Off The Market (2 page)

ETTA

I SAW IT
, the ghost of the former boy I fell in love with all those years ago. He was there, right in Andrew’s big beautiful eyes when he saw the dilapidated basement, the one that I gave him everything in. I mean everything.

It was like it was yesterday and I was trying to be quiet, hoping his mom didn’t hear us. I remembered how good he looked without his shirt on and what it felt like to have the hard lines of his body pressed against me. That was only a few years ago, but he looked like he had bulked up since and it was all in his arms. The arms I so badly wanted to trace my fingers down and then possibly go lower.

Andrew followed me in silence up the basement steps then to the second floor where all of the bedrooms were. I tried to hide my smile just thinking about how his Mom would have been so mad at us if she knew we were up here alone. Yeah, we were older now, and adults, but it still felt like we were breaking her rules. I was never allowed in Andrew’s room. His mom  thought it was improper for us to be alone anywhere there was a bed. Little did she know that we didn’t need a bed to get busy and the basement couch usually did just fine. I felt the heat rise to my face just thinking about all the escapades in the basement. I kept my head down and hoped he wouldn’t notice.

“There are four bedrooms up here, as you know, and two bathrooms, one in this main hallway and one off the master suite. Of course you already know all of this, so it seems kind of silly for me to be telling you,” I said, adding a laugh to the end of the statement that came out as a nervous giggle.

“Do you know which one was my old bedroom?” Andrew took a step forward, leaning over me.

He smelled just like I remembered him, l
ike sawdust and bubblegum. I’d heard from one of the girls at my hairdresser he was made partner in his dad’s construction business and by the size of his biceps bulging underneath his leather jacket, I figured he was doing a lot of manual labor. And from the stubble on his chin he probably didn’t have much time to shave, but that just made him all the more sexy.

“If you remember, Andrew, I mean Andy, I was never allowed on the second floor. Even on prom night, your mother made me change in the tiny first floor bathroom,” I said, trying to hide my smile, but it just wouldn’t go away. I was actually getting nervous talking to the guy that I’d spent so much time with. He felt like a stranger and yet an old friend all at the same time.

“You know, maybe Andrew isn’t such a bad name. It was the one given to me by my parents, the one that you always called me.” He breathed the words, taking another step toward me.

I licked my lips. It had been so long since I’d been with a man and even longer since I’d been with a real man like Andrew. The boys in college were always just drunken flings that would be ove
r within weeks, nothing like my Andrew, the boy who was always there for me.

ANDREW

I COULD FEEL IT. The electricity buzzed in the air all around us. The house may have been decrepit, but if I had it my way, I would heat Etta up to light the entire room. I didn’t want to overstep anything, but I had to know if she was feeling the same way. If I kept holding in everything, I would just erupt.

“I’ve missed you, Etta, so much.
” I took another step forward. She was even more beautiful than I remembered with the moonlight shining in from my old bedroom in the hallway and bathing her in a soft glow.

Her
bottom lip trembled as she looked up into my eyes, so full of longing. They were like two brown, shining crystals, taking in all of me. “I missed you too, Andrew.”

That was all it took.
I pulled her against me and crushed my lips against her beautiful, soft lips. I ran my fingers through her hair. My hands hungry to touch every part of her that I’d been missing for so long. She reciprocated in full force, her own fingers circling the lines of my face and down my neck and back. My body responded, tightening my boxers as I became aroused. I pushed my groin against her and felt a tiny moan escape her lips. It turned me on even more.

I
lifted her off the ground, her legs wrapping tightly around my waist. I groaned with the feeling of her body against me and every part of me ached to be near Etta’s beautiful body. I carried her into the bedroom while she placed kisses down my neck and nibbled at my earlobe. I gently set her down on the floor, the carpet still relatively clean, at least better than the basement floor.

“Is this your old bedroom?” Etta whispered in
my ear, making a small shiver trail down my back from the sound of her voice.

I
leaned back, pulling off my jacket and t-shirt, throwing them to the side. “Yes it is.”

ETTA

IT WAS EVERYTHING I dreamed about when we were dating: to be alone in Andrew’s bedroom and have him looking at me like I was a goddess. His physique was definitely more defined than it was in high school. I ran my fingers down his chiseled abdomen and reached up to leave a trail of kisses down each incredibly hard muscle.

He tilted his head back, moaning with delight.
I leaned back and unbuttoned my blouse, throwing it to the side on the pile where his clothes lay.

“You are even more beautiful than I remembered,” he whispered, running his fingers along
the cup line of my bra. I shivered underneath the touch of his hands, rough from working with them all day, but warm like a summer breeze. I wanted them on more than just my cup line.

He unhooked my
bra, letting it fall between us and then his hands were on my breasts, his thumbs running so gently over them that each touch made me tremble. Andrew leaned forward, his tongue peeking out and ever so gently running along my nipple before he dragged his teeth across it. I let out an involuntary gasp when he sucked and nibbled, my hips bucking up to his as warmth flooded between my legs.

He
trailed his fingers lower until his hand was under my skirt. His fingers brushed the line of my panties before he slid one in, his thumb rubbing along my clit. My legs felt like they turned to gelatin and I moaned, tilting my head back. I was just about to climax when he pulled his fingers out and peeled his lips from my breast.

I looked up, hoping
that he wasn’t pulling away because he was going to stop. But he didn’t. Instead he quickly pulled down his pants and boxers, sitting there naked in front of me in his full glory. I didn’t remember when he got the pelvic V that sizzled down his hip bones and into his sizeable erection, but I licked my lips with delight, ready for a beautiful reunion.

He
slowly pulled off my skirt, tights, and panties as if they were as delicate as tissue paper instead of pieces from the JC Penney clearance rack. His lips left a trail up my thighs, to my navel and finally up to my mouth.

He pulled back, fishing through his pockets until he pulled out his wallet and grasped a gold foil packet from inside.

“Were you planning on this happening?” I raised my eyebrows.

“I’m a guy. I always keep one on me. Especially for moments like this, when I’m in the presence of the most beautiful woman in the world.” He grinned and unwrapped the foil packet, rolling on the condom inside before he hovered over me and then leaned forward.

He looked into my eyes with his own sparkling and pressed inside. I gasped at the familiar fullness of him inside of me. His gaze stayed locked on me as he thrusted in me. Every movement made me whimper. His hands trailed down my breast while his lips left kisses on my jawline and neck. I gripped onto his back, wrapping my legs around his waist and pushing my hips to his, which emitted a low groan from deep in his throat. I loved the song.

I should have never doubted my
business partner when she told me to take the showing on Christmas Eve. And as I came to a glorious climax I thought how it truly was a Christmas wish come true to finally be in Andrew’s home, upstairs where all the bedrooms were, and to finally be with him again.

ANDREW

THE MOON HELD high in the sky in the tiny window, its beauty not half as grand as Etta laying on my chest. She stroked the fine baby hairs that whispered around my abdominal muscles with her head against my heart. It was beating so loudly that I feared it would knock her off my chest. Her breathing was ragged from the amazing round of pleasure, but the light wheezing tone to it brought me back to all those years we spent on the basement couch.

“Well aren’t you full of Christmas cheer, Andrew?” Etta asked, looking up at me with her
big brown eyes.

I smiled, running a finger along her jawline. “Only for you, Etta. Always for you.”

She rolled over, so that her full breasts were splayed on my stomach. I felt myself stir to life, ready for round two if she wanted it. “Even after all I did to you? After I left for college and cast you aside? You still think we can make this work?”

I winced. W
hy did she have to bring that up? Why couldn’t she just live in the moment?

ETTA

EVEN THOUGH the sex was amazing, probably the best I’d ever had, I couldn’t get the nagging feeling of why we broke up in the first place out of my head.

“Etta
, there is really no need to talk about this. It’s in the past. What we have now is the future to look forward to,” Andrew said.

I shook my head, slowly sitting up. “Was this your plan? To find the ad for this house and to come back here and to show me what I gave up? To show me what I missed all of those ye
ars we could have been together?”

Andrew sat up as well, sliding his hands up and against my shoulders. “Etta, listen to me, when I saw the ad I felt like it was fate. A sign that maybe I should take a look at this old house and see if I could bring some life into it.”

Andrew ran his fingers down my arms until he reached my hands, taking them into his own. “Then I saw your beautiful face looking back at me in the ad and I knew I had to see you. I’d missed you so bad all these years and I just wanted to see you again. I didn’t have any sort of an agenda.”

The tears welled up in my eyes. No one had ever cared for me like Andrew did, even my own parents who spent their holidays in Boca instead of with their children. I did love him more than I wanted to give myself credit for. After all this time he still looked at me with the same longing in his eyes that he had when we were just high school sweethearts. I was so worried about how he would see me and now it was obvious that he still loved me too.

Andrew looked up; his eyes seemed to stare at every corner of the tiny room. “You know, the upstairs isn’t so bad in this house. Nothing I couldn’t fix and even the basement would be fine after I got a cleaning team over here.”

I blinked before Andrew’s eyes finally met mine again. They had the same shine in them that I remembered from all those years ago, the one he used to get when he had a great idea brewing.

“What if I bought this house, Etta?” He shook my hands that were still tightly wrapped in his. “I could restore it to its former glory. Maybe even better. I’m a way better carpenter than I was and with my dad and the crew’s help it could be amazing.” His eyes lit up like the Fourth of July. He looked almost more excited than he did when he came just minutes before. “What do you say, Etta?”

I couldn’t contain the smile that was forming on my lips. Sure, I wanted to have a sale, but it was even better to watch how animated Andrew got about the house. “I think we can do that. I will get the paperwork drawn up next week and we can present the offer to the bank.”

He shook his head, letting go of my hands, and stood up so the moon shone off his tanned physique. “No, Etta, let’s do it now! I want to begin this new journey in our lives. You and me and this house, it just all makes sense.”

I got up slowly. I didn’t want to burst the child-like bubble that overcame Andrew, but I had to let him know,
as gently as possible. “Andrew, I’m not sure that is possible. It’s Christmas Eve.”

“So? There have to be some banks open. You can at least get into your office and write everything up. Surely we should be able to get in and get something together. It would be the perfect Christmas gift,” he said
, grinning from ear to ear.

I sighed, slowly standing up to face him. I didn’t know if it would be possible, but the way he smiled
at me, it was hard to say no. “Okay Andrew, let’s go.”

ANDREW

We
drove down the same street that we had traveled a hundred times before, but this time it was different. This time I was taking Etta to her office to draw up the paperwork to buy a house, my childhood home, the one I hoped I would someday be able to share with her. I didn’t say it out loud, but I felt it. There was something that felt right about being with her in that house. I started to imagine putting up the Christmas tree in the living room with her beside me and making Thanksgiving dinner in my mom’s old stove and Etta right beside me through it all.

I
still couldn’t believe she was sitting next to me like a tiny angel in my big, red truck. She always said she hated my pick-up truck when we were younger, but there was something I always loved about a truck. Maybe it was the guy in me or maybe it was my dad’s influence. Dad started off with carpentry as a hobby and it grew into a business. I always had this silly dream, when I was younger, that I would be just like my dad. I would drive a large, red pick-up truck with all the construction equipment in the back. Now that I was older, and a partner in the company, I got to have the brand new truck of my own. I practically peed myself when I got to sign the papers to buy it. Now I’d have to hold it in as I signed the papers to my first house.

“My office is just off of Elm Street.” Etta pointed a long finger out the front window.

“Of course I know where your office is,” I said. “It isn’t that big of a town and my company did the addition on the bank across the street a few years back.”

ETTA

I glanced at Andrew. By the look at the size of his strong, tanned arms I thought he probably did most of the work himself. He was always handy when he was younger, fixing whatever he could get his hands on. I knew his father had a heart attack our sophomore year of high school. It was part of the reason why Andrew never went to college, he knew he would have to stay back and help his dad with the business.

I
should have never let Andrew go. I thought about what our future was going to hold now. Would it just be a one-time thing? Would he be too busy with the new house to even remember to call?

All thes
e thoughts played over in my mind until we pulled into the little gray building on the corner of Church and Elm. There wasn’t a single car parked in the small parking lot or in any of the other lots around us. I got out of the big truck and fished for my keys to the building before unlocking the large, wooden door that led us into the main lobby. It wasn’t a very big building, probably no bigger than the living room and dining room combined of Andrew’s old home, but it had been had meticulously decorated with bright blue painted walls, hardwood floors, and furniture that was found in old antique stores near St. Charles.

“It looks like
someone has an eye for decorating,” Andrew said, his eyes falling on a few of the oil paintings that hung over a brown leather chaise that sat opposite the front window.

I
shrugged. “They needed someone to do it, so I volunteered.”

His eyes widened as he turned to me. “You did this?”

“Yeah, you should have seen it before. It looked like every other office in town with the white walls and fluorescent lights. No one wants to feel like they’re in a doctor’s office. They want to feel like they’re at home.”

Andrew nodded slightly, but his eyes said something more. It was as if he were deep in thought. What he was thinking, I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to waste any more of his time talking about my fondness for decorating and led him back to my office.

It wasn’t as much of an office as it was a walk-in closet. I believed the original owners of the building actually used it as their janitorial closet. I had been in the business for over a year, but hadn’t been able to exactly upgrade to a new office. At least it was mine and had plenty of room for my desk, laptop, and a bookshelf to display my collection of romance novels that my mother called trashy and wouldn’t let me put up in her house. Never mind that I was a grown woman. Clients rarely came to my office and when they did, they never paid attention to my book shelves. They just wanted to get in and get out and on with their lives.

“You still read these things?” Andrew picked up one of the books on the top shelf. Displayed on the cover was a very busty blonde and a man with a full beard who had her embraced from behind.

I turned on my computer, rolling my eyes as I typed in a few keys to pull up my documents for putting in an offer. “I like to keep them around. They make me smile and remind me of my past.”

ANDREW

I smiled to myself. I remembered how much I would tease Etta about her love of romance novels. While I was playing basketball or helping my dad out with building something, Etta would sit on the grass, happy to just have her book in her hand and the sun shining down on her. She was right; they were a great reminder of the past.

“Ever have someone put you in a position like this?”
I raised an eyebrow, holding the book up.

Etta pressed print on her document, paper spewed out of the printer on the small stand near her desk. “Not since that night after you all went to state finals for basketball,” she whispered, her voice low and husky.

Every part of my body came to life with her words. I remembered that night very well, not just because I scored the winning shot that would send our team to the finals, but because of the way Etta congratulated me in the back of my truck. As I looked up at her, the same feelings I had for her that night in the truck and an hour before were back. I had barely been on a date since Etta left, let alone had sex with anyone but my right hand. Now all I could think about was her beautiful body. I wanted her, all of her right there in her tiny office.

I
put the book down and pulled Etta across the desk, pressing my lips to hers and kissing her deeply. I feared she would pull away and not want me in her office, but she didn’t. Instead she nibbled at my bottom lip before running her tongue along it. The sensation sent my body into overdrive.

"I need you, now,"
I murmured into her lips

She
pulled back, quickly grabbing her laptop and setting it neatly on the floor. She then climbed on top of the desk, pulling me closer to her by my collar. A low growl of pleasure came from deep inside of me. My fingers worked quickly, unbuttoning her blouse and sliding her skirt and tights onto the floor below us. She was pure perfection in her silk panties.

I ripped off my shirt and stepped out of my pants and boxers as fast as I
could while Etta's hands roamed freely over ever part of my body. I had to hold myself back enough to at least put a condom on or I would lose control. But it was hard to contain myself when the most beautiful woman I had ever seen was sprawled across her desk, fulfilling a fantasy that I didn't even know I had. I bent over and pulled a condom out of my wallet as fast as I could, rolling it on like a second skin.

I then
climbed on top of her, straddling my inner thighs against her hips before I pressed inside of Etta. Her body was warm against mine and her breath ragged in my ear. I could feel every part of her against me. She wrapped her legs around me, pulling me closer and I delved myself deeper into her, a small whimper of pleasure emitting from her lips. It was like music to my ears.

Her body shuddered
beneath me and I could feel her come around me. It reminded me of how it used to be as she lost control when she gave herself fully to me. Etta begged for more and more and I gave it to her with each passing thrust, then she moaned ever so softly, "I love you."

And that was enough
for me to finish and I cried out, “Oh baby, I love you, too.”

The best gift didn't even need wrapping paper.