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Chapter Six
Splashing water on my face usually sobered me up. When I felt more awake, I patted it dry with a hand towel before placing it back on the rack. Looking up into the mirror, I noticed a deep crease between my brows that wasn’t there that morning. My furrowed brow was a telltale sign I hadn’t done as well at hiding my feelings as I thought I had during the day. Gone was the relaxed, much happier expression I’d had when I arrived.
Wetting my fingers again, I ran them through my dark brown hair, then down the five-day-old stubble on my chin, as my thoughts turned yet again to the woman who had snuck under my skin and wrecked the equilibrium I had felt with Jules. Unwarranted feelings of desire persisted toward Tricia, despite how she had previously rejected me, and with them came a knot in my chest which suggested I still had some unfinished business with her.
Turning off the faucet, I unlocked the door only for Tricia to push me back on her way in. When she closed the door behind her and turned to look at me, the same wired feeling I’d had earlier that day coursed through my veins. My gaze immediately fell to her warm delicate hands pressing firmly on my chest.
With stormy eyes blazing she spoke hurriedly. “It’s been agony waiting to speak to you alone. I’m sorry about earlier; it was … awkward. It really is good to see you, James,” Tricia disclosed, stepping farther into my personal space in the cramped little room. She traced her fingertips delicately over my chest. To anyone else it would have looked like a move, but to me I knew she couldn’t help touching me. I knew because I’d had the same reaction when I’d first saw her again.
Another charge of electricity shot through me, and her tiny, light, unconscious stroke made my dick stir with interest. My heartbeat stuttered and I glanced from her eyes to her lips. The buzz in my body hadn’t quite had the same kick as my initial reaction from seeing her, but I’d had hours to get used to her, although it still made my thoughts scattered.
For most of the day, I had fought to contain my hormones with mixed success, aware of a static buzz that existed because I knew she was near, but in the confines of the bathroom there was nowhere to make distance between us.
Using this to her advantage, Tricia moved toward me again, closing the last of the gap between us and pressing her soft warm body into mine. Again, my reaction was on autopilot as her soft body melded against my hard one and I inhaled her addictive scent. For a nanosecond I considered surrendering to her will.
Appalled by my weakened state, I reached back and grabbed the wrist of the wandering hand that had moved to trail my spine beneath my T-shirt and held it tightly in my grasp.
Fury and bitterness ran through me that she felt so confident as to pull such a sneaky move.
“What do you think you’re doing, Tricia? What the fuck is this?”
“I couldn’t miss my chance to talk to you. Please can we meet sometime?” she whispered, her comment validating the way I reacted toward her had never been one-sided.
“Sorry,” I replied, fighting the palpable tension between us, and shook my head, “you’ve got the wrong man this time.” Grabbing her other hand as it reached for the side of my face, I pulled it down and placed both arms by her sides.”
“I can see how you look at me,” she told me, her voice gruff as she spoke with her eyes on my mouth. “We both know what we felt.” Despite my verbal refusal, I hated how my painfully hard she made my dick feel.
An infusion of bitterness sat on my chest like a lead weight, angry that she would do this to me when we were with other people. I leaned in closer, gritting my teeth, my frustration to the way she affected me in conflict with how I knew I had to respond.
“You want me to fuck you, is that it? A sordid quickie… right here with everyone waiting outside? Would that be enough to take the edge off for a while, Tricia?” I was incensed she had made such a dick move and left me to react. “Thanks, but no thanks. What we did in the past meant nothing to you; so don’t try fucking with my head, because I’m here with someone else. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my girl is waiting for me.”
Once she met my resistance, Tricia’s confidence spilled over to arrogance when she became frustrated, I wouldn’t bite. “How do you know that’s all I wanted? What did you want from us? Are you really serious about her? I felt what happened today, saw how hard you were earlier… how hard you are now,” she confessed, quietly.
Her eyes dropped to my lips, and for a second, I thought she was going to kiss me, but she didn’t. This is wrong. There was no way I wanted to fuck up what I had with Juliette.
“Maybe you do make me hard, but so does a talented stripper. Let me assure you my reaction is very temporary. Leave me alone, I don’t want to do this… you’re not what I want.”
“No?” she questioned with a cocked brow that told me she knew my words and feelings were at odds. Being near her filled me with lust and it drained me. She scoffed, challenging my response. I hadn’t ever expected to look into those eyes again, yet watching them as they searched my face, her pupils blown wide with desire, almost weakened my resolve.
“Seeing you earlier made me think for a moment we had unfinished business. However, I’m with Juliette now and we’re happy, which makes it much easier to resist you. Fuck buddies are a thing of my past, no matter how good they were in bed.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes and my heart squeezed tight because my lying words curdled in my stomach. I had no wish to hurt her, but I knew I was treading on dangerous ground. I craved the woman in front of me, but I had lust-filled feelings for her and I loved another. Realizing I still had hold of her wrists, I dropped them quickly and tried to step around her. Undeterred by my attempt to escape, she pushed her body into mine again, pinning me to the door.
“Do you remember how we felt we were together?”
“I’d be a liar if I said otherwise, but don’t flatter yourself, I’ve had plenty of great sex before—and since—if I’m making comparisons. But the way you treated me on those few occasions when I was with you… no other woman has ever discarded me in quite the same way as you did.
For a second I saw a flash of uncertainty or hurt or something else, before she snickered. “I’m asking again is that girl really what you want?” she challenged, pointing in the direction of the yard where Juliette was waiting. I gave a mock hesitation, like I was considering her comment and a smirk came over her face.
“She? Oh, you mean my beautiful partner, Juliette?” I nodded affirmative and stared into her eyes while my body tightened in anger. “Yeah, actually she is. I wouldn’t have asked her to move in with me if she wasn’t what I wanted.”
Tricia looked horrified by my news, and I backed up my statement when I placed my hands on her shoulders and gently moved her aside. Turning, I grabbed the handle and opened the door before I glanced back over my shoulder. Her gaze had liquified and tears shone in her eyes, but I couldn’t take back what I’d said.
“Oh… and I’m calling for a little respect for my personal boundaries on her behalf, in the future. I’m sure there are plenty of guys who’d be happy to meet your sexual needs, much like the guy out there waiting for you.” I tipped my chin in the direction I was heading.
“James, wait, I had no idea you were living—”
“We had an opportunity together, but for whatever reason you chose to blow me off. I’m the kind of man who learns from life’s mistakes. Seeing you today took me by surprise and knocked me off kilter for a while, but this—you in here—stalking me when you know we’re both with other people …” I sighed, struggling for words. “Perhaps you only want what you know you can’t have.”
