by Amy Starling
Fuck me, I was in trouble.
“So where are we going?”
“Jezebel. It's a pretty sweet club downtown.”
She had already heard of it. Her eyes got big and she grabbed my arm just a little too hard. Her sharp red fingernails nearly punctured my skin. Hoped she didn't have some kind of communicable disease.
“Are you serious?”
I shrugged. The poor girl was about to explode with excitement.
She whipped a phone out of her purse, which looked to be stuffed with a bowling ball or something. What the hell did she carry in there, a severed head?
Elle rarely even carried a purse. Too much of a pain in the butt, she said. That was another thing I liked about her.
“Ooh, I gotta tell Jackie and Kelly about this!”
She typed out her manifesto while I navigated traffic. Why did I let Elle talk me into this? I didn't do dates. It was just too much trouble.
I didn't intend to get married, so why even bother? Yeah, I knew what the will said. I had to, or I'd lose the property. So would Elle.
Couldn't let that happen. I'd find some way out, some kind of loophole, before the year was up. Dad was never gonna take Shady Acres from me. The bastard had already taken enough as it was.
Reese shimmied closer to me. A cloying aroma filled my nose, and I had to hold my breath to keep from getting sick. She rubbed up against me like a cat in heat.
I stiffened, and not in a good way.
“So you're a fireman. That's totally hot.”
“It's hard, dangerous work. Nothing all that glamorous about it.”
“Sure there is. You've gotta be really brave. You rush into burning buildings and save lives.”
I guess. Last call we got, some idiot left a lit cigarette on the couch and his trailer went up in flames. He ran outta there in his underwear, carrying his bulldog and shrieking like a girl. His wife screamed at him in the yard for a half hour while we put out the fire.
Like I said, not too glamorous.
Thankfully, it didn't take long to reach Jezebel. Being a Friday night, the place was packed with cars. The music was so loud, the vibrations shook my feet through the pavement soon as I got out of the truck.
I loved this place. Always packed full of the prettiest ladies in Waco – and they were pretty easy, too, so long as I bought 'em a drink.
But I hadn't come here to pick up a girl tonight. I was on a date.
Felt more like I was a dog on a leash.
Reese grabbed my hand and strutted toward the entrance. She wanted the world to know I was hers.
“You got money for the cover?”
She meant did I have money for her cover. Of course I did. Still, didn't much like putting money into a girl when I wasn't guaranteed to get her in the sack.
Did I even want to screw her? Normally, I'd have said yes.
But tonight, I felt weird. And I couldn't stop thinking about Elle.
“That'll be $80, please.”
The bouncer, a big dude with more muscles than even me, held out his hand for the cash. He looked me up and down, probably wondering if I'd start shit this time. We'd gotten into a fight once when I accidentally hit on his girlfriend.
I knocked out his tooth. He gave me an impressive black eye.
We respected each other after that.
“Here ya go, Chris.” I plunked the bills into his palm. “I'll be a good boy, promise. I'm on a date.”
Tried not to shudder when I said it. Chris looked Reese over, clearly surprised. She giggled and did the hair flip thing again.
“Uh, good for you, man. Enjoy yourselves.”
Chris lifted the velvet rope that separated us from the fun inside. Soon as I stepped into the darkened room, I felt myself relax.
Throngs of beautiful people dancing under hot lights, thundering bass shaking the floor, the clink of glasses being filled at the bar... I'd been coming here for years and thought I'd never get tired of it.
Reese clung to my arm. “You going to get me a drink?”
I was too busy scanning the room for Elle and the others. Heather and her boyfriend, Zach, were supposed to be coming too.
But Elle was the one I really wanted to see. Especially in the cute dress I knew she was wearing...
“Hello?”
Reese waved her hand in my face. When I didn't answer, she dragged me off to the bar and ordered a Bud Light.
“He'll take care of it,” she told the bartender. “Won't you, Jayce?”
“Uh, sure.” I threw five bucks and change on the bar.
“Anything for you, man?”
Usually, I'd start tossing back the brew soon as I got here. But tonight, I just wasn't feeling it.
“Nah. Maybe later.”
Reese tried to pull me out to the dance floor, but I didn't budge. She pouted.
“Don't you like dancing? Thought you brought me here to have a good time.”
“I'm meeting some friends here. Trying to find them.”
She groaned and gulped from her bottle then began sashaying to the beat.
“Boo-ring! Forget about them and have fun with me.”
I pulled away from her. Elle told me to be polite, but I was having a real hard time with that right now.
“Tell you what. You can stay here and dance for a few minutes, all right?”
She ignored me and strutted off, swinging her hips as she sang along to the music. Some bald dude wearing sunglasses looked her over and said something I couldn't hear. They started dancing together. She didn't even look back at me.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Let him deal with PussyKat2005. Just like I said, dating was too much trouble and a major pain in the ass.
“Jayce!”
Elle called to me from a table on the second floor. She hung over the railing and waved. My jaw fell.
How was it possible for her to get even more beautiful than she already was?
Dark, wavy hair draped over her bare shoulders. She always kept it up in a ponytail, but not tonight.
It looked so wild, so primal. That hair begged to be pulled hard while she took a real pounding from behind...
“Hey, you coming up or what?”
I sprinted up those stairs like I was running to put out a fire. My cock was hopelessly hard now. Nothing could make me soften – not thinking of baseball, not even an ice-cold shower. One look at Elle, and I'd be rock-solid all over again.
How the hell was I supposed to deny myself her?
When I got to the second floor, I knew I was doomed.
She was waiting for me in the hallway. I skidded to a stop soon as I laid eyes on her.
A skin-tight strapless green dress hugged her curves to perfection. The slope of her breasts teased me. The arch of her back, trailing down to her sweet little ass, took my breath away.
Suddenly, my thoughts were in a very dark, very perverted place...
She tilted her head and chewed her lip. God, her lips. They were so full and sexy, I'd do anything to have them wrapped around me.
“You okay, Jayce? You look sick.”
“You look gorgeous.”
I blurted out the words. She gasped softly, then blushed and smiled. Bet she'd be blushing even more once I told her the things I wanted to do to her.
Her gaze fell as she checked me out. She wasn't even making a secret of it. I could tell she liked what she saw.
She stared at my crotch. Her eyes widened. And she licked those lips of hers again.
Yep. Doomed.
Chapter 6 - Elle
“He isn't here.”
Jayce blinked at me, in that way he did when he didn't quite understand something. I'd always thought it was very cute.
“What do you mean, not here?”
I leaned over the rail and surveyed the dance floor below. TexasBoy10, real name Matt, had agreed to meet me at Jezebel by eight.
It was nearing 8:30. No sign of him yet.
Jayce put his hand on my lower back. I trembled;
he felt it. I knew he did, but this time, I didn't much care.
His fingers barely grazed my butt. I silently begged him to keep going, to grope me and feel me up even with all these people watching.
Lucky for both of us, he had more common sense than that.
“He stood you up.”
“Hey, you don't know that yet.”
I scanned the room, but it was real dark and the random flashing lights were gonna give me a seizure if I didn't sit down. I let Jayce lead me back to the table, where Heather and Zach were waiting.
Heather giggled as Zach fed her the cherry from her fruity mixed drink. I smiled, happy for them both.
Jealous, too. Would I ever find a man who loved me that much?
“Maybe he got lost.” Heather tried to make me feel better. “Or stuck in traffic.”
Zach nodded and slung his arm around her. “This place is super crowded. Could be down there looking for you.”
I wasn't so sure. I'd told him in an email to find me on the second floor. Told him about the dress I was going to wear. He said he'd be sporting a black cowboy hat.
“No chance you'll miss me with that on my head,” he'd jokingly wrote.
Jayce and I took a seat, and I gratefully sipped on the martini Heather forced me to order. Not even the booze could really calm my nerves.
“You should have let me pick the guy.”
“Yeah, right. You'd have set me up with one of your player firefighter buddies.”
He wriggled an eyebrow. “So? They're cute and good in the sack.”
“How would you know?” I gestured to the empty chair beside him. “You're alone, too. Did you piss off your date so soon? Figured you'd mess up at some point, but not this early.”
He gazed at all the people dancing to the beat of heart-pounding electronic music.
“Guess she found somebody she liked better.”
Normally, Jayce handled rejection like a champ. Now, he barely hid the bitterness in his words.
Something was bothering him. For once, his facade of always being calm and collected had a crack in it.
But the way he checked me out back there, well... It was obvious what he wanted. Why wouldn't he make a move?
I wanted it desperately, but I was afraid. Scared, for so many reasons.
Could I really give up my virginity to a total player who didn't love me? Hell, he didn't even believe in love at all.
“I warned you about this.” Jayce shook his finger at me. “Online dating's a crock of shit.”
“I dunno,” Zach said. “I went out with a couple of real nice girls I met on the internet. They were a little bit nuts, mind. One wanted me to whip her with a belt on our first date.”
Heather's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
“Uh, that was way before you, babe.”
“It's like a lottery is all I'm saying. You could stick your hand in the sack and pull out a diamond.” Jayce managed to flag down a waiter. “Or you might just get your dick bit off by some chick who sees you as a bottomless piggy bank.”
The rest of us exchanged worried glances as he ordered himself a couple of shots. Didn't he seem a bit stressed out tonight?
Maybe forcing him into this really was a bad idea. He acted about as miserable as I felt.
“So you must be Elle,” said a man with a thick southern drawl. “Gracious, you're just as beautiful as I hoped you'd be.”
Jayce choked on his vodka and stared at the guy behind me. I whirled around, my stomach suddenly queasy.
There stood Matt, looking very much as cute as his online photos. Tall, thin, with a charming smile and perfectly straight, white teeth that I thought couldn't possibly be real. He tipped his black cowboy hat.
“Had to take the freeway to get here. Big football game at the stadium; traffic's a mess.”
So he had a good excuse for being late, and he looked like his pictures – not some 400-pound guy twice my age, as I'd feared he really was.
And he called me beautiful. That was a good sign.
Jayce, however, was not impressed. He grumbled and shuffled his chair closer to mine. Why was he acting so possessive?
And why did I sort of like it?
Matt took the seat on my left, shot him a curious glance, then greeted the rest of the table before returning his attention to me.
“Don't you look lovely in that green dress,” he murmured. “Not like the last girl I met on OkCupid. She could have done with a couple of salads, if you get my meaning.”
I felt my own squishy thighs under the table. If this dude liked 'em skinny, I was sure to disappoint.
Funny, though. Jayce didn't seem to mind my jiggly backside. In fact, I'd been catching him staring at my butt a lot these days...
“It's, uh, good to meet you too.”
I had no clue what to say. Matt was the first online date ever for me. What if he didn't like me? What if he ditched me here? God, I would be so embarrassed.
“So what do you do for a living?” Jayce's jaw clenched. His stare was challenging.
Threatening?
“Oh, a little bit of this, little bit of that. Drive trucks and haul cargo sometimes. Go hunting, sell the meat.”
Zach and Heather must have sensed the mounting tension between us. He took her hand and tugged her arm until she got up.
“C'mon, babe. I love this song.”
Heather gave me that “be careful” look, then allowed him to pull her downstairs to the dance floor. I wished she hadn't left me here alone, sandwiched between Jayce and Matt.
Each seemed to be sizing the other up, and not even the freely-flowing booze could ease the discomfort.
Why wouldn't Jayce just go away and let me and Matt get to know each other? I thought that's why he invited me here, anyway – to get laid. Or so he said.
“Why don't we go down to the bar?” Matt took my hand. “I'll get ya a drink and we can talk.”
It was a pretty clear message for Jayce to stop bothering us. Somehow, I got the feeling he wasn't going to listen. He didn't take his eyes off me as I was whisked away.
My intuition said I was making a mistake. That I should have ditched Matt and thrown myself into Jayce's arms instead.
Of course, that was dumb for so many reasons.
Didn't stop me from wanting it anyway.
At the bar, Matt got me another martini and ordered himself a draft beer. Then we hung out at the edge of the dance floor and tried to talk over the noise.
“Loud place for a first date.” He checked out my modest cleavage and grinned. “I say we finish up these drinks and head somewhere more quiet.”
“Quiet?”
“Sure. We could go to my dorm. Roommate's out for the weekend, so we won't be bothered, if you know what I mean.”
Wait. What?
“Dorm? I thought you lived in a big house on the lake.”
“That's my parent's place.”
Funny, because on his profile, he definitely said that was his house. Okay, the guy was cute, but I hated liars.
“If you live in a dorm, that means you're still in college.”
He finished his beer in three gulps. “Sure am – proud student of Baylor U. I'm going for my bachelor's in accounting.”
Another thing not mentioned to me online. Hold on. If he was in college...
“Matt, exactly how old are you?”
“How old do you think I am?”
I studied his clean-shaven face and big blue eyes. “You look a little young.”
“Let me tell you a secret.” He pulled out his wallet and showed me a driver's license that said he was 21. “This thing works perfect. You know anyone who needs ID, I got the hookup.”
It took a second to realize what he was showing me.
“You're using a fake ID?” I hissed.
“Could you maybe not say that so loud?”
“What's your real age?”
He wordlessly pulled out his real license. Oh, God. He was only 19! I was on a
date with a teenager.
“You're six years younger than me!”
He was not apologetic. “I'm mature. It's just a number.”
“You said online you were born in 1990.”
Finally, my glare wore him down. He looked at the floor and kicked a dust ball my way.
“I like older women,” he confessed. “They usually don't give a kid like me the time of day. I planned on telling you sooner or later.”
Most likely later rather than sooner, I imagined. Crap, what now? I couldn't be caught drinking alcohol with a teenager. What if this was some kind of police sting? Then I'd be hauled off to jail for aiding and abetting a criminal.
“Here he is, girls. The cutie who brought me here tonight. He's a fireman!”
I cringed and dared look behind me. Three girls had cornered Jayce on a bar stool, and he didn't look too happy about it. One was a pissy-looking redhead who practically threw herself in his lap.
“Firemen are super sexy. You are so lucky!”
The other woman stepped forward with narrowed eyes. Her cheeks turned red; she thrust her chubby finger in his face. Jayce stumbled backward and fell off his stool.
“It's you.” She shoved him. “Reese, this guy is seriously your date? He's an asshole!”
“Shut up, Meg. You're just jealous 'cause you can't catch a man hot as this.”
“Oh, yeah? He slept with me a couple months back! Never heard a peep from him again after that.”
Yep, that was Jayce's signature move, the screw-and-dash. I snickered to myself. Always knew his fickleness would get him into trouble one day.
“Look, uh, let's all be rational here.” Jayce backed away from the shrieking harpies. “Yeah, I cut out on you without saying anything. I didn't think you'd be mad. I mean, it was just one night.”
That only made her madder. Reese took turns screaming at her friend for screwing “her” man and then yelling at Jayce for being such a dick. It was hilarious.
Okay, maybe I felt just a tiny bit sorry for him.
Matt patted my arm. I'd almost forgotten he was standing there.
“Hey, I see a friend of mine across the way. Mind if I go chat him up real quick? I won't be long.”
As far as I was concerned, he could vanish and not come back. I'd just as soon forget I was ever propositioned for sex by a nineteen-year old.