Cherry Popper Page 5

  “Are you all right?” Kayla asked, her brow furrowed.

  I snapped back to reality and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, really, I’m fine,” I assured her. “I just…I guess I’m just a little tipsy. It’s been a long day. A very long day.”

  I played out the rest of the night just leaning back in my seat. A secret little smile on my heart the whole time. None of them knew what had gone down with Jesse outside, and I had no intention of filling in the blanks for them. Who knew being bad could be so much damn fun? Now I wanted to climb Jesse’s ladder wrung by wrung.

  More than a little drunk, I stepped outside the bar and glanced around to see if Jesse was still hanging around, but he was nowhere to be seen. I realized I felt disappointed. I don’t know why, but I thought he might have been waiting for me. Biting my lip, I caught a taxi home. Climbing in, I waved goodbye to all my friends. As the cab pulled away, I leaned back against the leather and closed my eyes.

  I still couldn’t believe I’d done that. Any of it.

  It was just soooo not me. I had never felt something like that in my life before. God only knew where it had come from either, because it felt as though he had set me on fire with just one look. I thought back to Mark, to his less than sensual attempts while on top of me when we were in bed and that irritating query “did you come?” afterwards that I would always nod yes to, before ducking off to the bathroom with my vibrator.

  Heck, with just his fingers and his kiss, Jesse had done more for me in ten minutes than Mark had in the entirety of our relationship, and I had to admit that I would be judging my future partners against Jesse for a long time to come.

  I slipped into the house glad my parents were already asleep and tiptoed up the stairs to bed. When I was younger, Mom had a way of knowing precisely what was going on in my head just by taking one look at me. If she caught wind of what I’d been doing tonight and with whom, there would be hell to pay.

  I stopped halfway up the stairs. My God, that was some risk I took there. How could I have been so careless and irresponsible? If I’d been caught in the act, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my parents’ reactions would have been. Dumping my fiancé was one thing, but hooking up with a guy around the back of a bar that same day? The whole damn town would have known and my mom might have had to carry out an honor killing.

  I scrubbed my makeup off and climbed into the pajamas that Shelly, the maid had laid out for me on the bed. They were chosen by my mom and just about the unsexist thing a woman could wear. I guess Mom still thought of me as her pure little virgin. I slipped beneath the covers, head spinning a little bit. I wasn’t sure if it was all to do with the alcohol, or the crazy memory of Jesse.

  I touched my fingers to my lips, as though I could remind myself of the feel of his mouth on mine again. His body had felt so right next to mine, as though we had been built to fit into one another. Why exactly had I turned him down all those years ago, again?

  Well, back then, I had been a girl with big dreams and he had been a boy sowing his wild oats. Now I was the girl who just wanted what I could get today while he was a man with so damn much to offer such a girl. I grinned as I stared at the ceiling. Who would have thought that a day where I’d walked in on the man I was meant to marry while he was fucking another woman would finish with such a big smile on my face, but here we were. And it was all because of the mechanic. I closed my eyes and filled my head with images of him, of us, of everything that we had done together and everything that we had yet to do until sleep took me.

  When my eyes fluttered open the next morning and to my great relief, I found myself surprisingly hangover-free. I certainly hadn’t earned it that was for sure, so I gingerly pushed myself upright in bed. As I stretched and yawned, suddenly the memories of what had gone down the night before flooded into my brain and I giggled to myself.

  Yeah, that had actually happened.

  Even if I didn’t see Jesse ever again after this, I wasn’t exactly averse to having that be my only memory of him.

  “Mia!”

  My mother’s voice came up the stairs and I sprang out of bed, as though she had somehow climbed inside my head and caught me thinking about Jesse. “Yeah?” I called back.

  “Phone call for you!” She came up the stairs.

  I went to the door, wiping a smudge of makeup that I had missed last night out from under my eye in the mirror. I opened it and she handed over my cellphone, which in my drunken state I must have left on the floor in the hallway, where I had stopped to take my shoes off.

  There was a look on my mother’s face I couldn’t read. “I answered it for you.”

  “Who is it?” I asked, not exactly happy that she had seen fit to answer my phone, but knowing her, she probably thought it was Mark and she was trying to get the low down from him.

  “Some man called, Jesse.” She wrinkled up her nose.

  My stomach flipped. I had automatically assumed it was Julie buzzing about the plans for the wedding party, or to do a post-mortem on the bachelorette night, but it never even crossed my mind it would be Jesse. My heart started pounding. So loud I was afraid my mom would hear it.

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said as I closed the door. Lifting the phone to my ear, I heard my voice croak out, “Hello.”

  Chapter 12

  Jesse

  She sounded nervous on the phone, a million miles away from the confident woman from last night, who had asked for and taken her pleasure.

  “Hey,” I greeted. “Your car’s ready, if you want to come pick it up.”

  “Right, yeah. That’s great. Really great. I mean of course, I’ll come and pick it up.” She stopped suddenly. It must have occurred to her that she was almost babbling.

  “You want to join me in town for something to eat first?” I suggested, glancing at my watch. I had skipped breakfast to come in early and work on the car, and now I was starving. Plus, it was a chance to see her again, to figure out how she felt about what had gone down last night. After all, I still had her panties at my house on my nightstand. A trophy? I grinned. So what? I’d wanted this woman since high school.

  “Oh, yeah. That would be great,” she agreed, clearly surprised. “Just let me get ready and I’ll meet you at the diner in fifteen?”

  “Sure.” I nodded, and I hung up. I realized I had a smile on my face at the thought of seeing her again. Just like a damn teenager. I needed to get myself together. It was no big deal and definitely nothing to get hung up on. Technically, we had just fooled around when we had both been drinking. This kind of thing happened every Saturday night all over the country.

  I cleaned myself up and drove her car back into town; I had to pick up another vehicle for a go-over later in the day, so I could just drive that back to the garage. I liked her car. I wondered what she did to be able to get her hands on a vehicle as nice as this one.

  When I arrived at the diner, she was already waiting for me. I had to admit that I’d been surprised she had suggested a place like this. I would have thought she would pick the new hotel downtown, but maybe she was one of those rich girls that liked to play at being just another girl. Hey, if she wanted to get down and dirty, I was all too happy to accommodate anyway I could.

  She looked good, considering she couldn’t have gotten home before midnight last night. Her chocolate hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her face was scrubbed clean. Actually, she looked younger and fresher than she had last night.

  She was tracing her finger around the rim of her coffee cup and staring off into space when I stepped in, but her eyes slid to me when I strode through the door and she offered me a shy smile.

  Little late for shy, but okay.

  “Hey,” she called. “Thanks for bringing the car in and…uh…everything.”

  “No problem,” I replied, as I sat opposite her.

  The waitress approached and poured me a cup of coffee.

  “Thanks, Pauline,” I said, taking a long, grateful sip. I hadn’t had a whole hell of a lot to drin
k the night before, but had thrown back a few when I got back home. A strong black coffee was usually enough to scrub the raw edges off any lingering effects.

  “I haven’t been in this place in so long.” She glanced around and shook her head, making her ponytail swing. “I used to love it here. All of us did.”

  “Yeah, I can’t believe it’s still going.” I cast my eyes around. “Guess a whole new generation of teenagers are using it as their date spots now.”

  “And so the world turns,” she murmured. Our knees brushed briefly beneath the table and she seemed to shiver slightly. Her teeth traced a line over her lower lip for a split second.

  Fuck, she was hot. First thing in the morning and she already had me all riled up. It took me a minute to remind myself that I couldn’t just throw her down on this table and fuck her senseless right here in front of everyone.

  “So, how did it go with my car?” she asked, glancing outside to where her vehicle was waiting for her.

  “As good as rain,” I replied. “Managed to get her going again, but you‘ll want to take her into a garage back in the city when you get a chance, make sure that everything’s running smooth.”

  “As long as I can actually make it back to the city in it, I don’t mind,” she replied.

  Pauline came over to get our order.

  I had what I always did, a couple of eggs and bacon to go with my black coffee.

  She ordered some fruit. “Don’t want anything too heavy on a hangover. About what happened last night…”

  “I think,” I said quickly, “last night is best described by Josephine Baker when she said, ‘I wasn’t really naked. I simply didn’t have any clothes on.’ ”

  She pulled a face at me threw back her head and laughed. I hadn’t heard her laugh before and I was surprised by what a lovely sound it was.

  She peered at me over her coffee cup. “The next time, am I going to be able to dance with bananas?”

  “Princess, the day you have to use a banana while I’m around will be a sad one,” I mocked.

  She turned a lovely shade of rose. Suddenly, I was surprised at how easy I was finding this breakfast. Back in the day, I could never have imagined hanging out with someone like her in this casual a setting, but she seemed chilled, laid-back, in a way that I’d never seen her before. Maybe all she’d needed all this time was for me to make her come on my fingers.

  Before she could say anything else, I spotted someone over her shoulder, someone I unfortunately recognized. I groaned internally as Jilly, my ex, made her way toward the table, bleached-blonde hair pulled into a high topknot on her head. She was wearing a tight white top and jeans shorts. Her hips swayed deliberately from side to side.

  I exhaled quietly.

  Chapter 13

  Jesse

  Jilly and I’d been hanging out for about six months the year before, but it was really nothing more than sex. Of course, I wouldn’t commit and in an effort to make me realize what I had, she started dating another man. That was a godsend situation. I said my goodbyes and wished them a very happy life, but I heard recently that they’d split up, so that would explain why she was walking up to me like I owed her something again. I leaned back in my seat and offered her a smile, hoping that we could keep this brief if not civil.

  “Hey,” she drawled, voice low and seductive, clearly an attempt to make the woman I was with feel insecure.

  “Hi, Jilly.” From the corner of my eye, I noted the way Mia looked at her, a little flicker of jealousy passing over her face. “You know, Mia, don’t you?”

  “Sure.” She glanced at Mia briefly, barely acknowledging her presence, before turning her attention back to me. “How’ve you been doing these last few months?” she cooed, cocking her head to the side and shifting her weight on one hip. “I haven’t seen a lot of you.”

  “You know, working, drinking, the usual,” I replied casually.

  “I should bring my car in. She needs to have your magic fingers work her.”

  I felt my jaw tighten with annoyance. “Call me and I’ll see if there’s room for you in my schedule.”

  She laughed, tossing her head back and catching the attention of every guy in the diner. “I know you’ll make space for me,” she replied, there was something malicious about the way her eyes slid over to Mia.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  She let a slow smile spread across her face before she continued on her way across the diner.

  Mia had her arms crossed over her chest, coffee forgotten. She looked pissed. She raised her eyebrows at me expectantly across the table.

  I stared back at her. “What is it?”

  “You’re really just going to sit there in front of me making plans to hook up with her after what happened last night?” she demanded, incredulous.

  I felt surprised by her reaction. “Sorry, I didn’t realize what happened last night was a proposal to go steady.”

  Clearly, it was the wrong thing to say because her face darkened and she shot to her feet. Scrabbling in her pocket for some money, she slammed it down on the table. “I’m going home,” she snapped. “Give me my car keys. I’m getting out of here.”

  “Let me drive you.” I quickly grabbed the keys off the table and got to my feet too. “Least I can do after you brought me some business.”

  “I don’t want you to,” she spat, looking away from me. “Why not just go down and see to Jilly’s car instead?”

  I waved my hand. “She can wait.”

  “She didn’t seem like she was prepared to wait,” she quipped with pure sarcasm in her tight voice while storming out to the car outside.

  I left some money on the table and followed her out.

  She had some ass on her. Full and firm. She was standing by the passenger seat, her arms crossed over her chest, her face stony.

  I unlocked the passenger door and opened it for her. “Come on.” I jerked my head toward the open door. “Get in. I’ll give you a lift back to your place.”

  “I can drive myself.”

  “We can stand here arguing this all day and you’re not getting the keys.”

  “Neanderthal,” she muttered under her breath, as she slipped in.

  I closed the door. With a small smile of amusement, I walked around to the driver’s side. There was only so long she could keep up this game, and she knew it. I started the car up and pulled away from the diner for the short drive back to her parents’ place.

  “I can’t believe you would do that right in front of me, after what happened last night,” she fumed.

  My brow furrowed. “Do what? Would you please tell me what the fuck I did wrong?” I demanded.

  “You came on to her,” she yelled.

  “I didn’t come on to her.”

  She deepened her voice to mimic mine. “Call me and I’ll see if there’s room for you in my schedule.”

  “Are you crazy? That is not coming on to someone. What? I’m supposed to shoot down every opportunity for some work just because you’re in town?”

  “It’s not like that,” she fired back.

  I pulled over the car onto a quiet bit of road so I wouldn’t get distracted and slide us into a ditch. “Then what is it like?” I demanded.

  She bit her lip and remained silent.

  “Sorry, Mia, but we just messed around last night. If it meant something more to you—”

  “It didn’t,” she cut me off furiously. “I just would like to be treated with a little more respect, that’s all—”

  This time I was the one who cut her off. Before she could say another word, I swooped down on her, crashed my mouth on hers and forced my tongue into her surprised mouth.

  For a second, she froze and I felt sure that she was so pissed she would push me off, bite my tongue, or something, but instead her body softened and melted against me, her mouth sucking on my tongue. I moved my hand over her face and let the other come to rest on her knee, and my cock hardened to rock. I wondered for the briefest sec
ond how practical it would be to pull her onto my lap, and fuck her right here in her car. But at that moment another car passed on the road behind us and I realized I didn’t need to take such risks. I could wait until tonight. I would fuck her, and fuck her I would, until she was completely out of my system.

  “Dinner, tonight,” I murmured as I pulled back. “Nobody else. Just you and me. That sound better?”

  “Yeah, that sounds better,” she agreed, a little breathless as she looked deep into my eyes.

  I grinned. So the Jilly thing had been a trip-up, but she still wanted me. She kissed me again, just briefly, and I knew it was a promise of something more to come tonight. And I couldn’t wait to see exactly what that would take the form of.

  Chapter 14

  Mia

  I twisted back and forth in my plain black dress, wishing I had brought something a little sexier, but then, I had no idea I would be going on a date with the hottest guy from high school on my second night in town.

  I had deflected questions from my mother all evening about exactly who Jesse was and mercy of mercies, she seemed to have forgotten who he was from high school, and probably thought I was slipping out with some lawyer, or doctor, or something. She’d have a heart attack if she knew I was going out with a mechanic.

  “Are you sure it’s not a little soon to be putting yourself out there?” she asked, her eyes looking concerned.

  I slipped into a pair of strappy black shoes to match my dress as I shrugged. “I don’t want to sit around waiting anymore. That’s what I did with Mark and it ended pretty badly, after all.”

  “I suppose.” She wrinkled her brow. “What does this man do for a living then?”

  “I’m not sure,” I lied.

  The wrinkles on my mother’s brow deepened. “Are you sure this is a wise idea? He could be a serial killer for all you know.”

  “Mom, I went to school with him,” I replied firmly.