by C. J. Lake
Quietly, Sky climbed out of bed and crossed over to the bookcase where her panties had been shed. She slipped them on, then retraced a path to Jamie’s front door, scooping up her bra, pants and top. Once Sky was re-dressed, she ran fingers through her hair and went to the kitchen to make some coffee.
As she opened a few cabinets in search of a coffee maker, she heard shuffling and then Jamie’s voice behind her. “Hey…” She turned. “Good morning,” he said, his voice a little gravelly and rough with sleep. Her breath caught for a second. He looked so adorable and sexy to her with his hair messy and rumpled, but his glasses in place, standing in the archway of the kitchen in his boxer-briefs and nothing else.
Suddenly, Sky’s happiness gave way to a different emotion. Worry. Fear, even. She liked Jamie way more than she thought she would, and seeing him standing there made her heart swell and made her feel acutely how much this all mattered to her.
She was too vulnerable to him, too attached. It made her feel off-kilter and out of control.
Okay, they hadn’t had sex, she reminded herself. No need to panic. She’d still held a part of herself back. She still had that trump card, if one could call it that.
Still…be real, her concern mounting, literally in seconds. The chemistry between Jamie and her was so hot already, how long could she resist having sex with him? Realistically?
Was she really ready for something like that again? Did she want to give Jamie that much control over her feelings? And what if he found her boring in bed and then she lost him? She could never go back to being just friends now.
“Hi…” Sky began a bit apprehensively.
Jamie’s smile broke across his face. Crossing the kitchen toward her, he said, “Last night was amazing.”
“Yeah, it was, but…do you think maybe we should slow things down a little?” God, what was she doing? She didn’t even mean it! Was she testing him? Trying to protect herself?
Luckily, Jamie didn’t seem fazed by her attempt to downplay what had happened and how irreversibly things had changed. Casually, he said, “And why would we do that?” When Sky stood there with no words, he nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Then, coming closer, he slid his hands on her waist. She felt an instant tremor of excitement at his touch. He leaned down to press his forehead against hers. “Sky, don’t try to sabotage this.” She almost gasped. It was like he saw into her soul for a second. “This isn’t one of your douchey blind dates. This is me.” As he tightened his grip on her waist, her fingers came up to rest on his biceps. She looked straight into his eyes, kind of transfixed. “And don’t bother looking for flaws, either. Because I don’t have any,” he said simply.
At that, she had to laugh. She tipped her head and gave him a sardonic grin. “Oh, really?”
Jamie shrugged with resignation. “It’s not something I like to brag about,” he went on, “seeing as how girls dig humility, but…” With mock defeat, he held his hands out. “There it is.”
Laughing softly, Sky shook her head. “Are you done now?”
“Are you?” he countered. They shared a meaningful moment of eye contact then; she knew what he meant, and yes, she was done.
“Yes,” Sky said, answering him out loud, and coiled her arms around his neck with a sigh. His lips found hers and they were connected. This was the beginning.
Chapter 23
When Sky entered her apartment a short time later she found Elle and Brett huddled at the breakfast bar, looking suspicious. They stopped talking abruptly when she came in—then made unconvincingly innocent facial expressions as she went to the coffee maker.
“Hi!” Elle chirped.
“Hello…” Sky said a bit cautiously.
“Um, where were you last night? I was worried about you. I texted but you never responded.”
“Oh, I forgot to bring my phone with me. I left in sort of a hurry, didn’t think I’d need it,” Sky said, evading the question at first. For some reason, she blushed. She was intensely aware of the heat rising to her cheeks, and it didn’t help when Elle studied her like that.
Lifting her mug of tea to her lips, Elle said, “Everything okay?”
“Yes, everything is good,” Sky replied, then noticed Brett watching them both over his untouched bowl of cereal. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” Elle pronounced. “Just worried, that’s all…”
“Okay, look, if you want to know the truth,” Sky began, leaning against the kitchen sink. Both Elle and Brett immediately craned their necks forward in anticipation. “I was upstairs with Jamie,” Sky told them. As she said it, she couldn’t help grinning, though she tried to keep her giddiness in check and maintain a shred of composure.
“I knew it!” Elle yelped with a laugh. Then she looked proudly at Brett. “I told you!”
Nodding, Brett agreed, “You were right, babe.”
“I mean, I didn’t know that was you,” Elle qualified, shifting her attention back to Sky. “But I hoped it was you.”
“What…?” Sky began, confused. “You hoped what was me?”
“Uh…well, you know, we sort of heard,” Elle started to say when Sky burst in:
“Oh, my God, you could hear us?” she exclaimed, her cheeks now burning scarlet. “This is so embarrassing!”
“No, no!” Elle hastened to assure her, setting her mug down and walking closer. “We just heard some racket up there. No voices or anything!”
“Yeah,” Brett jumped in, “we could tell he had someone over. We heard, like, banging on the wall. Figured it was the headboard. And then the bed kept squeaking—” He demonstrated the motion with his spoon. “—back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…”
“I get it!” Sky interrupted, feeling totally self-conscious now.
Oblivious, Elle commented, “It seemed like it went on for hours.” Then she winked at Sky. “Wow—a lot of stamina.”
Instead of being threatened by that, Brett joined in, “Does he take vitamins or something? Because…he’s my inspiration now.”
“Okay, stop!” Sky said, rubbing her eyes for a second, then held up her hand. “Please.”
“Sorry, sorry!” Elle gushed. “We’re just saying…you and Jamie would be so cute together.”
“I appreciate that,” Sky said, then for some reason, told them, “And it was more innocent than it sounded, okay?”
“Still,” Elle said, lifting her eyebrows, “it sounded pretty intense.”
It was. As she brewed a cup of coffee, Sky bit her lip and asked, “By the way, are you upset that I’m not going to be able to help Alison anymore? I mean, I don’t really want to go any more blind dates.”
“No way!” Elle exclaimed with a wave of her hand. “Of course not. Look, you’ve already gone above and beyond. I love Alison to death, but the entire fate of her life isn’t on you. I hate so say it, but she might have to put this old-fashioned matchmaking business out to pasture.” Where it belonged, Sky thought, but refrained from saying, of course.
Then Brett spoke up. “Babe, I told you, my cousin can get Alison a job if she needs one.”
“And I’ve told you: she doesn’t want to sell balloons at Fenway. We’ve talked about this.”
“Just in the meantime,” Brett was saying, as Sky gulped down some coffee and Elle crossed her arms.
“Sure, famous last words…” Leaving them to their conversation, Sky bypassed the breakfast bar, on the way to the bathroom, when Elle’s voice stopped her. “Wait, Sky! Just curious: was this a one-time thing with Jamie or…?”
“Ha!” Brett barked, genuinely amused. “Babe, there’s no way that was a one-time thing! I mean, uh…judging from what we heard,” he backpedaled, seeing Sky’s tart look. “But, you know, we were barely listening.”
Helplessly, Sky smiled then, overwhelmed, and Elle yelped, “Babe, look at her! She’s totally giddy for a guy! I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”
“Oh, shut up,” Sky said, rolling her eyes and turning away. “I’m goi
ng to take a shower now.”
“Good idea, girl,” Elle called to her, teasing, “Go wash his handprints off you?”
“Eww, you’re gross,” Sky called back, as she shut the bathroom door and couldn’t stop smiling.
Chapter 24
Sky had just finished checking in two Maltese puppies whose owners were heading to the Caribbean when her phone rang. Her chest fluttered immediately when she saw that it was Jamie. “Hi.”
“Hey, you,” he said in a slightly more intimate tone than he had used prior to last night. “How’s your day so far?”
“Not bad,” Sky replied (except that she was still sore from all the grinding, but she kept that salacious detail to herself). “How’s work?”
“Enh, can’t concentrate. I’m still on a Sky-high.” Her lips broke into a smile. Only Jamie would say something like that and make it seem like natural small talk. “Listen, are you busy later?”
“Um…” Should she pretend to be busy? No, that would be stupid. She wasn’t about to start playing games now. “I thought you could come to my place and we could make dinner together.”
“I’m not busy,” Sky admitted and, while she was admitting things, told him, “I don’t cook, though.”
“Me neither,” Jamie said. “The pots in my kitchen are useless. They’re just for show.”
“I’ve never even seen any pots.”
“See how useless they are? They don’t even ‘show’ properly.”
With a wry grin, she said, “You make no sense.”
“Okay, look, by ‘make dinner’ I pretty much mean: will you come over tonight?”
Sky smiled into the phone. “Yes.” Can’t wait.
~
That night Sky and Jamie were cuddled together on his couch, after getting roast chicken and kale salads from Grendel’s. “It’s so great that you’re an athlete,” Jamie mentioned as he reached for the TV remote. “We can watch sports together.”
When he switched on the Celtics game, Sky commented casually, “I hate basketball.”
“Wait, what?” Jamie said, his face crumbling as he studied her face. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, why? You seem shocked.”
“But…you’re an athlete,” Jamie protested.
“Stop calling me an athlete,” Sky said a bit irritably. “I’m not one anymore.” Shit, he shouldn’t have said that. He’s accidentally struck a nerve. “Now I’m just a regular person.”
“A regular person who hates basketball?” Jamie double-checked.
“Pretty much.” When he abruptly changed the channel, Sky stilled his hand on the remote. “No, wait!” she said with a little laugh. “That doesn’t mean you can’t watch it! I was just saying—”
“I’m not gonna make my girl sit here watching something she hates,” Jamie said.
“But you like it,” Sky pointed out.
“Yeah, but I like you more.”
She snuggled back against him as he absently flipped the channels. Without warning, she turned her head and kissed his lips. Eagerly, he kissed her back. When their mouths parted, Sky looked inquisitively at him. “By the way, how come you wear glasses?”
That threw him for a second. “Because I’m nearsighted.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Contacts bother my eyes,” Jamie explained. “A couple of my cousins got that Lasik surgery, but I wasn’t really interested in it. Why?” he asked cautiously, recalling that Lily had mentioned several times that he would look better without glasses, back when they were hanging out. “Does it bother you that I do?”
Sky’s face looked stunned by the question. “No, of course not!” Smiling, she assured him, “I love your glasses. I was just curious, that’s all.”
Maybe it was a suicide mission, but Jamie decided to take this moment as a segue, albeit a feeble one. He said: “Speaking of being curious about stuff…”
Okay, this was the thing: he wanted to know about whatever bad experience had made Sky so cynical about guys, and so protective of herself. But he didn’t want to come out and ask. She might think he was subtly trying to pressure her or even manipulate her into having sex with him. Girls could read deeply into shit like that. He’d seen it time and time again, growing up with his sisters. A guy would say something to one of them, and it would be all happy smiles—until she got on the phone, analyzed the conversation with all her friends, and then suddenly, she hated the dude.
Jamie couldn’t afford any missteps like that. Sky was way too important to him. He’d never felt this intensely about anyone and he wasn’t about to screw it up by acting like an entitled prick. Besides…pressuring girls was never what he was about. Whenever he and Sky had sex, it would be because Sky wanted it to happen, a hundred percent.
“Yes?” she said now, interrupting his train of thought. Then she repeated his words back to him. “Speaking of being curious…”
Jamie improvised, “Right, I was wondering… am I the best boyfriend you’ve ever had?”
Sky slanted him a look. “It’s Day Two.”
He grinned. “And?”
With a laugh, she said, “Oh, come on, will you?”
“No, hear me out,” Jamie said, straightening up in his seat and shifting her along with him. “This is not me fishing for compliments. Really. I…” He fumbled to make it plausible. “I just need to know if there are improvements that need to be made. So, you know, I can make them.”
“No improvement is needed,” Sky stated, lifting his hand to her mouth and kissing his wrist. It was such a tender, sweet, girlfriend-y gesture, that Jamie’s chest tightened—and he decided to abort mission. She would tell him about her past when she was ready.
“So I’ll just tell you,” Sky said after a quiet moment.
Just like that! Holy shit, it was like the girl could read his mind.
“There was this guy in college—Derek,” she began, “and we started hanging out. I really liked him and I thought he liked me. One night when we were hooking up, he convinced me to have sex. It was my first time,” she said, her voice crisp and unemotional—though Jamie already felt a stab of sympathy for her, and for wherever this horrible story was going. (Any story that involved Sky hooking up with another guy was horrible, by default.)
“You’d never had a boyfriend before?” Jamie asked curiously.
“No, I had dated a few guys, but just hadn’t gone all the way. Anyway, afterward, Derek completely blew me off,” she said.
Supportively, Jamie sighed and laced his fingers through hers. “I’m sorry that happened to you—”
“That’s not even the bad part,” she cut in. “A couple of weeks later, I found out that Derek had a secret blog, in which he reported on all the girls he’d slept with. By ‘secret’ I mean that girls didn’t know about it. Hundreds of guys on campus were apparently avid followers.”
“Jesus…” Jamie muttered, wincing at whatever was coming.
“Anyway, he didn’t just reveal their names,” Sky said bitterly. “That would’ve been too kind. Instead, Derek put detailed comments beside each name, and also rated each girl’s performance on a scale of one to five.” Sucking in a sharp breath, Sky declared, “He rated me a two.” Jamie’s lower lip dropped in surprise. “And in the comments portion, he joked: Sorry, Ma, I’ll take a slutty chick over a virgin any day!”
“What a dick,” Jamie blurted. Then, feeling protective, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Sky…”
“It was so humiliating!” she burst, obviously reliving the memory. “I just wanted to die.”
“Well, did you confront him?” Jamie asked. Glumly, she shook her head, and he furrowed his brows. “I’m kind of surprised by that. You with your hot little temper,” he observed, meaning it, but also trying to lighten the mood a little.
Shutting her eyes, Sky shook her head. “I know you think I’m a spitfire or something.” Inwardly, he smiled at that. “But really, I’m all bark and no bite,” she confessed. “At least when it
comes to a guy I’m intimidated by, who stomped my heart into the dirt. I didn’t even have the courage to try to talk to him again. Whenever I’d see him on campus, I’d scurry the other way.”
“So that was it?” Jamie asked gently. “He just got away with it?” That certainly would explain why Sky still had pent-up rage over it.
“Not exactly,” she mumbled, dabbing the corner of her eye with her fist. Damn, he’d made her cry! Great job, Jamie thought, hating himself in that second. He shouldn’t have pushed Sky to talk about this. “Other people in my life didn’t want to let it go,” she explained. “My brother, Cody, for one. When he got wind of it, he beat the hell out of Derek.”
“Nice,” Jamie blurted before he could stop himself.
“But then, he ended up getting expelled for it, and of course losing his football scholarship. See, as important as football players are to the school, it happened that Derek Webber’s parents were big donors and wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less. And then there was Elle…she couldn’t just look the other way, either.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. “What did she do?”
“Well, first she started a rumor that the reason Derek Webber only had that blog was because he couldn’t get it up. So he was trying to shame the girls before they could shame him. Then, she had Brett start a rumor that Derek was called ‘Limp Dick’ in high school.” With a hapless shrug, Sky remarked, “I don’t know how she gets him to do things.”
Her wry tone almost made him laugh, but he stopped himself in time.
Half-grinning now, she added, “Actually the Limp Dick thing gained a lot of traction for awhile. So Derek didn’t completely get away with it.”
When Sky fell silent, Jamie hesitated. Now he understood. It was probably after the Derek Webber incident that Sky had started fault-finding, keeping guys away.
What could he say?
Only the truth.