CHAPTER 20
JACKIE
“So, was it beautiful?” Tara asked, as soon as she burst through the door.
“We had a lovely evening,” I said, my entire body still tingling from Fury’s touch.
“I’m not talking about your evening,” she shook her head, looking at me like I was as dumb as a post.
“What then?”
“Oh, please,” she said, rolling her eyes. “His cock. His Johnson. The anaconda in his pants!”
“Jesus, Tara,” I turned away, unable to suppress a smile.
“Well?” she demanded. “I did my part. I covered for you. Did you forget your pinky swear?”
“No, I didn’t forget,” I said, grateful nobody else had arrived yet to overhear her. I was always the first to arrive and she followed quickly after. Soon, the kitchen would be alive with activity, with Jim and Brandon, the cook and dishwasher, bustling around like a couple of busy ants. The diner would fill up with the usual suspects shortly after, with what sometimes seemed like half the town that I was responsible for feeding, including Bodhi Green himself.
As he’d done since I could remember, he’d claim the corner booth before anyone else could, holding court like a king, his voice bellowing over the other customers as if they weren’t even there. I’d learned to tolerate his loud, demanding demeanor by mostly ignoring his brashness and only adhering to his culinary needs and brushing off everything else.
Some days were easier to take than others. Luckily, he never stayed too long.
Today, I knew I would be able to breeze right through my morning and would likely lose myself in memories of last night. For now, I was grateful I had some time alone with my best friend.
“Everything — and I mean everything — was beautiful,” I said, grinning like a possum.
“Spill it!” she demanded, sitting on a folding chair in my back office.
“Well, we had dinner and I made a pie,” I said, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks.
“Did he like it?” she asked.
“I think so,” I said, trying not to melt into the floor as the memory of Fury licking pie from my nipples flashed in my head.
“Did you fuck?” Tara asked bluntly.
I bit my lip, smiling over my desk at her and nodded, my hands trembling as I remembered the feel of him inside of me.
“Fuck yeah!” she cried, throwing a fist in the air. “Good for you!”
“It was fucking amazing, Tara,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s…just…incredible. His body, oh my god, and his mouth and his…wow, just wow.”
“Huge?”
“Huge.”
“Dammit!” she cried.
“What?”
“I’m jealous!” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you, but it’s been weeks since Jimmy banged me. I’m dying. It’s not fair!”
“It’s just sex,” I said, mentally laughing at my words, because after experiencing last night’s mind-blowing paradise, I no longer believed sex was just sex. I just wanted to make Tara feel better. She saw right through me, though.
“Fuck you,” she said, teasingly. “You look like you’ve been rubbed raw, girl. That man exfoliated you!”
“Jesus, Tara, the analogies you use sometimes,” I said, shaking my head. “You can be so crude. Maybe that’s why Jimmy’s turned off. Maybe he needs a softer approach.”
“Nope, I’ve tried everything,” she said. “I’ve been the nice girl, the bad girl, the dirty girl, the innocent girl, everything I can think of. Hell, I even ordered this black rubber outfit from the internet — with whips and handcuffs and ball gags, even! — and he still wasn’t having it.”
“Maybe it’s a medical problem,” I said. “Low testosterone or something?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Whatever it is, it’s boring. I bet Fury isn’t low on testosterone.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head vehemently.
“So he was really good, huh?”
“The best.”
“Better than Jared? Hank?”
“Any one is better than Hank,” I said, rolling my eyes. “And I barely remember Jared. He was like a ghost. I’m not even sure he really existed.”
“Oh, he existed. Just like Fury exists. When are you going to see him again?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Soon, probably.”
“Hard to miss a man like that in this town,” she said. “Maybe he’ll come in this morning.”
“Maybe,” I said. “He’s going to start working for Green.”
“Poor dude, he’s that hard up for a job?”
“I guess,” I shrugged.
“So he’s staying for a while then?”
“I suppose. Not sure how long. We didn’t do a whole lot of talking,” I said, laughing.
“Now, that’s my kind of date!” she said, smiling at me. “I’m glad you got some good dick, babygirl.”
“God, Tara!”
“What?” She said, feigning innocence.
“Just stop. He’s a nice guy. There’s more to it than sex.”
“There is?” she asked, cocking her head.
“Well, I mean, I don’t know that for sure,” I said, stumbling over the words. “Hell, I don’t know what it is. It just is what it is and that’s all. Just don’t be so lewd.”
“It’s Jimmy’s fault, I’m telling you. So did Fury go down —.”
Luckily, I was saved from further interrogation when Jim walked in.
“Morning, Jim,” I said, as he punched in and started up the grill. Tara gave me a sly smile and went about her prep work, graciously leaving me to my own thoughts.
My phone buzzed in my apron and I pulled it out to see I’d received a text message from Hank, which was odd because it was before dawn and he never woke up this early because he was usually nursing a hangover. It took me a second, but I figured he’d probably just not gone to bed at all yet.
I figured that was my fault, or at least he thought it was, but surprisingly, the usual pang of guilt was absent this morning. I read his text message and groaned.
“I’m sorry about yesterday. I just got carried away. I hate the thought of you being with anyone else, Jackie. I miss you. Can’t we start over? I’ll be a good man, I promise.”
Same old shit. Different day.
Hank was never going to change, he was as predictable as the moon. Boring, sad and pathetic, he was everything Fury wasn’t.
And Fury was all the good that a man like Hank could only ever dream of becoming.
That is, as long as Bodhi Green didn’t sink his claws into him too deeply.