Authors: Marilyn
What the hell? He caught himself and gave himself a mental shake.
Get the hell out of here already.
He turned from the bed and looked around for his clothes. As soon as he slipped on his shirt, the scent of her perfume, assailed his senses. Smiling, he buttoned it. Once dressed, he found leaving her far more difficult than it should have been. He stood by the side of the bed staring down at her again. She was no more beautiful now than she had been when he first looked up into her gaze the previous night. And yet he was more attracted to her than he should be given his preferences. Somehow she had managed to touch the emotions he had guarded since his divorce from his high school sweetheart five years earlier.
Why the hell are you still here gawking at her like some love struck teenage boy at the mercy of his out-of-control and raging hormones?
Despite his admonition, he found it difficult to leave without a means of contacting her again. Tearing his gaze away, he looked around the room again. Spotting her purse on the coffee table, he walked over and picked it up.
After the slightest hesitation he opened it up and reached inside for her wallet. Minutes later, he placed her purse back on the table and stalked across the room to the entrance. When he opened the door to leave, he found himself facing the man who had shadowed them from Eve’s Garden.
Fuck.
“We need to talk,” the man said.
Great. Just what he needed—a confrontation with her big, dumb, blond boyfriend. Nodding curtly, he stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind him. Blondie had better keep things civil or he’d soon find himself picking his dumb ass off the ground.
* * *
Kira woke with a sheet wrapped around her nude body and a fully clothed Mark sleeping next to her on the motel bed.
Oh hell
. He…Carter was gone. Damn. Would it have been too much trouble for him to wake her to say goodbye? Closing her eyes, she turned on her stomach. Sighing, she pressed her cheek against the pillow that retained a faint hint of his cologne.
You got what you wanted and needed last night; a one–night stand. He saw no need to say goodbye and he’s clearly moved on. It’s time for you to do the same.
But I don’t want to move on. I want to spend the rest of my life lying under his hard body with his big cock thrusting so deep inside I feel as if he’s about to split me open.
Tough shit. You’re going to move on.
“Are you all right?” Mark asked suddenly.
She should have been more than all right considering this was the first morning she’d awakened feeling sexually satisfied in over seven months. But she wasn’t. “I’m fine,” she lied. “How are you?”
“I feel like I could sleep the whole day,” he said, after an extended pause.
Damn. Her lie hadn’t deceived him, but thankfully he apparently didn’t intend to challenge her. “Then do,” she told him. “You deserve it after staying up all night watching out for me. I’ll get up and reserve this room for another night so you can sleep undisturbed.”
“Are you sure? Do you need to talk?”
Talking would do little to alleviate the unexpected disappointment and dull ache she felt. “We can talk later – after you’ve slept.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
He settled against the mattress. Moments later she heard his deep even breathing.
She lay beside him with her eyes closed, reliving every moment of her night with the handsome stranger she would never see again. She had a feeling she’d be thinking about him for weeks before she was able to dismiss him and forget their night together.
* * *
The last thing Carter expected or wanted to see when he arrived home, was a nude Jill sleeping in his bed. Technically, it was their bed, but if she thought there would be no consequences to having stood him up again and driven him into the arms of another woman, she was delusional. Her pale skinny ass was no longer welcome in his life or his bed.
Spotting her evening bag laying on the floor next to the bed, he picked it up, and removed his keys and his credit card. She sure as hell would not be using any more of his money to entertain her useless friends.
She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. A slow smile he had once found sexy and irresistible, spread across her pretty face. “There you are, handsome.” She patted the bed beside her. “Come join me.”
He sat on the side of the bed. “We need to talk.”
She slid a hand between his legs. “Why waste time talking when we could spend it doing what we do best —fucking?”
Fucking was the only thing they’ve ever done together that was good. Fortunately, he lost all interest in doing that with her. He removed her hand, placing it on the bed beside her bare thigh. “Because that’s about all that’s left between us. Talking.”
She sat up, her blue eyes wide with alarm. “Since when?”
“Since last night when you stood me up once too often in favor of spending time with your ‘friends.’”
“Last night was a mistake, but—”
“It no longer matters to me. You can now spend as much time with them as you like.”
“What?” She shook her head. “What did I miss? Why are you overreacting to my getting my dates mixed up? I thought we’d agreed to go solo last night and spend tonight together.”
The hell she did. “How many times have I heard that I-got-my-dates-mixed-up shit
?”
More importantly, how many times had he fallen for it? Or worse, how many times had he chosen to pretend he actually believed her because the sex was good and he had started to miss the convenience and intimacy of being part of a semi-committed relationship? The previous night had shown him what he should have known before—that a woman didn’t need to look like a Barbie doll to rock his world.
“The reason you didn’t show up last night no longer matters to me.”
“Okay, I stood you up and that was wrong. I apologize, but that’s no reason for threatening to end our relationship, Carter.”
“It’s not a threat. It’s a fact. It’s over between us.”
“You are so overreacting, Carter and being hypocritical. After all, where were you last night? Granted, I got home late but at least I made it home. Where were you? Let me guess. With another woman. I can smell her perfume on you!”
He gave her a cold stare. Hell would freeze over before he would deny the obvious. “What’s your point?”
“You’ve been with another woman, but you don’t see me overreacting to that fact. Do you? We’re both adult enough to accept that sometimes…situations get out of hand and we do things people in a committed relationship shouldn’t do.”
That was probably as close as she’d ever come to admitting she’d cheated. His total enjoyment of the night with Kira had taught him it was time to start dating women closer to his own age. He also needed to reshape his thoughts on what made a woman desirable. In any case, the next woman to share his bed would not be a Barbie clone or model thin. “You can smell another woman’s perfume on me because you
drove
me
into the arms of another woman. And you know what? I’m glad you did because it helped me realize that our relationship was a mistake from the word go.”
She gripped his arm. “You can’t mean that, Carter. Not after fourteen months together. I know we’ve had our ups and downs lately but surely we’ve had more ups than downs.”
“Not lately and frankly, Jill, you are just too damn young for me and too high maintenance. When I settle down again, I want it to be with a woman closer to my own age who hopefully won’t want to spend more time with her ‘friends’ than she
does with me.”
“Carter, please. You’re being unreasonable. Don’t do this. Come to bed and let me make last night right for you.”
He shook his head. He was through thinking with his cock—at least where she was concerned.
“Come to bed and I’ll give you the fuck of your life. “
Too late. He’d already enjoyed the fuck of his life the previous night. He shook his head and rose. “I have no desire to come to bed with you. It’s over, Jill.”
She stared at him, tears welling in her eyes. “But I love you!”
“You’ve had a very funny way of showing it lately. And thankfully I’m not now nor have I ever been in love with you.”
“That can’t be all you have to say to me after I tell you I love you!”
He shrugged. “Of course, I’m sorry if you’re unhappy but we both know you were never in love with me. You just liked having an older idiot finance your fun with your friends. Well the party’s over and it’s time to get a damn job and move the hell out of my house. I’ll give you two weeks to find another place to live and write a check for three months’ rent towards any reasonable amount. If you need help beyond that, you can let one of your
friends
help you.”
“You can’t mean this, Carter.”
“The hell I don’t. There’s no going back for us. It’s over and I want a new woman in my life and in my bed.”
She tossed her head angrily. “Are you standing there telling me you’ve been cheating on me before last night? That you already have another woman in mind? You were with her last night. Weren’t you?”
He dismissed a sudden and powerful thought of Kira. “Think what you like, Jill, but it’s over. There’s nothing more to say.” He walked away, ignoring the sight of her crocodile tears.
* * *
“We could go back to Eve’s Garden.”
Kira gave up picking at her salad and put down her fork. She sighed and looked across the kitchen table at the handsome male who had been her best friend since junior high school. She and Mark had shared each other’s ups and downs for the last 16 years —including a failed marriage each. There was no point in trying to pretend that she hadn’t wasted the last three weeks hoping in vain she’d walk out her door one morning to find Carter waiting to ask her out.
“What would be the point of going back there, Mark?”
“You’d get another chance to knock that big dumb brave off his oversized feet,” he told her.
That assumed that he would be there. And, if he were, that he would be interested in spending another night with her. He had come right out and told her that he had enjoyed sex with her. Yet it clearly hadn’t been enjoyable enough to move him to want to see her again. Even if she were lucky enough to maneuver him into sleeping with her again, another night with her wouldn’t make any difference to him and would probably only result in her spending even more time fantasizing about him. Not that she had any hope of spending another night with him.
“Somehow I don’t think I’m his type.”
Mark shook his head. “I don’t know what makes you think that.”
“A woman just knows when she’s a man’s type.”
Mark looked skeptical. “Does she? I don’t know about him but if I’m not interested in a woman, I don’t spend the entire night with her. He emerged looking like a man who had thoroughly enjoyed the night.”
She struggled not to allow herself to wallow in false hope. “What did he say to make you think that?”
“He didn’t
say
anything but I know a man who is sexually satisfied when I see one. And believe me, he was satisfied.”
She shrugged. “Even if that’s true, it’s time I concentrated on spending time with a man who might want a real relationship with me. That definitely leaves him out.”
He frowned. “Are you sure about that?”
Unfortunately, she was. She nodded. “Don’t you think so?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure, but if it is true, are you okay with it?”
She nodded. She had no choice. “Of course.”
“I’m sorry, honey.”
“For what?”
“Going there was my idea. If I hadn’t pushed you, you wouldn’t have met him.”
She shrugged.
“Do you regret meeting him?”
She probably should, but didn’t. She shook her head. “Not really.”
He studied her in silence for several moments.
She tensed, certain he was about to challenge the statement. If he pushed her, she would probably break down and admit that she was
not
all right with not being Carter’s type.
“So what do you want to do tonight?” he asked instead.
She relaxed. “I know what I’m not going to do–allow you to waste your Saturday night worrying about what I’m going to do with mine when I know you have a date.”
He shrugged. “It’s just a casual thing. It’s nothing I can’t cancel if you need me to.”
She stared at him. It always amazed her that some lucky woman hadn’t snapped him up again. He was handsome, considerate, and had a job that allowed him to be very generous. What could the women he’d dated lately be thinking? She nodded. “I’m a big girl, Mark. You don’t need to hold my hand anymore. I’ll be fine. Do me a favor and just please go out and enjoy yourself tonight.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I think I’ll play it by ear, but I’m leaning towards going to a movie.”
“Alone?”
She nodded. “I’ll go to the mall, do a little shopping, have a light meal, and then catch that new romantic comedy I couldn’t get you to see with me.”
“Hey you know I love you, but a man has to draw the line somewhere. I am
not
watching another chick flick with you. However, if you need to, call me and I’ll be right there.”
She nodded. “You always have been.”
“As you’ve always been for me. That’s why we’ll always be bosom buddies and lifelong pals. Right?”
Although she had a number of close relationships with females that she valued, none were as close as the one she had forged with Mark. “Always.”
He winked at her before he got up to leave.
Left alone, Kira sighed, her thoughts on Carter. What was it about him that made her so self-conscious? Although she had always been thick and lately full-figured, she had rarely lacked self-confidence. With a few exceptions, she generally managed to attract the man of her choice—as in the case of her ex-husband and Tyrone. Her marriage had lasted six years. Four of those years had been happy ones. Her relationship with Tyrone had lasted a year. So she had the ability to form lasting relationships. There was no reason for her to doubt herself just because Carter’s interest had not extended beyond one night.