“No. I’m going to wait for Clark.”
He nodded, and was in his truck before I even had a chance to wonder what the hell had just happened.
I heard the porch door bang open and looked up to see Clark barreling down the steps. Still not meeting my eyes, he grabbed the other half and started to head back in. “Hey, wait, let me get the door for you,” I said, trying to get there before he did.
But that’s not how Clark rolled. Holding the bottom half under his left arm, he held the door open for me. Still looking at the ground, but holding the door open. For me.
I was no fool. I let him. He followed me inside, and when I went left to the living room, he again headed upstairs. It was stuffy inside from being closed up while I was away, and I busied myself opening windows and shoving aside curtains. When I heard him coming down the steps, I turned to face him.
His tie was tied neatly, hair once more parted and neatly combed. The color had come back to his cheeks, and as he pushed his glasses up on his nose I smiled at him, relieved to see that he was okay.
“Vivian, my understanding is that the contractor will be here to begin reviewing the work orders on Friday. Is that still correct?”
My smile fell. “Um, yes. As far as I know, but—”
“And your friend Caroline is also due back this weekend, yes?”
“Yes,” I answered frowning at him slightly.
“Very good. I left a few notes for you on some of the changes you want to make; please review them before Friday so we can discuss.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Friday. It comes after Thursday, which comes after Wednesday, which is preceded by—”
“Clark, stop,” I interrupted. “Are we back to this? Listen, I know what happened back there wasn’t—”
“Please review the notes before I come back on Friday,” he said curtly, and started for the back door.
“Wait, just wait a minute,” I said, hurrying to keep up with him. He paused before the door, silhouetted by the setting sun. “I’m not going to see you until Friday?”
“I’m very busy, Vivian, and I’ve spent enough time on this project already. Please make sure you’ve gone through those notes.” He headed out through the door, stopping when he was at the bottom of the steps. Turning back just slightly, but still not meeting my eyes, he said, “It’s going to rain later this week. I noticed while you were gone that the tarp had come loose on the southwest corner, so I took care of it. You shouldn’t have any trouble.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
He finally turned back and met my eyes, and I was crushed by the coldness in them. He acknowledged me with a nod, then left.
That night I slept with the knight on guard once more. The chilly ocean wind buffeted the house on all sides, but inside, it was warm.
Well, the house was.
I wasn’t.
chapter thirteen
I looked at the calendar that week more than I did my senior year of high school counting down to the last day of school. I was planning Caroline’s visit and getting things ready for the contractor to arrive, making sure I had as much done as I could before the real work started.
I missed Clark. I missed the shit out of him. I was used to him being there, telling me interesting factoids and bits of trivia. Used to him challenging me on everything from the proper way to save photographs to why a properly working fireplace is essential to life as we know it. I was used to his neatly parted hair, his dusty eyeglasses, and his low chuckle when something I did truly tickled him.
I missed his phone calls. I missed the insight into the man behind the tweed, the man who was interested in more than memorabilia and historical significance. I missed the innuendo after he had a Scotch or two and the delicious way his deep voice slid over me. I missed Nighttime Clark a lot.
But Nighttime Clark didn’t call.
I finally started cleaning out Aunt Maude’s bedroom, the last one to be done. I let the knight keep watch from the hall while I began to declutter, starting with the bowling balls down the center of the bed. I put fresh sheets on, along with a new duvet I’d picked up in town. I cleared out clothes, clutter, and stacks of old mail.
But her closet yielded a fascinating windfall. Buried behind an old chest of drawers, in the deepest part of the closet, was another trove of paintings. I dragged the entire stack out into the late afternoon light and went through them one at a time.
These were not landscapes. They were of a decidedly more intimate nature. Sensual, erotic, beautiful, in fact. The faces were mostly suggested rather than shown clearly, but the one or two that did include features showed that the woman involved was Aunt Maude, and the man was . . . No.
“Mr. Montgomery?” I whispered, a violent blush erupting across my face.
Good God damn, this house has seen some funky shit go down. And speaking of going down, please see painting number seventeen. The real eyebrow raiser was painting number eighteen, but my viewing was interrupted by a knock on the front door. For a second my heart began to beat faster in anticipation, until I remembered I’d asked Jessica to help me hang curtains today.
“So tell me all the latest gossip. What’s going on with Hunky Hank the cowboy man?” she asked, settling into a rocking chair on the back porch, cold beer in her hand.
I sat down next to her, rolled my eyes at her comment, but offered her a clinking cheers.
“What? Romance novel not quite working out as you’d planned it?”
“No comment,” I answered through my smile.
“He doesn’t want to saddle up and ride?” she teased, making me laugh in spite of myself.
I thought of the offer he’d made about the bareback and the riding and the everything else. At the time, I’d thought it was exactly what I wanted. I mean, he was the ideal, right?
“All is going according to plan.” I sipped my beer.
“I see.” We rocked a few times. “You sure about that?”
“Nosy bitch.”
“Friendly bitch—there’s a difference.”
“It’s a fine line you walk there.”
“The finest,” she agreed.
We sipped and rocked some more.
“So this plan of yours. You think that Clark—”
“Jessica? I’m going to need you to drop it, ’kay?”
“ ’Kay.”
She did. For exactly seven seconds.
“Can I just say one thing?”
I had to laugh. “One thing. Better make it count.”
When it came, it was not what I was expecting.
“Okay. Here’s my one thing. You think you’re living in a romance novel, right?”
“Well, shit, when you put it that way it sounds ridiculous.”
“Answer please,” she said, looking at me carefully.
“Okay, yes. I admit it. I think I’m living in a romance novel. Go ahead and laugh,” I said, rocking a little faster.
“I’m not going to laugh. Because I totally believe you,” she said, drinking nonchalantly.
I waited for her to finish, and then grimaced when she didn’t. “Okay, ha-ha. What’s your actual point?”
“Already made it.”
“But wait wait wait—you believe me?”
“Sure do,” she said, clinking my beer again.
“Elaborate please,” I said, feeling a bit uneasy.
“Don’t need to. I agree with you.”
“Oh come on, you do not!” I protested.
“Are you this aggressive with all people who agree with you?” She laughed, staring off into the sunset. “We’re supposed to get rain later this week, but it sure doesn’t look like it right now. Smooth sailing today,” she said, changing the subject.
She looked relaxed as she rocked away. I finished my beer, deci
dedly unrelaxed.
That night when I went up to bed, I looked at my calendar. Tomorrow was Friday. Caroline was coming. The contractor was coming. And the librarian was coming. I shivered under the covers. It must be really cold tonight . . .
But I couldn’t fool myself anymore. And I’d always been able to do that.
I woke with a start, covered in sweat, so completely turned on that I could barely stand even the touch of the sheets on my skin. I kicked them toward the bottom.
I’d had such a vivid dream, which started the same way it always did. Standing in the doorway, a man approaching me from behind, not sure he was there until I could hear his footsteps on the wood floor. My skin buzzed, feeling how very near this man, this dark lover was, standing now just behind me.
He pressed his nose just below my ear, making me arch into what I hoped was him, but was only empty air. But he was still there, his lips now grazing the same skin, whispering into my ear my name. “Vivian. Sweet, sweet Vivian,” he said, a voice so very deep. Deep, like I was longing for him to be inside of me, filling me up with hot, frantic love.
“How long have you been waiting for me? Mmm, your skin is intoxicating. I wonder if your taste will be as sweet as your scent? he murmured, now letting me feel the entirety of his body, molding me to him. Hard, so very hard, and not just the planes of his chest and the iron of his thighs. He was hard for me. Against me, and hopefully soon, finally inside me. I struggled to turn, to see, to touch, but as always he held me facing away.
Yet tonight he went further than he had before, his strong hands tearing the silken gown from my heated skin and letting his palms roam freely across my bare body. Still held hostage against his body, caged in by his powerful arms, I soon found myself pressed against the wall, his hands placing mine above my head, pulling my hips out, making me ready for him.
But not for his impressive erection. No, not yet. My dark lover teased and taunted my breasts, lightly pulling at my tender flesh, letting his fingertips bring my nipples to a hardened peak, swirling and dancing across the sensitive tips.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he asked, then dragged his tongue across my nape. I could feel his soft hair as it followed the path his mouth was taking, down down down. Across my shoulder blades, dipping into the hollow between each vertebrae, then finally coming to rest in the small of my back, his teeth gently nipping at the dimple just above my bottom.
His hands? They’d left my breasts, which were full and infinitely heavy as I arched my back, seeking his attention once more. But his hands were on a southern trajectory, and as they began to explore my innermost secrets, my moans and groans begged him to take me, to push me past this threshold that began to border on pain, the need to be inhabited by him was so great.
“Not so fast, Vivian. You’ve no idea how much I’ve wanted this,” he whispered, parting me. And then suddenly his heated breath was no longer at my back. The insides of my thighs were tickled by his silky hair, and my knees threatened to give way. I looked down as his hands gently but insistently urged my legs farther apart . . . and then, his kisses. Oh, his kisses!
Starting on the backs of my knees, they began to ascend the backs of my thighs, moving steadily inward. His face was still concealed, still hidden. And then?
He put his mouth on me. Glorious. Rapturous. Erotic. Inescapably wanton.
My world stopped—and then started up again, as though anew. As I kept my hands on the wall for support, my cries of passion tumbled toward him. Only a shock of hair was visible in the low light as he buried his mouth between my thighs. I shook and shivered, and as my eyes began to close, I forced them open. I had to see him.
“Vivian,” that dark voice rolled through me. “You taste as decadent as I dreamed you would.” And just as he began to lift his head and open his eyes—
I awoke.
“Dammit!” I screamed, punching the pillow.
I didn’t sleep again that night.
So when Friday dawn arrived? I was one cranky Viv.
chapter fourteen
Caroline was due to arrive at 10:30 a.m. Since Simon was on location in Mexico, she’d planned on spending the night before heading back into the city. I was glad to have my first houseguest; the quilts were clean and the pillows were plumped.
As I waited, I was still shaken by my dream. Part of me was so angry that I’d almost gotten to see his face, yet another part of me was terrified to see it. Not seeing it meant it was still just a fantasy. A fantasy with the fastest tongue in the West, but a fantasy nonetheless.
Both the librarian and the cowboy had been scarce this week. I hadn’t seen Hank once, but I’d seen evidence that he’d been around. Paula was out in the pasture with Paul, the chickens were fed. His tire tracks in the mud after a rainstorm. And of course we know why Clark hadn’t been around.
“This project has already taken up enough of my time,” he’d said, then left me with a secured tarp and a frown. I’d thought that he’d cave, and Nighttime Clark would call. But both Nighttime Clark and more persnickety Daytime Clark had steered clear all week. He’d finally be here today.
Nervous? Nah. The pacing is my usual cool, calm, and collected self.
The smartest little Mercedes convertible I’d ever seen came up the drive, and Caroline stopped next to the house. “Hey, girl,” she called out with a grin. “This house just gets better and better each time I see it.”
“Yes, and today’s the day we decide how we’re making it better,” I answered, grabbing her bag out of the backseat and swinging it up onto my shoulder before she had a chance to get it herself.
“You sound like a motivational speaker!” She laughed, stepping from the car and stretching her arms over her head after the long drive. She was dressed for work, long legs encased in trim black pants, a raspberry-colored sweater with a soft pink scarf accenting her long neck. She had the kind of easy good looks I’d always envied—that, and her ability to navigate a gravel driveway in three-inch heels.
“You make that look so easy,” I told her, looking down at her shoes as she followed me onto the back porch.
“I learned from the best—you should see my boss walk around a job site. Add sawhorses, electrical cables, and another two inches, and you’ve got Jillian.” She looked around the kitchen. “It looks good in here. I like what you’ve done.”
She examined the open shelves over the stove that I’d cleared off, and then filled with an old set of heavy orange pots and double boilers I’d found in the basement. I’d arranged them by size. “Fuck me, these are all Le Creuset. You brought these with you, or they were here?”
“I found them in the basement behind a bunch of old canning jars.”
“Watch them carefully, please, and you might want to go through my bag tomorrow before I leave. If I’m listing to one side, you’re for sure going to want to check my duffel,” she warned, turning to take in the expanse of cleared counter space. “And you’re very lucky that’s not a KitchenAid,” she finished, pointing to an ancient-looking mixer. I’d left it on the counter, even though I had no idea if I’d ever use it. It looked homey. It felt homey. So it stayed.
I led her upstairs, and she exclaimed in delight over how much progress had been made. I let her pick which guest room she wanted, and she marveled in the view of the ocean. She bounced on the bed, pronounced it good, and then watched me raise and lower the blinds three times until I had them the exact height I wanted. She watched as I made sure the windows were open to the same level, and then she watched as I adjusted the books on top of the dressers, fanned with exactly two inches of space between them.
“You nervous about something?” she asked.
“Nervous? No, why?” I asked, just as the doorbell rang. The books were now all on the floor, the result of my involuntary muscle spasm at the dingdong. I sighed as I bent down to pick up the books.
Je
sus, Viv, get a grip.
Caroline watched with raised eyebrows as I said, “Pretty sure Clark’s here. I’ll go get the door.”
I hurried down the stairs, spying the familiar outline on the other side of the lace. It had been a long week. Stomach in knots, I practically jumped the last two steps, flew across the floor, and wrapped my hand around the doorknob. Once there, I finally paused to breathe. What would I find on the other side? Familiar and Funny Friend Clark? Or Distant and Detached Clark?
I opened the door. He filled it. Tall, dark, and tweedy. I smiled without even thinking about it. His brown eyes warmed instantly, taking me in and then, as usual, dropped down to scan me head to toe. Per usual, I let him look. I leaned against the doorframe as he took in my legs, clad in the shortest cutoffs I owned. I didn’t really plan out my outfit this morning at all. Not at all . . .
When he got to my stomach and its jewelry, his eyes widened. I wore a T-shirt casually knotted in the back to bare my navel. He stopped somewhere around my chest and I puffed up a bit, letting my fingers play with my cameo. He pushed his glasses farther up his nose. The brief perusal felt like hours. And when his eyes finally made it back up to mine, they were warm and kind and happy to see me. But then they became all business.
“I trust you have everything in order before the contractor arrives?”
My stomach rolled over. He was still pissed.
“Good to see you too, Clark. Come on in.” I sighed, holding the door open wide and ushering him in. His arm brushed mine and my fingers touched my skin absently as I watched him walk into the room, turning in a circle and examining the work I’d done this week. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the Post-it I’d stuck on the loose newel.
“Don’t start. I’m only asking if they can restore it, not replace it. Happy?”
“Yes, that’s exactly the word I’d use to describe myself,” he muttered, loud enough for me to hear.
I stifled a snappy remark, watching him from the door. “So, how was your week?” I asked.