by Anne Leigh
From his back, he looked tense. He was sitting straight and I knew he heard my footsteps because he stood to his full six foot three height and turned to face me.
The minute his smoldering blue eyes met mine, I knew I made the right call with my dress. I got it on sale a few months back and I’d wanted to wear it for my 21st birthday. Back then, I thought I’d celebrate my birthday in a bar with a bunch of close friends.
I absolutely had no inkling that I’d spend it at the hospital yet it was the best day ever hands down. My friends were there and my mom and dad were within reach via Facetime. And the icing on the cake was Webb.
He made everything better.
My world was already great before he entered my life.
But now –
Now it was extra special, more meaningful, and definitely happier because of him.
He reached me before I could make another step towards him.
“Jesus babe, you’re fucking gorgeous.” His voice was an octave lower, but the blue in his eyes shone with appreciation and languid sensuality.
His arms reached for my hands and he gently placed them behind his waist. I could feel the hardness on the front of his slacks growing. He’d foregone jeans today because the place we were going to had a dress code.
He was lowering his head to kiss me, but I swiftly blocked his approaching lips. It was punishing but I had to. “Nope handsome. You’ll ruin hours of makeup and we’re gonna be late.”
His brows quirked, “Hours? Well…I guess if you put it that way, waiting for you took hours.”
My left hand slapped his hard chest that was covered with a dark blue dress shirt that highlighted his eyes.
Sigh.
“We should stay in.” His lips moved, but his eyes were fixating on my lips, wanting a taste. If he looked at me like this for another minute, I would lose my resolve.
I tapped him on his right arm, feeling the solid muscle that always made me feel safe, “We have reservations and our friends are waiting. “
His face held a smirk, “I don’t give a shit.” And he pressed his hardness to the front of my body which of course robbed me of air.
What I would give to just forget about Club Bayou right now, take off our clothes, and have mad monkey sex with him.
No one would ever judge me for my lack of restraint. I slowly pulled my body away from him, but Webb moved his hands to my butt and they stayed there.
“I miss you…” His strained voice brought shivers to my spine. The way his eyes fevered when they landed on my lips was enough intensity to charge up my vibrator for a week. I hadn’t been using it lately because my fingers did the job, but lately it had been really tough to limit myself to self-pleasure when he was right there. But the he in question must be made of solid rock because while he wasn’t immune to my seduction skills, his control could rival a celibate monk.
Now it seemed as if his control was finally cracking and it would be wise of me to take advantage of the moment but darn it, we had to go.
“Webb, I miss you, too.” My voice was a whisper, but the thunder in my chest was reverberating through the thick fabric of my dress to his large palm that he’d moved from my butt to the area just below my left shoulder. “If only Dyan didn’t make the arrangements, I would even think twice about dressing up for tonight.”
He breathed in and lowered his forehead to mine. I smelled the masculine minty scent that only Webb possessed and was the fuel to my pheromones. “Okay.”
I also wanted to be clear about my intentions, “I’m okay, Webb. You don’t need to be so gentle with me anymore. I’m healing and according to Dr. Simms, I’m as well as I could be.”
The fire in his eyes grew ten times hotter, but I wanted it blazing, incinerating. “I wish I could put my mouth on you right now.”
My left hand reached for the steel in his pants, and I let my lips linger around his mouth, “Just imagine how my lips would look wrapped around you.”
With those words, I let go of his hold and hurried my steps to the door. I had two, three minutes tops to get to his car or we’d never be able to meet our friends tonight.
“Go, go, GO!” My friends’ chants were loud on my ears as I drank my second Kamikaze shot of the night.
The sourness of the shot dulled the vodka and it tasted better than the first shot. That or my taste buds were getting acquainted with alcohol.
Dyan’s phone camera’s flash blinded my eyes and it took me a second to react. She’d said that she was making me a scrapbook – it would have pictures of me taking my first 21 shots for my 21st birthday. Of course I wasn’t going to complete it in a night and as ridiculous as it sounded, it would be a nice way to reminisce my birthday. I consented one one condition – that they, my friends, would also be included in the photos.
The buzz of the drink hit me and whoa, I was feeling slightly woozy.
I’d had alcohol here and there before. Beer, wine, nothing with hard liquor. Now I can vouche that I did like the taste of hard liquor, but only if there was more juice or fruity liquid added to it.
Denton high-fived Mario, “Dude, we gotta get her to drink a 151.” He was sitting across from me in this crowded club and his long legs hardly fit the lounge chair around our small glass table.
“What’s a 151?” I asked, my face feeling hot from the drink I’d just shot straight down my throat.
“It’s a drink that will make you wish you were born Irish,” Mario quipped while raising his hand to alert the server that we needed more drinks. Drinks that I was pretty sure our bodies didn’t need and would undeniably regret in the morning. “Or Mexican, ya know. Us cholos can handle our liquor well.”
“Cholos? Isn’t that like a bad thing to call Mexicans?” Dyan shouted on my ear. I was guessing she meant to scream at Mario, but after her fourth shot, she was bound to make an error in judgment.
“Dude. I’m Mexican and I ain’t offended.” Mario shrugged his shoulders that were clad in a nice black shirt. He was all dressed up tonight. All of us were. Dyan in a white chiffon jumpsuit looked amazing. A jumpsuit wouldn’t be a go-to outfit for me, but even with her petite frame, Dyan looked like a thousand bucks in her outfit. The plunging neck and graceful ruffles made it a sultry one-piece that even made the doorman look twice.
“That’s because you are a cholo, you dumbass.” Denton laughed. He looked great in a gray dress shirt and black pants and it was easy to say that he’d gotten a lot of looks from the female clubgoers.
“Shut up, gringo.” Dario nudged Denton’s head to which Denton returned with a heavy hand. Then they both got quiet for a second and then started laughing again.
I knew they ordered a Kamikaze for me, but they had two shots to my one which made their total to four since I’d only had two. Denton had turned 21 two months ago and a few weeks later, Mario did too. They both went out with the guys on the basketball team and I just remembered both of them being completely hung over even two days after their respective birthdays.
Our server, Tami, was now by our table. She was very accomodating and I could tell that she had a friendly demeanor.
“I’ll try the Buttery Nipple.” Denton said, “Make that two nipples.”
“Two Panty Man for me.” Mario laughed and bumped fists with Denton.
“You know what guys? You’re both being very sexist right now,” Dyan said, her voice loud on my ears again. She was a year older than me so she’d had her fun and now she knew what drinks she liked. “Can you please get me A Kick in the Crotch?”
“Water for me,” I added. My friends didn’t even bug me about it. We’d been texting for days and I’d said that if we went out, I didn’t want to be a party pooper, but I could only drink to my limit. And my limit was three or four shots. Alcohol wouldn’t mix well with the painkiller that I sometimes had to take at night because of my injuries.
“Oohhh –“ Denton teased, his hands waving in the air, “Dy wants to kick you in the nuts, Mario!”
My frien
ds were officially drunk.
Tami merely shook her head and gamely smiled, “Cool. Lemme know if you guys want anything else, ‘kay?”
I nodded for all of us and thanked her.
Dyan rolled her eyes and said, “I could outdrink both of you,” pointing to Mario and Denton, “but I’m behaving myself tonight. I wanna be here for my girl, A.”
I leaned my head on her shoulder and the buzzing stopped. “Thanks Dy.” The club wasn’t large by square footage, but Dyan said it had a big reputation among Hollywood elites.
“How did you get us in?” I’d meant to ask her earlier but I kept forgetting. We all met by the front of the building and we’d been talking about what they’d all been up to since the last time I saw them. Mario and Denton had basketball practice even when we were on a school break so they’d been hanging out a lot. Dyan had gone home to her family and she’d been stuck (her words not mine) helping at her sister’s law firm.
“Who? Me?” Dyan asked, her brows meeting in the middle. There was enough light shining on her face that I could see her expression illuminating confusion.
“Yeah.” I slowly removed my head from her shoulder, careful not to make any sudden movements or my world would start spinning again. Two shots were good for me for now. I thought I’d be okay but at this rate, it would take a year before Dyan would be able to complete my 21 shots’ album.
Denton and Mario were facing the dance floor, checking out the ladies who were all dressed to perfection. I saw why this club attracted the elusive Hollywood celebs. It offered an intimate yet relaxing escape from the paparazzi. The warm lighting and cozy plush seating was perfect for anyone wanting to enjoy nightlife at its finest.
I had no idea how much the drinks cost, but I was pretty sure my credit card would be hurting tomorrow too. It was only fair to split the bill with my friends even if they’d all said that I was covered since it was my birthday.
A place like this could cost a fortune and we were college students after all.
“No dahling. It wasn’t me who got the reservation.” Dyan was shaking her head as she took her drink from Tami’s hand. Tami was now back at our table carrying a tray with about ten drinks. How she remembered all of them was astounding to me especially since they didn’t have the tiny pieces of paper attached to them. They must have a very efficient way of identifying and remembering drinks here.
I muttered, “Huh? But you said we got reservations at Bayou.”
Dyan took a sip of her Kick in the Crotch and replied, “Yeah, but I never said I got it. It would be years before I’d ever get an in over here.”
“Really?” My eyes wandered to Denton and Mario, ready to ask them the same question. I was just really curious because from our text exchanges it seemed like everything had happened so quickly.
Dyan shook her head, “Ah no. Not even Denton could get us in here.”
Denton’s head turned towards us when he heard his name. “What did I do now?”
Mario was still too busy checking out the women dancing on the elevated platform. He looked like he wanted to join them any minute now.
Dyan responded, “A’s asking who got us in here.”
Denton’s eyes were puzzled, his hands reaching for his drink on the table. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Who didn’t?” Now I was literally going to have a headache. I made the assumption that my friends had this all planned out since they were all adamant that we meet tonight. Dyan had called it ‘the last hurrah’ before torture started again. Torture being group work, exams, and papers.
“I swear that guy can hide the nuclear codes and he’d never give them away.” Dyan’s eyeroll was even more epic than the one Anderson Cooper gave to Kellyane Conway.
Denton laughed, “Yeah. Probably.”
Mario joined the conversation, “What are you talking about?”
Dyan filled him in, “Apparently he didn’t tell Athena that he got us into one of the exclusivest nightclubs in L.A.”
I doubted exclusivest was a word but hey, I’d downed two Kamikazes in less than twenty minutes so who was I to judge?
“Who?” I asked again. If my friends didn’t, then who –
“Your guy sure has a lot of secrets, Athena,” Mario said before he took his shotglass and finished it in one gulp.
“Webb?”
“I hope he’s your guy or else we’d be getting kicked out right now,” Dyan said in a teasing manner.
Webb never said a peep about him getting us into this place. He just said yes when I’d told him about my friends’ plans which now sounded like he was in on all this time.
I’d even asked him to go in with us since he was dressed up, but as soon as he’d seen us all settled in our seats, he was gone.
Of course he wasn’t gone gone.
He was somewhere close by, blending in the shadows to protect me. Always looking out for me even at the expense of his need to be with me.
In the car, he’d held my hand and kissed it a few times. We hadn’t talked much, the soft music playing in the background was not enough to temper the sexual tension between us. It was as if we both knew that any words between us weren’t unnecessary. Our hands touching together quite simply filled the space that words would have filled, but I was content to be in the silence.
I’d gotten a soft kiss on my cheek and then my forehead before he’d left to join the dark corners of the club.
It was a promise that tonight there would be more.
That tonight when we went home, he’d have all of me.
“Webb did this?” I said, the awe in my tone evident. I reached for the small glass of ice water in front of me and took a sip.
“He did, dahling.” Dyan emptied her shotglass and with a big smile on her face, she said, “The big man would do anything for you, you know. He wanted you to have a proper birthday number 21 so he’d arranged tonight…everything…for you.”
I wasn’t drunk but I might as well be, my head felt woozy and my heart did a flip inside my chest.
For a man who spoke in no more than ten words at a time, he sure did show me a lot. He showed me that he cared for me and also my friends.
He showed me that he valued me…a lot.
He didn’t need to say anything, not even to proclaim that he loved me because I felt it.
I felt it.
Everywhere.
“How much did you drink?” His blue eyes were dark, but his voice was rough and from the way his jaw was clenched, he was extremely tense.
I eyed him from where I was standing, lounging on the sofa where he looked imposing. Formidable. He was sitting with his legs wide apart, his bare feet on the cold marble.
Raising an eyebrow, I said, “You know exactly how much I drank.”
His gaze remained on me, the telltale start of a grin forming on his lips, “Three shots and lots of water.”
We’d just arrived at his place that I’d come to call my home for the past few months. I didn’t want to go to bed yet because I was too wired, and I had other plans to continue the fun so I’d asked if we could watch a movie.
Webb merely nodded his head and didn’t counter my request. He’d been very handsy during the ride back here compared to being completely out-of-reach inside the nightclub. Oh, I knew he was watching, but I also had a feeling that he wanted me to enjoy a night out with my friends.
He was a very considerate man.
It was time for me to show how considerate of a girlfriend I was. I never did ask him when we started being in the boyfriend-girlfriend zone. It wasn’t something I’d obsess about, but it really made me giddy inside whenever he called me his girlfiend.
I started to remove my shoes, the high heeled wonder felt surprisingly marvelous on my feet. I thought the 2 ½ inches were going to be a problem, but since I spent most of the night chatting with Dyan, my worries never came true. I’d danced a couple of songs. Whenever Timberlake, Zedd,and Timbaland were on, I pulled Dy to the dance floor. Mario and Denton sta
yed with us even if their eyes were busy scanning other women. I had a great time with my friends and I owed it to this man.
I owed him for saving my life.
I owed him for staying with me through my recovery.
I owed him for guarding me and keeping my father’s safety a priority.
I owed him a lot but he never asked for anything back.
The predatory look in his eyes gave me pause. He’d turned on the TV, but his eyes were on me, the scorching look in them enough to make my body heat up and the slow burn in my center started to drench my underwear.
“Why do you even ask when you already know the answer?” I quipped, finally removing the buckle closure on the ankle strap part of my heels. Webb had offered to help me take my shoes off, but I’d resoundingly said ‘no.’ If he touched me one more time, my plan would go kaput.
The lights in the living room were dimmed, the only sounds I could hear were the soft buzzing of the TV. It was pointless having the TV on now. I didn’t really want to watch a show. I just wanted to keep him distracted so I could start doing this.
“You like my dress?” My question didn’t need an answer. From the minute he’d eyed me in this dress, his burning stare could have singed it into pieces.
“Hmm…” He murmured, his face unmasked of pretense. I itched to feel the stubble on his chin and the rough texture of his lips, but I stopped myself.
All in good time, Athena.
“Why do you ask a question that you already know the answer to?” His voice was playful and I wanted to frame the way he looked right now. The languid, carefree side of him. His eyes were liquified but everything else was solid – the lips that were turned up, his neck roped with muscle, the way his strong arms bunched up his shirt, and as I let my eyes travel down to his slacks, there was a definite outline of a bulge that I couldn’t wait to feel inside of me.
He made my mouth water and my insides congeal to jello.
“Touché.” My steps moved towards him.
Closer, closer…
Until I was standing on the space between his legs.
