Alluring Infatuation (10 page)

My jaw goes slack. The fuck?! Her ex-fiancé?!

She sees my expression. I didn’t even bother to try to hide it. “Ex-fiancé?”

Shrugging, she takes a bite. She swallows and takes a sip of wine before answering. “Yes, Jake. My ex-fiancé. I was engaged.”

My brain is racing. I ask calmly, “When?”

She looks at me. “Before I went to St. John.” I see her catch her breath.

Before she went to St. John. What does that mean?! Ok, we’re talking. This is what we need to talk about. How the fuck long was she engaged?!

Don’t be a dick, Dade. Just talk to her. This is what you wanted. We’re coving the bases.

“Before St. John? What does that mean?”

She sighs and sets her fork down. She takes a large gulp of her wine. “St. John was supposed to be my honeymoon, Dade.”

I drop my fork. What the fuck?

She smiles sadly. “Yes, we mutually agreed to call off the wedding and I took the trip alone.”

My mouth is hanging open. She was about to get married? To who? Did she really only hook up with me to get over someone else? Was I just the guy who was convenient at the right time?

I control the thoughts as best I can. “Ok.”

She looks at me with a considering expression on her face. “Do you want the story or would you rather not know?”

She’s holding her breath. Do I want to know? Yes. Yes, I want to know.

I nod. “Yeah, you can tell me.”

She nods, too and finishes her glass of wine. Getting up, she grabs the bottle. Bringing the entire thing back to the table, she sits back down and pours another glass. Leaning back cradling the glass between both hands, she looks into my eyes. She starts. “Jake and I went to college together. We met at Freshman Orientation. He was this adorable guy who caught my attention. We were both Pre-Med. We started seeing each other. We fell in love quickly.” She swirls her wine. “Things were great. We helped each other study, spent time together, moved in together… We’d bounce ideas off of each other for our respective theses. I was Obstetrics and Gynecology and he was Urology. We both graduated at the top of our classes. He proposed. I accepted. We started working and just stayed in the same groove. We spent less and less time together, as a couple, but when we did, it was enjoyable. Our lives were going in different directions. I never pushed for a wedding date and neither did he. We both concentrated on our careers. He moved into the spare room since we both worked long hours and our sleep schedules were different.” She points at the hall. “My parents kept asking about a wedding. One day over brunch, I kind of just threw a date out there. He never said no.”

She swallows and looks at the ceiling. “Before I realized it, the wedding was almost here. I didn’t care about the dress, the flowers, the cake, the catering… I didn’t care about any of it.” She looks at me and grimaces. “It’s not supposed to be like that. Your wedding is supposed to be a major life event and I honestly didn’t care. It’s supposed to be the happiest time of your life.”

Her glass is empty again. I offer to top it off and she shakes her head ‘no’. She smiles at me and shrugs. “I called Jake at work one day and told him we needed to talk. This was in early December. That night, we got home around the same time and talked. I mean really talked for the first time in a long time. We both agreed that we weren’t the same people as when we’d gotten together. We’re amazing friends. He’s an amazing man, but he no longer made my heart race. When I looked at my future, he wasn’t in it.

He admitted he loved me, but wasn’t in love with me either. We canceled the wedding and he decided to move out. It was mutual and there were no waves. Neither of us was especially sad. It was more of a relief that I wasn’t settling.”

She looks me dead in the eyes and smiles wryly. “I don’t know what I want. I don’t know what my path is supposed to be from here, but I know that I’m not settling. Not for something like marriage and the rest of my life, you know?!”

I nod.

Wow. She was engaged. To another doctor. He seems much more suited to her than a rocker. But then again, I’m here. I didn’t see that coming, but I’m glad she told me.

She’s looking at me with expectation on her face.

Shrugging, I say, “I didn’t expect that. Thanks for filling me in. Do you still see him?”

She nods. “I do. We work at the same hospital.” She laughs. “He’s dating a cardiac nurse. They seem happy. I’m happy for him.”

She really does seem happy for her ex. I didn’t know women could be like that. Not that I have much to compare it to.

Smiling at her, I ask, “What do you want to know about me?”

She smiles back softly and shrugs. “Whatever you want to share, I guess. What’s it like to be a rock star? How did that come about?”

Of course she asks that one.

I get up and grab both of our plates. Dumping them into the trash I see near the stove, I turn and set the plates in the sink before rinsing them.

She’s just watching me with a confused expression on her face.

Turning and leaning my hip against the counter, I watch her watch me. “What?”

She blushes. “Nothing. You just don’t really act like a rock star.”

Quirking my brow I tease her, “Really? You know a lot of rock stars?”

She chuckles. “Absolutely not. Just you. I’m more of a country girl.”

I expected that.

I chuckle and gesture to the fridge. “May I?”

She nods. “Help yourself.”

Grabbing another beer, I open it, and point to the living room. “Can we go in there?”

She laughs. It’s musical. “What? My kitchen isn’t cozy enough?!”

“It’s plenty cozy. I just want to put my feet up if that’s ok with you.”

She giggles and stands up. Swiping the wine bottle, she leads the way into the living room and I follow with my beer and watch her delectable ass as she walks.

She sits on one end of the red leather couch and tucks her feet underneath her. I sit in the middle and rest my feet on the coffee table. She plays with her hair nervously. Some of it has curled slightly as it dried.

Angling my body a bit, I rest my arm across the back and face her. She turns, too. There’s about a foot of space between us. “So, you like country music?”

Her hands are tracing the pattern of a throw pillow she’s pulled into her lap. “I do. I’m a country girl. I don’t really listen to anything else. Though, I’ve listened to a few of your songs since I found out who you were.”

I stare at her. The sun is starting to set, so the rays are filtering through her open curtains and playing across her face. She’s breathtaking. She nervously fidgets as I watch the light show.

“What? Why are you staring at me like that?”

Reaching out, I trace one of the shadows across her cheek with my finger. She shivers in response. “You’re beautiful.”

She snorts. “I’m certain you’ve been with women more beautiful than me.”

I nod. “Probably.” She frowns. “But none of them have infatuated me as much as you.”

The doubt on her face causes my stomach to clench. She shakes her head. “Pretty words, Dade. I’m sure they work ninety-nine percent of the time.”

I frown. “Work for what?”

“For getting you whatever you want.”

I trace her lips. “I don’t usually have a problem with that. It’s true.”

She smiles and her eyes crinkle as she asks, “Why are you here, Dade? I mean right now. What do you want from me?”

I stop and think.
What do I want from her? Do I know? I want to see her smile. I want her to scream out from the pleasure I can give her. I want her to continue to sleep with me. What do I want other than that… I don’t rightly know.

Lying is not in my nature, so I answer honestly. “I don’t know, Melonie. I guess I want to see if what happened between us on the island can carry over into the here and now.”

She nods. “Ok, so you want to fuck me?”

I start at her candid language, but I nod. “I do. And you want to fuck me. But I also want to get to know you. I want us to take what we learned about each other on St. John and pick up here. Right now.”

She’s staring at me intently. She purses her lips. “You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“In the kitchen. What’s it like to be you? How did you become a part of the biggest rock band in the country?”

Oh, she did ask me that, didn’t she?

Taking her hand, I start to massage it. I roll her fingers and work her palm. She moans in appreciation. Those moans wake up my crotch. But, I ignore it and start to talk as I massage her hands. Her tools.

“I went to Southeastern. I studied Political Science.” Her mouth pops open. I chuckle. “Don’t look so surprised. I’m actually a smart man. I graduated with a 3.96 GPA.” She whistles through her teeth. I nod. “My parents were deadbeats, so I spent a lot of time alone or watching out for Clove once she came along… making sure she was fed and clothed and had the things she needed. I always played guitar and piano. I would play to have something for me. It was my escape from my insane life.

I got good. No, I got great. I would go to the library and find books to help me learn more. My brain is a sponge. I read things one time and I remember them forever.

I played a little throughout college for extra money to get the things Clove needed. I had a scholarship for my education and I had a grant for my other school expenses, so everything I made pretty much went toward taking care of her. She was the most beautiful baby and just a smart kid. I was all she had, so I took the best care of her I could.

One night, after I’d graduated and was sending out resumes, I was playing at one of the bars in Baton Rouge and this guy approached me with another guy I knew from playing around town. He was younger, but said he was getting a band together and asked if I was interested. It was Jude. I didn’t have anything going on, so I agreed to play with him and Jessie.

Once I heard him sing, I was blown away. He was amazing. They needed a drummer and I knew an amazing one. Cruz. He had attended school with Clove. I asked him to come jam and he did. Within a few days, we had a band. And to my surprise, to all of our surprise, we were good! We started booking gigs around town, then we were booking around the state.

One night, we were approached after a show and it was a label scout. He wanted a demo and said he could get us signed. We pooled our resources and went all in. We put everything we had into it. A week later, we got a call. We were offered a contract and we accepted it.

Things went crazy after that. We put out our first record and our first single hit the Billboard charts within two weeks. Within a month, we were number one. Things have been steady ever since. We keep making records and people keep buying them. I can’t believe this is my life.”

She’s impressed. I can tell. “You really love your sister.”

It’s not a question, it’s a statement. “I do. I was more of a parent to her than anything else and she’s the most important person in my life. Seriously?! I tell you my life story and that’s what you get out of it? I’m famous. Like really famous. Yet, you focus on my baby sister.” I chuckle.

She really doesn’t care that I’m famous… Wow. That’s really something. I figured it might impress her a little bit though.

She leans over and chuckles. “Yes, you are famous. I know this. Now. I did not know that when you caught my attention. I just thought you were an insanely hot guy.”

It’s my turn to get embarrassed. I feel my face burn. What the hell? I don’t blush!

I cough. “Yeah, well I am an insanely hot guy. Or so I’m told. I don’t pay too much attention to all of that.” I waggle my eyebrows at her. “So, I’m insanely hot, huh?”

Her face turns bright pink. “Shut the hell up, you egomaniac.”

Throwing my head back and laughing, I reach out and grab her. She squeals as I pull her over toward me on the couch.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Settling her onto my lap, I lick her neck and feel her shiver. Biting the shell of her ear, I whisper, “You were very far away and I’ve been good long enough.”

She gasps. “What… what do you mean?”

I brush my lips from her ear, across her jaw, and stop at her lips. Breathing against them, I say, “I mean this.” and kiss her.

Melonie

I
’m in Dade’s lap on my couch in my apartment. His mouth is taking its sweet time in tasting mine and my nerves are shot. I’ve wanted to kiss him all night. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. For all I knew, he could have walked out once he knew I’d been engaged.

Yet, here I am… on top of him, and damn, I’ve missed this.

His mouth is slowly brushing over mine. I haven’t kissed him in far too long, so I don’t want this slow dance. Grabbing his face and gripping his hair, I slant my mouth over his and lick the seam of his lips. He opens for me and my tongue starts thrusting and withdrawing. We’re dueling, both trying to claim dominance. My moans are bouncing off of the walls.

He spreads my thighs wider and I sink down further into his lap. The fabric between us is no barrier at all from the rock hard appendage that’s pressing against me. I can feel myself pulse from anticipation. His hands are pulling my hips into his as he presses against me through his shorts.