None of it.
Some time later, she heaved herself into an upright position and crawled into the bathroom, ripped off a length of toilet paper, and loudly blew her nose. Coming here had been a horrible idea, only serving to show her exactly how big of a disaster her life had become.
What did she do now without him?
Once she gathered herself enough to venture out in public, she sped back to her condo. When she walked in the door, she dropped the bag of her stuff unceremoniously by the door, walked into the kitchen, and pulled a bottle of tequila from the freezer. She had already broken down into a sobbing mess, and now she was going to handle this how she handled everything else: with alcohol and bad decisions.
Two hours passed and the tequila she consumed made the world feel a lot less shitty. Lexie was laying upside down on her couch, the top of her head brushing the floor, when the pounding at her door began.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she grumbled, stumbling her way to the entry, not from the tequila but from all the blood rushing from her head. She pulled the door open and found Berkley standing there.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Berkley yelled. “Mitch goes MIA, and then suddenly I can’t get you on the phone either?”
“I broke it,” Lexie said with a shrug, extending the bottle of tequila out to Berkley. “Want some?”
Berkley considered her for a moment, as if deciding whether to call Lexie on her shit, or facilitate whatever mess she would surely get herself into this time.
Berkley chose the latter, swiped the bottle of tequila from Lexie’s hand, and took a long pull.
Lexie grinned, eyes squinting to focus on Berkley’s face. “My girl.”
Somehow, Lexie talked Berkley into going to The Backdoor. Admittedly, there wasn’t that much convincing involved. Lexie said she wanted to get drunk—ignoring the fact that she was already halfway there—and dance. Berkley, who had spent days in a red wine-induced haze after she and Brent broke up last year, wisely didn’t argue. She simply went along with whatever Lexie asked.
Brent was standing at the curb waiting for them when they reached the bar, a tall man who bore a striking resemblance to him at his side.
Well, well, well,Lexie thought, eyeing up Nate Jean.Tonight just got far more interesting.
Lexie couldn’t ignore the thrill that crept up her spine at seeing that pretty face close enough to touch. When Lexie met Nate the year before, in Brent’s suite during their first playoff game that season, she’d been intrigued by his soft features and full, pouty mouth. Had she not been with Mitch, she might’ve taken him for a test drive.
Mitch, she scoffed to herself.Fuck that guy.
“Hey, babe,” Brent said to Berkley, stepping up to peck her on the cheek. He nodded at Lexie. “Lex, you remember my brother, Nate, right?”
“Sure do,” Lexie said with a smirk, trailing her eyes up and down Nate’s body. He wasn’t as chiseled as Brent, but that wasn’t to say he wasn’t as attractive. While Brent was all hard muscle and sharp angles, Nate was softer and leaner, as though someone had blurred his edges, though he was just as tall as his brother. Lexie had a feeling those clear blue eyes saw everything, and that he knew exactly what to do with that pretty mouth of his.
“Good to see you again, Lexie,” Nate said. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
Brent groaned, but Lexie ignored the passing mention of Mitch. “I think these circumstances are perfectly fine,” she said, strutting past them and into the bar.
The room was hazy from the smoke machine set up near the dance floor, and bodies flailed almost violently under the flashing strobe lights. Lexie stopped at the bar only long enough to be served, telling the bartender that her friend Brent Jean would be along to pay shortly. The bartender shouted after her, but she ignored him, choosing instead to grab Nate’s hand when he walked up behind her and towed him to the dance floor.
If she was going to make bad decisions tonight, she might as well make them with someone most likely to piss Mitch off if he ever found out.
No,she admonished herself.You will not think about Mitch. Not now, not ever again.
This was about her and having fun. And she wanted to have fun with Nate Jean.
She quickly lost herself in the feel of Nate’s hands on her hips, his fingers digging into her exposed flesh along the edge of her tank-top as they rocked together. She ground her ass into his lap, swaying back and forth to the beat of some top-forty hit, loving how his hard length, already ready for her, pressed up against her backside.
She didn’t stop him when he bent his head and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her neck. Or when he trailed his fingers across her stomach, sending shivers up and down her spine.
Shedefinitelydidn’t stop him when he spun her in his arms and whispered in her ear, “Let’s get out of here.”
Giving him a playful grin, she said, “But we just got here.”
“I can guarantee we’ll have a lot more fun alone.”
Lexie had to admit she was weak for that kind of confidence in a man, and if what she had felt pressed up against her ass moments before was any indication, he could absolutely back that claim up. Knowing full well there would be hell to pay in the morning, Lexie said, “All right. Let’s go back to my place.”
