Chapter Seven
Greer
I counted down the hours until Friday. The initial swarm of our new business had died down, but a steady flow kept me busy. Not busy enough to keep me from looking at the clock constantly, but enough to distract me for a moment.
I’d made it home in time for a shower but just as I stripped down, intending to head into the waiting hot water, my phone rang.
“Hello?” I answered and, seeing it was Tenn, trying out a deeper tone for his entertainment.
“Well, that was…” He cleared his throat. “Pops called and said he saw you at the shop earlier, so I thought maybe you would be busy. I sound ridiculous.”
“No, you don’t.” I loved that he wanted me with him so badly. “In fact, I was jumping into the shower as you called.”
He almost growled. “That’s not very nice of you, Greer.”
“What?” I played innocent.
“You know very well what. Now hurry up. No dawdling in the shower thinking of me with you.”
And before I could say another word, he hung up.
I sighed. The teasing words from his mouth had sent my dick into a bobbing frenzy. As I got into the shower, the hot water only enticed me more. I was fantasizing about Tenn’s mouth, taking my cock to the base while he kneeled before me. I reached down and pumped my hard-on, slowly at first, letting my hips rock with the rhythm. If he were here, I would tangle my hands in his hair and watch as his head bobbed, taking me whole. In seconds, the orgasm had taken me over, and a groan rose up from my throat as the evidence of the powerful climax spurted onto the shower walls.
I washed up in a hurry and got dressed, choosing a navy-blue V-neck sweater and dark-gray slacks along with my favorite pair of forest-green Converse. I would let the cool wind style my hair while I drove. Picking up my wallet, keys, and Shrimp, I left, locking the door behind me.
“Here we go.”
My little shower escapade had me racing out the door to make up lost time, but miraculously I arrived a few minutes early. I took the stairs slowly, purposefully, to give myself time to calm down. No man had ever affected me the way Tenn did. Something in the air changed the few times I’d been around him. He took my breath away.
I knocked and waited. In seconds, Tenn answered, wearing an outfit made by the gods of autumn. His maroon shirt sleeves were rolled up, and dark-chocolate-colored pants fit him tight in all the right places.
“Greer, come in. You, too, Shrimp.”
Shrimp was still in my arms, and we both walked in. As I passed Tenn, I took in his scent along with the fragrance of his home. The apartment was small but well-kept and impeccably clean. I smelled bacon along with butter and, if I wasn’t mistaken, coffee.
“Dinner is ready. I hope you’re hungry. I intended to make grits and biscuits, but it turned into a full-fledged Southern breakfast.” He closed the door and walked the few steps into the kitchen where he stirred a big heart-shaped pot full of what looked like grits.
“There’s nothing I love more than breakfast for dinner. And I haven’t eaten since I devoured a piece of Bea’s latest concoction this morning. I’m actually starving.”
A half smile took shape and he winked at me. “We don’t want to have you starving, do we?”
He set the table with precision and style.
“Okay. I think that’s it,” he declared with a clap of his hands. “Let’s eat.”
After I sat down, Shrimp at my feet, Tenn served up the food. I felt like a prince being waited on. And I kind of wished Tenn was my knight.
When I took a bite of grits with a sliver of bacon, the rich savory tastes burst on my tongue, and I groaned.
“That’s a nice sound,” he said before taking a drink of his pumpkin-spiced coffee, the same as mine.
“I don’t make the sound enough,” I admitted then my face heated.
“We might have to remedy that. It’s one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard.”
Well, if those words didn’t make my dick stand at attention, nothing would. “Tenn is an interesting name,” I said out of desperation, trying to change the subject before I climaxed right there at the table.
“It’s Tennyson, after the poet. My mother was an English lit professor and writer.”
“Oh, she sounds wonderful.”
“She is, actually. I told her about you.”
I almost choked on my bacon. “Did you now? You wouldn’t be willing to share the words you spoke to her, would you?”
“Nosey,” he joked. The pursed lips and rosy cheeks gave his embarrassment away. “I think I said something to the effect of...I met a man, more handsome than I’ve ever seen and who makes me nervous and when I think about him, it makes me smile. While I was in Canada, I was constantly distracted by the thoughts of him. I’d only met him once.”
I couldn’t contain the smile. The knowledge that this man had thought of me after only one encounter overwhelmed me.
“Well, he must be special.” I giggled at the end of the sentence.
“I really think he is. So tell me more about you. Your name is Greer, and you own this hip little ice-cream shop. You have a dog named Shrimp. What else? Tell me everything.”
We ate and talked until we were both stuffed. I rambled on and on about college and working at the restaurant.
“Let’s move to the couch. I’d love to hear more.” I nodded. We sat on his sofa, and I shivered. The nights grew colder as the days went by, and I loved every second of the phasing to winter. “Here. I don’t want you to be cold.” Tenn grabbed a blanket from the back of his couch and draped it over my lap. Shrimp sat in his, looking more content than I’d ever seen him. I’d seen Tenn sneak him a piece of bacon or two under the table.
“There are other ways to get me to warm up.”
He sighed and took my hand, instantly heating every part of me. “I was told never to kiss on a first date, but you make me want to disobey that rule.”
His face was lit by a single cinnamon-scented candle on the living room table along with a soft lamp on a slim sofa table behind us. His chiseled jaw lines and cheekbones made him appear as though he were carved from the purest marble.
“I think you should rebel on that rule because this omega wants to be kissed by you.”