With Strings Attached (25 page)

“There you go,” he whispered, kissing her mouth. She could barely kiss him back she was so relaxed. He pulled the covers over both of them, drew her into his arms, tucked her head against his shoulder, and they both fell asleep.

Chapter Sixteen

In the morning, Matt woke up to Corey cursing and scrambling around in the dark.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“I have to go!” she hissed.

“What? Why?”

“I have…I have…to go!”

He pushed himself to sitting, blinking, trying to focus. “I’ll take you home.”

“Ohmigod, I don’t even have a car,” she wailed softly. “Okay, get up, get up!”

“What’s the panic?” He rolled out of bed and stood there, still disoriented.

“I have to be somewhere in, like, half an hour, and I’m not ready!”

“Be where?” He turned in a circle, looking for some clothes lying around that he could put on. He grabbed the cargo shorts sitting on top of his hamper and stepped into them, not bothering with underwear.

“Just…somewhere!”

God, she was freaking out and over what? He shoved a hand through his hair.

“I’m wearing your sweatpants home,” she said. “I can’t get into that dress fast enough.”

“Yeah. Fine.” Whatever. He grabbed a T-shirt out of his closet and yanked it on. “What’s the problem, sweetheart? You have an appointment or something?”

“Yeah, or something.”

He shrugged and, still foggy, followed her out of the house and into the early morning coolness. When they got to her place, he said, “Want me to wait and drive you somewhere?”

“No!” She jumped out, holding her clothes and shoes and little purse. “That’s okay. Don’t worry!”

He stared as she ran into her building, then put the Jeep in gear and headed home. He glanced at the clock on his dash. They had slept a little late, but he hadn’t been planning to go into work until later anyway. What the hell did Corey have going on?

She dashed onto the deck of the swimming pool as the lesson was about to start. “Sorry I’m late,” she gasped.

“No problemo,” Tad said, grinning. “Come on in.”

The others were already in the water. Corey slid in, a little more at ease now than the first two lessons.

“So let’s review,” Tad said. “Last week we worked on floats.”

Yes, they had. Corey’s cheeks heated at the memory of her trying to relax enough to float on her back. She’d been so convinced she was going to sink and the water would close over her face and she’d end up breathing it in again, she’d been like a block of wood in the pool. Tad had kept his arms beneath her, supporting her. They’d eventually given up on a back float and started working on the front float, incorporating blowing bubbles.

“This week let’s try a jellyfish float,” Tad said. “This should help you all relax. You just hang in the water, let your arms and legs dangle to the bottom of the pool. Remember, we’re in the shallow end, so you can put your feet down at any time.”

Corey swallowed and marshaled up her courage. It was hard to relax and let her arms and legs dangle when she was so focused on breathing out and blowing bubbles and trying not to panic and accidentally inhale water. She had this fear that she’d blow all the air out of her lungs and then water would go rushing into them.

By the end of the lesson, though, she’d actually floated…and with the water muffling the sounds around her, eyes closed, gently blowing bubbles, arms and legs hanging, it felt strangely relaxing and freeing.

She pushed her feet to the bottom of the pool and came up dripping water, grinning. “I did it!”

Tad gave her a high five. “Coolio, Ms. Fenwick.”

She gave him a look but was still smiling ear to ear.

“Next week we’re going to start working on glides,” he told them as they all climbed out of the pool.

And for the first time, Corey didn’t react with fear but rather with anticipation. Maybe she could actually do this. She showered and changed, grabbed her bag and headed out of the pool. She was crossing the foyer of the fitness complex when she came face-to-face with Matt and Dylan.

Matt frowned at her. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “I just dropped you off at home because you had some important appointment.”

“What are
you
doing here?” she asked instead of answering his question.

“I came to work out. Matt decided to come with me,” Dylan said.

She should have known this was where Dylan worked out, although she never would have thought he’d be there this early in the day. “Why aren’t you at work?” she asked Matt.

He shrugged. “I had nothing urgent going on, so I decided to go in a little later.”

“Oh. Okay, then, cool! See you guys later…” She started to walk past them, but Matt grabbed her arm.

“What’s with the wet hair?” he asked. “What’re you doing here?”

She sighed. “I was swimming.”

“Swimming? You don’t know how to swim.”

“You don’t know how to swim?” Dylan repeated, eyes wide.

Heat swept over her body and her stomach tightened. “I…I’m taking swimming lessons.”

Both guys stared at her for a long moment.

“Swimming lessons,” Dylan said.

Matt’s mouth twitched. She waited for more questions, or some kind of teasing, but he slapped a hand on Dylan’s shoulder and said, “Okay, man, let’s go work out.”

Dylan let Matt give him a little push and they both said, “Bye, Corey,” over their shoulders as they headed to the changing room.

She watched them go, holding her gym bag in both hands in front of her. She knew she was going to hear more about it, but gratitude toward Matt for not embarrassing her rose inside her. With a little huffed laugh, she took a deep breath and turned to go home.

The next weekend Corey loaded her chocolates, including packages of chocolate body paint she’d put together, into her car and drove to the park where other vendors were setting up for the farmers’ market. Fog shrouded the beach and the tops of the tall palm trees that lined the beach walk, and she was glad she’d worn her hoodie as she arranged the glossy black boxes in various sizes. She adjusted the black and white polka-dotted bows on a few of them and then waited for customers. Hopefully the cool, foggy weather didn’t keep them away. She was hoping to sell out.

The day started off a little slowly and she thought about the party she and Matt and Dylan were going to that evening at the Surf Sisters’ beachside home. Parties were always fun, even though tonight’s party was an unofficial going-away party for Dylan, who was set to fly out of San Diego to New York and then Paris Sunday night. She was going to miss him, but she was happy for him that he was getting back to what he loved to do. She’d be excited to watch for his name in the surfing results, to cheer him on from a distance now that she knew him.

Things got busier and she smiled as she looked after customers, took their money and handed over change, explaining the ingredients. “Hazelnut buttercream dipped in seventy percent chocolate. It’s amazing.”

The body paint was pretty popular and selling well. She needed to thank Matt for that idea. She smiled, heat curling inside her at the memory of testing out the new product, remembering Matt so slowly dragging the brush over her skin, carefully painting his design in torturous strokes, then taking his time licking it off, making her burn and tremble. Whew. She let out a soft sigh and looked up to meet the eyes of a customer standing there. Her cheeks heated but she tried to look professional. Then she recognized him as the man who’d ordered the chocolates over the phone and had them delivered to the White Jasmine B&B.

“Hi,” she said pleasantly. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” He smiled, too, hands in the pockets of beige khakis, a loose Nautica windbreaker over his plaid shirt. “How are you?”

“Great! What can I do for you? Are you looking for more chocolate?”

“Yes.” He hesitated.

“I’m sure you didn’t eat all those chocolates yourself,” she said a bit teasingly. “Are you buying gifts? Lots of my customers buy them as corporate gifts, for staff or clients.”

“Yes. Corporate gifts. Sure.” He looked over the selection.

What was his name? Markham. Mr. Markham. “I still have peanut butter cream dipped in forty-three per cent milk chocolate. And these classic dark chocolate ganache layered with liquid maple caramel are very popular.”

“What’s that?” He indicated the body paint.

She couldn’t hesitate. It was business. “Chocolate body paint,” she replied matter-of-factly. “It comes with a brush. This one has raspberry flavor.”

He looked at her and she willed her cheeks not to flame up again. “Body paint? Really?” A faint frown creased his forehead.

“Yes.” She smiled brightly.

Another customer who’d paused beside him looked over at the body paint. “Hey, that’s cool.” The man looked at her. “Have you tried it?”

This other man was younger and the gleam in his eyes made her not want to answer that question. “It’s been tested,” she prevaricated. “It’s safe to use on skin.”

The younger man laughed. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said with a smirk. He eyed her in a way that told her he was imagining her naked with chocolate painted on her.

“That’s inappropriate,” Mr. Markham said to the younger guy. “Apologize.”

Corey blinked. “Uh…it’s okay…”

“No, it’s not okay.” The man glared at the young guy who stammered out an apology and turned and left.

She gave Mr. Markham a look. “You may have lost me a customer.”

“Oh…damn. I didn’t mean…well, hell. I’ll just buy all that body paint.” He reached for his wallet.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said, not moving. “If you want to buy something, buy it because you want it.”

“I do want it. All of it.” His ears got a little red though, as he flipped out some bills. “How much?”

She paused, then looked at the three packages left. “Sixty dollars.”

He handed over three twenties, and she slipped the boxes into a shiny black plastic bag and handed it over. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” He didn’t leave, though. “That guy…does that happen often?”

“No. Actually, this is the first time I’ve sold the body paint. I guess I should have realized something so…well, personal might lead to some comments. But I can handle it.” She gave him a cheery smile.

“You shouldn’t have to handle it.” He scowled. “That guy was a jerk.”

She bit her bottom lip, unsure what to say to that. Then she saw Matt making his way toward her booth through the crowd. Her heart gave a little bump of pleasure. She focused on Mr. Markham again. “Thanks for your concern,” she said. “But really, I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t be alone here selling your stuff,” he said now.

She frowned at him. This was none of his business, and now
he
was making her uncomfortable with his attention. But he was a customer, a pretty good customer, and she didn’t want to be rude. How did she get rid of him without pissing him off? “I’ve been doing it for a long time,” she said, plastering on another cheerful expression. “And really it’s fine. So thanks again, Mr. Markham.” She paused. He didn’t move. Just as Matt arrived, she said, “Goodbye.”

He still didn’t move, just stood there looking at her and a crawly feeling ran up her spine. Was there a full moon or something? She’d never had problems with unwanted attention from guys at the market. Sometimes guys stopped and flirted with her a little, but that was okay, she could handle that. Her eyebrows drew down once again. She looked at Matt, who looked back and forth between her and Mr. Markham.

“Is this guy bothering you?” Matt asked.

Mr. Markham turned to Matt with a frown. “Who are you?” he demanded.

What the…?

“I’m her boyfriend,” Matt said. “If you’ve made your purchase you can move along now.”

Boyfriend? Corey’s mouth dropped open, but she was glad he’d said that, because maybe if this guy thought she had a boyfriend he’d leave. Which was probably exactly why Matt had said it. Gratitude toward Matt rose inside her along with a shudder because, eeeeew, this guy was waaaaay too old for her. God, this had never happened before.

“You’re her boyfriend?” Mr. Markham asked.

“Yeah.” Matt folded his arms across his wide chest, and at that moment she appreciated how well-muscled it was. Well, more than she usually did. He lifted his chin and met Mr. Markham’s gaze.

Mr. Markham looked at him, as if studying him, assessing him.

“Look, buddy, if your business here is done…get lost.” Matt’s voice deepened into a growl.

“Yeah, I’m going,” Mr. Markham finally said, though his feet still didn’t move. He glanced at Corey and she saw a funny expression in his eyes. Oh for God’s sake. Men! First that guy a few minutes ago and now this! And oh Jesus, Matt was making a move toward Mr. Markham like he was going to grab him and throw him on his ass.

“Matt,” she said, throwing out a hand to try to stop him, though there was a table between them. “What are you doing?”