Reece's Choice - 4. Chapter 4

The ringing of my phone jerked me awake, and I glanced at my alarm clock as I reached for it. The time glaring at me in bright red numbers made me bolt upright in bed, momentarily forgetting about Dave lying next to me. I was supposed to have been at work over an hour ago.

“Shit!” A glance at the display on my phone confirmed my suspicion it was work calling me. I hit the button to answer it and mentally crossed my fingers that it wasn’t Marc on the other end. “Hello?”

“Hi Reece, this is Becky from work.”

“Hi Becky.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Becky was less likely to rip into me like Marc would have. Marc didn’t like me and I had no clue why.

“I was just wondering if you were coming in today. The schedule says your shift was supposed to start at five.”

Despite the friendly tone, I knew she wasn’t asking. She wanted to know what time I would be there. I padded out of the bedroom and into the bathroom to keep from disturbing Dave any more than I already had.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry. My alarm didn’t go off.” It wasn’t a lie, I just didn’t want to admit the reason it hadn’t gone off was because I had forgotten to turn it on. “I should be there within an hour.”

“Sounds good, we’ll see you soon then.”

I didn’t have to say anything else as the phone disconnected. I sighed as I relieved myself. I hadn’t been so much as late before, but I had little doubt I would end up with a write-up or at least a written warning. At least they had called; otherwise I would have ended up being a no-call no-show which would have been an instant write-up and halfway to being out of a job.

Despite already being late, I desperately needed a shower. I turned the water on and adjusted the temperature before laying a towel on the bathroom sink and climbing in. The hot water caressed my skin, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it like I normally did. I was late enough as it was.

I made quick work of scrubbing my body and washing my hair and by the time I shut the water off, I was sure I had just taken one of the quickest showers in history. I reached out and grabbed my towel and wrapped it around my waist as I stepped out onto the bathmat and moved to stand in front of the sink and started to brush my teeth.

A tickling feeling against my stomach made me look down and I yelped as the biggest spider I’d ever seen crawled off the towel and onto me. It was huge and black, the body alone had to be as big as a quarter and I wasn’t even counting the legs. I smacked it off me, knocking the towel off in the process and rushed out of the bathroom. In my hurry to escape the creepy crawly I wasn’t paying attention and slammed into a naked chest. Only Dave’s arms wrapping around me kept me from falling flat on my ass, and I looked up to see him peer past me into the bathroom and then at me, one eyebrow raised.

“Everything okay?” He sounded concerned, but I felt like an idiot and was sure he would bust up laughing when he found out I’d freaked over a fucking spider.

I was mortified Dave had seen my little reaction and could feel my face heating. I didn’t like spiders in the first place, but normally I could have calmly squished it. It was the combination of its size and the fact it was crawling on me that sent me over the edge. I shivered and made a mental note to pick up a can of Raid before leaving work.

“Reece?”

“Hmm? Sorry, I’m fine. Just a huge ass spider was crawling on me.” I waited for the laughter but it never came, instead he was watching me, a tender expression on his face.

“Want me to find it while you get dressed?” It was then I noticed he had pulled on his jeans from the night before.

“Would you mind?” I didn’t have to think about it, if he was willing to take on the spider from hell, I’d let him. I really didn’t want a second encounter with it this morning, or any other time for that matter.

“Not at all.” He leaned forward and brushed a kiss against my lips. “I hope you don’t mind, but I started a pot of coffee.”

“Mind? Not at all, that will save me some time.” I kissed him and headed towards the bedroom as he headed into the bathroom. Hopefully he’d find and destroy the eight legged creature. Just the memory had me ready to squirm, and I was so glad he was willing to destroy it for me.

It didn’t take long until I was heading to the kitchen dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. I walked in to find Dave already leaning against the counter looking sexy as hell in only his jeans and sipping coffee. If I hadn’t been running late, I would have been extremely tempted to drag him back to the bedroom.

“You were right, that was a huge-ass spider.”

“You found it then?” I reached past him and grabbed my travel mug and filled it with coffee. I had long since given up cream and sugar and now drank it black.

“Yep, he’s been smashed and flushed.”

“Thank you.” I snapped the lid onto my cup and grabbed my keys off the hook by the door and stuffed them in my pocket along with my phone. “Sorry about the early morning wake up call.”

“It’s all good, I would’ve had to get up soon anyways.” He glanced down at his bare chest and then looked back up at me. “Guess I should finish getting dressed so you can get on your way.”

“There’s no hurry, take your time. Just lock up when you leave.” Normally I would never leave someone alone at my house when I’d only seen them a couple of times, but it helped he was a friend of Josh’s.

“I will.”

I turned to leave but his arm snaked out and wrapped around my waist. I didn’t resist as he pulled me close. Truthfully, another kiss from him was worth any hell I was going to get for being even later. His lips settled over mine, and I moaned as he devoured me. After a minute I forced myself to pull back. I really did have to go.

“You free for dinner tonight?”

“Not tired of me yet?” I led the way to the door and stuffed my feet into my shoes.

“Not at all.”

“In that case, sure. What time?” I would just have to make sure I didn’t stay out too late and I set my alarm for tomorrow morning.

“How about I pick you up at six?”

“Perfect.” I gave him a quick peck on the lips before hurrying out the door before I talked myself into calling and saying I wouldn’t be in after all. He just had that effect on me. I couldn’t wait until tonight when I’d get to see him again.