Picture Perfect

by Maguire, L. E.

  Wrapping his hands around my hips, he tightened his grip and held me firmly in place. My eyes snapped up to his for fear that I might have pushed things a bit too far. I was relieved when I saw the little, dimple-popping smirk on his face. Bending his head down, he pressed his lips up against my ear. “I love this dress on you.” He paused for a moment. “But right now I just want to rip it the fuck off you,” he finished in a growl.

  Sweet baby Jesus. Gripping his shirt tighter so I could keep him in place, I whisper-screamed over the music in his ear, “There’s always the ladies room, which I know you have a thing for.”

  Pulling away with a jerk, he easily broke my grip on his shirt. His emerald eyes bore into mine searching for I don’t know what for several seconds. Shit. Had I gone too far with that one or was he seriously considering it? I could not tell. The look on his face was expressionless.

  Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the dance floor. He was walking quickly with long purposeful strides, and I had to jog to keep up with him. Passing the table Jake and I had been sitting at, I noticed it was empty. He must have still been on the dance floor. I didn’t give it much thought once I realized Evan was headed for the dimly lit hallway that led to the VIP bathrooms. Holy shit! Were we really about to do this?

  Just as I seriously started to second guess where we were headed and what I knew I would allow him to do once we got there, he stopped in the hall. Pushing me up against the wall, he caged me in with his muscular arms. His darkened eyes ran over my face, bouncing between my eyes and my lips before he ran them down my neck to my chest then back up to meet my eyes.

  What the hell was he waiting for? The sexual tension snapped between us like a whip, turning me into a quivering mass of female need before him. With his lips parted, his tongue darted out and ran along that plump bottom lip of his.

  Unable to take it any longer, I wrapped my arms around his neck and dragged his mouth down to mine. But I did not have control for long. Cupping my face in his hands, he titled my head how he needed it so he could gain control over the kiss. Geez, this guy was just so male. And I loved it.

  He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against mine. With his eyes closed, we both tried to get our erratic breathing under control.

  “I watched you come into the club. I wanted to approach you, but I didn’t know if you’d want me to,” he said softly. “Then you headed out on the dance floor with Jake and I couldn’t help myself. I had to touch you.”

  “I was looking everywhere for you, hoping and praying that you would show up.”

  He pulled back suddenly. His brow pulled down low over his eyes, making him look angry. Had I said something wrong?

  “I didn’t think you wanted anything to do with me after you ignored my calls all week. I naturally assumed you were trying to avoid me.”

  Now it was my turn to frown at him. “What the hell are you talking about? I wasn’t trying to avoid you.” Instead, I had been going crazy because I had not heard from him.

  “Well you could’ve fooled me, Ember. Usually when a guy calls and leaves several messages, the girl responds if she’s interested. You never responded,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

  I so didn’t appreciate his accusing tone. “Well, I was interested and I would’ve responded to your messages if I had actually fucking received them,” I said, jabbing my finger into his chest. “Wait,” I said, pausing as I actually took in what he just said. “I didn’t get any messages from you. How did you even get my cell number?”

  Giving me a blank stare for a couple of minutes, a knowing look suddenly passed over his face as if a light bulb just went off over his head. Looking down at his feet, he shook his head in disgust. ”Fucking Daniel.”

  Then it hit me. “Let me get this straight. You asked Daniel for my number and he gave you the wrong one?” A little giggle escaped me, and I don’t know why. It really was not funny. I should have been totally pissed off with Daniel.

  Evan’s eyes snapped up to mine. “Yeah, on purpose no doubt,” he said, angrily.

  “Was this before or after I had dinner with him?”

  “It was the night of. After you ran out of the ladies room, I saw him at the bar with these women. I approached him and asked if he had your number.”

  Of course he was with those women. When I approached Daniel that night to let him know I was leaving, he knew something had happened to me. After seeing Evan, he must have figured he was the something that happened. “Fucking Daniel,” I muttered, making Evan chuckle.

  We stood in the hall and stared at each other for several minutes. The air between us charging with that sexual energy once again. My lips parted to accommodate my increased breathing as my heart began to pound against my ribs as if it were trying to break free of my chest.

  Evan did not go unaffected either. His chest began to rapidly rise and fall. Those large hands, now resting at his side, were clenching and unclenching. Slowly, he began to lean in towards me.

  “Come home with me,” I blurted, making it sound more like a demand than a question.

  Stopping dead in his tracks, his eyes widened as he straightened back to his full height. “Are you sure?” he asked. I nodded in response. “I rode my bike,” he said, glancing down at my dress. “I’ll leave it here and call us a cab.”

  “NO!” I hollered, taking him by surprise. “We’ll take the bike. It’s okay. I need to let Jake know I’m leaving.”

  He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Come on,” he said.

  The table that Jake and I had been occupying was still empty. Evan stopped and looked around until we spotted Jake still out on the dance floor. That cute little blonde from earlier was grinding all over him.

  As we approached, Jake focused on Evan’s hand wrapped securely around mine. A small smile played on his lips. He bent down so I could easily talk into his ear over the loud music.

  “I’m going back to the apartment with Evan.”

  He pulled back and widened his eyes at me. Rolling my eyes at him, I motioned for him to bend back down. “Not for what you’re thinking, Jake. Just to talk in a more private and quieter setting.”

  “You want me to text before I come home?”

  “That’s not necessary. I’m not planning on anything happening.”

  “Okay.” He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Be careful,” he mouthed.

  As we approached Evan’s motorcycle, I noticed a spare helmet was secured to the seat with a bungee cord. I smirked at him.

  “I got this especially for you,” he said, winking at me. Releasing the helmet, he easily secured it on my head. The inside of it had that new plastic and leather smell. I was a little disappointed with the fact that Evan’s outrageously sexy scent was not embedded in this helmet. I had to figure out a way to remedy that.

  He offered me his hand so I could climb onto his bike. Once again, I had to pull my dress up mid-thigh so I could straddle the bike. The look on Evan’s face, however, was totally worth the embarrassment of possibly flashing my panties to those milling around in the parking lot.

  Once on the bike, I scooted to get as close to Evan’s back as possible. Wrapping my hands tight and low around his waist, I squeezed my thighs around him. It felt just as thrilling as it did the first time. Again, the ride did not last half as long as I would have liked. I was seriously going to have to get him to take me on a much longer ride.

  After directing him to a spot in the parking garage, he strolled up next to me and grabbed my hand as we walked to the elevator. There was no ignoring the tingling sensation that shot up my arm when he wrapped his warm hand around mine. Suddenly, I was very concerned about being locked in an elevator with Evan. Alone. The apartment was no big deal. There were other rooms to disappear to for a moment if need be and plenty of space I could put between us, but the elevator was another story.

  Nervously, I reached out to hit the button to open the elevator doors. My hand was shaking like a leaf. I prayed he didn’t notice. A
s soon as the elevator dinged open, I shook my hand out of his and hit the button for the top floor.

  We ended up on opposite sides of the elevator. Both of us plastered up against the wall. My hands were wrapped around the handrail so tightly that my fingers were going numb. I glanced down and noticed that Evan’s hands were doing the same. It was as if neither one of us trusted ourselves with the other in such a small and confined space. It made for a tense ride up as the sex-filled energy began to charge the air surrounding us.

  When we arrived on my floor, Evan held the elevator door, motioning for me to exit first. I easily heard him exhale long and hard behind me, which made me smile wide. It was so good to know that I was affecting him about as much as he was affecting me.

  I took him on a quick tour of our apartment, spending the least amount of time in my bedroom. There was no way I would survive being in the same room with him and a bed for any amount of time. He obviously knew this too, seeing how he chuckled when I grabbed his hand and dragged him out to the kitchen after his attempts to keep us in that room with silly questions failed.

  “Make yourself at home.” I said, gesturing toward the living room. “Do you want anything to drink?” I asked.

  “Water would be good.”

  I grabbed two waters out of the fridge and headed over to the couch. He was sitting in the one corner. His right arm stretched out over the back of the couch. Those long denim-clad legs of his were stretched out in front of him crossed over at the ankles. He looked glorious like a sex god perched on top of his throne. I settled into the other corner not trusting myself to be that close to him when he looked as delicious as he did.

  “Why so far away?” he asked, indicating the space between us with a jerk of his chin.

  “I just thought we could talk a bit.”

  He nodded. “Ah, going for polite conversation.”

  “Well, I thought maybe we could engage in an activity that didn’t involve your tongue being shoved down my throat.” I raised a brow at him.

  “I have other places I can shove it,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.

  Holy fuck. My face instantly heated along with other places that he did not need to know about. “I don’t doubt it,” I said, ducking my head down.

  “Aw. Don’t go getting all shy on me now, kitten.”

  I snapped my eyes up to him. “Don’t call me that,” I said, sounding angrier than I meant to. “It sounds like the name of a stripper.”

  “Okay, okay,” he said, chuckling and holding his hands up. “How about Gem?” I frowned at him. His face turned serious. “Well, I noticed Jake calls you Em,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “And you’re precious like a rare gem. Bright and shiny and hard to find like one,” he added.

  I could feel my face heat once again. And here I thought Daniel was a sweet talker.

  “No response? Good. Gem it is then.” He popped open the water bottle and took a swig before placing it back down on the end table. “So, tell me the story between you and Jake.”

  Oh good. A topic I can discuss without turning ten different shades of red. “We met back in college. He was studying graphic design while I was studying photography.”

  “How did you two meet?”

  I chuckled. “It’s kind of a funny story really. We were both on dates. Separate dates not together. We were ice skating in Central Park and Jake was trying to show off for his date. Not looking where he was going, he plowed into me while he was skating backwards. I put my hands out to break my fall and ended up hurting my wrist.”

  “The bastard,” Evan said jokingly.

  “Jake helped me off the ice and onto a bench before he went and got me an ice pack. While he was busy tending to me, our dates ended up hitting it off with each other immediately and left us both there. We still laugh about it today,” I said, examining the bottle of water in my hand.

  He chuckled. “So…..you two have never dated?”

  When I looked up at him, I found him frowning at me. “No. It was never like that between Jake and I. We never had romantic feelings for each other. He treats me like a baby sister and he’s the big brother I never had. When we both realized we were going to Columbia together and living on campus, we got an apartment together to help save on expenses. We’ve been together ever since.”

  Evan’s brows rose at me as he looked around the apartment. “You live with Jake? Here? That’s his room down the hall? The one you wouldn’t show me?” he asked, pointing a finger in that direction.

  “Yes. But like I said, there’s never been any romantic feelings between us,” I said, shaking my head for emphasis. Cracking open my water bottle, I brought it to my lips to take a sip.

  Evan looked at me skeptically. “Is he gay?” he blurted.

  I spluttered into my water bottle, causing water to run down my chin. I swiped at it with the back of my hand. “No,” I said laughing. “Jake’s not gay. Did you not see that little blonde grinding all over him on the dance floor tonight?”

  “Well, yeah. That doesn’t mean anything though. I know plenty of gay guys that still dance with chicks at clubs.”

  “Then why in the world would you think he was gay?”

  “Because, well, look at you,” he said, waving his hand at me. “You’re hot, doll. There’s no way I could possibly be your friend let alone live with you and not come on to you at least once. Every hour.” He gave me a full dimple-popping grin. “He’s never tried to come on to you? Ever?” he asked incredulously.

  “No,” I said exasperated.

  “Okay,” he said, rubbing his hands on his thighs. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way.” He got up off the couch and walked towards me. Oh shit. What was he going to do? “We need to talk,” he said, lowering himself down onto the couch next to me.

  He was sitting so close our legs rested against one another. Stretching his right arm on the back of the couch behind me, he rested his left hand on my exposed knee and leaned into me.

  Damn it. I still had my dress on. Why did I not think about changing into my sweats? My god. He smelled so good. His warm hand burned my knee through my stockings. “What….” I swallowed hard when he started to caress my knee.

  “What?” he asked, sounding smug. He was obviously enjoying my reaction to him.

  “What do we need to talk about?” I asked, trying to keep my breathing even.

  “What is it going to take to get you naked and beneath me.” He moved in to nuzzle my neck, but I quickly dropped my bottle of water, and stopped him by placing my hands on his chest, pushing him back. He had the audacity to look surprised, which pissed me off.

  “Hell to freeze over,” I said, frowning at him. Geez, he was so arrogant.

  “Oh good. I have a chance then.” He smiled at me. I struggled to ignore those damn dimples winking at me.

  “How do you figure?” I asked, trying to hang on to my anger. Between his beguiling eyes, those sexy as sin dimples, and his hand softly trailing up the inside of my thigh, my irritation with him was quickly fading.

  “Well, if you’ll recall, The Eagles always said they would get back together when hell froze over. You know what happened, don’t you?”

  “Hell froze over,” I whispered, refusing to look him in the eye. Damn bastard. He had a reply for everything.

  “Riiiight,” he drawled.

  This time when he moved in to snuggle my neck I did not try to stop him. My hands, which were still planted on his chest, snaked around to his upper arms as he moved towards me. I tensed when his nose ran up the side of my neck, inhaling deeply.

  “Stop fighting it and relax.” He pulled away to look me in the eye. The sincerity and adoration that were pouring out of them completely took me by surprise. It also did not make me relax any. Instead my heart continued on with it’s frantic beat as my breathing accelerated.

  He brought both of his hands up to cradle my face and spoke softly. “Have you thought about us at all over the last week?” Oh, yes. Most definitely. Finding
myself unable to speak, I simply nodded. “Good,” he said on an exhale. “Are you ready to give me a chance, Gem?”

  Before I could answer, he removed his right hand from my face, placing it directly over my heart. The feel of his warm palm between my breasts had my nipples tightening to the point of pain. He smirked at me as my heart beat furiously against his palm. There was no hiding the reaction my body had to his, which should have been embarrassing for me, but it wasn’t. I knew his body reacted to mine the same way.

  To prove myself right, I placed my hand over his heart. The feel of it beating frantically against my palm put a smirk on my face. When I went to move my hand away, his left hand shot up and held my palm in place over his heart.

  “You feel that?” I nodded. “It beats for you, baby. Only for you. Are you ready to give us a chance?”

  When I nodded, surprise registered on his face. Before he could say anything, I crushed my mouth to his. With my hand still on his chest, I pushed him back into the couch and straddled his legs without breaking the kiss. I moaned into his mouth when my core came in contact with the hard ridge of his arousal. My hips started to undulate on their own accord against him. Winding his hands into my hair, he gripped tightly and held my face to his as his tongue darted into my mouth.

  My shaking hands found the buttons on his shirt as I quickly got to work on the few that remained buttoned. As I struggled to pull the shirt from his pants, he lifted his hips to make it easier. As soon as his shirt came free, I started to work on the last two buttons. His hands left my hair only to find the zipper of my dress. But before he could even begin to pull the zipper down, a loud crash against the front door startled us both. Jake must be home.

  Resting our foreheads against each other, we both sighed heavily. “You know, if there’s any hope of us ever having great, hot, sweaty sex, we’re going to have to go to my place where we won’t be in danger of being disturbed.” I chuckled.