by Andi Van
Who was I to argue with a request like that? I crawled up his body, and he grabbed my hips and gave them a tug as our lips merged. Taking the hint, I rested my body atop his. When he ground up, I nearly lost it.
“I want to feel you,” he panted against my mouth. “I swear I’ll be perfectly happy to let you suck me off some other time, but right now I just want to feel you against me. Please.”
I nodded, and our mouths crashed together again as we thrust and writhed against each other. I was painfully aware that this first time was going to be embarrassingly quick, but it had been building for too long—for weeks, really—and we were both far too aroused to make it last. This was made clear to me when Marcus managed to slide against a particularly sensitive spot.
“Marcus,” I gasped. It was the only word of warning I could get out, my brain too far gone to process more than that.
“Yeah,” he moaned in response and shuddered hard, spilling his seed against both our bodies. Two thrusts later and I followed suit, crying out his name as I came.
“All this before the first date,” Marcus murmured when we could breathe again. “You’re such a shameless hussy.”
“A shameless hussy in need of a shower,” I mumbled back, my head resting on his shoulder. “Takes one to know one.”
He chuckled and held me tight. I smiled as I kissed his sweaty neck. He was mine now, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.
CHAPTER 9
I DON’T know how Christophe managed it, but he did. I woke up Wednesday evening—with Marcus spooned up to my back, which was fantastic—to see a text message from him on my phone.
Friday. 2pm. Sorry, but it’s the best I can do.
His best was perfect, and I let him know that. That gave me enough time to get home from work, shower, and change into decent clothes. While I knew he’d let me into the restaurant wearing the tattered jeans and ancient T-shirts I typically wore to work, I still wanted to impress my date.
And so Friday after work, I was in front of my closet, staring into its depths and definitely not panicking because I couldn’t decide what to wear. Really. I wouldn’t panic about something like that. And I most certainly hadn’t changed my mind ten times in the fifteen minutes I’d been home.
Jordan was sitting on my bed watching me. Well, watching me and laughing hysterically. I would have thrown something at him, but I was too busy not panicking.
“I really don’t get you sometimes,” he said when I changed my mind yet again. “You don’t have any reason to be nervous. I mean, you and Marcus already know each other. It’s not like you’re going to struggle to find things to talk about. And he already likes you.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to impress him,” I said. “In a way, the fact that he and I have spent so much time together makes this even more difficult. He’s seen me in an everyday sort of way, and it’s important to me that I present myself in a way that lets him know how significant this date with him is to me. On the other hand, I also don’t want to come off like I’m trying too hard.”
“You need to find your happy medium,” Jordan agreed with a nod. “Go take a shower. I’ll solve your problem here.”
“Seriously?” I asked him.
“No, I’m lying,” Jordan said with a roll of his eyes. “Go. Now.”
As if I were actually going to argue against him making my life a little easier. I wasn’t an idiot. Instead, I went and took the world’s shortest shower and came back to find the clothing situation sorted out.
I picked Marcus up just before two. If the look on his face was any indication, he appreciated Jordan’s efforts too. His gaze started at the black skinny jeans I was wearing and moved up to the white button-down shirt my best friend had forced onto me. He reached out to smooth one hand down the gorgeous charcoal gray cardigan Mom had knit for me the previous Christmas.
“Wow,” he said softly. “You clean up pretty damn well, Ollie.”
I chuckled and rewarded him with a kiss to his cheek. “You’re not so bad yourself,” I assured him. No joke. The guy totally rocked the jeans-and-blazer look. “You ready?”
“If you’re talking about dragging you into my apartment so I can get those clothes off of you, then yes,” Marcus told me.
“And have Christophe yell at me for ditching when he went to all the trouble to get us a reservation?” I asked. “Sorry, but I don’t have a death wish.”
“Then I guess we’d better get going,” Marcus agreed with a sigh and shut his apartment door behind him. “Wouldn’t want your friend poisoning your dessert because of me or something.”
PREDICTABLY, JUBILATION looked packed when we stepped inside.
“And he managed to find us a table in this?” Marcus asked softly, letting out a low whistle.
Privately I agreed. I’d have to send Christophe a thank you of some sort. Maybe we could take him out to that sushi place he loved so much. “Come on,” I told Marcus. “Let’s let them know we’re here.”
I was gratified to see Nate, Christophe’s business partner, manning the podium where the reservation list was kept. Nate went to college with us too, and had been friends with Christophe for nearly as long as Jordan and I had been friends. “It’s good to see you, man,” he said as he gave me a hug. “I hope you don’t mind, but you guys are going to be on the patio. I can’t really give you a choice on the matter.”
“It’s fine,” I said, waving away his statement. “I’m just glad you could get us in at all. I’m being rude, though. Marcus, this is Nate. He’s basically Christophe’s version of Jordan. He has an extremely pregnant wife who you’ll get to meet at some point, I’m sure.”
“If she hears about you, you won’t have much of a choice,” Nate said. He grinned and shook Marcus’s hand. “She’ll meet you whether you want her to or not.” He grabbed a couple of menus and gestured for us to follow him. “Come on. I’ll lead you to your table. You’re probably starving, and we can catch up later.”
We followed him to one of the smaller two-person tables tucked at the back of the patio. It was kind of chilly out, but I’d survive. Hell, I’d sit naked in a blizzard if it would get me a date with Marcus.
Well, okay. Maybe not totally naked. There were bits I didn’t even want to think of getting frostbite.
Nate briefly ran through the afternoon’s specials and left us to look through our menus. “Ooh, crème brûlée….”
“Real food first,” Marcus said, not even looking up from his menu.
“So, does this mean I’m not allowed to have dessert for lunch, then?” I teased. “Spoilsport.”
“I could make you some nice fresh ice cream,” a voice behind me said, and I jumped. Christophe gave me an innocent look as he approached. “I could compromise with the ‘real food’ thing by making it with broccoli. It could be the new wave in health food.”
“Marcus is allergic to broccoli,” I informed him. I stood and gave him a quick hug. “It’s good to see you, man.”
“You too,” he said as I sat back down.
“Could you seriously do that?” Marcus asked, a look of horror on his face. I agreed with the sentiment, actually. Broccoli ice cream sounded atrocious.
“What, the broccoli ice cream?” Christophe asked. “Well, yeah, of course I could. Would I? Not in a million years. Why would I do that to perfectly good ice cream? The really awesome carrot juice and citrus sorbet I made once is the closest I’ve ever gotten to producing something like healthy ice cream.” He rounded the table and offered Marcus his hand. “You must be Marcus. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Obviously this is Christophe,” I told Marcus by way of introduction. “The second best roommate I had in college.”
“Second best?” Christophe asked, looking affronted. “Come on, I used to do all the cooking.”
“Yeah. But you’re cute and half the time the guys I dated ended up more interested in you after they got a look at you,” I pointed out, laughing. “At least with Jordan, I
never had to worry about that.”
“I can’t help it if I’m prettier than you,” Christophe teased. “I have to get back into the kitchen, but Nate told me you were here, so I wanted to say hi and introduce myself to your boyfriend.” He gave Marcus a smile. “Seriously, it’s nice to meet you. Hopefully we can all get together sometime I’m not working.”
“Sure,” Marcus said, returning the smile. “I’d like that.”
Christophe gave me a wink, then headed back in the direction of the kitchen.
“Are all your friends crazy?” Marcus asked once we were alone, and I was gratified that he sounded more amused than worried.
“Yes,” I said honestly. “Though I’m not sure what that says about me. Or you, for that matter, since I consider you a friend too.” Among other things, but I wasn’t going to say that.
“Touché,” Marcus laughed and his gorgeous chocolate-brown eyes lit up with merriment. He picked up his menu again. “So, any idea what’s good here?”
As it turned out, the answer to Marcus’s question was “everything.” I described the food we ordered as “almost better than sex,” a declaration Marcus agreed with wholeheartedly. By the time we were waiting on the bill, I was so full of good food and good conversation that I thought I’d explode with happiness. Or possibly from too much food. It was kind of hard to tell.
It was while I was slumped back in my chair that I looked at Marcus and said, “Can I ask you a question that may completely ruin the mood?”
“Sure,” Marcus said easily. “It’ll take a lot to disturb me at this point.”
“Your sister,” I said. “The skanky younger one. How did she end up here if your family never comes to visit you?”
“The university has a really good nursing program,” he said. “So she came here. I was informed by my parents that I needed to watch out for my baby sister and make sure she was happy.”
I snickered at the look on his face. “Not your idea of a good time, understandably.”
“Not in the least,” he agreed and smiled at me. “So I checked in with her a few times just to keep them from bitching at me. Unfortunately one of those times was with Davis, and we see where that went.” He shrugged and didn’t look the least bit upset. “It worked out for the best. Those two deserve each other, and I’m happier now than I ever was with him.”
“Yeah, well,” I said, my eyes focused on the empty plate in front of me instead of on him, for once. “I’m glad you’re happy.”
I hated that I sounded so shy making the understatement of the year, but it apparently didn’t bother Marcus. He reached across the table to hold my hand. Our fingers were still woven together when Nate came back carrying a takeout container.
“Didn’t we get rid of you once already?” I teased.
Nate snorted and set the container on the table. “Chris says that’s for Jordan. Whether it actually makes it to him or not is up to you.”
“I don’t have a death wish,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “The first time Christophe asked him how the food was, it’d be off with my head.”
Nate snickered and handed me the folder holding our bill. “Sounds like Jordan. You guys have a good day and don’t be strangers.”
“We won’t,” I promised as Nate walked away. I pulled out my wallet to pay the tab and glared at Marcus when he started to do the same. “Don’t even think about it.”
He looked like he was going to argue with me, but he finally just huffed. “Fine. I’m paying next time.”
“Fine,” I agreed, tossing the folder back onto the table as I tried to hide my glee at him mentioning a next time.
We weren’t able to hang out, much to my dismay. Marcus had work that evening and had a paper he had to work on before then. “You could work on it at our place,” I pointed out as we headed to my car. “You keep telling us how much more you get done there anyway.”
He thought about it for a moment and then nodded in agreement. “All right,” he said. “Let’s head back to my place, and I’ll grab my laptop and my uniform. Maybe a change of clothes for tomorrow if you don’t mind me hanging out after work.”
“You know you’re always welcome,” I told him. And he was. He was so incredibly welcome. “You don’t even have to sleep on the couch anymore, if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t know. It’s a pretty freaking comfortable couch,” Marcus teased and glanced away. “You didn’t deny it, you know.”
My brow wrinkled. I unlocked my car and got in. “Didn’t deny what?” I asked, confused, as I waited for him to shut his door.
“When your friend Christophe came to the table to say hi,” Marcus said, giving me that look people give when they’re hoping someone will remember on their own.
That meant that whatever it was Christophe had said was important to him, which in turn meant it was important to me that I figure out what he was talking about.
Marcus sighed at my silence. “He said he wanted to say hi and—”
“And wanted to introduce himself to my boyfriend,” I finished. Oh. Oh wow. He had said that, hadn’t he? And it seemed right. “You’re right. I didn’t deny it.”
“How do you feel about it?” Marcus asked quietly.
“Well, we’ve been hanging out for weeks. And we’ve actually had a date. And we’re pretty fond of each other. Neither of us does the casual thing, so….”
“So it makes sense,” Marcus finished for me.
“Yeah,” I agreed and took a deep breath. “Yeah, it does.”
We settled into silence again as I drove toward Marcus’s place. After a few minutes, I felt his hand find my knee and squeeze gently. “Jordan is never going to let us live this down.”
I grinned. He was right. Jordan was going to take a perverse delight in giving us the “I told you so” talk. “At least we waited until after the first date.” We pulled up to Marcus’s apartment complex then, and I frowned. There were a couple of police cars in the parking lot. “What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know,” Marcus said, worry evident in his tone. “I hope everyone’s okay.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said. I turned off the car and got out before he could argue. I was still jumpy after what had happened with his ex, and I wasn’t about to leave him alone in case he had another confrontation waiting for him.
As we headed up the stairs, the cops were headed down, bringing an obviously irate young woman in handcuffs with them. I heard Marcus suck in a surprised inhalation as the young woman looked right at him and shrieked. “You,” she snarled as she lunged at him. “This is all your fault.”
She struggled to get away from the cops holding her, but they continued to lead her down the stairs. One of the officers stayed behind and looked at us. “Is one of you Marcus Edwards?”
“Yeah,” Marcus said with a sigh. “That was my sister. What’s she done now?”
“From what we can tell, she egged the hell out of your door and threw a rock through your front window,” the officer told him. “Your neighbor caught her at it and called us.”
“Someone actually physically detained my sister until the cops could get here?” Marcus asked, his eyes wide. “God. They’re on my Christmas card list for life now.”
“Is he going to be able to get into his apartment?” I asked the officer.
“Once we’ve cleared the scene. It shouldn’t take too long.”
I nodded and pulled out my phone. Jordan was going to kill me for waking him up, but I didn’t care.
When he picked up, he actually growled at me. “Somebody better be dead.”
“Marcus’s sister paid his apartment a visit with eggs and a large rock,” I told him.
I could hear the rustle of sheets in the background. “Fuck,” Jordan spat, all vestiges of fatigue gone from his voice. “Are you guys okay?”
“We were gone when she was here,” I explained. “Look, I need a favor. A big one.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he answered.
“How many boxes?”
As much as I sometimes bitched that I hated Jordan knowing me as well as he did, most of the time I was extremely grateful. That particular moment was one of those times. “As many as you can fit, for now.”
“Good thing Russell graduated. Right. See you.”
I hung up and turned to Marcus. “Jordan will be here shortly. We’re going to pack up your stuff and move you.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, and I had a feeling I was in for a lecture. I was aware I was kind of taking over the guy’s life, but I would have been like this with any of my close friends. “You don’t think you’re jumping the gun a bit?”
“It’s not safe here,” I insisted. “Your ex has been harassing you, and now your sister is doing actual property damage. You can’t stay here.”
He snorted and waved a hand at me, which surprised me enough to shut me up. “I’m not talking about that,” he said. “Where am I going to be moving? Because it’s kind of early to be moving me in with you, don’t you think?”
Oh, well, having him wonder about that made sense. I nodded and smiled sheepishly. “I wasn’t actually talking about moving you in with us. Well, not really. Sort of.” I took a breath and rubbed the back of my neck. “Let me try that again.”
“In English this time, please,” Marcus suggested, raising an eyebrow at me.
I flipped him off and started over. “There’s a studio apartment above the garage. The guy who was renting it graduated last semester, and Jordan hasn’t rented it out again, yet. He’s super picky about who rents it because we live on the same property. It’s bigger than your current place, and neither Davis nor Delilah knows where it is.”
“And if things go south for us?”
I opened my mouth to tell him that wouldn’t happen but shut it again before I could say the words. It was a legitimate concern, after all. “I’d like to think you and I are the kind of people who’d take care that the parting wasn’t bitter,” I said slowly. “And our schedules are just different enough that we wouldn’t run into each other much unless we wanted to. But I’d also like to think it won’t ever be a concern.”