by Lindsey Hart
She wasn’t sure what she expected, but she didn’t expect Sandra to be a man.
And not that man.
Because it wasn’t Sandra standing there at the closed door at all.
It was Jesse.
Sydney was sure as shit glad for that ergonomic chair at the moment, because if she wasn’t sitting down, she’d have been on the floor.
“What- uh- Jesse… what’s- what’s going on?” She was amazed she had the capacity to even form language at the moment, her shock was so great. “What are you doing here?” She wasn’t sure whose eyes were bigger. Hers probably looked like two baseballs sticking out of her head.
He stood there, his face a mask, giving nothing away, but then he smiled softly, and that smile did things to her chest that she couldn’t even begin to describe. It felt like she was caving in or being crushed, but it wasn’t a bad feeling despite the panic that crawled up her throat at the same time, nearly choking her.
Jesse walked over casually and pulled out a chair across from her. He sunk down into it and spread out a big black object that she hadn’t even seen tucked under his arm.
A photo album.
“What- seriously… what are you doing here?”
That shadow of a smile turned into a full-on grin. He looked so happy, so beautiful, so freaking… so freaking Jesse, that she nearly smiled. Or laughed. Or cried. She wasn’t actually sure which emotion was going to come out, so she did her best to blink hard against her burning eyes and keep her face from giving any of it away.
“Well…” he folded his hands on the smooth white quartz tabletop. “I guess that I’m here because your mom called me.”
“What? My mom?” Again, she was glad for the chair she was seated in, because that was shock number two, and it wasn’t even actually nine in the morning yet.
“Yup. She got my number from my parents. She said she was pretty sure that you and I should be together.”
“No, she did not say that!” Her voice came out as baffled sounding as she was.
Jesse nodded emphatically. He was dressed in black slacks and a black dress shirt that made him look good enough to eat, literally, knock down and lick from head to toe, but she purposely did not try and think about any of those things. Or how her bone-dry mouth was suddenly salivating.
“She did actually. She said a lot of other stuff that I happen to agree with. Things that make perfect sense.”
“What? What things? What did she say?”
He kept right on grinning like she hadn’t even spoken. “That’s not important at the moment. What is important is this.” He indicated a huge black book in front of him and she finally clued in on the fact that it was a photo album. Who used those anymore?
His hand, a hand she knew and loved, flipped open the cover to the first page, to reveal them together in diapers, each holding a cake beater, icing smeared all over their faces. She remembered that one. God, she loved that photo. They couldn’t have been more than two.
“Here’s us. At two.”
“How did you get these?”
“Your mom. My mom. They got together and helped me with it.”
“What?”
“Don’t ask questions. Just look.”
She ignored his smug tone for the moment and watched as his hands deftly flipped through the photos. There was photo after photo, some aged, some warped, some crinkled and worn, like they’d been handled too many times over the years. Them in a paddling pool in their bathing suits, them on the trampoline, the trampoline again with the sprinkler underneath, them eating popsicles, wearing snowsuits, skating at the rink, birthdays, her sports events, his math and science competitions. The photos went on and on. She watched them as they changed, getting older as he turned the pages. The last pages held pictures from their grad and a few from college. They stopped there and Jesse closed the album with a gentle thud.
“So?” Sydney blinked, not quite sure what the heck was going on? Why was Jesse even there? With a photo album? It wasn’t like she didn’t remember those things. It was a sweet gesture, but she was supposed to be at a job interview so… seriously. What the hell? “Seriously, Jesse, you’re going to have to help me out here. I’m not quite sure why you’re sitting here when I’m supposed to be having an interview or what this is.” She waved a hand over the album.
“Okay. I get that you’re confused. First of all, this is my company you’re interviewing for. We decided to branch off from underwear into shoes. It’s been in the works for a long time. Our HR department put out the hiring ads for the Houston office that we’re opening, a few weeks ago and your mom saw one. She called me. We came up with this together. I can’t take credit for all of it.”
“That’s funny. It seems crazy enough to have been all your idea. You never did things like this when we were kids, but wow. The money must have cooked your brain because seriously, first you send your butler to kidnap me, then you fly me across the country in your private jet, twice- and now you’re here?”
“Yes. I’m here.” That grin was back, splitting his handsome face. He leaned across the table, somehow too close and too far away. Close enough to make her breath hitch. Far enough away to make her wish he was close enough for her to feel the heat of his skin next to hers.
Even if she shouldn’t wish things like that.
“And yes, it’s crazy,” he went on. “The album is proof, photographic evidence, that we’ve spent almost our entire lives together, and managed not to kill each other. We grew up. We changed over a whole lifetime. We had a lot of firsts together. Got into a lot of scrapes. Had some pretty wild adventures. And we still didn’t kill each other. It worked. We worked.”
His hand rested on the table and she had to resist the urge to curl her fingers around his stronger, blunter ones. Just when she was getting choked up, the tears stinging her eyes big time, he went and continued.
“I’ve loved you for a long time now. As more than just my best friend. The thing is, I’m pretty sure that you did too. And it still worked. We loved each other. We just didn’t say it out loud. It worked. Just as we were. It can still work. Please, Syd.” He implored her with his shining eyes and her stomach cramped. “We can go slow. We just both have to try. It will work, Syd. You and me. And if it doesn’t, and we gave it an honest shot, then maybe we can both finally move on. Because neither of us is moving on with how we left things. I didn’t. You didn’t. It’s been ten years. I don’t want to spend another ten years like that, and I know you don’t either. Working all the time. Doing anything we can to not think about the one thing that we want most and can’t have. Denying it doesn’t make any sense.”
Sydney could honestly say she was struck speechless. All of this- her mom- his mom- him. They’d put so much time and thought into getting her there. So that she and Jesse could have one last chance. She never would have reached out on her own, no matter how badly she wanted to, but she was there now. There with him.
And he was looking at her with those soft eyes, a sheen of emotion sparkling in their depths, looking at her like she was his entire world.
“I- I don’t know if adding the physical element will work. I mean, we never did that.”
“We kind of did,” he protested, his lips turning up again.
God, even if his grin was a little dorky, it was sexy as hell, and she’d do anything to see it. Because it was his. Jesse. Her best friend and honestly, the man of her dreams.
“Jesse… I don’t… seriously- I don’t know if it would work.”
She wanted it to work. She wanted it to work so damn badly. She’d missed him. Not just for the past ten years, but over the past month. It was torture, waking up, every single day without him. Leaving him behind again had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. She knew, right down to her soul, that if she ever got another chance, she knew she wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She’d man up, grow a set of balls, and stop running. She’d said the exact opposite- to her mom and to herself- a thousand times, but
the hard truth was that she loved Jesse. She’d always loved him, and she always would. Maybe it was better to take a chance on being miserable with him than it was to take a chance on being miserable alone.
His eyes narrowed and she nearly gasped at how they darkened, how he didn’t bother to shield her from the hunger in their depths. And then he winked, and she was just… done. His smile changed and her stomach cramped at the devious intent behind it.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
CHAPTER 19
Jesse
“Get the key in there. Hurry up. God, why isn’t it working?”
Jesse clenched his jaw to stifle a laugh and finally got the stupid plastic card inserted into the lock of the hotel suite so that the green light flashed. Green means go, and they were in.
The cab ride to his hotel lasted for fifteen minutes. Which was fifteen minutes too long for both of them.
He turned the handle and they nearly fell into the room. Sydney twined her arms around his neck and hungrily tugged his face down to hers. His entire body woke up fast when she nearly broke his neck in her haste to drag his face to hers. The door slammed shut behind them and he wrapped his arms around her waist, slamming her up against the wall as he covered her lips in a heated kiss.
No, it wasn’t just a kiss. It felt more like they were consuming each other, devouring each other, and not just the licking and sucking and nipping and stroking that was going on with their mouths.
He bit her bottom lip and she mewled, her hips bucking hard into his. He leaned forward, slamming the hard length of his erection into her belly. She whimpered and he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Hers was ready and willing and eager to dance.
Syd’s fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. They were small, bastardly little things, and when she couldn’t get them to work to her satisfaction, she curled her fingers around the edges of the shirt and tugged hard, sending buttons raining all over the fancy ass carpeting. The suite was nice, too nice. It was expensive. He shouldn’t have booked it, but he thought that maybe… maybe Syd might want to come back with him. Or at least that she’d agree to have dinner with him and then maybe he’d have a shot at bringing her back.
She ate at his mouth hungrily while she shoved his shirt down his arms. She ran her hands along the solid ridges of his muscle, all the way over his forearms, tracing the veiny patterns with her fingertips. God, those fingertips. Her touch rendered him completely useless.
“Why are these so solid,” she panted, as her hands smoothed over his biceps again, then back up to his shoulders. “You are seriously working out. Don’t lie to me.”
“Just wanted to take care of myself,” he responded against her lips. “Don’t worry, I promise I haven’t turned into a gym rat.”
“Do you still run?”
“Yeah. Once a day.”
“You make me feel seriously unfit.”
She had a pink blouse on and a pair of black slacks. Completely professional for the job interview. He leaned in, bent his head and suckled at the base of her glorious neck while he caused the second button explosion of the morning. He tore her shirt away, so that she was stripped down to the pink lace bra she had on underneath- because seriously, of course she would have matched the bra to her shirt- and let out a low whistle.
“I don’t know. You look pretty fit to me.”
“Stop.”
“I didn’t get to see this half the last time we were together. I’m pretty sure that I missed out.”
“Jesse…”
His hands strayed to her back where he unhooked her bra and let it fall away. The lacy garment hit the floor and her glorious breasts, her beautiful, perky breasts with the gorgeous pink nipples- they were all his. His mouth watered to taste one, and when her hands came up to tangle in his hair and guide him there, he wasn’t going to say no.
He latched on to one nipple, suckling her gently into his mouth. He scraped his teeth over the straining bud and she let out a gasp that shot straight to his cock. He released her nipple, blowing on it gently as he did, watching it tighten and pucker even further- and it was straining already.
“Beautiful,” he said huskily. “All of you.”
“Why are you still wearing your pants?” she ground out in response.
“Why are you still wearing yours?”
Her lips quivered into a sly smile. “I thought we could just dry hump each other. You know. Save the rest for marriage.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “That deserves a spanking, I believe.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Spank me and I’ll spank you back.”
“Is that a challenge?”
He stepped back and looked down at her. She waited for a second before she nodded and took off, letting out a shrill scream that the front desk probably heard. He just hoped they didn’t call security. He raced after her, capturing her close to the bed and taking her down. They fell in a heap of tangled limbs. He could barely untangle himself so that he came out on top. He managed to plant a hand firmly on the mattress by her face. He cut off her surprised giggle with a scalding kiss as her hands clenched tight on his shoulders.
“Seriously, these were never this broad,” she panted when he broke away.
“I’m glad you like them.”
“Who said I liked them?”
His hand slid between them, cupping her mound. She was wet right through her slacks, and god, that sent all kinds of aches right to his groin. “You’re soaking wet.” His voice was raw. “That says that you might like it a little.”
“Maybe I’m just enamored with your nipples.” She bent her head and licked at one and his whole body felt like she’d just doused him in gas and lit a match. “Yup. Definitely in love with them.” Her hands explored lower, trailing over the ridges of his abs. “Maybe I like this a little bit too.”
“What else?” he panted, nearly on the verge of losing control completely.
She raked her hand further down, to stop at the button of his pants. She hesitated, but then brought it lower, so that she caressed his hard length testing the endurance of his pants. She gripped him there, and he nearly shot out of his skin.
“Maybe this too,” she admitted.
He cut off her next words with a punishing kiss. Their mouths went to war as he fumbled with his pants. He finally got the stupid things open and tore them down his hips. He shifted just a little further away, so that he could get the stupid things down his legs then went for his boxers. They hit the floor hard. He stood back for a second, letting her eyes rake over him. He loved the heat in her gaze, how the pupils were completely blown, eating up the irises. He loved the way her lips had to part a fraction, so that she could pant out her desire.
“Okay- maybe I like that too,” she rasped.
“Yeah?” He attacked her pants like they offended him just by existing. They put up almost no resistance to his heated onslaught.
“Definitely,” she gasped.
He covered her with the hard length of his body, melding her soft, sweet curves along his rougher edges, her silky skin along his, their limbs tangled once again. He swallowed anything else she had to say with another kiss that left him seeing stars. He stared down at her after, his cock nestled in her stomach, creating a pool of moisture that they both felt.
“You know, I planned a lot of things,” he rasped. “But I forgot one thing. The most important thing.”
Her eyes went wide. “What’s that?”
“I don’t have a condom.”
Syd let out a low whimper that vibrated through him. “I’m on the pill. Please. God. Jesse. I trust you. I need you. I don’t want to wait another minute. Seriously. If you’re good, I’m good.”
“I’m good,” he assured her, because he trusted her too. The thought of going inside of her bareback though, made his cock kick against her stomach. That pool of wetness got even bigger. “Fuck, Syd,” he groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
“At least it will be a
good death.”
“The best,” he groaned, right before she locked her legs around his hips, dug her hands into his shoulders, and pulled him even closer.
CHAPTER 20
Sydney
After a lifetime of uncertainty, she was sure of three things.
One, that she loved this man beyond any doubt in the world.
Two, that being in his arms was like coming home and she was done running from the one place she’d always belonged.
Three, she was going to die if he didn’t get the hell inside of her.
Sydney wrapped her legs around Jesse’s muscular hips, urging him forward. They’d done this before. She remembered that his cock was huge. She’d seen it in his boxers that night at his house a month ago. She wasn’t fully prepared for just how big he was. It wasn’t dark like that night in college and the lights weren’t dim like at his house. No, it was full frickin’ daylight, sun streaming through the parted blinds in the huge window ten feet from the massive king-sized bed, gauzy white curtains doing nothing to stem the tide of light.
And she loved it.
She loved that he’d grown up, ever since that night in college, and that he was all man. That he was raw and heavily muscled, chiseled, cut- whatever. His shoulders looked like they belonged in the dictionary, under a definition of broad-fucking-tastic. His abs should have been on an infomercial about sculpting tools, because it looked like they’d been carved out by an artist’s hand. She loved his dark nipples, how when she’d kissed them, his whole body shuddered. The crisp smattering of dark hair that dusted his chest and ran lower, past his navel, was perfect. Perfectly man. Perfectly him.
She’d never taken the time to properly admire him before. She still hadn’t, but she would. She promised herself she would.