Free Bones by the Wood by Catherine Johnson

whoever might see the security videos, which also had the potential to end up all over the internet.  Not to mention they were in full view of the wide glass doors, so he’d let her make her escape.
     
    But he was still intrigued, and the memory warmed his blood as he made his way through the juddering doors.  He’d enjoyed getting some revenge for her smart-ass teasing the previous week.  He wanted to see her again and see how she’d react, if at all.
     
    He looked over to the register as he usually did, and she was there, but he was distracted from his thoughts of the previous night by the fact that she had her hand down her jeans and was, not dancing, but jigging in place.  He didn’t know what she was doing, but he wanted to find out.  His feet were already taking him in her direction instead of through the aisles.  When she spotted him, she flushed bright red, which made him smile, and whipped her hand out as fast as the tight denim would allow before shoving it into her jeans pocket.
     
    “Whatcha doin’ there darlin’?  Scratchin’ an itch?”  His smile widened.  Surely it wasn’t possible for someone to blush more than she already had been doing, but the color in her cheeks flamed a couple of notches brighter.
     
    Her eyes darted from side to side.  It was plain that she didn’t want to answer, but he wasn’t moving until she came up with some explanation.  He didn’t know her well, but his guess wasn’t that she’d had an irresistible urge to rub one out in full view of potential customers, but he couldn’t come up with any other plausible reason for her to be fishing around down there.  She huffed, obviously seeing no means of escape. 
     
    “I’m trying to sort my... my... my underwear out.”  Her exasperation at the offending garment, and at him, was crystal clear.  “The fuckin’ elastic has snapped and it’s all gone loose.”
     
    “Any way I can help you with that?”  He’d been wrong, she could blush harder, and he found it adorable.  This hot looking woman with the sexy ink was blushing like a schoolgirl.
     
    He decided to save her from answering, since she was unlikely to say anything encouraging.  “You should take ‘em off.”
     
    The blush faded, dialed down by frustration.  “I would, but I can’t leave the register.”
     
    “I could watch it for you.”
     
    “No offense.  It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it’s more than my job’s worth.  You can bet if I did that the manager would come by.  Fuckin’ Murphy’s Law or some shit.”
     
    “So you’re just goin’ to keep playin’ with yourself for the rest of the night?”  He’d meant it as a joke, but suddenly the idea of Thea with her hand between her thighs was no laughing matter.  He was going to need to do his own bit of rearranging once he was out of view of the counter.
     
    Thea cocked her head to one side, as if studying him.  All traces of the red had gone from her cheeks now, and her eyes glittered.  She seemed to have taken his question as some sort of personal challenge.
     
    “No, I am not.”
     
    He stayed where he was and watched, curious and rapt, as she stalked to the other end of the counter.  She bent at the waist to fish around in the cupboard or shelves or whatever underneath.  Dizzy didn’t think she’d bent over intentionally to give him a show, but her ass in its second skin of denim was quite the sight.  When she straightened, she was holding a pair of ancient, metal scissors that were almost the length of her forearm.
     
    She came back to her spot at the register, defiance still flashing in those brilliant blue eyes. Curiouser and curiouser.  Surely she wouldn’t....  And then, with a little toss of her head to send the loose ponytail of hair over her shoulder and her bangs out of her eyes, she undid the top button of her jeans.  That got Dizzy’s attention, and he didn’t even give a shit if he was staring at that sweet spot down low