Raging Fires by Candace Camp

Chapter Thirteen

Kelli slipped past Jake and went into the main room. She shoved aside the lamp lying on the sofa and sat down, bracing her elbows on her knees and resting her head on her hands. What was she going to do? A year with Jake in a house that would have fit in the bedroom of their Miami house. Sharing a bathroom with him. Towels thrown on the floor. His clothes lying all over the place. Stumbling over his boat-size shoes that he invariably took off right in the middle of doorways.

Him running around in shorts and no shirt. Accidentally walking in on him with a towel draped loosely around his hips. Worse, walking in on him naked. Even worse, him walking in on her naked! Kelli groaned. His presence would be everywhere, even when he wasn’t there. His sunglasses carelessly tossed on a table, the smell of his shaving cream and cologne in the bathroom—God, that scent always made her nipples hard and her panties wet.

Jake squatted down beside her and said in gentle voice, “Hey, Kell, we can make this work. It won’t be that bad.”

Kelli lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Why do I even bother?”  He moved from his squat to sit on the nearest box. She hoped there wasn’t anything breakable in there. “Look. Let’s be rational about this.”

Kelli refrained from saying that that would be a first. Jake was being normal, at least for the moment, and she should too. “Okay.”

“First, if you want to have the Blue Shack, we’re stuck with this. So why don’t we try to make it as painless as possible? Let’s call a truce. Agree to not argue all the time. Try to get along.”

“All right.” She was still a little suspicious, but he was right. This was going to be hell if they were always at war.

“Okay.” He stood up and began to—well, not pace exactly because there wasn’t a straight path in the room—but he walked around between the boxes, across the room and back. Jake always claimed he thought better on his feet. “Now, we can make some adjustments. It’s obvious that there is no way I can take any of my things out of storage. So, if you have too much stuff to fit here, we can put some of it in there, too. One thing we can put there is that table and chairs.” He pointed to the little breakfast table.

“But then we won’t have any place to eat,” Kelli protested.

“We can eat over at the Blue. Nobody’s there at breakfast or lunch.”

“That’s true. I could put some of our food over there. And we could eat something off the menu for supper.”

“Or cook here and sit on the couch to eat. I’ll get you one of those tray things.”

Kelli smiled faintly. What was it with him and buying stuff? “You don’t need to do that. I can handle eating with my plate on my lap sometimes.”

“See how we can get along?” Jake grinned and went to the dining alcove, sweeping his arm toward it in a ta-da! manner. “So, I’ll make that my bedroom.”

“Really?” Kelli couldn’t deny the rush of relief. She couldn’t see him sleeping on the couch, but she couldn’t take sleeping in the same bed with him, either. If he was anything like he used to be, he slept in the nude. A shiver ran through her just at the thought. He’d be really hard to ignore in the mornings. And here she was already making unwitting sex puns in her head. Kelli walked over to join him at the doorway and looked into the little room doubtfully. “You think a bed will even fit in here?”

“Sure. They make long twins. As long as a king.”

“Okay.” She had her doubts, remembering the way he used to sprawl on the bed in his sleep, his long muscled naked body spread out across the sheets like a sensual smorgasbord, all hers to nibble on. Kelli squeezed her legs together at the memory. She was not going to let her mind continue to go down that road.

“And a twin will leave room next to it to put a nightstand and a chest of drawers.”

“You won’t be able to open the drawers,” Kelli pointed out. “They’ll hit the bed.

“Only the bottom ones. I have one of those tall mothers, and that gives me three or four big drawers.”

“It’ll be top-heavy.”

“Good news is, the room’s so narrow it’ll hit the wall, so it won’t squash me.”

Kelli smiled. “Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.”

“Yep, that’s me. Mr. Optimism.”

And, really, that was true. For all Jake’s faults, he’d never given up on things; he always kept at it, sure that he could find a way to make things work. Except, of course, for marriage.

“We’ll put a curtain or something across the doorway. Maybe one of those hanging bead things. I bet you Tyler would like those.” He waggled his eyebrows and Kelli hit him in the arm. “That’ll be good enough for me. You know what an exhibitionist I am.”

Kelli laughed. It was hard to hold onto a down mood when Jake was like this.

“Gran’ll let me store most of my clothes at her house. I figure we can go over to her house to wash clothes—it’ll be like college all over again—and I can switch out clothes if I want. I go to the team’s facilities every day to work out, so I can just shower over there. Shave, too, I guess.”

“That’s great. Cologne too?”

“What?” He slanted a look at her. “You saying my stuff stinks?”

“Ha. Just the opposite.” Kelli stopped abruptly as she realized what she’d just let slip, and red crept up her face.

“Ohh…is that right?” He leaned back against the wall, a cocky grin on his face. “One whiff of that, and you’ll be wanting to jump my bones, huh?”

“No.” She frowned. “I did not say that. Your bottles just clutter up the counter, that’s all.”

His grin just grew broader. “I don’t think that’s it. I get what’s really going on here. You’re afraid you’ll be wanting to have wild monkey sex three or four times a day.”

“Would you stop?” Kelli knew she was blushing harder with every word he said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll try really hard not to be a temptation. I need to save myself for football, anyway. All that wild monkey sex gets pretty exhausting. Remember that resort in Hawaii?” His eyes suddenly glowed with something hotter than teasing.

“Yes,” Kelli managed to get out, heat flooding her abdomen. She remembered that resort very well. “Outrigger Bay.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Jake agreed. “You wore that black thong bikini. And the bungalows were so private we didn’t have to wear anything at all in our pool. You called it Orgasm Bay. How many times did you come that one day? I lost count after—”

“Jake!” Kelli turned and stomped back to the couch. “We made a truce, remember?”

“I’m not arguing with you,” he pointed out.

She grimaced. “Maybe not, but it’ll be hard—” She stopped at the little smirk on his face and changed it to “—difficult to get along if you’re always hitting on me.”

He let out a big sigh. “Okay. Okay.”

“We need to have rules.”

“Of course we do.” He rolled his eyes and came back to perch on the box again. “Okay, Kelli, what are my rules?”

“They’re our rules. We both have to follow them.”

“Why do I think that I’m the only one that’ll have trouble doing that?”

“Because you’re impulsive and immature?”

“Hey. No arguing, remember.”

“I agreed to no arguing. I didn’t agree to no snarking.” She pulled out her phone and stylus and went to work. “Okay. Now, first of all. I’ll be quiet when I come in at 2:30 or 3:00 and you’re in bed, and you’ll be quiet the next morning when you leave. That’s fair, right?”

“Yeah.” He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you walking across that parking lot that late at night.”

“What do you suggest I do, drive the fifty feet from the bar to here?”

“Just because it’s only fifty feet doesn’t mean there can’t be somebody lurking around to grab you.”

“Yes, Mom...” Kelli grimaced. “I always carry one of those air horn cans like they have at football games. That’s loud enough to wake up every one for blocks around. They’ll either run off or it’ll make them freeze long enough for me to get my mace out of my pocket.”

“Wow. Remind me not to startle you at night.”

Kelli shrugged. “Well, a girl’s got to protect herself.”

“Yeah.” There was something almost sad in his eyes, but it was gone in a flash. “Okay, so what are the rest of ‘our’ rules?’

“No dropping your clothes around everywhere. And no leaving your shoes all over the place. Or dirty dishes in the sink.”

“I knew this was going to be all about me.”

“It’s not. We’re just agreeing to keep our messes out of the common living areas. We can be messy, just confined to our bedrooms.”

“Okay. So all my mess in my miniscule bedroom.”

“Hey, you’re the one that picked it out.”

“I’m presuming this also means no purses in the living room. Or those little flats kicked off as soon as you walk in the door. No coat or sweater draped over the back of a chair. No bras on every available doorknob.” He paused a second. “No wait, I take that last one back.”

“Too late,” Kelli crossed her arms, looking disgruntled, but said, “I’m agreeing to those terms exactly.”

“All right. Then let’s say we split the bathroom counter evenly. No make-up or lotion or cream or eyelash curlers or hair dryers or curling wands on my side.”

“But you hardly have anything. You said you were going to do all that at the stadium.”

“I have a toothbrush and toothpaste, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll always shower and shave over there. I might be here all day and need to go out or something. I know it might be too much temptation for you.” He leaned back, bracing his hands on the box behind him, and grinned. “But you can always go over to the Blue so you won’t get overcome by your hormones.”

Kelli narrowed her eyes at him. “And no running around half-dressed.”

“Why not? I’m okay with you running around half-dressed.”

“Is this how it’s going to be? You being obnoxious all the time?”

“I don’t know, Kell, you can’t ask a man to change his whole personality.”

Kelli let out a little frustrated shriek and stood up, throwing her phone down on the couch. “Damn it, Jake! I thought you said we could make it work.”

“Okay.” He reached out and snagged her hand, tugging her back down onto the sofa. “I’m sorry. I’ll behave. But you have to cut me some slack here. Sometimes I don’t know that I’m being obnoxious.”

“Seriously.” She leaned forward, an earnest expression on her face. “Couldn’t you stop with all the sex jokes? If we want this to work, we have to respect each other.”

“I respect you.”

“I mean, respect our boundaries. It’s not like before. I can’t slap you on the arm when you annoy me; you can’t pick me up and throw me over your shoulder and run to the bedroom. I’m not going to be talking you out of a bad mood or asking you for advice. I’m not your wife anymore. I’m my own person. We can’t—we can’t do what we did last night.”