Let Me Love You (12 page)

“It was good Scar, h
e took care of me. He went slowly; he kept asking me if I was okay. He was so gentle until I asked him to speed things up,” I smile but look at the pattern on the birthday file in front of me.

L
ooking anywhere but my sister’s face, as I’m nervous at her upcoming reaction. “Natalia Slone, you little minx. Good for you, Pup. It’s about time. We thought you would never move passed this. And to think it was with James Wilde.” She hugs me and I can hear James coming down the stairs. I flash a whole new shade of red. He enters the kitchen wearing just his jeans, bare feet and bare upper body, since I’m wearing his tee. God, he is sex on legs.

“Evening ladies
.” He walks further into the kitchen and kisses me on the head, “Evening baby, my tee looks good on you.”

“Evening James, you sleep ok
ay? I didn’t want to wake you.” I turn back to Scarlett, who hasn’t taken her eyes off James’s body. I nudge her and she blinks and looks at me with a huge grin on her face. She mouths “WOW” at me.

“Are y
ou ladies hungry? I could pop out for some food or I could cook us something.” I look at Scarlett and we both burst out laughing. James looks at us, confused.

“Sorry James, Tally and I find it strange that a guy wants to coo
k for us, but you can if you want to. It gives me time to show my baby sister what she will be wearing to my birthday party.” She gives me a sly smile as she knows I’m dreading this. I don’t do heels.

I roll my eyes at Scarlett
, “Great! Here we go again,” I shake my head at my sister.

“When’s the party
, Scarlett?” James asks. Scarlett looks at me and I shrug.

“It’s in December
. I’m having a cocktail theme. Evening gowns and tuxes.” James nods.

“Sounds like fun. Oh speaking of parties, Tally I’m going to the wr
ap party for Season One; I want you to come with me. It’s nothing fancy, just the cast and crew having a party with lots of drinks and a big buffet.” I look at Scarlett, who is nodding, telling me to say yes.

“When is it?” James comes to sit at the table with a glass of orange juice.

“A week this Friday, are you free?” I can feel Scarlett’s hand on my thigh, giving me a-you-will-be-fine look.

“Yeah.
I’ll come with you.”

“I thought you just did
?” He smirks and winks at me and Scarlett bursts out laughing while I turn blood red and cover my face with my hands. I smack his chest, as he gets up to cook for us all. I can’t believe he just said that in front of my big sister. He is lucky that he didn’t say that in front of Jake. Oh God Jake; what will my brother think of James and my parents. I haven’t dated since Dean. I know that my parents will go easy on him but Jake will go all big brother and protective. I understand why he will be like that after what I’ve been through in the past. James is cooking us all something to eat while I sit with Scarlett at the table as she opens a page on her Mac and shows me a stunning dress for her party.

I’m pleasantly surprised that I like it and then she shows me the shoes. “Scarlett
, I won’t be able to walk in those! Please, can we go for a smaller heel? I will do anything else, just please pick a smaller heel.”

I look at my sister
, pleading with her and I pout. “Oh Pup don’t look at me like that. No pouting, you know how it effect’s me.” Yes! It worked; I mentally high five myself.

“
Fine Pup, I will look for a smaller heel, okay?” I wrap my arms around her shoulder and give her a squeeze.

“Thank You Scar
,” I bounce over to James who is finishing up our meal. “What are you cooking?” I ask, while I sit on the counter.

“Chicken wraps with peppers, onion and mushrooms. I assumed since they were in the fridge that you both liked them. Oh shit, do you both like all this
stuff?” I smile.

“Yeah
babe, it’s fine.” James’s head snaps up at me in surprise that I just called him ‘babe.’ I smile at him and he returns a sexy smile. This feels nice. It feels strange to feel this happy again but I don’t want it to change; it feels good. James turns and stands between my legs, puts his hands on my ass, and slides me closer to him. He kisses me slowly, licking my bottom lip. I can feel his smile while he is kissing me. I pull away “So what do I have to wear to this wrap party?”

James shrugs “Whatever you want
.” Scarlett darts over to us.

“James
, don’t tell her that. She will go in jeans and Converse. We will look for something at the store tomorrow, okay?” I nod. I like some of the clothes we sell at Scarlett Avenue and I know I won’t have to pay for any of it. Perks of the being the owner’s little sister.

The three of us eat the chicken wraps that James made for us and they are delicious. We chat about the wrap party and Scarlett’s party. “
Jeans and Chucks are fine with me as long as I get to show you off to all my friends. You can meet my best friend Marcus, he is a legend. All the ladies love him. He is hot, single and likes to party.” I look at Scarlett, who has risen from her birthday folder, to take in all this info on Marcus.

“What does he look like, you know since you said he is hot
?” I smile at him.

“Why?  Have
you had enough of me already, baby? Did you not enjoy yourself upstairs?” I whip my head back to face him.

“JAMES
!!!” He smiles his sexy smile at me. “Really, my big sister is sitting right there. Do you have to tell her about our sex life?” Scarlett just smiles at the both of us.

“She has a point James, what does Marcus look like? How old is he? Come to think of it how old are you Mr Wilde?”

He takes a sip of his water and answers our questions, “Both Marcus and myself are twenty-five. He is my BFF, as you girls would say.” He laughs and shakes his head, “We have been friends since we were three years old; his parents moved into the house next door to ours. We hit it off and have been friends ever since. Scarlett, for your main question. Marcus is six feet tall, give or take an inch, with dark hair a bit longer than mine, and green eyes. Is that to your liking?” Scarlett’s face is a picture; I could have sworn she was drooling. I reached over the table and closed her mouth, which in turn she snatched her head away.

“Any
tattoos? Oh, I love a man with tattoos,” Scarlett swoons.

James smiles. “
Yeah, he has tattoos. So am I going have to fight you off, since I have two tattoos?”

Scarlett looks at me and then back to James “I see. Can I have a closer l
ook?” Oh great, here we go. Scarlett has a big weakness for men with tattoos. Every boyfriend she has had; has had a tattoo. James stands and Scarlett comes around the table to meet him.

Scarlett moves in closer,
and she goes to run her hand over my boyfriend’s ribs. “Scarlett, don’t you dare, that body belongs to me.” I shake my head at her and she quickly puts her hand down. I look up at James and he is smiling at me, so I wink at him. Scarlett is still hovering, “Live & Breathe.”

She looks up at James
, “I don’t get it, what’s it mean?”

Before James can answer “It’s for his brother Nate.” James smiles
, leans over and kisses the top of my head before sitting back down next to me. Scarlett looks confused. I’m not confused, but I don’t know the reason behind the tattoo. I hear James take a deep breath.

“Scarlett
, the tattoo is for my little brother Nate. Nate died when he was six years old from cancer.”  Both Scarlett and I gasp.

Scarlett looks at me
, “Did you know about this?” I shake my head, too afraid to speak; I can feel the burn in my eyes. Scarlett stands and packs her planner away. “I think you to need to talk before you tell me anything, I’m going to bed. James if you’re staying, I will see you in the morning,” and with that she leaves us alone in the kitchen. I take James’ hand and lead him into the lounge.

We sit on the large L shaped sofa facing each other. “Tell me about Nate
.” He smiles and takes my hand.

“I was eleven at
the time but we were very close. We did almost everything together, that we could do anyway. He was ill for a while and the chemo worked for a small time but Nate got sick again and went downhill pretty fast. I still remember coming home from school that day. My dad was sitting on the front porch and I could tell he had been crying.” He shook his head like he was trying to get rid of the picture in his head. 

“James
, if it’s too hard we can stop.” I grab a hold of his hand.

“God
, what did I do to deserve you? You need to know Tally, if we are going to make a go of this. I want you to know.” I smile and kiss the back of his hand. “I came home from school one day and had a stomach ache most of the day, but didn’t really think anything of it. I just went through the motions of my school day. When I got off the school bus I had a feeling of dread hit me but didn’t fully know why. When I saw my father, I knew in my heart that Nate was gone. I remember screaming, dropping my school bag and running for my house. My father held me tight but I needed to see my brother.” He took in a big breath, “After some time, we walked into the house. I remember how quiet the house was, how it smelled.” A shiver runs through his body and I take that as my cue to climb into his lap. He wraps his arms around me, holding me tight to him. I kiss his neck and a small groan escapes from his mouth. I kiss him again and trail my kisses up to his ear, grazing my teeth across his earlobe; he tenses and tightens his grip on me. I smile against his hot skin.

James moves so that I’m now lying beneath his perfect body on the sofa. He runs his fingers down my cheek and I ca
n’t help but lean into his hand. My heartbeat quickens and it’s from his touch. His lips brush mine, and I part my lips, inviting his tongue to play with mine. Our kisses deepen and my body heats with sexual awareness for James. I feel my way up from his wrist to his elbow, up to his shoulder until I find his hair. His soft hair.  James’ hand trails down my body from my face, across my shoulder, and down my arm. He stops at my wrist and pulls away from my lips to plant a sweet gentle kiss on the inside of my wrist. He smiles at me with his devious smile, “Do you know how beautiful you are Tally? How amazing you smell?” All I can think to say is, ‘Oh, you smell good too Wilde.’ A shy smile slips across my face as I pull him back to my lips. I can taste him and smell him and it’s a head rush. How can James do this to me, to my body? He can make me forget everything in the world. I can now, for the first time since Dean, can see my future with someone. I could see myself making a life with James but can James see that with me? My heart skips a beat. I place my hand on James’s and run it along the side of my body, down past my hip and around to my ass.

        
Wednesday morning was the best morning for as long as I could remember. Waking up next to James Wilde, in my bed after a very hot but sensual night of love making, was amazing. We made love twice. Each time James was gentle with me, planting soft kisses all over my body, cherishing every inch of me. We even talked more about my situation with Dean and how things went down in my life after that dark time. From the delicious memories I can feel my blush creep over my face and chest. I’m sitting in the staff lounge at Exposure, sipping at my tea when Carlos and Sam walk in. They take one look at me and smiles appear on both their faces. “So Miss Tally, what did you do on your day off? Or should I say who did you do?” I gasp and look at Sam, who has the most ridiculous smile on his face. Carlos sits in the chair next to me.

“So by the look on your face, you sorted things with James.” I nod
, still blushing.

“See
, I told you,” Sam says over his shoulder, while making coffees for himself and his lover.

I roll my eyes
, “Yes Sammy, you did.”

Carlos looks at me with caring eyes “Are you both ok
ay? Did you talk or just fuck? I don’t know what’s gone on between you two but there is something there.” I’m not sure how much Carlos knows about my past, but I can only assume that Sam has told him some details. I place my mug on the table and tuck my hair behind my ear, sitting back in my seat and looking at Carlos.

“We talked … a lot Carlos. It was good. We both got a lot off our chests. He told me about his brother who died when he was youn
ger. It was nice.” I can see Sam giving me that you’re-not-telling-us-everything look. My heart rate picks up and a smile at the boys. “God! Sammy, do you have to look at me like that?” I blush yet again.

“Yes Talls; c’mon
girl, don’t leave anything out.” I sigh and Carlos looks at his boyfriend, giving him a look.

“Yes Sam
, we fucked okay. Is that what you want to hear?” We all burst out laughing. From behind us, I hear a familiar voice.

“Well
, I thought we made love, but fucking is good too, as long as it’s with you.” I spin around to find James leaning against the door frame and I blush a whole new shade of red. Where the hell did he come from?  I can’t pull my gaze from his and he walks further into the room and sits next to me, not taking his eyes off mine. He leans in and gives a full James Wilde kiss, full of passion. Wow. We pull apart and I look at Carlos and Sam and I can’t believe what I’m seeing; both Carlos and Sam are blushing. So it’s not just me that James effects, Thank god. I look at James and I’m wondering why is he here.