Love Shack (Tiny Houses, Big Hearts) (16 page)

“
I’m
hiding something?”

And he had the nerve to sound put out and indignant.

“Yeah. You are.”

“So are you.”

“Your point?”

He stopped talking until they got to the house. Tom was already parked outside and taking down the popup tent. The sun was shining, and he waved with a handful of brushes.

She couldn’t be mean to Tom. Tom was the one person who hadn’t thought she was a whack job before this thing had gone viral.

“Hey Tom.” That sounded polite, right?

“Felicity. Figured I’d stop by. I brought food.”

And this was exactly why she’d hired him. Felicity didn’t even thank him until the fifth bite of chicken teriyaki was in her stomach.

Rather than comment on her rudeness, Tom just smiled and handed a Styrofoam container to Brandon. Normally she would complain about the horrible environmental consequences of the material, and the fact that her meal came from a company that didn’t know where the food was sourced from. But today, she swallowed and was grateful her stomach stopped eating itself.

She let the guys grunt and eat in male companionship as she walked with the food and restocked her granola bar stash in her truck and her purse.

There wasn’t much she needed in life, but those bars were essential.

“Thanks again, Tom. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

He cleaned up all their messes and tossed the trash in the garbage bag he always brought with him to her home.

He clapped his hands together. “Well…good. I’m glad you appreciate it. Because I have a favor to ask.”

Felicity’s stomach was too full of delicious MSG to be all that angry. “Lay it on me.”

“Really?”

“Do it quick. This food will digest and then I might want to move.”

He jumped up. “Okay. So I heard you say on the news that you were inspired to do this charity because of a woman and her daughter looking for a home.”

“Yeah.”

“Well…since you said there was enough raised already to build a house, I thought I might suggest the first people you bring in be a mother and daughter looking for some help.”

Felicity thought about it for less than a second before agreeing. “I think that’s a great idea. Do you have someone in mind?”

“I know a woman, Angela, who just got kicked out of her home. She’s staying in a shelter, but her little girl…Felicity, her little girl is so smart. The woman is working two jobs to send her to a science and math academy she got into.” He took a breath. “And she’s a great woman. She’s been dealt a shit hand, and she needs some help. I know you wanted to select the people who would be coming to live in the homes, and I know you had an application process you were going to develop, and if you want I can give her an application or I can have her write you an essay—”

“Tom. Stop.” Felicity grabbed his shoulders and laughed. “If she’s got you this willing to fight for her, then I know she’s worth helping out. I’m assuming you’re friends with her?”

He shook his head. “Not really. She just stays at the halfway house for abuse victims. I donate extra supplies to them for repairs. I see her going to work every day. When you told me about the woman at the bus stop, she popped into my head. I had to ask. But I’ve never spoken with her.”

Something about the tension in his shoulders told Felicity he wished he
could
talk to her, though.

“What shelter?”

“Harmony Halfway Home.”

Felicity took out her phone and typed in the information. The name of the home sounded familiar for some reason, but she couldn’t quite place it. “The GoFundMe campaign and the bank accounts won’t be finalized until the end of the week.”

Brandon jumped up. “You’re going to open a business account? Do you even have a Tax ID yet?”

Of course the banker would get involved in this.

“I’m working on it.”

“That can take time to get all the paperwork in order.”

He took off for the inside of the tiny house. Tom looked at Felicity and she shrugged until Brandon came out with his laptop. They both stared at the banker, who looked like he was about to plan a trip to Disneyland.

Brandon shut the lid on the five gallon bucket Tom used as his garbage can and sat while opening his computer.

“Let me pull up a few of my programs and we’ll get this moving.”

Felicity was trying to determine if her roomie had been inhaling the fumes from her truck, or if he was really trying to help. Tom didn’t look like he was convinced of Brandon’s sanity at the moment either.

Brandon had been typing away for a solid minute before he looked up. “What? This is something I know more about than you two. Let me be useful for a damn minute.”

Felicity’s smile was the most genuine it had been all day as she grabbed a lawn chair off the hook on the side of her house and settled in next to the man who was going to help her make her dreams come true.

She wondered for a moment how she would have felt if he’d just offered her the loan initially. Now that she’d woken up next to him, and had him make her a perfect cup of coffee after lighting her favorite candle… There was a good chance her smile was a lot bigger than it would have been if she hadn’t known what his pajamas looked like clinging to his skin.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Brandon brought out another bottle of wine. They’d been at the paperwork and media kit work for over five hours.

Tom waved off the tip of the bottle. “I’m finally sober. You pour anymore back into my glass and I won’t be able to drive home.”

“You could stay if you want to.” Felicity offered easily. “I’ve got a spare couch.”

“When did you add a third sleeping area?” Tom asked.

Brandon’s fingers froze over the keyboard.

Felicity didn’t know how to answer, and her stumbling “ummmm” made it seem a lot less innocent than it was.

Brandon looked up to see Tom’s eyebrows hitting his hairline.

“Tom, it’s not what you think.”

Tom raised his hands and backed away. “Hey. No judgment, folks.” He grinned as he looked at his watch. “I think I’d better get going anyway. I’ll let you two get some
rest
.”

Felicity chased after the carpenter. “I’ll walk you to your truck.”

Brandon filled his wine glass to the brim and chugged half of it while he watched Felicity talk to Tom with her hands. She was very animated about whatever she was saying. She held her hands only inches apart and Brandon couldn’t help but bristle when they both laughed and she hugged Tom before the man got into his truck and left.

“What were you talking about?”

She poured herself more wine too. “Just that we only have a short amount of time before this stuff gets moving forward, and we need to get some design elements decided. Tom is planning to work with the Fencl design next.”

Brandon shook his head at himself. Why he even thought they’d be discussing her obviously incorrect assessment of his penis was beyond him. Must be the wine.

“That makes a lot more sense.”

“What did you think we were talking about?”

“Nothing. I just saw your measuring something with your hands…” Brandon realized what he was about to say, and just stopped mid-sentence to drink more wine.

Felicity threw her head back and laughed. “You thought…oh god.” Then she laughed harder and leaned forward, nearly spilling her wine as she gripped her own knee for balance.

After saving the work he’d done, Brandon shut his laptop and put it on the bucket Tom had left as he stood. “I’ve just had too much wine.”

Felicity had to catch her breath before she could speak. “I wasn’t holding my hands that far apart. Are you a bit insecure?”

Brandon turned and went toward the house. This conversation would just have to die, because there was no turning this around into a productive or decent topic.

His roommate chased him down. Apparently she didn’t agree with his assessment of the situation.

“Just because I’ve seen what you’re packing doesn’t mean I’m going to describe it to my carpenter. He doesn’t work with that kind of wood.” Then she doubled over again at her pun.

Brandon grabbed the glass from her hand. She’d obviously had enough. He drank the rest of her glass and felt the world around him grow a bit hazy. She might have had plenty, but he needed more to make it through the night. Then he processed what she’d said.

“When have you seen what I’m packing?”

She giggled behind her hand. “Those pajama bottoms aren’t made of very thick material.” Her eyes widened and she slapped the other hand over her mouth too.

He needed to make sure to wear underwear to bed. “And here I thought you were using the time you rubbed yourself all over me for reference.”

She dropped her hands. “Ugh. That was an accident. I was trying to get off of you without waking you. You’re the one that pressed me down on your cock.”

The memory and even hearing her say the word “cock” had him even more dizzy. The world was moving in slow motion as he invaded her personal bubble to look down at her.

“You’re the one that keeps snuggling up to me every night. I think something inside you wants to be there. It’s not my fault that your subconscious wants me.”

He’d expected the intoxicated giggles to take over for her again. He’d meant the statement as a joke, but as soon as he’d said it, as soon as he stepped so close to her, all of it got a lot more serious.

She stared at him. Shallow breaths had her breasts fluttering just under his gaze. The irregular movement caught his eye, and he couldn’t look away.

Her breath came faster.

“Brandon…”

He didn’t know if she was going to start a conversation or tell him to back off, but the sweet vanilla scent she wore had him breathing just as heavily.

When she didn’t say anything else, he was finally able to drag his attention up a few inches, and her mouth parted on a gasp. A bit higher. He saw how the wine had flushed her cheeks pink. When he got to her eyes, he was panting.

Her hazel eyes seemed to darken as he stared, and he got lost in the myriad of colors contained in her gaze. He leaned in without really meaning to, and their bodies touched. When his hands went to her shoulders he meant to steady himself, but there was electricity beneath his palms. He did the only thing he could do. He kissed her.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Felicity was buzzed from the wine, but she wasn’t near drunk enough that she didn’t know what was going on. Brandon’s kiss was the hottest thing she’d ever felt. Every cell in her body woke up and sang that his lips were finally on hers.

The tension was building between them, but she couldn’t be sure if it was from the secrets she still kept hidden, or a mutual desire they held for each other. His tongue touched her lips and she immediately opened for him, and wrapped her own tongue around his. She felt it all the way to her toes.

She sucked on his tongue and his hips thrust forward. How the man had ever thought she’d been talking about his penis being small was beyond her. He was hard and heavy and pretty darn intimidating against her thigh.

They were both stressed and being confined to close quarters. Of course they were attracted to each other. It was only natural.

Felicity moaned as his hands went from her shoulders around her back and began to roam down her body. He pulled her tighter against him. He squeezed her ass and she dug her nails into his shoulders. She should stop this before they did something they’d regret, but her hands didn’t push him away like she planned. It was only when he broke the kiss to nibble down her jawline that she tried to slow him down. She needed time to think about what was going on.

“Your computer is still outside.”

It wasn’t exactly a reasonable conversation about what the hell was going on, but at least she hadn’t said
let’s go to the bed so I can ride you like the stallion you are
, like she’d wanted.

He paused for a second. “I don’t care.” Then his head dipped lower. He wound a hand around from her back, up her ribcage, and grazed the side of her breast.

“Oh.” Was all she could manage as he began to lower the elastic ridge of her shirt. His tongue licked lower and lower over the tops of her breasts as he revealed her skin inch by inch.

Scared by how much she wanted this with someone she was keeping so much from, Felicity tried again. “It’s supposed to rain tonight. You need to bring it inside and…fuck.”

He pinched her nipple through her shirt and bra. His tongue just millimeters above his fingertips. He groaned against her skin and the warmth shot straight through her and throbbed at her pussy.

“Don’t move.” He told her. He darted out the front door for his computer.

Felicity had no intention of listening to him.

She bolted the second he crossed the threshold. She ran for the bathroom and shut herself inside, leaning against the sliding door. The house shifted slightly as Brandon bounded in. She heard him set down the computer on the kitchen counter. She was a bit surprised when he didn’t call for her, but it was a small house. It wasn’t hard to figure out she was behind the only closing door in the place.