to read after work. Unless...” Her lips pressed flat, making him want to run his thumb over them.
“Unless,” he prodded.
“Unless there’s somewhere you need to be after work.”
She had no idea.
“I wouldn’t want us spending all that time together and causing an issue with someone important in your life.”
What the fuck was she talking about? Who was she worried about causing issues with? His brothers?
“You could always ask her and get back to me.”
He frowned. “Her who?”
“The person who cooks for you. Why you weren’t hungry tonight.”
The sweet butts? She wasn’t making any sense.
Finally, her guarded expression broke when she bugged out her eyes at him. “Your girlfriend... or wife... or whatever.”
A slow grin grew across his face. She was digging, that was what she was doing.
He was used to being around women who were direct, not women who skirted around questions to get their answers. Any woman he knew would have just blurted out, “You fucking anyone?” and that would be that.
It was cute how she had gone about it.
What was also cute was the blush that shot from the V neckline of her baggy white shirt up her slender throat and into her cheeks. It made him want to release some of those buttons to see how far south it had spread.
“Don’t got a regular.”
Her brow dropped low and she gave her head a little shake. “A regular?”
“No woman,” he explained.
He did not miss the flash of relief crossing her face before she quickly hid it. “Ah... Okay... Well... That means I wouldn’t be taking you away from anyone... during our lessons... I mean.” She rolled her lips under and the blush in her cheeks became even darker.
“Chelle...”
“Yes?”
“Know how fuckin’ gorgeous you are?”
“Uh... I...” Her white teeth bit into her plump bottom lip and that was so fucking sexy. The sweet butts did it on purpose to tease the guys. Chelle did it without thinking about it.
“Know what? Like it that you don’t. Gorgeous, genuine and humble. Can’t fuckin’ beat that.”
“So...” She jutted out her hand. “Deal?”
He noticed the slight tremor of her extended hand. It wasn’t nerves. She wasn’t afraid of him. The tremble was caused by a rush of blood.
By her reaction to him.
She wanted him and she had no clue how much he wanted her. Even if she thought she knew, she’d be wrong.
His dick now pressed hard against the zipper of his jeans. He needed to adjust it. Or release it. He liked the second option best. He wasn’t sure Chelle would.
She might not be afraid of him, but she might be afraid of what was about to happen.
Because it would happen.
If not tonight, then soon.
He wrapped his hand around hers and before she could shake it, he tugged on it. With a little gasp, her weight landed in his lap, her ass crushing his erection. He wanted to squeeze those soft cheeks, separate them, explore them. Any way she’d allow.
Their faces were only inches apart now. Her breathing ragged. Her eyes—light brown with a hint of gold—held a bit of surprise.
He kept his grasp on her loose, so she could pull away or, hell, even run away if she felt the need.
He would never do anything to her if she wasn’t willing.
He’d lived that life. He’d never subject another person to the same.
In truth, that wasn’t a life, it was only an existence.
But the woman in his lap was more than existing.
She was warm and soft and smelled good. Really fucking good. It wasn’t perfume or soap or even paint he smelled.
He flared his nostrils and took his time inhaling, deeply filling his lungs with her.
Her mouth parted when she realized what he was doing. Picking up the unmistakable scent of her arousal. Which made him even harder.
A puff of air escaped her open lips when his dick flexed beneath her.
“Girls gone.” He slid the glasses from her face and, without looking, set them on the little table next to his chair. “No man.”
The man in the photo had to be out of the picture if her girls wanted her to date. And if she had another one, she would be saying it loudly and climbing out of his lap.
“Shawn.” The name she thought was his caught in her throat and he followed the rolling movement as she swallowed.
He leaned in and slid his nose up along the length of her neck, breathing her in. He touched the soft, warm skin at the edge of her jaw with the very tip of his tongue and drew it back down. The urge to sink his teeth into her, suck on that delicate skin, was strong but the raging pulse under his tongue helped him keep control.
Her racing heart was either due to her being scared of where this was going, or because she was highly aroused.
The unmistakable sweet, but musky, scent said the second.
But he needed to hear it from her before he took it any further.
“Chelle...” The way he said her name made it clear what he was asking, even without saying the actual words.
The only word needed to be heard would be from her. When she said yes.
He slid his palm from her knee over the stretchy black cotton that encased her thigh to the edge of where the heat radiated from her.
Where he wanted to bury himself deep, surround himself with that searing heat.
“We should keep this to our barter, right? I mean, it could get messy otherwise.”
This. She meant the two of them.
Disappointment surged through him. She was right. “Could get really fuckin’ messy.”
But when the fuck was life neat?
“Messy could be worth it,” was the last thing she said before grabbing his face and taking his mouth.
He figured that was a big fucking yes.
Her lips smashed against his and he waited for them to open, to invite him inside. He drew his tongue over the crease of her mouth, asking for entrance.
Her hands slid from his face into his hair and she gripped it tightly, opening her mouth with a groan. He met hers with one of his own.
His throbbing dick was caught crooked, but he ignored the discomfort, to explore her mouth. She tasted like beer, but then so did he. Her tongue tentatively touched his. Once, twice. Then they tussled.
With one hand on her ass, and the other on her jaw, he deepened the kiss, desperately wanting to flip her over, rip her leggings down and sink deep inside her.
In the place where he wanted to lose himself.
Maybe even find himself, too.
Find himself.
That thought made him break the kiss and pull back. They stared at each other and he wasn’t sure who looked more surprised as they both tried to catch their breath.