His Kind of Perfect (Sugar Bay #1) (13 page)

“Very nice. I’m happy for you.”

“Hmmm. It’s not going to last.”

Charlie shrugged, her smile fading. She
knew Anabelle’s history better than anyone. “Maybe, maybe not. There aren’t any
guarantees Anabelle, you know that. But sometimes you’ve got to try new things
because if you don’t, you’ll keep doing the same thing over and over until you
wither away never knowing anything else.”

Charlie had been there through her dad’s
death and she witnessed the devastation. In an instant, Anabelle’s mother had
gone from a relatively happy person to Cruella de Ville, ready to crush all
things cute. She’d closed herself away from everyone including her own
daughter.

“You’re detail oriented, can plan and
organize things to death so this unknown scares you. It’s beyond anything
you’ve ever done, which makes it scary as hell.”

Anabelle nodded. No argument there.

“Have fun, Anabelle. Derek’s a good guy.
Live in the moment and promise me you won’t overthink this to death. Give the
poor guy a real chance.”

Anabelle hesitated, not wanting to confess
she’d put a time limit into play. Charlie thought Anabelle was being brave. She
didn’t want to destroy her friend’s illusions and admit she was using Derek for
his body. It didn’t sound honorable.

“Be kind.” Charlie winked. “For a year now,
he’s been eating you up with his eyes, it’s nice you’re putting him out of his
misery.”

“He does not.”

“Says you.”

“I mentioned before you were delusional.”

“I’ve got eyes.”

Anabelle smile was weak. She felt like a
fraud. She wasn’t brave at all but did she want to cancel the experiment
completely?

Derek moved the cushion to the left.

Nope.

He turned it diagonal.

Nope.

Looked a little off.

Dammit.

The fact that he was acting like a pansy
ass hadn’t escaped him and Dani would keel over from gut busting laughter if
she saw him now. He considered chucking the pillow into his
nieces
tent but Anabelle noticed these things, so he moved it again and walked away.

If he fussed anymore, he’d have to turn in
his man card. He shook his head. He was like an adolescent boy with his first
crush.

Un-fucking-believable
.

His best friend, Joe, would never let him
live it down. Joe and Dani seldom got along, but in dishing about his so-called
crush on Anabelle, the two of them tag teamed in razing him. No need to provide
further ammunition.

He checked his watch. Almost time. Last
night had been beyond his fantasies. And today…he could barely stand the wait. He
needed to be careful not to make her nervous. He wasn’t sure what had spooked
her last night, but she’d been in flight mode and he’d had no choice but to let
her go.

He couldn’t stand the hesitant look in her
eyes and cursed her ex for putting it there. She was confident in business
matters, but anything personal and she was cautious, as if she weren’t certain at
all.

The terms she’d set was a surprise; it was
as if she needed the constraint so she could compartmentalize him by limiting
their time together. He planned to change that as soon as possible. There was
no way a month would be enough time for them to burn through this thing. He
wasn’t sure how long they needed, but he knew for damn sure, it would take
longer than a month.

He’d had relationships before, both short
and long term. But Anabelle was different from his usual type. She was more
fragile. Usually he went with good time girls who were up front about what they
wanted, which was usually the same as what he wanted. Nothing complicated.

Anabelle was complication personified. The
first thing he’d noticed about Anabelle was her smoking hot body. No surprise
there. He was a guy and it was a visual thing. Maybe it had something to do
with those old movies his sister, Dylan, watched when she babysat him. Back
then, only the classic movie station worked and his sister had a thing for old
school romances. If it had rained outside, he’d been stuck watching them and in
Seattle it rained a lot.

Anabelle had the kind of body and style
straight out of the pin-up era, soft curves, a nipped waist and an elegant,
classic style. But her eyes…there were something about them that sort of zapped
him when he’d first met her, much to Dani’s delight.

Over the following months, he’d had the
usual fantasies about her fine form, but she ignored him, preferring to look
away or change the subject, and refocus on business. But her fragility
intrigued him, and so she became his studied subject.

He noticed her gaze sort of dashed around
him, then on him, then away as if she wanted to look but didn’t dare. She was
well liked by her subs, she was good at what she did but was highly reserved. Every
once in a while a sad look would appear in her eyes. It didn’t happen often,
but he was trained to spot minute details and caught it.

He also knew she preferred water to soda, chocolate
chips cookies over oatmeal raisins, had a mild allergy to peanuts and adored toasted
coconut cupcakes. A particularly painful episode came to mind of watching her
devour one on Dani’s birthday surprise he’d brought in.
The
sight and sound of her moaning, as if in the throes of an orgasm, had stayed in
his head and fucked up his concentration for the rest of the day.
She’d
left him with a hard on and no way of relieving it.

Christ. He had it bad.

There were no guarantees he’d learned.
Watching his sister’s struggle had reiterated that unfortunate fact. An asshole
who
thought texting and driving was smart ended up
t-boning his brother-in-law, taking away a husband and father in an instant.

No fucking guarantees.

Since Dylan had settle on a farmhouse in
Sugar Bay, he’d packed his belongings and moved south to help. There hadn’t
been anything to debate. Seattle had year round sporting action, temperate
weather and great food but Florida had his sisters and three nieces.

The fact that he’d traded in snow bunnies
for stacked blondes of the plastic variety wasn’t lost on him. Now life consisted
of endless rounds of dressing Barbies, driving to activities and keeping up
with whatever boy bands his niece deemed as “in”.

He personally thought his sister was a rock
star the way she juggled the demands of the girls and school. He knew Kurt’s
life insurance took care of the mortgage but Dylan was trying to finish her degree.
His sister had skills but he knew the concentrated pursuit was therapeutic.

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.
He opened it to find Annabelle there with an overnight bag. She looked nervous
and he wondered why when he was the one on the brink of doing something
completely uncool like falling to his knees in gratitude that she’d come.

“You came.”
So cool, man
.
Like a fucking
puppy wagging his tail.

She tilted her head. "Did you think I
wouldn't?”

“I thought the text scared you off. The
conversation stalled after that.”

“No. Charlie was having too much fun so I
had to cut her off.”

“Nosy, was she?”

“A little,” she said, her tone dry.

She brushed by and he caught the whisper of
her perfume. It was light, feminine and very sexy. He recalled an unfortunate reaction
to another lady's scent. It had been an awful custom mix that made him sick. He
blamed his reaction on her cat and took off. He never saw her again.

Anabelle’s scent lured him like no other.
He followed her to the kitchen. There, she studied the spread he’d set out.

“How many are joining us?”

“It’s a party for two.”

She laughed. “You’re going to have
leftovers.”

He shrugged.

“The parade should start in a few hours.”

“This will be my first one with VIP
seating.”

“One of the selling points the realtor
noted was its prime location for the festivals and parades. Come onto the balcony,
I don’t think you saw much of it last night.”

The gardens of Bali and Thailand had been
his inspiration so the outdoor
living
space was his
oasis. Private and quiet, it was a blend of elegance and industrial appeal. Sounds
from the street were faint due to the water wall he’d installed. The trail of water
ran along split bamboo reeds to the plunge pool.

“Beautiful.”

He was glad she liked it.

“Did you build it yourself?” A breeze came
through and lifted her skirt. He glimpsed a hint of thigh and maybe…a thong?

Nice.

She smoothed the skirt down, her face pink.
He grinned and focused on the conversation. “Yep. Before I moved in, I noticed
the
balcony lacked
shade. So for two weekends, Joe and
I built the pergola then over another few weekends, we built the plunge pool.
The hot tube was already here but I like having both, hot and cold. Each has
its use.”

“Must be nice to be good with your hands,”
she said. He nodded with an eye on her hemline.
Come on. Come on.
Where was the gulf breeze when you needed it?

“I am at that.” He watched as she flushed.
His chest filled with pride.
Damn fool.
“I extended the master shower out here so there would be a section for an
outdoor shower.”

“I love outdoor showers. They seem
decadent.”

“They are. We should try it.”

She gave him a secret smile, which gave him
ideas for later.

He pulled her hips to his. “What’s with the
smile?”

“What smile?”

“The Mona Lisa smile you’re wearing.”

She shrugged. “I think it’s your
imagination.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. It makes
me want to kiss you until you spill your secrets.”

“I don’t have any secrets. I’m pretty
boring.”

“Hmmm…I don’t know…” He kissed her neck. “I
don’t know what your favorite meal is.” The spot behind her ear beckoned, so he
kissed it. “I don’t know your favorite color.” Kiss. “Or the name of your first
boyfriend.” Nuzzle. “Or your favorite sexual position?” He bit her neck gently
but kissed the sting away when she winced. He rubbed his face alongside her
neck, careful not to scrape her with his stubble. He loved the way she shivered
so he repeated it.

The drawstring on her peasant shirt proved
to be too tempting.

“Sorry,” he said and did his best to sound
repentant while she attempted to re-tie the string he’d pulled.

“Uh-hmmm. Sure you are.”

“I wasn’t sure you were wearing it
correctly.”

“Is that right?”

“It is.”

“So now you
know
I’m wearing it correctly?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He untied it again
and lowered the neckline beneath her breast, shoving her bra along with it to
better frame her breasts. “This is the way, like a Tahitian island princess. I
knew you were wearing it wrong.”

She chuckled. “I don’t know. I’m pretty
sure I’d get arrested if I walked around like this.”

A car horn sounded and Anabelle started.
She glanced around to see if anyone saw her exposed breasts.

“Don’t worry. It’s private. There aren’t
any taller building so no one can see.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, but you’re right about not walking
around like this. I don’t want to share these beauties.” The thought of another
man seeing this way irritated him. “We’ll keep this style between us.”

He bent, sucked hard on a nipple, while
cupping its plump twin with his free hand. Anabelle let out a low moan and wove
her fingers through his hair. He loved the eager way she held him as if she
didn’t want him to stop, as if she couldn’t help herself, which was only fair
considering, he’d been unable to control himself in her presence for a while
now.

“Derek. Harder. Take me deeper in your
mouth.”

Her demand made him hungrier, made him tug
and nibble and lick, giving its twin equal treatment, while she tossed her
head, and pleaded for more.

The sudden blare of music startled them, pulled
them out of their bubble. They stared at each other, breathing hard and tried
to gain control.

Anabelle was the first to find success. “What
about lunch?" Derek didn’t respond. Wet, hard bullets distracted him. She pulled
his gaze back to hers. “Derek, lunch?”

In an instant he refocused. “Lunch…right.” He
gave both nipples a kiss and pulled up the top, tying the drawstring with
regret. The hardened tips saluted him through the thin fabric and he groaned. “Have
mercy.”

He put her away from him and turned toward
the kitchen.

Lunch would be a very hard affair.

Literally.