Hardcore Vanilla

by Golden Angel

  "Yeah, okay, I can see that," Lexie conceded after a minute. She gave Sharon a rueful smile. "Just for the record, I think you'd be really good for him. I hardly ever make friends with his girlfriends. They're all nice and whatever, but they're really hard to get to know. Not unfriendly, exactly but... Not friendly either."

  "Well I'm friendly," Sharon teased, winking.

  "Are you going to warn him what he's getting into with your family?" Kate wanted to know.

  "What's he getting into with her family?" Jessica asked, leaning forward to reach around Lexie and grab a handful of crackers. She wasn't the only one who was curious, going by the expressions. Sharon sighed. She rarely talked about her family if she could help it. Why focus on things that brought her down when she'd much rather focus on the positive parts of life?

  "They're kind of big jerks," Kate said, breaking the ice on the subject. "Her parents are huge snobs, super self-involved, and they care way more about their image than anything else."

  "As you can imagine, I'm definitely not their idea of a perfect daughter," Sharon chimed in with a thin smile, now that Kate had gotten the hard part over with. “I’m basically the epitome of a poor little rich girl. Lots of nannies, lots of my parents trying to mold me into the shape they wanted, and lots of rebellion on my part.”

  She hated the sympathy she saw on everyone’s faces. The ‘poor little rich girl’ moniker was not her favorite, but it was apt. Everyone else here had families who loved them the way they were. She’d heard Jessica’s family had had some trouble accepting the fact that she had two men in her life, but they had accepted it. Sharon was pretty sure she would have been disowned. Hilary’s family was pretty well off, but her parents were involved in her life in a way Sharon’s had never been. Sharon didn’t like being an object of pity. She didn’t like facing what she didn’t have.

  She really did have a lot, and she was grateful for it.

  So her parents kind of sucked. They weren’t the worst parents in the world; they were just normal, absentee, wealthy, image-obsessed parents with expectations for her that she never met. Now she went out of her way to show them there was no point in trying to manipulate her, but they weren’t bad enough that she felt justified in cutting them out of her life entirely. Sometimes she did think about it though.

  “Are they going to be mean to Jake?” Maria asked after a minute when it was obvious everyone was struggling to try and figure out what to say. Because what should a person say about it? This was why Sharon hated talking about her parents. It was always awkward for everyone.

  “Probably at least a little,” Sharon admitted. A little smile turned up the corners of her lips. “Especially once they find out that he’s working in a blue-collar job.”

  “That’s going to matter to them?” Hilary asked, wrinkling her nose a little.

  “Everything matters to them.”

  Especially at a wedding when everyone was going to be showing off their kids. On the other hand, she knew her parents... They would make the best of the situation in public. Maybe she should warn Jake.

  Might be more fun not to though.

  ******

  Sitting around the kitchen table with one glowering friend and one friend grinning like a loon was not comfortable.

  Apparently, Andrew was acting as Sharon’s big brother – only he was way more protective and not as supportive as Jake had been about one of his friends dating his little sister. Then again... He wasn’t exactly dating Sharon was he?

  “So. Fuck buddies.” Andrew glared at him and Jake held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

  “What makes you think that?” he asked. Might as well play dumb. Andrew hadn’t been listening at the door or something had he?

  “The fact that there’s an interrogation happening at my house right now and that’s what Sharon said.” If anything, Andrew’s dark gaze grew harder. He didn’t look amused at all.

  Well... shit.

  Fine. Time to shift gears. “Why is it any of your business?”

  “Because she needs someone to look out for her.”

  Jake couldn’t help it – he snorted. He honestly couldn’t think of anyone less in need of someone to look out for them. Sharon was not just eminently capable, but she was deliberately independent. “She can take care of herself.”

  “But she shouldn’t have to,” Andrew countered, leaning back against his chair and ignoring the beer he’d been given. “She does it because she’s used to doing it, and because she doesn’t trust anyone else to be there to do it for her.”

  That was an interesting take on things, and one that made Jake take a mental step back so he could consider it. He had noticed that Sharon took care of her friends a lot of the time, but she didn’t seem to need the same in return. It hadn’t occurred to him to think about why that was true. Some people were just more self-sufficient than others.

  He still had trouble seeing Sharon as someone who needed someone looking out for her though. She seemed the type to fight against that.

  But if Andrew’s mind was made up to do so, Jake doubted he’d be able to stop him either.

  Jake rubbed his hand over his face. This was exactly why they hadn’t wanted to involve their friends. Dammit. He wished Sharon had just let him know about the wedding before last night so that he hadn’t had to intervene in front of anyone to keep her from asking her ex to go. Talk about being self-sufficient; they had been talking every day and she hadn’t even mentioned it, just decided on a course of action and then gone for it.

  “Are you asking my intentions?” he asked dryly.

  “No, I’m telling you that if you hurt her, I’m going to kick your ass. In a totally friendly way.” Andrew bared his teeth in an approximation of a smile. “She’s a lot more vulnerable than she seems sometimes and she takes a lot of things to heart. Some of the shit you’ve said to her in the past... well, it didn’t bother her then but that was then, and this is now.”

  “I’m not going to be a total dick to her,” Jake protested, feeling more than a little insulted. Especially because now Patrick was nodding in agreement with Andrew.

  “You have been pretty judgmental when it comes to her,” Patrick said reasonably. “I know it doesn’t seem like she’s sensitive, but when she cares about someone, she does care about their opinion. That includes you now.”

  Under the weight of both of their gazes, Jake couldn’t help squirming a little, which was not a comfortable position to be in.

  “I swear, I’m not going to be a dick,” he repeated, for lack of anything better to say.

  “You’d better not be,” Andrew said, finally uncrossing his arms and grabbing his beer.

  Jake sighed inwardly. Geez. Hopefully meeting Sharon’s family would be easier than this.

  Chapter 9

  This was so fucking awkward.

  They’d been fine texting during the day.

  Sharon had sent a pic of her cleavage.

  Jake had sent one of his abs.

  They’d flirted.

  And then she’d shown up at his apartment for hot sex and...

  It was awkward.

  So, so, painfully awkward.

  Instead of pulling her inside and taking off all her clothes, he'd been kind of stiff and uncertain. Not that he was the only one. She'd even had trouble looking him in the eye.

  Ugh.

  "So, ah, how was your day?" she asked as she watched him put away her coat, smoothing her hands over her short skirt.

  "Pretty good. We finished out the office we've been working on, got all the small details done. We're starting on a new location tomorrow." He finished hanging up the coat and turned to look at her. "You look nice."

  "Thanks."

  Silence fell between them, and not the fun, wrought with sexual tension kind of silence.

  Sharon eyed him. "Okay, even if we've run through our attraction, you still have to be my date to my cousin's wedding."

  His laugh cut through a good deal of the hea
viness in the air, his shoulders relaxing as he grinned, and that let her relax too.

  "It's not that, it's just..." He shrugged, tilting his head as he gave her an almost shy smile. "This is a little weird right?"

  "A little bit," she admitted. "I mean, nothing has really changed but..."

  "In some ways it totally has. Did you know Andrew and Patrick came by to visit me yesterday?"

  Sharon blinked in surprise. While she'd noticed Andrew hadn't been around at his and Kate's house, she figured he'd just been hiding out from the female brigade, not that he'd had an agenda over at Jake's. "No. Why...? Oh dammit!" She groaned. "Do not tell me that Andrew went all big brother on you."

  "Oh, he totally did," Jake said, moving and ushering her into the living room. "Threatened to kick my ass if I hurt you."

  "I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know why he gets like that. It's not like he doesn't have his own little sister who needs looking after."

  "Yeah, but he likes looking after you too," Jake teased. "Want something to drink? I've got water, wine, beer..."

  "If it's red, a glass of wine sounds great." Couldn't hurt anyway. Whatever this new paradigm between them was, it clearly wasn't going to involve immediately jumping each other. Not that they'd been solely focused on the sex, it was just that the sex had been coming before the conversation.

  Sitting down on the couch, Sharon curled her legs underneath her for warmth and turned so she could rest her head along the back, watching Jake in the kitchen. He was dressed in his regular jeans and long-sleeved shirt. Today's was a dark blue that made his eyes look even lighter and bluer, and his hair was slightly mussed in the way that she liked. It looked like it might be a little wet too, like he'd taken a shower not too long ago.

  Unlike her, he was dressed for comfort and warmth. Not that he'd ever dressed up much anyway.

  Should she stop dressing up? Would he still want her if she came over in sweatpants and a t-shirt? Now that was an interesting theory to test one day...

  "Andrew said I should ask you about your family," Jake said, coming back into the room, a glass of wine in each hand.

  Sharon made a face. The traitor. Although she probably would have told Jake anyway, rather than letting him walk in completely blind.

  Probably.

  "They're mean, they're going to be horrified by your job, and they're completely self-involved," she said succinctly, taking the glass from him. "The wedding is probably going to be one tiny nightmare after another on top of the larger nightmare of the wedding itself. I have a few normal family members, but mostly picture the worst family relationship scenarios you can imagine and then extrapolate from there."

  Jake chuckled. "So... inbreeding?"

  She snorted, nearly choking on her wine. "Maybe not quite that bad, but... kind of close. My parents' generation all had what amounted to arranged marriages. Most of them are desperately unhappy but refuse to divorce. My parents get along pretty well but it's more a business relationship than anything else as far as I can tell."

  "You're not close?"

  "I try to spend as little time with them as possible." It was better for everyone that way. "I don't really do family. At least, not my family."

  "Huh." Jake's forehead wrinkled, and Sharon could feel herself pulling behind the facade she often employed when dealing with anything to do with her family.

  “We don’t get along,” she said lightly.

  “Why not?”

  “Well, they want me to be a society princess, marry someone who will make a good business connection, and behave all the time. I want none of that. Fortunately, my trust came from my grandma so they haven’t had any control over me for a really long time.”

  “But they’re your parents... it sounds like they love you and want the best for you, as they picture it.”

  “Sure,” she said with a sigh. This was not a topic she wanted to spend any time on.

  It wasn't his fault that he didn't get it. This was why she kept things light. Without Kate here to bolster her, or anyone else who had seen her family firsthand, she knew she sounded a little bitchy to someone who didn't understand. People who had warm, loving families that supported them just didn't get it. To them, family was family, through thick and thin, and even when you hated them you loved them.

  Sharon understood that, intellectually. She'd seen how other families worked, seen how their children struggled with the idea that sometimes people were so toxic that it didn't matter if they were related to you by blood. Heck, Sharon even understood the impulse to keep up the family ties, otherwise, she would have completely cut contact with hers years ago.

  For the sake of her own sanity and emotional well-being, she stayed away as much as possible. She doubted that was something Jake would understand. Most people didn't. Yesterday, she and Kate had barely glossed the surface explaining Sharon's family to their friends. Sharon had deliberately made it sound like they were kooky, absent, but she hadn't gotten into how they made her feel or how much she tried to stay away from them.

  Since Jake had asked and he was actually going to meet them, she figured he deserved a little bit more of a warning, but she could already feel the judgment coming.

  Taking a large swallow of her wine, she leaned forward to display her cleavage a little better, putting her hand on his knee. He blinked, and she could almost see him mentally switching gears.

  ******

  The little smile on Sharon's face as she leaned forward, one hand on his leg, the other holding her mostly empty wine glass, was one of seductive enticement. This was new. She always gave as good as she got, but she usually waited for him to take the lead.

  Then again, she obviously wasn't interested in talking more about her family - a fact that disturbed Jake. Family was important to him, it was one of the most important things to him, whereas she'd just made it clear that it wasn't important at all to her. Which left them... where exactly? Because it seemed like another way they were incompatible for being anything more than fuck-buddies.

  Her dark eyes glittered as the wine glass tilted and red liquid dripped out, splashing down on the creamy swell of her breasts.

  "Oops," she said, with a little quirk of her red lips. "Spilled."

  Of course, he didn't really need to figure out their whole future right now. They still weren't even technically dating. Like she'd said, nothing had really changed. He needed to stop borrowing trouble.

  Especially when she was offering up much more interesting alternatives.

  Jake leaned forward, bowing his head down and swiping his tongue over the spilled wine, cleaning it from her skin. She giggled and gasped a little as he took extra care in making sure he got every last drop. With a little growl under his breath, his arm snaked out to wrap around her waist and pull her onto his lap, straddling him.

  With one leg on either side of his thighs, the short, tight skirt of her little black dress was pushed up to the point where it could barely be considered decent covering. Deliberately, Jake held up his wine over her breasts, which were now directly in front of his face, and tipped some more of the liquid onto them.

  "Oops," he said wickedly, leaning forward to catch the droplets before they ran down into the fabric of her dress. Sharon squirmed on top of his lap as his free hand cupped her ass, his fingers sliding under the hem of her dress to tease the outer lips of her pussy. As usual, she'd come commando, providing easy access.

  He was starting to wonder if she even owned underwear.

  As he licked the wine across her chest, with Sharon helpfully pulling down the straps of her dress so he could make sure to get it all, his cock was already pressing against the front of his jeans. She wasn't in quite the right position to rub against the bulge, but it didn't matter, he was turned on as all hell by the little game she'd started.

  More wine tipped onto her chest, allowing him to lick it from each curve and suck it from her nipples while she squirmed and moaned breathily with growing arousal. Wetness touched h
is fingertips as she pushed her hips back, trying to connect with his hand. As soon as his own glass was empty, he set it aside and gripped her ass with both hands, pulling her more firmly against him while he suckled at her breasts.

  The tangy flavor of the wine lingered on his tongue as he traced it over her silky skin, enjoying teasing her. Grabbing the hem of her dress, he started working it upwards. He wanted her completely naked and on top of him.

  "Hands over your head," he ordered, tugging on her dress.

  The sultry smile she gave him as she obeyed just made him even harder. He yanked her dress off, tossing it to the side, leaving her in nothing but her heels. Not that he could appreciate the view of those currently, but maybe later.

  Now her entire body was bared to him, and he ran his hands over her curves, from her breasts down to her hips as Sharon arched prettily towards him, her hands coming down to cup the back of her head and giving him full access to do whatever he pleased with her.

  Leaning forward, Jake sucked one pert nipple into his mouth and bit down gently, rolling the tender bud between his teeth as his hands returned to her ass, holding her in place so that she was rubbing herself on the bulge of his cock as she squirmed. Moaning, Sharon arched even more, rocking against him as he switched breasts.

  He was starting to understand why it might be fun to have a woman all tied up and at his mercy. Even though she was holding her hands behind her head by choice, and he hadn't asked her to do so, it was fucking hot being able to touch her all over while she was basically immobilized. Maybe he'd have to look into getting some cuffs or rope for them to play with...

  ******

  Being totally naked on Jake's lap while he played with her body was fucking hot. Especially because she could feel the huge bulge of his erection against her pussy and clit, and the friction of his jeans against her sensitive bits was delicious.

  When she moved her hands, reaching for him and intending to put them on his shoulders, he shocked her by giving her ass a sudden, sharp swat as he lifted his head from her breasts.