“Let the man buy us food, brother. Drop it.”
I headed to the opposite side of the bar, away from where Allie was sitting. The bar was too crowded to squeeze my way through. Not without throwing a few elbows, at least. I caught Ronnie’s eye and gestured for three more beers and a basket of chips and salsa.
“Hi.” A pretty young blonde girl batted her lashes my way. She was with a group of other young ladies who all looked like they were putting their drinks down like it was a race. Mostly empty multicolored frozen drinks lined the bar in front of them. “You probably get this all the time, but I loveyour tattoos.” She reached out as if to run her finger across them but stopped. Her big doe eyes looked up at me from her stool. “Can I touch them?”
“Sure.” I smiled. I appreciated the fact that she asked first. Most women would have just gone for it. “I have to warn you though, they don’t feel like much. The ink is in the skin, so it feels exactly the same.”
Her fingers brushed softly across my bicep. She caught my eye again, a drunk smile playing across her lips. “You’re really hot.” She laughed, leaning into me like she needed the support to stay on her seat.
“And you look like you’re having a good night,” I chuckled. One of her friends came around to talk to me too. They were both vying for my attention, laughing and batting their lashes. The dark-haired friend caressed the top swell of her breast with her finger, pulling my attention to her tits as she spoke. Ronnie set my beers down, and I told her to add it to my open tab. “Ladies, it was a pleasure to meet you. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” I winked.
I turned around and found Luke’s eyes on me. His lips lifted in a half smile, but when I started to make my way back to the table with the drinks, he looked almost shocked.
“Thought we had lost you to the sea of ladies,” he joked.
“Nah. We’re just getting started. I can’t take off yet.” I wiggled my brows suggestively. Honestly, the idea of going home with anyone made my skin crawl. I didn’t want just anyone. I was coming to realize that, for me, it was Lydia or no one. She was the only woman I wanted to go home to. The only woman I wanted in my bed. The only woman who had ever given methatfeeling.
The guys and I stayed out for a few more hours, until Reid’sgrumpy ass took off first, wanting to get home to his wife—and a shower. Wyatt was next, and since he and Wes came together, Wes followed him out too.
“I can’t believe you’re the last man to leave,” Luke half joked, skepticism lining his eyes. “I don’t even remember when you last left with a lady on your arm. You got someone special you’re not telling me about?”
Yes. No. I didn’thaveLydia. She wasn’t mine, but I couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t her presence that was causing my dry spell.
“No,” I lied. “Nothing’s going on. I think I’m just getting too old to play in that circuit, you know,” I told him. “Maybe it’s time I started thinking about settling down. Finding the right woman to make an honest man out of me.”
Luke burst out laughing. He was nearly in tears, that’s how fucking funny he found that idea. That someone out there might actually want to stick around longer than it took for their orgasm to pass.
“Can you imagine?” He shook his head, breathing through his laughter. “That’s funny.”
“Crazier things have happened.” I smiled.
Luke was my best friend. It was poor taste to deck your best friend, right? Because I kind of wanted to sock him in the gut right now.
We walked out together, and I said good night to him before getting in my car. I shook off Luke’s comment on the drive back to my place. Hell, his own brother had been in a similar boat as me until like two years ago. Wyatt was less notorious than me as a playboy, but he was no saint either. He didn’t know shit about being in a relationship when he met Maeve. Now look at them. Two daughters. Getting married in amonth.
By the time I unlocked my front door, Luke’s opinions about my love life were barely a whisper in the back of my mind.
The sound of footsteps padded across the hall. I turned on the lights by the door just in time to see Lydia scurrying from my bedroom to the bathroom.
Heat flooded my veins instantly. I toed my boots off and stalked over to her, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed right in front of the bathroom. She opened the door and squealed in surprise.
“You scared the shit out of me,” she huffed.
I pushed myself off the wall and towered over her small frame. “Were you in my bed again, little wild?”
Small gold flecks glowed in her mossy green eyes. “I’m not admitting to anything,” she said, her body language mirroring mine with her arms crossed. The swell of her breasts in her tiny sleep tank mesmerizing me.
“I should get some sort of payment for you using my bed, don’t you think?”
She took a step toward me, and I followed suit, closing the gap. “What kind of payment were you thinking of?” she said, her voice husky.
Her finger snaked down the front of my shirt along the line of buttons. My breath was coming too fast. My dick was already swelling in my jeans. I spun her around, eliciting another cute squeal from her lips. “You don’t want to know the dirty things I’m thinking about.”
“Maybe I do.” She tilted her head, opening up her neck for me.
Resisting her wasn’t even a remote possibility when shelooked this good caged in my arms. I placed a kiss to the soft column of her throat, then licked a line to the sensitive spot behind her ear.
Luke’s words from earlier echoed in my head like a cartoon character perched on my shoulder. “This is a bad idea, Lydia.” My voice was a strained groan as I tried to hold myself back.
