THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID

by Amy Baker

  “Don’t, Delilah,” he whispered shaking his head.

  I shrugged in response. What could I possibly say? Hugh abandoned his frying pan and made his way to me. He squatted before me shifting his feet forward to get closer which brought us face-to-face with his body cradled between my thighs. His hands gently framed my face while his thumb caressed my cheek. “Please don’t worry. I have a plan.”

  “Oh yeah? Does it involve beating the crap out of one Stacey Horner?” I asked without inflection.

  He chuckled helplessly before he answered. “Well it didn’t. But if including that in the plan is important to you I am open for suggestions.”

  I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly through my nose. “Probably not the best idea. So what did you have in mind?”

  “First, Matzo Brei.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. “Then, bed,” a sly smile took over before he pressed his lips to mine again. “And, then,” another kiss, “if you’re a good girl,” another kiss, “I’ll fill you in.” Then Hugh shot to standing leaving me totally frustrated, a little less miserable and uncharacteristically speechless.

  Yes.

  Hugh Rowen could kiss away all of my problems.

  Shameless.

  Did I mention that Darcy Strong was an idiot? Good Lord, show some mercy because I was completely defenseless when it came to Hugh Rowen. I was fairly certain that my internal temperature had surpassed a healthy simmer and was approaching a rolling boil. Yet, Hugh was taking his sweet ass time seemingly unaffected. His body hovered over mine as he deliberately tormented me sexually. His lips gently grazed my half naked body. His fingers traced every elastic millimeter of my bra and panties sometimes even lingering. He’d been around the amusement park, otherwise known as Welling World, twice and still hadn’t ridden the big coaster. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract me and I will admit, it was working. He had me focused. On my body. But did this man not have nerve endings? Any normal male would have taken me an hour ago. It’s not like I would have protested.

  Whimpered, most definitely.

  Protested, no.

  But Hugh was holding out. How long he would last was a mystery. A mystery I needed to get to the bottom of quickly before I melted into a puddle.

  Now. It should be mentioned that I had gone to a few yoga classes over the years and I was able to hold a plank position just as long as the next person. But Hugh had been at it for quite a while. It was remarkable, actually. If I wasn’t so pent up with frustration, it probably would have been commendable. But if he didn’t lower his torso to mine soon I was going to have to learn to levitate to reach him. And given the heat emanating from my body I just might be able to muster up enough steam to do it. That was if I didn’t dehydrate through the orifice of my vagina first.

  “Hugh,” I breathed shamelessly.

  “Mmm,” he responded exhaling a shaky warm breath against the skin on my neck. Another shiver pulsed through me.

  “Please,” I managed breathily.

  “Mmm,” he responded again trailing those lips to the swell of my right breast.

  “I want you,” I whimpered in turn, leaving nothing to question.

  Instead of answering he pulled back and rested his ass on his heels.

  Uh, okay, what the hell was going on? Was it opposite day and I didn’t receive the alert on my social networking web page?

  “Delilah,” Hugh rumbled.

  “Yes?” I answered going up on my elbows to see him.

  “Maybe we are moving too fast,” he pushed his splayed fingers through his hair in frustration and slowly shook his head.

  Maybe after an hour of foreplay my hearing had become shoddy because I thought he said we were moving too fast. I wasn’t what one would consider a sexual dynamo by any stretch of the imagination but how he thought we were moving too fast was incomprehensible. My eyes drifted down his torso to assess the size of the hard-on he was sporting fearing the desire in the room was one sided. I was relieved to find that I was being pointed at accusatorily.

  “I beg your pardon?” I said with my southern drawl sounding as confused as I actually was.

  “I just don’t know if we are in the right place,” he added.

  I looked left and right. We were on a bed in the middle of my soon to be vacated apartment. It seemed to me that the place might be a little small but it was more than adequate. “What place? What are you talking about?” I drawled. I was beginning to realize that my southern accent tended to reappear when a heated conversation was on the horizon. And low and behold, Hugh was starting to piss me off.

  I could tell he was interpreting my signs of hostility by the way he was getting defensive. He held both hands up in front of me like I was a vicious hyena. “I just want to be sure about what we are doing. Things are a little…chaotic right now.” He dropped his hands to his legs and began rubbing the palms succinctly up and down his flexed, bare thighs.

  That was all he had to say. The sass arrived with a good dose of bossy and a hint of bitch. “So help me God, Matthew Rowen, if you don’t come back over here and stick that thing where it belongs I am going to kill you. You have been toying with me for over an hour!”

  “Take it easy. I just don’t want you to regret your choices,” he defended sensibly.

  “Oh, don’t you worry. You keep this shit up and the only thing I am going to regret is that in my haste I didn’t rip off your penis and beat you with it before I killed you!” I threatened. “Now you get back here and finish what you started!” I scolded with a finger pointing at my vagina.

  No need for mixed messages.

  Apparently Hugh found my tirade funny. Because his shoulders started to shake as he attempted to control the outburst of laughter.

  And that, my friends, was the end of that.

  “Get out.” I sat upright and pushed at his chest with all I could muster. “You son-of-a-bitch, get the fuck out.” I had officially had enough. My life was a total and complete disaster and now the love of my life was in my bed laughing at me.

  “Delilah.” Hugh grabbed my wrists to stop my advancement and tried to control my flailing arms. He did a damn good job of it, too. Bastard. “Don’t get all angry. I just want to do this right,” he whispered as he slowly lowered me back against the bed. He pinned my arms above my head and finally (FINALLY) covered my body with his. A little late in the game for my liking. “I have wanted you for over a decade,” he pressed himself against me. “I just don’t want to screw it up by moving too fast,” he tried to explain.

  “Hugh,” I growled with my chest heaving as a result of the cardio workout from resistance training with Hugh’s muscular arms. “Fast would have been 59 minutes ago. Nothing about what we have been doing is fast,” I educated while trying to work my hands free and possibly unintentionally catch him in the family jewels with my knee. “It’s taken us twelve years to get here.”

  “You know what I mean, damn it.” Hugh was starting to get irritated. Apparently trying to dodge my pointy knees and reason with me at the same time was a significant challenge. His chest started heaving, which gave me a hint of satisfaction that I was putting up a pretty good fight. “If I have it my way,” he growled, “there will be a whole lot of sex in our future, Delilah.”

  I stopped struggling so I could listen. Maybe his plan had some merit.

  “I just don’t know if you will be on board with what I think we should do next. I can’t do this,” he gestured to our sexual position, “and have you leave. I just can’t,” his labored breathing was mingling with mine while his eyes danced back and forth. “I can’t.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek while I digested what he shared. Hugh caught his breath and slowed his breathing. He must have sensed me softening because he lowered his lips and kissed me gently. “I need to know that you will stay.” He shifted his hard body on mine and whispered in my ear. “Tell me you’re going to stay. No matter what.”

  His reasoning began to register. He didn’t w
ant to have sex with me and then watch me pack up and head to Virginia. That was sweet and nice to hear.

  I wanted to stay. Nothing would make me happier than to stay in New York and make a life with Hugh. But how could I do that with no job and no home?

  “Hugh,” I breathed conflicted.

  Then Hugh began to whisper-sing a song. A song I was quite familiar with because someone left it on my voicemail at least once a week since I moved to New York. The first time I came home and found it on my voicemail, I figured it was Julia bucking for another invite. But when she vehemently denied it was her I started to get nervous. I made some calls but no one would fess up. I tried to have the call traced and the closest I could come was it was from an 800 number in my hometown in Virginia. I chalked it up to Julia honing her skills of denial for her new gossip column and started to enjoy the song. Even made it my ringtone. Hugh’s singing it directly to me brought it all together.

  Delilah…every day that passes by…you’re in my heart and on my mind…you’ll never know the pain I felt …when you went and left me far behind…

  Once he stopped singing, I felt his lips kiss my neck just below my ear. “Just say you’ll stay, Delilah, please.”

  Between his sexy voice singing in my ear, his admission that he wanted me to stay and his lips tenderly trailing soft kisses across my skin, I could almost feel my anger and frustration scampering from my body. In my heart I had been his for as long as I could remember. Admitting I wanted to stay was rather easy even if the logistics of this plan weren’t going to be quite so simple to navigate.

  “Okay. I’ll stay,” I blurted. I mean, really. I could only take so much and I would have to be a moron to refuse. It would seem that the decision to stay was definitely the right one because Hugh was on the move. This time when he pushed back off of my body my panties went with him. “Lift up,” he ordered and shimmied them down my legs. He threw them over his shoulder as he dropped forward and moved his hand behind my back looking for the clasp of my bra. I didn’t know that Hugh was able to move so fast. It was refreshing. Once I felt the tension of my bra release, I helped him move the straps down my arms.

  “Are you ready?” He asked tearing into the little foil square he pulled out of thin air.

  I nodded in response.

  “That’s good cause after an hour of wanting nothing more than to sink myself inside of you this will probably last about thirty seconds,” he teased. “I wouldn’t want you to blink and miss it. So, pay attention,” he spoke against my lips and then I felt them form a satisfying smile just before he pressed himself inside.

  Given the way he had primed me, thirty seconds would be a miracle.

  Chapter 12

  “So I’m thinking Upper West Side.”

  I was lying in Hugh’s big arms. My body nestled up against his with my left thigh draped over his left leg. My left arm was fondling the light dusting of chest hair that adorned his perfect body. Hugh’s fingers were gently grazing the skin at the base of my back.

  “Upper West Side?” I questioned unsure of where the conversation was going.

  “Yeah. It’s near the park and I like the area,” he continued.

  I was guessing that Hugh was sharing where he was going to start looking for apartments. “That sounds good,” I agreed unenthusiastically.

  “No?” He questioned hearing the ambivalence in my tone.

  “Sure,” I responded.

  Unable to ascertain why I seemed so equivocal on the subject, Hugh pulled far enough away so that he could see my face while we discussed his future apartment hunt. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked with surprise in his tone.

  “Nothing,” I shrugged. The Upper West Side was very nice but I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say.

  “Delilah,” Hugh scolded. “You have to tell me what you are thinking. Despite your repeated flattery that I am ‘amazing’ I can’t read minds. Tell me what you are thinking,” he said incredulously.

  I was guessing I should have lightened up on how ‘amazing’ I thought Hugh was in bed because he was using my words against me. “I think you’ll like the West Side. It’s fun,” I shrugged.

  “And you wouldn’t like the West Side?” he pushed.

  “Um,” I shrugged again.

  “Holy shit, this is painful.” He raked his hand through his hair. “Let me spell it out for you. I want to get an apartment on the Upper West Side for us. Do you or do you not have an opinion?” His arm gave me a gentle squeeze as his words began to penetrate my mind and my heart. Hugh wanted to move in together.

  “Wait,” I stammered.

  Hugh started nodding even before he spoke. “Now she’s getting it,” he added sarcastically.

  I lightly smacked his chest before I scolded his delivery. “Hey. I’m not a mind reader either, ya know.”

  Hugh rolled me to my back and pinned me to the bed. “No? Are you sure? Let’s give it a try. What am I thinking right about now?” He pressed his re-awakened manhood into the cotton crotch of my panties. “Go on. Give it your best shot.” He lowered his lips and grazed them over mine while he waited for my answer.

  Heat instantly pooled in the exact spot where he was poking. It was like a heat-seeking missile was launched between my legs. But if he was going to act like a sarcastic asshole he was going to get a commensurate response. “You want to move to Holland and become a tulip farmer?” I deadpanned.

  “Close.” His hand slid down pushing the elastic of my underwear to the side. “There are definitely two lips involved.” He kissed me deep and teased me with his manhood.

  “Hugh,” I breathed helplessly tearing my lips from his.

  “Will you move in with me?” he asked using his appendage as coercion.

  “Yes,” I moaned in response. It didn’t matter what he asked or what the ‘yes’ was in response to. I was beginning to see why Hugh made such a great lawyer. He was quite talented at honing in on a person’s weakness and using it against them. Lucky for me, mine happened to be his penis.

  Go figure.

  My phone was ringing. I could hear it. But I didn’t want to move. I was exhausted. I turned and squinted at my iPod, which was parked in the base on my nightstand. It was 9:30 in the morning. The rays of sun that reflected off of the metal sheeting that surrounded my bedroom window were blinding. I couldn’t imagine who would be looking for me on a Sunday morning. I looked over my shoulder and found Hugh on his belly with the covers just covering his perfect behind. Ignoring the phone as any normal, well-adjusted, infatuated female would, I rolled toward Hugh straddling his lower back. He shifted from the weight and rumbled his ‘good morning.’ My hands immediately went to his back and shoulders to begin his morning massage. He deserved it. He performed unbelievably multiple times and lasted way longer than thirty seconds. The least I could do was loosen him up for the next round.

  “You tryin’ to kill me?” he murmured into the pillow.

  “Yep,” I said exuberantly. “Death by ejaculation.” Hugh’s body began to vibrate with the deep chuckle erupting from his chest. It was nice that he enjoyed my sick sense of humor.

  I worked my hands over his skin relishing in the sound of his satisfied groans. “That feels really good, Delilah.”

  “I know,” I agreed. It did. I knew how to give the perfect massage. Just the right amount of pressure mixed with a rubbing circular motion up and down the sides of the spine.

  The phone began to ring again and that was when I began to worry. My head turned in the direction of the living room wondering if I should go see who was trying to get a hold of me. Unable to concentrate, I swung my leg off of Hugh and padded to the living area. Pillows flew left and right till I located the remote on the cushions. I hit the button and answered the call sounding out of breath.

  “Hello?” I rushed fearing they had already hung up.

  “Delilah?” the man questioned.

  “Yes?” I answered unable to recognize the voice on the other end. Momentarily distracte
d I heard the door to my bathroom squeal to a close. I guess Hugh was getting cleaned up. “Who’s this?”

  There was a brief pause before the voice continued. “Ryan. Hugh’s brother. I’m sorry to bother you but have you seen my brother at all? I’ve been calling his cell but he hasn’t answered in two days.”

  “Oh!” I said with surprise even though I shouldn’t be surprised at all. I knew why Hugh wasn’t answering his phone in two days. He had been in my bed for two days. “Um, yeah. I’ve seen him.” My free hand went to my face to rub my eyes trying to decide if I wanted Ryan to know that not only had I seen his brother, but I had seen all of his brother. Multiple times. If I gave the phone to Hugh there would be no question. “Um,” I hesitated. “Yeah. He’s wonderful. I mean, ya know, he’s fine. Just, busy. So when I see him again I’ll tell him to call you,” I offered.

  “Okay. It’s important. So, the sooner the better,” he drawled. Just then I heard the toilet flush and the water at the sink go on.

  My mouth twisted weighing my options. I turned to look in Hugh’s general direction as if staring at the wall he stood behind would help me decide whether or not to bring him the phone. But in the end my pride won out. “Okay. I’ll get him the message.” I heard the bathroom door open.

  Last chance.

  “Okay. Um. Thanks, Delilah.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Last, last chance.

  “Bye,” he finished.

  “Bye.”

  I heard the click and that was that.

  I disconnected the call and made my way to the vacant bathroom. I did my business and cleaned myself up. The guilt I was feeling was formidable as I wiped my toothpaste riddled mouth with the bath towel that hung on the back of the bathroom door. I turned out the light and slowly returned to my bedroom scolding my selfish behavior. As I rounded the corner to enter my bedroom, I saw Hugh propped up lying against the back of my headboard. His beautiful body leaning against a stack of pillows. His wavy brown hair was perfectly mussed and the scruff of his beard made his overall appearance breathtaking.