That Hot Night

But still, she pretended. “Because you are ridiculously good looking, and you know that. Everyone knows that.”

If not for the fact that she sounded so upset by it, I might have been offended. It was true, the combination of my parents’ genetics resulted in my own good looks. That’s not ego or arrogance, that’s a lifetime of observing people’s reaction to me. It got old by the time I was sixteen. But it took much longer to come to terms with the feeling of insecurity blanket compliments from people who didn’t even know me as a person gave me.

“That’s the only reason?”

“Of course,” she said, her voice all prissy. “What else would it be?”

“You have a point,” I told her and pressed my body into her personal space without actually touching her. “I guess there is no other reason.” I was close enough that her vanilla and bergamot scent swirled into my nose and buried itself in that part of my brain that would forever associate that scent with Janey. “None at all,” I told her and pressed her against the soft blue wall of the bedroom set.

“Nope,” she stammered. “None. At all.” Her voice was breathy and the words came out choppy. Short.

“Funny, because now I’m remembering something else,” I told her honestly and Janey looked up at me, eager to hear what I had to say, but stubbornly refusing to ask.

“Rafe,” she pleaded.

“Yes Janey?”

“Please.”

“Please tell you what I remembered?” Heat and annoyance flared in her eyes and I grinned, sifting thick strands of her hair through my fingers while keeping an eye on that beating pulse at the base of her throat. “Okay. I remembered the way you bit down on your bottom lip in pleasure, and the way it made this dimple pop.”

“It’s just a dimple. I’ve had it my whole life.”

And now that I’ve seen it, I wanted to see how many other ways I could make that dimple pop. “I like it.”

She snorted.

“I do, and I’m getting real sick of you telling me what I mean and don’t mean.” It was one thing to be unaware of your own appeal, but this was ridiculous. “Janey.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” I growled and bent low to capture her soft, quivering lips with mine. They were plump and sweet, the same way I remember and Janey was as pliant and responsive as I remembered. Thinking of how innocent she really was, I deepened the kiss, eager to see how she would react to my passion.

Her arms crept around my shoulders and her fingers slipped into my hair, tugging gently as she moaned into my mouth. I held her close, cupping my hands around her hips and fusing our bodies together while I made her squirm with need. We stayed that way for what seemed like ages, stopping only when the bell sounded, indicating someone had come into the shop.

Janey pushed at my chest with one hand, keeping me close with the other. “Be with you in a second! Take a look around!” She cringed and looked up at me. “How breathy did that sound?”

“This breathy,” I told her and held her close enough to feel the effect she had on me.

I groaned and my grip tightened on her. “Janey.”

“Rafe,” she said. “I’m at work.”

Work. Right. I took a step back and then another step. “Right. Sorry. Until next time,” I told her and brushed a soft kiss across her lips before exiting the shop. Quickly. Before I changed my mind.

Janey. I couldn’t believe it.

And neither would Reese.Janey“You look different.” Hope examined me with a careful eye while I set up lights on two different sets inside my studio. I kept my gaze on the floor or on my equipment, unwilling to give her anything that might come back and bite me in the ass. “Seriously. Something is going on with you.” Hope had finally turned away from the models wearing her latest lingerie designs to worry about the important things in life, like my fictional love life.

“I finally cut off my split ends,” I told her. “Got one of those avocado mayo hair treatments too. Okay well I did it at home, but still. That’s all.” I was rambling and we both knew it, so I turned back to my lights and my camera. Fiddling with the settings while praying Hope was distracted by something else. Something more interesting.

“Your hair looks great, but it always does. No this is something else, like a glow of some…oh my god!” Her face dropped into a comical trio of ‘O’s with her eyes and mouth formed into perfect circles of surprise. “You got laid.”

The model snickered and I glared at her, and then at Hope. “No, I didn’t.”

“You totally did. Only a woman who’s gotten laid recently could so easily deny it, right Casey?”

Casey, the model clad in see through pink lace, gave a non-committal shrug and turned to her reflection in the mirror. “Kind of, yeah. And you do have that sex glow going on.”