by A. Aubry
My eyes darted over to the bar where the two girls were sitting then back to Jameson’s, “A girl at the bar said that’s what you always do. That’s what you did to her…”
He turned his head and looked in the direction at the red head who was still probably whining to her friend about me and Jameson, “Yes, I had a drunken night with Michelle. I have had a lot of drunken nights with a lot of girls because that’s what I thought I wanted. My past with relationships have never ended well and after a while I decided I didn’t want that. But now, that viewpoint is changing. I don’t want a fuck and leave with you. If that was what I wanted, we wouldn’t have done what we did today.”
“So, if we were to sleep together…you wouldn’t leave?”
“No, I would stay. You make me want to stay.”
My arms slipped around his neck and pulled him to me, our lips connecting almost instantaneously. His hot mouth was a polar opposite to the cold of my ice water that I had just been drinking. It made me melt and my insides flip. We kissed as though our lives depended on it, that the world would end if we didn’t have this moment. Abruptly, Jameson pulled back and looked at me.
“What? What’s wrong?” I panted, my heart racing in my chest.
“Come back to my place tonight,” Jameson answered.
My eyebrows furrowed, “What are you talking about?”
Jameson ran a hand through my hair, “I’ve never taken a girl home with me. To prove that you are different, that you make me want to stay, come home with me.”
“And what would we do there?” I asked innocently, a small smirk on my lips.
“Anything you want.”
I ran a hand down to one of the lapels of his blazer, grasping it in between my fingers, “Even if all I wanted to do was cuddle in bed?”
Jameson nodded and kept his eyes on me, “Even if that was all you wanted.”
My cheeks hurt from the large smile that took over my lips, “Then when can we go there?”
Jameson turned to look over at Zander and Peter, “You two good for the rest of the night here?”
Zander rolled his eyes, “Yeah, we’re fine at covering your lazy ass.”
“Great. I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Jameson ignored the glare that Zander was now giving him and stood up from the couch.
He held out his hand to me and I took it. Before we took our leave, I let Ashley, Jasmine, and Melanie know that I was leaving with Jameson and I would text them in the morning. The smirks that they gave me told me that they instantly assumed I was going to sleep with Jameson. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Jameson and it would be a crime to not sleep with him.
But I didn’t want to sleep with him tonight to test the idea that he wasn’t going to treat me like all the other girls. Tonight, I was going to pursue the idea of just cuddling and sleeping in the same bed together. That would be the ultimate tell if all he wanted from me was just a ‘week of fun’ before I left for Chicago once again.
I followed Jameson as he led us down from the VIP lounge and through the throngs of clubgoers. He took us into a back hallway that seemed to be filled with offices and storage spaces towards a large metal door at the end of the hall. Once he pushed open the door, we were standing at the back of the club where Jameson’s Lamborghini from earlier was parked along with a Rolls Royce and Porsche. Zander and Peter’s cars by the looks of it, it also helped that their parking spots were labeled with their names.
Jameson opened the passenger door for me and allowed me to climb in before he closed the door and went around to take his spot next to me. The engine roared to life and Jameson easily eased us out of his parking spot, down an alleyway, and onto the busy nighttime streets of Los Angeles. His hand found mine and we laced our fingers together as he drove. The city gave way to a more residential area as we climbed up into the mountains. I had no idea where we were, Jameson could be taking me to a secluded area to kill me for all I knew. Yet, I knew that I could trust him which was very hard for me because I found it difficult to trust very many people.
We arrived into a gated residential area and Jameson pulled up to a house, pressing a few buttons on the box, and waited for the gates in front of his house to open slowly. Extra security, apparently, he was someone who felt the need to protect himself. The car slowly crawled up the driveway before Jameson pulled it into a spot in the multicar garage. I was never good at makes and models of cars but the four other cars in the garage looked to be way more expensive than everything I had ever owned in my lifetime.
Jameson hurried to open my door and soon I was following him into a vast mudroom. Kicking off my heels as Jameson took off his leather Oxford dress shoes, he took my hand once again and led me through each room of the house. If he was trying to impress me, I was thoroughly impressed. The kitchen was state of the art and all stainless steel and white granite countertops. The cabinets a sleek gray color that complimented the space and made it feel quite large. The informal kitchen table looked like it could seat at least a dozen people, even for an informal table.
The formal dining room seemed as though it could hold well over a dozen people and was probably great for parties. The living room had one wall completely made of glass that opened out onto a patio. It was the view that took my breath away. Jameson led me out onto the patio where a large swimming pool and hot tub sat off to one side while stylish patio furniture made up the other. I took in the lights of the city below us, feeling as though I was miles away from everyone that was down there.
“Where in the world are we?” I whispered, my hand on my chest as I admired the view.
“West Hollywood overlooking the Sunset Strip. One of the greatest views in all of Hollywood if you ask me,” he responded from beside me.
“That is an understatement if I ever heard one, Jameson Barnes. This view is spectacular.”
“I’m glad you like it,” the smile in his voice made a smile pull at my lips.
He squeezed my hand, wrenching my attention away from the view. The rest of the tour showed me that I really needed to work hard because my dinky one-bedroom apartment in Chicago had nothing on this place. The bathrooms were out of this world, one even had a showerhead sitting above the actual shower and looked as though it was actually raining because it was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the shower.
A large bathtub shared the space with the walk-in shower in the master bathroom, but it was Jameson’s bedroom that caught my attention well after the view outside. One wall was again made of glass, looking out at the view that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. His four-poster bed made me smile, all the dark wood and manly furnishings of his bedroom screamed for a female’s touch. It wasn’t all that hard to believe now that I was the first girl to be brought here.
Jameson excused himself to go to the bathroom and I found myself at the glass wall of his bedroom, looking out at the view again. When he returned into the room, his presence could be felt well before I knew he was beside me. I turned to him as he hooked his arms around my waist and pulled me against him, our lips meeting in a quick kiss.
“So, what do you think?” Jameson asked softly.
“What do I think? This house is amazing. The view is amazing. You are amazing,” I reached up and put a hand on his cheek.
“I’m glad to hear it. What would you like to do?”
Just then, a yawn decided to force itself out of me. Jameson chuckled and kissed my forehead, “I know that sight. Someone is exhausted after an adventurous day.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think that I was this tired when we left the club,” I whispered, wondering if this was the tipping point of what was to come.
“I understand. It has been a crazy day. Let’s get you into something comfortable and we will lay down and go to bed. How’s that sound?”
Was this man for real? He has a woman in his bedroom and the second she yawns, he’s all for just going to bed?
“I don’t have anything comfortable, Jay,” I giggled as I playfully pa
tted his chest.
He shook his head with a smirk and disappeared through a doorway, returning shortly after with a light gray t-shirt. When he handed it over to me, Stanford was written in big bold letters across the chest.
“You went to Stanford?” I looked at him inquisitively.
Jameson nodded, “Yeah, for my undergrad at least. Got my master’s at Colombia in business management.”
Well I’ll be damned. Looks and smarts? It seemed as though I had hit the motherlode.
Jameson twirled his finger to me, signaling for me to turn around. Without question, I did as I was told. I waited as Jameson smoothly slid the zipper of my dress down my back for me. He turned around and walked back through the doorway he had disappeared into before. I waited a moment to see if he would return, and when he didn’t, I slid off my dress. Taking off my strapless black lace bra, I slipped on Jameson’s t-shirt. Thanks to the height difference between us, it fell just above my knees. The major plus was that it smelt so much like him that it was almost intoxicating.
I picked up my dress and bra from the floor, placing them on a large plush reading chair before fetching my hair tie from my clutch and putting my hair up into a messy bun. Luckily, I had gotten away with wearing natural makeup to the club this evening, so there was no eyeliner or mascara that needed to be removed. My simple eyeshadow and light lip gloss wouldn’t cause any awkward issues in the morning. I climbed into Jameson’s bed and under his covers just as he strode back into the room in nothing but a baggy pair of sleeping pants that fell off his hips in the most delicious way. Forcing myself to keep my mouth shut and not drool, I snuggled deeper under the covers.
He walked over to the doorway and flipped off the lights before coming to join me in bed. The second that he was under the covers and comfortable, my body gravitated towards him and I curled up against him, my head resting on his chest. His lips pressed against the top of my head and goosebumps popped up on my arms.
“Thank you, Jameson,” I sighed softly as I closed my eyes.
“For what, Bri?” His hand paced up and down my back.
“For not treating me like every other girl.”
“You aren’t every other girl, Briella. I hope that tonight will show you that.”
“Mhm,” I murmured as sleep began to drag me under.
Just as I could feel myself fall asleep, I felt Jameson kiss the top of my head once again before saying to himself, “What in the world are you doing to me, Bri? I’ve never felt like this before.”
I could say the same to you, Jay. It goes both ways.
Chapter Four
My body felt warm. Warmer than I had felt every other time that I had woken up since coming to California. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes. My body was still pressed up close to Jameson’s while the sunlight streamed in through the glass wall and onto where we slept. If it was possible, I could have been getting a tan just from laying in Jameson’s bed. Normally I tossed and turned like none other when I slept, it was something that Gavin complained about daily. But by the looks of it, I hadn’t moved an inch from how I had fallen asleep the night before.
I looked down at Jameson, his long dark eyelashes splayed against his cheek, a small smile on his lips as he slept. It was a sight that I didn’t want to look away from. Whenever I woke up before Gavin, which sadly enough was pretty often, he slept with his mouth hanging open as though he was trying to catch flies in his sleep. How I thought I could wake up next to that for my entire life was beyond me. Waking up to seeing Jameson like this every day? That was something I could definitely do.
Just as I contemplated lying there and staring at Jameson longer, my bladder began to run interference. I rolled my eyes at myself, slipped out of bed, and snuck off to the master bathroom. As soon as my bladder was relieved, and my hands were washed, I opened the door back to the master bedroom, but Jameson was still fast asleep. The view was almost even more amazing in the daylight than it was at night. Tiptoeing into the living room, I crossed over to the long glass wall that led out onto the patio.
I opened the door that Jameson had led us through the previous night and stepped onto the cool stone of the patio. The air had a slight chill this high up on the mountain, and it smelled of dew and fresh cut grass. The city below where I stood was already wide awake with people going about their daily routines, but I felt so withdrawn from it. I took a deep breath of the fresh air in through my nose, smiling at how calm it was up here. It was almost as calm as the beach house my friends and I were renting.
Jameson’s strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind and I caught myself smiling larger than before, “What are you doing out here all alone?”
My hands rested on top of his arms as I leaned back into him, “Taking in yet another amazing view of the city. It’s like the world is moving below us while where we stand stays still. Plus, I didn’t want to wake you up from such a deep sleep.”
His arms squeezed me a little tighter, “Now that you mention it, I haven’t slept that well in ages.”
“Oh really?” I looked back at him over my shoulder, “And why do you think that is?”
“You want the honest truth?” His eyes seemed to darken with a memory as his muscles tensed.
I turned around to look at him, my hand caressing his cheek, “Jay, if you don’t want to tell me…”
“No, I do. I haven’t actually slept with a girl in that way since I broke things off with my fiancée about two years ago. The last time I slept that deep was with the girl I thought I could trust. Normally, I’m a very light sleeper and the slightest sound or movement will wake me.”
“Fiancée?” I questioned as his eyes settled back on me.
Jameson led us over to the plush cushioned couches of his patio set. They were slightly damp from the dew of the previous night, but I didn’t want to complain when he looked like he needed to talk. He sat beside me, quickly bringing my legs to rest across his lap. His hand slowly skimmed up and down my legs and I was thankful that I shaved the previous night before going to the club, or else this would have been very awkward. Jameson let out a long sigh as he glued his eyes to the view in front of us.
“Her name was Vanessa and we met shortly after I finished up my master’s. She was a bartender at the first club that Zander and I opened in New York. I guess you could say we hit it off right from the get go. After a year and a half of being together, I proposed. We were engaged for a year before we started planning anything. That was what she wanted, a year to just enjoy being engaged before we moved onto the next step.
“A few months later, I came home early from the club that she had the night off from. Even though we were engaged, she enjoyed bartending so much that she wanted to continue doing it. She had claimed that she wasn’t feeling well or else she would have gone with me to the club and I felt like an asshole for going there in the first place when I thought she needed me, so I left early. I walked into the penthouse to catch another guy balls deep in her on the couch. Turns out he was a regular of the club. She didn’t even bother taking off her engagement ring while they fucked. It tore me to fucking shreds.”
What the fuck kind of woman would do that to someone as amazing as Jameson? Not only was he so fucking hot that the fire department should have been called to hose him down, but he was smart, funny, and so amazingly kind. Those were hard traits to find wrapped up in one man. Vanessa had one of the most wonderful and rare treasures known to man and she threw it out for a fuck of another man?
I scooted myself closer to Jameson, his hand resting on my knee as they bent as I got closer. I gently grabbed his hand and laced our fingers together, “I’m sorry that happened to you, Jameson. That is a terrible thing to have happen.”
He nodded and finally looked over at me, “Ever since I told her to pack her shit and get out, I’ve never spent the night with another woman in the way that we did last night. The last two years have been filled with girls taking me to their places or to their hotels and fucking them senseles
s before I grabbed my coat and left them in the dust. It probably wasn’t the right thing to do but there was no way that I wanted to let another person close enough to hurt me.”
The idea of Jameson fucking me senseless caused my insides to clench and a wet warmth to pool between my legs. I hoped that he didn’t notice seeing as I was pressed pretty close to him and my panties were the only thing between him and the apex of my thighs. I brought his hand up to my lips and pressed a tender kiss against it, our eyes locked together. A relaxed smile, much like the one he had as he slept, tugged at his lips.
“Then why did you sleep with me the way you did last night?” I asked hesitantly.
“Because I don’t feel like you will hurt me if I let you close,” he said so softly that I wouldn’t have heard him if I wasn’t paying close attention.
My hand released his as I put my arms around his neck and pulled him in close to me, our lips immediately meeting. I didn’t want to hurt Jameson, there was no way I think I could ever let myself do that. I had known the guy for maybe three days, but I already knew he was more trustworthy than any other men I had ever met. He eased me onto his lap as our tongues explored the familiar but still too new crevices of one another’s mouths. His mouth had the slight taste of the whiskey he had been drinking at the club and I was immediately embarrassed that I probably had morning breath. Jameson didn’t seem to care as our kiss carried on. He continued to amaze me in more ways than one. Gavin wouldn’t even kiss me until I brushed my teeth in the morning, even if I didn’t have terrible morning breath.
We finally came up for air and I found myself giggling as I thought about the red-headed Michelle from the night before, whining to her friend that Jameson never kissed her or any other girl he met at the bar.
“What’s so funny?” Jameson smirked as he tucked a hair behind my ear.
“That girl, Michelle I think you called her, at the bar last night. She was complaining that you never kissed her or the other girls you hooked up with. Now here you are, kissing me like that.”