Page 20 of This Time Around
“You sure do have a type, don’t you?”
“Excuse me? Are we back to Simon again?”
“We never left Simon, Milo. You try to divert the topic with your fake outrage.”
“I don’tfakeanything, Andy. I didn’t like your tone that implied I let any swinging dick have a crack at my ass.”
“Just the swinging big ones.”
“The thing with Simon happened before you returned home.” His eyes narrowed suspiciously, which made me even madder, if that were possible. “It’s fine if you don’t believe me, Andy, but I find it amazing that you have the balls to be pissed about my sex life, or lack thereof. What about Mr. Wednesday night? Want to tell me who you’ve been fucking these past two years?” Andy grimaced and looked away. “People in this town talk, so yeah, I know all about it. You’re such a hypocrite. I’m out of here,” I said, pivoting on my heels. Although I’m not sure how I spoke at all with that lump of regret lodged in my throat.
“Here, take my flashlight.”
“Shove it up your ass.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket, slid my thumb up the screen, and clicked on the flashlight. “Got it covered.” My anger propelled me down the narrow, sketchy steps. When I rounded the landing, I stared at the bottom of the steps in shock. The door was closed, and I knew I’d left it open when I followed Andy up into the attic.
I didn’t panic until I reached the bottom step and twisted the knob. Nothing. It didn’t turn at all. “Fuck!” I yelled.
“What’s wrong?” Andy called down the steps.
“The damn door is stuck.”
“Why’d you shut it?” I heard the heavy sounds of Andy’s boots tromping down the steps.
“I didn’t shut it.” The narrow stairwell wasn’t wide enough for both of us, so I turned the knob and banged on the door with my fist. “Come on, you guys. This isn’t funny.”
“Move,” Andy said, nudging me out of the way when he reached the door. He tried to turn the doorknob and didn’t have any better luck than I did. Andy jerked and shoved the knob, hoping to break it loose, but it didn’t work. “That knob worked just fine when we came upstairs.”
“Well, fuck. I thought it would open beneath your magic touch,” I said sarcastically. “I didn’t think to try the doorknob.”
“That mouth of yours is going to get you in a lot of trouble, Milo.”
“With who?”
I might as well have waved a red blanket in front of a bull. I found myself pinned between the jammed door and an angry, sexy beast of a man. Andy cradled my head firmly but not painfully and smashed his lips against mine. This was an angry kiss hot enough to singe my perfect eyebrows. I dropped my phone and slid one hand in his hair while I snuck one beneath the hem of his shirt to touch the hot skin at the small of his back just above his toolbelt. It was the place I wanted to rest my heels and urge him to fuck me faster and deeper.
Andy’s hands were just as busy. One still held my neck while the other slid beneath the waistband of my jeans to tease my ass crack through my underwear. “We need less clothes,” Andy growled against my lips before he switched the angle of his mouth and came back in for more.
I was ready to push him onto the steps and—
The door suddenly opened behind me, and I tumbled backward. Somehow, Andy was able to pull his hand out of my pants and twist our bodies so that he was the one who landed hard on the floor, cushioning my fall.
“Oh, sorry,” Memphis said. “I thought when I heard you holler ‘fuck’ that you were in some kind of trouble, or maybe getting ready to kill each other. I didn’t know you were literally fucking.”
“We weren’t fucking,” Andy and I both said at the same time.Yet,was the word we left unspoken.
I reluctantly stood up and dusted myself off, while Andy got to his feet a little slower.
“How’d you open the door?” I asked Memphis.
“I twisted the knob.”
“Impossible,” Andy said in disbelief. “That doorknob wasn’t turning, which is how we got locked in when Milo shut the door.”
“I. Didn’t. Shut. The. Door.”
“Then how did it get shut? Magic? The ghost did it! Oh, wait! That was a mannequin.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”