17. Melissa
17
MELISSA
T he smell of the grill wafted into my bedroom. Was I dreaming about steaks again? Not a bad dream.
I rolled over, peering through my lashes as I pulled the comforter over my shoulder. The afternoon light slashed through the blackout curtains, piercing my dark bedroom.
On the other side of the closed door, I could hear Jason tiptoeing around. He was great about being quiet while I slept off a night at the hospital. Still, the smell of something sizzling out on the balcony had my stomach growling.
I rolled over and checked my phone.
I had a message from the guy I was going out with when I finished my upcoming three-day night shift stretch.
There was a text from Maddie with a meme from a show we’d both been watching. I laughed and sent her one back.
Erica had texted asking if I wanted to come over for dinner sometime this week. I replied and said I’d look at my schedule. We both knew that was code for things are still awkward.
Chase was on duty, and I didn’t have to work tonight, so I sent him a text wishing him a slow and quiet shift. He responded with a selfie. There was a doughnut in his mouth and a middle finger front and center.
Thank God, nothing from Bridget. No news was good news.
I stretched and tugged off my silk bonnet. With my feet in my fuzzy slippers, I padded to the bathroom and did my business. Jason’s razor was on the side of the vanity. His toothbrush was in the holder beside mine. We both preferred the same brand of toothpaste. His tube was squished in the middle whereas I rolled mine up from the bottom.
I’d noticed that he had stopped putting his things away in his toiletry bag every night. Part of me really liked that. It seemed like he was settling in for the long haul. The other part of me didn’t want to get my hopes up.
Having Jason so intimately tangled up in my life felt right. Even though it had been almost two decades, we didn’t even skip a beat. I wasn’t nervous around him. Didn’t feel the need to try and impress him. Didn’t feel like I needed to be anyone but myself around him.
Our little snafu the other night on the couch had all but been forgotten. Jason didn’t bring it up again, and I swore off drinking with him for the foreseeable future. Problem solved.
I opened the bathroom door and slipped into the kitchen, quiet as a mouse. Jase had his back to me. His shirt was off, so I took my time appreciating every ripple of muscle on his back as he ran a knife through a head of cabbage.
My favorite Santana vinyl was playing quietly on the record player in the corner. The Latin rock music made me want to swing my hips and find a dancing partner. Something citrusy wafted in from the open balcony doors, and it smelled like absolute heaven.
Jason looked over his shoulder, and a panty-melting grin spread across his face, slow as molasses. “Morning, Goose. Sleep well?”
Morning was relative. It was dinner time. I nodded, yawning, “Mhmm.”
His gym shorts were slung low on his hips, and he was barefoot. Cords of muscle flexed and retracted as he shifted his weight between his feet. The lines on his lower back that dipped below his shorts to his glutes were the sexiest I’d ever seen.
He plucked a margarita glass off the counter and walked it over to me with swagger in every step. Jase didn’t bother to stand at a respectable distance. His toes bumped my slippers.
All five-foot-nine inches of lean military-honed muscle towered over me. “Margarita with a Tajín rim.” He looked at me with sex and fire in his eyes. Like I was what was on the menu tonight. With his gaze never leaving mine, he slid his tongue over his lower lip like a predator about to devour his prey. His voice dropped to a husky bass. “Bee told me it’s your favorite.”
I swear to my damn, if that man didn’t put a shirt on, I was about to climb him like a damn tree.
Shit. Nope. No fucking way. Melissa Renee Jacobsen, you keep your hormones in check. It’s just a male abdomen. They’re a dime a dozen. You see them every damn shift. Get your head on straight, woman.
I eyed the margarita, then took the glass from him and downed a healthy gulp. Resolution to break up with tequila be damned. A hot man had made me my favorite drink.
A smirk flickered at the corner of Jason’s mouth. “Dinner will be ready in a few.”
“Dinner?”
“Yeah. I thought I would, uh, make you a roommate appreciation dinner.” The smile that he was fighting was anything but sincere. He was up to something .
But hey, if I got free food out of it, who was I to argue?
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Sit.” Jase pointed to the chair he pulled out from the kitchen table. “And don’t touch anything.”
I set the glass at the spot he had cleared for me but meandered over to the kitchen counter to see what he was whipping up. “Seriously, what can I do to help? I feel bad that you’re busting your ass over dinner. You know I live on ham and cheese sandwiches and cereal.”
Jason snickered and shook his head. “You can help by staying far, far away from everything until it’s on your plate.”
“I take offense to that!” I laughed. “I’m not that bad in the kitchen.”
Jase cocked an eyebrow and broke out into a caustic laugh. He wiped his hands on a dish towel then braced his palms on my shoulders. His touch was warm against my skin. His thumbs brushed over my nearly bare shoulders. The spaghetti strap tank top and sports bra I’d worn to bed left little to the imagination.
“Mel, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a danger to yourself and others in the kitchen.”
“Am not!” I laughed.
“Do you remember the cookies from last week?”
My cheeks flushed. “I was tired, and anyone can mess up cookies!”
His thumbs stroked a soothing pattern over my collarbone. Tingles zipped through my body from my fingertips to my toes. He leaned in, one hand sliding down to my hip, pulling me closer. I obliged like a limp noodle, defenseless against his touch.
“They were cut-and-bake cookies. The dough was already made.”
I tipped my chin up, my mouth barely reaching his jawline. “And I cut and baked them. ”
He snickered, “You cut straight through the tube and baked them with a little plastic wrapper ring around each one.” There was a pause before he added, “And you baked them a hundred degrees higher than the package says.”
“I wanted them faster.” It was a weak defense. I had been PMSing and was half-asleep. The craving was stronger than my sense of self-preservation. Luckily, Jase had been tall enough to turn the smoke alarm off.
My gaze dropped to the floor, and all I could see was his wrist between us as he held my hip captive. Jase’s hand left my shoulder and tilted my chin up to face him. “Now. Be a good girl and go drink your margarita. Tacos will be ready in a minute.”
“Oh my damn,” I moaned as I shoveled in another bite. I might as well have been making out with the thing. It was that good.
Jason laughed from the opposite side of the table. Much to my dismay, he had come in from the grill where he had been roasting ears of corn and threw on a t-shirt.
The tacos were divine. He had stuffed corn tortillas with a carrot and cabbage slaw, onions and jalape?os, cotija cheese, and cilantro.
Half of them were topped with pieces of red snapper. He had picked it up from Rose’s—a little fish market in Beaufort—and then grilled it. The other half had local shrimp that he had battered and fried.
I grabbed another shrimp taco from the platter between us and dipped it in the chipotle sauce—a secret recipe, according to Jason.
“I’ve never had a man cook for me,” I said between bites. It was absolute heaven in my mouth .
Jason snickered and tipped back his Cerveza. “Probably because you tried to cook for them first, and they never recovered from the food poisoning.” He took a long pull and swallowed. “I’ve heard Salmonella is a bitch.”
I plucked a jalape?o off my taco and threw it at him. He opened his mouth and caught it, grinning as he chewed.
“Seriously, this is so good,” I said as I cleaned my plate. “I can’t promise I’ll share the leftovers.”
Jason had made a feast. A mountain of tacos, grilled corn dip mixed with cheese, and something called an ancho aioli. Chips and homemade salsa.
Bridget would kill me if I told her that Jase made a better margarita than she did. But the one he had crafted was divine.
“Where’d you learn to cook like that?” I asked as we cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. “I’m serious. You could give Luca a run for his money.”
Jase just laughed it off and stuck a detergent pod in the holder. “I got hooked on this little taco truck when I was stationed in Nevada for STFI. The owners took pity on me and taught me how to make my order so I wouldn’t go broke.”
I cocked my head and looked at him quizzically. “STFI?”
“An advanced flight school for selected naval aviators. All about strike tactics for air-to-air and air-to-surface.” He paused and smiled sheepishly. “TOPGUN.”
“I know,” I giggled as I winked. “I just wanted to hear you say that you went to TOPGUN.”
He grabbed the dish towel, spun it into a rope, and snapped it. I squealed as he popped me in the hip. Shrieking, I turned and ran through the apartment. Jason was on my tail as I skidded into my bedroom.
I had almost made it to safety when two tanned arms snaked around my waist. Jase pulled me to his chest before cannonballing us both onto my bed.
We laughed, a tangle of arms and legs twisted in my sheets. I was lying on top of him. My head had landed on his chest, and his knee was contorted around my lower back. Something thick pressed against my belly.
Holy shit. That was his ? —
Without warning, Jase flipped us so that my back was flat on the bed. His knees bracketed my hips, his erection tenting his shorts above my torso. My breath faltered, the air vanishing from my lungs.
Jase leaned down. He braced his hands on either side of my head as his lips grazed the shell of my ear. His hard cock rocked against my pelvis. I whimpered as he barely teased my clit. Not enough.
More. I need more.
One hand came up and gripped my jaw. He turned my head, bringing my ear to his mouth. “I think I won this round,” he growled.
“Oh yeah?” I choked out.
He rocked his hips, teasing me through our clothes. My tiny cotton shorts were seconds away from spontaneously combusting if I didn’t get some space from my roommate.
“Ready to tap out?”
I shook my head. “Not a chance.”
His chuckle was dark and deadly. “You’re playing a dangerous game, baby girl.”
There it was. What he had called me the night we got drunk.
Baby girl.
Part of me stupidly wanted to believe that I could be his, but I’d been burned one too many times.
But the way he was working my clit …
I closed my eyes and felt the way my pussy clenched, grasping at nothing but dead space. Craving something inside me. Craving him inside me.
He was teasing me, but not like he always had. He wasn’t teasing me with his words. This was something different entirely.
I watched his mouth. The flare of his jaw. The way his throat constricted as he swallowed.
“I don’t think I understand the rules of this game,” I whispered.
Jase answered with a hard roll of his hips, grinding his hard-on into my pussy. His green eyes, dark with lust, locked on mine. There was no mistaking it this time. It wasn’t a slip-and-fall after a tussle as he chased me through the apartment.
Jason looked barely restrained. “There are no rules, baby girl.” He said as he grabbed my hands and pinned them over my head into the mattress. “All’s fair in love and war.”
“Which one is this?” I choked out, my back arching like it had a mind of its own. I could feel my pulse throbbing in my clit. My nipples practically begged to be touched and toyed with. He had me aching, and we were still both fully clothed.
His Cheshire smile was lethal. “Who says it’s not both?”
Before I could even begin to comprehend the fucking bombshell he dropped, Jason’s phone rang. Without so much as another word, he pushed off the bed and padded into the living room.
“Fuck me sideways,” I muttered.
There was no way I was getting anything done tonight until I had an orgasm. Reluctantly, I rolled off the bed, grabbed a towel, and walked to the bathroom.
Jase was sitting on the couch talking on his phone, so I pointed to the door and mouthed, “I’m getting a shower.” It wasn’t an invitation; simply a warning that I was not to be disturbed.
He nodded and turned back to his call .
Hot water streamed over my shoulders as I turned under the spray. My muscles were tense. I was jumpy and on edge.
Nothing a little waterproof, battery-operated action couldn’t solve.
I braced my foot against the lip of the tub and leaned on the shower wall as I trailed my pink vibrator up and down my slit. Just the thought of Jase—the memory of the look in his eyes—had me sopping with need.
I had only gotten off to the fantasy of hooking up with my best friend’s brother a few times. Usually, I opted for a faceless hunk. A mirage of a capable hands, a cock, and a tongue.
But now it was blond hair and green eyes. Strong arms pinning me down, making me writhe beneath him. Telling me to beg. Telling me to be a good girl and take it.
I sucked in a sharp breath as my orgasm built. I slid the vibrator deep inside and let the silicone ears caress my clit.
Tell me where you want my hand, baby girl. Use your words.
I may have been drunk off my ass, but there was no forgetting what he had said to me that night on the couch.
I tipped my head back, my body chasing a powerful release. I was so fucking pent up. Tilting the vibrator, I caught the perfect angle. My breathing picked up as every nerve ending in my body lit up like a fuse on a firecracker.
Yes, just a little more. Just a little ? —
Three hard knocks thundered from the other side of the door, loud enough to shatter the fantasy of Jase fucking me up against a wall.
I shrieked. The vibrator fell out of my hand as my foot slipped from the lip of the tub. I grappled at the wall for purchase, but the slick tile gave me no support.
I caught the edge of the shower curtain, yanking it down as I fell hard into the bottom of the tub .
“Mel?” Jase bellowed. There was undeniable panic in his tone. He banged on the door, more urgently this time. “Mel, are you okay?” Without giving me even a second to reply, Jason barged in. The door bounced off the wall. “Fuck?—”
“I’m fine! I’m fine! You can go!” I yelped. I tried to keep my voice steady, but I felt like I’d been tossed in a cement mixer full of bowling balls. Water continued to pour on top of me, but at least I was mostly covered by the shower curtain I’d taken down in my attempt to not fall.
Jason’s eyes were wide. “Shit!” He rushed in and cut the water off. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
There was a definite buzzing coming from somewhere in the shower curtain. Jase laughed but quickly bit it back.
I plastered my palm on my face to hide my sheer embarrassment.
“Must’ve been some orgasm,” he teased.
“Oh my God!” I screeched. “You scared me when you knocked, and I tripped.”
He rolled his lips between his teeth. “Mhmm. Tripped on what?”
“You’re not supposed to mock the injured!”
“I wasn’t mocking! I was asking!”
“You were mocking. Now get out!”
He snickered under his breath and offered his hand. “Come on. Up you go. Let’s make sure you’re okay.”
“This is all your fault,” I grumbled under my breath. “What were you banging on the door for anyway?”
“That was Steve. He was calling to let us know that a bunch of them are hanging out at the bar tonight and wanted to see if we were free to join.” Jason clasped my hand and held my elbow, helping me up as I clutched the shower curtain around my body like a toga .
My vibrator fell out of the shower curtain and rolled across the tub. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “If you say anything, I will kick you out, and you can sleep in your truck.”
Testing my resolve, he said, “Want me to get that for you?”
I glared at him.
Jason shrugged and picked the vibrator up, fiddling with it for a moment before finally turning it off. “Probably a good idea,” he said as he set it on the vanity, helped me out of the tub, and handed me a towel.
I shimmied the fluffy towel around my body as he untangled me from the shower curtain. “What do you mean?”
Jase smirked and tilted his head to the vibrator. “It’s probably a good idea to start with something small like that.”
Small? The size of that thing was listed as the exact opposite on the website I bought it from.
“Especially if it’s been a while,” he continued as he threaded the shower curtain through the tension rod and hung it back up.
“Excuse me?” I snapped, whirling around as he made his way out of the bathroom.
Jase paused and flashed a grin. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”