“Ah, the mysterious aurora borealis insider.”
I smiled into her hair, the lavender scent competing with the crisp autumn breeze and winning by a mile. “That’s him. He’s also the mysterious baker who utilizes my zucchini.”
Grinning, she moved until her top half was draped across my chest, then she looked down at me with a scandalized expression. “Utilizes your zucchini, does he? I thought that was my job.”
I laughed out loud, and Candace appeared so damn pleased with herself that I swatted her on the backside. She gasped dramatically, and I leaned up to capture the sound with my lips.
Eventually, we shifted so that she was fully on top of me as we kissed. Her hips shifted restlessly, seeking friction, and with the thin layers separating us, it wasn’t a hardship. She felt good on top of me.
As my hand found its way beneath the cotton of her pajama pants to palm her ass, Candace pressed something into my other hand.
I broke the kiss and gave a surprised laugh. “Now, where did this come from?”
She grinned, unrepentant. “I stole it from the box at your house.”
“Wow. Did you haveplans, Candace Judd?”
She bit her lip and shifted her hips a fraction. I stifled a groan as her hot center pressed more fully against my painfully hard erection.
“I like being prepared,” she finally replied with another sexy little thrust.
“I didn’t think a goody-goody would have sex in public.”
“Semi-public sex,” she argued with another roll of her hips.
I clutched the globes of her ass to still her. “Outdoor sex,” I countered.
She laughed and I felt the sound everywhere. “You got me there.”
Then Candace started moving again, grinding atop me, and I didn’t have it in me to continue the debate.
The night was gorgeous, we were completely alone, and I’d make sure to keep her warm.
fifteen
CANDACE
“Candy!”
I froze at the sound of my mom’s voice.
I hadn’t thought she’d be on the back porch this morning. It was cold. Steal-the-breath-from-your-lungs cold. I knew because I was the one dressed in thin sleep shorts and Mark’s stolen college hoodie, running across the yard in my sneakers with no socks on, trying to get into my warm apartment.
I’d backed out of Mark’s garage fifteen minutes ago while he’d watched from the doorway in nothing but a pair of jeans until I was out of sight.
Late November wasn’t messing around. Frost coated the grass in all directions, a glistening layer that crunched underfoot. I could see my breath puff out white and impatient as I turned to face my mother with goose bumps coating my skin.
I’d been successfully doing the walk of shame and sneaking back into the garage apartment behind the farmhouse several mornings a week for the last month.
Well, maybe not so successfully if my mother’s huge knowing grin told me anything.
With a sigh, I detoured to my parents’ back porch and closed the screen door as quietly as I could, hoping like hell that my dad was still asleep, or just literally anywhere else while I had this conversation with my mom.
She patted the cushion beside her, and after I took a tentative seat, she shared her blanket, throwing it over my legs.
“You want some tea?” she asked before a sip of her own.
“No, thank you,” I replied primly, grateful for the blanket but dreading when I inevitably had to get back up again.
