The Best Thing Yet Read online

  She hoped he was right, although she wasn’t entirely sure. “So what are you doing for your last day of freedom?”

  “I thought I’d go car shopping. Care to come with?”

  “Sure, why not. I could use one as well.” She got to her feet and followed him to the door. Hopefully spending time with Jackson would keep her mind off Deiter.

  He left you again, her brain taunted. The part of her that felt anger fed on that and grew. The rational part tried to offset it but didn’t succeed.

  Hissing in disgust, both at herself and Deiter for making her feel like this, she grabbed her purse and locked the door behind them. She waited as Jackson headed up to his own apartment. She was thankful that they each had their own space. The thought of living together would have been out of the question—she liked her own space and so did Jackson. Once he came back down to join her they got in the rental and headed off to a dealership.

  * * * *

  It was after noon when the two of them drove up to the house, each in their new vehicle. New being a relative term in her case, for she’d purchased a used one. Jackson had bought a new one though, but he’d always been flashier than she had. She smiled at her older model Honda Civic and parked it in the drive. He parked beside her and they went inside then shared a nice lunch in his apartment.

  “Are you going to tell me about Deiter and why I’ve not seen his mug around here for the past week?” Jackson asked as he plunked a big bowl of double chocolate dream ice cream before her.

  “Can’t you just leave it alone?”

  He snorted and took a bite. “I suppose I could, but we both know I won’t. So you may as well just get it over with and tell me.”

  She grunted and glared at him. He held her gaze and she knew she was out of luck. Taking her sweet time, she ate a bite of ice cream and smiled as the chocolate slid down her throat.

  “I fucked him.”

  Jackson stopped with his spoon on the way to his mouth. “Christ, Arissa, give a guy some warning first, would you. I could have choked if I’d had this in my mouth.”

  “Serves you right for demanding I talk about this,” she sassed.

  “I figured you two would be sleeping together.”

  She shook her head. “No. Not like after dinner or anything like that. Outside, on the walk and…get this…no condom. Not any of the times.”

  This time he dropped his spoon. It missed the bowl and fell with a clang to the countertop. She got up and got a rag to clean it up. He was still shaking his head when she sat back down.

  “You didn’t… Christ, Arissa, are you telling me you love him?”

  “I don’t know what I’m saying, Jackson. I’m just telling you what happened.”

  “You’re…well, you know”—he waved his hand—“on some form of protection.”

  Despite the gravity of what she was about to say, she had to laugh. Here Jackson Carlyle was a doctor and looked positively green about talking about her being on birth control.

  “That’s the thing, Jackson, I’m not.” His eyes widened. “Don’t ask, I’ll tell you. You know I’d been using the implant but lately it has been making feel off so I decided to have it removed. Then with the move coming up I just figured I’d get on something after I got settled in. I had no intentions of sleeping with anyone.” She dropped her head in her hands and moaned.

  “So you could be pregnant.”

  The words hung there heavy and she was unable to ignore them. She ran a hand through her hair and stared at her friend, hoping he could say something to make her feel a bit more confident.

  “Did you take the morning after pill?”

  Arissa sighed. “No. I can’t kill a person because of my carelessness, Jackson. You know that.”

  “You need to tell him.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  His gaze grew serious. “I mean it, Arissa. Don’t wait. Go tell him now so it’s not a surprise if it turns out you are.”

  “I know, I know. This is sooo not the way I expected my homecoming to McKingley to be.”

  Jackson reached across the island and chucked her under the chin. “You left in a blaze of glory, sweets, makes sense you’d come back the same way.”

  She ate some more ice cream. Eventually Jackson’s laughter grew so great she stopped and looked at him. “Everything okay over there?”

  “I’m just trying to imagine you first out hiking then…to actually have sex out there…” He gasped for some air and she arched a brow as she calmly lifted her middle finger. “So not nice,” he said around more laughter.

  She snapped her teeth at him, ignored his continued laugh, and focused on her ice cream. Once she’d finished, she rinsed out her bowl and made her way to the door. “Good luck, sweets,” he hollered down the steps after her.

  I’m going to need more than luck to get through this. With a fortifying breath, she grabbed her keys and purse from the table by the door then slipped out of the apartment. With quick steps, she crossed the area then out the front door of the house. The bright afternoon sun made her squint and search for her sunglasses.

  The ride to Tarak’s didn’t take all that long and she parked along the street and sat in the hot car for a few moments, trying to make sense of how she was going to do this. Get moving you wuss! Her brain chided.

  She breathed deep and got out. Moving up the walk, she reached out to press the doorbell. A few moments later, Tarak opened the door.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “He’s not here,” Tarak said by way of a greeting.

  “Where is he?”

  “Where he’s been all week. On campus teaching.”

  Of course. Why wouldn’t he have been working? Just because she wasn’t didn’t mean the world stopped for everyone else.

  “When’s he coming home?”

  Tarak shrugged. “I rarely hear him come in before nine at night. Then he’s gone again before six in the morning.”

  “Where’s his office?”

  Tarak raised an eyebrow and she crossed her arms and did the same. “Why?” he asked.

  “Is it any of your business?” she snapped, a bit put out by the fact he was protecting Deiter.

  “Yes. I warned him about hurting you, but he’s my friend and I don’t want him hurt either.” Tarak’s words were straightforward and she knew he meant them.

  “He’s the one who left me on the cruise without so much as a word, I’m the one here trying to talk to him.”

  “I’m the reason he left, Arissa. He wasn’t allowed to get in touch with you. And he’ll never be able to tell you what he did after he left.” Tarak shifted his weight. “He wanted to tell you, I wouldn’t let him. You need to let that go.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “What do you mean, you wouldn’t let him?”

  Tarak barely blinked. “Orders are orders.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a card. Handing it to her, he said, “Take care you don’t hurt him.”

  Then the door shut in her face.

  Standing before his door, she blinked a few times before she looked down at the paper in her hand. It had Deiter’s name and numbers on it, along with his office building and number.

  After pivoting around, she headed back to her car and drove to the university. She was lucky to find a spot and rolled her eyes at the continual lack of decent parking at a college. Smoothing down her skirt, she shouldered her purse and struck off towards the language building.

  Walking across the campus brought back memories of her own time in college. She’d not gone here but there was something fun about being back on this one. With a smile on her face, she wove through the student body and made her way up to his office.

  “I’d like to see Mr Schneider please,” she said to the receptionist.

  The blonde-haired woman looked up at her and gave her a smile. “I’m sorry, he’s not in right now. You can wait here for him, if you’d like. He should be back in about fifteen minutes.”

&n
bsp; “Thank you.” She walked away and took a seat along the wall. With each passing second, her nerves got worse. Again, he was on almost to the second of the time. Fifteen minutes passed when she noticed his blond-brown hair coming down the hall.

  “Hi, Carly,” he said as he stopped by the desk.

  “Afternoon, Deiter. How was class?”

  An easy shrug had the woman grinning and Arissa seething. Who the hell was this woman to flirt with him?

  “Oh, these are for you, and you have a visitor.”

  He took the messages from her and glanced over his shoulder. Arissa knew he’d not been expecting her—his eyes grew wide before he regained control. “Arissa,” he said with a smile. “Didn’t expect to see you here, come on back. Thanks, Carly.” He flashed Carly a smile and strode away leaving her to follow.

  Biting back her rising ire, she walked behind him and waited for him to open his door. She could see the looks he got from the women who walked around there and it fanned the flames of her anger.

  “I’m surprised to see you here,” he said, putting his stuff down on his desk after he shut the door, then gestured her to a seat.

  “Apparently,” she snapped. “I didn’t mean to ruin your flirting hour.”

  He turned towards her and leaned against his desk. Arms crossed, he arched an eyebrow and looked at her intently.

  Deiter hid his smug smile. “Jealousy, Arissa? How weird considering you told me you didn’t put up with it.”

  Her glower deepened. “Really? That woman was basically all over you, if not for me and the desk she was sat behind I’m sure she would have been.”

  “So what?” He looked at his fingernails. “She’s a friend. She can touch me if she wants.” A shrug. “Besides, I’ve known her longer than you’ve known Tim. I’ve known Carly for years.”

  He knew his words hit home. The easy thing would have been to tell her that Carly was just like that with everyone. But he didn’t. He wanted her jealous. Wanted her to feel what he did every time another man touched her.

  She looked delectable. A peach and blue shirt showed off her incredible breasts and flat stomach. A white skirt with a handkerchief hem allowed him to ogle her legs. She had low heels on and he could see her toes were painted a pale peach colour and her fingernails were the matching blue of her shirt.

  She took several deep breaths as if in an attempt to calm herself. “I didn’t come here to argue with you, Deiter. I have to tell you something.”

  The seriousness of her tone grabbed his full attention. “So talk.”

  He watched her sit and fidget with the hem of her skirt. Shrugging out of his suit coat, he took the chair next to her then gently lifted her chin so she would meet his gaze. A good plan but a failed one, nonetheless. Her eyes were scrunched shut.

  “Look at me, Arissa,” he ordered. He dropped his fingers from her face.

  She did and the uncertainty in her brown eyes concerned him. “Umm, I’m not entirely sure how to say this.” Arissa took a big breath and blew it out between pursed lips. “I’m not on any kind of birth control.”

  Deiter stared at her for a moment, the words running over and over in his head. Bam! It hit him. “So you’re telling me when we made love out there…”

  Another big sigh. “There was no protection. At all. Period. And I didn’t take a day after pill.”

  Hope flickered in his chest. She could be pregnant. And she didn’t use the final precaution to prevent pregnancy. “It’s too soon to know, right?”

  Her nod told him of her concern. “I don’t expect—”

  “Stop right there, Arissa!” he interrupted. “If you are we’ll deal with it together. You said you didn’t know now. There is no reason to make any decisions.”

  She met his gaze and he bolted from the seat to scoop her up in his arms. Tightening his hold on her when she struggled, he sat them down in his previous seat. “I’m at fault here too, Arissa. I didn’t even think about a condom. I had them at home for later that evening but I’d had no plans of anything but hiking out there.”

  Sniffles reached him and he tucked her head under his chin. For the time being, he had her in his arms. It didn’t matter to him why she’d come to him, just that she had.

  “I didn’t care either,” she whispered after they’d sat there in silence for a while. “All I wanted was you.”

  This time, he didn’t even try to stop the grin. She smacked him on the shoulder and he jumped. “What?”

  “I felt the smug smile,” she sassed without looking up.

  “Did you now?”

  She burrowed closer. “I’ve missed you this past week.”

  His lips hovered over her temple he then brushed light kisses along her skin. “I missed you too, Arissa. My schedule is just so hectic right now.”

  “I had planned on showing you how wrong we are for one another.”

  “I know I saw it on your face. Why are you fighting this so much? Why are you fighting the idea of us?”

  “I don’t know. You scare me, Deiter. Everything you stand for.”

  “Everything I stand for? Should I be insulted here?”

  She shifted in his arms, bringing her ass across the increasing erection in his pants. “No. I’m talking about what you represent to me when I look at you.”

  Staring down into her eyes, he stroked along her cheek. “Like kids and a house?”

  “I’ve been dreaming about being a soccer mom.” She hit him again when he smiled. “It’s not funny. I had a damn minivan and everything.”

  “I’ll have you know I excelled at your soccer, and I happen to think our children will be stars at it.”

  She rolled her eyes at him and climbed off his lap to pace around the office. When his phone rang, he bent over the desk to grab it. Carly. After a quick conversation with her, he hung up and found Arissa scowling at him.

  “What?”

  With a shake of her head, she ground her jaw, and looked away. He pushed up from his seat and stalked to her. When her back hit the wall and she could go no farther, he braced his arms on either side of her.

  “Look at me, Arissa,” he murmured.

  Eyes shooting brown sparks met his. “What?”

  “What are you so angry about?”

  “Nothing.”

  He nibbled along the shell of her ear, taking the time to tug gently on the lobe. “Are you sure?” Another nip. “Because from where I’m standing it sounds like you’re jealous.”

  “So what if I am?”

  He captured her jaw in two fingers. “Nothing. Just that you know you have nothing to worry about. Carly is a friend, like I told you before.” He kissed her fast and hard until she sank against him. “I’d love to stay and explore this with you, Arissa, but I have to get to my next class.”

  Deiter felt her sigh as much as he heard it. He rubbed his hands up her bare arms. “Are you free tomorrow?”

  She shook her head. “No, I start work tomorrow and am not sure when I’ll be done.” She worried her lower lip for a bit. “Two days after tomorrow?”

  He thought over his schedule and shook his head. “Nope.” A grumble of discontent filled him and he wanted to say the hell with all of it. Pushing away from her, he went to his desk and bent over his computer. Moments later, the printer spat out a sheet. “This is my schedule. If you have some time on yours, I want it.”

  Arissa glanced at it and nodded but her eyes told a different story. Again forcing eye contact, he raised an eyebrow and waited for her to explain.

  “This is why my last boyfriend broke it off with me. He wanted someone who was around more and…and why are you smiling?”

  “You basically said I was your boyfriend.”

  “I did not.”

  “Yes, you did. It was implied.” He grinned at her and she huffed but couldn’t hide the sparkle that replaced the sadness in her gaze.

  “You…truly are incorrigible.”

  “I know. That’s what my mother says.” A quick brush of his l
ips along hers. “Your last boyfriend was not worth spit, so forget about him. I know our schedules are different but we’ll make it work, Arissa. I’m in this but I can’t go it alone. Give us a real chance.”

  For an answer, she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him. Pressed her all-too-tempting body against his and thrust her tongue deep into his mouth. Harder than steel in mere moments, Deiter had her backed up to the wall as he slipped one hand under her skirt. He growled low in his throat when she ended the kiss and stopped his inquisitive hand.

  “Sorry, professor. You have a class to get to.”

  He swore in both English and German. Arissa laughed as she swiped her thumb along his lower lip.

  “Let’s go,” he said. Stepping away from her, he put his coat back on and grabbed his briefcase. With his hand on the small of her back, he guided her to the door and out.

  They walked in silence until they’d left his office area. On the way down the stairs, his gaze remained transfixed to the natural sway of her ass in that skirt. All he could think about was taking her up against the wall, those limbs wrapped around his waist as he pounded into her. So deep he could feel her heartbeat.

  ‘I’m not on any kind of birth control’. Her statement did something he didn’t think would ever happen. Take his mind from thinking about sex with Arissa Wright. What if she was pregnant? Well, they’d get married of course. Then if he had to, he’d spend the rest of their days convincing her how much he loved her.

  He tripped. Only his reflexes saved him from falling down the remainder of the stairs.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, whirling around to face him.

  Heart pounding erratically, he nodded. “Must have missed a step.”

  Her gaze moved up and down his body as if needing to ascertain it for herself. “Okay.”

  I love her. A woman he’d not known for very long then had been separated from for a few months. He loved her.

  “Where are you parked?” he asked as they pushed out into the warm sunlight.

  “In the main lot.”

  He reached out and stopped her. When she faced him, he cupped her face in his palm, his fingers playing in her hair, and teased her bottom lip with his thumb. “Call me as soon as you get your schedule, Arissa.”