Hosed (Happy Cat #1)(27)
She lets out a soft laugh, and that organ in my chest melts. I want to make her laugh like that every day. All the time.
But first I have to get her out of this toilet. I tug again, she yips and squeezes me tight, but she’s still not budging.
Her arms are twined around my neck, though, that fresh scent of salty flowers tickles my nose, and her breath is hot on my shoulder as she whispers, “Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
“While I’m already mortified, I have to tell you something.”
Thirteen
Cassie
* * *
Ryan starts to pull back, but I grip him tighter. I’m already embarrassed, and I don’t want to see his reaction.
I also don’t want to chicken out.
“I’m a virgin,” I blurt out.
His whole body goes as stiff as—well, as stiff as that part of him that was between my legs last night. Which I wouldn’t mind feeling again, because wow—how electric was that? And intense? And so all-over-buzzy-and-tingly that I finally get it.
I get why people like sex so much.
They like it because it feels so incredible, so close, intimate in a way nothing else ever has. It felt like I was touching something deeper than Ryan’s warm skin or rock hard muscles. Like my heartbeat and his were pounding in time, playing a song only the two of us could hear.
A beautiful song, so much sweeter than I imagined something sexual could ever be.
But sadly, this is not the time for romance.
He’s attempting to pull me out of a toilet. And going completely silent. And whatever sexy points I might have racked up yesterday, I have probably now ruined.
He disentangles himself and pulls back to look at me, his brows pinched while he squats to my level. I can’t tell if he’s disappointed or appalled or shocked or all of the above.
Also, my legs are going numb.
“Cassie.” He touches gentle fingers to my cheek. “You don’t have to be embarrassed.”
“Mortified is the word of the day,” I whisper.
He doesn’t blink.
I clear my throat. “Right. Maybe not if you’re a normal, everyday, socially inept geek who isn’t running a sex toy company. But…”
He doesn’t laugh.
Nope. His eyes go dark and his Adam’s apple bobs and he glances down quickly before meeting my gaze again. “So you really…never?”
His voice is husky too, and even though I’m being eaten alive by a toilet, the sparks radiating between us are heating my skin, making it hard to breathe.
“Never,” I confirm, my lips continuing to flap, spilling all my secrets. “I’ve never even had a close encounter with a dildo. Van keeps suggesting I help myself, but I just…I’m not…” I exhale with a sharp huff. “And now I need to get out of this toilet and get downtown to help clean up the mess someone’s made, which means I’ll have to juggle dildos like I’m a pro. But I’m just not, and—”
He puts his fingers to my lips. “I’ll get you some gloves. And I’ll get my brothers. We’ll all help.”
“No! With your brothers and half the town watching, I’ll be even more embarrassed.”
His smile is growing. “I just realized, we missed part of our tour yesterday.”
“The part where there are sex toys everywhere and someone’s clearly using dildo graffiti to get more people on board with shutting down Sunshine Toys?”
“The part where, no matter how strange the circumstances, everyone pitches in to help during a crisis.”
“Everyone is not pitching in.”
“They are. C’mon. Let’s get you out of here, I’ll grab reinforcements, and we’ll meet you downtown for Operation Toy Clean-up.”
He leans down, looping his arms around me again. “We’re just gonna wiggle until we get it, okay?”
“That’s not how I hear it works,” I grumble.
He laughs, and I can’t help smiling back.
Because even though this is embarrassing, having Ryan here is all the reassurance I need that everything is going to be okay.
Fourteen
Ryan
* * *
Turning off the highway onto the gravel drive to Jace’s place, I force myself to keep my speed to a respectable thirty miles per hour. It hasn’t rained in over a week and I don’t want to coat Blake’s grape crop with dust.
My second to youngest brother is serious about starting a small vineyard in the next four years and has given each of us the “respect the fruit, assholes” lecture more times than I can count. He’s usually the most laid back of the four of us, but mess with his latest Big Plan and you’ll see a side of Blake that isn’t sunshine and rainbows.
But it’s hard to go slow, and not just because I’m past ready to be back with Cassie, helping her make downtown a sex toy-free zone while acquiring further information about how this whole “still a virgin” situation came to pass.
She’s a gorgeous, funny, sexy, intelligent woman who’s a blast to spend time with.
And sexy.
Have I mentioned sexy? Or that she kisses like a house on fire, which is something I know about from firsthand experience. It’s intense, awe-inspiring, scary and magnificent all at once.