Evan must notice my slight hesitation. His hand is under my chin, bringing my head up so our eyes meet. Seconds ago, he was rushing as if I’d disappear right before his eyes if he didn’t hurry, but now he’s soft and gentle. “If you don’t want this, just say the word,” he whispers.
Words are still escaping me. My hand reaches for the condom he’s holding. I take it and reach for him. His deep gasp of air tells me that he wasn’t anticipating that. I smirk, rolling the condom down the length of him. I guess he’s not the only one who’s full of surprises. He’s holding his breath and his eyes are wide until it’s all the way on. Evan lifts up the dress and picks me up as soon as I release him. “Wrap your legs around me,” he demands. I comply instantly. Just before he fills me, he whispers at my ear, “I dare you to be quiet.” It’s a dare I can’t win. Between the ache I’ve had for entirely too long finally being satisfied and seeing the muscles of Evan’s back and ass in the mirror behind him, there’s no way to keep this inside.
Before too long, he’s grunting, “Kacie, you need…to hurry…the fuck up.” As if I’m waiting for his permission, my body submits, falling apart in his arms moments later. Evan immediately follows, relieving the sexual tension that has been building between us since the first night we met. He leans us up against the wall while he gets his breathing under control. Neither one of us speaks for a few minutes as we calm down and cool off. Was it this hot in the room before he got here? He quietly places tender kisses on my neck and cheek.
Once he’s composed, he slowly lowers me to the ground, but doesn’t let me go. His hands slide up my body to the sides of my face, and he leans his forehead on mine. “Please tell me I didn’t just fuck up any chance I might have had with you.”
I open my eyes to see his are closed. “Evan,” I say, confused. He’s had me and will move on now, right? He opens his eyes to look into mine. “Why would you think that?” I brush my hand through his messy hair to distract him from my sudden sadness. This can’t be the end of us.
“I just attacked you in a dressing room.”
I chuckle a little. “You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to do.” Relief floods his face. It sounds as if even Tampa’s biggest lady’s man may even feel a little insecure every now and then.
After placing another gentle kiss on my head, Evan brings my lips to his once again. Eventually, he backs away. “I didn’t think this through very well,” he admits, running his hand through his hair.
“Why?”
“What the hell am I going to do with this thing?” He’s holding the condom.
“Here.” I hold out the bag from my chocolate chip muffin and dig some tissues out of my purse, which he gratefully takes.
“Did you save me any?” he has the balls to ask, glancing in the bag.
“Seriously?” I say, rolling my eyes.
He laughs. “What?” He mocks innocence. “In my defense, I just woke up. Some chick left this note for me and I had to take care of it. I didn’t have time to eat.”
“Defense, my ass,” I mumble.
Evan leans over to pull his jeans back up from around his ankles. When he’s standing upright, he holds out my panties with a wicked grin on his face. “Sorry. They’re a little damp.”
“Give me those,” I say, snatching them out of his grasp and turning my back to him.
All of a sudden, his one arm is wound tightly around my waist while his other hand is running along my arm. “I can’t wait to do that to you again,” he tells me as he’s rubbing his lips along my neck.
“Again?” I swallow the lump in my throat and close my eyes. May as well kick the huge ass elephant out of the room. There’s not enough space in here as it is. “Don’t you have a one-time limit?”
Evan spins me around and holds my face forcing me to do what he wants. His expression is no longer playful. “Take it back.” I try to pull away, but his grip is too strong. “Take it back,” he repeats, as if I didn’t hear him the first time.
“I’m just stating the obvious. I know how it works with you.”
“Apparently, you don’t know shit.” He closes his eyes and lays my head against his chest, holding me close. “If I thought for one second this would have actually happened, I may have grabbed more than one condom. Then I’d be able to prove you and I are not a one-time thing.”
Trying to make light of the situation, my big mouth says, “Like you’d be able to do it again right now anyway.”
He holds me tighter so I can feel just how ready he actually is. “Sweetheart, I’ve been hard since you sat down at my bar. There’s no way one time or one million times will help alleviate that.” He sighs and continues, leaving me no time to respond. “I want you to be mine.”
“Yours?”
“Yes, mine. I’m already yours. You just haven’t realized it yet. You’ve been so stuck on the shit Jade was feeding you about me at first that you haven’t taken the time to think for yourself. You’re not seeing how I haven’t even so much as looked at another girl the way I look at you. If I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. You strolled into town and took over my life without even knowing it. Hell, I didn’t even realize it. I’ve lost countless hours of sleep just lying in bed wondering how to tell you without freaking you out, how I want to hold you every night as you fall asleep. To be there when you wake up every morning. To have you all to myself. To tell the entire world that you’re mine and no one else can have you. I’ve wondered what it would feel like to have you want the same thing with me.”
I try to blink away the tears, but they refuse to go away. “I never really listened to Jade.”
“You didn’t?”
“No but, unfortunately, it doesn’t matter. Until this thing with my parents is behind me, I have no control over my life. I refuse to bring someone else into this mess. As much as I want to, I can’t give you all of me the way you deserve.”
“I don’t give a shit about your parents, their threats, or the dipshit doctor who thinks he has some kind of claim to you. You and I are going to talk about it and find a way to fix it. I don’t care if we have to hire a hundred lawyers.”
“I’m not sure there’s a way to fix it.”
“Kacie, there’s no way I’m going to live my life without you. You can try to fight me on this all you want, but you won’t win. I don’t care what it takes. We’re going to figure it out. Got it?”
“Why me? You can have anyone. Someone who doesn’t have all this baggage. Why not pick someone less complicated?” I can’t breathe at the thought of him picking someone else.
Evan runs his hand down my arm. “Because I want you.” He kisses my lips. “So please promise me that we’ll talk about this and figure it out together.”
“I promise,” I whisper.
Evan throws his shirt back on and I try to change back into my shorts and t-shirt. Of course, he makes it as difficult as he can by holding my shirt up so I can’t reach it. All the while, his hands are all over me and it takes a bit longer before either one of us are able to leave the privacy of the dressing room.
“What if there’s someone out there who heard us?”
He pokes fun at me. “Are you embarrassed? You should be. You were really…” My hand covers his mouth to prevent him from finishing the sentence. He’s laughing and trying to pull it off. “I’m just stating the obvious.”
“If you say it, I will hurt you,” I warn him. When he looks like he’s going to say it again, I grab his shirt and pull his lips to mine. I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep him from saying how loud I was.
“Kacie, if you don’t stop, we aren’t leaving here and it won’t matter if I have another condom or not.” At least he forgot what he was saying. “Will I be able to see you before I go to work tonight?”
“I’ll call you when I get home. Jade wants to grab lunch.”
“Call me on your way. I’ll meet you there.” I smile, feeling content about him wanting to see me again so soon. We say goodbye and he leav
es the dressing room before me. Good. This way, he can scare off anyone waiting around. I know he wouldn’t let anyone say a word to me, though. “Oh. Hey, Jade. Thanks for telling me where she was.” He was the one who called Jade?! Damn it! Then I hear him say, “Make sure she gets the black dress. It’s my favorite.” Oh, my god!
Chapter Twenty-One
Evan
Kacie Foster found her way into my life and then, somehow, into my heart. How this happened is beyond me. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined settling with one girl. The shit I used to give my friends for claiming they were in love was absurd. If they could only see me now. I have no idea if this is love or what, but one thing’s for sure. I want it. Bad. Discovering she isn’t completely against the notion of being mine only makes me crave her that much more. However, the fact that she didn’t say it the other day at the mall has been tugging at me.
Yesterday, we weren’t able to see each other. I’m aware that will occur from time to time, but it doesn’t mean I have to be a fan of it. Kacie called when I was getting ready to head to her house. Someone from the school where she’ll be teaching wanted to meet her for lunch. The excitement in Kacie’s voice was infectious. She can’t wait to get in the classroom with the kids. I think she’s only now starting to realize her goal of doing what she has always wanted is about to be met. How can I not be happy for her? Later on, Kacie and Jade had plans with their friends to grab dinner and see a movie. Needless to say, I can’t wait to get this night over with so I can go pick her up. She promised to go fishing with me in the morning. I might have forgotten to mention how early that would actually be.
Things have gone pretty well tonight. There have been no problems around the club and none of my friends dropped by to prevent me from getting my shit done. As soon as the last person leaves this place, I’m running the hell out of here. My truck is packed and ready for the trip, so I can go straight to Kacie’s. It’s just after midnight and I’m considering taking a short nap since there will be no time for sleeping when I get out. When I stand up from the desk, the door flies open.
“Guess what?” an overly cheerful Meg says, busting into the office.
“What?” I try to match her enthusiasm, but fail.
“Mom and Dad just got home!” she announces. “Mind if I go see them before they go to bed? Kylie’s at the front desk and everyone else is good. I just checked.”
I smile at her. Meg and her parents are so close. I’m surprised she survived this last month. “Not at all.”
“Yay! Daddy said he’ll come in tomorrow before opening.”
“Tell him not to worry about it and take the weekend off. I’ll stop by the house sometime in the next two days to see them.”
She pauses at the door. “Make sure you bring Kacie when you do. Mom is excited to meet her.”
“You told them about her?” Of course she did.
“Evan,” she says, as if I shouldn’t be surprised. “Mom has been anxiously waiting for you to find someone who makes you happy. She worries about you.”
“Give her a kiss for me. Drive carefully, Meg.” Aunt Grace feels obligated to watch out for me like I’m her own kid because of how things went down with my parents after we lost Ethan. Sometimes my aunt forgets I’m twenty-six and should be able to handle my own life.
“Good night,” Meg says, bouncing out of the room.
Just when I’m about to lie on the sofa, my phone starts to buzz. “Damn it!” I say walking back over to the desk to get it. It’s Jade. “Hey.”
“Oh, good! I got you. Listen, I don’t have much time. Kacie just ran upstairs to grab me her teal sparkly wedges I told her I needed to borrow. Wednesday night, I’m having a party for her at my house. It’s not going to be a surprise. I’ll tell her when it gets closer and there’s not enough time to cancel.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? She said she didn’t want to celebrate it.”
“Do you really think I give a shit about what she said?” she fires back. “Trust me. I know my best friend. She’s just upset about having to spend the first birthday of her life without Gram. That’s all the more reason to make a big deal of it. She’ll be fine. I promise. Anyway, will you and Meg both be able to get off?”
I sigh. There’s no way to beat Jade Quinn when she’s this determined. “I’ll make it happen. Why do I feel like I’m an accomplice in a murder?”
“You’ll get over it. Is there any possibility you can get me a DJ on such short notice? You know a lot more of them than I do.”
“I’ll get Nick to do it and hire someone else for the club.”
“You’re the best!” she tells me. “Don’t you dare tell her before I say it’s okay! Gotta run before I get caught talking to you. See ya!” She’s gone before I can say another word.
About twenty minutes later, I feel myself dozing off when I get a text.
G’nite. Can’t wait to see you in the morning. Miss you!
I smile in response. If this isn’t love I’m feeling, it soon will be, I think.
***
It’s amazing what a few hours of sleep can do for a person. I feel completely energized and ready for the day. Spending all morning and afternoon with Kacie will be worth the exhaustion I’ll be experiencing twenty-four hours from now. There may be something to having a nine-to-five kind of job, but I’ll never know. Working at Skyline is like being home.
When I walk out into the club, the crowd has already started to disperse. Normally, I don’t care if the waitresses take their time and relax before cleaning up, but tonight I make sure they are all on the ball and getting it done. I want to get out of here as soon as possible. No one gave me a hard time, lucky for them, and we are all walking out by three-thirty. Hopefully, we can get to the marina by five. My condo is so much closer to Skyline than Kacie’s house. Shit! Why didn’t I think of this earlier? She could have slept there and we would have been able to get on the road earlier. Oh, well. Nothing I can do about it now.
Kacie gave me a key to her house because she was afraid she wouldn’t hear the doorbell ringing. I let myself in and take the steps three at a time. Her bedroom door is open and I can see her light glowing. Is she already up? Before I call out her name, I walk in to see her sleeping on the chair right inside her room. The armrest her head is leaning on is so high, her neck is barely bent to the side. Her legs are draped with a green blanket and an open book is resting on her lap. How the hell does someone fall asleep reading? I kneel on the floor in front of her. Does she have any idea how much she means to me? My finger reaches over to brush a lock of her hair back, then it runs down her cheek. She truly is beautiful. I pick up the book and place it, open side down, on the table next to her, careful not to lose her page.
“Kacie,” I whisper, running my hand along her bare arm. She doesn’t even flinch. I tilt over to kiss her cheek. Still nothing. Saying her name a little louder and shaking her leg slightly gets her to shift, but she still doesn’t wake up. Good thing she thought to give me that key because there’s no way she would have heard the doorbell. I almost feel bad trying to get her up, but she told me to. The back of my fingers rub along her cheek and my thumb slides across her bottom lip. Her eyes start to flutter and eventually open. She smiles as soon as she sees me.
“Hey,” she says, still sleepy.
“Hey. You aren’t so easy to wake up. A little warning would have been nice.”
She closes her eyes long enough that I think she fell back asleep, but then opens them again. “I gave you a key. That was me warning you.” Before I forget, I take the key out of my pocket and place it next to the book on the table.
“Do you still want to go or do you want to go back to sleep?” I ask.
She sits up and reaches for me. Without thinking, my body moves to her. Kacie kisses me with passion every time but, right now, I’m seriously considering carrying her to the bed in the other room rather than going anywhere. Once she ends the kiss, she whispers, “Don’t stay away so long n
ext time.” She doesn’t wait for a reply. She stands up, but stops quickly when she’s facing away from me. “Evan?”
“Yeah?” I ask. I’m still kneeling here, unable to move, blown away by her kiss.
“It’s still dark out,” she says, matter-of-factly. “What time is it?”
Her reaction snaps me out of the spell she had me under and I stand up, chuckling. “A little after four.”
“Are you crazy?” She whips around, glaring at me.
“The fish are hungry early. We have to get going.”
“Next time you want to fish, go sit on the damn dock out back and come get me after the sun comes up,” she mumbles, heading into her closet. She’s even hot when she’s irritated.
I follow her and lean my arm against the door. She already has her shirt off, getting ready to put a bra on. The sight of her bare back pulls me into the closet with her. I run my fingers over her smooth skin, turning myself on again. “You are so fucking tempting.”
“Unless it will get me out of going fishing before daylight breaks, don’t even think about it.”
I can’t help but laugh at her. “Too bad. You promised.”
“Remind me to keep my promises to myself from now on,” she teases. At least, I think she’s teasing.
Thankfully, she gets ready faster than any girl I’ve ever met and we are on our way fairly quickly. When we get in the truck, Kacie curls up on the passenger seat and lays her head down on the center console. “Your entire body actually fits on the seat like that,” I say in disbelief.
“What’s your point?” she asks, not moving.
“I haven’t been able to do that since I was about eight-years-old.”
“Shut up,” she grumbles. She holds her hand out for me to take. My fingers interlock with hers and she stays like that until we get there.
Once we’re at the marina, Kacie helps get my shit out of the truck and we stroll through the parking lot. I make a quick stop in the small store to grab some donuts and juice for breakfast. Since we got out of the truck, Kacie hasn’t stopped talking about yesterday’s meeting with the other teacher. This could be why she hasn’t noticed where we’re heading. I stop going forward and walk up the few steps in front of me. When I turn around to grab Kacie’s hand to steady her, she’s frozen in place. The lights along the dock shine enough light onto her face that I can see she looks a tad green.
Left Behind: Left Behind Series #1 Page 27
