Best Of My Love

by N. D. Jackson

  Her smile flashed sardonic, defiant and almost wistful. “Drinking with the stars,” she pointed to the sparkling sky as she took her seat, one leg tucked under her so she could face him. Studying him with keen eye she tilted her head and bit her lip, forcing Erick to stifle a groan. “Why are you really here?”

  He decided to go for honesty because he had nothing to lose at this point. And they had actual business to discuss. “I wanted to see you. Talk to you.”

  She picked up the oddly shaped bottle with grooves and poured the clear liquid into a glass before pouring it down her throat. “What do we have to talk about?”

  “What don’t we have to talk about?” He had so much he wanted to say to her but didn’t know where to begin. “You never used to avoid confrontation.” He shouldn’t goad her but dammit what else could he do?

  She poured another shot, drank it back and shook her head. “I don’t avoid it, but I also don’t see a point digging up the past. It’s history, Erick. Ancient history.”

  “I just want to talk.” She could be damn stubborn but as the father of a precocious little girl, so could he.

  “No. You feel guilty and you need to apologize or I don’t know, maybe you need me to see you feeling guilty since I never did, so that I’ll sleep with you.”

  Not that Erick hadn’t been thinking about having her again but he hadn’t expected Dre to be so forward about it. He used to have to coax her into lovemaking before she’d unleash her wild side. The look he shot her now was pure skepticism. “Would that work?”

  Dre’s lips curled into a very small smile as she held her glass out for him to fill again. He took a swig for himself and then poured. “No. If I decide to sleep with you again it won’t be because you were sufficiently apologetic or looked contrite enough.”

  Damn. Now she’d talked about fucking him twice and his body grew hard at the memory of their clumsy but sweet and sometimes adventurous lovemaking. It would be different now because they were different. Older, more mature. But the heat still burned between them, swirling and crackling with electricity and want. Need. “If?” Because he clearly heard her say ‘if’ when she obviously meant ‘when’.

  She nodded, her steady gaze holding his in a heated moment he broke using the bottle of quickly vanishing tequila. “I am perfectly capable of separating my emotions from my physical needs.”

  He didn’t need to hear that even though he didn’t believe her for a second. They’d waited until junior year before sleeping together and she’d been in love with him. A lot had changed but not that much. He refused to believe it. “Is that right?”

  Dre smiled at the challenge in his voice. “It is.” To prove it she turned so they were face to face, draping her bare legs across his lap. A perfectly smooth and toned set of caramel legs he ached to rest his palms on and slide up and down until she squirmed with need for him as he inched closer to her heat.

  That tequila really went to my head, he thought because it was the only explanation for what happened when one hand glided up her thigh, stopping well before his touch became inappropriate. “I don’t believe you,” he told her, stroking down to her ankle and back up. Her heat called to him.

  “Believe what you like,” she told him and his breath hitched. Did she just open her legs to me? He knew she had because he felt it deep down.

  “I think if we made love again it would mean something.” His hand rode further up her thigh, not stopping until he brushed against silk. Damp silk. “To both of us,” he bit out.

  She nodded and poured another shot. “It would mean you knew my body first and you’ve known it longer than anyone else so, when combined with the chemistry that seems to be ever present,” she trailed off with a shrug that seems to encompass what she thought of it.

  “I’ll try not to be offended that you sound so pissed off by that chemistry.” But he was damn offended.

  “You want me to be happy about it?”

  Hell yes! “I want you to admit that you want me.”

  “I’m sure you can tell that I do,” her gaze landed on the hand that was still stroking between her thighs, that damp silk the only thing separating them.

  Big brown eyes looked up at him as his hands slipped inside her panties, stroking into her and causing simultaneous groans. “So wet,” he told her and added a second finger, thrusting long and slow because he wanted to drive her out of her mind. “I want you to be happy about this,” he admitted.

  She smiled sleepily and he felt the answering tug in his heart. And his cock. “I’m always happy about an orgasm.”

  He froze. His veins filled with icy regret. “Is that what this is to you?” He thought they were getting close again, but Dre just wanted to get off.

  Dre pushed herself back up to a sitting position, grabbed his wrist and slowly extricated his hand from her body. “What did you think this was Erick?” She sounded annoyed like he’d done something wrong.

  “I didn’t think I was just scratching a damn itch! I thought maybe we could see what happens.” He sounded like a pussy even to his own ears.

  “Like what? Like I’d be stupid enough to fall in love with you again and I stay here to what, replace the woman who took my place?” Realizing her voice echoed in the quiet night, Dre blinked and released a long shuddering breath before standing and snatching the bottle of tequila. “Unbelievable,” she grunted. “See you around, Erick.”

  He sat there for a long time on that glider, barely rocking, listening to her lock up the house and turn off the lights. Though he didn’t hear her bare feet pad up the steps he knew when she got to her room because the strains of rock wafted through the open window, blended with the song of the crickets. Her words kept playing in his mind, “the woman who took my place”. Obviously she still had some feelings about the way things had gone down between them, not that he blamed her. He’d had that thought on more than one occasion over the past decade. He’d been careless, reckless for one stupid night, feeling like shit because Dre hadn’t been able to come home for the weekend and he couldn’t get away from his job at the restaurant. And Calista had been so bubbly and flirtatious. So available. One mistaken night had taken away the future he’d mapped out and Dre right along with it.

  Sometime later he finally stood, slightly fuzzy thanks to the tequila and walked home.

  He fell asleep thinking about how good it felt to be so close to Dre again. Even if he did cock it up. Again.

  Chapter Nine

  “Are we still going shopping today?” Kira stepped out of the bathroom of the two bedroom suite she shared with her sister, wearing a tentative smile filled with hope.

  Dre nodded and shoved a few stray curls behind her ear, still damp from the shower. “Hell yeah we are.” She needed a healthy dose of retail therapy. Though she wore jeans and t-shirts on a daily basis, she loved wearing sexy, silky, ultra feminine lingerie. Almost as much as sneakers and gadgets.

  “Where to?” Kira watched as Dre gulped down a big mug of steaming hot coffee. “Seriously?”

  She shrugged. “It tastes better when it’s hot. Definitely lingerie shopping, otherwise let’s just see where the day takes us. We have plenty of time so if you have any shops you want to stop at just say the word.” Dre grabbed a bag that couldn’t quite be classified as a purse, but the leather was soft and designer brand, but most importantly it held all the essentials. “Let’s go.”

  “Oh, okay.” Dre noted the surprise on her half-sister’s face, figuring she’d gotten used to Annie’s need to plan every outing down to the minute. Eventually she relaxed and by the time they reached the street the tension had left her body. “I contacted a realtor to help me find a work and store space for my boutique.”

  “That’s good. Really good.” Dre enjoyed being back in the city again, walking down the streets as the sun tried in vain to reach the pedestrians between the skyscrapers. It felt so nice she could acknowledge her pride for her sister without really trying.

  Kira nodded and gave a nervou
s smile. “I have to try at least. I’m sure if I fail Mom will have some boring guy in khaki pants waiting in the wings with an engagement ring.”

  Dre shuddered, suddenly feeling even happier she hadn’t stuck around Emerald Creek. “You’re right. You do have to try. Good for you Kira.” If not for her business Dre might have felt even more lost after her split from Erick.

  Kira froze and sent her half-sister a shocked look. “You mean that?”

  Dre frowned and looked over at her. “Damn right I do. Starting a business isn’t easy and that’s especially true if your family isn’t supportive.” Pointing to the lingerie shop she wanted to visit, Dre pulled Kira across the street.

  “There are street lights on either corner, you know.”

  Dre rolled her eyes. “We made it across didn’t we?”

  “Barely,” she mumbled and entered the store with a small gasp of surprise. “This place is…wow.”

  Dre grinned because the place had stunned her the same way on her first visit. “And you haven’t even started looking at the goods.” Hitting up one of her favorite shops had actually given Dre a bit of the happiness and calm she sought, especially after the way things had gone down with Erick the other night. Tired and on edge, she needed something to make her feel better. To invigorate her. Being back in her hometown had her feeling things she thought she’d put behind her long ago. Glancing over at Kira, she realized it wasn’t all bad. And as her arms filled with colorful lingerie she felt the tension fade away until her shoulders relaxed and the knot loosened in her belly.

  “It had to feel overwhelming at times, starting over in a new place with no friends. So who supported you when you started your business?”

  “I did,” she answered simply. “Try this,” she shoved a lavender demi-bustier and matching silky French knickers.

  Kira gasped and held the satin hanger away from her as though it might reach out and bite her. “There’s hardly anything to it!”

  “Exactly. Try it on.” She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up at Kira’s shocked expression. “Trust me. You’ll fall in love with it once you try it on.”

  “You wear stuff like this? Under there?” She pointed at Dre’s Foo Fighters t-shirt, incredulous.

  “I do,” she nodded her tone matter of fact. “I like it and so do the men I take to bed. Besides you’re a fashion designer so you should know the trends.”

  “I guess you’re right.” She flashed a knowing smile at Dre. “You’re like a serious femme fatale, aren’t you?”

  She just shook her head. “Nothing as exciting as all that. I just don’t let myself get caught up in how other people think I should act.” She’d done enough of that growing up in a small town. No matter how caring and well-intentioned they were, the people of Emerald Creek didn’t let different get away without words of advice on ‘blending in’. Add in a stepmother with clear opinions on how young girls should act and the rebellion had begun early. “Just try it on.”

  Kira gave the woman she barely knew a long, assessing look, smiling when Dre rolled her eyes. “Let me pick out something for you.”

  “Go right ahead,” she shrugged and continued browsing the racks, occasionally plucking hangers from the rack and adding them to her pile. Lingerie shopping always had a way of making Dre feel better, no matter what happened in her life. When her plans changed after college she’d spent several thousand bucks at Agent Provocateur, and though it hadn’t worked as well as she would have liked, it had been a sufficient momentary thrill.

  “You’re getting all of that?” Kira’s eyes bugged out and in that moment Dre thought she looked and sounded just like her mother. They even had the same cool blue eyes.

  “Not unless they all look good on me.” She enjoyed shopping and spending the money she worked hard to own but she didn’t waste it. Not ever.

  Kira laughed and shook her head, disbelief making her look a decade younger. “Do you just walk around your house in lingerie?”

  “Not always. Most of the time I wear pajamas or jeans, unless I have an important meeting or I need to leave the house.” She didn’t believe in wasting time getting all dolled up just to sit at home in front of a bank of computer screens. “But I also don’t spend a lot of time shopping so it all evens out.”

  They each stepped into a fitting room and lost themselves in the serious matter of trying on clothes, checking out their bodies from every possible angle and then gathering in front of the big mirror for a second opinion. Despite the newness of their relationship, Dre and Kira engaged in the dance as though they’d been doing it all their lives. “Can I ask you a question, Dre?”

  “Sure.” Rolling her eyes in anticipation of the question she twirled in the green silk, deciding on a smaller camisole and more French knickers in a variety of colors. She didn’t waste time wondering Kira would ask but her curiosity got the best of her.

  “Do you think I can do this, the fashion thing I mean?”

  Dre thought about it a moment, for once struggling with the balance of being kind and being honest. She stood behind Kira, hands on her shoulders so her gaze met her sisters insecure one. “I don’t know you well Kira but you seem capable. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make your business succeed,” she asked, avoiding the emotion of the moment by concentrating on the lingerie and adjusting the shoulder straps.

  “Within reason, yes.”

  “Okay, are you willing to put in long hours? Sacrifice your social life to make your business succeed? Take a shit salary until you start making real money?” Satisfied with what she wore Dre stepped behind the curtain. “If you can do all that and it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice then yes, I think you can do it.” She stepped into the dressing room and peeked her head out. “And get that, it looks hot on you.”

  “Is that what you did?”

  A small grin curled the corners of her mouth as she thought about the long hours and sleepless nights she’d endured to get her business off the ground. It had been hell, reaching out to secure clients and attending meetings, going over contracts and hiring employees. But she’d been determined to succeed and never return to Emerald Creek. That kept her motivated when motivation didn’t come easy. “Yep but it was pretty easy for me because I didn’t know a soul when I moved to California.” She ventured out an hour each day to visit the ocean and get her daily dose of vitamin D.

  “Was it scary?”

  “Considering what sent me there, it was more soothing. I knew I would never get over everything with people constantly asking me about it or tossing me sympathetic looks every time I went to buy tampons or coffee.” And she’d had no desire to bump into Erick and his little wife every time she left her house. Like now. “Work is the perfect cure for stress, depression and any other crap life throws at you.”

  After paying for their purchases they headed back out into the sunshine and hit a few more shops before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the game. “Are you sure it’s alright that I’m coming to the game with you?”

  Dre laughed as they entered the suite. “I’ve never known any guys to turn down adding more hot young girls to the mix.”

  Kira’s eyes went wide and round, shock written all over her face. “You think I’m hot?”

  “In a school teacher kind of way, but yeah.” In addition to bright honey brown eyes, Kira had wavy cinnamon hair that hung around her shoulders, at least it would if she ever loosened that damn ponytail. The cinnamon color and her light brown skin gave her an exotic look guaranteed to garner male attention. Everything about her was well manicured from perfectly sculpted eyebrows to the neat sweater sets and blush pink lips.

  “I guess that’ll do.” She gave a shy, hesitant smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “That burgundy dress isn’t all that teacher-ly though,” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  “Oh, be quiet,” she blushed furiously. “You think?”

  “Only one way to find out.” Dre shrugged and disappeared i
nto her room with her bags.

  Erick had stayed at work much later than planned but Saturdays were like that. Some nights they did a steady business that kept everyone on their toes until he locked the doors and others they all ran around nonstop. Tonight had been the latter which meant his mom had Orchid for much longer than he expected. He needed to make it up to her somehow, maybe a day at one of those fancy spas. While she loved hanging with her only grandchild, he did want his mom to think he expected her to be his full time sitter. “Sorry Ma,” he said as the door closed behind him, leaning on the door to catch his breath and froze as soon as his eyes opened. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  His ex-wife Calista stood with that simpering smile she thought looked seductive but it didn’t. It really didn’t. “I came to see my little girl,” she answered, all full of incredulity as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  His laugh came out harsh and bitter. “You don’t get to just drop by unannounced whenever the hell you feel like it Calista. And you seem to have forgotten you have a daughter so feel free to keep that shit up.”

  She gasped but Erick refused to apologize. He’d apologized plenty during their short time together but no more. The good thing about the end of their sham of a marriage was that he didn’t have to worry about hurting her feelings anymore. “But Erick,” she pressed in close but he stepped back and she nearly toppled over in those ridiculous heels she insisted on wearing. “I missed my little girl.”

  “Wrong Calista. My little girl. You gave up, willingly gave up, all rights to her. You can’t just forget that when it’s convenient for you. I won’t allow it.” After she’d vanished the second time for more than a year without a word to Orchid or to let him know she hadn’t died, Erick had petitioned the court to revoke her parental rights as soon as their divorce had become official. But the courts, moving slower than molasses uphill, had given her multiple chances to show up, after they’d spent a full year tracking her down. On the last date set she had finally shown up at ten minutes to five and the judge had relented. Giving him full custody and revoking Calista’s. “It’s up to me if you see her and showing up like this isn’t the best way to make your case.”