Wild Man

Chapter Six Drawback Cancelled

“Fuck,” I heard muttered and my eyes drifted open to see Brock’s tee-covered chest.

We were still tangled together on the couch. Apparently we fell asleep there because early morning sun was shining through the blinds.

I also knew that it was morning because I could hear Fiona Apple singing “Fast as You Can” coming from my bedroom and I knew my alarm had gone off.

“Damn,” I mumbled, shifting and preparing to push up, getting a knee underneath me and a hand in the cushion when suddenly two strong arms locked around me, I found my soft body colliding with Brock’s hard one, his hand slid up into my hair and it guided my mouth to his.

Then he kissed me, long, sweet, deep and wet.

My toes curled, my belly got warm and my body melted into his as one of my hands slid up his neck into his hair curling around the back and holding on.

When he broke the kiss, my head lifted away an inch, my eyes lazily opened and I heard Fiona Apple was getting way louder (and I didn’t care).

“You passed out before we got to the fun stuff, babe,” Brock informed me in a deep, sexy, sleepy, rough whisper.

“I did?” I asked.

“Yeah,” I watched his mouth grin, “right in the middle of talkin’ you just faded away.”

Crap.

How embarrassing.

I stared in his sexy, sleepy eyes and bit my lip.

Brock’s eyes dropped to my mouth.

Then I found myself on my back in the couch, Brock on top and he was kissing me again, longer, sweeter, deeper, wetter and he added some pretty freaking great hand action.

Mm. It felt nice waking up this way.

Fiona quit singing “Fast as You Can” and “Get Gone” started sounding loud from my adamant alarm clock that was a fancy one where you could shove in an MP3 and it woke you soft and nice with music you liked but the longer you let it play, the louder it got.

And we’d let it play for a long time and Fiona’s changing tempo in “Get Gone” from sweet and melodious to pissed off and pounding was filling the house so much even Brock’s fantastic kisses couldn’t block it out.

Clearly mine couldn’t block it out for Brock either since his mouth broke from mine and he muttered, “Fuck, babe, sorry but I gotta turn that shit off.”

“Fiona Apple isn’t shit,” I told him, he gave me a look then knifed off me and prowled to my bedroom.

I watched his ass as he went thinking it would not be good if that look meant he didn’t like Fiona because I loved Fiona. It wasn’t like I played her twenty-four, seven but she got a lot of airtime in Tess O’Hara’s house.

No, that wasn’t entirely true. I was thinking about Brock and Fiona Apple but mostly I was thinking about how great his ass looked in his faded jeans.

Once I quit thinking of this (around about the time he disappeared), I looked around for my glasses, saw Brock had taken them off and put them on the table at the side of the sofa, I nabbed them, slipped them on my nose, got up and walked to the kitchen.

I was at the sink filling the coffeepot with water when he made it into the kitchen.

It took a bit of effort but I didn’t drop the glass pot into my ceramic sink when I saw a smokin’ hot, clothes disheveled, usually sexy, unruly-haired now sexier, unrulier-haired (due to sleep and my hands running through it), heavy-eyed Brock Lucas saunter into my kitchen.

Whoa.

I’d never woken up with Brock but just looking at him in the morning was nearly as good as one of his kisses.

Nearly.

I turned off the water and moved to the coffeemaker covering this reaction by asking, “Do you not like Fiona Apple?”

His response was, “Is this a deal breaker for you?”

I’d flipped up the top of the coffeemaker and turned to him while I poured the water in seeing he was preparing to open the fridge.

That was when I said, “I’ll take that as a no.”

He stood, fingers curled around the fridge’s door handle and his eyes leveled on me.

“Babe, I listen to Credence, the Eagles, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Thorogood, shit like that and pretty much anything country if a chick ain’t singin’ it. Does that sound like a man who’d like Fiona Apple?”

“No,” I replied. “It sounds like a man in dire need of a crash course in three decades of music. The boys are back from Vietnam, Brock, follow me into the new millennium.”

He grinned at me and muttered, “Smartass,” before he opened the fridge door and stuck his head into it.

I was feeling warm gushiness in my belly due to his grin and seeing his head stuck in my fridge when I heard my cell ring.

I shoved the coffeepot under the coffeemaker and moved to my purse on the kitchen counter wondering who was calling me at that ungodly hour and why. Then I pulled out my phone, looked at the display and saw it was Martha.

Damn.

I hit the button on the screen to take the call and put it to my ear.

“Hey, honey,” I greeted. “What’s up?”

“His filthy, rusted, beat up, in desperate need of a trade up truck is still in front of your house, that’s what’s up,” was Martha’s greeting and my eyes moved out the kitchen doorframe toward the front window which was still covered by closed blinds.

Then I asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because I swung by your place on my way to work to check and see how crazy, stupid you’re being with a smokin’ hot guy and I found out you’re being off-the-charts crazy, stupid with a smokin’ hot guy.”

“Martha!” I snapped.

“Am I wrong or did his truck not start last night and he hitched a ride home?” she asked.

My eyes went to the microwave then they went to the kitchen counter. “I cannot believe you. You are the one who’s crazy. First, you don’t leave for work for an hour and second, my house is thirty minutes out of your way to get to work.”

“I am committed to the mission of stopping you from making another very bad mistake,”

she returned.

I heard the fridge close but I didn’t need to hear it to be very aware that Brock was in the room and he could hear every word.

“I can’t talk about this now,” I told her. “Come by the bakery tonight after work. We’ll have a cupcake and a chat.”

“Girl, I’m single and my best friend just dropped ten pounds and got a three hundred dollar hairstyle. There is no way I’m eating one of your cupcakes because eating one means eating four and I don’t need those cupcakes on my fat ass when I’m out on the prowl with you. No one looked at me before, what with you and your bodacious ta-ta’s and the look on your face that says to all comers, ‘Isn’t it sweet, the whole world is like Disneyland!’ I eat your cupcakes which never fail to settle on my ass, I’ll become invisible.”

“That isn’t true,” I told her.

“Which part?” she shot back.

“All of it,” I answered instantly.

“Girl, wake… up. ”

I sighed. Then my eyes moved to Brock to see him, hips against the counter, open jug of milk in his hand and I was pretty certain I missed him drinking straight from it.

A drawback.

He grinned at me and I felt the sweet hum in the air, saw his eyes dancing and knew he was grinning in order not to burst out laughing.

Okay, cancel drawback. He could drink straight from the milk jug all he wanted as long as he filled my kitchen with that great vibe and grinned at me while looking all morning hot guy.

“Hello!” Martha snapped in my ear and I jerked my eyes away from Brock.

“I’m here,” I told her.

“Ohmigod, he’s right there muddling your head,” she muttered.

She wasn’t wrong about that.

Time to get serious.

“Martha, really, honey, we need to talk.”

“Shit.” She was still muttering.

“It’s important,” I whispered and felt the amused Brock vibe flatten but the kitchen filled with warmth.

Martha heard my tone, read it and immediately gave in. “All right but we’re not meeting at the bakery for cupcakes. You’re coming over and I’m making salad.”

I blinked at the counter. “You’re making salad?”

“I’m making salad.”

“Honey, the last time I had dinner at your house, you fried celery.”

The warmth in the room remained but the hum came back and it was heralded in by Brock roaring with laughter.

My eyes cut to him and I bugged them out but he ignored my hint, kept laughing and did it shaking his head.

“I hear he found that amusing,” Martha noted irritably.

I looked away from Brock and pointed out, “Martha, babe, you fried celery. Anyone would find that amusing.”

“I’m an experimental chef,” she fired back.

This was true. But she was not an altogether successful one.

I sighed again.

Then I suggested, “How about you come over here and I’ll make salads.”

“Will smokin’ hot guy be there?”

“His name is Brock,” I whispered.

“Will smokin’ hot but bad for you Brock be there?” she amended.

“I don’t know,” I told her the truth. “But what I have to say won’t wait and he knows about it anyway so if he is, you’ll deal. If he isn’t, he isn’t. Yeah?”

Silence.

Then, “So this isn’t about him?”

“No, it isn’t. It’s about something I should have told you awhile ago but I didn’t and I need to…” My eyes slid to Brock and saw his were on me as I saw he was moving toward me. Then he made it to me. Then his arm wrapped around my belly, the front of his body hit the back of mine, I felt his heat then I felt his face in my neck. Only then did I continue, “I need to get rid of it so it’s time to tell you about it.”

Straight off the bat, she whispered her guess, “Damian.”

That’s when I knew she knew or she might not actually know but she sensed there were deeper issues at play but she backed off and let me deal with them and when I stuck to my guns and got shot of my ex-husband without sinking into the depths of despair, she gave me that play.

“Yes,” I whispered back.

Brock’s arm gave me a squeeze.

I closed my eyes.

“All right, babe, I’ll be there at seven.”

“Martha?” I called.

“Yeah, Tess,” she answered.

“Love you, honey.”

“Love you too, babe.”

“But, you keep stalking me, that love with die,” I warned on a tease.

“Whatever,” she muttered, knowing it was a tease then disconnected.

I hit the screen to end call and dropped my phone on the counter. When I did this, Brock turned me so we were face to face and both his arms were around me.

“Not my biggest fan,” he muttered but he didn’t appear the least broken up about it.

“You want to hang with me, you might want to put some work into that,” I suggested.

“Right,” he replied then said, “No, babe. I’ll tell you now, she don’t like me, she don’t like me and I don’t give a fuck.”

Hm. Another drawback.

“She’s my best friend,” I reminded him.

“If she is, she’ll come to see what’s good for you and she’ll sort her shit out. If she’s a different kind of woman, she won’t. Instead, she’ll see green and won’t clue in that men do not want high maintenance drama queens so much they steer well clear and until she shifts that shit outta her life, it’s gonna be a lonely one. Unlike her friend who sees a man drinking outta her milk jug, processes that it’s highly unlikely she’s gonna break him of that habit seein’ as he’s forty-five and still does it and has since he was a kid, lets it go and moves on all in the expanse of about a second instead of throwing a shit fit about it which gets her nowhere, is a waste of energy and leaves both involved feeling like garbage.”

Well, I had to admit, all that was interesting and insightful and weirdly mature.

Still.

“Um… well, now that we’re on that subject, it’s somewhat unhygienic for you to drink out of the milk jug.”

“Babe, I had my tongue in your mouth for ten minutes this morning. How’s that any different?”

I tipped my head to the side while considering this point.

Then I shared, “Your point holds merit.”

He burst out laughing and in the middle of it, buried his face in my neck so when he was done he could kiss me there.

This was nice as in way nice.

He used to do that all the time too.

And I’d missed it.

Then his head came up and his eyes captured mine.

“You all right with me jumpin’ in the shower before I head out?”

Brock naked in my shower and all the delightful visions that would generate that I could pull out and turn over in my head anytime I wanted?

Uh…

Yeah!

“Sure,” I said.

His mouth hitched up on one side and I liked that too.

Then his semi-smile faded, his arms squeezed and he asked, “You want me here for salad?”

“Do you want to be here for salad?” I asked back.

“What I want is for you to tell me what you want,” he replied.

I thought about this.

Then I said hesitantly, “Maybe not.”

“Right,” he muttered.

“It’s not that I –” I hastened to add but he cut me off with another arm squeeze and he dipped his face close.

“Baby, it’s cool. I’ll show tonight around the same time as I showed last night. Good?”

I nodded.

“Tomorrow, no plans with your girls. Tomorrow night is mine,” he declared.

My belly got warm and gushy and I nodded again.

He grinned and muttered again, “Right.”

Then he dropped his head more, touched his mouth to mine briefly and murmured,

“Shower,” against my lips.

A thrill slid up my spine.

Brock let me go and sauntered out of the room.

I stared at the coffeemaker and smiled when I heard the shower go on in the bathroom.

Then I made coffee.

* * * * *

An hour and a half later, I was sitting in my car staring at the side of my bakery, my phone in my hand, deliberating.

I had never played games with Brock. Never. Not from the very beginning.

I took one look at him, liked what I saw a whole lot and the minute he showed interest, I showed it back and never veered from that path.

I did this because, since I saw it and all the times I saw it since, the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding when Ian asked Toula out and she immediately answered yes, no games, no subterfuge, exposing straight out she was not only interested but the idea of spending time with him excited her, I thought that was the sweetest thing I ever saw.

And I also did this because I was me.

So I was sitting in my car with my phone in my hand thinking that what Brock said was right. What he and I had had been fucked and for three months it fucked with my head.

But seven months ago, when he brought me home after our first date and kissed me in his pickup and that kiss lasted half an hour (this is no joke) and he finally tore his mouth from mine, shoved his face in my neck and growled, “Fuck, ” against my skin with his strong arms tight around me, I knew what we had was real, it had started good and it was only going to get better.

Like Toula and Ian knew in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

That had been what Brock was talking about in my kitchen yesterday. That was what he meant when he said I knew the exact second I stopped being someone he was investigating and started being someone who might grow to mean something to him.

And I did know and that was the exact second I knew.

And last night he’d proved that what I felt in that second was no lie.

And playing games hadn’t got me that.

And playing games didn’t bring it back.

I got it and, being only who I was with him, I kept it.

So I touched the screen on my phone, went to favorites and my fingertip touched the word

“Slim” (I’d changed it, obviously).

Then I put the phone to my ear.

It rang twice before I heard, “Yeah, babe.”

“Hey,” I replied.

“Everything cool?” he asked.

“Um… I need to tell you something,” I told him.

Pause then, “I’m listening, Tess.”

I bit my lip.

Then I shared, “The reason I don’t really care about you drinking from the milk jug isn’t because it’s debatably ridiculous the reasons a woman doesn’t like a man drinking from a milk jug. It’s because I don’t much care what you do because I like you in my kitchen.”

This was met with silence.

I held my breath.

Then I got more silence.

That was when I considered maybe not letting it all hang out anymore.

Then I heard Brock ask, “Debatably ridiculous?”

The tightness forming in my chest released and I felt my lips form a smile as my eyes closed.

Then I opened them and said, “I will grant that just you drinking from it isn’t all that bad.

But we didn’t get into other options, say, should you be eating cookies or cake and you get backwash into the milk. That’s gross. No one wants to drink someone else’s backwash, even if it’s cookie or cake backwash. This is where it becomes a gray area.”

An attractive, low chuckle sounded in my ear through which I also heard, “Babe.”

“Just saying,” I said.

“Noted,” Brock replied.

“Okay, I have cakes to bake.”

“All right, darlin’, and I got the hint your girl is avoiding your cupcakes but your man is not so if you bring some home tonight, they will not go unappreciated.”

“Will you drink milk out of a glass when you eat them?”

Another attractive, low chuckle sounded through which I heard, “We’ll see how it goes.”

“Right,” I whispered.

“Go bake cakes.”

“Okay, later honey.”

“Later, babe.”

Then I disconnected.

Then I smiled

Then I exited my car, entered my bakery and commenced baking cakes.