He must have nodded because Jake got right to work.
I glared at the wall of liquor behind the bar, the man’s leg falling against mine, his elbow touching my arm. I switched my legs and angled my body away from him. I couldn’t handle this.
The warmth had already started growing in the pit of my stomach, my heart skipping a beat, my breathing picking up. He had altered something in my brain, and I hated it. Sex shouldn’talter how you think or feel. It shouldn’t have that much power.
Jake slid over his drink and headed to the other end of the bar to clean something I knew was already clean just to avoid the situation.
I glared at him. Great. Silence it was today. “Nobody will fuck you like I do,” the man told me, taking a sip from his glass. “Stop looking other places for a fix.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need afix. I want out of the deal and to never see you again.”
He wrapped his hand around my thigh and jerked me around, pulling a gasp from my lips, his face suddenly inches from mine. “Too bad, little writer. A deal is a deal.”
I bared my teeth at him, trying to ignore the fire blooming under my skin where he touched me, the way my pussy throbbed at the feeling of his breath against my lips, at the sight of his eyes. “It’s not a deal I agreed to,” I seethed.
A second later, I forced myself to relax, to come off as nonchalant even as his eyes drifted to the left side of my face. I offered a sly smile and a soft shrug before I turned away from him, letting the hair fall back into place. “But men like you don’t care about that. About the word ‘no’ and ‘not interested’. It’s not something I’m unfamiliar with.”
I lifted my glass to my lips just as his found my ear. “There are no men like me,” he hummed, a storm brewing within me. “I didn’t hear you saying no in the park when I had my tongue down your throat.”
I swallowed, every inch of meveryaware of him. Of his hand sliding up my thigh, of the way his smile felt against my ear. “I s-said stop,” I replied, my voice betraying me.
He chuckled, the sound doing something illegal to me. “And yet…” He turned back to his drink, removing himself completely.
I closed my eyes, my thighs squeezing together as I willed the feelings to go away. And yet I remembered needing him morethan I needed air. And yet I remembered needing to feel him everywhere.
And yet I pulled him closer.
I lowered my glass without taking a drink, despite the fact that my tongue was dryer than the desert. This wasn’t fair. He drugged me. He spiked my food or the drinking water in this city.Something. Because this? This wasn’t fucking normal.
My phone started ringing, causing me to jump at the sudden sound. I sneered, my face burning bright red. It had to have been my mom. Steven was behind the curtain so there was no way it was him.
I answered the phone without looking. “Hello?”
“Hey! How are you?”
I slouched over the bar, putting my forehead in my hand. “Just great, Katie.” I lowered my voice to a bare whisper. “I told you that I’d get the chapters to you soon, okay? I’m…in the middle of something.”
“What? You already got a chapter in, you’re caught up, just don’t fall behind again, okay?”
My brows furrowed and then I rolled my eyes. I was losing my mind. “Okay, yeah. Sorry, what’s up?” I asked, glancing towards the curtain. We hadn’t been here long, but God, I’d give anything for this to be over.
“Are you sitting down?”
I closed my eyes. “Yes, Katie, it’s part of the job description,” I said tiredly only to wince. I didn’t mean to come off soundingsorude, but God, I needed a break. A vacation. Something that got me far away from this place.
“Okay good, because guess what?”
I could feel so many pairs of eyes on me. It seemed like everyone was watching me now, holding their breath, waiting for something to happen, and I hated it. “What?”
“We’ve commissioned someone to draw fanart and the firstedits were just delivered!”
I sat straight up, suddenly wide awake, my eyes widening, my fingers finding my lips. “Are you serious?” I asked, my heart racing. Fanart?Realfanart? Formy books?
“Yes!” she squealed. “They aresogood! It’s only for two of your books right now;The Unforgettable Rose, andThe Glass Sea, but I swear, this is exactly how I pictured your characters. Next is an entire line of merchandise! I’m sending you the pictures now!”
I ripped the phone from my ear and pulled up her messages, refreshing and refreshing until the pictures finally started coming through.
My characters.
