Page 8 of Play Hard
“I’m not feeling chatty this morning, but I would like to get on with my run and I know how you can debate something down to the bone. So, let’s just get this over with.”
Before I could respond, she jogged right past me. Ready to take whatever I could get from her, I started out behind her. I could’ve easily caught up and run alongside her, but I took a moment to appreciate the dark leggings she wore with the form-fitting T-shirt. Serra’s back view was just as glorious as her front. I hadn’t forgotten that and this morning was a welcome reminder.
“If we’re gonna do this you need to stop staring at my ass, Jordan, and put in the work,” she snapped without looking back at me.
The sound of my last name in her voice had a tightness forming in my chest but I laughed it off and picked up the pace until I was by her side. “Shouldn’t look so fuckin’ good, sweetness.” I winked when she shot a frown my way.
SERRA
When the run was over and I thought I was home free, Noah did what he always did: he proved me wrong.
In the weeks after our coffee shop encounter, he proved that he wasn’t like any other guy I’d ever met. After asking for my number that first day and listening to me give my practiced spielabout not having time for another half-ass man looking to get laid, he’d simply said, “I’m not like any other guy.”
And he’d been right. In just one short month Noah had been upgraded from the chance I was hesitant to take to the first one to hold my heart. Throughout the entire time we were together he continuously proved how different he was. How dedicated and emphatic he was to and about me. And I loved every minute of it.
This morning, after the tension-filled walk, when he’d insisted on escorting me to my car, I’d instinctively argued back.
“I’m literally parked across the street,” I said. “And the sun is starting to come up so you can’t claim it’s too dark for me to walk alone again.”
That wasn’t totally accurate. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the sky had begun its stages of lighting that would precipitate that event. At any rate, I could see my way across the street and be seen for that matter. “Whatever, you can just stand right here and watch me walk to my car if that makes you feel better.”
“What will make me feel better,” he began, lightly taking my elbow into his hand as he stepped off the curb, “is if we walk across this street and I see you safely inside your car.”
There was no sense searching for a retort since we were already in the middle of the street. Providence, the small town located just outside of Arlington, Virginia, didn’t have the multi-laned streets like Manhattan. There were only two lanes on any of the roads in town and this particular one, was a roundabout at the end of Main Street, which ran from one side of the town to this point. The street was cobblestone here and around the entire circle. I’d parked in front of one of the six benches lining the sidewalk around the focal piece of the circle—a huge fountain which would begin spouting water somewhere around eight a.m.
I stopped at the driver’s side door and looked over at him. “We’re here. Thanks so much for the company. Have a nice day.”I sounded like a bitch. No, I sounded like his presence bothered me when in actuality the opposite was true.
I wanted to be near him. To hell with that, I wanted to climb his six-foot-two ass like I used to do and wrap my legs around his waist. The way he would fuck me with my back against a wall—in my bedroom or his, or his living room, or the door—driving into me like he owned me and my pussy was a time I would never forget. And I wanted that again. I wanted it a couple days ago when we were trapped in that elevator and I still wanted it now. I’d prayed that desire would go away in the days we hadn’t seen each other but I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it hadn’t.
“Okay,” one side of his mouth tilted in that half smile that always made me wet, “why don’t we just clear the air?”
I stepped away from him and leaned my ass against the door. “How do you suppose we do that?”
“We talk about this tension that’s between us like adults.”
He looked too damn good with that sheen of sweat beading his forehead and creating a long narrow triangle down the front of his T-shirt. The basketball shorts successfully hid what I knew was a generous amount of dick, but his muscled calves and biceps were mouthwatering enough. I wanted him naked, wanted to drag my tongue over the taut skin of his chest, to suck the saltiness off his nipple. I wanted his dick in my hands, in my mouth, m?—
“I…I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Because I didn’t have the right words, didn’t know how to go back to that time when I’d made the only choice I thought I had.
“I do,” he said. “Providence is small as hell. You see we couldn’t go one week without bumping into each other.”
“Because we both like to run early in the morning,” I replied.
He nodded. “Maybe. But are you really planning to stay at your grandfather’s the entire time you’re in town? All because you don’t want to see me?”
I should tell him that’s a lie. Or I should get my ass in this car and pull off.I shrugged instead. “I don’t know how to do this, Noah. This wasn’t a part of my plan.”
“What was your plan?” he asked. “To spend a few days, weeks, here and never see me?”
“Yes,” I shot back. “You said you grew up here and that you hated every second of your childhood. You couldn’t wait to escape to college and you would never step foot back in this town again. How the hell was I supposed to expect that you’d be here?”
“Okay, you’re right about that. But I’m right about us talking. Because the fact is, you’re here and I’m here. Hiding from each other is ridiculous. Come by the bar tonight and we’ll talk.”
“The bar?”
“Yeah, my bar.”
His smile was on full blast then, and I couldn’t help but feel the pride in his words warming my heart.
