by Amber Nation
“I didn’t think you were capable of a full-blown laugh, especially one that was directed at me,” I knew I was pressing my luck, but I couldn’t for the life of me filter my responses towards her. “I think I just made it my mission in life to make you laugh like that every chance I get.”
Her eyes slightly narrowed but her smile remained in place. “Keep showing off those hideous old school dance moves and you’ll have no problem getting me to laugh at you. You look ridiculous.”
The upbeat song ended and I waited with bated breath, hoping that the next song on the lineup would be a slow one, my fingers longed to feel the silkiness of her skin under my touch. My silent prayers were answered and it was the perfect song. I would now and forever associate “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, with Julia.
I looked around, making sure Bentley wasn’t going to come and try to steal her away, but he appeared to be rather cozy in an embrace with Miri as they danced along. So I jumped at the opportunity, took one of Julia’s hands in mine, gathered my other hand at her waist and pulled her towards me, snapping the distance between us closed. She peered up at me through her thick, lined lashes with just a hint of a smile and together we swayed back and forth to the beat of the music.
“You’re good at this,” she said almost a bit sheepishly, making her seem as if she were a little bit shy. Of course I knew that to be a load of crap. Julia was a ball-buster, a no-nonsense woman, shy was not a word I would directly associate with her. The only logical reasoning I could gather about why she would come across as a bit reserved would be that she was feeling this too—whatever the hell was taking place between the two of us.
“I’ve done this a time or two, and if I remember correctly, so have you.” Bringing back a focus on both of our marriages, or rather, failed marriages wasn’t a brilliant move on my part. But seeing how it was one actual thing that we had in common, I had to go with what I knew. Seeing a frown form on her face, wrinkling the space between her brows, I needed to quickly change the subject. We had only ever been bitter towards one another, but I had to give her a glimpse of what I saw in her, that I saw more to her than the never-ending banter. I cleared my throat, “You look beautiful today, Julia. I wanted to tell you that earlier, but I never found the right opportunity.”
“You think I’m beautiful?” I didn’t know if she was just fishing for compliments. With her being a straight chaser, I couldn’t see her fishing for anything let alone caring what someone else thought of her. Perhaps she just wasn’t used to getting true, honest compliments.
“I do.”
“Did you really think I looked bad the other times?” she asked, wondering about the whole Sally Streetwalker comment. She looked gorgeous every time I’ve seen her. She pulled her lip between her teeth awaiting my response. I nodded my head yes, still remembering what she looked like every single time I’ve seen her, further increasing my need for her. My nostrils flared at the thought of us together, and then I breathlessly mumbled, “No.”
“Are you trying to fish around for compliments, Jules?” I had to gauge her reaction.
Her face fell as she immediately dropped her arm from my shoulder, “It’s Julia.” She finished pulling away from me, albeit a bit disgruntled, and headed in the direction of the bathroom.
I didn’t know what had transpired between us, but I couldn’t let the entire moment pass us by. This was my chance to get her alone. I hoped like hell I didn’t blow it.
I waited across from the door to the bathroom, my shoulder pressed up against the wall. So many questions were running through my mind, but the most pertinent was if I was making a big mistake by being here.
Life was full of unexpected chances, and you never knew if it’d be the right moment if you didn’t face it head on.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, and leaning my back up against the wall, I tried to concentrate on something other than my building nerves. I then brought my arms behind my back and pressed my hands against the coolness of the concrete wall. As much as I tried to talk myself out of being there, I’d come too far to turn back now. I dragged my fingers along the ridges and grooves behind me and willed her to walk out of the bathroom door before I lost my nerve. Even though I was thirty-three years old, I felt as if I shouldn’t be nervous to kiss a woman. But the thought of Julia turning me away and shoving my heart through a blender had my heartrate surging well above its normal pace.
The door swung out towards me, as my fingers pressed deeper into the wall. Julia emerged, her hair back in place and her lips stained with freshly applied lipstick. I almost wanted to apologize in advance for ruining her collected appearance. At last she finally looked up and acknowledged my presence with a lift of her brow.
She lowered her hands down to her sides and closed her eyes as she deeply inhaled air into her lungs. I didn’t even let her fully exhale before I was off of the wall, wrapping both my hands around her waist and pushing her back against the cool concrete I had been occupying just seconds before. Her eyes flew open and not knowing what to expect, I held my breath to see what her reaction would be. The dilating of her pupils and the flicker of her eyes to my lips gave me all the approval I needed. I removed a hand from her waist and gently cupped her face. When she leaned into my touch, I knew I had her.
Closing in on the empty space between us, I began my descent to her mouth, but my curiosity was plaguing me on a question I had. Her breathing had picked up by that time and my further prolonging this interaction would no doubt get her blood boiling.
“Why does Bentley get to call you Jules, but I wasn’t even awarded that luxury?”
“Because, Bentley doesn’t irritate the shit out of me!” Her jaw clenched at my inquisition, which brought a slight smile to my face. I loved that I affected her so much.
Leaning towards her again, another question presented itself from something she mentioned to me earlier. How selfish would I be if I just kept my thoughts to myself, swirling around, never knowing whether or not I would find out the answer to such a pressing question?
This time I bypassed her lips, bringing my mouth to her ear, my breath caressing her outer shell. “Are you really not wearing any panties?”
When I brought my eyes back to hers, she tried her hardest to appear offended that I dared to whisper such a question.
The offense slid off her face and anger quickly replaced it.
I was so entranced with her reaction and those incandescent green irises that I never saw it coming.
The crack sounded first before the sting from her palm broke through on my cheek.
She slapped me.
She actually slapped me.
Nothing other than the pain radiating through my cheek registered at first. And before I could even lift my hand to my face, she had her hands curled around the lapels of my tux, much like how I had handled Bentley earlier. But instead of yelling in my face about my atrocious behavior, she surprised the hell out of me by slamming her lips to mine.
The surprise of her turning the tables on me quickly wore off as her tender lips melded to mine. A growl threatened to erupt from my chest as she casually coaxed her tongue along the seam of my lips, silently asking for access.
Didn’t she know that she already had me? No permission was necessary to take what she wanted, what we both so desperately needed.
I plundered my tongue into her mouth as her arms wrapped around my neck. I allowed my right hand to move off of the wall and skim down her waist, starting from underneath her breast, all the way under her thigh until it was situated firmly within my grasp.
There were so many ways that I could describe what was happening, but the best was that it was feral and lethal, all rolled into one soul-gripping, earth-shattering kiss. This woman took just as good as she gave and had me completely under her spell with her kisses, so much so that I forgot that we were against a wall in a hallway, where anyone could see us. I didn’t know what excited me more, that Julia was such a willing participant or the fact that
we could be caught at any moment.
I hitched her thigh up around my hip, needing to get as close to Julia as I could. She immediately wrapped her other leg around my back, all while never breaking contact with my mouth.
Bracing my hand under her ass, I had to find out for myself if she was indeed walking around commando. I had to see if she would lie to me about something that was so menial, but entirely erotic.
Blindly trying to find the bottom edge of her dress, I finally succeeded, only to be halted by a layer of tulle. Why women would go to such extremes for frill and frou frou shit, when all it did was piss men off when we were in a hurry for some action or trying to prove a point, or in my case, both of the aforementioned.
At long last, I felt my fingertips reach the flesh of her bare thigh and the urge to fist bump the air for finding my treasure was strongly evident. It was as if I took so much time peeling the paper off of a present, with all of the ribbons and wrappings, but I wouldn’t have the opportunity to look at my gift, yet…
I finally broke our kiss and focused on Julia’s chest as she was trying to breathe air back into her lungs. The rapid rise and fall had me wanting to feast on her breasts as they were being thrust in my face. But with my hand still poised on her bare thigh, I had other things to attend to first.
Bringing my mouth back to her ear, I nipped on the flesh of her lobe before whispering huskily, “You won’t confirm nor deny if you’re wearing panties, so I’m going to find out for myself once and for all.” I began my assault alternating nipping and sucking the expanse of skin below her ear. From the back of her throat, she released a sound so erotic that was a mixture between a yelp and a squeal. She loosened her hold around my neck and brought her hands to my shoulders, grasping onto them tightly to help brace herself.
I slowly began sliding my hand up her thigh so I could ultimately cup her bare ass. “Oh god,” Julia panted, rubbing herself against me, trying to create some friction between her legs against my aching erection. Once I almost had reached my destination, a voice startled us out of our lust-filled hallway adventure.
Then I remembered that we were in a hallway, where anyone could find us.
“Well, well, well… Would you look at this,” Fucking Bentley. I removed my hand from her bare skin and slowly started to allow Julia to slide down the wall. Careful of her regaining her footing and straightening out her dress.
A faint pink blush kissed her cheeks as she noticed my lips. She was completely focused on nothing other than my lips. Bringing her thumb up to my face, she swiped the pad along them, removing any and all evidence of our kiss.
She wouldn’t look directly at me and wouldn’t give Bentley the satisfaction of paying attention to him. As much as I was thrilled she wasn’t feeding into Bentley’s goading, I wanted to know what was running through her mind and I couldn’t do that if she wouldn’t look at me.
After cleaning off the smeared lipstick from my lips, she abruptly dropped her hand and she ducked out of the way, skirting past me to enter the restroom again.
My knees threatened to buckle, so I braced my hands against the concrete wall and rested my forehead against the cool ridges. I released a long, drawn-out sigh, trying to get my erection to subside, but the image of Julia panting and grinding against me would forever be seared into my brain.
“Way to embarrass her, asshole,” I bit out between my grinding teeth, the tension building in my jaw.
“Me?” He pointed to himself. “You were the one who had her pushed up against the wall, mauling her neck for anyone to see. You’re lucky it was me and not Norah.”
Dammit, but he was right. I shoved myself up to my full height and turned to look at our peeping Tom.
His hands were shoved deep into his pockets and a smirk situated on his face. “Man, for two people who claim to hate one another, I’d really hate to witness what would transpire if you actually liked her.” Then the bastard had the audacity to wink before he turned away. As he began to turn the corner to join the rest of the reception, he looked over his shoulder, “And here you were pissed at me for “taking” her in a hallway, what do you call this, asshole?”
Bentley Jenkins was officially the bane of my existence. Him and his smart ass remarks.
Chapter 11
Julia
I lazily pulled myself from out of bed, dragging my feet along the carpet heading towards the kitchen to get my daily dose of caffeine. I needed to feel the piping hot liquid warm my body from the inside out, waking me up so I could start my day. What was on the agenda would be a great question, but one I wouldn’t have an answer for. I told Eden as she was leaving for her honeymoon that I most likely would be catching an earlier flight back to Nashville. But doing absolutely nothing all week had a certain appeal. I had nowhere to be, so I could binge watch whatever the hell I wanted to on Netflix and veg out in the process. But I would have to lay low in the confines of the house and hide away from Dean. What should be a simple task would prove to be anything but.
Exhibit A: He lived next door.
And 2: The kiss that took place last night seemed to be on a constant loop, replaying in my head. Like an old time movie, the reel playing over and over again until it all blurred together, where all you saw was lips on one another and his hand inching closer and closer to where I yearned for him.
Until Bentley had to ruin it all.
I dug around in Eden’s cabinets, trying to find their coffee grounds. Surely they hadn’t run out. Rummaging through the pantry, I pushed endless boxes of Pop-Tarts and bags of chips out of the way; they must seriously have a junk food addiction. I realized that I had completely rearranged the shelves of their pantry, but still came up empty handed as to where the damn coffee was stored.
Sliding onto a stool that was placed underneath the bar, I braced my head in my hands. How could I hide out of Dean’s sight when I had to venture out to get coffee?
I’m sure he was on the edge of his seat with anticipation, just waiting for me to appear outside. And there was absolutely no way that I could mentally survive a full week without my caffeine pick-me-up. My whole day would be thrown off, and then I would be too moody to sit around all day and watch movies.
I could already feel the effects of not having my daily cup. It was becoming harder to concentrate and my mind was turning into a jumbled mess.
Could someone have a panic attack from not having any coffee?
Moving my face towards the counter, I rested my cheek against the cold granite and tried to keep my breathing composed. My thoughts finally strayed from my lack of coffee predicament and moved to much more dangerous territory.
Not only did I have an addiction to coffee, after the night before I could safely say that I had a strong addiction to Dean, and more specifically, his kisses.
Without realizing what I was doing, the pad of my fingers brushed across my lips, remembering the kiss down to the smallest intimate detail.
I’ll admit that I was surprised to see him standing outside of the bathroom. But what caught me off guard even more was the fact that he actually took the initiative to kiss me.
And Jesus Christ, the look in his eyes right before he stalked towards me, the fierce determination, had me clenching with desire. I had to physically force myself to close my eyes in order to take a breath.
But it just wouldn’t have been genuinely Dean if he didn’t annoy the crap out of me and push me to the edge. He got me all worked up before he riled me up, so I did what any woman would’ve done: took matters into my own hands and shut him the hell up.
I couldn’t pinpoint the last time I had enjoyed kissing someone so much. Anymore to me, it was a means to an end. Kissing for me, led to getting emotionally attached, so most of the time, when I hooked up with a man, I hardly ever offered my mouth. But with Dean, after the first touch, I craved more.
If Bentley hadn’t interrupted us, I didn’t know how far things would’ve gone. Being completely caught up in the moment, I was oblivious to the wo
rld around us. And when Bentley called us out, I had never been so embarrassed. I was chalking up the lapse in judgment to my brain being totally consumed and clouded by lust. And I allowed my head to hang in defeat while I retreated back to the restroom for hiding; normally I never ever looked down at the ground unless I was fixing my shoe. I always held my head high and accepted whatever judgment and remarks people cast my way and often did so without even blinking. My resting bitch face was perfected. But something about being caught wrapped up in Dean disturbed me. I didn’t want onlookers gawking at something that should’ve been considered private.
This admission was extremely dangerous, especially to my guarded heart, which is why I needed to steer clear away from Dean Parker.
A loud rap on the front door caused me to jerk upright.
Could it be the coffee gods coming to help me out?
Did they deliver?
I didn’t know why the thought of it being Dean never even crossed my mind. But once I unlocked the brass deadbolt and yanked the door towards me, allowing the frigid air to envelop my body, there he stood all of his delicious sexy glory.
I felt goosebumps break out all over my body and my nipples pebble underneath my t-shirt, reminding me that I was still in my pajamas and without a bra. My breath hitched in my chest at the sight of his smirk, then I took in every last inch of him, ending with his boots, which were heavily lined with snow.
Snow? What the?
Leaning to my side, I peered past Dean into the front yard and sure enough there appeared to be several inches, perhaps even feet of snow. When Baylor and Eden were leaving for the airport around midnight there had only been a few flurries. It must have come down hard to accumulate so much in the matter of a few hours.