Crazy in Love (Blue Lake #3)(24)

“Rachael?” Another knock. “It’s Joey.”

Shit damn freaking shit.

She’d just said she wasn’t home. Lot of sense that made. She couldn’t blow Joey off now. She didn’t want to answer the door, but she didn’t want to be completely rude, either.

“Give me another ten seconds and you’ll forget all about him.” Cole swiped his fingers between her legs, over her jeans. Her girlie parts tingled with desperation. She ached to feel his fingers on her sensitive flesh, to stroke her to climax. It’d be so easy. She was already so close.

“I have to get it. I can’t turn him away now.” Rachael moaned as he swirled his fingers along the seam of her jeans. “Give me two seconds!” she called out, though she wasn’t sure exactly who she was talking to.

“Rachael?” Joey said, trying the handle. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes!” She stopped the door with her heel and leaned over to snatch her sweater off the floor. “One second!” She shoved it over her head. “Don’t move,” she whispered to Cole. “Not one muscle.”

“I’ll try, but there’s one muscle that’s got a mind of its own.”

Giving a visible shudder, Rachael tugged the sweater down her stomach. She let the door creep open and stood in the entry, blocking Joey’s view.



* * *



Rachael didn’t give Cole the chance to get his shirt back on or get out of the way. He was stuck. To go upstairs, he had to cross the foyer. To sneak into the dining room and kitchen, he had to do the same.

“Hey Joey!” she said, leaning against the door to completely obstruct his view. “What are you doing here?”

“I brought you these.” He handed her a dozen yellow roses. “I felt bad about rescheduling our date earlier and thought I’d come by to apologize in person.”

“Oh!” She patted her hair, smoothing the strands he’d messed up by tunneling his fingers through it; pride streaked through him. “That was nice of you. Thanks.”

“Are you…” Joey paused. “…drunk?”

She giggled, burying her nose in the flowers. “I went to Shots for a drink after you canceled.”

“From the looks of it, I’d say you had more than one.”

Cole straightened against the wall.

What was this guy’s deal? He wasn’t her father or her boyfriend. What did he care where she went or how many drinks she had?

“Caught me red handed.” She put her hands up as if she was held at gunpoint. “One turned into four. How many have you had?”

“Me?” Joey laughed. “None. I came straight here after the fire.”

Rachael shifted her weight from one foot to another. “How was it?”

“The fire?”

She was damn cute when she was tipsy.

“Yeah,” she said. “I hope no one got hurt.”

“No one was injured, but the Robertson’s lost their home. They’re devastated. I was the last one to leave. I couldn’t bear to turn my back after they’d lost everything they owned. I offered to take them to a hotel, but they said they had family coming to help them.”

The guy was a real life, rush into burning houses kind of hero. And what did Cole do? He sang songs about those kind of heroes.

Quite the difference.

“Seeing a situation like that makes you appreciate the good you have in your own life, you know?” Joey went on. “It makes you realize what you want and what you’re missing, and I’m missing more than I thought I was.”