Up for Everything (Up for Grabs #3)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “Now who would Sam Allen allow to drive his car?” A woman’s voice came from behind me. It was familiar but not so much that I knew right away who it was.

  Turning around I found Ava Martin, Flannery’s roommate in college, standing there with a cocked hip and a smile. I had just seen her a few weeks before at the wedding.

  “Ava, what are you doing here?” I moved closer.

  “The publishing house has a small office out here that they want to expand so I came out with the boss. We leave tomorrow. So, who’s the skirt?” She nodded toward where Miriam had disappeared. I guess it was now or never.

  “Miriam. My girlfriend.” It got the response I’d expected.

  Her face fell; her mouth formed an unattractive “O.”

  “Holy shit. You’ve changed. I just saw you last month. You said nothing about a girlfriend.”

  “Yeah, it’s sort of new.”

  “I bet.” She nodded absently.

  “Listen, I’ve gotta get to work. It was nice to see you.”

  “Yeah, you, too.”

  It was kind of funny that she’d been rendered speechless over the fact that I referred to Miriam as my girlfriend. It made sense when I thought about how I’d been in college. And that it had in fact surprised the hell out me, too.

  Chapter Nine

  Miriam pulled up right as I came out of my office building at the end of the day. I hopped in so we could get moving without causing too many assholes with horns to show their frustration with her. I’d already called in an order for dinner so, after a quick kiss, I let her know where we were headed.

  “I love your car.” Um…ok. I hated the damn thing because I loved my truck back home. This one had good pick up and everything, it just wasn’t my style. “Not as much as mine, but mine needs a special kind of love and yours just goes when I hit the gas.”

  “You like cars?” I hadn’t pegged her as a car person.

  “I like going fast. Not a ridiculous hundred miles an hour fast but yeah. I like to drive.”

  “I’ll remember that.”

  I grabbed the Chinese while she waited in the car. Like she thought I’d slide into the driver’s seat if she moved an inch. Honestly, I probably would have but it was cute. As we arrived at my apartment, I thought of something I’d never asked and she’d never offered. And I tried to think back to every meal we’d shared.

  “If your parents are from Israel and you’re Jewish, does that mean you eat kosher? Because if so I’ve been really rude.”

  “My parents kept us Kosher when we lived in Israel but more because it was expected by their parents than they believed in the ideology behind it. Once we moved back here, they stayed pretty kosher maybe out of habit. Even they don’t follow it strictly, and my brother and I don’t pay much attention. So we’re good. I’d call us mid-level Jews. We believe, we honor the holy days but aren’t Orthodox enough to not work on Saturday or keep completely Kosher.”

  That cleared it up. She hadn’t said anything and as far as I could tell and ate everything I offered so I knew it probably wasn’t the case. Better to know though.

  We ate dinner on the couch, which was becoming our thing and while I wanted to, I didn’t ask if she’d stay the night again. She snuggled right into me as we watched a documentary on waterparks. It was stupid. I didn’t care. She didn’t seem to. What mattered was her beside me and I didn’t want to let her go. Even I could see how different that was for me.

  The smell of her surrounded me and I could only think of tasting the coconut that would probably still be on her lips. I was amazed at how slowly I’d taken this relationship. I don’t remember a time that I spent with a girl when we hadn’t jumped each other within days. It helped that she’d been gone most of it, and I would be going home for a visit next week. I thought about cancelling but I did want to get back there as often as possible and when Miriam told me she’d be gone a good portion of it, too, the trip remained a go.

  Her head pressed snugly against my shoulder. Her breath tickled my neck and I couldn’t wait another second.

  One arm already wrapped around her, hand cupping her hip. I slid the other up her arm until I could tilt her head back and devour her lips. The soft, fluid movement shot to my dick, stirring it alive.

  She was impatient, too. Her tongue licked against my mouth so when my lips parted, she owned me. It was slow and hot and exactly what I’d been looking for when I first touched her. My hands begged me to let them roam but I held off. I liked this girl too much to fuck it up. To push her too quickly.

  I’d been moving slowly, so fucking slowly I thought I’d crack wide open at some point but I wanted, no needed to feel her skin against mine. My hand left her face, slowly making its way back down and slipped under her shirt.

  She moaned.

  It was hard to hear because it went directly into my mouth. Still, I felt it. The muscles in her abdomen tightened while my fingers trailed up until her bra stopped any further exploration. Groaning, she pushed up so that I fell completely onto my back then she climbed on top straddling me. Fuck that was the right move but totally wrong for the whole moving slowly thing. Taking me completely by surprise, she yanked her shirt over her head.

  So there was this beautiful woman, straddling my hips, in the sexiest simple white bra I’d ever seen. Miriam didn’t need lace or padding to make her beautiful. And I didn’t need it on her to get turned on. I was already so hard I felt sixteen again. Ready at a moment’s notice.

  I hadn’t realized my hands were clasped on her hips until they started to move. Up. Closer to where I wanted them to be. It wasn’t good enough. In one movement, I flipped her, taking her by surprise, at least that’s what the squeal told me as I settled on top of her.

  I kissed her again then trailed my lips down her neck, over her collarbone to the swell of her breasts.

  I kissed and nibbled, sucking the best tasting skin into my mouth, as hard as I could without leaving a mark. I didn’t want to do that because she was pristine, looked almost untouched even if I knew that wasn’t the case. I still didn’t want to sully her perfect skin even when the idea of her walking around with my mark on her, turned me on even more.

  Fuck me, I realized her bra had a front clasp. One quick movement and she’d spring free. Yeah, that was going to happen. Right as my fingers were about to make their move, someone knocked against my apartment door. Hard. Impatient. Kind of like me right then.

  My head dropped to the valley between her breasts while my breath huffed against her skin. I’d have to calm down if I was going to answer the door. Shit if I was going to be able to walk.

  “Who the fuck could that be?” I asked out loud not expecting an answer.

  Instead, I hopped up, grabbed her shirt so she could get decent and I could mentally tame the wild beast, then went to the door. My legs did work. Surprised the hell out of me.

  Yanking the door open, I didn’t expect to find what I did. I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t that. Or her rather.

  “All right,” Kendra stepped through the door without being invited in. “Who are you and what did you do with my friend?” She addressed me but I had no idea what this was about.

  “What are you doing here, Kendra?”

  She stood just a few inches shorter than me in her small wedged sandals. The shorts she wore made her legs look even longer and the T-shirt she had on, I thought looked to be about a size too small. This was the type of outfit she wore to prove something. The only thing out of place was her long blonde hair. She’d pulled it back into a ponytail but it still looked like she’d spent hours on an airplane. Yet it totally worked on her.

  “See, I got a call from my good friend, Ava.”

  I snorted. Those two were friends now but no way would I have added the good part.

  “And she tells me that one of my best friends, a guy who fucked his way through college and swore that he’d rather take a bullet to his heart than commit, now has a girlfriend. Clearly I jumped the
first plane to find out who the fuck the chick is that has your head all messed up.”

  Over her shoulder, Miriam came into view. Her face scrunched up at Kendra’s words and for the first time, I wanted slap a girl. Kendra was so far over the line. Anger boiled just below the surface of my skin. Problem being that what she said was all true. At least until the last part about my head being messed up.

  “Miriam Mizrahi,” Miriam said before I could respond.

  Kendra’s eyes went wide at the sound of Miriam’s voice and she spun to get a look at my girl.

  “Kendra Roberts. One of Sam’s best friends.” Kendra said those words as if there was more to the story and if she didn’t knock it off, things were going to get ugly.

  “Hmmm…you’re not as nice as Flannery, are you?”

  Miriam made me smile because one, she had the balls to say that and two, she was able to put things together so quickly.

  “Please.” Kendra snorted. “Flannery is the golden retriever of our group.”

  Miriam pulled her eyebrows together and her mouth pinch tightly looking as confused as I felt.

  “She plays nice, wants people to like her, always waiting for that pat on the head.”

  “What are you then?” I asked.

  Kendra glanced over her shoulder at me. Her eyes were blue. Should’ve meant good things, but she had a way of making them cut through you like a fucking knife.

  “I’m the pit bull.” While I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, she was so right in her description. “Now, what the fuck? A girlfriend? You didn’t come home for the party. That’s two years in a row.” She spun back to face me. “And you haven’t mentioned her once.”

  Miriam’s eyebrows shot up.

  I was going to kill Kendra because I had mentioned Miriam to her and to Adam. To all of them really. Even though it’d been incredibly uncomfortable and yeah, maybe I made it sound really casual.

  “Knock it off, Kendra.”

  “Or what? It was you and me, Sam, against all the commitment happy freaks.”

  “And you’re engaged now, so fuck all that.”

  “I get that but you’re still supposed to be there.”

  “It’s a fucking party,” I yelled back.

  “It’s not just the party and you know it.” Kendra pinched the bridge of her nose like I was the frustrating her. “You’re missing everything.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” I clenched my hands into fists and released them. “I have a job, Kendra. I have responsibilities. That’s why I couldn’t come home. And why I can’t come home every time you decide I need to.”

  “But why this girl?” Her hand flung backward toward Miriam.

  About to lose my shit, I grabbed my phone off the island counter, found Adam’s number and touched the call button. He picked up on the second ring.

  “You better get your ass on a plane and come get your woman before I do something that’s going to make things really awkward.”

  I didn’t give him the opportunity to say hello. The way my voice sounded through clenched teeth I knew he’d pick up on how pissed I was. It was the same voice that called and told him about Kendra’s accident and her needing a ride home from the hospital.

  “What are you talking about?” Adam asked.

  “Kendra. Showed up at my door freaking the fuck out. You need to get a shorter leash, man.”

  Kendra huffed.

  “I’m really confused right now,” he said. “Hold on.”

  The next thing I knew, Kendra’s phone rang. She stood there like she wasn’t going to answer it but even she couldn’t hold out when it came to Adam.

  “Hi.” She said snottily. There was a minute of silence. “I know. I should have told you but…”

  I took a little bit of pride in the fact that he could get her to shut her mouth so quickly. I might end up owing this guy a beer or a hundred since he was brave enough to take Kendra on for the rest of his life.

  “Adam…” Then she sighed. “Fine,” she spat and ended the call.

  “All right,” Adam said back in my ear. “I’m going to catch the next flight out, which looks like it’ll be quicker to drive over to Detroit and get one there. Please try not to kill her before I can get there.” Fingers on a computer keyboard tapped in the background so I knew he was doing everything he could to get to us.

  “That’s a tall order.”

  “I know. What I didn’t know was that she hopped a plane while I was at work today.”

  “She didn’t tell you she was coming?”

  “Is that a serious question? Like I’d let her come out there to tear you a new one without at least coming with her.”

  “Fine.” I said with a smile because I could always count on Adam just like I could Cain. Glancing over at Kendra, I saw her eyeballing Miriam from head to toe like she was figuring out a puzzle. “But hurry.”

  Adam laughed as he hung up with me. Now I needed to diffuse the situation happening in my kitchen. All without Miriam thinking my friends were assholes and walking out and without killing Kendra. Pretty tall order.

  Bypassing Kendra, I went for Miriam and took her hands in mine.

  “Adam will be here in a few hours.” That was an understatement. It’d be the middle of the night if not morning. “I’m sorry for all this.”

  “Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything.” She glanced over my shoulder at Kendra. “Have you really not mentioned me to them?” she asked quietly.

  “I have. I swear I have.” I positioned myself so that Kendra wouldn’t be able to watch us, she’d only see my back, and Miriam wouldn’t have to look at the raging bitch standing in my kitchen. “Ask Cain. Ask Adam when he gets here. They know about you. That’s why she’s here.”

  Miriam swallowed hard as I held my breath. Sure, we were going to argue eventually but I really didn’t want it to be in front of Kendra and certainly didn’t want it to be because of Kendra.

  “Maybe you should take me home so you can deal with…this.” She waved her hand over my shoulder in Kendra’s general direction.

  “I’d rather you stay here.”

  “Me, too. But I don’t think I want to be here right now. Plus, it looks like you’re about to have extra guests.”

  What she said made sense and I didn’t want to say what was on my mind to Kendra with Miriam there. She hadn’t seen the other side of me, and I worried she wouldn’t understand that I wasn’t really an asshole. I was an asshole but only when I had to be.

  Miriam got her shoes from the living room while I grabbed my keys. However, as we went for the door, Kendra remained leaning against the island with this sullen kid look. Her gaze fell to the floor, her arms crossed under her chest and I swear her bottom lip pouted out from her face.

  “Come on, Kendra.”

  “I’ll wait here.”

  “Like hell you will. Get in the fucking car.”

  In the two and a half years we’d all known each other, I’m pretty sure there were only a couple of times she saw me truly angry. I tried not to get too worked up over shit that just didn’t matter but she for sure had never seen me this pissed off. I was at a level that surprised even me. Kendra barged into my home, was a bitch to my girlfriend after interrupting the first time I’d gotten to see her tits and I was left once again with blue balls that wouldn’t be rectified any time soon. Yeah, Kendra was definitely going to be on the receiving end of the hulk type anger I sported.

  Luckily for her sake, Kendra didn’t say a word as I drove us to Miriam’s house. She sat in the back seat pouting like a petulant child. Which was her default setting when she got herself into trouble.

  I left the car running when I walked Miriam to her door just so Kendra wouldn’t have an excuse for rolling the window down. If she knew what was good for her.

  “Sorry our night ended so suddenly,” Miriam said with a little tilt to her mouth. It was adorable.

  “No, I’m sorry. This really isn’t the way I wanted you to meet Kend
ra. I figured Adam would be around. Kendra can be overwhelming.”

  “What’s her damage?”

  “I’m thinking she doesn’t like change.”

  Miriam nodded but I could see the wheels moving in her head. She also nibbled on her bottom lip when she was thinking. I was sort of proud I’d noticed that.

  “That’s too bad. I kind of would have liked to see where tonight was headed.”

  “Yeah?” I smiled.

  “Yeah,” she said with only a little grin. I got what she was trying to say and I was so far on fucking board that I had a passing thought of pushing my car with Kendra inside off a cliff just to get Miriam alone again. Instead, I decided to bide my time.

  “Ok, well, she’s going home as soon as I can get Adam to take her. I’m supposed to be visiting Detroit Thursday but I can cancel.” Wasn’t that the definition of irony? I had Kendra fucking raging at me in my kitchen for not visiting enough and here I was about to visit. But apparently I missed the important things.

  Her quiet laugh gave me the urge to drag her inside right then and there.

  “That’s really not necessary. I leave Wednesday night anyway, remember.”

  I hadn’t but I did now. “Right. Soon then.”

  Miriam smiled and nodded. “Soon because Sam…if it isn’t soon…I might explode.”

  I chuckled softly.

  “Well, we can’t have that.”

  While I didn’t have the time to kiss my girl goodnight the way I really wanted to with Kendra watching, I still made sure she knew just how much I wanted that to happen.

  After Miriam got inside and I heard the deadbolt engage, I dropped back into the car and pulled away. I didn’t say a thing to Kendra at first because man, I was pissed. Yet I couldn’t ignore her either.

  “What the fuck, Kendra?” We were halfway back to my house before I let the question out.