Good Men Are Like Unicorns

Chapter 1:3: Ruined for Any Other Man

Regina

I couldn’t believe it. I just kept staring at him and blinking, expecting that at any moment he would disappear like an alcohol induced hallucination. But he didn’t, instead he came and sat across from me.

He had changed since the last time I had seen him, five years ago, walking out of the city courthouse after our divorce was finalized. He had filled out, somehow. His shoulders were even broader, his chest wider, his thighs so muscular that they were straining against the legs of his fancy suit.

I felt like I’d been robbed, somehow. I’d seen this man grow from a small little boy who was constantly teased for being “the runt of the litter”, to a tall and gangly teenager, and finally to a fine specimen of a young man. But I’d missed this latest transformation, this next step in his evolution of maturity. It looked good on him, though. Damn good. He was only getting better with age.

Not that Thirty-two was old.

Despite the slight alterations in his musculature, everything else about him was eerily familiar. His hazel eyes were still just as mesmerizing, his hair was still a little too long to be stylish, like he’d forgotten to cut it for a few months. The way he smiled still made butterflies dance in my stomach, and he still smelled good enough to eat.

Like leather and Old Spice.

I leaned forward to smell him, vaguely aware that I was actually a bit drunk and probably not making the most rational decisions. “Japheth,” I took a deep breath in through my nose. “You smell really good.”

One half of his mouth quirked up in that s.exy, half smile that still haunted my dreams. “Reggie…How much have you had to drink?”

I sighed and looked at my half-finished drink. “Not nearly enough.”

He reached across the table and stroked my arm. His hands were hard and work roughened, but the friction of his calloused fingers on my skin made goosebumps erupt all the way up my arm.

It shouldn’t feel that good, my alcohol fogged brain warned me. Remember he is your ex husband. EX husband!

But it was no good being reasonable.

A lot of things had been wrong between me and Japheth, but the chemistry had always been so, so right.

But amazing s.ex hadn’t been enough to hold us together in the end.

It had been so, so long.

I’d tried dating here and there over the last five years, and I’d taken some of those boyfriends as lovers, but they’d always left me feeling flat and unsatisfied. I got more joy and pleasure from my favorite vibrator than I did from those men. Maybe that’s why none of the relationships had amounted to anything more than a couple months at best.

It was entirely possible that Japheth had ruined me for any other man. But he was sitting right across from me, staring at my lips, drawing lazy designs on my forearm. That’s all it took to set my insides on fire. It was like a spell had been cast the moment he stepped in the bar. I was feeling drunk all right, but it wasn’t because of the pina coladas, it was because of him. His very presence, his essence, was enough to inebriate me.

He wasn’t the one getting married. I certainly wasn’t getting married. We were both here at this fancy hotel, far from our respective homes, far from our friends and family. I looked at his beautiful eyes with the long, curling lashes and felt a dreamy sensation.

What if it was fate? What if it was meant to happen just like this?

He leaned even closer and let his lips brush softly over mine. It was just the briefest of contact, more like a breath than an actual kiss, a tease… and damn it I wanted more. I needed more. I narrowed my eyes at him.

It felt like the bartender had cranked up the thermostat to roasting. “Do you want to go up to my room?” he asked, his voice low and husky like he was also feeling the sudden heat.

What an impertinent question! Here he is, my EX husband. We were legally divorced, we haven’t seen each other in five years, there hasn’t even been so much as a phone call between us! He walks into the room, and less than ten minutes later, he’s inviting me to his bed? It was outrageous! It was insane! It was egotistical!

“Yes,” the word slipped out, despite all my mental objections. I reached down beside the chair and fumbled with my laptop. He stood so quickly he almost tipped his chair over backwards. He caught it and righted it before it crashed.

He waived to the bartender. “Put the lady’s drinks on my tab! Room 341!”

“Yes sir, no problem!” The bartender called back with a wink.

Like he knew exactly what we were rushing off to do. And now he knew exactly which room we were doing it in. But I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Japheth linked his fingers through mine, and I wondered at the way our hands still fit perfectly together, like they had been made for each other. Like they'd never been apart for even a day.

He led me toward the elevator and punched the call button. When the doors slid open, he tugged me inside, and then pulled me against him, pressing my front flush against his. His arms wove around my back to hold me in place.

Soft against hard.

It only took a moment for the elevator to reach the third floor. Japheth reluctantly released me again and led me down the carpeted hallway to his door. He pulled the keycard out of the pocket of his suit and shot me a questioning look. His hand hovered near the locking mechanism.

“This is crazy,” he muttered, but his eyes looked at me, dark and raw with need and desire. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“No,” I said, but I still swiped the card out of his hand and stuck it in the lock. The light flashed green, and the door unlocked with a soft click. I turned the handle and pushed it open. “But I’m going to do it anyway.”

“Me too,” he groaned, sweeping me up in his arms, and kicking the door closed behind us.