“I’ve been looking for you,” she said, snaking her arms around my waist as I pulled the hem of my gym shorts back up. “You haven’t been responding to my texts.”
I rolled my eyes as I tied my drawstring, and then turned in her arms to face her.
“I’m late,” I muttered, barely giving her any attention as I stepped aside.
She mirrored the movement, scoffing as she blocked my path. “Joe hasn’t even announced Murphy yet. I thought we could use this time to...catch up. I’ve missed you,” she pouted, playing with the hem of my hoodie before looking up from under her black eyelashes.
How many times had I seen that look?
A muscle ticked in my jaw as she trailed a finger along the hem of my shorts. Her gaze fixed on my face as she arched a sculpted brow and smiled. “Well?”
I felt nothing. Had nothing to give. Anything I felt for Roxy was depleted. The way she treated Lily last night didn’t sit well with me either.
“No.” I moved left, but she moved with me.
“What? Can’t get it up for me anymore?” She smirked. “Is that why you tried to break things off with me last night?”
I looked past her to the door that was several feet away and sighed. “Were we ever really together though?”
She chuckled low and leaned in closer, tapping me on the chest condescendingly. “Sweetie, the sex we had nine nights ago says otherwise.”
“You kept count of the nights?”
Her smile dropped while I flashed her my own, brushing past her as I did and heading for the door. Right as I reached for the handle, she slipped in front of me again, pressing her palm against my chest. “I’m not done.”
I rolled my head back tiredly as I slipped my hands back into my pockets. “Move, Roxy.”
Her red nails curled into my chest like claws as she glared back. A challenge was written in her dark eyes before her expression slipped into another smug smile. “Or what?”
“Fuck sake.”
“You wouldn’t lay a hand on a woman out of violence, so what will you do, hm?”
Her satisfied smile only grew as she studied my face — my clenched jaw. She stepped closer and dragged her hand down, pressing her chest (barely fitting in her skin-tight, dark green dress) into mine as she bit her bottom lip and slid her hand into the front of my briefs. Her fingers curled around me, stroking slowly.
“Relax, a little, Dean. You’re so uptight—”
I grabbed her wrist and turned her around. Using minimal force to pin her arms behind her back and press her into the door, I stood behind her.
She laughed breathlessly, pressing her ass into me. “That’s more like it.”
I gritted my teeth, daring to squeeze her wrist a little tighter in warning. “We’re done, Roxy. Don’t touch me like that again.”
She tossed that long and wavy, raven hair across her shoulder as she looked back. The smile on her lips remained. “You can’t be serious?”
“Couldn’t be more.” I stepped back and grabbed the door handle beside her hip, allowing her a few seconds to move out of the way before I yanked the door open and stepped inside.
“You’re making a huge mistake,” she mocked. Her stilettos tapped twice as fast to keep up as she followed me down the corridor.
“Doubt it.” I hauled the end door open.
Roxy, following close behind, resorted to her name-calling and gaslighting techniques. Only to have her voice drowned out by the cheers and yells of the basement below as we stepped out onto the staircase landing. The staircase itself was packed with people who hadn’t gotten in early enough for a pit-side view.
Almost on cue, Joe’s voice rang out through the speakers around the room as he stood in the pit. Microphone in hand, the bronze bell in the other. His voice temporarily caused a hush amongst the crowd of gamblers as he said, “Please, put your hands together for our number one man, Romeo!”
Shit.
I gripped the side of the rail and vaulted over it without a second thought, dropping the two meters to the basement floor below. Whether it was because I had dropped in out of nowhere, or just because my hood had fallen, it didn’t take long for people to recognize who I was as I shoved my way through to the pit.
