Taken By The Heart (4 Contemporary Romance Novellas)

by Sierra Rose

  “So I guess we’re going to have to get one of these guys to give us a ride back?”

  She shook her head. “No, I have Jayda’s Beetle, she rode with Nate.”

  I nodded, then wondered what we were waiting for. We should just leave now. I could leave Chris my cell number and he could call if he wanted. Or not.

  I did like Chris, he was cute, and definitely hot in bed, as he had kept me up most of the night, but I doubted he would want to see me again. As I was just about to suggest that we leave, I heard the front door open and saw Chris come through with a Styrofoam tray holding four Starbucks coffees.

  “Well, good morning, ladies,” he said with a sexy grin.

  Oh, my God he’s even cuter in the daylight! His spiky blondish hair had some kind of goop in it so it was sticking straight up in the front and his eyes were the most crystal blue. He had nice teeth (which I had noticed last night) and a very friendly smile. He had on a plain black T-shirt and low-riding loose jeans. Large tattoos covered both upper arms but I couldn’t quite make them out with his shirt sleeves partially blocking them. I had noticed them last night, along with one on his upper back, but I was too buzzed to care enough to study them.

  And I’m sure I looked like a pile of sunshine, I thought.

  “I didn’t know how you liked your coffee, or if you even liked coffee, so I got a latte, two plain black coffees, and a chai tea.”

  Stephanie and I looked at each other, seemingly amazed at his thoughtfulness, and I spoke up. “If you have any cream or milk, I’ll take one of the black coffees.”

  “I’d love the chai,” Stephanie replied.

  Chris’s smile got wider as he handed us our drinks and set the latte on the counter for Jesse. He poured cream from a container in the fridge into his and my black coffees and handed mine to me. I took a sip and closed my eyes as the nectar of the gods slid down my throat.

  “Um, so Chris, I don’t suppose you have any aspirin by chance?” I rubbed my temples with my fingertips after I set the coffee down on the, well, coffee table.

  “Sure,” he said, opening a drawer in the kitchen and handing me a little packet of two aspirin. It was the type you would get at some sort of clinic, then I realized he probably used these for when he went on his… missions, or whatever they were called.

  “Thanks.” I ripped open the package and swallowed the bitter chalky tablets with my coffee and prayed for quick relief.

  “So I think we’re gonna go,” Stephanie said, standing up.

  “Oh, no you’re not,” said Jesse, setting four plates on the dining room table. He set a hotplate down then placed a large heavy skillet on top if it and my stomach summersaulted. I was hungry but the food smelled greasy and I was afraid it would make me sick.

  “Uh, okay, I guess we could stay for breakfast.” She shot me a questioning glance. I shrugged and sat at the table.

  Jesse had made some sort of spicy egg, potato, cheese, and bell pepper skillet thing and I picked at mine, not wanting to be rude.

  “You girls need a ride back to the dorms?” Chris asked between bites.

  I swallowed a small bite of potato and said, “No, Stephanie has a car. But thanks.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” said Chris, setting his coffee on the table and following us to the door after we’d had finished eating.

  “Wait,” Jesse said, grabbing Stephanie by the hand and yanking her toward him playfully.

  Chris met me on the porch and gave me a hug. “Thanks for coming over last night. I had a great time.”

  I’m sure you did.

  “Me, too, it was, um, nice meeting you.” I giggled at my stupid response.

  He chuckled. “Okay, but can I get your number?” He pulled his cell from the pocket of his jeans and I watched his long, smooth fingers move over the face of the phone as he pushed some buttons. He smiled and handed it to me.

  I looked down at the phone and saw “Hot Miranda” in the “Name” slot of the contact and I grinned. I typed in my cell number and hit “save”, handing it back to him. “Hot Miranda, huh? Not to be confused with ‘Ugly Miranda’ or ‘Boring Miranda’?”

  He snorted. “Something like that.” He pocketed the phone with a grin and grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to him. Leaning down to kiss me, I stood on tiptoes to meet him halfway. His mouth was soft and he ran a finger along my jawline, stroking it smoothly as his tongue gently played with mine. I was glad I had done a finger teeth brushing in the bathroom earlier and internally praised myself for skipping the bell peppers at breakfast. At the very most, I had coffee breath.

  He broke the kiss and looked down at me, his hand still lingering on my face. “Can I call you, Miranda?”

  “Of course,” I breathed.

  I heard the door open and Stephanie came walking out with a look on her face that mirrored mine. I gave her a knowing smile and we walked to the yellow Volkswagen and got in without looking back. Something told me Jesse and Chris were standing on their porch, though.

  ***

  The following two weeks passed by fairly quickly. The classes were becoming more intense, with more homework and I refrained from any late night parties or going out.

  Chris had called me twice and texted a few times. We talked about seeing each other, but it didn’t quite work out, as this upcoming weekend he had to go away for four days somewhere for some sort of training. I was a little disappointed, but it wasn’t as if I had some sort of stake on this guy. Plus there was another guy in my Intro to Corrections class that was pretty hot. He’d been eye-flirting with me for weeks and I hadn’t ruled out the possibility that I was going to approach him – if he didn’t approach me first.

  Just as the cute guy in my class was giving me the eye, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I smiled at cutie and glanced up at the professor, who had his back to the room, playing with the laptop, I assumed, trying to find the next program for the projector. He was still talking though. I slid the phone from my pocket and saw a text from Chris:

  Hi hottie. Would you be up for a date Tuesday night when I get back?

  I sucked in my cheeks to suppress the huge smile that wanted to spread across my face and looked back up at the professor. He was still yapping about how to deal with inmates in jails, but he was looking at the screen. The only reason I was somewhat scared of him was because he looked like he actually had worked in a jail or prison at some point.

  And he probably had.

  I looked back down at my phone and with my thumbs, I replied: Of course.

  It vibrated again before I could re-pocket it and it just read: Awesome.

  So I had a date with Chris on Tuesday night. Yeah, awesome.

  “So what are we doing this weekend, girlie?” Jayda asked, looking down at her phone as we walked to our next class. Jayda had become a pretty good buddy the last few weeks, as she was also a Criminal Justice major. Stephanie was pre-law, so I had one class with her, while Jayda was in three of my classes. I had only noticed her in the one before, but now that we were friends, we sat together in them. My roommate, Samantha, proved to be somewhat of a homebody. However, she was the perfect roomie, quiet, respectful, and clean – and she never questioned me. She was also very smart and was helpful with homework questions or drilling me for quizzes and tests, and I did the same for her. As I guessed, she was a Chemistry major and already had a job lined up at a pharmaceutical company her uncle worked at. I was happy here in San Diego, and was glad to have made friends so quickly.

  “I don’t know, but Chris wants to take me out Tuesday night when he gets back from… wherever he is.”

  Jayda wrinkled her nose. “Seriously? I thought that was a one-time thing with that guy.”

  I looked at her incredulously. “I wouldn’t mind seeing him again. He’s cute and hot.”

  She touched a button on her phone and slid it in the pocket of her pink hoodie. “But he’s in the military. He could get moved at any time.”

  I shrugged and popped a piece of gum
in my mouth. “So. Then I’ll just use him for sex.”

  She had been taking a sip from a bottle of water when she began coughing. We had to stop so she could catch her breath.

  I patted her on the back and laughed. “Sorry.”

  “Damn girl,” she wheezed, “that was so not right!”

  I bit back a grin. “Just keepin’ it real, my friend.”

  “I see that,” she replied, taking another careful sip of water. “So I know this great little club in the Gas Lamp Quarter. You game?”

  “Sure. Steph coming?”

  “Yup.” She looped her arm through mine and we walked to our next class, chatting about the weekend.

  I spent Friday night studying and doing laundry, but as Saturday night rolled around, I was in my dorm putting on more lip gloss and giving my hair one last round of abuse by the flat iron when my phone rang. I took three steps to my bed and saw Chris on the caller ID.

  “Hi.”

  “Hello, yourself. Whatcha doin’?”

  I paused, wondering if I should tell him I was going out. Why am I even having this conversation with myself? “Getting ready to go out. What are you doing?”

  He also paused and I wondered if I had told him too much. “Oh, okay. Where you going?”

  I screwed the lid on the lip gloss and puckered my lips in the mirror. “I really don’t know. Jayda and Steph are dragging me to some club in the Gas Lamp Quarter.”

  “Oh, well that will be fun,” he said with indifference.

  “So, um, you never told me what you were doing,” I said, changing the subject.

  He laughed a little. “Not much of anything. Just sitting here with my rifle in my lap, talking to you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Is that, like, safe? Where are you?”

  “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

  I shook my head. “Okay, goofy.”

  “Well I better get off the phone. Have fun tonight, sexy. I’ll call you tomorrow okay? Don’t be too hungover.”

  “Bye, Chris.”

  I hit the end button with a smile and shook my head, biting my lip. I had to admit, I was really looking forward to seeing him Tuesday.

  “You ready, girl?” I turned around to see Jayda’s smiling face in my doorway. She had on a short denim skirt with frayed edges and a sequined pink top and a lot of pink lipstick. Her brown hair was up in a ponytail, as usual, and it dawned on me that I had never seen it down.

  “You look great, woman!” she said, eyeing me from the tips of my heeled silver sandals to my light blue sundress with the spaghetti straps. I had gone to the pool at Stephanie’s aunt’s apartment complex a few times at her invitation and had a nice tan going. Well, tan and freckles. I hated my freckles!

  Stephanie met us at the dorms and after a short drive, we arrived on a boulevard of pumping nightlife. The brightly-lit street was teeming with happy people talking, laughing, and a lot of them seemed to be pretty tipsy already. We wandered into a bar called Señor something or other and I was suddenly hungry for Mexican food.

  “Margaritas, girls?” Jayda asked, pointing to the two of us.

  “Yep. And chips and salsa. I’ll get a table,” I said, smiling.

  She nodded and I saw her remove a wad of cash from her bra. I laughed at her.

  We sat at the table, and already a group of guys were staring at us. I could tell they were military (they’re so easy to spot now) and I smiled at them. One in particular, a very good-looking brown-skinned boy with great teeth and a nice smile, grinned at me with a flirt in his eyes and I batted my eyelashes at him and looked away.

  “Yum yum, here you go,” Jayda said, setting our drinks down.

  She sat down and we lifted our glasses, clinking them together and then started sipping on our blended drinks. I normally like mine on the rocks with salt, but she hadn’t asked and I wasn’t complaining.

  It wasn’t long before two of the cuties came over to talk to us. The Latino boy was even cuter close up and he had a beer bottle in his hands. His tanned forearms looked strong against the black button-up shirt he had on, and the low-riding jeans were definitely setting off his look nicely.

  I looked up at them. “How are you guys doing?” I asked lamely and internally cringed.

  He chuckled at me. “Would you like to dance, blondie?” he asked.

  I lifted a shoulder. “Sure.”

  The other guy who was with him, an average-looking guy with brown hair, boldly took my seat and began talking to Steph and Jayda as I was led to a small dance floor playing music with lyrics I couldn’t understand. I had to admit, the stringy, Spanish music was romantic enough, and I could probably guess what the male voice was crooning about if I listened hard enough.

  “So what’s your name?” he asked me, and I detected a slight accent.

  “Miranda. You?”

  He smiled. “Joe. Nice to meet you, Miranda.” He said my name with a thick Spanish roll of the tongue.

  I laughed and we danced pretty platonically until the song ended and he thanked me for the dance.

  I didn’t sense many sparks, but he was cute enough and I spent the rest of the evening talking to him and dancing with him. I hated myself for it, but I was really thinking about Chris the whole time, and even felt a twinge of guilt for talking to this guy.

  Why? I didn’t know. We had no commitments to each other, but there was something so absolutely smoldering about the guy. The memories of Chris’s hands on me left a permanent impression on the nerve endings of my body and into the deepest part of my libido. Poor Joe, he would probably never measure up.

  The night ended, and Joe looked a bit disappointed as he asked me if I wanted to go grab breakfast somewhere (at two a.m., really?) but I did give him my cell number because I felt bad for him. He really was cute, and maybe if Chris ended up being an asshole, I would go out with him.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket and I looked at it.

  Text from Chris. Hope you’re having fun.

  I bit my lip and responded immediately. It’s no fun without you.

  See you Tuesday, gorgeous.

  I shook my head and looked up to see Stephanie eyeing me with an amused look. “That looks like love.”

  I feigned confusion. “What does?”

  “That look on your face. Was that that Chris guy?”

  I bit back a smile. “Yes. How’d you guess?”

  She shook her head. “It wasn’t hard, girl.”

  “What about Jesse? Did you ever see him again?”

  She nodded. “Yes. He was very sweet, but he’s leaving for a year and I really can’t be waiting around for a guy I barely know. I promised him I’d write, though.”

  “Ooh, that blows. Poor Jesse.”

  She smiled. “That’s what I said, but he just said it was part of his job.”

  I nodded. “I guess. We won’t ever understand, I suppose. They risk their lives to defend our sorry asses, so we should just be as nice as we can to them.”

  She nodded and jutted her chin towards another group of military guys. “Yes. It’s our patriotic duty to help these guys, right?” She winked.

  I laughed. I’d have to remember that one.

  CHAPTER 4

  Tuesday couldn’t come around fast enough. I didn’t pay attention in any of my classes, and felt a red stain creep up my face as Professor Jones called on me in the Intro to Corrections class and I had no idea what he’d asked.

  “Uh, I’m sorry, sir, could you repeat that?”

  He shook his big bald head and scowled. “Can you tell me how many inmates the United States has in jails and prisons around the country at the current time?”

  I knew this one. “Around two million, sir.”

  “Very good,” he said, but he still looked pissed off. Although, that guy always looked pissed off.

  After school and a crapload of homework, I took a long shower and got ready for my date with Chris. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I didn’t really care. I f
ound myself surprised at the excitement I felt on the impending date, butterflies dancing in my belly. I hoped he was just as excited.

  My question was answered at the text I found after blow-drying my hair.

  I’ll be there at 6. Hope you like Thai.

  Well, don’t really, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

  See you soon, I replied.

  He was very prompt, showed up at the dorm building at 6, respectful not to come up into the dorms, as he knew it wasn’t allowed. Not that I would have minded showing him off to the other girls.

  I came downstairs in a mint green maxi-dress and white wedge sandals, set off nicely by my new white Dooney and Bourke bag. He smiled in approval as his eyes raked me from head to toe. He grabbed my hand and kissed it, then twirled me around to drink me all in. After the twirl was complete, he drew me in for a hug.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi yourself,” I replied from under my lashes.

  He opened the door to his newish red Ford pickup truck and ushered me inside. Putting the truck in gear, he rumbled down the street and I stared at his profile as he drove.

  “What?” he asked when we hit a red light.

  I smirked. “Where’s the motorcycle?”

  “At home. I don’t think girls like the ol’ bike.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”

  He smiled and winked at me and my stomach turned over. What is this guy doing to me? I barely knew him. He was totally beautiful and I couldn’t believe he was even interested in me.

  We arrived at the Thai restaurant, and once inside, the smell of food made my stomach summersault with hunger. I just realized I hadn’t eaten all day. I’m sure I could find something I liked in here.

  After the server had taken our drink orders, Chris reached over and put his hand over mine, rubbing his thumb lightly over mine, causing me to shiver slightly.

  “It feels like forever since I’ve seen you,” he said, smiling. His blue eyes caught the fading sunset outside.