Discovering Pride (Pride Series) (6 page)

“You come into my town, My Town! And you jump into my pond, My Pond! And grope me, getting me all mixed up. You look at me like you want to…to…” she broke off and then tossing her hands around began to pace in front of him.

“Now you sit over there, eating my food. My Food! Telling me that you like to see me angry. Well, you can just forget it. Your games are not going to work on me. Let’s get something straight here Doctor Stevens ,” she bent over him and shoved her finger into his chest.

“You can just take your games and shove ‘em. I don’t play games and I certainly don’t want to play with you.”

She straightened back up and turned to walk out. She made it halfway across the empty room before she was spun around and found her mouth being crushed to his.

He had sat through her speech, enjoying her beauty and her sexy voice, when she was mad she was exquisite. When she had stormed towards the door, he had to catch her
 
and his body had acted before his brain had jumped into gear.

He knew he was
 
being rough with
 
her and
 
could feel her soft lips under his. His hands were on her back holding her close to him as she struggled against his chest, arousing him even more.

He pulled his head
 
back and looked into
 
her eyes. “I lose all
 
self-control when I’m around you.”

“You jerk! Let me go!” she struggled against his chest lightly.

She could see his eyes were unfocused; he had a lost expression on his face. Her hands were crushed between their bodies; her fingers were flat on his chest. She could feel his heart racing under them and if she wanted to, could count the beats. Her heart was racing, matching his.

He pulled back a little, but didn’t release her. He shook his head and she could see his eyes clearing.

“Damn you.” she whispered. Pulling one hand free she yanked his head back down to hers and went up on her toes to meet his lips once more.

His lips were soft
 
this time as she rubbed hers gently over
 
his.  When she deepened the kiss she felt his
 
hands slide down her back to her hips as he pulled her
 
closer.

She tasted so good he had to hold back a moan.
 
When he ran his hands up and down her small spine, he felt her shiver and then he felt his own body spasm in response.

She was small but a nice arm full.  He pulled her
 
body higher so their chests
 
met and her feet were off the ground completely, his mouth never leaving hers. He started walking backwards to where his air mattress and sleeping bag sat on the floor.

When he reached it, he pulled her down with him,
 
shifting her under him. She stiffened and pulled away then pushed on his chest until he released her.

“No.” she stood up and straightening her clothes as she backed away.
The fear in her
 
eyes he saw allowed him to let her go. “I’m not ready.”

“What’s your game, Lacey?” he whispered to her back as he watched her race across the floor and out his front door.

O
ver
the next few
 
weeks Aaron
 
was busy with work at the office and construction on his house. He was working his ass off,
 
and he hurt in places he shouldn’t. The cold nights had forced him to move his sleeping
 
bag right in front of the large fireplace in the living room. The heating and air conditioner unit he had purchased would be installed
 
after the air ducts were in place, but for now he was enjoying the fireplace.

He’d done all
 
the plumbing himself. It had been an easy enough
 
task, and he had even installed his new tank-less water heater
 
making showers more enjoyable. Laying all the electric wires had been easy enough as well, and he couldn’t wait until he had lights other than the construction
 
ones that ran off the generator he was using.

The window
 
company had come and gone in two days, installing every window including the front door and large
 
glass sliding doors off the dining room and one in the master bedroom.

He was really enjoying seeing the place come together. It had been years since he had worked this hard on something that he had wanted so bad. All his life, he had wanted to live in a “
home”.
High rise apartments and high-end hotels filled his young life, until boarding schools had taken over and his parents had pretty much disappeared in his life. Turning back to the task at hand, he noticed all the work that was still needed.

Drywall was going to be a bitch. It was taking all his strength and patience to hang every piece. He
 
had just finished hanging his third piece, which had taken him almost an hour, when a he heard a car drive up.

Looking out his new front bay windows he saw Todd’s
 
Jeep. Walking over he switched off the large generator and pulled down his dust mask.  This was a good time to take a break; he walked over and opened the front door just as Todd went to ring the doorbell.

“It doesn’t work yet.” Aaron said leaning back against the door. “Matter of fact, nothing electric works yet.” Smiling they shook hands.

 “
Come on in,” Aaron said stepping back.

Todd stepped into a
 
large room that had a large pile of drywall which sat in the middle of the floor; he turned and looked at Aaron.

“You sure have done a lot of work. Lacey mentioned what you were doing over here. I thought I would see if you needed a hand.”

Then he looked at Aaron’s clothes, he was covered from head to toe in white drywall powder.

“You aren’t trying to hang drywall by yourself are you?” Todd asked.

“I thought it would be easy, like hanging wallpaper. The bitch weights a ton, cracks and breaks if you don’t support it just right.” Aaron threw up his hands in frustration.

Shaking his head, Todd pulled out his cell phone and started to text someone
 
saying, “We’ll see what we can do about that.”

Half an hour later, Iian walked in the door with his tools, a large container of sandwiches, and a case of beer.

As the three men got to work, Aaron admitted it helped to have more arms and backs helping. It only took three hours to finish hanging the living room and kitchen drywall.

The brothers left well after dark with a promise to be back first thing Saturday morning to help finish the rest of the place.

It felt weird to have neighbors who actually helped and cared. It didn’t hurt to have them bring over loads of food and beer every time they helped either.

It ended up taking the trio four
 full
 days to hang all the drywall. 
 
Walls appeared to make the place a little more closed in, but still the rooms were
 
huge and airy. Why did it seem it had taken less time to demo the
 
walls then to hang new ones?

The weather had taken a turn from cool to cold, fall was finally in full force, and winter was showing its head. The leaves had turned and fallen at what seemed an unnatural rate.

Lacey could always keep herself busy down at the
 
restaurant. There was a few new night staff to train. Then, the financial books for the restaurant had been off by eighteen dollars and after spending days looking for the lost amount, she’d realized it had simply been her eyes reading two numbers backwards.

How could a man affect her so that she couldn’t even see numbers right?

Then to top the week off, she had been cornered in the grocery store last night by several of the younger church women. She hadn’t even seen it coming. How could she have not seen it coming?

She was enjoying the rain and windy nights at home when she didn’t have to work. Even though the place wasn’t empty, she couldn’t help feel lonely.  Still, she had Bernard to keep her company.

It had been a few weeks since she’d last been over to Aaron’s place.

Once, at the mart she had seen him, but she’d quickly ducked into the back room and waited him out. She knew it was small of her and to be honest she couldn’t believe she’d hidden from him like that. She just couldn’t help it; she needed more time to think about everything.

She couldn’t get the man out of her mind and to be honest she didn’t know whether she wanted him out.

There was a storm brewing outside, one that almost matched his mood inside.

He’d had enough
 of the games and
 
didn’t enjoy the little
 
cat and mouse game any longer. It was time he went on the hunt. Taking his coat from the new coat rack that sat by his newly sanded and stained front door, he grabbed his keys and decided to end the game tonight.

He’d seen her ducking in the back room of
 
the mart a few days ago. He’d even seen her
 
quick exit from the restaurant the other night.  It appeared she was avoiding him, but that would end tonight.

The way he figured it, if he got over to her place and she wasn’t there, he would just go down to the restaurant
and find her.  She was bound to be
 
somewhere; he was determined to see her tonight.

He’d never seen the Jordan’s
 
house but knew their place was at the end of the
 
road.  After a few minutes of bumping down the dirt
 
road he came to the clearing
 
where the house sat. It was larger than he’d imagined. He’d seen manors like this in England when he had traveled the countryside during his college years.