“You know the one,” he started, stealing a glance at me as we reached the stop sign at the end of my street. “You hurt him, I’ll bury you. You make him cry, I’ll end your life. That kind of stuff.”
I didn’t know Eli had done that. It had never been mentioned to me, and now I wondered if he’d given the same talk to anyone else I’d dated. I wondered if Silas and Chris had been subject to Eli’s unique attempts at intimidation. “Did he really?”
“He did,” Noah confirmed, “and then he made me swear that I’d never tell you. So, you know, maybe don’t tell him that I told you. I’m not sure the shovel talk had a statute of limitations.”
I covered his hand with mine. “I’ll protect you. Promise.”
We made small talk the rest of the way to Goliath. He told me about a late-night conversation he’d had with Moira the night before. She’d woken up from a weird dream and called him immediately, because she had to make sure that he hadn’t gotten into a car accident. He told me that she’d had weird dreams like that before, and every time, she had to call and confirm that whatever her brain had dreamed up wasn’t real. So far, none of her dreams had held any truth, but she still checked every time.
It appeared that their friendship was just as weird as mine with the boys. I loved that for him. I firmly believed that everyone should have friends like that.
Thanks to Noah driving, I was actually on time to meet my friends.
“You must be a miracle worker,” Seb teased as he stood up to shake Noah’s hand. “I can’t remember the last time Matt wasn’t the last to arrive.”
“Eli’s going to lose his shit when he figures out that whatever excuse he has for not being on time made him and Holden the last ones here,” Jonas joked with a loud laugh. “Can’t wait to see his face.”
Noah grinned at both of the boys and took one of the bar stools around the table. He pulled me onto the seat next to him. We were sitting so close to one another that our knees were pressed together. We all talked over the music, and I was in awe at how easily Noah fit in with everyone. When Holden and Eli joined us ten minutes later, Noah offered to buy the first round of drinks. Eli hopped off his bar stool to help him, and I wondered if there was another shovel talk on the horizon. I watched them weave through the crowd to the bar and then turned my attention to Silas and Chris.
“Did Eli say anything to you two when you started dating Jonas and Seb?” I asked.
“No?” Chris commented, his voice rising at the end like he was asking a question.
“I mean, he made some rude comments, but you were there. You already know that.”
“He’s not going to threaten your boyfriend,” Holden teased. “He’s outgrown that.”
I raised an eyebrow at Holden. Did he know that Eli had threatened Noah in high school? Actually, he probably did. There were very few things Holden or Eli did that the other didn’t know about, and it had always been like that between them. Chris and Silas had both thought something was going on between them when they’d been introduced to the group, and I wasn’t entirely sure that Chris believed them when they said nothing had ever happened between them.
Noah and Eli returned to the table with drinks a few minutes later, and I noticed that Noah had chosen me a brightly colored cocktail, one that came with an umbrella stabbed through a fewpieces of fruit. It was similar to the drinks I’d ordered when he’d gone out with us after his play. I was surprised that he’d paid that close of attention. Warmth spread through my body as I took a bite of the alcohol soaked pineapple skewered by the umbrella.
Conversation flowed around the table as we finished our first round of drinks. Eli was the first person to leave the table, following behind some guy who’d come over to ask him to dance. Holden followed soon after, and I spotted him dancing with someone right next to Eli, noticeable only by Eli’s distinctive dirty blonde curls. Chris and Seb left next, joining them on the dance floor.
“Think we should dance too,” Noah suggested, leaning in close enough that I could hear his words. His warm breath on my ear sent chills down my spine.
I nodded and slid off my bar stool. I looked over at Jonas and Silas. “You guys coming?”
They followed us onto the dance floor, and we made our way over to where our friends were dancing. The music washed over me, and I pressed my body against Noah, moving it to the beats of the dance song playing over the speakers. His body felt solid behind mine. His hands stayed on my hips at first, holding me against him as we moved together. His head rested against my shoulder, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually enjoying dancing at Goliath. I knew it had to do with the man dancing behind me.
When the song shifted, I turned to dance face-to-face with him. Our foreheads pressed together, and I could feel his breath against my cheeks, against my lips. My heart raced as we moved in sync. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than the heat rising between us and the way his hands felt through the thin fabric of my shirt. His hands moved down my torso until they were behind me, then down further to my ass. He pulled me incloser, and I could feel the reaction our dance was having on his body.
I knew he could feel my reaction too.
My breath hitched in my throat, and our eyes met in the pulsating club lights. There was a beat, and then our lips collided. He squeezed my ass tightly, pulling me in closer, like he was trying to merge us into one being. I lost all sense of myself. I was grinding against him like a man possessed as our tongues explored one another’s mouths. The music was there, a loud thumping that synced up with my heartbeat and the vague movements of our bodies.
I wanted more.
It was a rare feeling for me, wanting that physicalmorethat it was a jolt to my system. I pulled away from our kiss, panting. “Want to…”
“Leave?”
Yes. I did want to leave. But I didn’t want to stop touching him. I didn’t want to lose this moment. What if putting a bit of space between us made that feeling go away, made me lose that desire for something physical? It was a bolt of lightning, and I needed to capture it before it faded away. I remembered all of Eli’s stories of hookups at Goliath. “Bathroom?” I suggested.
His eyes widened, but before he could question it, I yanked his hand and started pulling him through the crowd. Eli gave me a wicked grin as I passed him, and I had a feeling he knew where we were going and what we were about to do.
The bathroom was, thankfully, empty when we went in. I pulled him into one of the stalls and locked it behind us. I could feel the doubt and hesitation starting to creep in along the edges of my courage. I needed to act before I lost my nerve. I closed the distance between us and captured his lips with mine again. I pushed him backward until he was pressed against the metal door of the bathroom stall.
That desire formorekept flaring. Kissing him wasn’t enough. I didn’t care that we were in a filthy bathroom stall. A thousand different ways of getting more filled my head, and each and every one of them was so damn appealing. I wanted every single scenario that came to life in my head. I wanted to fuck him. I wanted him to fuck me. I wanted to drop to my knees and take him in my mouth, and I wanted him to return the favor. Of course, none of those ideas seemed like a great idea given where we were. I didn’t like the idea of touching that bathroom floor, and I couldn’t imagine him wanting to either.
