Page 42 of A Little Bit Uncertain

Fuck, don’t I know it. I definitely don’t know what I’m getting into with Audra King. I thought as she threw some more punches and then accentuated it with a Mortal Kombat Uppercut move. When she growled out “Get over here,” my snicker turned into a full-blown laugh.

“Mortal Kombat and Magic 8 Balls. You’re barking up my childhood tree there, King. We’ll throw it on our list of bar games and have some sort of pentathlon event. What did I interrupt you doing?”

“Pentathlon day would be my dream!” she exclaimed as she held her hand over her heart in an exaggerated motion and fluttered her eyelashes.

Once again, we were interrupted by a voice that I would rather never hear again. Fucking. Theo. This guy was a cockroach. He strolled up like he owned the place, and Audra froze. “What are you squatting these days, Audra? That ass is looking good.” He turned to me. “She strength trains in the basement,” he dismissively said, insinuating I didn’t know, which I didn’t, but it infuriated me. Had he been within earshot but out of our eyesight? That was unnerving.

“Why are you here, Theo?” Audra said icily.

“Just walking around the neighborhood. Looking at some properties. You’re a property guy, right, Donovan? Any advice?”

I ran my tongue along my inner teeth and felt my hands ball into fists at my sides. “I don’t give out advice to people I’m not working with.”

“Oh, and here I thought we were friends. Don’t worry about the money, Wright. I have enough to hire you.” He turned his attention back to Audra. “Still have that weight bench we liked so much, Audra?” He was goading me with his disrespect to both of us, and I could feel myself rising to take the bait. Speaking of those fight-or-flight responses, my adrenaline was pinging through the roof, body prepping to have a go.

“Fuck you, Theo,” she responded.

“Been there, but I could have another go,” and he grabbed his crotch and licked his lips in a perverted way.

Welp. Here we go. Fight it is.

I took a step towards him, but before my next footstep hit, Audra grabbed the back of my shirt to pull me back. Could I have broken free from her grip? Sure. But she tugged again, and I appeased her as I stepped back and glowered at the piece of shit in front of me. She stepped in front of me so we were chest to chest and brought my attention to her. With her back fully to Theo, she put both hands on the neck of my shirt and slowly, but forcefully, pulled down. I bent to her will, and she crashed her lips onto mine. It was so unexpected that it shorted my entire goddamn system.

What the glorious fuck?

My brain caught up, and I tilted my head to kiss her back. Her lips were so damn soft and she tasted faintly of fruity chapstick. I’m sure she did it to get Theo to back off, but this kiss ... it felt fucking unreal. I had never kissed someone and had the explosion of something so intoxicating flow through me. It was so powerful that I wanted to pick her up and claim her on her front porch. Instead, I settled for wrapping my arms around her back and flicked Theo off. Then, through her parted lips, she let out the smallest little moan. I’m sure I’m the only one who heard it, but my dick jumped in my pants. She pulled away from the kiss, and I was left panting. I tried to adjust to hide the erection I was sporting in my grey Tom Ford’s, but I’m sure it didn’t work out so well.

She glared at Theo and pulled me by the arm into her house, slammed the door, put her back against it, and sighed. He shouted ‘Fuck you both!’ before he stomped away.

“Oh my God, Donovan. I’m so sorry. That was a disaster.” She put her hands over her face.

I took a step closer. Because yesterday when she was talking about adrenaline, I conveniently left out that the best thing for me to do after a fight in the ring when the adrenaline was high was to fuck it out of my system. And right now, I had a lot of fucking adrenaline coursing through me.

Gently, I grabbed her hands away from her face, but I didn’t let them go. Instead, I held them in the air, framing our faces. “Audra, you have to cut the apologies, especially after something as hot as that.” Her breath hitched, and she looked at my lips as I just stared at her mesmerizing eyes. “I’m going to kiss you again now.” Putting her hands on my face, I gently covered them with mine. Slowly, I leaned in, figuring if she wanted to push me away, this was her chance. For a moment, I could breathe her air until she closed her eyes and pulled my face to her lips.

This kiss wasn’t to make Theo jealous because the only thing that existed in this universe right now was her, and I was locked in the most captivating moment I’d ever experienced. I tested the waters as my tongue gently traced the outline of her bottom lip ever so slightly, and she opened to meet me. Our mouths fit together perfectly, and our tongues danced together as the world fell out from around us. My hands dropped hers, and my fingers found their way into the tangles of her hair while hers found a home around the back of my neck. As the kiss deepened, I couldn’t fight the groan that escaped my throat, and it spurred her to rock into my body a couple of times. By that point, my dick could have drilled a hole in the wall, so of course, she rubbed up against me when she rocked. Her feeling me must have brought her back to reality because she pulled away, gasping with ragged breath.

“Are you ok?” My thumb stroked her cheek. Her lips were swollen, her face was flushed, and her eyes were dilated. Clearly, she was as aroused as I was.

She put her hands on my chest before she started to freak out. “This isn’t me. This isn’t like me. We can’t do this, Donovan.” I watched her spiral in real-time.

“Hey, no … stop. I’m sorry. Look, it’s my turn to apologize,” I put my hand on my chest. “Outside took me by surprise, and I understand why you did it. It just felt so…” my mind scrambled to come up with a word, “good … that I wanted to continue. I shouldn’t have gone back for another taste.”

I went with good rather than right, electric, natural, or life-changing. Good seemed like the word choice that would freak her out the least at this moment.

She touched her lips with the tip of her finger. “I think you should probably go.”

“Ok, if that’s what you want.” I held my hands up in the air like I was surrendering. “This isn’t like me either, Audra, you have no idea. I am really sorry for reading that wrong.”

It felt like a bucket of ice water was thrown over me. I fucked that up big time and closed my eyes for a second. Damnit, I should have just let that first kiss ride. I knew the intent was to make him jealous, but nothing about it felt fake at all. There was no way she didn’t feel it. There was no way in hell I read that wrong.

“It’s my fault; I threw myself at you,” she said as her hand scrubbed down her face.

“That’s not what happened here.”

“Really? Did you expect that? I grabbed your shirt and pulled you down. All you did was come over to check if I was feeling ok and bring me a treat. I’m so embarrassed.” Her hands went back up to her cheeks.

“And that door closed, and I grabbed you and kissed you again because I had to. There are no mistakes here. Hopefully, Theo got the clue. This is not a big deal. It was just a great kiss that happened in a moment.”

The absolute last thing I wanted to do was be dismissive because it was most assuredly not just a kiss, but her eyes looked wild and guilty, and it’s what she needed to hear at the moment. Nothing I said or did was going to make her feel better, so I thought maybe I should just get out of there while I was still marginally ahead. No part of me wanted to leave, but pushing it wasn’t the best idea.

She nodded at me, not convinced by my explanation, but done with the conversation. “Thank you for checking in on me today.”

“Of course. Can I leave you my number so you can call if you need anything? I hate that Theo is around every turn, and the guy from the hospital was so threatening.”

“I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do right now.”

“Ok,” I nodded, even though my insides were revolting at the rejection. No one had ever rejected me before; not an advance and certainly not a phone number. It was a new, unwelcome feeling. “Make sure one of your girls knows what’s going on, though, ok?” I pushed my boundaries and went in for a hug. “It was just a kiss. No freakouts, okay? Have a good day, Audra.”

“You too, Donovan.”

Turning away, I walked to my car and hit my head on the steering wheel when I got inside. I know I wasn’t misreading the situation. It was overwhelmingly powerful. I just had to give her some time.

Because that kiss?

That was fucking unforgettable.