Steve and Jason were opposite in nearly every way apart from their height and age. Both men were six-feet-five; Steve’s birthday was at the end of the year while Jason’s was at the beginning. Steve was black and while he was tall he was of a lean muscular build which distracted from his physical strength. Jason on the other hand was big and muscular and left no-one in any doubt as to his strength. If Steve’s physique could be likened to that of a basketball player, then Jason’s by comparison would be that of a football player. He didn’t carry around a huge bulk, rather the appearance of his musculature was made evident in the breadth of his shoulders and the size of his biceps and quadriceps. When Jason entered a room, people normally took note of his passing. Women typically wanted to know what he had to offer in the bedroom and men wanted to know if they could take him in a fist fight.
Steve was also extremely handsome. All his features seemed to be perfectly linked, the man was so good looking Jason had seen an argument break out because another man’s woman was so busy checking Steve out she had poured the glass of wine she had been handing him down his trousers. Jason had found the situation amusing, had ribbed him hard. Steve got so mad, insisting he follow him outside so he could kick his arse. They were both trained martial arts experts and Jason knew he was only reacting out of embarrassment. After that incident, Steve had decided to grow a goatee and mustache, it hadn’t helped; he was still eye candy for women and gay men, only now he had hair growing out of his face that needed a daily grooming.
Jason on the other hand had his own brand of good looks. However he was much was too brooding to ever be considered handsome in the conventional sense of the word. His features were made up of green-black eyes surrounded by thick long black lashes, black eyebrows that were more often than not drawn together in the semblance of a frown, a once patrician nose that had been broken one time too many, coupled with a wide mouth that rarely smiled. He also had an olive skin tone. What struck people as odd was that for all his dark coloring, he had dark blonde hair which he wore short as it had a tendency to curl. If on a daily basis Steve had to deal with his good looks, as a youth Jason had to deal with his blonde ringlets. The boys at school used to rib him so hard he was constantly in fights to show that the hair didn’t make the man, or in his case the boy.
Steve wanted love and a family, the sort that he himself had sprung from, so when he returned home from Italy saying he had fallen in love, he was happy for him. Jason’s third time of meeting Hope was on the weekend get-away in Newport. Steve wanted Jason to get to know Hope better. He and Hope had been dating for a while and he now wanted to make their relationship permanent. Jason felt trapped into agreeing as there was no tangible reason for refusing without sounding churlish, feeling only slightly better in the knowledge that Hope was bringing along a friend, who he hoped would be able to run interference if necessary. But the friend had pulled out leaving just the three of them to spend the weekend alone. Jason had arrived before Steve and Hope and awaited them in the lobby of the heliport. On their arrival Steve had once again made brief introductions. Hope had given him another of her predatory looks, proceeding to hug him, taking the opportunity to rub up against him in a way that started warning bells clanging once again as to the kind of woman his friend was getting serious about. He had made up his mind to talk to Steve about his misgivings as soon as the opportunity arose but by the time they made it to the house, settled in and returned downstairs for per-dinner drinks, Steve made his announcement; he and Hope were engaged to be married. After the announcement it was as though the incident at the heliport had never happened. Hope all but ignored him, her attention completely wrapped up in Steve, so much so that Jason preferred to think it was his over active imagination that had cooked up the whole incident and that he really needed to get over himself.
After that weekend Hope had seemed to change towards him. Sometimes, when in her company he could feel her watching him; but she seemed to make Steve happy, and that was all he wanted for his friend and brother. Since then, they had all had dinner together a number of times, and he and Hope had formed a tentative friendship that seemed to be working. Now Jason's banked concerns were back. However Steve was right, it was none of his business and he had other, more pleasant things on his mind, Aviva.
As the whisper of her name floated into his mind, the door opened to admit a resplendent Hope dressed in a gown of startling white that encased her body as though made for her alone. The gown was made of pleats reminiscent of the garments worn by ancient Egyptian queens. The neckline sat off the shoulder and plunged in a daring V that stopped in the middle of her chest revealing the whole of her décolletage. The dress went on to gather at her waist in a triangular pattern before falling away in more gathered pleats that hugged her figure and then trailed to the ground in a flow of organza. She looked beautiful and knew it. Hope turned in a circle while extending her arms away from her body to gauge Steve and Jason’s reaction. Jason had risen to his feet at her entrance, while Steve had turned from his perusal out of the window to take in the appearance of the woman who was soon to be his wife.
“Well, what do you think – will I do?”
Moving from his place in front of the window Steve took the hand Hope extended towards him and raised it to his lips for a gentle brush of his lips. “You look as beautiful as ever Hope. I’m a lucky man.” Something was definitely wrong between them, Jason could hear it in Steve's tone of voice, but before he could further silently question his detection, Hope turned in his direction to get his thoughts on her appearance.
“You look great Hope, but I think you already know that.”
“Come on Jason, give a girl a break will you, one little compliment won’t kill you!”
“You look beautiful Hope.” Jason responded, raising his glass in a salute.
Just then the door opened and Aviva stepped into the room draped in a red cocktail gown. Jason could only describe her appearance as sinful. It wasn't a tight dress but it clung to every curve it touched and there were a lot of curves to cling to. The dress was sleeveless and showed off her arms, the neckline fell in drapes just below her collar bone and then it accentuate every curve it touched – it clung to her breast in a gentle caress, it clung to her indented waist and then it went on to cling to her generous hips, with a hemline that stopped just above her knees. Jason’s mouth began to water as his libido went into overdrive. She looked like classy sin on legs, and if his body was any reaction, sin had just become his woman of choice. Without a word he deposited his glass on the end-table and moved towards Aviva, never releasing her gaze. Taking her hand Jason kissed her fingers and spun her around to get a look at the back of the dress. This nearly made him bite his tongue; there was no back, apart from the halter neck strap that kept the dress in place the material started again at the base of her spine. “You look exquisite; red is definitely your color.” Jason murmured against her ear.
“Thank you Jason, I’ve got to tell you, you’re wearing the heck out of that tuxedo, you too Steve, looking good!” Turning to Hope, Aviva began to approach her friend with her hands extended in greeting. “Hope, you look stunning, exactly as a bride should look…”
“What the hell have you got on? There is no way you’re wearing that dress to MY party!”
Jason saw the look of shock register on Aviva’s face as her hands fell away to her sides and balled into fists of anger.
The men exchanged looks and mouthed ‘girl fight’ but refrained from commenting. Aviva was the first to break the stand-off. “What’s wrong with what I have on?” Popping her hands on her hips and sticking her nose in the air as she awaited a reply.
“This is my party and you are not going to look sexier than me!” Hope admonished with a laugh that sounded false to the others standing in the room.
Aviva regarded Hope with a serious look that spoke of humiliation and offense in the way she had made her dislike of her dress known. Hope’s eyes grew cold. Aviva thought of her choices as to how s
he could deal with the situation in which she found herself: one, she could tell Hope to stuff-off, she would wear what she liked and ruin the whole night, or two, she could go and change, after all it was only a dress. Aviva chose the latter option. “Okay Hope, I’ll change, but let me tell you something you may not already know – it doesn’t matter what I wear, I’m still going to look fabulously sexy – so brace yourself!” Turning towards the door Aviva paused to look over her shoulder, “Oh and Hope, believe me when I say, this is my last change of clothing for the night.”
Exiting the room, she allowed the feeling of humiliation that had heated her skin to enshroud her in a cloak of anger. “Well my dear, if you thought this one was sexy then just watch me now!” Aviva muttered as she climbed the curving staircase on the way back to her room to change.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Hope, that was probably one of the most ungracious incidents I have ever had the misfortune to witness, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“For goodness sake Steve, it’s my party, and I am quite within my rights to ask her to change if I didn’t like what she was wearing.”
“No Hope, it’s our party, or did you forget about me? And Aviva is your friend not a recalcitrant child that you order to change clothing because you don’t like what she’s wearing!”
“What’s the big deal, she changing isn’t she. If she really objected she wouldn’t be upstairs right now.”
Steve shook his head in exasperation at Hope’s refusal to acknowledge that her behavior had been hateful. If the expression on both the men’s faces were any indication, Hope knew she had gone too far and searched for a way to cut through the steely tension surrounding them. Sauntering up to Steve, Hope placed her palms against his chest and slowly moved them up to his neck in a sensual sweep. “You know how I get sometimes baby, I’m just anxious about the party, forgive me… please?” The whine in her voice grated on Jason’s nerves as he turned away in distaste at Hope’s blatant display of manipulation.
Taking hold of her hands Steve disengaged himself from her embrace. “Jason, we’re going to leave, our guests are expecting us and we don’t want to be late. Do you mind if we take the car? I’ll ask Drake to set up another for you and Aviva when she’s ready.”
“By all means, go right ahead and there’s no need to worry about speaking with Drake, I’ll sort everything out, you guys get going.”
“We can’t go yet; I need to see what she’s wearing!”
“Didn't you hear a single word I just said? As long as she doesn’t turn up bare assed naked, what she wears is not your concern, and we both know Aviva has too much class to wear anything unsuitable.” Steve put just enough emphasis on the word ‘anything’ to ensure Hope understood that he thought the dress Aviva had been wearing was perfectly acceptable attire. Gripping Hope by the arm he marched her to the door pausing only long enough so she could grab her purse.
Jason blew out a sigh of relief at their departure and called Drake to make the necessary arrangements regarding the additional car, before taking a seat on the leather couch to await Aviva’s return. Allowing his imagination free rein, images of her wearing the shoes she had accused him of liking popped into his mind. She was right, he did like the shoes and that’s where his thoughts stopped. Aviva wearing only those sinfully high shoes and nothing else, draped across his bed…
Dragged from his musing, Jason rose to his feet as Aviva returned dressed in a royal blue mini dress with a blousy top with long bell sleeves and a plunging deep v-neckline. The glimmering sequined fabric seeming to flow like mercury with every undulation of her body. Her small waist was encircled by a glistening silver band and the lower half of the dress flared away from her hips and stopped mid-way down her thigh. Aviva also wore strappy four inch heeled sandals with an ankle strap. Her hair was swept back to lay smoothly against her head on both sides, while the top was arranged in a bouffant at the front which led into a chignon that rested as the back of her neck, giving an air of sexy sophistication to her whole ensemble.
Jason couldn’t take his eyes off her, his glance first stopped at her décolletage, lingering on her smooth brown skin exposed by the deep V of the neckline before continuing on to the expanse of her toned legs left bare below the hem of her dress. As his gaze rose leisurely to her face Jason saw that Aviva was biting down on her lower lip, devilment alive in her brown eyes. “She gonna hate it right?”
“That goes without saying.” Extending his hand towards the door, Jason gave Aviva a slight bow, his own eyes sparkling with amusement. “Shall we?”
Chapter 5
Awaiting them in the drive was a chauffeur-driven limousine. They both climbed in and settled themselves for the twenty minute drive to their destination. The reception was being held in a newly constructed mansion Jason and Steve’ company had completed a few months prior.
Aviva tried to concentrate on the horizon bathed in shades of orange, russet and deep blues as twilight descended all around them. However, Jason was making it very difficult with his continued silence. Racking her brain in an attempt to think of a starting point to a light conversation in which to engage him, all she could come up with was the weather. If she broached such an inane topic he would probably laugh in her face. Growing more uncomfortable by the minute, Aviva felt Jason’s gaze boring into the back of her head. She could also feel his continual perusal of her body; his gaze was making her tingle all over. ‘Think of something to say, other than the weather, think of something to say, other than the weather’, was the mantra churning around in her mind.
Jason’s deep baritone voice startled Aviva out of her thoughts as she turned to him with a blank look on her face. She had been thinking so hard for something to say she had no idea what he had just said.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“I asked what perfume you were wearing.”
“Oh…Aviva.” Seeing his look of confusion she quickly offered a more lengthy explanation hoping to keep the conversation going. Anything was better than the tension charged silence that had preceded his question.
“Do you like it? A friend of mine developed it for me a few years ago. It was the first fragrance he developed when he opened his New York store.”
“The first…really and why was your fragrance the first one he developed, Aviva?”
“Oh because he was my first…” Oh no, note to self, remember to engage brain before mouth.
“Your first what, Aviva?”, Jason drawled one eyebrow raised. On the one hand he was amused once the realization of what she had revealed registered on her expressive face, and on the other, he was encompassed by feelings of growing jealousy towards this faceless man who had been her first lover.
Turning swiftly back to the window Aviva whispered softly, embarrassed at what she had so unwittingly revealed. “It doesn’t matter…forget I even said the word first.”
“Do you still see him?” The seriousness of his question transferred through the tone of his voice.
“Yes I do, he’s a good friend, the kind that will stand by me no matter what; the kind that are very hard to find, so when they come along I cherish them.”
“I agree, good friends are indeed hard to come by…and yes I do like your perfume. He captured your essence exactly. I’ll remember to offer him my compliments when we meet.”
“When you meet, what makes you think you’ll ever meet him?”
“Because I have every intention of being the one you cherish above all others, and I always get my way through fair means or foul” Jason said, his voice dropping to a deep rumble that Aviva was beginning to recognize as sexy Jason.
Aviva's heartbeat picked up to double time at Jason’s words; her eyes descending to his mouth, subconsciously running her tongue over her bottom lip, slowly leaning towards him as though being pulled by anothers will. Realizing what she was doing, Aviva dropped her eyes to his bow-tie with the pretense of straightening it. Jason removed her trembling hands and placed them against hi
s chest, covering them with his warm palms and waited patiently until she lifted her eyes to meet his. What she saw reflected there made her catch her breath; it was desire, she could feel it even through his fingertips, the tingling of awareness transferring to the nerve endings throughout her body.
“What do you want, Angel?” Jason whispered, raising one of her hands to his lips to place a gentle kiss in the middle of her opened palm. “Is this what you want…” he continued, slowly pulling her unresisting body against his. Lowering his head Jason applied little nips to her throat before he ran his rough tongue along her jawline. Aviva didn’t want to wait another moment to feel Jason’s mouth against her own; he had taken up more of her thoughts than she should have allowed since the first time she had seen him. Grabbing hold of his head she crushed her lips against his taking what she wanted. Jason groaned deep in his throat, the sound reverberating through his chest moved straight to her core. Jason wanted more so he took more; deepening the kiss, tightening his embrace, pulling her against his body so he could feel the impression of her full breasts against the muscles of his chest, at the same time thrusting his tongue into her mouth in an imitation of what he wanted to do to her body.
Pulling his lips away, he ran his tongue over the shell of her ear as his hands roamed over her back pulling her as close as he could. From the moment he first touched her he felt something shift within him. She felt right, the touch of her hands as they ran over his chest to clasp the nape of his neck, the feel of her smooth lips as he rubbed them with his own, he couldn't get enough of her scent. Since he had met her earlier in the day, her aroma that was so uniquely hers had stayed with him, drawing him in, surrounding him, driving him crazy.
Abandoned but Not Alone Page 4