The Exception (11 page)

Jillian

Drew gave me one more kiss before I walked him to the door.

“Bye, Jillian.” He smiled as he ran his hand across my cheek.

“Bye, Drew.”

He walked out and I shut the door. I had thought about that man since the day I met him and I just let him walk out. Oh hell no. What was I thinking? Fuck my journey for right now. I wanted sex with him again. I needed sex with him. I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

“Drew!” I shouted as he was about to step onto the elevator.

“Something wrong?” He turned and looked at me.

“Yeah. I don’t want you to go.” I smiled. “See, I have this brand new bed that needs to be broken in.”

Suddenly, the door across from me opened and an elderly woman stood there staring at me.

“Hi, Mrs. Lowe.” Drew waved as he walked towards me.

“Hello, Drew. Nice to see you again. What’s going on out here?”

“Nothing. Just dropped by to meet my new tenant.”

“Hmm.” She looked me up and down, gave me a wink, and then shut her door.

“Oops.” I laughed as I placed my hand over my mouth.

“Now take me to this new bed of yours.” Drew smiled as he placed his arm around me.

“Since you lived here, why don’t you lead the way?”

Drew picked me up, kissed my lips, and then took me to the bedroom. Gently laying me down on the bed, he hovered over me as his lips pressed tightly against mine. His erection pressed firmly against me, making my desire for him even stronger. I tilted my head back so his tongue could stroke my neck. Even though I’d only felt it one time before, it was incredible enough for me to remember. Soft moans escaped me as his hand crept up my shirt and brushed against the fabric of my bra, pulling the cup down and running his fingers along my hardened nipple.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about our night together,” he whispered.

“Me either,” I spoke breathlessly.

He climbed off of me and unbuttoned his shirt. Sliding it off his shoulders, I gasped at the sight of his ripped body, something I had longed to see again. Sitting up, I lifted my shirt over my head and tossed it to the side and then took down my pants as Drew took down his.

“Leave your panties on.” He smiled. “I want to take them off myself.”

I swallowed hard as I could feel the wetness pour from me already. He leaned over and his hands reached behind and unhooked my bra. Slowly taking one strap down at a time, he kissed my shoulders before removing my bra completely and throwing it on the floor.

“You are drop dead gorgeous,” he spoke as his mouth explored each breast.

Pushing me down on my back, he hovered over me once again and his hand found its way to my wet spot as his fingers gently played with me and his lips were on mine. Excitement tore through me like a fierce storm.

“Fuck, you’re so wet.” He broke our kiss. “I want to taste you again.” His eyes bore into mine.

“I want you to,” I spoke with bated breath.

His hands took hold of my waist as I arched my back in anticipation for what he was about to do to me. The light stroke of his tongue against my clit set my body on fire and it wasn’t too long before an earth-shattering orgasm fell upon me.

“Oh my God!” I yelped as my hands tangled through his hair while his face was between my legs.

Once I came down from my orgasm, his tongue slid up my slick spot, to my abdomen and over each breast while his fingers dipped inside me. He had just sent me to the moon and back and everything that I was going through in my life suddenly disappeared.

“I need to be inside you, babe. Are you still on birth control?”

“Yes. But wait.”

I thought it was only right to repay the favor. I began to sit up and he rolled off of me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I smiled. “Sit up.” I lightly wrapped my fingers around his hard, throbbing cock.

The smile on his face grew wide as I scooted off the bed and got down on my knees. He inched his body closer to the edge as my lips wrapped themselves around his manhood.

“Jesus, Jillian. Oh my God. That feels so incredible.”

His hands placed themselves on my head as I continued to explore him with my mouth.

“As much as I love this, you need to stop or I’m going to come. Get up here,” he commanded.

Removing my mouth and slowly licking my lips, I climbed on top of him and smiled.

“I hope you enjoyed that.”

“You have no idea.” He grabbed the back of my head and brought me down to his lips.

Rolling me over, he hovered over me as he quickly thrust inside me. Gasping as his entire length devoured me, I wrapped my legs around his waist as his thrusts became faster and deeper.

“Is this how you like it?” he asked breathlessly.

“Yes. Oh yes.” My body prepared for another orgasm.

“You’re going to come with me. I’m going to hold back as long as I can until you’re ready. Got it?”

I nodded my head as our eyes locked onto each other. My heart was racing at the speed of light and my body temperature was on full heat. He pounded into me like I had never been before and I loved it. I wanted him to take me as hard as he could.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” I breathlessly spoke as my body released itself to him.

His thrusting slowed as he moaned and then he pushed one last time deep inside, filling me up with his come. He lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine before collapsing on top of me and wrapping his arms securely around my neck. We lay there, trying to catch our breath and taking in the pleasure we both had given each other.

He rolled off of me and lay on his back. Rolling on my side, I ran my hand along his chest.

“You okay?” I smiled.

“Fantastic. How about you?”

“I’m great. I bet you thought you’d never have sex in this place again.”

“No. Never.” He chuckled.

I glanced over at the clock. It was seven.

“It’s only seven o’clock. Now what?” I asked.

“Do you want me to go?”

“No. I don’t.”

“If you’re hungry, we can order in.”

“We could but that kind of poses a problem.”

“What problem is that?”

“I don’t have any dishes or silverware. I hadn’t had a chance to get all that yet.”

“Well, the stores don’t close for another two hours. Let’s go buy you some dishes.”

“Now?” I scrunched up my face.

“Why not? It’ll be fun. Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know. I never shopped for dishes before.”

“Hold on a second.” He got up and took his phone from his pants pocket. “Hey, Jane. Where’s a good place to go to buy dishes and silverware? Great. Thank you. I’ll explain later. Jane said to go to Bed Bath & Beyond.”

“And who is Jane?” I asked.

“She’s my housekeeper.” He smiled as he pulled on his pants.

“Ah. Yes. You would have a housekeeper.”

“I do and I love her.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the cute expression on his face. Climbing off the bed, I got dressed and we headed out the door to Bed Bath & Beyond.

Drew

We were walking through Bed Bath & Beyond, heading over to the section where the dishes were on display when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Jess.

“Ah, shit!”

“What’s wrong?” Jillian asked.

“I just saw Jess over there.”

“Oh. That’s not good.” She opened her purse and put on her sunglasses.

“What are you doing?”

“Going incognito. She would never think I was here, so I’m sure she wouldn’t recognize me.” We should stay at a distance from each other in case she sees you. I don’t want a scene being caused.”

“True. Fuck.” I shook my head.

Jillian walked ahead of me and I followed behind. Once we made it to where the dishes were, we stayed at a distance. Good thing we did because I saw Jess walking towards me.

Shit. Shit. Shit
. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Well, well. What in the world are
you
doing here?” she asked as her eyes narrowed at me.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business, Jess. But if you must know, I’m looking to buy some new dishes.”

“Why? And wouldn’t Jane do that for you?”

“I like to pick out my own dishes. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“Not particularly. No.”

“Too fucking bad, Drew. I’m going to tell you anyway.” Her voice began to get loud. “I’m here buying new bedding because I can’t sleep on the ones you slept on. It makes me sick.”

I arched my brow at her. “Okay. While you’re it, why don’t you just go and buy a whole new bed?”

I heard Jillian snicker from a few feet away.

“Maybe I will, and for the record, you’re a total asshole. The next time we run into each other, do me a favor and don’t approach me.”

“You’re the one who came over here. Not me. I have no interest in speaking to you ever again.”

“Ugh.” Tears started to fill her eyes. “Enjoy your boring pathetic life.”

“I will. Don’t you worry about that.”

She turned on her heels and pushed her cart down the aisle as fast as she could. I watched as she stood in line, waiting for the next available cashier.

“Sorry you had to witness that,” I spoke as I turned to Jillian.

“No worries. She’s still broken up over you.”

“Too bad. She needs to move on.”

“I have a feeling that getting over you isn’t easy.” She smirked.

Giving her a small smile, I kissed the side of her head. “Let’s get you some dishes and get the hell out of here.”

When we arrived back at her apartment, I helped her unpack and put the dishes in the cupboard.

“Why are you putting them over there?” I asked.

“Because this is where I want them.” She smiled.

“But it’s more convenient for them to be placed in this cupboard.”

“I’m sorry, but do you live here still?”

I sighed. “Sorry. Old habits. We haven’t eaten since lunch and I’m starving. How about we go eat at that little Chinese restaurant down the street?”

“Sounds good to me.”

She had her laptop sitting on the counter and a call came through.

“I have to get this. It’s Kellan and we’ve been playing phone tag today.”

“Who’s Kellan?”

“My best friend. You’ll see.”

She accepted the call and his face appeared on the screen.

“Hey, Jilly Bean. Where the hell have you been all day?”

“Here and there. There’s a few things I need to tell you, but now isn’t a good time.”

“Why?”

“I’m with someone right now,” she spoke.

“Hmm. Just by you saying ‘someone’ indicates that it’s of the male species. Because if it was Kristen, you would have said you were with her. Who is he, Bean? Let me see?”

She looked across the room at me and then turned her laptop around.

“Drew, meet Kellan. Kellan meet Drew.”

I gave him a wave and a smile. “Nice to meet you.”

He stared at me as if he was at a loss for words. Jillian must have told him about me from Hawaii.

“Nice to meet you too, Drew. Jillian Kathryn Bell. What is going on?”

“How funny is it that Drew lives in New York too? Okay, got to go, my love. We’re heading out to dinner.”

“Wait! Don’t you dare end the call. I want details!” he shouted.

“Tomorrow. Bye, Kel.” She ended the call.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Jilly Bean?” I asked.

“Pet name. He loves me. He’s been calling me that since we were thirteen years old.”

“It’s cute. I like it.” I winked.

“Don’t you dare, Mr. Westbrook.”

She grabbed her purse and we walked down to the Chinese restaurant.

****

Jillian

As we were sitting in the restaurant eating, Drew asked me to tell him about Kellan. So I did.

“He’s the best friend anyone could ever have. The things he did for me. Wow.”

“What did he do for you?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “Drew, I’m a terrible person.” I looked down in shame.

“No you’re not. Don’t say that.” He reached across the table and placed his hand on mine.

“No, actually, I am. Remember when I told you that I booked the flight to Hawaii for a ‘just in case’ I decided to leave Grant?”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“I had it planned all along.”

His brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I purposely waited for that day to leave him. It was the perfect plan and Kellan went to great lengths to help me.”

“Why?” he asked in confusion.

“Because I wanted revenge on him and my parents for what they did to me. Mostly my parents. But Grant had it coming. I already told you that he was a cheater and a liar.”

“And how did you and Kellan plan this so meticulously?” Drew cocked his head.

“Well.” I sighed. “Where do I begin? About three months before the wedding, I placed an ad under an alias name on Craig’s List for my wedding dress to be shipped out the day after my wedding.”

“Did you sell it?”

“Yeah. A nice woman in Wisconsin who couldn’t afford a wedding dress bought it for $50.” I smiled. “A fifteen-thousand-dollar wedding dress for fifty bucks. Patricia would be so pissed.”

Drew picked up his glass and took a sip of his drink. “Look at it this way. You made someone who couldn’t afford a wedding dress feel like a queen.” He smiled.

“I guess. So all in all, some good came out of what I did. A couple of days before the wedding, Kellan went and bought me a new phone and he rented a hotel room.”

“Why the hotel room?”

“That’s where I kept my luggage for my one-way ticket out of Seattle, which by the way, Kellan purchased for me. Before I left the church, I called a cab from my old phone and had him meet me at Pier 59. I did a factory reset and set it on the chair next to my ring. Once I left the church, I had the limo driver take me to Pier 59 and then I climbed into the cab and took it to the hotel. I changed out of my dress, grabbed everything I needed, and hopped on a plane.”

“Did you pay off the limo driver?” He smirked.

“I sure did. Except he opened his mouth to my parents, who apparently paid him more than I did.”

“Ouch. What a dick.”

“Yeah. Except he didn’t tell my parents that I got into a cab. The next day, Kellan went to the hotel, boxed up the wedding dress, sent it off to Wisconsin, and checked out of the hotel.”

“So no paper trail on your end?”

“Nope. I left all my credit cards at home and my bank account untouched.”

“If it’s not too personal, how are you paying for everything?”

“When my grandmother died, and I turned twenty-one, she left me four million dollars in an offshore account that was untraceable because she knew I would need it someday.”

“So you literally vanished.”

“Yep. I sure did.” I smiled.

“Remind me never to cross you.” He winked.

“They made me that way, Drew. I’m not really that person. I just needed to escape and find me. Not the Jillian Bell they made.”

“I understand. You did what you had to do. That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“Thanks. But somehow I still feel like it does.”

“Come on. I’m going to take you home now. It’s getting late and I have an early meeting.”

As soon as Roland pulled up to my building, Drew walked me up to my apartment.

“Thank you for making my shitty day a little less shitty.”

“It was my pleasure.” He placed his thumb on my chin. “I’m happy you’re here.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine.

“Good night, Jillian.”

“Good night, Drew.”

He turned and began to walk down the hallway. Pulling my phone from my purse, I dialed his number and watched as he answered his phone.

“Drew Westbrook.”

“Hi. Now you have my number.”

He turned around as his lips gave way to a sexy smile. “Indeed I do.”

Stepping inside my apartment, I headed to the bathroom and turned on the water for a hot bath. After pouring a capful of lavender-scented bubble bath, I stripped out of my clothes and climbed into the warm, soothing water. My head was a mess. My sister was dying and I was reunited with a man whom I never thought I’d see again. A man I couldn’t give my heart to, even if I wanted, because I didn’t know who that heart belonged to.