Free Shut Off (Just This Once #3) by Cee Smith Page B

inspired. Beautiful girl, beautiful night.” I shrugged my shoulders, and I could see Blaire watching me from the corner of my eye. Did my words surprise her? They shouldn’t have, not with all of the time I’ve spent trying to win her back.
    The hardest part and the thought that circled through my mind even as we lay there with the endless sky before us was that I didn’t know how long it all would last. I could wake up Wednesday morning and everything—every moment shared with her—could end up being nothing more than one long, elaborate dream.

Chapter Eight
    Blaire
     
    Once again, I found myself outside of that rundown house, stuffed inside my car in the dead summer heat, watching and waiting. For what? I wasn’t sure. The red BMW was gone, but I didn’t know if her boyfriend was home, and the last thing I wanted was to be caught knocking on their door and have Lara pull up.
    So, I waited.
    Memories of the night before were the only thing to keep me company. I touched my lips as I thought of his kiss—the desperation I felt in the way his lips captured mine. He kissed me like it would be his last, which made me even more fearful of what would happen if he lost the case.
    I replayed everything in my mind, careful to remember every detail so I wouldn’t forget. How he woke me up with soft kisses across my shoulders and around my neck, the way he propped himself up with one arm while watching me wake from sleep, how he told me he wanted to take me somewhere; “an official date,” he said, in case I was confused.
    “Joel,” I yelled from inside the garage. “Where’re my boxes of clothes?” I moved around the room, flitting from one large box to the next in search of a box that would hold something that was better than the jeans and tee shirts I’d been sticking to since I arrived.
    The garage was large enough to fit four cars with one side designated to a workshop space and gardening tools, yet over half of the space was taken up by the entire contents of my home.
    I heard Joel’s footsteps behind me, and when I turned to look at him, he smiled that knowing smile of his. It was a cocky and arrogant smile. One that laughed at how frantic I was to find the box I’d been looking for.
    “You’re nervous.” It wasn’t a question because he could see it so plainly. I was nervous, but I was excited, too. My hands shook, and my feet couldn’t stop moving. Even when I was standing in place, I had to be moving something. Anything to expel all of the energy built up inside me. We had already had sex, but apparently my mind was well aware that a date was something much more.
    “Will you just tell me where the box is?” I said while trying to read the big black writing on the side of the box. He flicked on another light that bathed that side of the room with a fluorescent glow, making it easier to read which box was what. Joel didn’t speak as he walked closer to where I was standing. He brushed past me, his body heat bathing my back as he continued deeper into the maze of boxes. After a few minutes of rustling and grunting, Joel pulled out two large boxes and placed them at my feet.
    I read the labels claiming “wardrobe” and tore off the tape in a tornado blaze to check and see if the jeans that I’d spent years breaking in and that hugged my ass perfectly, along with the black blouse that made my boobs look amazing, were in there somewhere. Joel stood over me and the box, watching with a look of amusement as I whipped through carefully folded clothes to find what I was searching for. When I finally caught a glimpse of what I was looking for, I returned my sights to the man who stood quietly above me, watching.
    “Uh, do you mind? If this is a proper date, you wouldn’t know what I planned on wearing until you picked me up.”
    “Nothing about me, or us, is proper. Besides, I’ve already seen everything I need to when it comes to you.”
    He winked at me, and I pushed at his shins, “Would you get