Taken By The Heart (4 Contemporary Romance Novellas)

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Taken By The Heart (4 Contemporary Romance Novellas) Page 27

by Sierra Rose


  “C’mon, let’s do some shots!” Jayda said, grabbing my arm.

  “Um, I’m not 21 yet,” I murmured.

  She threw back her head and laughed, her ponytail wagging. “They’re not going to ask for I.D., trust me.”

  I smiled and followed her to the bar, ordering my very first drink. Only two dollars for a shot, and I wasn’t sure if that was expensive or not, as I had never paid for one before.

  When we all had our shots, I was about to throw mine back when Jayda grabbed my arm and yelled, “Wait!”

  My shot glass paused dramatically at my mouth, I looked at her curiously with a pale eyebrow raised.

  “Here’s to the men that we love. Here’s to the men that love us. But the men that we love, aren’t the men that love us. So fuck the men, here’s to us!” she yelled out the last part.

  The three of us let out a whooping cheer and we slammed our shots back. Mine burned like fire going down and I’m pretty sure my eyes watered – but I had a huge smile on my face.

  “That was freakin’ awesome! I hope I remember that toast tomorrow!” I choked out.

  Stephanie laughed. “You probably won’t.”

  Stephanie was a very pretty girl with shiny, straight black hair and big almond-shaped eyes. She probably had some Asian in her somewhere with the flawless olive skin and petite frame. Jayda was built more like me, on the tall side but with piercing blue eyes and light brown hair.

  “Wow, you ladies look like you’re having a good time,” said a voice.

  I turned around and my breath caught in my throat. A very hot guy standing over six feet tall was right in front of me, flanked by two other equally hot men.

  My eyes flicked between the three of them, all of them smiling and holding brown beer bottles, but my gaze quickly landed back on the guy in front of me.

  “Yes, we are. What are you boys up to?” said Jayda.

  “Well, I’m Chris,” said the tall hot one, placing his hand on his very nice chest, “and this is Nate, and Jesse.” He pointed to the two on either side.

  The three of us introduced ourselves, but Chris’s eyes never left mine.

  “Miranda,” I said, pointing to myself like a nerd. “Jayda, and Stephanie.”

  “So, Miranda, where are you from?” Chris asked. He had light colored eyes but I couldn’t quite make out the color in the dimness of the bar.

  I batted my eyelashes at him and he stared back at me, keeping eye contact, even while drinking his beer.

  “Uh, I’m from the Bay Area. You?”

  He smiled. “Miami, Florida.”

  My eyes got big. “Seriously?”

  “Yep. I like California though; weather’s much better.”

  I played with my empty shot glass. “Better than Florida?”

  He grinned around the mouth of his beer bottle and it was sexy as hell. “Yep.”

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, so what are you doing all the way out here?”

  “United States Marine, ma’am,” he said, adding a fake Southern accent to the his response.

  I grinned. “Wow… well, welcome to California.”

  He stared at me uncomfortably for a few long seconds, but I was only uncomfortable because he was making my heart race and my panties a little damp at the intensity of his stare. “Would you like to dance, Miranda?”

  I set my shot glass down a little too eagerly as I heard a Bruno Mars ballad begin to play. “Sure, Chris.”

  He put his hand out and I grabbed it as he led me the short way to the dance floor. He let go of my hand and wrapped both hands around my waist. I encircled his neck with my hands and he felt warm to the touch. He pulled me a bit closer and took control of the dance, leading me gently.

  “So, how old are you, Miranda?” he asked, bending down to speak in my ear. His breath tickled my eardrum, and I shivered.

  “I’m 20, but I’ll be 21 in a few months. You?”

  “I’m 22,” he replied.

  The shot must have gone straight to my head because as I looked back up at Chris, it looked like he wanted to kiss me. His eyes were focused on my mouth and I suddenly really, really wanted him to kiss me. It had been way too long since I had a good makeout session.

  “You have very nice lips,” he murmured, running his thumb along my bottom lip.

  I flushed a little and smiled. “Thanks.”

  As if he could read my mind – or maybe he was reading my body language – he leaned down and found my mouth with his. His kiss was soft but firm, and when he lightly licked his way into my mouth, my tongue welcomed him eagerly.

  Moving his hand away from my face, he slithered it up into my hair and grabbed it at the scalp gently, and I made a moaning noise in the back of my throat. That seemed to spur him on, as he then removed his hand from my hair and it found its way to my ass.

  He broke the kiss and looked down at me with a grin. “You have a very nice butt.” He was still rubbing it.

  I stared up at him with my light brown eyes and batted my long eyelashes again. “Thanks, Chris, so do you.”

  Oh, my God that was so stupid!

  He laughed a little and removed himself from the intimacy of the dance as the song ended and a rap song began to play. We exited the dance floor, him leading me by the hand, back to the bar where our friends were. Stephanie was talking to Jesse, and Jayda was flirting heavily with Nate. They all turned to look at us.

  Jayda smiled knowingly at me. “Having a good first night in T.J., Miranda?”

  Chris laughed. “This is your first time in T.J., seriously?”

  I nodded and grinned. “Yep.”

  Jayda addressed Chris. “Stephanie and me, we’re from here, but Miranda? She just moved here. We thought we’d pop her cherry on her first weekend here.”

  My eyebrows shot up to my hairline and I blushed something fierce, grinning sheepishly up at Chris, who was looking down at me with amusement dancing in his eyes.

  “How do you feel, now that you’re no longer a Tijuana virgin?”

  “Ah, I need a drink,” was all I could think to say.

  “What would you like?” Chris offered quickly.

  I thought for a minute. Of course I’d drank before, but I was no hard alcohol expert. However, I didn’t like beer so I asked for the first thing that came to mind. “Rum and Coke, please.”

  Chris nodded. “Coming right up.”

  He turned around and slid further down the bar to get the bartender’s attention.

  Jayda looked at me. “He’s hot.”

  I stared at her seriously. “And you’re incorrigible! I can’t believe you said that cherry popping thing!”

  She turned her head to the side and smiled devilishly at me. “Did you just use the word, ‘incorrigible’?”

  I huffed and bit back a small grin. “Maybe.”

  Chris handed me a short glass with fizzing brown liquid and I took a long pull from the little red straw that was bobbing from the top of it. It was pretty strong but it tasted good.

  “Thanks.” I indicated the glass.

  “So, what brings you to San Diego, Miranda?” Chris asked.

  I swallowed another gulp. “College.”

  He smirked. “Ah, college girl. You couldn’t have picked a better place.”

  “So I hear,” I said back.

  “U.C. San Diego or San Diego State?”

  I took another drink. “U.C.”

  He grinned down at me and grabbed my hand.

  I swallowed nervously. “So, uh, Chris how do you know so much about the area? You must have lived here a long time.”

  “Been stationed here three years. But I’ve been all over the world, Japan, Italy, Germany…”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Wow, that must be exciting.”

  “Some were. Others, not so much. Take for instance the Middle East. I really don’t care to go back there, but,” he sighed, “I’m sure it’ll happen.”

  I frowned. “Oh, I guess so, huh?”

  He gazed down
at me and then his eyes moved to the sweating glass in my hand. He gently took it from my fingers and set it atop the bar. Wrapping one arm around my waist, he leaned down and kissed me again, and it sent a tingle from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. He broke the kiss and I gasped, looking up into his mischievous eyes.

  He leaned down again, this time to my ear. “Wanna get out of here?”

  I nodded robotically and took his hand. I looked behind me to see Jayda and Stephanie wiggling their fingers at me in a wave and giggling. I waved back and Chris led me out of the El Gato and out of Tijuana.

  ***

  Chris lived in a small rented house about five miles from Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. The other two guys I’d met, Nate and Jesse, were apparently his roommates, and when I saw the bachelor pad, I wondered how Stephanie and Jayda were doing, and if I’d be doing the walk of shame with them in the morning if they ended up back here. The rules in the dorms at the university were very strict about bringing boys up, but in the measly week I’d lived there, I had already seen plenty up there. I had made a mental note to be sure I didn’t walk the hallways in skimpy clothing.

  Didn’t stop some of the other girls, though.

  After a most exhilarating ride on a motorcycle – the type I had often heard my father refer to as a “crotch rocket” – we walked through the front door of the small, modest three-bedroom house and Chris threw his keys onto the old wooden dining room table. A hanging lamp was set above it and there was a black leather sofa and loveseat set that looked fairly new in the living room. There was a huge flat screen TV sitting on top of a black glass TV stand. I was still pretty buzzed from the rum and Coke (and the shots) and I felt a bit dizzy as I surveyed the humble home.

  “Like what you see?” Chris asked, grabbing my hand.

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, yes, nice place you have here.”

  He wrapped his arms around me and captured my mouth with his once again. I slid my hands around his neck and rubbed his buzzed light brown hair and it felt prickly against my palms. Chris’s hand found its way to my ass again and I released a breathy groan. This seemed to encourage him as he picked me up and I wrapped both legs around his waist.

  I was wearing the tight white denim capri pants and I was glad they were the “stretch” kind because I’m fairly sure they would have torn in embarrassing places at that point. I stifled a giggle at the thought and concentrated back on the task at hand.

  Without breaking his kiss… and what a delicious kisser he was… he carried me to a closed door set into a dark hallway and kicked the door open with his foot. His mouth never left mine, his tongue snaking into it gently.

  God, he tasted good.

  He tossed me playfully on the bed and I let out a gasp as I bounced once on the large queen-sized bed. The room was mostly in darkness, but his shades were partially open and a half-moon illuminated enough of the room, bathing it in a blue glow. Like the rest of the house, the bedroom was modest, with one dresser, a closet, and a large poster that covered half a wall with a Marine in full dress uniform holding a sword in front of his face. The poster read The Few. The Proud. The Marines. I also saw a couple of small posters of a few UFC fighters whose names I had no clue of.

  He broke me out of my gawking by causing the bed to give under his weight as he placed a knee on the end and climbed over to me. I smiled at him and wondered what the hell I was doing.

  This was my first week in San Diego, and I barely knew Jayda, and I’ve already gone home with the first guy I met. What are they going to think of me? I wondered why I even cared. It was times like this that I had come down to have the whole college experience for, and maybe it was the alcohol talking, but I just really didn’t care this point. This boy was the hottest thing I’d seen in a long time and he obviously wanted me too, so I was going to roll with it.

  His mouth found mine once again, and as he licked my lips and raked a hand through my thick hair, I slid my hands under his shirt and let the hard planes of his chest and stomach caress my palms. I groaned at the feel of it, and with more force than intended, I pulled his T-shirt off and tossed it to the floor. His fingers were already sliding up under my pink tank top, and with experience and finesse, he glided it up over my head and it joined his shirt on the floor. He grinned at the light pink lace bra I had on, and I yanked him by the neck, encouraging him back down to continue his delicious mouth assault.

  He kissed me again, all warm lips and tongue, then broke the kiss again to trail his lips down my neck, my cleavage, and then he licked the flesh that was bulging out from the top of the lace of my bra. He ran a finger down lower and I gasped when he gently rubbed my nipple with the pad of his finger. He slid my bra strap down to expose my whole breast and his tongue flicked my nipple and I groaned in delight. I gripped what little hair he had on the top of his head, urging him to continue.

  With skilled hands, he trailed a finger down the taut lines of my stomach until he found the snap to my pants and popped it open. Slowly lowering my zipper, he wiggled two fingers into my pants and looked up at me with a wicked smile at the feel of my panty-less condition.

  I had forgotten I’d gone commando and was a bit embarrassed at first, but this seemed to please him so I smiled back. “Like that, do you?” I whispered.

  “Hot. Very hot.” He rose up on his knees and gently folded my pants down over my hips, then yanked them completely off. I was so turned on, I was fairly sure he would have to replace this comforter tomorrow. His fingers found my sweet spot and I tipped my head back and moaned as he put one finger, then two inside me and began moving them back and forth. He lay back down beside me, not breaking his finger strides, and began kissing my mouth again, and I hungrily kissed him back. I felt a huge wave of pleasure pass over me. “Oh, Chris,” I moaned.

  “Yes?” he whispered in my ear.

  “God, yes…” I crashed over the ledge I’d been suspended on and moaned out his name as his fingers continued to pleasure me. I reached up to unbutton his pants and felt him bulging beneath them, begging to be set free.

  I sat up on my elbows and whispered, “Come closer.”

  He hovered over me and I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, freeing him from the confines of denim. I slid his boxer briefs off and placed my mouth on him and he let out an audible groan. Working my tongue in circles around his tip, I looked up into his beautiful face and gently stroked the rest of him with my smooth palm. I gradually began to work faster, his fingers gently caressing my hair, encouraging me on.

  “If you don’t stop, I’m not going to be able to either,” he gasped.

  I smiled around his manhood and worked my ministrations faster until I felt him get even harder and stiffen up. “Oh, God,” he groaned as his head tipped back and I felt a salty gush enter my mouth and slip down my throat.

  Pulling myself off him, I grabbed both his ass cheeks and squeezed, just because, and looked up at him once more.

  “Holy shit, woman, where did you learn that?”

  I raised an eyebrow and half my mouth twisted up, but I didn’t reply.

  He looked sheepish. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  With that, he fell back on the bed and we both passed out from pure hedonistic exhaustion.

  CHAPTER 3

  My head was pounding and I didn’t want to open my eyes, but the smell of strange food that assaulted my nose made me realize quickly that I wasn’t in my dorm room. I bolted up when I realized I had fallen asleep at Chris’s house and looked over to see his side of the bed empty. I scrambled out of bed and quickly re-dressed, dreading having to go through the living room to leave.

  Oh, my God, I don’t have my car!

  I glanced at the bedside clock and saw it was already eight a.m. With trepidation, I cracked open the bedroom door and peered down the hallway. Thankfully the bathroom door was open so I didn’t have to guess which one it was. I padded quietly along the hardwood floors and went into the bathroom, gasping at my appearance. Black
makeup smudges and swollen lips greeted me and I quickly ran some water and rinsed my face off. I saw a tube of Colgate lying next to the sink and I gave myself a quick finger brush with it before raking a hand through my hair to smooth down my bed head. I walked out of the bathroom, took a deep breath, and went into the living room. From there, I could see Jesse in the kitchen grilling something.

  He turned when he heard me. “Good morning,” he said with a wry smile.

  I scraped my hair behind my ears and smiled shyly. “Good morning.”

  He turned back around to his task at the stove and I looked around, not seeing anyone else but the two of us here. “Um, it’s Jesse, right?” I said.

  He turned back around. “Yep. It’s Miranda, right?” He smiled.

  “Yep. Uh, do you know where Chris is?”

  He nodded. “Yes, he went to get coffees.”

  I was only relieved because he was my ride home, not because I was really keen on seeing him again. I was just about to take an awkward seat on the sofa to wait when I heard a door open in the hall. I turned around to see an equally sheepish Stephanie emerge, except she didn’t look as tousled as me, and I wasn’t sure if I was jealous or happy about that.

  She seemed relieved to see me and I waved. “Hi.”

  Stephanie came to sit next to me on the sofa. “Hey.”

  “Good morning, beautiful,” Jesse called from the kitchen. I noticed he had a slight accent when he spoke and I wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before. Probably the alcohol.

  I lifted a pale eyebrow at Stephanie. “So should we be expecting Jayda to emerge from door number three?”

  She laughed. “No, she and Nate didn’t come back here last night, although,” she paused, looking up at the popcorn ceiling as if it was going to deliver to her the memory she was trying to recall, “I’m unsure where they went, I doubt she’d go back to the dorm with him.”

 

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