Pieces of Rhys (4 page)

We sat outside kissing for a very long time, until it started to rain. We put the fire out and went inside. In the kitchen, he pressed me up against the counter and kissed me deeply. His hands were on my ass, pulling me against him. He pulled away slightly, tilted my head back and kissed my throat. I moaned lightly and then a little louder when finally his fingers worked their way up to a nipple.

His lips were back on mine and the kiss had turned primal. He was nipping and suckling on my bottom lip when his tongue wasn't beating mine into submission. He continued to squeeze my breast as he grinded up against me. I felt myself climbing toward an orgasm when suddenly Rhys pulled away. The action literally took my breath away.

"What..." I started, but didn't really know what to ask.

He enclosed my face in his hands and gave me a tame kiss on my lips before resting his head on mine.

"I should go, before this goes too far."

"I want it to go far," I argued.

"In due time," he said and kissed me quickly before backing away.

"Due time," I sighed.

"I have plans tomorrow," he said, straightening his shirt. "But I will see you at work Monday."

"Okay."

"Keep your doors locked. Don't take any shit from your ex."

He rushed over and kissed my forehead and then he left. When the door closed, I allowed myself to slide to the floor in a non-orgasmic, disappointed, horny as hell puddle.

Chapter Six

All day Sunday I worried. What the hell was I getting into with Rhys? I kept telling myself I was stupid and this was just going to hurt me in the end. Rhys wasn't the settling down type and I totally was. Rhys has dated a few women in the company since I have known him, none of them ever very serious or long lasting. Okay, maybe one.

Nicole was almost as perfect as Rhys. I mean if you were into anorexic, boobless supermodel, blonde types. Despite her one dimensional body, her face was exquisite - a heart shaped face with bright blue eyes set too far apart to make sense, but works perfectly on her, and slightly pouty lips that must have been incredible to kiss. Not that I'm into kissing girls. I'm just saying the girl has kissable lips. Rhys's relationship with Nicole came to a halt almost a year ago after she started working in the New York office.

So, Rhys wasn't quite a male slut, but I guess you can say that he got around to a few people. Was I next on the list? Did he have a list? Or were these all random encounters? Was I a random encounter? I sure as hell couldn't match up to Nicole.

Don't get it twisted. I'm not at all ashamed of my looks, sometimes a little irritated, but not ashamed. I am shorter than a lot of people, and my weight tends to fluxuate between a few extra pounds and way too many pounds, but overall, I had a nice shape. I had a decent rack and enough junk in my trunk to be proud of. My long auburn hair nicely compliments my blue-green eyes and naturally bronze skin. My mother is half black and half Spanish and my dad is half Irish and half Italian. People sometimes look at me and try to guess my race and heritage, but rarely do they guess correctly.

Again, I wasn't ashamed or anything, just realistic. Realistically speaking, Nicole's model-like looks beat mine hands down.

I went outside to work on my yard, to relieve some of my frustration, much of it sexual. That was another thing. Did Rhys always tell the other girls "in due time" or is it just me? Is there something wrong with me? And why was I in such a hurry for him to bang me? I hadn't had sex in over a year. Gary had emotionally scarred me and I didn't even try to talk to another man until Rhys, and now I was ready to get all freaky with him.

When I tried to sleep that night, I worried about how we were going to interact at work. Would he kiss me at work or put some distance between us? How was
I
going to act? I didn't want to be the crazy, desperate girl, but I didn't want to act like my two nights with him didn't matter either. I couldn't deny that they did.

What a cluster fuck.

In the morning, Rhys pulled into the parking lot seconds after me and parked right beside me. Okay, be cool, Lindsey.

I did what I do every morning, checked my make-up in the mirror, ran my fingers through my hair, and checked my purse to make sure I had my badge. When I looked up, Rhys, Kit, and another co-worker were standing in front of my car talking. Rhys smiled when our eyes briefly met, and I couldn't help but to smile back. Kit totally caught it. She looked at me with a raised brow.

"God, you're slow," Kit said after I had joined them.

Katherine "Kit" Pete and I have been besties since third grade, when we beat up the class bully together. Unfortunately she was living out of state and unaware of my personal bully problems, or I'm sure she would have tried to take Gary single handedly.

Kit was outrageously pretty, with red hair, creamy skin and sharp green eyes and she was curvy without an inch of fat. I hated her sometimes.

"No one told you to wait for me," I said, feeling a little cranky.

"Wake up on the bitchy side of the bed?" She asked as we started our walk to the building.

"A little bit. Didn't sleep well. I couldn't shut my brain off."

"That's funny, because I always thought you had trouble turning it on."

I ignored her little joke about my lack of smarts. Rhys wasn't talking, he looked deep in thought. The other co-worker had moved on before I got out of the car.

"You didn't return any of my calls this weekend," Kit said. "What the fuck."

"I was busy."

"Doing what? What's more important than your best friend?"

I sighed in response. I really didn't know what to say, if I were allowed to say anything at all about Rhys. Not that Rhys was Mr. Secretive, but I didn't want to just put his business out there like that.

"Look, I didn't want to be the third wheel again, okay?" I snapped at her.

"Then you should let me set you up with Jack's brother. Dylan is a nice guy."

"I'll think about it."

"You'll think about it. Think about it for the next two weeks, because I'm bringing him to your party next Saturday."

"You're having a party next Saturday?" Rhys asked, opening the door for us. I had almost forgotten he was there.

"I thought I told you," I said.

"Nope."

"Starts at five, as long as the good weather holds up."

"Should I bring anything?"

"Yourself."

He smiled at me, sending my heart into convulsions. When he walked away, Kit jumped on the opportunity to grill me.

"What was
that
at your car?"

"What at my car?" I played dumb.

"Rhys smiled at you."

"So?"

"So, it wasn't like a normal smile. It was a secret smile."

"How is it a secret if he did it right in front of you?"

"You're being evasive."

"There's nothing to tell you," I lied before we parted ways.

I trusted Kit one hundred percent, but I wasn't ready to tell her about Rhys when I was still trying to figure it out myself.

I got settled
in my small office
, trying to mentally ready myself for the new work week. Rhys and I w
ere low end managers in
the marketing firm we worked for. It wasn't the job I thought I'd have when I left high school, but it was a job nonetheless.

One perk I had at work was my own office. It was small, and offered very little privacy with it's glass walls that faced a room full of occupied desks and office equipment, but it was my little space anyway.

As I was getting started, I happened to look up when Rhys walked into the outer room. He smiled at me
through the glass as he crossed the
room. He looked sexy as usual. I couldn't help but to see the moment in slow motion, with sexy music running in my brain, as he walked toward me. I looked at his eyes, which lightly veiled amusement, lust, and something else I couldn't identify. His lips reminded me of kissing him. His manner of walking was confident and everything about him in general was making my toes curl.

Funny how quickly one's toes can uncurl.

With my mind still in slow-mo mode, FFF bounded into the office behind Rhys, out of his view. Weird. Freddy, aka Muriel, was rarely in our department, but whatever. My eyes started to slide back to Rhys, but curiously Freddy turned around and waved someone else into the room, dividing my attention between that scene and Rhys's sexy saunter. When I saw the blonde hair and the heart shaped face, my face changed. The sexy music that was playing in a loop in my head turned into the Imperial March.

Nicole's super model walk seemed to coincide with Rhys's super model walk, as if they were on stage in the same show together, as if the whole scene was choreographed just for them. My face must have looked crazy, because Rhys's walk faltered and he turned to see what I was looking at. I couldn't see his face, but from the way he wrapped his arms around Nicole and lifted her off of the floor in an embrace, I took a wild guess that he was delighted to see the bitch.

Chapter Seven

"Fuck!"

Okay, so there was no way that no one heard that.
My office door was wide open and it wasn't like the room was sound proof.
Rhys, ‘Freduriel’, and Nicole turned their eyes on me, along with everyone else within a five-block radius.

"Spilled my coffee," I announced, and pretended to mop up a mess with tissues.

I didn't even have coffee!

"Nice to see you again, Lindsey," Nicole
called
to me.

I got up and leaned in my doorway so I wouldn't have to yell, even though I did want to
scream
.

"Yeah," I said as kindly as I could. "I'm...extremely
surprised to see you, Nicole."

She looked at me curiously, but turned her attention back to Rhys. Muriel the Finger texted her way out of the office, and the two super models walked off into the sunset. Well, really, they walked off under harsh fluorescent lighting.

See, Lin, that's what you get for snogging the boy who makes you all gooey and melty.

It took me a very long time to get my shit together. I found out through the course of the morning that Nicole was moving back. What I didn't find was my enthusiasm for the occasion. I also didn't find Rhys at my desk again that day, though he sat down beside me at lunch. I thought that was cool, but then Nicole joined us, and like a squirrel trying to cross a busy street, I looked back and forth for a place to run and eventually scurried out of the lunch room.

I dragged myself to my car that day, feeling like I had lost the lottery. You know, like I had a winning ticket, but then my dog ate it.

Even though Rhys was standing at his car talking, minus Nicole, I didn't even feel like stalking him. He grinned in my direction, inviting me with his eyes, but I waved feebly and got into my car and drove away.

When I got home, I found a note
nailed
to my front door. Like someone took a nail and a hammer and nailed the freakin' note to my door.

"Gary," I grumbled, snatching down the note. I tried unsuccessfully to pull the nail out. "Asshole."

Inside, I skimmed over the list, mentally checking off what he could and could not have. I was in a foul mood, but I wanted his shit out of my house. It took me over an hour, but I gathered most of the things he asked for, threw them in a large box and carried it to my car.

Gary lived the next town over a few houses away from his evil mother. His car was in the driveway when I got there, a brand new blue Dodge Charger. I am not a vengeful person, but sometimes I wanted to repay him for the things he had done to me. Sometimes I wanted to trash his car, but that would be as good as signing my own death warrant.