by Meg Buchanan
He grabbed his phone and nodded at the bartender. “Yeah, call a taxi.” He didn’t have his car with him so even if he hadn’t been drinking double whiskeys for the last couple of hours he’d have needed a taxi.
He pulled out his credit card. She sipped the wine again. It hadn’t even occurred to her to pay for the drink. Either someone always did it for her or something had upset her so much she wasn’t doing normal things.
“I’ll pay for the lady’s drink too.” The guy flicked the tea towel over his shoulder, made the call, then came over and took the credit card.
“The taxi will be here in a minute.”
“You want to wait outside with me?” he asked Geneviève. “Looks like this guy wants to get rid of us.”
She uncrossed those spectacular legs and slid off the stool. Hot sex sung in every move she made, every curve of her long-limbed body, the way that dress fitted, the length of her legs and the height of those sandals.
She glanced nervously at the doorway and then gave a pretend shiver. “I’d rather wait here until the taxi arrives. It’s cold out there.”
It wasn’t that cold. He didn’t believe that was the reason. She had to be running away from something and was worried about being seen. More and more mysterious by the minute.
Still with that face, that accent, that body, and a dress that rode up her thighs every time she moved, who cared? She wanted to come with him, so he’d overlook pretty much anything. When she stepped out of the taxi at the party with him, she’d knock Tessa’s eyes out.
And if she’d sleep with him too, then he would really have proved to Tessa he didn’t care. After that he’d deal with whatever else he needed to.
Not like he’d be able to perform. He might have to explain to Geneviève just how much whiskey the bartender had poured for him before she arrived.
“Okay, we’ll wait in here.” He took his jacket off and draped it around her shoulders. She looked like she needed looking after.
“Is the party to celebrate something?” asked Geneviève.
He nodded. “Yeah. Me and my mates are leaving on Thursday. This is our farewell.”
“Where are you going?”
“Queensland.” He saw the taxi pull up outside the door. “It’s here,” he said. Then turned to the guy behind the bar. “Thanks.”
“Anytime. Have a good night.” An automatic response while wiping stuff down. He looked ready to start putting the chairs up on the tables and sweeping out. If that’s what bartenders did at the end of the night.
“On holiday?” Geneviève asked, she still looked reluctant to step outside. He couldn’t believe her voice and her accent. If you could bottle that you’d make a fortune.
He shook his head. “No, I play with a band. We’ve got a contract to play around Brisbane and Cairns and so on for the next three months.”
He guided her past the tables and chairs towards the door. When they got to it and he opened it for her, he saw her hesitate again, really reluctant to go outside.
“A band? Would I have heard of you?” she asked.
He scratched his head. “Don’t know.” Just how famous were they? Sometimes with the fans and the big parties every Saturday night, it felt like Stadium was huge, but he suspected they still had a way to go.
“Stadium,” he said. The door handle seemed more elusive than it should have been. Maybe he should have had a little less whiskey. He finally got the door open, but she didn’t go through it.
He turned back to her and saw her bite her lip. Had she changed her mind? Didn’t she want to come with him anymore?
Then it occurred to him, the first time he saw her she’d looked behind her like someone might be following her.
“Should I be checking if someone is outside waiting for you?” he asked.
She gave a brief nod.
“Okay. What am I checking for?”
“A big silver Mercedes or a very cross man in a business suit,” she said after a long pause. She lay her hand on his arm. “Please. He can’t find me. He isn’t a very patient man.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. Fuck. The night just kept getting better and better. Just as he was approaching the oblivion he’d planned on, he picked up this beautiful girl. The sexiest thing he’d ever seen, but with problems. He couldn’t even pick up a girl at a bar who didn’t need protection. And he only wanted to make Tessa jealous and maybe a bit of casual meaningless sex with someone who wanted the same thing if it worked out that way.
But she sounded frightened and she wanted to come with him.
“Wait here.” He stepped out onto the street and looked down the road in both directions. No big silver Mercedes, and no irate man in a business suit. “All clear,” he said.
She cautiously came out the door, checked the street too and seemed relieved.
Chapter Three
The taxi stopped about two blocks away from the flat. Hundreds of cars blocked the street.
The taxi driver turned back to look at them. “I can’t get through. What do you want to do?”
This hadn’t happened before. The bloody cars must belong to everyone at the party. A wonder the police hadn’t turned up and cleared them. They were going to have walk the rest of the way.
“Are you up to walking?” he asked Geneviève.
“How far?” She looked down at her sandals.
“A block.”
“I think so.”
He leaned forward. “We’ll walk from here,” he said and paid the man.
They’d only gone a few metres and Geneviève realised her feet hurt so much she couldn’t bear it. When she ran away she didn’t even notice, but now she remembered how useless these shoes were for walking.
“Stop a moment, Adam,” she said.
“What?”
“I can’t walk in these shoes.” She rested her hand on his shoulder, undid the little buckles that held the straps and slipped the sandals off.
Adam watched her. “What about dog shit?” The question slurred a bit.
She looked up at him. “I will take my chances.” He was so nice, but so drunk. She dangled the sandals in one hand and held his arm with the other and kept walking.
He hauled his phone out of his pocket and did something to it to make a bright light shine from the top. “Now we can see.” He used it like a torch. Something she didn’t know phones did.
They started walking again. “Who is the girl in the video?” she asked.
“What girl?” Adam shone the light ahead of them. “Careful here. There’s something on the path.” He looked at her seriously. “I could carry you, it’s not very far.”
She giggled. “Are you always this helpful?” Was he like this sober too?
He sighed. “Only with damsels in distress, I really could carry you.”
She stared at him doubtfully. She didn’t weigh a lot and he looked tall and strong, but it seemed a bit extreme. And intimate. His arms cradling her body, hers around his neck. Their lips close enough she’d be able to feel his breath on her. Her body responded to the picture her mind painted and a small curl of desire started in the base of her stomach.
She looked sideways at him. Lovely looking and sexy. She shook her head and carefully stepped around the piece of rubbish he shone the torch on. “You said the girl in the video is your flatmate?” she asked again. He’d looked at the girl on the video with such longing she’d bet she was the reason he’d been alone in the bar drinking.
He sighed and lit up another bit of rubbish for her to avoid. “Yeah, Tessa,” he said in the end.
“She’s pretty.”
“Yep, Tessa’s pretty. And Tessa’s engaged to Luke.”
“And Tessa doesn’t love Adam?” she guessed.
He nodded. “Only when Luke is being a bastard. Then I ride in on my white charger.” He swash buckled an imaginary sword. “And save her.” He went back to shining the torch on the pavement. “Another bit of rubbish to avoid,” he said.
“You�
��re my knight in shining armour,” she said and avoided the crumpled envelope.
“That’s the trouble,” he said. “That’s all I ever am. Why can’t I be the exciting one the girls want?” Now he sounded petulant. Yes, really drunk. The drive then the walk hadn’t sobered him up at all. It’d just made it harder for him to cover how much he’d had to drink. Still, by picking him up the way she did, she probably saved him from an even bigger hangover tomorrow.
“Then what happens?” she asked and walked beside him again.
“She goes back to Luke.” He sounded so mournful she lay her head on his shoulder.
“Poor Adam. How long has this been going on?”
“For years.” He swayed a little as he turned to her.
Geneviève stopped walking and took his arm. “Come here.” He stepped closer and she came up on tiptoes and kissed him gently on the lips. “I think you’re lovely.”
He slid his hands under his jacket and rested them on her hips, phone still in his hand. “That was nice. Can we try that again?” he asked.
She looked up at his face in the glow from the streetlight. Stunning. And the kiss had been lovely.
“Sí,” she said and this time she cupped his face with her palms and kissed him properly. He responded gently and tenderly. She could taste the whiskey he’d been drinking.
As the kiss drew-out, he pulled her closer, so their bodies touched. It changed from the touching of lips, to something deeper that called to all the passion she had locked inside her.
She tapered the kiss off and then pulled away a little, breath coming faster than she cared to admit, and heart beating. Maybe she should have chosen an ugly knight. One she didn’t respond to and could keep at arm’s length.
But, instead of just using him, she’d help him too. “When we get to the party do you want to pretend we’re together?”
“We are together,” he pointed out.
“No,” she said. “Together, together.”
Adam hesitated a moment, then nodded. “That would teach Tessa that I’m not just the understudy.” His hands stayed on her hips warm and gentle.
“Are we far from your flat?” she asked.
He nodded a few houses along the car jammed street. “Not far, there it is.”
Adam’s neighbours must be understanding. She stepped back from him and his hands reluctantly let her go.
Behind her loomed a little block fence about the right height to sit on with dark skeletons of rose bushes with midnight leaves and black roses behind it.
She held the sandals up. “I’ll put my shoes back on, so I look presentable.” She went over to the fence and sat.
“Let me.” Adam took them and kneeled in front of her. She still had his jacket on, but he didn’t seem cold in his t shirt.
“Now, how do these go?” he held a sandal up by its straps.
“I’ll show you.” She took it off him and crossed one leg over the other and slipped her foot in.
He did up the strap for her. “Lovely,” he said and ran his hands up her legs. She shivered for real. It must be the after effects of the adrenaline from running away.
“Careful.” She leaned forward and slipped the other sandal on. “I might think you like me.”
He helped her with that buckle too. “You must know you are beautiful.”
She nodded. “That is what men like about me.”
“Not the way you speak?”
“That too,” she said.
“Poor Geneviève.” The hands slid up her thighs again. Higher this time so they were under the hem of her dress. It seemed out of character for him, everything he’d done until then had been gentle and caring not predatory.
He leaned forward a little and touched his forehead to her stomach.
“God I must be drunk,” he murmured. “All I can think about is fucking you.”
His thumbs touched the lace and stroked and teased. She felt her breathing change again and wanted to lean back a little and open her legs, so he could touch her properly.
She could let him fuck her tonight. She’d learned at university, men feel an overwhelming desire to protect the female they were having sex with.
He lifted his head and nodded at the letterbox beside them. A little taller than the fence. “Can I bend you over that, push your dress up to your waist.” His thumbs slid under the lace and silk of her underwear. Rip these off.” He pulled at the silk, it didn’t rip so he slid his thumbs further down and stroked between her legs, gently insistently. “And fuck you?”
The longing in his voice, the gentle pressure of his thumbs, and that she hadn’t been touched gently for so long, made what he’d described seem reasonable for a moment. Then she came to her senses.
No, she wasn’t going there. She would use Adam because she needed to spend tonight somewhere. And sitting on the concrete block fence in the middle of a street with rose bushes behind her, and a party a few houses down, letting someone she’d only just met caress her this way made no sense. No matter how nice he seemed.
She took his wrists and gently moved his hands back down her legs until they rested on her knees. “No, I’m not having sex with anyone tonight, especially not in the middle of a street, bent over a letterbox.”
He didn’t resist, gave a smile and let her stop him. She put her hands on his shoulders and stood. She could feel the muscles though his t shirt.
But he wasn’t her type, she liked suave, urbane, sophisticated older men. She adjusted her skirt, so it covered her thighs again. He wasn’t any of those things, and she would use him so she had a place to stay tonight.
He stood too, and they walked on. He didn’t comment on touching her so intimately or what he’d suggested.
Maybe he normally acted this way. He said he was in a band. Maybe some girls just fell over themselves to be with him and would have gone along with it. There were girls like that.
She looked up at him. Maybe he wasn’t as nice or as safe as he seemed. When they reached the house maybe she should just ditch him.
The lights were on in the flat, the doors and windows open. Music flowed out and people stood around, they talked, danced, pushed through the crowded doorways and spilled out onto the front lawn.
“I didn’t expect the party to be this big,” she said. “When will it finish?” For some reason she’d thought that after a little while at the party they’d go straight to his room and get some sleep.
But would he want to do that with a party raging in his house? Now the adrenaline had left her body, she felt ready to sleep.
He shrugged. “Dawn. By the time it’s light everyone will have gone.”
“Has it happened before?”
He sighed. “Every Saturday night.”
They must really have understanding neighbours. “Can you see Tessa?” she asked.
He shook his head and sighed again. “Maybe you should kiss me again in case she’s watching,” he suggested.
“I think I could manage that.” She faced him and he bent his head to hers. He brought his lips down slowly and tenderly. She slid her arms around his neck and came up on tiptoes again. A slow sensuous tasting of him. Whiskey and male. He pulled her closer, her body tight against his, hard lean muscle with just his jeans and her dress between them.
And again, she responded as if he’d lit her up. Her hands went to his shoulders of their own accord and her mouth moved enough to taste him better, his lips opened to hers and although gentle and slow it ignited something in her.
She didn’t know what she’d expected when she kissed him but not this wanting, yearning desire, and her body calling for more.
She didn’t burn like this just from a kiss. The way he’d touched her by the fence had primed her body to respond to him. That’s all.
He slowly lifted his mouth from hers. “What do you think?”
She touched her lips with her fingers. “Nice.”
He laughed. “I must have had exactly the right amount of whiskey.”
&nbs
p; “Why?” she asked as he took her hand and led her to the door.
He shrugged. “I’m drunk enough to feel those kisses right through me.”
He’d felt it too.
They were both just over wrought.
He pushed the door open. “And down the street on the fence. I don’t do that stuff.” She raised her eyebrows at him a little. It had felt like he knew exactly what he was doing.
He stared at her again in the glow from the outside light, swaying a little and looking puzzled. “You really are very beautiful.”
She shrugged. “Which one’s Tessa?” she asked again.
Then just inside the door she saw the girl in the video. Tessa looked even prettier in real life. Geneviève cupped Adam’s cheek and gently kissed him on the lips when she was sure Tessa would see.
Then Tessa leapt on him. “You made it, Adam. We were thinking of sending a search party out.”
“Hi,” Geneviève said.
Tessa stepped back and looked at her.
“Hi.” Tessa looked at Adam.
“Geneviève,” he said. Adam had her by the hand like he didn’t plan on letting her get away.
“And?” said Tessa.
“And she’s nice and she’s sleeping with me tonight.”
“Nice for Geneviève,” said Tessa. She still looked curious.
He turned back to her. “I think we should go to bed now. I think that’s a good idea, don’t you?”
God, he was good looking. But truly after that moment on the fence, and then those kisses, was going to bed with him right now a good idea? For either of them?
She nodded. She didn’t want to party. It was hard to join in when you arrived late, and she felt exhausted.
Chapter Four
Adam opened his eyes and studied the female in bed beside him. Curled up, eyes shut, still asleep. She seemed to be wearing his t shirt, so he’d obviously been gentleman enough to offer her something to wear. But he didn’t remember anything about what happened after he saw her at the bar.
