by Chloe Maddox
“If your career as a business woman doesn’t work out, you could always be a detective,” I suggested, jokingly.
“Quit trying to change the subject.” I could hear the smile in Jessica’s voice. She groaned, and I could picture her head dropping into her hands. “Oh, Izzy. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s okay, Jess. You don’t always have to look out for me, and it’s okay, really. I’m okay,” I assured her once more.
I kind of got why she was freaking out.
Sort of.
This wasn’t characteristic behavior for me.
So, naturally she was concerned especially on the heels of my breakup which I didn’t seem to be too broken up about.
“At least tell me he’s good in bed,” she grumbled.
Sean was playing with my hair, massaging my temples in slow circular motions that was causing ripples of goose bumps to break out across my skin.
“I can’t tell you that,” I whispered in mute horror. Sean shifted next to me, so that his head was on my chest. I began playing with the hair at the nape of his neck as his body enveloped mine.
I really hoped that Sean couldn’t hear what was being said right now, or that would be insanely embarrassing.
“Why not?” Jessica whined. “Wait, he’s there right now, isn’t he?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes, he is,” I admitted as I ran my hands through his hair, marveling at how it felt beneath my fingertips.
Sean seemed to really be enjoying what I was doing because his body had gone completely lax, and his arms were loosely wrapped around my waist.
Jessica began to laugh. “Oh, man. If I had known that this would happen once I took a trip, I’d have stuck around just to see this unfold.”
“Don’t say it like that. It’s not like I planned for this to happen,” I said, defensively. Sean shifted beneath me and tilted his head up to look at me, his brown eyes alight with amusement and curiosity.
“Uh-huh. Yeah, because you haven’t been thinking about boning him since you laid eyes on him,” Jessica said, her tone accusatory. “Poor man didn’t stand a chance.”
“You make it sound like I seduced him.”
“As opposed to?”
“I, well—” I trailed off as I blushed. Sean’s mouth curved into a smile that gave way to a full-blown smirk.
“We seduced each other,” I finished, lamely.
I wanted to smack my forehead now, and my face grew even hotter under Sean’s intense stare. He raised an eyebrow and began to nip at my neck.
I smacked him on the shoulder and tried to push him away, so I could focus, but it wasn’t working. If anything, he redoubled his efforts. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying it. It was just that I was entirely too focused on this phone call.
I don’t know why I was acting defensive.
I had nothing to hide. Sean and I were grown ass consenting adults who happened to like each other.
What was so wrong about that?
You just broke up with your boyfriend a small voice said in the back of my head.
Shut up, it’s not like I broke up with David because of Sean. The two weren’t mutually exclusive I hissed back as I tuned back in to what Jessica was saying.
“Anyways, I’m coming back tonight, okay?” Jessica was saying.
I blinked. “What?”
Jessica groaned. “Is he doing stuff right now? Actually, never mind, I don’t want to know otherwise it’ll be seared into my brain, and I don’t want that image.”
“Sorry,” I said, sheepishly as Sean drew the sheets back from my chest and began to knead my nipples with his hands. His long smooth fingers pulled and twirled till they were hard.
A gasp escaped my lips as he lowered his mouth to my breasts and sucked.
“Urgh, ew,” Jessica complained. “I’m going to hang up now before you two start going at it while I’m on the phone. Call me later, okay?”
A second later, I heard a click that let me know the call ended. Sean wasted no time in extracting the phone from my hand and placing it on the bedside table. He smirked as he lowered the sheet all the way, exposing me completely.
Self-consciously, my arms immediately drew to my chest, but he slowly pulled them away.
“You are gorgeous, Isabel. Don’t hide that,” he said, seriously as his eyes drew over every inch of skin, leaving a trail of heat in their wake.
“So are you,” I whispered as I ran my hands through his hair and let them rest on the small of his neck.
“Thank you.” He grinned.
“You’re not going to let that phone call go, are you?”
“Sexy and smart,” he noted. “Is there anything else I need to know about you?”
I smiled. “You’ll just have to wait to find out, I guess.”
Sean inched his head up and drew his body backwards. He placed one leg on either side, so that he was straddling me then he put on arm on either side, so that my arms couldn’t move.
He threw his head back and laughed. “I think that sounds like a challenge.”
With that, he released my hands, so that he could draw idle patterns all over my body with the tips of his fingernails.
“It’s not, merely an observation,” I retorted, saucily as I began to run my hands all over his body, enjoying getting to know it all over again in the warm glow of the sun peeking in through the blinds.
A few rays of light reflected off his hair, making his hair look more golden than caramel. I itched to reach out and touch his hair, but I refrained.
“So, we both seduced each other, eh?” he teased.
I made a noise in the back of my throat as I refused to meet his gaze. “I had to say something.”
“That’s strange because I seem to remember things differently.”
My eyes snapped to his, confusion written in their orbs. “Oh?”
“Yeah, I seem to recall you seducing me which by the way is incredibly sexy,” Sean informed me as he swooped down for a quick kiss. He caught my bottom lip between his teeth then swiftly released it before I could deepen the kiss.
“I didn’t seduce you. We both started it,” I insisted as I pressed my lips to the base of his neck inhaling his clean scent. I pulled back my mouth and lightly ran my tongue over that area causing Sean’s grip on me to tighten as he sucked in a harsh breath.
So, his neck was a sensitive area.
I filed that away for later use.
“Is that so?” he murmured as he traced my neck with his lips.
“Yes,” I agreed, empathically as I arched my back to give him better access to my neck. He chuckled, a deep throaty rumble that sounded like music to my ears.
“I guess we’ll just have to see,” he said as he covered my body with his.
***
“You look like you had a good weekend,” Julie commented as she gave her high ponytail a tug.
“I did, actually. How about you, Julie?” I asked, conversationally as I leaned my hips against the edge of the desk.
With Jessica away that first weekend, Sean and I had spent all weekend getting to know each other. It was quite refreshing, and not at all what I expected.
Over the past month, we’d been getting to know each other, and I was enjoying every minute of it. We spent almost every weekend together except for when I was hanging out with Jessica, and last weekend was no exception.
Once he got past his initial fear, and there were plenty, he began to open up to me.
He peeled back layer by layer until there was nothing but Sean left.
Not the biker.
Or the young college man who was studying to be an engineer when he indulged in too much drinking and got kicked out by his parents.
Not the scared and confused college dropout who didn’t have anywhere to go and was taken in by the bikers.
I was suddenly starting to see them in a whole new light.
It wasn’t just about tattoos and motorcycles although most of them owned both
. It was about brotherhood and having a second family.
They were all loyal to each other, and they all looked out for each other. The only reason they were different was because they all refused to conform to society’s norms.
Most if not all of them came from low income families, or immigrants or people of mixed race, and so certain prejudices existed against them before they even had a chance to prove people wrong, so they decided to band together.
When they found Sean, he fit right in, seamlessly as if they belonged together.
Hearing him talking about his biker family in such warm and affectionate tones made me want to meet them, but I knew it was too soon to expect that.
I wasn’t even really sure what constituted as too soon anymore.
Most people dated first then stayed in on warm cozy intimate days, but we were doing this in reverse.
It had a pleasantly surprising effect.
We were closer than most couples were at this stage.
If we could even call ourselves a couple. I wasn’t sure what to call it considering we hadn’t talked about it. For now, I was comfortable not labeling it, and I had a feeling Sean felt the same.
Given his previous experiences, and the rules he’d set up before, I knew it must be hard for him to give that up.
Julie and I made small talk as I went over my patient list for the day, humming under my breath. I walked down the hall with a spring in my step as I glanced over my clipboard and smiled.
Today would be a nice easy day, and Sean asked me to call him for lunch if that was the case. I was already excited because today, he said he’d cook for me, a proper meal like the one I deserved.
I was a lot more anxious than I was willing to let on, but I was also undeniably excited. Jessica had cautioned me about getting ahead of myself, and I was trying to take her advice to heart, but it was hard not to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all.
I just had to keep trying to keep both feet on the ground and keep my head up.
“Miss Patell is here,” Julie’s voice announced over the intercom. I straightened my lab coat and opened the door to welcome her in. She was a petite brunette with doe like eyes, and a chic bob cut.
“Hi, Miss Patel, so what seems to be the problem here?” I crouched down and looked at her cat. She was Persian with different colored eyes, and skin the color of a blanket of snow.
The cat stared at me with dark beady eyes as it swished its tail letting me know how annoyed it was. This was why I preferred dogs to cats.
Cats were haughty and tended to act like they were better than anything and everyone else. Like they were somehow above it all, but I tried not to let my own personal feelings affect my job.
“Chanel hasn’t been feeling well, right baby?” she cooed as she made faces at her cat. The cat turned her gaze on her owner and blinked, unaffected by the affectionate pet name.
“What do you usually feed her?”
“Caviar and fish,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Only the best money can buy, of course.”
Inwardly, I rolled my eyes.
It was exactly this kind of attitude that irked me.
Especially if they treated their pets with such callousness. She threw money at the cat and expected the cat to love her. Animals weren’t like that. They didn’t need you to be rich or beautiful to love you.
I began to explain what her cat needed which was a rich diet consisting of a specific kind of cat foot that included all the nutrients she would need, and plenty of water.
Ms. Patel shook my hand and strode out of the room, her heels clicking against the floor. I shook my head as I stared after her and grimaced at the lingering smell of Chanel No.5
When I glanced down at the floor I spotted a piece of paper that fell out of her bag, so I took off at a sprint hoping to catch her before she left.
I huffed as I swung the double doors open and glanced around the street. Quickly, I was able to find her, and I opened my mouth to call out for her until I saw who she was with.
She walked up to Sean who looked like he was expecting her. She threw her arms around him in a warm familiar hug and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
Sean gave her an easy smile, and I stood there rooted to the spot unable to believe my eyes.
Chapter 7
I was distracted for the rest of the day.
But luckily for me, I didn’t have any major operations to carry through. Just a few routine checkups that I could do with my eyes closed.
Sean texted me during my lunch break, but I didn’t respond. Preferring instead to stay indoors and read, but I kept looking at the same paragraph and re-reading it over and over as I tried to process it, but to no avail.
Finally, at night as I was packing up my stuff, Sean told me that he was going to pick me up for dinner since we missed lunch. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I thought about using some bogus excuse to cancel, but I wasn’t going to run away from my problems.
I needed to face them like an adult though I just wanted to eat through a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and not think about it. I was in a daze when I got home, and Jessica could tell that something was wrong, but I wouldn’t budge.
Eventually, after an hour of stony silence, she managed to extract the truth from me, one by one, and she was angry, but also dubious.
“I mean, you’re sure she isn’t his cousin or something, right?” Jessica asked for the millionth time.
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her through the mirror. “Seriously? With a hug like that? It’s hard to be that close when her body language was flirty and sexual.”
“You said he wasn’t reciprocating though,” Jessica pointed out. “There’s got to be some explanation. Did you talk to him yet?”
“No,” I admitted as I painted my lips with a dark shade of lip-gloss. “I guess we’ll talk tonight then.”
“You’re still seeing him?” Jessica’s eyes rose in confusion. “Dude, I doubt I’d do the same if it were me. I’d be too mad.”
“I am mad, but I also deserve an explanation. Sean and I aren’t officially dating—”
“You’ve spent a lot of time with him when you aren’t with me. How is that not dating?” Jessica asked, sarcastically.
“Because we aren’t exclusive or anything.”
“What is this high school? I think you just need to flat out ask him instead of beating around the bush.”
I sighed as I turned around to face her. “Yeah, you’re right. I can do this. At least, I can set my mind at ease once and for all.”
Jessica moved off of my bed and squeezed my shoulder. “You don’t have to be brave for my sake, Izzy. I know you really like him, and this is going to hurt like a mother, but I’m here, okay?”
I nodded and gave her a grateful smile as the doorbell rang. We both stilled for a minute, not knowing what to do.
“I’m afraid,” I admitted as I held Jessica’s hand tightly.
“You can do this,” Jessica encouraged as she squeezed my hand and went to go answer the door.
It took another few minutes of giving myself a pep talk before I was ready to go out and face him. The second I walked into the living room, I could hear the sounds of easy conversation floating around.
Jessica liked Sean.
She may not like to admit it, but he was starting to grow on her, so she was doing her best to stay neutral, but it was hard to do that when she wanted to rush to my defense.
I stopped when I entered the room, and my gaze landed on Sean.
He looked devastatingly handsome in his dark jeans, and button-down shirt. He even made an effort to comb his hair, but it was clear that he’d run his fingers through it a few times which made me smile.
“You look beautiful,” he complimented as he stood up, and his gaze intimately ran over me. I was wearing a knee length cream colored dress with a pair of open toed pumps, and I’d done my hair in loose waves.
It was rare that I put this much e
ffort into my appearance, but I was so nervous that I needed something to distract me. What better way to put my nerves to good use?
“Thank you. You clean up pretty well too,” I offered as I gave him a small smile. Jessica’s gaze between the two of us as she shooed us out the door.
The cool night air helped calm my fragile nerves as we walked towards his bike. I’ll admit wearing a dress wasn’t the best choice, but I’d forgotten that we’d be taking his bike because we usually either walked or took a cab.
“I’m not sure that dress was a good choice for the bike, but it’ll look sexy as hell when it’s billowing up around you.” Sean winked as he handed me the helmet.
Riding a motorcycle was exhilarating. Feeling the wind on your face like that was incomparable, and I tried not to react to Sean pressed up against me especially as he nuzzled my neck while driving.
“Are you okay?” he yelled into my ear. “You’re really quiet.”
I shook my head. “Not here.”
Sean let the motorcycle idle as we stopped outside the restaurant, and we both took off our helmets. He parked off to the side in a secluded area, and we faced each other.
“What’s up?” he asked, his voice full of concern.
“Look, I know that we aren’t in a relationship, but at the very least, I expect honesty, and I’m not sure I’m into the whole open relationship thing.”
Sean’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “I’m not sure I know what you are talking about.”
I exhaled deeply. “I saw you with that woman today. The petite blonde. Something Patel. She was in my clinic, so I could check on her cat, and I followed her outside because she dropped something.”
Understanding dawned on Sean’s features. “And you think that I’m also seeing this woman, is that what you’re trying to ask me?”
“You can if you want to, but if that’s what we’re doing then I honestly can’t lie and say that I’m okay with it when I’m not.”
“Shut up.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, shut up.”
“You can’t tell me to shut up. I didn’t say anything wrong–”
He interrupted my ranting with a swift kiss where I nearly toppled off of the bike, and the only thing that kept me standing was the fact that I held onto his shoulders.