Truth Meets Love (11 page)

How can a woman who dances like an angel one moment be so damn clumsy the next? She is a Handmade Sweetheart, full of contradictions. She is "Hadley-Made" right here, baby, and I want her.

I pull my left hand up her neck and pull her face to me as I press my body into her and stand between her legs.

She starts to giggle and her body begins to shake as she tries to gain control by burying her face in my neck. She squeezes her legs up around my hips. Her arms are hugging me tightly around my shoulders, with her other hand entwined in my hair, atop my head. She is trying to muffle her laughter. I lean back and peer down at her, still wide-smiling and rumbling chest.

"Are you ticklish?" I ask.

She calms her breaths and just shakes her head and stills up against my cheek. She mumbles into my neck, "Just a little nervous."

I just squeeze her up against me and kiss the side of her temple before placing her back on the counter. I want to take some time to see what this is all about. FUCK. Why the hell does she have to be a stripper… a woman as sweet intelligent and warm as she seems to be?

I know what I have to do to take this to the next level. Am I ready to take the next step? I like her. I like her a lot.

The determination sets in as I lean back. "Hadley, what do you do for a living?"

Hadley-

I have to be careful how to answer his question, but that smell. OH, he is heaven on earth, I swear. It seems familiar or just hot, like clean and cinnamon.

However, once they find out I make a good living on my own and don't need them to support me or validate my worth, per se, one of two things will happen. They will become human mooches and try to suck me into supporting them while they do nothing. Others can't hack their ego issues that surface. They don't know how to take me because I don't need to rely on them for financial support or seek validation from them to sustain my self-worth. I am not afraid of walking away if I feel I need to. Like I did with Luke.

Luke didn't think I had it in me to kick him out when I found out he was fucking our neighbor in the apartment building--the one I paid the lease on. They were at least courteous enough to schedule around my college class and work schedule to hook up. IN MY FUCKING BED! The truth was, I never really liked him that much. I was more pissed to find out that he had been using me. Like AJ used my Mom. She worked; he drank. I worked and went to school; he fucked the neighbor.

Well, when life hands you lemons… have them ready to be sucked after a lick of salt and feel the fire of a shot of tequila running down the back of your throat.

That STUPID PRICK. I didn't leave him. I kicked his ass out! He had the nerve to tell me that I would come crawling back to him. Then he said I would have to suck his dick before he would even think about taking me back. PSH… Pussy. I wasn't desperate enough to settle for a drugstore cowboy just yet.

I answer Tralen tentatively. "I am a Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant," I say with mostly truth engrained.

He picks up on my hesitation so to divert him, I quickly add, "And you, Mr. Creed, what is your position?" before he can inquire anymore to me and we can change the focus on him.

If he understands my game, he's playing along. He still has his hand around my back and he is face to face with me, talking softly into my left ear.

He is grinning into my hair near my ear I can feel it. He throws a curve right back at me. "I am in Infrastructure Design for a firm in town."

Damn. Why didn't I ask the Property Management Company to send his file so I knew where he worked and what he does for a living? The suspense is killing me.

Tralen-

Is she for real? "Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant"--is that code for something I am supposed to understand? It must be terminology used in the club underground escort service. Ok, she's not ready to tell me, so I can't take this any further tonight. She will come around. I'll get her to break down her barriers and see that she can make it without having to strip to survive.

She obviously guards her privacy; that is probably common in her line of work, as well. When she is ready to share more about herself, she will. Until then I will just wait her out. I have never admitted to anyone besides Cody and Mags anything about my dad. I always tell everyone my parents are dead when asked. Therefore I completely understand the need to share only "half-truth" to protect her "guard and tackle" position.

Hadley is different--fun and so damn cute. I normally go for girls with long blonde hair or at least, that is the majority who approach me. Hadley's has character. It is angled at her jaw and it's a few different shades of auburn with blonde hues. It makes her hazel eyes look dark and sultry with her high cheekbones and wide mouth. She has a huge smile that touches me from head to toe.

"Would you like to have some Thai and watch the latest Clint Eastwood film that's out?" she asks holding it up. Her nose is scrunched a little and her hand cocked on her hip as she turns to walk back out to the living room.

I am in heaven: she likes Clint!
Gran Torino
was one of my latest favorites, but I hadn't seen this flick. However, I could think of no better way to spend my evening. Who wouldn't want to be cuddled up that body for two hours straight, at least? I grabbed two beers and put the others in the fridge, then followed her to the couch. She handed me a carton of veggies, chicken and noodles, and I handed her a beer. We clicked bottles like we were old high school buddies reminiscing. I am surprised but hanging out with her feels like hanging out with dudes. However, this is so much better. They don't have those tits and that ass and mouth and that giggle!

She's not high-maintenance or whiny or clingy. Those were some of the major drawbacks I had endured with Nicole and many others I tried dating over the years. I hadn't ventured back into full-on relationship status since Nicole and I ended. At that time I was only 20. Hadley has got a bit of tough on the outside, soft in the middle effect. She's quirky: confident but kind of shy in intimate situations. She's decisive and forthright but not in an aggressive way. She's full of contradictions. It makes her almost seem like a mystery…one I would really like the chance to solve.

However, I am still going to great measures to ensure I don't hook my wagon to any women with Nicole's "features" ever again.

I could tell Hadley was no Nicole after one basketball game. Hadley and I made out when I collected on a debt for a wager she lost. The silly woman thought she could take me in the NBA Finals X-Box game. I bet her a pass to "first base" that she wouldn't. However, I had to admire her tenacity. This experience was not one I have ever even come close to, nor what I was used to when meeting a woman I was interested in. This whole encounter changed my perspective and my hope that it could really be this easy and fun to be with someone I was more attracted to than anyone I had ever met. Shilo, my niece, plays me in a few rounds occasionally but not any of the women I have ever dated. Definitely not Nicole.

Hadley was different. She made jokes and teased me about men dismissing a woman's value during the movie. It was a major theme in the show and I am guessing in her life, too. However, she also blamed women who took it and didn't stand up for themselves or measured their value by the seeking validation from those same men. She said that if she had a daughter she would make sure she understood that "no one can make you feel lacking in intelligence or beauty if you don't give them the power to devalue your worth."

As we continue to watch the movie and I am lying back on the couch, I start to let my mind wander. My hands desperately want to follow, but I don't let them act on my dirty thoughts. She is lying partly across me and tucked into my side. Her one arm is draped over my chest halfway and her head is on my chest just under my chin. I think she's asleep. I keep strumming her back over the spot I know the tattoo resides and up the side over her ribs, where the tiny stars line the scar running up her side.

The contradictions with this Sweet Tart were endless. They were also making my mouth water.

Hadley-

I think I bit his lip while we were kissing. When I told him, "I don't sleep with my tenants" he joked that he was moving in with me instead. I almost asked him to and not to leave, ever.

I am snuggled into him on the couch watching our movie. I have no memories in my recollection that are as perfect as this.

No boys wanted to just date me before I left the club. In college I was focused and after the Luke incident I was good for awhile. However, all of them wanted to score immediately, even Luke. He deemed it an "entitlement" because he was my "boyfriend" at the time. I think I was more curious than anything and although Luke wasn't great boyfriend material, we did have a lot of fun when we went out together. However, none of them just wanted to talk and make out with me. They wanted to have me suck their dicks and fuck me hard or wanted to know if they brought their buddy if I would give them a two-for-one deal. I had heard it all and I happily declined, of course, even if there were consequences for my actions. If they felt the rejection was harsh they would hurl insults about me being a "cheap slut" or a "whore" until the bouncers intervened at the club, which always begged the question if they really felt that way about me, then why were they so miffed about not being able to capitalize on their intended target? To me that said a lot more about them than me. It happened only occasionally, but I had to let them know when they were crossing my "personal boundaries."

She didn't
.

I met Luke in college and thought it was love at the time… I was wrong. We lasted two years before he left town unexpectedly, I had heard. I thought a boyfriend seemed normal for a girl my age, and I had hormones. I liked the fantasy that must accompany love and the feeling of being wanted, even if it wasn't true love.

I had caught the heartless ass literally with his pants bunched down around his ankles. Mr. Greyson and I were leaving for the airport for a merger meeting in Dallas. We had stopped at my place to get my laptop I had left sitting by the door at my apartment.

I went up the stairs to my apartment to fetch it, leaving Mr. Greyson and his driver in the car. Luke was there, as always. He just kind of moved himself in and he hadn't asked or even discussed it with me, really. The rest of those details…YUCK! I don't want to even think about it.

Let's just say he was fast in more ways than one. Luke beat me out of the building, pants still around his ankles. I was hot on heels, leaving the laptop bag still propped by the door. I opted for other devices to assist in the situation. I burst through the front entrance chasing a half-naked Luke while wielding my umbrella in my left and a golf club in my right, and our trip called for neither. Mr. Greyson's limo driver got out and took me back up to get my laptop, lock up my apartment and settle my shaking hands.

I collected what pride I could salvage, my composure and my laptop, and climbed in the back of the limo beside Mr. Greyson. I had expected to be fired. Instead he just squeezed my hand and never mentioned a word about it.

I am so comfortable I just want to sleep here up against Tralen all night. His heart is rhythmically sounding in my ear. I should probably at least offer him the opportunity to escape. I had put the garage door code and the keys on the counter in his new place. I forgot to lock it up after the pee crisis.

I lift my head to peer up at his face and he grabs both my cheeks between his two big hands and claims my mouth like he doesn't want me to change anything about this moment. He clutches my tongue and drags it deep into his mouth, afraid I might have wanted him to leave. Maybe he was comfortable, and fully enjoying himself, too.

He lets up and gently tugs at my bottom lip, and then he tucks me back down into his side after releasing my lower lip. Then he kisses my temple and snuggles back into me. I give up without a fight and fall into peaceful dreams, wrapped in Tralen's arms.

Chapter TEN

Move In Ready

Tralen -

I wake up at 4AM and she has her legs wrapped between mine. Her hand has slipped inside my sweat pants across my waist and her hand grasps my naked hip under the waistband of my sweats. I am "free ballin-it" since Loosey's accident on my pants earlier in the night. I have my hand up her shirt on her back and the other over my head resting on the armrest of the couch. I need to carry her to bed and get out of there before I finish what I started with her last night.

I think she wanted to me to ask her to "dance" again. We did dance but I kept my concealed weapon holstered because I needed to be honest with her about my feelings about her, her occupation and what I had done before we take that step. I want this to work and give it a fair chance. I need to tell her what I know before we turn into something real, only to later find out it was all built on lies and we both got hurt.

I take her jeans off and admire her turquoise silk panties underneath as I lay her in her bed and cover her up with her sheet and covers. She looks so peaceful and inviting, and I want to remember her like this--the first night we spent together. I take my phone out of my coat pocket and I snap a quick photo and cover her back up. I know I should have asked, but I just want to be able to look at her whenever I want.

Looking at the picture on the screen and knowing the real deal is lying right below me makes me want to crawl in there and spoon her like she was made of silver.

I kiss her forehead because I know where cuddling will have my upper and lower brain waging war… my cock. He's a bit trigger-happy; if provoked he will come out guns blazing. He has muscle memory and her proximity induces spasms he is not used to.

Therefore, playing it safe, I leave her a note with a little request on the kitchen counter.

Hadley-

I open my eyes and try to remember where I am. I am in my bed… NO… was it all a dream? Was I just dreaming Tralen was here almost all night playing video games watching movies and making out with me? I have never done that and I have never had so much fun in my life. It was perfect.