Something Like Love (Serendipitous Love Book 6) Read online

  With plans to meet for breakfast at her hotel the next day if they let her out, or at the hospital if they didn’t, I left, and headed home. It was dark when I set out down the sidewalk – something I hadn’t really considered on the way. I loved the neighborhood, but it wasn’t a utopia. The stretch between the hospital and Stacks wasn’t exactly the safest place for a woman at night, especially walking alone, but it was relatively late for a weekday, and there was a light drizzle still coming down, so the streets were pretty quiet.

  Another thing I hadn’t considered – walking from Stacks to the hospital was one thing. Walking home from the hospital? Was a little longer.

  But at least it gave me time to think.

  Aurielle had always been the “relationship” sister, even if it was just for a good time, not necessarily a long time. She wanted to be committed, whether it was for a week or a year. From when she first started dating, all the way up through Donnie, I’d looked at her boyfriends with nothing more than a passing interest in them, but I was always happy that she was happy. That was it.

  That was always it.

  So then… what had that feeling in my chest been when I saw the way Kev looked at her? Why could I literally feel the emotion in that quick, simple kiss? The depth of adoration in that “Tell me you’re okay.”

  All of it hit me very, very suddenly, leaving an uncomfortable, uneasy weight on my shoulders. This wasn’t right… this wasn’t me. Long-term entanglements weren’t my thing, because I’d never tangled with someone short term that sparked even the slightest interest in something deeper.

  I had friends for my emotional needs, flings for the physical, God for the spiritual, and yoga filled in the gaps. Everything was covered, my needs were met, my proverbial plate was full, and yet, with every step… it intensified.

  I wanted somebody to look at me like that.

  Kiss me like that.

  See about me like that.

  I didn’t realize I was damn near panting until I stopped at a crosswalk to let the traffic pass, and caught my breath.

  This shit was horrifying.

  I felt a tiny bit better once I was back to the part of the neighborhood I was more familiar with, the blocks where I worked and played and lived. I forced myself to smile at a couple I recognized from the “Body Party” couples classes I used to do, before the partner I used decided to catch feelings, like she didn’t already know what it was. I got past them quickly, not wanting to chat about that, or linger too long in their lovey-dovey aura.

  I needed to get home, and get to my mat.

  My head was all messed up.

  As I continued down the street, one of the shop windows caught my eye.

  Dist’Inked.

  This week, it was simpler than usual, but still striking. A white wall full of black framed, color photos, shot at angles that were clear enough to see the depth and details of the tattoos that were the subject of the pictures, but made it hard to tell what part of the body they were on.

  It was beautiful.

  I stood there for longer than I intended, examining and admiring the images in front of me, trying to figure the body parts out.

  “What are you doing out here? Coming up with a curse to put on my shop?”

  “Now, why would I do that?” I asked, trying not to shiver at the sound of his voice. I kept my eyes on the window as I tried to push the memories of the last time we’d interacted out of my head, before they caused a reaction between my legs.

  Too late.

  He’d already stepped closer to me, and the rattle of keys in his hand told me he’d just finished locking the door. “Beats me,” he said. “Unbalanced chakras or something? Hell if I know. I decided not to stress myself out trying to figure out why you do the things that you do.”

  “Things that I do?” I turned to him then, only to get struck, as usual, by how damn fine he was. And in something as simple as a grey tee shirt that stretched nicely over his chest and shoulders, and a dark blue hat pulled backwards over his head.

  Annoying.

  I hadn’t seen him since my office, which had been over a week ago. I’d been purposely waiting inside my classroom for my students, taking my Pot Liquor order to go, etc. all in a quest to not prove him right, because now I understood what that little taunt he’d given me meant.

  Amazing as it had been, I still hadn’t been willing to put pride aside to be the one to come back asking for more. He had a hammer in his pants, and knew how to use it, sure. But I’d given just as good as I got.

  His mouth, on the other hand… I’d avoided him so I wouldn’t be reminded.

  But now, with him right in front of me, looking good and smelling good and running that blessed tongue over those blessed lips before he pulled it back into his filthy, filthy mouth… I was reminded. If I had even a smidge less desire to come out on top in our little back and forth, I would have been riding his face the very next day.

  “You practically begged me to come back to yoga, and now that I’m consistent, you don’t even stop by to speak, ask me how it’s going, nothing, ” he smirked, stepping closer. “What happened to all that cockiness you had, Asteroid? It’s almost as if you’re avoiding me.”

  “I’m definitely avoiding you,” I said, not backing away. Instead, I turned to face him and ended up right at his chest when he stepped forward at the same time.

  “Why?” he asked, grabbing me at the elbows to steady me. “You scared now or something?”

  I shook my head. “What is there to be scared of, huh?” I pressed into him, grinning when I realized he was already hard. “What are you gonna do? Spank me?”

  He grinned. “Nah.” A shiver ran up my spine as he cupped my face with one hand, then leaned in, speaking into my ear. “Eat you til you pass out, then wake you up and fuck you till you forget how to use this pretty little smart mouth,” he said, with a gentle swipe of his thumb over my bottom lip. “Or the other way around. That’s more of what I had in mind.”

  I swallowed hard. “That’s supposed to scare me?”

  “Not at all.” His gaze went down to my lips, then back up to my eyes. “Where are you heading this late?”

  “Home,” I answered, without hesitation. “No side trips. Just home.”

  He nodded, then dropped his hand from my face, and stepped back. “Aiight. I’ll see you around.”

  “Or you could see me now,” I shot back, not even thinking about those words before I let them fly. “At my place. Tonight. Right now.”

  I didn’t know if he was just messing with me or not, but I needed his carefree energy. Eddie was like me… looking for interludes, not symphonies, and after seeing Aurielle and Kevin together, being wrapped up in their sweetness, I needed a reminder. Needed a reminder of just how good I had it by maintaining my own philosophy, and not getting caught in the same web of hurt, regret, and disappointment that came with chasing monogamy.

  And I needed it fast.

  Needed it so bad that I didn’t even mind the way Eddie grinned about my invitation, wasn’t bothered at all by how cocky his footsteps were as he approached me again. In fact… the arrogance in his smirk turned me on as he leaned in, hooking a finger through the belt loop of my jeans to pull my pelvis up against his.

  “I knew you’d be back for more.”

  five.

  eddie.

  I was slipping.

  That was the only logical – only possible – explanation for why I woke up in Astrid’s bed.

  It wasn’t even that I wasn’t a “stay the night” type of dude, because the truth was the exact opposite. I wasn’t rushing out of anywhere for anybody, and I was judging the quality of the mattress – Astrid’s was good as hell.

  But it wasn’t about that. My problem with waking up here was rooted in the craziness of me being here with her in the first place. The fact that I couldn’t find any particular urgency to pull myself from underneath her covers was just the crazy frosting on a crazier cake.

  She wasn�
�t in the bed anymore though, and there was music coming from somewhere. Curiosity was going to be the death of me fooling with this girl, I knew it. Little by little, she was sucking me deeper into her web, and I didn’t even have sense to get out while I could.

  I found my boxers and then followed the music, out to the open, spacious main area of her apartment. Last night, I hadn’t seen much of it, since her bedroom was the only attraction either of us had in mind, but now that I could look around… I was impressed.

  The apartment was more elegant than I expected. Not in a stuffy way, but I’d imagined her to live somewhere more in line with the “hippie” image I had of her. Instead, her apartment was cool and modern, with lots of wood tones and white accents. The girl had class, and I felt like a snob for being so surprised by it.

  Surprises were becoming common fare, dealing with her.

  She had a corner apartment, which gave her two walls of big windows, letting in natural light. One of windows was separated from the main area by a screen.

  Astrid was on the other side.

  Well, her silhouette was, at least.

  On bare feet, I padded across her polished hardwood floors to glance on the other side of the screen, and there she was, eyes closed, on her mat. In a deep lunge position. With no clothes on.

  Damn.

  What I really wanted to do was press her into the mat like I had that very first time. What I actually did was step back, leaning against the wall between windows to watch as she transitioned between poses. She didn’t acknowledge me, and I didn’t need her to. I was simply observing – admiring – the obvious strength, balance, and… serenity she possessed.

  Even with my aversion to her, I’d never been able to bring myself to deny that there was an otherworldly beauty about her. Hell – maybe that’s what my aversion was really, really about. It seemed like every time I blinked, I was realizing yet another thing that differentiated her from people I’d dated in the past. She wasn’t picture perfect polished like what I normally pursued, and I couldn’t seem to unsnag my thoughts from the gut feeling that maybe, for me, that was… better.

  Maybe it was balanced.

  Balance.

  That word played in my head as I watched Astrid do just that – balance on one foot while she curved the other leg up behind her. She reached back, grabbing that foot with one hand while her other arm stretched in front of her.

  Effortless grace.

  I shook my head. Not even a year – hell, six months ago, I’d considered this woman a demon that needed to get the fuck away from me. But now… I was mesmerized.

  What changed?

  Just as nimbly as she’d pulled herself into that position, she lowered herself from it, into downward dog, and then child’s pose, lingering for several minutes before she got up. She stood in front of me completely relaxed despite the fact that she was completely naked, looking at me with her eyebrow raised like she was waiting for me to speak.

  “What did you do to me?” I asked, bringing a smile to her face, which wasn’t what I was expecting.

  She took a few steps, closing the distance between us before she tipped her head back a bit to look me in the eyes as her hand closed around my dick, stroking me through the fabric of my boxers. “Nothing you didn’t want.”

  “You know what I mean,” I said, catching her hand to stop the motion before it started feeling a little too good.

  Her expression shifted, from seductress to real confusion. She gave me a slight shake of her head. “Eddie… I don’t, actually. I’m just… being me.”

  The truth in that struck me in the chest. I couldn’t expect her to be able to explain my personal chaos over how my perception of her was shifting. That was some shit I would have to figure out for myself.

  “Anyway, thank you for not interrupting my morning practice,” she said, turning to walk away. I followed the sway of her ass and hips to the kitchen, where she opened the refrigerator and started pulling out bowls of chopped produce to place on the counter. “I don’t like it when my day gets thrown off.”

  “Sounds like that’s happened to you before.” I took a seat at the counter, watching as she started loading stuff into a blender that made me cringe at the combination.

  “Once or twice,” she chirped, oblivious to my disgust. “You want a smoothie?” she frowned when I immediately, adamantly shook my head. “You got something against smoothies?”

  “Yeah, the taste.”

  “Oh, I see what this is,” she nodded. “You haven’t had one made right yet. I’ve got you.”

  “There’s no right way to drink spinach.”

  She laughed at that. “There definitely is. Blended with fruits and a little yogurt if your tummy can handle it. Maybe a little honey.”

  “I don’t care what you put in it, the shit tastes like fancy grass.”

  “It does not,” she giggled, then put the top on the blender and pressed the button to whip everything into a muddy green colored mixture that she poured into two big glasses. “Just taste this,” she said, sliding a straw to me over the counter.

  I shook my head. “I’m good.”

  “Pleassse?” she asked, leaning over the counter, which was entirely unfair considering her nudity. Titties had made me say yes to a lot more than trying a damn smoothie.

  I blew out a sigh and then picked up the straw, dropping it unceremoniously into the glass. Her face spread into a big smile as she picked up her own and took a long sip, with me following suit. She gave me rapt attention as she waited for my response, so intense that it almost made me choke as I pulled the smoothie into my mouth. My eyebrows went up, and my eyes got a little bigger.

  “Damn. This is actually good.”

  “Ahhh!” she shrieked, coming to meet me on the other side of the counter. “Told you it was good. And now, you can say you’ve had my Strawberry Lemonade Green Smoothie. Very exclusive.”

  I chuckled, then took another sip. “Is that right?”

  “Mmmmhmmm,” she nodded, taking another drink from her own glass. “I love smoothies. I’m perfect at them. And, they help make sure I get my proper fruit and veggie intake… which is why I taste so damn good.”

  “That’s what you think?” I asked her, grinning as she stepped away before I was able to grab her.

  “That’s what I know.”

  She was right. She tasted good as hell.

  Once again, I followed that ass, this time to her bedroom, where she sat her glass down on top of her dresser. I sat down on the bed, watching her as she fished out shorts and a sports bra, but when she started to put them on, I got up.

  “Wait a second, what do you need this for?” I asked, pulling the items from her hand, and tossing them on top of the dresser.

  She gave me a coy smile. “Have you been enjoying the view?”

  “What do you think?” I moved so that my dick was pressed against her stomach, and she bit down on her lip as she reached behind her, for a little decorative box on top of the dresser.

  “I think,” she said, slipping her hand into the waistband of my boxers to pull me free. “That despite our contentious start… this could be the beginning of a mutually satisfying, ongoing exchange of energy.” She held up the condom she’d retrieved, and raised an eyebrow, stroking me with her other hand as she waited for a response.

  I took the condom and tore it open, then handed it back. She grinned as she rolled it onto me, and grinned harder when I turned her around, bending her over the dresser.

  “I think you might be right.”

  &

  “I’ve got something for you when you get here,” my mother sang into the phone, and I shook my head.

  “Unless it’s a peach cobbler, I can tell you now, I’m not interested mama.”

  On the other end of the line, she whined, “But baby, you won’t know that until you get here and see her—it! Until you see it. I meant it.”

  “See? Busted,” I laughed, pausing to put a case of bottled water in my cart. �
��Will you stop trying to hook me up with people? Especially people from home, like that’s not a five hour flight away.”

  “Five hours is nothing,” she argued. The sound of her scraping the side of a pot carried through the phone, and my stomach growled just thinking about what she was probably hooking up for my Pops. “You’re about to be too old to make healthy grandbabies for me, and I wish you would at least give this girl a chance. She’s sweet, she cooks, and that patch she had to wear really did work wonders for—”

  “Mama, please,” I chuckled. “I’m not interested.”

  “Okay. Okay. Well, Melba’s son is back from Afghanistan now, such a handsome man. And you know, you can adopt from all over the pla—”

  “What the – mama,” I begged. “Please.”

  “Well, if you’d just tell me who to look for, then—”

  “Nobody, please. I don’t need you to look for anybody.”

  She huffed. “But you’ll be the only one without a date!”

  I stopped in my tracks, in the middle of the aisle. “A date? Why would I need a date for a graduation?”

  “Well you can’t sit by yourself at the reception.”

  “Reception?”

  “Erika didn’t tell you?! That child ran off and got married at the courthouse, so now instead of just the graduation, we’re celebrating her marriage.”

  “Marriage to who?!”

  My mother groaned. “Chile, you know who.”

  I stifled a laugh. Based on her reaction, I did know who. “Mama, you’re still holding a grudge against Phillip?”

  “He violated my baby on her prom night!”

  That time, I did snicker. “Ma… I’m pretty sure Erika was an enthusiastic participant in her prom night deflowering.”

  “Oh don’t say that! I know he talked my baby into that. She wouldn’t have done it on her own. Not in the bleachers like that.”

  Shaking my head, I pressed my lips together to hold in my laugh. She obviously didn’t know Erika like I knew Erika. “If you say so mama. But… married? To Phillip? I didn’t even know they were back together, let alone married. When was this?”