“With what money?Ican barely afford all this,” I laughed, making a joke out of it, but honestly, it wasn’t funny how in the hole I was.
She smiled a genuine smile, her eyes sparkling. “Well, aren’t we a pair.”
I towered over her five-foot-two frame, a solid foot taller than her. She had to tip her head back to look up at me, and my mind raced with dirty images of Lydia looking up at me from her knees. Her lips were painted a dark bloodred that I was desperate to see wrapped around my dick.
“Wes is watching y’all,” Ronnie said subtly as she set the last drink down.
I pulled back, only then realizing how close Lydia and I were standing, each leaning into each other, the sweet scent of her lingering around me.
She looked around her again, her gaze going toward the door, and she wrapped her arm in front of her midriff like she was trying to hide. Her wide eyes held a note of fear, likestanding too close to me would get her in trouble, but if she were, it wasn’t her brothers that she was afraid of. She didn’t look toward the table. She looked to the door.
The Lydia I knew wasn’t the fearful type.Who the fuck was it that made her feel like she needed to look over her shoulder?
“Go sit, the both of you. I’ll get Kelsey to deliver these to you so you ain’t carrying them all.”
“Thanks, Ronnie. Appreciate it,” I told her, handing her the cash plus tip.
Lydia headed back over to the table while I paid, a different type of tension surrounding her.
Not two seconds later, the straw lady sidled up next to me. She placed her hand on my arm, “Hey. Um, are you and her here together?”
“Nope. Just out with some friends tonight,” I told her. She was pretty. Long, dark blonde hair, pretty brown eyes, a slim, toned body.
“Me too.” She smiled. “My girlfriends were kind enough to leave their men home tonight so I didn’t feel out of place, being single and all.”
Subtle.
“I’m Vanessa, by the way. But you can call me Nessa. I love your tattoos.”
“Thanks. I’m a tattoo artist; designed most of these myself.”
This was typically when I would crank up my charm, maybe tell her I’d be happy to show her all of my skin art. Sealing this deal was basically guaranteed.
But I wasn’t really feeling it with her. Was it because it was too easy?
No. I wasn’t one who relished in the chase necessarily. I hadn’t had to chase any woman in a damn long time, as amatter of fact.
Then again, I also hadn’t had sex in months. I could break that dry spell right now, a well-placed touch to her leg, an obvious glance to her mouth.
But I just got here. Hadn’t even really hung out with the crew yet. It was one thing to leave with a lady on my arm, but it was another to ditch them completely for the first pair of tanned legs to walk my way.
I glanced back to the table and caught Lydia staring daggers at us. At me. It felt like there was a rope attached to my chest that she held the other side of, tugging me toward her with her soft, milky skin and pissed-off attitude.
Vanessa followed my gaze. She peeled her hand off my arm and laughed. “Okay, well, enjoy your night… with your not date.”
“It was nice to meet you, Nessa,” I told her with a chin dip and headed back to the table.
“Took you long enough,” Luke grumbled before looking up. “And you didn’t even come back with drinks,” he huffed.
“They’re coming, you big baby,” Lydia sassed just as Kelsey came around the corner with a tray of various drinks.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch, little wild? You jealous?”
Lydia huffed a laugh, not even bothering to turn her head as Kelsey called the drinks out individually, handing them to whoever ordered them.
“Root beer?” she asked.
No one answered, and then I remember that was on me. “Oh, that’s Scarlett’s.”
