Subway Girl (4 page)

“Wait!” He looked at me over his shoulder. “Would you mind waiting in the hallway?”

“Julia, I swear to you, I’m not going to ditch you.” His voice was so soft it made my heart skip a beat.

I giggled. “That’s good to know. Thank you. But, actually, I’m more worried that we won’t have a table to go back to. We’ve been in here a long time.”

“Huh. Never thought of that. Nah, it’ll be fine. My friend knows I wouldn’t have left a whole steak behind.” He winked and walked out the door.

“That’s the ladies restroom,” a woman’s voice snapped at Rivers.

“I know. A lady is still using it. She’ll be out momentarily.”

Ugh. Really? He did not just say that.

Smiling I used the restroom and cleaned up. An older lady with orange-red hair that could only come from a bottle because there was no way a color like that came from nature, gave me a scathing look when I walked out.

She sniffed. “Hmm.”

Rivers grabbed my hand and kissed the inside of my wrist. “Ready to eat? Jesse, my friend who owns the place, ordered us two new entrees since our others were somehow delivered to the wrong table.” He winked and smiled at me.

“Oh, is that what happened?”

“Mm-hmm.” Rivers stood in the aisle while I slid into the booth and scooted in behind me. “Okay, let’s play a game.”

“A game? Hmm. That could be dangerous with you, I think.”

“Nah, I’m harmless.”

“Don’t believe him. Hi, I’m Jesse. You’re Julia, I’m guessing.” A blond man about my height held his hand out to shake mine. I place my hand in his, but instead of shaking it, he brought it to his mouth and let his lips linger on my skin a little longer than necessary. It made my skin crawl.

Dude, I don’t even know you.  Wait…that’s weird. I never really thought about that with Rivers and I would’ve already been having sex with him by now.

I pulled my hand from his and smiled. “You’d guess right.”

“Well, I hope you two enjoy your dinner as much as you did my ladies’ room.” He grinned.

“Actually, I found your ladies’ room a little overdone for my taste, but I did enjoy the person who was in the room with me.” I gave him a cool smile.

If you meant to embarrass me, buddy, epic fail.

He chuckled. “Touché.  Have a great night. Nice to meet you, Julia.”

“Don’t mind him. He’s a douche.” Rivers dismissed Jesse and gave me all his attention.

“I thought you were friends?”

“Oh, we are. Guy’s just have a different friendship code than girls do.”

“Okay. I’ll take your word on that. So, this game?”

His eyes twinkled with a little mischief and a little excitement. “It’s easy. I say a word and you say the first word that pops into your head. Then I say the first thing that comes to mind when I hear your word and so on. I used to play this with my brother and cousins all the time when we were kids. I started using it as an ice-breaker on dates a few years ago.”

“Okay. I’m game. Go ahead and start.” I angled my body toward him.

“Remember, this is supposed to be a fast game. Say the first thing that comes to mind.” At my nod he said, “Jesse.”

“Perv.” I wrinkled my nose.

Rivers laughed. “Me.”

“Sweet.”

“Julia.”

“Easy.”

“Wait, time-out. I say your name after sweet and you say
‘easy’
after your name?”

“Yup. Aren’t you supposed to say the first thing that comes to mind? We aren’t supposed to be discussing our answers are we?”

“No, but—”

“It’s your turn, Rivers. The word is
‘easy’
.” I looked at him.

“Over.”

Over, really?

“Um, under,” I said.

“You.” His lips twitched.

I looked down and tried to hide a smile. “Hot.”

“Sex.”

“Orgasms.” I arched a brow.

He smirked. “Multiple.”

“Thank you.” I grinned.

“For coming,” Rivers answered.

I burst out laughing. I laughed so hard I snorted. I covered my face with my hands until I could take a breath again. Rivers sat watching me sipping his Coke and grinning.

“Just to be clear,” he said when I finally calmed down from my laughing fit, “I meant thank you for coming to dinner with me, but I suppose the way you took it applies, as well.”

I started laughing again. He chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, okay. It’s my turn,” I said. “Since you mentioned dinner, that’s what I’m thinking about now. So I’ll say ‘dinner.’”

“Tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not playing the game anymore,” Rivers said as the waitress slid his meal in front of him.

“Neither am I.”

R
ivers held the door open for me and I stepped outside. The late September air was brisk, chilly. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to warm them. Fall had settled in, and while the days were still warm, the nights were growing cold. An ominous prelude to the normally brutal winters we suffered.

“I wish I had a jacket on so I could be all gallant and offer it to you.” Rivers smiled and wrapped me close to him. I soaked up his body heat.

“That’s okay. This feels good too.”

“Let’s grab a cab. It’s too cold to walk all the way to the subway.”

“Okay. Where are we going?”

He’s going to invite me to his place or ask to come to mine. Sex. That’s what tonight is about. I have to remember that. Just because he seems like a nice guy—this is still just about sex.

“I was hoping you’d go see a movie with me?”

Huh. Not what I was expecting.

“A movie sounds good.”

Rivers hailed a cab and we drove to the nearest theater in blessed warmth. Even so, he kept his arm around my shoulder and my body pulled against him. I wasn’t complaining. The guy was built. He wasn’t big by body building standards. He was lean, but he was defined, all hard lines and taut muscles. I didn’t mind being up close and personal with his body. Not. At. All.

“What do you want to see?” He studied to board of movies showing. “The new romance?”

I looked at him and grinned. “Are you a chick-flick guy? Because, you don’t have to watch a mushy love story to get me into bed. We’ve done that already.”

“Actually, we haven’t done it in a bed. Yet.”

The word yet sent electrical currents through my body. Adrenaline pumped through my bloodstream.
Yet
. Oh damn. I couldn’t wait to get into bed with him. If he was that good in a subway seat, I could only imagine how incredibly awesome he’d be in a bed, on the floor, the kitchen table, the couch, the—

“Does that sound good?” His words pulled me back to the present and away from my X-rate fantasies of him and me having sex on every surface in my apartment.

“Huh?”

“The comedy?”

“Oh, yeah, that sounds great.”

We got our drinks and popcorn and found some seats in the theater. I was glad he didn’t beeline it to the back row. I kind of wanted to watch the movie, not have sex in the theater…although, having sex in the theater would have been great, too. Either way it was a win-win.

We sat holding hands through the movie. He didn’t once try anything inappropriate. I wasn’t sure if I was happy about that or not. Happy, I decided. It proved we could spend time together without banging each other’s brains out.

It was late when the movie was over and even though it was Friday and I could have stayed out partying, I was zapped. We stood on the sidewalk in front of the theater.

“Well, I guess this is goodnight, then?” He put his hands in his pockets and straightened his elbows. His shoulders rose and he reminded me of a teenager asking his crush out on a date. He was so damn adorable.

“Yeah.”

“Where are you headed?”

“Midtown.”

“I’d share a cab, but we’re going opposite directions. But I don’t want you to ride the subway so I’m going to pay for you to go home in a cab, ‘kay?”

“No—”

“Yes.”

He hailed a cab and handed the cabbie a hundred dollar bill. “Take the lady anywhere she wants.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rivers started to shut my door when I yelled, “Wait!’

He ducked his head inside the car and looked at me with an arched brow. I reached for him and he grinned. “I was hoping you wouldn’t just leave.” He slipped in next to me and the taxi merged into traffic.

“Nice place”

I smiled. “No it’s not.”

Rivers chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve seen worse.”

“Do you want something to drink? I’ve got the hard stuff.” I held up two Cokes.

He nodded. “Thanks.” He wandered around the living area and looked at photographs I had haphazardly hanging on the walls in a sort of eclectic, shabby chic fashion.

“These are great.”

“Thanks. I took them.”

He looked over his shoulder at me. “Wow. You have quite an eye.”

I smiled and felt my cheeks pink. “Thanks.” I handed him his drink. He took a long pull before putting it aside.

Oh, wow, he even uses coasters. I think he’s perfect
.

“So…what do you usually do when you bring a guy up to your apartment after a date?”

“Ah, I usually don’t bring guys here. But then again, I usually don’t have sex with them on the subway when I don’t even know their name, either. So I made an exception.” I shrugged a shoulder.

“Okay, then we’ll have to establish our own set of rules.” He plopped down on the couch, flipped off his shoes, put his feet on the coffee table and crossed them at the ankles.  He squirmed down into the pillows and crossed his arms behind his head. “Yeah, this is comfy. Bring me the remote, woman!”

My mouth dropped open. “What?”

He started laughing and sat up. “I’m kidding.” He patted the seat next to him. “Why don’t we just talk?”

I placed my pop next to his on the table and sat down. He pulled me close and I snuggled into him. We stayed that way for hours and talked. He’d run his fingers up and down my arm or down the side of my face. I’d run my fingers through his soft black hair, but otherwise we didn’t do anything but talk. About everything and nothing. We talked about our jobs and our families. And debated whether pizza with pineapple on it can really be considered pizza. I’m pro pineapple, Rivers isn’t.

“You’re exhausted. I should go.”

I lifted my head from his chest and looked at him. “No I’m not.”

“Julia, I’ve been sitting here for the last five minutes watching you sleep on my chest. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sight. But you should be in bed.”

“Fine. I’ll go to bed.” I uncurled myself and stood, grabbing Rivers’ hand and pulling him up with me. “But only if you come to bed with me.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth my face flamed in a blush and I looked down at the floor. I don’t know why. It was stupid. I’d had sex with the man twice…once without knowing his name and with an audience! But we were alone, in my apartment. It made me feel vulnerable somehow. And I’d never asked someone to come to my bed before.
I’d always stayed at Jackass’s apartment so I had control of when the night ended. He never stayed at my place.

“Julia,” he murmured close to my ear. I could feel his breath against my skin. “Don’t look down at the floor. Look at me.” I lifted my gaze to meet his. “Why are you so unsure of yourself? Can’t you tell that I’ve been sitting here worried you wouldn’t ask me to stay? Do you really think I could tell you no? Or that I’d want to?”

“I’ve just never done this before.”

“You’ve never had a man stay at your place before?” I shook my head. “Was it your choice they didn’t stay?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve never asked anyone to stay here, but you’re asking me? Now?” He framed my face with his hands.

“Yes.”

“Aw, hell, Julia.” His lips touched mine softly, just a whisper. I sighed. He pulled back a fraction of an inch, just far enough to say, “I love the sounds you make and I fucking love I’m the one you’re making them for.”

His lips caressed mine, brushing over them once, twice, three times before his mouth took mine and moved over it. His tongue working its magic as it made its way into my mouth and found my tongue to intertwine with. I moaned and fisted my fingers in his hair.

I walked backward through the apartment and pulled Rivers with me. When we came to my bedroom I led him inside. The room was dark and he started to turn on the light. “No! Not that ugly florescent lighting thing. I’ll turn this on.” I flipped on a small decorative lamp on my dresser. It gave off just enough light that we could see, but kept the room dark enough it was sensual, erotic.

Rivers walked toward me. He reached behind his neck and yanked his pull-over over his head and I sucked in a breath.

“Shit,” I whispered. He was ripped. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on all of him.

He undid the button of his jeans before he got to me and I could see his erection already straining against his jeans. “C’mere.”

Rivers pushed buttons through their button holes on my shirt. He worked slow and deliberate on each one. When my shirt was finally unbuttoned his pushed it off my shoulders. I let it flutter to the floor at our feet. He gazed in my eyes when his fingers undid the clasp of my bra and pushed it away. It fell next to my shirt.

I reached out and unzipped his jeans and pushed the waistband down. He quickly stepped out of them and kicked them away. It was my first look at Rivers completely nude. I thought I was going to hyperventilate. The man wasn’t just ripped. He was gorgeous. His body was toned and tight. He was all lean muscle. Defined shoulder and arm muscles, tight and rolled abs, and his oblique muscles…just wow. Taller than me by a good five inches, he easily topped six-foot. Next to his olive skin, my fair skin looked paler. Aside from an armband tattoo around his left bicep, his skin didn’t have a mark or blemish on it. He was male perfection and it made me completely self-conscious.

When I realized I was staring I shook my head a little and looked away. “Sorry.”

He cupped my chin and pulled my face back to his. He placed a gentle kiss on the corner of my mouth. “What have I said about looking away?” Our breath mingled when he spoke. His smelled sweet and my mouth watered at the thought of how his mouth tasted. “Please don’t do it. I don’t want you to feel embarrassed with me.”

I looked in his eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

Rivers tried to undo my skirt. He fiddled around but wasn’t able to find the opening. “Um, Julia?”

I smiled and undid the side zipper and let the skirt fall. Rivers backed up a step so I could step out of the skirt.

“A side zipper. That’s cruel.” His thumb caressed my cheek and I leaned into it.

We were both naked. We stood in the middle of my bedroom so close to each other our chests were crushed together. I could feel
Rivers’ heart racing and I knew he could feel mine. Our gaze never left each other’s.

I’m not sure how long we stood there, our hands roaming over each other while we murmured to each other. Rivers told me I was beautiful, sexy. I told him I thought he was the same.

I traced his tattoo with my fingertips. “I lost a bet,” he told me when I asked why he got it. “Not the coolest answer.” I smiled and traced the pattern again, this time with my tongue. “Although if you’ll do that to every tattoo I get I’ll cover myself in them.” His voice was husky and a little shaky.

“No need. I’ll do it on uninked skin, too.”

“Good to know.” Rivers guided me to the bed and lay me across it.

He crawled up next to me and leaned over me, supporting his weight on his forearms, and kissed me. It was different than our other kisses, but, oh, so good. It wasn’t hurried. He took his time and kissed me slow and thorough.

His hands moved over my body, but he avoided any sexual areas. I was burning for him to touch me. But his hands would graze my stomach without venturing down to the knot of nerves that screamed for his attention.