by Maya Banks
There was a long pause, and Julie could positively see Faith grappling with the sudden realization that tests weren't completely infallible. She grinned and shook her head.
"These tests are reliable, aren't they? Oh shit. Okay, well, I won't think about that right now. Anyway, I wanted to call to tell you that Gray and I are getting married. Tonight, I mean. We're flying to Vegas to tie the knot and won't be back for several days. Try not to kill Nathan while I'm gone. Give the man a break. He's obviously crazy about you. You and Serena try not to have too much fun without me. We'll catch up when I get back. And hey, thanks for the shoulder today. You're the best."
She made noisy smooching noises and then hung up.
Julie erased the voice mail and put the phone back on the kitchen table. The girl was certifiable. She'd called the wedding off, had a pregnancy scare and had eloped to Vegas all in twenty-four hours. And she had the nerve to call herself boring?
Clearly Julie needed to be taking lessons from her.
It was late, and Julie was tired, but she knew without a doubt she wouldn't go to sleep very easily. Too much occupied her mind, Nathan Tucker being the main distraction.
He'd surprised her tonight. He'd seemed alternately comfortable and ill at ease with her, almost as if she made him nervous. Was that why he'd never made a move before? His shyness was actually pretty endearing.
She had no idea where things were going with Nathan. He'd dropped her off without so much as a kiss good-bye. The tension between them had been palpable, but he must have the restraint of a saint because all he'd done is look at her with those gorgeous green eyes fringed with those too-long lashes. She'd melted into a puddle, and he'd simply told her good night.
She'd been plotting to jump him and drag him into her apartment while he could have been talking about the weather as calmly as he'd handled their farewell.
Maybe he just wasn't interested in her that way. But why go to the trouble of asking her out? Would she ever figure this guy out? He hadn't asked her out again. He hadn't given her the I'll call you line. He hadn't even said See you. Had the date gone that bad?
With an indelicate flop, she landed on the couch. Reclining, she put her head on the back and closed her eyes. Sexual frustration sucked. Men sucked.
Chapter 14
Micah leaned back in the chair in front of Faith's desk and turned his head as if to make sure they were still alone. "We still on for round two?"
"I wish to hell you wouldn't put it like that," Nathan grumbled. "And yeah, it would seem so. I mean, she asked for two nights. I guess I ought to be grateful she didn't ask for a week or something."
Not that he’d mind a month. Hell, he'd like a lot longer, but he wanted the blindfolds off and he wanted her to see him, to know it was him, to want him as much as he wanted her.
Micah eyed him with what could only be deemed amusement. "So how did the date go?"
Nathan grunted as he poured a cup of shit coffee that Micah had brewed and sipped cautiously. "It went."
"That good, huh?"
"It went exactly how I wanted" Nathan defended.
"So, what happened? You're acting like a bear with a sore paw this morning.”
"It's called frustration," he growled.
Micah chuckled. "You not have a good time, or she still holding out and running circles around you? I knew I loved this girl."
"We had a great time," Nathan said tightly. "She was great. Perfect, actually. I was determined to play it straight. She seemed convinced I was going to jump her, and I was determined to prove to her that I wasn't just after sex."
Micah leaned forward. "You aren't? Do tell. This gets more interesting by the minute."
Nathan sighed and ran a hand over his smoothly shaven head. "You ever look at a woman and just like what you see? I'm not talking about sex. I'm talking about liking her. The entire package."
"This reminds me of being in the third grade and having Emily Robbins tell me that she liked me but she didn't like me like me, because she liked, liked, liked Bobby Ray Coleman."
Nathan aimed a pencil at Micah's head and let fly. Micah ducked and the pencil bounced off the water cooler by the door.
"Okay, so you like her. The whole package. I get the feeling you're about to get all deep on me, man. We should probably be having this conversation over drinks, and one of us should be drunk. Preferably me."
"I wonder if anyone would miss you if you just disappeared one day," Nathan said.
Something peculiar flashed in Micah's eyes before they became bland again. "Nah, just Pop, and he could replace me quick enough."
"Don't tempt me then."
"All right, all right," Micah said, waving his hand impatiently. "So you like her. You don't want sex with her except if she doesn't know about it. Weird, man. I gotta say, you're one kinky bastard."
"Micah," Nathan growled.
He chuckled. "Okay, continue on."
"She expects me to want sex. I don't think she trusts men very much. I think she likes us as a species just fine, but I get the idea they've done a number on her, or maybe she just hasn't been very impressed by what she's experienced so far."
"So you want to prove her wrong. By having anonymous sex with her?"
Nathan glared at Micah who was contorting his face to keep from laughing.
"If I had my way, she'd be at my place, in my bed and we damn well wouldn't have any company. But since I don't have a choice in the matter unless I want her off fucking God knows who at a place where she could easily get hurt by some guy who wouldn't give a fuck about her or her pleasure, I have to go with what I've been given."
He turned away in irritation. He felt like a slimeball deceiving Julie like this, and okay, maybe he did think the threesome thing was pretty damn hot, but he still objected to having more than one dick in the room when he was having sex.
"Look, man, I know it isn't ideal, but you have a couple of choices. You come clean about your participation and go from there, you pretend you don't know a thing and ask her out for the same night and see what happens or you keep quiet and give her the best sex of her life."
"With you present," Nathan said darkly.
"If it bugs you that much, I can always slip out. If you're good enough, she won't even notice I'm gone," he said with a grin.
Nathan sighed. "That wouldn't be fair to her. Hell, none of it is, but I'm just enough of a selfish, conniving bastard that I can't stand the idea of another man touching her."
"So I take it you're going with option C."
"Fuck me," Nathan bit out. "She's making me crazy, Micah. It's not just lust. She does it for me. I'm telling you this is my dream woman, and she acts like . . . well, she called me sweet for God's sake."
"Ouch. Next thing you know, you'll be dickless and wearing pink."
"Thanks for that," Nathan muttered.
"Sorry I'm late," Pop said as he ambled through the door. Connor was on his heels.
"Where's Faith?" Nathan asked. He was still concerned after yesterday's showdown between her and Gray.
"Not like her to miss work," Micah said with a frown.
Pop smiled, and it was one of those shit-eating grins. "We're going to have to manage without Faith—and Gray, for that matter—for a few days."
Nathan exchanged looks with Micah and then they both turned to Connor. Connor shrugged and jerked a thumb in Pop's direction.
"Ask him. He has all the deets. I'm just the older brother. No one tells me anything."
"Faith and Gray flew to Las Vegas last night to get married. I imagine by now they've tied the knot and are tucked away in the honeymoon suite somewhere," Pop announced.
Micah chuckled. "Gray's a smart bastard. Hustled her off to Vegas before she could change her mind again."
Nathan frowned. "Is that what she wanted? He didn't coerce her, did he?"
Pop smiled. "It's nice of you to worry about her, son. Connor wasn't too happy with the way things went down either, but I talked to both her and G
ray last night. Faith sounded over the moon. Whatever their issues, they seem to have worked them out."
"When I saw her yesterday, she seemed awfully upset," Nathan said doubtfully.
"She loves him," Micah said reassuringly. "I'm guessing there was a misunderstanding over the time he was spending out at the house. And we all know Gray is shit-faced when it comes to her."
Nathan had to concede that point. He'd seen Gray after he'd left the hospital after being shot because Faith was missing. He'd refused treatment, rest or anything else until she'd been found. It wasn't a sight he'd ever forget.
"Okay, so let's quit the gossip and get to work," Pop said. "Not that you make it worth a shit, but get us some more coffee going, Micah."
Micah sent Nathan a questioning look as he got up. Nathan knew what he was asking. Was he going through with Julie's threesome a second time? With a resigned sigh, he nodded. But this was going to be the last time, damn it. Sometime between now and the next time she decided she wanted an anonymous interlude, he was going to convince her that he was the only man she needed in her bed. Preferably for a hell of a long time.
He hadn't called. She'd honest to goodness expected him to call after their date and all she'd gotten was a big wall of silence.
Julie locked up her salon and walked toward her car, the frown she'd worn all day wearing a hole in her brain. She slid into the passenger seat and drew in a deep breath, appreciating as always the smell of expensive leather.
Her cell phone had remained silent. She'd checked messages on her home phone for the past two days and had come up with a big fat zero.
With her second night at The House looming, she was in a huge quandary. Go with it or call it off?
As she backed out of her parking space, she shook her head. Why the fuck was she waiting around on a man? Again. This was the kind of stupid shit she had done when she was younger and a hell of a lot dumber.
She hadn't panted after a man in a long time, and damn if she was going to start. Okay, so she'd been panting an awful lot. Drooling, more like it, but that didn't mean she was going to stay at home, twiddling her thumbs while she waited for Nathan to make up his mind.
No kiss, no come-on, no promise to call her, no asking her out on another date. The evening had ended in silence and the silence remained. Hello? Slow to get the message much?
"You're a dumbass, Julie. You've let another guy twist you around and make a total ninny out of yourself."
Just saying it made her feel better. The first step in becoming smarter was to admit what a dumbass you were.
She wished she could just be angry, but the truth was, she was hurt by Nathan's indifference. He seemed interested enough when they were together. He'd said some really sweet things and he'd seemed sincere.
"Don't they all," she muttered.
She swung into her favorite take-out place and waited for her order. Dinner alone at her apartment wasn't on her list of favorite ways to spend the evening, but with Faith out of town getting hitched and Serena having plans with Damon, it left her options slim. It wasn't as if Nathan was knocking down her door.
She had walked into her apartment, juggling purse, keys and food when her phone rang. Thoroughly disgusted with the way she leapt at the thing, she forced herself to let it ring more than twice before she answered.
"Hey, Julie, it's Serena."
"Oh, hey."
She had to force a light, cheerful tone because her disappointment was damn near crushing. You moron.
"Damon wanted me to check with you to see if things were still a go for tomorrow night?"
She frowned. "Why wouldn't they be.”
Serena paused. "Well, you know, you and Nathan went out . . ."
Julie snorted in disgust. "He's not interested, Serena. And I'm not waiting around for him. I get the feeling I'm his backup plan or something. Fuck that."
"Ah, damn. I was hoping he'd call you."
"You and me both," she muttered, too low for Serena to hear. "Well, look, it's not the end of the world. The threesome ... it was dreamy and it has the added benefit of not making me crazy.
Honestly, I was nuts for getting involved with Nathan to begin with. He's obviously not that into me."
Serena sighed. "Okay well, I'd hoped it would work out. But he's a moron if he passed up an opportunity to have you."
Julie grinned. "I love it when you get all loyal on me."
"I'll kick his ass next time I see him."
"Nah, he's not worth it. Besides, you'd just hurt yourself. Don't worry about me, Serena. I plan to have fun and forget all about Nathan Tucker."
As she hung up the phone, she shook her head in disgust. Her vow of forgetting about Nathan Tucker seemed to be a common one. So when was she actually going to heed it?
Chapter 15
“I want you to come to The House tonight," Damon said as he forked a small bite of steak onto Serena's tongue.
The two were enjoying dinner in front of the fireplace, which Damon kept burning year-round, no matter the outside temperature.
She cuddled into his side, forgoing the next bite that he offered.
"You're asking," she said in a puzzled tone.
It wasn't as if he had actually phrased it as such, but normally he wouldn't say anything at all. If he wanted to take her to The House, he did so. Their relationship was a study in submission. Hers. It was something she still questioned at times, but she'd never backed away. No, she wanted it, craved it, too much. Much as she craved him. His love, his protection.
"Julie will be there tonight," he said after a hesitation. "And as you know, so will Micah and Nathan. Even though they won't be in the common room, I wanted you to know that they would be there before I took you."
She cocked her head sideways, studying his features. His warm brown eyes that softened with such love every time he looked at her.
"Does the idea that they could see me excite you?"
Damon was nothing if not honest. Even to his detriment. She could see the arousal in his eyes and knew the answer to her question already, but she wanted to hear what he was thinking. She thought she knew some of his thought process, but to hear him? Already a low thrum of desire swelled in her belly.
"What excites me is for them to see that you're my woman. My love. The woman who has trusted herself into my care. Not just them. Anyone. In my eyes, there is no woman more beautiful than you when you dance under the lash of my crop. For others to see and recognize that beauty gives me immense satisfaction."
She had no words, no response. She sat there, staring at him with wide eyes, her heart fluttering wildly.
"Does my barbarity shock you?" he asked.
For a moment concern sparked in his gaze, but he regarded her calmly, as if he trusted her to accept him.
She touched his face, allowing him to slide his lips over her fingertips in a gentle kiss. "Has my reluctance made you insecure? It's not what I ever intended, Damon. I've tried to be so careful to be fair to you in my caution."
He smiled. "You've done nothing wrong, Serena mine. I won't lie to you. Do I expect the people you know to even know you're there? No. But the idea of them being there, of the possibility that they could walk into the room and see you naked, under my hands, so submissive. Mine. Mine."
"And if I said it bothered me, that people I'm close to would see me this way?"
"Then I would never make you go."
But an essential part of their relationship would be gone. Irreparably damaged. Trust.
"And if I told you that I would stand naked in front of the world while you marked me as yours?"
"Your trust humbles me," he said in a nearly silent, aching voice. "Sometimes late at night I lie in bed with you next to me, your wrist bound to mine, and I simply marvel at the idea that you're mine. That after spending so many years searching, I've finally found you. I know you worry that I'm in love with an idea, a facade that you can only hold up for so long, but you're wrong, Serena. I love you, not an idea."
>
Love. It bathed her in its warm, heady glow, comforting. Constant.
"Take me where you go, Damon. It's all I want. I'm in your hands. Always."
He silenced her with a kiss. His lips touched hers with a reverence that shook her to the core. There was so much feeling. Too much for her to bear. He shattered her every time he showed her his love.
When she didn't stop to analyze, when she merely accepted, she was completely and utterly bowled over by the intense connection between them. Searching back, it was too soon, too young, too fresh to be so strong, so stable, so . . . permanent. Wasn't it?
There were rules for relationships, surely, that didn't include falling in love in such a short period of time. They were supposed to date, bicker, break up, fight, get back together, ponder getting married, children, baby names and then be engaged for at least a year before settling into marriage like an old couple. Right?
Damon had taken everything she'd ever considered about love and turned it on its head. Ever since they'd embarked down the path of her fantasies their relationship had a surreal quality that she still struggled with.
But if it wasn't real, what was it? No one could fake this kind of emotion. Who was she to say that what she felt, what Damon professed to feel, what he showed her with each glance, every touch, was an illusion?
The realization of just how wrong she was staggered her. Every day she expected to be the last, as if one of them would wake up and realize they were deluding themselves or each other.
While Damon had been giving their relationship his all, she'd been giving it a time limit.
A low sob welled in her throat, catching and stealing her breath. She swallowed and swallowed again, but it tore out as painful as her lack of faith.
Damon went still, and then he pulled away, concern deep in his eyes. "Serena, what's wrong?"
He put his hands to her face, touching lightly, seeking, running them down her neck and over her shoulders then back up again.