Chapter 8
8
ZARA
S omething tickles my nose, making my eyes flutter open. I see darkness right away before I feel heat under my cheek. My hand also is on heat, and something hard is right next to my nose. My eyes close once more as the sleep fog leaves me. When I finally open my eyes and my vision gets used to the room, I look around to see the desk right in front of me. My eyes do a quick scan from the bottom of the bed, and then my head moves up to the top of the person who I’m lying partially on top of, and then his hand cups my ass. This is when the freak-out in my brain happens. What the fuck did you do? I ask myself as I open my mouth and then shut it quickly. I close my eyes tight again, hoping when I open them this is a dream. But instead, when I open them, I’m exactly where I was two seconds ago. This is not a dream. I’m looking up at a sleeping Gabriel, his hair wild from my fingers running through it. I think I stare at him for over a full minute. How he can be sexy, even in sleep, is something I will think about at a later date. Like when I get the fuck out of here.
I take in my position of halfway on his chest with my leg thrown over his. One of his hands is folded and tucked under his head, while the other one has a death grip on my ass. The sheet that barely covers us at our waists hides the part of him I enjoyed most last night. Don’t wake him up , my head screams at me. I slowly move my hand from the middle of his chest and then move my leg that is thrown over his before rolling to my back, hoping I don’t crush his hand under me and wake him. I’m practically hanging off the bed as I slip one foot out of the sheet, placing it on the cold wooden floor before moving my other leg out like a snail and hoping like fuck he doesn’t wake up. The hammering of my heart is so loud I’m afraid he's going to wake up from it.
Once both of my feet are on the floor, I hope like fuck the floor under me isn’t going to creak when I stand. All the great decisions of last night are now feeling like the worst thing I could have done. What the hell were you thinking? the right side of my brain is saying while I tippy-toe away from him. I was living in the moment , I argue back with myself as I bend when I see my panties are right next to his white boxers. I shimmy myself into them before I move quietly around the room, picking up all of my pieces of clothing that were tossed in the need to get each other naked. Balling them in my hands, I squeeze them to my chest before walking over to the door and turning the knob, hoping like fuck it doesn’t creak when I open it. I take one more look over my shoulder before I open the door. “Please be quiet, please be quiet,” I chant in a whisper as the door opens without a sound. I run on my tippy-toes out of the room and close the door behind me, not making a sound. “You could have been a spy,” I tell myself as soon as I stand in the hallway. I place my clothes on the floor before getting dressed, as if my life depends on it. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” I whisper as I slip on my boots and grab my jacket and purse. Walking over to the door with an exit sign on top of it, I stay on my tippy-toes, making sure my heels don’t click on the floor. I’m literally sweating as I make a run for it and escape without waking him. Is it the mature thing to do? Absolutely not. Is it what I’m literally going to do? Absolutely.
I close my eyes as I push open the door, one eye opening as I wait for either the alarm to blare or for Gabriel to come running out of the room to stop me from leaving. I put one foot out of the door, seeing it’s still dark outside, and I wonder what fucking time it is. My mouth feels like sandpaper and paste all at the same time. I hold the door in my hand, making sure it closes with a quiet click before I look around and rush to the front of the bar, where my car sits alone in the big parking lot. Taking the car key out of my jacket pocket, I start to run to it as if I’m running away from robbing a bank. I run past a black pickup truck that has mud all over the back of it, which is most likely Gabriel’s. I hold my hand up with the key in it, unlocking the doors, and only when I’m in the car do I let out a sigh of relief. “Not so smooth anymore,” I scold myself, starting the car and taking off. My eyes watch through the rearview mirror as I drive away from the bar, making sure he’s not chasing me. Only when I turn away from the bar do I look at the clock on the dashboard, and I see it’s just before 5:00 a.m.
I’ve spent the past six hours having sex with a complete stranger, who I only know by his first name. I’ve had the one-night stand to end all one-night stands. I’ve never in my life had a one-night stand before. I also have never had sex with someone just to have sex. Not just sex, but mind-blowing sex, and not just once either. Nope, not with this guy. I should have had a clue he knew what he was doing when he reached for his wallet and took out a condom and not just one. Nope, not Gabriel. It was a stack of three. It was my first inkling he probably does this all the time. At that moment, I also didn’t fucking care. All I wanted was his mouth back on mine and wherever else he wanted to put it. Just remembering him trailing kisses to my neck makes me shiver but also makes me want to turn the car around and go for a fourth round. “That would be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done,” I chide myself. “Even stupider than going to some random bar and sleeping with the bartender. No matter that it ended with you having the best sex of your life on a cot in said bar.”
I pull up to Sofia’s house and run inside as if someone is chasing me, tossing my jacket and my purse on the table before making my way upstairs to the bathroom. My eyes sting from lack of sleep as I start the bath before pulling off my T-shirt. I swear I can smell him on me. I kick off my boots before tossing my shirt to the side and then slipping my bra off, followed by my jeans, and then stepping into the warm tub.
I sit down, wincing from the little bit of pain that I’m in, before leaning back and looking down at my body. Spotting a red hickey right next to my nipple, I move my hand over to touch it, remembering how I got it.
I was straddling him as we kissed because kissing him was almost better than sex. Almost. We had just finished round one, and he had come back from the tiny bathroom where he disposed of the used condom. His hands gripped my hips as I rubbed my pussy lips against his cock that was slowly coming back to life. He reached over to the side of the cot, where he picked up the foiled condom. My eyes watched his mouth as he tore it open before I moved away from him to give him a chance to put it on. I’ve never known how fucking sexy putting on a condom could be, but I kept my eyes on his cock and his fingers as he sheathed himself for me. Only when it was at the base of his cock did he say, “Ride it, Zara.” He held his cock up for me, but my mouth watered because instead of riding it, I wanted to taste him. Something I would be doing by the end of the night; I made a mental note to do it after this round. I raised myself a bit, grabbing his cock and positioning it at my entrance before sliding down on him. We both hissed once my ass hit his thighs, and my head fell back, taking him all in. I took a minute to enjoy the feeling of him in me. He bent his head to take in one of my nipples before moving to the side and sucking before biting. “Ride my cock, Zara, as if it’s the last cock you’ll ever have.”
I close my eyes to stop the memory, but it comes back to assault me. The way he then sat up and engulfed me in his arms tightly, pushing me down on him before burying his face in my neck. “I could stay buried in you every single fucking day.”
The water splashes around me when I grab the facecloth from on top of the wooden stool right beside it with a fresh bar of soap. I wash away the night, trying not to dwell on it. Trying to tell myself that people do this all the time. Not me, but people in general, and it’s a normal thing.
I get out of the bath, drying off before sliding into the bed and setting my alarm for 10:00 a.m. It’ll be a late start for me. The minute I drift off to sleep, he invades my dreams. I can literally feel him right there beside me, and when the alarm rings and I open my eyes, I suddenly wish I was back in that office. My hand snakes out of the covers, grabbing the phone and shutting it off.
I see Zoey has messaged me five times.
Zoey: Are you still at the bar?
Zoey: Your location says you’re at the bar.
Zoey: Did you forget your phone at the bar?
Zoey: Oh My God, you’re back home and so is your phone.
Zoey: Someone has some explaining to do, and by someone, that means you.
I laugh at the last one before turning over and stretching and getting out of bed. I walk over to the suitcase, grabbing a fresh pair of panties before putting on a green loungewear set. I walk down the stairs to start the coffee when the phone rings, and I see it’s Zoey.
“Isn’t it like seven o’clock for you?” I put the phone on speaker as I make myself a coffee.
“Don’t worry about what I’m doing at seven o’clock. Let’s worry about what you were doing all night long.” I hear rustling from her side of the phone. “I want details.”
“There isn’t much to tell,” I reply, but my head screams, I had the best sex of my life.
“So you were at the bar until five o’clock in the morning?” she asks.
“How do you know?” I grab milk and add it to my coffee before placing it in the fridge.
“I woke up to pee and decided to check your location, and surprise, surprise, it was telling me you were home after being idle at a bar for four hours.”
“Six,” I tell her, and she gasps.
“Did you pick up someone at the bar?” The glee in her voice seeps through the phone. “Oh my God, you did.”
“You cannot repeat this to anyone. And I mean anyone.” I can picture her rolling her eyes. “I had my first ever one-night stand.”
“Oh my God!” she shrieks. “I was just joking with you. I never thought you would actually do it.”
“Let’s just say my present self is happy that my past self took the leap.” I smirk as I take a sip of coffee.
“Who was he?”
I look out the window seeing the horses run not too far from the house. “The bartender.”
“Shut up,” she snaps, and I can’t help but giggle. “You really said Daniel who?”
“I didn’t say any such thing. Actually, I don’t think I spoke more than ten words, except right there and do that again.” This time, we both laugh. “I would love to talk more, but I’m already starting my day late.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she says. “I’ll call you later.”
“Later.” I hang up and walk over to my computer bag before grabbing it and deciding to work in the living room. It’s only when my phone rings that I notice it’s almost seven at night. Looking down, I see it’s Sofia, and I suddenly get nervous that she’s heard what I did.
“Hello,” I answer, trying to pretend that it’s fine. Everything is fine.
“Hey, you,” she says, her voice like normal, so maybe she didn’t hear I had sex with a random person near her house. “How are you settling in?”
“Amazing.” I put my computer on the wooden crate in front of me and then stretch. “There was this sense of peace when I got here.”
“Isn’t it the best?” She sighs as if she’s here sitting with me.
“It is,” I agree with her. “I even saw some horses off in the distance this morning.”
“That makes me so happy to hear. I spoke to Pops today, and he said you will be lying low this week.”
“That is the plan, I think.”
“Well, I was speaking with my cousins Chelsea and Amelia, and they were talking about a Christmas fair they are going to at the school on Friday, and I know how much you love Christmas.”
“Oh, that sounds like so much fun.”
“Is it okay if I tell them that you are down?” she asks, and I take a deep inhale.
“Yeah, that’s fine.” I bite the bullet; it has to happen sometime. “But can you do it on Friday morning?”
She laughs. “Consider it done.”
* * *
I know the minute she tells her cousin because my phone rings. “I cannot believe you have been here by yourself.” That’s the first thing Amelia says to me when I answer the phone Friday morning at ten. The two of us got to know each other briefly when she and Matty got married.
I laugh. “I’m sorry, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“Anyway, since you’re in town, how would you like to come to the Christmas fair?”
“I would love it,” I reply. “Why don’t you send me the address, and I can meet you there?”
“That works but plan on joining us for dinner afterward.”
“Added to my empty calendar.” We both laugh. “I will see you tonight. I’ll be the one who looks like she’s lost.”
“I will be the one who looks like she’s going out of her mind,” she retorts before hanging up on me. Right after, she sends me the address, and I confirm receipt.
At lunch, I step outside in the back like I’ve been doing the whole week, sitting on the top step, looking out into the distance. If you close your eyes and listen, you can hear the galloping of horses. I look forward to it, even at night after dinner, when I sit outside. The sound is peaceful. There really are no horns honking, no police sirens. There is nothing but the sound of the forest, which I didn’t know made me feel like I was home before.
When I pull up to the school, the parking lot is literally bursting at the seams, and one person is wearing a green-and-yellow vest trying to direct traffic. The side of the school looks like where most of the action is. Kids are yelling and screaming in the distance, and the schoolyard is filled with booths and white tents that are off to the side.
I make my way over to where most people are meeting before I take out my phone and text Amelia.
Me: Just got here.
I look around to see if I’m going to recognize any familiar faces when I spot him in the distance. I move my head to the side to make sure I’m actually seeing what I’m seeing and not a figment of my imagination like it’s been all week long. He’s walking down wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a black jacket as he looks down at the boy in front of him, who is his clone. My throat feels like it’s closing in when he puts his head back and laughs at something the woman beside him says, wrapping her hand around his bicep and leaning into him, making him laugh even more. “This is not happening,” I say to myself as I turn on the spot and think about getting the fuck out of here.