Page 39 of Playing With Fire
The box I have to deliver today requires the hand truck, so it takes me a couple of minutes to get everything set, but by the time I make it to the bottom of the porch stairs, the front door is already open.
Shannon’s black jeans hug her hips and thighs as she leans into the doorframe, raising a coffee cup to her lips, steam rising from the mug. She’s gripping it with both hands, like if she loosens her white knuckles at all, the cup will slip from her grasp and shatter on the stone beneath her feet.
“Hey,” I greet her cautiously, trying to figure out where she stands and what she needs from me.
“Hi.” She blinks slowly, taking me in from head to toe.
“Where do you want this?”
“Are you allowed to put it around back?” she asks.
No.
“I’ll put it wherever you tell me to.” For once in my life, I wasn’t trying to make a double entendre, but it seems I’m incapable of normal conversation around her…especially when she’s wearing a silk, crimson blouse with a small bow that ties at her neck.
Crimson.
I’d told her it was her color, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why she’s wearing it now.
“Let’s go around the side of the house, that way you don’t have to take it up and down any steps.”
I nod, not trusting myself to open my mouth.
When we circle to the back of the house, I’m greeted by an outdoor living space that rivals the indoor living space – at least what I’ve seen from the front door, foyer, and homeoffice.
A large kidney-bean-shaped pool glows blue thanks to the underwater lights visible in the muted gray from the currently overcast skies. A waterfall connects the hot tub at the top to the regular pool down below. The entire patio is done in stone and red brick to match the home’s exterior, and the outdoor kitchen is nicer than the one inside my house. Off to the side of the pool, but not connected, is a koi pond. The water is crystal clear and I can see the large orange fish sitting still on the bottom.
“Wow.” My answer is simple, but it gets the point across.
“Yeah, out of everything, this is probably my favorite space.” She’s looking at it with a wistful look on her face like she misses it, even though she’s standing right in front of it.
Suddenly, my brain is flooded with images of Shannon soaking up the sun in a lounge chair or diving into the pool to cool off. What does she look like when her skin is dripping wet and her suit clings to her body? Images of midnight skinny dipping and pushing into her heat in the water with her back pressed against the edge of the stone dance across my brain as if they have any right to be there.
“Hudson?”
“Sorry, what’d you say?” I shake my head to rid myself of the images, but they’re determined to stay.
“Could you put it over here in front of the couch? It’s a firepit.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
I wheel the hand truck next to the wicker chaise lounge and prepare to slide the box onto the outdoor rug. Dotted along the covered patio are strong oak columns encased in stone making it flow seamlessly with the pool. This portion alone had to have run six figures. It’s the first time I realize maybe her husband was right. I don’t think of myself as poor, but I could never give her all of this.
“Oh, dang, hold on a second, I need to straighten the rug.”She sets her mug down on the stone portion of the column, plants her knees on the couch and leans all the way over the arm to straighten the back corner of the rug, face down, ass up.
I war with whether or not to say anything, but when she’s like that for a full minute, working to pull the rug out from the corner of the couch she’s leaning on, I can’t stay silent.
“Uh, Shannon?” I huff out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of my neck. “If you stay like that much longer, we’re gonna have a problem.” Because I absolutely cannot look away and neither can my dick.
“What?” she asks, peeking back at me over her shoulder, one hand still planted on the ground. It takes her a second, but she finally realizes the position she’s in. “Oh!” She sits up and jumps off the couch immediately. Unfortunately—orfortunately, depending on how you look at it—she loses her balance and I pull her to me in an effort to keep her from spilling onto the hard ground.
The plan backfires though and we both topple over. Thankfully, our fall is softened by the matching loveseat to the chaise lounge she was just bending over. I’m on my back with my right leg planted on the ground, my left leg stretched out in front of me, as Shannon lands on my torso, quickly propping herself up with her elbows on either side of my head.
“This is getting complicated,” I tell her, my eyes locked on hers.Don’t run away. Don’t hide.I can feel her rapid heartbeat pounding through her thin silk shirt.
“It’s been complicated from the start,” she breathes, hovering over me.
Right before my lips find hers, I have one rational thought left. One solitary brain cell dedicated to self-preservation.
