Finding Us (8 page)

Chapter 8

“Dude, I think you nailed it
last night,” Ross said over coffee the next morning.

I’d called him early to meet me at Starbucks (no, not
that
Starbucks) because I wanted to get a feel for how El was taking things.

“Yeah? Think I’m getting through to her?” I asked, hopeful.

“Well, compared to the night before, this one was aces.”

“
Hell, a root canal would’ve been aces compared to that night,” I mumbled.

“No shit,” he agreed.

“I appreciate all you’ve done to help me out, man. Couldn’t have still been in the doghouse without you,” I said laughing.

“Any time, bro,” he said back, laughing along with me.

“But, hey, wanted to throw this out there if you’re interested. You’re majoring in sports management, so when you’re ready, I’ll be needing a new agent if you’re interested.”

He sat back
so fast, it was as if I’d touched him with an electrical wire. “Are you serious?” He looked at me, a mix of emotions on his face. “Damn, Jag! That’d be awesome! We’d be back! Lewis and Clark at your service!” We both laughed again.

He was referring to a nickname we’d been given in high school from Coach Martin, our baseball coach. Ross and I’d ridden together to a scrimmage our sophomore year and had gotten lost, not finding the field until an hour after the damned thing had started. Coach was pretty pissed that his first string battery (pitcher and catcher) were late and he’d started yelling at us, sarcastically calling
us Lewis and Clark because we couldn’t find our way, and it’d stuck. We were never clear on which of us was Lewis or which was Clark, we just knew when he yelled it out, he meant us.

And
I’d been pissed at Dirk ever since he’d pulled that bullshit move on El, telling me I had to attend the party that’d been held by the company sponsoring the commercial with Alessandra, alone. As I said before, I hadn’t been happy about it, and I viewed it as huge part of what led to El and my downfall. So, when Ross was ready, Dirk would be hitting the road ASAP.

“Would I have to move to California?” he asked.

“I don’t care where you live,” I said with a grin. “As long as you do your part, it’s all good.”

“That’s so cool, man. Thank you.
As soon as my internship is over, I’ll be ready, I think. The guy I’m with is great. Bad thing is, he’s set me up at a modeling agency in the Artist Management division. No, I don’t get to work with hot models.” He answered my look of surprise. “I help negotiate deals with various companies on behalf of the agency. But it’s good experience. Damn, Mom and Dad are gonna flip out not to mention Rebecca. You’re gonna earn a gold star with her on this one.”

God, I hoped so. Every guy knows his girl’s best friend’s approval is up there with
gaining Nirvana or some shit. I just hoped he was right.

I’d been downgraded to a Class B
stalker. Welcome to my world.

Later that morning,
I was on Northwestern’s campus trying to figure out where El was having class. What can I say? I was bored. Since the campus was right on Lake Michigan, and there was, of course, a breeze coming off it, shock, I know, that that was actually occurring in the Windy City, I was freezing my ass off. Mom had taught me well because I even had on layers, but the t-shirt covered by a Dodgers hoodie all under a fatigue jacket just wasn’t getting it done. I had on a beanie to keep the old braincase warm, but had to shove my hands deep into my jeans pockets since I hadn’t brought gloves. Who knew it’d be eight billion degrees below zero in October. Jesus.

As I walked, I called Ross to ask if he kn
ew what building El might be in. I’d kind of gotten her schedule for the day. Okay, I’d absolutely gotten her schedule and knew what she’d be doing pretty much unto the hour, but I hadn’t planned anything beyond just watching her. Sick, I know. When he told me the physical therapy school was in Chicago and not Evanston, I hissed out a
What?
and wanted badly to punch a freshman who was walking by, making him look warily at me as he took a wide berth around me. Probably would’ve just broken my stupid, frozen hand anyway.

Ross gave me
the address of the school and I headed back to my SUV and drove south.

And shock again. This campus was
just off North Lake Shore drive, which was, of course, right on the lake too. Guess I’d gotten used to the warmer weather in LA and had turned into a pussy.

I found the right building then, like the creeper that I was,
and parked and waited. It wasn’t long before I saw her coming out with a guy and she was being awfully friendly with him. Shit. They stood and talked for a couple minutes before she tiptoed up, kissed his cheek then with a little wave and a smile walked toward where she’d parked her car.

Uh. What?

What the fuck was that? I watched the guy through narrowed eyes as he watched her walk away, a little grin on his face, and figured he was some sort of assistant professor because he looked to be around my age. He was also totally take-downable, being around five foot ten or so and maybe weighing one-eighty. I had a good four inches on him and twenty more pounds of muscle, so I knew I could take him, but what the hell was going on here?

I knew El had to go back to her apartment to change for work, so I
started my rental and drove that way, not bothering to try to follow her since I knew her destination. I took my time, trying to figure out if in the fucking
month
that she’d been home, she’d started dating that guy.

When I pulled up at her apartment complex, I saw that her Jetta was there, so I got out and went to her door. I almost just barged in using the key Ross had given me, but didn’t think that’d go over very well with her, so I knocked and waited.

The surprised look on her face that turned to disappointment totally pissed me off when she opened the door.

“Oh,” she said when she saw me.

Oh? That guy got a kiss and I get a goddamned
Oh
? Nope. Don’t think so.

“Who was that guy, El?” I
snapped, the anger simmering inside me just a tad below the surface.

Her eyes got big. “What guy?” she asked, looking like I’d totally caught her cheating, which was pretty much what’d happened.

I pushed my way into her apartment and she mumbled sarcastically, “Come on in.”

I
turned to face her after she’d closed the door. “The guy you were fucking kissing outside of your school?” I yelled.

Now, the funny thing was, she’d always been the one to get louder when we argued and I was
always the one trying to get her to chill, but now all bets were off. Some asshole was trying to move in on my territory. So not fucking happening.

“You were at my school? What, are you stalking me now?” she asked with a surprised, and condescending, I might add, huff
, looking at me as if I were insane.

“Who is he?” I growled.

She turned to walk into the living room more then turned back to me. “His name is Jeremy.”

My eyes pierced hers as I waited for her to continue.

She sighed, looking down at the floor. “I met him my sophomore year. He was in his first year at the physical therapy college, and he helped me with some stuff.”

My turn to huff. “Yeah, I’ll just bet he did.”

Her eyes sliced to mine. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, you’ve been all over my dick about me cheating with Alessandra, and here you were the entire fucking time with this fucker in your back fucking pocket!”

She scowled. “Are you crazy?”

“Yeah, I think I just might be,” I said, lunging at her and grabbing her by the upper arm.

“Jag!” she yelled, trying to wrench her arm away.

“Are you seeing him?”

She stopped pulling on her arm and looked up at me, asking snottily, “And what if I am?”

And that did it. I grabb
ed her by the other arm and jerked her body into mine. “You’re mine, goddamn it!” I bit out before slamming my mouth to hers.

She fought me for a few seconds before I felt her body
relax then melt into me, her hands moving up to wrap around my neck as a low moan left her throat. She pulled my cap off my head, and I had no idea where it landed because I was too busy yanking her sweatshirt and the t-shirt that was under it off, my hands moving to cup her breasts over her bra. Her hands moved down and inside my coat to push it off my shoulders next before I crashed my lips to hers again.

Before I knew it, I
’d unzipped her jeans, pulling them down along with her panties, freeing one of her legs after tugging off her boot. I reached behind my neck to pull my hoodie and t-shirt off, as she unzipped my jeans, shoving them and my boxer briefs down past my hips to free me, wrapping her hand around my length.

I bent and
slammed my mouth to hers again then reached my hand under her leg, hitching it up to the side of my hip. Pushing her back against the wall as she wrapped her arms around my neck again, I grabbed my cock and found her opening, ramming up inside her so hard, I thought I’d come at just feeling her around me again, at hearing her gasp as I filled her.

“Fuck!” I
rasped out, plunging inside her again and again, already feeling the twinges of her core gripping me as her climax built. “Fuck yeah, El, give it to me, baby. Let me feel you,” I grated, my mouth coming down on hers again, my tongue finding hers to tangle frantically with it.

She then tore her lips from mine as her hands moved up to thread through my hair and she pulled hard, her neck arching back, her head hitting the wall as she screamed out my name when her orgasm ripped through her.

“That’s it, baby, God, yes,” I hissed, driving up inside her hard and fast, filling her completely, burying myself to the root each time I drove into her hot slickness that surrounded me, milked me.

I slowed my movements
then and felt her trembling against me. Damn. Cupping her face in my hand, I bent to kiss her, savoring her taste, the feel of her, then moved my lips across her jaw to her neck, then to her ear.

“Love you, El. Fucking missed you, baby,” I whispered, and her low moan telling me to go faster turned me the fuck on even more than I already was.

I dropped my hands down under her ass and picked her up, her legs encircling my waist, her hands grabbing my shoulders, and pushed her against the wall and started pounding inside her faster. Jesus, she felt amazing, so fucking good.

“Oh, God!” she
breathed and tensed against me, her nails digging into my shoulders, her breath catching, and I felt her insides spasm around me again when another climax surged through her making her cry out.

I
felt myself peaking then and pumped faster, moving her roughly up and down against the wall, and roaring out a curse, I came hard. I dropped my head and rested my forehead on her shoulder, as we stood there breathing heavily, our sweat-slick bodies moving as one.

After several seconds,
I pulled back and looked at her, surprised at what’d just happened but also happy as hell that it had, and leaned in to kiss her long, soft and wet.

But
when I felt her body stiffen before she pulled away, I knew the moment was over.

“Put me down, Jag,” she whispered.

I looked into her eyes to see them shining with tears not yet spent and let her legs drop, hating not still being joined with her any longer when I slid from inside her.

She bent to put her leg insi
de her jeans, pulling them up and fastening them, and in my stupor I stood there watching her for a minute before doing the same.

“El,” I began.

“No, Jag. You need to go,” she said, still whispering as if she also couldn’t believe what’d just happened between us.

Which suddenly woke me up and I began to get angry again.

She’d gone to get her shirts from the floor, pulling them back over her head, not even deigning to turn and look at me when I spoke. “El, what’s wrong?”

I walked over behind her, putting my hands on her shoulders
, and her hands came up to push them off her as she turned to face me. “You need to leave, Jag.”

I wasn’t understanding
this. To me, what’d happened was a good thing, a step in the right direction between us. And I told her so.

“You don’t
get it.”

And h
earing that for the fifty thousandth time was enough. I was so tired of hearing that I didn’t get it, so I just went ballistic on her.

“Fucking
Christ! Here we go with that again!
I don’t get it?
You think I don’t get it? Let me tell you, I
totally
get it, El! I get it! Believe me! I fucking get it!” I threw my arms up, exasperatedly.

She stood looking at me and I saw her swallow roughly
as she shook her head. “I don’t think you do.”