“All you have to do is pay attention,” Josh said as he took his arms off the table so Erin could put everything down.
“I bet you get laid all the time,” Erika started and looked at Jenna with a guilty expression.
“Don’t let him fool you,” Jax broke in. “He doesn’t pay attention to that kind of thing often. In the field, that guy would know how often a guard scratches his ass. With a woman, he barely notices the color dress she’s wearing.”
“Well then, he learns fast. It’s a little spooky.” Erika surveyed the chocolate tasting plate and “tasted” one immediately.
“Okay,” Erin said as she looked everything over, “we have a sampling of wine that Josh brought in earlier. Jane said to set it up for you. She is recommending that we carry all three bottles, but she’ll talk to you about that later, Jenna. In other words, this round is on Josh.”
All eyes went to Josh, who was hiding behind his stone mask. Erin went over the types of cheese and salami they had available, and then the types of chocolate. “And so far all the staff are excited about coming down when they are done. I’ll make sure to order pizza so you don’t have to, Jenna.”
“Get that girl a raise!” Erika chortled, sampling another morsel of chocolate and looking over the wine.
Erin smiled and walked out.
“Seriously, though, you aren’t paying her enough,” Erika said.
“I am paying her quite well. Plus, she is the senior staff member and therefore usually my waitress, for whatever reason. I tip her well.”
“Very well.” Josh picked a bottle.
“Okay,” Jenna said as she halted his progress. “Let’s all go in order, shall we? Let’s have the one for me, first, since you already started explaining. And I like it.”
Josh grinned and Erika punched Jax in the arm. “Grins count.”
Jax rubbed his arm as he smiled. “You got that one. I was eyeing the salami.”
Josh and Jenna must have been looking confused, because Jax explained. “Since I met Josh, he has only smiled when he was making fun of some stupid thing he did. Self-deprecating humor. Since after, uh, since we became civilians, I can probably count on one hand how often he’s smiled. Or even lifted the corners of his mouth. I mentioned this to big-mouthed Erika earlier tonight, and she came up with a drinking game. Except she spends so much time at work, drinking doesn’t work. So it’s like Slug Bug. Whenever Josh smiles, you get to punch your partner if you see it first.”
“What is wrong with you two?” Jenna asked, mystified.
“You hit her?” Josh asked seriously.
“Hell yes I do,” Jax answered jubilantly. “Granted, it’s not as subtle as choking, but I get to do it a lot more often.”
Jenna laughed and poured the wine Josh had bought for her.
“Okay, Josh, explain the wine in terms of personality,” Jenna said as she smelled it. Erika swirled hers around the glass, and did the same. Jax eyed them both and smelled his. He shrugged, indicating it smelled like wine. Then he noticed Josh was smelling it with his nose way in the glass.
“You too?” Jax asked Josh.
Josh ignored him and took a sip. When he set the glass back down, he said, “I told him her favorite food and why she wouldn’t eat it. Then how much she loved the taste of chocolate cake, but you had to force-feed her. I told him she liked sunflowers and how they follow the sun, and that she liked the smell and serenity of the woods in the morning, even though she hates the mornings. I told him her morning routine, including how much coffee she drank. Finally, I said she was like a wild rose in the middle of summer. I also told him what she did for a living and her side business. He listened as he picked his thumbnail, which was at the nub, then selected the wine you’re drinking.”
“I think I just fell in love a little,” Erika said with glistening eyes.
“Wait until I get to Jax. You’ll fall out of love a little.” Josh laughed. Jax lightly punched Erika’s arm, and she promptly punched him back a lot harder.
“She hates when I win, so I get punched because of it,” Jax explained.
Josh just shook his head.
They all tried Jenna’s wine, Jenna closing her eyes. It really was perfect. Everyone commented on how good it was.
Conversation picked up about the various pieces of gossip from earlier, about how weird Chet had been, and other odds and ends. The staff from the bar came and went as bottles were bought in excess of what was stocked upstairs. The staff looked wearier as the night wore on. The crowd, apparently, was going strong.
As there were about four glasses to a bottle, they were quickly on to the next wine. Everyone turned to Josh in anticipation.
“Next up, Miss Erika. Now, Erika, I’m afraid I don’t know you as well as the others—”
“Better not!” Jax made a strange expression in which one eye was half squinting, the other opened wide. One eyebrow was quirked, and he was frowning.
“What are you doing?” Erika asked.
“That’s my evil eye,” Jax answered as though she were probably the dumbest person he’d ever met.
“Okay.” Josh stared at Jax for a second, then shook his head. “I said that Erika’s favorite food might be chocolate. I wasn’t sure if that counted, but I didn’t know her favorite dish.” Josh shrugged and moved on. “I didn’t know any specifics, so I just said that she was emotional and sensitive and a bit of a mother hen to her good friend and her man. She likes to feel secure and to be needed, and always has a funny, smart remark ready to lighten any mood.”
Jax and Erika both shrugged and nodded at the same time. He must have gotten the broad strokes.
“I do luuuuuurve chocolate, though,” Erika said with a dreamy smile.
They all smelled and sipped their wine. Josh was trying to learn the art of tasting wine, whereas Jax was mocking the whole process.
“It definitely has a note of chocolate in it,” Jenna said as she sipped again.
“Love. It. Really good. A bit heavy on the plum, but very delicious.” Erika sipped and looked closer at the chocolate.
Josh furrowed his brow and looked more intently in his glass. “I just taste a good wine. I don’t get all that other stuff.”
“Right there with ya, man,” Jax said. “It tastes good. ’Nuff said.”
“Neanderthal.” Erika elbowed him.
They did another round of drinking and talking. Jenna noticed fewer interruptions from staff, which meant it was getting closer to closing time. Or her timing was warped because she was starting to get a serious buzz on.
Next up was Jax. They were drinking faster now. A sure sign that being drunk was just around the corner.
“Okay, Jax.” Josh looked at Jax with a ghost of a smile. “The jokester. The guy will play a joke on himself if he gets bored enough. And has. Then he laughs himself silly. He loves the finer things in life, but doesn’t have a clue what they are. Food: anything spicy enough to blow out his ass. He takes great pride in his ability to sully the air.”
“So gross.” Jenna laughed.
“Why did I get stuck with him!” Erika threw her hands up.
Jax was smiling and nodding.
“Flower: the daisy. It was the first flower his baby sister brought him out of a field. She gets them for him every year on his birthday. He is loyal to a fault. He will go to the ends of the world to help a friend. Or a loved one.” Josh looked pointedly at Erika, who had glassy eyes again. “He won’t give you the shirt off his back, though, and that is because he is without one more often than he wears one. Pants, too.”
Everyone laughed. Jax said, “Can you blame me? My equipment needs to breathe!”
“There is more, of course. I’ve been up close and personal with this guy through more training and horrors than you can imagine, but you can only reveal so much for a bottle of wine.”
“All wrong. Got the wrong guy.” Jax shook his head adamantly.
Everyone laughed. Jax got another punch.
“Stop
smiling! This is an epidemic.” Jax shied away from Erika’s pummeling.
“You didn’t get one for yourself?” Erika asked.
Josh shook his head.
“Who’s going to describe him? Jenna, think you can do better than he did for you?”
Jenna didn’t want to admit that she knew so little about him that she would embarrass herself. Everyone was looking at her, though, including Josh, who was looking a little wary.
Jenna changed her mind. She did know a bunch, but not stuff she could tell others.
She took a breath. “I’m, uh, a little self-centered for this game, but I’ll give it a try. Food: a giant, juicy, preferably raw steak. If he could literally cut it off the cow and eat it, he would be happy. Add a baked potato and maybe some beans in a can on the open fire, cowboy style, and he’ll crap himself with glee.”
Jax laughed and nodded.
“Flower…I did say I was self-centered, so I would have to say a rose. He likes the burgundy one best, I think. Every time we pass the flower shop on the way home, he looks at those. He is most at home in the woods in the middle of the night with nothing but a giant knife, some socks, and a pair of good boots. Everything else is optional and/or not strictly needed. He likes to blend in. He tries that in life and fails miserably. I think that’s why he likes me so much. I am such a bitch I always stand out—not in a good way, obviously—and he thinks it lets him slink into the background. He doesn’t realize how far-reaching his charisma is, and how handsome a man he is.
“And, um, he mentioned Jax is loyal. And you are,” Jenna said as she looked at Jax, who was not smiling. Oh God, I have this all wrong. “Never mind.” She stopped and looked at her glass. She wanted to cry. She wasn’t good at this sort of thing. She was too egotistical and now everyone knew it.
“Go on,” Erika said as she looked at Josh and Jax.
Jenna trusted Erika wasn’t helping her make a fool of herself, but she still had huge reservations. Erika didn’t know Josh any better than she did. At least, she hoped that was the case.
Jenna continued with bowed head, “Uh, well, Josh is beyond loyal. Beyond protective. He takes the lives and wellbeing of everyone he loves as a personal mission. He won’t stop or rest when protecting someone he loves. It nearly killed him when…” Jenna shook her head and stopped. Jax scrutinized Josh. Erika was looking down at her wine. So everyone knew about the night when Josh saved Jax’s life, but lost the rest of his pals. No one wanted to voice it, though. Made sense. This wasn’t the first time she had opened her mouth and stuck in her size ten foot.
“And he might not smile all that much,” Jenna said, skipping on, “or tell all that many jokes, but that’s just because he feels everything so deeply. Love, laughter, beauty—he takes it so deeply within himself that it gets lost down deep. It doesn’t stay on the surface and bubble out like it does with most of us. But he could do with letting it flow through him instead of getting bogged down in the nightmares.
“Anyway, I don’t know. That’s just what I think…” Jenna kept her head bowed to miss the reactions. She wasn’t confident she had gotten anything right.
There was silence for a while. Then Jax broke it. “Well, hell, she’s done recon. I’d be worried she was gaining intel to take you out. But that makes sense, the feeling deeply thing. Never thought of it that way.”
“Okay, all well and good, but does he fart all the time?” Erika asked with a mimic of Jax’s evil eye.
Everyone started laughing except for Josh, who was looking intently at Jenna. He looped his arm over her chair, and then, clearly unhappy with the distance, rubbed her back. She leaned back into it, thinking maybe she had gotten a couple things right.
He moved his hand to lightly trace her neck.
“I’ve never heard him if he does,” Jenna admitted.
“What?” Jax smiled at Josh. “What gives? Trying to make me look bad?”
“I’m still trying to work my way into her bed. I’m not going to go pulling a Jax and overwhelm her air fresheners,” Josh explained calmly.
“Wait, you’re not sleeping together?” Erika asked seriously. The mood suddenly changed to somber.
“I was still trying to get him to go away,” Jenna replied weakly.
“Josh, you missed stubborn in that explanation of yours. Purely bullheaded!” Erika finished off the sampler of chocolate. She was the only one eating it, and didn’t seem bashful about taking the last one.
“Luckily my boy holds the patent on patient. Pure hunter.” Jax nodded in pride.
“You both have the patent on boobery, actually,” Jenna said. Erika snickered and nodded in agreement.
The night progressed in a haze of red. Pizzas came, wine was opened, and all the staff stuck around and got hammered. By the time it was all over it was five o’clock in the morning and Jenna was so drunk she was staggering. Eventually they walked out onto the quiet street.
“Shouldn’t have drunken…drank? Shouldn’t have dranken so much,” Jax muttered.
“Gonna be hurtin’ tomorrow.” Josh held Jenna up so she could set the alarm and lock the door.
“Just gonna hafta soldier on.”
“Hooyah.” Josh raised his fist.
“’Kay, ready,” Jenna said as she leaned against Josh.
“Some bodyguards,” Erika murmured as they started walking.
“I can still kill a man.” Jax grunted like a gorilla before beating on his chest.
“Haven’t seen a threat yet. Don’t fret your tete.” Josh giggled.
“Did HE just GIGGLE?” Erika was incapable of regulating her speech, so she was yelling every couple of words. “Jax, C’MERE so I CAN PUNCH you.”
“It was French for laughing,” Josh said. Apparently that made sense on his planet.
“No, lady love, don’t punch your big protection man.” Jax staggered over to Erika across the sidewalk.
“We really should have stayed more sober,” Josh said loudly. Then, knowing he was too loud, used a drunken whisper which was nearly as loud, just harder to understand. “We are wide open for an attack.”
“We should run!” Jax dodged invisible bullets. “Make it harder to shoot us. I reckon we’ll be staggering all over the place. Can’t anticipate a drunk. Hey! Shhhhhhhhh, hey, I prob’ly smell like that guy from earlier.”
“What guy?” Josh asked. Then he burped.
“Some homeless dude. Jenna wouldn’t let me touch him on account he was too dirty.”
“Thank you, Jenna,” Erika said. “I might throw up. Hey Josh, WHY DO you—shhhhhhhh—why do you like burgen, ah, burgrun…DEEP RED ROSES? Is it ’CAUSE you’re a WOMAN?” She started laughing as she staggered toward a parked car.
“Burgrendy—now you’ve got me doin’ it. Bur-gun-dy roses mean unconscious beauty. She’s so beautiful it hurts the eyes. She tries to hide this sweet vuln’rbility. First time I saw her I knew it. Saw right through her. Wanted her so bad. Oh man. She’s tough. Tougher than me. I shut down. Bad shit went down, and I shut down. Closed up. Jax knows. Wanted to shrivel up and die. Then I meet this beautiful rose straining to reach the sun amongst the weeds of life, and she is still going. She is still kicking heads and taking ass and I said, this woman is for me. She can handle anything. Maybe she can even handle me. And she does. Doesn’t want to, but she does.” Josh had stopped and had his hands crossed over his heart.
“He is a sap when he’s drunk.” Erika bent over in agony. “Gonna throw up.”
“My man is deep,” Jax said. He stopped and looked at Erika swaying next to some steps. “Really? Are you that lightweight?”
Jenna, who had started drunkenly crying during Josh’s speech, staggered over to Erika. “She is half your size, dumbass. Also, we drank nearly two bottles of wine each. I think I bought half the store tonight. Good thing we are getting more tomorrow. I am so fucking drunk, yo. Apar’ment is right up here. You guys want to stay over? My place is closer.”
“No. I want to puke in my own bathroom.”
Erika groaned.
“No loud sex, then?” Jax asked, putting an arm around Erika’s waist and helping her walk down the street.
“Shut up. Jenna, you finally gonna let that man in your pants?” Erika asked as she heavily leaned on Jax.
“Yup. He’ll have to hurry, though. I am going to pass out.”
“Will you remember it?” Josh asked as he ambled closer.
“That is a big maybe. Here we are.”
Josh and Jenna watched as the other two staggered down the street, still calling goodnight until after they were out of earshot.
“Can’t happen again,” Josh said as they turned to go in the building.
“I’ve never seen you drunk.” Jenna leered. “Remember when I got drunk? Think you’ll give me the same show?”
“Yer drunker than me, so I doubt you’ll be conscious for it.”
“True.” They noisily stumbled into her apartment.
“Stay here. I am going to check the rooms,” Josh said in the entryway.
“But they could shoot you.”
“I know, that’s why I am going to check the rooms. If you hear a gunshot, run.”
“I don’t know that I’ll get far. I’ll avenge your death like a superhero.”
“I don’t want to have to choke you again, so I will pretend I didn’t just hear that. Stay here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmmmmm, I have another idea for foreplay,” Josh said darkly as he slipped into the first room. Even roaring drunk the guy looked like a well-oiled killing machine. He was graceful even as he bounced off one of the doorjambs.
Five minutes later he slunk out of Jenna’s room, which was the last room he’d checked, completely naked. He said, “So far, I have not broken any rules.”
Jenna’s drunken belly did a roll, causing her to sway and reach for the counter, which turned out to be a little farther away than anticipated, and she crashed into the wall next to it. She righted herself and tried to look sexy.
Josh had stopped his advance to watch the show. Then he arched back and let out a deep, body-consuming laugh before he regained himself. His eyes hit hers, their drunken passion colliding and sizzling between them. Josh advanced on her slowly, setting nervous flutters in her stomach.
Unexpected Guardian (Skyline Trilogy Book 3) Page 11
