Seventeen #2
I had ducked into the bathroom when we got to the restaurant, leaving Nick alone to wait for the table.
When I got out, he was standing beside the wall farthest from the door, and I stopped a minute and looked at him.
Easy to see why I had been drawn to him; the thick dark brown hair and dark green eyes were very appealing.
He was tall, with the long muscles of a swimmer and broad shoulders, and he carried himself with unmistakable confidence.
Not sexy and dangerous like Sam, more arrogant, but kind at the same time, with that boy-next-door quality.
“Hey.” I smiled up at him.
“The table’s ready. C’mon.”
I followed him to the hostess stand and then through the restaurant. It was nice to be warm on a cold, slushy morning with nothing to do but sit around. When we got to the booth, I slid in first after hanging my coat on the hook. He didn’t pick another but instead hung his over mine. Funny.
“You know why I brought you here?” he asked me, smiling into my eyes.
“I have no idea.”
“Because you like crepes, and they have the best. Get whatever you want; it’s on me.”
“Or we can just split the check like normal people.”
“No,” he insisted. “I invited you. I’m dying to do something for you to… Please, J.”
I closed my menu and put it down on the table. “Why do you need to do anything for me? We’re fine.”
He searched my eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“If we’re fine, why are you sitting so far away?”
“I’m not. I’m right here.”
“Why don’t you slide over closer to me?”
I shook my head. “I’m good here.”
“Come a little closer.”
“Nick,” I said, starting to feel that flicker of irritation that I didn’t want.
“Jory,” he said gently, sliding over close to me.
“I am so sorry for how I acted the night I was with my family, and then at the club with my friends. I just… I was completely out of line, and the only excuse I can make is that I have never felt like this before and I’m not handling it well at all.
I mean…” He smiled faintly and gave me the slightest shrug.
“I’m usually the person being chased. I’ve never been on the other side before.
” He sighed, putting an arm around the back of the booth. “I gotta say, it kinda stinks.”
“Does it?”
“Yeah.” He nodded as the waiter put two large glasses of ice water down in front of us.
He ordered, and then me, and when I looked back at him, he was scowling.
“What?”
“You have nothing to say?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Yes, you do. I want you to say I can see you.”
But that couldn’t happen, at least not how he wanted. We could be friends, nothing more.
“I’m so sorry I embarrassed you,” he said.
“It’s okay. I deserved it.”
“You didn’t deserve all that. Can you forgive me?”
“I already did,” I told him honestly, smiling up at the waiter as he dropped off my smoky black tea and Nick’s cappuccino. “God, I love oolong.” I grinned over at him.
“It smells like sweat socks,” he assured me, hand on the back of my neck, massaging the base of my skull, his fingers sliding over the groove.
I laughed, and he smiled wide. Yeah, it did sort of smell like that. But it tasted like heaven.
“And so—talk. You were being chased and—”
“I can’t talk about that.”
“No?”
I shook my head. “It’s an ongoing investigation.”
“Okay then… I don’t know what you did for Thanksgiving. Fill me in,” he ordered, taking a sip of his cappuccino and getting foam on his upper lip.
Without even a thought, I reached out and wiped it off with my fingers. “I’m sorry I didn’t use the plane ticket and go skiing with you.”
“It’s okay. I got to see my family instead, and that was good. Everything happens for a reason.”
“I agree.”
We were silent for a few minutes.
“You look great.”
“Thanks.” I smiled at him. “You too.”
“Can I ask something?”
“’Course.”
“Are you sleeping with that detective?”
“Yes.” I answered without hesitation.
“I see. And you’re staying with him?”
“No,” I lied. It was none of his business. “But I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Really,” I insisted.
He was quiet a moment, and then he brightened.
“Well, in the meantime, tell me where you live now, because I went by your old place, but your landlord said you were gone.”
“I live close to downtown.”
“Can I come see your new place?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“When?”
“I need to have a party one of these days, I’m thinking maybe New Year’s.”
“I’d like to come over by myself, or you can just come over to my place.”
“Nick,” I said, putting my cup down on the saucer, “I don’t—”
“You need to give me another chance.”
“It’s not—”
“Can I just tell you that when you’re with me, I’m happy?”
“That’s a really nice thing to say.”
He gave me a crooked grin. “It’s the truth.”
“I think you’re a catch, and any man would be—”
He grunted. “Don’t talk to me about another man or the next man. I want to talk about us. You say the word, you can move in tomorrow.”
Why did it always work like this for me?
The guys who were crazy about me—nice ones like Nick; kind, thoughtful, ready to spend their lives with me—I had no interest in.
And it wasn’t because I was into bad boys.
The players didn’t interest me either. I had no desire to tame anyone.
In fact, there was only one man who absolutely had me wrapped around his finger.
“Jory,” Nick snapped at me.
“What?”
“You’re not even listening to me.”
Shit. “Nick, I—”
“I’m trying to tell you that my feelings haven’t changed,” he said, putting his hand on my cheek.
“I want to be with you all the time. I want to go to bed with you and wake up with you and eat dinner with you every night and sleep with you—God, do I wanna sleep with you. It’s like an ache I can’t get rid of.
You should have never let me in your bed if it was a one-time-only deal. ”
But the sex had been meaningless with everyone before Sam Kage.
With him, it was like I could feel my heart for the first time.
What Nick was talking about, I’d only ever felt for Sam.
And yes, our chemistry was combustible, but it was more than that.
We were supposed to be together, and I simply knew that. He was mine.
“Jory, please can you simply—”
“Stop.”
“No, listen. I know you don’t feel the same. I’m not stupid.”
“Nick—”
“No, no, I’m not looking for you to have to defend yourself. It’s okay. I think it’ll change in time.”
In time? “Nick—”
“No, wait.” He buried his hand in my hair, curling a long piece around my ear. “I know being in bed with me didn’t rock your world or anything, but—”
“Don’t do that,” I ordered, squinting at him. “Running yourself down is unnecessary.”
“Well, I’m thinking this is my last shot, and even though I’m calm, cool, and collected on the outside, inside I’m a little bit of a mess.”
I bumped him gently with my shoulder, and he leaned into me, his face in my hair.
“Jory, baby, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, arm around my neck, pinning me against him.
“Stop saying that,” I ordered him, closing my eyes, taking a breath. “It’s okay. Honest.”
“Okay.” He let out a deep breath as I leaned away from him, lifting my mug. “So I told my family all about you. My sister, Sarah, that you saw at the foosball table that night, isn’t even speaking to me. She said that until she talks to you, I’m cut off. She can’t believe I spoke to you that way.”
“She sounds adorable.”
“She’s psychotic.”
I laughed at him. “That’s not a very nice thing to say.”
“I just want you to promise to meet my family for Christmas. Everyone’s coming back here. My mom wants a white one this year.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” He grinned, brushing my hair out of my face, his fingers trailing across my forehead. “Is that a commitment, Mr. Keyes?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he breathed out. “Now start from the beginning and tell me why people are chasing you.”
I chuckled. “Again, I can’t. I told you.”
“Please.”
“No. I’m being serious—it’s scary, and the less people that know about it, the better.”
“But the detective knows about it.”
“Well, yeah, of course.”
He nodded. “Okay, then tell me what you did for Thanksgiving.”
“That I can do.”
We ate and talked about nothing important. I told him I was going to set Gail up with Dane, and he thought that would make for interesting conversation for us down the road.
“So what now?” he asked me later as he pushed away his plate.
“How d’ya mean?”
“What are your short-term plans, Mr. Keyes?”
“Well, for right now, I need to spend some time with Sam.”
“Who?”
“My detective.” I smiled at him.
“Oh. Is that his name? Sam?”
I nodded.
“That’s so boring.”
“Knock it off.”
“So you’re going to be with him because how I feel about you is how you feel about him.”
“Correct.”
“Okay.”
“We can still talk if you want. But I don’t know if that’s enough for you.”
“Is it all I can have?”
“Right now, yeah.”
“Then it’s what I want.”
“Good. Then we’ll talk.”
“Great,” he said sarcastically.
When I laughed, he groaned and put his head down on the table. It was nice. If he could be supportive and have a sense of humor, we could be friends.
It was after seven when Sam came into his apartment and closed and locked the door behind him.
“Hi,” I called over to him from where I was reading on the couch.
He pulled off his trench coat and threw it on the chair. His keys were dropped on the coffee table as he crossed the room to me.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” he said as he reached me. “It smells great in here.”
I put the magazine down and looked up at him. “How was work, honey?”
“It was shit,” he muttered, grabbing my right thigh and yanking me around, forcing me onto my back so he could lie down on top of me, between my legs.
“I’m sorry,” I told him as he bent and kissed me. It was possessive and hot and devouring. What it lacked was the urgency that was usual with us. He was taking his time, kissing me slowly, deeply, like he had all the time in the world. When I whimpered, he smiled against my mouth.
“I’m so glad to see you.”