What I did know for sure was that no matter what it took, I wasn’t going to let go of the idea that her and I could be something good.
Adley comes insidewith a towel wrapped around her waist. Her hair is still damp at the back of her neck from sitting in the hot tub.
“She’s tipsy and sitting out back,” she tells with a smile. “I’m freezing and ready for a hot shower.”
“And?” I ask, still not sure why she’s offering me this information.
“Kendall is a whole lot like I was a year ago. She knows she’s gotten a taste of something good and she has no idea what to do with it. Her first instincts tell her to run the hell away and never look back. But then she has this nagging voice in her head that is screaming ‘girl if you don’t take what you want someone else will and then you’ll be too late’. She is having a war inside her head right now, her heart and her mind fighting to the death.”
Interesting analogy.
“So what I am saying is don’t give up on her, don’t slow down, keep pushing until she breaks.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will,” Adley insists. “We all spent more than two hours listening to her go on and on about you showing up at the shop and how she still feels your hands doing all kinds of things. It was like listening to the hottest mechanic porn. You got some skills.” She offers an exaggerated wink.
“I have no idea why she feels the things she feels. I have a strong feeling there are parts of Kendall none of us know about. She has secrets she refuses to tell and I think those secrets are from before I met her. I think those secrets are reasons behind the idea that she can never be what a man like you is looking for.”
“I’m not asking her to be anything more than Kendall.”
“I know this, you know this, but in her mind she is unworthy. So show her she is worthy.”
“I’ve been trying to.”
“So keep trying, it’s bound to click one day. It did with me.” She shrugs and turns to walk down the hall toward the back of the house. I’d been over helping Rory lay flooring every night this week. Tonight we’d finally finished up.
“If you dirty up my hot tub, just know that the two of you will be cleaning it,” she tosses back over her shoulder and I smile shaking my head, glancing toward the sliders leading out to the back deck and moving across the room and peeking out. There in the hot tub with the lights set on low, sits Kendall. Her legs are out before her, her head back against the edge, eyes closed.
I sit there watching her for a few minutes, immediately recognizing the familiar pull she triggers.
I step out, unbuttoning my jeans and sliding them over my legs, leaving my boxers on. As I round the side, I step up and over the ledge and her eyes open. Surprise covers her features and she hurries to sit up.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m done working so I thought I’d enjoy the hot tub for a bit.”
As I am sinking into the water she is turning like she is getting out, grabbing the edge and rising up out of the water. Immediately I feel myself growing hard at the sight of her. The perfect body barely covered by the coral colored bikini.
Moving in behind her and bringing my hand around her front, I place my palm against her stomach. Pulling her body back tighter to my own I rest my chin on her shoulder.
“We can play this game if you want,” I whisper. “The one where you act like me touching you doesn’t make your heart race. The game where you pretend that you don’t want me, that you don’t need me. I’ll give you that, for as long as you need it, Kendall. But there will be a time when you come to terms with the fact that we are so good together and we can only get better. All it takes is for you to stop pretending it doesn’t exist.”
I notice the way her breathing becomes more rapid like she is panting when my palm slides lower. My fingers dip just beneath the waistband of her bikini bottoms.
“There will come a day when you are wishing that you hadn’t pushed so hard for this chance.”
“Does that mean you’re gonna to do this with me?” I ask, feeling a rush of excitement.
She is silent for a bit, wiggling her ass against me, triggering a groan to fall from my lips.
“It means you’ve managed to do the unthinkable, Aaron.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m a competitive person, I hate to lose,” Kendall confesses still wiggling her ass back into my groin. “Proving you wrong, proving that I don’t want, nor need you, is what I plan to do. In the end you will be wallowing in self-pity, and all I’ll be able to say is I told you so.”
“I look forward to it, every miserable second,” I say before biting her shoulder and she slips away from me, leaving me hard and determined.
