by Lexy Timms
The night had been so much fun, and I could hardly believe that it was coming to an end already. I could have spent the next few hours, till morning, talking things out with her. She had such a sweet nature, such a sharp sense of humor, and before I knew it, the two of us had been caught up in the middle of this really fun conversation about Kingston, what it had been like growing up there for her, and how it had been coming here for me.
I was sure that I had spilled a little more than I should have to her about everything that had drawn me here in the first place, but for now, I was okay with that. Maybe it was the glass of wine that had taken the edge off, or maybe it was just the ease with which the conversation flowed, but I didn’t feel like I had been exposed in any particularly horrible way. In fact, there was some part of me that had enjoyed the chance to get some shit off my chest. I hadn’t filled her in on all of it, but there had been enough, I was certain, that she wasn’t going to feel like I was deliberately trying to keep her from finding out the truth about me.
I led her back to the car, and she followed me into the cool evening air, tipping her head back and letting it rush over her skin. A few goosepimples popped up on the tops of her arms, and I quickly pulled off my jacket to drape itaround her shoulders. She looked over at me in surprise.
“You didn’t have to do that—”
“You’re cold,” I replied calmly. “I can’t just let that happen, now can I?”
“Fair point,” she agreed, and she could hardly keep the smile off her face as I opened the car door for her to get back inside. She slipped into the front seat and leaned her head back against the plush leather behind her.
“You know, I could really get used to traveling in something like this,” she remarked as I climbed in beside her.
“Only with someone to drive me, of course,” she continued, and she shot me a look out of the corner of her eye. “You think you’re up for the job?”
“Hmm, I was hoping for something a little more glamorous than that,” I admitted as I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
“I’ll offer excellent incentives,” she shot back. She caught my eye for a moment, and I knew exactly what she was referring to. I had to stifle a grin that threatened to underline her flirtation a little too intensely. I wanted to stay in this moment, in this feeling, in this light and easy part where the two of us were just bouncing back and forth off one another like we had been doing this for a lifetime already.
“I’ll consider it,” I replied. “I’ve been out of work for way too long.”
“Yeah, nothing worthwhile about what you’ve been up to,” she replied playfully. “Just helping people get their lives together and build businesses...essentially just sitting around on your ass doing nothing, huh?”
“Essentially,” I agreed. “It’s about time I did something useful with my time.”
“And now I’m a big-shot reporter I’m going to need someone to take me to all my interviews,” she continued. She sounded pretty taken with the idea.
“So I’ll have a job for life,” I mused, playing along with her for now. I enjoyed the thought of getting to spend more time with her. Not that I thought she was going to turn down another date now that we had actually been out, and it had been such a success.
“If you play your cards right,” she flirted back. I could smell her perfume again, the scent of it swelling to fill the car, and I had to keep my eyes trained on the road to stop myself from getting distracted.
By the time we pulled up in front of her apartment building, the tension was already too much for either of us to ignore. She didn’t climb out of the car for a moment, glancing over at me like she was waiting for me to say something. I didn’t know what she needed to hear right now, but I would do anything that I could to say it the way she wanted to hear it.
“So,” she murmured, and she tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear before she turned to me. “I had a really good time tonight.”
“Yeah, so did I,” I replied. I meant it. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had been out with someone like her, since I had spent time with someone who made me feel alive in the same way that she did. Some part of me was urging her to invite me inside, to make this night last a little longer, but I knew it was a stupid idea. I had already told her more than I had ever intended to, and if she got me in a more compromising position, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to hold myself back.
“Let’s do it again some time,” I suggested. I didn’t phrase it as a question. I didn’t have to. I knew that she wanted this as much as I did, and there was no way in hell that I was going to let a chance to spend more time with her slip through my fingers.
“Yeah, let’s,” she agreed. I could see the slight pink tinge to her cheeks. I knew that she was already thinking about what we might do on our second date. Where we might end up.
“I guess I should get some sleep,” she remarked, and I nodded. I wanted her to stay, but I had to let her go. For now, at least.
She gazed at me for a moment, letting her teeth rest on her bottom lip, and, for a second I just stared at her. I knew what she was waiting for. The very same thing that I was. Slowly, I shifted myself around to face her, making sure that she could see my intentions from a mile away. I reached over, tucked my hand behind her head, and tilted her face up to look at me. Her mouth was parted slightly, as though she was gasping for air.
And then, I leaned toward her and kissed her.
As soon as our mouths met, any sense of pacing or restraint vanished from my head. How could I even think about that when all I wanted was to get my hands on her, all over her? I pulled her close to me as her lips parted to allow the invasion of my tongue.
I felt her moan against my mouth, and I moved my hand to her thigh, sinking my fingers into her leg, feeling her skin against mine and knowing that I could have her any way that I wanted her right now. She moved a little closer to me, and my hand started to move up, over her leg, up her dress. I cupped her breast through the thin fabric, and I could already feel the swell of her nipple under my touch. She wanted me. If I had told her to unlock her front door and take me upstairs and give me everything I wanted, she would have done it, I knew it.
And, as tempting as it was to take advantage of that power, I knew that we had to hold back, at least for now. I pulled away from her, and she looked into my eyes with an urgency that told me that my instincts were right. I traced a finger over her cheek, and she let out a soft gasp.
“I think you should be getting some rest,” I reminded her, and she pouted softly. Fuck, she looked so cute that it was hard for me to think of anything but getting my hands on her again—but I knew that I had to let her go. Leave her wanting more. Make sure that she came back to give me what I desired from her so badly.
“I’ll see you again soon, right?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah, you will,” I promised her, and I watched as she hit me with one last lingering gaze and then pushed the door open once more. It was hard for me to watch her leave like that—but seeing the sway of her ass in that dress was enough to take the sting out of it for a little while longer. I tried to keep the grin off my face and started the car up so that I could get out of there before I let my desire get the better of me.
I waited until I was sure that she was inside her apartment building, and, once the door had swung shut behind her, I took off into the night. I was driving fast—something about all the adrenaline and the desire in my system was pushing me to go harder than I normally would. I had to work it out somehow, I figured, and this was about the only way that I could think of when she was probably wrapped up in her warm bed right now.
Thinking of me.
I grinned as that thought crossed my mind. Yeah, I hoped that she would be tossing and turning all night long, thinking about that kiss, how much she wanted me, how much she was looking forward to our next date. I knew I was.
In fact, as I sat there in my car, watching the scenery w
hip past me at double-time as I tore down the street, I knew that I was going to have a hard time waiting for whatever came next. It had been a long time since I had let someone get close to me—not just physically, but emotionally, too. And I intended to make the very most of every second that we had together. I wanted to find out just what was going on under the surface of that girl, just what she was trying to hold back from me. Because I was sure that she had something that she didn’t want the rest of the world to uncover. And I knew that, one way or another, I was going to get my hands on it—just the same way that she had with me when she had been the one conducting the interview.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sarah
AS I WALKED TO WORK, letting the cold morning air wake me up, I returned the call that my parents had left me last night.
Honestly, I was glad that I hadn’t been there to answer it—in fact, when they had called, I had still been out in the car with Jesse, making out with him and trying my hardest not to think about how much I wished I could invite him up to my place for the rest of the evening. Trying to return it last night, I would have still been in that totally useless headspace where all that I could consider was just the way that his mouth had felt on mine, the way that his hands had roamed over my body as though he already knew that he owned it.
And how much I wanted to see him again, even though he had already agreed that the two of us were going to do just that. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him. The date had been a whole lot of fun, and I was surprised at how easy it had been to get him to talk about the past that he seemed to keep under wraps at all costs. Maybe because it had been a date and not an interview—no matter how much I would have liked to include some of the new details that he had given me in the article that my editor had sent to me that morning.
Seemed like the information that Mo had managed to get on him was enough for them to publish a follow-up to the story that I had put together a few days ago. I had jumped at the chance to cover him again, mainly because I knew that I was the best person for the job, but also because I didn’t like the thought of someone else delving into his past and digging up things that he might not have wanted anyone to hear. I knew that we all had secrets, and whatever his were, they seemed a lot more painful than most of the ones that everyone else had to handle.
“Hey,” I greeted my parents.
“Oh, there you are!” Mom exclaimed. She had this brightness to her voice first thing in the morning that reminded me of all the days that she had kicked my ass out of bed to get ready for school, and it always took me back to that place again. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not—but hey, at least it put Jesse out of my head for a little while, right?
“There I am,” I replied. “How are you guys doing? How are you enjoying Hawaii?”
“It’s amazing,” she sighed happily. “Isn’t it, John?”
“It sure is,” my father interjected, his voice fainter than hers, as though he was somewhere else in the room.
“But I hear you have exciting news too!” she continued. “You published your first article for the Press, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I sure did,” I replied, unable to keep the smile off my face. I couldn’t believe that I actually got to say that out loud and mean it. I had fantasized about this moment, about sharing this victory with my parents, and now, here I was—on the other end of the phone, able to share that joy with them at last.
“You must keep a copy of it for us,” my father called over to the speakerphone.
“I will, don’t worry,” I replied at once. Honestly, I was glad to hear from them—they had been so supportive of everything that I had done to get to this point, and I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I had if it hadn’t been for them. I couldn’t wait for them to come back so that I could take them out for dinner to thank them for the support that they had given to me for the last few years, especially. Not many parents would have stuck by their kid when they had been so committed to something that many people would have seen as crazy, but they always had been, and I was beyond grateful for that.
We chatted a little more until I arrived at the office, and they told me about their trip—the good time that they were having, all the pictures that they had taken. When we said goodbye, I was grinning from ear to ear, and even waved to the gloomy receptionist as I came inside. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, Mo was on his feet, and he had bounded over to intercept me.
“You had your date last night, didn’t you?”
I nodded. Working on Saturday meant that I could get on Allison’s good side—but there were fewer people in the office, so I was more likely to be waylaid with questions about what I had been up to.
“So how was it?” he asked.
I smiled, knowing that my cheeks were flushing a little pink.
“It was really good,” I gushed, finally, as I headed over to my desk to get myself set up for the day. I knew that I shouldn’t have been so fluttery about him, not in public, at least, but there was something to be said for the sweetness of sharing a good date with a friend.
“Oh, yeah?” he replied, perking up at once. I nodded.
“We had a really good time,” I admitted. “And he said that he wants to see me again.”
“And do you want to see him?” he asked. I nodded at once.
“I’m sure I do,” I replied. “We had a really good time. I don’t want that to be where it ends. I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not, given that I just wrote a story on him, but...”
I trailed off when I saw Allison making eye contact with me across the room. No doubt she had some serious questions about who I was going on about. I had to contain myself. I didn’t want to spill too much too soon. Especially not given that I was meant to be writing a story about this man sooner, and I was determined to make it the best it possibly could be.
She approached the two of us and Mo scuttled off back to his desk—it seemed like even after all these years, he was still committed to making sure that he didn’t get on Allison’s bad side. Was she that scary? As she reached my desk, I looked up at her with a smile on my face. If she was, all I had to do was pretend that she wasn’t, right?
“So that story on Jesse,” she remarked. “I saw that you claimed it this morning. What’s your angle going to be?”
“Just going to build it around the picture that we found,” I replied. “Ask a few questions, make sure to put some pingbacks to other articles that we have about him on the site, too.”
“Sounds good to me,” she agreed with a sharp nod. “Make sure you don’t hold back. I feel like we’ve been giving him enough leeway already. I’m done with that for now.”
“You have my word,” I replied, hitting her with a playful salute that she didn’t seem to find very amusing.
“Tell me when you have the first draft finished,” she told me. “I want to look it over myself.”
“Will do—”
But before I could finish my sentence, she had turned and marched back to her office once more. Well, that just gave me more time to work on this story, didn’t it? And honestly, it was kind of the perfect story for me to be working on today, given that I couldn’t for the damn life of me get this man out of my head. I knew that I should have been more restrained, had a little more cool and calm whenever I thought of him, but that was hard when every memory I had was replaced with the kiss that he had given me in his car before he had sent me home.
He knew that I would be thinking about him non-stop after that. How could I not be? I wanted to kiss him again. And more than that, too. It felt a little strange to be thinking about getting my hands on him in the least professional way possible at the same time as I was writing a story about him, but hey—I was sure that he would prefer me to have a hand in it than anyone else.
Maybe. Or maybe he wouldn’t want me to be writing it at all. My fingers slowed over the keys as the thought crossed my mind—as I recalled, all at once, how he’d re
acted when I had asked him about what had happened back in Nashville.
“You all good?” Mo asked me as he brushed past the desk. He seemed to notice my hesitation, and he cocked his head to the side.
“Don’t tell me that you’re getting cold feet writing this article after you went out on one measly date with the guy,” he remarked.
I paused and sat back. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I mean, yeah, I know there’s something strange going on, but...isn’t everyone entitled to keep something from their past a secret?”
“I’m more of the opinion that people are entitled to know the truth about a guy who has been practically running this town for the last few years,” he pointed out. “No matter what that might be.”
“I guess,” I sighed.
“Don’t tell me that you’ve already fallen for him enough that you’re going to let him off easy?” he asked, and there was a challenging edge to his voice that made me bristle a little. I wasn’t going to let one little date get in the way of doing my job. Not a chance in hell. Nobody was going to throw me off my game, not after I had worked so hard to prove myself here in the first place.
“Of course not,” I told him firmly. “Just thinking out loud, that’s all.”
“Glad to hear it,” he responded, but he didn’t sound sure. “Anyway. Get that thing done—I know Allison’s counting down the seconds till you get it on her desk. It’s going to be leading on Sunday.”
“Right,” I replied, and I turned my attention back to the article in front of me and pushed myself onwards. I wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t true, and I wasn’t going to pull in any of the information that he had shared with me when we had been on that date together. Yes, okay, he might not have been too happy that we had more questions for him—but when he had been so evasive before, could he really be surprised that people weren’t finished with him quite yet?
