Swing and a Mishap (Summersweet Island 2)

“I… I’m…. Whaaat is happening right now?”

Taking pity on how absolutely freaked out Shepherd sounds, I press my nervous, sweaty palms harder on top of the freezer, take a deep breath, and look back over my shoulder at him.

And quickly realize Emily is a goddamn genius.

Shepherd’s not freaked out at all. Not in a WTF way, at least. His hands are clenched into fists down by his sides, a muscle is ticking in his jaw, he’s panting, and he doesn’t even know I’m looking at him, because his eyes keep flickering back and forth between his name splashed across the back of my shoulders and down to my ass.

Oh God, oh God, oh God, what do I do next? What did Emily say I should do next? Something with chocolate sauce, right?

Swallowing thickly, that possessive look in Shepherd’s eyes does something to me that immediately makes these cheeky hipsters flood with wetness between my thighs. But he’s still standing there trying to control himself, and now I remember I’m annoyed with him. Whirling around to face him, I almost laugh when I hear a little whimper come out of Shepherd when my ass cheeks and his last name disappear from sight. But I don’t laugh. I just cross my arms in front of me.

I’m standing here half naked, and he’s standing there looking good as hell in my favorite black Nike shorts and fitted blue long-sleeved shirt, and yep, my eyes dart down and widen a little when I see a very obvious bulge in his shorts. And that just pisses me right the hell off even more, because hello! Standing right here half naked with several places you could put that bulge!

Everything else Emily instructed me to do flies right out of my brain. I have a tendency to word vomit around this man, so I might as well stick to tradition. Once my mouth opens, there is absolutely no stopping it, just like that day by home plate when I ripped my heart wide open for him.

“Listen, buddy, I’m a mom. And I will be a mom until the end of time, and there is nothing I can or want to change about that. But I’m not just someone’s mother. I love that you think I need all this control and respect from you, and I appreciate it; I really do. But I’m a fucking thirty-four-year-old woman who has only had boring sex in the goddamn missionary position a sad amount of times, and I’ve never had a man look at me like you look at me, or make my toes curl when he kisses me like you do, or almost dry hump me to a screaming orgasm in record time like you do, or make me literally kill my favorite vibrator with overuse like you do. Now I feel ridiculous standing here with my ass hanging out when you’re all the way over there, and I’m supposed to lie to you again about how I had to take my shorts off because I spilled chocolate on them. But I just took them off because I hoped you would finally fucking do something about it! I have waited my entire life to feel like this and to want someone like this, and this is some straight-up bullshit that I finally have you and you’re still making me fucking wait! Fuck!” I shout in annoyance, finally taking a breath to throw my hands up in the air while Shepherd continues to stand there staring at me with his mouth open.

All of a sudden, his mouth snaps shut, he turns around, and he stalks away from me. It doesn’t even occur to me what’s happening until he’s disappeared around the corner, and I hear the slam of the back door again, and I’m standing here alone again.

“You have got to be shitting me” is all I can mutter in a shocked voice, skipping right over the hurt that I poured my heart out to him again, and he screwed it up again.

Except Shepherd is coming back around the corner and stopping to stand ten feet away from me again before I can even properly build up any anger. His hands are still tightly held into fists down by his sides, arm muscles tense and bulging, while he pants like he just ran the bases and stares at me with a big smile on his face this time.

“Sorry, just had to lock the door…” He trails off and the smile immediately drops from his face as his eyes slowly move over my body from my head down to my bare feet. My heart beat wildly in my chest when his tongue slides across his lips before he speaks again in a low, growly voice. “No one needs to walk in here and see what I’m about to do to you.”