by Carter Ashby
“I love it. Do it.” He moved his chair next to her, kissed her, and gently cupped her breast, thumbing her nipple.
And then she was gone. Up, taking away plates and dropping them into the sink. “You weren’t even listening.”
“I’m sorry,” he said blankly, staring at the space where her breasts had been. “You can’t shove your muffins in my face dressed in that nightgown and expect there to still be blood-flow to my brain.”
He stood and leaned on the counter while she scrubbed at the dishes, her back to him. That ass. God, she had a great ass.
“Okay, but I was talking about something for the bar. You know, you’ve got that side room and the stage. I really think live music would be a big hit. There’s nowhere else in town doing it. And it would be a great way to showcase local talent.”
He loved the backs of her legs. Her smooth, trim legs. “I like the idea of live music,” he managed to say. “I’ve just never had time to get it organized.” He was completely hard, now, and utterly miserable.
“Well I’ve collected a few audition videos. I thought we could watch them together. I definitely want a live band for our Ladies Night.”
He rested on his forearms, dropped his head, and squeezed his eyes shut. “Uh-huh. Sounds fine.”
“So if you want, we can get dressed and snuggle on the couch and see what options are out there.”
The water from the sink shut off. He looked up just as she turned and caught his gaze. She cocked her head to the side. “Are you serious? You’re an animal, Jayce.”
He shook his head, disgusted with himself.
She sighed. “Come here. I’ll take care of you so you can listen to me.”
He stood up and folded his hands in front of his crotch. “Know what, don’t do me any favors. I’ll go take care of myself if you’re not interested.”
She made her way around the counter, her eyes sparkling. “I like doing you favors, Jayce.”
“Yeah? Seems you were feeling pretty inconvenienced a second ago.”
She stopped in front of him and let her eyes wander. He felt his body warm in all the places that her gaze touched. “I’ve been enlightened.” She moved his hands away and slipped hers into his boxers.
He groaned, his heart pounding raucously. Could she hear it? Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? “Okay, babe,” he said. “We’re gonna go back in that bedroom and do very naughty things to each other. Then as soon as we’re done, you’re gonna change out of that nightgown so I can give you my complete, undivided attention.” He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“I love that you love my nightgown,” she said. She nipped at his ear. He took her back to bed and loved her. He kissed her, caressed her, fucked her like it was the last time he’d ever have the chance. He didn’t know what was driving the desperation, but he knew when this morning ended that there was no guarantee of more.
She finished her third orgasm trembling, panting, sweating. Jayce wasn’t done. Not nearly. He lifted her into his arms, buried inside of her, and cradled her while he finished—while he came inside of her, lost himself inside of her. If he was a man who cried, he would have wept. If he was a man who begged, he would have thrown himself at her feet.
But his strength kept him silent. His strength held him upright, even as he held her exhausted body in his arms.
At last he laid her down on the bed. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, her smile sated. He looked into her eyes. He tried to tell her everything that was in his heart without saying anything. He tried to make her understand him and to convince her to join him…all without saying anything.
She saw it. She saw something, because her eyes opened and her expression sobered. She reached up and touched his cheek.
His voice was hoarse with suppressed emotion. “Maya—“
“I’ll put on jeans and a sweatshirt,” she said. “You won’t be distracted, then, will you?”
“Maya, I—“
“Because I really want us to listen to those bands.”
He swallowed and sat up, turning his back to her. “Yeah, okay.”
Her hand stroked his back. He closed his eyes. She kissed him between his shoulder blades and then got up and dressed. He thought he might become a man who cries after all. God knew if anyone could break him down that far it would be Maya.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sunday morning, Maya had planned to get her children and go to church as usual. But Zoey had begged and begged her to make a day trip to St. Louis to visit Addy.
So now they were in Zoey’s car, driving north. Kellen had offered to get the kids back to Zoey’s house and make sure they had their homework ready for Monday.
“Thank God for Kellen,” Maya muttered. “He’s got to be the best uncle ever.”
“He’s the best everything.”
Zoey used to never say sentimental shit like that. But falling in love with Kellen had changed her. Maya wondered what that kind of love felt like. Damon had twisted and perverted her love into a sick sort of dependency. She felt soiled from it and wondered what it would be like to love a man she didn’t fear. She certainly knew what it was to have sex with a man she didn’t fear, and that alone was a victory she’d never imagined possible.
They were meeting Addy at a café near the river. It sat at the corner of a tall, brick building. Inside, Maya scanned the sofas and tables, looking for their friend.
Zoey grabbed her arm. “He’s here. Oh my God, you get to meet the professor!” She actually squealed as she dragged Maya across the room to a sofa in the corner.
Addy was a grad student and a teaching assistant. It was widely acknowledged, in their little circle, that she was in love with the professor she worked for. She denied it non-stop, but her feelings for the professor were as obvious as Jayce’s feelings for…
Well, Maya didn’t care to go that direction with her thoughts. Zoey shouted Addy’s name, as they approached.
Addy looked up, her blue eyes widening and her already fair skin going pale. “You guys are like, a half-hour early.”
An extremely handsome man in slacks and a jacket stood. “I’ve stayed too long,” he said. Addy stood with him.
The handsome man with the glasses and the deliberately unkempt hair turned to them and smiled. “Zoey, right?” he said, extending his hand.
Zoey shook it. “Yes. And this is Maya. Maya, this is Dr. Greyson McDaniel.”
Maya felt a little star struck. This guy had previously existed only in her imagination. She’d pieced him together from the little bits that Addy let slip out. But the real life version was at least a hundred times better. “So nice to finally meet you,” Maya said.
“Finally?” he asked, his bright smile slightly bemused.
“Oh, yes,” Zoey said. “You’re a real legend in our little circle of friends.”
“Really?” he said, looking back at Addy, who’d gone bright red.
She shook her head at him. Then at them.
“Yes, really,” Zoey went on. “Addy never stops talking about you. Never.”
The professor’s smile grew a little wider, never quite reaching its full potential. He stared at Addy who was surely going to ream them out good when he left. “I don’t know what they’re talking about,” she said. “I’ve mentioned you once. In a completely professional context.”
“Well as long as it was professional,” he said wryly.
She nodded quickly, like a kid who was getting away with a fib and wanted out of the conversation before she could be found out.
“Well, I must be going. Thank you for letting me sit with you a while, Ms. Hart.”
“Thank you for sitting with me, Dr. McDaniel.” They shook hands and he left.
As soon as he was out of sight, Addy grabbed them each by an ear and pulled them back to the sofa, releasing them as she sat. “What the fuck is the matter with you two?” she snarled.
Zoey was laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe. Maya sat up as p
rimly as she could and said, in a soft, sugary voice, “Thank you for sitting with me, Dr. McDaniel.”
“Oh, God,” Zoey laughed. “When are you two going to just get it over with?”
“Stop it, both of you. For the last time, nothing is going on. And how am I supposed to face him tomorrow after this? How dare you both?”
Maya sighed, ignoring her. “That man is delicious. How do you get anything done?”
“Bet she’s making great use of her Christmas present,” Zoey said.
Maya snorted. Zoey had gotten them each vibrators. Addy, ever the good girl, had been too shocked for words.
“I don’t think of him like that. Can we please change the subject?” Addy asked.
Zoey and Maya both sighed, disappointed. Addy always made them stop just when things were getting fun.
But this time there were tears in her eyes and she actually glanced backwards, out the window. “He’s dating someone. The woman I saw him with at Christmas. He said she was just a colleague. But they’re dating now.”
Zoey wisely kept from pointing out that she’d just admitted to having feelings for him. She rubbed Addy’s back. “I’m sorry. You want me to kick his ass?”
Addy sat upright. “Why would I want that? It’s none of my business. Get the chai tea. They make it from scratch…it’s so good.”
Maya and Zoey went to the counter and ordered the chai. Then they sipped together and made their plans for the day. They were going to see a show at the Fox theater that evening, but until then, it was shopping, dinner, and drinks.
They all new St. Louis fairly well. Zoey had recently been arrested there. But Addy knew the city best. She took them shopping at boutiques and stores downtown. They had dinner in Union Station and then drinks at the bar at The Fox. Maya felt like a princess, all of this was far and beyond what she was used to. She didn’t have money for the nice things that Addy bought and she refused to let her buy her anything. But she did get a present for each of her children, just a box of fudge each.
The theater was gorgeous inside, like a palace, and the show was thoroughly entertaining. Afterwards, they went back to Addy’s apartment to hang out. She had a lovely view of the city. This late in the evening, the city was lit up. She could see the top of the Arch glowing in the distance. “When I grow up, I want to live in an apartment like this,” Maya said.
“If you’re not grown up, yet, then you’ve got a lot of nerve sleeping with Jayce,” Zoey said.
Maya rolled her eyes. “I knew you were going to bring this up, I just didn’t think you’d be so lame about it.”
“Well, we’re worried,” Zoey said.
Maya frowned and looked to Addy, who nodded. “Why?”
“We’re worried for Jayce,” Addy said.
Maya sat back and sighed. “You should be worried for Jayce. I’m worried for Jayce. He’s a terrible liar.”
“So…you know how he feels about you?” Addy asked.
“I tried, at the very beginning, to get a straight answer out of him. He said he had feelings for me, but that it wasn’t anything serious. He said they just happened when I started working for him. But I know now he was just telling me what I wanted to hear. The way he holds me…he always turns his face away so I can’t see. But I can feel it.”
“He should have been honest with you,” Addy said.
Zoey nodded agreement.
“Well, I think he thought he could handle it,” Maya said. “And if I hadn’t been so selfish, I could have seen for myself. Now I have to quit him and it would have been so much easier had I never been with him in the first place.”
“I always figured Jayce would be crazy good in bed,” Zoey said.
“Well he is,” Maya muttered. “And besides all that he’s just a good person. He’s been so kind to me and the kids. He’s been taking Mattie to the gym. Mattie’s so excited about training with a real boxer.”
“Well if you all get along, he likes you and your kids, and he’s awesome in bed…why not consider making a boyfriend out of him?” Addy asked.
Maya gaped at her. “My divorce isn’t even finalized. Besides, I’m loving this freedom to discover who I am and what I’m capable of. That’s enough for now. I don’t even have the desire to have a boyfriend.”
“So keep sleeping with him, then.”
“I can’t. He’s too involved. He thinks he can do it, but you should see how depressed he’s becoming. I can’t do that to him. I have to end this before he falls in love with me.”
Zoey and Addy looked at each other. Maya almost asked them what it was they were thinking. But then she decided she didn’t want to know.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jayce and Kellen liked to do their own manual labor. So when he finally decided on a plan for the lighting in his bar and had all the parts delivered, Jayce called Kellen. That’s how they spent their Monday morning and afternoon. They were standing on the bar installing chandeliers along the length. Nothing fancy, but enough to give some low light at the bar.
Maya came in around noon with sandwiches. She stopped in the doorway, pulled out her phone, and snapped a photo. Then she went about setting out lunch on one of the tables while smiling down at her photo.
“You got the real thing up here, baby,” Jayce said. She didn’t look at him. He shrugged at Kellen and then installed the last chandelier.
The recessed lighting was going to be a trickier prospect. All the wiring was up there, but at the moment, it was just those long, fluorescent lights.
They could maybe get some of the lighting installed that day, but the ceiling was going to be a mess for at least a week until they finished.
“I think you should paint the ceiling red,” Maya said.
Jayce hopped off the bar. “Oh you do?” He went to her, his expression blank, drinking in the sight of her without showing her his own feelings. He didn’t have to do that anymore. She wasn’t scared of him anymore. He could relax and be himself.
“Yeah. You’re gonna have to repaint it anyway once you patch up all the holes and stuff. May as well paint it red. Dark red.”
He snaked an arm around her waist, cupped the back of her head, and kissed her.
“This is gonna be a major pain in the ass,” Kellen said.
He was standing with his hands on his hips staring up at the ceiling.
“Bitching already,” Jayce said. “And looky here, Maya’s feeding us. Betcha never got treated this good before.”
“I hate to inform you of this, my friend, but Maya always feeds me whenever I take on home improvement projects.”
Crestfallen was what Jayce was. “Really?” he asked her.
“Yep. And now you benefit, too.”
Jayce sat down across from Kellen and next to Maya. “Would you feed me if he wasn’t here?”
“If you wanted me to.”
More disappointment. “Shit, I was gonna ask if you wanted to go furniture shopping Saturday. But it sounds like we’re not quite there yet.”
“Definitely not,” she said, sounding shocked.
“I meant for the bar.”
She lit up. “Furniture for the bar? Like what we talked about, sofas and coffee tables and stuff?”
“Yeah. You got an idea in your head about it, I figure you should be with me. But, I mean, maybe it should be Kellen takes you.”
He flashed a grin at his friend. Maya gently shoulder-checked him. “Kellen would at least have an opinion.”
“You know good and well you don’t want me to have an opinion,” Jayce said.
“What if I pick something you hate?”
“I promise, if I hate it, I’ll let you know. I just trust your judgment, babe.”
She beamed up at him before going back to her sandwich. Jayce wasn’t hungry. He was never hungry around her. But he ate anyway so she wouldn’t see what she was doing to him.
“So, Friday night,” Jayce said. “The usual? And then furniture shopping Saturday.”
She gave him that ex
asperated look again. “I can’t do the usual with you Friday. The grandparents are already unhappy. I can’t ask them to babysit again.”
Jayce frantically looked to Kellen. Help!
Kellen stifled a grin. “Maya, you know I’m happy to take the kids.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I really appreciate it. I’m just really missing them. Working nights like this and them in school.”
“You’re not going to see them Friday night anyway, since they’ll be asleep,” Kellen said. “Take them shopping on Saturday.”
“Yeah,” Jayce said. “It’ll be like a family outing or something.” Shit. Take it back, take it back. Too late.
She looked at him with concern.
He gulped. “I mean, for you guys. I’ll, of course, be like your personal driver with whom you have no intimate connection.”
She laughed and looked away. “Okay, yeah. That sounds really good. A day with my kids and furniture shopping.”
“Maybe we can take them someplace fun, when we’re finished. Like bowling or skating or something.”
She smiled sadly at him.
“Again, by we, I mean you…with me there strictly as transportation.”
She slid her hand over his thigh and leaned against him. “We’re gonna have to have a talk soon.”
“Nah. No talking. We’re good, babe.”
She sighed. “So, Kel, you’ll take them to your place? Or…do you wanna stay with them at Zoey’s and I can spend the night at Jayce’s.”
Jayce grinned and nodded at Kellen. Maya in his apartment. In his bed. Perfect.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Kellen said, casting a quick look at Jayce. “Give Zoey another chance to try and convince me to live with her.”
#
Jayce tried to wait for Friday, but by Monday night he was in too much pain. He pulled Maya into his office for a quick break and had her against the wall. After that, he made it to Wednesday. He followed her to her car after closing up and dragged her (willingly and laughing) into her back seat.
That was enough to get him by until Friday, but come Friday night, he was more than ready for her. She’d packed a bag before coming to work. He’d called her and told her to pack her vibrator. She’d asked why. He’d said just do it.
