House to Ourselves Again

Brody woke me up fairly early the next morning so we could get back home.  He was planning to spend most of the day helping Ken move out.  He was cheerful and wide awake, which was much more than could be said of me.  I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since my last run-in with Jordan, but for some reason, I'd slept great last night.  Unfortunately, I was still sound asleep and not even close to ready to get up when Brody woke me up.  I grumbled the whole time I got dressed, while Brody tried not to laugh at me.  I was lucky that he was a morning person and not fazed by my crappy attitude in the mornings.

Despite her insistence that she wasn't going to get up early, Thalia was not only awake but had breakfast ready for us when we came downstairs.  She took one look at me and grabbed the mug of coffee she had set next to one of the plates and quickly replaced it with a travel mug twice the size.  "Take it with you when you leave," she said, smiling knowingly.  I got it together enough to return her smile and thank her as we sat down to eat.

"You didn't have to get up and make breakfast, Mom," Brody said.

Thalia shrugged.  "I was up.  I need to eat too."

"Well, thank you," Brody replied.

"Yes," I agreed.  "Thank you.  And thank you for letting us spend the night."

"Don't be silly," she said.  "You're welcome here any time.  Either of you!"

We finished our breakfast and headed out, and I took Thalia up on her offer to refill my coffee mug before we left.  Despite the coffee, I was asleep in the car within 20 minutes.  I woke up when we were about 10 minutes from home.  "Enjoy the drive?" Brody asked.

"Mmmhmm," I replied, blinking sleepily.  "It was refreshing."

"Since you got to sleep, maybe you should help Ken move," he teased.

"You woke me up," I reminded him.  He laughed.

When we got home, we were pleasantly surprised to find the entire main floor spotless.  Ken had clearly spent some time cleaning.  When we thanked him, he insisted it was the least he could do.  He'd tried to pay us a month's rent, which had offended Brody and he'd refused to take it.  "I had to do something," Ken said, shrugging.

I offered to help them, but they both turned me down.  With the house clean, I had no choice but to spend most of the day on the deck with my Kindle.  That's what I did until Brody texted that he was on his way home, then I headed inside to find something to make for dinner.

"Hi!" I called, when I heard him come inside about an hour later.

"You're awake," he teased, grinning at me as he walked into the kitchen.

I laughed.  "And cheerful, even," I replied, returning his smile.  He laid a hand on my lower back and leaned down to kiss me.  "How'd the move go?"

"Fine," he said shrugging.  He peeled off his shirt, wrinkling his nose at it and tossing it in the direction of the laundry room.  I raised an eyebrow and he grinned and walked over to where it landed, several feet short of the laundry room door, and tossed it into the room.  "I feel disgusting now though."

"Yeah, you've smelled better," I agreed.

He laughed.  "I guess I'd better go shower then."

"Yes," I said, nodding.  He headed towards the stairs and I turned my attention back to the food I was making.  I was just about done when he returned downstairs in shorts and a t-shirt.  He got out some plates and silverware and then wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Better?" he asked, nuzzling his face against my neck before gently nipping at my earlobe.

I turned to face him and slipped my arms around his neck.  "Much," I replied, nodding in approval.

"Guess what?" Brody asked, raising his eyebrows.  "Our house is all ours again."

"You know what that means," I replied, smirking.  Brody grinned.  "Extra leftovers from dinner."

Brody's grin fell, then he laughed.  "I was thinking more alone the lines of we can have sex wherever we want again..."

I laughed at his temporarily disappointed expression.  "That's true too.  But dinner first, because I'm starving."

"If we have to," Brody conceded.  "Kiss me, at least."  I grinned and rose up onto my toes to kiss him.  He tightened his arms around me while I pushed my fingers into his hair, and we kissed for several seconds.  Almost long enough to change my mind about dinner first, but I pulled away just in time.  "Okay, okay," he said, laughing softly and dropping his forehead down to mine.  "Let's eat."

After we ate, he even managed to control himself long enough to start doing the dishes.  When he was almost done I wrapped my arms around him and rested my chin against his back.  "Have I ever told you how ridiculously sexy you are when you're washing dishes?" I asked.

He burst out laughing.  "Oh yeah?" he asked.  "Must be the dish soap fumes going to your head."

"Nope," I countered, sliding my hands up his stomach to his chest then back down, stopping just at the waistband of his shorts.  "Definitely sexy.  Few things turn me on more than a man doing dishes." I turned my head to the side and rested my cheek against his back as I inched my fingers beneath his waistband.

"Well in that case, you'd better let me finish," he said, pressing his hips forward to gently pin my hands between his hips and the counter, stopping their downward progress.  "I'd hate to deny you your foreplay."

He reached for the last plate on the counter, which tipped his hips away and let me slip my hands lower.  I wrapped one hand around him and he groaned as he quickly washed the last plate and set it in the drying rack.  He grabbed the towel and dried off his hands, then tugged my hand away and turned to face me.  His hands were in my hair the second he turned around and he kissed me hard.

"I didn't realize how much I missed being able to have sex wherever we wanted until we suddenly could again," Brody said, laughing and lifting me onto the counter.

"I realized it...because every time I so much as had an inappropriate thought somewhere in this house I remembered your brother walking in that night!" I replied.

"Shhhh," Brody said, between kissing my neck.  "Let's not talk about him."  That was easy enough.  I stopped talking altogether, pulling his head back towards mine and kissing him.  He worked my shirt up and over my head, our lips parting just long enough for it to pass between us.  Then he went for my shorts, lifting me off the counter so I could slide them down my hips.

Then he pulled me forward so my hips were at the edge of counter before he bent and dropped his head between my legs.  I leaned back onto one hand and pushed the fingers of the other into his hair, moaning softly.  Brody teased me with his mouth and fingers as long as I let him, but I didn't let him for long.  I pulled him up, using my feet to push his shorts down his hips.  I yanked his shirt up and over his head, then trailed my fingers down his chest and stomach, laughing softly when he shivered.

Brody inched me just a little further forward and pushed into me.  I groaned and dropped my forehead onto his shoulder, moaning as he thrust into me.  I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him harder against me.  He lifted my chin and pressed his lips to mine, and I pushed my hands back into his hair, tugging gently.  Brody moaned into our kiss and I tugged a little harder.  "Let's go upstairs," he said suddenly, breathlessly.

"What happened to being excited to have sex wherever we wanted?" I teased.  But I didn't mind...having sex on the counter is not the most comfortable thing.

"Well, now we did and now we can go have sex in bed," he said, laughing and lifting me off the counter.

Once we were in bed, it was easy to get comfortable after we finished.  We stayed there, tangled together, for over an hour.  Finally, Brody groaned and rolled onto his back.  He stretched and said, "I need to work."

"It's after 8," I pointed out.

"I know," he said.  "That's why I need to get up and do some now."  But he didn't move.  After a couple minutes, he said, "I could probably be convinced to not work, if you're opposed to it."

I laughed and rolled onto my side, sliding my hand up his stomach to his chest.  "I'm not opposed to it, but if you want me to convince you not to, I'm sure I can be very convincing."  I trailed my fingers back down his chest and stomach.  "And, I mean, you took off work early to do wedding stuff with me yesterday, so if you need to work tomorrow, I'd understand."

Needless to say, Brody didn't end up doing any work that night.  He did work all Sunday morning and most of Sunday afternoon, but stopped in time to take me out to dinner.

My work week went well.  Josh was still being polite but he didn't go out of his way to talk to me, which was fine with me.  After the slightly rocky start with the client that I took from him, our sessions were now going much better.

Before I knew it, it was Friday and Lauren, Kinsley, and I met for lunch and to get groceries and supplies for camping.  Lauren was only dramatic about camping for the first 20 minutes or so, then she launched into her typical director mode, bossing us around in the most efficient way possible.  I love her for it.  Once we had everything we needed (and a whole lot of stuff we didn't need), we dropped it all off at Lauren's house, which is where we were meeting.

My phone vibrated while we were lounging on Lauren's couch, and I looked at it, seeing a text from James asking what time we were meeting.  "5:00 at Lauren's, which is my old place," I replied.  Kinsley had asked me earlier in the week if it was okay if James came with the woman he was dating.  I wasn't sure how Brody would feel about it, especially after having the recent encounters with Jordan, but he didn't care at all.  I couldn't keep his feelings about James straight to save my life.

 At 3, I decided to head home, because I still needed to pack and Brody would probably be home soon too.  At my prodding, he'd dug out his tent the night before and made sure all of the stakes and poles were still there, because he hadn't used it for a couple years.  Brody made it home on time and got packed, and we were headed back into town to meet the rest of the group by 4:30.