Chapter 4
Erik
My dick has never been harder, nor have I ever wanted to come so badly in my life. My hands tighten on her hips, torn between wanting to make her ride me faster and to slow her down a little to draw this out.
Blue’s eyes are closed as she leans over me. Hands pressed down onto my chest to use as leverage as she rocks up and down on my cock. Long, lustrous locks of chocolate brown hair flows over her shoulders, partially obscuring my view of her breasts. I’d spent some time earlier biting and sucking on her pink nipples. My mouth waters for another taste.
I let my gaze slide down her body. Flat stomach with a jeweled piercing in her belly button that most women in LA seem to favor, and yeah…it’s sexy.
But not as sexy as her pussy, which is waxed completely bare. Her skin is the softest I’ve ever had my mouth on and I had my mouth there for quite a while.
My balls start to tighten and I know I’m going to blow soon. I lift my eyes back to Blue’s face. Her forehead is furrowed as if she’s trying to focus on nothing but the pleasure. Her eyes slowly flutter open and she gives me a smile before biting down on her lower lip.
Her teeth are even and shine bright white against the natural cherry tint of her mouth.
“Jesus Christ,” I gasp as I come out of a deep sleep, sitting straight up in my bed as I realize I’ve had my mouth on those sweet, red lips before.
There’s an ache in my groin and I realize I’ve got a hard-on. I slip my hand down the front of my briefs, wrap it around my cock and squeeze it hard, trying to get it to go away. Luckily, Legend is snoring in the other bed and oblivious to my predicament.
That being I just had a very vivid dream about Blue, except it wasn’t a dream at all.
It was a fucking memory.
I’m sure of it.
I release the stranglehold I have on my dick and ease back down onto my pillow. I close my eyes and try to force more of the memory to reveal itself.
What fucking happened next? Did I explode while she rode me or did I pull a cavemanlike move and finish her off from behind?
I get nothing but a black void and a dissatisfied emptiness in the pit of my stomach because I just cock-blocked myself by waking up.
There’s no doubt in my mind now that Blue was telling me the truth by the swimming pool last night. We’d fucked, and while I can’t quite finish up the memory, what I can’t understand is how in the fuck I could forget a woman like her, no matter if she was a brunette then and a blonde now.
More important, I’m not quite sure what I could have done to piss her off so badly that she’s still holding it against me five years later. With a growl of frustration, I nab my phone off the bedside table and turn it on, angling the back of it toward Legend’s bed so the glare doesn’t wake him up. It’s going on 4:00 A.M. and it’s still pitch-dark outside.
I shoot a text off to Bishop, not really caring if the ding of an incoming message wakes him up. In fact, I sort of hope it does because I’m an impatient man. As soon as you get this message, call Brooke and find out what Blue’s hotel room number is.
Brooke doesn’t work in team services anymore but I know she can easily get access to the information I want, and won’t question me about it. She also won’t have any reservation in handing over Blue’s room number because she knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t do anything nefarious.
I don’t get a response from Bishop until almost 7:00 A.M. with the information I’d requested.
There’s no hesitation. I simply rap my knuckles sharply against the door of room number 3048. It’s only 7:15 A.M. and I know Blue may still be asleep, but damn if this can wait.
Sadie opens the door wearing one of the hotel bathrobes with a towel wrapped around her head. She doesn’t seem surprised to see me there, but then again, I’m sure she spied me through the peephole before she unlocked the door.
“Erik,” she says brightly. “This is a surprise.”
“Is Blue awake?” I ask her, not in the mood for return pleasantries.
“Yeah,” she says as she steps back from the door to let me in. “Come on in.”
She must have heard our conversation at the door, because Blue appears behind Sadie. She’s clearly an early-morning person as she’s already dressed. Her golden blonde hair is falling in waves around her shoulders, which are bare because she’s wearing a white sundress with lemons printed all over it. White, flat sandals complete the outfit and she looks young, fresh, and innocent.
Except I know she’s not.
I remember just enough to know she’s got a sexy, dirty side to her. I remember the look of confidence on her face when she looked at me…while riding me…
Got to stop thinking about that or I’m going to embarrass myself with an unwanted erection.
“What do you want?” Blue asks curiously but with a whole lot of wariness in her voice. She steps up to the door and Sadie seems to melt back into the room somewhere.
Raising a hand, I grab onto the doorjamb, leaning into her just a bit so as not to step inside the actual room. My voice is low to give us absolute privacy in case Sadie is listening. “I remember you.”
Blue jerks in astonishment. “You do?”
“Not much,” I admit to her and hope that doesn’t blow my chances with her. But I want to be honest. “I remember us together…physically. You had brown hair and it was long. You were…on top of me and we were in a hotel room, I think.”
I don’t know whether to be charmed or ashamed, but Blue’s cheeks flame red and her gaze cuts down to the carpet.
“And then my memory goes dark,” I tell her and her eyes pop back up, slamming into mine. “I don’t understand why and I’m really sorry that I’ve offended you because of that.”
Those soft, brown eyes go wide and a gasp of surprise escapes her lips.
Perfect fucking lips.
Her head tilts slightly and her eyes narrow. “You think I’m offended because you don’t remember me?”
“Well…yeah,” I mutter but now I’m thinking that’s not right.
Blue crosses her arms over her chest and gives me a sardonic smile. “I suppose that does sting a little, but it was what happened after that made an impression.”
I go ice-cold as I struggle to think what I could have done. I might be a horndog and a serious damn player when it comes to women, but I would never hurt one.
Never.
“I don’t know what happened, Blue,” I tell her quietly. “And I need to know because I got to be honest…it’s sort of wigging me out that I did something to hurt you.”
Blue flushes again and I’m surprised to see guilt in her eyes. “It’s nothing,” she assures me quickly. “I don’t want you to feel bad or anything. I mean, damn…my intention is not to have you feel bad about something like that.”
“Like what?” I utter in low growl. “Tell me what I did.”
After a quick look over her shoulder into the room, Blue puts a hand to my chest and pushes me out of the doorway. She steps out with me and pulls the door shut behind her.
I sense her nervousness as she sighs, tucking her hair behind her ear. “After our…encounter,” she begins in a low voice. “You asked me out for the next night. I mean, it was to a party but you asked me to meet you there. It was a date, and I showed up expecting that.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t get it,” I bite out.
She shakes her head. “You were wrapped up with two girls, and by wrapped up, I mean literally. On one of the couches, making out with both of them. I confronted you about it.”
There’s absolutely no recollection of this moment but I don’t doubt what she’s telling me. My words come out slowly, through gritted teeth. “And what did I say?”
She doesn’t pull any punches. “You patted your lap and invited me to join you and the other women.”
I mutter a curse under my breath, letting my gaze drift down the hallway for a moment to collect myself. When I look back to Blue, she’s closed herself off again. Eyes flat, arms tightened over her chest, almost as if she’s hugging herself.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
She gives a shrug like it doesn’t matter.
“Not just that I don’t remember, but that I was so callous.”
“It’s fine,” she says in a falsely cheery voice. “I got it off my chest. I’m good.”
“I’m not,” I reply softly, and then I touch her. Put my fingers right under her chin so she has to hold my gaze. “I can’t say that I was drunk and that was the reason, although that would be an excuse. I can’t give you any excuse because I simply don’t remember. I’d like to tell you that was the one and only time I ever did something like that, but it would be a lie. I wasn’t interested in relationships or second dates back then. I was twenty-three, had more money than I knew what to do with, and I liked to party hard. The most I can tell you is that I’m truly sorry I hurt your feelings. It wasn’t my intention but it certainly is all my fault.”
Blue doesn’t say a word but her gaze never wavers from mine. She doesn’t try to pull away either.
So we just stare at each other for a very long moment, letting my words sink in. I’m not sure I’ve ever said anything so purely straight from my heart to a woman before.
I let my hand drop away from her face and I take a step backward. I attempt an apologetic smile before I pivot and head back toward the elevator.
“Erik…wait,” she says.
I turn back and she’s the one that moves to meet me. “Listen…I…um…I was a party girl back then too. You didn’t take advantage of me or anything. I knew what I was getting into when I went to your hotel room, and we both had been drinking a lot. I walked in there with no expectations of anything more than sex. It’s just…I thought we had a connection and when you asked me out for the next night, I thought that meant that you felt a connection too. It was a hard slap in the face to know I was wrong about it.”
“I’m sorry—”
She holds a palm out to me and shakes her head. “Don’t apologize again. I accept. I just wanted you to know why it pissed me off. And then running into you again on the plane, and you called me a “party girl,” which just dredged up all that old crap. I was a party girl and I’m not proud of it. But I’m not that person anymore. So I took it out on you. I wanted to make it clear I’m a different person these days.”
“I’d like to think I’m different too,” I point out. “People can grow up and change a lot in five years.”
She cocks an eyebrow at me, lips quirking.
It makes me laugh. “All right…maybe I’m still a bit of a player these days.”
“You’ve been sued in that sexual harassment lawsuit,” she points out.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you read,” I admonish her. I had indeed been named in a lawsuit by Brooke’s crazy ex-friend but I didn’t expect anything to come out of it. I never touched the woman.
“You’re right,” she replies quickly. “You’ve made a good point. Five years is a long time and your apology was sincere. How about we just let bygones be bygones?”
She sticks her hand out for me to shake. She’d be horrified to know I’d rather pull her into my arms and kiss her, because nothing about this conversation has turned me off from her in the slightest. If anything, I want her more.
But I place my hand in hers and she gives me a hearty pump. “Friends?”
Not really what I want, but I’ll fucking take it. “Friends.”