CHAPTER SEVEN

Aimee

The alarm from my cellphone was blaring in my ears. Still groggy from my late night and bone melting orgasm, I reached over and grabbed the phone and blearily gazed at the glowing numbers. Then I bolted straight up in bed. How I’d managed to sleep through that loud screech for the last thirty minutes, I’d never know.

“Darn it all!” I ground out, hopping out of bed. I needed to be at Gator Ventures in thirty minutes. Even with the world’s fastest shower, I’d be explaining to Earl why I was late. I was still naked but there was no reason to put on clothes I was only going to take off. The other boarder Lisa, who lived downstairs, was out of town, anyway. Miss Cecily would be sound asleep. I rushed down the hall in double time and turned on the shower in the shower room, then walked through the sliding door to the vanity area, where I brushed my teeth in the sink and gazed blurrily at my reflection.

Yowzers. A twenty-hour work day did not look good on me. If this wasn’t such a small town I could have called in sick to my Gator Ventures job, but Earl would somehow find out I’d lied.

I blinked heavily, then headed back into the shower room, sliding the door shut behind me and stepping under the spray. Oh good grief, the water was freezing! Usually it warmed up during the time it took me to brush my teeth, but not this morning. Damned water heater couldn’t always handle an early morning load. Not that I could complain. The rent here was good and it allowed me to save for my down payment.

The water finally warmed up a tad, so I showered and raked shampoo and conditioner through my long hair in record time before shutting off the spray. Blinking bleary eyes, I reached for my towel and realized that in my haste, I’d forgotten it in the vanity. “Perfect,” I groaned. I’d have to drip water all over Miss Cecily’s ancient oak floor, which she did not like. And I didn’t like getting on Miss Cecily’s bad side. I slid the door open and stepped into the vanity.

It was then that I felt my heart stop.

Oh God, I’m hallucinating.

“Hi, Aimee,” Corbin said, just as conversationally as he had last night.

Nope, not a hallucination. He was here, in my vanity, leaning against the washbasin, shaving his face, dressed only in a towel.

And I was naked and dripping all over the floor.

I desperately tried to cover my private parts, ignoring the fact that mere hours ago I’d been fantasizing about Corbin touching said body parts. “What the hell are you doing here?” Was Hot Guy Corbin a stalker? But even as my heart beat double-time in my chest, I noted that he didn’t look threatening or at all embarrassed or worried to be here. Plus he was wearing a towel and shaving. Even as stunned as I was by his sudden appearance, I knew he was no threat.

“Cindy told me this was a good place to rent a room. I checked in last night with Miss Cecily.”

I closed my eyes. Of course. I opened my eyes again and took a deep breath. “Cindy told you… But how did you…I mean, why…”

“Aimee, I’m not complaining, but you might want to cover up while we talk. I’m trying to keep my eyes on your face, but I’m only human.”

Shit! I blushed then blushed harder when he pulled the towel off and held it out for me to take. Which left him deliciously and mind-bogglingly naked, too. “You need this more than I do at the moment.”

I couldn’t help it. I stared. His body was tan and while he was sleek and slim, like a soccer or baseball player, he had rippling muscles in his shoulders and a trail of abs that part of me—okay a huge part—would love to lick. It all trailed down to a narrow waist with those sharp dips in his hips. I had to fight everything to keep myself from licking my lips at the sight of his cock, currently at, ahem, half-mast and getting larger the longer I stared.

“Aimee,” he called softly, and when my gaze met his, his expression was amused.

I grabbed the damn towel and wrapped it around me, then turned my back on his naked bod. Holy moly. He’d looked hot just in jeans and a leather jacket last night, but completely naked in my bathroom? I could barely comprehend it.

“My room’s the first one on the right, just up the main staircase,” he said behind me. “I had no idea this was your home until Miss Cecily told me last night. Cindy didn’t mention it. I can leave if me staying here makes you uncomfortable though.”

Cindy! “I think I need to have a talk with her. She must be playing Cupid.”

“Does that mean you want me to leave?”

“No. No, you don’t have to leave.”

“Good. So maybe we can both get dressed, and we can have breakfast together?”

I stared at the shower I’d vacated, unable to believe I was standing there in a towel while a naked Corbin was standing behind me, and we were just chatting away as if we were still at the bar of Evangeline’s.

“I can’t have breakfast with you. I have to get ready for work.”

“Oh right. It’s Wednesday. Gator Ventures.”

He’d remembered. Damn. This was the sort of thing that made girls weak at the knees. I opened my mouth, then slammed it shut again, not knowing what to say.

“Look, Aimee,” he said. “I really can find another place to stay.”

“No.” My vehement and quick response surprised me, but I didn’t want Corbin staying somewhere else during his time here. I wanted him here, in my home. I wanted him close by.

I wanted him.

Only I couldn’t come right out and tell him that, so I said, “Miss Cecily needs the money. She doesn’t get many boarders.”

“Oh, well, I’ve decided to stay for a couple of months so hopefully that’ll help.”

I stiffened and glanced at him over my shoulder. “You—you’re staying for a couple of months? But I thought you were only staying for a week.”

“Guess I know a good thing when I see it. And something tells me, staying in Pontmaison a while longer would be good for me,” he said, staring at me intently.

“Oh. Well. Um. You’re right. Two months of rent would make a big difference for her. Stay, Corbin. We’ll make this work somehow. We’ll talk later today, okay? I promise.” Still clutching my towel, I crossed my heart and held two fingers in the air, the way Corbin had the night before when he’d promised he wouldn’t ask me out on a date.

“I look forward to later.”

I shuffled toward the door, opened it, then rushed back to my room. But before I did, I might have taken one quick little peek at Corbin, still standing there in all his naked glory.

And he might have caught me and started laughing.

* * *

Corbin

Aimee Bodine was the hottest woman I’d ever seen. That had been true even before I’d seen her naked, but now that I had… I was hooked. Even after she’d headed back to her room, all I could think about was her gorgeous eyes and her banging curves.

Lush. Silky. Creamy.

And completely bare

Fuck. It had taken all my willpower to hand her my towel.

And all my willpower to rip it off her almost immediately after she’d put it on.

Thank God I’d decided to stay in Pontmaison and would have two months with her.

After she left, I finished shaving, got dressed, and headed down to the kitchen where a delicious scent wafted in the air.

Miss Cecily scooped freshly scrambled eggs, a cinnamon roll, and some bacon onto a plate and handed it to me. “I don’t do vegan this or macrobiotic bunkum that. You eat what I serve you.”

“I’m happy to, ma’am,” I said, biting down into a fatty piece of bacon that was salty enough to leave me drinking orange juice soon after. Salty and crunchy, just the way my Granny Tilda used to make.

“You like?” She gestured to the food. “You stopped eating. Looked a little lost in thought, there.”

“Your food is amazing. Reminds me of how my grandma used to cook.”

Miss Cecily nodded. “You miss her. I can tell she passed by how you looked so off in space, like you thinkin’ ’bout someone special. About some time that was special.”

She’d pegged that one correctly. I looked down at my eggs. They were spiced up with a mix of paprika and pepper jack and kicked even more ass than the bacon. “Do you cook this way every morning, and for all your boarders? How many do you have, anyway?”

“At one time I had about eight. Made good money, then. Not so much now. With you, I have three boarders. Room for more, for sure, but not many people have an interest.”

“I get that you’re not anywhere near the beaten path or, well, anything else for that matter.” I glanced around. The place was a bit of a relic, too.

“True. That and the voodoo.”

I jerked my gaze up and saw Miss Cecily’s eyes glinting at me and a small smile tucked in the corner of her mouth.

“Jes’ kiddin’, young man. But some folks in Pontmaison can be superstitious—those Lamells being the worst of them—and they’ll judge you as soon as meet you. Maybe that’s why Aimee finds a home out here, too.”

I set my fork down. “Why’s that? Everyone seems to like her. She got along well with everyone at the bar the other night. What’s there to judge?”

“I can’t go spilling someone else’s secret. T’ain’t right.”

Even though I was anxious to learn more about Aimee, I nodded, liking that Miss Cecily watched out for her. “I ran into her upstairs, as she was leaving for work. I can’t believe she worked so hard at the bar last night and is going to put in more time leading a swamp tour today. When does she have time to rest?”

Miss Cecily pursed her lips. “She’s got dreams and she’s working for them. She’s going to make them come true, too, despite the hard road her mother paved for her.”

Before I could ask her what she meant (even knowing she wouldn’t answer anyway), she stood up and rummaged through a kitchen drawer for something. I figured it was a serving spoon or something like that until she came back with a pendant. I wasn’t going to call it a necklace. It was really just a leather cord with a polished river stone wrapped in wire. It looked old.

She stared at it intently for several seconds before saying, “I’mma gonna have to give up this place soon. Been struggling to make the mortgage and my time’s just about up. But I’m glad Aimee will be moving on soon to her own place. Lisa’s already looking for a place the next town over, where she stays with her boyfriend most of the time now. And you…” She looked up at me. “You’re just here temporarily. Gonna go back to your real life, yes?”

I frowned at the news that she was going to lose her place due to financial struggles. “Miss Cecily, I—”

“Here,” she said, interrupting me and jabbing the necklace in my direction. “You wear this, always.”

I eyed the pendant. “Does that turn me into a frog?” I joked.

“Don’ be disrespectful. No, this here is to help you see.” She placed it in my hands.

“I’ve never had a problem with my vision,” I said absently, noticing how the stone warmed in my palm.

“Silly boy. It’s not your eyes that need help. You need help seeing through the black veil of your past and into the future.”

I thought better of making a joke about seeing into the future and winning the PowerBall. Somehow I didn’t think Miss Cecily would take kindly to that response to her gesture of friendship. I wasn’t sure what she meant by seeing through the black veil of my past, exactly, but…

The last time I’d seen a black veil was at my parents’ funeral. Multiple veils, actually. Both my grans and all my great aunts wore them over their hats as they stood at the newly thawed earth, opened up to accept my parents’ graves in the family plot.

I realized Miss Cecily was still staring fixedly at me. Was she waiting for me to put it around my neck? I held up the pendant. “So, can I keep it in my pocket?”

She frowned. “It won’t do no good like that. To help you see, it needs to be close to the heart. I guarantee that.”

Shrugging, I took the pendant and slipped it around my neck. “Hope this works.”

“I do, too,” she muttered. “I do, too. Now, don’t you worry about what I said about losing this place. Life, it’s always changing. You’d better hurry on up if you’re gonna get on that boat of Aimee’s. You are gonna go sit in on her tour, aren’t you, young man?”