Daisy

 

“Why are we stopping at a motel?  I thought we were staying with your parents?”  I stared out the windshield at the glowing neon sign of the motel.

“Well,” Frannie said as I shut the car off, “technically we’re not supposed to be at my parents until tomorrow.”

“Then why did we leave today?”  I asked.  There was a knock on my window and I screamed and jumped, banging the top of my head against the top of the car.  “Ouch!  Goddammit, Owen!”

“Sorry, dude,” Owen said cheerfully as Frannie climbed out of the car and ran around to my side.  She hugged Owen before kissing him

“I missed you, baby.”

“Missed you too, babe,” Owen said before kissing her again.

“It’s been two days since you saw him last,” I said as I climbed out of the car.

“It’s been hell without you,” Frannie said solemnly.  “I hate being apart from you.”

“Well, get used to it,” I said a bit irritably.  “You’re a lesbian starting now, for the next week, remember?”

“Starting tomorrow,” Owen said.  “Pop the trunk and I’ll get your bags.”

“Wait?  You’re staying here tonight too?”  I asked.

He nodded as Frannie popped the trunk and said, “I booked a couple of rooms at the motel for tonight.  I thought maybe once we were settled, I could slip over to Owen’s room and we’d have one last night of - ”

“Boning,” Owen said as he walked over to us carrying both my suitcase and Frannie’s. 

“So, I’m supposed to hang out in the motel room by myself all night?”  I said.  “Way to treat your pretend lesbian lover, Frannie.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but this is my last night with Owen!”

“For a week,” I said.  “You seriously can’t go a week without having sex with him?”

“I’m really good at boning,” Owen said.

“I just want one more night with my baby,” Frannie said.  “There’s a bar not far from here.  You can go have a drink, maybe meet someone.”

“Won’t your parents wonder where you are?”  I asked Owen.

“Nah, I told them I was gonna chill with my bros tonight,” Owen replied as he shifted the suitcases in his hands.

“What happens when someone sees you with Owen?”  I said to Frannie.  “The lesbian lover story will be blown before it even starts.”

“No one is going to see us,” Frannie said.  “The motel is a good ten miles outside of town and besides, technically I’m staying in your room with you.”

“You just made out with Owen in the parking lot,” I said.  “He’s carrying our suitcases for God’s sake!”

“I’m a gentleman,” Owen said.

“No one saw us making out,” Frannie said.  “One last night, Daisy.  Go to the bar, have a drink and relax.  Enjoy your alone time, okay?  Starting tomorrow, we’ll be smothered by my family.”

“You didn’t mention the smothering when you talked me into this crazy idea,” I muttered.

“Maybe smothering isn’t the right word, more like really intense mothering,” Frannie said.

“Fantastic,” I said.  I grabbed my suitcase from Owen and, walking carefully on the snow-covered ground, started toward the lobby of the motel.

 

* * *

 

Wes

 

I wanted her the moment I saw her.  I’d been sitting in the bar for nearly two hours, nursing my beer and people watching when she’d walked in, shrugged out of her thick jacket and sat down at the long, curved bar.  I didn’t recognize her but that wasn’t surprising.  The bar was outside of town and I wondered briefly if I had chosen this one because I was deliberately avoiding old friends. 

Of course, if the woman sitting at the bar and sipping a glass of wine had lived in Darville when I was growing up, I may never have left.  She was wearing skinny jeans with a dark red long-sleeved shirt that hugged her breasts.  Despite how slender she was, she had to be a C cup, maybe a D.  They looked firm and perky through her shirt and I was suddenly itching to touch them.  Her light brown hair brushed against her shoulders and I wondered if it was as soft as it looked.

She lifted her wine glass and took a drink.  Her back was to me so I couldn’t see her face but I remembered it easily enough from her short walk to the bar.  Pale skin, cute little button nose, perfect pink lips and gorgeous blue eyes.  I studied her hand as she drummed her fingers restlessly against the gleaming wood of the bar.  She had long fingers and I wondered idly what they would look like wrapped around my dick.

For a moment, I was tempted to stand up from my table in the corner, cross the bar and ease onto the stool beside her.  It’d been a while since I’d gotten laid and the woman was hitting all of my buttons.  Hell, I had half a stiffy just from staring at the back of her damn head.  Before I could even try and hit on her, another man sat down next to her.  A weird little trickle of possessiveness went down my back and I shook it off.  What the hell was wrong with me?  I didn’t even know the woman.  I forced myself to look at the TV mounted in the far corner.  I wasn’t here to get laid.  I was here to spend time with my family at Christmas.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from glancing over at the woman every five minutes for the next half-hour.  I couldn’t hear what the guy sitting next to her was saying but it was obvious she was blowing him off.  He either didn’t get it, or didn’t want to take the hint.  I watched with growing irritation as he continued to hit on her.  She wasn’t mine, I didn’t even know her damn name, but I was instantly angry when the guy dropped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her up against him.  When she tried to pull away and he refused to let her, I was on my feet and headed toward them without a second thought.

 

* * *

 

Daisy

 

I was starting to regret coming to the bar.  I should have stayed in my motel room and watched The Bachelor instead.  The guy sitting next to me for the last half hour was an asshole who was totally ignoring my ‘fuck off’ signals.  I took another big gulp of my wine and waved at the bartender for the bill.  She ignored me as she flirted with a big lumberjack looking fellow at the far end of the bar.  I sighed and rubbed at my forehead.

“So, what did you say your name was again, hot thing?”

I rolled my eyes and tried not to wince.  The guy sitting beside me was good looking enough but he was already halfway plastered, and his breath could have knocked over a dragon.

“I didn’t,” I said.  “Listen, you’re not picking up on my very obvious body language, so I’m going to straight up tell you that I’m not interested in you.  Go away.”

The man didn’t blink an eye and I made a soft squeak of surprise when he dropped one heavy arm around my shoulders and yanked me closer.  “C’mon, don’t be like that.”

“Let me go,” I said before trying to pull away.

He held me tighter, his arm a band of steel around me and fear trickled down my spine.  I shook it off.  I was in a public place and there were plenty of people around.

“Let me go before I kick you in the nuts,” I said.

“I hate women with smart mouths, you know that?”  He was slurring his words a little and I couldn’t help cringing when his fingers dug into my arm.  “And you seem to have a real smart mouth, don’t ya?”

“Fuck you,” I said.  “Let go of me now or - ”

“Sorry I’m late, honey.  I got caught up at work.”

I turned my head toward the low raspy voice coming from my left side.  The man of my goddamn dreams was standing next to me and it was all I could do to keep my mouth from dropping open.  I stared up at him as he leaned against the bar and cocked one eyebrow at me.  His eyes were the colour of dark chocolate and he had a perfect nose and perfect lips and a faint indent in his chin that I suddenly wanted to touch.  With my tongue.  Dark stubble covered his square jaw and my nipples beaded into hard points.  How would it feel to have that stubble rubbing against them?  Me and my nipples wanted to find out.  Immediately.

He was well over six feet with broad shoulders and a narrow waist and what I was sure would be a perfect damn ass clad in stupidly tight jeans.  I stared briefly at his package, my cheeks reddening when I lifted my gaze to his and there was amusement in his eyes. 

My lust-fogged brain finally clued in that he was speaking and I stuttered, “W-what?”

“I asked who your new friend was.”  He stared around me and gave the man a tight grin.  “You might want to take your hand off my woman.”

I heard the audible click of his throat as the drunk man swallowed, and the heavy weight of his arm disappeared.  I didn’t object when my dream man put his arm around my waist.  In fact, I leaned forward and eagerly tilted my head up toward him.  I wanted this utterly perfect stranger to kiss me.

He didn’t disappoint.  His head dipped down, and I closed my eyes as his warm, firm lips brushed against mine.  I returned his kiss with an embarrassing amount of enthusiasm.  I parted my lips and made a soft whimper of pleasure when he briefly dipped his tongue between them to touch mine.  The whimper turned into a moan of disappointment when he lifted his head.

He stared pointedly at the man sitting on the other side of me.  “You should go now.”

The man stumbled away and some of my common sense returned when the stranger let go of my waist and sat on the stool next to me.  I stared at my almost empty glass of wine and tried to control my runaway heartbeat.  What the hell was happening to me?  Pretend lesbian relationship aside, I was done with men for at least the next ten years – they couldn’t be trusted.  Celibacy.  Celibacy was what I both wanted and needed.

“You okay?”

His deep voice made butterflies flicker to life in my stomach.  Hell, butterflies?  I had a goddamn gymnastic team practicing their tumbling routine in there.

“Yes, thank you,” I said.  “I appreciate the help.”

He shrugged.  “You seemed to have it under control but sometimes the pretend boyfriend routine is easier and cleaner than the kick them in the balls route.  No one likes to see a grown man burst into tears and vomit simultaneously.”

I laughed.  “I suppose not.  I’m Daisy, by the way.”

“Wes.”  He held out his big hand and I hesitated briefly before shaking it.  Immediately the gymnasts in my stomach broke out into synchronized cartwheeling.  Shit, I was in trouble if just the touch of his hand made me want to drag him back to my motel room.

I realized I was still holding his hand and dropped it with a muttered apology.  He smiled at me and waved at the bartender who immediately came over.

“Well, hey, Sugar.  What can I get you?”  She purred.

“I’ll take whatever you have on tap and whatever the lady would like.”

“I’ll have another glass of wine, please,” I said.

She nodded and hurried away as I smiled at Wes.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”  He smiled again at me before saying, “So, in the interest of not getting my ass kicked – do you have a boyfriend?”

I shook my head.  “No.  Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Would you be surprised to know I’m single?”  He asked with a flirty grin.

“Shocked, actually.”

“Is it because of my good looks or my charming personality?”

“Probably a little of both.”

“Good to know,” he said as the bartender returned with our drinks.  He took a drink of beer as I sipped at my new glass of wine.

“Do you live around here?”  I asked.

“Used to,” he said.  “I’m home for the holidays.  How about you?”

“No.  I came here with a friend,” I replied.

There was a bit of awkward silence and I tried frantically to think of something witty to say.  Oh God, why did I have to suck so hard at flirting?  And why the hell did Wes have to smell so good?  It was short-circuiting my ability to think straight.

I took another sip of wine.

You’ve got this, Daisy.  It’s just a beautiful guy who you have no interest in sleeping with because you’ve taken a vow of celibacy.  You don’t need to flirt with him.  Just say something cool for God’s sake.

I took a deep breath and said, “So, uh, what’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?”

He laughed and I did a face plant into the palm of my hand.

“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”  He teased.

“Sorry,” I said.  “I have no idea why I said that.  I can’t sleep with you - I’ve taken a vow of celibacy.”

Wes choked on his swallow of beer and with my face flaming red, I pounded him on the back as he coughed repeatedly. 

“Shit!  I’m sorry!  I don’t know why I told you that – forget I said it!”  I said.  I smacked him on the back again and gave him an anxious look as he wiped his hand across his mouth.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks,” he said. 

“Good, I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he replied.

I waited a beat and said, “Is there any chance you’ll forget the celibacy thing?”

“Not a chance,” he said.

My groan of dismay made him grin before he leaned a little closer.  “So, any particular reason you’ve taken a vow of celibacy?”

“Six months ago, my boyfriend and I broke up.  It was amicable enough, we just wanted different things, you know?”

Wes nodded and took another drink of beer.

“I decided to try online dating.”

“Uh oh,” Wes said.

I laughed.  “Yeah.  I went on first dates with five different men over a period of six weeks.  All of them were terrible and the third and fifth one bordered on complete disasters.”

“How disastrous?”  Wes asked.

“The third one told me he was a musician.”

“You don’t look like someone who dates musicians,” Wes said.

I shrugged.  “He wasn’t a musician, really.  Unless you think playing gigs at the local senior’s home for free makes a thirty-year-old man a musician?”

He roared laughter and I flushed with pleasure at the sound of it.

“Wow, he told you this on the first date?”

“Oh no,” I said, “Our date was at the senior’s home.  He thought I would enjoy watching the way he ‘worked a crowd’.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was,” I said.  “But to be fair, some of those seniors really got into it.  An old lady at the front threw underwear at him.”

Wes nearly howled with laughter as I said, “Mind you, they belonged to the guy sitting next to her, but I overheard him telling the nurse she threw farther than him.”

“Holy shit,” Wes said as he wiped at his eyes.  “I can’t believe that’s a true story.”

“It is,” I said.  “The fifth one was worse.”

“It can’t be.”

“He brought his mom on the date.”

“Do you live in a sitcom?”  Wes asked.  “Is that what’s happening?”

I laughed.  “Trust me, there was no laugh track for this date.”

“What did you do?”  Wes asked.

I shrugged.  “I had dinner with him and his mom.  At the end of the date, he walked me to my car.  His mom stood at their car and shouted across the parking lot not to kiss me.  That she could tell I had the sex disease.”

Wes’ mouth dropped open and I laughed and said, “I can assure you that she was wrong.  I don’t have the sex disease.”

Wes laughed again.  “That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, now you know why I took a vow of celibacy.  Five online dates in six weeks were more than enough to convince me that celibacy was the way to go.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

“What about you?  Why are you single?”  I took another sip of wine and tried to look like I wasn’t about five minutes away from sticking my hand down his deliciously tight jeans.

“The cliché of being too busy with my career, I suppose,” he said.  “I’ve dated off and on the last few years but nothing serious.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“Engineer.”

“My dad was an engineer,” I said. 

“Is he still one?”

“He and my mom passed away a few years ago.  Rainy night, bad brakes on their car,” I said.

He reached out and squeezed my hand.  “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.  It’s still hard, especially around their birthdays and the holidays but I’ve done lots of grief counseling and have a few really good support groups that I belong to.”  I smiled at him.  He held my hand a moment longer and I shivered all over when he rubbed his thumb over the palm of my hand before letting go.

“What do you do for a living?”  He asked.

“Rehabilitation therapist,” I replied.

“Do you like it?”

“I do,” I said.  “I like helping people.  Do you like your job?”  I asked.

“Yes.  I work for a smaller company and we have good clients.”

“That’s great,” I said.  I studied the stubble that surrounded his mouth and wondered how it would feel against my inner thighs.

“Shit.”

I jerked at Wes’ low mutter and said, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry.  I need to go,” he said as he pulled out his wallet and placed some bills on the bar.

Disappointment coursed through me.  “Oh, yeah.  Of course.  Okay. It was nice to meet you.”

I held out my hand and Wes stared at it for a moment before stepping closer.  He ignored my hand and cupped my face, staring intently at me as his thumb rubbed across my cheekbone.

“Let me make something perfectly clear, Daisy.  I don’t want to leave.  You’re beautiful and sexy as hell, but if I stay any longer I’ll do something stupid.”

“Like what?” I whispered.

“Like telling you that I want to fuck you until you forget all about your goddamn vow of celibacy.”

I shivered all over and stared wide-eyed at him as he studied my mouth.  For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me but instead he lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss against my knuckles.  The scrape of his stubble sent a new wave of lust through my body and I swallowed heavily as he gave me a look of regret.

“Instead, for once in my life I’m going to do the right thing.  It was a pleasure to meet you, Daisy.” 

He kissed my knuckles again and I watched in numb disbelief as he walked out of the bar.

 

* * *

 

Wes

 

“You fucking idiot,” I muttered to myself as I unlocked the truck.  “You’re lucky she didn’t slap you across the face when you said you wanted to fuck her.”

I yanked the door open and then froze when I heard my name called.  I turned around.  Daisy was hurrying toward me.

“Wes, wait a minute, I – shit!”

Her feet slipped on the icy pavement and she pinwheeled her arms madly as I lunged forward.  My own feet slipped out from under me as I grabbed her around the waist and we fell to the ground with a heavy thud.  I twisted as we fell and cushioned Daisy’s body with my own.  Her soft and curvy body felt way too good on top of mine, even with most of it hidden by a thick winter jacket.  I stayed on the ground, holding her tightly against me despite the coldness of the pavement under me.

“Wes!  Oh my God, are you okay?”

She tried to scramble off of me and I held her a little tighter as I stared at her mouth.  I had kissed that mouth, felt the softness of her lips and tasted the sweetness of her tongue.  My cock hardened in my jeans and without thinking I shifted her against me so her pussy was pressed up against it.

Her eyes widened and she licked at her bottom lip.  I groaned and cupped the back of her head, pulling her down until her lips met mine.  I immediately took control of the kiss, threading my fingers through her soft hair as I angled my mouth over hers and thrust my tongue into her mouth.  She sucked at it and I groaned again and rubbed my dick against her.

Her sweet little moan set my blood on fire, but I pulled her head back and stared at her swollen mouth with regret before easing her off of me and climbing to my feet.  I took her hands and helped her stand.

“Sorry,” I muttered.  “I shouldn’t have done that.  Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said.  “Are you?  You were the one who actually hit the ground.  Did you smack your head?”

“No,” I said.

She stared at me and I cleared my throat before stepping back.  “I gotta go.”

I reached for the door of my truck, hesitating when she said, “Wes, wait!”

Sighing, I turned around.  She was closer than I thought, so close I could smell her perfume and feel the brush of her winter jacket against my abdomen.  “Daisy, I - ”

“What if I want that too?”  She interrupted.

“Want what?”  I asked in confusion.

Her cheeks turned pink, but she took a deep breath and said, “What if I want to be fucked into forgetting about my vow of celibacy?”

My dick reacted to her words, growing so goddamn hard that I was certain an imprint of my zipper would be on it.  I ignored my urge to yank her into my arms and instead said, “I’m staying at my mom and dad’s house.”

What the fuck?

Her mouth dropped open and it was my turn to blush when she started to giggle.

“Shit,” I said.  “I meant that fucking a woman in my childhood bedroom with my parents down the hall isn’t exactly dignified for a thirty-two-year-old man.”

She laughed again.  “Lucky for you, I have a motel room.  It’s nothing special but...”

She trailed off and gave me an uncertain look.  I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her nice and close, letting her feel the hardness of my dick.  I bent my head and nuzzled her throat liking the way she moaned and lifted her head to give me better access.  “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Yes,” she said.  “But, Wes, I – don’t take this the wrong way but I’m not, um, looking for anything more than tonight.  Okay?”

I lifted my head and kissed the tip of her nose.  “Okay.”

“Are you sure?”  She said anxiously.  “You understand that I don’t want anything but sex?”

I couldn’t help but laugh.  “Yes, I’m sure and yes I understand you only want sex.”

She blushed again.  “Sorry, I sound like I’m totally full of myself.  I’m not assuming you want anything more than sex with me, it’s just – I’ve never done anything like this before so I’m not really sure how the, uh, rules, work.”

“I haven’t done this before either, but I don’t think there’s a set of rules to follow for a one-night stand,” I said.

“Right,” she said, “of course.  So, uh, did you want to follow me back to the motel?”

I nodded immediately.  “Yes, I do.”