Chapter Five

Two weeks had passed since that night on the camping trip and Sandi was trying her best to forget it. If only she could. She wasn’t sure if he was ignoring her or she was ignoring him, but they avoided anything intimate. Since the camping trip they had done three long hikes together, a rock climb and two rafting trips. It was a lot of time spent together, talking about adventures they’d been on, memories and future trips. They had shared quite a bit of information, but only when they were doing an activity. Afterwards they tended to the clients and then went their separate ways. “You’re acting all weird so I know something happened. Spill it.”

Mandy had been like a dog with a bone ever since. “It was, nothing really. Just a bit of fooling around.” It had been a stupid mistake is what it had been. It didn’t matter than the deep rumble of his voice in her ear had made her drip between her legs and it didn’t matter that the man made her madder than anyone ever. When he was that close she lost all good sense. “Nothing big.” And August hadn’t said a word about it sense. He’d hardly said anything to her unless they worked together.

“When you say fooling around do you mean hands or mouths?”

“Mostly yes, and some.”

“Well damn Sandi, that’s hot! Right there in the tent where everyone could probably hear you? Go sis!”

Sandi laughed. “It was a weird moment and it won’t happen again.”

“Oh it will happen again only this time you’ll go all the way,” she laughed like a giddy schoolgirl.

“All the way? Will he let me wear his letterman’s jacket too?” She wasn’t completely opposed to a full night with August, but she wouldn’t let it happen. Last time she’d opened herself up she’d been devastated when it had all been ripped away. She’d been sure that the losses she experienced in the military would be the worst of her hurts. And she’d been right, until Christopher. His death had wrecked her and now she was content to live out her days alone. But her thing with August had stressed that although her heart was closed, her libido certainly wasn’t.

“Seriously, why not? Have some hot hate sex with a man you couldn’t possibly fall in love with. It’s perfect!”

“I can’t fall in love with anyone Mandy, but I can’t have sex with a man who doesn’t respect me.”

“True. Shit sorry, I’m being paged. Maybe the next hot mountain man, sis. Love you bye!”

Sandi laughed at her sister’s exuberance and wished she still had that kind of thrill for life. She enjoyed her life but she didn’t embrace it or live it fully, not like her sister. Mandy could work thirty-six hours straight, hit the clubs and have sex all night and look like a model after two hours of sleep. Sandi, couldn’t. “I need to get laid.” Saying the words aloud made them more real and she knew what she needed to do.

* * *

“I just don’t see why she can be nice to everyone but me.” August sat in a booth at The Hangout, the only full service bar in town, bitching to his best friend.

“I’m sure she wonders the same thing and, you know, you are the owner of the company.” That was only partially true. Dom owned a twenty-five percent stake in the company but unlike August he was born into wealth, so he worked because he was good at making money. “Just be nice to her first. See what happens.”

One starry night weeks ago he’d been very nice. Incredibly, sensually nice. And she’d been hot and responsive. And nice. “I shouldn’t let it get to me. Why am I?”

Dom shook his head. “For a smart guy you sure are a dumbshit.”

He frowned at that. “What the hell does that mean?” Usually he and Dom were on the same page but on rare days like today, he had all the clarity of a pile of mud.

“It means,” he rolled his brown eyes, “that you like her only you’re too much of a pussy to admit it. So you’re acting like a kid, pulling her pigtails and putting frogs in her lunchbox.”

Was that true? He didn’t think so. He’d been pretty clear that night in the woods. A smug smile crossed his face. “I don’t like her.” Sure they’d had some great climbs and other adventures since that night in the tent, but he wanted to fuck her. Not like her.

“Good. That means you won’t mind if I make a play for her. She’s looking like a hot piece tonight.”

August spun around and choked on the beer he’d forgotten to swallow. Sandi was in The Hangout and she looked like a wet dream in skintight black leather pants with sky high fuck me heels in red. And covering those mouthwatering breasts was red lace that gave the illusion she was naked underneath. Maybe she is. “Holy shit,” he breathed out.

“No kidding,” Dom replied, as breathless as the other men in the room.

She sidled up to the tall wooden bar, hips swishing left to right with every step, hypnotizing him and turning him into a fool. A mute fool. With a pint of brown ale, she turned and scanned the crowd, sending out an open invitation. Woman on the prowl.

With great effort August turned around and faced Dom, who was still drooling over Sandi. “She looks hot, so what? There are plenty of hot women around.”

Dom laughed. “Around here? That look like that?”

He shrugged. “I prefer someone who’s not so much of a ballbuster. Give me an easy woman who’s happy when a guy does things for her.”

“Like snap at her for being nice to a group of paying customers? Or growl and bark at her like she was an animal? I don’t know, I think that cowboy has the right idea.”

He turned against his will and saw red at the sight of a tall guy in a Stetson smiling down at Sandi and making her laugh. The guy crowded her and she didn’t seem to mind. Another guy slid over, this one wearing a suit, and ordered a couple shots for them. “To new friends,” she toasted before tossing the drink back.

Plenty of new friends, alright. August wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t. Not really. Not seriously, anyway. He was just concerned for her. And maybe a little competitive. Sandi was a single woman without any family close by and she needed someone to look out for her. That’s all. “Fuck me,” he groaned when an old country song from the nineties came on and the cowboy pulled her onto the tiny square that passed for a dance floor.

“Looks like you might have to take a number.” Dom was entirely too smug about all of this.

“Looks like you might be eating through a straw if you don’t shut up.”

Dom snickered. “Time for a refill. You want?”

He nodded and quickly switched seats when Dom was too far away to protest. And he groaned. He was a glutton for punishment to choose this seat while she was on the dance floor being passed around like the belle of the fuckin’ ball. Head thrown back with laughter, he itched to taste that long graceful neck again. To grasp her hips and hold her to him. Again. The song changed and she made her way back to the bar as Dom returned to the booth.

“I see you opted for the seat with a view,” Dom laughed at the same time August pushed himself out of the booth and said,

“I’ll be back.” He stalked to the bar and stood behind Sandi silently until she felt his presence. He knew the moment she felt it because her breath hitched and her body stilled. Slowly she turned until their eyes collided, a storm of blue and grey.

“August. Good to see you.” Her attempt at casual failed and she turned away.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her out on the dance floor, twirling her until she fell into his arms. “It is so damn good to see you. That outfit is sexy as hell, makes your legs look ten feet long,” he growled into her ear. He felt relief that she didn’t push him away. Instead she let her body sink into his, follow his and press against his deliciously.

“Thank you.” Her gaze avoided his but she couldn’t cover up the way he affected her. The same way she did to him. Her body responded to his nearness, nipples hardened against his chest and that little pulse at the base of her neck beat rapidly. “You clean up alright too,” she said formally.

He laughed. “No one looks as good as you tonight, babe. I mean I knew you were hot, but,” he bit off the words, refusing to sound like a besotted fool.

“So you’re acting like this to what, cockblock me?” She stopped dancing and stared at him.

“Damn right. I don’t want another man pawing all over you.” Looking down her shirt and imagining her in nothing but those red heels.

“Well too bad August. You don’t get to say who I let paw me!” She pushed at his chest and he caught her wrists. “Let me go you baboon!”

He laughed and let her carry on, cursing him and squirming in his grasp without regard to the attention they drew. “In a minute,” he said seconds before he kissed her. The kiss was hot, intense and completely combustible. Her anger quickly turned to something else between lust and hate. It was damn hot is what it was.

Until she pushed him away. “You are the most infuriating man!” He watched her stomp off the dance floor, bypass her drink and storm out of The Hangout.

“Great going man,” Dom called out with a laugh, drawing laughter from the peanut gallery.

“Shut up Dom,” he said, his gaze stuck on the door she’d pushed through to get away from him. He caught up with her in the parking lot. “Sandi, wait up.” She walked faster away from him. “Where do you think you’re going? It’s too far to walk.”

“I know that. Mind your business.”

Finally he caught up to her and grabbed her arm. “You are my business.”

Her laugh was not amused. “Try again.”

“You’re nice to everyone but me, why?”

She shrugged, which only infuriated him more.

August let out a low growl before spearing his fingers through her dark waves and angling her head for the kiss he planned to lay on her. His mouth crashed against hers, fast and fierce, his tongue played and cajoled until she opened up for a deeper tasting. His tongue and lips worked in tandem to bring her pleasure until she shivered under him and moaned into his mouth. One hand gripped his ass and the other caressed his chest and abs, slow and thorough while he kissed her senseless.

She pulled back panting, looking at him like she couldn’t quite believe it was August who’d kissed her so well. “That was…wow.”

He chuckled, nodding his agreement and never taking his eyes from her. “So what do you want to do here?”

Her sigh said it all before she spoke. “I’d love to have a night with you August. I think it would be hot and intense and really fun.”

“But?” Because there was definitely a but coming.

“But I don’t sleep with men who don’t respect me because then I wouldn’t respect me.” She pressed another kiss to his mouth, her body pressed just as tight against his body, and then she walked away.

When he slid back into the booth he was met with Dom’s amused smile. “Strike out?”

He shrugged and told Dom what she said. “How can I compete with that?”

“Show her you respect her Auggie, I know you do.”

“Of course I do.” Then why’d she say it? Because he hadn’t been acting like she was worthy of his respect.

“Show her and you’re in. Plus she’s perfect because she wants you but I don’t think she likes you very much.”

He glared at his best friend. “Why do I talk to you again?”

“Because of my infinite wisdom, of course. Seriously, she doesn’t like you so the chances of her falling for you are low. Burn up the sheets a few times and get it out of your system so we can get back to work.”

* * *

Things in Sunset had gotten pretty weird lately, at least if anyone were to ask Sandi. Which of course no one would because she was still mostly a hermit. She spent her days at work and her nights at home, except that one night she’d foolishly thought she could pick up a guy for one night of hot fun. There’d been some hot contenders too, until arrogant August Wilde had decided to play the caveman and dragged her to the dance floor and kissing her in front of half the town. Now I’ll never get laid!

After that kiss against his truck, she’d been a big pile of lust and arousal. More than anything she wanted to go home with him, feel that big body so full of muscles pressing her into the bed. Running her tongue over the hard dips and peaks of his chest and abs. Lower. But like she told him, she just couldn’t. Would not allow herself to be anything to a man who hated women.

But that kiss had done something strange to August and she hoped her sister could help her figure it out. “So he comes by every night and kisses you stupid and just…leaves?”

“Oh good, it sounds crazy to you too.” She would laugh if it weren’t so maddening, so bizarre. For the past nine days her doorbell rang around nine or ten at night and it was August. He never came in and never said a word.

“Why?”

She frowned. “Why is he doing it or why does it sound crazy?”

Mandy groaned. “What prompted it?”

“Nothing.”

“Sandi,” she said, a warning in her voice.

“I went out to get laid last week.” She told her sister all about the leather and lace getup, the stilettos and the hot cowboy. “It could’ve happened with any of those guys. But he staked his claim, damn him!” That was what pissed her off most. Now the guys all thought she was his.

“So why not take what you want from him?”

“Would you bang a guy who didn’t respect you?”

Mandy’s laugh lacked any humor. “I’m pretty sure the guy I’m banging now doesn’t respect me, but he is a neurosurgeon. They don’t respect anyone.” She joked but Sandi heard the truth. “I get your point, but what does respect have to do with anything? Enjoy his body for one night only and then go back to cold war status.”

Sandi mulled that over for a moment. Could she do that? Let go and have one night with him? One night of physical release, of sexual satisfaction and then walk away? “You know Mandy, I think you might have a point.”

“Good because a GSW just walked in and I have to go. Keep in in the loop. Love you bye!”

Sandi smiled at the way her sister ended every call. Mandy had given her a lot to think about so she used her rare afternoon off to pamper herself. A long relaxing bath with her favorite overpriced moisturizing lotion and her plain cotton boy shorts with a matching tank. All white. Her toes were painted hot pink and her hair fell in sexy waves around her shoulders. If August showed up tonight, he would be in for a surprise.

When the knock finally sounded at fifteen minutes past ten, Sandi stood and stretched, slowly walked to the door and pulled it open. Her blue eyes connected with his and she turned and walked back down the hall. She smiled when his heavy footsteps sounded on the hardwood of her foyer.

“Sandi,” he rasped out.

“So your voice does work.” She turned to face him, hand on hips and stared. “Because I wasn’t sure.”

“Sandi,” he groaned, making her nipples pebble. His eyes told her he’d noticed, he couldn’t look away. “God you’re beautiful.”

“I’ve been thinking,” she told him, waving a beer bottle in question and he nodded his acceptance. “You’re right, we should just have sex.”

He frowned. “I said that?”

“It was implied,” she told him with a dismissive wave. “Anyway we should. Once. One night and then we go back to whatever we are during the day.”

“And the issue of respect?”

She shrugged. “I don’t need your respect and I don’t care if I get it. I want your body and you want mine. For one night we both get what we want. What do you say?” She stood there and waited for him to respond. Her humiliation growing with every passing moment.

He nodded. “I want you too. But not tonight. If I only get one night, I want the whole night.” He closed the gap between their bodies and she shivered the closer he came. And then she was being swept in his arms and tortured with slow drugging kisses that had her clawing at his body.

Sandi jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist, drawing him into her throbbing center and tangling her fingers in his hair. She was crazed with desire, unable to get as close as she wanted to him. Her kisses moved from his mouth to his neck and nibbling on his ear. “You taste good,” she moaned in his ear, smiling at the way he shivered.

He backed her up until she sat on the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room and slipped a finger inside her shorts. “No panties. Just the way I like you,” he growled in her throat, plunging two fingers in and out of her wet channel. She gasped when he slowly removed his fingers and brought them to his mouth.

“Oh goodness,” she groaned at the completely erotic sight of him licking her juices off his hand.

He brushed a kiss to her mouth and stepped back. “You taste good too Sandi.” He walked down the hall and shut the door behind him.

Five minutes later her phone pinged a notification. A text message.

SATURDAY IS ALL MINE BABE. CLEAR YOUR SCHEDULE. —AW