Chapter 2

Mike

She didn’t respond to my playful quip and instead just stared up at me like I’d actually caught her in the middle of something. Up until that look, I had honestly thought she just got caught up with her friends or something. Now I was beginning to wonder if she had intended on ditching me.

“Yeah, I guess I’m not great at ditching people,” she mischievously touched my bicep and leaned in close to me. I leaned down so she could say something in my ear. “My friend was caught having sex on one of the couches. Sorry. I got distracted taking care of that.”

“Best excuse ever,” I said. “But I did give our drinks to my friend. Should we get some more or go dance?”

I really couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew Julia from somewhere. She was being much too nice to me to be a girl I had slept with and forgotten, so there had to be some other explanation as to why she looked so darn familiar.

Her long brown hair was curled slightly and pinned back to show off her neck, a neck that I desperately wanted to kiss. Sometimes when I met a woman there was a good amount of chemistry between us but with Julia, it was dripping off of us. Her sequined red dress hugged every curve like a professional race car driver.

She smiled at me while contemplating which of my offers she wanted to take me up on. I was happy to go buy some more champagne and strawberries if that was what she wanted, a good conversation with her was certainly on the menu. Or if she wanted to take me for a spin on the dance floor I was up for that as well, it would give me the opportunity to feel her body against mine.

“Dancing first, then drinking,” she finally decided.

Sometimes I don’t know what comes over me when I’m around a beautiful woman, but I grabbed her and lifted her off the ground a few inches as I carried her out to the dance floor. She was light as a feather and her lips were oh so close to mine. It would have been the perfect opportunity to kiss her if I hadn’t just met her an hour before and been looking for her in the club most of the time since I’d first talked to her. No, I had to restrain those primal emotions, at least for the time being.

“Wow, okay then,” she laughed and threw her head back. “That’s a bold move.”

“You deserve a bold move.”

I didn’t know much about this girl but there was something drawing me to her like I hadn’t been drawn to a woman in a very long time. In college, maybe, there had been Lisa, but even that was short lived when our professional drives got in the way. This girl excited me and not just the physical excitement that was bulging in my pants. We started to dance to the house music.

The dance floor was much too loud to be able to communicate effectively. It gave us the opportunity to use the physical charisma between us as a barometer for our communication. The music thumped and I did my best not to let Julia feel just how excited she was making me with her sexy hips and flirty dance moves.

I didn’t get to be one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City by being bad with the ladies. I knew how to be kind, sweet and attentive. Often though it felt like a game I was playing, and it was becoming an old game. Women knew who I was, usually. They had seen an article or watched a story on television. Julia didn’t look at me like those women did though. Her gaze delved much deeper than I was used to; it made me slightly uncomfortable, she made me feel off my game.

As we dance I kept a few inches between the two of us until Julia took control and slid her delicious ass right up against my body. There was no way to hide my excitement and I prepared myself for her to move away quickly. But instead of moving away from my hard member, Julia pressed her ass against me even harder. She looked back at me with a mischievous smile and I was done. At that moment I knew I was going to be bringing Julia home with me.

I couldn’t behave another minute longer and grabbed her hips to hold her there against me. My normal suave etiquette was barely holding on as my desire for this girl throbbed harder and harder. Even as I gripped her and held her against me, Julia continued to dance seductively, enticing me to continue with our little game.

“You’re killing me,” I mouthed when she turned around and pressed her body against me.

I felt her soft breasts pressed into my body and let my hands move down the open back of her dress. When I reached to curve of her ass I was nearly able to stop myself, but I couldn’t. One of my hands slid into the top of her dress and I cupped her perfectly formed ass in my hands. This girl was delicious.

It didn’t matter that the club was playing upbeat music, Julia and I were dancing to our own music. She slid her hands around and pulled the back of my shirt out of my pants so she could let her fingers glide up and down my back.

Chemistry was the only way I could describe what was going on between the two of us; sexual chemistry. Our bodies were made for each other. Honestly, I’d met women that I’d wanted to manhandle like I was with Julia on the dance floor, I just hadn’t met a woman who actually reciprocated the level of lust I had.

We danced for nearly an hour in the hot sticky dance club. Neither of us was phased by the environment as we kept our eyes on each other. She would smile sweetly up at me but then her smile turned into desire and I’d feel her hands exploring under my shirt. I half expected that she was going to grab onto my erection right there in the middle of the club, but she never went quite that far.

“Can I steal her for a minute,” Julia’s friend yelled as she came up and joined us on the dance floor.

I didn’t believe it was going to be for a minute, but I nodded my head in agreement. This time I followed the two women off the dance floor and kept my eye on them. Julia’s friend said something in her ear and then pointed to a good looking guy standing nearby. The two women hugged and then Julie came back over to me. It was the perfect opportunity for us to take a break and I motioned for us to go back over to the table I had reserved in the corner.

Julia reached down and held onto my hand as I guided us back toward the table. Her delicate fingers fit perfectly into my hand and I squeezed them playfully when we approached the table and I saw Taylor sitting there with a woman.

“He’s my friend, let’s join them,” I said loud enough for her to hear me.

Coming to the clubs was fun because the women were always ready to have a good time, well most of them at least. But it did make it really hard to have a conversation with someone like Julia.

“Wow, I think I saw him in a magazine,” Julia said.

“Maybe,” I couldn’t help but laugh since the magazine she had seen Taylor in was the same one I was in, but I wasn’t about to admit that to her.

Women were lovely, I enjoyed them in all aspects of my life and truly cherished the female form. There was a limit to my understanding though and when women became pushy or rude to each other in an effort to talk to me, it really bothered me. I noticed a group of women watching Julia and me as we sat down at the table. I gave them a quick glance and then slipped my arm around Julia’s shoulders as I introduced her to Taylor.

“Taylor, this is Julia,” I yelled so he could hear me.

“Hi Julia, this is Star,” he said as he introduced his blonde bombshell that had been sharing the champagne I’d left for the two of them.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Taylor said and reached over to shake hands with Julia.

We had barely finished the introduction when the group of four young women made their way over to our table. Surely they didn’t plan on interrupting our dates I thought, but then I realized they definitely planned to do that.

“Oh, my gosh guys. I’m so sorry for interrupting, but can we get pictures with you two?” one of the women said as she looked at Julia and Star for approval.

“Sorry ladies, not right now,” I said.

“Please, we promise not to take too long.”

“No, sorry,” I repeated and then turned toward Julia.

Instead of looking agitated by the interruption, Julia was actually smiling and nodded that I should go take the pictures. She practically pushed me out of the booth while she laughed at the absurdity of the whole thing. Following Julia’s lead, Star also motioned for Taylor to go ahead and take the photos although she didn’t look nearly as amused by the whole thing.

“Do you girls want me to take the picture?” Julia asked as she popped out of the booth and grabbed one of the girl’s phones.

“Yes, thank you,” a few of the girls replied.

This group of young women was probably barely old enough to be in the club. They certainly weren’t my type of woman and their pushiness was a huge turn-off. By this point, I was just taking the pictures to get them on their way.

Taylor joined me and the two of us stood between two women and smiled into the camera. But after Julia took one photo, one woman asked for a picture alone with Taylor, then another woman asked for a picture alone with just me. This went on for at least ten minutes before we were finally able to get them to move on.

I felt terrible by the time I sat back down with Julia. This wasn’t at all the kind of guy I was. “I’m so sorry, I apologize for the interruption,” I said as I poured us both a glass of champagne.

“Not at all,” she said with that same playful grin. “That was really entertaining. I bet those girls will be talking about the two of you for weeks now.”

“Normally I would say no to anything like that if I was on a date with a woman. Please know that it’s not normal for me.”

“It’s a good thing we aren’t on a date then,” Julia laughed. “And I don’t mind. There will probably be a group of guys coming around to take pictures with me really soon too,” she dramatically rolled her eyes and I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep, I know, it’s hard to compete with the likes of me,” she continued. “I’ll try and keep you in the loop though.”

“Yes, please do! How about I get us some more champagne and food?” I asked and everyone nodded.

I pulled Julia’s hand up to my lips and gave her a quick kiss before making my way to the bar to get what we needed. Julia was again throwing me off my game. Her lighthearted way of handling that situation was so ideal that I couldn’t have dreamed of a better response. She saw those women and was welcoming and inviting to them and even helped with the photo, it was pretty damn amazing.

So far Julia was checking off so many boxes of what I wanted in a woman and we hardly knew each other. I really had to get to know her and suddenly my mind was shifting from bringing her home to actually talking and getting to know what she liked and didn’t like. If you would have asked me just a few hours before if I was interested in any sort of dating, I would have vehemently denied it.

“Wow bro, I like her,” Taylor said as he joined me at the bar.

“I know, she looks familiar to me though. Is she famous or something?”

“Not that I know of, but she handled those girls like a pro. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was in television or involved in publicity somehow. Either way, nice catch.”

“Thanks. I just can’t shake this feeling that I know her though. It’s really weird.”

“What’s her name?” He asked.

“Julia is all I have so far.”

“Well, let me know if you figure it out. I’m going to get my date onto the dance floor and then head home in a bit. It was nice catching up with you. Let’s talk this week, let me know if you ever figure out who she is.”

“Deal.” Taylor and I gave each other a quick hug and then he went back to the table to get his date. The two of them were on their way to the dance floor as I came back with some more champagne.

“I thought at these tables you were supposed to get someone to do that for you?” Julia asked.

“I know, haven’t seen her all night though.”

“Well, that seems unusual,” Julia said and grabbed my hand when I sat down with her.

“They will bring some snacks over soon. I hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving, famished. I could eat a small child,” she joked.

“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

It was by far the weirdest first kiss ever but I couldn’t resist. As I looked at her cute little smile I leaned in and let my lips touch hers. At first, she pulled away a little, I think it was out of surprise that I had just kissed her though and she soon leaned into the kiss. Her hands wrapped around my neck and her fingers worked up into the back of my hair.

Julia parted her mouth and turned to the side as she let me thrust my tongue inside of her. The delicious taste of her mouth electrified me and it seemed to have a similar reaction to her as I felt one of her legs cross over the other and slide between mine. She wanted me, her body was telling me that she wanted me and I just couldn’t ignore it.

“Wow, that was nice,” Julia said when we finally pulled apart.

“Yes, it was.”

I poured a couple of glasses of champagne and handed one of them to her. Her red lipstick wasn’t even smeared after our kissing session. My eyes stayed fixated on her lips while they wrapped around the edge of the glass and then she slowly lifted the glass and the alcohol slid into her mouth.

“What?” She asked playfully as I stared at her.

“I feel like I know you,” I finally said.

“Oh, you do?” She asked and then coyly looked away. “That’s a pretty good line.”

“It does seem a little cheesy, sorry.”

“I know what you mean. I feel like I know you too. Maybe we really do know each other?” She winked and then went back to drinking her champagne.

“Do we?”

Just as I asked the question the waitress came to the table and put down the food I’d ordered. I’d ordered way too much of it. In fact, I felt like a maniac as soon as the food arrived and there were six different platters for us. I had thought Taylor and his new friend were going to join us but now it just looked like I planned on force-feeding Julia a ton of appetizers.

“I’m starving,” she said and drank another glass of champagne while we both went head first into the various foods.

“You are so beautiful; I just want you to know that before I start stuffing my face with food.”

“You’re pretty good looking yourself there, Mike,” she replied before putting a stuffed jalapeño into her mouth in one bite.

Her eyes got large right away and then started to water. She was looking at me as if I could help her and all I could do was pour her some more champagne. I wasn’t even sure that champagne could help cool her tongue after eating that hot piece of cheese-filled pepper.

“You didn’t know that was a jalapeño?”

“No,” she said with the food still in her mouth. Her cheeks were filled with the food and she continued to chew it though. “It’s okay,” she said more to herself than to me. “I’m okay.”

“Just spit it out, it’s fine, here,” I said and handed her a napkin. “They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she insisted and continued to chew. “I like it. I just wasn’t prepared for it to be a pepper,” she laughed a little even though she didn’t look like she was having fun at all.

Her dewy white skin had turned the same shade as her red dress. She finished off one glass of champagne and then another one before she managed to finish chewing and swallowing the pepper. The whole time she still had half of a smile and looked cute as could be.

“I feel horrible. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that was a jalapeño. I bet they look a lot like fried stuffed mushrooms.”

“Yeah they do,” she laughed.

“I’m so sorry,” I pulled her in for a hug and held onto her for a minute. “You looked like you might die from that thing. Was it horribly hot?”

“No, I’m okay. It just caught me off guard.”

The room and the people around us disappeared as she stayed wrapped up in my arms for a minute. I wasn’t exactly a protector or anything like that, at least that had never been the persona I identified with when I was around women, but being around Julia made me feel different than normal. I’d actually just let her eat that pepper and I should have said something, it had happened so fast though. For a moment I expected she would get annoyed or agitated with me, any other woman would have. I expected her to lash out at me, but she didn’t. I was trying to manufacture a reason not to like this girl and it had totally backfired on me.

Julia didn’t seem annoyed at all; as she lifted her head up she was smiling and laughed at the whole thing. This was the sort of laid-back personality I’d been hoping to find in a woman, it was how my buddies and I always reacted when something like this happened to us. The women I usually met didn’t seem to think things like this were very funny. The last girl I’d been on a date with actually called me a jerk before we had even finished our appetizer.

“Probably good that this isn’t a first date,” Julia laughed. “I don’t think I would have liked having snot dripping down my nose on a first date,” she gingerly wiped her nose with a napkin.

“You still look really good, even with snot,” I laughed. “How would you feel about doing a real first date some time?”

“I think we could manage that. So does that mean this doesn’t count as a date? Because I’d really love to bring you home for a night of fun. Of course, if it was a first date I wouldn’t do such a thing,” she said playfully.

“This is definitely not a first date,” I replied, eager to please her.

Who was this girl? How was it that I felt so connected to her and yet knew nothing about her at all? She had a great sense of humor and a body with curves that I couldn’t stop looking at.

The music drifted off and it was just the two of us sitting there again as if everyone else had disappeared while we continued talking and having an amazing time. We talked about a lot of things, but nothing really personal. Our opinions on the new Broadway show, what we were looking forward to this fall around town, and even the subway and its constant inability to allow a phone signal while you were traveling through the city. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I hardly ever rode the subway anymore but it did seem odd that in this day and age they couldn’t figure out a way to get cell service or Wi-Fi down there.

The conversation between the two of us flowed easily from one topic to the next while we sipped our champagne and ate our bar food. It was the best first date I’d had in a really long time, especially considering it wasn’t a date at all. Perhaps that was why we were getting along so easily; there was no forced intimacy like what happened on first dates normally. There were no expectations of what would come next in our night and I felt more at ease than I typically was, it was as if I already know Julia, but I didn’t know her at all. +

We both switched to water as it got to the early morning hours and the night started to wind down. It was nearly three o’clock in the morning when I finally settled the tab and walked Julia out to my hired car. I wanted to bring her home. Normally after a night even half as good as this one I would have brought the girl back to my house. Not tonight though, I wanted to see her again. I wasn’t about to ruin this whole thing.

“If you give Joe your address I’ll drop you off,” I said when we climbed into the back of the big SUV.

I handed her a pad of paper and she wrote her address down and passed the slip of paper to my driver Joe. Although she had teased about bringing me home with her, I really was just fine with dropping her off. The connection we had was intriguing to me and I planned on asking her out again.

“Thank you, Joe,” she said before turning back toward me. “Thank you for the ride home.”

“You’re welcome. I’m happy to do it. I really wouldn’t feel right just putting you in a cab. You should give me your number too, so I can call you and arrange our real first date.”

“No, I think I’ll give you that later,” Julia said as she slid onto my lap and hiked her dress up and over her thighs. Instantly I was aroused and ready to slide inside of her. Knowing that there was only a small bit of fabric between my body and hers was exciting, but I wasn’t trying to have sex with her that night. The plan was simple, get her number, drop her off, and give her a kickass goodnight kiss.

“I had an amazing time tonight,” I said between kisses.

Her lips pressed erotically against mine and she pulled in a deep breath while we played with one another. I tried not to concentrate on the feeling of her hips slightly moving on top of me. I wasn’t going to be able to hold out for much longer. There was only so much a man could do.

As we pulled up to her apartment Joe came around and opened the door so I could walk Julia up to her apartment. Julia climbed out of the car first and whispered something in Joe’s ear before heading to the front door to get it unlocked.

“What did she say?” I laughed as Joe shut the door.

“That I wouldn’t be needed anymore tonight.” Joe gave me a knowing smile.

Apparently, I was sleeping over.