Melissa grimaced. And that’s when I realized I had another point in my favor—she was staying with Hailey. The younger Cook might have planned to go back to Sam’s place, but put alcohol in people and they forget their best-laid plans.
I just had to not be a fucking idiot, and I’d be fucking the brains out of Melissa once more.
“Fuck it,” Melissa said. “Let’s grab a drink. But I can back out at any point.”
“Of course, you’re a free woman,” I said. “I wouldn’t put restrictions on you.”
But I didn’t need to. As long as I acted like boyfriend Corey and not angry Corey, my dick was going to come—with the woman I’d most fucking cared about, ever.
And when I said those words, for the first time the entire night, Melissa did something I couldn’t even remember her doing at the coffee shop.
She smiled.
It had been a long fucking time since I saw that smile. Years of distance, preceded by months of fighting, had made it almost a faded memory. But now that it was here, all the good fucking times came rushing back.
It wasn’t like a switch had been flipped and we were now talking to each other like an old couple. But something had been changed in her head and whatever it was, that something now made her so much more into the moment. If she had anxiety, she wasn’t going to be discussing it or having it disrupt the night.
We headed to the bar inside. I wasted no time making my move, putting my arm around Melissa as I pulled her to me. She didn’t exactly throw herself at me, but there was no resistance to my gesture on her part. It was fucking perfect.
“You know, it’s been a while since I saw that sexy smile of yours.”
“Oh?”
Her response was engaging, encouraging. This was fucking perfect.
“I never did forget what it looked like when you smiled,” I said.
She turned to face me. I quickly put in an order for two gin and club sodas, her favorite, and turned back to her.
“I know it’s been a long time, and you’ve gone through a lot of shit. But your smile is something that I could never forget. When you’re a biker, you don’t see a lot of genuine, real smiles. You see some fake ones, you see a lot of scowls, you might even hear some fucking laughter. But you’re one of a kind.”
Strangely enough, it wasn’t hyperbolic. Maybe slightly, but not as much as it sounded.
The bartender placed the drinks in front of us. Melissa took hers without turning her gaze from me, her smile plastered across her face. I was dying to know what she was thinking—was she deciding to fuck me? To make out with me? Was she just captured by the moment? Was there something deeper, or was it just a well-timed remark?
Well, judging by the fact that she finished her drink faster than I’d ever seen her, I think I got the answer.
“You can finish that like a man, or you can bring it out to the dance floor.”
“Woah, girl, watch your mouth,” I said. “That should only be saying nice things or doing nice things.”
“Uh-huh,” she said wryly as I killed the mixed drink in under five seconds, slurping it down like water. “Well, now that you finally finished your drink, let’s say we go dance, huh?”
“Go dance” was a bit of an overstatement. As was the case for ninety-nine percent of drunks, it mostly just involved our drunken bodies pressing up on each other, grinding our hips together and feeling her ass into mine.
But holy fuck, I was so hard and so horny she probably could have come close to making me come out here. That obviously wasn’t going to happen, I wasn’t an awkward fucking teenager, but it spoke to how fucking aroused I was that the thought even came to mind.
It didn’t help matters that at one point, she turned into me, threw one arm around my neck, and put the other down by my crotch. I mean, fuck, the only reason I didn’t just take her ass out of there and back to my place was because I was enjoying this shit too much.
By this point, I knew I was getting laid. There was no “well, hopefully, if all goes well” bullshit. Fuck that. I had it in the bag. It was just a matter of how fast I wanted it to happen.
Well, whatever thoughts I had about pacing ended when she turned her gaze upon me. I hadn’t seen her look at me sosexuallyin so damn long, certainly not in the dying days of our last go-around. Her wide, brown eyes stared right at me as if demanding I take her on the spot. Her hand had moved from my crotch, but only so it could hold my ass. We’d stopped dancing and were just gazing at each other, inches away.
Fuck it.
I moved in to kiss her, and Melissa took it on eagerly. She pushed her tongue into mine and clawed at my body. It was like the damn girl was in heat. If I stayed here, I really might have wound up making out with her on the dance floor. It was dangerous being out here!
“Fuck it, come with me,” I growled as I took her by the hand and led her out the front door.
