The Sound of Consequence (Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love Book 1) (2 page)

“This is Seattle, Stace. Meeting a guy by accidentally spilling coffee on him is perfectly acceptable. In fact, I’m sure the coffee hounds encourage such things. Love, or at least the potential for love, sells more products. Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

Stacie wasn’t interested in love. What she had felt was complete and total lust. Maybe for some people that was an acceptable way to start a relationship, but that was something Stacie also was not interested in. Though it would be hard to forget both of their encounters. When she’d looked up from the coffee-drenched shirt, she found intense forest green eyes and luscious lips. Her body had radiated heat from where he touched her, and the fire spread everywhere. She had never felt an attraction like that before. Not by looking at a man, and certainly not by his touch. That was why after a little liquid courage, she had approached him at the club.

“Deets, Stace,” Jenny urged, leaning across the breakfast bar, obviously hoping for a spicy twist. “What happened when you spilled coffee on him?”

“I left.” Spilling coffee on someone had been beyond embarrassing and being flustered by the physical attraction was equally unsettling. Plus, the vertigo made her dizzy and was often followed by a raging headache, so she’d run out of the café like a zombie was chasing after her.

“You left?” Jenny asked with a hint of disgust in her voice. “You didn’t talk to him? He didn’t buy you another coffee?”

Stacie slid off the bar chair and walked toward the sliding glass door as she laughed at Jenny’s romanticism. Jennevieve Mae Carter was a shark when it came to marketing, but her thick skin and razor sharp teeth softened like a feather-filled pillow when it came to relationships. Even though her last serious relationship ended on a really sour note, she basked in everyone else’s potential for the happily ever after.

Despite writing children’s stories with happy endings, Stacie was more of a realist when it came to her own relationships. Turning away from the view of the Emerald City, she focused her attention back on her roommate. “No, I just left.”

The percolating sound faded and Jenny turned back to the coffee maker to pour a couple of mugs. Stacie hopped up on the chair again, anxious for a caffeine jolt.

After sliding the mug across the breakfast bar to Stacie, Jenny asked, “Is that why you danced with him?”

Stacie added a spoonful of sugar and took a long sip. The coffee felt good traveling down her throat, warming her from the inside out, awakening all five senses and rekindling the memories of last night.

The smile couldn’t be stopped and though the coffee was hot, that wasn’t the cause of her flushed cheeks. Embarrassment mixed with excitement. She’d never been so callous and frivolous with a man before. At least they’d used condoms. 

Stacie took another sip of coffee to stifle the slight tinge of regret. It would have been wonderful to have one last taste of that sex god before she’d rushed out of his apartment.

“So no name, but did you at least talk to him last night before you started playing tonsil hockey on the dance floor?”

Stacie laughed as she recalled how his intense gaze softened when he smiled and how that smile tasted as they nearly lost control in the middle of the club.

“Umm, we didn’t really talk,” she admitted. “Can you believe I did that?”

“Remember that guy in college?” Jenny tapped her manicured nails on the granite countertop. “Oh, what was his name? J.D.? D.J.? J.R.? Something with initials.”

“Great Gatsby! I forgot all about that guy. J.D., I think. Wow, he was hot. A good kisser, too. Oh, wow, Greg was pissed.” Stacie laughed. It was her one and only sexual indiscretion. Well, at least until last night. If just kissing a guy qualified as sexual. She and Greg had had a huge fight and as the dutiful roommate, Jenny dragged Stacie out to a club to get away from him. She danced a few songs with this guy, then he kissed her right in the middle of the dance floor. The guilt was enough for Stacie to pull away and hide in the bathroom for the next half hour, hoping he’d forget about her.

“I always knew you had it in you to get a little loose,” Jenny laughed. “You just needed to get away from Greg.”

“I never in a million years thought I had it in me.” Stacie tapped the smooth skin of her now bare ring finger. Not wearing the ring was weird. The thought of being single was almost as foreign as having slept with a complete stranger.

“So, are you going to see him again, or what? You must know where he lives if you made it home in one piece.”

Stacie shook her head so fast she felt like a bobble-head. “He had an ample supply of condoms and knew exactly where and how to touch me. What does that tell you about him?”

“That he’s responsible and intuitive.” Jenny winked.

Rolling her eyes, Stacie smiled. “You romanticize everything. It tells me that he gets around. That’s the last thing I need.” Whether he did or not, Stacie didn’t actually care. She didn’t want to be judged on her past, so she wasn’t going to judge anyone else. Besides, she’d just had sex, amazing sex, with him and didn’t even know his name. Jeez, he was probably thinking the same thing about her.

Jenny slammed her palms on the counter. “Practical Stacie alert! I thought you didn’t bring her to Seattle with you.”

It was hard to get away from her practical side. She’d spent twenty-eight years being practical. “Gimme a break. I’m trying. I mean, I had sex with a stranger. There’s nothing practical about that. Anyway, I didn’t come here to get tangled up with some guy,” a smile cut in, knowing that’s exactly what had happened. “Not even an amazing god of sex.”

Shaking last night’s memories from her head, she said with conviction, “No, I’m going to write and I’m going to paint.”

Jenny shook her head while a mischievous smile danced across her face. “So what was going on outside the peephole? Did he follow you home?”

Reluctant to tell Jenny that this amazing god of sex lived right across the hall, Stacie let out a long sigh. The topic probably couldn’t be avoided forever, not with Jenny’s annoying demand for details. “How well do you know your neighbors?” Stacie asked.

“I know the couple in 5-A really well. They’ve lived here since the condos were built and are good friends with my aunt and uncle.” Jenny’s aunt and uncle owned the condo she and Stacie were living in. They had decided to travel and were currently living in China. Two years ago, they had offered the place rent-free to their favorite niece. “The couple in 5-B have been there for about a year. They’re retired and are always on the go, so I don’t know them very well, but they seem friendly. Somebody just moved in to 5-D about two weeks ago. I haven’t seen who it is yet.”

That explained the boxes stacked in his living room. “It’s the amazing god of sex.”

“No shit!” Jenny raised her eyebrows, her brown eyes rounding in surprise. “So you don’t plan to see him again and you live across the hall. How’s that going to work?”

“Well, you’ve managed to not see him for the two weeks he’s been living there. I think I can manage that, too.” Stacie knew she’d eventually run into him. They lived on the fifth floor of a condo building in the International District of Seattle. Between the elevator, the parking garage and the hallway, at some point, she would run into him. And then what? Her insides boiled with lust just thinking about him being across the hall.

“I’ve managed because I’ve been stretched thin with a marketing campaign for the past three weeks. You however, keep more normal hours. With normal hours, usually you see people.”

Stacie knew that seeing him was inevitable. Seattle’s a big city, the Pacific Northwest a vast place, and in just a few days she’d managed to see him twice. Now she lived across the hall from him. Shrugging off the threat, she pretended it was no big deal. “If I run into him, I’ll deal with it. Until then, I just want to be a mysterious stranger. Just a one-night stand.”

“Even though I’ve always believed a footloose and fancy-free girl was trapped inside somewhere, we both know you’re not the kind of girl who has one-night stands,” Jenny reminded her.

That was true. This guy was a first. Life had changed, though and Stacie was determined to change with it. “That’s because I’ve been with boring old Greg since I was in diapers. I’m starting a new life. I think it’s OK to throw a one-night stand in there to kick off the new me.”

Disbelief was obvious with the velocity of Jenny’s shaking head. “You don’t have it in you. You’ll be knocking on his door before the weekend is through.”

Stacie took a deep breath, trying not to take the bait of Jenny’s allegation. Avoidance was futile; she needed to defend her position, even if it meant falling into Jenny’s trap and getting into a heated debate, something her roommate had always thrived on.

“No, Jenny, I won’t. I’m not kidding about the no guy in my life thing. I need a break from that baggage. Ten years with Greg was enough. I’m done with the whole boyfriend thing for a little while. Maybe a long while. ”

“Whatever makes you happy, girl.” Jenny laughed a little and shook her head, practically mocking Stacie. “You have a conscience. The guilt is going to be stronger than the guilty pleasure.”

When Jenny finished her coffee, she washed the cup and placed it on a towel before lounging on the sofa across the room. “Not all guys are like Greg, you know.”

Stacie wasn’t stupid. She liked to think of herself as a modern woman with an open mind. She wasn’t prone to stereotyping. Mostly. “I’ve never been alone, Jen. I want to see how I do on my own for a while. No man to make me second-guess myself.”

“Well, there’s nothing stopping you from having a hot fling, either. I mean, if you’re trying to reinvent yourself, why not go over and get better acquainted with the Cajun God of the Best Sex You’ve Ever Had? You need me to push you through the door?”

Stacie certainly didn’t need a push. It was hard to resist the pull coming from the condo across the hall. She had to keep her focus though. There were more-important things. “Some Pacific sun and saltwater air is what I need. Plus some canvas, paints, and brushes. Now that I’m unpacked, I’m anxious to get to work. I need to have brush to canvas as soon as possible.”

~~~

Owen Landry let the hot water rain over his body. Exhausted and invigorated, he’d only slept for a couple hours after his body had finally had its fill of the mystery woman. Now he regretted nodding off. Watching her sleep would have been the better option, then making love to her at least one more time before she left. Mostly, he regretted it because he hadn’t learned anything about her. Logistically speaking, of course.

He knew everything about her body. The soft skin that covered every sexy curve. The length of her fingernails and the strength of her fingers as they dug into his flesh. The silkiness of her long brown hair as it fell onto his shoulders and caressed his neck. He also knew just the right way to move inside her to make her breath catch before she called out during her release. Again and again.

Owen leaned against the shower wall as all the blood in his body rushed to his groin. He’d never spent a night like that with any woman and just one night wasn’t going to be enough if his anatomy had its way. It was more than that though. From the moment he’d seen her in that coffee store around the corner, just before she’d spilled her latte all over him, he’d longed to know her. Her name. Her phone number. Where she lived. How she spent her time. What she liked to eat.

One-night stands weren’t his bag. Yeah, sure, his old army buddies would be proud if they knew he’d banged a hot chick without even knowing her name. They’d encouraged him to do just that countless times, especially after what happened, first with Daphne, then Kristina. His heart just wasn’t in it. Or was in it, which was always the problem. He was the kind of man who fell in love and made a commitment, to his own detriment.

Owen cussed under his breath. If only the women he loved held the same sentiment.

The hard exhale caused his shoulders to sag. Owen was right where he swore he’d never be again, at the mercy of a beautiful woman. This one was different though. He felt it the moment their eyes met that first time, and again at the club last night. If he hadn’t been so desperate to touch every part of her, he’d have taken her someplace quiet to get to know her. But he’d had enough to drink to let his body take control. She was hot and he was horny, so his body followed its own agenda after being in a sexual drought for over a year.

The abstinence had been his own choice, since one-night stands weren’t his thing. His stupid bruised ego also contributed. Funny how neither of those factors came into play last night.

Blood pumped into Owen’s heart a little faster just thinking about the mystery woman. That other part of his anatomy continued to feel the rush as well. Despite the soothing comfort of the hot water, a cold shower was probably more in order. Closing his eyes, he replayed last night in his mind.

She’d been so willing, practically aggressive. That should have been a warning since his last wife was like that. In his heart he knew this woman was different than Kristina. There was no manipulation, no teasing, no games.

“Amazing,” he said to the shower walls.

“Good lord, Landry, get a grip! You don’t even know her name.” Owen knocked his head against the tile to try and knock some sense into that empty head of his. He didn’t want a woman who played hard to get and this one ran at every opportunity. It was probably a good thing she took off before he woke up this morning. That’d save him the inevitable heartache he’d face when she got to know him. He turned off the water and wrapped a towel around his waist, returning to the bedroom.