Chapter Fourteen

Tranquil. Satisfied. Home.

That was her first coherent thought later, as she came back to herself with his arms around her in their safe place under the sky.

“Mmm,” she hummed as Rick’s hand ran lightly up and down her back, caressing.

“Mmm, yourself,” he said, overwhelmed by her.

“That was….”

“Agreed.”

“I never knew it could be like that.”

“Me either.”

“What time is it?”

He turned and looked.

“Almost ten.”

“Huh,” she said. “We have some night left.”

“That we do. What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, I was thinking TV, maybe surf the web…Ooh! I know! Naked hide and seek downstairs in the store,” Faith grinned mischievously.

Rick lifted a brow and grinned back.

“Why, you naughty thing you.”

“Or,” she continued, “we could enjoy that jacuzzi tub together.”

“There it is. Your secret’s out. You’re just with me for my book selection and cool tub,” he said in mock seriousness. “I’m hurt.”

They laughed together.

“Seriously, though, a soak does sound good.”

“Consider it done, baby. I’ll go set it up. Give me a couple minutes.”

He untangled his body from hers and walked into the bathroom. She watched him go, eyeing him like a hungry predator.

Inspiration struck, and she headed through the living room to the kitchen. She grabbed the wine, two glasses, the candle off the table, and a matchbook she found in a drawer.

Faith strode back into the bedroom as he came out of the bath.

Rick grinned as he saw what she was carrying.

“Gonna get me drunk and take advantage of me?”

“Absolutely,” she said with her best come-hither look.

She saw the flames of lust in his face again.

“But first, the tub.”

She stepped over the threshold and sat the wine and glasses down on the wide corner next to the wall.

“Climb in,” he said. “I’ve got this.”

“In just a minute. Have to do something first.”

She walked to the counter, grabbed her brush and a hair tie from her purse, gathered up her hair and placed it back into a high bun.

He watched her every movement, fascinated.

Their eyes met in the mirror, and she smiled.

“Now I’m ready.”

As Faith eased down slowly into the steamy water, he lit the candle, set it on the counter, poured out the wine for each of them and handed her a glass, then turned out the light and lowered himself in across from her.

“And now,” Rick said, “bliss.”

And he pressed the button for the jets.

“This. Is. Awesome,” Faith murmured, sinking down, and leaning back, wine glass in hand.

“Yeah,” Rick said. “This thing came in real handy during the renovation process. It was the first piece I installed up here after I got the walls put up and the flooring down.”

He chuckled, remembering.

“You should have seen the looks on the delivery guys’ faces when they brought this thing and then realized I was not cool with them just leaving it at the curb for me to wrestle inside alone. A hundred-dollar bill each later, they helped me not only bring it up, but place it where I wanted it to go. After a long day of swinging tools and working on this place, I would get so knotted up I couldn’t sleep unless I spent some time in here first.”

He paused, gazing at her.

"But seeing you in it, with the way you look in candlelight, takes it from just functional to sexy as hell.”

She smiled softly at him.

“You don’t know it, do you? You truly don’t realize,” he murmured.

“What?” she asked.

“How effortlessly sensual you are. It’s striking, partly because you have no clue about it. You’re just…you.”

Now she frowned, sipped her wine.

“Sensual. That’s not a word I would have ever picked to describe myself.”

“Interesting, because that’s the first word that came to mind when you walked into my store.”

“Oh.”

She wasn’t sure what to say.

“My take on the word ‘sensual’ was that it’s meant for someone, well, younger and in way better shape than me, for starters. First word that comes to my mind to describe myself is average.”

Twenty minutes later, after Rick had demonstrated his belief that she was far from average, they padded back to the bedroom hand in hand, Faith pulling at the tie in her hair to let it down as she yawned.

Then they tumbled into his bed together, legs intertwined, and slept.

***

Friday morning found Rick and Faith much as they’d been when they’d fallen into bed Thursday night – legs intertwined, snuggled up and sleeping soundly in each other’s arms. Daybreak peeked in at them through the skylight, stirring them to wakefulness.

“Hello, gorgeous,” he said, as he kissed her good morning.

"Hi there,” she murmured sleepily and returned the kiss.

“What time is it?’

He craned his head around to look.

“Eight-fifteen. Faith! You're late for work!”

"Nope," she confirmed. "When that virus took us offline the owner put us all on standby. If they need me to come in, they'll call me. Can't do much right now anyway. Now. Your bookstore opens at ten, right?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“Well, then, guess we’d better get moving at some point,” she remarked dryly. “I’m headed for the shower.”

“Want some company?”

“You know it.”

***

The shower took a very erotic detour, so getting out of it had been delayed a bit. Faith was still smiling as she finally stepped out and into the oversized towel Rick was holding out for her. She tilted her face up to his and planted a noisy kiss on his lips.

“Definitely the most fun shower, ever,” she pronounced.

He grinned in response and patted her on the butt as she walked past him toward her little backpack.

“How does bacon and waffles sound?”

“Sounds perfect. For some strange reason, I have a very healthy appetite. It’s almost like I burned a million calories recently or something,” she said cheekily, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

Rick roared with laughter.

“Me too. I’m starving.”

He dressed and went to the kitchen to begin making breakfast.

She toweled her hair as dry as possible, pulled it up and put her clothes on. Then she picked up her phone and sent a quick text to Jandy before joining Rick in the kitchen.

***

Jandy was waking up slowly with her first caffeine jolt of the day when her phone buzzed with a new message. She yawned as she picked it up and scrolled lazily to read.

“Explosive and earthshattering, wasn’t that what you predicted?” her baby sister Faith had sent.

“Well, it was, a million times over. Great guess! I just love it when you’re right” followed by a ton of very big smiley faces.

Jandy chuckled.

“Good for you, baby sis. Good for you.” And typed a reply.