“Those people can shut the fuck up and make their own chairs,” I said, and Theo stepped closer to me.
“You’re cute when you curse,” she said.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to flirt with me,” I said slowly. Didn’t we just have a conversation about this yesterday?
“I’m not flirting with you,” Theo snapped, her voice immediately changing.
“Fine then, fuck you too,” I said, moving toward the door, but then she grabbed my arm and before I knew what was happening, she was kissing me.
The kiss was gentle for a fraction of a breath and then Theo was kissing me as if her life depended on it. As if we’d been given minutes to live and she wanted to spend it kissing me as thoroughly as she could.
I drowned in the feel of her demanding mouth, her tongue, her teeth that nipped at my lower lip, her fingers diving into my hair. I held on for dear life and let myself go under.
Breathing was optional, continuing the kiss was not. Somehow, I found myself pushed up against a table in the workshop, the edge of it digging into my back.
Theo yanked at my shorts, fumbling with the button and I did the same to her, desperate to touch her. Driven by need and nothing else. Sense and reason went out the window the second her lips touched mine. Theo shoved her hand into my shorts and stroked me with her fingers, moaning when she discovered how wet I was for her. The angle wasn’t quite right for me to do the same to her, and I made a frustrated sound until I could wiggle my fingers the right way to reach her core.
Clumsily, I touched her, finding her wet as well. Theo let out a whimper and I made a similar sound as we both touched each other, racing to see who would get off first.
I did my best to focus my attention on her clit, but it was difficult with the angle and the fact that she was driving me headfirst toward a brutal orgasm.
“I’m close,” I managed to gasp just before the climax pulled me under and I cried out against her mouth.
As I continued to come, I kept working at her and felt her body convulsing as she came as well.
Reality filtered in slowly and I realized I was so jammed up against the table that I was going to have bruises on my back. My hand was wet from Theo. She removed her hand from my pants and my eyes fluttered open as she stepped back, her eyes wide as if she couldn’t believe what we’d just done.
“Fuck,” she said, closing her eyes, her jaw clenching. “I have to go.”
I was still loopy from the orgasm, so I couldn’t even say anything as she yanked the door open and slammed it shut.
“Theo?” I said to the empty room. I peeled myself away from the table and rebuttoned my shorts with shaking fingers.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I waited a few minutes for Theo to come back, but she didn’t. Instead, I heard the roar of her truck, and left the workshop to find her driving away.
Oh.
The realization that she was running away hit me almost as hard as the orgasm and I crumpled onto the ground. Well, fuck. I’d gone from having what I’d wanted to having Theo rip it away in a matter of minutes.
I should have told her no. I knew she was conflicted. She’d told me yesterday that she couldn’t do a relationship with me. Sure, she’d kissed me, but I hadn’t stopped her. I was just as complicit in the kissing and hand fucking as she’d been.
I told myself there was no use crying over it now as I wiped away a few tears and stood up. Theo didn’t know what she wanted and until she did, I wasn’t going to do this. If she wanted me, she could come and get me.
Chapter Thirteen
Yet again, I was home and sad and alone. I really did need to get a pet of some kind. Instead of doing more wallowing about Theo, I looked online at the local animal shelter and the pets available for adoption and cried at how cute they were.
Theo didn’t message me that night and I didn’t hear from her the next day, either. My fingers itched to ask her what the fuck her problem was, but I didn’t. I was cutting myself off from Theo. I was moving on. I had my house and my new business to work on.
I had the meeting with the lawyer and submitted my paperwork to form my LLC. Interestingly enough, the lawyer had a cousin that had a bookstore in New Hampshire, and he gave me her contact information if I needed any advice. I also emailed back and forth with Sarah, who was walking me through the process of ordering books and returns and setting up a website. I was drowning in information, but I was trying to keep it all organized so I didn’t forget anything. I’d also joined an online independent bookseller group and was starting to do research on where all the other local bookstores were so I didn’t shoot myself in the foot by trying to open one too close to another one.