ON AIR (11 page)

“Opportunity.” She spit the word out like poison. “Yeah, haven’t heard that one before.”

I had to refrain from rolling my eyes. “Look, Holly. I didn’t know who you were, that’s the truth. You were giving me the brush off last week, so I decided to just let it go. Then some things changed between a friend and I the other day, so we decided to give it a try. There is no hidden agenda here. And your secret is totally safe with me, okay?”

Her face softened just slightly, but I wasn’t sure if I was in the clear just yet. I waited for almost a minute before she finally spoke again. “Okay. Can we just pretend none of this happened, then? Have a good life, Dane.” She turned to leave.

“Wait, just like that?”

With her back to me, she replied, “When you’re in my shoes, maybe you’ll understand.”

And then she left.

13

H
olly’s behavior made me think too hard. I guess she felt she’d put her neck out there for me for no reason. In my defense, I wondered why she’d let me in on her secret life so quickly in the first place. She barely knew me. No, I would never do anything to compromise her situation—in fact, I admired her for doing something she enjoyed, despite the position she was in with her family—but she’d walked right out of my office without another word.

So I guess that was the last of Jeana Holland Johansen.

On my way home from work that Monday night, a familiar segment intro came on the radio. At first I was confused as my morning commute was now colliding with my evening commute, and it took me a second to realize it was almost six p.m. I didn’t know if Sinclair’s radio segment was now on in the evenings or if it was a repeat, but I listened to it anyway.

She’d reviewed sports bars over the weekend!

“So this was kind of a new thing for me,”
she was saying.
“I love sports, and I love food and drinks, but to be honest, I’ve only been to a couple of chain sports bars over the years. I knew I needed to fix that, so I certainly got my fill this past weekend—my favorite being a place called Baseline over in Delta Park.”

I did a little fist pump in my truck as I took the exit to my house. And damn, I needed to give Darius a heads up! If Sinclair’s recommendation did wonders for my sister’s place, then I could only imagine what it could do for Baseline.

I listened to the recap of her experience, from the food to the drinks and service, and then down to the atmosphere and accommodations. She said she’d definitely be returning sometime soon, which caused me to wonder if she really would be or not. Maybe she just said that to get more people in there in hopes they could figure out who she is. It was kind of a brilliant strategy, to be honest.

As the
Slice of the City
broadcast wrapped up, I noticed Peter pacing in front of my house when I pulled into my driveway. I didn’t even open my garage door this time because I was apprehensive about letting him enter my domain again. When I stepped out, he was already up my ass, fidgety and nervous for some reason.

“I don’t even know who she is but she’s a bratty one. I told her I was going to call the police but she just walked right into your house. I believe she had a key, so maybe she’s someone you know, but Dane, I’m just looking out for you.”

This guy was beginning to creep me out. It was one thing to be nice to him, attend his “bachelor party,” and just be neighborly…but why the fuck was he in my personal business all the time?

I recognized Natalie’s car at that moment, parked on the street. With a smirk, I could only imagine what kind of sass she threw at his nosiness. He’d only lived in this neighborhood for a few months and Natalie must have finally met good ol’ Peter Helvie.

“Don’t worry about it, Pete,” I said as I grabbed my stuff from the back seat. I shut the door and headed up the sidewalk. “She’s just a hooker I hired for the night.”

The look on his face was priceless, and I might have waited to hear bible verses thrown at me, but the second I opened my front door, I could smell the aroma of delicious food waft around me. I forgot all about Peter and shut the door behind me.

“Natalie Marie Denman,” I called playfully. “What are you doing in my house?”

She appeared from the kitchen with a sultry smile on her face. I’m pretty sure my tongue dropped out of my mouth when I saw she was wearing the sexiest fucking negligee I’d ever seen, and stilettos that could pierce my heart.

“Does it really matter what I’m doing in your house?” she teased. At the same time, I noticed the wooden spoon she was lightly tapping against her palm.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, which was difficult because…Natalie…sexy…in my kitchen. I dropped my bag on the floor and came across the room. There was zero concern for whatever food she’d made because standing there like that in my house was cause for a serious boning session as soon as I could stick it in her.

“Nope, doesn’t matter one bit,” I answered as I slid a hand around her waist and down to her ass. I squeezed the mound of flesh under my fingers, which automatically caused me to imagine myself gripping both cheeks as I thrust into her.

And it automatically completed the hard-on that had started the second I saw her.

Her hand slipped between us and pressed against the crotch of my jeans. “Mmm, I like it. Already saluting me and ready for drill.”

God, she could always make me laugh. And drilling into her, repeatedly, was definitely my objective.

I pushed her back against the closest counter, grinding my dick against her. It was straining to get out of my pants; thankfully she made the move to do so. I had her up on the counter, my fingers stroking her wet pussy within seconds. Thank God for crotchless panties because her legs were spread around me and I was buried deep inside her within seconds.

“God…Dane…yes…”

“Baby, tell me what you want.”

She replied with a series of moans and groans, which was fine with me. It was sexy and a total turn on no matter what she did or said.

“I love that cock deep inside me,” she whispered against my neck, her tongue tickling my skin. “My pussy just wants to swallow you up, deeper and deeper…”

There’s something about the way a woman dirty talks to you. It’s seriously like super charging a guy, I’m not joking. We get this rush of adrenaline, a zap of extra manliness and arousal. I don’t fucking care if that sounds stupid. It’s the truth. Dirty talk to a guy and watch him react. You’ll both thank me later.

I leaned her back, bracing my arm behind her, and hooked my other arm under a leg for a deeper angle. She groaned louder, her nails biting into my back as she clenched tighter around my cock. Hell, I had to think about other things just to keep my dick in check. Rainbows. Puppies. The new baby tiger at the zoo. Cats. Kittens. Pussies…

Fuck
.

I pulled myself out, yanked Natalie off the counter, flipped her around, pushed her chest down to the granite, and re-entered her from behind. She let out another loud moan as I reached around with my free hand to work her clit with my fingers. Within seconds she came, and if she hadn’t, I might have had to chalk up a loss on the board with that session.

When I was sure she’d completely felt her release, I pulled out and came against her ass, enjoying the view of her beautiful back, the lace and fabric that pressed against it, the bareness of it in other places, and most of all, the fact that my dick had just been pounding into her over and over.

I reached for the kitchen towel hanging on the stove next to us, quickly wiped up my mess, smacked Natalie’s ass with my hand and said, “Bedroom. Now.”

I watched her try to walk gracefully across the kitchen to the hallway, secretly smirking to myself because I knew the next round was not going to leave her so composed.

I planned on breaking a bed.

***

I’ll admit it was odd to have somewhat of a domesticated life with Natalie, even if we hadn’t been dabbling it in for very long. I nailed that woman two more times in the next two hours. I’d always been grateful for my ability to have a quick turnabout for multiple rounds. Still needed a bit of time in between, but not so long I couldn’t take care of her needs in between.

Yes, my oral skills were definitely on point.

She’d made a pot roast for dinner. Brought over her own slow cooker and everything, having started it at her house and then plugged it in at mine when she arrived. I can’t remember the last time I had such a perfect meal. I didn’t think Natalie had ever cooked for me before, either.

Maybe I could get used to it.

“Hey, let me do that for you,” I said when I stopped her from rinsing dishes. “Got it handled, babe. Go relax on the couch and I’ll join you in a bit.”

She cocked her head and gave me a dubious smile. “Hmm. Well…okay.”

She slowly turned to leave so I gently kicked her ass with my foot and said, “Don’t you question my motives, beautiful. You know
you’ll
be the one climbing me like a tree in another hour.”

I heard her laugh out loud as she entered the living room.

Yeah, this was okay. I could see myself enjoying days like this. Coming home from a day at work to good food, great sex, and most importantly…my best friend. I could honestly admit that she held a special place in my heart that way. They say that’s one of the best things in a relationship, right? Second to great sex, I’m guessing.

When I finished placing the last few dishes in the dishwasher, I joined her in the living room. I had some work I needed to look at, so I grabbed my laptop and sat down with it on the same couch. To be honest, I was kind of testing her. I’m not sure why I was thinking about it that way, but I really wanted to see if she was going to give me crap about doing work at home. Maybe I was looking for that “ah-ha I told you so” moment that I could throw in her face when it was convenient. While I was enjoying this whole couple thing, I really wanted to be prepared for the potential collapse of it at the same time.

I emailed a couple of clients, looked at some notes from my boss on a current project I was taking over, and eventually pulled up a design I needed to estimate hours on for the next week. During this time, Natalie was still watching television. But she was also on her phone either texting someone, emailing, or on social media… I didn’t know which one but she was thumbing away. It took me a minute to realize that I was so curious as to what she was doing I’d completely stopped doing my own work.

She caught me staring, paused, and gave me a quick smile with a wink, and then went back to texting.

Why the fuck did that bother me?

I refocused on the design on my screen and jotted down a couple of notes on my legal pad. I glanced at Nat again. Her attention was on the TV for a few seconds, but then I saw her phone screen change colors with an incoming text. She glanced down and read it, her face breaking into a huge grin, and then thumbed away to respond.

“Who ya chatting with?” I asked, trying for that casual I’m-going-to-pretend-it-doesn’t-matter voice.

“Oh, just someone from work.” She looked at me. “I guess there was drama I missed when I left a bit early. Can’t say I’m upset, but sounds like it would have been funny to see.”

I nodded indifferently. “Hmm.” As I looked at my computer again, I realized how much of an asshole I sounded like. Did she care to talk about it? Was I supposed to ask more about it? Was it something she just wanted to chat about with her coworker?

Fuck. Sometimes I hated this relationship stuff. I was twenty-nine, so it wasn’t like I was some dumbass teenager who didn’t know his ass from his elbow. Nah, I’d been around the block a few times. However, I guess I’d never really had a serious relationship with anyone in my adult life. I did my best to avoid them. I’d had one girlfriend—the one who dumped me when Natalie had flirted with me in that coffee shop five years ago—and because of it, I’d never spent the time to keep anyone else.

Shit.
Keep anyone else
. Did I really mean that? Was that what this was about? I’d known Natalie longer than any female that wasn’t related to me. I think I was seriously concerned that I would fuck things up and never have that again.

I groaned to myself. This caring crap was pissing me off. I shut my laptop and practically tossed it on the coffee table. Natalie couldn’t help but notice with that type of dramatic display, and she put her phone down on the arm of the couch.

“You stressed, honey?” she asked, sliding closer to me. She rose to her knees so she could reach the backs of my shoulders and began massaging them. It felt amazing, and even though I hadn’t originally thought I was stressed out, maybe I was carrying a bit of tension in my body. “Wow, you are tight, Dane. Is everything okay?”

Babe
,
baby, honey
… God, when did all of this change?

“You know, you sit at your drafting table or computer a lot,” she added. “Do you get up and stretch enough?”

I barely shrugged. “Probably not. I go to the gym with Madden a few times a week, though.”

“I know, and that’s good, but at work you should probably take care of yourself too. You’ll end up with a hunchback,” she giggled, digging her fists gently between my shoulder blades.

“Gahh, that feels so good.” I pulled my shoulders back so she could continue. I think she used a mixture of her fists and thumbs to work from the middle of my back to the underside of my shoulder blades. I guess that seriously was a place on my body that was aggravated because of the position I worked in.

After a few minutes, Natalie stopped and cuddled up to me instead. I’d forgotten all about my work and frankly didn’t care, and we watched a rerun of
The Big Bang Theory
. When she got up and collected her things to leave, I hugged and kissed her goodbye, walked her to her car, and then went to bed.

I’d say it had been an interesting day in its entirety, but I was especially pleased with how it ended. If Natalie had tried to stay the night, I don’t think I would have dealt with it well at this point.