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—Banks—
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I woke with my hand running up and down my dick, hard as a rock, then falling headlong into the daylight fantasy of fucking Simone after dreaming of doing exactly that.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’d become acquainted with the many sides of Simone, and while her smile was my favorite part about her, yesterday had been trumped by the desire in her eyes and the shortening of her breath at my barest touch.
She filled my thoughts in the hours between groaning her name before rolling from bed that morning and climbing into my truck that afternoon.
Arriving at her place, the ever-tightening belt around my chest wrenched firmer as I knocked on the cottage door. I inhaled and sharply puffed it out to relieve the tension, all while trying to distract myself.
Simone answered the door, rosy-cheeked and equally as breathless. Her smile met her eyes as she greeted me. “Hey.”
I grinned and adjusted my cap. “Mornin’.”
“How did last night go?” she asked while stepping aside and inviting me inside. “Do you want something to drink before we leave?”
I casually strolled in as if I’d done it a thousand times since she moved in. “I’m good, thanks. As for last night, it wasn’t great. My heart is breaking for Mom.”
Simone grimaced while gathering her belongings. “Had she heard already, or did you have to tell her?”
My body vibrated with excess sadness. “She’d heard. News travels fast ’round here. She’d passed the shock and crying stage by the time I arrived and was on to the drinking her sorrows phase.”
Simone’s eyes cut to mine and held worry. “Oh no. How is she today?”
I nodded slowly. “She’s okay, considering everything she’s trying to process. How was your night?” I asked out of the need to change the subject.
The blush on Simone’s cheeks reappeared, and I swear the subtle smirk held a secret. “It was okay... Nothing special.”
“Did you—” I cut off and cleared my throat, feeling awkward to ask but wanted to check on her welfare after yesterday.
The awkwardness intensified with Simone’s blush and her eyes grew round in horror. “Did I what?” she hissed.
“You know.” I flicked my hand in her general direction. “Do it.”
Her face burned brighter. So bright I felt my body temperature rise in response, though I wasn’t sure why.
Simone open and closed her mouth, making incredulous scoffing noises. “I can’t believe you’d ask me that! That’s straight-up rude!”
The blood drained from my face. “I’m sorry! I wanted to ask but didn’t want to upset you.”
She slammed her handbag onto the small hallway table. “How often I masturbate is none of your fucking business, Banks!”
A choked laugh tangled in my throat and shock spluttered from my open mouth. I held up my hands as hilarity took over, made worse by Simone snapping her hands onto her hips and glaring.
Placating her was fruitless. “I wasn’t asking about your self-pleasuring habits. I was asking about your goddamn arm!” I wheezed through my laughter.
Simone’s pressed both hands to her blazing cheeks. “Oh my god! You tricked me!”
“I thought we were on the same page!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands wide.
Her hands pressed harder. “I’m beyond mortified!”
“Don’t be, but now I definitely want to know more about your other activities...”
“Banks!” The shout was accompanied by a playful slap to my bicep.
I full-on belly laughed until Simone laughed with me. “Seriously, I can’t even look you in the eye.”
With a shit-eating grin, I took it a step further. “Never underrate eye contact, babe.”
“Banks, stop! Oh my god, I am dying!” she cried.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I rushed out and took a deep breath to compose myself. “Okay. I’m good now. Are you good?”
Her eyes narrowed a fraction. “I’m good.”
“And your arm?”
She thrust it out. “Good and bad.”
The smile immediately dropped from my face when I saw a fresh blade track. I had her arm tenderly cradled in my hands a beat later, searching her face with concern.
“This is because of me, isn’t it? I pushed you too far yesterday.”
Simone vibrated under my touch. She shook her head and dropped her attention to her arm. “You didn’t. This was me just...” She inhaled a deep breath, then puffed it out on a sharp exhale. “I needed a reality check,” she stated simply.
“About what?” I turned her arm back and forth, examining the combination of cuts to ensure none of them showed signs of infection.
A beat of silence came before she murmured, “About needing to protect my heart instead of getting too close to... people.”
My eyes flicked to hers and held. I had to force my fingers to not tighten.
“You,” she whispered, answering my unvoiced question.
I shifted on my feet, unsure of whether to pull away or step closer. “Sometimes we don’t get to choose who we get close to. Sometimes we just have to trust that it happens for the right reasons,” I murmured.
The change in Simone since she agreed to give me one week gave me hope. Hope of her letting me in and allowing me to be more. It had become less about proving to her that she didn’t need her list and more about genuinely wanting to spend as much time with her as I could.
Her focus dropped from my eyes to my mouth, then flicked up again. I held my breath, not daring to move a muscle as I waited. For what, exactly? I had no idea. Direction, maybe. For her to make the first move. An excuse why I needed to back the fuck off and get my head straight, because if I didn’t, I’d end up falling further for the girl who was terrified to fall with me.
“Why me?” Simone whispered.
My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I’ve questioned it many times over, but it just feels like you belong with me. I know it in my heart.”
Tears glistened in her eyes, and she surprised me by nodding. “Okay.”
I straightened a little. “Okay? That’s all?”
A smile played on her mouth. “Yeah. For the moment. I like that you’re honest with me. Promise that will never change.”
I scoffed. “My honesty hasn’t changed in thirty-three years, so it ain’t changing now.”
The urge to wrap her in my arms came out of nowhere and took over my movements. I had her gathered against my chest and buried my nose into her hair before either of us could change the outcome.
I hummed. “You smell edible.”
“Strawberry shampoo and conditioner.”
“Yum. Ready for today?”
Simone pulled back enough to look up at me from under her long, dark lashes. Lord give me strength; I wanted to kiss her so badly.
“What are we doing?”
We. That sounded mighty damn fine to my ears.
“Somethin’ a bit different.” I grinned when her eyes narrowed.
She extracted herself from my arms and regathered her bag and keys. “What type of different? Am I dressed appropriately?”
My eyes skimmed down the length of her body, right to her little ankles sitting pretty just above her canvas shoes.
I managed one gruff word around my dry tongue. “Yep.”
“Sweet. Let’s go.”
Her movement snapped me back to clarity, and I adjusted my cap. “Actually, no, sorry, I was distracted. Do you have jeans or leggings or something full length?”
She pursed her lips and looked down her body. Her knees angled inward a little, making me grin behind the hand I dragged over my mouth. The tiny shorts simply wouldn’t do for what I had planned for today.
Simone looked back at me. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. You’ll need your legs protected.”
Her eyes narrowed as she backed up a pace. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Rocking forward on the balls of my feet, I tucked my hands into the front pockets of my jeans and grinned. “I actually think you’re going to love it. We both will.”
“Uh huh,” Simone threw over her shoulder as she retreated to her bedroom.
I took a step forward, then ground to a halt. It seemed natural to follow her, yet I was hyperaware of how easily and often I overstepped my mark. Boundaries, I reminded myself.
I busied myself in the living room while waiting for Simone to change. Practically nothing had changed since old Ms. Alden moved out: same furniture, decor, ornaments. Even the chain-driven grandmother clock mounted on the wall hadn’t changed time since I was last here with Leif. He had plans to keep the cottage empty and renovate it after the bungalow next door but had a change of heart after hearing how many women needed a place to stay when their circumstances weren’t great. Over the last year and a half, there had been a few occupants, with Simone being the latest renter approved by the property manager.
I stared at the frozen clock until Simone arrived in the doorway. “Better?”
My attention cut to her legs. I ran one hand over my grin and shook my head.
“What’s wrong now?” she snapped.
I met her eyes from under the bill of my cap. “Absolutely nothin’. Nothin’ at all.”
She frowned. “Then why’s your voice gone weird?”
A blurted laugh escaped before I could stop it. “You can’t be that oblivious, surely?”
“About what?” She looked down her body, then back to me. “I literally can’t see anything wrong.”
“There’s nothin’ wrong, new girl.”
“Then wh—”
“You look hot! Okay!” I threw my hands up. “There, I said it. I can’t fucking help that I find you crazy attractive and—”
Simone interrupted my rant by yelling my name. “Banks!”
“What!”
She quirked a tiny smile that touched my heart as if she’d gently pressed it with her index finger.
“Thanks,” she said simply, while I tried to breathe around the knots in my chest.
Thrown by the reaction I hadn’t expected, I exhaled and awkwardly adjusted my cap. “Uh... you’re welcome, I guess.”
Our gazes locked, and I swallowed hard. All straight-thinking became scrambled with Simone near. The harder I stared, the more she shifted under my gaze. Eventually, she tucked a non-existent strand of hair behind her ear and looked at me from under her eyelashes.
“Should we get going?”
I blinked as if I hadn’t heard her murmured question, then cleared my throat. “We should. After you.”
She shook her head. “After you. I need to lock the door.”
“Oh.” I sheepishly side-stepped past her, awkward as fuck and kicking myself on the inside for being so painfully amateur.
Simone snickered as I waited for her to lock up, then fell in step as we walked down the garden path.
She glanced at me when we approached my truck. “No Pepin today?”
I smirked. “Not where we’re going; it’s adults only today.”
Her eyes sparkled before she slid a pair of dark sunglasses on. “And yet you asked me to wear more clothes—go figure.”
My gaze traced her curves as if they were mine to devour. “Trust me, when we’re about to do that kind of adult stuff, you won’t need me tellin’ you to remove your clothes, sweetheart. They’ll vanish of their own accord.”
The brazen words made Simone’s jaw drop and a puff of disbelieving air escape. To add further weight, I whispered, “Poof,” complete with a starburst hand gesture.
She paused in the open passenger door-space when I opened it for her. “Interesting,” she drawled, “because when my clothes come off, they make a whoosh sound, not a poof. I guess everyone is different, huh?”
She then double-patted my chest—legit fucking double-tapped me square above the sternum while smirking—then climbed her pert little ass into my truck as if she’d proved a non-existent point.
And you know what? I couldn’t help but grin like a goddamn fool as I rounded the hood and climbed into the driver’s seat beside the prettiest girl in town.
