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The rental carcompany had picked Jack up around lunchtime with a warm replacement and I hadn't seen him since. My dad came and went from the site, checking in and bringing me a thermos of hot coffee. He was completely retired, filling his time with tying flies for the fishing season six months away and driving my mother insane. In fact, she was the one who probably sent him with coffee in the first place. To get him out of her hair. Once I gave him the last payment on his part of the business, he'd be a carefree man. And I'd officially be a business owner. I couldn't wait. It got my hands working faster on the pipes under the kitchen sink.
My cell rang while I was lying on my back, looking up at the garbage disposal, by body halfway in the kitchen cabinet. I laid there and took the call.
“Have you finished your story yet?”
Goldie.
“No. Haven't started.”
I heard her huff. “Bring at least five pages when you come tomorrow night.”
I put the wrench I was using down. “Why? What's the big rush?”
“Because you're having sex with a man.”
I stared blindly up at the disposal trying to process Goldie's words. I wasn't going to tell her Jack had been messing with her—and me, but then she'd wonderwhyIwasn'thaving sex with Jack. That would be a long, and painful, discussion. I decided to evade instead. “As opposed to having sex with...”
“Don't sass me, young lady. That man's your muse. Go with it.”
She hung up. I stared at the cell for a moment, and then shook my head in disbelief.
Jack was my muse? I hadn't written a word. I hadn't had sex with him either. But Iwasthinking about a hundred hot things I wanted to do with him I hadn't considered before. There was the usual head-between-my-thighs scenario, but Jack bending me over the side of the bed and using the paddle on my ass—gently—came to mind. So did the cock ring and how I could tease him, with my mouth. Maybe he was my muse. And maybe I was kinky after all.
Two hours later, I wrapped up for the day. My fingers were cold and I was pretty much done. I had to wait for the inspector to do his inspecting and approving before the final touches. I locked the front door, drove to Violet's, and lingered under the hot shower until I thawed out.
The light was blinking on my cell indicating a missed call. I listened to the message from Violet. “Hi! It's me. Jack Reid? Wow. You honestly didn't think I'd slept with him, did you? I was just mad that you got a stain on that hot pink blouse I'd just bought at the mall with Suzie Fisher.”
My eyes bulged out of my head. Lying about sleeping with the boy you had a crush on was not on the same level as ruining a shirt. I felt my blood pressure skyrocket.
“He must be sooo hot now. He always had a thing for you.” She sounded bitter. “Wouldn't give me the time of day. Strange. Do me a favor, will you? It's Chris Sprague's turn to watch the snake. Can you load Jasper up and drop him off for me? He lives at 1503 S. Blake. Anytime after nine tomorrow morning. Thanks!”
The stupid snake. I was like Indiana Jones. I hated snakes. Violet's first grade class had a pet snake, but it was currently living in Violet's house. She didn't mind snakes at all. But since she was away, it needed tending by someone who would give it dead mice, take it out of the terrarium, and clean out the snake poop. It wasn't me. Not for a million dollars. Why it wasn’t actuallyatschool was still not known to me. But Chris Sprague, a second-grade teacher at the same school, had offered to take it. Finally. He was Mr. Snake. Just walking past the terrarium in Violet's living room gave me the creeps.
I deleted her message and tossed the phone onto the couch. I always knew she’d been spawned from the devil to torture my life. To keep me away from Jack Reid for ten years. Ten! The average person had a sibling who drove them insane. The devil had it in for me personally by cloning me instead.
12
“I think we need to reevaluate the whole pillow down the middle of the bed arrangement,” Jack said.
We stood in Violet's kitchen eating take-out pizza. I choked on my bite of veggie deluxe. “The pillow berm?”
Jack eyed me and, while chewing, said, “Mmm.” He swallowed, and then added, “We don't really need it anymore, do we? I don't hate your guts anymore.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don't hate your guts anymore either.”
Jack raised his hands, palms up. “See? We can move on to make-up sex. I know you want it. You went on the offensive last night and took out the pillow blockade.”
I took a sip of soda trying to cool my lusty thoughts about how his body had felt beneath mine when I woke up this morning. Pretty damned good. The only way it would have been better was if we’d been naked. “How much doyouwant to?”
“Have make-up sex?” Jack had a hip against the counter. He wore dark corduroys and a long-sleeved T-shirt with a graphic of marlin fishing on it. “More than you can imagine.”
I was imagining it pretty darned well.
“With the pillows gone, is it sleeping in a bed with me or sleeping with me?”
“The non-sleeping version of sleeping with you.”
Heat flared low in my belly. “Why?”
