Shameless

Merely thinking their names made her catch her breath, and she rocked her hips more solidly against the mattress. But the tight coiling deep in her womb refused to be satisfied by the vague action. So she slid her hand down and under her right hip, seeking the V of her thighs with her own fingers. She pressed against the swollen mound through her cotton underpants, but the impersonal touch only made her want more. So she worked her fingers under the top elastic, not stopping until the tips met with her shallow crevice. She was dripping wet. Stroking the damp folds, she found the engorged bit of flesh begging for her attention and pressed.

She climaxed instantly, caught off guard by her immediate and explosive response.

It usually took her a few minutes to reach orgasm.

Occasional masturbation almost always quieted her clamoring hormones.

But not tonight.

She extracted her hand from her underpants and rolled back over, more hot and bothered now than she’d been before.

Nina gulped a thick swallow and tightly closed her eyes, willing the unwanted emotions away. Wasn’t life complicated enough wanting one man? What would she possibly do with two?

Her mind responded by offering up all sorts of interesting options.

Nina groaned just as Ernie leaped back onto the bed. She blinked at him standing at the edge of the mattress, staring at her, as if aware of what she was thinking.

“What?” she asked quietly. “Go to sleep and mind your own business.”

If only she could do the same….

TWO DAYS LATER, Kevin watched Nina pass in front of the checkout counter, her snug black pants clinging to her delicious bottom, her white apron cinched at her narrow waist. She waggled her fingers at him and gave him the same wicked smile she’d been throwing his way for the past two days.

He rang up the amount on the register and distractedly quoted the total to the customer.

“Um, I think you made a mistake,” Jeremiah Johnson said, staring at the display.

Nina moved out of view and Kevin ran the back of his hand across his forehead. “Pardon me?”

“You added a zero to the amount, I think.” Johnson waved a book. “This should be $23.95, not $239.50. Unless the price on hardcovers went up again.”

Kevin grimaced and mumbled an apology to the economics professor, canceling the transaction and starting again from scratch.

He didn’t know how long he could take Nina’s shameless flirting. While she’d always been friendly, often times bawdily so, she’d never downright tempted him the way she was doing now.

And his job performance was suffering for it. Over the past two days he’d gotten more orders wrong than right. Considering that he prided himself on customer service, his aberrant behavior only amplified his stress level.

He handed Johnson his purchase and apologized again even as Gauge walked behind the paneled counter and grabbed a few bags. “You know, one conversation will eliminate your sorry state.”

“Shut the hell up, Gauge,” he said under his breath.

But apparently not quietly enough because old Mrs. Christenberry stared at him in open-mouthed shock.

That was it. He and his friends were going to put this ridiculous topic to rest. Right now.

“Julie, man the register, please,” he said to a part-time sales associate who was stocking books nearby.

He grabbed Gauge by the arm and led him in the direction of the stockroom. “You and I need to talk.”

“It’s about damn time.”

He could say that again.

He opened the door, ushered his friend through it, and then stared at another associate who was stripping the covers off paperbacks to send back to distributors for credit.

“John, go see if the music center needs any attention for a few minutes, will you?”

The teen eyed him and a grinning Gauge and hastily left the room.

“Christ, Kevin, you’re worse off than I thought.”

Kevin stared at his friend. Gauge looked unaffected as he leaned against a table and crossed his feet at his booted ankles and then his arms over his chest. His T-shirt today was black and sported the logo from a Memphis House of Blues.

“This has got to stop. Right now,” he said, pacing one way and then back again. “I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I can’t ban these…images from my mind.”

“What images? Of Nina naked and moaning?” Gauge nodded. “Yeah, I’m going through pretty much the same thing.”

Kevin stopped and fisted his hands at his sides. The idea that his friend felt the same way about Nina bothered him even more than the thought of his own agitated state.

“What? You believed you’re the only one who’s been suffering since our little conversation the other night?”

“But you’ve slept with two women since then.”

Gauge grinned. “And your point is?”

“My point is that you’re an asshole.”

Gauge chuckled at that, nudging up Kevin’s already soaring stress level.

Kevin grasped Gauge by the front of his T-shirt, forcing him to uncross both his ankles and his arms.

“Whoa, watch it now.” Gauge’s smile disappeared briefly, the moment suddenly tense.

Kevin released him and took a long breath. “Sorry.”

Gauge smoothed down his wrinkled T-shirt. “No need getting violent on me. I can set you up with someone if you’re feeling that pent-up.”

“No, thank you.”

“You sure? Because I can guarantee you’ll feel one thousand percent better tomorrow morning.”

“No, you would feel better. I’d probably feel worse.”

“But what if that person was Nina…?”

4

“THERE’S SOMETHING different about you,” Nina’s grandma Gladys said, pointing a red nail in her direction. “I don’t know what it is, but rest assured, I’ll figure it out before I leave here today.”