So, like the upstanding citizen I was, I turned on some music to set the mood, grabbed a candle, and headed to my bedroom.
I was just getting started when a knock came at my door. I jumped upright, dildo in one hand and my towel in the other. I chucked the dildo on my bed and wrapped the towel around myself, tiptoeing towards my door. I had to be careful not to slip as I was still wet from the shower.
When I looked through the peephole, I saw Billy and Molly Ashford.
“Yes?” I called through the door.
“Can we come in?” Billy asked.
“It’s important,” Molly added.
“Just a second.” I rushed to my closet and tossed on a dress. I wanted to put on some underwear, too, but I didn’t feel comfortable making the two kids wait alone in the hallway for more than a few seconds.
I opened the door. “Is everything okay? Where’s your dad?”
“Oh,” Billy said. “He is trying to cook us breakfast. It’s a disaster.”
Molly nodded. “He said, ‘God, help me.’ Something was on fire, too. We don’t know where God lives, so we came here.”
I grinned. “Big fire or little fire?”
Billy started stretching his hands to indicate a fire about the size of a frying pan. “Like this?”
“Um,” I said, looking behind me at my messy apartment. “I can come help but I need to put some more clothes on. Why don’t you two wait inside for a minute while I get dressed?”
“You’re wearing all your clothes,” Molly said, pointing. “Oh. You mean your shoes.” She pointed at my toes, which were in desperate need of attention. My nail polish from weeks ago was chipping and flaking off like a reptile shedding its skin.
“Right, let me just go put some shoes on in my closet. You two come in and wait here, okay?”
They shuffled inside and followed me to the living room. I went into my bathroom, saw my face, and shuddered. No makeup. My short hair was thankfully not too tangled. I ran a quick brush through it and decided I could live without makeup. I wasn’t trying to impress Greyson, after all. I just wanted to help keep him from burning the inn down. But I did need to have panties and a bra on.
I was strapping on my bra when I heard a fierce knock at the door. A muffled, masculine voice was shouting something.
Shit.
I still hadn’t put on panties, but I lifted the dress back up over my shoulders and rushed out toward the door. Billy and Molly weren’t where I left them.
I pulled open the door and found Greyson standing there, his powerful chest rising and falling rapidly. He pushed past me, scooting me aside effortlessly as he looked around my apartment. “Are they here?” he demanded.
“Please, come in,” I said sarcastically.
That was when Molly came running and screaming playfully from my bedroom. A second later, Billy followed with my very large, impressively purple dildo in his hands like a sword. He was swinging it toward Molly and cackling like a maniac.
Please let this still be part of the dream. Please let it still be part of the dream.
I opened my eyes to find it wasn’t. Molly had sheltered behind my legs and Billy was trying to jab past me with the dildo like it was a fencer’s blade. I snatched it from his hands, then immediately felt wrong holding it in front of Greyson and his kids.
I chucked it overhand toward my couch, but it ended up knocking over my lamp. A moment of silence followed and the sounds of soft, sultry music from my bedroom were suddenly all I could hear. I inched toward the door and kicked it closed with a click, smiling awkwardly.
“Found the kids,” I said sheepishly.
Greyson looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be pissed or laughing his ass off.
I felt like my whole body was blushing. That familiar feeling of embarrassed heat was suffusing every inch of my skin until I was sure I was lobster red from head to toe.
That was when I realized Molly had army crawled under my legs while avoiding her brother. I looked down and saw she was on her back, eyes wide as she looked straight up my dress. “Daddy said big girls have to wear panties! Why doesn’t Miss Harper have to?”
I scooted back, pressing myself against the wall and squeezing my thighs together. “I–” I stammered. Suddenly, the ability to speak had eluded me. All I could do was stare like a deer in the headlights at the very large, very attractive man in my apartment.
He cracked a smile and gestured for his kids to come to his side. “I’m really sorry about this,” he said. “We’re all going to have a very serious talk about respecting people’s privacy and not barging into their houses. And not crossing the street without an adult present.”