by Stella Rhys
“I know you’re right but give me a second to cool off before I give you the proper credit you deserve for that speech,” he muttered, finally offering a little grin before pressing his soft lips to mine. “Thank you for being here,” he murmured before we went inside.
With an irritated call of his name, Abram got Jesse away from the flirty bartender and had him follow us to the table at which Nate already sat having dinner. Only then did I realize how long I’d gone without sitting down and having a proper meal. More than twenty-four hours. At the sight of the feast Nate had ordered – scallops, pasta, charcuterie and steak frites – my stomach finally started to rumble. But like a child, Nate eyed me defensively and pulled his plates closer. And the cherry on top of it all: this dickhead who will never stop hating me.
“We have a surprise guest,” Abram said as we sat down.
Nate glared at Jesse while shoving a forkful of fettuccine into his mouth, clearly too hungry to make a fuss. There was no time to anyway, with two waitresses suddenly rushing to the table, jostling for position till they were eventually both pushed aside by the leggy brunette manager. As she asked to get us drinks, giggling endlessly at Jesse’s request for “all of them,” I looked around, realizing what a complete and utter spectacle we were. It was my first time in public with these guys and for those who didn’t recognize Abram, Jesse or both, we were still a table of three handsome men, two of them impossibly so. Male or female, it felt as if every set of eyes in the restaurant was glued on us. I even noticed a few familiar faces in the crowd – the ladies of the bachelorette party, dressed to the nines, nudging each other with their fluttery eyes wide and their jaws on the table. I took comfort in everyone’s attention. Unlike last time, I had a feeling that being in public would keep the guys calm while discussing business.
After our wine arrived, Jesse broke the silence. “Well, since I suspect you gentlemen aren’t interested in making a toast right now, let’s get right to it. Clearly, the first order of business is finding my piece of shit brother so how about you tell me what general area he might be right now. I know his spoiled ass could never do a proper government relocation so what half-baked method did he end up choosing to try and hide forever?”
I sipped my wine and eyed Abram over the rim of my glass, zipping my lips and trying to simply follow the conversation.
“The deal was that he cooperated with our plan and let us make his death look believable,” Abram said, briefly looking toward me. “Which we made sure of. But his end of the deal was that we’d get no details of his relocation. Where he was going or what name would be on his new papers. He knew who he wanted to approach to have them made and all we did was ensure that that person was experienced with forging these kinds of documents.”
“You’re telling me you entrusted my idiot brother with some sort of responsibility? You realize this was a kid who still called our mom to make his dentist appointments, right? He doesn’t even have his own credit line.”
“Well, he had cash hidden somewhere because he took off with it,” Nate said. “And now we’re hanging our hope on the guy who made his papers. Hopefully, we can get some sort of information out of him.”
“And what’s his name?” Jesse asked.
“We don’t have it.”
“You guys are great at this.”
“A name should hardly ever stop you from finding someone,” Abram said in a clipped tone. “We know where he is.”
“Yeah? Where’s that?” Jesse asked, drumming his long fingers on the table as we waited for Nate to pull up the information on his phone. In the silence, I kept sipping awkwardly on my Cabernet, only realizing I’d gone too fast when my skin got suddenly hot. Setting my empty glass down, I shed the poncho cardigan I’d thrown over my short uniform before leaving work with Jesse. The second it slunk into a heap behind me, Abram’s eyes lifted. As they settled on my body, he set his wine glass down, his thumb running up and down the lower part of its stem as he studied every line and seam on my little black dress. A little smile twisted both his voice and his lips.
“Is that what you wear to work?”
Jesse and Nate looked over. But while Nate instantly sneered and returned to his phone, Jesse’s stare remained. I swallowed. With both his and Abram’s eyes on my body, at once and at the same damned table, I felt suddenly naked. More exposed than if I was actually sitting there without my clothes on. With a stiff nod, I answered Abram’s question, unable to act naturally around him with such an audience – certainly not one that included Jesse. I bit my lip as Abram gave the slightest tilt of his head while eyeing my thighs under the table. Never meant for sitting, the dress only just covered my panties. From the corner of my vision, I saw Jesse’s drumming fingers curl into a fist as Abram leaned slowly into me. “I’ll let you know now that I’m going to need to fuck you hard tonight,” he murmured in my ear. I pushed his hand off my knee.
“Let’s not talk about that here,” I whispered breathlessly.
And in a flash, his attention diverted. I exhaled, lifting my hair off the back of my neck as Nate began talking to him about something or another. I knew Jesse’s eyes burned on me but I decidedly kept my own stare forward, focusing on my empty wine glass. When I finally caved and flicked my gaze toward Jesse, I caught an expression I’d never seen on him before. His square jaw was tight, his green eyes serious. There was no hint of amusement on those constantly grinning lips. He was an entirely different person and his demeanor both smoldered and suffocated me, even when he finally looked away to speak to Abram.
“I’ve had enough, thank you so much,” I breathed anxiously when the server came by to refill my wine. “Could you just tell me where your restroom is?” I asked quietly, so I couldn’t be heard. And with a point down a flight of steps, I quickly left, in desperate need of air.
Downstairs, I found myself in a crimson red corridor of dim lights and a half dozen doors. I picked the one vacant room and rushed in, shutting the door behind me and splashing cold water onto my face. Gripping the sides of the cold black sink, I stared at my reflection, almost wanting to laugh at how I looked. Like I was hot and bothered when in reality, I was just bothered. My cheeks were pink, my lips red and swollen. On top of that, I’d apparently messed with my hair enough to give myself a post-sex kind of look look. Gathering it up, I piled my waves onto the top of my head, winding a stray lock around the knot to keep it all in place. Breathing steady, I fanned myself with my hand till I felt calm and cool enough to return to the table.
But the second I opened the door, I gasped, feeling two hands grip my waist before my eyes could even process the sight.
Jesse.
He pushed me back into the bathroom, kicking the door shut, his breath hot on my neck as he pressed me up against the wall. “I have no right to feel possessive over you,” he whispered hoarsely, propping my jaw up so I could look at nothing but him. Unblinking, I panted, my lips parting as his other hand slid slowly from my waist up to my ribcage, finally settling on the outer curve of my breast. “But for some reason, I can’t end this night and send you off to Abram without getting to touch you one more time. I’ll fucking explode if I don’t.” His every word lashed like a hot whip over my skin. If I felt suffocated before, it was nothing compared to now.
“Jesse, we can’t do this.”
“Unless I’m mistaken, you aren’t taken.” He parted my mouth, drawing his thumb over my swollen lower lip. “He hasn’t asked you to marry him. You’re not so much as dating. So what exactly is the problem here?” And there it was again – that wicked little grin. “Times are changing, Isla. You’re allowed to be interested in two people at once. Nobody owns you, babe, contrary to what Abram may think.”
Through my breathlessness, I managed a retort. “Hard to paint him as controlling when you just called yourself irrationally possessive.”
Jesse pushed up against me, rubbing the front of his body against mine. “I’ll remind you that he had me listen to every hot sound you made
while he fucked you this morning and I let that shit roll off my back. If we ever switched places in that situation, he’d team up with Yappy Dog and break my legs. Tell me I’m wrong.” Jesse lifted his brows in a challenge. When I said nothing, he laughed and dropped his hand from my jaw. I breathed out hard, my eyes still fixed on his as he ran his hands all over the front of my body. “Tell me you want nothing to do with me.” He eyed me as he tugged at my dress, waiting to be stopped. But I was frozen silent and with a short yank, I felt the cold air gush onto my skin. “Come on, Isla, tell me. Tell me you don’t want me to fuck you again.” Stepping back, he watched me as I simply stood there for him, unmoving, my dress pulled halfway down to my waist and my naked chest heaving as I breathed in and out. I felt my hair falling out of its knot, soft locks cascading down the sides of my face, onto my neck. Inside, I unraveled with them. Because I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t something there with Jesse. I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew it was wrong and all I wanted was to reject it. I was doing perfectly fine until this moment.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous, Isla,” Jesse cursed, tugging on his lip as I stood exposed for him in every way. “I need to feel you again.”
“You can’t.”
“But Abram can. Why?”
“I’ve been through a lot with Abram.”
“So you owe him sex.”
“No, I want to… I want to be with him.”
“And you don’t want to be with me?”
“I barely know you.”
“You barely know him.”
“Maybe not but I know him differently than I know you. And I want him differently than I want you,” I answered through my teeth. “Whatever we have Jesse, whatever you have, it’s just lust. I promise you that.”
“And you’re against indulging lust.”
“I am when it’s with you.”
It was silent as the air grew suddenly dense. Muggy. Jesse’s hollow cheeks flexed as his store bore straight into me. “Fair enough,” he murmured. I exhaled but tensed as he came close again. I watched him closely.
“I know you’re not letting me off this easy.”
Jesse grinned. “Smart girl,” he murmured. And in one swift motion, he bent down and took my nipple in his mouth, sucking hard before tugging my dress back up to cover my chest. My mouth remained wide open as he then cupped my ribs, running his thumbs over my bust, over the shape of my stiffened peaks. “You’re going to think of me tonight while he’s fucking you,” Jesse said. “And I’ll be thinking about you while I fuck whoever it is I fuck tonight. And we’ll both be wishing we were in bed with each other.” He buried his face in my neck. I felt a kiss and the quickest lash of his tongue against my skin.
And with that, he was gone.
chapter nine
I was hell-bent on proving Jesse wrong – of getting him the hell out of my head for the rest of the night. So as Abram and I waited for the elevator, I proposed an idea that lifted his brows with surprise. Leaning against the wall, he grinned at me. “A date?”
“Yes. A real one. Not in the hotel. Just you and me outside somewhere.” I smirked and held my poncho cardigan shut as his eyes wandered down my dress. “We’re going to do this the old fashioned way. An actual conversation, not about work, before you get to see me naked.”
He laughed. “For those stakes, I’ll do pretty much anything.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
At my request, we took the car out of Chelsea. Abram watched me, a charmed smile on his sculpted lips as I asked his driver to choose any direction and simply stop in exactly twelve minutes. I was satisfied when at our time limit we landed in Nolita, on Prince Street. When we got out of the car, I dropped back to let Abram walk in front of me, giving myself a minute to enjoy the reactions that he garnered on the street, since tonight was about soaking him in. About continuing the momentum that had me falling for him before he had to leave to find Jesse. So I basked in the obscene amount of attention he garnered on the street. From teenaged girls to elderly women, there was whiplash. It was incredible because not a single person felt the need to be subtle. Abram’s brand of gorgeous was shocking and rare enough that you actually had to stare. Ignoring him was like taking a stroll during a meteor shower and just deciding not to look. When he turned around and waited for me, holding his hand out for mine, I melted straight to nothing. One little gesture and he had me feeling like easily the luckiest girl on Earth. I was so ready to have a completely perfect night with him.
Well, almost ready.
“Before we start our date I need to ask you something,” I said as we settled into our booth at my lounge of choice. It was small, dark and cozy, lit mostly by the streetlights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. Once we finished ordering, Abram brought my legs onto his lap. I reveled in the feeling.
“Go ahead.”
I chewed my lip. “When we had sex, did you… leave the door open on purpose?” I looked him in the eye. His instant smirk was my answer. “Abram, don’t laugh. Why did you do that?”
He winced. “I’m sorry. I know it’s no excuse but I don’t know what the fuck came over me. I saw Jesse look at you and it lit a fire in me.”
“Why?”
Abram ran his hand hard over his jaw. “I don’t like him, Isla. You know that. If it were up to me, he’d never be in the same room as you let alone even looking at you. But I can’t blame him and I know that. Because there’s no such thing as not looking at you. You’re impossible not to look at.”
“So you decided to punish him for looking at me by making me come loudly with the door open.”
He grimaced. “I’m sorry, Isla. I am.” He groaned and laughed at himself. “Christ, I usually pride myself on using my brain but around you sometimes I get… primal and instinctive. Basically stupid.”
“Fine. That’s fair enough, I accept that,” I smirked. “Now one more question.”
“Shoot.”
“Aside from tonight, have you ever sent your men to watch me at work?”
“No.” His quick reply eased my heart. “I know the people who run Muse Room. I trust that you’re safe in their hands. But with Jesse back, I didn’t want to take chances tonight. And turns out, my hunch was right.”
Again, fair enough, I nodded before blinking hard, trying not to think about Jesse even once more for the remainder of the night. “Alright then. I think that works for me,” I murmured, flexing my toes as Abram stroked my bare calf.
“Is this the official start of our date now?”
“Yes. And it’s my first one in more than a year so forgive me if I don’t remember how they go.”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. I don’t do these a whole lot either.”
“Of course not.” I recalled the articles I’d read about Abram’s “harem” of beautiful women. “When was the last time you even had a girlfriend?”
“Guess.”
“College.”
“I didn’t go to college.”
I blinked. “Really?” For some reason, that shocked me. “Why not?”
“I went straight to the Air Force.” Oh, I vaguely remembered this detail. “And to be quite honest, that one girlfriend I had lasted from eighth grade to mid-freshman year, so I’m not even sure of that counts.”
“Really.” I cocked my head at Abram, studying his thick, dark hair and light blue eyes. His every perfectly symmetrical feature. He probably looked like a model for Ralph Lauren as a teenager. “I find it hard to believe that you didn’t have hordes of girls stalking your every move when you were younger.”
“I never said I didn’t,” Abram grinned. “And college girls for that matter. But I didn’t have the time for a normal social life.”
“Why not?”
Abram took in a deep breath. He kept that good-natured smile on his lips but I could hear a distinct shift in his voice. “I was busy taking care of my dad.”
My heart dipped with dread. “I’m sorry. Was he… sick?”
&
nbsp; “Healthy as a horse. Physically.” Abram tugged at the stubble on his chin. I somehow hadn’t noticed it till now. It made him look all the more masculine, as if that were even necessary. I stayed quiet as I watched him take a swig from his beer and set it down hard, suddenly glaring blankly at nothing. “He had a gambling addiction,” he finally said. “For as long as I can remember, he was in debt. My mother left him when I was one, maybe two.” Upon reading my wounded expression, he leapt to her defense. “She was nineteen when she got pregnant with me. Married him like a good Catholic girl. But he was hard to love and she probably started to hate him after a year of being stuck at home alone with a crying baby and no groceries.” He cracked a small smile and pressed his thumb between my furrowed brows. “It’s okay. Don’t frown,” he murmured, pressing a soft kiss to my lips.
“Your dad raised you then?”
He laughed. “No, Mrs. Murphy next door raised me. She was a six-foot-two Irish grandma and I rarely understood a word she was saying, but she loved me because I was the only boy in her unofficial nursery of neighborhood kids.”
“I see,” I grinned, charmed as I imagined a towering elderly woman who smiled as she herded a dozen kids in her modest home full of Jesus memorabilia. “And what neighborhood was this?”
“Windsor Terrace. In a brick house connected to a bunch of other brick houses. It was a little two-bedroom that my dad inherited from my grandparents but he lost it by the time I reached middle school. To a gambling debt.”
“Jesus,” I murmured. “And that didn’t stop him? From gambling?”
“Definitely not,” Abram laughed bitterly. “He just found new ways to pay off his debts.” He kept his hand running gently along my thighs but I could see his mind floating off somewhere.
“Something tells me it involved you.”
“Bingo, kiddo.” His voice was easy but I could see the darkness in his eyes. I knew I shouldn’t press on if he wasn’t offering the information himself but I felt like I needed to know. At this point, I knew more about Jesse’s background than I did Abram’s, and I kind of couldn’t stand that.