Page 15 of Hot Route
Opening the trunk of my car, I start carefully hanging the bags from my arm. After the first five bags, it’s heavy, but I can make it from the car to the door. At least, I think I can.
After I’ve loaded both arms to the max, I grab a bag in each hand and realize I miscounted and there’s one lonely bag remaining. I’m not coming back out for just one thing, so I do what any normal human being would do. Just as I bend my head into the trunk, I hear the front door open and the sound of footsteps coming closer.
“What are you doing?”
I pull myself from the trunk, shopping bag hanging between my teeth, to see Blaze staring at me like he’s never seen a person grocery shop before.
“Jesus, Mads. Let me help?—”
“Mmm-mm. Hmmphfhpp!” I yell, turning my head from his grabby hands.
He raises an eyebrow. “Seriously? Were you listening to Olivia Rodrigo on the way home again?”
I growl as I trudge past him, wearing about a hundred pounds worth of grocery bags.As I approach the door, I know I’m fucked. My hands and mouth are full, and the door is closed. I hear Blaze slowly walking up behind me and in a moment of quick thinking, I bring my foot up and try to turn the doorknob. I immediately regret my decision when the loop of my shoelace wraps around the knob.
Frantically, I start yanking my foot with intentions of unhooking myself, but it only makes the knot tighter.
“Madison, how the fuck?” Blaze scolds, coming up behind me. Knowing there’s no way in hell I’m letting go of these bags, he reaches for my foot at the same time I yank. At that exact moment, my shoelace breaks, and I go falling backward, all my weight crashing into Blaze. We both topple to the ground, my back to his front, as the bags I was carrying like a pack mule scatter everywhere.
One minute, Blaze is laughing hysterically while I wiggle around, trying to get off of him. The next, we’re both completely silent as I feel something very large and hard pressing against my back.
Oh. My. God. He’s hard.
He clears his throat, breaking the spell I’m under. I scramble to my feet, doing everything I can to avoid eye contact. My willpower is obviously shit, because when I look at him, he’s staring back with a cocky grin.
“You done?” He says, a low chuckle coming from his lips as he blatantly adjusts himself.
I side-eye him, not sure if I should laugh, cry, or throw up before bending down and loading myself up with bags. This time, he doesn’t give me a choice as he grabs everything he can.
“Come on, Baby Doll. Let’s get this stuff inside,” he says before heading toward the door. I walk behind him, a smile blooming on my face that he thankfully doesn’t see. Even if itwas only because I was wiggling my ass on him, his dick was hard.For me.
I make my way into the kitchen and lift my bags onto the counter. Blaze has busied himself with the items he carried in, putting them away.
“Isn’t that my job?” I tease, grabbing at the container of spring mix in his hand. He brings it above his head, out of my reach, making me jump to get a hand on it. Obviously, I’m unsuccessful since he has almost a foot on me.
“No way,” he replies. “When you first got here, I was completely against having you run around town doing my errands. You’re lucky I agreed to you doing the grocery shopping at all.”
I roll my eyes playfully. “Blaze, you work your ass off like, twelve hours a day. I intern for twenty hours a week, then I come back here where you don’t let me lift a finger other than cleaning up after myself. I’m living here for free. Let me pull my weight.”
“Fine,” he relents. “But I can help with this.”
Just then, I hear a high-pitched squeal coming from the back yard, followed by a deep laugh. I look out the window to see Dalton chasing a petite brunette before grabbing her around the waist and throwing her into the pool. He jumps in behind her, both of them laughing when they breach the surface. I notice three other women sitting on loungers and my heart sinks a little. They’re all beautiful, dressed in skimpy dresses with perfect makeup and hair. They fit in with the guys a lot better than I do in my oversized t-shirt and dingy Converse.
I school my expression, throwing on the best fake smile I can manage. “I didn’t know you had company. Seriously, go back to your guests. I’ve got this.”
“Those aren’t my guests,” he says. “Dalton invited them here. I wasn’t even out there to begin with. I’m having the pool closedfor the winter this weekend, so he insisted on going in one last time before the cold weather comes.”
“Oh.” I try not to act shocked that he isn’t into these gorgeous women as I return to the bags I’m emptying. When I pull out the tube I had completely forgotten about, a sly smile blooms across my face as the imaginary light bulb blinks above my head. “Come on,” I say, grabbing Blaze by the hand and leading him out the back door.
“Mads, what are you?—”
“Hey, Dalton!” I say in a saccharine sweet tone. He smiles, lifting himself from the pool before running over and scooping me up in a hug.
“Hey, Shorty! Have fun at the grocery store?” he asks.
I should throat punch him right now, but I stick to my plan, pulling the brown paper bag out from behind my back and handing it to him with a smile.
He takes it from me, still clueless as he reaches into the bag and pulls out the white tube with a very legit looking prescription sticker on it.
