CLOVER WOKE UP alone in her bed. Nothing unusual there. She’d been waking up alone in her bed for thirty years.
But she also woke up naked in her bed, which was new. New and not at all unpleasant especially since she had no idea where her panties were, no idea where her T-shirt was and no care in the world to find them. She lay there for a while simply basking in the sense of victory she felt at finally having had sex last night. Mentally she patted herself on the back, shook her own hand and gave herself a high five. Good job, Clo, she told herself as visions from last night ran through her head. Erick was so sexy in bed. She’d always found him handsome but last night she learned the difference between attractive and sexy. The things he said to her...well, if he were here right now, they’d go for it again. But he wasn’t here. Where was that man, anyway?
As she climbed out of bed she groaned a little, glad Erick wasn’t here to see her wince. She was sore all over, inside and out. But such a good kind of sore. It wasn’t painful, really. No, she was just aware of her body like she hadn’t been aware of it before. Her nipples were a little swollen and her vagina felt tender and a little raw. She felt like a woman who’d had good hard sex last night and the best part of it was...she was and she had.
She took a long shower that did a lot to ease her full-body soreness, pulled on her bathrobe and brushed her teeth. When she reached for her ponytail holder and hairbrush she stopped and left her long hair down and damp around her shoulders. With a little makeup on, even she found herself kind of...sexy. A glance at the clock told her it was eight forty and that gave her a very good idea where to find Erick.
Sure enough, there he was on her deck, already at work replacing the rotted boards. She stood at the kitchen window with her coffee cup in hand watching him work. It was the first time she’d seen him doing what he did for a living. With Ruthie he was always laid-back, casual, easygoing as any man raising that smart-ass kid would have to be. But Erick at work was a different man than Erick at rest. His eyes were narrowed in concentration and everything he did was with precision and purpose. He looked good out there on her deck in his jeans and work boots with his hair slicked back from his forehead from the little bit of mist in the air. When he finished nailing down the last board, he stood up and jumped on the deck hard enough the dishes in the cabinets rattled. He moved a foot and jumped again. She smiled. He was testing her entire deck to make sure he hadn’t missed a single rotted or loose board. Thorough. She liked that.
She poured a second cup of coffee, slipped her feet into her boots and walked out the back door to the deck.
“Morning, Mr. Fields,” she said as she held out the cup.
“Morning, Ms. Greene. Hope I didn’t wake you with all my banging,” he said as he took the cup from her hand.
“I think I’d remember if I was woken up with a banging. Too bad I wasn’t.”
He grinned and leaned in to kiss her.
“I taste like coffee,” she said.
“Why do you think I want to kiss you?” he asked.
“Oh, good point.” She let him kiss her and it was so natural and comfortable she could almost forget for a second that last night had been her first time with this man or any man. With Erick it seemed like she’d done this all her life. A good feeling. The opposite of awkward.
“How’s the deck?” she asked.
“Hanging in there,” he said. “Eager to get you back in bed.”
“My deck wants to get me in bed?”
“Oh...you said ‘deck.’”
She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and kissed him again.
“You,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “You make me happy.”
“And you...make me coffee. And if that’s not another word for happy we need to change the thesaurus.” He pulled her even closer and she was grateful for the sudden influx of male body warmth. It couldn’t have been more than fifty out this morning, which was great jeans-and-sweater weather and terrible “nothing but a bathrobe and boots” weather.
“So...” she said. “How is the dick this morning?”
“Needs a good rub down with sandpaper and a fresh coat of wax.”
“That sounds painful.”
“Oh...you didn’t say ‘deck,’ did you?”
“You’re ri-deck-ulous,” she said. Erick groaned and buried his head against her shoulder.
“I fucked a woman last night who makes puns.” He sighed. “What was I thinking?”
“Hmm...if you were thinking what I was thinking, you weren’t thinking.”
He lifted his head and her heart caught in her chest at the sight of his grin.
“Oh, yeah...that is what I wasn’t thinking.”
“I’m going to go in and make a little breakfast. Can you stay and eat or do you have to get to another job?”
“I’m due in Welches at ten but I can probably eat something quick. Do you cook?”
“Not much, but I can do eggs and frozen waffles. And yes, I know to unfreeze them.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ll teach you how to fry buffalo bacon this week. We can have it at Thanksgiving.”
Her head fell back and she exhaled a moan.
“I forgot. I am hosting Thanksgiving this week. Why do I let my family talk me into this stuff?”
“Because you’re too nice for your own good. But don’t worry. After a few days with me, you’ll be as ornery as I am. Or better—as ornery as Ruthie.”
“I would kill to have half her spirit and guts.”
“You seduced me in three hours. You have more spirit than you realize.”
“I seduced you?”
“Completely. And you’re doing it again.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her with a warm coffee kiss. She loved the taste of his tongue and the heat of his mouth. Part of her wished she’d been doing this sort of thing for years. A bigger part of her was glad that she’d waited until Erick to find out how much fun it was to make out in the morning because you just can’t wait until dark.
“Breakfast,” she said, pulling back from the kiss. “Ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes,” he said with a little salute. “I’ll just be over here minding my deck.”
“It’s my deck,” she reminded him as she walked back toward the house.
“This week it sure as hell is,” he called after her.
Clover felt good. Good enough to whistle as she cracked eggs into a bowl, put waffles in her toaster, poured orange juice into glasses. If this was how good she felt after having sex once, how good would she feel after the second time? The third time? Surely there was some law of diminishing returns, otherwise after ten times with Erick she’d probably have to be restrained for her own safety until she came down off the sex high. But she was determined to enjoy it while it lasted. After all, who knew what would happen after Thanksgiving? She didn’t even know what to tell PNW Garden Supply about their offer yet. Her life would seriously change if she said yes to it. She’d have a lot of money, yes. But she’d have to pay a lot of taxes on that money, too. She’d be able to quit working for a couple years, but the nursery closed down, anyway, from the end of November to the end of February. And those were the longest, dullest months of her year every year. If she couldn’t work all year, she’d go out of her mind with boredom. Unless...unless she had something to distract her from her boredom. Like a real boyfriend. Not a fake one just for Thanksgiving. But a real relationship that would let her make up for a lot of lost time... That was tempting...very tempting...
Clover rolled her eyes at herself. One night with Erick and she was already planning their entire life together. Not good. She needed to roll back her expectations. Erick had agreed to play boyfriend through Thanksgiving. On Friday after her family left they’d have a nice long talk about whether they wanted to keep doing this on a more permanent basis. And if he said no, she would be okay. She’d miss him probably. She’d already kind of gotten used to having him around. Still, he had a daughter and he had a business and he might not be looking for anything serious. These things happened. Not the end of the world.
But maybe he’d say yes to a real relationship. And maybe they’d start working their way down that long list of all the different kinds of sex she needed to have...
Clover had just put the scrambled eggs onto the plates when her phone buzzed on the kitchen counter. She glanced at the number—Dad. Oh, goody.
With a sigh she hit the button and put the phone to her ear.
“Hi, Daddy, what’s up?” she asked, putting a smile into her voice.
“Just checking in on my girl. Your mother wanted to know what you want us to bring for dinner Thursday.”
“Oh, the salad, the cranberry sauce, the mashed potatoes and gravy...desserts.”
“So everything?”
“No, not everything. I can do the turkey.”
“You?” Her father sounded skeptical. She didn’t really blame him. “You’re going to cook the turkey?”
Ruthie had said her father could work magic with a Big Green Egg. Might as well let him cook the turkey. It would impress the heck out of her parents.
“Yes, we’ll handle the turkey.”
“We?” her father repeated just as Erick slid the glass deck door open and stepped inside the house. She looked at him and mouthed, “Help,” at him.
“Who is it?” Erick whispered.
Clover muted the phone quickly.
“Dad. I accidentally said ‘we’ would cook the turkey.”
“We can cook the turkey,” he said.
“What do I tell Dad?”
“Let me talk to him,” Erick said.
“What?”
“Just let me talk to him.”
“Okay, if you insist.” Clover unmuted the call. “Dad?”
“Where’d you go?” her father asked.
“Sorry. The phone cut out for a second. You know I live in the middle of nowhere. Here. Erick wants to talk to you.”
“Who is Erick?”
Erick took the phone from her hand and put it to his ear.
“Mr. Greene?” he said, and Clover tensed into a tight vibrating bundle of nerves. “Yeah, this is Erick, Clover’s boyfriend. I hear I get to meet you all on Thursday.”
Erick paused and winked at her.
“Nice to talk to you, too, sir,” Erick said. “No, Clover was kidding. We can handle all the food unless you or your wife have something special you want to bring... The turkey? Yeah, we’re cooking the turkey, too. What do you think? Fifteen-pounder enough for everyone?”
Erick tucked the phone against his shoulder and with his free hands he reached for her bathrobe cord. She swatted his hands away but that didn’t deter him from putting his hands on her waist and pulling her to him. Clover leaned against him, her arms around his back, and listened to her father chattering at Erick.
“Well, we got seven kids coming but only three of them are old enough to put much of a dent in the turkey. Fifteen should be plenty unless you all want to eat leftovers for a week,” her father said.
“I better make some extra,” Erick said. “My daughter will kill me if I don’t. She’s a vegetarian all year except between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.”
“You have a girl, too?’
“Yes, sir. Seventeen. Almost eighteen. God, I’m getting old.”
“We get to meet her, too, this week?”
“She’s with her mom and her stepdad in LA all week.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Swing by Clover’s nursery next week and you’ll meet her. She works for your daughter.”
“That how you two met?”
“That’s how we met. My daughter fixed us up.”
“Good for her. Clover’s a good one. Can you put her back on the phone?” Erick passed back the phone. He looked adorably smug. Already working his charm on her parents.
“Hey, Daddy,” she said. “You and Erick work out the turkey?”
“We did. I like this Erick fellow,” he said. “Even if he is at your house awful early...”
“I’m thirty years old,” she reminded him.
“You might as well be twelve. Until you’re married with kids of your own, you’ll be my little girl.”
“Well, I’m not married and I don’t have kids of my own, and I’m still thirty. I have the birth certificate to prove it.”
“You’ll understand how it feels when you have your own babies. The sooner, the better.”
“Right, the sooner, the better.”
“Tell Erick you’re not getting any younger.”
“Dad, we just started dating. And two seconds ago I was your little girl. Now I’m getting old?”
“You know what I mean, sweetheart.”
Clover sighed as quietly as she could. “Yes, Dad. I know what you mean. I’ll see you all on Thursday.”
“We’re really looking forward to it,” he said.
“You and me both. But can you do me a favor?” she asked. “Don’t tell Mom and Kelly or anybody about Erick. I’ve got a lot to do this week and I don’t want to be on the phone with them for hours on end.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said.
“Thanks, Daddy. Love you. Bye.”
They hung up and Clover sighed again.
“What?” Erick asked as she rested her head on his chest.
“I’m supposed to tell you I’m not getting any younger so you need to hurry up and get me pregnant since I won’t be treated like an adult until I have children. But I’m not supposed to be sleeping with you, either.”
“So I’m supposed to knock you up, but I’m also supposed to do this without having sex with you?”
“Yes.”
“This is going to be difficult. Or not. Got a turkey baster?”
“Welcome to the world of being a woman. We’re not supposed to have sex, but we’re also supposed to have kids. And we wonder why so many women are on Xanax.”
“I’d be swallowing that stuff with a bourbon chaser if I were a woman. Damn.”
“It’s about to get worse,” she said. “Dad can’t keep a secret to save his life.”
“How much worse?”
Clover’s phone started to buzz again. All at once she was receiving a phone call and text messages from both Kelly and her mother with another text message coming in five seconds later from her sister-in-law.
“It’s kind of insulting, isn’t it?” she asked, holding up her phone. The first text message read, Boyfriend??? Oh, my God, it’s about damn time. Finally! I’m so happy! Tell me everything. I can’t believe we get to meet a boyfriend.
Clover shook her head. “It’s the ‘a’ there that really hurts. We get to meet ‘a’ boyfriend, not ‘your’ boyfriend. As if it’s such a huge shock I’d have a boyfriend at all. Thanks, sis. Just the self-esteem boost I needed.”
Erick grimaced as he read the text.
“Pass the Xanax.”
“And the bourbon,” she said as Erick pulled her into his arms. “And to think, I was so happy this morning. Now I have to spend the rest of the day trying to calm down my entire family before they start planning our wedding for us.”
“Or.”
“Or?”
Erick took the phone out of her hand.
“I will teach you one of Ruthie’s secrets for keeping her parents out of her life. It’s a very simple secret and you will benefit from it greatly.”
“What are you doing with my phone?”
“I am...” Erick pushed the button on the top. “Turning it off. Now no one can call you or text you. Or they can but you can’t see the messages until you turn the phone back on again in say...twenty-four hours?”
“That’s brilliant. Why did I never think of that?”
“Because you are a kind and thoughtful daughter who would never ignore your parents’ phone calls. Unlike Ruthie, who once threw her phone into the Zigzag River after her mother called her one too many times that week.”
“You know, the Zigzag isn’t that far from here. You’ll pass right over it on the way to Welches, won’t you?” Clover entertained a brief and lovely vision of Erick throwing her phone out of his truck window and into the white-capped river as he drove over the bridge.
“Lost Lake is closer. But I don’t think you need to do something that drastic. You just need to put this phone up here...” He put the phone on top of her kitchen cabinet where she wouldn’t be able to reach it without a stepladder. “Out of sight, out of mind. No Xanax necessary.”
“I feel better already. Want some breakfast?”
“I do want to eat. Definitely.”
“You sit. I’ll get the waffles out of the toaster.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean I wanted to eat breakfast,” he said.
“Then what—”
Erick wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet.
“Erick...” she said. “What the hell are you—”
“Kitchen-table sex,” he said. “You need it.”
“I need it?”
“Well...don’t you?” he asked. “I would if I were you. Correct me if I’m wrong, but after that phone call and that text message, I’m pretty sure you need your pussy eaten.”
He set her on the edge of the kitchen table and stood between her knees. His hands stroked her thighs and her hips and his mouth massaged her neck.
“Am I wrong?” he asked. “I’ve been wrong before.”
Clover liked this table. It was solid oak and came with two leaves that turned it into a table that could seat eight to ten people. The kids would have their own table, but on Thanksgiving Day all the adults in the family would assemble around this table. This very table Erick had set her on. And he wanted to do that to her on this table? The Thanksgiving table?
Clover grinned.
“No,” she said. “You aren’t wrong.”
“Didn’t think so.”
Erick kissed her on the mouth as he untied her bathrobe cord and pushed the robe off her shoulders. She inhaled sharply as the cool air touched her bare skin. Once more she was aware of her body. As Erick gently caressed her back with his rough fingertips, goose bumps popped up all over her and she shivered the most delicious shivers in his arms. He hadn’t touched her breasts yet and her nipples were already hard. She felt so wicked and wanton leaning back on her hands as Erick kissed her naked neck, her naked shoulders, her naked breasts and stomach and thighs.
“Anyone ever do this to you before?” he asked as he gently put her flat on her back.
“Oral sex? Yes,” she said. “But I was young and too nervous to come. Or maybe I could have and he just quit too soon.”
“I’m not going to quit on you until you tell me to stop. Please...do not tell me to stop.” Erick pressed a long deep kiss into the center of her stomach.
“I won’t,” she said. “I want it.”
“My three favorite words to hear from a woman,” he said while pushing her thighs open. He sat in a chair and pulled her hips closer to the edge of the table. “Tell me what feels good and what doesn’t. Can you do that for me?”
“I can do that,” she said. “For you.”
“Good.” Using his fingers Erick opened her labia wide. “So fucking good...”
She flinched a little as he flicked his tongue over her clitoris. It was such a sudden shock of sensation. He seemed to sense it was too much all at once. He licked her instead the next time, a long slow motion that made her fingers bunch up into fists. His mouth was hot on her and she could feel his warm breath on her most intimate parts, relaxing her, making her hot, making her writhe all at once. She sensed his tongue moving in a sort of spiraling motion, making circles around her clitoris and then dipping inside her. He had her thighs in his large strong hands and she opened her legs wider for him because it felt so good to do it. She realized as she did it that she wanted him to see her, all of her. She couldn’t recall a time she wanted to be looked at by a man. Self-consciousness had kept her closed off and bundled up for her entire adult life. How freeing it felt to simply be naked and unafraid, naked and unashamed.
“You make me feel so good,” she said, and she heard and felt Erick’s soft laugh.
“That’s what I like to hear when my head’s between your thighs.”
She smiled up at the ceiling as he kissed her clitoris again. She knew he thought she just meant he made her body feel good. But that wasn’t all. He made her feel wanted, sexy, adored.
A wave of tenderness washed over her and Clover reached between her legs and put her hand on the back of Erick’s head. His hair was soft and streaked with a few strands of gray. A grown man with life experience. A mature adult man. Scars didn’t bother him. Her lack of experience didn’t bother him. All he cared about was her and her pleasure. Now she knew what she’d been doing wrong in her dating life before Erick. It wasn’t that she’d been dating the wrong men. She hadn’t dated any men at all, only boys. She liked having a real man in her life.
He seemed to sense her need to touch him, to connect. He took her hand and twined their fingers together and rested their joined hands on her bare stomach. Clover relaxed again against the kitchen table and let the pleasure of his mouth on her flow over her and into her and through her. The intensely pleasurable tension built quickly. Clover moved her hips in small pulses against and into Erick’s mouth. He made a sound of approval as if her movements aroused him as much as they aroused her. He released her hand and grabbed her by both thighs, pushing them wider, pushing his tongue deeper into her. Clover found the edge of the table with her fingers and gripped it hard. Inside her stomach and hips, muscles twitched and flinched and tightened. She inhaled and couldn’t exhale. Her head spun and her lungs burned. At last it hit her, her climax, deep inside her. She exhaled, arching on the table, stars dancing in front of her eyes. Somewhere far away she heard Erick chuckling and she knew he was laughing at the intensity of her orgasm. Let him laugh. She’d laugh, too, when she had the energy for it.
Slowly Clover lifted her head off the table and saw Erick wipe his mouth on the back of his hand. He smiled at her and it was the sexiest smile she’d ever seen on any man’s face, and the best part was, she’d caused it.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome. Mind if I...?”
“I want you to,” she said. She laid back flat on the table as Erick opened his pants and slid the tip of his cock up and down the wet, throbbing seam of her body.
“Fuck, that feels good...” Erick said, his eyes closed as he slowly pushed into her. “Are you sore?”
“Only a little.”
“I can be quick.”
“Don’t rush on my account.”
“I might on my account, though.” He took her breasts into his hands and lightly massaged them. She was too spent to do much more than lie there as he thrust into her, but she could watch. Had she ever seen anything this erotic? Erick with his lips parted and his eyes half-closed and his hands cupping and squeezing her breasts as his hips hammered into her. The table creaked under her and she was glad she’d shelled out the money for good solid oak.
Erick lowered his head and licked and bit her neck. He whispered things in her ear again, things like, “Fuck, your pussy feels so good wrapped around my cock,” and various other wildly erotic musings. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let him pull her into a sitting position at the edge of the table. With his hands on her hips and her hands on his shoulders, he let go, fucking her with long deep strokes as she held her legs up and open for him. It was dirty. That’s the only word she could think of to describe how it felt, how it must have looked. It was dirty and she loved it. He squeezed her hips hard and practically lifted her off the table when he came with a grunt. She dug her fingernails into the backs of his shoulders as he released inside her.
“That...” he said when he regained his breath. “Was...whew.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Erick laughed again and she loved that he laughed before sex, during sex and after sex. It made her feel so comfortable. He cupped her breast in his hand and kissed her on the mouth again. She tasted herself for the first time and was surprised by how sexy it was to know herself like that.
Slowly he pulled out of her and Clover clamped her legs shut tight while he grabbed a towel to clean them both off.
“Sex is messier than I realized,” she said.
“My fault. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I like it.”
“You like it?” He sounded skeptical.
“Have you ever seen me wearing gardening gloves? Ever?” she asked.
“Now that you mention it...no.”
“I like getting a little dirty,” she said with a smile. “Makes you feel alive, close to nature. Real life isn’t neat and tidy.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear anything you said after the part about liking to get a little dirty. It put images in my head.”
“I’m sure you’ll tell me all about them eventually.”
He laughed. “You know me already. I’d tell you all about them right now except I have to get to Welches.”
She looked past him at the clock on the microwave.
“Oh, no, I made you late.”
“It’s okay,” he said as he straightened his clothes and pulled on his jacket. “I’m a contractor, remember? Nobody expects me to be on time.”
“Good point.”
Clover slid off the table and tied her robe around her waist again, ran a hand through her hair. She had sex hair after all that. She’d never had sex hair before. So many firsts and all of them good. Maybe she’d survive Thanksgiving week, after all.
“I’ll probably be working until six tonight. I’ll swing by home and take a shower, be here around seven. We can eat in or go out and damn. What am I doing? You haven’t even invited me back.”
“Will you please come back this evening and stay the night again?”
“I don’t know. I’m pretty busy.”
She flicked the tip of his nose.
“Ow. I deserved that,” he said.
“You did. So you’ll be back around seven tonight and then we’ll have dinner?”
“Yes, ma’am. If you change your mind or something comes up, text me. You have my number?”
“I don’t.” Clover put her hand on her forehead. “I slept with a man and I don’t even have his phone number. Oh, my God, I have just done everything my mother told me never to do.”
“It’s fun, right?”
“So much fun.”
“We skipped a few steps. No big deal. We’re just overachievers. Tell me your number and I’ll text you mine.”
“You turned off my phone and threw it on top of the cabinet.”
“Okay,” he said. “Well, then, I guess I’ll be back tonight and you can’t change your mind.”
“Not planning on it. But here’s my number, anyway. If I know me, and I do, I’ll get my phone back before you’ve made it to Welches.”
She told him her number and he programmed it in his phone.
“I just sent you a text message that is nothing but the penis emoji.”
“There’s a penis emoji?”
“It’s actually an eggplant but it’s the best we have. Now we’re caught up,” he said. “I have your number and you have mine. We have plans for this evening. We are doing great at being a very healthy fake couple. You have a great day, and I’ll see you tonight. Preferably naked.”
He kissed her on the mouth and she was surprised by how quickly the kiss ended. It was a goodbye kiss, a simple one, and she liked it. Why did she like such a quick kiss? she wondered. Erick got into his truck and pulled out of her driveway. Because it made her feel like a real girlfriend, being kissed like that. That’s how her parents kissed good-night when one was heading to bed before the other. It’s how her brother, Hunter, kissed his wife goodbye before he left for work. It was a quick kiss because real couples could do that sort of thing and they could do that sort of thing because they knew they’d be together again soon and then they could kiss as long and as hard as they wanted.
Real couples kissed like that. But she and Erick weren’t a real couple. He’d even called them a “fake couple.” A “healthy fake couple” but still a fake couple. Yesterday she would have been fine with that. Yesterday she’d never had sex. Yesterday already felt like a million years ago.
This week just kept getting more and more complicated. Not only did she have to host her family for Thanksgiving and decide if she would sell her business, now she had a much more pressing engagement for this week—she had to figure out how to turn Erick from a fake boyfriend into a real boyfriend.
But not to make her parents happy and not to shut her siblings up, but for one reason and one reason only.
The man was so damn sexy.