"Chase, dude, I need a drink. Let's flag down the bartender." Chase pressed into the bodies closest to the edge of the bar and waved. He shouted our order over their heads and I shoved a twenty dollar bill at him to pay for our drinks.

Niki stood to my rear, wedged in between me and Chase, almost pressed up against his chest the crowd was so tight. Even at that close range, their conversation was strained and she had to yell to be heard over the music and bar chatter. This arrangement left me trapped on the receiving end of Kat's nuclear attention, her off the wall personality oozing enthusiasm in my face.

"Jesse, you look dark and mysterious to me. Where are you from again? New Hampshire?"

She was practically scaling me like Mount Everest when Chase passed over my drink, holding it high above all the heads. Too many people. It sloshed in the glass and dribbled on Kat's bare forearm causing her to squeal.

"Oh shit, that's cold." She laughed, shaking imaginary drops off of her arm.

"Sorry, didn't mean to baptize you with beer."

She kept laughing. "It's okay Jesse. You can lick it off." She held her arm up to my face and laughed loudly. "Just kidding, lover. You can do it later," she giggled.

This chic was hot and all, the total package, but damn she just wasn't tripping my trigger. I shot a glance back over my shoulder. Niki was still at my back deep in a conversation with Chase. I could hear snippets of conversation fading in and out, the two of them rehashing old high school memories. Damn, if I knew her in high school I never would have let that one get away. Secret tingles amassed my skin, knowing how dangerously close behind me she was. Was it the heat from her body, or heat from the conglomerate of human flesh? Shit. What was happening to my body? I downed the rest of my beer and ordered another.

"Okay Jesse, let's play a game."

Oh my God, no. Let's not play a fucking guessing game. I blew out a breath, twisted around a little to check on Niki. Still hanging on Chase.

"So, Jesse, huh? What do you think? What's your answer? Mary Ann or Ginger?" Kat was all up in my face. I had no clue what the fuck she was talking about. I hadn't even heard a word she said.

"Uh, oh, well..." I noticed a couple leaving. "There's a table. Let's snag it before anyone else gets it." I lurched through the crowd to the high top table staking a claim with my beer glass.

I yelled back, "Chase, Niki, I got a table over here."

The wooden leg of the tall chair groaned against the cement floor as I pulled it out for Niki. Kat jumped into the chair. "Thanks hun."

I looked up and Chase caught the pained expression on my face. He slid into the chair next to Kat to run interference for me.

Chapter Eleven.

Niki Kat dipped her head into me. "Isn't he cute?" she said, laying claim to Jesse already. I was used to it. Kat always got all the attention when we went out. I glanced over the sleek black tabletop, hoping Jesse wouldn't catch me looking. He looked down into his beer, laughing at something Kat said. I tried hard not to notice anything about him, but the minute I laid eyes on him I had noticed several things: his dark blue eyes, the way stray locks of hair fell in his eyes and how he always pushed them out of his eyes, his charming smile, his ink, and a pack of muscles that moved powerfully under his tight grey t-shirt. But I shouldn't be noticing. I already had a boyfriend.

"Yea, he's hot as hell." I took a sip on my beer. Chase and Jesse had ordered a pitcher and we all shared. It was good to see Chase again. We almost dated in high school, but it became awkward. Sometimes friends are only meant to stay friends. Maybe if he was as good looking back then as he was now, it could have been different. It just took some time for him to ripen. Now he was definitely handsome, tall, and muscular, with jet black hair that was cut short in the back and longer in the front.

"Well, hands off Niki girl. I'm claiming "new guy in town" for myself."

"Kat, you're a crazy woman. I have Jason, remember?" I played it off, like I hadn't been the least affected by him. Yea, I had Jason. I looked over at Jesse again and my heart wilted a little with that thought.

Jason was my dad's favorite. He was very literal-minded, no understanding of music, poetry and yet when you got right down to it, Jason's literalness, his pragmatic approach to every subject was the primary reason he was cut out to be a lawyer, and it made him invulnerable. He worked as an intern at my dad's law office. He was smart, good looking enough, even-tempered and ... and rather flat, and boring, if truth be told. There, I said it plain and clear. Kat was right. Jason was boring alright. But a good catch by anyone's standards. Everyone always said how perfect we were together.

Tonight, restlessness rolled in my gut, maybe caused by rebelliousness towards my dad, or maybe due to the newfound freedom of my living arrangement with Kat. I had made a lot of changes in my life lately. Or maybe I was sexually frustrated and Jesse was just damn hot.

"Fuck that shit, Niki. Jason is a dickhead. Dump him, you deserve so much better." She took a swig of her beer, as if to lay credence to her words. I knew the edge to her words was all a facade and I never took offense. It's just that Kat was the type of person who could read people in an instant. She had picked up on Jason's control issue long before I did. And she didn't mind letting me know her opinion right from the get go. Maybe the control issues were the sole reason why he was my dad's pick. My dad had the exact same problem.

"What the hell do you mean, Kat?" The beers were having their way with me and I giggled. "Jason is the pitomee..." My tongue had a mind of its own inside of my mouth. "Jason is the e-pit-omy of a good boyfriend." I leaned in heavily onto the table, touching heads with Kat as we laughed.

"Girl, I love you. You're the best roommate ever." Kat flung an arm over my shoulder and rubbed her head against mine and kissed me on the cheek. Jesse leaned over invading our space and I looked up to a pair of solid blue eyes burning a hole in me. Once again his unruly strands of brown hair fell into his eyes. He shoved them back with his hand drawing my attention to the movement of muscles under his inked skin. My blood simmered. My eyelashes fluttered and I pulled back, shoving my drink in my mouth to cover the gasp I surely made. Oh shit. Jason was out of town for his grandmother's birthday and here I was lusting after the first hot guy who crossed my path. What was wrong with me?

"Can I join the party? You two are pretty tight over here. Can a new guy get a word in?"

"Oh sorry, baby." Kat said. "Come in here and join us."

Chase must have gone to the restroom, as I couldn't see him anywhere in the crowd. Kat pulled her arm off of me and draped it over Jesse's broad muscular shoulder.

"Damn, baby. You work out." Kat slurred, running her forefinger up and down his bulging bicep. It traced across the edge of a tattoo, peeking out from under the tight sleeve of his t-shirt. I cocked my head to the side. I think it said "Carpe Diem". A small tug pulled in the pit of my stomach as I allowed my eyes to vacation on his powerful ink covered muscle. I whimpered in my mind, and bit my tongue, while I watched Kat soak up all the testosterone laden attention at the table like a sponge.

I closed my eyes and gulped my beer.

Jason, Jason , Jason. Remember Jason.

Good thing I had a boyfriend. I exhaled. Kat was falling all over him and I wouldn't be surprised if she took him home with her, or she went home with him. He seemed like the typical player type.

Damn it Kat, cool your jets. We are roommates.

I didn't want to see her with him, or hear her with him at our place later tonight. I guess I could always crash on Chase's couch if things headed in that direction.

"Who's ready for some shots?" Chase sang out, returning to the table with four shots of Patron. "Yea, man. I'm ready."

"Hell yea. I know what I want to do." Jesse's voice joined in.

Chase set them down and high fived Jesse. Kat doled out the glasses, one in front of each of us, a lime wedge teetering on the edge of each glass. Chase held his up, signaling everyone to raise a glass in unison. "Here's to old friends and new."

He threw back his shot and we all followed suite. I coughed and sputtered, feeling the burn in my throat. I was never much of an expert at shots. Sipping wine was more my style, but as we toasted, I noted that Jesse appeared to be quite the pro at chugging drinks. I wiped lime juice from my mouth with the back of my hand and mentally chastised myself. Who was I kidding? His demeanor had "Bad boy" written all over it, one who could hook up with a girl in no time flat. Normally, I wouldn't give a guy like that the time of day, and yet his eyes had pierced me to my soul, awakening something in me that I didn't realize existed. And he had pushed into my mind more often than I wanted to admit.

Corralled at the table by friends the remainder of the night, I was a reluctant witness to Kat's well-crafted play for Mr. Bad Boy himself. I chewed on the thin short drink straw in my empty glass to shreds. I knew he would break her heart like the typical asshole bad boy. Just another troublemaker. Run Kat, high tail it outta there. I sank my teeth into my lower lip and reaching for the glass Chase had just set down, swallowed a huge gulp of beer.

"Hey Niki, that was mine." Chase blinked at me like he was hurt and plopped down in the chair next to mine. Kat and Jesse were practically conjoined twins by now, locked into an fascinating conversation, garnished with lots of high pitched laughing and hair tossing. I wanted to puke. Well, maybe it was the alcohol that made me want to puke.

"Yea whatever, I need this to drown my sorrows." I leaned heavily on the table top, loose as a ragdoll and verbally vomited all the drama with the Jason situation onto Chase. He was a sympathetic listener so I heaved a second time, and the story about my dad and moving out to find my freedom came spilling out. Such are the effects of mixing your liquors; beer, vodka and tequila.

"Come on girl." A strong hand reached over, taking me by the elbow. I looked up with blurry vision into Jesse's heavenly blue eyes. "Come on you. It's time to go home."

"Niki, I think we need to go now, hun," Kat slurred and swayed while grabbing the back of my chair to steady herself.

"Where are we going? I don't want to go home yet," I blubbered.

The two guys both snickered at how poorly Kat and I held our liquor. Jesse tugged on my arm a second time but I yanked it away.

"Naw. I think I'll stay and have one more." I shifted in my chair like I was settling in.

"Hey, come on, Niki. It's time to get out of here. I'll get you ladies in a cab and send you home," Chase said. "Both of you two need to call it a night."

He gently put his hands on my waist and moved me out of the chair. I struggled to stand, finding everything, and nothing in particular, hilarious.

"Niki-i-i-i. Come on. Woo..." Kat, whooped and flung her arm over my shoulder. The force was enough to make me fall into Jesse, standing next to us. I grabbed at his t-shirt, laughing and Kat's petite body followed, the two of us crashing into him like falling dominoes.

"Woo, hoo!" Kat yelped. "Let's make a sandwich!" She wrapped her arms around me, reaching all the way to Jesse, for one big hug. Spontaneously, he circled his arms around the both of us in a "sandwich hug". I found myself caught in the middle, pressed up against a solid pack of muscles. Even in my inebriated state, his lethal energy radiated through me and I melted into his chest. I tipped my head back, looking up at him, my mouth hanging open. And there I froze, up against him, painfully aware of how awkward the situation was, wondering if he could feel my heart beating against his chest. Oh God, he probably thought I was falling all over him like all the other girls.

Damn you, drunken Kat.

Kat was oblivious, lost in her own world, dancing to one big party inside her own mind. Jostling me up and down, locked in the middle of some kind of crazy, psychotic bear hug, pumping to the bar music.

"Wooo! Let's da-a-nce!" Kat squealed.

Oh my God, just let me die now.

"The party is over, Kat," Chase chuckled. "Come on, let's get out of this place before you start dancing on the tables." He tugged at her arm and she let go of the hug, releasing me from my blissful torture session.

"Oh, that's a good idea. I could do that. Maybe I'd get a few dollar bills..."

"No, no, no, no," He steered her back towards the exit.

"This way. To the door, party girl. We're not in Vegas."

I lurched for Chase's arm. I was sure that I would only be tempting fate if I stayed within Jesse's personal bubble for one more second and not surprised, Kat latched herself onto Jesse's arm.

Outside on the curb, the summer night air was fresh to my face. A dirty cab pulled up in front of us.

"Here's your limo, girls," Jesse said.

"What?" We don't need a cab," Kat protested.

Chase pulled her arm. "You're insane. There's no way in hell you can drive tonight, Kat. Jesse called you girls a cab."

"That's right, get in Cinderella. Your pumpkin has arrived," Jesse said and opened the door of the cab.

"Hey, maybe you can take me home," Kat said pulling closer to Jesse. "Sorry, not tonight, Sugar," Jesse said as he escorted her to the open car door. He pushed her into the back seat of the cab, a petite mass of babbling and laughing flesh. She fell back giggling, the cab driver cutting her an annoyed glance. Jesse apologized to the man and took her legs by the ankles shoving them in after her, like he was stuffing an oversized duffle bag.

Jesse now turned, one hand still on the door, and held out his other hand for me. I stood, wide eyed, staring. Oh shit. My heart did a flip flop. He wanted me to take his hand. I knew he was just being polite, but he had no idea what havoc his presence had wreaked upon me. My eyes flitted from his open waiting hand up to his face. His stare cut through me, as he smiled, a charming smile, causing my stomach to tie in knots. I swallowed hard and put my hand in his trying not to come undone. Maybe I had been all wrong about him.

I dropped down into the seat as he shut the door and stepped back away from the cab. Chase thumped the top of the cab with his hand and spun around to walk away. Jesse shoved his hands in his pockets and walked backwards, bent over looking down to see me peering out the window, as the cab pulled away from the curb. I jerked my face away from the window, embarrassed that he caught me looking. I could have sworn I saw him blow me a two fingered kiss. I gasped and spun around to see if Kat had witnessed it.

"Kat." She was silent, slumped back in the seat with her eyes closed and her mouth open.

I audibly exhaled and relaxed back into the seat and Kat's soft elbow fell against my arm. She would sleep it off and wake with a pounding headache in the morning but, what the fuck had happened tonight? Kat was going after Jesse pretty hard, yet I kept catching him ogling me. And the electrifying vibes between us were off the charts. I turned my head and stared out the cab window the rest of the ride home unaware of the cityscape rushing past. There are some things in life that can't be explained and I had a quirky feeling that hurricane Jesse was about to hit land.

Chapter Twelve.

Jesse "C'mon, Chase, give me her number," I pleaded. I worked my left hand doing curls with a hand weight. Chase was helping me strengthen the muscles in my injured hand at the gym where he worked from time to time.

"I'm not giving you Niki's number, dude. I know you, you will just fuck her over with a one-night stand and I don't want her hurt. Niki and I have been friends since high school."

I couldn't believe he was stalling me like this. Maybe the real reason he refused to give me her number was that he was into Niki himself. "Seriously, dude, I'm not like that. That was the old me. I just want to take her on a date and see how it goes. You know, two people getting to know each other like adults."

"Jesse," he stopped and stared straight at me. "You are just here for the summer, man. Suppose you two hit it off? Then what? You leave and I have to put up with tears and all the, "What did I do wrong?" whining and crying and help her get over you. I don't know. It just doesn't sound like a good idea. Besides, she has a boyfriend, well a kind of boyfriend. I don't really know how serious they are, but still you gotta think about that."

Fuck. She had a boyfriend? That explains why she seemed a little cold at first. But did that really matter? It's not like they were married or anything. And what if it was just something casual? Chase had no idea how my heart had skyrocketed when she turned around and I saw her face for the first time. It was like a fucking beautiful heart attack in a little black dress. Like something inside of me burst to life. It scared the shit out of me to admit it, but I was hooked. It was like an instant addiction to a drug and it was all her, those big doe eyes, her long dark hair. Fuck! It was better than XTC and coke combined. I can't fucking quit. Boyfriend or no boyfriend, I'm going all in. And I could be a pretty damn persistent asshole if needed.

"You're killing me here, man. Just give me the number. Besides, if you don't, I'll just get it from Kat." I raised my eyebrows.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Will you forget about Niki, already? I have another idea. Some friends and I are going to a private beach in Malibu for a bonfire tonight. There will be plenty of nice looking girls with slamming hot bodies. You can come with me."

Damn. I didn't care about slamming hot bodies. I could get that anywhere. I had to figure out why this Niki girl had such an effect on me. I finished up my reps with the hand weights while contemplated another way to get to see her again.

"What if you called Kat and Niki and invited them to that bonfire thing?" I asked but I had lost Chase's attention.

"Well, speak of the devil." Chase pointed towards the elliptical machines with his chin as he alternated forearm curls. Niki and Kat were talking and getting on the machines. My pulse jumped when I saw Niki. She looked even hotter than I remembered. Oh shit, another quake on the Richter scale. So it wasn't just my imagination last night, or the effects of the damn beer.

I never had much faith in love or miracles. For me, love had always been more about physical release than anything else, but when seeing this girl, something was different. It was like my heart skipped a beat. I felt driven to be with her by some unexplainable force. I knew I was going to go after her with everything I got, even if she had some loser boyfriend out of town. I had to give it a shot. I couldn't deny the emotions churning inside of me and my instincts told me she was feeling at least something that could be ignited and turn into more.

Chase's forehead frowned. "I have never seen them here before. Why are they here?"

"Maybe because I "accidentally" told Kat last night we were gonna train here today. I'll go talk to them."

"You did what? You are a sneaky bastard, my friend." Chase chuckled.

I headed over to the row of elliptical machines. I didn't have a game plan. I just knew I had to talk to Niki.

"Well, check out who's here. I can't believe you two have the energy to work out after last night."

Kat gave me a big smile but my eyes were on Niki's face checking to see what kind of reaction she would give me.

"Hey Jesse," Kat chirped, working her arms and legs on the machine. "Well, you know, we gotta work the toxins out of your system. Sweat them out.

"Good for you. I usually just keep going...you know, keep drinking the next day, but this will work too I guess." My eyes burned holes through Niki. God stop it! I'm gonna scare her off.

"Did you have a good time last night?" Niki asked.

"Yeah, it was very cool. You ladies sure know how to party."

Niki wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead. She looked ravishing today. "Yeah, It was lots of fun last night, except I think I had one too many. Those Tequila shots always get to me." She gave me one of her beautiful full lipped smiles and my heart did that thing again, with a little flip. I didn't want to offend her by staring at her body, but it was exquisite. Her tight fitting exercise clothes defined every voluptuous bulge and curve.