by Vivian Wood
That’s my kind of problem.
So I climb the metal staircase with the guy in my line of vision. He’s wearing a white button up and dark, low-slung jeans. And he’s gripping a tumbler as if it was the only thing tethering him to the ground.
Tall, dark, handsome, and brooding? Check, check, check, and check.
When I reach the upper floor, I run my hand along the balcony rail as I approach him. He is so engrossed in staring down at the dance floor that he doesn’t even notice me at first.
Usually I’m the center of attention at parties back home in Seattle. I’m cute, I’m blonde, and I come from a family that’s obscenely wealthy.
So this is a change of pace for me, not being noticed by a man. I get close enough to him to be heard.
“Mind if I stand here?” I call.
He starts a little, looking surprised. Then he just nods. I stare at that beautiful face of his for a second, then cock my head and smirk.
I can’t help it. I reach up to touch his face.
“You’re handsome. You’re tall. You have the face of a model,” I tell him.
He frowns and pulls back. “Quit that.”
I grin at him. “No.”
He steps close to me, his eyes narrowing on my face. He scowls but that only makes me more determined to make him have a good time.
I reach out and snag his hand, giving him a doe-eyed look. “Dance with me, stranger.”
Tugging his hand, I pull us toward the staircase. And to my surprise, he sets down his glass and follows.
I head downstairs, elbowing my way into the midst of several hundred strangers. People are gyrating in time to the low beat of the music. I can feel the heat of their bodies pressed up together. I can smell their sweat mixed with perfume, too.
I stop and turn, stepping right up against the hard line of my chosen partner’s body. I start moving with the beat, putting my hands around his neck and tipping my head back.
His hands settle against my lower back, pushing his hips hard against my own. I lean closer to him, inhaling a lungful of his clean, manly scent.
He smells absolutely delicious.
He presses against me again, moving in time with the beat. I smile and look up at him.
His brows are drawn down, his cheekbones so high and hard they could cut me. But his lips…
It’s really his lips that draw me in, pale pink and plump, looking like they are begging to be kissed.
I rise up on my tiptoes, shouting next to his ear. “Want to kiss me?”
He pauses for a second. I look at him, look at the desire that is stamped across his face. His gaze drops down to my mouth and I wet my lips.
I need this stranger to kiss me, right now.
He surprises me by bending me back a little first and then brushing his lips against mine. His mouth is hot and his body tense against mine as he kisses me again, this time harder, more demanding.
My hands sink into his short, dark hair. I pull at him.
Needing more.
Demanding more.
Soon we are both out of breath. He lifts my knee and I wrap my leg around his hip. He runs a hand through my hair and then grabs a fistful of it, bending my head back.
He runs his lips down the smooth column. I gasp.
I need more. I need his lips on every inch of my body, and I need it now.
I tug his head up to my ear. “I have a room upstairs. You should come with me.”
He pulls back, his eyes scanning my face, his expression conflicted. He grips me harder for a second, indecisive.
If I want him, and I really do, I’m going to have to be forceful.
“Come with me.” I raise my brows at him and turn to start walking off the dance floor. He follows after a moment.
I feel as victorious as I am drunk. Pushing open the door leading out of the nightclub and into the hotel’s sleek lobby, I smirk at him.
“What?” he asks, looking me up and down.
I drop his hand and head to the elevators, pressing the button. When I turn back, he’s practically on top of me, caging me in with his arms against the black marble wall. I shiver.
He is so much bigger than I am, even with my heels he dwarfs me.
“Are you always such a trouble maker?” he purrs, his lips finding my neck. His lips are hot and firm, warming my tits and making my panties wet.
“Almost always,” I gasp. The elevators chime, announcing their arrival. He sucks at my pulse point, making me writhe.
“Such a bad girl,” he murmurs. “I can’t wait until you’re stripped bare and on your fucking knees before me.”
The elevator doors slide open. I can’t help but grin at his dirty mouth.
I push at his big frame. “Then let’s go upstairs.”
He doesn’t budge. He just cups one of my tits as his mouth moves down, exploring my collarbone. He tugs my strapless dress down in the front so I am almost about to spill out of it.
“Patience,” he whispers. “All things in good time…”
At the same time his hand ventures down to my hip, trailing down to my thigh. His hot fingers tease their way up my inner thigh, making me clamp my legs together.
“Not here!” I squeak, my face growing red.
He sucks on one particular spot on my collarbone, his fingers trailing up to touch the vee between my legs. I gasp and writhe, wanting to get away from his touch but also kind of liking it.
“Are you sure?” he chuckles.
His free hand moves to my face, gripping and turning my head until he kisses my ear. All the breath leaves my lungs in a whoosh as he uses the tip of his tongue just inside my ear.
My eyelids flutter closed. My hands clench his shirt. I moan, low and long.
I swear to god, he can take me right here and now as long as he doesn’t stop his tongue’s deft movements. I’m not sure if I can even come from having my ear licked and teased…
But I swear, I’m going to burst into flames if he so much as touches my tits or my pussy. When he pulls back, I stare at him openmouthed and just starting to blush.
“What did you want again?” he asks, cocking a brow.
“I…” I swallow, gathering my thoughts. “Upstairs.”
He laughs at how tense I am. Stepping back, he motions to the elevator. The doors have long since closed.
My hand shakes as I move to press the button again, calling the elevator back. The doors slide open and I step inside, feeling like a fawn trying to walk as I totter in my sky high heels.
I turn around, pressing the button for the top floor. He is right behind me, eyeing me.
“We are going to have fun.”
I can’t speak. There’s too much carnal tension in the air. I just bite my lip and nod.
As the doors close, he reaches for me again.
Chapter Two
Luna
I have everything I want.
Well… almost everything. I have money. I have a career. I have male company, if I want it.
That’s enough, right?
I stare down at a brilliant gray piece of fabric in my hands. Unsurprisingly, it holds no answers for me. Sighing, I try to shift my focus back to the little dress shop I’m in with my two best friends.
We’re in downtown Seattle, browsing through the racks in a tiny one-room shop. Brunette, willowy, and beautiful Cate is trying on a few garments behind a dressing room made mostly of a blue velvet curtain.
Red-haired Harper is taller than the two of us and a little more substantially built but she’s absolutely gorgeous; she just has the perfect proportions and absolutely slays everything she wears. At the moment, she’s perusing the jewelry on a table with gentle hands
Meanwhile I keep pulling out dresses, touching them, making a dissatisfied expression, and then putting them back.
Pulling a dress off the rack, I take it to the mirror and flatten it against myself. I’m blonde and thin, kept that way by an hour and a half of running every day. The pink velour dress could
flatter my pale complexion… and the dress’s high collar does make my heart-shaped face and high cheekbones seem more pronounced.
Taking another moment to glance at the dusty pink against my deep-set ocean blue eyes, I sigh.
The dress is good. Great, even. But I own a thousand dresses that are great; I’m looking for something spectacular.
“I can’t believe Luca is making me go on this trip!” Cate declares from behind the fitting room curtain. “Who knew he cared about going to see the mezcal being made in Oaxaca?”
“That’s my brother,” I say with a shrug. “He’s always been like that. If you didn’t want to go on weird booze-related adventures, you shouldn’t have accidentally married a rich bar owner. There are remedies for it, the first being divorce.”
Cate sticks her head out, turning a delicate pink. She shoots me a look. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll keep him. Why on earth are you so cranky, anyway?”
Harper scrunches her face up, turning away from the jewelry table. “Yeah Luna, you’ve been snippy all morning. What have we missed? Is it medical school-related?”
I clear my throat, blushing a little. “Sorry. I’m trying really hard to keep things under wraps. But I’m doing a bad job, obviously.”
Cate frowns and pushes back the curtain. She’s wearing a dress that I really like, a strappy little plum-colored dress. Only because she’s Cate, she put on a white dress shirt under the velvet dress. It looks stylish, but also sort of chaste.
I smile because I like to think that I’m the reason that Cate abandoned her old wardrobe of full length, drab gray dresses. Of course, marrying my brother Luca also likely played a big role…
“What things are you talking about?” Cate asks.
Letting the dress I’m holding drop back into place on the rack, I shift my stance with a sigh. “You know how I missed a bunch of classes lately because my uterus hates me?”
Harper comes over to where I’m standing, a dress catching her eye. She examines it as she talks. “Yeah. Endometriosis, right? It makes you have ultra-bad periods. Lots of bleeding and pain. It’s like your uterus is Rambo on steroids and it has a vendetta against you every month.”
My lips lift at the corners. “I haven’t quite heard it put to me that way before, but sure.”
“Harper is great with summarizing things in the most elegant way possible,” Cate giggles.
Harper winks in a very exaggerated way and we all chuckle. I shake my head.
“Okay, well… during one of the classes I missed, they announced summer internships. These are a big deal. Having a successful one on our CV basically means that when we’re interns, we are placed with the best residents.”
I pause to make sure that Cate and Harper are still with me. Cate nods and Harper cocks her head. I push onward.
“Since I missed that day of class, I missed the last three months of signups for internships. The only one left is with a place called Aurora Borealis Charters.” I make a face. “It’s a place where you can rent a boat and a crew to take you sailing up the coast to Alaska.”
Both Cate and Harper look surprised. Harper leans in with a sly look.
“Are you telling me that you, a fairytale princess who is going to be a doctor, will have to live on a boat for a few days?” She grins. “But how will your wardrobe fit on the boat? Oooh, I know. You could hire another boat to follow you around and keep your closet on board.”
Cate laughs at that. I shoot Harper a glare.
“Very funny,” I mutter. “I admit, it’s not the most ideal position for me. But it’s literally the only one left.”
Cate jumps in. “I’m sure that it won’t be that bad. I mean, other people have done it before, right?”
“Yeah.” I nod. I step away from the racks of clothing with a sigh. “It’s just… this is sort of a last chance for me. I struggled this year with my classes and my endometriosis diagnosis. I went on hormonal birth control and it’s all much calmer now, but…” I pause, taking a deep breath. “I have to prove myself this summer. And to do that, I have to get hired first.”
Harper moves a little closer, touching my arm. “You will get hired. I know it.”
“Any place would be lucky to have you,” Cate chimes in. “Honestly. There is a reason that Harper teases you about how you’re a fairytale princess, and it’s not just because you are well-dressed. It seems like everything you touch just…” She makes a gesture with both hands. “Flourishes.”
I smile at her. “Thank you. That’s very kind.” I look her up and down. “You’re planning on getting that exact outfit, right? Cause it’s cute.”
Cate flushes, brushing her hands down her front. “I think so, yes.”
“Good.” I spin on my heel. “Harper, you’re looking for a necklace, right?”
She nods. “Yeah, but I don’t see anything here that’s quite right.”
“Did you look at the pendants hanging on the mannequin in the front window?” I ask, pointing toward it. “I thought they were both precious.”
Her eyes light up. “No.” She walks over to the mannequin, turning it slightly. “Ah, this one is perfect. I just need something to wear with my full length black Stevie Nicks dress.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask, my attention drawn to a pink silk halter top. “What have you got planned? A date, maybe?”
I turn back to Harper and find her cheeks pinking up. “Oh, you know. Nothing really. It’s just, Smith is in town…”
“Oh, so you’re finally going to tell Smith that you love him and want to have his babies?” Cate asks.
Harper fires a glare at Cate, but Cate just ducks back beneath the blue velvet curtain.
“Smith and I are just friends,” Harper says. Her face is so red by this point that I can’t help but rib her a little more.
“You keep saying that, but I don’t think you know what that means.” I smile at her.
“If you think that talking about Smith is going to make me forget about your dating situation, you are just sorely mistaken,” Harper fires back. “What happened with that cute college professor you went out with? What was his name?”
“Carter.” I smile thinly. “It turns out that he’s off limits. He works for the medical school and he was directly responsible for my grades.”
Harper’s eyebrows go up. “Isn’t that kind of hot? Some super secret, sneaking around kind of passion?”
“It would be if he wasn’t like totally into some other girl.” I shrug. “He didn’t say who, but he was obviously head over heels for some lucky girl. It’s too bad because he was sooooo hot.”
Pouting, I pull the hanger holding the pink halter off of the rack. Cate pokes her head out of the changing room, pulling a face. “Well that’s a bummer.”
“Yeah. Really though, I should be focusing on this internship anyway.”
I carry the halter top to the front. The girl behind the counter silently starts checking me out. I pull out my credit card, smiling lightly. Cate trails behind me, holding the dress and the shirt she just modeled.
“Not to be a downer, but maybe you should try to date someone with a little bit of substance,” she suggests gently. “Someone that might be challenging to you.”
Harper joins us, holding her necklace. “She’s not wrong.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m fine. You guys know how I feel. I can’t have a family, so I might as well pour everything into work right now. Then I can focus on my dating life after my residency. In the meantime, I can just relax and enjoy some guys that I have absolutely nothing else in common with. Just me, and them, and their abs.”
I wiggle my eyebrows. Cate and Harper have heard this all before and they both roll their eyes.
“But it’s so boring,” Cate complains. “I swear, I don’t even know the names of the last few guys you dated.”
I grab Harper and Cate’s purchases. “Will you please put these on my card? Thanks.”
“Luna!” Harper protests. Cate bites her tongue
but doesn’t look exactly happy.
“No more questions about my love life!” I insist. “Really, it’s fine. I feel fine.”
“I’m definitely getting all of us ice cream as soon as we leave here,” Cate says firmly.
Harper just accepts her necklace with a sharp look. “Thank you.”
Yeah, my friends may not love how I use money to end a conversation I don’t want to be in. But they don’t protest too hard, especially not Cate. She’s using what is presumably Luca’s card anyway; all his money and mine come from the same place more or less.
As we make our way out of the shop, I look up into the bright May daylight. It’s warm today, making me second guess my decision to add a light jacket over my dress.
Undeterred, Cate takes charge. She points. “Look, there’s a Salt & Straw across the street. I wasn’t kidding about buying everyone ice cream.”
“Well, if I must,” I say with a grin. I subsist mainly on sugar, which everyone knows.
As we cross the road, Harper pipes up. “Do they have new flavors yet? Last time I was here in October they had this chocolate marionberry flavor that was like eating a little piece of heaven.”
“Mmm, that sounds good,” Cate says.
We reach the plate glass door, Cate leading the way inside. Harper is next and then I follow. Distracted by my phone, I don’t realize we are stopping until I stumble into Harper’s legs.
I look up to find Cate helping a dark-headed little girl in a periwinkle blue dress put her shoe back on. My heart squeezes painfully. The little girl is so cute, telling Cate about what flavor of ice cream she’s going to try. Cate beams at her, talking to her gently. The girl’s mother realizes that her daughter is lagging behind and turns, pulling the little girl into her arms.
God, the little girl is a perfect replica of her mother.
And that’s enough. I stand stiffly, turning and pushing my way back out of the store. Tears prick my eyes.
I’ll never, ever have that moment. I’ll never be anyone’s mother. And it tears me up inside, knowing that the one thing I so desperately want, I just can’t have.
As I turn away from the shop and breathe out, I scold myself.
