My Only - Alex & Jamie (28 page)

Where was a throw pillow when you needed one?

Alex looked at his watch, which he now wore on his right hand due to the cast he was still sporting on his left. It read seven p.m. It had only been twelve hours since Jamie left his house this morning but he felt like he hadn’t seen her in days.

He knew that she was meeting with Katie that afternoon. When he had texted her to see how it went she had replied that Katie had suggested mediation and that they were waiting to hear back from the Remingtons' attorney. She seemed upbeat in her text but he knew that Jamie always put on a brave front. He needed to see her and make sure for himself that she was okay.

As he walked up to the hostess stand he saw that Talia was working. She and Alex had hooked up a few times, including the night before his accident. She was tall, beautiful and had and an amazing body. But looking at her now, Alex wondered what the hell he had been doing with her.

Now that he had met Jamie, his old life seemed like a joke to him. He realized how lucky he was to have found her. He knew how special and rare what they shared was.

He understood Jamie’s reluctance to be out in the open about their relationship. If it was up to him, he would shout it from the rooftops, post it on Facebook, tweet it on Twitter, and make a YouTube video illustrating their relationship status. But, he understood that she had a lot more on the line than he did, and he was going to do everything in his power to convince her that he was worth the risk.

“AHHHH!” A high pitched squeal rang out as soon as Talia spotted Alex.

His ears were still ringing when she ran around the hostess stand and flung herself in to his arms. He just stood there, not wrapping his arms around her, while she hung on him. When she didn’t immediately move away, he patted her back a couple of times before stepping away from her.

She clapped her hands excitedly, “Oh my gosh! It’s so good to see you! I had to work the night of the Festival otherwise I would have been
first
in line at your booth.”

“Oh, thanks.” Okay, this felt awkward. Talking to women used to be a lot easier, he thought. Now he just wanted to get the hell away from her.

“Well,” she purred suggestively, “I’m off in a couple of hours and I have a booth at my house I can show you.”

“Actually, I can’t. I’m here to see Jamie. Could you sit me in her section?” he asked. He made sure to include a friendly smile, hoping it would soften the blow.

Talia’s gaze turned icy cold, “You’re still seeing her?”

“Jamie and I are friends,” Alex firmly explained.

“You know she has a kid, right? Did she tell you that?” Talia sounded exactly like one of his brothers when they were kids and they would tattle on each other to their dad.

“Yes, I know she has a kid.” Alex was quickly losing his patience. He thought that he had been doing better with that, but apparently, that had more to do with Jamie and Joey and less to do with him.

She huffed and put her hands on her hips, “And you’re
still
seeing her? That’s gross. She probably has stretch marks.”

He wanted to tell Talia that yeah, she did, and they were the sexiest thing he had ever seen in his life, but he really didn’t think that Jamie would appreciate him sharing that, so instead he just stepped around Talia, informing her that he would wait for Jamie at the bar.

The Grill’s downstairs dining area boasted a small bar that backed up against floor to ceiling windows overlooking the river. So that when you were seated at the bar, you had an amazing view. He had always loved the river at night. He could sit for hours and watch the water as it shimmered brightly from the glow of the moonlight.

He found an open bar stool and was happy to see that Chris was working tonight and not Desiree. He didn’t need to deal with any more ‘Talia’ moments, plus he had always liked Chris. He thought he was a good guy.

Alex ordered a beer and waited to catch sight of Jamie. As Chris set the beer down in front of him he asked, “How you doin’ man? You had us all worried.”

“I’m doing good,” Alex said as he brought the bottle to his mouth and took a swig.

“So, when you were in the hospital, Jamie was your nurse, right?” Chris asked as he filled orders for several other patrons.

“Yep,” Alex answered. He did not have a good feeling about where this was going.

“What’s her deal, man? I’ve asked her out like fifty times, and I keep getting shot down.” Chris said as he walked back over from delivering the drinks he had just mixed.

“Maybe you should take the hint,” Alex said taking another, longer, swig of his beer.

“Yeah, but I know a couple of other guys that have tried and they got the same answer I did.” Chris posted up against the back of the bar, crossing his arms.

Apparently this conversation was going to be long enough that he needed to lean. Great. Alex was really wishing he could have just gotten seated in Jamie’s section. He scanned the dining room again, but didn’t see her.

“She ever say anything to you about 'not dating'?” Chris made quotation marks with his fingers.

“Oh my God, Alex!” He heard Tiffany’s voice from behind him before he had a chance to answer Chris.

He did not want to deal with her right now, but knew he couldn’t avoid it. He turned, casually greeting her. “Hey, Tiff.”

“Oh my gosh. I stopped by when I heard you were home but your scary brother told me to leave.” She put out her lip, pouting.

Alex seriously wanted to kick his own ass for
ever
hooking up with girls like this. How had he not seen them for who they really were before? Had he really been that shallow?

“Alex! Alex!”

He looked up and saw KiKi and Brenda walking toward him. Yep, he might as well face facts. He had been one shallow asshole.

“Alex, how are you feeling? You look good,” Kiki said as she raked her eyes up and down him.

Alex felt like his emotions had been on a roller coaster ride over the last ten minutes. First he was shocked, then he moved firmly into embarrassment, that quickly shifted to anger, which had rapidly disintegrated into humiliation at his behavior. Why hadn’t his brothers kicked his ass for hooking up with these girls?

That gave him an idea. He needed to call in back-up. He pulled out his phone to send an SOS.

“Aleeeeex,” KiKi whined.

“What?” He looked up placing his phone back in his pocket.

“I asked how you're feeling,” she breathed, leaning closer to him.

Brenda and Tiffany must have taken KiKi’s actions as a challenge because they moved closer as well.

“I feel good,” he said, leaning back a little further away from them, suddenly feeling a little outnumbered.

“Yes,” Brenda said as her hand ran up his thigh, “You do feel good.”

He jumped at her touch and stood, deciding he needed to get the hell out of there. But as soon as he was on his feet he saw Jamie standing behind the three girls. Oh shit, he knew what this looked like. He had to make her see that there was nothing going on.

“Jamie…” He started to try and explain.

She shook her head a little, then looked up at him and smiled.

Nudging her shoulder between Kiki and Brenda, she said pointedly, “Excuse me.”

They moved and she lifted up on her tiptoes, held his face in her hands and kissed him. Hard. He was so shocked it took him a second to respond but then he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. Harder.

When she pulled away she looked flushed and her lips were swollen from their kiss.

“I’m on my break, do you want to come out on the patio with me?” she asked.

“Hell yes, I do.” He took her hand and started leading her to the enclosed patio that was only open on the weekends.

As they made their way through the restaurant he realized that, other than the low jazz music that always played, it was silent. No talk, no movement, no eating. He looked around and saw that every patron in the place was staring at them.

“Alex.” Jamie said under her breath as she tugged on his hand.

He hadn’t meant to stop walking but he had.

“Sorry.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. Then, moving quickly, guided them to the patio.

--- ~ ---

The second the patio door clicked shut, Alex had Jamie spun around and pressed up against it. He held her wrist behind her back with his ‘good’ hand and lifted his ‘cast’ hand so it was resting on the door beside her head. She felt his fingers as he lightly moved them through her hair, their tips grazing her scalp.

Damn, she loved how that felt. She closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation of his touch.

“So I guess this means we’ve gone public,” he said, leaning so close she could feel the heat of his breath on her face.

She opened her heavy-lidded eyes to his, “Yep, I guess so.”

“Want to tell me why?” Alex asked as he kissed each corner of her mouth.

“Why? Are you complaining?” She knew he wasn’t, but still.

He laughed a little as he continued pressing soft kisses on her lips, “Not at all, I just wanted to know what inspired your decision.”

“You looked like you needed saving,” she said, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of his firm body pressed against hers as he held her against the hard door.

“Really?” he asked before pulling her bottom lip between his and running his tongue along it from left to right. It sent a thrill down her body as her center started pulsing.

She moaned softly, “Yes, really.”

He released her wrist from behind her back. His large hand covered her hip, gripping it tightly as his thumb worked its way beneath her baby doll t-shirt each waitress was required to wear. She felt him running the roughened pad of his thumb against the soft skin just above the waistline of her jeans.

“So you were saving me, huh? It had nothing to do with you being jealous?” he asked as his fingers slid around to her backside and began digging into her, kneading erotically, shooting her arousal level through the roof.

“You looked scared to death, and no I wasn’t jealous…” she said as her breathing became ragged, “I just didn’t like that those girls thought they could touch you”

“I don’t want them to touch me. I only want you to touch me, and I wasn’t scared.” He slid his hand up beneath the back of her shirt and started making lazy circles on her lower back.

Jamie felt herself getting weak in the knees and very turned-on. She decided two could play at this game.

Raking her nails up Alex’s strong jean-clad thighs, she stopped at his hip and asked, “You weren’t scared?”

Smiling a mischievous grin he said, “Maybe I was a little scared.”

“That’s what I thought.” She chuckled as she ran her hands up and under his shirt splaying her hands over his rippling abs that felt warm to the touch. “I’m glad that you only want me touching you because I plan on doing a lot of that.”

Heat flared in his emerald green eyes as he bent his head and nipped at the sensitive spot right beneath her ear. She loved the way his stubble felt against her skin. It made everything he did with his mouth feel even more intense.

“I think those girls know not to touch me now. You marked your territory,” he said between the kisses he was trailing down the side of her neck.

“Good,” she said breathlessly as she ran her hands around his torso, spreading them across his powerful, muscular back.

“Come to think of it maybe I should mark mine,” he said as he lightly started sucking on her neck.

She instantly jumped away from him and grabbed her neck, “Don’t you dare.”

His lips were twitching as if he wanted to laugh as he innocently asked, his brow furrowed, “What?”

“That’s not funny Alex,” she said playfully swatting his arm. “Why did you do that?”

He pulled her into his arms and gave her one of his Alex-Sloan-All-Access smiles, “Because if you had kept touching me like that, making those sweet moaning sounds you do when I’m buried deep inside you, I would’ve come in my pants.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You could have just told me to stop.”

“Why would I do that?” he said as he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, “When you look so cute when you get all shocked and shaken.”

She felt her lips purse and her nose scrunch, “I’m not cute.”

He dipped his head down and placed a kiss on the tip of her nose, “Yes, you are cute.” Then he kissed her forehead, “and sexy,” he kissed her temple, “and smart,” he kissed her cheek, “and sweet,” he kissed her jaw, “and sexy.”

“You said that already.”

“Did I?” He asked faux-innocently. “You
are
sexy, cute, smart and sweet. And you are also the bravest, strongest person I’ve ever known.”

Then he pressed his lips to hers and she melted against him. She loved everything about Alex, but she was quickly starting to realize that she might love his kisses the most. She felt the kiss quickly heating up to dangerous levels right before he slowly pulled away.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket.