Falling Sweetly (Starling Falls #2) (9 page)

“Liya! She’s out cold. I’m not a fucking pervert,” I complained bitterly before I started weaving through the people gathered in the hallway and carried her up the stairs to my room.

Liar, you are a little bit of a creeper when it comes to her.

I had fantasized numerous times, over the last month, about what I would do to Niki in my room. This situation was definitely not something I had ever imagined.

I placed her body gently in the middle of the bed and undid her shoes. The black dress she was wearing was figure hugging and showed more cleavage than she usually would have, which made me think that Liya had somehow coerced her into this dress.

I noticed that Niki avoided clothes which clung to her body. Not that it mattered, she was gorgeous in my eyes no matter what she wore, but I couldn’t understand why someone as stunning as she would hide her gorgeous curves in shapeless clothes.

Realising I’d been watching her sleep, like a sleazy voyeur, for a while now, I decided it was probably time to head back downstairs to re-join the party, despite the fact the only person I actually wanted to be with was in this room.

Just stay, pervert. You know you want to.

I shook the tempting thoughts from my mind and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Her face nuzzled into my hand, and I froze.

Beautiful, warm brown eyes blinked at me blearily.

“Don’t go,” she said quietly. “Stay.”

She placed her hand over mine and rolled onto her side, making room for me to lie next to her on the bed.

“I shouldn’t,” I told her softly, attempting to summon any form of willpower I had.

“Please, Jake. Stay,” she whispered against the pillow. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

Her soft plea broke through any reservation I had. Kicking off my shoes, I slid into the bed.

As soon as I laid behind her, Niki pressed her body back against mine, took one of my arms and wrapped it around her waist.

Wrong. This is so wrong.

“This feels nice,” she murmured softly before falling asleep.

Yeah, it really does.

I tried to keep my eyes open, but I soon gave in to the need to doze. I reached behind me and switched off the lamp next to my bed, before spooning against Niki again.

Just a ten minute power nap, and then I’ll go.

Three hours later

A loud noise sounded and I awoke with a start, I relaxed when I realised that it was just the sound of people leaving the party.

I was confused when I felt a warm, soft body in my bed. When the familiar scents of caramel and coconut filled my senses, I remembered that Niki was lying next to me. A fact which my cock hadn’t seemed to have forgotten, judging by the hard on I was currently sporting which was nestled against her amazing, round ass.

I groaned softly when I looked at numbers glowing on the alarm clock by my bed and realised that my ten minute power nap had somehow lasted three hours.

“What?” Her sweet voice murmured sleepily, sounding confused. “Who’s there?”

Not wanting to scare her, I unwound my arm from around her waist and reluctantly moved away from her warm body. “It’s Jake, baby. You’re in my bed. You had a little too much to drink and passed out. I brought you up here.”

“Oh,” she paused briefly, “Did we… you know…” she trailed off, still not sounding quite like her usual self.

“No,” I said firmly, “You were drunk, Niki. There’s no way that I would have let that happen.”

Niki turned so that we were face-to-face, and I could make out some of her features in the moonlight streaming through the window, but it was too dark in the room for me to see her face clearly.

“That’s a pity,” she said teasingly, which made me freeze in shock.

“What?” I asked, sure that I must have misheard her.

Niki inched closer towards me and whispered in a husky voice, “I said; that’s a pity.”

I felt a soft hand on my chest, which then made its way up to my face and entangled itself in my hair.

Am I still dreaming?

The air between us crackled.

“What are you doing, Niki?” I swallowed before asking her hoarsely

“Touching you, silly,” she replied simply, as her hand left my hair and travelled back down to stroke the stubble on my jaw.

Okay then.
Apparently after drunk-Yoda- Niki makes an appearance, flirty-frisky- Niki soon replaces her.

“You should stop,” I told her weakly, in a pathetic attempt to do the right thing.

“You don’t want me to touch you?” she asked quietly, as her fingertips found my lips in the dark.

“There’s nothing I want more, but you’re still wasted, baby. I don’t want to do anything you’d regret later.”

She giggled in a very un-Niki like manner. “You keep calling me “baby.” I like it… I like you.”

“Uh…” I stuttered, completely at a loss for words.

In a sudden movement, Niki sat up, pushed me onto my back and swung a leg over me to straddle my hips.

Oh, fuck.
Well that escalated quickly. Apparently this attraction is not so one-sided.

She pressed hot kisses to my jaw as she rubbed her body against mine. Her dress had ridden up, and I could feel her bare thighs on either side of my hips and the warmth of her pussy against the crotch of my jeans.

That feels fucking awesome, though you should probably stop this now…

“Niki.” I had intended to say her name as a warning for her to stop, but it had somehow come out as a moan instead.

“Yes, Jake?” she asked as her fingers attempted to undo the buttons on my shirt. I put my hand over hers and stopped her eager fingers from any further actions.

“No more,” I managed to grunt.

I could hear the pout in her voice when she spoke and her hands went to the button of my jeans.

“But, Little Niki wants to meet Little Jake. They’re gonna be real good friends,” she purred as she ground her core against my throbbing cock again.

“Oh God, baby. You have no idea how badly Little Jake wants that too, but it’s not going to happen when you’re drunk and might not remember anything tomorrow.”

Did you just refer to your own penis as Little Jake?

“Jakeee,” she whined in frustration and bounced on me as her hand hit my chest lightly. “What if I promise to remember?”

Despite the pain I was in, her words made me laugh. I rolled us over so she was under me. I would be a liar if I said this particular position hadn’t been a recurring fantasy of mine whenever I jacked off.

Though in my fantasies, Niki was completely naked, had both legs wrapped around my waist and was moaning my name loudly as I pounded into her deep and hard.

I lightly kissed the tip of her cute nose. “That’s not a promise you can make in your current state.”

She wrapped her legs around my hips and I couldn’t stop myself from nuzzling her neck, breathing in the light floral scent that always surrounded her and pressing a quick kiss to her throat.

You’re a bad man, Jameson.

“But, I wanted you to be my first. You’re tall, nice, cute and funny, and your eyes are a nice blue. I’ve been thinking about this, and I’ve made up my mind about it. So take off your pants and let’s do this thing,” she said petulantly.

I smiled against her neck. “First what, baby?”

She tutted in annoyance, “My
first
first. You know, Jake.” She made a popping sound with her mouth.

I froze above her. “Niki, are you a virgin?”

“Duh. What else would I mean by first?” She laughed, playing with hair at the nape of my neck.

Okay asshole, start thinking with your head and not your dick.

I tried to move off her, but her legs locked tighter around my hips. “Hey. Where ya going, big guy?” she asked happily from under me.

Drunk, flirty, frisky Niki just might be the death of me.

“Niki, I’m so honoured you want me to be your first, but we’re going to talk about this tomorrow morning.”

“So, no sex now?” she asked confused. “But I’m horny. And you’re horny. Little Jake doesn’t feel so little.” She started laughing as she tilted her panty covered pussy up towards me.

Hell. This is a whole new level of hell.

I rested my forehead against hers. “No. No sex now.”

“Just one teeny, tiny orgasm?” she pleaded as she began to rock her hips against mine.

I groaned against her neck. “Niki, no.”

“Two orgasms?” she asked hopefully.

“No.”

“Okay, we can go for three, but we’re going to be so tired tomorrow,” she said sounding exasperated.

“Sorry, baby. No orgasms for you or me tonight.”

Way to go, willpower. Who knew you had it in you?

“Well, that sucks,” she said with a huff that made me laugh again, despite the fact my cock was harder than it had ever been before. “Can we have sex tomorrow? I think it could be pretty good. I mean I don’t know if it would be, but it should be, right?”

“Niki,” I laughed and groaned at the same time, “Tomorrow morning we’ll talk. Okay, sweetness?”

“Fine,” she said, sounding like a five year old who just had her favourite toy taken away from her for being bad.

“I’m tired anyway, and my head is starting to hurt. Jake, why does my head hurt?” she asked as she finally released the grip she had on my hips.

“That would be from whatever poison was in those drinks Addie gave you.”

She gasped in horror as she rolled onto her side and moved so I could spoon against her again. “Addie poisoned me?”

Drunk Niki is seriously cute.

“I was joking, baby. She just gave you some pretty strong drinks. She’s the devil.”

“Well, it wasn’t a funny joke. And don’t be mean about Addie. We’re best friends now, but don’t tell Mitchell. He may get upset,” she said with a sleepy sigh.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” I whispered in her ear as I felt her relax in my arms.

“Good,” she murmured sleepily, “I trust you, Jake,” were the last words she uttered before she fell asleep in my arms.

CHAPTER 8

Jacob

“Jake…” Niki’s voice shook me from my memory.

“Yeah. Sorry, what’d you say?” I asked her, hoping that she didn’t ask anything else about New Year’s Eve, because I fucking hated lying to her.

Niki had woken on New Year’s Day, and hadn’t been able to remember anything from the night before.

She apologised, before I could speak, and had fled from my room like a bat out of hell, not allowing me to talk about what had happened between us.

Turns out, when Niki wanted to avoid talking about something, she was really fucking good at avoiding the topic.

The thought that she may have regretted spending the night in my bed left a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I was still hopeful that the attraction I felt between us wasn’t a purely imagined one but knew I had to go slow. Niki was still shy and skittish around me, so I didn’t want to overwhelm her with any intense, over-the-top acts.

I figured pinning her to the bed, and kissing her until neither of us could breathe, like I really wanted to do, would probably be classified as one of those intense, over-the-top acts.

Niki would have flipped out if she knew what she had propositioned that night, and I wasn’t going to make things weird between us just as they were returning to normal.

As pathetic as it was, after months of being treated like I had an infectious disease, I’d take whatever interaction she would give me.

I felt like an ass for lying to her, but I was resolved to tell her the truth eventually when she was more comfortable around me again.

“Where’d you go just then?” she asked curiously.

“I just spaced out. Did you ask me something?” I pushed away the unfinished plate of food.

She stared at the plate and then at me, a concerned expression etched on her beautiful face. “I was just wondering… You don’t have to tell me or anything, but is something wrong? You just don’t seem like yourself,” she said timidly.

“You were worried about me?” I leant back against the headboard of the bed.

“Of course. I mean, we’re friends aren’t we? Friends worry about each other,” she blurted out quickly.

Friends. Right. Awesome, I’m back in the fucking friend-zone.

I looked at her wide, concerned eyes and spat out abruptly, “Marco’s is closing.”

Niki frowned as she spoke. “What? Why did the owner decide to close it after all these years?”

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my phone, found the review on Wine and Dine’s website, and handed it to her silently.

Her eyes grew wider, and the cringe on her face intensified with every line she read. When she finished, she turned to me with a pitying expression.

“Did he… fire you? I mean, he must have known that something went horribly wrong. It couldn’t have been you cooking for this man. Anyone who’s ever eaten at the restaurant knows that you would never serve anything that’s less than perfect. I’m sure if you just went to Marco and explained to him-”

I interrupted her before she could finish, though I was thrilled that she had been so quick to defend me.

“I did go to see him, ba- uh Niki.” I stopped myself before the word
baby
could leave my mouth, and cleared my throat before continuing.

“Marco knows it wasn’t me. He said he has wanted to let go of Marco’s for a while, and I couldn’t talk him out of it. Then he said some other rubbish about spreading wings and setting me free.”

“What wings?” she asked, her eyebrows scrunching together.

I shrugged half-heartedly. “Beats me.”

Niki paused and looked at me thoughtfully. “Jake, you’re a talented chef and a hard-worker. I’m sure any other restaurant would be happy to have you.”

“Niki, have you seen the size of this town? The only other place nearby that serves the type of food I cook is Cannata’s, and I’d rather scoop out my own eyeballs with a spoon than go work there.