Subway Girl (6 page)

Jesse did the same kissing the hand thing he did when he met me and it grossed me out all over again. Something about the guy just made me go ‘
ick
.’

“So, what do I owe the honor of your visit?” His eyes never left Jenny when he spoke. I answer
ed anyway.

“I was hoping you could tell me if you’
ve seen Rivers? I, um, gave him the wrong phone number the other night.”

He looked at me then an
amused smile on his face. “Sure you did. Let me guess. He had to get up early because he had a meeting, because, unfortunately some people have to work Saturdays. So he said he grabbed your number off your cell, or some shit story like that, and that he’d call as soon as his meeting was over.” I could feel my face drain of color. The restaurant started to tilt and my stomach threatened to spill everything I’d eaten the last four days all over the floor. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Look, Julia, I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to be a dick. You seem a lot nicer than most of the girls he drags through here. But this is what Rivers does. He doesn’t do relationships. He does girls, if you get my drift—”

“Yeah, yeah, asswipe, she gets the drift.” Jenny laid her hand on my arm. “You ready to go?”

I nodded. “Just one second.” I pulled a piece of paper from my purse and wrote:

“Will you give this to him?” I handed the paper to Jesse. “You know, maybe.” I shrugged a shoulder.

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference, but I’ll give it to him.” He smiled and I gave him a quick smile in return.

Jenny and I ended up grabbing a burger on the way home. We splurged on a taxi. I wasn’t ready to ride the subway yet.

“
Y
ou have to go to the party. We always go to Frank and Jeff’s Halloween party.” I thought Jenny was going to stomp her foot at me. She was whining like a two year-old. “It’s one of the best parties of the year!”

“I don’t want to go. Besides, you have Mark to go with this year. You won’t even know I’m not there.”

“Ah, yes I will know. I’ll be worried about you here alone the entire night.”

“I’ll be fine, Jenny,” I sighed. “I don’t want to dress up and go to a party where people think they have free reign to bump into and
cop a feel just because they’re wearing a mask and I won’t know who they are.”

“It’s been a month.”

“I know and I don’t want to talk about it. This isn’t about Rivers.”

“Okay. Whatever.”

“Your parents having their normal holiday torture event this year?” I looked at Jenny and smiled.

“Yes and Yes,” she said around a huge bite of pizza.

“Last year you swore you’d
‘never go to another one of those horrible parties again.’
” I imitated her voice.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Well, try telling that to my mom and grandma. Talk about guilt treatment!
They’ve perfected it.”

“You love it and you know it.” I bumped my knee into her.

“What about you? Are you going home?”

“Oh, nope. My folks and sister are coming here for Thanksgiving this year.”

“Uh-oh. I don’t like that look on your face. And what happened to your dad saying he’d never venture into the big city?”

“The face is because I don’t want to
be cooped up with them in my tiny apartment for a week listening to my dad bitch and my mom trying to placate him while my sister sits on her ass, with her earphones in her ears, texting.” I tossed my pizza on my plate and wiped my hands on a napkin. “And I have no idea why my dad has decided to brave the big bad city.”

“Sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll stay here and you can go to my family’s dinner.” Jenny smiled.

I sighed. “I have to get back to the office. I have a meeting.” I pushed away from the table.  “I’ll see you later.”

Thanksgiving morning dawned a beautiful sunny day. Cotton candy clouds floated across the sky. I lay on the couch and watched them through the window. But even though the sun looked beautiful shining in the sky, it was an illusion. The sun didn’t warm the air. I could feel the cold air seep through the old windows of my apartment and I pulled the quilt tighter against me. And I thought, again, how nice it’d be to wake up pressed against someone, their body heat warming me. Instead I woke up every morning wrapped around my body pillow and went to bed at night with my vibrator.

“Hey, Julia, dance with me.” Walt held his hand out to me. I place mine in his and he led me to the dance floor.

Walt was probably in his sixties, older than my dad. He was still a good looking guy and had made it clear on more than one occasion he was interested in me. While flattered, I wasn’t interested in becoming anyone’s trophy wife. Not even Walt’s, who worked for one of our biggest clients.

“You look beautiful tonight.” He leaned into me when he spoke and I could smell the liquor on his breath.

“Thank you.” I pulled back and put some space between us.

He sighed. “I really hate these things. I don’t know what it is about the holiday season that makes companies think we all need to have parties like this.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then you shouldn’t have come.”

“Oh, it’s mandatory that we attend our clients’ events when invited. Besides, this is one party I was looking forward to.” He let his hand slide from my lower back to the top of my ass.

“Yes, my company’s holiday party is nice. Classy.” I moved his hand up. “Don’t you think?” The song finally ended and I stepped back. “Thank you for the dance. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

Ass
.

“Would you like to dance?”

I turned and the deepest blue eyes looked at me. “Ethan, right?”

He gave me a small smile. “Yes.”

“Accounting?”

“Right again. Do you memorize the employee directory?” he teased.

A small butterfly swooped in my chest.

Oh, baby, every woman in the company knows who you are. The sexy accountant with the Aussie accent. Yeah, you were on the Hot-Single-Employee-List the first day you came to work.

“No, I’ve just seen you in the halls.” I gave him a quick smile and ducked my head. “Um, I think we’re missing our dance.”

We walked to the dance floor and he wrapped me in his arms and I had to hold in a moan. Damn, but was he built. I could feel his muscles flex and constrict under his dress shirt and when the song ended and he asked for another dance I smiled and nodded. He guided one of my arms around his waist and laid the hand of the other on his shoulder.

He put his hand on my lower back and pulled me to him. His second hand lay on my bare back where my dress draped low. His fingers moved across my skin bringing out goose bumps. Adrenaline shot through my veins and something warm and heavy started to bloom between my legs. Every movement caused friction against my swelling sex. My breathing became quick and shallow and I know he felt my heart racing.

“You’re so beautiful.” He whispered against my ear.

“Thank you.” My gaze darted to his and quickly away.

Oh no. This can’t happen. I can’t sleep with anyone at work. What am I thinking? He probably doesn’t feel the same anyway.

“I love this dress. You look so sexy in it.” He ran his finger around the draped collar. It sat on the very edges of my shoulders and draped low in the front, showing some cleavage. But it plunged in back, stopping just before my waist. My hair was up in an elaborate twist to show off the dress. “It makes me wonder something though.”

“What?” I looked up at Ethan. The lighting of the dance floor sparkled off his blue eyes.

“I wonder how sexy you’d look out of it. I think a helluva a lot more.” He looked right in my eyes when he said that. And his gaze held mine when he leaned forward and bushed his lips against mine.

I tensed in his arms. “Wait.” I tried to step away and he tightened his grip.

“Don’t go. I’ve seen you around, too. I’ve asked about you, Julia. I’ve been waiting to meet you for weeks. You don’t want me to kiss you—fine. No kissing. Just dance with me. Please.” His fingers curled into my back.

I nodded and relaxed into him. We danced through three more songs. We didn’t talk and Ethan’s hands stayed in very appropriate places, but that didn’t stop my heart from racing or my breathing from becoming erratic. He smelled so good. He looked even better. Shaggy—in a sexy way—blond hair. Those bright blue eyes and a warm smile. He wasn’t very tall, but still a few inches taller than me. I could definitely see why he had every female—and some male—employees’ panties in a bunch.

“You want to get something to drink?” Ethan murmured near my ear. His breath moved wisps of hair against my cheek.

“Sure.”

He led me to a table and pulled out the chair for me. “What would you like?”

“A Coke, please.”

Ethan got my Coke and his drink and we sat at the table talking the rest of the night. In fact, we were the last to leave. The clean-up crew was working around us when I finally got my wrap from the coat check.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Midtown.”

“Me, too. Want to share a cab?”

“That’d be great.”

Ethan tried to flag down a cab. Several blew past him without slowing down. He cursed and I laughed.

“What?” He chuckled. “You think you can do better?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then show me how it’s done.” He bowed and extended his arm out for me to pass.

I laughed. “Okay. Watch and learn.” I took off my wrap and tossed it at him. Then I made sure the front of my dress was down as low as it’d go.  I step to the curb and the first cab that drove by stopped.

“That’s not fair.” Ethan said after he slid into the cab next to me.

“What?” I looked at him trying to hold a straight face.

“I don’t have your beautiful body to use.” He ran the tip of his finger down the side of my breast.

I looked at him and my lips parted. His eyes were dark and full of liquid
heat. His hand rested on my side just below my breast. His gaze locked on mine, he moved his fingers back up the side of my breast, but this time he let his thumb rub across the nipple. Fire followed his finger and an ache built between my legs. A quick glance down told me he was dealing with his own ache judging by the bulge in his pants.

He put a hand on the back of my neck and leaned forward. “Fair warning, Julia, I’m going to kiss you. I can’t seem to help myself. If you don’t want me to, tell me now.” His eyes searched mine and when I stayed silent he let his lips touch mine.

His lips were soft and warm. They were gentle when they moved over mine and I leaned in closer. I cupped his cheek with my hand. His kiss grew hungrier and his tongue glided against my lips. I put my hand against his chest and pushed away. He gave me a quick kiss and let me go.

I opened my mouth to say something—what I don’t remember—just as the cab stopped in front of my building. I dug the fare out of my purse and handed it to the cabbie. Ethan stepped out of the car and held the door open for me.

“Thanks.” I smiled at him and he returned it with his warm smile that seemed to light up his whole face. I stood and stared at him a beat too long before I said, “I’ll see you Monday, I guess.”

He nodded. I’d just stepped onto the curb when he called out to me, “Julia? A drink?”

I knew what he was asking and it had nothing to do with a drink. If he came upstairs to my apartment he was expecting to get lucky.

Why the hell not?

I nodded. “Sure.”

Ethan tossed some bills to the cabbie and jogged to me. He slipped his arm around my waist while we waited for the elevator. He kept his hand on my back while I unlocked my door and when we walked inside. I tossed my purse on the hall table and kicked off my heels. I turned to ask Ethan what he’d like to drink and ran right into him.

He took a step toward me and backed me against the wall. His mouth covered mine. His lips caressed my lips as his tongue searched for an entrance into my mouth. When my lips parted, it slipped through and moved against my tongue and flicked the roof of my mouth.