Текст книги "Loving the White Liar"

Автор книги: Kate Stewart

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

 

 

Jayden showed up at exactly seven on Saturday.

I had a shift but had it covered by none other than the girl who owed me two months’ rent. Gerri had gone on her date with Mike last night and had come home dancing on the moon.

He’d kissed her and promised another date. She’d spent most of the night explaining his kissing technique and the way he was particular about his food. I found it adorable as I watched her face light up when she recalled different things she’d decided she loved about him. The girl was in deep.

As I prepared for my date, I’d decided on some skinny jeans, a tight fitting, off the shoulder, black silk shirt and my sister’s stolen heels. I’d styled my dark red hair in soft waves and polished myself from head to toe, feeling confident as I answered the door.

Jay sucked the breath out of me as he was already smiling when I opened it. I worked hard to hide the instant perk of all my nerve endings at the sight of him.

He was dressed in dark blue jeans and a black button down and black boots. He was much taller than me and the expanse of his chest made him seem a giant compared to my height of 5’5’’. His hair was slightly gelled and styled perfectly. It was when he took a step forward that the smell of him hit me, filling my senses with soap and fresh woods.

He took another step forward, crossing my threshold without me inviting him so we were almost touching. He made quick work and clasped his fingers around the back of my neck to lean in and kiss my cheek.

“You look beautiful.” I scrambled, trying to quiet the ramblings in my head.

Sex. Now. Please, Jayden. Look into my eyes. See. It’s there. Permission. Right here, in the kitchen, in the hallway. Let’s have sex.

Instead, I said a quick “thank you” as he pulled away. We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds as I stared at him up close. It was all there: the need, the butterflies, the hope that was making its presence known, bursting through every pore of my body.

He looked at me slightly puzzled as I stood watching him. “Ready?”

“Yeah!” Okay, that was a little too enthusiastic. Clearing my throat, I tried again. “Yes, just a second.”

He smiled again as I turned from him then dashed to the bathroom to pack my purse. I turned off the lights and locked the door. He immediately grabbed my hand, leading me out to his truck. I took one look at the huge man toy he led me to and smiled. He helped me in, shutting my door then rounding the front before jumping in beside me.

“Do you like Italian?” he asked, absently choosing a playlist on his iPod.

“Sure.”

He pulled away, glancing at me as I settled in and looked around. “This truck is immaculate.”

“Yeah, I have a thing about cleanliness.”

“Yeah? You must think Gerri and I are slobs, then.”

“You could use a run through.” He winked and then became alarmed. “Who is Gerri?”

“My roommate,” I answered.

“You have a guy roommate?”

“Are you getting jealous already?” I toyed as he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel to the music.

“Maybe,” he answered. “But only because I have a feeling you’re the type to be jealous over.”

“Ohhhhh, good line,” I piped, happily settling in.

“I’m full of them.”

“Yeah, give me more,” I said, taking in his profile as he drove.

“Doesn’t work like that. I have to play off of what you say.”

“So basically you are telling me within five minutes of our first date that you are full of bullshit lines?”

Chuckling, he looked over at me. “Something tells me you can distinguish the difference.” We drove for a few minutes, making small talk until he pulled to a stop and put the truck in park. He unbuckled his seat belt and then mine, pulling me next to him. I looked up at him in surprise as we stared at each other.

“Are you going to kiss me before you buy me dinner?” He stayed quiet as both hands came up, cradling my head and stroking my cheeks.

Oh, Jesus.

His lips came down soft at first and the minute they connected I felt the surprise in us both. Our reaction was identical and instantaneous. We wanted more.

His lips tasted mine, sipping, drawing my lips into his mouth, and sucking gently before his tongue asked permission. Once I gave it, his slid along mine perfectly and then it became hungrier. I reached up and braced my hands on his biceps as he tilted my head, going in deeper. And he touched me deep...so deep I felt his kiss in every fiber of my being.

Every single moan of appreciation for his touch was taken without apology as I was given the best kiss of my life. All too soon it ended as he pulled away and stared down at my parted lips. I felt the sting of pure emotion as we connected without words. It was beyond anything I had ever experienced and it was just a kiss–a kiss that had a gavel attached to it. I had thrown down a sentence that my lips were Jayden’s to kiss again and again for as long as he wanted my mouth.

Both of our breaths were labored as we lingered in the truck and Dave Mathews sang softly about satellites.

Jayden spoke first with a “Yes.”

“Sorry?” I asked, completely confused.

“Yes, I’m going to kiss you before I buy you dinner.”

“I think ...” My voice squeaked, our eyes still connected. “I think you already answered that question. And Gerri’s a girl.”

He smiled and kissed me again briefly before he opened his door, pulling me out of it with him. This time when he held my hand to the restaurant, he slid his fingers between mine. More warmth spread through me as I stared down at our linked hands and then looked up at him as he pulled the door open for me. I was still dazed from our kiss and could barely manage the walk.

“Thank you,” I said, more relaxed than I thought possible on a first date, as the hostess led us to a small candlelit table. I’d been to the the restaurant during lunch a time or two with Gerri. They had fantastic, hot meatball subs but the atmosphere changed drastically by night. Sinatra was playing softly in the background and it was simply...romantic. Large baskets of ivy draped from the ceiling and soft globes of light throughout the space illuminated what the candles did not. There were lattice partitions throughout the room that were lit with thousands of tiny white lights. It all felt very old school and intimate.

“I won’t need another good line tonight with you taking me to this place,” I noted, leaving out the part where if he could kiss like that he could be mute.

“You’ve been?”

“Yes, but only during the day for lunch. It’s different in here now.”

He smiled as if he knew my words were meant for consolation.

“Good, different is good.” The waitress took our drink orders and I gave Jayden an odd look when he ordered hot coffee and told her to keep it coming.

“Afraid you’ll fall asleep on me again?” I said with humor. He gave me a stern eye.

“No, actually it’s an addiction of mine.”

“Might be why you crashed and burned,” I said, pun intended.

“Very funny. I have no hair on my nipples.”

I was suddenly all too interested in assessing that situation. “I could check those out for you. I mean, fair is fair.”

“Mine aren’t as pretty as yours.”

“Are we discussing nipples at dinner?” I asked, amused as he poured a ridiculous amount of sugar and cream in his coffee.

“You started it.” His eyes met mine as he stirred and it hit me like a thud to the chest. It was definitely an attraction I couldn’t mask and he seemed to feel the same as he continue to stir his coffee, checking me out without apology.

“So, Jayden, what do you do?”

“Woodwork with my Uncle Stephen. I’ve worked for him since I was around fifteen. We make custom cabinets, stuff like that, some furniture.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised.

“Not impressed?” he mused as our waitress approached.

“No, just not what I expected.” The waitress took our order and I dug right back in.

“So, you are in woodwork. I’m guessing you’re from here?

“Born and raised,” he said quickly.

“An hour outside of Columbia. I relocated here for school.”

“Do you like it here?”

“It’s okay, not where I want to be forever. But I love the long drives in the countryside and getting lost in the mountains.”

“We should do that sometime,” he remarked before sipping his coffee.

And to that I smiled as we dug into the freshly delivered bread. He tore a piece off and dipped it into the seasoned olive oil. “Try this,” he whispered as he moved it close enough to my mouth for me either to accept or refuse. I accepted with a moan.

“Damn,” I said appreciatively as I chewed.

“Your mouth is perfect,” he whispered as I licked my bottom lip.

“Is that another line?” I teased as I tore off another piece of bread. Looking up, I found his eyes hot on my mouth. He didn’t answer me, and I could only sit there, the bread halfway between the table and my mouth as he continued his silent assault on my newly licked lips. I got his message loud and clear. He wanted more of my mouth and I wanted to give it to him. Our food arrived during our wordless communication then Jayden finally broke our ocular contest as we dug in.

“You have two options,” Jay said as we began inhaling our pasta. The food was ridiculous and neither of us bothered to mask the fact that we were enjoying it immensely.

“Oh,” I said, twirling my fork to capture the noodles in the perfect creamy white sauce.

“Travel agent or personal assistant for an architect.” I dropped my fork.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, my buddy Owen is an architect and needs someone fulltime. You can start with him Monday if you want. He trusts me and I’ve never let him down. As long as you pass a background check, the job’s yours. Same thing with my friend Adam. He owns Leisure Travel agency downtown. He has a lady going on maternity leave in a few days when she delivers her fifth child.”

“And they will just hire me?” I said completely baffled.

“Yes. I mean, they want to interview you, or at least do a meet and greet, but yeah.”

As I stared at him, I felt the emotion choke me a second time. In all of my searching in the last week and a half, I hadn’t found anything remotely as interesting as a travel agent or working side by side with an architect. Those two options, though neither sounding like a permanent gig, seemed reasonable enough to live with, if not enjoy.

Enjoying a job, I didn’t think that existed.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Your pasta is getting cold,” he pointed out as I wringed my hands in my lap.

“Jayden, this is great. I mean really great. You don’t even know me.”

“I want to.”

“I’m pretty sure I want that, too.” Agreeing with him seemed pretty natural.

“I’ll give you both numbers and you can make your own decision.”

“Thank you. Like, thank you so much. Which would you take?”

“Do what makes you happy, Hilary.” I nodded. He’d made it so simple. Just by narrowing it down to two choices, he’d simplified my life and took a huge burden off me.

“What makes you happy?” I asked as the waitress refilled his coffee.

“Things you might think are strange, that maybe we should save for a later date.”

“Come on, try me,” I said, taking a sip of my wine. I was feeling the effect of its magic as my body settled further into my seat, the pasta growing heavy in my belly. I was already drunk on the view across from me and elated as the pressure of finding a job rolled off my shoulders. It was heaven.

“A clean house, walking my retriever, Trip, good food, finishing a piece of furniture and delivering it, The Beatles. And I added kissing you about an hour ago.”

And that was the moment I knew I was onto something.

“Jayden, God,” I rasped as he continued to kiss my neck just below my ear.

Our kiss goodnight had turned into some serious, heavy petting and by the tenderness of my swollen lips told me had started over an hour ago. It took every bit of strength I had not to invite him in. Even if I did, I didn’t think he would do it seeing as how he hadn’t suggested it in any way since we started our hands on exploration over our clothes. We were kissing now as we had at the restaurant before we went inside. I was on his side of the truck, my arms around his neck as he brushed up and down my sides, barely grazing my breasts.

“I don’t want to stop,” he said as I moaned into his next kiss. When we separated, he bit down on my shoulder with his teeth and I cried out.

“I love that sound,” he whispered in a voice filled with sex.

“Don’t stop,” I pleaded as my sex pulsed, begging for release.

“Fuck it,” he snapped, pulling me into his lap to straddle him right before he gripped the sides of my head as his mouth crashed into mine. I began rubbing myself over him, seeking the delicious friction I needed so badly.

“Damn, Hilary, I want you,” he said without apology, rubbing me back and forth over his obvious erection. I didn’t stop him when his hands finally found their way under my shirt and traveled to my chest, but broke away, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“There’s...”—gasp—“not much...”—gasp—“there.”

“Don’t you dare.” He captured my mouth again as I melted into him as his fingers whispered over my constricted nipples before he cupped one and molded it into his warm hand. I felt the pull begin as I kept moving over him, my entire body firing in agreement with my movement. “God, Jayden, I think...I’m going to come.”

He lifted my shirt just enough so he could cover my nipple with his tongue and I arched my back, letting go. I let out the fast, rapid gasps I typically did when I came. It was involuntary, but it was a habit of mine and I went with it. Jayden quickly pulled his hands from my shirt, gripping the sides of my head, watching my mouth as I finished hard in his lap. When it was over, I looked at him shyly.

“I’ll never get that image out of my head,” he said, licking my lower lip. Still fired up, his need bulging beneath me, he kissed me with everything in him and I took it, greedy for more. After another long, lust filled kiss, he adjusted my shirt and opened his door, pulling me out of the driver’s side with him. He walked me to the door and shook his head quickly, as if to ward off the lingering heat between us.

I wished him well with that. I would need a few cold showers even after that orgasm.

“I was just going to kiss you before dinner,” he said with a chuckle.

“How did that work out for you?”

“The same way it worked out for you. Please go inside before I get all Neanderthal.”

“Okay, but for the record, that was incredible.” I leaned in to kiss him quickly, but he jerked away his eyes in warning.

“I’m leaving now.” He walked away swiftly as I laughed and thanked him. He held up a hand, letting me know he heard me, but moved faster toward his truck.

I went inside, running through the apartment to see if Gerri was home from work yet. I opened her bedroom door to see an amazing and fully masculine ass pumping like hell in and out of my best friend. I shut the door, relieved neither of them had seen me and finally recognized the feel of the red panties on the knob as I closed it quietly. That was her bat signal.

‘Red panties on the door means Gerri’s being a whore’.

I damn near laughed out loud. It’d been a long time since those panties had made an appearance. That’s when the loud moaning finally registered. She’d clearly marked her room and I’d missed it because of the Jayden fog I’d been in.

HOLY SHIT.

Gerri was getting it on with Mike. It seemed like both of us were having a good night. I wiped the mental image of their sex out of my head. I had something much better to concentrate on in Jayden.

Deciding to give them their privacy, I put on my suit and decided to go for a midnight swim. I left quietly, hoping neither of them knew I’d been there, and made my way to the pool, attempting to creep in. Technically, the pool closed at night, but if you were quiet about it, no one ever really complained. I was fumbling in the dark blindly down the path when I ran right smack into a now familiar chest at the gate.

“Woman, I’m trying my best here.”

“Great minds,” I giggled as Jayden followed me inside the gate. “Does your roommate have the screamer back?”

“Yep, you?”

“Same scenario.” I could barely see him and the moon did little to help us. We were cloaked in darkness except the streetlight that seemed a mile away. Jayden threw a large towel on the lounge chair and jumped into the shallow pool, looking up at me. I walked slowly down the steps and made my way toward him.

“I walked in on them, you know,” I said in a husky and almost unrecognizable voice. “I didn’t see much.”

“Stay where you are. Don’t come any closer,” he warned.

“What if I want you to touch me, Jayden?”

“Then I’ll touch you, Hilary, but I don’t want to, not now.”

“Jayden,” I urged as I took a step closer.

“Fuck, the way you say my name.” I heard a splash as he hoisted himself out of the water to sit on the side of the pool. I kept my distance as he had asked. I really didn’t want to push it too far. If it ended with just sex between us...I wasn’t ready for it to end. And I wasn’t about to ask him as much. Not when the night had been so amazing to begin with. I’d let him keep his motives to himself.

“We did the old high school dry hump. It’s been a while,” I poked as I thought about how we’d fogged up his truck just minutes ago.

“Yeah, it was ...”

“Amazing,” I complimented.

“Yes, very,” he agreed. I sat on the steps on the opposite side of the pool.

“I was just about to text you,” he said, his beautiful chest barely visible, his voice covering me from the other side of the pool. “I was going to ask you out again.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said emphatically. “You’re the first date in a long time where I haven’t listed your flaws mentally after it was over.”

“Brutal honesty.” I laughed. “That’s comforting, I guess,” I piped, amused and straining to see as much of him as I could. I drifted into the pool, wading in the water.

“I’m kind of picky,” he admitted.

Oh...this is interesting.

“How so?”

“I have a few rules about the women I date.”

“Oh, and I fit the criteria?”

“So far.” I laughed at him and pushed a wave of water his way, unsure if it would hit him.

“So what’s on Jayden’s list of criteria?”

“Can’t tell you.”

“That’s fine. I’m kind of picky myself. We will just have to see if you make the cut.”

“Challenge accepted,” he said so sweetly I melted in the cold water. Trying to take my mind off the fact I wanted him surrounding me, I searched for conversation.

“What are your plans tomorrow?” I asked simply, curious.

“Hanging out with the guys, you?”

“I’m having brunch with my family.” I treaded through the water until I was eye level with his knees. He towered over me as I kept my distance, but now I could see him more clearly. He looked down at me with a smile playing on his lips and warning in his eyes.

“Do you have a large family?” he asked.

“Three sisters, one brother. Yeah, I’d say so.”

“Wow,” he said, looking down in the water.

“How about you?” I retorted, curious. “We didn’t cover family at dinner.”

“Just me and my mom and her brother, my uncle Stephen, who played father when my dad split.”

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“I’m not.” I didn’t argue with him. He seemed fine with it. I wanted to lighten the mood so I grasped for straws.

“Fishnipple?” He burst out laughing as I asked it.

“Oh yeah, that.”

“Okay, explain,” I ordered.

“Promise not to get mad?”

“Nope,” I said with forgiving humor.

Jayden went on, anyway. “Well, I was hurting so bad from the burn, for a second I kind of...temporarily...forgot your name, so when I programmed your number in my phone I just pounded in the first thing that came into my mind.”

“And it was fishnipple?”

“You swim like a fish and of course your beautiful nipple was staring at me.”

“Nice,” I said, swimming away from him.

“You said you wouldn’t get mad, Hilary, Hilary, Hilary.”

“I’m aware you know my name...now.”

“Come on, beautiful, I was frying in the sun and in agony. Give me a little room for error.”

“It seems my nipple made more of an impression on you than I did,” I scoffed as I faked hostility.

“Hey, I’m a man, that’s my only defense. But I will add it was worth the agonizing twenty minutes you kept me back in the sun to get your number.”

“Well played,” I said, splashing more water his way.

“Thank you,” he replied, his voice still husky with need. Deciding to toy with him, I moved to the steps and out of the water, walking over to his towel. Wrapping the large, soft cover around me, I unfastened my bikini top and pulled it off. He sat motionless as I taunted. “I think you falling asleep on our first date was more than enough leeway, don’t you?”

“Did you just...your top is off. Jesus, it’s definitely off. Fuck, woman, I’m not going to last much longer.”

“You’re going to have to,” I said as he jumped in the water, coming for me fast. I dodged him, running up the stairs then towards the gate.

“Better step your game up, Jay,” I said as he caught up to me just as I closed the gate, separating us.

“For you I will,” he said sincerely.

“That means coming up with all new lines,” I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned into the gate separating us from the waist down. He leaned in as well, his forehead to mine, as we shared a breath. “Thank you for tonight, Jayden.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow...fishnipple.”

Looking into his beautiful blues, I smiled and pressed my lips gently to his. We said nothing else and I felt his eyes on me until I disappeared down the stone path back to my apartment. I heard no moaning as I entered and made my way quickly to my bedroom. Stripping off the rest of my wet suit, I dried with Jay’s towel, which smelled amazing and like him. I replayed our date over and over until I drifted off.