THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID (16 page)

            As
I got out the mugs for coffee, Hugh scoured my refrigerator for breakfast
items. I was never a big breakfast eater so there wasn’t much to choose from. I
had eggs but only two. I had milk because I drank coffee like a fiend and
needed my joe prepared perfectly. I watched as Hugh slid down the counter to my
cabinet to see what else was available. He pulled out a box of matzo, which I
loved to eat with a whole lot of butter. But it had to be the salted kind. Both
the butter and the matzo. I’m sure I was well on my way to hypertension but
there was no way I was giving up my salt. One time my local super market was
out of salted matzo I purchased religiously. So out of sheer desperation I
picked up a box that said ‘reduced salt.’ At least that’s what the box said.
But that was total malarkey. I could’ve eaten the box and ingested more sodium.

“You like Matzo
Brei?” he asked.

Since I had never
had it I answered accordingly. “Well, I’ve never had it but I like matzo.”

“Oh,” he groaned
with that sexy rumble, “if you like matzo you are going to love this. My
roommate in college made this for me the first week of school. Best breakfast I
ever had. I finally paid attention and learned how to make it myself.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked
with surprise in my tone. I never would have thought he liked to cook.

“Watch and learn,”
he teased with a beautiful grin gracing his face.

I smiled back
feeling grateful for the small gifts that I was being afforded that day. The
love of my life was standing in my small kitchen offering to make me breakfast
after kissing me senseless. Soon, too soon, that would all change and I would
be back in Virginia while Hugh made a life in New York without me.

Unbelievable.

I couldn’t help
the disappointment that began to infiltrate my happy mood. I was fighting it
really hard. I unleashed the little boxing-gloved-fists behind my smiling eyes
hoping they could fend off the gloomy overcast that was blowing in like a storm
cloud. But no matter how hard I tried to keep those negative thoughts at bay, I
couldn’t ignore the fact that I had finally attained everything I had ever
wanted. A great job, my own apartment, my dream man…and all of it was about to
change.

Who was it that
said the eyes are the windows to our souls? I guess it was true because as soon
as Hugh looked at me he noticed that the sadness had won out. I knew this
because his grin disappeared and then he confirmed it with his next remark.

“Don’t, Delilah,”
he whispered shaking his head.

I shrugged in
response. What could I possibly say? Hugh abandoned his frying pan and made his
way to me. He squatted before me shifting his feet forward to get closer which
brought us face-to-face with his body cradled between my thighs. His hands
gently framed my face while his thumb caressed my cheek. “Please don’t worry. I
have a plan.”

“Oh yeah? Does it
involve beating the crap out of one Stacey Horner?” I asked without inflection.

He chuckled
helplessly before he answered. “Well it didn’t. But if including that in the
plan is important to you I am open for suggestions.”

I took a deep
breath and exhaled loudly through my nose. “Probably not the best idea. So what
did you have in mind?”

“First, Matzo
Brei.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. “Then, bed,” a sly smile took
over before he pressed his lips to mine again. “And, then,” another kiss, “if
you’re a good girl,” another kiss, “I’ll fill you in.” Then Hugh shot to
standing leaving me totally frustrated, a little less miserable and
uncharacteristically speechless.

Yes.

Hugh Rowen could
kiss away all of my problems.

Shameless.

            Did
I mention that Darcy Strong was an idiot? Good Lord, show some mercy because I
was completely defenseless when it came to Hugh Rowen. I was fairly certain
that my internal temperature had surpassed a healthy simmer and was approaching
a rolling boil. Yet, Hugh was taking his sweet ass time seemingly unaffected.
His body hovered over mine as he deliberately tormented me sexually. His lips
gently grazed my half naked body. His fingers traced every elastic millimeter
of my bra and panties sometimes even lingering. He’d been around the amusement
park, otherwise known as Welling World, twice and still hadn’t ridden the big
coaster. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract me and I will
admit, it was working. He had me focused. On my body. But did this man not have
nerve endings? Any normal male would have taken me an hour ago. It’s not like I
would have protested.

Whimpered, most
definitely.

Protested, no.

But Hugh was
holding out. How long he would last was a mystery. A mystery I needed to get to
the bottom of quickly before I melted into a puddle.

Now. It should be
mentioned that I had gone to a few yoga classes over the years and I was able
to hold a plank position just as long as the next person. But Hugh had been at
it for quite a while. It was remarkable, actually. If I wasn’t so pent up with
frustration, it probably would have been commendable. But if he didn’t lower
his torso to mine soon I was going to have to learn to levitate to reach him.
And given the heat emanating from my body I just might be able to muster up
enough steam to do it. That was if I didn’t dehydrate through the orifice of my
vagina first.

“Hugh,” I breathed
shamelessly.

“Mmm,” he
responded exhaling a shaky warm breath against the skin on my neck. Another
shiver pulsed through me.

“Please,” I
managed breathily.

“Mmm,” he
responded again trailing those lips to the swell of my right breast.

“I want you,” I
whimpered in turn, leaving nothing to question.

Instead of
answering he pulled back and rested his ass on his heels.

Uh, okay, what the hell was going
on? Was it opposite day and I didn’t receive the alert on my social networking
web page?

“Delilah,” Hugh
rumbled.

“Yes?” I answered
going up on my elbows to see him.

“Maybe we are
moving too fast,” he pushed his splayed fingers through his hair in frustration
and slowly shook his head.

Maybe after an
hour of foreplay my hearing had become shoddy because I thought he said we were
moving too fast. I wasn’t what one would consider a sexual dynamo by any
stretch of the imagination but how he thought we were moving too fast was
incomprehensible. My eyes drifted down his torso to assess the size of the
hard-on he was sporting fearing the desire in the room was one sided. I was
relieved to find that I was being pointed at accusatorily.

“I beg your
pardon?” I said with my southern drawl sounding as confused as I actually was.

“I just don’t know
if we are in the right place,” he added.

I looked left and
right. We were on a bed in the middle of my soon to be vacated apartment. It
seemed to me that the place might be a little small but it was more than
adequate. “What place? What are you talking about?” I drawled. I was beginning
to realize that my southern accent tended to reappear when a heated
conversation was on the horizon. And low and behold, Hugh was starting to piss
me off.

I could tell he
was interpreting my signs of hostility by the way he was getting defensive. He
held both hands up in front of me like I was a vicious hyena. “I just want to
be sure about what we are doing. Things are a little…chaotic right now.” He
dropped his hands to his legs and began rubbing the palms succinctly up and
down his flexed, bare thighs.

That was all he
had to say. The sass arrived with a good dose of bossy and a hint of bitch. “So
help me God, Matthew Rowen, if you don’t come back over here and stick that
thing where it belongs I am going to kill you. You have been toying with me for
over an hour!”

“Take it easy. I
just don’t want you to regret your choices,” he defended sensibly.

“Oh, don’t you
worry. You keep this shit up and the only thing I am going to regret is that in
my haste I didn’t rip off your penis and beat you with it before I killed you!”
I threatened. “Now you get back here and finish what you started!” I scolded
with a finger pointing at my vagina.

No need for mixed
messages.

Apparently Hugh
found my tirade funny. Because his shoulders started to shake as he attempted
to control the outburst of laughter.

And that, my
friends, was the end of that.

“Get out.” I sat
upright and pushed at his chest with all I could muster. “You son-of-a-bitch,
get the fuck out.” I had officially had enough. My life was a total and
complete disaster and now the love of my life was in my bed laughing at me.

“Delilah.” Hugh
grabbed my wrists to stop my advancement and tried to control my flailing arms.
He did a damn good job of it, too. Bastard. “Don’t get all angry. I just want
to do this right,” he whispered as he slowly lowered me back against the bed.
He pinned my arms above my head and finally (FINALLY) covered my body with his.
A little late in the game for my liking. “I have wanted you for over a decade,”
he pressed himself against me. “I just don’t want to screw it up by moving too
fast,” he tried to explain.

“Hugh,” I growled
with my chest heaving as a result of the cardio workout from resistance
training with Hugh’s muscular arms. “Fast would have been 59 minutes ago.
Nothing about what we have been doing is fast,” I educated while trying to work
my hands free and possibly unintentionally catch him in the family jewels with
my knee. “It’s taken us twelve years to get here.”

“You know what I
mean, damn it.” Hugh was starting to get irritated. Apparently trying to dodge
my pointy knees and reason with me at the same time was a significant
challenge. His chest started heaving, which gave me a hint of satisfaction that
I was putting up a pretty good fight. “If I have it my way,” he growled, “there
will be a whole lot of sex in our future, Delilah.”

I stopped
struggling so I could listen. Maybe his plan had some merit.

“I just don’t know
if you will be on board with what I think we should do next. I can’t do this,”
he gestured to our sexual position, “and have you leave. I just can’t,” his
labored breathing was mingling with mine while his eyes danced back and forth.
“I can’t.”

I bit the inside
of my cheek while I digested what he shared. Hugh caught his breath and slowed
his breathing. He must have sensed me softening because he lowered his lips and
kissed me gently. “I need to know that you will stay.” He shifted his hard body
on mine and whispered in my ear. “Tell me you’re going to stay. No matter
what.”

His reasoning
began to register. He didn’t want to have sex with me and then watch me pack up
and head to Virginia. That was sweet and nice to hear.

I wanted to stay.
Nothing would make me happier than to stay in New York and make a life with
Hugh. But how could I do that with no job and no home?

“Hugh,” I breathed
conflicted.

Then Hugh began to
whisper-sing a song. A song I was quite familiar with because someone left it
on my voicemail at least once a week since I moved to New York. The first time
I came home and found it on my voicemail, I figured it was Julia bucking for another
invite. But when she vehemently denied it was her I started to get nervous. I
made some calls but no one would fess up. I tried to have the call traced and
the closest I could come was it was from an 800 number in my hometown in
Virginia. I chalked it up to Julia honing her skills of denial for her new
gossip column and started to enjoy the song. Even made it my ringtone. Hugh’s
singing it directly to me brought it all together.

Delilah…every day
that passes by…you’re in my heart and on my mind…you’ll never know the pain I
felt …when you went and left me far behind…

Once he stopped singing, I felt his lips kiss my neck just below my ear.
“Just say you’ll stay, Delilah, please.”

Between his sexy
voice singing in my ear, his admission that he wanted me to stay and his lips
tenderly trailing soft kisses across my skin, I could almost feel my anger and
frustration scampering from my body. In my heart I had been his for as long as
I could remember. Admitting I wanted to stay was rather easy even if the logistics
of this plan weren’t going to be quite so simple to navigate.

“Okay. I’ll stay,”
I blurted. I mean, really. I could only take so much and I would have to be a
moron to refuse. It would seem that the decision to stay was definitely the
right one because Hugh was on the move. This time when he pushed back off of my
body my panties went with him. “Lift up,” he ordered and shimmied them down my
legs. He threw them over his shoulder as he dropped forward and moved his hand
behind my back looking for the clasp of my bra. I didn’t know that Hugh was
able to move so fast. It was refreshing. Once I felt the tension of my bra
release, I helped him move the straps down my arms.

“Are you ready?”
He asked tearing into the little foil square he pulled out of thin air.

I nodded in
response.

“That’s good cause
after an hour of wanting nothing more than to sink myself inside of you this
will probably last about thirty seconds,” he teased. “I wouldn’t want you to
blink and miss it. So, pay attention,” he spoke against my lips and then I felt
them form a satisfying smile just before he pressed himself inside.

Given the way he
had primed me, thirty seconds would be a miracle.

Chapter 12

“So I’m thinking
Upper West Side.”

I was lying in
Hugh’s big arms. My body nestled up against his with my left thigh draped over
his left leg. My left arm was fondling the light dusting of chest hair that
adorned his perfect body. Hugh’s fingers were gently grazing the skin at the
base of my back.