Chapter 3
Paybacks were hell.
Matt watched the steady plop, plop of water falling from a crack in the ceiling onto the middle of his bed. He’d been wanting to crawl beneath the covers all day but for the wrong reasons. This, he concluded, was his punishment.
The visit with his father had gone badly. He’d expected nothing less. While the Callahans weren’t exactly a case study in dysfunctional family dynamics, they had their moments. In between shouting matches and long periods of stubborn silence, Matt had envisioned resting his head on a cushiony pillow.
Understandable, considering he’d had less than three hours sleep in the last day and a half. Except these particular bed yearnings included Lindsay and her mile-long legs. She was naked, of course, and without the awkward inconvenience of dating his roommate.
A puddle on his bed the size of Bartlett Lake was a small price to pay for what happened at the fire station that morning. Frankly, he deserved worse.
“Sorry.” Joey stood behind Matt, craning his neck to see around. “Guess I missed this one.”
“Don’t sweat it. You did fine.”
Joey had placed buckets, pots, mixing bowls, and whatever else he could lay his hands on under the half-dozen dripping leaks throughout the house.
“It’s probably a good thing you came home early. Though where you’re going to sleep, I don’t know.” He clapped Matt on the back of the shoulder. “You look a little rough around the edges, pal.”
“I feel rough around the edges.”
Exhausted and ready to snap at the least little provocation, Matt had abandoned his plans to stay overnight at his parents’ and started home right after supper. Driving like he had a death wish, he made the return trip in just under two hours.
About the time he reached the outskirts of the city, Mother Nature unleashed a surprise on her unsuspecting children in the form of an early monsoon storm. Matt had been operating under the mistaken impression he had one more month of sunny weather ahead before he’d have to replace the roof. One look at the cracked and sagging ceiling told him he’d better hurry.
“Your boss in the market for any part-time help these days?” Occasionally Matt signed on for a few days at the fire sprinkler company where Joey worked. “My credit card hasn’t recovered from the new air conditioner.”
The old unit, which was manufactured about the same year Matt started kindergarten, had suddenly stopped working one day last month. After a cursory inspection, the service man pronounced it dead, and Matt went into debt yet again because of his house.
“How about a beer?” Joey asked, his grin wide and friendly. “Might dull the pain.”
Shame ate an ugly hole in Matt’s gut. His roommate wouldn’t be so accommodating if he knew Matt had spent the entire drive home fantasizing about Lindsay. His groin still throbbed from the sustained erection.
“That sounds great, but I’d better take a rain check. No pun intended.” He scratched his head and tried to remember if he’d put his sleeping bag in the garage or the bedroom closet. With his luck, it was probably soaked, too.
“Where you going sleep?”
“The couch isn’t wet.”
“You sure?”
“Won’t be the first time.” Matt backed out of his bedroom and headed down the hall.
On a shelf in the spare bedroom, Matt found his old football helmet from college. After stripping his bed, he set the football helmet on the bare mattress right beneath the leak. Then, he returned to the kitchen, carrying the soaked sheets and brightly patterned Mexican blanket he used for a spread.
“I take it your visit to the old homestead didn’t go well,” Joey commented as Matt passed him on the way to the small laundry room situated off the kitchen.
“What gave it away?”
“The facial tic.”
At the doorway, Matt leaned against the jamb, considering. “Every time, it’s the same old crap. I barely get two feet inside the door and Dad starts in with his you’re-not-living- up-to-my-expectations lecture. Today, I just wasn’t in the mood to listen.”
“Having a job where you put your life on the line every day to save others isn’t good enough for him?” Joey’s question was neither snide nor sarcastic.
The same couldn’t be said for Matt’s reply. “According to Dad, being a firefighter isn’t a real job.”
“What is it, then?”
“How did he put it exactly?” Matt squinted his eyes and concentrated, shifting the load of laundry from one side to the other. “Oh, yeah. A game for men who never really grew up.”
“Ouch!” Joey winced.
“I don’t wear a suit to work and earn six figures a year, therefore, I’m a deadbeat.”
Matt turned the knob and bumped open the laundry room door with his shoulder, swallowing his resentment toward his father. It went down like a spoonful of broken glass. He dropped the bedding on top of the washing machine, leaving it for the next morning.
When he returned to the kitchen, Joey had his head submerged in the open refrigerator. He came up for air holding two bottles of water and offered one to Matt.
“Thought you wanted the hard stuff,” Matt said, taking the bottle.
“I hate drinking alone.” Joey broke the plastic seal and raised the bottle to his mouth. “So are you sorry you bought this house?”
“Don’t you mean dump?” They both laughed, and Matt began to relax.
The fixer-upper home had seemed like a good idea when he’d purchased it last year. Low monthly payments made it affordable, especially with a roommate to share expenses. He’d done most of the repairs himself and took pride in his accomplishments, thinking his father would feel the same. But his efforts had only earned him another lecture, this one on the irresponsibility of buying an older home.
Cripes. He needed sleep. Fourteen hours of uninterrupted rest might change his perspective on life, which at the moment, was in the toilet looking up. He pulled out a chair and sat at the table, opened his water, and guzzled half the contents.
“What about your dad’s chest pains?” Joey asked, joining Matt. “Are they serious?”
“Who knows? He won’t see a doctor and refuses to discuss it.” Matt scowled and spoke in a deep voice, imitating his father. “Doctors are a colossal waste of time and money.” He pounded the table with a closed fist.
“Maybe he’s afraid.”
Matt started to make a glib comeback, but something stopped him. What if his father was afraid? Or in denial?
No. His exhausted brain rejected the idea. Everett Callahan was and always would be in absolute control of his emotions. “I doubt it. The man has to give himself daily injections of antifreeze so his blood won’t turn to ice.” Twisting sideways in the chair, Matt asked, “Have you seen my sleeping bag anywhere?”
If Joey noticed the change in topic, he didn’t mention it. “In the storage shed out back.”
“Figures.” Matt pictured a sodden mess. The storage shed had no floor. He stood, went to the Arcadia door and peered through the darkness at the wall of water pouring from the porch roof. “Why aren’t you with Lindsay tonight?” he asked, debating the pros and cons of retrieving his sleeping bag.
“No particular reason.”
Something in Joey’s voice had Matt turning around. “Everything okay with you two?”
Joey scrunched his face and rubbed the back of his neck. After a moment, he answered, “Karyn called today.”
“Really.” Matt took a moment to digest the news about Joey’s ex-fiancée. “Why?”
“She has a box of my things she wants to return.”
“After six months?”
Joey shrugged.
“You going to see her?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that wise?”
“I’m sure it’s not.” Joey laughed cynically. “But I am anyway.” He sobered. “Lately, I’ve been thinking of calling it quits with Lindsay.”
As much as Matt had wanted to hear those words, he thought only of Lindsay and how hurt she’d be. “Hey. Just because Karyn called out of the blue—”
“This has nothing to do with Karyn.”
“Are you sure?”
Joey ignored the question. “I’ll be doing Lindsay a favor. She deserves a guy who isn’t in love with another woman.”
“Think about this,” Matt warned. “She’s a great gal.”
“She is. And beautiful, too.” Joey flashed Matt a knowing smile. “I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“Huh?” Matt didn’t hide his surprise.
“Come on, pal. Fess up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Matt panicked, like a kid caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.
“Relax, will you? I’m not mad. I’m not jealous either, which says a lot. I should want to rip your throat out.” Joey sighed and shook his head. “But I don’t.”
Matt made a final attempt to reason with Joey. “You were a wreck when Karyn ditched you last winter. Remember that before you go off half-cocked.”
“I’m meeting her,” he said with finality. “I don’t expect anything to happen, but I’m keeping my options open.”
The kitchen had become a vacuum in the last two minutes. Matt needed some fresh air or he’d suffocate. “I’m going to find my sleeping bag.”
He opened the Arcadia door and stepped outside. The oxygen rush did nothing to restore his body functions to normal.
Joey was breaking up with Lindsay.
On a sudden burst of energy, Matt sprinted across the backyard to the aluminum storage shed. He found the sleeping bag quicker than he’d counted on—dry, at that—then ran back to the house, wondering what he’d say to Joey.
As it so happened, he needn’t have worried. Joey was talking on his phone.
“All right.” He checked his watch. “Give me thirty minutes.” A pause. “Yeah, I have some in the truck.” Another pause. “Text me the address. Yeah, I’ll be there, don’t worry.”
“Problem?” Matt asked when Joey disconnected.
“Big one. Sprinkler lines burst at a client’s house on Camelback Mountain. The whole stinking place is flooded.”
“Geeze. How’d that happen?”
“Who knows. Probably the city screwing with the water pressure.” Joey patted the front of his jeans. “Keys must be on my dresser.” He went to his bedroom in search of them. A few minutes later, he returned. “Don’t wait up. This promises to be an all-nighter.”
Matt trailed Joey into the living room. “Anything you need done while you’re gone?”
“Like you’ll be awake to take care of it if I did.” Joey halted at the front door, snapping his fingers. “Hey, why don’t you sleep in my bed? I’ve got the only dry room in the house.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can. I just changed the sheets this morning and sprayed for roaches.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It’s a damn sight more comfortable than the couch.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
“Whatever man,” Joey said in a tone that suggested Matt was being stubborn for no good reason, then headed for the door. “See you in the morning.”
Tired as he was, Matt showered first and put on a clean pair of boxers. Afterwards, he unrolled the sleeping bag on the floor at the foot of his bed and lay down on it. Fifteen minutes later, he remained irritatingly awake. The steady drip of water into a pan sounded like a hammer striking an anvil, and the hard floor dug into his aching bones.
After another fifteen minutes, he admitted the real reason sleep eluded him; his conversation with Joey and the prospect of Lindsay becoming a free woman.
Itchy and restless, he leaped to his feet, taking his pillow with him. What the hell? He’d try Joey’s bed. And if that didn’t work, he’d continue moving until he either fell asleep or keeled over from exhaustion. Fortunately, he succumbed within seconds. His last waking thought was of Lindsay and what it might feel like to have her snuggled up beside him.
~~*~~
LINDSAY STOOD AT the front door of Joey’s house, her trembling fingers clutching the spare key he’d given her for emergencies. She’d parked at the curb instead of the empty driveway because she hadn’t wanted to risk Joey hearing her arrival, thereby ruining the surprise. The truth of the matter was she needed the short walk to gather her courage. Somewhere between Naughty But Nice and her elaborate preparations for the evening’s seduction, Lindsay had lost her nerve. Only Mahina’s hovering presence had kept Lindsay from abandoning her plans altogether.
She’d bathed, shaved her legs, and moisturized her skin, all with products purchased that afternoon. Then she’d donned her new outfit and covered herself with, of all things, a raincoat. She’d kidded with Mahina about being a flasher. In the pocket of the raincoat, she’d placed the bare necessities: her wallet, two condoms, her phone, and a small bottle small bottle of lubricant. She’d almost turned back several times on the drive there but managed to talk herself out of it.
Not a single light shone in the house, but that meant nothing. Joey left for work at the crack of dawn, so he was usually in bed by nine o’clock at night. With Matt out of town, he must have parked his truck in the garage.
Closing her eyes, Lindsay drew several deep breaths, willing her racing heart to slow down and her upset stomach to settle. If only she had more experience with men, maybe then she’d be excited instead of afraid. What she knew about sex would fill four pages of a hundred page book.
Mahina had assured Lindsay her inexperience wouldn’t matter, saying, “One look at you in that outfit and trust me, your skills in bed will be the last thing on Joey’s mind.”
The outfit did boost her confidence. The memory of herself standing in front of her full-length mirror, looking like a Victoria Secrets’ model, gave her the resolve she needed to insert the key and unlock the door.
It swung open on a soft whoosh. She gingerly stepped into the cool, air-conditioned living room and listened. No signs of movement. Her entry hadn’t wakened Joey. She shrugged off her raincoat and draped it over her arm. Goose bumps immediately formed on her exposed skin. Her teeth chattered, so she clenched them tightly together. At the hallway, she slipped off her sandals and nudged them into a corner.
Skimming her fingers along the wall, she guided herself down the dimly lit hallway. Outside the bathroom, her foot collided with something hard, and she jumped back.
“Shit!” She slapped a hand over her mouth.
Cold water seeped between her toes while a fat drop splattered onto her head. Realizing what had happened, she set the bowl back under the leak and tried to find her bearings. Joey’s room was the first door on the right, opposite the spare bedroom. The master bedroom, Matt’s room, was at the end of the hall. For a split second, her trepidation vanished, but when her hand encountered Joey’s closed bedroom door, it returned with a vengeance.
“You’ve come this far. Don’t chicken out now,” she whispered.
Calling on the determination that enabled her to run headlong into burning buildings, Lindsay grasped the door handle and pushed. Inside the room, she hesitated, giving her eyes the opportunity to adjust. A body, long, lean and definitely male, lay in the bed, the lower half covered by a brightly colored sheet. A flash of lightning illuminated the window, allowing Lindsay to make out a bare back, narrow hips, and muscled legs that reached almost to the foot of the bed. An arm tossed carelessly across the pillow hid his face from view.
She’d never seen Joey like this. Her racing heart beat with a new and different cadence, spiking at irregular intervals. She tiptoed closer, anticipation doubling with each step. At the edge of the bed, she paused to let the sight of him fill her senses. Her nipples tingled in response. A brush of her fingertips confirmed their aroused state.
He was so beautiful, like a slumbering Greek god. Why hadn’t she noticed this quality in him before? Were today’s events responsible for the change in her, or something else? Her fears evaporated, leaving a void which was quickly filled with the heat of sexual excitement. No longer hesitant, Lindsay dropped the raincoat on the floor, lifted the sheet and eased into bed beside Joey. The mattress rocked slightly beneath her weight. He moaned, but otherwise remained oblivious.
His warmth instantly enveloped her, soothing, yet at the same time, heightening her awareness of him. She inhaled the clean scent of his freshly showered skin. Felt the springy hairs on his calf as she rubbed her leg up and down his. Heard the heavy, regular breathing that told her he continued to sleep soundly.
Lindsay almost laughed. She lay next to a man who was completely unaware of her existence, yet she’d never been so turned on in all her life.
Because she wanted to touch him, she did, and watched her fingers dance along the hard line of his shoulders. He shifted and mumbled something unintelligible, but didn’t wake up. She snuggled closer, pressing her aching breasts into his back and placing a soft kiss on the side of his neck.
Another bolt of lightning flashed, only this one from inside her. Jagged currents of electricity raced to her extremities, splintering off into a thousand highly-charged particles. Lindsay moved against Joey’s back, instinctively knowing what to do whereas minutes ago, she’d had no clue. Her hand snaked around his waist and caressed the rigid plane of his stomach.
“Hello, lover.”
She sensed the instant he came awake and stayed perfectly still, waiting for his response. She didn’t wait long.
In the same amount of time it had taken her to whisper the endearment, he rolled over and pinned her beneath him, sliding his erection up and down the front panel of her v-panty.
“It’s really you,” he said in a sleep-thickened voice. “I thought I was dreaming.”
He gave her no chance to respond before bringing his mouth down on hers with a blinding, explosive force. The kiss, hot, urgent, and deliciously wicked, rocked her world to its very foundation.
Oh, she wanted more of this. Much, much more. It was as if they’d never kissed before. And they hadn’t, really. Not like this.
His chest hair—she didn’t remember him having much—tickled the tops of her breasts. Later, when the madness currently consuming her passed, she’d explore that part of him further. For now, she looped her arms around his neck and lifted her hips to meet and match the rhythmic motion of his. Bracketing her face with his hands, he held her steady so their tongues could tangle. Stroke. Savor. He tasted faintly of toothpaste and something else unfamiliar to her. Lindsay, however, was too overcome by an avalanche of sensations to pay any attention.
Impossible as it seemed, his erection grew larger, pressing into the exposed flesh of her belly. Tiny sighs caught in her throat, coming out as anxious mews. She yearned to have him inside her. But not yet. First, she’d enjoy the feel of his hungry mouth and skilled hands learning every inch of her body. And after that, she’d reciprocate.
Some things were simply too good to rush.
Ending the kiss, he nibbled and nipped his way down the column of her neck to her cleavage. A cleavage she had, thanks to the amazing powers of the bustier. His hands followed, cupping her breasts, his thumbs kneading the pliant undersides.
Lindsay jerked when he took a nipple in his mouth, sucking on the pearlized tip through the translucent material of the bustier.
“Mmm.” She arched her back, but it wasn’t enough. Driving her fingers into his short-cropped hair, she pulled him closer − and went suddenly rigid.
Short? Joey wore his wavy hair long, past his ears to his shirt collar.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this,” murmured a voice too deep, too husky for Joey.
An alarm clanged inside Lindsay’s head, penetrating the dense mist surrounding her brain.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
A feeling of unreality washed over Lindsay, as if she’d entered the room of mirrors in a carnival fun house.
“No.” She pushed back, digging her heels into the mattress. Her back slammed into the wooden headboard. “I-I...d-d-didn’t know.” Oh, God. What had she done? She tried desperately to unwedge herself from underneath the man she at last recognized. “S-s-sorry. I…thought you were...”
Sorry, Matt. I thought you were Joey.
She couldn’t say it. Especially not when a small part of her had suspected all along this man wasn’t Joey and purposely ignored the signs. Joey didn’t start her heart pounding with a simple look. He didn’t cause her to trip over her own words or turn her knees to Silly Putty.
Matt did. And he was here now, the pad of this thumb stroking her damp, erect nipple.
“Lindsay?”
Don’t cry, she ordered herself, cementing her teeth together and holding back the tears. It won’t help.
When she could trust herself to talk, she said, “Let me go, Matt. Please. There’s been a mistake.”
“Like hell I will.” He rose up, bringing his face level with hers and trapping her against the headboard. “I told myself once that if I ever got you in bed with me, I’d never let you go. And trust me, I’m a man of my word.” He manacled her wrist, brought it to his mouth and kissed the sensitive underside. “Don’t go, Lindsay. Let me love you.”
“I can’t.”
“Why? We’re all alone. Joey won’t be back until tomorrow.
Lies couldn’t save her. Only the cold, hard truth would convince Matt to relinquish his hold on her. How will he feel, she wondered, when he finds out she’d mistaken him for Joey? Or had she? The time had come to quit fooling herself. She wanted him, Matthew Callahan. No other man, including Joey, drew the kind of responses from her Matt did. But she wouldn’t, couldn’t make love to him under false pretenses. Difficult as it was, she owed him an explanation. Swallowing did nothing to alleviate her parched throat. Her confession came out scratchy as sandpaper on a brick.
“I snuck in here...to seduce...Joey. Not you. I don’t know why you’re in his bed. And it doesn’t matter.”
To her utter shame and horror, Matt laughed. “Seduce Joey?”
“You find the concept of me seducing a man amusing?” She bristled, which was really rather absurd under the circumstances.
“No!” He sobered instantly “I loved it, as I’m sure you can tell. What I find amusing is the thought of you and Joey together.” He bent his head and skimmed his lips lightly over hers, nuzzling her cheek, her jaw, her ear. “Do you make those little whimpering sounds for him?” Matt sucked on her lobe, gently tugging on it with his teeth. “Does he get hard every time you walk within ten feet of him?” He lowered her hand to his swollen groin.
She instructed her fingers to remain limp, but they stubbornly refused and closed around him.
“Oh, yeah.” He squeezed his eyes shut, his expression a mixture of pleasure and pain. “Tell me this doesn’t feel right.”
“Matt.” She was at a loss for what to say. The sensible part of her brain screamed that making love with him was wrong for a hundred million reasons. The other part, the one she generally tried not to listen to, urged her to live for the moment.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he said, finding her mouth again. “You have practically since the day we met.” The kiss was hot and wild as the first, but with an undercurrent of tenderness that threatened to melt her resolve. “I want you so bad, I can’t think straight.”
Matt wanted her.
It was true. She, with her stick figure and tomboy personality, turned men on. One man, leastwise. The only one who really mattered.
The room lit up as another lightning bolt cut across the night sky. Lindsay stared into Matt’s face, struck by the desire burning there. What was it Mahina had said?
Women like seeing that out of control lust in his eyes.
Lindsay must have misconstrued what happened at the fire station that morning because looking at Matt now removed any and all doubts as to whether or not he was attracted to her. She began to tremble. The room went dark again, and a loud clap of thunder shook the house.
“I’m going to love you, Lindsay,” Matt said, sliding down her body until his lips found the sweetly scented valley between her breasts. “Unless you leave this room this instant.”
In answer, Lindsay laid her head back and lowered the straps of her bustier.