Chapter 6

*UNEDITED*

(Rio)

I had no more than just finished laying out several buckets and sponges for the car wash when I turned around and low and behold, there she was looking as gorgeous as ever. Bailey Shoffner. 

Bailey just so happened to be the little sister to Charlie, my best friend since we were kids and by default, completely off limits to me.  She also just so happens to be the one woman that I can’t seem to get out of my damn head. 

Over the years I’ve watched her blossom from a scrawny little pig squeak into a picturesque form of feminine beauty.  Even now I couldn’t help the fact that my eyes decided to take a leisurely stroll down the length of her body, taking in every curve and every dip.  And man, those legs.  She had legs of a goddess that simply went on for miles.  How many times have I dreamt about those legs being wrapped around my waist while I drove deep inside her body, hearing her scream my name in nothing but sheer ecstasy? Countless.  That’s how many times.  Those legs of hers and those pink rosy lips had me like a pre-pubescent teenager every single time.  Damn.  Just thinking about her lips had me sporting a semi-boner.  I swear, her pouty little mouth is always going to be my biggest downfall.

And the pitiful part is the woman has me twisted up in so many knots and she doesn’t even have a clue.

It all started with that damn kiss. I still remember it as if it was just yesterday.  It was her graduation party and I’d just finished up my service.  I was back in town for good and visiting with Charlie.  Bailey had evidently had too much to drink when she ended up falling face first into the pool.  I heard the splash of the water and turned just in time to see her falling in.  I waited for what seemed like hours for her to surface.  When I couldn’t wait any longer I took the initiative and jumped in after her.  Wrapping my arms around her sweet feminine body, I swam to the surface.  I clearly remember holding her close to me and for the first time thinking just how well she seemed to fit so perfectly in my arms. 

Afterwards, I went on auto-pilot.  When we exited the pool, I didn’t stop there.  I told myself that I was only taking her to her room to make sure that she slipped into dry clothes and then had every intention of putting her to bed.  Now that I think back on that moment, I think that somewhere in the back of my mind I knew better than that.  I was just making excuses to hold on to her hot little body for just a little longer.

We entered her room and that’s where the magic happened.  Stupidly, I kissed her.  And to be frank, this kiss wasn’t just any ordinary kiss.  It was heat, fire and passion and everything else that those girly romance novels describe a kiss between a man and a woman to be. 

Her taste was exquisite with hints of lemons and cherries.  Her lips soft as rose petals.  That first kiss that we shared proved to my final undoing.    

When I lifted my head from those sweet pouty lips, reality hit me like a freight train.  This was Bailey.  Charlie’s little sister. The last thing I needed to be doing that day or any other day was kissing Charlie’s baby sister.  She was off-limits to me.

I got scared.  I turned tail and ran.  I was four years older than her and had no business entertaining the all the naughty thoughts that had been going through my mind that day.  Or any other day for that matter.  But telling myself that and living it were two totally different animals.  Not one damn night has gone by that I hadn’t dreamed of Bailey and that kiss.  Even when the nightmares came, and trust me, they always came; the memory of her lips on mine seemed to chase them all away.

I’d finally accepted that she would live in my dreams but that was the only place I allowed myself to be with Bailey in the way that I craved her.  The reality of the situation was that she couldn’t be mine.  My goal was to keep her at arm’s length and any relationship that I did have with her would be purely platonic.

I’d done real well with all that until the other day when we had our little run in at the club. 

Damn, I remember thinking that she was even more beautiful now than I’d remembered.  She had on a dress that accented her best assets in every way.  And when I say every way, I mean every way.  Those legs were enough to turn a Saint into a sinner.  God was smiling when he put this woman together because she was perfect.  Unable to take my eyes off of her, I watched Bailey dance on the floor with her gay buddy from high school. 

Taking a cursory glance around the club I’d noticed that I wasn’t the only one with eyes on her.  Hell, everyone was watching her.  Who couldn’t miss a woman as smoking as she was that night?

That was the second time that I was forced to remind myself that I couldn’t have her.  That I would never be able to claim her for anything more than a friend.  Bailey was the type of girl who deserves so much more that a retired solider who has to sleep with his lights on just to keep the nightmares at bay.  No, she was good and what she needed was so much more than I could ever offer her.  So I did what I did best.  I found me a willing blond and tried to push all thoughts of the gorgeous vixen out of my head. 

That only worked for about thirty minutes.  Bailey shocked the hell out of me when I spotted her standing on the podium for the mud wrestling competition. Mud wrestling?  Really?  That was the last thing that I ever expected from Charlie’s little sister. 

But there she was stripping off her dress and looking ready to go at it with Brandy, the blond I’d chosen to lose myself in that night.  By the end of the match, I had to hand it to her; she beat Brandy’s butt good.  But what really put pissed me off was the fact that she was in nothing but a lacy bra and matching panties and every man in the club was ogling her. She didn’t have the faintest clue as to the riot that she was about to incite in that club.

Unable to stop myself again, I made a bee line for her and basically dragger her sweet ass to the bathroom where she was out of the public eye.  And hence, this was the beginning of mistake number two.  Once again, I found myself alone with Bailey and those damn tempting lips.  This time, we kissed and it was even better than the first time.  Over the years I’ve kissed hundreds of women, but this woman and her kisses were the best by far.  No one could even hold a candle to the feel of Bailey’s tongue sliding against mine. 

I had to force myself to pull back from her sweet mouth.  Bailey was my kryptonite.  It was painfully clear that I can’t let her get this close to me.  I’m a ruined man.  Why couldn’t she see that?

A woman like Bailey needs so much more than I could ever offer her.  I can’t love her the way that she deserves to be loved.  I’ve  seen too much hate and death in this world.  Babies left by the roadside to fend for themselves.  Witnessing members of my own squadron killed no more than just feet away from me.  I’ve killed with my own bare hands for Christ sakes.   Going in, you know that war isn’t pretty.  But I’ve got to tell you, you’re never fully prepared to deal with the aftershocks and believe me they are a bitch. 

Once again, I did the only thing that I knew would be best for Bailey.  I ran.  I turned around and ran hard and I ran fast hoping that ever this she would hate me.  That’s what would be best for the both of us.

I should have known better.  She was a Shoffner and the next day she brought me a dinner that she’d evidently taken the time to cook.  It was a sweet gesture and when I first opened the door all I wanted to do was pull her in my arms and kiss her senseless.  It was a stupid thought and I was angry at myself for even considering the idea. 

Bailey Shoffner was off limits to me. 

Gregory’s sisters were there to pick up a few things that I managed to salvage from his locker.  Remembering that day and already put me in a mood, so to speak.  It really wasn’t the best time for her to just show up unannounced.  And my tone I tried to convey that much to her.

But Bailey, being Bailey brushed right on past me and headed straight to the kitchen.  She noticed the girls and of course jumped to all kinds of erroneous conclusions.  I saw that this would be an opportune time to piss her off and hopefully, force her to want to put space between us. Being a dick head, I incited an argument purposefully.  It worked perfectly.  That was at least until the pain that I saw on her face when I told her to leave dug like a knife being lodged in my heart.  All night I saw that face, her face and it about damn near killed me.

This morning I’d been lucky enough to run to her at the gym.  It was then that I decided we could be friends.  I can do friends.  It was going to be tough and when she did find the right man for her it would be probably kill me but I could do it.  I would do it for her because being friends was so much better than having to see that awful pained look on Bailey’s face last night.     

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.  It was time to come back to the present.  Hell, even now all I’m doing is just watching her stand across the parking lot and my whole chest feels tight.  This is what she does to me.  She makes me feel.  Bailey is a goddess.  A goddess that is so far out of my league it isn’t even funny.

What I did know was that whoever is lucky enough to catch her eye in the future will be one blessed man.

“Bailey?” I called out to her.  If I was going to truly make an effort at this friend situation then now was the time to start.  Hearing her name she turned around and the heart stopping smile she sent in my direction left me groaning internally.

She was some sort of natural temptress.  I started or more like stalked towards her and she cocked out her hip.  She wore a yellow bikini top that tied around her neck and a pair of barely there denim cut-offs.  The yellow really showed off her golden tan and the pose she was standing in looked like something on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  Damn. Damn and double damn.  The things that she does to me should be considered criminal.    

 “Rio.”  Just hearing my name roll off her tongue sends shivers down my spine.  Friends, I reminded myself.  I was supposed to see her only as a friend.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, concentrating really hard on trying to keep my eyes locked on her face. 

Her teeth sunk down into her lower lip.  My eyes zoomed into that single action.  Man, this was going to be harder than I originally thought.

“Well, since I don’t have a job yet and the idea of hanging around with Charlie all day doesn’t hold that much appeal I thought I might do some volunteer work. When I thought about charities I remembered hearing Charlie mentioning that you worked with this one so I thought it would be a good one to support.  I called them and they told me about the car wash today.  And here I am.”

And yes, here she is.   I was lost in her eyes. I could hear her speaking to me but listening, that was a whole different matter.  Right now it was Bailey’s hazel eyes that held me captive and all I could do was stare.

“Rio?  Are you okay?” she asked, taking a gentle hold on my elbow. 

Just like that, that small touch ignited a raging inferno inside and woke me up.  I took a step back from her and ran my hand nervously through my hair. I have got to get a hold of myself.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” I apologized stupidly.  “I guess my mind just wondered off there for a minute.”

“I saw that,” she grinned and then continued. “You’re back with me, right? For good, I mean.  Because I think I’m going to need your help washing these cars.”

I nodded, probably a little more than I should have in an effort to get my cool points back.  “Yeah, I’m here. Promise.”  Glancing back over my shoulders I noticed that several cars had already lined up to be washed.  I waved over in that general direction, “Well do you want to come help me wash some cars and earn some money for charity?”

“That was the original plan,” she told me and it was hard to miss the hint of sass behind her words.  Even her sass was turning me on.  What the hell is wrong with me? What I needed to do was get moving and put my attention on something other than the irresistible woman standing in front of me because my runaway libido was wreaking havoc with her being this close to me.

“This way,” I said and forced myself to turn and head for the cars.  I looked for the grimiest, dirtiest vehicle out there knowing that it would at least keep me busy for the next several hours on something other than Bailey. 

I hit the jack pot.  “Here we are,” I stopped and stared at the Jeep Cherokee in front of us.  The piece of shit looked as though it had been drove through the mud and then run through the rain forest, catching every bug on this side of the Mississippi in its wake.

Bailey scrunched up her forehead and made a face.  No doubt it was because the shape of the jeep.  I have a feeling this was just a little bit more than what she originally bargained for.

Now I just wanted to have a little fun with her.  I gave her my trademark smirk, “too much for you Bailey?”

She swung her head around so fast and narrowed those mesmerizing hazel eyes on me. “What did you say?”

I pointed at the vehicle in front of us.  “The Jeep Bailey. If it’s too much for you to handle then you can just collect money or something.  You don’t have to get dirty.”

 Those eyes glared at me in a challenge.  There’s the fiery spunk that I remember so well.

“As if.” she remarked and pushed her way right on past me.  Sinking her hands in one of the buckets she pulled out a sponge and wasted no time in getting down to work.  And because I’m a guy and a jerk I took a second to admire her ass before finally going to the other side of the jeep and getting to work myself.

Time seemed to pass easily as we worked in companionable silence.  The manual labor worked well in helping me to clear my head of Bailey and the paralyzing effect she seemed to have on me.  By the time we finished we both stood back and admired the shiny gleam of the Jeep.

“I think we did a damn good job,” Bailey said, her hands fisted on her hips.

Looking over at her it was hard to hide my smile.  She looked adorable with the smudge of dirt on her left cheek and her hair slightly in disarray.  Before I could stop myself I was raising my hand and wiping away the smudge on her face with my thumb.

My eyes instinctively honed in on her lips and the memory of how sweet she tasted.  I was an addict and my craving for her taste was at an all time high.  She flicked out that sinful tongue of hers and licked across her upper lip.  Slowly my face started to lean in closer on its own volition.  All I could see was Bailey and that perfectly shaped mouth of hers.

 “Rio.”

Ms. Cable, the lady that organized these events called my name and it was as good as a bucket of ice water.  Feeling guilty, I jumped back more than grateful for the interruption.  If Ms. Cable hadn’t of come around then that would have been mistake number three and mistake number three cannot, by no means, ever happen.

I stared down into Bailey’s disappointed face and had to remind myself that this was all for the best.  In time, she would see that too when she finally finds her special someone that would love her the way she deserved to be loved.  

I had to paste a smile on my face and take another step back.  Raising my hand I waved to her. “See you later, friend.”

She glanced at her feet and then back up at me.  Her eyes pooled with a sadness that just about did me in.  She threw her hand up in the universal peace sign.  “Yeah, you can count on that.  That much I can promise.” 

With nothing left to say I quickly turned on my heel and jogged off in the direction of Ms. Cable, breathing out a sigh of hard won relief. That was just too damn close for comfort.