We move to the kitchen, and I perch on the kitchen stool as she gets the coffee machine going. My phone vibrates in my pocket. I reach for it and see that it’s a message from Ethan saying that he’s waiting for me outside.
Not good. I write him a message to move further down the street. It won’t do for Grace to see me entering a Range Rover sports. It doesn’t make sense for someone out of work currently to have such a car.
“Here you go,” Grace says as she places my black coffee in front of me.
“Thanks.” I take a sip and make appreciative noises.
“Hey, I wanted to say something,” Grace says, shifting on her stool. “I’ve never done this before.”
“Done what?”
She blushes. Fuck. I can’t remember the last time I saw a woman blushing. She looks so gorgeous with her cheeks all pinked up.
“Taking a strange man home with me after a first date,” she says sweetly. She tucks her hair behind her ears and licks her lower lip.
It makes me want to toss her over my shoulder and take her back to bed.
I adopt a hurt look. “Strange man? And here I was thinking that we had become fast friends.”
“You know what I mean,” she says.
“Relax,” I tell her. “I know you don’t. It makes me feel pretty special, actually. Thank you.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not looking for gratitude. I just don’t want you to think that I’m that type of woman.”
I grin. Grace is such a fucking lady. Outside of bed. In between the sheets, she’s a tiger. “You mean slut?”
She grins back. “Well, yes.”
“I don’t think that at all. I think you’re the most interesting woman I’ve met in a long time.”
Chapter 5
Grace
I look out the living room window that faces the street. A few minutes after Jack leaves my apartment, I see him stride out of the building. He has his hands deep in his pockets as he looks up and down the street. To my surprise, he turns to the right and walks down the street. I watch him until he disappears from view. I’d assumed he was taking an Uber home. Maybe he asked a friend to pick him up.
In the kitchen, I rinse our coffee cups while I muse over an unexpectedly erotic night. The words Jack whispered to me in the night replay in my mind, and I blush. I may look worldly, but I’m not, and my adopted parents fairly sheltered me.
I read widely, and I’m aware of what lovers say to each other in bed, but the theory is one thing and the practical application of it, another. A sense of insecurity rears its ugly head. I feel like a boat that has been cast adrift at sea. Directionless.
I know the reason for it. Everything was fine with Jack until this morning. He looked ill at ease and in a crazy rush as if he couldn’t wait to leave. I feel as if I know no more about him than I did yesterday. He’s outgoing and fun to be with, but he keeps a lot to himself now that I think about it. I don’t know what he did before he came to the station, neither do I know where he lives. I don’t even know what he thinks about the night we spent together. I have a feeling that he won’t call, and I’m bracing myself for that disappointment, but it’s comforting to know that I’ll see him tomorrow at work.
The thought of facing him at work tomorrow morning makes goosebumps break out on my skin. Will he pretend that nothing happened between us and ignore me completely? Nausea rises up my throat. Thinking about what will happen now, it doesn’t seem as if it was a good idea to have sex with Jack. I need a distraction desperately. I go to my bedroom, make the bed, and take a quick shower.
Memories of Jack are everywhere. I had so many firsts with him. First time to have a one-night stand, which I hope will culminate in another one and another one. I’ve never showered with anyone before either. At the memory, my body heats up, and a sudden ache comes over me. I try to ignore it, but it grows exponentially by the second. My body demands to be touched. I palm my nipples and imagine that it’s Jack’s massive hands on me. I let out a sigh as my imagination takes over, and as far as I’m concerned, Jack is right there in the shower with me.
He drops to his knees. “Spread your legs for me,” he says.
I spread my legs, and he circles my clit with his fingers. I let out a cry when he swipes his tongue along my slit. Then he pushes a finger in and pumps it in and out in a steady rhythm, each time pressing the heel of his hand on my clit.