6. Jeremy

CHAPTER 6

Jeremy

T he next morning I'm out of my house before my Pet manages to get up. Maybe she slept bad and then again, maybe she's avoiding me since I threw her with my new idea to get us out of the small town rumor mill. At least in a negative way. We'd still be the talk of the town but more from curiosity's sake than just plain old rumors and gossip with a nasty edge.

But I have a feeling my little Pet might find out soon that a small-town rumor mill doesn't take long to gear up and when it does it's a force to be reckoned with. It's downright ugly sometimes.

I make my way to the coffee shop and pick up my fave along with my girl's and head back to my place with a donut for both of us to munch on. If we're gonna talk about this shit again, we're gonna need sugar because Pet can be brutally angry when she's hangry. I'm not gonna do that to myself.

I open the door and instantly hear the water running. "I can do this. I don't need to go take a look at her and creep on her. I'm gonna win her over and spying on her in the shower is not the way to do it."

I sit down at the kitchen table and pull the donuts out of the bag, crunching it up and lobbing it into the trash can beside the back door.

Then I open my plain black coffee and take a deep breath, moaning softly. God, that smells so good!

One sip and I close my eyes, breathing in the richness of the black coffee and letting it renew me.

Letting it settle me. This is what I need. Normal.

But then she steps out into the kitchen and my heart thumps like a crazy mariachi band.

She pauses and I can practically see all her walls coming back up. Her wet hair falls down her back and wets the front of her t-shirt. I keep my eyes from drifting down with a massive force of will that I wasn't sure that I had.

Because her white shirt is practically paper thin and see through. Actually my t-shirt.

Oh, fuck!

Her eyes go down and she sees what's going on. Her face suffuses with red. "Must you be such a cliche, Jeremy. My eyes are up here!"

I shrug my shoulders, knowing I'm well and truly caught. I mean, I'm just a man. A human male. We like boobs! Shoot me!

"I know that," I huff, trying to push that first image of her lacy sheer bra and the darker nipple I saw through the fabric. Because my dick is already getting hard as hell and if I think about any of that, I'm gonna be sporting the biggest woody she's ever seen.

"I've got to leave for work soon, Pet. We need to talk about this seriously. You don't really understand what's about to happen. This town is gonna paint the worst possible connotations on what happened last night."

"Some people will. I don't care about those people."

I nod my head. "And you shouldn't. But what about our families. It's gonna be rude and annoying and ugly. You might as well give in and just let them think that we're dating and it's some kind of holiday magic that has us dating rather than the truth. Nobody's gonna buy that. It's crazy as all get-out and it's way more fun to think the worst than it was just some kind of crazy accident."

"I think you're making too much out of that. It will blow over in a couple of hours and then we'll be home free."

I nod my head. "Sure. That could happen. And aliens could land on the front lawn of the White House and volunteer to take us to mars if we're willing to fly coach on a spaceship of their choosing!"

I roll my eyes. "I don't see that happening."

"You always have to look at the dark side, don't you? For heaven's sake! It will blow over quickly and I'm not tying myself down to dating you to get out of this little tiny mess."

I nod my head. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."

I finish my donut and stand. "I brought you your favorite glazed chocolate donut. And your latte. I've got to get to work and get the stories to print."

"Remember. We're not mentioning anything about the nakedness."

"I won't have to. But I promise you that I can't stop everything with this story. I hope you know that I'll do everything I can to help both of us."

This is bigger than both of us. I can't make any kind of promise about staying the hell out of this. I'm in it and so is she.

It's gonna be a mess but I'm not gonna force her to follow my plan. I bet by midday she's ready to give in.

"I'll see you later, Pet. Enjoy your day. Just lock up when you leave."

And with that, I lean over and kiss her soft cheek, closing my eyes when I smell the scent of my soap on her.

She's mine. She's always been mine and she knows it. But the woman's gonna make me work for it.

That's okay. I like a good battle.