Page 3 of Naughty & Nice
Chapter Two
Josie
Life is entirely too short to live it by some sort of clock.
Maybe that’s why time is somewhat of a foreign concept to me. I’m late to meetings, I go past design deadlines, and I even missed my college graduation. Following a schedule or plan has never worked for me and I doubt it ever will.
That easygoing mentality has caused me trouble before, sure.
Besides never following schedules, I rarely adhere to rules at all. I gave up panties years ago, cuss like a sailor, drink most men under the table, and don’t know how to keep my mouth shut when I should. I refuse to let myself be tied to any feminine ideals because most are outdated.
What no one knows is that as stubborn as I am and as big and loud as I play the independent woman, part of me longs for more. Something more domestic that would ground me to a man, a home, and a family. No one knows this because only one man has ever made me consider it.
“This is...it isjustnotwhere my life is going, Oliver,” my foolish pride spoke for me five years ago before my heart or head had a time to catch up.
Just a few words ruined the sweetest thing I’d ever known.
As a college student out on my own for the first time with delusions of grandeur, I was sure I’d figured life out. I knew where my life was going to go and how it was going to get there. I was wild and young, and I just knew I would be that way forever.
And then I met Oliver Young.
Oliver was the most beautiful person I’d ever met—inside and out. Super smart, darkly funny, a good friend, and a savvy businessman, he was unlike anyone else. A few years younger than me, he knew much more about life and the world than I did. He also knew just what he wanted from both. Five years ago, he wanted me.
We met after I took a design job I had no business taking. I don’t just match wall colors to couches—I design entire spaces from top to bottom including lighting, fireplaces, flooring, and the floor plan itself. I’ve even worked with skilled architects on skyrise towers and sprawling complexes to get the look just right from the bottom up.
I was sure every job would be more challenging and exciting than the last and I couldn’t wait to get started. My first role was to design an interior layout for a swanky apartment complex. It was well above my paygrade and I knew within ten minutes of touring the location I was going to be found out. Except the team constructing it seemed to welcome my inexperience.
Oliver and his partner Keegan were nowhere near as green as I was despite the complex being one of their first big jobs. They were excited to work and their excitement was contagious. We worked together like a dream team right from the start. I always believed their faith in my talent and my vision had a lot to do with my success ever since.
Two weeks into the build while pouring over palettes and pizza, Oliver changed my entire life. Sitting with him in the dark, lit by work lamps and the skyline, I was buzzing sky high on life.
We laughed together and talked about goals, hopes, dreams, and it was the most beautiful night I can remember. Made even more lovely when he leaned over our sausage and black olive pizza and kissed me until I couldn’t breathe.
“Had to see if you tasted as bright and sweet as you look,”he’d whispered before licking my mouth and letting out a throaty grunt.
“Do I?”I wondered, liking very much how spicyhetasted.
As if to confirm it for us both, he kissed me again. It was not my first kiss nor my last, but it was the most significant one I’ve ever had. It was hungry and hopeful and that alone should have made me run. I was too eager to experience it and not smart enough to be cautious.
We spent the next few months falling headfirst into a romance I didn’t know could exist in real life. It was so passionate and intense but also so easy and honest. I knew it was something special. It was so special that it made start to want and need things I never expected to.
Before long I found myself wanting to move in with him or even run away and get married. One night while lying in bed his big hand rested at my soft tummy and I imagined me being pregnant with his child. We finished the project and he offered me everything I suddenly wanted.
That is when I decided to run.
When Oliver offered me a forever after I never knew I wanted, I refused. Not only did I refuse his offer to come work with him as a team and live life on the road—something that sounded so perfect it almost brought me to tears—I ended everything.
“Hell, Josie neither of us expected us to find this right now but we did. Don’t turn it off or try to tuck it away.. We found something here, sunshine, something we ought to hold on to even if we don’t know how to make it work. We gotta try,”he plead his case and I believed every single word he said.
And that is exactly why I still walked away.
I told myself that settling down, starting a family, and all those beautiful but typical expectations would get in my way. I walked away and refused to look back. Or at least I told myself as much. No looking back, no regrets, and no second chances.
Within weeks of walking away, I was desperately seeking Oliver out. Not to fix what I’d broken. I knew it was too late for that. Just to know he still existed in the world. It gave me peace to know he was out there living his life and chasing his dreams as I chased my own.
Dreams I found felt very empty without him there to share them with.
“Call him,”Keegan insisted just two years ago when I ran into him during a convention,“make the first step, Jos’.”
