Page 9 of Cody

I wasn’t exclusive to any woman, and if I fucked one more than once, I always made that very clear. Hell, I’d made that very clear to Evelyn on several occasions when I’d sensed that she was starting to forget what our arrangement was. And that was on me. I would have to make sure I didn’t get into that situation again.

Of all the women I’d gotten involved with, Evelyn had lasted the longest. It was more because of convenience than anything else. I was too lazy to seek out someone else, and she lived close by. I’d felt guilt breaking it off with her after that hot blowjob the night before, but she hadn’t taken it as hard as I’d thought she would. And that worried me. Evelyn had a temper, and she showed it when she was pissed. Her mundane reaction made me wonder what I might have to look forward to.

The first thing my gaze fell on when I reached the back of Dotty’s house was the stack of cut lumber and the dented metal toolbox. The case on the ground next to it contained the saw that I would need. King had told me that some of the boards needed to be replaced, and I wondered if he’d marked them. I opened the screen door and stepped up onto the porch to check it out.

I stood there looking around for a minute, taking in the overall condition of the porch. It looked years older than the rest of the house. The wood was dark and weathered, giving it the appearance of being rotten. The screen appeared rusty in some places, and there were holes where the grill had obviously melted it. The furniture was filthy and outdated.

I glanced up at the ceiling fan Dotty wanted replaced and snorted. It was tilted, and two blades were missing. I shook my head. In my opinion, replacing the rotten wood would just make the place look worse. What she needed was a whole new porch. She wasn’t going to be happy with the finished results, I knew it in my gut.

I dug out my phone and called King.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’m at Dotty’s. Did you even look at her porch when you dropped shit off?” Even I could hear the disgust in my voice.

“I had Simpson drop stuff off, so that would be a no. Why, is it bad?”

Simpson was the kid who ran errands for the crew and made supply runs. I released a frustrated breath. “She’s not going to be happy with a patch job, man. The whole porch is a disaster.”

“What are you suggesting?” I could hear the frown in King’s voice.

“I’m not suggesting anything. I’ll do what she wants done, but if it were left up to me I’d bulldoze over the whole thing and start from scratch.”

“Is she there?”

“Nope.” I glanced over the spacious back yard. It wasn’t fenced in, but a row of trees on all three sides created a natural one. “Her daughter is, though.”

“Alina’s back? I heard she was coming home. Tell her what you think and have Dotty get back to you.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to remind King that he was the one who’d taken on the job. I had enough work to keep busy at my own place. I didn’t mind passing on a message, but if Dotty decided on a new porch, she would have to make other arrangements. I really didn’t have the time to do it myself.

“Will do,” I said, before hanging up. A movement drew my attention to where Alina was drawing back the drapes that hung in front of the sliding glass doors. Damn, she hadn’t changed yet, and my eyes ate her up where her nightgown climbed to expose more of her shapely legs.

Our eyes met and, in an instant, every filthy thing I wanted to do to her and every filthy thing I wanted her to do to me flashed through my mind. I had to get out of there. I knew I should just leave and call Dotty on the phone. But I didn’t. I walked over to the door and motioned Alina to open it.

I heard her undo the lock and then she slowly slid open the door. I was a fool if I thought the screen door between us was enough to keep me from her. As soon as I caught a whiff of her enticing scent, I slid the screen door out of my way so violently that it came off the track. Alina caught her breath and stepped back as I entered the house as if I had every right to do so.

Suddenly the air between us was electrified, and I was acting on pure fucking lust.

I walked until her back was up against the wall. She gasped at the impact, her lips parting. The pupils in her startled eyes dilated. The warm color filling her cheeks made me wonder if her nipples were the same color. I watched her little pink tongue come out to run across her bottom lip, and that’s when something inside me snapped.

I grabbed her and swung her around so that she was facing the wall, reveling in her gasp of shock—or was it excitement? I then dragged her arms up above her head, placing her palms flat against the wall, and leaned my weight against her.

“Don’t be scared,” I whispered into her ear, nuzzling her silky skin and inhaling deeply.

“I’m not.” Her full-body shiver contradicted her words.

I ran my nose up and down the side of her neck, sucking in another deep breath. “I haven’t been able to get you off my fucking mind since yesterday,” I confessed in a low rasp. “Even while I let another woman go down on me, you were the one I was thinking of.” I wanted Alina to know what kind of bastard I was.

I wanted to scare her away.

I felt the change come over her as the words left my mouth. As her body stiffened against me and she made a slight movement to pull away, I tightened my hands around her slender wrists and leaned in closer, trapping her with my body. Her breathing hitched up. She wanted to be angry, but I could tell she was turned on.

“Nice,” she finally said, the disillusionment evident in her tone. “Why are you telling me this?”

There was no way she was jealous. We had no history between us. Yet I detected the bitterness in her tone.

“Because I want you to know I’m attracted to you, like I think you’re attracted to me. I felt it when we met, and you did too, so don’t bother denying it. If anything happens between us, I don’t want you to get your hopes up that it will lead to anything. I’ll fuck you if you let me. But I’m not a one-woman man. Never have been.”

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