Page 51 of The C*ck Down the Block

He looked at Lulu and Mina. “You two should go on ahead. We’ll see you there.”

They left, giggling all the way out the door. When he turned back to me, I swear he was murmuring, “Cheerios, Cheerios, Cheerios.”

But the moment the door shut behind my friends, he pulled me into his arms and kissed the breath right out of me.

I could have happily kissed him all night and said fuck it to the fundraiser. He left me all woozy and swoony and feeling well-kissed. “Whew, what was that for?”

“Just because I like when you call me your boyfriend.” He rubbed his nose along my jaw, sending all kinds of shivers across my skin. “Do it again.”

“I think I’d better not.” Yeah, that was my voice that was all breathy, and sounding more than a wee bit needy. “I wouldn’t want you to have to throw out all your Cheerios.”

“I’ll buy more. Hell, I’ll buy General Mills if it means I can kiss the rest of that lipstick off your face and mess your hair while I push your skirt up and bend you over the couch—”

“Next time we decide to be more than friends, can you not then leave for almost a week?” I ran my fingers over that bit of scruff on his chin. That was going to feel really interesting rubbing between my thighs later. “But I don’t want to be late, and we have to stop by the library really quick.”

“Fine. But we’re leaving early.”

We were not, because I was in charge of this fundraiser and there wasn’t a chance that I was letting anything go wrong, even if I did want to come home and, uh, bang my boyfriend.

“Lemme just pop out and give Luke and the girls a little treat. I haven’t gotten to spend as much time with them this week, and I think Luke is pouting.” My days this week had been long as hell trying to make sure everything was set and perfect for the fundraiser to happen at the Manniways’.

“I can relate. I was grumpy without you too.”

When we got out to the coop, all three of the hens were in a cozy little circle, but Luke was perched on top of the little structure, facing away. Who knew a rooster could get mad like this? I tossed some treats into the pen but didn’t want to do much more because I could not show up to this party smelling like a chicken.

“Did Luke just huff at you?” Chris frowned at my stroppy rooster. “I didn’t know that was a thing he could do.”

“Told you, he’s big mad.” After this stupid reunion was over, I’d see about getting him a new girlfriend or two.

“Well, I’ll chase him around with some hot sauce and threaten to turn him into dinner tomorrow and see if that perks him up.”

When we got in the car, Chris turned on the music, and maybe my heart melted a little, because this was definitely a Taylor Swift playlist.

“Oh, how was the rest of the shoot?” While we had indeed tried phone sex, which was fun but not half as satisfying as when he was the one making me come, the other nights we were both so tired that we’d just talked for a few minutes before bed.

“Nobody told me that there would be actual mustangs. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a shot when a big ass horse keeps trying to eat your hair?”

“I do not, but it’s nice to know that it isn’t just roosters who like to harass you.”

It was only a couple of minutes to the library, and we parked right in front since it was almost closing time anyway. “I’ll just be a minute. There’s a donation from one of the mom’s I worked with this week who is a travel agent, but I wasn’t able to get into my work email from home to print it out.”

Chris insisted on coming inside with me, but I think he just wanted to stare at my butt while I led him down to the basement where our offices were.

Unfortunately we ran into Karter, who was on closing duty tonight. He got that awestruck look in his eyes that almost every Denverite did when they realized they were face to face with Chris Kingman. Crap. I was going to have to introduce them.

It would have been fine with me if Chris never had to experience Creepy Karter. He’d heard everything about him, of course, but they’d never met.

“Hey, Karter. I’m just here to print something out really quick.”

“Uh-huh.” He said that with his mouth still hanging open and his head tilted back since Chris had a good seven inches on him.

Sigh. “Karter, this is my boyfriend, Chris. Chris, this is Karter, the branch manager.” I’d be damned if I called him my boss.

Chris held out his hand to shake, and it took Karter a full ten seconds to remember his manners and actually take the offered greeting.

I mouthed ‘sorry’ to Chris and bolted over to my desk. Luckily the setup of our cubicles allowed me to keep an eye on that awkwardness while I logged into my desktop. It took me three tries, and in the end, I had to change my password. Weird.

But finally I found the email and sent the fancy looking certificate for a trip to Vegas to the printer we all shared. Which, of course, was all the way on the other side of the cubicles.

---