Forever in Blue Jeans (9 page)

"It's about ten in the morning, and we have a storm coming. You ever been in the South during the summer?"

"A few times. Down in Savannah and over in South Carolina."

"So you know about our summer thunderstorms." She grinned. "We get them like clockwork in the afternoons around three, but there's supposed to be rain the next few days. You can smell it on the air."

"I should get moving then, get back to Decker's place before the sky opens up."

"Neil didn't come back with us last night?"

"No." And in his mind, Cort cursed the other man up one side and down the other. "I'm sure he'll be along shortly."

"So my car is still sitting at Rosie's."

"Either that or he's out joyriding. It looked like a sweet ride." That wasn't the only thing that looked like a sweet ride. She was sleep tousled, and her hair was all gathered in something like a ponytail, but it wasn't a ponytail. Hell, he wanted to tousle her in ways that had nothing to do with sleep."

"Thanks. I bought it last year. It was custom designed car. The guy bought it to drive his daughter across the country to college and see some of the sites on the way back. It had about fifteen thousand miles on it when I got it."

Cort shook his head. "Some people have way too much money on their hands."

"No kidding. I couldn't imagine doing something like that. It was a steal when I found it, though, and I couldn't walk away. In perfect condition. New everything, tires, hoses, spotless inside and out. So yeah, it is a sweet ride. Neil can't keep his hands off it when he comes to visit."

Was that all he couldn't keep his hands off? Cort wondered. It was on the tip of his tongue to voice the question, but he was afraid he wouldn't really like the answer so he left it unasked. He stood and stretched a little to work the kink from his neck.

"You could have slept in one of the guest rooms or with-- You didn't have to sleep on the couch is all I meant."

"The couch was fine."

"You don't look like the couch was fine. You're what, six-two or three and that couch is about five-ten or so."

"I wasn't here for comfort. I was here in case you needed me."

Blue nodded and dropped her feet to the floor, then got up and took his coffee cup. "Refill?

You don't have to go now, you know. You can stay for breakfast."

She headed out of the room, and Cort followed. He tried not to think about the fact that where she went, he always followed. Instead, he focused on her twitching ass as she walked ahead of him. His hands itched to grab, squeeze, and rub himself against her.

"Neil likely won't be back for a while yet. At least not until the storm passes."

"Won't he be concerned about you?"

"He's betting that I'm in good hands."

"Of course you're in good hands. I'm not going to hurt you or let anything happen to you.

But Neil could have brought you home himself. He and Rosie didn't need to gang up on me about it." It still irked him, the way everyone was plotting and whispering. Even now, they were all probably having their morning coffee and cracking jokes and concocting even more ways to keep he and Blue together. If it he didn't know how impossible it would be for them to control the weather, he'd swear the impending summer storm was their doing, too. "Did you tell them about us?"

"Yes. Yesterday. Neil was curious and well, so was Rosie." She glanced over her shoulder at him in time to see him give a curt nod. "Cort, whatever your feelings for me are, the tension between us is impossible to ignore. They can see it too, and with the way you stomped off yesterday morning when you saw Neil..." She shrugged.

"They couldn't know you'd have a bit too much to drink, though. Or was that on purpose?"

She laughed. "Oh yes, I got drunk last night just so we could all force you into bringing me home. Besides, they didn't know you'd spend the night."

Another thought he'd had. "I know, but you were pretty adamant that I be the one to bring you home." She had the grace to blush, and Cort found himself biting back a groan.

"I don't remember that," she said, putting the cups in the dishwasher. "Sorry. I guess I kind of aided in the set up without realizing it."

Cort's gaze tracked her every move from the coffee pot to the trash can as she tossed out the grounds, then back to the sink to wash her hands. She moved easily, so comfortable in her body, so comfortable with him there. She wasn't doing anything to try and impress him, yet he was incredibly impressed by her. Their one and only other intimate encounter aside from yesterday in the woods and in his truck late last night were the hours they spent in Savannah. Those had been beyond any intimacy he'd ever felt with anyone, including his former fiancée.

It was sort of like what his parents had together. They were completely comfortable with themselves, with each other, supportive and never judgmental. As he watched Blue, he had that same feeling deep inside his gut about her...a feeling of home and comfort. He liked it and had since the very first moment he met her.

He also hated it.

He didn't allow himself to get close to women, didn't allow for emotional attachment, or friendship really, not since Alicia and then Blue. With most of the women he knew, what he could give was no less than what they wanted or needed. They were focused on their own lives, their own freedoms, their own careers. Strong, confident women drew him, but as he'd watched Blue with her friends, watched her move through the mansion with him, he should be able to admit that there were different kinds of strength and confidence, and it didn't have to include a high-rise, a boardroom, an expensive car, or a single digit size.

Should be able to, but he wasn't quite convinced. Otherwise, he was afraid he'd be lost in her. Then there were the pictures on her living room wall of her body, bared for the camera with hands touching her, marking her. Comfortable didn't come close to what those made him feel, but at the same time...

"Why would they set us up if you and Neil--"

"If me and Neil what?" she interrupted.

"Well, aren't you and he...?" Cort didn't want to finish the thought in either word or mind.

"No, we're not. I don't know how many times you're going to make me answer that. He and I are nothing more than friends. Very, very close friends, but friends only.” She opened the fridge with a huff. “You never said if you'd like to stay for breakfast."

"You're not?"

"No. He likes men. So, unless you keep asking because
you're
interested in him, please believe me when I say, Neil and I are just friends." She took out eggs, cheese, bacon, and a few other ingredients he lost track of. She held up her armful of groceries. "Breakfast? Oh and let me say it again, all right? Neil and I are friends. Only."

He deserved that. He was somewhat obsessed with it for some reason. He couldn't seem to just take her word for it, trust her, believe her. Maybe it was because Neil was a man and he'd slept with her. He'd obviously been non-gay enough before to like women, and he and Blue were still close. "What if Neil changes his mind?"

"About what?"

"Men?"

"He won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know him and even if he did, I wouldn't go back to him. Now, breakfast?"

No, he didn't want to have breakfast with her. He wanted to have breakfast on her. He wanted to have
her
for breakfast. "I think I should go."

She shook her head. "You can stay a little longer and have breakfast."

"Seriously, Blue, I--"

"You'll hurt my feelings if you keep saying no."

Cort smirked. "Then why did you even bother asking if you were going to make the decision for me?" Yesterday, liking her hadn't been an option. Today, he didn't seem to have a choice. He simply did.

"Just wanted to give you a sense of control. You really don't have any in this."

"Bully," he murmured. At her grin, he groaned, his acquiescence clear. "Fine, I'll stay for breakfast. Mind if I take a quick shower?"

The look she gave him... Damn and double damn. When was the last time he'd been this hard? He wasn't sure he could remember. Oh wait, yes he could. It was last night. And the time before that? Yesterday morning. The only other time? Five years ago.

"Sure. Right down the hall on the right. There are fresh towels under the cabinet."

"Thanks. I'll just get my stuff from the truck."

"Stuff?"

She started cracking eggs in a bowl. Two, three, five, six, eight. "Feeding an army?"

"No." She smiled and he hardened further. "Making a quiche. Bacon, egg, and cheese."

He did good to boil water for instant oatmeal or get the measuring of coffee and water somewhere close to right, and here she was making a quiche for breakfast off the top of her head, no recipe in sight. "Okay. Hmm. I haven't had a quiche in years. At least I think it was a quiche."

"You'll love it, I promise."

"No doubt in my mind." And there wasn't. He was like any other red-blooded American man who could be caught, hook, line, and sinker by a woman who could cook and would do so willingly with a smile on her face. God, he was a sexist bastard, but he wouldn't deny the appeal of a woman who embraced not only independence but domestic desire. His mother had been one of the most independent women he knew in her thinking, in her jobs, in her social life, but she loved being a wife and a mother. She'd told him on more than one occasion how much she loved it, loved being there with cookies or some other snack when he and his brother and sister came home from school. She was always willing to help with homework or school projects. There was such warmth, such connection and togetherness in his family growing up.

But, for all their own reasons, neither he nor his siblings had settled down with anyone. His sister was so focused on her own career as a small business owner that she never gave thought to serious relationships. Their brother had taken to the military straight out of college, and everything was so secret, so "classified" that no one ever knew where his head was outside the Army.

They all inherited their mother's independence and love of family, just not for creating families of their own. He'd tried to go down that road, thought he'd met the woman once, but...

Then there was Blue. Another woman he'd clicked and connected with in an instant, but she too disappeared from his life.

"Cort? Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"You kind of spaced out on me."

"Still waking up I guess. A shower will help."

"If you wait too much longer, you'll be able to take one outside when the rain hits."

"True. I'll be right back and out of the shower soon."

"Sure. Want that refill of coffee?"

"That'd be great. Thanks."

With that, he turned and walked out of the house. In the backseat of his extended cab, he kept a duffle bag with a change of clothes and some travel-size essentials. He didn't go anywhere unprepared.

A warm breeze blew by bringing with it the unmistakable smell of rain, just as Blue said. A black cloud edged with lighter shades of gray hung over the carriage house and the mansion, along with an good sized outbuilding. Land stretched as far as the eye could see, dotted with pecan trees beyond a brick fence and small vegetable garden.

The place really was beautiful, and he could well imagine people coming for weekends away, finding a certain peace and solitude that very few other locations would be able to provide.

It was quiet, still. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been somewhere that had given him that feeling of life not having to be lived at some breakneck pace, that a person could slow down, could take a few minutes to breathe, to rock in the rocking chair on the porch, go for a walk through the trees, talk face to face over a piece of homemade cake and not on the phone while they scarfed down some form of something that passed for food these days.

Yes, he could see the property being turned into a bed and breakfast, and he was just enough of a challenge junkie that he would take on the enormous work involved in bringing the place up to code.

A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance, pulling him back to the task at hand before he ended up taking that shower outside. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder and walked back into the house. Blue was humming in the kitchen, and that "at home" feeling began to curl in his gut again. He kept on walking until he got to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, trying and failing to shut everything out.

He stared hard into the mirror. The woman was driving him nuts, driving him to question the way he lived, the way he chose to spend his time with women, even the way he wanted a woman.

He was going all soft. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd taken a vacation or thought of slowing down. Everything was work for him. When he went to visit his sister, he would fix things for her, and there was always some other job that he was there for. It was never just for a visit.

He hadn't been home to his parents' place in years. He didn't know how to relax, how to just be there without his insides crawling with nervous energy and his heart aching for something he didn't have, so, he just didn't go.

What a fucking prick of a son and brother he was.

He turned away from the mirror and reached behind the shower curtain to turn on the water.

Hopefully a shower would clear his head. Maybe if he took a cold one, his dick would leave him the hell alone too.

He shed his clothes and stepped under the lukewarm spray. What he needed most was to get away from Blue for a while. He'd slept in her house, staying on the off chance she might need him. She'd made him coffee and was, at that very moment, making him breakfast. The sheer domesticity of it was not lost on him. If he didn't make a break for it soon, he might not ever get away.