by L. P. Dover
My mouth dropped open in disbelief and he chuckled at my stunned expression. “Wow,” I murmured in awe. “I never would’ve thought you could do that. I guess you can’t judge someone by appearances.”
“Hey,” he scolded halfheartedly, nudging me in the side with his fork. “I’m starting to think I should be offended. Elaborate please?”
Snickering lightly, I spooned the homemade ranch dressing onto my salad, took a glass of wine, and left him to take a seat at his kitchen table. Once Alec joined me, he placed his salad on the table and steepled his hands under his chin.
“I’m waiting for your explanation,” he added. “When you look at me, what do you see?”
What did I see? Taking a bite of my salad, I narrowed my eyes and pretended to study him. Alec lifted his glass of wine and brought it to his lips, swallowing slowly. His tongue glided across the rim of his glass, and my breath hitched, flustering me.
Shaking my head, I regained my composure while Alec smirked in amusement. Let’s see if he likes this, I uttered to myself. “Honestly, when I first saw you and noticed the way you carried yourself I figured you’d be arrogant, self-centered, and quite frankly a douche.”
He sputtered into his wine glass and laughed loudly. “So honest,” he pointed out humorously. “Do you still see me like that now? Surely, you wouldn’t be here if you did.”
Slowly, I smiled and shook my head. “No, I don’t. I know I’ve never talked to you before, but your eyes don’t look as jaded as they did a couple of years ago. You’re still a mystery, of course, but also kind of haunted, like you’re running away from something. I find it intriguing.”
He stiffened for a moment, but quickly relaxed. “I guess I can take that as a compliment?” he asked uncertainly.
Smiling, I murmured softly, “Yes, for now.”
My stomach growled, demanding that I eat, so I finished my salad and wiped my mouth on the napkin Alec had set out for me on the table. “Are you done?” he asked, pointing to my bowl.
I nodded. “Yes, it was amazing. You might need to give me some pointers on cooking some day.”
“I would be happy to,” he said, offering to take my empty bowl. Protesting, I pushed his hand away and grabbed it before following him into the kitchen and placing it in the sink. Alec smiled at me before uncovering the pan he had on the stove, and what did you know, it was lasagna.
“Is it so bad to let me wait on you?” he inquired, scooping a generous helping of lasagna onto a plate.
Taking the plate he offered, I answered. “No, it’s just I’ve always done things for myself. I’m an independent woman, you know. I don’t need a man taking care of me.”
“I see that.” He grinned wolfishly. “However, you might want to make an exception on that,” he informed me while never taking his eyes off of me.
My cheeks blushed crimson at his heated stare, and I could feel the fire behind it burning me to the core. My arm brushed against his as I moved past him to the table. Setting down my plate of lasagna, I took a seat. The food smelled delicious, but I didn’t want to look like a ravenous beast in front of him by scarfing down my food like I usually would. Instead, I watched him intently as he sat down gracefully across from me with his plate piled high with his masterpiece.
He speared me with his steely blue gaze and asked, “Do you want to know what I thought about you when I first saw you?” He paused to take a bite of his lasagna and I couldn’t help but watch his mouth while he chewed.
Did I want to know what he thought about me? Hesitantly, I nodded and shrugged my shoulders. “Sure, I guess … why not?”
He casually laid down his fork and leaned back in his chair. “Now don’t get upset, but my first thought was ‘fuck she’s hot’. However, from my usual experience with hot girls, they were normally just after my money and complete bitches.”
Before I could interrupt he held up his hands and continued, “No, let me finish. I promise I wasn’t saying that about you.” Once I relaxed, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Where I come from there’s nothing but fake and phony people; people that just want to use you. It was all I knew, and what I expected from everyone. Luckily, you are different. You seemed so lost when I first laid eyes on you. It was like I could feel your pain, but that’s changed now. I guess you sort of reminded me of myself.”
“People can change,” I admitted earnestly. “And I was lost when you first saw me. My parents had died not too long before you moved in, and I had a hard time dealing with it. It’s still hard to this day, but I get by.”
The tears prickled behind my eyes, but I reined them in. I did not want to cry in front of Alec, so I decided to focus on my food. He leaned forward in his chair and spoke softly, “I’m so sorry, Marissa. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I haven’t experienced anything like that so I can’t really tell you I understand.”
I waved him off and lifted my gaze to his. “It’s okay … really. They died in a car accident, and I guess the shock of losing them both at the same time was just too much. Thankfully, I had my sister and my friends to help me through it.”
“Well, I’m glad you had them to help you. I miss my friends back home, the waves, and the beaches … all of it. My parents still live in Newport along with my older brother.”
In that moment, he actually looked lonely. To be honest, I never saw him hanging out with anyone around the apartment complex or anywhere for that matter. I guess I could see why he was lonely. He was secluded in his own little world.
“I know you said it was a long story, but you have to give me something to go on here. For all I know, you could be a psycho killer. Let’s start with the basics, how old are you?”
“Twenty-five,” he answered.
“Do you go to ASU?”
“No, I tried the whole college thing back home, but I never quite finished.”
“Where did you go? What were you majoring in?” I asked.
He pushed his food around on his plate and sighed. “I went to Berkeley and I was studying economics. It was mainly my parents doing, but my mind at the time was just on surfing … among other things,” he muttered regretfully.
I could tell it was a sore subject so I decided not to push him to answer any more questions about it. “Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked nervously.
I didn’t miss the amused smirk that graced his lips at the question, and I was glad his mood started to shift. With a slow, seductive tilt to his lips, he remarked huskily, “No, I don’t have a girlfriend. Why? Are you interested?”
Biting my lip, I tried to rein in my nervous smile by acting coy. “I’m not going to answer that just yet. Okay, next question. If you don’t go to school, what do you do? Do you work?”
Lifting an eyebrow, he paused and cleared his throat. “Yes, I work, and it happens to be for my great aunt, Judith. She lives in Blowing Rock and since she’s gotten too old to manage her house I was told to come out here and help her fix it up. To be honest, though, I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. This place has grown on me.”
His eyes had lit up when he spoke about his aunt so I could definitely tell he loved her; it was endearing to hear the gratitude in his voice.
“What about you?” he asked inquisitively. “I can tell you’re probably a couple of years younger than me, so I’m guessing twenty-three?”
I nodded. “That’s correct. I’ll be twenty-four in a couple of months.”
“I doubt you work since you go to school full-time, but I’m curious to know what you’re majoring in. If I had to guess I would say chemistry, medical research, biology … maybe?”
I gaped at him in disbelief, stunned at his impeccable observation. Was I really that easy to read?
“Wow,” I uttered, astonished. “How did you do that?”
“I’m just good I guess.” He grinned. “Actually, I’ve seen the books you carry around, so it wasn’t hard to make a guess.”
“Umm … that’s kind of creepy, Alec,”
I said teasingly. “Don’t tell me you’ve been spying on me.”
He shrugged. “It’s kind of hard not to, and anyway, I’m just returning the favor,” he said slyly.
Biting my lip, I tried not to sound flustered when I asked, “What do you mean by that?” Please don’t tell me he knows I watch him when he goes for his runs.
Alec winked and smiled. “Oh, don’t play innocent with me, Marissa. I’ve caught you numerous times staring at me through your window. Why do you think I stand where I do when I do my stretches?”
Covering my face with my hands, I groaned and peeked at him through my fingers. “I had no clue you knew I was watching you. This is so embarrassing.” I could feel the heat flushing my cheeks, and I wished in that moment I could hide.
His laugh reverberated through the room. “Don’t be embarrassed. I just told you I watch you, too; especially in the mornings when you leave to walk to campus. I’m usually eating my breakfast and getting ready to leave to go to my aunt’s house. Think about it this way … it just makes us both stalkers.”
Snickering, I shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. As long as you don’t mind, I won’t mind.” The room fell into an awkward silence so I tried to think of anything to get the conversation started again.
What do you talk about after admitting that you’ve been stalking each other? My body temperature had just skyrocketed through the roof, and my heartbeat was pounding a million times a minute. Think of something, I said to myself.
“So … your aunt must either pay you well or you have a lot of money to have all of these nice things,” I said, getting the conversation started again.
He chuckled. “Not exactly. My aunt doesn’t pay me to do the work at her house.” His light-hearted tone was back, but it was guarded.
“Well then how do you afford all of this?” I asked curiously, waving my hand around his apartment. He had secrets, which were obvious since he flat out told me so, but I was intrigued and wanted to know more.
He ate a few bites of his lasagna and sighed. “It all goes with the ‘long back story’ part. There are things I ran away from in California; things I’m not proud of. I came here to find myself and to change my lifestyle. I’m getting there, but it’s too soon to burden you with my past. I don’t want you running for the hills before we even get started.”
“Isn’t the past what makes us who we are today?” I asked lightly. “If it’s going to make me run away, then putting it off isn’t going to change that fact.”
“I know,” he remarked sadly. “If you still want to know in a few weeks after spending time with me then I’ll tell you, but for now, I want you to enjoy being with me for who I am today. For once I want things to be uncomplicated.”
Hmm … he actually had a point. I could do with an uncomplicated night. Alec gazed at me expectantly—pleading—waiting on me to say something. I nodded and held out my hand across the table. “Deal,” I agreed. “An uncomplicated night sounds great.”
Relief flashed across his face and he grasped my hand, clenching it tight. His eyes never wavered from mine when he responded, “Deal.”
After we ate our food, I helped Alec clear the table and pile the dishes into the sink. “All right,” he announced, leaning over the sink. “Since you’re Little Miss Independent, you’re going to help me clean up. Rinse or load?”
Taking my place at the sink, I turned on the water and admitted wryly, “I suck at loading the dishwasher. If you don’t mind, I’ll rinse.”
“Sounds good to me, because I hate rinsing,” he retorted back with a laugh. Opening the dishwasher, he pulled out the shelves, waiting on me to hand him the dishes to load. It was all so domestic, and not something I’d ever done on a date before.
“So … when you’re not at your aunt’s house fixing things or sitting here, what do you do? What sort of things do you like?” I asked, holding out a plate for him to take.
He took the dirty dish and placed it in the dishwasher before answering. “Let’s see … you already know I love to surf, but obviously, I can’t do that here. I can say that being here in the mountains has given me a new fascination for hiking. We have mountains back home, but I never took the time to notice them before. I usually hike out to the fire tower at least once every week. Have you been there?”
“Oh yes,” I said, handing him another dish. “You can see all the way to Blowing Rock up there.”
“So what sorts of things do you like to do?” he asked curiously.
Since the dishes were done, I washed my hands in the sink and turned away from him. “Well, at the moment my hobby is studying for my exams, but under normal circumstances I love to read and play tennis. I used to play with my mother all the time before she passed away. Just like surfing was the main thing you were good at, tennis was my specialty.”
Pausing, I let the memories flood through my mind; my mother’s smiling face when I won the championship match in high school, my father standing there all proud and happily showing me off. They were always so supportive of me in everything I did, and my only regret was not being able to tell them how much I appreciated it before they died.
Alec shut the dishwasher and came up behind me … so close. As I felt his warmth come up against my back, I clenched my eyes tight to keep the tears at bay. He latched onto my arms and muttered softly, “I can’t say that I’m going to be good at it, but if you ever want me to play tennis with you I can. I’m always up for a challenge. We should also go hiking one day together. I’m sure there are places you know of that I don’t.”
Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face him with his hands still holding onto my arms. “Are you asking me on another date?” I asked, teasing him.
He smirked, a slow tilting of his lip that had me aching to bite it. “That’s up to you if that’s what you want to call it,” he murmured heatedly.
“What if I do want to call it that?” I asked boldly.
Alec pinned me up against the counter and placed his arms on both sides of me, locking me in to the confines of his body. His piercing blue gaze held me captive, and I was drowning, struggling to breathe as he moved closer.
Bending low, he continued his torturous teasing by breathing across my neck. My eyes fluttered closed as his lips connected with the tender flesh at my collarbone. I shivered as the chill bumps fanned across my skin and made me weak. His voice in my ear immediately counteracted the chills. “If you want to call this dating, then I think that usually requires a little bit of touching, does it not?”
My breathing accelerated as Alec’s body grew flush with mine, leaning dangerously against me. He tilted my head back slightly so I had to look into his face. Slowly, I placed my hands on his hips, and instead of touching the waist of his jeans I was met with the bare skin of his body where his shirt had lifted up.
Holy shit, his skin felt hot! I could feel the ridges on his sides where they disappeared beneath his jeans, and I wanted nothing more than to trail my tongue down the contours of his muscles.
With hooded eyes, and a raspy, breathless voice, I replied, “I’m sure it’s customary to withstand some touching, but not too much since I don’t know you very well.” I said it, but my body didn’t really mean it, and he could tell I was lying to myself.
Slowly, he brought his hand to my face and trailed one of his long, lithe fingers over my cheek and down my neck. “Like this,” he insisted, swirling his finger around my neck. “Is this the kind of touching we’re allowed to do?” Chill bumps exploded across my skin, making me shiver.
“Yes,” I breathed, relishing in the feel of his touch. “Just like that.”
Closing my eyes, I sighed as he trailed his finger further down, stopping at my navel. The heat of his breath fanned across my face as I felt him dipping lower. I didn’t dare open my eyes and risk breaking the connection, but I wanted to see the heat in his gaze. Ever so slowly, his mouth connected with mine, soft and confident. He lingered for a moment, not moving, just his lip
s touched lightly to mine.
I wanted more … a lot more.
His lips tasted of wine mixed with the heady scent of pure male, which was all Alec. Grasping his shirt at the waist, I grew bold and pulled him closer, opening my lips further, inviting him in. He groaned and took my face in his hands, holding me prisoner to his feverish kisses, except I was no prisoner. I wanted to be there.
My lips were heated and swollen from enduring his ravenous torture as he licked and sucked at them greedily. Never before had I felt such passion, such longing in a single kiss. My cheeks were hot and feverish, and I could feel the blood pumping to that delicious ache between my legs, spreading the warmth to every nerve ending of my body.
My insides throbbed and ached down in my core, and I wanted the release to take me away. Alec must’ve known how close I was because he placed his knee between my legs and moved deliciously against me while I rocked my hips against him. The wetness soaked my underwear as my orgasm started to build, growing more urgent with each rock of his leg against my clit. Alec grabbed my ass with both hands and pulled one of my legs around his waist so he could rub me with his hardened erection through his pants.
It happened to be my undoing, and I cried out as my orgasm exploded from the inside out. No one had ever made me come like that before. It was raw and unexpected, and a completely new thing for me … I wanted more.
Alec broke away from the kiss and trailed his lips down my neck. “Is this the kind of touching you want?” he whispered in my ear. He pushed his hard cock into my leg, and I moaned.
Breathing hard, I nodded and whispered back, “Oh yes, even though I know I’m going against everything I told you earlier. I don’t want to move too fast, but I don’t think I can stop.”
Growling, he nipped the tender flesh on my neck, and began to suck softly on my ear lobe. I gasped and moved closer, hoping he would suck harder. “You have no idea how many times I’ve wished I could do this to you. When I first saw you I knew I had to have you, to feel you pressed against me, and opening yourself up to me. There’s something about you that I had to have, and now I have you.”