He turned at the sound of my voice. “Why would it hurt?”
“That same girl turned you down, what? A month or so ago?” I snorted. “Actually, if I recall correctly, she told you that she didn’t go home with random guys she met at bars, and, well…” I gestured toward the door. “That was obviously a big fat lie.”
“Zip it,” he shot back.
I smirked. “Aw. Is someone jealous?”
“That’swhere you’re wrong,” he scoffed.
“I don’t know. Your friend just bagged the girl you weren’table to.” I chuckled. “And you looked pretty jealous just now watching him pull off what youcouldn’tand leave with her.”
“I don’t get jealous. Am I a little bitter? Perhaps. Butjealous? Absolutely not. They’re two completely different things.” He finished off his drink, and when he pulled the now empty bottle away from his mouth, he set it on a nearby table before stepping into the hall where I was, wearing a smirk with a mischievous gleam in his eye. “And maybe you should bethankingthat girl.”
“For what?”
“Because if somethinghadhappened between me and her, I would’ve no longer been in a slump, and I wouldn’t have been sodesperatelast night, which means you never would have got that release you all but begged me for.”
And there it was, the first mention thrown out regarding what happened. I rolled my eyes. “Please stop acting like you did me some kind of grand gesture. We werebothfeeling desperate from slumps, and you got the same damn thing out of it I did. And it never should have happened in the first place.”
“‘Never should have happened’ is being abitmelodramatic, don’t you think?”
“No. It was an impulsive, one-timemistake.”
“You were moaning pretty loudly for it being a mistake,” he sneered.
My jaw tensed. “I stand by what I said. And it will never happen again.”
He held my stare as he leaned forward, his green eyes glinting with amusement and something else…almost like my words were achallenge. “I think if we learnedanythingfrom last night, it’s that perhaps we should lay off using the termnever.”
With him suddenly invading my space, I couldn’t help butinhale his scent—woodsy with subtle notes of smoky amber and citrus…bold and fiery, akin to how he was looking at me at that moment. I couldn’t recall if he smelled like that last night because it was too much of a blur. Regardless, he had no right to smell that fucking good. Suddenly, it was as if last nighthadn’thappened, and I was right back in that place where my body wascravingsomething. And I saw his lips slowly curve into a smirk, almost as if he could read my thoughts.
“I’m still going to say never—or neveragain—when it comes to you,” I said.
“That so?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Because it was a mistake,” he said.
“Yes.”
He imperceptibly nodded. “That never should have happened.”
“Correct.”
“And will never happen again…”
“Also correct.”
He grinned. “You wanna know what I think?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m gonna tell you anyway,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “I don’t think you really mean that. If you did, you wouldn’t still be standing here.”
My jaw tensed, and annoyance flared in my chest. Because he called me out, and so confidently, too. WhywasI still standing there? Why was I even entertaining this conversation with him at all? I never would have before. And when the hell did he get so close to me? His face was inches away, his eyes locked on mine, intense and daring.
Walk away, I told myself.Just. Walk. Away.
