“Come on, baby.” Her nails grazed along my sides. “You feel so good, Jake.”
“It’s always been this way with us.”
“Always.”
“And you ruined it.” I pulled back.
She lifted her hips. “No.”
“I can’t do this, Misty. Not like this.” What was I saying? My dick was half-buried inside her. I’d been fantasizing about having her again since she left.
“Jake…” She sat up as I pulled out completely.
My dick bobbed up and down, clearly pissed off at my abrupt withdrawal. Was I punishing myself or Misty? Didn’t matter. I couldn’t do this though. Couldn’t let her sink her teeth back into me just because we’d had some hot fucking between us.
“What are you doing?” She reached a hand out to touch my cheek.
Looking at her sitting on my bed, her hair spilling over her shoulders, over her gorgeous breasts, made me want to clench down on whatever dark feelings had started flooding my body. Made me want to burrow deep into her core and fill her up to the point where she’d never be able to think about anything else again except me and her.
“I don’t want you for a night. If you want to come back into my life, you’ve got to mean it.”
“Are you kidding me? I want you.” She spread her arms wide. “I’m sitting on your bed naked, practically begging you to bang me.”
I scrubbed at the scruff on my chin. “It’s not that I don’t want to.” My gaze drifted over her body again. “Damn, you’re killing me. So soft and sweet and I just want to…”
“To what?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“No. I’m not going to go through what I did when you left me. You move back to Swallow Springs, and we’ll pick up where we left off. Until then, this”—I gestured between us—“is off limits.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re serious.”
“Serious as a heart attack.” Or an unresolved hard-on. My balls protested my decision. We’d be spending some quality time together later. No doubt about that.
She got up and stood next to the bed. My arms ached to hold her, to nestle those curves against my chest. To brush her hair back from her face and bury my tongue deep within her core.
“I don’t believe this.”
Her surprise fueled my determination. “Believe it.”
I followed her into the living room where she pulled her dress on over her head. Slowly, she turned to face me. “I’m so sorry.”
Then she slipped out the front door, leaving me to wonder how much I’d regret what just happened. As I stood there, the smell of citrus dissipating in the air around me, I had to admit to myself, I already did.
19
Misty
I pulled the door to Jake’s apartment closed behind me, proud at the way I made the thin walls shake. What kind of guy pulls out because he wants commitment? I wasn’t sure if that made him or me the one to blame. Him for calling things off, just when it was getting good. Or me, for being naked in the first place.
My purse strap slipped from my shoulder as I stumbled off the curb, causing my whole bag to flip over. The keys fell out. I watched as they dropped right into the storm drain. No, this couldn’t be happening. The bright red cherry on top of a shit sundae of a day.
Now what? I squatted down over the grate, peering into the darkness of God only knew what. Pebbles dug into my knees as I shifted, trying to catch a glimpse of my key chain. I grappled for my phone and shone the flashlight into the dark recesses of the sewer. The light must have caught on my rhinestone key fob. A sparkle bounced off something shimmery at the bottom of the hole.
My keys sat about ten feet down, way too far for me to reach through the grate and grab. I let out a sigh, emptying my lungs of all of the frustration of the past half hour. Now what? I brushed off my knees and sat down on the curb to try to figure out my options.
I could call my mom or dad to come get me. Although I didn’t have an extra set of keys. I’d left those behind in Omaha. But then they’d wonder what I was doing at Jake’s place. Not willing to subject myself to an earful of all of the reasons I shouldn’t get back together with Jake, I mentally crossed that option off the list.
A locksmith wouldn’t do me any good. I needed someone who could rig something to reach down into the grate and catch my keys. Like a rake or a stick or a pole. I looked toward Jake’s door. He probably had something that would work. But I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Storming out and then crawling back to ask for help would totally negate whatever misery I hoped he’d be feeling at my abrupt departure.
Maybe I had something in the car that would work. Grateful I hadn’t locked the doors, I popped the trunk. Nothing but re-usable shopping bags I took to the farmer’s market with me. Oh, and the emergency roadside kit my dad insisted I carry with me everywhere I went.
Unless I wanted to light a flare and signal to everyone what a dumb ass move I’d made, I didn’t think there would be anything in there to help.
I was about to give up, to crawl back to Jake and knock on his door, when I noticed a few hangers in the far corner of the trunk. If I could string the hangers together, I might be able to somehow hook my key chain.
Determined to find my own way out of the mess I’d created, I gathered the hangers and made my way back to the grate. I looped them together and slowly lowered them into the sewer. Even after laying on the ground and letting my arm dangle through the grate, I was still about eighteen inches away.
“Dammit.” I needed a few more inches. That sure resonated. I’d needed a few more inches earlier too when Jake deprived me of experiencing what would have been the only non-self-inflicted orgasm I’d had in the past twenty-four months. Not that I was bitter about it or anything.
Resigned to begging for help, I hooked the hanger on the grate and began to take tentative steps toward his door. My inner thighs chafed together. I’d worked up quite the sweat trying to access my keys. Somehow or other this had to be his fault. Then an idea struck me.
I walked back to my car and climbed into the driver’s seat. Lifting my hips, I wiggled my panties down my thighs, past my knees, until I could kick them off my feet. This had to work. Panties in hand, I marched back to the grate, a little unnerved by the way the light breeze blew right through the skirt of my sun dress.
Lowering the hangers down into the grate again, I hooked the last one onto my panties before dangling the entire string of hangers into the sewer. No matter how I tried to stretch, the last hook hovered just inches above my keys.
Groaning, I lifted the line of hangers up a bit and secured it on the grate. There was only one thing left I could do. Assuring myself I was alone in the parking lot, I finagled my way out of my bra. If my parents could see me now, oh lordy, I’d never hear the end of it.
Bra in hand, I looped it through a leg of my panties and laid down on my stomach again. With my phone in one hand and my bra in the other, I tried to manipulate the hook of the hanger to catch on the loop of my key chain. I struck out twice. But on the third attempt, the hook snagged my prize. Slowly, carefully, I pulled the chain of hangers from the grate.
As I drew my keys up through the storm drain, I maneuvered into a squat. One hanger, then two…I was making progress. A huge breeze came up behind me. The hem of my dress swirled around my thighs. I tried to push it down as I continued to draw the hangers out of the grate. But the wind ticked up again. My dress blew up, exposing my backside.
“What are you doing?”
I dropped the hangers, smashed my skirt against my legs and whirled around. The hangers fell back into the sewer, taking my bra and panties with it.
Jake stood behind me, his thumbs looped through his belt loops.
Capturing my skirt between my thighs to prevent any further flashing episodes, I peered into the darkness. “I almost had them.”
“Almost had what?” Jake stepped to my side. “I saw you standing out here playing with the sewer grate and thought you might need help.”
“I don’t want your help.” If only I had my car keys, I could make a dramatic exit to further prove my point. But seeing as how I was stuck in his apartment parking lot with no keys, and now no bra or panties either, my options seemed severely limited. Why me? Wasn’t it humiliating enough that he’d flat out rejected me? Now he had to catch me bare-assed trying to dig my keys out of the sewer?
“What’s in the storm drain?”
“I said I don’t want your help.” I stuck my lower lip out in a pout. Everything I’d tried so far had backfired. My confidence was blown, my belief in true love was shot to hell, and I’d been seriously questioning my sex appeal since I’d been left high and dry by the man I loved. I never should have come back.
“Okay then.” He shrugged as he turned toward the sidewalk. “I’ll just leave you to it. Might want to keep your skirt down though. I think some of my neighbors might have captured your antics on their cell phones.”
My face flamed. That’s all I needed. I’d already made an impression on the folks of Swallow Springs with my reappearance. My daddy would drop dead of shame if pictures of my bare bottom started circulating through town.
I let out a deep breath. “My keys fell through the grate, and I was trying to retrieve them, okay?”
“You need some help?”
I clamped my hands around my middle. “I almost had them when you scared the living daylights out of me.”
“More like scared your skirt up, huh?” His lips lifted in a half-smile. “I’m sorry about before…the way we left things. Let me see what I’ve got inside.”
I glanced at my feet. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
As I watched Jake walk back to his apartment, I couldn’t help but wonder about what he’d said before. I’d been ready to give things a shot on my terms. To try a long-distance relationship and see if we could rekindle what we’d had in the past. If I did move back for good, did he mean what he said? What if I left everything I’d worked so hard for in Omaha and it didn’t work out between us? Was I willing to take that risk?
I’d come back to Swallow Springs so confident I was doing the right thing. But as I stood in front of Jake’s apartment, the breeze blowing through my skirt, I felt so unsure about my next step. I wasn’t ready to go back to my parents’ house, and it was too late to take off for home. That only left me with one option, at least for tonight. I’d drown my sorrows, flood them right out of my system. After that, maybe inspiration would strike.
20
Jake
Misty wouldn’t meet my gaze as she offered me a quick thank you and climbed into her car. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the way things had gone down between us. Her self-confidence had most likely been shattered this evening when I’d turned her down. But I meant what I said. I didn’t want to be her hometown booty call. If she wanted me back, it would have to be on my terms.
The way we left it though, with her tucking tail and taking off with her undies in hand, didn’t give me much hope for a positive resolution. Most likely she’d head back to Omaha where she’d realize she’d just been feeling a little nostalgic, and I’d get back to living my life full of regret for not taking a chance when I had the opportunity.
I sighed. Tonight was supposed to be all about getting a free steak dinner and rubbing in my big win. Instead it had turned into one of the worst nights of my life. At least I still had some pizza to take my mind off things.
With nothing better to do than plop my ass on the couch and finish watching the cheesy chick flick we’d started, I settled in for a night of pizza and pathetic pining. Before I realized it, I’d been sucked right into the plot. A gal moved away to the big city not realizing how much she’d miss her hometown roots and her hometown honey. This movie could have been based on me and Misty. Except for the fact the main character had been pregnant when she left and had to come back to tell the guy she was having his baby. Thank goodness that wasn’t a factor in Misty’s attempt at reconciliation.
But what stuck with me was that the gal really thought she’d have everything she wanted when she moved away. And once she had it, she realized it wasn’t what she wanted at all. The parallel to our relationship couldn’t have been more obvious. Although, I had to admit, the heat between us was a hell of a lot hotter than the hand holding and hugs that went on between the couple on the screen.
I hated to think that it took a cheesy chick flick to make me realize what Misty had been telling me might be the truth. But there it was. By the time the credits rolled, I found myself wiping a potential tear away from the corner of my eye. Although, it was probably just a piece of dust or something else irritating my contact.
Now what? I’d run Misty off, turned her down in a most vulnerable moment and deprived myself of the kind of loving I’d been dreaming about since she left. Maybe I’d been too quick to shoot down her attempts at a reconciliation. Maybe I should have at least heard her out. Maybe I could have let us have one night together before we decided where we wanted to take things.
As I digested the rest of the pizza along with my thoughts about where we’d gone wrong, my cell rang. Robbie.
“Yo, what’s up?” I didn’t feel much like talking but he didn’t typically waste effort on phone calls unless it was something important.
“Where are you?”
“Hanging out at my place, why?”
“You alone?”
A half-laugh, half-snort escaped. “Yeah.”
“Your girlfriend is five sheets to the wind down at the Dive Inn. Thought maybe you’d like to come pick her up.”
“Whoa. I’m assuming it’s Misty you’re talking about.”
“The one and only.”
“Well, in case you haven’t heard, she dumped me quite a while back. I think it’s safe to say she’s not my girlfriend anymore.” I cleared my throat. “And after tonight, I’m not sure she’s still even speaking to me.”
“I suppose I can call her mom or dad to come peel her off her barstool instead.”
Groaning, I ran a hand through my hair. Misty’s parents weren’t the kind of folks to bring into a situation like that. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
“She’s about to climb onto the bar. Better make it ten.”
I hung up and snagged my keys off the kitchen counter. Ready or not, I was about to have my third run-in of the day with Misty Greene.
21
Misty
I nursed my latest fruity concoction while manning my stool at the bar. Robbie sat next to me, putting a major damper on what was supposed to be my night of not giving a flip. After Jake’s rejection, I had no plans except to eradicate him from my system. Whether that meant consuming unnatural amounts of alcohol, finding a sweet-talking Southern boy to take my mind off him, or passing out on the bar in front of me, I was committed to doing what it would take to force any last thoughts of him out of my head.
But thanks to Robbie Jordan, all of my efforts had been thwarted. Except the alcohol. That part was going swimmingly well. So swimmingly that I actually felt like my insides had been replaced by a sloshy combination of coconut rum and pineapple juice.
“You sure you don’t want me to run you home?” Robbie asked for the umpteenth time.
“Still a hard no to that. I’ll go when I’m good and ready.” I stirred my drink with my straw and took another long draw. Nothing good would come from tonight. It would be in my best interest to give up and retreat to my parents’ house, then skulk back to Omaha tomorrow. But I wasn’t used to losing. Once I made my mind up about something, I usually got what I wanted.
That’s what made tonight such a bittersweet loss. Not only did I know deep down in my heart that Jake and I belonged together, but I also had literally thrown my naked self at the man and he’d flat out rejected me.
“You ever strike out so hard you wanted to quit altogether?” I swiveled to face Robbie on my stool.
He took a sip of his ice water. “I’ve struck out plenty of times,
but I’ve never thought about quitting baseball. It’s in my blood.”
“But what if every single time you stepped up to bat you struck out? Like you knew no matter how hard you tried, how hard you swung, or how much heart and soul you put into it, you’d never get a hit?”
“We’re not talking about baseball anymore, are we?”
I squinted at him over the slice of pineapple precariously perched on the rim of my glass. “We weren’t ever talking about baseball.”
“I see. Well,”—he scrubbed a hand over his whiskers—“then yeah, I guess I have struck out so hard I wanted to give up.”
“And did you?”
“For a while. Remember when Cassie and I broke up?” Something passed across his face, making me think he still wasn’t over his childhood sweetie.
“Yeah. You stole my boyfriend for a summer.”
Robbie let out a soft chuckle. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“He spent a lot more time with you that summer than me. Drinking, fishing, doing whatever the hell you guys did to help heal your broken heart.”
“Well, it did heal. I didn’t feel like putting myself out there again for a long time, but I got over her, and you’ll get over Jake. It just takes time.”
I pushed my glass away. “I don’t want time. I don’t want to put myself out there again. I don’t want to get over him.”
“Speaking of…” Robbie slid off his stool and backed up. “Hey, Jake, what are you doing here?”
My head snapped up. I couldn’t even nurse my misery in peace. “Did you call him?” I narrowed my eyes at Robbie.
“I’m just going to leave you two alone. I’m sure you’ve got plenty to catch up on.” Robbie clamped a hand on Jake’s shoulder and leaned close. “Good luck.”
“I heard that.” Crossing one leg over the other, I swiveled back to face the bar. I’d just pretend he wasn’t there. Ignore him and maybe he’d leave me alone.
Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology Page 313
