Best Served Cold (Perfect Dish Romances Book 1)

by Tawdra Kandle

  The buzzing of my phone on Sunday morning interrupted a sweet dream I was having about a sunny beach and one of those fruity drinks with a little paper umbrella.

  Muttering under my breath, I reached for the phone with my eyes still closed and swiped it on before realizing it was a text, not a call. I squinted at the screen, trying to focus my eyes on the tiny words.

  Almost home. Stopped for gas. When can you come over?

  I grinned. Jesse. And he must have missed me.

  You’re early!

  Left first thing.

  I wondered how that had gone over with his mom. The little clock in the corner of my phone showed it was just past nine, which meant he must have left New York around six or so.

  I have to stop at grocery 1st.

  I’ll come get you, we’ll go together. Be there in 30 mins?

  I scrambled to sit up. Thirty minutes? Only a guy would expect anyone to be ready in half an hour. I tried to think clearly for a moment and then made a decision.

  I’ll be downstairs waiting.

  I could see my breath as I stood outside the dormitory, but the sun was almost warm. I stood basking in it, bundled up against the chill air but still thinking fondly of my dreams about the beach.

  It was so quiet on campus that I heard Jesse’s truck before I saw him. He pulled up to the curb, and I sprinted over.

  He came around to open my door, meeting me with a hug first.

  “Are you frozen, standing out here?”

  “Just about. Are you going to let me in and warm me up?”

  A smile curved his lips. “All I’ve been thinking about since I saw you last was warming you up again. Come on, get in.”

  I buckled my seat belt as Jesse climbed into his seat. He turned me toward him with a hand on my shoulder.

  “Hi. I missed you.”

  I moved just enough to close the distance between our lips and murmured against his mouth. “I missed you, too. I’m glad you’re back.”

  His kiss was slow and languorous, surprising me since Jesse usually kissed as though our lives depended on it. A flash of desire spread over me, and I leaned closer, moving a hand to the back of his neck.

  The windows of the truck cab were fogged by the time Jesse broke away, resting his forehead against mine.

  “I guess we should get moving.” He brushed his knuckles along my face. “Want to tell me how to get to the grocery store?”

  “Sure.” I leaned back into my seat, catching my breath. “If you go out the main exit, make a right. There’s a Shop Rite a few miles down on the left.”

  Jesse pulled out, maneuvering along the nearly-empty campus roads.

  I adjusted the heater vents to blow onto my hands. “How was the visit with your mom?”

  He made a face. “I lived. When I first got there Friday night, she was really defensive…like she was ready to pick a fight. If I said anything about Dad or Sarah, she jumped on it. But she calmed down by the next morning, and I actually had a decent time with her. Until I told her I was coming back down here first thing today. Then she started up again.” His lips twitched, and I wondered what he wasn’t saying.

  “Did you tell her…that you were…about me?”

  “Yeah. I did.” He glanced over at me. “Julia, she’s really a terrific person. But she’s insecure. So when she hears I’m dating someone down here, someone who works for my dad, she jumps to the conclusion that it’s his idea, that he and Sarah set us up so that I’d want to stay down here longer. She just isn’t reasonable. But it’s not you—it’s the situation.”

  “I understand.” I bit my lip.

  We turned into the grocery store parking lot. Jesse found a spot in the back and came around to open my door.

  “Hey.” He slid his arms around my waist before I could climb down from the seat. “Don’t worry about the stuff with my mom, okay? Seriously. I’m my own person, always have been. She’s just a little nuts.” He leaned in to kiss me lightly.

  I smiled. “Sorry, I have parent issues. My ex-boyfriend’s father was very controlling.”

  “That’s not us.” He took my hand and helped me down. “Now let’s go fight the mobs and get us some food. I’m starving.”

  In the end, we went with traditional football fare: wings, potato skins and a variety of dips. Jesse carried the bags into the guest house while I unloaded everything onto the counter.

  “I still can’t believe you wanted me to buy pre-made wing sauce. Please. I make my own.”

  “Okay, Julia Child. Just trying to help.” He smirked at his own joke. “That’s the end of it. Now what?”

  “Now we need to cook the wings and the potatoes.” I glanced at the clock on the microwave. “But not yet, probably. It’s still early. When is everyone coming over?”

  “I told them four.” Jesse leaned against the wall. “And it’s not even twelve yet. Hmm. What are we going to do to kill time between now and then?”

  “I can’t imagine.” I put the sour cream and a block of bleu cheese into the fridge. “I guess we could play cards.”

  “We could.” He came around into the kitchen and pinned me against the counter. “But I may have a better idea.” His hands tightened on my hips, and he nipped at my neck. “Have I mentioned yet how much I missed you this week?”

  His mouth was on me before I could answer, kissing me until I couldn’t breathe and then moving back down my neck, even as his hands slid under my shirt to pull me flush against him.

  I swallowed a moan, feeling the evidence of his desire even through his jeans. We’d been teasing and tantalizing each other for weeks now, and my heart pounded at the thought that today the wait might be over.

  Jesse reached around my back and scooped me into his arms. I muffled my squeal of surprise into his shoulder as he carried me to the sofa.

  “God, Julia, you make me…I just want to have my hands on you. My mouth.” He held me in one arm and used the other hand to palm my breast, lifting my shirt so that it bunched around my neck.

  I sucked in a breath as his fingers slipped into the cup of my bra, finding my nipple. His finger grazed there, and his lips feathered over mine, soft as a sigh. Every nerve in my body was electrified.

  He shifted so that I lay half on the sofa, half across his legs, never breaking the kiss. His mouth traced a path down my throat, licking and caressing as he went, until he reached his fingers on my breast. He pushed back the cup of my bra, and his lips fastened on the nipple his finger had been teasing.

  “Jesse…” I half-moaned his name.

  “Jules, you’re so beautiful.” The vibration of his voice against my breast shot desire and need straight to my core, and I squirmed.

  “Julia…” He laid his head on my chest for a beat before moving just enough to see my face. “I know your ex—you said he was your first. I got the feeling maybe he pressured you into that. I don’t want to be like him. I want to be with you, in every possible way. But right now, today, I only want to make you feel how gorgeous you are, how desirable…”

  His arms still cradling me, Jesse captured the peak of my breast again, his tongue swirling. He raised his mouth away just long enough to grip my shirt and pull it over my head, lifting me a bit, so that he could reach my other breast with his mouth.

  I held onto his back, my fingers kneading the hard muscles there. He tongued a path down my stomach before pausing to glance up at me.

  “Julia, can we—”

  “The bedroom?” I answered what I hoped was his thought. “Please. Yes.”

  Before the words were quite out of my mouth, he had me in his arms again, kicking open the door and falling with me into his bed.

  Every part was alive, on fire. My fingertips itched to touch him, and my skin hummed with need for his fingers, his lips. He paused only long enough to strip off his own shirt with one hand, and then he was next to me again.

  He kissed the edge of my breast, just above my bra.

  “Your heart is pounding,” he murmured.r />
  I flattened my hand on his chest and smiled. “Yours, too.”

  He gathered me closer, rolling me to the side and reaching for the hook of my bra. “This is okay?”

  I kissed the side of his neck. “It is really, really okay.”

  Jesse released the hooks and eased the bra away, tossing it to the side of the bed. He drew in a deep breath and then let it out, slowly, so that I could feel warmth tickling my skin.

  “You’re gorgeous. So…” As if he couldn’t wait a moment longer, he brought his mouth and hands back to my breasts, licking circles around my nipples, teasing with his teeth until I was almost shaking with need, writhing in a haze of desire.

  He raised his head to look at me as his fingers trailed lower, to the button of my jeans. “Is this good?”

  In answer I raised my hips and nodded. Jesse’s smile brought out his dimples, and I lifted my hand to trace them.

  He unfastened my jeans, lowered the zipper and eased his fingers within, just over the cotton of my underwear. The moment he touched the slickness of my center, I gasped and arched my back, moaning.

  “Shhh…” He covered my mouth in a kiss again, his tongue imitating what his hands were doing between my legs. “Shh. Just…feel. I want to make you feel good. Close your eyes, and trust me.”

  I exhaled and fell back to the pillows, lost in sensation as Jesse tugged my jeans off. He kissed his way down my legs and then back up to my stomach before he slid his fingers beneath my panties moving in sensual exploration.

  “God, Jesse, please.” I was half-panting as he ignited the bundle of nerves at my center and suckled hard at my breast. “Please…”

  “Let it happen. Relax. Feel.”

  Whispering the words, he moved his fingers lower, plunging them into me. I arched my back, holding my breath and gripping his arm. He dropped his head against my neck, murmuring things I couldn’t quite understand against my skin. He made me feel more alive, more beautiful, than I’d ever felt.

  Jesse moved his thumb to press into me, and that took me over the edge. I cried out his name, moving in mindless ecstasy against his hand, feeling wave after wave of pure pleasure wash over me as I shook.

  And then he was kissing me again, holding my head in place and whispering against my lips.

  “Julia…my God.”

  “I think that’s my line,” I said, laughing shakily. I reached my hand to touch along the top of his stomach. “Do you want…can I…?”

  “Not now.” He lay down alongside me, skimming his hand over my skin. “Yes, I want. Very much. But more than that, I needed this to be for you.”

  I held his face within my hands, kissing him deeply. “Thank you. It was…beyond wonderful. I never…” I licked my lips. “Never had anyone focused on me.”

  “It’s not that I don’t want everything. To be with you. But we haven’t talked about it. And I know this is still kind of new.” Jesse traced one fingertip between my breasts, down my stomach. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing you into anything.”

  I turned onto my side, cuddling into him. “Thank you for that.”

  “I don’t want to bring this up now, but maybe it’s the right time. I told you about my first few years at college, Jules. I did things without thinking them through. Slept with more girls—well, we already talked about that. Since that year, since I turned things around, I haven’t been with anyone. I want it to mean something.”

  I traced the lines of his lip, to where the dimple would be if I could see it now. “I never was with anyone, until Liam. And even then, I wasn’t sure. And he didn’t force me, I don’t want you to think that. But he made me feel like there was something wrong with me if I didn’t. He didn’t say so, it was just an attitude. So then…I did. I thought, better to just get it over with, and maybe part of me was afraid he would stop wanting me if I didn’t. Of course, that didn’t really turn out too well, either.”

  Jesse kissed the top of my head. “Turned out okay for me.”

  “You’re right. Actually, it did turn out, better than I could have thought.” I ran my hand over his chest. “Thank you for making me feel beautiful. And for not minding if we wait just a little bit.”

  “Hey, any time. I’ll tell you a secret. There isn’t anything sexier than watching your woman enjoy herself, knowing you’re the one who’s making it happen.”

  I smiled. “Really?”

  “Yup. The only thing that’s hotter is seeing her in the kitchen, cooking for you, after you’ve given her the best orgasm of her life.”

  “Jesse!” I knew my face was red. It was one thing to do it, quite another to talk about it. “You sexist pig.”

  “That’s me.” He swung his legs off the bed, gathered my clothes and tossed them to me. “Get dressed, wench. There’s food to prepare before my fellow cavemen get here.”

  I had been a little nervous about meeting Jesse’s friends from grad school, but they turned out to be a friendly, low-key bunch. Two of the guys brought along their girlfriends. One, Alana, was already working as a teacher at a local elementary school, and the other, Stephanie, who I vaguely recognized, introduced herself as a senior at Birch.

  All the food was ready when they showed up, and we munched as we watched the pre-game show. The wings were a big hit.

  “Can you please give me this recipe?” Alana wandered into the tiny kitchen as I rinsed off a pan. “I’m trying to learn how to cook, so Jake and I don’t have to go out to eat so much. We’re saving up to get married.”

  “That’s so great.” I turned off the water and dried my hands. “Sure, I’ll send you the recipe. It’s really easy.” I dug out my phone from my purse. “What’s your email?”

  She rattled it off to me, and I keyed it into my contacts. I was just putting away my phone when there was a knock at the door.

  “That must be Cal. He said he had to work late.” Jesse opened the door, and a tall boy with longish black hair came in.

  “Sorry. Working at a liquor store on Super Bowl Sunday is a bitch.” He peeled off his jacket and hung it over a chair. “Did I miss kick-off?”

  “No, just about to happen. Cal, you know everyone else here—this is Julia, my girlfriend.”

  I was still standing behind the counter with Alana, doing a fast clean up before the start of the game, and I smiled at the newcomer. He gave me a nod and a wave, and then a very peculiar look crossed his face.

  I realized, when I saw that expression, that I knew Cal. Or at least I had seen him before. He was an Alpha Delt, and I’d met him with Liam. Still, it wasn’t a secret that Liam and I had dated, so I wasn’t sure why he looked at me so oddly. Unless…if the talk around campus was as bad as Liam had said, maybe he heard something. My stomach turned over. I hadn’t done anything wrong, not really. I hadn’t seen any other guys since Jesse and I had begun seeing each other, other than the wrestling match, and even that had been perfectly innocent. He’d understand. I hoped.

  I finished throwing away the paper plates, wiped down the counters and went into the living room. Jesse was sprawled in one of the easy chairs, and he pulled me down into his lap.

  “Nice job on the food, woman,” he whispered into my ear, teasing.

  I wriggled against him, trying to elbow his ribs, but he caught my hands in his and brought them to his lips to kiss.

  “Thank you. Everything was delicious.”

  I settled back, laying my head on his chest. “You’re welcome. It was the least I could do, after…well, you know.”

  Jesse didn’t say anything, but his face grew slightly red. Taking advantage of the situation, I shimmied a little lower, moving my rear against the growing hardness I felt within his jeans.

  He tightened his arms around my middle.

  “Behave,” he murmured. “I’m not going to be able to stand up now.”

  “Hmmm.” I smiled, barely able to keep from giggling. “Pay attention to the game. You’ll feel better soon.”

  “Is that a promise?”
>
  “Sure.”

  The game was a good one, with a close score and lots of action. At half time, I served the chocolate chip cookies I’d made that afternoon.

  “Man, Jesse, your girlfriend can cook!” I heard one of the guys say.

  “Yeah. One of her many skills.” There was pride in Jesse’s voice. “She’s also a really good writer. And she’s smart, and she likes to watch sports.”

  I stood still for a moment. I couldn’t remember even one instance when Liam had praised me, either to my face or to someone else. Hearing Jesse do it now almost made me cry.

  Since everyone had classes or work the next day, the party broke up as soon as the game ended. I stood with Jesse as he walked his friends to the door. When they were gone, I stood on tip-toe to kiss his cheek.

  “Nice party. I’m going to head out, too. It’s late.”

  “And just how are you planning to get back to campus?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Crap, I forgot I don’t have my car. Well, I guess my wonderful, fabulous, sexy boyfriend is going to drive me.”

  “He could, or he could just keep you here overnight and then take you back to campus in the morning.” Jesse held my hips, bringing me closer.

  “Nice try, ace. I’ve got an early class, and I’m exhausted. My boyfriend kept me working hard all day.”

  He smiled, dropping light kisses along the side of my face. “That’s true. I kept you busy. I’ll get our stuff.”

  He disappeared into his bedroom and returned with both of our jackets. “That doesn’t mean I won’t push the issue again, though.” He helped me with my coat, gently pulling my hair out of the collar. “Even if we don’t do anything but sleep, the idea of waking up next to you is pretty exciting.”

  I shook my head. “You’ve never seen me in the morning. I’m a hot mess. Ratty hair, bleary eyes and—” I dropped my voice. “Morning breath.”

  He feigned horror and held up his hands. “I take it back. No overnights for you.”