“Yours?” Stan asked as she pulled off her helmet. He and Dodge sat in the pimped-out golf cart parked in her driveway just feet from her garage.
She shook out her long blond hair … just because. Dodge and Stan shared a pleased grin that Jillian caught out of the corner of her eye. “Yep, it’s mine. You like?”
One by one more neighbors gathered around because they really had nothing better to do than keep tabs on the new neighbors.
“It looks like a sweet ride. It doesn’t have any Husker decals or a cooler on the back, but it’s not bad at all.” Dodge winked.
Jillian grinned. “Oh, Dodge. I knew when I saw your baby that any attempt to compete would be futile at best. But she’s an okay ride, even if I have to stop at an actual bar to get a drink.” She ran her hand over the seat.
“Hey, Sarge! Whatdaya think of Jillian’s Harley?” Stan handed AJ a beer from Dodge’s cooler.
Jillian looked up, not realizing her surly mannered neighbor had joined the evening’s circus gathering.
“Looks like she has too much time on her hands and too much money in the bank for someone her age.”
“Yeah, Jillian. That’s quite the purchase for someone mowing lawns and watching Lilith part-time.” Marvin Housby, Greta’s husband, piped up.
Jillian squinted at AJ for a second before moving her focus to Marvin. “I do home parties at night too.”
“Oh yeah? Like candles or the gourmet meal type stuff?” Greta asked with complete innocence.
Jillian smiled. She did offer edible underwear and edible chocolate body cream, as well as some scented candles that gave off an aphrodisiac aroma. “Sort of, along with some other PPDs.”
The small gathering looked at each other in confusion, but nobody wanted to admit they didn’t know what she meant by PPD … except AJ.”
“PPDs?” he questioned.
Wicked delight danced across Jillian’s face as she looked at AJ. “Personal Pleasure Devices. Can I interest you in a private demonstration, Sarge?”
The cricket chirps amplified in the silence her words created. Then faces morphed into shock as everyone stared at Jillian and AJ. They, however, looked only at each other.
Dodge cleared his throat. “I’ve … uh … gotta get back to Lilith. I told her I’d only be gone ten minutes.” With his cue everyone else mumbled a few excuses and wandered back to their houses, leaving Jillian and AJ alone.
“Sex toys?”
“Come inside, AJ.” Jillian shrugged off her leather jacket as she walked in the house.
“I don’t want to see your—” The door shut before AJ could finish his protest.
Jillian snagged an apple from the counter and washed it. The grin on her face grew as she waited for the backdoor to open. She knew AJ was standing in her garage, grumpy as hell, contemplating his move. There was little doubt in her mind that he would eventually come inside. She knew underneath that seemingly impenetrable layer of stubbornness was an undeniable curiosity that made him just as human as everyone else.
“You realize half the damn neighborhood thinks you’re married, and now you’ve got them thinking there’s something going on between us—” AJ let his cheery self into the house.
“Is there not something going on between us?”
He helped himself to a seat at the table. Jillian plopped down in the chair next to him, propping her boots up on his legs. He frowned at her boots.
“What do you need, AJ?” She threw his words back at him. “Do you want to go downstairs and duke it out? Do you want to fuck me doggie style until I howl at the moon? Do you need me to suck you off to help relieve a bit of that pent-up anger you carry around all day?”
His jaw twitched as he stared at her with such intensity it nearly cracked her own façade. “Yes.” Just one word.
Jillian paused mid-chew, waiting for more, but he offered nothing. She continued eating her apple. “What did you see that messed you up so bad?”
“Who said I’m messed-up?”
She chuckled. “Fair enough. Why don’t you ask me out on a proper date: flowers, cloth napkins, fine wine, a chaste kiss goodnight?”
AJ raised a suspicious brow. “Chaste kiss? Has a guy ever given you a chaste kiss and lived to tell about it?”
“So you won’t ask me out because you’re afraid of me?”
“I fear no one.”
Jillian’s eyes widened. “Wow. Lucky you.”
AJ shoved her boots off his legs then dusted off the nonexistent dirt. “Who do you fear?”
Jillian finished her apple, core included, then tugged off her boots before drawing her knees to her chest. “Where to begin … uh … I don’t trust women with more than three children under the age of eight. They have to be ticking time bombs. I’ve seen it at the grocery store—one in the cart screaming with his hand stuck between the metal bars, one under the cart eating cookies out of the box that hasn’t been paid for yet, another bear-hugging her leg because he didn’t get the pack of gum he wanted, and one in a carrier latched-on to the breast, but occasionally popping off to look around and the mom doesn’t realize her body is in letdown mode so she’s spraying breastmilk everywhere.”