Vacancy, page 24
“Uh…” Hudson made a face in disagreement. “No. There’s actually been no sex yet.”
“Dude,” Keene shrieked in outrage. “Then, why the fuck are you dating her?”
“Because I basically have to.” Hudson hitched up his shoulder with one of his casual, no-nonsense shrugs. “Her dad owns the restaurant.”
“I’m lost,” I admitted, shaking my head.
Oaklynn pointed back at me in agreement. “Yeah, me too. Shouldn’t sneaking around with the boss’s daughter be a reason not to date her? Because you could get fired?”
“You would think,” Hudson admitted with a heavy sigh. “But as soon as she noticed me in the kitchen and started flirting with me, I was warned by, like, everyone to never tell her no or do anything to upset her. I guess she wanted some other guy from the kitchen a couple of months before I started there, but he had a wife and turned her down.” Lifting his brows severely, Hudson finished with, “He was fired the next day. Which means I’m going to do whatever the fuck she wants in order to keep my damn job.”
“Then… You’re just going to keep dating her until…when?” Keene demanded, shaking his head in confusion. “Until you two are married with five kids and a house in the suburbs?”
Hudson merely gifted him with one of his classic shrugs. “I don’t mind kids. And what’s wrong with the suburbs?”
“This is terrible,” Alec exclaimed, beginning to look genuinely freaked out. “You can’t just let her do that to you, man. She’s going to take complete control over you, and we’ll never see you again.”
“Oh my God,” Hudson sputtered in amusement. “Will y’all relax? This is not that big of a deal. She’s a spoiled little rich girl who gets everything she wants and grows bored with her toys about as soon as she gets them. And that’s all I am to her. A shiny new toy. So why not simply let her play for the five-minute attention span she’ll give me, and then let her move on of her own accord? She gets what she wants, I keep my job—which is what I want—and we both go away happy. No harm done.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that, bud,” Oaklynn said, her voice filled with complete disagreement. “I mean, you’re prime real estate. I don’t see this girl moving on any time soon. You’re way too laid back and accommodating.”
He tilted his head in confusion. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s not,” she assured. “For Genesis. If she’s really the spoiled, rich girl you’re describing, then she’s going to just love how you’ll do whatever she says. Because girls like that… They don’t really want boyfriends. They want Ken dolls they can position and dress up however they please. And you’re the perfect type to just sit back and let her.”
When she leaned against me after talking as if seeking comfort, I hugged her close and kissed the side of her face.
But Hudson merely sighed as if not that concerned. “I guess I better start naming those five kids, then.”
“I wouldn’t bother,” Alec said, drizzling chocolate along his finger. “I’m sure she already has.”
As he licked it off, Keene snickered and nudged Hudson’s arm. “You are so fucked. This is awesome.”
“It’s sad is what it is,” Oaklynn muttered. “I mean, how can you just be in this relationship because she wants it? What about what you want?”
“I’m getting what I want,” Hudson assured. “I want to keep working at Villa de Gusanos.”
“Wait, wait.” Oaklynn lifted her hands, sounding as if she was trying to keep in a laugh. “I’m sorry, but did you just say Villa de Gusanos? Seriously?”
“Yeah. Why?” Hudson shook his head, confused.
Oaklynn snickered. “You know that means worm village in Spanish, right?”
Alec snorted out a laugh. “Is that a specialty there, Ivey? Worms?”
Keene cackled along with him, and the two leaned against each other, giggling uncontrollably.
Hudson merely shook his head and said, “Gusano is the owner’s last name, you assholes. And I think he’s Italian.”
“Ah,” Oaklynn murmured with a knowing nod. “So the de is D-I, not D-E?”
“No. It’s D-E,” Hudson corrected.
Which only made Oaklynn frown and tip her head. “But articles in Italian are D-I, not D-E.”
“Yeah, well…” Hudson huffed out a long-suffering sigh. “The owner’s an ignorant asshole who probably just thought it sounded cool. I don’t know. I don’t really care. I just know they make a damn fine eggplant rollatini, and working there is going to put me on the map.”
“Eggplant. Bleh…” Alec made a face of horror.
“It’s the most respected, accredited, prominent restaurant in town,” Hudson kept talking over him. “So that’s where I need to be right now. If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.”
“But only if you give the owner’s daughter a special taste of your own worm.” Keene snickered, making both him and Alec start laughing all over again before they high-fived each other.
Only for Keene to nudge Alec silent and squint questioningly at Hudson. “Wait, wait, wait. So your new girlfriend’s name is Genesis Gusano?”
“G-g-golly…” Alec jumped in. “That’s a lot of G's.”
“Please tell me her middle name is Grace.”
“Or Gianna.”
I shook my head and sighed at them, while Oaklynn cried, “I can’t believe you two. How can you joke at a time like this? One of your best friends is basically being blackmailed into dating someone.”
But hearing that spoken aloud only made the two morons crack up more. “Blackmailed by the g-g-glamorous worm queen.”
Oaklynn sniffed irritably. “Ain’t you even remotely worried about him? I mean, what if he meets the woman of his dreams and falls in love with her but can’t do anything about it because he’s stuck with Cruella de Genesis?”
“Oh, honey,” Hudson drawled, flashing her a flirty smile. “That’s definitely not gonna happen. You’re already taken.”
“¡Madre mía!” she muttered under her breath, before growling, “None of you even care, do you? Damien!”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, kissing her hair in reassurance. “Don’t worry; I got this. Whenever Ivey’s ready to pull his head out of his ass and escape this girl, I’ll help him.”
“Thank you,” she said, gripping my arms more snugly around her and then tipping her head to the side for a kiss on the cheek, which I readily gave her. “You’re the best.”
All the while, Keene was snorting. “Yeah, because Archer’s a freaking expert on scaring women away.” Glancing at Alec in question, he asked, “What are some of the reasons they leave him again?”
“Oh, oh…” Lifting a hand, Alec raised his voice an octave as if to imitate a woman’s as he said, “He’s just so closed off and doesn’t know how to open up to me.”
“He wouldn’t even share a single drawer with me or let me leave a toothbrush at his place,” Keene joined in, quickly followed by Hudson.
“If only he talked more.”
“I mean, I really wanted to make it work with him,” Alec carried on, setting a hand on his hip and thrusting his chin up and chest forward. “But I just never knew what he was feeling.”
“He’s such an asshole,” Keene added.
Swallowing, I started to sweat, hoping none of these dipshits were feeding Oaklynn any reason to look at me differently.
But all she did was scoff. “I don’t know why any of you think you’re bright enough to make fun of Damien. He’s the only man in this room right now who’s actually using his brain.”
“Oh, honey, that’s not his brain he’s thinking with,” Keene assured her. “He just wants to get back into your panties tonight.”
“Well, guess what?” she sassed back as she surged to her feet to scowl down at him. “It worked.”
Then she turned her back to him so she could face me directly. “Come on, baby. Let’s go to your room.” And she held a hand down to me. “I’ve had enough of these clowns for one evening.”
Beyond relieved that she still chose me even after all the crap the guys had just revealed to her, I immediately took her fingers and stood, more than ready to follow her anywhere.
Until Hudson folded his arms over his chest and snorted. “And you accused me of being stuck under some chick’s complete control.”
Sending him a stern glance, I said, “Enough.”
Immediately, the other three guys in the room cleaned up their act, clearing their throats and straightening in their chairs.
Oaklynn sent me an admiring glance over her shoulder as she led me out of the kitchen. “Just so you know, it impresses the hell out of me how you can make them behave with a single word. I want that kind of superpower.”
“You have a better kind of superpower,” I assured her as I came up close to wrap a hand around her waist and kiss the side of her throat.
Grinning mischievously, she turned to face me while walking backward. “Mmm. I do like the sound of that.”
To test her abilities, she reached for the front of my jeans. And just like that, her magic fingers made my dick go achingly hard.
Growling, I picked her up. She hummed appreciatively and wound her legs around my waist.
A second later, her mouth was on mine, our tongues were tangling, and I was jogging up the steps blindly to get her to my bed as fast as possible.
25
OAKLYNN
Once we hit my room, I set Oaklynn on her feet and shut the door behind me with my foot as she started on the top button of my shirt.
My hand settled on her hip, palming a lush curve, and I studied her eyes that were focused on my chest.
“Hey,” I murmured seriously. “I’m sorry if they upset you.”
Oaklynn glanced up in surprise. “They didn’t. Truth be told, I was more worried for them. From the way you tensed against me when they started in on you, I was mildly afraid you would hurt them. They should honestly be thanking me right now for sacrificing myself and being so willing to distract you from your murderous thoughts. Because, mmm…” Licking her lips as she refocused on my chest that she was exposing one button at a time, she purred deep in her throat. “Distracting you is definitely going to be quite a sacrifice for me.”
Then she grinned and leaned forward to kiss my chest directly over my heart.
Sucking in a breath, I wound my fingers through her hair and watched her lavish my pecs with her lips and tongue.
“There really weren’t as many girls as they made it seem,” I blurted before I could stop myself. “I mean, honestly, only one said all that to me. One semi-serious girlfriend. That’s all. And maybe what she said was true, but—”
“Whoa,” Oaklynn halted me, looking up in bewilderment and catching my hands. “Just stop right there, partner. You don’t actually think I took anything they said seriously, do you?”
When she looked at me like that, it was hard to think that she ever would, but my heart had nearly stalled in my chest when the guys had been going on. I could suddenly picture Oaklynn saying those very words to me someday. And I didn’t like the image. Not at all.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, not really wanting to admit how much it had bothered me.
But she could already tell.
“Hey. Newsflash, Archer,” she whispered, cupping my face between both of her soft hands. “I was already vividly aware of how quiet and reserved you can be, and I’m still here, alright?”
I swallowed and nodded, comforted by her words. Pressing my brow to hers, I closed my eyes and rasped, “Okay. Good.”
“And that other girl was wrong about you hiding your feelings, anyway,” Oaklynn went on, brushing her thumb over a tiny scar on my cheekbone, just under my eye. “You might not scream them from the rooftop, but you don’t hide them. If someone’s paying attention, they can see exactly what you’re feeling.” Then she smiled into my eyes. “Fortunately for me, I love to watch you.”
Then she leaned in and gently kissed the other small scar I had on my face, this one on the other side and lower, toward my mouth, just above the start of my beard line. The move was so sweet and gentle, I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “I don’t want this to be casual between us.”
“Do what?” Oaklynn reared back, her eyes wide as they met mine.
She opened her mouth to say something, but I caught her hands. “Just hear me out.”
Oaklynn blinked once and then quietly said, “O…kay.”
“I totally respect that you want to focus on classes and not get caught up in any dating drama. I feel the same way. So I wouldn’t take up much of your time. I just…well, you need to take breaks every now and again, right, otherwise you’ll overload, and your schoolwork will suffer from that. I’m just asking that you come to me during those breaks and not go to someone else.”
“So…” Her brow crinkled as she considered my proposal. “You basically just want to continue doing exactly what we are now but with the reassurance that it’s exclusive.”
My lips parted when I realized she was right. But what the hell; I could handle that scenario. “Yes, ma’am,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “And that’s really all you want?”
“Well…” I shrugged sheepishly. “If you decided tomorrow that you’d prefer to be in a serious relationship, then okay, I’d be all in.”
“God, Damien…” When her gaze filled with pity, my stomach plummeted.
She was going to reject me, I could see it in her eyes. I tightened my fingers around hers and added, “I could be a low-maintenance boyfriend. The lowest. You could forget about me for a week—or two…fuck…three—and I’d still be right here, where you left me, whenever you needed some company again.”
“Jeez, no,” she groaned. “That sounds awful. You’d be completely settling. And you should never settle when you want more, Damien. Don’t just accept crumbs from anyone.”
“But I really like your crumbs,” I coaxed playfully, smoothing my hand up her arm. “I’d rather feast on your scraps than turn to anyone else for a full-course meal.”
Oaklynn frowned immediately. “Excuse me? You won’t be turning to anyone else for anything, thank you very much.”
I grinned, liking her possessive side.
“Then you better lock this down and not let me get away,” I encouraged, smiling cunningly as I drew her closer. “I mean, I’m a pretty hot commodity. An awkward, closed-off, noncommutative ass who makes a lady’s best friend think I’m full of red flags. What more could a girl ask for?”
She rolled her eyes over my dry joke and caught the front two halves of my shirt in her fists as she stepped closer and lifted her face as if angling for a kiss. “You’re making this too easy for me.”
“No,” I countered. “I’m compromising.”
“Or…” she said as I started to slip the mustard-colored blazer off her shoulders. “You’re settling.”
I grinned. “Or… I’m making the entrance to my web look as enticing as possible.” Lowering my mouth to within an inch of hers, I taunted, “Otherwise, how will I ever trap you right where I want you?”
Murmuring a sound of assent without saying an actual word, she closed her eyes and pressed her mouth to mine.
I kissed her back, pouring everything I had into it, using whatever means was in my arsenal to keep her around and hopefully get her to fall to the same level that I already had.
“I’m in this,” I swore to her when our lips broke apart for air. “I’m so fucking gone for you, Oaklynn Vargas; I want you any way I can get you.” My mouth pressed against her jaw. “And if this is your way…” I placed kisses along her throat. “Then I don’t want to know any other.” At her ear, I whispered, “Just say yes,” before my teeth nipped at the lobe.
“Oh God,” she groaned, throwing her head back and gripping my shoulders.
I cupped her face in my hands and looked into her eyes. “I’m going to need a yes or no on this one, sorry.”
She swallowed audibly and then bobbed her head once before blowing out a shaky breath. “Yes,” she agreed. “Of course, we can keep whatever this is between us exclusive. But damn, Damien…” She gave a strangled laugh. “Whatever idiot woman said you didn’t know how to open up was completely whack. Because this… This…” She shook her head, unable to say more.
I smiled into her eyes. “I’m like one of those prickly, exotic flowers, I guess. I only open for the sun. And she…” Leaning intimately closer, I admitted, “Was not my sun.”
“Holy shit,” Oaklynn breathed. “I’m going to need you to get inside me, like, now.”
With a chuckle, I answered, “Yes, ma’am.”
I pressed my mouth to hers, and the kiss that followed was long and thorough. Our lips stayed connected until I finished unbuttoning the front of her shirt and she finished on the front of mine. It wasn’t until I broke away to kiss the side of her neck that I found the zipper on her skirt and eased it open.
Then I hooked my fingers into the loosened waistband and tugged the material down until it started to fall on its own.
Oaklynn’s head tipped back as she hissed out a breath. Taking advantage of all that exposed flesh, I cradled the backs of her shoulders tenderly and pressed my mouth to the base of her throat. As I nibbled along her collar, my thumbs dipped in along the inside of her arm, near her armpits.
She made a hungry sound deep in her throat and started to fumble with the zipper of my jeans.
I moved my attention south, coming across the strap of her bra, and while my teeth attacked one and pulled it off her shoulders, my fingers slipped the other side down.
Her breasts spilled out the front, and I growled in delight, dipping my face to kiss her sternum between the two.
Oaklynn gave up on my pants and clutched my head as I palmed the outside of her breasts, massaging them as I lifted and brought them closer together. When I swirled my tongue around one nipple, then closed my mouth around the bud and sucked sharply, she jerked and tightened her grip on my hair.
