Benched

by Charles, Colleen

  “Sorry,” I murmured again, but too low for him to hear above the growl of the engine. Moisture welled up in my eyes. Shit. I’d been so damn emotional since the Carter incident. I’d never been a crier before but now it seemed I couldn’t control my own tear ducts. I was such an ass. My phone burned a hole in my pocket, and I couldn’t wait to get to a ladies’ room so I could text Sue Ann. Adam had picked me up barely two minutes ago and I’d already insulted him and promptly felt him up afterwards.

  We drove to the New Scenic Café in awkward silence.

  The restaurant was situated in a low slung green paneled building, with piles of wood stacked against the outside wall. Laughter and light spilled from the windows, along with the enticing scent of food that tickled my nose the minute I opened the car door.

  Adam rushed around to my side again and offered a hand. I took it and we strode through the front door together.

  “Now this is my kind of place,” I said with a delighted smile at Adam. Trying to forget my earlier gaffe. Trying to start again. The interior was rustic but clean and classy. The waiters were well dressed, and the food on the tables was the perfect combination of elegance and traditional Duluth cuisine. Local artists’ paintings hung on the wood paneled walls, their white tags gracing them with sale prices.

  “Let me get your coat,” Adam said as he placed his strong hands on my upper arms and pulled my hair back over one shoulder. A frisson of awareness coursed through me.

  I unbuttoned it, and he slipped it from my shoulders as I drank in the ambience and took a deep breath to steady myself.

  “Wow,” Adam murmured, his breath tickling the back of my neck. Huh? The restaurant was pretty but not worthy of that kind of reaction.

  I looked up at him, over my shoulder. He stared right back, his gaze roving over my curves once again, appreciation shining in his brown eyes. Or was it lust? I didn’t care. I welcomed it. Savored it.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Just wow. You look wow.” He cleared his throat a couple of times, just as the hostess bustled up to seat us at a table of our choosing. Adam had made a reservation, another check in his positive column.

  The restaurant wasn’t too busy yet so we had our pick. I selected a table in the corner, a private spot where we could talk about Adam’s big news and I could admire him when he wasn’t looking. I planned on burning this evening into my memory so I could resurrect it every time I needed a fantasy at night in my lonely bed. My one brush with fame.

  We ordered our starters and a bottle of wine before the silence descended again.

  “I’m sorry,” Adam said at last. His leg shook under the table. Almost like he was nervous, but how could that be possible. We’d known each other for years, and Adam had plenty of experience charming the female persuasion. Was he ashamed to be seen in public with me because I wasn’t as gorgeous as Heather? “I’m usually a better conversationalist. I can barely think tonight.”

  “Because of the news?”

  “No, because you look so beautiful. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  Adam’s hand lay on the table inches from my own. He twitched a finger, brushing a line from my knuckle to the tip of my index finger. My eyes widened. Should I believe him? Was he just feeding me a line of male bullshit?

  “I – I don’t know what to say. Thank you.” My cheeks flushed crimson, yet I didn’t care. This was the first real indication that Adam saw me as more than Blake’s little sister, and it felt good. No, it felt indescribable. Incredible. Just this once, I’d allow myself to accept the compliment about my person and not my business. Take it in.

  “I’ve been through a lot, Julia, but I can appreciate beauty when I see it. And that’s what you are, inside and out,” he said, his voice gritty and thick with… desire? Was that actual desire for me?

  We were never usually this serious. No jokes and smart remarks now, just a haze of need between us, gazes glued to each other. I admired the curve of his bottom lip. The way his hair never cooperated with the trendy style he tried to adopt. I’d give anything to reach up and smooth out the cowlick, rub my fingers along the line of his strong jaw, his lush lips. Maybe he’d suck one in his mouth –

  “What was your news?” I asked, swallowing hard, because staring at him like that for a moment longer could only lead to one thing – jumping across the table and embarrassing myself.

  “I went for a checkup today and Dr. Jansen told me I might have a shot at getting my ACL fixed. He’d expected a decreased range of motion after the accident, but I actually had an increase. There’s a specialist in New York that’s doing great things with laser surgery on my type of injury.”

  All sexual thoughts fled with my genuine excitement for him. “Oh my god, that’s fantastic!” I gasped as I did a little chair dance and clapped my hands together. “You’ll be able to play again. God knows the Caribou need you back.” Excitement bubbled from my lips, slurring the words in my rush to get them out. “When can you be back on the ice?”

  “Whoa, there, Nelly,” he grinned. “I’ve got to fly to New York first to see this specialist and once he’s checked me out, I’ll know for certain. Still, I thought it was a good reason to celebrate.” Adam paused and studied me again, that same look, which was deep enough to pierce my soul. He’d chosen me. To celebrate such important news. “That’s a lie. I actually just wanted to see you again. I’m sorry I was a dick the other night. Heather is a… touchy subject. I’ve been sick about it since. If my mom were here… well, let’s just say she’d be irritated with my lack of manners toward you. She always liked you and Blake. And your folks, too.”

  “I understand,” I said, “I didn’t mean to interfere –”

  “No, Julia, you can never interfere,” he said, then dipped his head, reaching out to grab my hand again. Stroke it. Sparks flew from the pads of his fingers up my arm. “I know I’m doing a good job of mucking things up. Not articulating myself. I think you’re special.”

  I licked my lips and grasped his hand tightly. “So are you.”

  “Well, isn’t this sweet.” Heather’s voice rang out from the other side of the restaurant.

  I snapped up straight and stared at her. The bitch stood beside the entrance with none other than Mark Spencer at her side. The couple was a vision of glamour and perfection. Heather’s designer dress clung to her willowy body like a second skin. Adam growled low in his throat, a warning that things might erupt in a geyser of molten hot steam if I didn’t diffuse the situation somehow.

  “We should double date,” Heather said, louder this time, smiling at Mark and back at Adam. She speared me with a gaze that I couldn’t read outside of her usual arrogance. “Don’t you think it’d be fun?”

  What was her end game? She’d slept with Mark. She’d broken Adam’s heart. Now, here she was spewing her venom like she was the innocent party. How dare they flaunt their illicit relationship in front of God and everybody?

  I fervently wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole before this could get any worse.

  Jessie Glyn entered hot on Heather’s heels, with a date of her own. My heart seized in my chest as the breath left my body. I saw stars. Just as I recognized Carter Jenkins, my world faded to black.

  Chapter 17

  Julia

  Adam’s warm body wrapped around me brought me back to the present. “I’ll be right back,” I said, standing abruptly. But my legs felt boneless so I sank back into the plush seat. I tried again, but Adam stayed me with his hand.

  “You can’t stand right now, Julia,” he soothed. “You almost passed out. Cold. On the restaurant floor.”

  “I’ve got to go to the ladies’ room.” I didn’t have to go there at all, but staying at the table meant watching Heather glance over at Adam every few minutes, and Carter touching Jessie’s hand. “I’ve got to get away from him. I can’t see him. Talk to him. Oh, Adam – Adam – I’m so – I’m afraid of him and what he might do. What he’s already d
one.”

  I covered my face with my hands, realizing I was making a spectacle of myself but so overwhelmed I didn’t think through my haggard actions. Adam just stood next to me. Strong. With his steady hand touching me as if nothing could possibly make it through the wall he’d erected between us as the four interlopers headed our way.

  Memories of what’d happened became masked by a blur of sensations, unwanted touches, and seconds of clarity. Other than that, there wasn’t a damn thing but the horrible pervasive fear of Carter Jenkins.

  “Are you all right,” Adam asked, straining to keep his voice calm. “Do you want to leave?”

  “Yes, I do want to leave.” But I didn’t want the date to end either, and I didn’t want Heather or Carter to think that I was running away. If I exhibited further weakness over and above what I’d already shown, I’d be toast. My business would be toast. “But we should probably stay. I mean, we ordered appetizers.”

  “I guess,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m worried about you, though. You’re white. Like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I’ll just be two seconds,” Julia whispered. I rose on trembling legs and strode between the tables, heading for the bathroom with as much grace as I could muster given the circumstances.

  “Huh, didn’t know sluts could afford clothes like that,” Heather said in a stage voice the entire restaurant could probably hear. “Must’ve been a gift.”

  Outrage screamed in the back of my mind. How dare she suggest that? Not only had I worked for everything I owned, but I’d literally witnessed Mark Spencer buy Heather a gift from Sue Ann’s boutique.

  And somehow I was the slut?

  Heather had slept with her fiancée’s brother and who knew how many others – and I was the one getting labeled? Even though her barbs were ridiculous, they still stung, because I felt less than when I was forced to be around Heather.

  I buried the anger and secretly hoped Adam hadn’t heard Heather’s comment. It would be better to avoid an altercation because news of that would definitely damage my reputation even further. And I only had a handful of clients left to rely on.

  Barging into the bathroom, I shut the door behind me, positioning myself in front of the stalls. I stared at my reflection for the second time that night, but this time, I didn’t look so good.

  My cheeks were flushed and there was a glob of mascara at the corner of my eye. I flicked it off, pacing back and forwards in the small space, heels clicking on the tiles. The downlights picked up the shimmer of bronze in my hair.

  “It’s okay, you can get through this. They’re just normal people. You have to do this for your business. There’s no other option,” I murmured, turning to face myself. I jabbed my finger at my reflection in the glass. Blake’s handsome face came to mind. “Man up, Julia Wales. You’re my sister, so don’t let me down.”

  The door to the bathroom swung open and Heather McNeal strode inside. She stopped beside me like a deranged stalker, facing the mirror, and began plumping her lips and running her dagger tipped fingers through that platinum blonde hair.

  “Hello, sweetheart. I see your curves are working for you again.” Heather’s upper lip curled. That most definitely wasn’t a compliment. “Kind of like lard on an Eskimo in winter.”

  “Thank you,” I said, purposefully adjusting my dress lower and drawing attention to my breasts, because mine were real instead of the silicone inserted in Heather’s chest cavity. I got the reaction I wanted when Heather’s smirk turned into a displeased pout.

  “Oh honey, I know you think you’ve hit the big time with Adam, but he’s a train wreck,” Heather said. “I tried to warn you before, you know, be the bigger person. But this won’t end well for you.”

  “I don’t have time for this.” I turned and walked for the door, but Heather grasped my arm and pulled me back.

  She brought her injected lips and fake eyelashes in close, and I noticed the smudge of red lipstick on her two front teeth, the first mark I’d ever seen mar her physical perfection.

  “You don’t know this, but Adam’s injury wasn’t caused by anyone else but himself,” she hissed. “He was in too deep.”

  “Too deep?” I asked in spite of myself. Everything that puddled out of Heather’s too-red mouth had to be a lie. It had to be.

  “Yeah, he played recklessly, took chances. Trust me, I was there and I saw it. He wanted to get hit. Quit the game. We’d had multiple conversations about how he thought he was losing it. Last year was the first year in his career he didn’t break thirty goals in a season. So, he took something. Something to help him. I found the drugs a few days after the injury. He’d been doping for weeks.”

  I stared at her, practically vibrating on the spot from nerves and anger. A woman entered the bathroom and stopped, gaping at us.

  “He won’t tell you either,” Heather said, her lurid gaze flicking up and down my face, watching for my reaction. Relishing it. “He won’t tell you a thing because he doesn’t trust you or anyone else. He’s a liar and you’d do good to stay away from him.”

  I glanced past Heather, to the onlooker. I shook my head; opened and closed my mouth.

  “Consider it fair warning,” Heather whimpered, “from one girlfriend to another.” Her nails were painfully sharp and they dug into the flesh of my pale forearm, leaving marks of pain behind.

  I wrenched from Heather’s grip with a snarl. “You’re a poisonous liar,” I snapped, relishing the look of shock, the flicker of anger in Adam’s ex-fiancée’s expression, then charged out of the bathroom, flicking my hair back.

  I found Adam where I’d left him, except his gaze hadn’t seemed to have left Carter’s table and a muscle twitched in his chiseled jaw.

  Two gorgeous dishes of food, our appetizers, sat beside two beers, both untouched.

  I didn’t sit down. Instead, I offered Adam my hand. “Let’s get out of here. My place.”

  Adam smiled, rising to slip his arm around my waist, sending sparks dancing across my back. He threw a hundred dollar bill down on the table. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  We strode out of the New Scenic Café, past Heather, who stood outside the bathroom, her mouth opened in shock, fury blazing in her cerulean eyes.

  Chapter 18

  Adam

  I’d been gone ever since she’d done the chair dance at our table and clapped her hands together in excitement. Long gone. I watched her walk up the short path to her door, admiring the luscious ass jiggling beneath her dress. I couldn’t shake myself of the need to touch her, even after the antagonizing force that was Heather. Damn her all to hell. All of this shit was because of me. How hadn’t I seen Heather’s true colors before? Because I’d never before been blessed with a woman of Julia’s integrity and support. Not since my mom. My incredible mom had misgivings about Heather from the beginning, and I’d just brushed them off.

  Julia was flawless. Her smooth, pale shoulders were bare and I had her coat slung over my arm, keys jingling with each step.

  “I figured we could try eating in instead of out,” Julia said, without looking back. She clomped up the steps, hair swaying and stopped to unlock it. “We’ll probably be less distracted. I still want to hear more about New York and the cutting edge doctor there.”

  I followed her into the entrance hall of her charming home, inhaling the unique smell of her place. It reminded me of apple pie and sawdust.

  “Heather’s such a bitch,” I grunted. And a whore. No good, manipulative harlot. She didn’t hold a candle to Julia, and in my newfound clarity, didn’t qualify as a real woman. Just a fake, plastic Barbie with ice flowing in her veins.

  “She visited me the other day,” Julia admitted, guiding me up the hall with that signature walk I couldn’t tear my gaze away from. It belonged on a runway. For Victoria’s Secret. Then a feeling slammed me in the gut. No. That would mean other men would see her in her underwear. I was the only man who could see her in a bra and panties. Ever.

  “She what?” I
shut the door and followed her. She was in the kitchen preparing a pot of coffee by the time I got to her. “She visited you? Here?”

  “Yeah, visiting is putting it lightly. She told me, well, she told me a bunch of lies about you and warned me to stay away. It was obviously a cheap attempt to get us to stop being friends. You know?” Julia brushed her hair behind her ear and gave me her signature smile.

  The same smile that made me feel like a kid again. Weak in the knees with my cock twitching in my dress pants like a twelve year old with acne issues.

  “Friends,” I repeated in a monotone. Is that all we were even after so short a time? Sure as hell felt like more to me, but maybe I’d been imagining her reactions to me. I needed to sit down again. Under the island overhang.

  “Yeah – well – yeah - I mean,” Julia stammered. It was cute as hell when she did that.

  I rounded the kitchen island and took the coffee pot from her, placing it beside the sink absently, towering over her. Her cheeks were newly fucked pink again, and I couldn’t help my mind from going to that place where I’d just sunk inside her wet heat.

  My heart pulsed in my neck, beating out a pattern of desire. This was what I wanted, and I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t wait.

  Wouldn’t.

  With a slight yank, I tugged and pulled her close to my chest. I’d just hold her. Drink in her scent. Feel her body heat. Just a little bit of pressure on my skin from hers.

  No.

  I wanted more than that. More than the physical stuff, too. Did that make me crazy? Was it insane to want this woman after I’d had my heart trampled on by another?

  I simply didn’t care anymore.

  “We’re more than friends,” I murmured. “I think you already know that.”

  “We are?” Julia whimpered, her lips barely moving. My gaze flicked to her mouth and back to her eyes. She wanted me, since I could see it in the angle of her hips, and the tilt of her head that exposed that long creamy neck. Her nipples pebbled under the fabric of her pink dress and just one tug would send it past the full mounds of her breasts. My mouth watered at the possibility.