Page 12 of Christmas in Comets Valley
Grumbling at the reminder, I peeled open an eyelid to find the girl from my haze-filled memories sitting on the hand-me-down accent chair I gave my sister years ago. I knew Juliet’s cottage was a quaint thousand square feet, but the minuscule amount of space between this stranger and me suddenly made it feel suffocatingly small. Almost as if the walls were closing in on us.
But then again, that could’ve been the hangover talking. Or the girl staring at me as she took a sip from her steaming mug was the culmination of all of my desires in human form. My brain was a bit too foggy to figure out which though.
Idly taking my time waking, I raked my eyes over the stunning dark-haired woman sitting across from me. Based on my observations, I had a hunch she was around five foot eight, give or take an inch.
It wasn’t long before I was imagining those long legs wrapped around my waist. All while I fisted that long straight black hair that flowed to the small of her waist as she rode me.
She was ethereal and delicate in all the right places, but it was the hint of a spark ignited behind her eyes that gave me the inclination that she was far from either of those things.
Even now, in my sober, fully woken state, she was still the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. There were beautiful girls, and then there was her. In a league of her own.
“Did we…” I trailed off, deciding it best to break the prolonged silence that passed between us. There was never an easy way to go about asking someone whether the two of you fucked the night before, so might as well rip the Band-Aid off.
She shook her head and nursed another sip from her mug. “The closest we got was you insisting on taking off your pants halfway through watchingA Dog's Purpose… your movie choice, by the way. You said your pants were making you feel ‘confined from your true self’.”
I glanced downward at my bare legs and black boxer briefs, which had grown tight from my pronounced morning wood. I plucked one of the throw pillows that was next to me and threw it over my lower half. Although, in retrospect, it hardly mattered since she’d already seen everything, anyway.
Shit. Why did I have to think about her riding my cock?
My little voyeur's lips curled up into a smile as she watched me squirm.
Drunk Elliot was an alter ego that rarely ever came out to play, but when he did, he came out full force. Oftentimes, the night either ended up with me crying hysterically on a friend’s doorstep or in a holding cell. Neither of which was an ideal way to end a night.
“God. Did I…” My words dropped off, trying not to confess to my drunken crying episodes unless she’d already been witness to one.
“Yeah…. a lot.”
I slapped a hand against my forehead and ran it down my face with a rugged breath. Great, this was just great. I tossed a few ideas around in my head, pondering ways I could redeem myself, but nothing came to mind.
She was gorgeous, and I was the idiot who cried myself to sleep half naked on the couch.
“You also gave me the whole dogless, girlfriend-less, jobless, homeless spiel as well,” she added smugly, shifting lightly in her seat.
Well, there certainly wasn’t going to be any chance of redemption after that.
If I had words, I would’ve muttered them under my breath, but I was too appalled at my actions to formulate any. A humiliating, deflated feeling came over me as I processed how I got myself into this situation to begin with.
“So… how long are you in town for?” I asked, knowing that changing the subject would be the only way to make it out of this with some sense of pride left.
“A few weeks,” she hummed, taking another swig from her mug.
“I take it Juliet used one of those home swapping services again?”
“She didn’t tell you? She’s staying at my house in Malibu until after Christmas.”
“She’s staying for the rest of the month?” I arched a brow at the girl whose name I was trying to remember.
Juliet had always been a free spirit, but leaving her life here for a couple of weeks without telling anyone seemed out of the norm, even for her. Part of me wondered if the reason she left was because she found out the results of her graphic design fellowship.
My sister was ten years younger than me, so we weren’t super close growing up. But since moving back to Comets Valley in August, she’s easily become my best friend. Then again, aside from a few high school buddies, there weren’t all that many people to befriend here, anyway.
“Yeah, but I’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
“Not a fan of small towns?”
“I haven’t even walked to town yet, but after the day I had yesterday trying to get here, I’ve seen enough to know that I won’t be staying,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“You can’t leave without going downtown first. It would be a waste of a trip if you didn’t get to experience the best part of this place.”
