Forever in Blue Jeans (24 page)

"Of course I'm not serious. Jesus, baby."

"Then why can't he hug me?"

"Your man here doesn't want other men touching you," Neil offered.

Blue relaxed. "You're the exception, I'm sure," she said, nudging Cort with her elbow as she moved past him to hug her friend. "Right, Cort?"

Strangely enough, and maybe it was because Neil was gay, his arms around Blue's back and his face buried in her neck didn't bother Cort. It would have yesterday. It would have last night.

In fact, talking to her about Neil last night did bother him, but not now.

Was it because they just talked about it? Was it because he was good with his love for her and that he wasn't fighting it anymore? He didn't know, and he didn't care. Neil had been good to her, there for her, and Cort couldn't take that away from her or the other man. God knew Buck and Decker had been there for him more than once in his life.

"Oh look, a love fest," Rosie said, barreling into the kitchen from the dining room. She had an armful of dishes from the few customers that had been in the diner. "Think y'all could move away from the sink? Though if you want to do the dishes for me, that'd be great."

"Pay me?" Cort asked with a grin. He was feeling lighter, better, happier here with these people, these new friends and his new lover. He was the serious one, but he'd been known to cut up and joke around, just not in the last few years. If things had happened differently...

"Not on your life."

Blue piped up, coming to his defense. "He's good with dishes. If you don't want to pay him in cash, you could pay him in pie."

Rosie scoffed. "I already pay
you
in pie."

"Well, if you're not going to pay me to do the dishes, then I guess that leaves Deck to do them."

"Deck to do what?"

Cort turned his head to see the man in question walk into the kitchen carrying dishes as well.

He tried not to laugh. He'd known Decker for years and never once had he seen him carry dirty dishes into a kitchen. Shit, he couldn't remember Decker ever using dishes that didn't have the word "disposable" on the package. "Okay, that's just an image I'm never going to stop seeing in my head. There's blackmail in there somewhere."

"What?" Decker asked, confusion lacing his voice. Then realization dawned. "Oh. You mean the dishes? Nah. I help Rosie out from time to time. It keeps her grateful for my presence and keeps her submissive to my every naughty whim."

The kick delivered to Decker's shin from Rosie belied his statement. "Grateful and submissive, huh?"

"Yep."

"I thought the belt kept her grateful and submissive."

"Not helping, B. Not helping at all."

Blue simply smiled at her friend from the shelter of Neil's arms. Cort didn't fail to notice how the other man tightened his arms around Blue either. He also didn't fail to see the wink Neil gave him over Blue's shoulder and the little air kiss.

Cort shook his head and reached out to tug on Blue's ponytail. He loved when she wore her hair up or in pigtails. Maybe he could talk her into a short plaid skirt and one of his white button-down shirts. The little fantasy had his cock hardening behind his zipper. If he didn't stop, everyone else would begin to notice the growing erection, especially if he took Blue out of Neil's arms and bent her over the edge of the counter.

As it was, she was in a denim skirt to her knees and a pretty pink T-shirt with matching ball cap. He hadn't seen her once this weekend without some sort of denim on. He himself rarely wore it. He practically lived in carpenter pants and khakis. Denim was reserved for lounging around, which he rarely did.

Maybe it was time to loosen up a bit. Maybe Blue's freedom of spirit and the way she embraced life and comfort and ease would rub off on him.

"So, y'all gonna move out of the way or what?"

Cort's attention was drawn from his thoughts as Rosie sighed and shifted the weight of the dishes in her arms. He saw her intent before she made a move, and he did more than tug on Blue's ponytail this time. He turned toward her as she let go of Neil and backed up into Cort's body. He moved them both just in the nick of time.

Rosie took one step and let the load fall way from her arms. The plates and silverware dropped into the water with a splash that, despite Cort's efforts, got he and Blue, along with Neil and Decker, wet.

Rosie looked around and grinned, swiped her hands in front of her in a gesture that clearly stated she was done, and walked out of the kitchen. Cort looked at Decker who looked at Blue who looked at Neil.

"Gotta go," Cort said, steering Blue out of the kitchen in Rosie's wake.

"Yeah, me too," Neil added, following hot on their heels.

"Son of a bitch. Y'all are
all
gonna pay for this," Decker yelled.

Cort heard the laughter in his friend's voice but knew there would be hell to pay one day soon. It might not be tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. It might not even be the next week or the next month. But it would come. It always did.

He ushered Blue out to the front of the diner and stood by the door while she stopped to talk to Rosie. He couldn't hear what was being said, but the looks that Rosie and now Neil were sending him didn't give him the warm fuzzies.

Rain had just started falling outside when Blue joined him. "We're gonna get wet."

"You didn't drive up here?"

"Nope. I walked. Knew I'd need to since I was going to be devouring pie."

"Decker's place is closest, I guess."

"It is." Blue slid her hand in his, twining their fingers. "Do you want to do what Rosie and Decker have done?" she asked as they walked down the steps to the diner and out into the rain.

They turned in the opposite direction of the plantation and headed toward his friend's place.

"What do you mean?"

"Live separate for a while until we know it's going to work out."

"It's going to work out no matter if we live together now or later."

"How do you know?"

Cort squeezed her hand and looked down at the drops of rain dripping from the bill of her cap. They were going to be beyond soaked by the time they got to Decker's. His shirt was already plastered to his chest; his hair was flattened by the rain running down his face. The one lucky thing was that his work boots were waterproof. Blue was in flip-flops. Her shirt was plastered to her chest as well, and her nipples poked against the bra she wore which poked against the wet T-shirt.

He could see the shadows of her back tattoo and wondered briefly how many people would see her topless if he told her he wanted her to take her shirt and bra off as they walked.

"What are you thinking?"

"Nothing, why?"

"You're hard."

"I am." No sense in denying it.

"Why?"

"Thinking about you naked in the rain. Figured the townspeople would take issue with it, though."

"What about you naked in the rain too?"

"Nah, just you."

"Right. You like to keep your clothes on in public. It's just me you want to show off."

"Do you remember the balcony in Savannah?" he asked, because he sure as hell did. It was the first time he'd seen her naked. The moon hadn't been full but there was just enough light from it that he could see the lushness of her body. At some point, he'd taken her on the balcony, bent forward over the railing, naked as the day she'd been born.

Her breasts had swayed over the edge, as had her long, dark hair. Catcalls and whistles from men walking below had spurred him on. It had done the same to her. She'd soaked his cock and come so hard.

But while she'd been naked, he hadn't. His shirt had been unbuttoned and his pants had been pushed down around his hips, but he'd still had on clothes.

"I remember."

"Sex with you that night was the hottest sex I'd ever had."

"Because some of it was outside?"

"Partly, but the other part was you, how beautiful you were, not a stitch of clothing on, not caring about it either. You were wild and open, and I loved it. You were everything I wasn't and everything I wanted."

"So what you're saying is, you want me strip to nothing?"

"I'd love it."

Blue tugged him off the road a few feet up and down a little trail. When they were out of sight, she dropped his hand and started undressing. "No one will see us, and it's a shortcut to Decker's. He probably doesn't even know about it."

She tossed her wet shirt at him, which he caught in one hand. He caught her bra in the other hand a few seconds later. Just her being topless had him fighting the urge to drag her to the muddy ground.

She turned and started walking again clad only in her skirt and flip-flops. It was the first time since Saturday afternoon that he'd gotten a good look at her tattoo, was able to stare at it and marvel at the intricacies of it. If he didn't know better and was a little farther away, he'd swear it was a real corset, however when she moved, it moved with her, the inked on ties swaying.

He forget all about it then, because she dropped her skirt and kept walking. Cort bent to pick it up only to find that a few more feet away, she'd dropped her panties. Pink. Just like her shirt and just like her bra. She matched completely. Even her flip-flops were the same shade of pale pink.

Full hips, strong legs, nipped waist, and not a tan line in sight except for the light one around her ankles. Not that her tan was dark, which he loved because her dark hair was perfect against her skin.

"Are you a nudist by any chance?"

"No. I like clothes. Just sometimes I like the freedom of being without them. It's like when I'm feeling constricted by life, pinned in, trapped. If I go around naked for a while I feel less so."

She glanced up at him. "Probably doesn't make much sense."

It actually did, in a strange way. He took her hand again, and they walked in silence, his mind trying to focus on anything else but the wish she granted him by stripping and walking nude beside him in the rain. Drops fell from her nipples and slid down her stomach. It wasn't a cold rain because it wasn't a cold day. The air after would be steamy, muggy and wholly unpleasant unless they were inside.

Over the trees he saw the bright blue tin roof of Decker's house. "Well, I'll be damned."

"Told you it was a shortcut."

"Yes you did. I'm quite glad about that too."

"Why?"

"Because less time getting here means...?"

She stopped walking and looked up at him, her brows furrowed. Cort pulled her closer and pressed her hand to the aching rock hardness in his soaking wet pants. Within moments, a smile lit her face. She tightened her hand around him, pulling a groan from his throat. "Less time getting you inside me?"

Cort laughed and nodded. "Exactly," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her. His lips met air when she wiggled away from him, flipping out of her flip-flops as she ran toward Decker's front porch. There would never be a dull moment with her. He popped the button on his pants and strode toward the house. His boots clomped on the wooden steps and mingled with her giggles as he moved in on her until she was backed against the wall.

He loved her, every naked, beautiful inch of her. He'd loved Alicia, but it was nothing like this, had never been anything like this. No woman he'd ever been with could compare to Blue.

She consumed him and had since the moment he met her. Every second he'd been without her, she'd consumed him those times too.

His mouth dropped to hers, his tongue pressing his advantage when her lips parted. She was his, and--

"Hey, y'all..."

Cort couldn't fucking believe it. Neil. Again.

He lifted his head and closed his eyes, counting to ten, then twenty, then as high as he could.

"Rosie said you forgot your...pie. Uh-oh. I interrupted, huh? I'll just, you know, go back the way I came and uh... Yeah."

Cort waited a few seconds until he felt the shaking of the body against him. He looked down to find Blue laughing. She was naked, he had his ass hanging out of his pants, and she was laughing. "That man is a menace, and you are gonna get it now, missy. It's not funny."

It wasn't, but at the same time, it kind of was. He did his best to keep from laughing as well and was grateful when she pulled his mouth down to hers to continue the kiss they'd started.

Rain. Laughter. Her hot, wet, nakedness, and her love for him. What more could a man ask for?

He surrendered to the feel of her mouth, to her moans, to the feel of her heart beating against his chest. As much as he felt that she was his, the truth of the matter was, that he was hers. Always had been. Always would be.

Forever.

"Really? Decorating the tree naked? It's forty-something outside."

Blue turned her head in the direction of the Cort's voice and grinned. God, he was hot all bundled up like he was going out into a blizzard. Black wool coat on top of a deep red sweater on top of a soft gray pullover. Black jeans that she'd coaxed him into getting, black boots. He even wore a scarf she'd found on one of her many shopping trips as an early Christmas present.

How could a man look that good without a bit of skin showing other than his face? "But it's not forty-something inside since you had that new heating system installed."

"We're expecting guests soon."

"Well, soon isn't right now. I have a little time. Besides, I'm not completely naked." And she wasn't. She wore a red and white Santa hat on top of her head, little bell earrings in her ears along with little bell non-piercing nipple rings on her nipples. She even had bracelets of every sparkly Christmas color on her wrists.