Wine, Tarts, & Sex (33 page)

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Authors: Susan Johnson

BOOK: Wine, Tarts, & Sex
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Liv was halfway to the outside door when she began to think she might have actually gotten through to the resentful, in-your-face Miss Peru. A couple more steps, and she was home free.
Just as she opened the door, a hand on her shoulder pulled her to a stop.
“Just a damned minute.”
Why me?
Liv thought. She started counting to ten, figuring she could hold it together and act like an adult if she really tried.
“Just a word of warning,” Elena said, sulky and peremptory. “Stay away from Jake.”
Liv didn’t take orders well; she spun around. “Listen, bitch. It’s not up to me who he screws. Okay?”
“Maybe it is,” a deep, familiar voice asserted.
Liv turned back, and there was Jake leaning against the corridor wall—male centerfold material in jeans and a black T-shirt—looking even hotter and sexier than she remembered. Drawing in a sharp breath, she struggled to withstand her body’s instant response to his sexually explicit gaze: the tiny flutter in her vagina, the warmth flushing her cheeks, the libidinous craving streaking through her senses.
With supreme effort, she managed to speak calmly, even as her heart was pumping wildly. “Don’t involve me in this.”
“There, you see?” Elena interposed, her smile assured. “You’re wasting your time.”
“Get the fuck out, Elena,” Jake softly said.
The explosive cursing was in Spanish, but Liv got the general idea. “If you two will excuse me,” she murmured, “I have friends waiting.” She’d worked at forgetting Jake too long to even think about returning to square one. And bottom line, with her vagina pulsing at warp speed, escape was essential.
“About those friends of yours,” Jake growled, pushing away from the wall.
Liv jerked her hand up to stop him. “Don’t you dare,” she said, heated and low, then turned and walked away as fast as spiky heels would allow.
“Can’t you see she doesn’t want you?” A high-pitched staccato rush of words, half-English, half-Spanish—and had she known, wholly in error.
“This doesn’t concern you.” Jake’s voice was so cold, Elena took a step backward. “I want you on a plane to L.A. in the morning.” Spinning away, he strode toward the music and bright lights, not entirely sure what he was going to do. Correction. He knew what he was going to do, but he wasn’t certain he could accomplish it without the bouncers getting involved.
Catching up with Liv just short of the bar, he grabbed her hand and pulled her around. “I have something serious to say, and I’d rather say it outside.”
“Jesus, Jake, stop. I’m not up to it.” Mostly because she didn’t want her too-susceptible emotions all shook up again. “Go get it on with Elena. She wants you, and she’s hot. What are you waiting for?”
“Maybe she’s not as hot as you.” He could be rude, too.
“Is that a compliment? I can’t tell.” Snide, arch words.
“Give me a minute, and I’ll make it real clear,” he brusquely replied.
“
No, no, no, no!
I don’t know how much plainer I can
be
!”
“Is this dude bothering you?”
A guy who looked like he could lift a Mack truck was in Jake’s face.
“Fuck off,” Jake snarled.
Liv glanced at the towering man, then at Jake, who was clearly out of his weight class, and her survival instincts kicked in. “Are you crazy?” she said, jerking on Jake’s hand. Turning to her world wrestling knight errant, she said with a supercordial smile, “I’m really fine. We were just having a little disagreement.”
Jake could have ignored Liv’s conciliatory overture and said,
Bring it on
, to the guy on steroids. He could break a cement block with his hand and any number of other black-belt maneuvers. But given this incredible opportunity, he said instead, “It was entirely my fault we were arguing. Sometimes I just can’t keep it together.” Turning back to Liv, he murmured, “I’m sorry, babe. What d’you say we kiss and make up?”
He knew better than to wait for an answer.
He also knew what that flush on her cheeks meant, and it had nothing to do with anger. Bending low, he kissed her—no hands and gently, gently, until she swayed forward the merest distance. As the warm softness of her breasts brushed his chest, he drew her into his arms, understanding what her tacit acquiescence implied.
She hadn’t meant what she’d said.
She wanted what he wanted as badly as he.
Oblivious to their audience, they gave in to their long-deprived desires, to weeks of privation, to necessitous appetites, their kiss prolonged, protracted, and in due time sweetly conciliatory. When they finally came up for air, the crowd around them broke into applause and cries of “Get a room!” rang out.
“Can we leave now?” Jake murmured.
“Will your girlfriend let you?” She couldn’t resist.
“Smart-ass. I might ask the same of you.” He nodded toward the bar. “There’s a helluva lot of guys over there.”
“I was going to draw straws tonight.”
“You wouldn’t have made it to the door.”
She smiled up at him. “I love it when you go all cave man on me.”
He grinned. “I know what you love, babe. Believe me, I’ve been thinking about it nonstop for three weeks. Want me to drag you outta here?”
“Tempting, but under the circumstances”—she glanced around—“we should probably be discreet.”
He laughed. “I didn’t know you did discreet.”
Her brows flickered. “I have my moments. Let me say good-bye to Shelly, and then we’ll go.”
“Your place or mine?”
“You’re not alone—right?”
“I’ll kick them out.”
She just loved how he casually offered her the world. He didn’t equivocate; he did as he pleased. Or in this case, how she pleased. “If you don’t mind the drive, let’s go to my place.”
“I’m not the one who usually can’t wait. You sure you can make it? We could check into a hotel.”
“I like waking up in my own bed.”
“Done deal, babe. You talk to Shelly, I’ll give Eduardo a heads-up.”
“She might put a hex on you.”
“She would have already if she could. Don’t sweat it. I can handle Elena.”
Liv almost said,
I’ll go over there with you
, but restrained herself. It was a rare totally adult moment apropos her out-of-control passions for Jake Chambers. She’d been pretty much in the grip of demon desire since she’d met him, and now, look, she was acting all grown-up. “See you in five,” she said with a smile.
He gave her a quick, assessing look as though trying to gauge her bland expression. “You sure? Come with me if you want.”
“I really don’t want to.” She liked that she meant it. No jealousy, no paranoia, no doubt he’d be back.
“Gotcha.” Bending low, he dropped a light kiss on her cheek and walked away.

 

Forty-two
“Was she mad?”
The valet was bringing up the car. Jake looked at Liv blankly for a moment before the identity of
she
registered. “I didn’t notice,” he casually said. “Elena’s going back to L.A. in the morning anyway. Eduardo’s taking over for me for a while.”
Sweet, sweet, sweet
, Liv thought, trying not to openly gloat. “For a while, how nice,” she said, politely, when she was really thinking she finally understood the true meaning of the phrases,
on top of the world
,
on cloud nine
,
happy as a lark
, et al.
He smiled at her bland reply. “You bet your ass, it’s nice. The way I’m feeling right now, I may not let you out of bed for a month.”
She blushed, his look so scorching it sent shock waves through her body. “Except for work; I have to work,” she murmured, trying to keep some perspective on her life, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “I don’t have time for a holiday right now unless you help me out.”
“No problem. I’ll help you do all kinds of things, babe,” he said, husky and low.
“You two have yourselves a good time,” the valet said with a wink, having overheard Jake’s remark.
Jake grinned. “Thanks, man.”
The men exchanged keys and money, Jake helped Liv into the car, and minutes later they were on the freeway north.
Jake was holding Liv’s hand, their arms resting on the console between them. A song about love lost and found was quietly playing in the background, and if it was possible to measure happiness, the aggregate sum in the car would have been off the charts.
“I’ve never felt this good in my whole life,” Liv murmured, smiling at Jake.
“Ditto here, babe,” Jake said with a smile so sweet it could have been packaged by Hershey.
“One sure can’t plan, can one? I mean, fate sometimes takes a hand, doesn’t it?” She squeezed his hand. “Who knew you’d be at Quantum tonight?”
Since he’d been there almost every night lately, he did. But he understood what she meant. “We should probably send Shelly a thank-you gift.”
Liv smiled. “She’ll be happy enough saying
I told you so
. She’ll rub it in forever.”
“She won’t get any complaints from me. Or from Eduardo, either. He’s been giving me worried looks for a long time.”
“Wow,” she softly exclaimed. “I absolutely adore being this happy!” One person apparently could turn on that switch.
“And we’re staying that way, baby. From now on.” But even as he spoke, he knew he’d have to take a chance on wrecking that blissful state. He had to apologize for his remarks about her wine. Or did he? Could he just let it go? Could he pretend it never happened?
At some fundamental level, he knew he couldn’t. For the first time in his life, he wanted to be open and aboveboard with a woman—a shocking admission from a man who had preferred obtuseness in all his previous female relationships.
But Liv was different—better in every conceivable way—important to his damned peace of mind, not to mention his sex life and general happiness.
“I want to apologize for what I said about your wines,” he said bluntly, going for broke. “It was rude of me and wrong and insulting. And I couldn’t be more sorry.”
“Thanks. I suppose I didn’t have to get all bent out of shape, either. Everyone has different tastes.” She smiled. “And selfishly, I like my wines, so what other people think doesn’t matter.” She’d had plenty of time in the last three weeks to assess the comparative value in holding a grudge or getting what she wanted—in her case, orgasm-wise, contentment-wise, maybe even love-wise. And seriously, she knew wines pretty damned well, and hers weren’t all that bad.
“Still, I could have been—”
“Less of a liar?” she said, her brows raised.
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t want to piss you off. That’s my only excuse. It’s not a good one, I know, but I’m more than willing to do penance. And as far as your wines go, teach me about them. I’d like to learn.”
“Ummm . . . penance: what a nice idea,” she said with a grin. “I’ll have to start my list.”
Jake laughed. “Christ, you’re making it sound pretty damned good. I wish we’d had this talk sooner. I could have saved myself three weeks of feeling like shit.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
Her directness caught him off guard. “I suppose,” he said, debating how best to answer, weighing tact and honesty against her possible response, “I was trying to tell myself that I could live without you. I figured I’d gut it out, my craving for you would go away, and everything would be as it was.”
“Would you have
ever
called?”
He didn’t answer for such a long time, she tried to pull her hand away. But he held on tightly, and when he spoke, it was clear he was trying to find the right words. “I’ve never before . . . felt the way I do about you. It’s like waking up on another planet and trying to get your bearings in a whole new landscape. But I would have figured things out eventually. I sat at the end of your driveway a couple times at three in the morning, wanting you so badly I could taste it. So, sure, I would have called. For one thing”—he grinned—“I couldn’t be celibate forever, and no other woman appealed to me. That’s one powerful incentive.”
“So this is about sex?”
He gave her a narrowed look. “You trying to start a fight?”
“So it’s not just about sex.”
“Is it for you?”
This time she didn’t answer for a lengthy interval. “No,” she finally said.
He half-smiled. “It’s not so easy, is it?”
“No.” She nibbled on her lip for a moment. “It’s not just fun and games this time. It’s not even close.”
“Exactly. We’re mapping uncharted territory—right?”
She finally smiled, a real smile, not one that you could have offered to just anyone. A warm, for-you-alone, loving smile. “We’ll have to make sure we don’t fall off the end of the earth. But despite all the unknowns, I’m happy I walked into Quantum tonight.”

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