The Space Between Us Page 23

  She frowned and grabbed tissues from a box, holding them to her nose. Despite her complaints she didn’t seem that sick to me. A little sniffly, a little hoarse, but that was it. Without her makeup on she did look wan, with faint circles under her eyes she’d never have allowed had she been feeling better.

  “I have to get back,” I said.

  “No!” She clung to my arm. “No, stay, can’t you stay for a little bit?”

  It would take me another twenty minutes to get back to work, if I didn’t hit any traffic. “I can’t. I have to get to the Mocha. This new girl’s there, and she’s sort of a nightmare.”

  Meredith frowned and gave a shaky sigh. “Tesla…c’mon.”

  “The medicine should work soon. You’ll feel better.” I leaned over to kiss her forehead while holding my breath, trying not to breathe in any germs.

  “I hate being sick!”

  “I don’t think anybody likes it.” I tried to extricate myself, but she had me held tight. I settled against the pillows next to her. “Take a nap.”

  “Not tired.” She turned to face me. “Hang out with me, Tesla. We never get to just hang out. I don’t see you at all anymore.”

  That was far from true. “You could come into the shop more often. You used to be in there all the time.”

  “So? It’s not like you can sit with me and just talk.”

  “No, but…you used to come in all the time, and now you don’t. No wonder it feels like you never see me.” I pressed the back of my hand to her forehead. “I don’t think you have a fever. That’s good.”

  “I have one, I took my temperature. It was a hundred.”

  “Barely a fever,” I told her. “Get some rest, that’s the best thing for you.”

  “You could be more sympathetic,” she said sullenly.

  I sighed. “Meredith, I’m sorry you’re sick, but really, you’re going to be fine. And I have to get back to work. I get off at five. Charlie will be home by four. I’ll make us some dinner. We can all watch a movie. Hang out.”

  “It’s not the same,” she muttered.

  “What’s not the same?”

  “It’s not just you and me. Girl time.”

  I laughed, trying to make her smile. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and Charlie will decide he needs to grade papers or something.”

  She shrugged, turning away to focus on the television again. “You make time for Charlie when he wants it. Just Charlie.”

  Sometimes it’s possible to feel guiltier about things that aren’t true. I withdrew, saying nothing. I put all the bottles and boxes and blister packs of pills back in the bags, but left them close to her on the bed in case she needed them. She didn’t look at me until just as I was leaving, and then she did so reluctantly, as if I’d called her name, though I hadn’t.

  “Thanks for the medicine.”

  “I hope you feel better,” I told her. “Being sick sucks.”

  “Yeah.” She sniffled and used the remote to change the channel.

  I was dismissed.

  I wasn’t in the best mood when I got back to the shop. Seeing the line stretching nearly out the door, and in fact winding around on itself, tables filthy with crumb-covered plates, and Brandy moving at half speed didn’t help. I pushed through the crowd, apologizing, quickly washed my hands and put my apron on.

  “I thought you’d be okay,” I said to Brandy, who gave me a dumb look. I was coming to realize they were common with her.

  “I’m fine. What’s the problem?”

  I pointed at the long line of grumbling customers.

  She looked confused. “You said there’s always a rush about now.”

  “Yeah, but—” I bit off my response. “Never mind. Let’s just get this moving.”

  Things didn’t get better when half an hour later Moira called in sick. Since she never did that, I didn’t give her a hard time about it. But there was no way I was going to leave Brandy here by herself. I didn’t care so much about her sinking, but I did care about my evening regulars. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d had to stay from open to close, and with Christmas nearly upon us, the addition to my paycheck would make it easier to buy some last-minute things.

  I was dead tired, though, and in no mood for chit-chat. When the bell jingled about ten minutes before we closed, I seriously thought about snarling—until I saw who it was.

  “Charlie!” I’d missed my dinner break, and he looked good enough to eat. Well, he always did.

  “Hey.” Grinning, he leaned across the counter to kiss me. “You almost done?”

  I’d sent Brandy in back to take care of the closing stuff and prep for the next day. Shit work I normally would’ve helped with, except that today I didn’t feel like being nice. “Yep. Just have some last-minute things to do, then I can leave. But what are you doing here?”

  “Figured I’d come in and see you at work, since I never have.” He paused. “Meredith’s sick.”

  “I know. I had to take her some medicine earlier today. She’s not feeling any better?”

  Charlie shrugged, his mouth twisting sideways. That said it all. I grabbed his tie and tugged him forward for another kiss. That was how Brandy found us.

  She stopped with two bags of muffins in her hands. “Um…”

  “Hi,” Charlie said. “I’m Charlie.”

  I laughed at her expression, feeling more like what Meredith had called me—wild—than I ever had. “You can put those in the freezer. And go on home, I can finish up.”

  “Are you…sure?” Brandy couldn’t stop staring.

  “Yep. Absolutely. Positive.” I stroked Charlie’s tie with my fingers as he stood up straight, no longer leaning. “You’re late shift tomorrow, too, don’t forget.”

  “I know.” Brandy backed through the door.

  Charlie looked curious. I laughed. “New girl. Joy hired her.”

  “Joy your boss, the one who’s always grouchy.”

  “Pow, pow.” I shot him with my finger-guns. “Right on target.”

  Charlie nodded as Brandy came out from the back again. She took her coat and scarf from the hook and put them on, giving me a blatantly curious look I ignored by smiling at Charlie. I couldn’t help it. Having him there was the perfect antidote to what had been a long and verging on crappy day.

  “So…I’ll just get out of here, then.”

  “Nice meeting you, Brandy,” Charlie said.

  “You, too,” she told him as she headed for the front of the shop. “You sure you don’t need me to stay?”

  “Nope.” I gave her barely a glance. “I’ll lock up.”

  I did as soon as she left, turning the lock and the sign from Open to Closed at the same time, then sagging with a huge sigh of relief against the door. Watching from his spot at the front counter, Charlie laughed.

  “Long day?”

  “You don’t even know.” I hit the four light switches that covered the front, leaving only the counter lights on. I’d already made Brandy put the chairs up and mop the floor, so all I had to do was ring out the drawer, put the money in the safe in the back and make sure everything else was ready for the morning.

  Before that, though, I needed some sugar, and not the kind in the dessert case.

  “Mmm,” Charlie said when I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. “If kissing was part of your job description, I think you’d get a raise.”

  I pressed against him. “If only, right?”

  Charlie settled his hands on my hips to kiss me again. Longer this time. Definitely with more heat. He opened for me when I nudged at his mouth, and when I sucked gently at his tongue he slid one hand up my back to cup the back of my head. Perfect, the way his kisses always were.

  I sighed, easing out of the kiss to nuzzle at his cheek and neck before stepping back to gaze at his face. “How was your day?”

  “Long. Not as long as yours, but long enough.”

  He looked as tired as I felt. I wanted to go home, take a hot shower, put on my fuzzy pjs and snuggle on t
he couch, if only I could rouse myself from the comfort of Charlie’s hug. I closed my eyes and put my ear to his chest, listening to the reassuring and steady thump of his heart.

  His hand stroked down my back slowly. Then up again. Down. He was petting me, which made me smile.

  “Purr, purr,” I said.

  He laughed. “Nice pussy.”

  I tipped my face to look at him. “We should get home. Let me just check the back, make sure Brandy didn’t leave anything undone. You want to come with me?”

  “Sure.” Charlie followed me around the counter. “I’ve always wondered what went on in the back rooms of coffee shops.”

  “Ooh, all kinds of things.” I waggled my fingers at him as I did a quick scan. I’d printed out one of Joy’s lists, and Brandy had seemed to hit everything on it, if the checkmarks beside each item were to be believed.

  Torn between knowing better than to trust she’d really done everything she was supposed to, and risking the wrath of Joy if we came in tomorrow morning to find something not done to her specifications, I figured I’d better make sure at least most everything had been done. Charlie watched as I looked at the bins and boxes and cartons, and checked the freezer, too.

  “You’re the queen of your domain,” he said.

  I twisted to look at him over my shoulder as I put away a box of paper napkins that had been set on the wrong shelf. “You think so?”

  He’d been leaning against one of the prep tables, arms crossed. He grinned. “Yep.”

  I straightened. “Gets you horny, huh?”

  He laughed, ducking his head, not quite blushing in that way I loved so much. “Sort of. Yeah.”

  I sashayed over to him, then did a little strut. “It’s the apron, right? Or the scent of chocolate wafting around me? I know, I know. It’s the heat from the coffeepots—it’s making you crazy.”

  He laughed harder and reached for me, though I danced just out of reach to shake my ass at him. I twirled and stretched, then stopped to wink at him. He was so beautiful when he laughed that suddenly my heart hurt.

  “Tesla?” He moved toward me at once, arms out. “What’s the matter?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing.”

  He put a hand to my forehead. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”

  “No.”

  “You feel a little warm,” he said.

  I bumped my pelvis against him. “I guess I got the fever.”

  “And the only prescription is more cowbell?” Charlie asked, which endeared him to me all the more.

  “Or maybe it’s just being around you.”

  He put on a serious face. “Hmmm. What can we do about that?”

  I kissed him. He kissed me. It was a beautiful thing, that kiss. Passionate and sweet, just a little sloppy. He broke it first to laugh into my ear, tickling. I put my arms around his neck and jumped up.

  Charlie caught me.

  No hesitation, no struggle. He caught me just under the edges of my ass so I could wrap my legs around him. He turned to rest my butt on the edge of the prep sink.

  It wasn’t something we planned, it just happened. It started off silly, and turned sexy in seconds when he kissed me again. When I felt his cock get hard between us. When I pulled him closer with my heels and lifted his shirt from his waistband so I could slip my hands inside.

  His warm skin against my palms. The rise and fall of his belly under my touch. The taste of him, the stroke of his tongue on mine. The way he held me so I wouldn’t fall.

  My fingers found his belt buckle and, seconds after that, the heat and hardness of his dick. Charlie made a small, soft noise into my mouth when I stroked him. Our kiss paused, our mouths still touching.

  “Tell me you want me,” I breathed against him.

  I hadn’t meant to say anything, but sometimes feelings make the words come out.

  “I want you, Tesla.” Charlie pressed his face into the side of my neck, where his hot breath caressed me.

  I tilted my head so he could mouth my skin as my hand worked along his length. “Say you want to be inside me.”

  “I want to be inside you.”

  “How much?” I gave my palm a twist over the head of his cock.

  His voice broke a little when he answered. “So much I can’t even tell you how much.”

  It was good enough for me. My skirt was so short that pulling it up was no problem, but my winter-weight tights were definitely cock-blocking us. I couldn’t even tear them with my fingers. We could’ve pulled them off…but sex makes people crazy. I looked to the wall to my left and the pegboard that stored a lot of different odds and ends. I pulled off a pair of scissors and handed them, handle first, to Charlie, who took them with raised brows.

  “Cut my tights.”

  The rim of the sink was wide and flat enough to hold me, but I gripped it hard as I leaned back and spread my legs to give him access. Charlie held the scissors, brow furrowed, mouth thin in concentration. He looked up at me once more, but when I nodded, he focused on the task in front of him.

  I gasped at the touch of metal against my leg, cool even through my tights. Charlie plucked at the fabric with his thumb and forefinger to snip a hole, then slide the blade inside it. Snip, snip, snip, the metal moved along the tender flesh of my inner thigh, cutting the tights and moving dangerously close to my pussy.

  I trusted Charlie not to cut me.

  He curved the slit he was making across my pussy and down an inch or so on my other thigh, then glanced up at me. Heat flared in his gaze. His hair had fallen over his forehead. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled when he grinned.

  He put the scissors in the drying rack next to me and then grasped my hips, shifting me closer to the edge. His cock nudged me. I was so wet for him, so ready. I groaned when he pushed inside me, balls deep, the counter at just the perfect height.

  He buried his face against my neck again as he filled me. His teeth pressed my skin, and I arched to get him even deeper inside me. When he bit me lightly, I groaned again. It was more than simply what he was doing, it was all of this. Charlie’s teeth, his cock, the cutting of my clothes, the way I knew he wouldn’t let me fall. All of it turned me on.

  “Fuck me,” I whispered into his ear. Is there any better way to say it, when that’s what you want?

  He bit down harder as he fucked into me impossibly deep. I put one hand on the back of his neck while my other still gripped the counter edge. I used my heels to hook around his ass, urging him on. It wasn’t going to last long; it couldn’t. I was already surging on the way to orgasm, and the shudder of Charlie’s breathing told me he was close, too.

  I think we both realized at the same time what we were doing, but it was too late to stop. The fact that he was bare inside me only turned me on even harder. Charlie looked at me, his expression tight and familiar. I saw an instant of awareness in his eyes, but there was no way I was going to let him pull out.

  “Kiss me,” I said.

  He did, so hard our teeth clashed. His tongue fought mine. He fucked into me harder, but pushed a hand between us so that his knuckles pressed my clit with every thrust. It was just the right amount of pressure and set me off like the Fourth of July. His name got lost inside my mouth, swallowed by my gasp as I came.

  He came a few seconds after me, but in silence. His kiss softened, as did his grip. He moved inside me for another couple of slow thrusts, then pressed deep into me and looked into my eyes.

  We didn’t say anything.

  I wasn’t worried about getting pregnant, because I was on the pill. With anyone else I’d have been worried about STDs, but though we’d never specifically exchanged medical reports, I knew Charlie was clean. He’d been married to Meredith for eight years and said he’d never been with anyone else during that time, and I’d believed him. He and Meredith didn’t use condoms. In fact, the only reason he and I did was because she’d insisted on it at the first, and we’d never gotten out of the habit.

  He was slipping out o
f me, something we never worried about much at home in a bed, but now I grabbed at a handful of paper towels. Also, I realized how sore my butt was when he pulled away and I hopped off the edge of the counter. We did an awkward shuffle as Charlie pulled his pants up and buckled them, and I used the paper towels.

  Still, I laughed as I touched the unraveled ruins of my tights and rearranged the panties he’d pushed aside. I let my skirt fall back down over my thighs. “That’s going to be breezy.”

  “Tesla,” he said in a low, uncertain voice.

  I hugged him hard. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He held me against him so I felt the puff of his breath on my hair. “Are you…okay?”

  In all the time I’d been living with them, I was sure I’d told Charlie I was on the pill. But even though he lived with two women, he’d never seemed that in tune with stuff like periods. “I’m not going to get pregnant, Charlie, don’t worry.”

  His mouth twitched downward, in not quite a frown but the hint of one. Something like sadness passed through his eyes. “If you did…”

  “I’m not going to.” I squeezed him. “Things are complicated enough. I’m not irresponsible about that sort of thing.”

  “Nobody ever intends to be.”

  I kissed him until he kissed me back. “We should get home.”

  “Yeah.” Charlie paused. “I told Meredith I was running out for some groceries.”

  “But you came here?” I asked in surprise.

  “I stopped on the way. I still have to get to the store. We just need a few things.” Another pause. “I didn’t think…I mean I didn’t intend—”

  I hushed him with a kiss. “It’s fine.”

  We both knew that if she found out, it wouldn’t be. But to say that out loud would make it as wrong as we both suddenly felt it had been. I hated that. We weren’t sneaking around, cheating on anyone. We were two parts of three.

  To tell him I’d keep it a secret would acknowledge that we had to make it one. Instead, I kissed him again. I patted his ass the way I usually did, to make it all okay.

  “You go. I’ll finish up here. Meet you at home.”

  He looked a little relieved. “Yeah. Okay. You need anything at the store?”