I Love My Man (Nicole's Erotic Romance) (5 page)

He kisses my shoulder once. “I wasn’t
worried, Jess. I just don’t like seeing you all screwed sideways.”

I pull back and look at him. “Then what was
last night?” I cock my head to the side, one corner of my mouth turning
up.
 

His lips twist in a sexy smile. “Oh, yeah I
do, don’t I?”

I laugh, remembering. “Yeah, you really do.”
Embracing him, I bury my face in his soft, light brown hair, and tenderly kiss
his earlobe to whisper in it, “Guess what?”

“What?” he murmurs back, nuzzling into my
neck.

“We just said
I love you
for the very first time.”

His smile spreads against my soft skin. “We
did, but I’ve felt it since the train ride.”

My heart feels like it’s on a cloud, carried
up with gratitude for him. “I’m never letting you go.”

His arms tighten around my body. “I was just
thinking the same thing.”

MARK

Three Thousand Miles Away

 
“Mark, you’ve gotta stop with the long
face, man. You’re killing me. She’s just a woman just like every other woman.”
Brendan leans back on his bar stool and pulls his chin with body language that
says
c’mon. Get it together already
.
He’s a good friend I’ve known since college – supportive, easy-going, has
my back. He’s the type who likes to play around, have a good time, letting
nothing – and I mean nothing – come in the way of that. Especially
not love. I used to be like him. But then something happened in me. I started
to feel an emptiness, like I was missing something. The crazy party life got boring
and I started to itch for something more. So I started looking, and I’ve been
looking for a while… but it seemed like she wasn’t out there.

And then I met Nicole.

And then I lost Nicole.

Result? That little space exploded into a
gaping hole that actually hurts. And not just when I see something that reminds
me of her, it hurts even when I’m sleeping. I have no idea how I’m going to get
over this. Even as I rub my thumb up and down the cold side of my pint glass,
I’m thinking of Nicole and how she watched me do this the night we met. That
wicked, sexy smile she gave me as I asked her why she and Amber both had stared
at my stupid thumb. The way those intelligent and deeply soulful eyes danced as
she tried to think whether or not to answer me. I can’t ask Brendon why
everything I do now reminds me of her. I can ask him,
how can someone you only knew two days, inject themselves into every
day after that?
 
He’d bitch-slap
me and tell me to snap out of it.

But I can’t say nothing. “She’s not like
every woman, Brendon. She’s just not.”

A huff of air pops out of Brendon as he
loses all respect for me. He lifts his hand to the bartender – a super
sexy strawberry-blonde with what must be a push-up bra under that black low-cut
halter top. “Can we get a couple glasses of scotch, neat?”

Strawberry plants her hands on the bar and
gives Brendan a self-assured smile. “What kind, honey?”
 

Brendon looks to the bottles on the shelves
behind her, reading the labels and weighing his options. He squints and pushes
his lips to the side like he always does when he concentrates. He relaxes when
he sees what he wants, flashes her a heated stare and says, “Let’s do Oban.”

Strawberry smiles in an
I want to fuck you
way. “Good choice.” She turns and saunters to
the bottle, leans up to her tiptoes with her cute little ass in the air as she
reaches for it. And still I feel nothing.

Brendan turns his head halfway to me and
raises one eyebrow over a blue eye. “Guess what I’m doing later.”

I grin, but look down to my almost-full pint.
“Looks like the door is open.”

He gives a small chuckle, nice and discreet
so she doesn’t hear, more like halted breaths. Neither of us has ever had a
problem getting laid, but I’m not really sure what Brendan sees in the casual
sex stuff anymore. At some point you have to grow out of it.

Strawberry strolls back and plops the two
glasses in front of us like a woman who’s done it a million times. Her pour is
generous, which says it all about Brendan’s chances. The scotch is four fingers
deep when it should have been two. Yep – that door is wide open. It looks
like it’d be open for me, too, if I wanted. I thank her for the drink, but my
attitude makes it clear I’m not interested, so she focuses her smile wholly on
Brendan as he smoothly asks for her name.

“Annie,” she says from behind a beautiful
smile, tiny freckles making her even more appealing.

Brendan leans back in his chair, confidence
personified. “Annie…
I like it
.”

She holds his eyes for an extra charged
beat. “Good.” She taps the bar counter once and heads away to help other
customers, but looks over her shoulder with a seductive smile once before her
eyelashes fall to the floor.

Brendan shakes his head, taken aback. He
looks my way and whispers, “Oooohoooo. Wow. Did you see that?” widening his eyes
like a cartoon.

“I think you may have just met your match.”

He doesn’t answer me… interesting. It looks
like he’s soaking in what happened, or thinking about it. Huh. Motioning to my
glass and bringing his own up, his brows crease his forehead up. “To meeting
new women.”

I lift my glass up to tap his,
half-heartedly. We both drink a healthy sized gulp of the single malt, enjoying
the slow burn as it coats our throats. “Mmm. That’s good stuff,” I breathe,
looking at it as I turn the glass in my hand.

“Or course it is. It’s Oban.” He looks down
to the counter and points to my phone, reading. “Hey. Looks like you got an
email from a Jessica.” He gives my shoulder a slap as I jerk to look at the
screen. “Things are looking up already!”

My adrenaline explodes like someone punched
me in the chest. Sure enough, there’s Jessica’s name staring back from a
preview alert. I snatch the phone up, slide it open, and turn away from Brendan's
probing curiosity so that I can read it.

Hi
Mark. I’m sure I’m the last person you want to hear from. I’ve been a real
idiot and I wanted to write and tell you I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything
that happened and I was wrong. Yep – you read that right. I was wrong.
Here’s the thing - you really helped me when we met, and that meant something
to me. But it wasn’t fair of me to try and hold you in that space forever.
Emotions aren’t logical sometimes, am I right?

I hope
you can forgive me, and I hope you can forgive Nicole. I didn’t give her a
choice, and you might not understand how close my girlfriends and I are, but
we’re loyal to the end. That’s why she did what she did. It was my fault, not
hers. But I know her just as well as anyone does, and she really cares about
you. More than I should even be saying. Why am I saying it then? Because if
there’s a hesitation in your heart because of me, I want to rip it away and
give you guys my blessing.

Again…
I’m sorry. This time I know I really was a total spaz. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
Really… so sorry.
 
Please forgive.
– Jessica

P.S.
And if you could come back to New York as soon as you can, that would be great.
I’ll even let you slap me. Just kidding. Don’t.

My head shoots up. I’m stunned.

Brendan sets down his glass. “What’s up? You
look like you just crashed your car and won the fucking lottery at the same
time.”

I shoot up, shoving my phone in my pocket
and getting my jacket from the hook under the bar. “I have to go.”

Brendan watches me, surprised. “Hot girl
giving you a booty call?”

Ramming my arms through the sleeves of my
jacket, I jerk the zipper up. “I’m going to New York.”

“New York? Wait – what? I thought
you’re going there in a few days” His eyes register understanding as he
realizes what’s going on. “This is about that girl. But I thought her name was
Nicole, not Jessica.”

I laugh, grab a couple twenties from my
wallet and throw them on the bar. “It is. Jessica’s her friend I slept with
before I met her. And she just gave me her blessing. Jessica. Not Nicole. I
have to go win her back.”

Brendan’s jaw drops. “No shit? Way to fuckin’
go. And here I thought you’d lost your mojo.”

Grinning, I pat him on the shoulder.
“Brendan. I love you, man. I’ll see you on the flip side.”

He turns in his seat and calls after me,
“Good luck!”

As I walk fast toward the door, I give a
wave to Annie. She looks from me quickly back to Brendan, making sure he’s
still there. Relieved, she waves to me. “Have a good night!” she calls.

As I open the door and step out into San
Francisco, I can’t help but wonder if Annie might be enough woman to domesticate
my buddy, for good. Now wouldn’t that be something. But I’m not holding my
breath.

NICOLE

The Next Night

I lean in and stick a finger in his face,
leaning toward him on the tan loveseat in the back of Bubble Lounge. “Jason,
you had better be there!”

His sexy smile peeks out and he pretends to
bite my finger, but I pull it back in time with a look of warning that he best
be careful now. “Why you want me to be there if you’ve got a guy comin’ who’s
got you all hung up?”

My head pushes to the left on my neck,
eyebrows raised in annoyance. “Because you’re my friend? Hello!”

He laughs, his shoulders shaking for extra
oomph. “Alright. Alright. I’ll be there.”

The bar is surprisingly quiet tonight, it
being mid-week and relatively early. The sounds of conversation get sucked up
by the cushy chairs and benches and the deep red, brick walls warm everyone’s
skin to look inviting. It’s a perfect place to be chill and enjoy some good
company.

Crossing my legs, I stick a finger in my
martini and taste it on my skin. “Thank you for meeting me.”

“Nicole, if we’re not going to be doing it
anymore, you gotta stop licking your fingers like that.”

I laugh, covering my smile with my hand in
embarrassment. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to be sexy.”

He shakes his head and looks around the
room. “Man, that is just mean.”

“This better?” He looks over as I lift the
glass and take a normal sip.

His full lips pucker and he cocks his jaw to
the side. “Still sexy. Guess I’ll just have to deal with it, if we’re gonna be
just friends.”

I really am grateful to him, and a smile
warms my tummy. “You’ve been a really good booty call, Jason, you know that?”

He looks down, bites his bottom lip, and
looks up at me from under his brows. “You too, baby. We had a good run.”

I put my glass down, looking at him openly.
“We did.”

“So you love this guy, huh?”

I sigh, my eyelashes fluttering as my heart
turns over in my chest. “God help me, I do.”

“I haven’t been in love since high school,”
Jason mutters, looking over to the bar to avoid the intimacy of revealing such
a thing.

“What was her name?”

His thoughts travel back in time as I watch
his profile. “Maisha. Man, she was something. Broke my fuckin’ heart. She went
to college and met some other dude.” He turns to look at me, changing the
subject. “What’s your guy’s name?”

“Mark. And I broke his heart, too. So I
don’t know what’s going to happen at the show. I really don’t.”

Jason’s eyebrows fly up. “You broke his
heart already? Man, you work fast.”

I ball up a napkin and throw it at him as he
laughs through a sip of his cognac, shoulders shaking with amusement. He
finishes up the little bit that was left and licks his lips, sets the empty
glass down with a thump of finality. I can see all the signs of an exit, and
that’s fine. I want to go home and be alone tonight. My paintings were taken
away today and everything that I could be doing for the show is being done for
me. I’m feeling really anxious and excited, and more than a little scared. A
new piece has been itching to be painted. I won’t bring it to the gallery. If I
do my idea justice, I’m going to keep it at home, for just me.

“You leaving, Jason?”
 

“Yeah. But I’ll catch you at your show. I’ll
be there. That’s a promise.” He stands and dusts off his pants.

I lean back with mock astonishment. “Hey
– are you sticking me with the bill?”

He throws his shoulders up, arms bent at the
elbow like
what can I say
? “You’re
the one who asked me out. That means you pay.”

“Jason Washington! You are a crazy fool!”

“Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.” He leaves
with a cool saunter as I watch, smiling at him and shaking my head in
disbelief. Cute ass, though.

Picking up my glass again, I take a sip and
lean back on the comfy couch. Three more days to Saturday night. I can’t
believe it. The New Yorker is going to be there. Amber and Josh. A whole bunch
of people I don’t know. Mark is going to be there. Just thinking about it makes
me sad and happy at the same time, because Jess is going to be there, too, and
I haven’t figured out what to say to her… or if I even can. I’m so lost
thinking of the future, I don’t see in the present that a woman is walking up
to me wearing a too tight, too short magenta dress with heels that are
apparently too high for her to be walking around in with any sort of grace.
When she stands right in front of me and hits a pose, I see her for the first
time. My eyes go a little wide in surprise. “Can I help you?”

She leans forward with her boobs overflowing
the scoop of her dress, and says in a strong Jersey accent, “You with Jason?”