by Ryan Michele
I drop the kickstand as she gets out of the car. Bristyl pulls her light blue T-shirt down nervously, her hand giving a slight tremor. There she goes again, being cute.
“Hey, beautiful.”
A rosy pigment comes to her cheeks and spreads down her chest. The cut out V doesn’t hide anything. Her plump breasts look full pressed against the shirt. I swallow back the saliva that coats my mouth.
“Hey, how was the drive?”
“Good.” I slide my glasses off and hook them on my shirt, not wanting any deterrents from seeing Bristyl fully.
“I feel bad you had to drive so far.”
“I’m the one who suggested this, remember?” What I don’t tell her is I would have driven all the way down if I needed to.
The urge to wrap her in my arms becomes overwhelming, and I give in to it, pulling her to me and pressing her head against my chest. She wraps her arms around my waist and latches her hands together behind my back. When she lets out a deep sigh, I rest my cheek on top of her head. Contentment fills me for the first time ever.
I inhale her branding, her flowery smell, into my memory and enjoy this moment.
After a hard squeeze, I pull back, looking down at her. Her blue eyes sparkle in the sunlight, almost like they’re dancing. Bristyl licks her plump bottom lip, and as much as I tell myself to hold back, that I won’t take it too far this time, I can’t help myself. The need and desire are too much.
Our lips connect as she brings her hands to the front of my T-shirt and grips it tight. She doesn’t protest, but it takes her a moment to kiss me back. Once she does, fire, flames, and ignition take over. I can’t get enough of her.
She opens her mouth, and I take that as my invitation, sliding my tongue inside, tasting her, savoring her. My dick jumps to attention, and as our bodies touch, I have no doubt she feels it from her shivers. She doesn’t blink, though. No, she continues to give as good as she’s getting. Then she heaves for breath, and as much as it pains me, I pull back, allowing her to get oxygen into her body. With my forehead on hers, I suck in my own gulps.
That’s it. In my gut, I knew at the rally that if I took a taste of her, that would be it. Called it.
Her sweetness is an aphrodisiac that I want more and more of. Her eyes looking at me like I just gave her the world, when it was only one kiss, is it. I feel it inside my chest, and I won’t deny it.
Fuck it. She may be too good for my world, but fuck it. She has no idea what she’s opened up. It’s too late now.
“Wow.” She clutches my shirt tighter like she wants to hold on to me for a bit longer. I feel the same, but only my arms are around her body. “That was quite a hello.”
“Yeah, beautiful. I’ve been waiting a damn long time for that.”
“Me, too,” she whispers. Then she gets up on her tiptoes and places a soft kiss on my lips. “Let’s go eat.”
Eating is the last thing on my mind, but that’s what we came for. To eat and talk, and we’ll do it even if it kills me.
I grip her hand as she moves around me to walk into the diner, then lace our fingers together. Her skin is soft, warm, and damn perfect.
I lift our connected hands and kiss the top of hers. Her soft smile hits me deep.
Holding hands, we walk to the building that has a small sign that reads: The Café. When I looked it up, it boasts about being a mom and pop shop. Judging from the yellow concrete blocks on the outside and windows with curtains, I can say that’s right. The doors to the place are over on each side instead of the front. Going in, I hold the door for Bristyl and let her go in front of me.
“Sit anywhere,” a waitress calls out.
The place is definitely a throwback to the sixties or seventies. A light green color vinyl covers the booths with a flower pattern on the back. Wallpaper with the same flowers cover the walls, as well. There’s a bar area where one person sits eating. We find a seat away from everyone and climb in, which forces me to let go of her hand so she can slide into the booth.
An older waitress comes to the table wearing tan pants, a white shirt, and a green apron. She hands us a menu that’s just a laminated sheet of paper with writing on both sides.
“What can I get y’all to drink?”
I look at Bristyl and wait for her answer.
“Diet Coke please.”
“And you?”
“Coke’s fine.”
“Got it. Be back in a few.”
Bristyl picks up her menu and begins to read it. Me, I watch her every movement. She almost feels like a mirage, like if I blink or move wrong, she’ll disappear. After lying in bed for so many nights, talking and thinking about her, this seems surreal.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, looking up at me.
“Not a damn thing.” I leave out how, for the first time in my life, shit feels right.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s just nice to see you and not just hear your sexy as hell voice.”
“My voice isn’t sexy.”
“Yeah, beautiful, it is.”
That shy blush tinges her cheeks again.
“You hungry?” I ask.
“Not really.”
This surprises me. “You’re not?”
“No, I’m nervous, Cooper. This is so out of my comfort zone it’s in another realm.”
I reach over and grab her hands. They are ice cold, so I rub them with mine to help warm them, smiling the entire time.
“Out of yours? Try out of mine.” She has no clue how far out this is. Take a woman to bed, hell yeah. Actually talk to her every damn night on the phone, drive three plus hours to see her, and sit in some little rinky-dink diner just to spend time with her. Never happened before, but I’m happy to do it with her.
“I’m not sure what we’re doing here.”
“What can I get ya?” the waitress says, coming back to the table.
Bristyl tries pulling her hands out of my grasp, but I hold tighter, not allowing her to. She doesn’t resist.
“Order.”
She does, and then I do, thankful when the waitress goes away.
“Let’s just see. I can’t give you any guarantees. I know I like talking to you every night. I know I like seeing you face to face. I know you make me smile in a way I don’t normally.” I give her hands a squeeze.
Two hours later, she’s laughing so hard tears roll down her face, and we’ve finished our hundredth glass of soda. The sun is getting low in the sky. With Bristyl having an hour drive, if she leaves now, then she won’t have to drive in the dark.
“We should head out.”
She says nothing, but the playful smile leaves her face as sadness rolls in. Damn, I didn’t realize how much it would suck ass to leave her and drive back home. It’s like leaving a piece of yourself behind when all you want to do is throw it on the back of your bike and ride away with it.
I toss down some bills, slide my wallet into my pocket, and reach out for her hand, holding it all the way out the door and to our vehicles. With our hands locked tight, a strange feeling comes over me. A connection so tight the pull to her nearly knocks me on my ass.
Women have always just come and gone. This feeling, though, I want it to stay. It’s more than fucking this woman. Everything is real—a bond, a friendship.
When her eyes lift to mine, a slight sheen covering them, I know she feels this, too. This upcoming loss.
I reach around the back of her head and pull her toward me, wrapping her in my warmth. I can’t tell her it will be alright, because I have no idea what lies ahead in the future. What I do know is this moment, saying goodbye, doesn’t sit right with me.
My lips touch the top of her head, and I feel her shiver.
“I want you to call me when you get home. I probably won’t be able to answer, but leave me a message, and I’ll call you when I get back to my place.”
She nods, her head brushing against my chest.
When I pull back and she looks up, there isn
’t a single tear cascading down her face, which I’m thankful for. Though, they are in her eyes, ready to fall. She looks as if she’s controlling it, and I appreciate that. I don’t want my last vision of her to have tears running down her cheeks.
Pressing my lips to hers, they dance slow and steady, savoring each touch, lick, and nibble. The deeper the kiss goes, the stronger I’m pulled to her like a connection that’s palpable in so many ways. How this little woman can do this to me is beyond my comprehension.
An invisible string ties itself around me. The pull, the attraction, is too much. Therefore, I stop before it becomes more.
It’s not that I don’t want to be buried inside her—that’s always on my mind. It’s that Bristyl isn’t a fuck or someone I want to leave the moment we’re done. No, I want to hold her, fall asleep with her, and find out what it’s like to wake up with a woman I care about beside me. Each of those actions is so foreign, yet feels so right … with her.
“You’d better go,” I tell her reluctantly.
“I don’t think I want to.” She licks her lips, her hands coming to the front of my T-shirt and gripping me tightly. “Say this won’t be the last time I see you. Say that we’ll meet each other again. Maybe in a different life or something. Just don’t say this is the end when I feel like it’s just the beginning.”
Instead of saying anything, I lean down and take her mouth once more, giving her the words she does and doesn’t want to hear from me. When I pull away, I open her car door for her, and she gets in.
“Bye, Cooper,” she says on a huff of breath before I close the door, and she drives off like a bat out of hell. Little does she know, she took a piece of me with her.
13
Bristyl
There’s no use stopping the tears falling from my eyes. In my gut, I knew it was a bad idea to see him because of this simple reason. When his lips touched mine, I was lost in a way I never wanted to be found again. What was bliss for a few hours is now heartbreak for many more.
The drive is uneventful. The music doesn’t help with the feeling of loss inside of me. After getting into my house and locking the door, I text Cooper.
Made it.
I don’t hear anything back from him until the morning, when I get: Home.
I called him this morning, but it went to voicemail. The pit of loss hit me because he has never let it go to voicemail without telling me he wouldn’t be available. I shouldn’t have any fears, but maybe it’s over. Maybe seeing me that once is enough for him and he’s done. Or maybe I’m being an idiot.
“Hey! Where have you been? I’ve, like, called you a billion times,” Leah says from my doorway as I step to the side and let her in. She has called me several times, but I didn’t want to hear for the billionth time how sorry she is.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Busy doing what? Besides working.”
I wring my hands and wonder if I should tell her about seeing Cooper. Trusting her isn’t the problem. It’s just nice to have something that’s truly mine. Not my father’s or brothers or the club’s, but mine. It’s not that I want him to be a secret, but I guess I do in a way. It’s like, if my life is unknown, it won’t taint what Cooper and I have together. Damn, I’m confusing.
I wave my hand dismissively. “Just work.”
“Yeah. Sorry about …” she starts, but I hold my hand up to stop her.
“No more, Leah. Stop with this shit. As long as he’s not in your business, then don’t worry about it. Stop apologizing, because it’s bugging the ever-loving shit out of me.”
She sighs deeply and falls onto my couch. I sit next to her.
“I know. It just sucks that I was that stupid. But never again.”
“Good.”
She sighs, and I can tell she just wants things to be normal again.
“So … I was listening to this radio show this morning, and you’re never going to believe this.” She turns toward me excitedly, and I try to give it back to her, but I’m sure I fail miserably. It sucks, because my best friend is here, yet my head is hundreds of miles away, wondering why Cooper didn’t answer his phone.
“This radio show has people call in for these second chance date things. Like, they go on a date with someone and then the other person doesn’t call them back and they want to know why. Now, why someone would actually do this is totally beyond me because—hello—you already went there once and got burned. Now you want to know why and go on another date with them?”
I just smile and let her continue.
“Okay, so this guy Dave calls in. He went on a date with Stacy to a club where they danced and had a good time. While they were dancing, another guy came up and cut in on Stacy. Dave stepped back and let this happen, going to the bar and drinking. Stacy comes back, and they have an okay time, but Dave feels Stacy is off. Stacy tells Dave at the end of the date that she will be gone for two months and won’t be able to be reached. I mean, hello, man, red flag! Well, Dave thinks that Stacy doesn’t want to go out with him again because he didn’t defend her honor by telling the guy to fuck off when he cut in.”
“I can see that.” My brothers wouldn’t allow that to happen one bit. I can see them kicking some serious ass for anyone attempting to cut in when they have a woman, or hell, even cut them in line somewhere.
“Okay, so this radio show calls Stacy, and she literally groans when she hears Dave’s name and does the whole, I’m not going to talk about it on the radio show thing. Which, who can blame her, putting all her shit out there like that? Anyway, the radio guys tell her why Dave thinks she hasn’t called him. She bursts out laughing, saying that it’s the total opposite. The radio guys are like what? all questioning and stuff. So, Stacy then proceeds to say that, after she got done with her dance with random dude, Dave pulled her over into the corner of the bar and started whispering in her ear.”
“That’s never a good sign,” I say on a chuckle.
“No. Get this. He wanted her to lure the dancing guy outside so he could show him his karate moves. Like, legit. Dave even demonstrated in the bar with his hands how he would break the guy’s neck.”
“Oh, my God, just for dancing he’s going to kill him? Guy sounds like a nut.” My brothers would totally kick someone’s ass for this, but never kill them for it. At least, I don’t think so.
“I know, right? Well, the radio people are laughing hysterically, and Dave comes on the line. He then proceeds to tell Stacy that he had to defend her honor, and the only way to do that was to end this man for disrespecting him.”
“Wow.”
“I mean, I’m all for a guy sticking up for me and all, but this Dave guy went into it, talking about how he’s a master in karate and knows how to defend her. That he’ll protect her by any means necessary. On and on. Now, maybe if they’d been dating a while and they, like, love each other, I can see a man standing up like that, but this is their first date!”
I laugh hysterically, my stomach clenching and unclenching as I double over. “Holy shit, that’s funny as hell.”
“Yeah. Thank God that wasn’t us.”
“No shit. Wanna go shopping? I need a new bag.”
Leah rolls her eyes. “You don’t need a new bag; you just want one.”
“True.”
Women have all different obsessions when it comes to clothes and accessories. Mine are handbags. I love them. They don’t have to be the expensive, you-must-give-me-your-first-born-child ones. Nope. Some of the best ones I found are from discount retail stores. I don’t care about the name on the purse, or if it’s some great fashion designer that I’ve never heard of. Nope. I only care about how it feels when I carry it, and if I can put all my shit in it.
A day shopping with my best friend will keep me from checking my phone every few minutes, which I’m catching myself doing.
When it does ring, I’m looking at a blue bag that’s the color of Cooper’s eyes, and excitement courses through me. I hold up a finger to Leah and step away to the sid
e.
“Hello?”
“Hey, beautiful.” His sexy as hell voice comes over the line, shaking me to my core.
No one can wipe the ear-to-ear grin from my face. How can two simple words make me feel so damn happy? Him calling me beautiful without even blinking is the best feeling in the world, besides being in his arms.
“Did you get some sleep?”
“Yeah, just rollin’ out of bed.”
I smirk. “Must be nice. Not all of us get to sleep the day away.”
“It’s a hard job, but somebody’s gotta do it.”
I look around, seeing Leah staring at me knowingly. I turn my back to her.
“I’m out shopping with Leah; can I call you back later?”
“Sure thing. Later.”
“Later.” I swipe the phone off and clutch it to my chest.
“You got a man,” Leah says from behind me, making me jump out of my skin.
“Don’t do that!”
“What? Come up behind you? Or tell you something you already know?”
“I’m not talking about it right now.” I move past her, grabbing the bag I was looking at and then setting it back down. I’m really over shopping right now, especially now that Leah has a bone and won’t let up.
“You have a guy, and you’re keeping him from me?” Her hands fly to her hips in bitch stance, and other people in the store start looking at us. Great.
“Later.” I skate around her and through the store toward the exit, Leah hot on my heels, blathering on.
Once we get in the car, I turn toward her. “Look, everything is new. It may not go anywhere, and you know how my brothers and father are. I just want to keep it to myself until I figure out if it’s something or nothing.”
Her eyes narrow as if she’s delving into the recesses of my brain and picking it apart. We’ve been friends for too long; she’ll get it. If not right now, she will in a couple of days.
“Please just let it go.”
Surprisingly, she drops it, but out of the corner of my eye, I see her festering and planning. Damn.
