“No kidding,” Hope said a bit breathless.
“I thought he was going to throw you on the table and do you right here.”
She shivered at the thought.
“I bet Joyce is giving her guy an earful for the attention he was giving you,” Judy commented.
“Probably,” Hope agreed.
“It’s a good thing Rick wasn’t here to witness this, or that guy might not have walked away in too good of shape.”
Hope shuddered at the thought.
Judy noticed their drinks were getting low.
“How about if I get us a refill,” Judy offered.
“Sure. While you do that I need to go to the ladies’ room,” Hope said.
Judy headed for the bar while Hope went to the bathroom. The room was empty when she entered, which she was grateful for. She was still trying to come down from the Jonathan encounter. She touched up her lipstick, brushed her hair, and gave herself a once-over before leaving.
When she pushed open the door she walked into a man’s chest. His musky scent surrounded her, as did his arms as he tried to steady her. She looked into his eyes and was caught. When his mouth claimed hers she was a goner.
Chapter 2
Their tongues met, driving her crazy. She leaned into him trying to get close. When his hand reached inside her shirt and began stroking her breast, she was on fire. Her hand inched down as she undid his pants. The sound of a voice calling out interrupted them from going any further.
“Jonathan... Jonathan...”
Hope looked up into his handsome face. His eyes were filled with desire as he looked down at her.
“There’s a back door,” he whispered. “We could leave and no one would see us.”
Hope’s brain was spinning in confusion. A part of her wanted to go with him, yet she knew it wasn’t right, this wasn’t right. The sound of Joyce’s voice brought her back to reality. She shuddered at the thought of what she had done.
“I’d better get going.” She stepped away.
He grabbed her arm stopping her from leaving.
“Come with me,” he pleaded.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Jonathan Winters, where are you?” A voice shrilled in the background.
In a swift movement he grabbed her and pushed her into a large closet.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“This.”
He slammed his mouth over hers. His kiss was demanding. Hope tried to resist his assault, but her body wasn’t cooperating. Eventually she pulled away from him.
“Stop that,” she demanded.
“No.”
She glared at him.
“I am not going screw around with my cousin’s date,” Hope huffed.
“We are not dating. I only came here as a favour to Joyce as she didn’t want to go solo.”
“That’s nice, but I’m not available,” Hope said.
Jonathan grabbed her left hand.
“I don’t see a ring on your finger,” he said.
“I live with my boyfriend.”
“A boyfriend is not the same as a husband. Boyfriends are dispensable.”
“They are not!” Hope countered. “I love the guy I’m with.”
Jonathan snickered. “Sure you do. That’s why you were swapping tongues with me.”
Hope glared at him. “I don’t know what happened back there, but that was not me. You put some kind of spell on me.”
The words that shot out of her mouth sounded ludicrous, but yet somehow they rang true. It felt like he had weaved some kind of enchantment on her causing her to act like a slut. Thoughts of her mother’s words came crashing back to her.
“A spell!” Jonathan laughed. “That’s priceless.”
“Whatever,” Hope snorted. “I’m out of here.”
Hope went to leave, but Jonathan stopped her.
“You can’t deny we are attracted to each other,” he whispered in her ear.
Hope felt the pull of desire come over her as she looked into his eyes, but tried hard to ignore it. Jonathan went for her lips again, but she stopped him. She made a move for the door, but he stopped her again.
“Please let me go,” she pleaded.
“I’ll only let you leave on one condition.”
Hope groaned. “What do you want?”
“Your phone number.”
Hope began to protest, but was stopped.
“It’s either that or I’ll never let you out of this closet.”
Little did he know his threat was all for not, considering Hope would rather hide out in the closet than go back to the party. However, she would want to hide out alone, not with him.
Hope sighed. “Oh, all right.”
She grabbed a pen and piece of paper from her purse, wrote down her number then shoved it in his hand.
“There, are you happy?”
He just smiled.
“Jonathan, you are really starting to piss me off,” an angry voice screeched.
“You better go,” Hope warned.
He gave her a mind-bending kiss before making a quick exit. Hope was about to leave, but stopped when she heard Joyce’s voice.
“Where were you?
“I was in the men’s room,” Jonathan said.
“You were gone a long time,” Joyce huffed.
“Sorry. I got sidetracked.”
“Well come on, I want you to meet my aunt.”
Jonathan got pulled away, leaving Hope a chance to escape. Judy was at the table when she returned.
“I was about to send a search party. What took you so long?”
Hope told her what happened, censoring what she said. Judy gave a low whistle.
“You didn’t really give him your number, did you?” Judy questioned.
Hope shook her head. “I gave him a number, but it wasn’t mine.”
“You just better hope Rick doesn’t find out about what happened. He’ll go ballistic.”
Hope cringed at the thought. She wasn’t about to tell Rick, as she was still trying to figure it out herself.
“Judy I really don’t want Rick to know about this, all right? I just want to forget it ever happened.”
Judy looked at her friend with concern. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No,” she said sheepishly.
“Hope,” Judy pushed.
“No!” Hope blurted. “I just want to forget about Jonathan, all right?”
“Okay,” Judy said reluctantly.
Hope made sure she stayed as far away from Jonathan as possible for