Imperfect Love (9 page)

“Seriously, woman, haven’t you had enough?”

“No. I want a shooter.”

“Fine. I’ll pour you one and you’d better drink it.”

“Whatever, baby.”

“This will be your last one. I’m not cut out for Cocktail shit,” Holly grumbled, already walking up the RV’s steps.

“Wait up, before you break another bottle,” Jake yelled to her back as he followed her inside.

As soon as they’d cleared the doorway, he pulled her into the corner and they started kissing. Not two minutes in, her ears started zinging again. What was it with this guy and his kisses? She could kiss him forever. Holly only hoped that the feeling was mutual, and not just the alcohol flowing thickly in his veins.

As if reading her mind, his hands slid down her butt and when they reached her thighs, she was lifted up. Of their own accord, her legs wrapped around his waist. She felt herself being pushed back against the wall, hard. Her hands became tangled in his hair as their kissing turned frantic and more demanding. She breathed through her nose rapidly, her heart rate elevated, and the butterflies in her stomach felt as if they were going to burst free. She’d never felt like this before, not even when Brandon had kissed her for the first time. This was like an out-of-body experience; something she just didn’t have the words to explain.

His rigid shaft pressed hard against her core, making her moan softly through their kissing. One thought stuck in her mind during the euphoria she was experiencing.
Should I go all the way tonight? Can I?
Hell, yes, I can and I will
, her mind screamed eagerly, without giving it further thought. Holly decided she would become the slut in those movies where the couples had sex on their first date, even though she’d always hated those kinds of girls.

“I want my shooter,” Bernie yelled once again, bringing their intense moment to a halt.

Jake chuckled, while Holly complained.

“Just make her something strong so she passes out, please,” Jake begged.

Holly inhaled deeply, struggling to settle down. “I’ll hit her with a baseball bat if she doesn’t stop with this.”

Jake grinned, kissing her softly on the tip of her nose before putting her down.

Begrudgingly, Holly poured half the shot glass intended for Bernie with Straw Rum and the other half with black Sambuca. The color changed to black, making it look like it was only black Sambuca. She filled the other shots glasses with only the black. Jake merely winked. He arranged the drinks on the shooter tray in such a manner so that he wouldn’t accidentally hand Bernie’s shot to one of them.

“Enjoy,” Holly sang to a giggling Bernie.

“You’re making boring shots now?”

“I’m tired, and my hand is tired. Deal with it,” Holly said as she watched Bernie down hers.

Holly kept an eagle eye on Bernie, and it became quite apparent the second the rum started to do its job and work through her system. She began closing her eyes for brief periods of time, as if she were trying hard to stay awake.

“Another one, Bernie?” Holly asked.

“No, thanks. I think I’ve had enough. I’m going to lie down.” She looked at Leo who winked at her.

“So, does this mean I can finally sleep?” Holly yelled after Bernie.

“Do whatever you want. Sleep, grab Jake, I don’t care.”

“You stupid cow,” Holly said, which made both Leo and Jake chortle in unison.

“
That
was what you wanted to do this afternoon?” Leo asked.

“Josie put me up to it,” Holly answered. “It’s her fantasy.”

Jake cleared his throat.

“Oh, shush.” Holly shot him a look.

Leo did nothing but look from one to the other. “Uh-huh,” Leo said and got up. “Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky tonight, too.”

“Seriously!” Holly hissed, looking at Jake, while Leo wandered off to join Bernie.

Jake’s face lit up in a broad smile. “What? Leo is one of my best friends, believe me, he already knows.”

As soon as they were alone, Jake wasted no time in pulling her closer by grabbing her shirt again. Their lips met and before Holly could count to ten, her ears had started to zing again. Through the tongue duel taking place, Jake lifted and placed Holly on his lap. Her body turned to mush as she let herself go, loving every moment of getting lost on top of him.

HOLLY HAD NO IDEA HOW LONG THEY’D kissed for; she only knew that she didn’t want it to stop. Their breathing escalated, and both had a reluctant hunger that clawed within them. She’d never thought that she would feel this way ever again, and silently prayed that by morning things wouldn’t be awkward.

She really liked Jake and had fallen hard for him, like a wrecking ball crashing into a skyscraper. If he would…. No, she couldn’t think about that now, she would deal with it tomorrow and enjoy whatever it was that was happening between them that very moment.

They finally broke apart, struggling to catch their breath.

Jake was the first to speak. “You are one hell of a kisser.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”

Flinging his head back, Jake barked with laughter, and then sent tingles all the way to the very tips of her toes by giving her another juicy kiss, gently scraping her bottom lip with his teeth.

Holly was all hormones; she just wanted more. She also knew that Jake must have sensed it, because he growled seductively and so deeply in his throat, all it did was drive her even crazier.

“Spend the night with me,” he finally asked, hope lighting his eyes.

Holly tensed at his words. It was a reflex and one she didn’t really want to give into. Spending the night with Jake could only mean one thing, and God alone knew she’d never spent the night with anyone like Jake before.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Holly. We can talk and get to know one another better and if you fall asleep, it will be right next to me,” he said, sensing the panic in her eyes.

She smiled, feeling like an idiot that her body had signaled the opposite of what she wanted to do with him. She couldn’t tell him what she really wanted now or he would think she was cheap, and that was the last thing she wanted Jake to think about her.

“Okay.” It was the only word that passed her lips. Her mind was raging with all sorts of possibilities and her body was riddled with lust, constantly thinking about how it would feel to have him inside her.
Stop it
, she reprimanded herself as she climbed off him.

He took her hand gently in his and led her into the RV.

She felt like a giddy young girl on prom night, one who was going to have sex for the first time. Nerves nibbled her stomach. She dearly wanted to take a deep breath but was scared he might misinterpret that, too.

Jake locked the door behind them, pulled her into his body with one arm and gave her another sumptuous kiss. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Water, please,” she said, carefully.

He kissed the tip of her nose and grumbled.

It made her giggle.
Oh, man, what is tomorrow going to bring?
She closed her eyes and hoped with her whole being that this would not be a one-night stand. Holly feared that she would never recover from this.

Jake handed her a glass of ice-cold water, which she immediately began to sip. The cool water simmered in her already warm body as she took in the man standing before her. Jake fell down onto the bed, while Holly made herself comfortable right next to him, with her back resting against the wall. She looked down at him.

“So, how many doctors are there in your family?”

“Quite a few,” he replied. “My dad is a gynecologist, one of the best in the US. Mom is a really good heart specialist, and my sister is a therapist.” He made his eyes really big on that last comment.

Holly got what it was he was saying. Her mother used to say that it took a loon to be able to work with loonies. She smiled, but nodded for him to continue.

“Her husband, Armand, is a pediatrician. The only non ‘ist’ in the family.”

Grinning, Holly opened her mouth to say something.

“Then there is—”

“There’s more?” she asked, disbelieving.

“There are. You see, apparently, my parents couldn’t keep their hands off each other,” Jake replied with a saucy grin.

“I can imagine that!” She could, especially if Jake’s dad had the same charm and looks as his son; it would be difficult not to want to have children.

Jake’s chest rumbled. “Robin is in her second year of medical school. Lisa is sixteen, but I’m sure she will enroll in medical school, too. My pappie, on my mom’s side, was one of the best heart specialists in the county, and on my father’s side both my grandparents were in medicine.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“Sure you wanna know? Jake wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m the eldest of six.”

“Six!” Thank goodness for small miracles, because Holly nearly spilled the contents of her glass all over Jake’s bed. To avoid that from really happening, she placed her glass on the side table.

“Told you the old folk couldn’t keep their hands off each other.” He winked. “Now, Amelia, the therapist, is ten months younger than me; Robin is about a year and a half younger than Amelia; Lisa is turning sixteen; Kimmy is about eight, and Ben is five.” He pulled himself up and rested his head on his hand.

“You have a five-year-old brother?”

“I do. But I do believe he’s the last one. At least, I hope he’s the last one.”

Holly laughed so much and so hard, she nearly cracked a rib. She couldn’t but think how sweet it must be to see him and Ben sharing a milkshake.

“What about you?” He started doodling with his finger on Holly’s arm.

Holly swallowed the lump in her throat. Her arm was covered in goose pimples, but she wasn’t complaining. “I’m the only one. I used to have a sister, Jamie. Twin actually, but she died of cancer at the age of fifteen.”

His smile disappeared immediately.

Before he could say anything, she continued while looking down at the print on his T-shirt. “I guess it’s one of the reasons I hate hospitals. We practically lived in one.” She looked up him again. “My mom is a nurse, so we have something in common.”

“Your mom’s a nurse?”

She nodded.

“What type cancer did your sister have?”

“I would have rather you asked where didn’t she have cancer.”

Taking her hand, he rubbed circles on her palm with his thumb. “I’m so very sorry, Holly. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to lose one of my sisters or little brother. Not to mention one being a twin. Were you identical?”

Holly nodded again. “She had the personality, and all the friends. I was more of the quiet one, reading books and always studying. Bernie used to be her best friend, and when she died, well… Bernie was the only one who stuck around and I sort of took Jamie’s place.”

“Wow. Then I must thank her for sticking around.”

That made Holly smile.

“Where does your mom work? Hospital, clinic?”

“I don’t know,” she answered softly.

Jake frowned at her words.

“I must sound like a hopeless case. We don’t talk that much anymore. When Jamie died, my mom fell into a rut and forgot that she had another daughter. Bernie’s parents basically raised me, made sure I had everything I needed. I saw my mom as a roommate as I literally just went home to sleep. My mom’s trying, though, but I’m the hard ass.”

She wasn’t going to make him privy to the fact regarding the booze and the nights her mom had tried to kill herself. However, thinking about it brought tears to her eyes.

“I’m a dick. I’m sorry.” He leaned over and gave her a hug.

Holly giggled and sniffed simultaneously. “You’re not, okay? I just don’t have happy family stories. You want to know about my dad?”

Jake gave a nervous chuckle. “Did he die?”

“No, he walked away to live a new life with his secretary when we were about five.”

“Noooo!” Jake protested playfully, which made Holly chuckle.

“Now, that’s a dickhead, and that’s my story.”

“People can be so horrible. You can have mine.”

She liked that idea a lot.

“They are plenty and annoying, but I love ‘em. For some reason, they like to expand… in huge proportions.”

Holly slapped him on the arm. “Were you really a cage fighter?”

“I was,” he answered, quite excitedly. He turned over to lie on his stomach, with his upper torso resting on his elbows. “I was actually good, won trophies and everything.”

“There are trophies for hooligans?”

Jake lowered his head, but his shaking shoulders were a dead giveaway. When he looked up, his response was the funny kind. “Well, I’m not the one with the injured hand.”

“Ha-ha.”

“But to answer your question, yes. And then four years ago, I met my match. He was huge and way bigger than me, and all the way from Russia.”

“A Russian.” Holly couldn’t imagine that and her eyes raised slightly, trying to form the picture in her head.

“The fight went on and on, and I’m not even sure for how many rounds we pounded each other. Eventually, though, he grabbed me in a death grip and almost tore me to pieces.”

“Oh, my word.”

“I was depressed for a while, wasn’t interested in anyone and didn’t want anybody around me, much like your mother. So, I began to eat and didn’t stop. I lost my toned body, lost my friends, lost my girlfriend of five years and became a huge, fat blob.”

“I’m sorry.” Holly understood now why Leo had acted uncomfortable when she’d asked about his cage fighting days.

“I wanted nothing more than to be in that cage for the rest of my life, even thought of opening a club later on, you know, stuff like that. When I couldn’t carry on, Leo quit, too. Gave a stupid reason about Bernie not wanting him to get hurt, but I know he did it for me.”

“They are awesome people.”

Jake nodded his agreement. “It was Leo who started me walking again. He was the only one who didn’t give up on me, even when I pushed him away. He just kept returning. When I did start walking again, somehow my anger escalated. We actually beat the living crap out of each other a couple of times. My mom freaked.”

“Who won?”

Jake laughed. “Well, I was much bigger at that time, so I could’ve won easily if I’d just sat on him.”

Holly laughed.

“But, Leo was much faster than me, so he found a way to get the upper hand every time. I only found out years later from my sister when she graduated, that the punches between him and me were some sort of therapy. After I finally managed to control and get rid of all my anger, he picked me up every morning for a two mile run. I owe him my life and getting this back, of course.” He pointed at his body, in a very elaborate manner.

Laughing and shaking her head, Holly asked, “And that’s when you decided to become a doctor?”

“Yes, I tried so badly not to walk in my family’s footsteps but I became intrigued with the brain. It’s truly one of our most fascinating organs, and that is what I ultimately want to specialize in.”

“So, you’re studying to become a neurologist?”

He nodded, a huge grin illuminating his face. “I thought you knew because of your previous statement regarding Josie’s head.”

She laughed. “Wow, I’m impressed. I take it you’re smart, too?” Holly rolled her eyes in a dramatic way.

Jake just shrugged in an ‘I guess so’ manner. “I did plenty of sexual favors for professors so that they could teach me everything they knew, you know, having started my studies so late and everything.”

Holly’s eyes rose. “What?”

He laughed. “I’m joking, you really think I would do that? No, I have a photographic memory.”

“Ugh! That just sucks,” Holly complained, which made him chuckle again. She started wringing her hands nervously, only because of what she wanted to ask next. Trying to look nonchalant, she forged ahead. “So, this girlfriend of five years, was it Sonic?”

Jake smiled. “No, her best friend, Melanie. They’re not friends anymore.”

“I can’t imagine why,” she replied sarcastically.

“You sound like Bernie now,” he answered on a grin.

“Well, maybe she has a point.”

“Yeah, maybe she does. I learned my lesson with Melanie, though. I’ll never go for an airhead again. They don’t stick around when you need them the most, and Sonic only started speaking to me again when she bumped into me two months ago.”