Pulse (5 page)

"What kinds of books did you read when you were a child?"

The words feel so misplaced. I pull my eyes open to see his smiling face looking down at me. He's already dressed. The expensive suit he dropped on the floor in the doorway of the bedroom, now covering his body once again.

"What?" I shake my head as if to rid myself of the sentimental nature of the words.

"When you were a little girl, what books did you read?"

"Fairytales," I whisper. "Why?"

"I was just wondering." He stands again and pulls his grey tie around his neck. I watch as he deftly ties it, his eyes never leaving my face.

"Are you going home?" I pull my hair back as I sit up in the bed.

"I am." He leans forward again to tap me on the tip of my nose. "You are too."

"Yes." I feel deflated for some reason. Maybe it was because everything felt so utterly intense tonight and now just a few minutes short of one o'clock in the morning, he's forcing me out of the bed.

`"I can get you a cab," he offers.

I bite my lip to avoid a huge sigh. I don't want to get in a cab. I don't want to go home. I want to rip that navy blue suit off his body and crawl back on top of him.

"Are you a lawyer?" I toss out.

"Am I a what?" The way his hand freezes in mid-air as he's putting on a cuff link is confirmation enough for me.

"You're a lawyer," I say it with a wide smile.

"What makes you think I'm a lawyer?" He pulls his eyes back down to his shirt, threading the gold circular link through the fabric.

"You know that saying about walking and acting like a duck?" I stand and suddenly feel incredibly exposed.

He doesn't respond. His eyes slide slowly over my naked body.

"Quack." I reach down to retrieve my panties from the floor.

"Quack?"

I twist my hips as I pull my legs through the white lace fabric. "Quack as in you're a lawyer."

"Maybe you're the lawyer." He moves around the bed, my bra dangling from his fingers.

"You're deflecting which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that you're a lawyer."

"Put this on or I'm going to need to fuck you again." He rubs the front of his pants. The obvious outline of his erection straining against the material.

"Lawyers." I wink at him as I grab the bra from him.

"You'll be here on Wednesday night, right?" His lips graze a path across my forehead.

"I'll be here," I whisper knowing that there's very little that could keep me out of his bed.

***

"We're going to interview today for another roommate." Rebecca picks at the salad on her dinner plate. "I was going to do it alone because I thought you'd be working. You always work on Tuesdays."

"Cassandra took the kids to a friend's for dinner tonight." I heave back in my chair. "It's nice to see her spending time with them."

She nods. "There's Bryce, He's the first and only interviewee."

I twist my neck to the entrance of the restaurant. An attractive man is standing in the doorway. "He's going to be our new roommate?"

"My new bedmate with any luck," she says as she waves her hand in the air in his direction.

"Since when are we getting a new roommate and why a guy?" I know the questions aren't going to be answered but I have to ask them anyway.

"You must be Bryce." She stands and offers him a weak hug. "This is Jess. She's my roommate."

He nods and sits down between us. "I just moved here. I was hoping to score a place to live this week. Your ad didn't say when the room would be available."

Ad? Room? I'm guessing that the room he's talking about is the barely there extra room that Rebecca currently uses to house all of her designer shoes and clothes. I briefly wonder whether my room is going to become her secondary closet if this guy moves in with us. I barely have enough space for my own things.

"It's available right now." She smiles brightly.

I toss her a look and immediately realize that I don't have a leg to stand on. I just gave her some money for rent last week. It's her apartment. She's the one calling the shots.

"Rent includes everything?" he asks.

"Everything." She slides her hand in the air. "We're both really easy to live with."

He nods and I finally turn to really look at him. His blond hair is neatly styled. His brown eyes look skeptical but I can tell that he's really considering the offer. Moving to Manhattan is terrifying and it's even more intimidating if you don't have a place to live.

"I moved here just a few weeks ago from Connecticut," I toss out. "Living with Rebecca is great."

"I'll take it. Just let me know what you need from me."

I sit with baited breath waiting to see what Rebecca will throw out as a response to that comment. I pull my gaze to her face and she's white as a ghost. Her hand flies into the air and she points at the back of the restaurant. "Fingers is here," she whispers in a not-so-muted tone.

"Fingers?" Bryce can't hide the laughter in his voice as he glances past me.

I shrug my shoulder as I smile back at him. "She didn't mean to say that."

"I did." She jumps out of her chair. "I'll go get our check and we can get out of here before he notices you."

Bryce throws me a quizzed look but I don't respond. I desperately want to turn and look. I've never seen Nathan outside the hotel or the club. I don’t know what he looks like in the light of the day, moving about in a regular place like this.

I'm instantly aware of how I'm dressed. Whenever I've been with him, I've always taken time to pick out a dress, to style my hair and to apply at least some make up. Today, I'm just wearing a white sweater, faded jeans and my hair is pulled back into a high ponytail. I know, from all the comments, I've heard throughout the years that I look like a teenager when I'm barefaced.

"Fingers is on the move," Bryce leans closer to me. "I take it you don't want to talk to him?"

I shake my head slightly. I don't. I don't want him to see me like this. Today I'm just Jess. I'm not the same Jessica who takes his body into mine.

"Jessica?" I cringe when I hear his voice next to me.

I keep my head tucked close to Bryce hoping that Nathan will think he's mistaken me for his Jessica.

"Jessica?" he repeats and I feel his hand brush against my shoulder.

I look up and I'm immediately taken back by the petite blonde woman standing next to him.

He smiles down at me before his brow furrows. "Who is this?" He gestures towards Bryce.

"Jess and I live together. I'm Bryce." He extends a hand in front of me and it feels like an eternity before Nathan pulls it into his for a firm shake.

We don't live together I want to say. He hasn't moved in yet and it's not like that.

"You live together?" There's a hint of surprise skirting around the edges of the question.

"I'm…I am…I'm Wednesday." I stammer as I hold out my hand to the pretty woman standing next to Nathan.

"Wednesday," she repeats back to me, her hand lightly touching mine.

"Are you Tuesday?" I ask before I realize what I'm saying.

"I'm Ivy," she corrects me. "Is your name Jessica or Wednesday?"

I breathe in a deep sigh. Why did I just call myself Wednesday? Why did I have to be in this restaurant, on this day? Now that I've seen him with another of his fuck buddies I can't look him in the eye.

"We’re all set." Rebecca is back at the table, pushing some cash into her purse. "We're all settled up so we can take off."

I silently plead with her to get me out of that chair. I can't stay in this restaurant a moment longer.

"Let's go, Jess." She motions towards the door. "You too, Bryce."

He stands and I reach for the arms of the wooden chair to push myself up. Nathan's hand moves to grip my shoulder.

I slide back down, painfully aware that I'm not going to get out of this that easily.

"Jessica," he breathes across my exposed neck as he leans in close. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I turn to nod, but before I can his hand in on my chin, tilting my face into his. I briefly flash to the image of Ivy standing behind him before his lips glide across mine.

He moans into my mouth and I instinctively reach up to cradle the back of his head with my hand. His tongue pushes my lips apart, then circles mine in a primitive dance.

His breath hitches as I pull his bottom lip between my teeth. I drown in the feeling of his kiss. Everything else in the room melts away.

He pulls back slightly, his tongue tracing a path around my ear. My eyes drift open as I hear him whisper very softly, "don't fuck him tonight. Save it for me."

"One could argue that it was territorial." I ease back onto the couch as I reach for the glass of amber liquid from his hand.

"Or one could say that he couldn't handle the idea of that guy's head between your legs." He raises the glass in his own hand before he downs half the bourbon.

"What if I was sleeping with him? What if we were dating and you just kissed me like that?" I took a small sip and recoiled at the taste.

"I knew you weren't dating." He takes another strong swallow.

"How?" I place the glass down on the table in front of me. Since Nathan's show of affection at the restaurant last night I've spent most of the day skirting questions from Rebecca about what was going on between the two of us.

"I saw him come in to the restaurant." He empties the glass before placing it down next to mine. "You didn't react at all when he sat down."

I'm immediately aware that he must have witnessed me coming in too. "How long were you there for?"

"Long enough to watch you laugh and play with your ponytail while you were talking."

"That's not fair," I shoot back. "You should have said something earlier."

"I was busy," he says flippantly.

"With Ivy?" I stare at him.

"She's an old friend." He stands and moves to the counter to pour himself another drink.

"You said there wouldn’t be any complications." I pull on the bottom hem of my dress. "Last night was complicated."

"I admit I didn't react well." He takes another shot of bourbon. "Something just snapped when he said you lived together."

"You just said that you knew we weren't dating." I jump to my feet. "Which is it, Nathan?"

His hand is around my waist in a flash. I feel how aroused he is when he pulls me into him. "When he said you lived together I realized that he got to see you in ways that I don't. How could he not want you?"

"I don't even know him." I came to his hotel with the intention of not revealing more of my personal life to him than he already stumbled on. Now, I was confessing in ways I didn't want to.

"I fuck you here because it's just us. I don't have to think about you with anyone else. Last night, when I saw him look at you, when I watched him lean in to you, I felt something."

"You can't say that." I try to pull free but he only firms his grip on me.

"It's the truth." His voice is calm, the tone low. It infuriates me even more.

"You're not getting it." I stress the words. "You're just not."

"What am I not getting?" He pulls the glass in his left hand back to his lips and takes a small swallow.

"If I decide to go out with a man, and we're having dinner and I'm about ready to go home to fuck his brains out, you can't just waltz up and kiss me," I spit the words out harshly.

"Jessica." He leans down to place the now empty glass on the table. "If I ever see you with another man and I sense that at some point your beautiful mouth is going to slide over his cock, I'm going to do whatever it takes to stop that from happening."

"You're kidding, right?" I push my hands against his chest to gain distance but he circles my waist tightly. He seriously doesn’t understand how fucked up this is.

"I'm dead serious." The intensity in his eyes says more than his words.

"Nathan. You fuck a different woman every night in this room." I gesture to the luxurious room we're standing in.

"Not every night." He corrects me with a glare in his eyes.

"Whatever." I push against him again and his grip only tightens. "The point is that if I saw you out with a woman who I assumed you were going to sleep with that night I wouldn't say a word. I'd respect your privacy."

"That would never happen." He leans in close, the alcohol on his breath skirting past my nose.

"You don't know that." I laugh. He's so arrogant. How did I miss that? I have to stop this now. I can't believe we're actually having this conversation. Maybe he isn't a lawyer after all. They're not this dense, are they?

"I don't go out in public with the women I fuck." He pulls each word across his teeth and spits it out.

I push against him with all my strength and it breaks his grasp. "Wow," I mutter as I search for my purse. "Wow."

"Where are you going?" He pulls on my arm but I yank it harshly back.

"Anywhere but here." I move to the edge of the couch to pick up my purse.

"Why?" He blocks the doorway. "You can't just leave."

"Why not?" I stand my ground, my arms folded across my chest. "Because I'm your Wednesday fuck and you can't wait until Thursday shows up to get your fix?"

"Jessica, don't," he sighs heavily.

"Don't what?" I try to temper my voice.

"Don't go." He takes a step towards me. "I'm not good at this. Let me explain."

"Why bother?" I ask hoarsely. "There are two sets of rules. One for you and one for me."

"I don't want that." He hangs his head down. "I don't want that anymore."

"What do you want, Nathan?" I push the words at him.

"You," he whispers softly.