No Easy Choices (A New Adult Romance) (5 page)

             
“I’m just happy. You are very interesting and nice and good-looking, and I’m glad to be here,” I answered, forcing myself to not turn shy on him, making my eyes meet his amazing, glowing green ones. He smiled.

             
“And I am happy you are here, too. When I find you in the car, I knew you were a kind person because you were driving the boy. And I see your face, too, and know that you are beautiful. But I also hear you talk to the girl and I know that she did not like me. But you did.”

             
My heart sank. I stopped in mid-chew, afraid to look at him, embarrassed at what he possibly had heard. But he had not only heard us talking, he realized what it was we had been talking about.

             
“Javier, I am so sorry that you overheard us...” I began, but he shook his head.

             
“It is not a problem. I am used to the way people are not understanding. But I see that you are a good person, one who says, ‘I do not agree with you.’ And that makes you even more beautiful.”

             
This is the part where I should have smiled, and thanked him, and even made plans to see him again. Instead, I put down the plate I was holding, slid over to him, and kissed him suddenly on his warm, full lips.

             
Javier kissed me back, reaching to set his plate down without breaking the kiss, his other hand resting gently on my arm, not holding me in place but instead like he was politely inviting me to kiss him. The taste of our incredible meal was there in the kiss, but it was mixed with a scent that was his alone, something spicy but alluring. The combination assaulting my senses made me light-headed, made me cling to Javier’s shoulders, to the strength of his arms beneath the fabric of his cotton shirt.

             
I finally had the chance to run my hands through his curls, the ones that had caught the street light the night we met. I had thought more than a few times about how it might feel to caress his hair, but I wasn’t prepared for the feeling of losing myself in the silkiness. I pulled him closer to me, kissing him hungrily this time, our tongues meeting and sliding over each other, heated by the aji and by something more.

             
As we kissed, Javier lifted me and pulled me onto his lap, which would have made me angry at him for assuming where this might be heading if only he hadn’t also shifted beneath me so that I was simply cradled in his arms. He leaned me back so that my head rested against the arm of the sofa, freeing his other hand to brush my hair back from my face before holding my cheek in his hand.

             
He broke the kiss only long enough to trace his fingers down my jaw to my neck, stopping where my collarbone appeared above my shirt, following his hand with his warm mouth respectfully short of going any lower. He paused between kisses to breathe in deeply with his face pressed to my neck and my hair, like he was trying to store up a memory of the way I smelled. I pulled his mouth back to mine once more, needing to taste him again.

             
Finally, Javier pulled back enough to look at my eyes, his smile lighting up his whole face. His words were slower than usual, as though he had to force his mind to find each one. “I wanted to kiss you like that since I first see you.”

             
“Me, too,” I managed to say in a voice barely above a whisper, realizing that I still had a handful of his shirt clenched in my hand.

             
“I am happy you are here and that you like the paintings. No one has ever stood and watched the paintings, only you. You are very amazing.”

             
I smiled at how little control he had over English when his mind was elsewhere. Heck, my mind was elsewhere, too, and I’m not sure how great a sentence I could have put together at that point, either.

             
I had no idea how long we spent on the couch, talking between heated kisses, laughing at each other’s little quirks. At some point, he jumped up from the sofa and raced to the kitchen, returning a second later with a very cold dessert which we took turns feeding each other, leaving our mouths icy for just a second before the temperature rose against our lips again. Javier trailed his fingertips idly against my leg, running his hands over my skin and leaving trails of goose bumps everywhere he touched. Everywhere, that is, that would be considered just this side of respectable.

             
Eventually, a yawn almost ripped my face in half, and Javier laughed.

             
“Andie,” he said, only the way he pronounced my name made it sound like AH-ndie, “you have to sleep and so do I. You can sleep right here, or I will walk to your home with you.”

             
Oh, sure. That would go over really well with the sisters if I came dragging in after sunrise, doing the most innocent and misguided walk of shame ever. I nodded, but made no move to get up. Instead, I looked directly at Javier’s eyes as they searched my face. It was a little bit weird to have someone just stare at you, but coming from him, it wasn’t too crazy.

             
He leaned in for a final, toe-curling kiss, but I wasn’t ready to let go. I wrapped my arms around his neck and slid one foot up onto the sofa behind his back, pulling him into me. This time, his hands moved down my ribs, down the sides of my stomach, to come together almost directly under my hips. My breath caught from the feeling of his hands on me as he deepened the kiss.

             
Suddenly, Javier stood up, bringing me with him as if I weighed nothing. I shrieked lightly from the surprise of finding myself in the air, my legs around his waist as he held me to his chest. He stopped kissing me, and he wasn’t laughing any longer.

             
“Andie, you tell me. Where do I go? To your home, or...” The husky tone of his voice trailed off, either because he didn’t know the words to use, or because he knew all too well what he wanted to say. He gestured with a quick nod of his head towards his bedroom.

             
I was totally stuck. I wanted nothing more than to be whisked down the hall and laid down on the crisp duvet, letting our imaginations and our hormones take us where they will. But there was also such a thing as propriety. Theta lady or not, respectable girls don’t end up in someone’s bedroom on the first date, no matter how awesome an idea it might seem like at the time. I sighed while I wrestled with what every part of my brain and most of my body wanted, and did what I knew was the right thing to do, ending up frustrated with myself and with the evening.

             
“I should go home,” I said, letting the disappointment show on my face. He lowered me to my feet and planted another delicious, but final, kiss on my lips. His touch was tender this time, rather than fierce. It was perfect.

Chapter Eight

“I hope you know that curfew for new sisters was thirty minutes ago,” Quinn said, meeting me at the front door in her night gown and robe. She looked absolutely pissed. Several other sisters sat on different pieces of furniture in the front room, but no one was talking. They were all looking in my direction.

             
“No, I didn’t know that, sorry. If I had, I’d have made sure to be back here sooner. I’m really sorry.” Not. Nothing going on in that house could compare to what Javier and his tongue could do. Besides, the looks on their faces and the curlers in their hair kind of screamed, “We weren’t having anywhere NEAR as much fun as you were!” I started to walk past Quinn and head to my room.

             
“Just so you know, we had a meeting tonight about your little rebellious stunt. We voted. You’re on probation, Andrea.” Quinn smiled and crossed her arms, waiting for me to dissolve in a puddle of tears and plead for reinstatement to full sisterhood. Not going to happen.

             
It’s been a long time since I had to defend myself. Sure, the artsy kids get picked on a little bit in high school, but we were a small town. There were fewer kids in the popular crowd than there were kids in the band. We didn’t suffer too much just because of our sheer numbers. It also helped that my daddy was somebody kind of famous and more than a little bit large. There had been a few run-ins where ugly words were said, but that was it. This fight in me had been a long time coming.

             
I turned around slowly and walked towards her, pleased when she shrunk back for just a second before remembering that she was a senior and the sorority president. I came close enough to her that she could hear the fury in my quiet voice.

             
“It’s ANDIE. I realize you’re having a lot of trouble remembering that, but my name is Andie. It’s not short for Andrea, in fact, it’s not short for anything. I’m named after my grandfather who was killed by a lynch mob when he came to the South to help blacks register to vote during the Civil Rights movement. I guess rebelling against stupid, narrow-minded rules is something that runs in my family.” I sauntered off casually, forcing myself to keep it together until I was out of sight of the other sisters.

             
I had never been put on probation for anything, least of all spending a delicious few hours making out with a gorgeous and intelligent Latin American guy. I’d never even gotten detention in school! But now here I was, a rebel. And I liked it.

             
Kennedy? Not so much. She threw open the door to our room, pulled me inside, and checked the hallway frantically to see if anyone had followed me.

             
“Where have you been?! They had a meeting and everything! You’re on probation!” She hissed that last word like it had magical powers, never to be spoken aloud. She looked like she was ready to cry over the sheer indignation of it all.

             
“Let me ask you a question. What time, exactly, was this meeting?” I asked innocently.

             
“I dunno, after dinner sometime. Why?”

             
“So, I was on probation before I broke curfew. Right?”

             
Kennedy narrowed her eyes for only a second before the realization hit her square in the face. “What are you saying?”

             
“I’m saying,” I answered, going to my bed, flopping down on top of the covers, and putting my hands behind my head, “that their little meeting took place before I missed curfew. I’m not being called on the carpet for being late, I’m in trouble with the secret society for going out on that date in the first place. And I think you know something about that, don’t you?”

             
“I...don’t know what you’re implying,” she said, sniffling and heading over to her desk, the one she had turned into a makeup vanity since she didn’t plan to actually do any studying, and picked up a bottle of lotion to start applying to her elbows. “But I have never roomed with a sister who was put on probationary status. It’s humiliating.”

             
“You’ve only ever roomed with one other sister, it’s not like you had a streak going, Kennedy,’ I said with a laugh. Oddly enough, instead of pissing her off like I’d planned, my comment actually unfroze her a little bit. “So...do you wanna hear all about why I was so late?”

             
“Absolutely!” she squealed, racing over to my side of the room and throwing herself down on my bed. She practically bounced up and down while holding her lotioned arms in the air. The whole thing looked like she was trying to fly and not getting anywhere.

             
I gave Kennedy the complete rundown of my date with Javier, not skipping over the tasty parts. She clapped her hands, of course, when I got to the part about how he owns several priceless paintings, and practically fainted when I mentioned the granite countertops and giant bathroom. Her eyes got wide, though, at the good parts.

             
“Oh my gosh, would you really have gone into the bedroom with him?” she asked, partly intrigued and giddy, partly scandalized.

             
“Um, Kennedy? It wouldn’t have been my first rodeo, if you get my meaning. And the only thing that stopped me was knowing that if I went in that bedroom, I wouldn’t have come out for days. He’s absolutely perfect.” I sighed again, letting the stupid dreamy smile I’d worn since leaving Javier’s apartment crawl up my face again. “Plus, I’m apparently in enough trouble with the royal guard downstairs, I don’t think they’d take too kindly to me sneaking in the door covered in hickeys after a night of wild passion.”

             
“But, isn’t it...weird?” Kennedy asked quietly, cringing a little.

             
“What do you mean? Is what weird? Sex?” I must have looked confused, but Kennedy was positively mortified that I said the s-word. She shushed me and looked toward our bedroom door, like she expected the troops to barge in because we were talking about the forbidden subject.

             
“NO. Sheesh! I mean, isn’t it weird kissing someone who’s...you know...not from here.”

             
“Well, people in his country do have an extra tongue and six fingers on each hand. That was a little strange at first, but I got used to it,” I replied sarcastically.