“I guess we’ll find out.”
“Gee, thanks. Okay, I’m hanging up. If you don’t hear from me in five minutes, call 911.”
I pulled into the drive and got out quickly, stomping to Zeke’s truck that’d stopped at the curb. When he rolled the passenger window down, I snapped at him, “What do you think you’re doing?”
My favorite grin appeared on his beautiful face, damn it. “Just making sure you got home safely, Scarlett.”
“Oh…” That knocked the wind out of my sails. “Well, that was nice of you. Thank you.”
“I want to see you again,” he said, those damned amber eyes of his steady on mine.
I huffed out an agitated laugh. “I already told you I don’t have time to date anyone.”
“What’re you doing tomorrow night?” he asked, undeterred.
“I’m busy. My brother has a basketball game.”
“Friday?”
“Busy.”
“Saturday?”
I sighed. “Busy.” We could keep this up all night and my answer would still be the same even though I wished it wouldn’t. C’est la vie and all, right?
“October 14?”
I couldn’t help but laugh seeing how it was January. “Pretty sure I’ll be busy.” And now I was starting to feel like a huge bitch. “Zeke, I’m sorry but I can’t.” I crossed my arms over my chest and bit my lip as I looked down at the ground feeling like a real jerk for being this way, but I’d made my rules and was going to live by them. When I looked up at him, he was looking at me so sweetly with such understanding in his eyes that I shook my head, feeling tears sting the backs of my eyes. “I had to drop out of college for two years trying to help my Dad. I’ve lost so much time. I just can’t lose anymore. And I’m afraid you’d be… a… distraction,” I whispered.
The smug look reappeared. “That’s kinda what I was hoping.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. God, he was charming and hot and sweet and sexy and I was an idiot. “Thank you, though. For everything. I’ll, uh, make sure to give you the book back on Friday. Goodnight.”
I tore my eyes away from his and turned to go inside, hearing him drive off only after I closed the door. I called Jay to let her know I was okay.
And then I went to my room and cried.
*Week Two—6th Encounter*
Zeke came into The Nook as usual the next morning, but this time he was with a gorgeous blond woman and he sat in Grace’s section instead of mine. Upon seeing me, he’d nodded giving me a small smile when he came in but that was it.
And, damn it, why the hell did I suddenly feel jealous? I’d told him just the night before that I couldn’t see him, so why was I getting all bent out of shape?
“That boy is something else,” Grace muttered dreamily as she came back behind the counter. Grace was in her mid-fifties and was recently divorced, having stayed with her dickhead husband until the last of their three children had graduated high school last spring then she’d “cut and run” so fast he hadn’t known what had hit him. He’d been every aspect of abusive to her, she’d informed us, but now she was free and loving it, having gotten herself a small apartment and a cat, which she said her husband had never allowed her to have in the thirty-five years they’d been married. This was the first time she’d ever worked, but she’d caught on quickly when I’d trained her and said she loved it. Clearly she did because a lot of the patrons who came in requested her because she was such a good waitress and nice as could be on top of that.
I frowned at what she said, feeling my mood bottom out as I tossed an old coffee filter in the trash.
“He’s so polite! Did you see him pull the chair out for that gal he’s with? What a sweetheart. And they make a lovely couple too, don’t you think?” she added, which made me grit my teeth as I scooped fresh grounds into the new filter in the coffee maker.
“Isn’t that Karissa Jackson from the newspaper? The sportswriter everyone’s always going nuts about because she’s not only beautiful but she actually knows what she’s talking about?” Jay asked as she snacked on a pastry as she stood at the register. “She’s single, too.” She raised an eyebrow at me as if to say I was a dumbass for letting Zeke get away because now he was going to be snatched up by this woman.
I glanced over to see Karissa laughing at something Zeke had said and watched as he grinned back at her.
Ugh.
I scowled back at Jay before grabbing a pot of coffee to go top off my customers’ drinks. And characteristic of me and my selfless demeanor (even though I was a tad pissed off), I went about my duties as if nothing was wrong, as if I didn’t want to pour this flaming hot pot of coffee down Ms. Sportswriter’s back. And all was fine until I heard her giggle and my curiosity got the best of me. Looking over at them, I sucked in a breath when I saw her reach across the table and put her hand on Zeke’s. But that hadn’t been the crux of it. Nope. Besides his not pulling his hand away from under hers, what really took all the air out of me and made my heart constrict was the look he gave her, almost exactly like the one he’d given Scout yesterday, as if this Karissa woman mattered to him.
Like the one he’d given me last night when he’d told me he was interested in me.
I hurried back to the counter, setting the coffee pot down and grabbed Jay’s hand, jerking her back to Mae’s office and pulling her inside.
“’The hell, Scar?”
“What do I do?” I asked frantically, feeling like I was going to puke.
“What do you mean?” she replied with a frown watching as I paced and shook my hands at my sides.
“I mean, what do I do?” I all but yelled at her making her head jerk back in surprise.
“You like him…”
I stopped my pacing and looked at her then closed my eyes and hung my head.
“Oh, sweetie,” she said, coming over and taking my face in her palms and making me look at her as she shook her head. “You and your stupid rules.” She thought for a moment then her face lit up. “Tell you what, there’s a party tonight that Dex and I are going to and you’re coming with.” When I started to protest, she added, “No ‘buts’! Drake is gonna be there and you know he’d fuck you in a heartbeat and that’s what’s going to happen. You need to get laid now!”
I huffed out a laugh and shook my head at her as she dropped her hands from my face. “Well, getting laid will solve all my problems as you know. Let’s do it!” I gave her a sarcastic smile and an eye roll.
“Couldn’t hurt,” she said with a grin. “You know Drake has wanted you for a long time anyway.”
“Drake wants everyone,” I replied making her giggle, but it was the truth.
Drake Scott was one of Dex’s friends who I’d met last year when Jay had tried hooking us up saying she was going to end my sexual drought. He was cute but rules were rules and I hadn’t given him the time of day even though he’d made it clear that he wanted no part of being in a relationship. But maybe now Jay was right. I knew it was ludicrous, and slutty to boot, but if I did finally give in to screwing him, it might make all the feelings I had for Zeke go away. It was worth a shot, I guessed.
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this,” I muttered.
Jay squealed now, doing little baby claps with her hands in excitement. “Yay! The party’s at Landon’s and that’s where Operation Get Scar Laid commences!”
“Oh. We even have a name for it now. Nice.” I shook my head in mock approval.
“Yep! OGSL is a go! Now, you get right back out there and act as if everything’s fine, got it? Show Zeke that you’re over it,” she said, turning me by my shoulders and swatting my ass.
“Ouch!” I said, rubbing my butt as I headed out of Mae’s office. But I did feel better about things, noticing that when I went back out to the restaurant and seeing Zeke with Ms. Thang, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had.
That was a start.
~*~*~*~
“Hey, gorgeous. Long time no see,” Drake said
as he approached me at the party that night.
We were at Landon Knight’s house which was in an extremely nice part of Seattle. His parents were both hotshot attorneys who made gobs of money, or so Jay said, so it was no surprise that their son lived just a few streets from them in the same gated community. Landon was captain of the tennis team and really handsome but a bit on the snooty side. He was nice, don’t get me wrong, but I could tell he thought himself better than pretty much everyone.
Drake, on the other hand, was as easygoing as they came and immediately put me at ease since I’d been freaking out how this would go down ever since OGSL had begun, but he’d handed me a drink and told me a dirty joke and I calmed down a bit.
You can do this, I thought encouragingly, attempting to convince myself that this whole setup was the best thing to do to get from point A to point B. The plan was I’d fuck Drake in one of the thirty bedrooms in the huge house hoping my sexual frustrations when it came to Zeke would be put to rest then I’d have Jay and Dex get me the hell out of there.
Sounded good! Ugh.
Drake and I stayed in the same place for an hour, talking about what we planned on doing when we graduated. I told him about the bakery and he told me about how he was going to move to Hollywood, become filthy rich as a plastic surgeon, then take over the Playboy Mansion when Hugh Hefner died which made perfect sense because Drake was, well, Drake.
By the time we finished talking, I’d had enough alcohol that I was feeling relaxed or at least loose enough that when he leaned in and kissed me, I didn’t lock up. And although it’d been a nice kiss, it just hadn’t been as nice as the ones Zeke had given me. I sighed in disappointment when Drake pulled back because I’d thought surely this would work. Damn it. OGSL appeared to be failing monumentally.
But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet, so I pulled Drake down by his collar and smashed my mouth to his thinking that if I kissed him harder it’d make everything I felt for Zeke fade. Just as we were getting going, Drake spun us, pushing me against the wall with his body, which was kind of hot, and I thought maybe the plan was working until I felt him suddenly jerked away. My eyes flew open and I saw Zeke standing there, hands on his hips and squinting his eyes at me looking pissed as hell.
Whoa.
“What the fuck, Scarlett?” he bit out, glaring down at me.
I looked around wondering where Drake had gone. I mean, one minute we were engaged in mouth-to-mouth foreplay, the next, Poof! So leaning to the side to look past Zeke’s arm, his very large, muscular arm, I saw Drake shrug at me then he was off to find his next conquest. Well. Hasta la taco to you too, buddy.
I stood straight again and looked up at Zeke, and, oh, was he in for it now because I’d had just enough to drink that my sassiness was front and center.
“What the fuck, what, Zeke?” I challenged, putting my hands on my hips too and glaring right back at him, my alcohol-fueled reasoning being that it was his fault I was here in the first place, so I deserved to be a bit snippy toward him.
He leaned down and got right in my face and snarled, yes, snarled, “You had your fucking tongue rammed down my throat last night and now you’re doing the same to Scott?” Man, was he mad.
And why do guys always call each other by their last names? Is it some kind of military-related thing or maybe dude code or what?
Anyway, semi-drunken thoughts aside, I then semi-drunkenly hissed, “And you were practically eye raping Ms. Hotsy Totsy Sportswriter this morning!”
He slowly stood to his full height and my head moved back on my shoulders as I followed. Dang. He had to be at least six-four because my five-six self was straining a bit to look up at him. We stood glowering at each other for a good thirty seconds before I chickened out and had to look away but made the most of it by moving my eyes down his body. And, God, he looked good wearing a half-tucked-in light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, jeans and black work boots that looked scuffed like he’d bought them that way. Totally GQ. Damn.
“Why’re you here, Scarlett?” he finally asked making me look back up at him, his eyes piercing mine hotly and looking even more golden against the blue shirt he wore.
“Why am I here?” I huffed out a laugh realizing now how ridiculous this whole thing had been. “If you must know, I’m here to fuck Drake so I can get you out of my head!” And why I was surprised when I blurted that, I have no clue, because blurting my every thought seemed to be the norm whenever I talked to Zeke. I moved my hands from my hips wanting to cover my big, fat mouth with them, but crossed my arms over my chest instead.
I saw his jaw muscles jumping like crazy as his eyes turned hard. Suffice it to say, I don’t think he liked my answer. “You seein’ him?”
It was then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and looking over, saw Jay giving me a huge smile and a big thumbs up. Um. Okay.
My attention came back to Zeke. “No, I’m not seeing him!” He just didn’t get it. My hands went back to my hips and I leaned into him. “And if I were, it wouldn’t be any of your business anyway!”
His eyes narrowed on mine then his look turned smug. “Trying to get me outta your head, huh?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t look so cocky. It wouldn’t matter who I fucked, Drake or… or you.” I threw my hand out toward him when I said this. Second time I’d discounted him that way, first the janitor and now Drake. God, I was a bitch. You’d think he’d see it and tell me to get bent. “It still wouldn’t mean anything and it’d be over before it started.” Total lie. “I’ve already told you I don’t have ti—” and that was all I got out.
“We’ll see about that,” he mumbled grabbing me by my upper arm and pulling me to the stairs and up to where the thirty bedrooms were.
“Wh—what are you doing?” I stammered as he practically took two steps at a time while I tried keeping up.
He didn’t reply, and once we’d made it to the landing he just kept walking me down the hallway, his hand tightening on my arm when I tried prying it off. And, jeez, his hand was huge, his fingers touching his thumb because it fully encircled my arm.
We passed at least four doors on either side (okay, so there really weren’t thirty bedrooms) until reaching one at the very end that he opened into a darkened room and pulling me into it, closed the door behind him then pushed me back against the door. The room wasn’t wholly dark, there was a little light coming in through the windows plus a nightlight, enough that when he bent down and got level with my face, I could see his eyes sparking in what looked like anger.
“You so sure it wouldn’t mean anything, Scarlett?” his voice thundered in the quiet room.
I was about to answer, what it would’ve been I don’t recall, something smartassed, I’m sure, when his lips came crashing down hard on mine and I was instantly and completely, utterly and thoroughly consumed by his kiss… by him… oh, my. Of course I had to make it look like I didn’t want this to happen, so I halfheartedly pushed against his chest with my hands trying to make him stop before giving up. My arms then made their way up over his shoulders where my hands were drawn once again to his silky dark hair and my fingers wasted no time in clutching it tightly.
And, holy hell, could he kiss. I’d bet if you looked up “kiss” in the dictionary there’d be a picture of his beautiful face or at least his perfect lips right next to it.
His mouth moved from mine down over my jaw then to my neck where he sucked and licked, nipping at me and making a shiver race through me as my head fell back against the door and I moaned loudly. His hand slid up and covered my breast caressing it through the sheer white button up I wore over a tank top making me breathe out another moan. And when he grazed his thumb over my nipple several times, I couldn’t help crying out.
Suddenly, he turned me to face the door, grabbing my wrists in one hand and pulling my arms up, holding them there. His other hand came up to grasp my chin then his mouth was at my ear. “You wanna be fucked, Scarlett?” he asked, grinding his erection into
my bottom.
I pushed my bottom back against him giving him my answer and that was all he needed. Next thing I knew, he picked me up and planting his knee on the bed, came down on top of me, and, oh my God, it felt amazing to feel the weight of a man pressing down on me after all this time.
His mouth slammed down on mine and our tongues raced to keep up with the other, then sliding a hand between us, he cupped me between my thighs and I knew he felt how wet I was even through my jeans because he uttered an, “Ah, fuck” against my lips. My hands went to his shirt trying to unbutton it, needing it off so I could touch that magnificent chest of his but I wasn’t making very good leeway. He went up on his forearms giving my hands more room to work as he kept his lips pressed to mine. Once I took care of the buttons, he pulled away, sitting back on his knees and removed the shirt along with his t-shirt, and just damn. Seeing his bare chest again in all its broad and sculpted glory was just a friggin’ treat. I reached a hand up, smoothing it over his tattooed pecs just before he lowered his body to mine again and gave me the hottest kiss yet.
Without warning, he flipped us to where I was on top, and keeping his mouth on mine, knifed up to where I had to straddle him then it was his turn to remove my shirt. When he pulled away, I saw his eyes get even more heated as he looked at me, still in my jeans but now just in my bra.
“Fuckin’ hell,” I heard him rasp then he cupped my breast, his hot mouth kissing the swell of it before trailing down over the fabric of my bra where he suddenly sucked my nipple into his mouth through the sheer lace.
“Zeke,” I breathed when he yanked the cup down exposing my breast and his mouth covered my nipple again, sucking it in hard as my head fell back, my fingers digging into his hair clutching hard.
The next thing I knew, he’d flipped us again and I lost my jeans and was now down to my lacy white panties. His mouth kissed its way down my abdomen toward them to the top of the waistband where I saw him look up at me, his eyes full of wicked intentions making me gasp as he slid my panties down my legs and off and then his mouth was there.
Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) Page 6