Delayed Call

by Toni Aleo

  “Douches. Lying, assholey douches.”

  “Cunt is better.”

  “It’s vulgar.”

  “It is,” he agreed, then his eyes lit up. “Really, Brie, that flower lady didn’t like me. I’m very charismatic, but she hated me.”

  “Oh my, your charm didn’t work?”

  “No, not even when I waved money in her face. I tipped her, good, but I swear I was a hoodlum in her eyes.”

  She smirked. “Did she shake her fist at you, yelling, ‘You damn hoodlum?’” she asked, mimicking an old lady.

  But he didn’t smile. “I don’t think you know how accurate that was.”

  Snorting with laughter, she leaned into him. “You’re a dork.”

  “Only with you, which is weird. I’m usually very handsome and captivating, alluring, if you will, maybe even—”

  “Full of yourself?” she supplied, and he tightened his grip on her.

  “Hush, you, and explain to me how you, this amazing, gorgeous woman, who never ever has a witty comeback or ever speaks her mind, has never had a guy buy her flowers.”

  “I feel that was a bit of a dig.”

  He feigned innocence. “Me? Dig at you? Never. I like you, remember? You’re my first girlfriend in, like, forever,” he said as a Valley girl, and she had to admit, she was eating this part of him up. She loved this goofy, silly, playful Vaughn. Hell, she loved everything about the guy.

  “Okay, Valley High,” she teased, and he nuzzled her neck. “But I don’t know, I mean, it never happened. My high school boyfriend was that, a high school boyfriend who dumped me when we got to college for some cheerleader or something. I even lost my virginity to him. You’d think I’d get a flower.”

  “What a douche.” He pulled his head back, looking down at her. “I banged you three times, and I bought you a room full.”

  “Maybe I wasn’t that good back then?”

  “I don’t know, I think you were made to have sex.”

  “Funny, I think that about you.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Hmm.”

  “But yeah, and then Martin, who I thought was it. We were together for a while, but it was always me doing everything. I did everything to make him feel special, but he never did that for me.”

  “Want me to find him and beat him up?”

  She grinned. “Nah, he’s married, kids, the whole nine. He told me he couldn’t handle me after my mom died, that I changed.”

  His playfulness left as his lips pressed together, but he never looked away. His eyes held such sorrow for her—not pity, a genuine sadness for her. “That’s not fair.”

  “You know, I didn’t think so either, but I had so much going on with Rodney and all my mom’s stuff that the pain was becoming normal for me. I mean, I don’t miss him or yearn for him. So there’s that.”

  “Probably ’cause you miss and yearn for me all the time?” he said with a wide grin and a wink.

  She scoffed. “No, that’s my other boyfriend.”

  “Excuse me, Brianna Soledad, I am your one and only man, not boyfriend. I’m too hot to be a boyfriend.”

  With a deadpan look, she looked at him. “You know, that ego of yours, you stroke it enough for both of us.”

  “True, but if you need something to stroke, I got you.”

  Pressing herself into him, she laughed. “You mean this little limp noodle?”

  Taking ahold of it, he gasped exaggeratedly. “First, little and me don’t go in the same sentence. Second, it’s limp because you aren’t doing anything with it.”

  Rolling her eyes, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I just want you to hold me.”

  Laughing against her hair, he kissed her before hugging her tight. Vaughn picked her up off the ground and kissed her jaw. Usually, she would get annoyed by the way he was holding her—she wasn’t a child—but in a way, she loved it when he did. He did it as a form of being close to her instead of teasing her. “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry that Martin, the douche, did that to you.”

  Her heart swelled as she leaned into him, nuzzling his neck. “Eh, it’s life.”

  “Still. I wish I would have found you earlier.”

  Her breath caught as her heart slammed into her chest, her lips curving against his neck. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You wouldn’t have pushed me away?”

  “Oh, I would have.”

  She snickered, expecting nothing less of him. “At least you’re honest.”

  “But if I was that guy, I would have been there for you, even if we weren’t this.”

  Her eyes itched with tears as she whispered, “Really?”

  “Yeah. I’ll always be there for you. No matter what happens.”

  Pulling back, she cupped his face before staring deep into his eyes. “Stop being sweet. It’s freaking me out.”

  He scoffed. “It is not. You’re eating it up.”

  She groaned, letting her head fall back. “I am. Ugh!”

  Laughing, he met his lips to hers as their arms wrapped around each other, holding each other so close she was sure they would become one. If someone had told her that they would be in this moment a week ago, she would have told them they were crazy. Hell, if they had told her the day before that she would be wrapped around Vaughn with all kinds of hopes for a future with him, she would have laughed in their face. Pulling back, she ran her fingers along his cheek, along his chin, the coarse hair on his jaw making her wild as she held his gaze. Her heart ached for him, and it was something she hadn’t experienced before. She had never ached for someone. But she was aching for him as he held her in his arms, his hands at her ass while her legs were wrapped around him.

  “What?” he asked, probably because she was staring at him like she was unhinged.

  “This is real, right?” She smiled sheepishly as she leaned her head to his. “You aren’t going to, like, go out that door and then ignore me tomorrow, right?”

  He shrugged. “Hadn’t planned on it. Wanna make it a game? You’ll get a lot of presents that way. Like cat and mouse, but not really. That made no sense. Okay, yeah, no, I’m not going anywhere. When I walk out that door, I’ll be back, or you can come to me. Or we can meet for food. I like food. I’m rambling, make me stop.”

  She pressed her lips to his and squeezed her eyes shut. He held her tightly in his arms, and she had never felt safer. She knew this was real; she felt it in her bones. But she was a realist too, and she knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Playboy, no-relationships kind of guys didn’t settle down just like that. This wasn’t a movie or a romance novel; it was life. But as he held her, she kind of hoped it would be that easy. That something in her life could go right for once. Laying her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes as she yawned loudly.

  “Tired?”

  “Exhausted. I stayed up all night and then got an early wake-up call. Couldn’t sleep because I didn’t know what this guy who was pulling out all the stops was going to send me. So I stayed up, and then said guy had so much sex with me, I think he bruised my vagina.”

  Chuckling, his body rumbled against hers. “I mean, this guy sounds pretty fucking great.”

  “He’s all right.” He pinched her butt, and she squealed as he started to carry her into the bedroom. Laying her down, he fell on top of her, both of them laughing as they cuddled deeper into the bed. Holding her close, the light from the living room shining on his face, he had a smile on his lips. A genuine, gorgeous one that almost brought tears to her eyes.

  Kissing her nose, he pulled back, cupping her face. “I’m gonna go.”

  Her brows pulled together. “You don’t want to stay?”

  “I do, but Tricksie usually sleeps with me, and Jensen won’t let her in the room with him.”

  “Wanna bring her here?” she asked, not wanting him to leave.

  He shook his head. “No, get some rest.”

  She eyed him. “Is this part
of the no going to bed for sleep with a woman thing?”

  He paused as his eyes searched hers. “No and yes,” he admitted tensely. “Brie, I need you to understand that I just made a huge leap in my life. I committed to one amazing person: you. And while I want to spend every second with you, it also scares the living fuck out of me.”

  “Why does it scare you? This is good, this is real.”

  “Yes, one hundred percent. But I thought that before, and that went to hell. Though, I think the main reason was because she was a money-stealing whore, but the other was I was up her ass twenty-four seven. I can’t do that again.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t be mad.”

  “I’m not,” she admitted, and she wasn’t. She understood, and he made sense, yet it worried her.

  “I want to be here, but I also know myself, and I can’t do it all at once. I need to gradually ease into it because I don’t want to be who you said. The one who does this and then thinks this isn’t for me in a month or something. I want to miss you, I want to yearn for you. I want to do this, but I want to take our time. We have time. Yeah, we are older and we don’t have time for games, but I don’t want games, I want this, but at a speed I can handle and be the best I can be for you.”

  She held his gaze, a little confused. “So are we together, together? Or are we just exclusively fucking each other? Like friends with benefits.”

  He made a face. “I don’t want to sleep over, and you come up with that?”

  “You have a track record, JoHo.”

  He shot her a dull look before he spoke against her lips very roughly. “You’re mine, Ms. Soledad. My woman. And I am your man. I want this to go places. I want to be there for you and no one else. I sure as hell don’t want to bang anyone else, but I want to go slow.”

  Letting out a harsh breath, she prayed she wasn’t making a mistake as she whispered, “Okay.”

  “So you’re not mad?”

  She shook her head gently. “I mean, I don’t want you to leave. But I also want this to work. And if we have to go at your speed for a little bit, I can hang. But the moment you start to make this just a fuck fest is the moment I rip your dick off.”

  “The threats come out of nowhere with you.”

  She smirked. “I thought it was pretty much understood.”

  “That you’re basically a midget assassin? And not the hockey player one?”

  “Yeah.”

  Laughing, he shook his head. “You are going to keep me on my toes.”

  She grinned in agreement. “I thought you found that endearing?”

  “I do.”

  “Then we’re good.”

  “We’re great,” he said before kissing her once more. “Will you miss me?”

  “Nope. I got pizza.”

  He bit her chin, and she laughed out loud as she cuddled into him. “You tell me you want to take this at your pace, but I have to admit silly girly shit like that?”

  “Yes.”

  Laughing out loud as he chuckled against her neck, she pressed her nose into his. “Then yes, Vaughn, I will miss you. Desperately.”

  “Good, I’ll come back, then.”

  “Oh, thank God,” she said with a laugh, and he shook his head.

  “Yeah, yeah, so I’m gonna go.”

  “Can I keep your shirt?”

  “It doesn’t have any words on it.”

  “But it smells like you.”

  His lips pulled up at the sides before he pressed them to hers. “Keep it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Moving his nose along hers, he whispered, “I had a great first date with you.”

  She smiled happily, her heart skipping a beat in her chest. “It was probably one of the best days of my life.”

  “Mission accomplished,” he said, pressing his lips to hers once more before he rolled out of bed, reaching for his pants, his back flexing with the motion. Those shoulders were hers. All hers. Sighing happily, she felt on top of the world. She just prayed she wasn’t making a mistake. She wanted to believe she wasn’t. She wanted to be confident that this would work, but his “wanting to go at his speed” made her a little nervous. She just hoped it was new-relationship jitters and she had nothing to worry about.

  Because when he stood, reaching for the rest of his clothes, she decided she wanted to do this more. A lot more. Like, forever. She just needed him to jump on board. When he looked over at her, he grinned as he leaned on the bed with his hands, hovering his mouth over hers as he said, “I have practice tomorrow. But do you wanna get together tomorrow night?”

  Kissing him once, she nodded. “I’d really like that.”

  “Maybe not have lots of sex?” he asked, kissing her.

  She scoffed, placing another kiss to his lips. A longer one that curled her toes. “Or lots of sex?”

  He nodded, his mouth molding to hers once more before he grinned against her lips. “Have I told you I really love the way you think?”

  “No, not ever.”

  “Well, I do.”

  “So you might miss me?”

  “A bit.”

  “Good.”

  “Agreed. And also, lots of sex sounds great.”

  She thought so too.

  The excitement that ran through her body made her want to wish the night and day away. Just so she could be with him. Her man.

  Vaughn Fucking Johansson was her man.

  She was learning very fast that her life was full of plot twists.

  But this one…this one she was pretty sure she loved.

  “So I’m guessing since you didn’t crawl into the apartment until almost one, and you had no shirt or shoes on, things went well last night?”

  Leaning on his stick, Vaughn made sure the flex was good before he shot hard at Dylan, Jensen’s backup. Looking back at his best friend who was sprawled out on the ice, stretching his hips, he grinned. He swore the smell of her perfume was still lingering in his hair, and he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by it. “More than good.”

  “So it’s a go?”

  “It’s a go,” he said, letting out a big exhale. “Scared shitless.”

  Jensen laughed as he arched his back, really digging his hips into the ice. “I’m sure, but that’s great, man. Super proud of you.”

  “I got a girlfriend, Jenny. I’m not getting married.”

  “Eh, I mean, you haven’t picked anyone in over ten years, so she must mean something.”

  Hell yeah, she meant something, but even admitting that gave him a little bit of a panic attack. “Yeah, I just don’t want to fuck anything up.”

  “Well, you can’t walk on eggshells, dude.”

  “She wouldn’t let me.”

  Jensen laughed. “Nope, she’d call you on that bullshit quick.”

  Shooting another puck, this time against the boards, he let out a breath. “She wanted me to stay the night.”

  Looking down at Jensen, Vaughn saw that he was staring up at him with an expectant look as he stretched his knee back. “Well, son, after you make love to a woman, there is cuddling—”

  “Shut the fuck up, you know I know that. I just haven’t done it in a long time.”

  “Okay?”

  “What if I fart in my sleep?”

  “Well, you’re going to fart. It’s natural, and you know, she farts.”

  “Ew, she does not.”

  “Do you know that woman are like men?”

  “Shut up,” he said, skating around him. “What if I toss and turn, roll over on her and suffocate her?”

  “We’ll throw a beautiful funeral for her.”

  “What if she wants to cuddle? You know I get hot when I sleep.”

  “I’m pretty sure she just wants to feel you there. She isn’t clingy, dude. She’s damn independent as hell. Someone who can take your crap, throw it back and then some, isn’t some weak lady.”

  He knew that tenfold, but it scared him. He didn’t want to chase her off. “What if I snore?”
/>
  “She probably snores. She has a short torso since she’s a borderline midget.”

  Vaughn poked his stick at him. “Don’t talk about my woman like that.”

  As Jensen laughed, his voice carried through the rink. No one was out yet except for Dylan, who was warming up the trainers. Vaughn always got to practice early with Jensen, so he was often on the ice first and usually the last off. He wasn’t as good as he was because of talent. He had that, but he was also a workhorse. “My bad, but really, I’m sure it won’t be a big deal.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s part of a relationship.”

  Rolling his eyes, Vaughn went down on a knee and stretched his quad. “We had one date.”

  “And banged like crazy for like a week. Plus, you guys have been flirting for months.”

  Leaning his head to the side as he thought that over, Vaughn switched legs. “What if she gets to know me and doesn’t like me?”

  “What’s there not to like?”

  Vaughn paused, a grin playing on his lips. “That was nice.”

  Jensen laughed as he rolled over, laying his arms above his head as he stretched. “Don’t get sappy on me, but everything that people don’t like about you, she’s already been a victim of. She’s dealt with all the shit, the shell you live in, and all that. She got you out of it, and she still likes you after you probably cried all over her about Hazel—”

  “Um, I don’t cry, especially over that whore.”

  He may have had, like, one tear, but he was not admitting to that. With a dry look, Jensen rolled his eyes. “She made her point. She’s in it to win it, and I don’t think you can scare her off.”

  “But what if I scare myself off? These feelings, like, here,” he said, pointing to his gut, “are weird and freaky.”

  Shaking his head, Jensen stood before dropping down into a squat and then back up, doing it as he spoke. “That means you like her.”

  “Well, I get that. I’m just scared that she may stop liking me, and I don’t want to do anything stupid or hurt her again or anything like that.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Jenny, it’s me.”

  “Yeah, and when you love someone, you love hard.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who said anything about love? Shut your dirty mouth.”