Temporary Bliss (15 page)

Let the fun and awkwardness begin.

Walking through the open front door of Noah’s townhouse, I’m struck by how totally unlike him it is. At the hospital, he’s cocky, on the hot side of arrogant, and as Zoolander would say, ‘Really, really, good looking’. He is a great guy when you get past all that, though. I wouldn’t have been sleeping with him for so long otherwise. I mean, we may call him the walking dildo, and the ego definitely matches the size of his one-eyed trouser snake, but there is more to him than his nine inch monster, something that is obvious as I look around his house.

The foyer has a high ceiling and a marble floor with a curved staircase leading up to the second floor. The room is decorated with a walnut side table and a huge mirror facing the door. All in all, it feels like a home. A rather decadent home, but still. I had expected Noah to have a bachelor pad from hell. Clean – yes, but not this Chicago surburbia meets Beverly Hills mansion feel to it. I’m half expecting a butler to show up at any minute.

Daniel sees my wide eyed expression and chuckles, “Mac, it’s just a house.”

I turn to look up at him. “This isn’t a house, Superman. This is a townhouse on steroids. I bet he even has a pool with a waterfall. Maybe even a grotto like Hugh Hefner.”

That makes Daniel snort. “Pfft, he wishes. He may talk the talk, Mac, but Noah is no Hugh Hefner. I’m beginning to wonder how well you know the guy,” he says, quirking his eyebrow.

“I’m starting to wonder that myself. Not that it matters because I’m here with Superman. Hugh Hefner wannabes have nothing on you,” I reply with a grin before standing on my toes to kiss him.

He grabs my hands and wraps them around my back, deepening the kiss and pulling my body hard against his erection that is now digging into my thigh.

When we hear someone clearing their throat, I squeak and pull my body and my hands away. I turn to see Noah leaning against the wall watching us.

“Don’t stop on my account. I was enjoying the show,” he says with a huge shit-eating grin which makes me blush.

“Shut up, Taylor,” Daniel says as he looks down at me and smirks. “It’s not my fault she finds me irresistible.”

“It kinda is, you know.” I look up at him and grin, squealing when he squeezes my ass cheek which is still firmly attached to his hand.

Noah pipes up, “Well, are you two going to stand here all day and make out in my foyer, or are you going to come out back and catch up with everyone else?”

“Sorry, I can’t seem to keep her off me. It’s such a hard life,” Daniel adds, shaking his head in jest.

“Excuse me! I’m right here you know!” I say laughing. “C’mon, let’s go meet your friends so I can dig some dirt about your college days.”

“Shit, didn’t think of that.” he replies, grabbing my hand and entwining my fingers. I look over and see that Noah is still standing there looking at us.

I quickly lean up and kiss Daniel hard on the mouth. “You’re gonna pay for this later, you know,” I say with knowing eyes.

“Looking forward to it.”

“After you, Makenna,” Noah says, gesturing for me to go first. I walk past him, Daniel following close behind.

I hear the guys chatting idly behind me.

“You better not be checking out my ass, Noah,” I say, looking over to my shoulder just in time to see Noah lift his gaze from my ass and Daniel look over, catching him do it.

“Taylor, quit it,” he says as he slaps the back of Noah’s head jokingly.

“But it’s a nice ass,” Noah replies cockily.

“It’s my ass now so eyes off,” I hear Daniel mumble behind me as he walks forward and grabs my hand, walking towards a group of people standing around the swimming pool with - yup, you guessed it - a waterfall.

“See, told you there would be a waterfall,” I say with a smirk.

Noah pipes up, “You can’t have a pool without a water feature, Mac.”

“Apparently,” I reply dryly.

“Dan!”

“Winters.”

“D-bag.” (must remember to ask him about that one later).

A bunch of man hugs ensue, followed by cheek kisses to the partners of the previously mentioned men, all the while never letting go of my hand as much as I try to tactfully wiggle it free.

“This is Mac, my girl…ah, friend,” he says nonchalantly, like he hasn’t just freaked me the fuck out.

Girlfriend? Is that what he was about to say? Why not ‘girl who I’m fucking exclusively’ or ‘the woman I’m not
not
dating.

I suddenly find myself feeling nervous again. He’s already told me that he hasn’t brought a woman to one of these get-togethers for a long time, and now he’s having trouble even introducing me. This must be harder on him than I thought.

“Hey, nice to meet you all,” I say to the group who are all now looking at me with renewed interest. I knew I should have dragged Kate along to this. At least then I would have known someone other than Walking Dildo who is still watching me like I’m a freak show at the circus.

He hadn’t seen me out of my scrubs until a few weeks ago at the Bears’ game. Scratch that, he’s seen me out of my scrubs A LOT, just not socially like this.

“So, I better introduce everybody. That’s Dave and his wife, Sheree,” Daniel says, pointing to a gorgeous man with his equally gorgeous, and very pregnant wife who are standing to our right. “Sheree is expecting their first son any day now as you can see.”

“That’s so cool, congratulations,” I say to her.

“Thanks, we’re pretty excited,” she replies, rubbing her swollen belly and looking up at Dave adoringly. It’s so cute.

“And this is Gary, who I work with, and his partner, Louise. Then there’s Thomas and Cade who you’ve met already, and that’s Matt, Noah’s younger brother.” My eyes go wide as I realize that Matt is just a younger version of Noah. I mean seriously, a spitting image. It’s like he’s a mini Walking Dildo. Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it? I bet there is nothing mini about any of the males in Noah’s family.

After saying hi to everyone, Daniel wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in to his side, lightly kissing my temple. It’s one of my favorite Daniel-isms. It makes me feel cherished, so I instantly relax.

“So how’s work been, Danny Boy?” Thomas pipes up.

“Really busy, but profitable, and that’s what matters,” he replies, still holding me to his side.

“And how about you, Mac? What do you do for a job?” Cade asks, turning the attention back to me.

I smile. Questions like this I can answer. “I’m a nurse at Northwestern.”

“Ah, so you work with Taylor then?”

“Sure do. Different floors, but we see each other occasionally,” I reply, not realizing what I’ve said until I feel Daniel stiffen momentarily beside me.

Knowing that I’m digging myself into a hole, I decide to extricate myself from the situation.

“Will you excuse me for a moment? I’m just going to find the bathroom,” I say, trying to move away from Daniel and turn towards the house.

“Hey,” he says quietly, holding onto my hand and squeezing gently. “Are you okay?” He looks concerned.

“Definitely. I won’t be long,” I say as he lets go of my hand and I walk away from the group.

When I finally find one, I lock the door and put the lid down on the toilet. I pull out my phone and call Kate.

“Yo, bitch,” she says when she answers.

“I need to freak out, vent, you know, get some shit out of my head.”

“Go,” she says instantly.

“Okay. So we’re at Noah’s house which, by the way, is totally over the top cool. I’m talking marble floors, staircases, a huge ass swimming pool with a freaking waterfall at the side. Noah’s already caught Daniel and I making out in his entrance way, and then they were both checking out my ass which was totally understandable because I have a tight ass, but still, not the point. Anyway, so Daniel introduces me to his friends that are here, and they’re all really nice, and one of them is like eleven months pregnant by the looks of her, and she’s looking up at her hubby Dave like they’re newlyweds and it’s really cute, and Daniel almost introduced me as his girlfriend but stopped himself, then I totally put my foot in my mouth by saying that I work with Noah, but I see him occasionally which Daniel totally misunderstood because I wasn’t meaning like that, but I know he took it like that, and now I’m hiding out in the bathroom pretending to pee and talking to you on the phone, trying to work out how the hell I got here and how to get through this without putting my foot in my mouth again, or pissing Daniel off, or hurting him, or getting annoyed by Noah who, by the way, is totally different outside of the hospital apparently because he lives in a fucking suburban paradise with a freaking waterfall.”

I take a second to catch my breath since I swear I didn’t stop to breathe at all during that verbal tirade.

Kate is giggling her tits off down the phone at me.

“Don’t laugh. This is serious,” I say, trying to stifle my own laughter.

“Mac, seriously, this is funny shit. I wish I’d recorded that because as far as rants go, that was epic.”

I give up trying to hold back, and crack up laughing. “Oh my God, Kate, seriously! What am I going to do?”

When she finally composes herself, I hear a deep breath over the phone. “Mac, you need to tell Inner Mac to put her big girl panties on and suck it up. Daniel’s friends sound nice and yes, you probably did put your foot in it, but by the sounds of it you’re doing fine. Just go with it, Mac. Enjoy yourself, enjoy Delicious Daniel, and relax.”

Sighing over the phone, I feel my whole body loosen, almost like her words were the salve I needed. “God, I love you,” I tell her.

“I know. Who else would put up with you?”

“Exactly!” I reply with a giggle.

“Now enough about you and your rant. Any hot single guys there?”

“Well, there is Noah’s younger brother…”

“There’s a mini walking dildo?”

“Well not so mini, but yes, he’s hot too. Serious potential there, but not sure of his single status,” I add.

“Hook a sister up. Find out his deets, and we’ll have a full debrief in the morning. Are you staying at Daniel’s tonight?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan, so you’ll be able to have a peaceful night’s sleep. No screaming orgasms, I promise,” I say with a smile.

“Hell, Mac, if I can’t have them, I’m glad you are. I love you. See you tomorrow, babe.”

“Definitely. See ya,” I say before ending the call.

“Mac?” I hear Daniel call out from the other side of the door. “Are you okay?”

I stand up and unlock the door, opening it to find him leaning against the doorway, brows furrowed.

“I’m fine. What’s wrong?”

He steps inside and closes the door behind him before pulling me into his chest and wrapping his arms around me.

“You were having a freak out, weren’t you?” he murmurs into my hair as I snuggle in closer to him.

“Nooooooo,” I say quietly, earning a chuckle that I feel rumbling in his chest.

He slides his hands up onto my shoulders and pulls away to look down at me. “Mac, we’ve been seeing each other for six weeks now. I’m learning the signs of a Mac freak out, and right now you’re showing all of them,” he explains giving me a knowing smile. “So let’s start again. Why are you freaking out?”

“I didn’t want to embarrass you, and then I did by saying that I see Noah occasionally, and I felt you tense, and then I felt guilty because I used to sleep with him, but I don’t anymore because all I want to do is sleep with you!”

There, I said it!

He pulls me in tight again, wrapping his arms around my back.

“Gorgeous, I kinda already knew that, but I like hearing you say it again. And you didn’t embarrass me, nobody knows anything. Noah only told us about the nurse he was sleeping with to get us off his back. All I want is for you to relax and have fun. Have a drink or two...wind down and just enjoy this. Enjoy us socializing together. There’s no pressure. My friends aren’t like that. You can just be your adorable, funny, sometimes crazy, self, and they’ll love you. I swear.”

Dammit, is there anything wrong with this man?

I’m stunned by the total sincerity in his eyes when I look up at him. He’s being totally honest. He really does want me here with him, with his friends, socializing.

“Okay,” I summon up everything I want to say in that one word.

“Okay,” he repeats, moving his hands up to cup my jaw. “But before we go out, I have to do this.” He lowers his mouth to mine and slowly inches his tongue along my lips. It’s a Daniel special: mind-blowing, erotic as hell, and successfully stoking the fire he started six short weeks ago when we met and that burns hotter than ever today.

Daniel and I head back outside and walk towards a table next to Noah and a few of the others I met earlier.

“Help yourselves to the food, guys,” Noah says, handing us a plate each.

After piling our plates, we take a seat and start eating. “Damn, this is good shit,” I say as I finish my last mouthful.

“I’m not just a pretty face, Mac,” Noah replies with a grin which I return.

“I never said you had a pretty face,” I retort.

“Nice. So how’ve you been, Mac? We haven’t had many shifts together lately,” Noah asks, handing us a beer each and sitting down opposite us.