Yours (3 page)

Reaching for a packet on the nightstand, Javier kept his eyes on Teresa while sliding the condom on. Then with one swift thrust, he welcomed her to the new day.

Teresa exited the bedroom fully dressed and spotted a shirtless Javier in the kitchenette drinking from a coffee mug. He looked devastatingly handsome in his worn jeans.

“Want to order breakfast in or go out and get something to eat?” he asked. He knew Americans loved big, hearty breakfasts.

Teresa shook her head and reached for her bag. “I better go.”

“Why? If you don’t want to go out, we can order room service.”

“No, I should go now. No need to drag out what this really is.”

He set down the mug and braced his palms on the counter. “And what was it, Teresa?”

She wanted to curse and tell him to stop pronouncing her name like that. Each and every time the syllables rolled off his tongue, she felt her insides quiver. “It was one night,” she started. “It was just a night to indulge in uncommitted sex.”

Teresa thought she saw him flinch, but knew she misread his movement. Coolly, he lifted the mug and stared back at her, his eyes icy and sharp.

“So, umm, I better go. It’s getting late,” she said, fidgeting with her purse strap. She watched him turn to the clock on the wall noting that it was a quarter to eight.  Although Teresa had nowhere else to be that early on a Sunday morning, she didn’t want him to dismiss her. She wanted to be the one to walk away first.

When Javier didn’t respond, Teresa nodded and walked out the door. Once she was in the hallway, she had no idea that it took every fiber in Javier’s body not to run after her and beg her to stay.

Chapter
Three

Teresa slid into her favorite pair of jeans and then stepped into a pair of heels. She stood up to check out her reflection before inserting a pair of earrings into her pierced lobes.

Once she approved of how she looked, Teresa grabbed her clutch and left the house to meet up with her friends for dinner.
She had known Cheryl and Val since high school and had become great friends with Janice through her full time job. The Friday night outing with her girls would be just what she needed to shake her funk after leaving Javier’s room early Sunday morning.

The only worry she had was wondering if she should reveal her weekend encounter to her friends or not. Her girls often teased her for her celibate lifestyle, even joking that they were creating online dating profiles to help her land a man. Little did they know that a few days ago, Javier
Fernández
made up for six years of celibacy and her body was still feeling the effect.

Two hours later, after catching up with each other
over dinner at their favorite restaurant, Cheryl, Val, Janice and Teresa decided to stop by a nearby casino. Although none of them were gamblers, the ladies occasionally popped in to listen to the deejay and people watch. Teresa periodically glanced at her friends with details about her escapade sitting on the edge of her tongue, but she decided to keep her night with Javier to herself. A memory she could recall when she needed a reminder of what it felt like to let her reservations go without anyone else judging her.

She also wasn’t ready to explain
the two issues that pushed her into his bed in the first place – she was going to be a grandmother and she needed someone to remind her she was not getting old.

Once inside, the ladies scattered the first half hour to play on random slot machines. After all of them ran through their ten-dollar spending limits, the friends met up at the bar located in the middle of the casino.

“Why didn’t you get a free drink from one of the waitresses while you were playing at a machine?” Val had asked Teresa.

Cheryl and Janice stepped away to claim a table for them.

Teresa shrugged, “I want one of the specialty drinks.”

“Free is free,” Val replied. “It takes them a long time to bring it to you, but I save money that way.”

Teresa nodded absently while searching the area for an available bartender. For a Friday night, there was a decent crowd, but it didn’t take that long to ever get service. Then she spotted a large group of people placing orders and three bartenders eagerly trying to fill the requests.

“Are you kidding me?” Teresa complained. “Those jerks see high rollers and get greedy, neglecting people like me.”

Teresa tilted her head toward the group and Val turned to see what her friend was talking about.

“Hey, you can’t knock the hustle.”

“They probably saw you standing here and figured I was trying to get a cheap drink like you always do,” Teresa teased. Just as she was about to step away from the bar, a familiar voice was heard above the group beside them.

Teresa turned and saw Javier standing on the other side of them, holding out his credit card. A beautiful woman beside him smiled up at Javier and Teresa’s heart sank.

“What are you having?” a voice called out to Teresa.

She turned and noticed someone was finally ready to take her drink order. Unable to speak, Teresa merely pointed at the menu to show the man what she wanted to order. He nodded and disappeared.

When he returned with a birthday cake martini that was covered with rainbow sprinkles, her friend Val asked, “What is that?”

Teresa shrugged. She was so thrown off after seeing Javier that she didn’t even pay attention to what she asked for.

The bartender placed a napkin in front of her and set down her drink. After he revealed the price, a card was placed on the counter top in front of her.

“Add it to my tab.”

Teresa saw Val raise an eyebrow before she could look behind her to see Javier standing there.

“It’s okay, I have it,” Teresa replied. When she reached into her wallet to pull out a bill, Javier pushed his card into the man’s hand before halting Teresa from paying. Finally, she said, “Thank you.”

“And your friend?” he asked. “Does she want anything?”

“No, Javier,” Teresa replied. She felt Val’s glare, but refused to look at her. “That won’t be necessary.”

Teresa reached for her drink and then walked to the table to join her friends.

“Who was that?” Cheryl and Janice asked collectively.

Val filled them in. “His name is Javier and he has an accent.”

“Ooh, sexy. I’m down with having a Latin lover,” Cheryl stated, pulling herself up from her chair. Val reached to push her back down in her seat.

“Oh, I think Javier is taken already. Somehow he knows our girl and I am trying to figure out why she never told us about her sexy new man.”

Teresa tried to ignore the comments being made around her, instead choosing to sip on her creamy martini and tap her leg to the beat of the music. When they all stopped speaking and stared at her, she finally gave in.

“Javier is from Spain.”

A loud
¡
Salud!
was exclaimed nearby and the ladies turned to look at the group still standing at the bar. The dozen or so men and women tossed back small glasses while clinking bottlenecks together.

“Oh, so he’s with all those Spaniards over there?” Cheryl asked.

Teresa spotted the blended group, noticing the Americans standing with a few people speaking English with thick Spanish accents. She shrugged. “I guess.”

“Wait, did you say, Javier? Why does that sound familiar?”
Cheryl asked. “Oh that’s the name I heard you say when you butt-dialed me last weekend. If it wasn’t so noisy wherever you were I could have figured out why you were laughing with the man. Girl, I’m scared of you!”

“You holding out on us?”
Janice teased.

All of a sudden, the intro to “Cupid Shuffle” blared through the speakers and Teresa’s friends jumped up from their seats not waiting to hear her response.

Teresa glanced at Javier, who had returned to the woman’s side, but noticed his eyes were focused only on Teresa.

“Come on Reese,” the ladies called out
, waving her over.

Reluctantly, Teresa looked away and joined her friends on the dance floor.

“I always wanted to learn how to do this dance,” Teresa heard beside her moments later.

Teresa looked next to her and saw the woman that Javier had been with. Noticing the
lady was beautiful and confident with a friendly demeanor, Teresa couldn’t help but respond to her. It wasn’t her fault that the woman was with a cheating dog.

“It’s easy. Just watch our feet and you will figure it out in no time,” Teresa replied, gesturing to her friends on either side of them. “Whatever you do, though, do not pay attention to the drunkards behind us. They will have you frustrated and confused.”

The woman giggled and followed Teresa’s moves. “I’m Allie.”

Teresa rarely entertained conversation at the casino. Most of the people were crazy as far as she could tell, which was why she and her friends always had a good time people watching. “Teresa.”

Teresa nearly miss-stepped when she spotted Javier now a few feet away, leaning against a railing and watching them.

“He really has his eye on you,” Teresa said nervously to the woman dancing next to her.

Stopping briefly to point at Javier, she replied, “Who Javier? That’s just my boss. I don’t think he ever smiles.”

“Oh.”

Allie leaned close to Teresa as the song changed into another familiar tune. “I think he has his eye on
you
.”

Teresa noticed the woman’s teasing smile
when she winked.

“What
dance are they doing now?” Allie asked.

Teresa quickly recovered from her reverie to answer. “The Wobble.”

“That looks hard.” Allie started to walk away from the group until Teresa called her back.

“Come on and give it a try.”

Despite Javier’s intense gaze, Teresa managed to dance without missing another step through the next three songs.

“I’m about to call it a night. It was a pleasure meeting you, Teresa,” Allie called out. She waved goodbye to Teresa’s friends before walking away to the group of people at the bar.

Teresa followed suit and returned to their table. While sipping a bottle of water she had grabbed along the way from the bar, a deep voice whispered from behind her into her ear.

“Meet me at my hotel room in
one half hour.”

Teresa turned around, but by then it was too late. Javier was already walking away.

“There are rules, Javier,” Teresa said, storming into his room.

He closed and latched the door before following her into his living room.

“Why do you keep bringing up these
rules
?” he asked.

“You can’t snap your fingers and expect me to show up in your room whenever you want some until you return back to Spain.”

Javier raised a thick brow as he leaned against the wall. “Then how did you end up here tonight?”

Too stunned to answer, Teresa looked away. She finally replied, “What do you want, Javier?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I already told you the first night you were here that I wanted you. Why do you keep questioning my intentions?”

“But you
had
me.”

“And I want more,” he said with a finality that made her know the man was serious about getting whatever it was he wanted.

Teresa chewed her lip. She hated to admit that she was just as addicted to him and wanted more, too.

Javier pushed up off the wall and reached out to pull Teresa to standing. He held her body close to his, bending slightly to keep their eyes level and letting his forehead touch hers.

“Every time you do that, I am going to have to kiss you until you stop,” he told her.

Confused, she looked at him and once again, chewed in the corner of her lower lip. “Do what?”

“That,” he said, softly touching her lips. He moved his fingers to her chin, tilting her face upward where their mouths could touch with ease. “I’m going to break you of that habit tonight.”

Javier took in her scent and couldn’t figure out what changed it. He was not always drawn to the smell of their mingled passion, but something was different this time. It was a perfume that intoxicated his senses and awakened his manhood.

The slick feel of her parted juncture wrapped around his thigh aroused him.
A first.

“Bel
,” he whispered. His sleep-laced words caused her to curl up against him and he knew she desired what he could release inside of her.

Gently raising a leg, he moved to slip his hardness deep within her soft, warm folds. Feeling her moistness, reminiscent of their passionate night together, he stroked himself absently against her until the head eased smoothly inside of her.

A soft moan escaped her sleeping face and caused him to stir into waking from his dream.

T
hat was when he realized that the woman he almost made love to was not Isabel.

Panic struck him and swiftly he moved to pull out, just as a loud banging echoed throughout the room.

Uncertain who would be knocking so hard on his hotel room door, Javier welcomed the reprieve. He could have used the time to curse out the early morning intruder, but instead Javier silently thanked them.

He didn’t know what had come over him and why he suddenly felt guilt.

Slipping on the discarded jeans from the night before, he walked to the door and abruptly swinging it open to stop the banging.

“Alejandra?” he questioned. Her angry, tear stricken face made him reach out to caress her arm. “What is it? What is wrong?”

Allie jumped back, further into the hallway to escape his touch. She finally looked up into his face and whispered harshly, “Don’t come near me.”

Making her way into his suite, Javier watched her suspiciously as she unconsciously stepped around Teresa’s tossed undergarments and his shirt. Allie quickly turned to face him, shoving papers he recognized into his chest.

“You left
this
in my car last night.”

Javier took the half folded documents, but chose to keep his eyes on Alejandra’s face. “Alejandra.”

“Do
not
call me that.” The bite in her words let him know how severely the news hurt her. “Was this why you came here? To tell me this?”

He watched her pace the length of the room before dropping onto the edge of the sofa. Javier balled up his hands and slowly released them.

“I don’t even know why I’m here,” she finally said, breaking the silence. Shaking her head, Allie stood to leave. “You should have kept your lies in Spain.”