Page 1 of Just in Time
Chapter One
“Hey listen, I’ve got a meeting with my circle tonight after work. I’ll be home around one in the a.m,” I said, leaning down to kiss Brody on the mouth. I lingered after kissing him, not really wanting to move, but knowing I had to if I wanted to get him back to work on time.
“Is it the new moon already?” he asked, brown eyes dancing as he reached out to grab my hand before I turned to go. His touch was gentle and playful, and I found myself leaning into it, plopping into his lap and making the dishes on the table clatter a little.
“Happens like clockwork,” I teased.
“Actually…” he said slowly, slipping his hand under my butt and up between my thighs to anchor me to his lap. “I do believe themoonhappened first. Clocks were much, much later…” He nuzzled my shoulder and I giggled when his beard tickled me. It was coming in really thick now that he’d taken to shaping it instead of shaving it. I wasn’t complaining. I liked it a lot.
“You know, I think you might be right…” I said, pecking his lips once more. He tasted like ham and mustard, but I wouldn’t dream of judging a man who’d just eaten.
“That’s something, coming from Lily Barclay, the resident genius of Dawesbury, V-A.”
“I’m no more a genius than you are a gentleman,” I quipped, reaching out to ruffle his mess of brown hair.
He shot me a look, a low growl rumbling up from his chest. “I got half a mind to have you for dessert, Lil, so keep on talking. I don’t mind being late back from lunch.”
I giggled again, weighing the pros and cons of that idea.
On one hand, I wouldn’t mind being his dessert and feeling that beard scratch up my inner thighs. Not in the slightest.
But on the other, I didn’t want to be the reason he ruined his perfect attendance record at the garage. He had something of a reputation down there for being on time. And gods knew he needed a good rumor or two in his favor. Shifters didn’t exactly get a bum rap around here, but they didn’t get glowing reviews either. Brody was the only shifter in the county, and if punctuality was the impression he gave the people of Dawesbury, VA, county seat of Dawes County, well…
“Maybe I’ll wake you up when I get home tonight?” I offered in way of compromise.
“You got some place else to be?” he asked.
“No, butyoudo. Mr. Employee of the Year…”
He snorted. “I’d give all that up for a taste of you.” He held me fast in his lap. I wriggled around for good measure, noting how his eyes fluttered closed in response.
“You can have a taste of me anytime you want,” I reminded him.
“And I want itnow…” he murmured, his voice low and gravelly, tingly in all the right ways. His hand came up the back of my head, tangling into the mess of curls that I called hair. “Right now.” It was one of the many good things about shacking up with a shifter. That fuckingvoice. That ‘fuck me’ voice.
It was difficult to say no to, that’s for sure. But I had practice. Brody and I had been living together for a full year, so, I’d gotten kind of okay at saying no to him. Only when I had to, though. Just because I was good at it doesn’t mean I said it very often.
I grinned and hopped off his lap, his hands reaching for me when I’d stepped far enough away. “I’ll wake you up when I get home, baby.”
He smirked. “You’d better,” he rasped before reaching for his soda, taking a long swig as I went for his empty plate, intending to carry it to the sink for a quick rinse. “Naw, sweetheart, I’ll get that,” he protested, his finger hooking on the edge of the plate, his thumb obscuring the pattern on the edge.
“I’m already up,” I argued, but allowed him to keep the plate there on the kitchen table. “You know, one of these days, you’re gonna have to let me do something around here.”
“You do too much. For everyone else. You don’t ever take the time to do something for you.”
“You’rethe thing I do for me,” I countered, swiping the plate from his hand. “You, and you alone, Brody Rickard.”
“Me and me alone,” he echoed, taking another sip from his soda. “I’m a lucky son of a gun, ain’t I?”
“The luckiest,” I replied, taking the plate over to the sink to run it under the faucet. I’d wash it later, it wasn’t that dirty anyway. Brody had just eaten a sandwich for lunch. And chips. Neither of those things dirtied up a plate very much. “Can I walk a lucky guy back to work, you think?” I asked.
“Lil, you can do whatever you want,” Brody said with a wide grin. “But yeah, I’d like that, if you don’t mind.” He stood, cracked his neck, and grabbed his empty soda can. He tossed it in the trash on his way out of the kitchen after me. I glanced at my reflection in the hall mirror, hoping he hadn’t mussed up my hair too much. It didn’t appear as if he had. Every strawberry blonde curl was where it had been before he’d started carrying on. Which was to say, everywhere.
We were down the stairs and out on the sidewalk in front of Jolene’s bar before I realized I’d forgotten my sweater. And there was just enough of a chill in the air for me to need it.
“Forgot my sweater…” I said, pulling him to a halt by his elbow.
He made a face. “Can’t ya just…” he mimed turning back a dial with his finger. “You know… rewind a little andnotforget it?”
