"Hi Jack," she said breathlessly, as she climbed up the stairs to join him on the porch. Any intention she had to be calm and cool flew out the window the second she saw him waiting for her. He was even more handsome than she remembered. And he was wearing a tie, white dress shirt and what looked like wool slacks. No denim or plaid or Oscar the Grouch T-shirt. He was dressed up. It even looked like he'd had his hair cut. He looked positively polished.
What did this mean exactly? Was he trying to look his best for her, or was his formal attire part of keeping a professional distance between them? If that was his intention, it wasn't working. She wanted to rip that tie off with her teeth and tie him to the closest headboard with it. She wasn't feeling very professional at all. In fact, if he didn't outright reject her, she had a feeling her new non-boring wild side might make an appearance. Seeing him again just made her realize how much she had missed him and how stupid she had been to waste so much time.
Jack took her hand as she reached him and brought her knuckles up to his lips. He noticed that even her short nails were painted a dark, sexy red. "You look beautiful," he said. "No scrubs today?"
"Not today. It felt like a special occasion. You look very nice too. I think you combed your hair." She reached up and ran her other hand through his silky strands. "I like it a little messy though." She shook it out a little, and smiled into his eyes as his hair settled back into its usual casual disarray. "There, that's better. Now you look like Jack."
"C'mon," he said, his voice gruff. "Let's check out your new digs. You ready?"
"Yup, I really can't wait to see what you've done here. But with all the anticipation, I'm a little worried that it'll be anti-climactic. I mean, how can it possibly live up to all build-up?"
"You're still talking about the cottage, right?"
She laughed and pulled on his arm to urge him through the front door. Walking over the threshold, she stopped in her tracks. It was incredible. They were in a large room that was a combination kitchen/dining/living room open concept design with vaulted ceilings. Wide-plank, glossy, hardwood covered the floors and the walls were painted the same golden beige Lacey's mother had admired in the first row-house they'd seen months ago. Best of all, the kitchen was a stylish oasis with stainless steel appliances and glass fronted, white cupboards.
"Oh Jack," Lacey squealed. "You were able to put in an island. I can't believe it." Lacey walked over and ran her hands over the huge slab of black granite. The gesture was an unconscious imitation of her reaction to this feature the first time Jack had seen her. "You said it was too expensive."
Jack ducked his head, pleased at her reaction, but embarrassed at how emotional he felt seeing her delight in such a small thing. It almost felt worth all the sacrifice to see her like this. Five months of blue balls seemed insignificant in comparison to her joy. "Yeah, well, the granite was left over from another job, so I was able to get a great deal on it. Do you like it?" He asked, quietly. It was obvious she did, but he really needed to hear her say it.
"Oh Jack, I love it. Thank you so much. And what's this?" She spied a clipboard on the far end of the countertop. Clipped to it were some official looking documents, a pen, and a single yellow rose. She picked up the rose and gave it a sniff, sighing at its sweet scent. Glancing at the papers beneath it, she saw a blood test from Jack's doctor detailing a clean bill of health, and beneath that, a checklist.
Jack didn't comment on the blood test. She could draw her own conclusions from why he left that for her. "That is an incredibly boring checklist, but we need to go through it before this place becomes officially yours."
"And the rose is always part of this builder's ritual?"
"Yup, part of the contract, I'm afraid. Supermodel or lumberjack, all my client's get one."
"Right. And the blood test?"
"Definitely not part of the house building process, but I thought it would be a good idea if we decided to move onto the non-torturous portion of our relationship. Unless you've met someone else?" He tensed waiting for her response. If she had moved on he was going to howl in frustration. Punching a fist-sized hole through the drywall was also a definite possibility.
"No, Jack. I haven't met anyone, and I had a similar test last week too. Coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
Jack beamed. She had been planning on having sex with him, despite the enforced distance between them over the past weeks. Everything was okay between them and he was finally going to be able to live out some of the X-rated fantasies that had been plaguing him for the last five months. He could barely restrain himself from ravishing her right then and there. "So, there's nothing holding us back anymore? You're still interested. I'm still very interested, so I say let's get to this checklist as fast as humanly possible and then we can discuss where and when our first date will happen. What do you say?"
"Why don't you show me the rest of the cottage before we get down to checklist business, okay? I'm too jazzed to concentrate on it right now. I need to see my new place." She was practically jumping up and down with excitement.
Jack laughed and took her hand again. "Let's go see the Mistress Bath first." He lead her a few steps down the short hall to a door and pushed through, watching as Lacey got her first look at her new bathroom.
Lacey gasped. The Mistress Bath contained an oversized glass-tiled shower, separate commode, double-sinks, and a large garden tub in front of an etched glass window. But what made her gasp was the huge bouquet of yellow roses sitting next to the tub. And next to that was a large, pink plastic bottle of Mr. Bubbles, with a ribbon tied around it.
"You remembered," she said, picking up the bottle. "I'm overwhelmed."
"Are you kidding? How can I forget? You said a threesome with you, me, and Mr. Bubbles. A guy doesn't forget something like that. Though, personally, I would prefer a threesome with you, me, and Mrs. Buttersworth someday. Just because I prefer the gender ratio in that scenario."
"Ewww. Syrup. Okay. But you're doing the clean up afterward."
"Deal. But are you still interested?"
"In Mr. Bubbles?"
"Well, yeah. Him too. But mostly me. Even after all this time. And all the awkwardness of the past few months. Do you still want to be with me?"
Lacey set the bottle back down on the tub ledge and walked back to him. She reached up to rest her hands on his chest. "Jack, you have no idea how much. It's been awful, the waiting. I'm so sorry for being such a shrew the last few times we met. I don't know where that came from."
Jack closed his eyes for a moment, savoring her touch after so long. "I know. It was complete hell. But now that the house is done, how do you feel? About us. Giving it a try, I mean. You said, no strings before. But how about now? I feel like there are strings in place already, don't you?"
"Yeah, there are definitely some strings. Powerful, thick ones. More like ropes."
Jack couldn’t wait any longer to touch her. He’d been thinking about this moment for months and now she was here, looking up at him with huge crystal blue eyes filled with desire. For him. He couldn’t believe it. It was like all of those fevered dreams, the ones that left him hard and aching in the night, were finally coming true.
He reached out with one callused palm and cupped her cheek. Her skin was incredibly soft compared to his large, callused fingers. He trailed his thumb across her rosebud-pink, lower lip and was completely shocked when her tongue darted out and touched his thumb delicately.
He groaned. He couldn’t help it. The erotic sight of her silky tongue touching him, any part of him, even his thumb made him grow instantly hard and impatient to possess her. It took all of his control to be gentle as he lifted her chin, and lowered his mouth to kiss her.