AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He yawned. My pasta wasn’t even cold yet, alone there on the stairs, and he had the audacity toyawn. I was starving and I was going to have to clean that mess up.
“Well?” I insisted, leaning forward. He smelled like brass and aftershave and whiskey, the odd combination alluring.
“Tried.”
“You tried?” I asked, my tone making it clear I saw through his lazy, Irish bullshit.
He nodded. “Yep. Gave it my all, Teresa.”
I bristled. “It’s Tessa, and what do you mean youtried? It’s just a button. You just reach out and press it. In doing so, the elevator doors stay open. Helpful, that way.”
Jamie shrugged. “Couldn’t.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t?” This guy was getting on my very last nerve, and I was beyond hangry. I gripped my fists at my side. “The elevator is the size of a coffin. All you had to do was stretch out your pinky. You couldn’t even just stretch out your pinky?” I was gasping and breathing harder than I had been on the elliptical at the gym.
Jamie watched my frantic tantrum. I caught what I thought was the tiniest hint of a smile on Jamie’s face before he stated, “I said I tried.”
I sputtered. “How can you sleep at night knowing that you didn’t even reach out a pinky, one little pinky to help your fellow human on this cold rock spinning round and round that we call earth, where all we have is one another and we will devolve into rioting and pillaging if we all don’t just take two seconds to lift a pinky to help a stranger out.”
Jamie listened to my impromptu speech in silence, and for a minute I really thought I had gotten through that chiseled, tattooed chest of his to his heart. But then he opened his mouth again. “My hands were full. Itriedusing my elbow. Didn’t work.”
That’s all I was going to get? I had nothing in my bank account, had ditched yet another audition, gotten kicked out of the gym after my best friend had accidentally included me in a sexting thread, and all I wanted was a little pasta. But because of Irish Drummer Boy I wouldn’t even get that, and all I get in return is that he’dtried?
“Listen here,” I said, wagging my finger at him. “I’ve kept myself quiet, but someone needs to be brave enough to say this to your face. We’ve been neighbors for over a year, and I’ve had to put up with so much shit from you. Drumming at all hours”—I showed him my palm when he held up a finger— “and yeah, I get it, you’re allowed to drum anytime you want and it’s my issue, but you also are rude and you are cranky and”—I gestured to his rather obvious nudity— “you can’t even bother putting on clothes and you have sex soloudlyand—”
“Is this your awkward version of flirtation?”
My sputtering ratcheted up a notch. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re the one carrying on about me being naked and mentioning how loudly I have sex. Seems like flirting to me.”
The gall of the man! “Yes, I’m flirting.” I don’t know what came over me. I walked right up to him and laid my hand on his chest, feeling the heavy pounding of his heart and the warmth of his skin, and it made me mad, so mad that I was always dreaming of having sex with hot men instead of actually having it. When he didn’t protest my touch but merely cocked a challenging brow, I slid my hand down until it rested just above the cymbal. His abdomen muscles clenched.
“Careful, lass,” he said. “Or I’m going to get ideas.”
“Please, do,” I hissed. “Because I’m flirting, remember? I want you so badly. Need you, in fact. Please, please, take me now,” I said, sarcastically.
At least, I’d meant it to come out as sarcasm, but I guess Jamie didn’t quite take it that way. Because all of a sudden, he was out in the hall with me, pushing me against the opposite side of the wall and pressing his lips hungrily to mine.
The cymbal clanged to the floor which meant he was nowcompletelynaked as his tongue slipped inside my mouth, hot and eager and igniting a fire between my legs.
Yikes! He’d warned me and I’d still egged him on. And I wasglad. I wanted his kiss, and I communicated this immediately by kissing him back, then lightly biting his lip, shivering when I was rewarded with a deep groan from Jamie. This was not where I’d imagined things going, whatsoever, when I’d banged on his door, but my body was demanding I enjoy every second of this kiss.
And enjoy it I did.
Jamie’s knee nudged between my thighs, lifting me higher up the wall as his hands dug into my ass cheeks. His kiss deepened, strengthened, and suddenly I was whimpering and gasping and my mind wasn’t working and my hand was entwining itself in his hair.
That’s when I heard the ding of the elevator. It snapped me back to reality. This was not me. This would never be me. Like it or not, Iwasthe kind of girl who lusted from afar, not the kind of girl who made out with naked and wild drummers in a hallway.
I immediately pushed Jamie away. We stared at each other, both of us breathing hard.
“Oh good, you’re here, Tess.”
I turned to see Henry, the apartment manager, exiting the elevator. Although he’d been talking to me, his eyes were downcast, and I immediately followed the path of his gaze until the two of us were staring at Jamie’s huge, hard dick. It was a thing of beauty even as it looked a tad brutish, reminiscent of a conquering warrior about to claim what was his. Yowzers!
“Uh, um…”
I couldn’t look away.
