“Uh, who?” She looked confused.
“They guy on the phone. Your man.” Maybe I was digging for information, something to give me a hint that she was seeing someone.
“Oh.” She looked at me, still with a confused look on her face. But then she took a step towards me.
“I don’t know. I just feel so stupid.” Now what the hell was she talking about?
“I keep taking him back, even though he cheats on me. I just love him so much, but it still hurts.” She looked down, like my little tigress was about to cry. Hell no to that shit.
“He’s a fucking dickwad who deserves his ass beaten.” Accent was gone, but she didn’t register it, obviously very upset. God, I can’t believe this. She was with someone who had her love, and he was cheating on her! I was so pissed right now. I would get his name from her tomorrow in the trailer, and then I would hunt his ass down. I knew ways to torture people, thanks to the horror movie I did a few years ago.
“That’s very sweet. I just wish I could get him back. You know, make him hurt like he hurts me. Maybe he wouldn’t do it anymore. I should just cheat on him.”
The end of the cigarette had burned and fell onto my boot, and I swear I heard it hit the leather. My mouth parted slightly, thinking about what she might be insinuating.
“I know this is way out there,” she started to say,but then stopped.
“No, I’m sorry. It’s too inappropriate.” She started to turn, but I wasn’t having that shit. Not now, no fucking way. I grabbed her arm and spun her back around, pulling her body close to mine. Away from the glass of the bar, no one could see that there was zero space between us.
“Say it,”I whispered against her hair, feeling her body shiver in my arms. I felt a slight sting of her nails biting into my forearms. My fantasy was coming to fruition.
“I just thought that maybe…” She looked up into my eyes, and I wished that she was really looking at me as Joel and not this hillbilly tech guy.
“You want to make him hurt. You want him to think of you getting punished by my dick over and over. Screaming out my name. Say it,” I growled, feeling like I wanted to take her right there. She was pulling out the alpha male in me. I wanted to claim her against the wall so that shithead man of hers would know who she really belonged to.
Her head leaned in closer, and then stopped just before my lips. I would let her take that final step.
“I want you to…” She closed her eyes, and was almost there. Fuck, this was happening!
“To…” she whispered and I felt her lips caress mine gently. Not really a kiss, but she was a centimeter away from it.
“To show me how you got this ridiculous thing to stay on your face. I mean seriously, I think I will need to do all your disguises from now on if this is how you do it.”
Uh, what?
Her body pulled away from mine in a fit of laughter. What the fuck just happened?
Alessandra was laughing hysterically in front of me. Like, full-on, stitch-in-her-stomach laughter. Unbelievable.
“You knew it was me?” I felt played. Which was pretty hypocritical, since I was sort of playing her, too, but whatever. These are my feelings.
“Really, Joel? I look at your face every day, up close and personal. You really think I wouldn’t recognize you?” Her laughter was calming down, but those feelings in my stomach hadn’t gone away. I schooled my face.
“You could have been a pretty good actress. Although I knew that you’d figured it out. I just wanted to see if I could get you to kiss me. Since pretty boys aren’t your type, thought I’d try the cowboy.” Even though that was a complete lie, she bought it.
“No thanks, Cowboy Casanova.” She smiled and walked back into the bar.
Fuck, now I was never going to live down that name. But at least she didn’t see the real emotions that were stirring in my gut from our play.
I walked back in with all the swagger I could muster up, feeling nothing like the man that smiled and joked with his coworkers. For the first time, I felt like I was in uncharted waters with Alessandra. I wasn’t giving up, but for the night I would let myself feel vulnerable to what this girl was doing to me. She had me up in knots, consuming all my thoughts, and feeding that desire to make her mine.
