Come With Me Read online

  The jeep ride back to Willow Cove was agonizing. Funny, now she didn’t seem to need to go to the bathroom, but it was too late. Jake was hurt. He was probably angry with her and if he never spoke to her again, she wouldn’t blame him a bit. God, what a mess she’d made of things. First, Kay hiding in the bathroom and now her pea size bladder couldn’t make up its mind. She’d considered walking home from Jake’s house or even calling a cab, but she doubted she’d make it very far in the mud or that a cab would come so far to get her. So, she sat in mortified silence as Jake drove.

  Jake turned to her in the jeep as he pulled it to a stop in the Willow Cove parking lot. “Lacy. I…I…” He wanted to tell her it was all right, that he liked her and he’d wait for her to be ready, but she didn’t give him a chance.

  Instead, Lacy literally jumped from the jeep and rushed inside. Tears were streaming down her face. Stephen was right. There was something wrong with her. It was probably all in her head. Once again she had failed. She had ruined things with Jake. All Lacy wanted to do was crawl under the covers and cry.

  * * *

  The sun wasn’t up yet, but that was just the reality of Jake’s job, he was almost always up before the sun. He rolled over in his bed and looked at the empty spot. He was lonely. “Fuck!” He slapped his hand down hard on the bed. How did things get so shot to hell? All through the night he either dreamed about it or tossed and turned, trying to figure out what he’d done wrong. First, they’d had a heated encounter, then she’d rebuffed him, only to have a fantastic time at dinner and end up back at his place where she’d rocked his world, until she rebuffed him again.

  “Women,” he said with a huff as he rose from bed. He’d never understand them if he lived to be a thousand.

  As he showered and dressed, he couldn’t keep his thoughts off of her. She was really sweet, smart, funny and sexy as hell. Jake wasn’t exactly sure where he stood with Lacy after last night. They’d had fun, but the night had ended poorly, with Lacy practically jumping out of a moving car in the Willow Cove parking lot. What was he going to do? He didn’t want to avoid her, and it was inevitable they’d run into each soon but he’d rather not have their next meeting be an awkward one in front of guests or other hotel employees. Hell! Damn, he had to come up with a plan.

  The parking lot was nearly empty when he arrived at work an hour later. Jake gave a quick look up toward Lacy’s window. The lights were off, she must still be in bed.

  “Must be nice to sleep in,” he grumbled under his breath, but the thought of her all soft and warm, cuddled under the sheets made him instantly hard. “Double damn!”

  * * *

  Lacy rolled over in her bed and looked at the clock. 5:08 glared at her in big, bright, green numbers, taunting her. She hadn’t slept more than ten minutes at a time last night. The horror and delight of what had transpired with Jake the evening before had kept her up, tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling and going over things over and over again in her head.

  Jake was perfect. He was hot, had a good job, was an amazing kisser and not only knew how to make her feel good, he wanted to make her feel good!

  So what was the problem?

  Lacy groaned and covered her face with her hands. It was obvious.

  She was the problem.

  Not only had she developed feelings for the man, but it seemed she was sabotaging her own self. If ever there was a guy who was going to help her experience her first orgasm, it was him. He’d told her to trust him and just let go, but letting go was hard and trust didn’t come easy for Lacy.

  “Kill me now,” she mumbled. She was only hours away from having to face the man she’d pushed away, not once, but twice yesterday. How would he react? Did he hate her?

  Well, she wasn’t going to solve anything by just lying here and worrying. Lacy stepped out of her bed with a groan and went to her window. Peeling back the cover of the curtains ever so slowly, she spotted Jake’s truck in the parking lot below. “Crap!” Lacy cursed, stepping back from the window. She’d hoped Jake would take the day off, hoped he’d just simply want to avoid her for a little while, but she knew he was needed there, the course renovations were his responsibility.

  “Oh, well. What do they say? You need to get right back up on the horse that threw you. She giggled at the imagery in her head. The only problem was, Jake might not be willing to give her another chance.

  * * *

  “Morning, girls,” Lacy called out a few hours later when she saw Kay and Denise standing in front of the big steps that led up to the front doors of the resort. They were admiring the flowers. Landscaping had put out a couple of decorative carts full of Boston ferns interspersed with bright red geraniums. The effect was stunning.

  Kay had a smirk on her face a mile wide and Lacy knew what was coming. “Hell, here it comes,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Sleep well last night, Lacy?” Kay asked in a whimsical, sing-song tone.

  Denise wasn’t slow by any means. She jumped on Kay’s statement like a bass on a water bug. “What happened last night?” Denise eyed them both with great interest.

  Lacy looked at Kay disbelievingly. She hadn’t blabbed to Denise yet? You could’ve knocked Lacy over with a feather. She was sure Kay had been on her phone feeding Denise the scoop the second she and Jake had walked out the door last night.

  “It was fine,” Lacy said quietly. “How was your night?”

  Denise stuffed her sunglasses in her purse. “Hang on. What happened last night, Lacy? What’s she talking about?”

  Lacy thought sure Denise was putting on an act. She just assumed Kay had already told her all about what she must’ve heard from the other side of the bathroom door. So, she just laid it on the line. There was no use trying to hide it, the truth would come out anyway. “I went out with Jake last night,” Lacy stated simply, trying to walk off.

  Denise didn’t let her get more than two steps. “Hang on there, missy. You’re not getting away so easily. Dish.”

  “Oh foot,” Lacy said with a snort. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you anything, I imagine Kay already spilled the story to you in great juicy detail.”

  This conversation kinda sucked. It was finally Lacy’s chance to engage in the sex talk that Kay and Denise were always having, and now Lacy was too embarrassed to talk about it.

  Denise looked at them both with confusion. “What am I missing here?”

  Lacy put her hand on her hip. She stared at Kay. “You seriously didn’t tell her?”

  Kay held her hands up in front of her, as if in defense. “I didn’t tell her anything.”

  Okay. She was surprised. Facing Denise, she confessed, “I went out with Jake last night.”

  Denise immediately gave a wicked smile. “How did it go?”

  “It sounded like it went well to me.” Kay spouted off, unable to stifle the laugh she’d been holding in.

  “Kay!” Lacy scolded. “I can’t believe you.”

  “Wait. You were there?” Denise asked, pointing a finger between the two of them.

  Kay leaned in conspiratorially. “I was on the other side of the door,” she explained, completely letting go of her laughter.

  Denise was now totally lost. “The other side of the door? What door?”

  Lacy sighed. “Jake asked me out to dinner and Kay came by to help me pick an outfit to wear. We must’ve lost track of time, because before we knew it, he was knocking on my door.”

  Denise turned to Kay, her enjoyment at the retelling of the events was growing by leaps and bounds. “How did you end up on the other side of the door listening? And more importantly, what did you hear?”

  Lacy certainly wasn’t enjoying the attention, nor the thought of the teasing that was about to ensue. “I have to go.”

  She tried to make her escape, but this time Kay grabbed her. “Don’t go. It wasn’t that bad. In fact, it sounded pretty good from where I was standing in the washroom.”

  “Washroom?” Denise asked.
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  “I panicked,” Lacy said with more than a little force. There was a story to be told here and she was damned if she was going to let Kay tell it. “I pushed her into the washroom when Jake knocked.”

  “Why’d you do that?” Denise was beyond intrigued.

  “I said I panicked, didn’t I? I don’t know why.” Lacy began to pace back and forth, spreading her hands, palm up, to show her confusion. “I just freaked out. I didn’t want him to know how nervous I was or that Kay was there helping me pick out an outfit. I know, it was dumb, but it happened.”

  “That’s not all that happened…” Kay muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

  Lacy closed her eyes. If she thought praying would help, she would have. “He kissed me.”

  “He kissed you?” Denise almost yelled. Both Kay and Lacy grabbed her, Kay putting a hand over Denise’s mouth to shut her up.

  “Shhhh,” Lacy begged. “Yes. He kissed me and I lost complete control.”

  “Complete control?” Kay’s ears perked up. She may have been in the condo and heard a little of what transpired between them, but she was eager to get as many of the actual details from Lacy as possible. “Tell us exactly what that means when you say you lost complete control. And don’t leave anything out.”

  Their grins and giggles both embarrassed Lacy and made her feel like she belonged. So this is what it felt like to be on the other side. The way Kay and Denise were looking at her with rapt curiosity made Lacy wonder if that was how she looked at them when they told their own risqué tales. It felt kind of good to be the one telling the story for a change, but that feeling quickly left her when she thought about the actual disappointment of her night with Jake.

  “Well, like I said. He kissed me.” She spoke the words like she was confessing a crime before a jury.

  “Is he a good kisser?” Kay needed to know, her eyes wide.

  “With those lips, how could he not be,” Denise added with relish as she hugged herself tightly.

  Lacy smiled, unable and unwilling to lie. “Oh, yeah.” She sighed. “Jake’s a very good kisser.”

  With a wave of her hands, Kay encouraged her to continue. “Skip to the part where you end up on the bed with him.” Lacy rolled her eyes and glared at Kay, giving her a warning look, which Kay promptly ignored. Turning to Denise, Kay explained further. “I was in the next room. You know, I heard everything,” she directed this last part toward Lacy. “I saw the wrinkled pile of clothes on your bed when I got out of the washroom, so just get to the good stuff already.”

  “All right, all right.” Lacy held her hands up, conceding defeat. “He kissed me and we wound up on the bed. He got on top of me…” Lacy wasn’t sure if she could continue. Frankly, Lacy’s heart hurt a little. She really, really liked Jake. Sure, the girls shared their intimate stories with her, but their tales usually had a happy ending, to put it literally and Lacy’s little escapade had been a little bit less than a total success. “Ugh. I ended up with my hands down his pants.”

  Denise did a fist pump and yelled. “Yes!”

  Lacy covered her eyes and offered up a prayer for strength. She wasn’t going to survive this, she was going to die from embarrassment. “Denise, please hold your voice down.”

  “Is he as big as we’ve heard?” Denise asked with obvious excitement.

  “Yes,” Lacy conceded in a defeated, matter-of-fact tone. “Jake is very well equipped.” Even though she didn’t want to, Lacy couldn’t help but smile. The look on her friend’s faces was not just enjoyment, it was envy. So, she added a little fuel to the fire. “I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I…umm…I…I sort of used his cock to play with myself.”

  “Oh!!!” Kay squealed. “You slut!”

  Yea, there was that slight undertone of jealousy in Kay’s voice, one Lacy never really expected to hear in relation to herself. “Damn right.”

  “So…you finally got your O,” Denise said, nodding her head up and down. “Good for you. How was it?”

  Heck. Should she just lie and get this conversation over with? Lacy looked off to her left. Jake’s truck stood out like a giant white monolith in the parking lot. Shit. She never could lie worth beans. It was all those confounded Sunday School classes she’d been forced to attend. “Not exactly.” Lacy sighed. Here it was, the tragic ending to what had, for at least a few moments, been a fun story to recount. Glaring at her other friend, Lacy let the cat out of the bag. “Thanks to Kay and her stupid phone, I didn’t get to, you know, finish.”

  Denise’s jaw dropped. She patted Lacy on the shoulder. “Oh, you poor thing.” Then turning to Kay, Denise slapped her on the forearm. “What did you do?”

  Kay looking surprised. “I’m sorry, Lacy.” This was the first time Kay was hearing of what happened and she felt genuinely bad for interrupting Lacy and Jake’s good time, considering how important all of this had been to Lacy. “I really should have turned my phone off, I guess. I will next time,” she promised with a sincere voice.

  Who was she kidding, there probably wasn’t going to be a next time. But Lacy wasn’t going to tell Kay and Denise that. Instead, she consoled Kay. “It’s fine. You didn’t know you were going to be locked in my washroom while Jake and I were, well…you know. I just freaked out. Honestly, I lost my head. And then, surprise, surprise. When I heard your phone going off, I panicked and made Jake stop and get off of me.”

  “Oh, no. How did he handle that?” Denise questioned. “Men act like babies when they think they’re being rejected. I bet he stormed off after complaining about blue balls or something.”

  “What a jerk,” Kay added, trying to commiserate.

  Lacy stopped them. She couldn’t let them think that of Jake. So far, even with all of her stupid hang-ups and the bizarre happenings, Jake had acted perfectly. He’d been considerate, sweet, understanding and lovable. God, she had it bad. “No, no. He was a perfect gentleman. We went for a ride in his jeep and he took me to this great restaurant over in Nantichoke…or Natchitosh. Or, something like that.”

  “Natchitoches?” Kay corrected, knowing the nearby oddly named town and how to pronounce it. “It’s Nak-a-tish.”

  “That’s it. Natchitoches.” Lacy repeated the word and smiled triumphantly. “It’s a beautiful place. I ate catfish and had bananas foster for dessert. I’d never tried either of those things before. They were delicious. I had a bit too much to drink with dinner, though. I was nervous, I thought he was mad about me telling him to stop what we were doing up in my room. I assumed he was just being nice and taking me out for dinner so it wouldn’t be awkward between us later, so I drank a bit too much, feeling sorry for myself. But Jake was so nice and we had a great meal and good conversation. Then we went for a walk and somehow, I ended up back at his place.” Lacy gasped for air, needing to take a breath. She’d been nervous and just let it all out in one fell whoosh!

  “You went to his place?” Kay looked a bit relieved, as if she felt responsible for how things turned out. “You are a slut,” she added with a smile.

  Lacy felt herself blush. “No, it wasn’t like that,” Lacy started. “At least not at first. I wanted to see his boat.”

  “His boat?” Denise joked. “Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”

  “It’s as big as a boat,” Lacy mumbled under her breath, holding back a giggle. Just thinking about Jake and how wonderful he was and how his cock felt in her hand made her go all soft and warm. This was fun, this girlfriend talk. At first, she’d been nervous about seeing Kay and Denise after what Kay had been privy to. Sure, Lacy had always hated being left out of the sex talks the girls had, but some of her eagerness to share had been dampened by the disastrous turn the events last night had taken.

  Denise fanned herself with a stack of papers she’d been holding. “Do tell us more, please.”

  Lacy made her hands into fists, giving herself courage. Here it was, her chance to finally tell a story. It might be a story which ended badly, but it was still her chanc
e to be a part of the conversation and not just an observer.

  “Well…” Lacy began, the look of rapt interest on the other two girls’ faces was the catalyst that spurred her on. “We went back to his place. Did you know he lives out in the swamp? Apparently a snake broke in to his place…well, I guess, ‘broke in’ isn’t exactly the best way to put it.” She giggled at the thought. “It’s not like the snake used a tiny bobby pin to jimmy the lock or anything.” She was rambling and Kay and Denise smiled politely while she did, but inside they were dying to hear the rest of the details. “Could you imagine that? A snake with a little lock-picking kit?”

  Kay cut her off. “Oh, just get on with it already, girl. What happened on the boat?”

  All right, all right, Lacy composed herself. Apparently they didn’t share her peculiar sense of humor…like Jake did. She could still remember them laughing together. He treated her with indulgence. Yea, that was it, indulgence. The thought made Lacy sad. “Ummm. Well, we went out on the lake and it was dark. I kept hearing things splash around in the water and then Jake just came over and kissed me.”

  Lacy stopped, unsure of how to proceed.

  “Was that all?” Denise asked. “Just came over and kissed you? You made out?”

  “No, that wasn’t all.” Lacy sounded a little offended.

  “Then spill it already,” Kay added. “It’s getting late.” She checked her watch. “I’m burning up over here and there’s no way in hell I’m going to go to work without knowing what happened next with you and Mr. Delicious.”

  Being so open and frank about her sexual endeavours was proving to be harder for Lacy than she had thought, but this is what she thought she wanted and what she’d been missing out on. Plus, the girls had always been so forthcoming with their misadventures. If Lacy didn’t owe it to herself to tell them, she owed it to her friends.

  Taking a deep breath, she plunged onward. “He kissed me again. On my…uh, chest this time.” God, she was blushing! “…and asked if he could kiss me…you know…down there.”