I awoke the next morning to a surprising sight. There was no guy with a stupid grin staring back at me expectantly. This was certainly good sign.
I blinked a few times to make sure that I was actually alone in my own house. I lifted myself up from the bed and my head instantly began to pound. I fell back down and groaned aloud.
"I hate drinking," I whispered in annoyance. I heard a slight meow from my left and I lifted my head from the pillow to look up at Theo. He was lying down on the pillow next to mine watching me with his big eyes. He meowed again when I made eye contact with him. I reached out and scratched behind his ears causing him to purr.
I got up after another moment or so of resting in the bed. I tossed the blanket over my body and swung my legs over the edge. That's when I noted my lack of pants and that the shirt I was wearing was not my own. I frowned down at my outfit unable to recognize it. That was definitely a bad sign.
Putting weight onto my feet proved to be a problem as well. They screamed in agony as I slowly attempted to stand on them. I got up and stumbled into my bathroom noticing all the clothes thrown about all over the floor. I recognized my outfit from last night among other articles of my own clothing. That was another bad sign. There were no clothing articles on the floor that I didn't recognize except for the button up shirt I wore. That might have been a good sign.
I gazed at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. My hair was a wonderful excuse for a hornets' nest and my eyes were bloodshot. I took five long minutes to tear a brush through my knotted hair. When it was smoothed back down to its regular silky self, I proceeded to check out the new shirt.
It was a long sleeve button down black shirt. It was rather large and loose on my body. The sleeves covered up to the palms of my hands and the hem went down to the middle of my thighs. Inspecting the fabric and I was surprised to find that it was a nice name brand shirt, but I was unsurprised to find that it was a male's. Whoever I got it from had decent taste in clothing at least.
I peeked inside the shirt and found that I was in fact missing all undergarments except a pair of underwear. I sighed as I dropped the shirt and let it fall around my shoulders. No bra and only underwear was also a very bad sign. Last night was not looking good.
I ran a hand through my hair pushing some of it away when something caught my eye in the mirror. On the side of my neck was a round purplish bruise. I gazed at it shocked and poked at it to check it out. I winced as a small shot of pain erupted from the bruise on my neck. I held my hair up and found two more purple circles on the other side of my neck.
"Hickeys?" I mumbled in astonishment. "Oh god, I'm going to be so screwed if Carmen sees these."
There was a sudden sound of pans clashing onto floor. Theo meowed and leapt off my bed to run out of the room. I dropped my hair and followed after him slowly. My bare legs were hit with a gust of warm air as I exited my bedroom. My feet softly padded against my wooden floor until I reached my kitchen. They hurt a bit less now that they were in use.
I quietly walked over to my kitchen doorway to see who was making the abnormal noise. I was surprised to find a shirtless man picking up a mess of various pots and pans. He was very attractive I noted immediately. All he wore was a dark pair of slacks; he had no shirt or shoes to be found yet somehow I knew he had gotten plenty of service the night before.
He had short curly dark brown hair and I spotted a few piercings on his face though from where I stood I couldn't be sure. His well-defined chest proved that he was either an immortal or an overachieving exercise guru not that I was complaining about either. There were some tattoos on his back and the right side of his ribcage but I could not make out what they were. I was suddenly happy I had gotten (what I had assumed was) his shirt.
I leaned against the doorway and crossed my arms over my chest. The mysterious man took no notice of me as he straightened out his mess and began shoving pots and pans back into my pantry. He cursed a bit as he did the task though he spoke too low for me to catch anything. He kept his back toward me throughout the entire action.
I was able to make out a blue jay tattoo on his right shoulder blade but it looked like it was catching on fire. I was mesmerized by the intricate ink pattern for a few moments that I didn't pay much attention to the stranger in my house. He began rummaging around looking for something in particular. He started humming to himself as he continued his search.
I cocked my head to the side and frowned as my focus came back to me. "Can I help you?"
He turned around so fast that he backed into the pantry door and just about fell to the ground. He grinned when he noticed that it was only me.
"Well good morning love," he greeted in an obvious British accent. "You're much more beautiful in the daylight."
I took a step into my kitchen and got a better look at him. He had light blue eyes and quite a few evident facial piercings. There was one simple diamond stud in his left ear, one small silver hoop on his right eyebrow, and another hoop on the left side of his lower lip. Most people wouldn't be able to pull off all that metal without looking gaudy but dare I say his various rings made him all the more attractive. I noticed all of the tattoos on his chest. He had a very detailed drawing of a tree lining his left side. The branches reached out to his perfectly sculpted abs and then onto the smooth skin on his back. He also had a barbed wire bracelet on his right bicep. I bit my lip as I continued my inspection of this all around "bad" boy.
Then when he spoke, goodness that boy had a sexy accented voice. I think it was my pounding headache that actually made me not kick him out of my house immediately.
"So um..." I paused a moment to gather my thoughts. Attractive-foreign-boy took a few steps closer to me and leaned against my kitchen counter. I joined him in leaning against the counter as well to keep the weak-in-the-knees feeling at bay. "Did we...I mean...last night...did we maybe actually?"
"Have sex?"
I looked up into this guy's beautiful light blue eyes before swallowing a hard lump in my throat and nodding slowly. I knew the answer already but I needed the confirmation. I was quite a bit taken aback by his bluntness as well.
"Aw," he cooed stroking my jaw line gently. I jerked away from his touch. "You truly are quite adorable love. Of course, I wasn't going to do anything with you but you practically begged me to help you with some release last night and well...I didn't want to withhold anything from you."
"Great," I mumbled as I took a step back from him. Something told me that being close to him was not a good idea. After all, he had just confirmed something I had already pretty much figured. I mentally high fived myself for at least picking an attractive guy this time. That was a first. "So you remember last night?"
"I wasn't drunk," he confirmed. This was just getting better and better.
"Then what happened?"
Attractive-foreign-boy thought for a moment. "Well I am very aware that you knew the mechanics of love making. I shouldn't have to explain it."
I ran my hand through my hair and gazed around the room trying to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, what happened before all that? How did you end up here?"
"You were getting pretty crazy drunk," he explained. "Dancing around with any guy that would take you and trust me a lot of guys did. I watched you bounce around always with a seemingly different drink in hand and you were barefoot I might add. You were having a grand old time."
I glanced down at my feet suddenly understanding where my pain had come from this morning.
"And where do you come in at?"
"I rescued you," he said simply.
I took a moment to hop up onto my kitchen counter and stare at him. "Are you saying you're my knight in shining armor?"
Attractive-foreign-guy laughed at me before shaking his head. "No, no. I got you out of there before any sleazy guy could pick you up. I brought you back home and you asked me to come upstairs. I wanted to ensure your safety so I did as you asked. Then when I got up here you invited me in and before I could decline, you pulled me inside. Then you turned around and just started stripping off your clothes and before I could ask if you were okay, you pulled me along and we..."
"I get the picture," I interrupted by holding one hand up. I really didn't want all the details of the night before. I think I had a decent idea of what occurred between us. He wanted to protect me from sleazy people but he turned around and slept with me even though he knew I was drunk? I bet he was really concerned about my safety. I put my head in my hands and groaned.
"Don't regret it darling," he said pulling my hands away from my face. "I had a wonderful time and I can assure that you did too."
He pushed my hair away from my face in a surprisingly gentle manner. I gazed into his baby blue eyes and they almost appeared translucent. They seemed so much more delicate than his rough exterior showed. He noticed my hickey marks and we both winced as he touched one gently. "I'm so sorry love. I didn't mean to hurt you."
I scoffed pulling his hands away from my face. Now was not time for him to feel remorse for his actions. "I'm fine."
"Just grabbing some breakfast love," he replied.
He walked back over to my pantry and grabbed out a box of Pop-Tarts easily taking a silver package and ripping to open to take a bite of the snack within.
"Am I getting my shirt back?"
I looked down at the only piece of fabric covering my body. Remembering the lack of clothing underneath it, I blushed and hugged myself.
"I would need to change into something else first."
"Nothing I haven't seen before," he said before winking. "I don't mind."
I bit my tongue to keep from scolding him about the very idea of his implied suggestion. "I'd rather not change in front of you."
"You can just keep it," he mumbled with a mouthful of the cold pastry. "A reminder of what always was."
"Or what was never remembered," I mumbled under my breath.
Attractive-foreign-guy walked out of my kitchen and I followed after him to ensure that he was indeed leaving. I watched as he proceeded into my unused guest bedroom. He came back out a second later with a black leather jacket and a pair of black tennis shoes on.
"Well, I hate to leave you so soon darling." He made it sound as if we were married and he was going off to work in the morning. He sent me a smirk before boldly walking over and kissing me on the lips. It was a quick peck yet I was so taken aback that I did even respond to it. When he pulled away, I blinked my widened hazel eyes a few times at him.
Attractive-foreign-boy smirked at me before beginning to make his way out of my home. Theo jumped up onto the table in the hallway just before the door. The mysterious man stroked Theo for a little while and surprisingly enough my cat reacted positively toward him. Theo didn't warm up to people very quickly. I gaped at the two of them.
When the guy took his hand away from my pet, Theo meowed in protest. My unwanted guest turned back toward me and shrugged when seeing my expression.
"Cats like me," he explained shortly.
I nodded as I neared him. When there was about a foot of space in-between us, I grabbed Theo and held him in my arms as if I was afraid that this man would snatch him away from me. He only laughed at my actions.
"I don't believe I got your name love," he pointed out in that wonderful accent of his.
I held in the dreamy sigh as I stroked Theo and focused on keeping my cool. "I didn't get yours either."
He held out his hand for me to shake. "My name is Jay."
I squinted my eyes toward his hand wondering again what he wanted to gain. I took a step back and set Theo onto the floor. He wandered off in some meaningless direction uninterested in us now.
I focused back on Jay with a curious gaze. He still held his hand out expectantly.
"Jay?" I tested out the name in my mouth. It didn't seem to fit him. "Like the letter, right?"
Jay withdrew his hand and just laughed at me. "Have you never heard of someone else with a letter for a name?"
I thought back to my inevitable sister-in-law who often went by Vee. I nodded toward him understanding his point.
I held out my hand. "Evelyn or if you're nice: Evie."
Jay chuckled once again before shaking my hand once with a firm yet comforting grip. He gave me a little wave as he opened my door and took one step outside my apartment.
"I'll see you around, Evie."
I gave him a wave in response as he closed the door behind him. I dropped my hand and let out a relieved breath.
"I highly doubt that."
________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: I have NOT given up on this story. Far from it my friends. I can only promise you weekly updates since I'm still working on Virtual Reality. I hope you can accept that. Next update will be same time next week.
Let me clear one thing really quick: Jay is NOT Jason from Athena's Enigma.
Quick announcement: armybrat has made a FanFic of Cupid's Granddaughter titled High Voltage. Check it out and give her my best regards! :)
Thank you fans! Can't wait to hear from you!