On the Rocks (Last Call #1)(10)
But right now, that seems almost as impossible as Gabby giving me a smile.
I finish my second cup of coffee and rinse the mug out, laying it in the drain rack. The extra surge of caffeine isn’t doing anything to improve my mood. Yesterday was a freakin’ disaster. I ruined any chance of getting the bid for The Last Call project because I couldn’t keep my fat mouth shut, and then I had the date from hell last night.
I relented to go on a blind date with Kevin Zulekis, thanks to the evil machinations of Casey and her matchmaking ways. I’m going to kill her for setting me up with that bonehead.
“He’s a dentist,” she said over breakfast a few weeks ago. “He’s perfect for you.”
I went home that day and examined my teeth in the mirror. Two years of orthodontics and regular cleanings gave me a fantastic smile. I’m not sure why Casey felt I needed to date a dentist.
The date started badly and got progressively worse throughout the night. It started by him showing up at my door with his fly unzipped which, in hindsight, I’m sure was intentional. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could but by the time we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, I had to tell him so little Kevin didn’t make an unintentional appearance. He didn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed and sort of leered at me as he zipped up his pants. I swear he even flexed his hips outward as he made himself presentable.
During dinner, he had a hard time keeping his eyes off my chest and kept repeatedly licking his lips. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except he had a dab of steak sauce on the lower right corner of his mouth, and he kept missing it every time that slimy appendage made an appearance. I finally had to point it out as well, and he sort of smirked at me while he licked it off, then leaned closer to me and asked, “Did I get it all?”
I shudder even thinking about it.
Finally, he insisted on walking me to the door. I was calculating how to best get inside as fast as possible when he went in for a kiss. He caught me off guard, but I managed to snap my lips shut and gave him a firm push away when his tongue popped out and licked against my mouth. I had to struggle not to say, “Ewww… gross,” as I quickly thanked him for dinner and locked myself in my apartment.
Like I said… I’m going to kill Casey.
What’s even worse than the creepiness of my date, was that all night through dinner, when I wasn’t being repulsed by Kevin, I kept thinking of Hunter.
Oh, not about all the ways he pisses me off.
Rather, I thought about all the ways in which he still attracts me.
His easygoing style, his humor, the way he flirted with me at the bar yesterday. My thoughts stayed with me as I went to sleep that night, and then I ended up having a full-blown orgasmic dream about him. It was hot… I mean, really hot. But it was also appealing to my heart, because in my dream, he gave me everything I wanted.
It started out as a repeat of the night of our kiss, except he didn’t push away from me. Instead, he deepened the kiss and his hands touched me in all my forbidden places. He whispered words to me about how much he wanted me, and that he had been secretly lusting after me for a long time. Then he laid me out on the hood of the car and stripped me bare, proceeding to use his hands and lips to push the boundaries of all sleep orgasms. I kept telling him to stop, that someone would see us, and he said the words that caused pleasure to skyrocket through me.
He said, “I don’t care if anyone sees us. You’re mine, and I want you too much to ever stop.”
My climax was so intense that it woke me up. I sat straight up in bed with the covers clutched to my chest, my breathing heavy and labored, and my skin moist with sweat.
It wasn’t so much what he was doing to me physically in the dream that caused me to break apart, as it was his words… words that I had been dying to hear that night long ago.
So yeah, I’m in a really bad mood because, apparently, all these years of muttering Hunter’s name along with choice curse words really doesn’t mean that much. I still have some residual feelings there that I need to get rid of, and I can’t continue to walk through this life letting Hunter affect me this way.
“Good morning,” I hear from behind me.
I turn and give my roommate, Savannah Shepherd, a quick smile as she walks into the kitchen. “Good morning. Busy day?”
Savannah sets her camera bag on the kitchen table and checks the contents. “Yeah, I have to head down to New Bern and get some photos of the new bridge they’re building on Highway Seventeen. Exciting stuff, right?”
“Totally exciting,” I tell her with sympathy.
Savannah is a photographer, and she’s really, really good. She does some freelance stuff for wildlife magazines and such, but her main job is with our local newspaper, which doesn’t pay all that much. She’s struggling but determined to make her way.
I met Savannah when I moved back home after dropping out of Carolina three years ago. The obvious choice was to move in with my mom, but I really wanted to be out on my own. If I was going to take over my dad’s business and make a go of it, I wanted to really make a go of it. I wanted to prove to myself that I could be a successful business owner, and that meant being able to fully support myself.
But I really couldn’t afford a place on my own and Casey was unemployed and living with her parents, so I put an ad in the paper and Savannah responded. She’s a year older than I am, and she wanted to relocate to the Outer Banks in order to explore the amazing wildlife and scenic opportunities the beach held. Luckily, we hit it off wonderfully and were content as roommates, although she’s a little bit shy and withdrawn.