More Than a Memory Page 9

  I sat up in bed, and the sheet pooled around my hips, exposing my naked chest, so I had to quickly pull it back to cover up. Taking a second to scan the room to look for my tank top, I remembered that it was in the kitchen. So I rummaged through his closet, retrieving a navy blue plaid flannel shirt. Before I slid my arms through the sleeves I brought it up close to my nose and inhaled deeply, committing his scent to memory and reveling in how soft the material was.

  If you would’ve said something to eighteen-year-old me about Baylor wearing plaid flannel shirts, instead of the jersey knit shorts and t-shirts he sported back then, I would’ve actually had the audacity to laugh in your face. But dressing crisp and clean cut actually worked on him; he looked amazing. I finished buttoning the bottom button and I turned to find my panties hanging from the mirror on his dresser and slipped them on underneath. Once I fully stood his shirt hit me almost to my knees; it was safe to say that he had some serious height on me.

  Slowly tiptoeing in the hallway, I stopped at the corner of the kitchen and eavesdropped on the two sets of hushed voices and their conversation.

  “Man, you’re really chipper this morning, did you finally get some?” One hushed voice said and I couldn’t be completely sure but it almost sounded like Baylor’s little brother, Bentley.

  “Shh…Bentley, have some frigging respect, she’s still asleep in the other room,” Baylor chastised him, confirming my initial assumption.

  “Who is it?” Some drawers were being opened and shut and I couldn’t quite hear what else was being said because of the ruckus. “It’s Maisie, isn’t it? She’s had her eye on you for a while now.” I freaking heard that, my head perked up and my eyes narrowed at the wall.

  What was wrong with me? It wasn’t like I had a claim on him, I didn’t live here anymore.

  “It’s not Tillie’s granddaughter,” Baylor bit out.

  I was guessing that it was a good time to put Baylor’s brother out of his misery. I smoothed down my uncombed hair, tucking it behind my ears, wishing like hell that I had remembered to bring a ponytail holder. I rounded the corner and stared at the backs of Baylor and his brother, who if I already wasn’t aware they could definitely be construed as twins. “Ahem,” I cleared my voice and smiled at Baylor when he turned around to see me standing there. Then I looked to Bentley, who at one time in my life was like a younger brother to me and took in his aghast expression. Bet he wouldn’t have ever guessed it’d be me standing there in one of his brother’s shirts with nothing but panties on underneath…shit, I forgot.

  Bentley almost craned his neck, “Eden?” he asked with blatant surprise in his voice.

  He catapulted forward, grabbing onto my waist and spinning me around with my feet lifting off the linoleum floor. “Bentley!” I yelled as I smacked his shoulder trying to get him to set me back on solid ground. From my angle peering down into his face, he almost did look identical to his older brother. The only exception being Bentley still had a baby face and apparently muscles for days; I could feel the stacked ripples he had hiding underneath his shirt.

  Baylor looked at Bentley with a rather stern expression then glanced at me with a wink. That look was all it took for him to lower me back down to my feet. I had to hurry and make sure Baylor’s shirt was still secured in place; luckily it hadn’t risen up exposing myself to his brother. That wouldn’t have gone over too well.

  “How in the hell are ya? It’s been a good minute since we’ve seen you around these parts,” Bentley said in a southern gentlemanly tone.

  “What is this, Mayberry?” I asked with a questioning look.

  “Well I am the Sheriff in this town,” Bentley immediately retorted. It occurred to me that perhaps he’d been around the Sheriff a lot, if he’d been getting in as much trouble as Baylor had said.

  “Right and I’m Nicki Minaj.” He bent over to look at my backside, which had me messing with the shirt again to make sure things were still indeed how they should be…covered.

  He stood back up in front of me and shook his head, “Nah, not big enough.”

  I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to throw my head back and laugh, our playful banter and comradery hadn’t diminished an ounce over time.

  “Don’t even get her started on her knowledge of songs. She probably knows the names AND release dates to every single song Nicki Minaj has on the radio.” Baylor stood back in front of the stove and flipped a pancake. I hadn’t even noticed him cooking before.

  “You cook?” Leave it to Baylor to be the ultimate man’s man. He cooked, owned a beautiful house and was raising an amazing daughter, all on top of being a plumber so you know he was good with his hands. I considered myself pretty lucky to get to experience the different sides to Baylor that made him as incredible as he was.

  “He cooks, he cleans, he’s even housebroken. Shit, the way Kristina was he had no other choice but to become domesticated,” Bentley countered with an amused expression turned angry. The more I heard about how awful Kristina was to Baylor and how she treated her precious daughter I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I know he adored Norah, it was written all over his face. Maybe if things had been different I would be lucky enough to be Norah’s mom. At least I would appreciate her and show her a true mother’s love.

  “You aren’t even funny,” Baylor quipped, breaking me from my thoughts as he rested the spatula on the stove. He turned around and looked at his brother head on, “Will you take the calls this morning and I’ll be in this afternoon?”

  I couldn’t stand by and let him think that he had to be around me all day; I certainly didn’t want to become a burden on him, “Baylor, this is your job, I’m not some lost puppy who doesn’t know how to entertain themselves. I was actually thinking about calling Dean to see if he wanted to grab some lunch.”

  “Nah, Eden, it’s all right. Baylor needs a little time off and now that he has company to spend it with I’m all right with taking charge this morning.” Bentley looked to his older brother and pointed a finger into his chest, “But only this once. You owe me.” He turned to give me a wink before bending to place a soft kiss on my cheek as he left for work.

  Baylor pointed towards the light oak table and told me to take a seat while he plated up the rest of the pancakes. He set a plate of steaming pancakes about ten high down in the middle of the table and they looked mouth-wateringly enticing. I hadn’t known until then how hungry I was, and who wouldn’t be after partaking in an abundance of extracurricular activities like we had the night before?

  After putting two pancakes on my plate, Baylor came up beside me and placed a crisp piece of bacon on the side. “I’m sorry about Bentley, he still has a lot of growing up to do.”

  “Please don’t apologize for your brother, I love his youthful playfulness. Sometimes it’s nice to stay young…” I drizzled some warm maple syrup over the stacked mounds and contemplated my next question…On one hand it really wasn’t any of my business, but the curiosity got the better of me. “Were you ok with me not being Maisie?”

  His fork clattered against his ceramic plate. It appeared that I caught him off guard, he was mid-bite, his fork suspended in the air. “You heard that?” Definitely not the first thing that I was anticipating to come flying out of his mouth, as I’m sure my facial expression indicated. He leaned towards me grabbing ahold of one of my hands that were resting in my lap, “I want you to listen to me, Maisie is a young girl with a crush. But you, Eden, you are everything. Don’t ever try and belittle that. Bentley was just the same as me, we had lost hope on you ever coming back to Cottage Grove.” Well, he sure knew how to make a woman feel like a heel. I didn’t have much time to dwell on it before he quickly changed the subject. “So, did you sleep well?”

  “I did, thank you. Much better than I anticipated, actually. You, sir, make a wonderful pillow and bed companion,” I said through a smile, receiving one in return.

  “Is that right?” He leaned forward again, with my hand still enveloped by his, and gave me a br
ief kiss followed by, “mmm.” We were interrupted from whatever what would’ve occurred next by the text chime on my phone. “It’s actually gone off a few times this morning,” he said, glancing in the direction of the sound.

  “Oh crap, I forgot to text Julia.” I scooted the chair back on his tiled floor and rushed over to my purse which was discarded sometime last night on the island. Returning to my seat, I dialed Julia’s number, put her on speaker phone and placed the phone on the table. I resumed trying to dig into my pancakes as I hadn’t been able to take a bite yet.

  I didn’t have to wait long for Julia to answer the phone as she answered on the first ring, “You slept with him, didn’t you?” she immediately shouted into the phone, making me jump back in my seat at her tone of voice.

  Clearing my throat, I gave Baylor a brief look before answering, “Good morning to you, too.”

  “Don’t you dare try to dodge the question; you did it, didn’t you? I can hear it in your voice, you hussy!” My eyes went wide, but she didn’t stop there. “Actually, I’m pretty freaking proud of you. Way to end your dry spell with your first love.” My hands were covering my mouth by this point; I couldn’t believe what she was saying. Of course I couldn’t even get a word in edgewise, she kept cutting me off. “I would give you a standing ‘O’ if I could. Speaking of, you had an ‘O,’ right, well at least one? I mean with over fifteen years of pent up sexual tension it was bound to be pretty spectacular.” My face was beyond heated and I was sure it was about ten different shades of red. When I looked at Baylor, peeking from just one eye because I was embarrassed for my best friend, Baylor was silently laughing. And it wasn’t just a little laugh, it was one of those laughs where you couldn’t catch your breath so that’s why it was silent. I dropped my head in my hands and wished that the earth would swallow me up. I raised my head as she still continued on, “Why on earth are you so quiet, you’re normally pretty vocal.” Baylor perked up from his laugh and mouthed ‘oh yeah’ and winked. “Oh God, he didn’t have a little peen did he?”

  “Would you shut up already?!” I screamed, leaning in closer towards where my phone was resting on the table.

  “Why would you say that? I’m your best friend and you’ve kept me waiting on pins and needs all night. I want freaking details, woman!”

  I had no words, I couldn’t physically form any type of response, not even a grunt could escape my mouth right then. So, Baylor chimed in, “Yes she slept with him and there were definitely multiple outstanding ‘O’s.’ I love that she is so vocal. Oh and the peen is nowhere near the little spectrum. Let’s see, did I cover everything?”

  “Oh my God, swallow me whole! But I think you’ve stunned Jules into silence. Jules?” I said, truly impressed that he could make her speechless.

  “Holy shit! I think I just fell in love. The timber in his voice is definitely swoon-worthy. Eden, you may have a little competition on your hands. I think I’ll be looking up those flights now,” she finally said in the most serious tone that I think I had ever heard come from her mouth.

  “You are hilarious,” I mocked. “Remind me to never put you on speaker anymore. Now you’ve made my pancakes go cold, that’s right he cooks! Suck on that!” I hollered before hanging up on her. I didn’t even want to look at Baylor so I just profusely apologized, “I am so sorry.”

  “I’m not. It was completely worth it to see you get so worked up and embarrassed. Your face is seriously the brightest shade of red that I’ve ever seen.”

  Rolling my eyes, I got up to go reheat my pancakes in the microwave and completely ignored Baylor as I did so. On my way back to the table he tugged on the middle of his flannel shirt and pulled me onto his lap, my back flush against the edge of the table. “You look good in my shirt.” He pulled the collar away from my skin and peered down at my naked chest. “Of course, you look even better out of it.” Slowly he went down the row of buttons on the shirt and unfastened each of them until the shirt was hanging completely open and he proceeded to slide it down my arms and throw it to the side. His hands immediately covered my breasts as he palmed them both before lowering his mouth towards them, his eyes continuously focused on mine.

  The minute his tongue caressed one of my nipples, my eyes rolled back into my head and I had to prop my elbows back on the table for leverage. “Oh Baylor, baby,” I moaned then rolled my bottom lip in between my teeth.

  “You drive me absolutely crazy whenever you do that.” He released his hands, moved the forgotten breakfast dishes out of the way and rested his hands in the middle of my back so I could lower my arms and just melt into his embrace. This new position gave him the perfect opportunity to feast on my neck. He alternated between little playful nibbles and running his tongue over my earlobe all the way to the hollow base of my neck. One of my hands was shoved into his hair while the other was grasped around his forearm, my nails biting into his flesh.

  I had never had a man so focused on foreplay and making sure that I got the attention that he deemed I deserved. It made me feel completely cherished and taken care of in the midst of his explorations of my body. His mouth left my skin and without delay he hoisted me up onto the table and laid me back so my bottom was flush with the edge. Baylor lifted himself out of the chair and paid special attention to my stomach, especially around my navel, and my upper thighs. While his mouth placed tiny kisses around my hipbone, his hands were simultaneously kneading my thighs, ascending the juncture where my legs met my pelvis, but wouldn’t cross over to the intimate location I was so desperate for him to go.

  “You completely undo me, Eden. Never did I once think my dreams would ever come true, but here you are spread out just for me.” At long last he hooked his hands into my panties and dragged them clear off my body. He resumed his seat, scooting as close as humanly possible to the table and leaned back in the chair, grasping his chin with his thumb and forefinger and just stared.

  He was still entirely clothed in a t-shirt and jersey knit shorts while I was as naked as the day I was born and spread completely out on display for him, awaiting his next precise, well-thought-out move. Normally I would’ve felt vulnerable for being so put on the spot, but the fire that was burning in his eyes showed me that he enjoyed all that he saw—the hunger and raw passion. It made me wonder what was taking him so long. I wiggled my ass as a little tease, hoping he would speed up whatever game he was playing.

  Tilting my head to the side so I could look down at the end of the table a little more clearly, I spoke up, “I’ve almost come to the conclusion that you’re a sadist and get off on seeing me suffer.”

  He leaned forward closer to my achingly wet core and blew a line of breath the short distance from my clit to the entrance to my pussy making me squirm even more. “Is that so?”

  I bit my bottom lip again, and nodded my head. “When you bite that lip,” he grunted.

  He finally descended his mouth to my center and rolled my clit into his mouth, sucking liberally. My hands gripped the edge of the table as he continued his feast on my core until I was at the cusp of orgasm. My breathing was heavy, but I still managed to groan in between pants, “I’m almost there. Don’t stop,” which further encouraged him, making his speed drastically increase. At the last second, he inserted two of his fingers into my pussy and that was all it took for me to explode in a thousand different directions as my orgasm took root. At one point I could’ve sworn that I literally had stars before my eyes.

  Coming down from my orgasm high, I had no other choice but to lay limply on his table as I tried to regain my strength. That was where the sustenance from the pancakes would’ve come in handy.

  After a few minutes of Baylor leaving numerous trails of kisses along my thighs, he offered me his outstretched arm. I grabbed ahold of his hand so he could help me sit upright on the table. “What is it with the kitchen?” I looked back around at the table where I was just lying and it was almost hard to wrap my head around having two of the most earth-shattering orgasms of my entire life
in that very kitchen. Wow, I hope he disinfects.

  “Aren’t kitchens used for eating?” He asked as he nipped at my earlobe before he bent down to retrieve my discarded shirt and hand it to me. “Sadly, that’s just a little prelude for what’s to come later on. I have to go into work; if I had known you were coming I would’ve arranged ahead of time to take off.” The rush of guilt he felt was apparent. He came forward to nuzzle my neck after I finished buttoning the rest of the buttons on his flannel shirt. Just during the short time that we’d been together he had never ceased to amaze me with how special he ultimately made me feel.

  “Don’t worry about it, babe, like I said I was going to invite Dean for lunch anyway. Catch up with him a bit.”

  He stood up so we were almost at eye level and even though he had a pout on his lips his eyes were green with envy. Oh my. I playfully slapped his shoulder, “Baylor Jenkins, are you jealous?” He ducked his head so I couldn’t look directly in his face, so I hopped up from the table and ran around in front of him. “You are totally jealous! He’s your best friend!”

  Shrugging a shoulder, he tried to justify his reasoning, but came up short. “Excuse me for just wanting to keep you all to myself.”

  I couldn’t help it; I threw my head back and laughed until there were tears freely flowing down my face. It startled me when Baylor wrapped an arm around my waist and brought his hand up to my exposed slender neck. Feeling his rough, overworked hands brushing against my smooth skin was like nothing I’d ever felt before and all playfulness was cast aside. I shouldn’t get used to that type of feeling. It would be over all too soon and I’d go back to being the boring non-cat lady from Nashville who worked wonky hours and went to bed super early like an old lady. But damn those hands…