Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  Jake held his sleeve up to my face. “Here.”

  I managed a sound that might pass for a chuckle. “I’m not going to wipe my snot all over your shirt.”

  “Too late.” He pulled back just enough to show me the huge wet patch right across his chest.

  I ran my palm over it. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What do you say we grab that steak another time?” Before I had a chance to answer, he’d put an arm behind my back, tucked my cheek against his chest, and led me to where he’d parked the car.

  “But the bet…I owe you a huge rib eye.”

  He held the door open for me. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll do it some other time.”

  I nodded, willing to let him take control.

  “Hey, how about an extra-large pepperoni and sausage from Charlie’s?”

  I ducked down and settled into the seat. “You probably want to get home. If you drive back to your place, I can head back to my parents’ place from there.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go home to your mom and dad’s place looking like that.” Jake leaned over and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

  “What do you mean?”

  “No offense, babe, but you look like shit. If your dad thinks I hurt you, he’ll figure out a way to work me into his sermon on Sunday.”

  I laughed, not because he was being ridiculous, but because he was right. “Okay. I’ll get cleaned up at your place if it’s okay. That way you’re safe from Sunday’s sermon.”

  “And you’ve got to eat.” His eyebrows ticked up. “What do you say? I can have them deliver.”

  Pizza from Charlie’s did sound good. And I owed him a dinner, even if it wouldn’t be the big rib eye from Sal’s. “Fine, you call it in, but I’m buying.”

  “You got it.” He held his hand out in a fist. Without thinking, I tapped my fist against his, then we hooked pinkies. Another reminder of our shared past.

  While I waited for him to walk around and climb in on his side, I flipped the visor down to check my face in the mirror. A stranger stared back at me. Mascara streaked across my cheeks. My lipstick had smeared, and my hair had come loose. I hid my face in my hands.

  The car shifted as Jake got in. “Pizza will be there in about forty-five minutes.”

  “That sounds great.” Whether I liked it or not, I was no longer in control of the night. That thought brought on an initial wave of panic. Until I looked at him. With one hand on the wheel, he flipped through radio stations with the other, pausing every so often to sing a snippet of a tune.

  This was Jake—there was no reason to be afraid. We’d eat our pizza, I’d use up all of his tissues, and he’d send me on my merry way. That was obviously what he wanted.

  But then a song came on the radio. A song I hadn’t heard in way too long. A song that we used to listen to while we made out on the beach of Stockton Lake. His hand found mine. Our fingers twined together.

  My calculated plans flew out the window. All that mattered was this—the connection we’d rediscovered. In that moment I vowed to do whatever I could to hang onto it, even if that meant finally admitting what had driven me away from him in the first place.

  16

  Jake

  Bringing Misty home with me was a mistake. I knew it from the moment she stepped through the door. She hadn’t been there for fifteen minutes before evidence of her spread out all over the place. Her tear-ridden tissues littered my coffee table. The scent of citrus covered my hand towel. Lipstick smudges marked up the glass sitting on my kitchen counter.

  This had been my safe zone. The one place I could go where memories of Misty didn’t invade my thoughts. Now my safe haven was tainted. The problem was, it seemed like she’d always been there, like she belonged.

  While we waited for the pizza, she asked for the grand tour. My seven-hundred square feet didn’t take long to cover.

  “Basically I’ve got a kitchen, living room, and bathroom. That’s about it.” I gestured around the space. “Feel free to look around.” I’d lived there for almost a year but I hadn’t done much to make it feel like a home. I tried to see my place through her eyes. The hand-me-down couch my mom passed on to me sat against the long wall of the living room. My dad’s old Army trunk doubled as a coffee table and storage. My aunt gave me the card table and chairs she got as a wedding present, but I don’t think I’d ever sat at the table for a meal. Most of the time I plopped down on the couch and scarfed down whatever takeout I’d picked up on the way home while I channel surfed.

  “It’s um…” Misty slowly turned around, taking it all in. “Functional?”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

  She walked into the kitchen. “You’ve got a blender.”

  “Yep. A toaster too. That’s about the extent of my kitchen appliances.”

  “I can work with a blender. You have anything to make margaritas?”

  “Doubtful, but feel free to take a look.” I nodded toward the cabinet next to the fridge. “I know I’ve got tequila, but that’s probably it.”

  She pulled the cabinet doors open, then took a look in the refrigerator and the freezer. “I can work with this.”

  As she plugged in the blender, someone knocked at the door. I left her in the kitchen while I went to grab the pizza. By the time I came back, she had a pitcher full of something that resembled frozen margaritas and had filled two cups with her concoction.

  “You want to sit at the table or on the couch?” I asked.

  She picked up the cups. “Whatever you want to do.”

  “Couch, it is.” I could turn on the TV so we wouldn’t have to talk. Having Misty in my space unsettled me enough. I didn’t want to have to try to make awkward conversation while we ate.

  She settled on one end as I set the pizza down on the trunk. “Need anything else?”

  “Nope.”

  “How about a movie while we eat?” I picked up the remote.

  “Something funny?” She flipped the pizza box open. “Aw, you got me mushrooms on half.”

  “I know how much you love your fungus.” I settled on a rom-com I wouldn’t be caught dead watching on my own then sat down next to her. Sharing a couch and a pizza reminded me of how we used to spend a Saturday night.

  Misty’s eyes welled. “I can’t believe you got me mushrooms. I know how much you hate them.”

  “I only got ’em on half. It’s not a big deal.” I bit into a slice as she wiped at her eyes.

  “It’s not just the mushrooms.” She sat back on the couch.

  “What?” I asked, around a mouthful of pizza.

  “You’ve been so nice to me, after I…I was such a bitch.” She lowered her head into her hands.

  Oh, hell. I set my slice back in the box. “Misty, hey. You okay?”

  Her shoulders shook. I put a hand on her arm, trying to comfort her without opening myself up again. She wasn’t usually a crier. I wanted to do what I could to take the hurt away. But with her here, alone together in my apartment, it would be so easy to give in to the feelings that had been bombarding me since she got back in town.

  “Hey”—I rubbed a hand over her arm—“you all right?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. If I ate a mushroom, I’d cry too.”

  A hesitant grin worked its way over her lips. I’d take it. Anything was better than the helpless feeling of watching her cry on my hand-me-down couch.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I thought that’s what we’d been doing.”

  She angled herself to face me on the couch. “When I left, it wasn’t just that I felt trapped by everyone’s expectations. I was so scared.”

  “Scared of what?” I couldn’t imagine Misty being afraid of anything.

  Her gaze met mine. She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “Afraid I’d turn into my mother.”

  How had I not seen that coming? Mrs. Greene was quite the looker, but that’s not what Misty mean
t. Her mama catered to her daddy’s every whim. She was personal assistant, wife, mother, secretary, and more. Misty could never take on that kind of role.

  “That would never happen.” Not with us—I respected her dreams too much to ever have her wishes and wants play second fiddle to mine. “You aren’t your mother and I'm not your dad.”

  “I know that now. But at the time, I couldn’t see beyond everyone else’s expectations.”

  I leaned back against the cushion and took in a deep breath. “And you couldn’t have told me that?”

  She shook her head back and forth. “I didn’t know how. It seemed so selfish.”

  In hindsight, it was. But on some level I understood. I needed to process though. “I need some time to think about this.”

  “Take however long you need.”

  I gestured toward the screen. “Can we table this for a little while and just watch the movie?”

  She nodded. Then she leaned forward and picked up a slice, big fat mushrooms and all.

  17

  Misty

  Since when had I become the kind of woman who could be reduced to a puddle of tears over a slice of pizza? I took a sip of my drink while Jake toyed with the remote. The movie started, eliminating the need to make conversation. While the slapstick antics played across the screen, I mulled over what I knew about Jake’s current situation

  Based on the bare bones appearance of his apartment, it didn’t look like he was trying to impress anyone. He’d never been the type to get too hung up on what people thought. He’d rather spend his money on experiences and things that brought him joy, like the obnoxiously large flat screen TV, than worry about something silly like a matching dining room set.

  He didn’t put on airs or try to be something he wasn’t. I’d missed that so much since I’d moved away. I hadn’t met too many new people besides the ones I knew through work. Seemed like they were always trying to get ahead. With the exception of one or two, my co-workers spent a lot of time coming up with ways to make themselves look better while making everyone else look worse.

  Being back here in Swallow Springs, where a person couldn’t put on airs if they tried, made me realize how much I’d gone along with it…trying to be something I wasn’t. And then the realization washed over me. Or more like landed on my chest like a dump truck full of bricks. I’d rather be the most important person in the world to one person as opposed to being someone not so important to a lot of people.

  And my one person was Jake.

  I shifted my attention from the screen to him. He relaxed against the cushion on the couch he’d taken from the game room of his parents’ house. I recognized the brown plaid pattern. We’d spent a lot of time on this couch together, but we’d never sat so far apart. I scooted a few inches closer.

  “What are you doing?” He gave me some major side eye.

  “It’s weird. Sitting so far away from you.” I gestured to the two feet between us.

  He lifted his arm to the back of the couch. “Come here.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Feels weird to me too.”

  I moved closer, nestling up against him. This was better, so much better. “Hey, remember when we used to watch movies on this couch at your parents’ place?” I asked.

  He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. I don’t know how many movies we actually watched though.”

  He had a point. We’d always been a tangle of half-naked limbs, desperate to get our fill of each other in between check-ins from his mom or dad.

  The opening scene flashed across the screen. I tried to focus but being so close to Jake made it impossible to concentrate. His heart beat thumped against my side. His arm draped over my shoulder. His scent surrounded me, wrapping me in a blanket of security and safety.

  He shifted next to me. “Do you feel like not watching a movie tonight?”

  My mouth went dry. This was what I wanted, what I’d been hoping for. Why did it feel so strange? “What do you mean?”

  He whispered against my ear. “I think you know what I mean.”

  “I thought you wanted to think about things?” I swiveled to face him.

  “Dammit, I don’t know.” He scrubbed a hand over his chin. “It’s been a long time. And now with you here, so close.”

  I met his gaze. Heat flickered in his eyes. Being this close to him, I couldn’t fight the desire I felt any more than he could. I climbed off the couch and got to my knees in front of him. Running my hands up his denim-clad thighs, I licked my lips.

  His hips shifted on the cushion. “This is probably a bad idea.”

  “So bad,” I agreed, moving my hands closer and closer to his groin.

  “What if we do this and it’s no good?”

  I reached for his belt. A quick glance at his face, the slight nod of his head, meant he wanted this just as much as me. “We’ve always been good together.”

  “It’s not the sex I’m worried about, it’s what comes after.”

  Unfastening his belt, I moved closer, taking up the space in between his outstretched legs. “Then we won’t have an after. We’ll just keep at it all night long.”

  He lifted his hips so I could work his jeans down his legs. “But tomorrow. What about tomorrow?”

  I ran a finger under the waistband of his boxer briefs. His whole body tensed. “Tomorrow is a whole day away.”

  He hesitated.

  “If you don’t want to do this, I’ll go.” I kept talking as I pulled my dress over my head. I’d worn my favorite push-up bra, the one that made me look two cup sizes bigger than my usual 36DD.

  Jake’s eyes bugged as he reached for me.

  “What do you say, Jakey?” This would either be a bittersweet way to end things or a fast start to the next chapter in our lives together.

  His eyes darkened. His mouth set in a firm line. This was a man who knew what he wanted. And in that moment, he wanted me. He leaned forward, his arms wrapping around my back. He pulled me onto his lap and buried his face between my breasts.

  His fingers worked the clasp of my bra and within seconds I was naked from the waist up. He pulled back, letting his gaze drift over me. My hands went to his shoulders. Even though it had been years, it seemed like we’d just done this the night before. I’d never felt out of sorts with Jake. He’d always made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out.

  I wriggled further onto his lap while he traced a finger over my breast, lingering to circle my nipple over and over. A shiver raced through me, and I arched into his hand, aching to feel his mouth.

  “You’re gorgeous.” His voice vibrated through me, fanning the heat that began to pulse between my legs.

  He put his hands on my waist, pulling me even closer before he took my nipple in his mouth. I sucked in a breath as exquisite pleasure flowed through me. Slowly, painfully slowly, he scraped his teeth over me, nibbling, teasing, sucking. Everything faded away: the movie we’d left playing in the background, the smell of pepperoni and cheese. I closed my eyes, reveling in sensations I’d only experienced in my dreams since I’d been away.

  “You know something?” I whispered.

  “What’s that?”

  “You never did show me the bedroom.”

  18

  Jake

  As I scooped her up in my arms, my jeans pooled around my ankles. Shuffling into the bedroom, I tried not to trip. By the time I reached the bed Misty had clasped her arms behind my neck and pulled me into a hot, wet kiss.

  We fell together onto the mattress. I’d never gotten around to setting up a real bed so the drop to where the mattress and box springs sat on the floor seemed to catch her off guard.

  She centered herself in the middle of the bed as she wiggled out of her panties. Naked, she sprawled out on top of my comforter. The sun had started to dip beyond the horizon, muting everything against the low-light background of my bedroom.

  Everything but Misty.

  She radiated light and heat. L
ike the sun in the center of the solar system, my whole world seemed to revolve around her. I crawled up her legs, my lips making contact with her skin every inch of the way. She squirmed underneath me, her arms pulling me upward, urging me to reach her lips faster.

  I popped up to my hands and knees while my gaze raked over her. She hadn’t changed. Familiar, yet still felt fresh and new. I’d worried that we might have lost the chemistry we used to share. But when her hand closed around my dick, a primal urge to reclaim her took over.

  Her hair came all the way undone, fanning out over my pillow. I wanted to pinch myself, to make sure this was real and not one of the many fantasies I’d relied on to get me through the long days we spent apart.

  One hand stroked me, just the way she knew I liked, while her other snaked up around the back of my neck and urged me even closer. I leaned on one elbow while my fingers dipped in between her legs. Her hips rose to meet me. She was slick and wet, just like she’d always been for me.

  I adjusted my hips, lining up my cock to rest against her inner thigh. She squirmed underneath me, positioning herself to take me.

  “You sure about this?” I asked.

  Her eyes focused on me as I hovered over her. “Yes. I haven’t been with anyone else.”

  My heart swelled at that bit of information. “Me neither.”

  I eased into her, slowly at first. Heat surrounded me. It had always been so good with Misty.

  She shifted underneath me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and grabbed onto my ass. I entered, slow and steady, filling her. I wanted to remind her she was mine, she’d always be mine. I also wanted to take her fast. There was a small part of me that wanted to punish her for going away, for ending what we’d had between us.

  She gasped as I pushed all the way in then angled her hips to take me even deeper. So good. So fucking good. I paused for a moment, letting myself feel her wet heat surround me. Her thighs squeezed my hips.