Sweet Charity (2 page)

Belle laughed and they attacked their burgers with gusto once they arrived. Or rather, Charity ate hers like a Hoover vacuum and Belle used a knife and fork. But Belle was like that and Charity loved her anyway.

“He might be bi, I’m not with him every moment of the day or anything. But he likes girls. I know that, anyone with eyes knows that.” Belle dabbed her lips with the napkin.

They both laughed.

“So why not me?” With an annoyed groan, Charity stood. “Jukebox. Any requests?”

“Something good to sway to when you walk back here.”

“Belle, you’re awesome.”

She walked past the booths, waving at Gabriel, Rafe and Brian. The jukebox was filled with everything from Conway Twitty to Massive Attack. She fed it quarters and chose, smiling and bouncing past Gabriel again as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell started to sing “Ain’t No Mountain”.

“Oh, good choice.” Belle laughed as Charity sat back down. “Gabe’s eyes were glued to your boobs and then when you passed them, your ass.”

“I don’t want his eyes on me, I want his hands on me.”

More shots arrived and she laughed as she took it. Belle waved it away.

“Rafe is already looking at me with that gleam in his eyes.”

“Rafe is eleventy kinds of sexy. You two are so good with each other.” She smiled, happy for her friends but damn it, wanting it for herself, too.

Belle blushed. “Rafe
is
all kinds of sexy, isn’t he? Just confront him! Gabriel that is. Go over there and ask him what his deal is. What do you have to lose? I mooned over Rafe for years and wham, suddenly he was kissing me! I’ve never been happier. You’ve had this thing for Gabriel since we were in high school. What if now is the time? What if, you know, you and Gabe could have what Rafe and I do?”

“Why don’t you put us all out of misery and fuck the woman?” Rafe asked Gabriel.

“What? Who?” He’d been staring so hard at Charity he’d only halfway heard the question. He turned to Rafe and Brian and exhaled sharply.

Brian laughed. “Charity Harris. You know, the woman you told me two years ago that if I ever touched or tried to get naked you’d kill me and bury my body where no one would find it? The woman you’ve been staring at all night? All that licking business is making me wonder about my chances at being murdered by you. I do so love all that long, curvy stuff she’s got under her clothes. Why you two sniff around each other but never do anything about is beyond me. It’s also a waste of a very hot woman.”

Who
wasn’t
staring at her in that sweater? Her sable-dark hair loose around her shoulders, lips as red as the sweater. Her tongue, each time she took a shot, and it had been four now, darting out to lick her hand, God, the sight had been enough to make him whimper.

He focused his eyes again to glare at Brian. “She’s a friend. You’re a hound. Of course I warned you off.” Even Gabe didn’t believe himself. He supposed if he hadn’t lost his voice twice in one sentence it might be more convincing.

“Hi.”

He looked up, and up some more past the breasts heaving from the front of the sweater, past the hair and up into those green eyes of hers.
Zing
. Their connection shot straight to his toes. And um, other parts.

“Hey, Charity, you and Jose Cuervo having a good time?”
Keep it light.

She plopped herself in his lap and his arms went around her to keep them both from falling. So much for that. “Gabriel, why don’t you find me fuckable? What? Am I ugly? Fat? Do I smell? Did I make a weird noise before? Why do you run from me?”

“I’m going to check on Belle. You know, to see if she wants a ride home,” Rafe said, shoving at Brian who stared at the mouthwatering tits currently pressed against Gabe’s chest.

Gabriel wanted to throttle his friend for looking at her that way and didn’t truly relax until the other two guys had gone and he and Charity were left alone. Although relaxed wasn’t exactly what he felt just then.

Her lips just touched his ear, her breath against the sensitive skin. “Now that we’re alone, you can tell me. It drives me crazy, you know. Why don’t you want me?” She nuzzled into his neck and he stifled a groan.

“Honey, you’re drunk.” He knew it from the way she spoke. He’d heard her say the “f” word maybe a handful of times in the years he’d known her. She was also clearly out of it not to feel the rock hard cock she’d planted her sweet ass on.

“I am drunk, yes. If I wasn’t, I’d be pretending that night eight years ago never happened. I’d be pretending it doesn’t bother me that you didn’t make me come. That I ran off and then we didn’t talk to each other for nearly a year and now we circle each other and I think you’re interested but other times you couldn’t be less interested. It makes me very frustrated and there’s only so much masturbating I can do and now apparently you’ve been warning men away. Tsk tsk, Gabriel. Brian might be the guy to give me what I need. Why so interested in telling him to back off?”

He tried not to smile. She was drunk and slurring her words slightly but she was on a mission and this was the woman he’d known for nearly thirty years demanding an answer. She was damned cute although squirming a lot, which wasn’t helping his cock or his resolve to keep away from her.

Rafe approached, one of his eyebrows rising as he caught sight of how low Gabriel’s hand rested on Charity’s back, just above the sweet curve of her ass. “I’m going to take Belle home. She’s very fun when she’s been taking tequila shots. Thanks for that, Charity.” He winked and Charity laughed.

“Merry Christmas from me to you.”

Gabriel stood, bringing Charity to her feet but keeping an arm around her waist. “I’m going to take you home. You can’t drive like this.”

“I can take her,” Brian said, wearing a smirk.

“I’ve got it.” Gabriel glared and walked her out.

“I’m fine. I can get a ride with someone else since you hate being with me so much.”

Gabe leaned her against his truck until he got it unlocked and opened. “Get in and stop that now. You know that’s bullshit.”

She snorted but got in, swinging those long legs inside.

He walked around, taking a deep breath of the cold air and praying for strength. He hated that she’d think he felt she was unattractive. Especially when the opposite was true. Eight years ago was not her fault.

“You’re not going to puke in my truck are you?” he asked, starting the truck and putting his seatbelt on.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not some college dumbass who can’t hold her liquor. I only had four shots and we both know I’m capable of keeping up with you on that score. I wouldn’t drive just now, but I’m not gonna puke.”

“Just checking. Don’t get pissy with me. You’re at that new townhouse complex now right?”

“Yes. I’ll get pissy if I want to. And you haven’t answered my questions.”

“Because they’re stupid questions. We were kids eight years ago and you know damned good and well you’re a beautiful, sexy woman.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and fumed the rest of the way to her house, which was fine with him.

“Take this lane here on the left. I’m the last driveway on the end.”

He pulled up, turning the truck off. He turned to speak but she practically leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest and her mouth to his.

It was over for his self control as those lips of hers touched his. Within moments he was out of his seatbelt and his hands were in her hair. That soft, beautiful hair he wanted to wrap around his fist.

He let himself kiss her, let himself marvel at her taste when his tongue slipped into her mouth. She moaned, pressing against him more confidently, tossing her leg over his body and straddling his lap.

White bursts of light pinpricked against his closed eyelids as she ground herself over his cock and it was his turn to groan.

Firmly but not as hard as he really wanted, he pulled her hair enough to break the kiss. He’d intended to get out and drag her inside and run the other way but her neck was too tempting. Instead, he angled her the way he wanted. He feasted on her frantic pulsebeat just beneath her ear before cruising down the column of her throat where she was warm and smelled damned good.

The edge of his teeth tested the skin at the hollow of her throat and she moaned, arching into him. Her fingers pulled his hair, keeping him close.

The sound of a car door closing somewhere else on the small lane broke into his brain, and he grabbed her by the waist and set her on the seat again as he tried to catch his breath.

“Christ.”

“Come inside with me.” Her eyes were bright and clear but she was still under the influence of four shots of tequila and there was no way he’d have sex with a woman who’d had that much to drink.

Still, he wanted to get her inside safely so he helped her out of the truck and walked her to the door.

The place was nice. He hadn’t been inside it, having been away the weekend she’d moved a few months back. It smelled like her, spicy, like cinnamon.

“Where’s your bedroom?”

She smiled up at him, sliding her palm up his chest. “Up the stairs and to the left.”

He helped her up and then saw the doors to her bedroom standing open. Her bed was covered in a big, fluffy comforter and lots of pillows. The room was more girly than he’d figured it would be and
Christ
, her panty drawer was open and heaps of lacy, frilly, brightly colored lingerie boiled up and over the edges like a sex explosion.

He imagined what her ass would look like in those boyshorts, her cheeks peeking out the bottom. Maybe pinked from his hand.

No. Not now.

She fell to the bed, kicking her shoes off.

“All right, well I’m gonna go now. I’ll see you soon.”

She sat up and pulled her sweater off and his mouth dried up at the sight of her breasts in a delicious bra the same red as the sweater had been. He froze in the doorway, watching her shimmy out of her jeans. The thong was the same color as the bra.

“You are not going to leave right now.” She fell back to the bed. “If you leave I will hunt you down and kill you.”

“Charity, you’re drunk. I don’t fuck drunk women.” He held onto the door, his knuckles going white to keep from moving to her. “It’s not right.”

She opened her thighs and slid her hand down the front of her panties. “Gabriel, if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. Come on, I’m not some random woman you picked up at a bar. You know I’m consenting. You know I’d want you any other day too. I’m so wet.” She made a sound in the back of her throat and he stumbled back into the hallway. “I need you.” Her voice tore at him, pulled at him, desire thick. He could see her fingers moving against her pussy through the sheer material of her thong.

He swallowed hard, trying not to whimper at how much he wanted her, how much he wanted to go to her right then and ease her. That want had lodged in his gut since he was seventeen and it hadn’t ever let go.

“Don’t do this. We’ll talk later. I’m going to lock up behind myself. Drink some water.” He considered taking her some, but holy baby Santa Claus and his reindeer, he wanted to pull the hand from the front of her panties and suck her fingers into his mouth before pressing his face to her cunt.

Nope
, not enough control to go in there.

“I’m going now. Get some sleep,” he called out.

“You’re leaving without making me come again, Gabriel. You suck.”

He laughed without humor and left, each step a new lesson in pain from how hard he was.

The birds singing outside her window woke Charity up slowly. Her hand was still down the front of her panties and she groaned, remembering how horny she’d been and how Gabriel had walked out on her.

She couldn’t help but groan as she got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, turning on the water for a shower. A clear head was needed to puzzle over what to do next and a shower would hopefully do the trick.

As she washed her hair and waited for the pain relievers she took to work, she worked up a head of steam just thinking about the night before.

First of all, hello, the kiss he had laid on her was
not
the same as before. The kiss last night was hot and hard and sort of dark. She might have been tipsy but she remembered the way he’d yanked on her hair to kiss her neck, the way his hands had trembled as she ground herself over his cock.

All right, she could admit it, she had some major league feelings for Gabriel. Last night had let them surge through her, past the wall she’d built over the years. There was simply no more denying it.

He’d wanted her enough to let himself kiss her for real in his truck and yet, he’d walked away. She’d had on her sexiest undies and even started to masturbate in front of him and he left! What was the deal?

That whole “we’ll talk later” crap made her grind her teeth as she slapped on lotion and wandered into her bedroom to get clothes.

Charity wanted some answers, and she’d have them! She pulled on a pair of eggplant toned boyshort panties and the matching bra before getting socks and jeans on. Since she knew he’d be at the dairy she pulled on her boots and found a purple sweater with a cowl neck.

This was a war and Charity Harris meant to win it. To do so, she’d have to swallow her pride and use every weapon she had. First, her looks and her body. She had to do everything just right so she did her hair, making it full with big curls. Just the perfect amount of makeup, Gabe was a farm boy at heart, she’d seen him with super glammed-up girls before, but she knew he liked natural beauty so she’d go with that.

Gabriel Bettencourt was what she wanted. Had wanted for years now and all this pussyfooting around was for suckers. She was getting older, she wanted to settle down and start her life with someone. She had a house and a business and a lovely family, having a partner was the next logical step. Gabriel was going to be that partner unless he could give her a logical reason why not.

She got into her car and headed over to the Bettencourt Family Dairy about fifteen minutes away from her place. Where the city wore away and the country began to take over.