So I guess that "shop small" bag you carry around is for show, huh?
It took everything I had to keep my mouth shut about that.
Add on top of that the aforementioned creepy dudes giving me the eye-fucking of a lifetime, yeah, I was having a crummy day.
Normally, I would look forward to grabbing some Chinese, and heading home to pick out a movie, waiting for Peyton to get off her shift at the library so we could veg out and I could put a decent spin on a blah day.
But Peyton had a date with some dude she met at a Tractor Supply & Co, or, as she called it, Men R Us.
Why she was even at a Tractor Supply & Co was completely beyond me, but she better not have given in and bought one of the damn ducks she always eyed up when she was there.
Coop would probably try to play with it. But Coop's play would mean an untimely - and likely bloody - end to the poor dude's life.
I had to rescue a baby bunny once.
Thankfully, before the little fluff ball got hurt.
I was still planning on Chinese and maybe some gelato because it was one of those days when you just had to say 'fuck it' to balance, and indulge yourself.
It just wouldn't be quite as uplifting without Peyton there to say something smartass or off-the-wall, something that never failed to turn around a bad mood.
I heard the bell over the door ring and actually felt my eyes rolling before I reminded myself to get my head out of my ass and be a professional. Even if this person was another stubborn maid-of-honor, I needed to keep it together.
By the time the footsteps came closer, I was sure I was ready for anything.
Apparently, I was very, very wrong about that.
But, really, how could I have ever prepared for this?
For him?
Walking into my store like it was the most normal thing in the world?
It was weird seeing him there.
It didn't matter that, when I first saw him, he was a free man.
I swear it was like seeing a bear outside on a vacation, then for the next half a decade, only seeing them in zoos. Then walking into work to see one sitting at a desk.
It was weird.
Unexpected.
God, he looked good too.
He was a bit different, sure, than the pictures that had been on his Instagram before he went away. He seemed a bit thinner. His hair was much shorter. He had grown some stubble on his face. But age had - as it only ever seemed to do with men - only served to make him even more attractive.
And maybe the attraction factor was also amplified by the fact that this man, his dark hair, his light eyes, his impeccable body, had been invading my dreams and waking fantasies for years. As awful as this is to admit, I had been dating a man for six months, and the relationship was in the toilet, and the sex was just mandatory and uninspiring, then I had caught myself fantasizing about my prison pen pal while in the act.
I had never come so hard in my life.
I had felt so guilty about it that I had actually broken it off the next day. You didn't stay with a man when you caught yourself fantasizing about another.
There was nothing awe-inspiring about his wardrobe - perfectly fitting dark wash blue jeans and a white tee - but somehow, it was the sexiest thing a man could ever wear.
My eyes trailed down his arms, seeing some kind of tattoo peeking out from his sleeve, a tattoo I had seen in pictures that looked a bit like a family crest, but I wasn't sure. They grazed over his strong forearms, his neat nails, then finally, his wide palms that were wrapped around...
She's Bean Around coffee mugs.
Holy shit.
No.
That required more emphasis.
Holy shit!
He was here. In my sex store. With two cups of, what I could only imagine, was salted caramel coffee.
What universe was I living in?
Whose life was this?
Because it certainly wasn't my own.
He was closing in on me, only maybe three feet away from the counter, those hypnotic light eyes trained on me, not seeming to pay any mind to the very explicit display of a flesh-like pussy to the side of him - something that seemed to catch everyone's eye.
No.
He was looking at me, walking toward me, like a wild cat stalking prey.
Maybe I wanted to be eaten.
Oh, good God.
Okay.
Focus.
I needed to focus.
And force my lips to move and form words.
Only I couldn't.
And he was right in front of me.
His head tilted to the side a little, a smile toying with the ends of his lips as he watched me.
"Someone once told me that the salted caramel coffee from She's Bean Around will give me a food-you-know-what," he said, that smooth voice of his shivering through my insides, making my sex clench hard with an unexpectedly intense surge of desire. "And by 'you-know-what,' I'm pretty sure she meant foodgasm."