Rising from the Ashes (11 page)

Faking a work deadline, I quickly hung up the phone and dropped my head down on my desk. When had my life turned into such a roller coaster?

I was losing my freaking mind. There was no doubt about it. It had been two weeks since Jeremy had started operation Prove Savannah Wrong, and it was official, I was losing—
big time
!

The Thursday after he’d made me breakfast, he’d shown up at my job with Chinese takeout, and he’d eaten with me in my office. Friday, I’d pulled up to my house after work, and he had been there, cleaning out the gutters that I had neglected for as long as I’d lived in the house. The following Monday, he’d fixed my leaky bathroom faucet.

Everything that had needed fixing around my house managed to be fixed over the last two weeks. He’d shown up with takeout or cooked for me at least four times each week. And every time he’d left, he would make sure to leave me with a skin-tingling, brain-muddling kiss that was hot enough to make my panties combust.

Lizzy was the only friend who knew the full reason behind the end of my relationship with Jeremy. Therefore, she was the only one I could call to vent my sexual frustrations.

“So, what’s he doing now?” she asked from the other end of the phone.

I stood at the bay window in the small kitchenette area off of my kitchen with a cup of coffee in my hand. “Mowing my lawn.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” she replied.

I pulled the phone from my ear, snapped a quick picture and texted it to her. A few seconds later, she put me on hold to check out what I’d just sent.

“Hot damn! Has he always been built like that?”

I looked back out my window at Jeremy, taking in the broad chest, ripped abs, and muscular arms pushing the mower around my front lawn. Sweat was running down his sexy-as-sin torso, pulling my eyes to the worn out jeans that were resting low on his hips. The white T-shirt he’d shown up in earlier had been discarded and was hanging out the waistband of the back of his pants. He was a walking advertisement for sex, and even my neighbors couldn’t help but come outside to appreciate him.

I let out a sexually repressed sigh and went back to my conversation with Lizzy. “He’s bulked up a bit over the years, but yeah, for the most part, he’s always been pretty cut.”

She was silent for several seconds. “No offense, babe, but how in the ever-living hell did you give up having sex with
that
for the past seven years?”

I leaned my head against the glass and squeezed my eyes shut. “With an iron will.”

She started laughing on the other end of the phone. “How’s that working out for ya right now?”

“Well, considering I’m two seconds from knocking his ass out just so I can take advantage of him, I’d say not so good.”

“So, he’s still leaving you hot and bothered every night?” she asked, still chuckling.

I wanted to reach through the phone and choke her out.

“Yes, he is. And it’s really starting to piss me the hell off.”

“Oh, someone’s edgy when she isn’t getting laid.”

I let out a low growl. “It’s not just that. It’s the fact that he insists on turning me on almost every friggin’ day, and then he leaves me high and dry. If I had balls, they’d be blue as a fucking Smurf right now.”

That set Lizzy off into a fit of hysterics. I couldn’t appreciate the humor in my situation at the moment.

“I’m serious, Lizzy! Maybe I should roofie him. Can guys still get it up when they take that shit?”

“Why don’t we try to stay away from the felonies? Have you tried something simple like, I don’t know, maybe seducing him?” She said it like I was an idiot for not coming up with that plan already.

A light bulb went off, and I knew exactly what I had to do. “Lizzy, I gotta go.”

“It’s about damn time you pulled your head outta your ass!” she shouted right before I disconnected the call.

Armed with a plan, I ran to my bedroom and started stripping out of my ratty sweats, and then I went on the hunt for the perfect outfit. Five minutes later, I headed out to my front yard just as Jeremy was finishing up. If we lived anywhere other than Texas, my plan wouldn’t have worked. It was one of the only times I was thankful for Texas weather.

I spread my beach towel out on the freshly cut grass, and began rubbing sunscreen onto my bikini-clad body. Thank God I’d never been all that modest about my body, or I might not have been able to pull this off. After I was properly SPFed, I slid my sunglasses on, stuck my earbuds in my ears, scrolled through my playlist for The Neighbourhood, and lay back, propping one knee up in an attempt to look sexy yet casual at the same time.

After about five minutes, I started to doubt my plan when Jeremy hadn’t made his way over to jump my bones, but then a large shadow spread over me, blocking out the sun. I lifted my sunglasses and saw Jeremy standing above me, wearing a knowing grin. Without a word, he reached down for the glass of iced tea I’d sat next to me and guzzled it.

“Thirsty?” I asked with a sassy smile.

He gave me a crooked smile and laughed. “Yeah, just a little.”

I propped myself up on my elbows and crossed my feet at my ankles. “Kinda hot for November, isn’t it?”

“Seeing as you’re lying there in a bikini, I’d say, yeah, it is.”

Why isn’t he all over me yet?

“You know”—he took a seat beside me on the grass and lay back with his hands behind his head—“I know what you’re doing, and it’s not gonna work.”

Shit.

I could feel a blush creeping up my neck to my cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied. “I’m just trying to get a little sun.”

“Sugar, all you have to do to get me to sleep with you is say four little words. We. Are. A. Couple. It’s not that hard.”

I let out a huff and lay back down, completely defeated that my plan hadn’t worked. The asshole was even more stubborn than I was! I didn’t know that was possible. “Is it a crime for a girl to work on her tan?” I replied testily.

Jeremy stood, and to my displeasure, pulled his shirt from his waistband and put it on. “Jesus, you’re stubborn, woman!”

I shot to my feet, full of not-so-righteous indignation. “Look who’s talking, asshole! You kiss me like you want to fuck me every damn time you see me, but you absolutely
refuse
to make a move. What do I have to do? Put it out there on a silver damn platter for you?”

Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest and stood his ground. “You know exactly what you have to do.”

“Damn it, Jeremy! Have sex with me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, not caring that my neighbors were still on their porches, enjoying the view of Jeremy.

“Say we’re a couple.”

“Oh!” I turned and stomped off toward my house. “Kiss my ass!” I shouted over my shoulder.

“I’d do that too—if you’d just admit we’re together!” he called after me.

I flipped him the bird and slammed the door before he could say anything else.

Two weeks.

Two. Fucking. Weeks.

That was how long I’d been making Savannah suffer, but I was starting to think I was the only one suffering.

If my dick hadn’t hated me before, it was a sure thing now after two weeks of self-induced agony. I was crazy!

That damn woman was going to drive me completely batshit crazy. There was no way in hell I would ever admit it to her, but I’d come so close to just caving many times. If I had to jack off one more time, I was scared I might actually go blind. Every time I was around her, my cock turned into a friggin’ heat-seeking missile pointed right in her direction.

I had been determined before, but she’d turned this into a fucking war. I was going to break her like a wild horse if it was the last thing I did.

I headed to my truck, muttering curses about Savannah the entire way. When I climbed in, I had to adjust the ever-present hard on in my pants to get comfortable enough to drive. If any of the guys knew the torture I was putting myself through, they’d never let me hear the end of it.

If the blood loss to my brain—because it was all stored in my dick—didn’t kill me, I knew Savannah was going to be the death of me. But
damn
was it going to be sweet when I finally had her.

Even after all these years, I remembered almost everything of our time together. For how hard we fought each other, we loved twice that. She was playing hard to get, but no one on Earth could convince me that Savvy didn’t still want me.

And all the pain and suffering I was going through was going to be so worth it once I had her. I just had to stick to my guns. I already had a very creative, very detailed list of how she could make up all my current
physical
pain up to me.

I was starting to wonder if I could get away with killing Jeremy and using temporary insanity as my defense. I felt that all the sexual frustration he was intentionally causing was sending me over the deep end. The women in that jury would
have
to understand my dilemma when they saw a picture of Jeremy without his shirt on.

“Savannah? Are you listening?”

For the past few weeks, my brain had been on one channel, and all that channel played was Jeremy Matthews, twenty-four/seven. I was even dreaming of the bastard every night.

I looked up to see Ben standing in the doorway of my office. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”