Neighborly Complications (Stories of Serendipity #1) (6 page)

“I know. I’m not trying to, I’m just saying that he needs someone like you. And I think he’s finally open to the prospect.”

“What do you mean, someone like me?”

She gave Claire a knowing smirk that made Claire feel a twinge of unease. She said she wasn’t matchmaking, but she totally was. “You’re different, Claire.”

Claire decided another change of subject was in order. “What is there to do around here? I think I need to get out of the house.”

Summer squealed with delight. “I need to take you to the Gin. We’ll totally do that tonight. It’s a great induction into Serendipity High Society.” She grinned an infectious smile.

“Cool. Is it a bar?” She wondered briefly what she would wear to a place called “The Gin” before abandoning any worries on that front. She had enough drama without self-inflicting more stress. She’d figure something out.

Summer nodded. “Very casual, but anything goes.”

They worked and chatted another couple of hours before Summer left to go home and change. They’d finished the room and started another, and Claire was pleased with the progress they’d made. And she’d learned a lot. Maybe she wouldn’t necessarily have to move. Not right away at any rate.

F
orty-five minutes later she was stepping out of the shower, when she remembered Max’s comment about drapes for her bedroom window. Realizing that she had been walking around practically nude in that room, she peaked out of the bathroom door and looked toward the window. Sure enough, outside, twenty feet away from her bedroom window, was
his
bedroom window. The light was on, and she could see him sitting in a chair by his window, drinking a beer. When he saw her peek out, he raised his beer in a gesture of cheers, and gave her a look that clearly said, “I told you so.” Without taking his eyes off her, he shot her a mischievous grin, reached over, and turned off his lamp, plunging himself into darkness.

Well, fuck.
Claire thought to herself. She was in the habit of getting her clothes after her shower, and she hadn’t remembered Max’s warning about her lack of drapes. She had no clothes in here with her except for the filthy things she had been gardening in.

Realizing that he’d probably been watching her this whole time anyway, and she
knew
he’d already seen her naked once, Claire boldly stepped from behind the door, looked directly at the window, raised her eyebrows, and dropped her towel.

Her nipples hardened with excitement, as she stood there, deciding what to do. Should she just hurry and find clothes? Or since she was already standing here naked, with an unbelievably attractive man watching her, should she do something? Hell, she’d already sucked on the man’s thumb…

Smirking with satisfaction, Claire decided to enjoy this. What the hell, right?
In for a penny, in for a pound.

Slowly, she walked over to her underthings box, and pulled out a lacy white thong. She held it up for his inspection, before laying it out on the bed. With the lights in his bedroom out, she couldn’t see him, but she knew that if he was there, he could see her just fine. Sauntering back to the box, she pulled out the matching bra, a lacy demicup push-up. Claire walked back to the bed, pulled on the panties, slowly, before putting the bra on, arranging her breasts artfully, tweaking the nipples slightly.

She strolled over to the bedside table and retrieved her bottle of lotion, taking it to the other side of the bed, to give Max a superb view of her slathering lotion over her arms, legs, and torso. Satisfied that she was sufficiently greased up, she wondered what Max was doing. Claire wondered if he was enjoying the show. She looked at his window, wondering if he was even still there. What if he had left right after he’d turned out the light?

Shrugging, she went to the closet, and selected a flared, short skirt and a clingy top to wear, with some high heels. Going back to the bed, she pulled them on, as slowly as she could. She loved the idea of teasing this man relentlessly. If he was going to watch her, she was going to give him a show he wasn’t likely to forget. She wasn’t sure
why
she enjoyed teasing him, except that it seemed to her like he deserved it somehow.

Summer came to pick her up a half an hour later. That was a half an hour in which Claire had utilized every ounce of her will power to not go next door. She’d managed to turn
herself
on by her little show; she was a little shocked. She’d never really considered herself an exhibitionist, but something about the idea of Max watching her had made her want to do something about it.

On the way to the Gin, in Summer’s yellow Volkswagon bug, Claire barely listened as Summer gave a running commentary on the history of various places that they passed. The Gin was an old cotton gin turned bar, and everybody in town just called it the Gin. It had a different name altogether, but like most small towns, people called it whatever they wanted to.

When they walked into the smoky area, the music playing was country, and the dance floor directly in front of them was filled with line dancers. The bar was to the right, and just beyond that were some pool tables. After having their IDs swiped by an incredibly bored looking bouncer, they walked over to the bar and Summer ordered two Shiners.

Summer took a swig of beer and looked over at Claire, “Wanna play some pool?”

“Sure!” She liked playing pool. She had gone to college with a work/study program in the game room of the student union. When the game room wasn’t busy and Claire wasn’t studying, she practiced playing pool.

Claire racked up the balls, and Summer broke, sinking the two ball and nothing else. The other balls had a nice spread though, so she went for the six ball into the corner pocket and missed. She chugged the rest of her beer and went for another, while Claire contemplated her strategy. The song the DJ was playing changed from country to an old AC/DC song.
Good.
She liked the beat. Claire gave the table a good walk around, bending over to eyeball her strategy a couple of times, and when Summer came back, she pulled off a combo shot that knocked in the twelve and the ten balls.

“Wow. You’re really good!” Summer said with a huge smile on her face.

As she looked up from the shot, she felt a pair of eyes on her. Over Summer’s right shoulder, against the wall, was Max. His gaze pierced her insides, and for just a second, she saw nothing else, just those caramelly eyes. He was staring at her with his lips turned up in an amused expression.

Her first reaction was to snub the man. Her last memories involving him also involved her own nudity, and she felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Then she remembered that she’d brought on the last peep show herself by not remembering curtains, and the first peep show, he was just trying to be helpful. Claire slipped him a wan smile and waved at him. Max tipped his glass. Summer looked to see who she was smiling at and saw Max. She went over to give him a hug.

“Hey, Max! Good to see you! What’s going on?” Summer seemed excited to see everybody.

“Not much. Can I play the winner?” Max looked at Claire, that amused expression on his lips. Lips that she could only imagine doing things that made her tummy quiver. She took a long pull of her beer.
It’s getting hot in here.

“Sure, man! Just put your quarters up.”

Claire bent over and lined up her shot, sinking another ball. Then she walked around to the other side of the table, squeezing past Summer and Max so she could make her next shot.

“Excuse me,” her thigh had accidentally brushed against Max, sending little tingly shivers all up and down her leg, causing it to tremble. Claire missed the shot and drank half her beer in one gulp.

“Finally!” Summer lined up her shot very carefully and cut the cue ball a little hard, knocking the eight ball into the side pocket.

Claire finished her beer and went to get another, while Max racked up the balls. She needed to get away from him for a minute. The bar was tall, almost to her shoulders, so she had to stand on tiptoes and lean up to get the bartender’s attention and asked for another Shiner.

As she stood leaning against the bar, Claire was overwhelmed by an earthy, man smell, and a strong, familiar arm came around her waist and rested on the bar to her right. A rather large hand rested on her left hip. His breath spread goose bumps across her body as a smooth voice that reminded her of aged bourbon whispered into her ear, “Summer went to dance. Wanna bet I can make you come before she gets back?”

“Come where?” His left hand slid down her hip and under her skirt before she could even finish the question. His right hand came up to her breast.

“Oh…”

“You kind of owe me after that little show you put on. You have absolutely no idea what you do to me.” His bourbony voice was husky with desire, which melted any resolve that Claire was hanging on to into a pool between her legs.

As his hand slid up her thigh and under her skirt, finding her already wet panties, Claire had the vague notion that she probably shouldn’t be doing this, but then his other hand went inside her blouse and brushed against her breast. That’s when she forgot about notions altogether and remembered that this was one of the most beautiful men on the planet.

She inhaled sharply, as he whispered in her ear again. “You are already wet, Claire.” His voice was a growl. “Christ.” And then his hands started moving, and she was lost.

His left hand started long, slow strokes along the outside of her panties, while the fingers of his right hand grazed her nipple and started flicking, twisting, squeezing. She started to breathe faster, and his left hand slipped inside her panties, grazing around her button, bringing a soft gasp to her lips. She was trying to be still and quiet, even though this was a bar, and a tall one at that, so no one could really notice her. The music was loud, and nobody was really paying attention. Max’s leg lifted between hers, to spread them, and she leaned back into his chest.

Max’s left hand was rubbing in small circular motions around that spot, every now and then going down deeper, into Claire’s warm, wet lips. Feelings were building in her groin and spreading up into her belly. The same feelings were building from her nipple, where his other hand was still playing, twisting, squeezing, spreading down into her belly. Her knees were going, but Max was holding her up, with the hand wrapped around her chest, playing with her breast. His other hand slipped two fingers inside of her, and she couldn’t take it anymore. She climaxed around his fingers with a low shuddering moan, and then went limp. She felt, rather than heard Max’s groan behind her right as the bartender delivered Claire’s beer with a curious expression on his face.

“Put it on my tab, please.” Max, ever the gentleman, removed his fingers from Claire’s various body parts. Then, he actually put his fingers in his mouth and licked off her juice.

Claire was hot. She could hardly breathe, so she started fanning herself.

“You ready to play, Claire?” Max was looking at her with a smirk on his face.

She drank her beer quickly, in an attempt to quench the fire that Max had lit inside her. He had already racked up his balls.

“I gotta go.” She said simply. She had no idea what she had brought upon herself, but she couldn’t stay in the same room with this man another minute. The way he looked at her made her want him so badly, but the arrogance that he’d displayed made her realize that there was no way he would ever respect her.

Not that she’d done a damn thing to earn his respect.

Suddenly furious with herself, she sought out Summer. “I’m so sorry; I’ve got to go home. Can you take me, please?”

Concern etched her friend’s face, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just…Please take me home, if you can. If not, I think I can walk. It’s not that far, is it?”

“Shut up, I’ll take you home. Just give me a minute to close out my tab.”

While she waited for Summer, Max came up to her, grabbing her hand. “Are you going home?”

“Yeah. That was…intense. I can’t deal with you right now.”

“You stay. I’ll go home. You need to have fun with Summer.”

“She’s already closing her tab. I’m leaving. You stay.”

“Claire…” She looked up at him, and he really looked damn good. “I’m sorry. We’ve gone about this whole thing all wrong…”

Summer walked up, eyeballing Max warily. “Everything okay? You ready?” She asked Claire, who nodded and followed Summer out of the bar.

A
n hour later, Claire was sitting at home, cursing her foolishness. Max had her all kinds of shaken up. First was the rescue from the scary well, which she later found out wasn’t all that deep. She felt like an idiot about that. But then was the thumb-sucking incident. She had no idea what had come over her. Then he had come over to the house, all good looking and great smelling, and questioned her ability to fix her own home. Then he’d offered to
buy
it! Then he came over again, pulling the same shit, tossing some offhand comment at her about curtains. Then he’d come to rescue her again, and seen her in all her glory. So she’d given the guy a show. But then of course,
that
had come back to bite her in the ass.

Claire had almost talked herself into starting something with Max, after her conversation with Summer. If what she said was true about his wife, that seemed to put a different spin on things. But the scene at the bar? She’d never felt anything like that before. The pleasure, the risk, desire…it was all foreign to her, and she wasn’t sure that she liked that he could have that control over her.

She didn’t know what to do with him. She had no business doing anything with him, she reminded herself again. But they obviously had some chemistry. But he was such a jackass.

But he was a cute jackass.

A knock on her door interrupted her traitorous thoughts.

Opening the door and immediately cursing herself for not looking through the peephole, she saw Max standing on her porch with a six-pack of Shiner in his hand. “Can I come in? I brought a peace offering.” He held up the beer, looking yummy in the tight black T-shirt and cargo pants.