Hunks: Opposites Attract (8 page)

Now, Shauntie and Emerald both knew how much blogging relaxed the tension from her body after a long stressful work day. However, when she had initially brought up the idea of her blog to her girlfriends, neither one of them were too thrilled about being the subject of her hobby or having their lives plastered across the internet for everyone to read.

But after she promised only to use first names and not to bring up any personal information about them, they finally agreed she could mention them from time to time. She swore she would only use them as her accessories when she needed them to fatten up her posts.

Crazy as it sounded to her two best friends in the beginning, Sapphire knew people would want to know what she was thinking. Yeah, it sounded strange but she felt it was true. With the ‘reality world’ society everyone lived in now, most people had a little voyeur in them even if none of them were brave enough to admit it to themselves or anyone else.

Sapphire would never forget the first night she posted something. The entry wasn’t anything big but it was in her memory like a person’s first kiss. The post was only about two hundred and fifty words; nevertheless, it had drawn her close to twenty followers and it continued to grow the more she gave everyone a glimpse into her life.

Any time she felt the burning urge to vent; Sapphire made a beeline for her laptop and typed her problems into her personal blog.

Outside of her job her life was pretty simple which could be her whole problem in a nut shell; she lived mostly a private way of life when she wasn’t out with Shauntie or Emerald on the weekends. She was all alone because most men took one look at her and instantly decided she would be too high maintenance, so she only dated men in the same social circle as herself.

Yet, after a while, they started to bore her to death. She didn’t want to hear about their work day or how much money they would be making in the next five years.

Blind dates weren’t her thing either because having too many friends trying to fix her up tended to lead towards too many demands and if they weren’t met, the other person acted like they were the injured party, but in actuality nothing was further from the truth.

Most of the time Sapphire considered herself pretty self-reliant and she didn’t have to ask her girls for advice, unless she wasn’t able to figure it out by herself and Brian was definitely one of those things.

She couldn’t figure him out at all. Why did he make her so nervous?

In the past, she asked good-looking men out on dates and never harbored on it when they turned her down. She came to the conclusion that they wouldn’t have been a good match. However, Brian was different from those men and in more ways than their social status. Something about him bothered her in a way that was very surprising.

From the very brief time they were in each other’s company, Sapphire sensed Brian was a man who knew what he wanted. He wouldn’t have a problem standing up to her. Not once had he backed down from her or the can of pepper spray she threatened him with while they were downstairs in the kitchen.

Brian’s fearless attitude had turned her on just a tiny bit, but she wouldn’t let him know, not just let. Anyways, she wasn’t here to pick up Brian. She only had one goal in mind and that was to find some captivating topics to discuss on her blog, so her followers would keep coming back for more.

Keeping lying to yourself and you’ll see where it gets you
, her mind taunted.
You’re using the blog as a shield not to get closer to Brian.

Sapphire wasn’t ready to get into what her mind was telling her. She had more important business to tend to right at this very second. She couldn’t keep staring at her laptop for the rest of the night. The last time she’d posted something was over three weeks ago. She never went that long without an update. No wonder she had been feeling so out of sorts at work.

Could she be losing her magic touch when it came to this? Sapphire tried not to let the thought depress her.

People decided to start blogs for different reasons: money, politics, and food or even about their pets. The list could go on and on. However, her blogging as a personal journal was a fantastic method she used to get something off of her chest. Her favorite time of night was when she crawled into bed and wrote from her heart but now her heart was empty.

Nothing exciting was going on in her life.

How can you think nothing exciting is going on in your life
?
What about Brian
? The thought brushed the back of her mind.

Sapphire shot up straight in her seat as reality struck her right between the eyes. What hadn’t she realized it before now? The most talk worthy—
no—
blog worthy topic was right under the same roof as her!

Was she so stupid that she hadn’t seen it before now? Emerald wanted her to find a man before New Year’s Eve and the man she wanted had fallen right into her lap. Who wouldn’t want to hear about the process she was making with him each and every day?

Placing her hands on the keyboard, Sapphire instantly got her thoughts together and then typed her first post.

****

Sapphire’s World

December 26

I’m finally back
!!!

I
know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything for my blog, but my mind has been on vacation. I won’t ever admit to having writer’s block...ever! All of you know how I love writing about anything and everything going on in my life. Well, I have something good to tell all of my wonderful followers, but I have to start from the beginning first.

All of you already know that I have two best friends named Shauntie and Emerald. They’re more like sisters to me than girlfriends. Shauntie is the fashionable doctor who loves getting ‘dirty’ by planting flowers any day of the week.

Emerald is my spunky friend who doesn’t know the meaning of the word no. She won’t let anyone or anything stand in her way. This made her the perfect one out of the three of us to come up with this outrageous plan in the first place.

During one of our girl’s nights out at our favorite club
Peppers
, Emerald, the wild child she is, decided she was tired of dating the same type of guys. You know, the shirt and tie professionals who spend more time on their IPads or BlackBerrys than paying attention to us.

So, in her almighty wisdom Emerald determined it was time for each of us to give the hard working hunks a shot at three successful, gorgeous black women. (I really don’t know where she comes up with this stuff, but I loved the idea. How could I not?)

The last guy I dated couldn’t remember my name, but he knew the ring tones on his cell phone for all of his business associates. He was such a loser! How I spent three months in that relationship I would never know.

Emerald even gave us a deadline to get all of this accomplished. She picked our favorite holidays to find our hunky workers. Shauntie’s deadline was Christmas. Emerald wasn’t bothered by the fact Shauntie told
her she wasn’t going to participate and then Emerald picked Valentine’s Day for herself and gave me New Year’s Eve.

However, Shauntie wasn’t into doing this at all. She hated the idea more than I loved it. She swore that there wasn’t a hunk out there who could catch her eye and her words came back to bite her in the ass, when Nash came knocking at her door.

Now, Shauntie who had the biggest complaint about the ‘Finding your Hunk Challenge’ is going on vacation with her sexy hunk. How could someone not interested in finding love get it so quickly?

I wasn’t jealous (well, not that much). I only want to find my sexy hunk before my old year is out and the New Year comes rushing in. I thought I wasn’t going to find him, but something happened today to change my mind.

Okay...I’ll stop there for now. I need to leave you wanting more, so until next time thanks for stopping by
Sapphire’s World
.

****

Excellent first post
, Sapphire thought after she saved her first post in weeks.

She couldn’t believe the joy she just got from typing in those last words. Sapphire shut down her laptop as a smile spread across her face. She was back in the game. Her loyal followers were going to love what she just typed, because it was something different and fun!

The happiness she was experiencing was indescribable; it was like her mind had been in hibernation and got recharged when all the lights, sounds and colors she loved got downloaded back into her head suddenly. Nothing would ever be able to take the memory of her blog coming back to life right before her eyes.

Yes! It felt
so good
to be back!

Standing up, Sapphire stretched her arms above her head relieving some of the stiffness from her back. She couldn’t help but wonder what Brian was doing now. She hadn’t heard any movement coming from inside of the house, so she wasn’t quite sure where he was or what he was doing at this very second.

One thing was for sure, she wasn’t just going to run on the attraction she felt for Brian. Without a doubt, he was gorgeous but she didn’t know anything else about him. Sapphire was going to change the way she approached men beginning with Brian. She always went for the men who were handsome and left everything to the sidelines when it came to them.

Yes, he was the working hunk Emerald wanted her to hook up with but Brian needed more than that going for him. What else made him tick? What were his interests and hobbies? Sapphire was determined to prove she could find out more about Brian not only for her blog but herself as well.

Walking away from her chair, Sapphire made her way over to the bedroom door. Hopefully, Brian wouldn’t still be holding a grudge against her over the police incident because she wasn’t wrong for calling them on him. What woman in her right mind wouldn’t have done the same?

Opening the door, Sapphire went out into the hallway still debating if she should apologize again or just leave it alone. Either way, she and Brian were going to be spending some time together. All that mattered now was how both of them decided to pass the day with each other until the ball dropped and brought in the New Year.

Chapter Ten

Sapphire paused in the kitchen doorway and Brian stopped eating his sandwich and stared at her from the breakfast nook. His big body looked odd sitting in the white painted shabby chic chairs with the matching white table and blue and white floral cloth. She wasn’t expecting to see him in here eating the food she’d brought.

Brian’s dark hair was still damp from his shower and the ends of it were curling against the back of his neck. His gray eyes stood out from his face making them look like steel. As much as she tried to look away from him she couldn’t do it.

God, he really was a very sexy man.

The room sparked with an underlying current so much so that she almost left the room, but she took a deep breath and fought through it. Sapphire knew never to run from anything and she sure in the hell wasn’t about to start now with Brian.

“I didn’t think you would be downstairs. I thought you would still be upstairs unpacking your things,” Sapphire said, coming further into the room.

Brian placed his thick turkey sandwich with tomato down on his plate. He wiped his mouth and hands with a napkin then laid it beside his glass. “I didn’t bring that many clothes with me since I wasn’t planning on staying after the New Year. I got everything put away pretty fast. So, I decided to come on downstairs and find something to eat. I was starving since I didn’t stop anywhere on the drive here,” he answered, watching her as she walked past him.

“Your sandwich looks pretty good. I stocked up the refrigerator before I went upstairs earlier. I think I’m going to fix me one of those,” Sapphire said.

She was trying her best not to look back over her shoulder at Brian. The light scent of his soap mingling with his shampoo was wreaking havoc of her traitorous body. She hadn’t been with a man in over a year and she couldn’t handle being this close to Brian. He was driving her celibate body crazy!

Why did he have to be so damn good-looking?

“Have I upset you by eating your food? Do I need to leave and go buy my own food?” Brian questioned. “I’m not interested in having Chance coming back out here and arresting me for robbery. One visit from my buddy in a professional manner was enough for me.”

She knew it! Brian was still pissed off about the police coming out to the cottage.

Stopping in her tracks, Sapphire turned back around and found Brian watching her with a slight smirk on his face. Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have jumped down his throat about the sandwich.

They both were going to be staying here and picking at every little thing wasn’t going to help either one of them. Brian shouldn’t have her harassing him at every turn because she wanted to strip him naked and have her way with him.

“How about we start over?” Sapphire suggested. “Our two best friends are in love with each other, so we’re going to be around each other a lot. It’s best if we bury the hatchet now rather than later. What do you say?”

Sapphire was woman enough to be the one who apologized for getting off on the wrong foot with Brian. She was already having a hard enough time keeping her desire for him at a minimum until she figured out what she was going to do about it.

Brian was a stumbling block she hadn’t been expecting when she decided to take this trip. A deliciously sexy roadblock, but still something to keep her mind off what she came to do.

Pushing his chair out from the kitchen table, Brian got up and sauntered towards her like he had all the time in the world. Sapphire couldn’t look away from how the well-worn jeans molded his thick thighs. He looked as good coming as he did walking away. She’d never seen a more perfect man.

“I shouldn’t have brought up our earlier altercation, so how about we start over?” Brian suggested as his stuck out his hand, a light dusting of hair on his knuckles. Sapphire shivered imagining how they would feel when they touched her body.