Man Candy, page 17
It was accurate, but what did Scott actually tell her? Was he spouting romance stories better than Lindy? “It does matter. I’m not with her for this contract.”
“Fine. Whatever you say. Still, a stroke of genius.”
I frowned, wondering if I liked him being my agent. He was mercenary and this deal made him a shit ton of money. I wouldn’t put it past him to pay Lindy’s neighbor to drop his dead tree on her house just to get us together. Hell, Mallory might even do it.
“Send the contract to me and my lawyer to review,” I told him.
“Will do. You’ll get it after Vegas this weekend.”
“Vegas? I’m in Montana.” I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. No skyscrapers. No car horns or millions of people. Fuck, I really liked it in Hunter Valley.
“There was an opening at the golf invitational. Players from all sports playing for their favorite charities.”
“This weekend? I just got back last night.”
“So? You travel like this all season.”
“It’s off season.”
“It’s for charity,” he countered, knowing that would get me to Nevada more than any other reason. “Guaranteed donation. If you win, or place, even more.”
Fuck.
He knew how to snag me. I loved opportunities to get money to my charity of choice. This was definitely one. A sports star-studded weekend in Vegas and money went to those in need. I couldn’t turn it down.
He knew it.
“Okay. Fine.”
“I’ll get you booked out on Friday.”
I stood, scratched my balls and headed to the shower. “I’ll get there on my own.”
Now I had to tell Lindy I was leaving again.
36
LINDY
* * *
I had to admit, Mav got shit done. Maybe it was his size that intimidated people into getting stuff done. Or maybe it was his money that moved things along. Maybe it was both or neither. Whatever.
I didn’t really care because the tree was long gone, and the house was enclosed. The roof and exterior walls were fixed. I’d left work to check it out.
Standing in the backyard, I could see the hole was gone in the roof and the shingles were on. The replaced section of siding was up, but it hadn’t been painted yet. Replacement windows were installed in my bedroom and kitchen.
I went inside through the back door. The kitchen stove was missing, and the table and chairs were still in the living room. I went up the steps. The hall ceiling still had a hole, and I could see where a truss needed to be replaced in the attic. In my bedroom, the new mattress had been delivered. The interior walls needed insulation and drywall and the hole in the floor between my bedroom and the kitchen below was covered with a piece of plywood.
Still, it was a major difference. Repairs would continue, but I could now live in the house.
I dropped onto the mattress, tags still attached. The house was quiet. No chainsaws. Just the familiar scent and stillness that I’d known my entire life.
When Bixby called me at the office to give me my daily update, I was thrilled. Then… not thrilled. The only time I hadn’t lived in that house was when I was at college. Even then, I came home often on the weekends and every summer.
This place was my home. Where I’d grown up with my parents. Where I’d raised Bridget.
But I spent over a week with Dex. Or at least in Dex’s house. My ordered life shifted. I still had my list, but new things were added. I liked the new things. A lot. Like sex. I even laughed at myself thinking a stupid pillow berm was going to keep us apart.
I glanced around, took in pale yellow paint color. It had taken me two years to take over the master bedroom after my parents died, stripping off their blue striped wallpaper and painting. That transition had been hard.
But moving in with Dex, once I gave in to being with him, hadn’t been. The way he got home from his trip, climbed in bed and greeted me last night, I wanted him to do that every night. God, that had been hot.
That reminded me to collect some things. More nighties, which he strangely loved so much. I smiled, wondering which one I’d wear tonight. I opened the closet door, and something leaped out at me.
I screamed.
37
DEX
* * *
Lindy was late. She was never late. While I didn’t have too much data to trend since she’d only been in my house six days before I left for the exhibition game, I knew she was a stickler for routine. And it was five-thirty, and she wasn’t back.
I wasn’t worried. She said she could take care of herself and I knew it. This was Hunter Valley. The most exciting thing that had happened around here was a tree falling on a house.
And me.
And both happened to Lindy. So if something was going to go sideways, I believed it might happen to her.
More importantly, I missed her. I didn’t wake up to my head between her thighs as I’d hoped. I’d had to rub one out in the shower so my dick went down.
I was at the winter complex between two practice sessions and staring at my phone.
No texts, no calls.
Fuck, I was whipped.
I set the phone back in my bag and turned back to the ice.
It rang.
I spun back, snagged it up and couldn’t help the grin as I saw Sugar appear on the screen.
Totally whipped.
“I was just thinking about you.”
“Dex, oh my God.”
Her voice was shrill and shaky.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, gripping the phone.
“I was attacked. I–”
I jolted and spun in a circle, then dropped onto the bench and tugged at the laces of one of my skates.
“Are you okay? Is he still there? Where are you?” I got one skate off and moved onto the next. I could run in skates, but I sure as shit couldn’t drive in them. Well, maybe I could.
“No. I, God. I’m okay. It was…” She laughed. “God, Dex, I was just attacked by a squirrel.”
I stilled, bent over and my fingers tangled in the laces.
“Say what?”
“I was attacked by a squirrel. It was in my closet, and I opened the door to get some more of the nighties you like and I guess it came in through one of the holes in the house and it got in my closet and one of the workers shut the door and then when I opened it–”
“Whoa, sugar, take a breath.”
I needed one too. Holy shit, my adrenaline was pumping harder than when I scored the winning goal for the championship.
I could hear her breathing hard. “I’m sorry. God, it scared the shit out of me.”
“You’re not the only one. Wait. Are you hurt? Did it bite you? Is it still in the house?”
“I’m fine. Really. I just got scratched. It bounced off my legs and I’m wearing pants today, but it jumped onto my arm which is bare, before launching itself across the room, I have little claw marks.”
Claw marks? I huffed out a laugh and ran a hand down my face.
“Okay. You’re at your house now?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t move. And don’t open any more doors.”
38
DEX
* * *
“When you said I should take some time off and come hang out with you and meet Lindy, this wasn’t the way I expected.”
I stood, feet spread, arms over my chest, as Theo dabbed antibiotic ointment on the thin cuts on Lindy’s arm. I didn’t like seeing anyone else touching my woman, especially my brother.
But his gaze held zero interest, only bewilderment and amusement.
In my panic, I’d called Theo from the car as I raced from the rink to Lindy’s house. He texted when he got to town, but I’d been in Finland. We hadn’t caught up since I’d been back and fortunately he was still here hanging with Mav. He must’ve had more punch cards saved up than I expected. The conversation had been–looking back–a little ridiculous.
“Lindy might have the plague,” I told him, turning out of the parking lot almost on two wheels.
“Sexual plague or just the flu?”
“What?” I shouted, gunning it through a yellow light. “What the hell is a sexual plague?”
He didn’t answer, but instead said, “So the flu then. I haven’t heard of many cases lately, but I don’t follow Montana’s health department reports.”
“What? No, she doesn’t have the flu. I mean the actual plague.”
“Are you drunk?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck, Theo. Get to Lindy’s house. I’m driving there now.”
I slammed on my brakes and honked my horn at a car that cut me off.
“Because she might have the plague,” he repeated, as if saying it again would make me realize I meant plaque. But her fucking dentist date could take care of that, not Theo.
“Yes!” I yelled, death gripping the steering wheel. I was losing my mind. “She needs medical help.”
“The plague.”
“How many times are you going to say that?”
“Once more. The plague? It’s not 1350. Why the hell do you think she has the plague?”
“She was attacked by a squirrel.”
“Say that again.”
“A squirrel. They carry the plague, don’t they?”
He paused. “It’s possible. Around here, Yersinia pestis is more likely in prairie dogs.”
Had it been a prairie dog in her closet? Fuck!
“She said it was a squirrel, but maybe she didn’t see it right. Maybe it was a prairie dog in her closet.”
“Her closet.”
“Are you a doctor or a parrot? Get to Lindy’s house. Stat, or whatever you doctors say.”
Mav hovered beside me, watching with less concern and more amusement. Theo had been with him and Bridget and they’d all driven over together. Stat.
Bridget was on the arm of the couch since the coffee table was still turned over the main part of it, wiping her eyes because she’d been laughing so hard.
“I’m fine, Dex,” Lindy said, reaching out and taking my hand in a motherly squeeze.
“You can see the fucker’s little nail marks,” I said, pointing to her forearm and biceps. Four little red lines cut along her skin.
“They’re called scratches,” Theo clarified in his usual deadpan voice. “You watched me clean them with soap and water and this antibiotic ointment will help.”
“Help? Why would it need to help?”
Theo glanced at Lindy. “You sure you want this one? I think he got hit by a slapshot or two in Finland.”
Lindy squeezed my hand again. Sighed. “Now that the exterior’s closed up, I was going to stay here. But I know what I don’t want as a roommate. A squirrel.”
What the fuck? She was going to move out of my little rental? Why? When did she decide this? Why didn’t we talk about it?
“You’re staying with me until it’s found,” I said, putting my proverbial foot down. I didn’t give a shit about a fucking squirrel, but he was my new best friend for giving her a reason not to come back to her house. I’d make him a little nest. Track down some acorns and shit. He could move his furry ass right on in if that kept Lindy out.
And scratch free.
“The front and back doors are open,” Mav said, pointing to the front door. “The little guy will run out on his own.”
“She can’t keep the doors open all night! A bear could walk in. Mountain lion. Raccoon.”
“It’s good you know your Montana wildlife,” Bridget said, amusement lacing her words.
“I’ll stay here,” Theo offered, probably so I didn’t stroke out on him. He screwed the top on the little tube of ointment and glanced at Mav, then Bridget. “I’ll chance a squirrel attack over listening to you two for another night.”
Bridget laughed some more. Mav puffed his chest out but said nothing.
“Good. It’s settled,” I said with a slash of my hand through the air.
Was I being irrational? Yes.
Did I care? No.
“Theo will stay here, ensure the squirrel is gone and no others move in. You’re with me.” I took Lindy’s hand, tugged her to her feet and out the open door, laughter following us.
Five minutes later–I broke just as many traffic laws as I did earlier–I had Lindy in my house, the door closed and her bent over the kitchen table.
“Dex!” she cried as I worked her pants and panties down.
I got my jeans open and dick out, pumped it once, eyeing her perfect, upturned ass.
“I need in you, sugar. I aged ten years when you called.” I kicked her legs apart, then slapped my hand on the table beside her head. This was the position she was in when I spanked her the week before.
“It was a squirrel!” she cried.
I spanked her. “You were bad.”
“Dex, I’m oka–”
I slammed into her. Growled. Fuck, she felt so fucking good. “Mine. You were going to move out.”
“Dex,” she hissed.
I pulled back, rolled my hips and fucked her deep.
I spanked her again. She moaned and squirmed as much as she could pinned to the dining table.
“You weren’t going to tell me.”
“My house is fixed,” she cried.
“It’s infested.”
“One squirrel.”
“You wouldn’t get this though.” I rolled my hips, shifted so the angle took me even deeper.
We were arguing and fucking. I’d never done them at the same time before, but I knew I was going to win. Because when my dick was deep inside Lindy, she was compliant. If that made me a caveman, I didn’t care.
In. Out. I wasn’t gentle. But she didn’t want gentle, and I couldn’t give it to her right now. I was fucking frantic that she would just up and go.
“Dex.” This time when she said my name, it was on a breathy whimper because I reached around, found her clit and pinched it.
“Bad girls get fucked hard and fast. They come that way too.”
She was so wet it coated my fingers as I worked her clit. That one pinch was followed by a little tug and just as I expected, she came.
Screamed.
She was milking my dick so hard, as if her pussy wanted me to stay as deep as possible.
Which reminded me I forgot a condom. Again. I pulled out, stroked myself, which was slick from her arousal, and made myself come. It spurted all over her upturned ass. Marked her.
“Stay with me.”
Lindy didn’t move from her bent over position but turned her head to meet my gaze with her own blurry one.
“Okay.”
I wasn’t sure if she really was afraid of a rodent or if she wanted to be here with me.
Leaning down, I kissed her. Sweet and gentle, completely opposite of how I just took her.
I didn’t care what the reason was. It didn’t matter. I was too far gone with this woman for it to make a difference. I just yanked her out of her own house to get her alone to fuck her bent over a table. I just knew–from being in fucking Finland–that I was going to be leaving in a few weeks. Hell, in two days for Vegas.
Not even a squirrel attack–or love–could keep me.
39
LINDY
* * *
After having sex on Dex’s dinette, I spent the rest of the night working on my story. My little claw shaped scratches didn’t hurt, but whenever Dex saw them, he glared. I pitied any squirrel that got near him in the future.
This time when Dex read the same paperback sprawled on the couch, I wasn’t panicked.
He knew the truth and didn’t really seem to care. All he did was ask how it was going every once in a while and set a can of seltzer on the table beside me. He didn’t try to look at the screen, only pretended to once with a wink. He wasn’t prying or teasing or anything.
He made it out to be… normal.
That was why it took me a little bit to get into the words, but I did. And eventually, I stopped.
“I’m done.”
Dex looked up from his book. “Good. I can’t wait to see what nightie you wear tonight.”
I gave him a goofy smile. “You know I don’t wear a different one every single night. I do run out and repeat.”
“What’s a big hockey contract good for if it can’t buy you an endless supply of nighties?”
“Dex,” I said on a sigh. My cheeks flushed because he was praising me. And my sleepwear.
But the word endless meant this wasn’t going to stop. And it was.
I pushed that thought to the side because I was living in the here and now.
“No, I mean, the book’s done. I finished.”
“Fuck, yes,” he said, hopping to his feet and giving me a huge smile. “Way to go, sugar.”
I grinned. It felt good. Really good.
He clapped his hands together. “Let’s celebrate.”
Now I really grinned. “What did you have in mind?”
“Vegas.”
I blinked. “Vegas?”
“Hell, yes. I’m going this weekend for a charity golf tournament, and you should come with me.”
I laughed. “I thought you wanted to do something fun and different in bed. I wasn’t expecting Vegas.”
His eyes narrowed and he tipped my chin up. Kissed me. “We’re totally going to do something fun and different in bed. But we’re also going to Vegas.”
“When were you going to tell me about this trip?”
“I only found out about it this morning. My agent signed me up. There was an opening.”
“You have to go?”
“It’s to raise money for a bunch of charities. Each participant has one they play for If I go, my own charity gets a bunch of it.”
“Your own charity?” He had a charity? I had a set of glasses from Dairy Queen.
He nodded and told me about the programs for kids, connecting them with safe places that were enriching, through educational support and sports offerings.
He shared the amount he’d get for showing up–not even if he won the event–and I was a little stunned. Not because he was so philanthropic, which he seemed to be, but the amount of money a simple golf tournament would shell out. “That’s a lot of sports gear for kids.”
