Page 23

Sierra

“ Y ou are going to leave me alone in your bedroom?” He moves away from me, and I want to watch him, but I force myself to focus on what I’m doing in front of me.

“I might snoop.” He steps closer to me, his front very close to my side, and I try to ignore his smell that is now filling my senses.

I look down at the cutting board with the potatoes waiting to be cut, but I know with one touch from him, I’ll forget it all.

“I might even try to find something that is purple.”

I look over at him, his eyes light from joking with me. “I threw it away,” I lie to him.

“You are lying.” He tilts his head to the side and kisses my lips softly before turning back. “When you lie, you hold your breath after you say the lie.”

I gasp, “I do not.” I turn to face him as he walks over to the stove, putting the pan on it before looking for the oil. He finds it and puts it beside the pan before coming back to me and standing toe to toe with me.

“Do you want to go out on a date with me?” he asks. My heart soars in my chest, yelling, Yes!

“No,” I refuse and breathe out heavily from my nose. “See?—”

“Saturday,” he presses, and I shake my head.

“I literally told you five seconds ago that I am not going to date you.”

“Yeah, but you were fibbing.” I roll my eyes at him as he walks over to the stove, and I don’t bother answering him because I was fibbing.

I finish making the potatoes and go to the pantry to take out the air fryer. Seasoning the potatoes as he works with the chicken on the stove, I grab the beer when I start the air fryer and my work is done. I watch him with the chicken. “It smells good,” my dumb mouth says before I can stop it.

“Wait until you taste it.” He looks over his shoulder at me, a smirk on his face.

I look over to the side until I can feel him look back at the pan.

I turn back and watch his ass, and I can see myself gripping it in my hand and digging my nails into it.

“What are you thinking about right now?” His words break into my thoughts, and I shake my head. “Whatever it is, your cheeks got pink.”

“I was thinking about how I could make you cook for me and kick you out before we eat so I get it all to myself.” He laughs. “Just going through different scenarios in my head.” I bring the bottle to my mouth so he doesn’t see I did, in fact, stop fucking breathing as soon as I said the lie.

I move around the kitchen, setting up two place settings at the island while he cooks lemon chicken.

We sit side by side as I cut into the chicken with a lemon butter sauce.

The minute it touches my tongue, I reach out and grab his forearm and moan.

The tart from the lemon with the richness of the butter is amazing.

“This is really good.” I smirk over at him as I check the chicken.

“Not as good as the make-out session we are going to have after this.” He leans over and kisses my cheek before going back to his chicken. “After I see your whiteboard.” He sits up straight. “Wait, was that code for ‘I want you to come to my bedroom and have your way with me’?”

I throw my fork down. “How did you know?” I push my stool away from the island. “Should I go up there and get ready for you to mount me?” The minute I say the words, his face grimaces.

“Never say mount me again”—he shakes his head and closes his eyes—“unless I’m on my back and holding my cock up for you, then you can climb aboard.”

I take a deep breath to pretend that his words irritate me, but I swear my vagina convulses thinking of him naked on the bed, holding his cock.

The images go over in my head like a movie.

I pick up my fork to avoid looking at him, scared he’ll see my cheeks are really pink because all I can see is him naked in my head.

“So you went to visit home?” I ask him, taking my glass of wine and bringing it to my mouth to change the subject.

“Yup.” He nods his head. “Went to show my parents that I’m still alive and healthy.”

I laugh. “So why did you move away?”

He looks over at me. “Um.”

“Is that too deep of a question?” I push him.

“Okay, let’s start slow. What really happened with your ex?

I know that story you told me before was just sugarcoated, so tell me the real reason.

” I ask him and he doesn’t answer me, and I gasp.

“Oh my God, is that why you moved here? Did you find her with your best friend?” I put my hand on his arm. “Did she say it’s not you it’s her?”

He laughs. “No, it was really nothing like that.” The minute he says that, my stomach tightens. “We were high school sweethearts.”

“Aww,” I say, “and then she dumped you.” He glares. “Okay, okay, fine, tell me the story.”

“Not really much to tell. I was captain of the football team.”

I gasp. “You played football?”

He nods. “I did. I got a scholarship and everything.” He tries to make it seem like it’s not a big deal but something in his voice pulls at my heartstrings.

“No way?” I shake my head and smile.

“Yeah.”

“Were you good?”

He laughs. “I was until I wasn’t and it’s just the way things go.” His voice gets soft. “Went back home and I guess you can say that I settled.” He looks at me. “Or at least that is what Amber kept constantly telling me.”

“And do you think you did?” I ask him, turning to look down at my plate, moving around the food. Not really sure I want to know.

“I don’t really. I had just gotten letdown from not playing football, not that it was my dream, but I thought I could have at least made it into the pros.

Then I was home and I had a business degree and my dad told me to help him.

Try and take over for him. Maybe this is where I would have always ended up.

I guess we will never know. But when she finally resolved to the fact that this is what I was going to do, then she started harping on getting married.

She probably didn’t even want to actually get married; she was just following the lead of all of her sorority sisters.

I”—he shrugs—“I just couldn’t see forever with her and I knew that I would only be getting married once. So.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat as I try not to make it sound that I feel sorry for him. “Hey, at least you had a backup plan.”

“Not sure it was my backup plan,” he admits, leaning back, “but I went with it.”

“So how did you end up here?”

“Ms. Maddie’s called in. I took the call, came here, and I don’t know. I got a sense of my own person.” He looks over at me. “It’s not the best feeling in the world when you’re taking over for your father and people are constantly comparing you to him. He’s the best. But.”

“I get it.” I take a sip of wine.

“So,” he says, “what about you? No boyfriend waiting for you at home?”

I snort. “Nope. The only thing waiting for me at home is two loving parents.” I trail my voice, not sure what to say. “I feel really guilty.”

“For what?” he asks me, and for the first time I admit it to him, to anyone besides me.

“I have these two amazing parents who love me and would die for me.” I swallow the lump, not thinking this is where the conversation would have taken.

“And here I am searching for two people who just dumped me in a box.” I try and smile at him to make it as a joke and his hand comes up and holds my face.

“Looks like we both came here looking for something.” He leans over and kisses my lips softly.

“What does your week look like?” He reaches for his glass of water, taking a sip and changing the subject.

“I have one client I have to finish for sure. I’ve already pushed her off once when I was moving.” I cut my own piece of chicken. “Then I want to go to the sheriff's station.” He looks over at me.

“For?”

“I want to know if they will share their files with me.”

“Baby,” he says softly, “it’s a twenty-five-year-old cold case. I don’t even think they have the file.”

“Well, I’ll find out.” I look over at him.

“Okay, fine, I’ll go with you.”

“What?” I ask him. “Why?”

“Because I want to,” he states, finishing his chicken. “Just tell me when you are going.”

“I don’t think that is a good idea.”

“And I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go to the sheriff, who from what I’ve heard?—”

“You mean town gossip.” I finish my last bite.

“Whatever the fuck you want to call it. You are not going there by yourself, and if I find out you did, I’m going to turn you over my fucking knee”—I gasp—“and not in the good way either.”

“You did not just say that to me,” I accuse him, shocked.

He pushes away from the island. “Oh, I did, baby.” He grabs his plate.

“Now, we have to get this cleaned up, and then I have to take you upstairs”—he puts his plate in the big deep sink—“and look at your whiteboard.” He uses quotation marks when he says it.

“Then I’m going to make out with you. Then I have to get home.

We start the barn project tomorrow, so I have to be there bright and early.

Emmett is going to be a pain in my ass.” I’m about to say something when he holds up his hand.

“If you mention me dating Lilah one more time…”

“I’m just saying, maybe he’s not keen on the fact you dated her either.” I grab my own dish.

“I kissed her once.” The thought makes the back of my neck heat.

“I know.” I put my plate in the sink on top of his. He steps forward and his hand grabs my hip. “Also, you kissed her twice.”

“And it was nothing like our kisses.” He pulls me to him.

“With you, I kiss you and I never want to stop. I walk into the room, and I see you, and the only thing I can think is, when am I going to get to kiss you? Fuck, I look at you and all I want to do is be next to you.” I swallow down the lump that has somehow moved up from my stomach.

“Think about that the next time you compare yourself to Lilah.”

“I’m not comparing myself to Lilah,” I defend myself.

“Good, you shouldn’t since you would win every single time.

” He bends his head and kisses me. I think it’s going to be a soft kiss, and that is how it starts out.

Then his tongue slips out of his mouth and touches my lips, and my mouth immediately opens for him.

His tongue rolls with mine as my body melts into his.

“If you don’t move away from me, I’m going to forget about cleaning up this kitchen. ”

“I don’t know if I would be mad if we did that.” I wrap my arms around his neck.

“Baby, you just got this kitchen. It’ll take twenty minutes to clean it up.” He looks around. “If you want, you can watch me and think about things I’m going to do to you with my tongue.”

“You can’t say things like that,” I groan. “What if I get up after you leave and clean up?”

“Who says I’m leaving? Maybe I changed my mind and I’m staying.” I swallow when he says those words. “We aren’t going to be having sex until I take you on a proper date, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sleep over.”

“Who says I’m going to go on a date with you?”

“Baby,” he states softly, “Saturday night, you are going to get dressed up. I’m going to take you out to have dinner. I’m going to wine you and dine you, and then”—his voice goes lower—“then I’m going to bring you home and fuck the ever-loving shit out of you.”

“Fine.” I try not to smile. “If you put it like that, I’ll go out with you.”

He laughs. “Good. Now, are you going to let me clean the kitchen?”

“Ugh.” I push away from him. “You were the one holding on to me and not the other way around.”

“You always sass me.” He shakes his head, walking to the stove and grabbing the pot. “I might have to think about ways to fill your mouth.”

“Caleb,” I snap his name out and stomp my foot, “do you want me to clean up the kitchen naked?”

“No,” he retorts, and I take a step back, sort of insulted, “you don’t have any curtains in this fucking house, and it’s nighttime, and the lights are on.

Everyone can see inside. Order fucking curtains, and then you can do it naked.

If I can make a request, I’d like for you to do it naked and bending over.

With your ass to me or your face, either works fine with me.

” I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

I open it, close it, and then open it again.

The only thing I can do is turn and stomp away from him.

“I’ll be up in ten!” he shouts from the kitchen, and I shake my head, wondering if maybe I can slam the door and lock him out.

Then knowing I want to make out with him more than I want to prove a point.

I’m washing my hands when, ten minutes later, he comes up, his boots off, his head bent, and he’s rubbing the back of his neck. “Hey,” he says, walking right past me and toward my closet.

I follow him and watch him with his hands on his hips. “We can do some research during the week if you want.” He looks over at me.

“You would do that?”

“One, I get to spend time with you, so I’ll do just about anything, and two, I’m invested in this, so yeah, I’ll do it.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll make out with you,” I joke with him, but he stalks to me, wrapping his arm around my waist and picking me up off my feet while he takes me back to my bed. The two of us land on our sides while he attacks my mouth.

We spend most of the night making out. Fuck, his kisses, I’m pretty sure they can solve all my problems or at least a certain amount of them.

He gets up at eleven. “I’m going to head home.

” I sit up on the bed. My shirt is halfway up from when he was feeling me up, the most he did was feel me up.

Neither of us cross that line to get each other naked.

“I’ll close the door behind me.” He looks down at me. “And I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Okay,” I reply as he bends to kiss me again. I watch him walk to the bedroom door, grabbing his boots and slipping them on before walking out with a smooth wave before the front door slams shut. I collapse back on the bed, smelling him all over me and wanting him to come back and spend the night.

I’m thinking about doing that when the phone rings and I have to rush over to my desk to get it, seeing it’s him. “Hello,” I answer, putting the phone to my ear.

“Hey, baby, do you miss me yet?” he asks, his voice smooth, and it makes me shiver.

“No.” I walk back over to the bed and fold my leg and sit on it at the edge.

“Well, I miss you.”

“Is that why you were calling?” I lie back on the bed.

“No, I was calling to thank you for an amazing night, and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”

“Am I seeing you tomorrow?” I smile, knowing he can’t see me.

I turn on my side, looking out the window. “You bet that sweet ass of yours you will be seeing me tomorrow.”

I can’t help but silently laugh. “We’ll see about that,” I say before I hang up on him and burst out laughing when his text comes through.

Caleb: Oh, we’ll see all right.