Bespoken: An Opposites-Attract Standalone Romance (Carmel Cove Book 2) Page 22
I laughed. “I take it you already know what you’re getting?”
“I have an idea.” Her smile bloomed as the valet opened her door and she stepped out of the truck.
Handing my keys to the kid, I met her on the other side of the car and extended my elbow. This restaurant wasn’t the fanciest in town—for that I would’ve had to take her back home to Rock Beach, but it was definitely a nice place that knew how to do Italian food the right way: by making their pasta and sauces fresh each day.
“Have you eaten here before?” she asked.
“Once.” I held the door open for her so she could walk inside. “Miles and I were celebrating with Eli once we all decided to start working together.”
It wasn’t that I couldn’t afford to come here, I just never had a reason to until her.
The warm, dim lighting inside of the restaurant seemed to brighten as soon as she entered. After a quick glance around, her eyes were back on me.
They’d done a nice job with the place, plastering the columns and parts of the ceiling to give it a rustic Italian vibe. Bright, tiled décor shone from behind the bar and large stone tiles filled the floor. The three large chandeliers were a dark mahogany from which hung crystals that glinted off of the soft lights.
It was a nice place, to be sure, but the look in her eyes told me I could’ve taken her to a pizza joint and she would’ve been just as happy.
The man at the host’s stand brightened immediately when he looked at my date. “Miss… Miss Vandelsen,” he stammered, smiling like an idiot. “It’s such an honor to have you here tonight with…” His voice trailed off, and I forced myself not to tense as his eyes narrowed on me.
“Mick Madison,” I introduced myself warmly in spite of the judgment I felt. “We have reservations.”
“Of course.” Instantly, his eyes flicked back to Jules as he scanned his sheet and nodded for us to follow him.
It was a smaller space, so I let Jules walk in front of me. With the waiters and their trays, it was already a tight squeeze in the walkways with my size.
As we sat, I put the host out of my mind and focused on my gorgeous woman as she eagerly scanned the menu.
Leaning forward, I held the menu up like I was about to tell her a secret and her face became serious. “I have to warn you though… Italian joint or not, the marinara won’t compare to your pap’s so keep that in mind.”
That brought the smile right back to her face and we both laughed.
“Are you folks ready or would you like another minute?” our waiter interjected, setting water glasses down for the both of us.
“Just another minute, please,” I told him, sharing a conspiratorial look with Jules before we ducked our heads back down to the menu like we’d been caught doing something wrong.
“Julia?” A tall, thin woman appeared at the side of our table. She dripped with enough jewelry and draped in enough accessories that sported logos on them for me to assume this was another frequent guest of the resort.
My jaw tightened.
I hadn’t thought of that. Like everyone else, I’d looked at Rock Beach like an island, sitting up there on the hill with everything it needed to be self-sufficient and its own society of people. Of course, they strayed into town, but not at the usual places I went.
“Mrs. Delacroix, how nice to see you,” Jules said pleasantly.
I could see how her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, so I steeled myself for a conversation that might not be completely pleasant.
The woman’s gaze slithered over to me, perplexed. “I’m surprised to see you here,” she began hesitantly. “And who is this?”
“Mick Madison, ma’am,” I introduced myself, annoyed how my accent seemed to always come out stronger on the ma’am when it felt like I was being looked down on.
Before she could respond, Jules beamed and proudly told her, “Mick is one of the owners of Madison Construction.”
“Oh… oh my.” The woman practically dry-heaved to get the words out. “Does… does your mother know that you are here?” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice like I wasn’t sitting right there and hissed, “With him?”
I saw the instant change in Jules. The brief shock hardened around her spine, steeling it straight. Her lips thinned in cool superiority—a superiority in this case that had nothing to do with wealth but character.
“I’m sorry, I don’t see how it’s any of her business, let alone yours.”
Her words were blunt but they struck their point. The woman reeled back with a hand to her chest and walked away in a huff.
“Jules, you didn’t have to—”
“Can we go somewhere else?” she asked, her cheeks flushed from a kind of confrontation I could tell she never imagined herself having.
“Y-You mean a different restaurant?” I clarified.
Jules nodded, pulling her cloth napkin from her lap and setting it on top of the table. “I want to go somewhere you normally go—somewhere not so… stuffy. I want to go to your favorite place to eat.”
The chair creaked as I leaned back, her request taking me by surprise.
“Anything for you, darlin’,” I agreed a split-second later with quirked smile.
She beamed and, proudly taking my extended hand, we walked out of the place, much to the displeasure of the host and the curious eyes of a number of tables.
A few minutes later and we were back in my truck.
“How does one of California’s best hot dogs sound?”
Mick
“Here, wear this,” I offered, draping my jacket around her shoulders before she could protest.
This wasn’t the best place to eat this time of year. It was cold and the only seating they had was outside along the beach. Still, the smile on her face could’ve melted a glacier the way it burned right through me.
“Thank you.” She pulled it tight around her even though she didn’t look cold in the slightest. The idea that she just wanted somethin’ of mine wrapped around her made my heart thud heavier.
“I should’ve just taken you here in the first place,” I said with a chuckle, looking down at her as we waited in line to the walk-up counter to order.
“Why?”
“Your smile’s about to split your face, Jules. Had I known it would only take a hot dog…”
Screw that fancy-ass restaurant. Jules was happy here. With me. Waitin’ for our hot dogs on a cold-ass beach.
She laughed. “Well, Eve said they were amazing…”
Her gaze fell slightly and the warm tint to her cheeks returned. I thought she was going to say something else, but it was finally our turn to order, so she held back.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” she said while we waited for our food. “I can’t believe she said that…” She shuddered at the reminder of the woman’s rudeness.
My arms that had been crossed over my chest, slid down to my sides as I reached one hand out and held it open, waiting for hers. Hesitantly, she laid her palm in mine and I brought it up to my mouth. My woman’s heart was too big, especially for those who didn’t deserve it. And that made me admire her even more.
“You have nothin’ to be sorry for, darlin’.” My fingers threaded through hers that looked so dainty compared to mine. “What that woman thinks of me… of us… makes no difference to my life.” I sighed and squeezed her hand. “But thank you for speakin’ up for me.”
Just the brief memory had me wanting nothing more than to pull her in my arms and kiss her and worship her for her voice.
Like she read my thoughts, Jules stepped forward, rising up on her toes, and pressed her lips to mine.
Nothing against the first place I’d chosen, but there was a freedom here—a freedom to just do and say whatever the hell we wanted with only the ocean as an audience.
My ears picked up a few whistles in the background. Okay, maybe not only the ocean.
“Jules…” I grunted. “You can’t be kissin’ me yet, I haven’t even fed you.”
Damn. My dick steeled in my pants.
Before I could reach for those lips again, our four orders of Pineapple Express hot dogs appeared on the counter.
That was the other thing. We went to order and my woman shot me a grin over her shoulder before asking for two hot dogs when I knew most women would’ve ordered one, no matter how hungry they were.
With both hands full, she practically skipped toward an open picnic table, leaving me with my hands full and my eyes locked on the perfect globes of her ass.
Maybe that’s what I was hungry for.
Grunting, I shuffled over to the table, full-well ready to admit she was everything I hungered for. And the moan that slipped out from her first bite would’ve tempted Adam, Eve, and God himself to take a bite of whatever she was having.
“Good?” I asked, digging into my own hotdog that was layered in pineapple chunks, pickled jalapeno, crispy onions, and the House BBQ sauce.
She tried to answer, but then had to scramble for a napkin because her mouth was too full which only caused her to laugh and make it all the harder for her to chew.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’ve never had one before,” she said, her cheeks pinkening.
My eyebrows rose. “A hot dog?”
And the pink turned a vibrant red as she nodded. “I was never allowed to have kid’s food. Hot dogs. Chicken fingers. Mac and cheese.” I could only stare as she spoke. “Don’t get me wrong, I was given gourmet food for every meal, and it was delicious. But it would’ve been nice to have a hot dog every once in a while, you know?”
I managed a small nod, watching as her face fell slightly. “What’s wrong?”
She thought for a moment as she took another bite. “I just hope the changes my parents are making for Rock Beach have nothing to do with… everything.” She paused and we shared a look, the idea that her family was involved with criminals weighed on her.
“Darlin’, at some point you have to stop pilin’ all your family’s responsibilities and decisions on your back. Only you can be the best judge of your own happiness,” I told her, devouring the last bite of my hot dog.
“You make me happy,” she replied so simply, like it was just as much a universal truth as the sun rising or the seasons changing.
I found myself frozen. Consumed by her sincerity and kindness. Julia Vandelsen was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, both from the moment I met her and from the moment I knew her.
“Let’s go for a walk,” I said with a low voice, needing to stand to get the pressure off my dick and needing to get her somewhere more private so I could hold her the way I wanted.
I stood with sudden, jerky moves, lust boiling under my skin. As I turned to throw away our trash, I ran into another person.
“Shit, I’m so sorry, man,” I said gruffly, trying to catch my garbage and his before it tumbled to the ground.
“What the hell man,” the guy yelled, jerking back to look at his shirt where his cup of water spilled down the front. It was a dark navy, so the wet stain showed up black, but it was only water. It would disappear in a few minutes. “Why don’t you watch where the fuck you are going next time? Christ, no wonder you’re so big, to make up for the fucking pea-size brain you must have to not see me standing here…”
My whole body tensed.
“Sorry about that,” I muttered again, slapping a stack of napkins against his chest. It wasn’t even that hard, still he stumbled back slightly from the force of my gesture. I didn’t apologize because he deserved it—he didn’t—rather I deserved better than to waste my energy on this moron, especially when my girl was waiting for me. Not to mention, I had a good six inches on him and at least seventy pounds. I could’ve flattened him and really given him something to whine about.
I didn’t stick around to hear him complain any longer, tossing our garbage in the trashcan by the delivery window before making my way back to Jules.
Holding out my hand, I threaded her fingers through mine and pulled her toward the beach.
At this time of the year, the sand was cold and all but packed down into a coarse walkway that dissolved into the sea.
“What a jerk…” I heard her mumble as we got farther away from the Dog House.
By this point, I’d completely forgotten about that ass, too preoccupied by the way she licked her lips, her tongue coating them with a new hunger I wanted to sate.
I let out a long sigh. “Don’t worry about him. I’m used to dealin’ with guys like that. Comes with the territory…”
Jules looked up at me with a perplexed stare, so I explained, “I’ve gotten a lot of those types of comments in my life being who… how I am. It’s not always the big kids that are the bullies,” I mused. “You’d think they’d realize that the size they are makin’ fun of is the kind that could crush them if I wanted.”
“I don’t understand why… someone would bully you…”
“Well, when you’re the biggest kid in high school and you’re only a freshman, and then everyone realizes you aren’t into sports and you won’t be playin’ on the football team… that doesn’t go over well with the teenage crowd. People judge what they see… and what they saw was a big kid who shoulda been playin’ football. And when I didn’t, they let me hear about it,” I said wryly.
She stopped, pulling me to a halt with her. “Well, I know what it feels like to be judged by what people see. It’s even worse when you give them the truth, and they still refuse to believe it…”
Her fingers disentangled themselves from mine and found a new home on my chest.
“Some people, no matter what you say or do, will always see the clouds in favor of the sun.” I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear that blew in front of her face. “Can’t let that stop you from shinin’.”
Her eyes drifted shut for a minute, like she was soaking in my warmth even though it was chilly outside.
“I wish I had your certainty,” she said softly, searching in my gaze like it had what she needed to be strong in herself. “About yourself. Your life.”
My lips tipped in a quick half-smile as I replied, “Darlin’, I’m not always certain. And I definitely wasn’t always like this. I wasn’t a bully, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t end up in my fair share of fights in high school. Took me a long time to not let what others say bother me.”
“You fought the kids who made fun of you?” Her eyes twinkled, eager to hear about my past.
“Some.” I grinned. “Most of the time, I fought the ones who picked on others. Especially Miles. He… ahh… had a thing for this girl, since he was probably about five. It got him in a lot of trouble with a lot of different classmates of ours that she tried to date…” I trailed off.
Miles’ history with Leslie was more like a saga than a story, and it was one that definitely belonged in the past.
“So, you fought kids who picked on your brother… your friends… but not the ones who picked on you?”
“Sometimes, they were one and the same, but I wouldn’t say it was really a fight,” I answered with a devious grin. I wasn’t going to lie. I’d been a teenage boy. Certain emotions it takes years to learn to fully control. “Or at least a fair one.”
I sucked in a breath as she stepped farther into my arms, her fists balling into my shirt to pull herself closer.
I bent my head down until my forehead rested on hers. “I stuck up for the people I cared about, for the people who couldn’t speak for themselves,” I confessed. “That’s what made me certain… that’s what made me strong. Some people think strength and power comes from tearin’ people down, but I can tell you that’s not how it works. It’s only when you build others up that you find out how strong you really are.”
“That’s why you didn’t tell me…” It wasn’t a question, but her eyes searched mine all the same.
“I should’ve told you, Jul
es,” I admitted regretfully. “But I needed to protect you more than I needed to breathe, and I was convinced that was the best way at the time.”
My breaths became harsher, trying to find the words to tell her not only how much I hated having kept it from her, but also how hard it was to deal with insecurities I thought I’d put past me long ago.
“On top of that, for probably for the first time since high school, I knew if I told you, I wouldn’t be able to stay away from you. Not that it mattered much,” I admitted ruefully. “And even though I’m certain… even though I’m confident of a lot of things, I’m not too proud to admit that even though I might be a good man, I was afraid I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“And now?” she asked, her voice three levels below a whisper.
I growled and dipped my lips until they brushed over hers as I spoke, wanting my words to fill the air she breathed and stay written on her sweet skin.
“Now, this good man is going to kiss his woman like he’s been wantin’ to for far too long.”
I didn’t wait for her response, but the throaty sigh that escaped as my lips claimed hers told me that this was what she wanted too.
Her hands slid up my chest and wound around my neck, anchoring me to the warmth of her mouth.
She was the finest thing I’d ever tasted, and each kiss, I fought between wanting to savor every moment, and needing to devour her whole.
My fingers worked their way under my jacket that she wore, under her sweater, until they sunk into her smooth waist. My tongue licked over hers—over every inch of her mouth—eager to taste all of her like I had the other night.
I’d never done drugs, but if the reaction one got was anything like this, I could understand it—I could understand how easy it would be to become addicted.
And I was afraid I already was.
Jules rolled her hips against mine with a moan that erupted like a burst of sugar on my tongue. My dick throbbed in my jeans, knowing her hot pussy wasn’t too far away. One hand slid around her back and cupped the firm full globe of her ass, squeezing tight to pin her against me.
Was I a good man to want to strip her down and bury myself inside her on a cold California beach with the world watching?