Page 45 of It's Only Love

Christy felt herself getting happier by the day. Not only was her confidence growing, but she felt more and more like she made peace with her father. She started to let go of everything that had happened and move on, since there was nothing she could do about it now. She spent so long letting it tear her up inside and she couldn’t do this to herself anymore. Doing the house up had definitely helped. She found it therapeutic, tearing the old down and making it new again, it was like she was tearing away the bad memories and replacing them with new happy ones.

Her growing friendships with Beau and Dean were becoming really special to her. She loved their banter and relaxed nature, and they really cared for her too. Thinking about Dean still made her blush, but not in the embarrassed way of lusting after someone so far out of reach. Now it was the flush of constant arousal tainting her cheeks, a state she hadn’t been able to shift since that day together in his office. The more time they spent together the more she realized he genuinely liked her, and wasn’t that a boost for the old ego.

They had loads in common, they both loved soul music, scary movies, and reading. He promised to read her novels now he knew what she wrote, and she thought he would be great to bounce ideas off of. They talked about the crime documentaries they had watched, what they would do if they murdered someone, and how they would totally get away with it, which was definitely starting to freak Beau out.

They had the same sense of humor and loved practical jokes. They had grown closer and sometimes she was convinced she could feel him watching her, but whenever her eyes sought him out, he was always looking away. She felt confused about whether or not he desired her. Yes, they cleared the air and yes, they had the moment in his office, but he pushed her away and hadn’t tried for anything but friendship since then.

However, yesterday when he was on the ladder she heard desire in his voice, had seen it etched across his face. He called her darlin’ and though he tried to hide it, she saw evidence of his arousal. She knew enough about him at this point to know he was an honest person, and couldn’t have been faking the times they were together. She didn’t want to get involved with someone, but she felt drawn to him in a way she couldn’t explain. She was so confused.

She tried to put it out of her mind as she began stripping the ancient wallpaper in the living room that had been on the walls so long, it refused to come off. She was having to use as much force as she could to chip away at it and it was taking so long she asked Dean and Beau to help her. But after ten minutes, Dean was red faced and sweating, then he cursed and stormed out of the house.

“What’s the matter with him?” she asked Beau, wiping the sweat from her brow. Beau smirked at her and gestured towards her chest. She looked down and could see a rather large amount of cleavage on display and glistening from perspiration.

“Oh!” she cried, pulling her tank top up to stop her breasts from trying to escape any further. She realized Dean must have been getting an eyeful with all the jimmying and scraping she was doing. Beau chuckled and leered at her comically, she snorted and shoved him away but was secretly flattered at the attention. They did look great, she had to admit.

Dean returned to the house half an hour later with a new machine that steamed the wallpaper, loosening it, so it would peel off easily and they didn’t have to scrape at it so much.

“But I like doing it this way!” Christy protested as Dean took her scraper away, and shot her a dark look that resulted in heat spreading throughout her body, pooling between her legs.

“Trust me, darlin’, it’s better for both of us if we do it this way,” he growled. “No. More. Jiggling.”

They set about using the steamer despite the heat that plagued them from the soaring temperatures. Christy tried to watch Dean surreptitiously to see if he was noticing her, but he didn’t look her way the rest of the day.

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