“You are delicious,” he said, stroking a hand through her hair. “And I’m leaving now so I can go be polite to women I have no interest in dating. If you finally make up your mind about what you want, you know where to find me.”
He turned to leave, and before he reached the door, Mabel pushed herself up on her elbows and called out weakly, “See? I knew you had a thing for doing it on top of desks.”
Jake smiled a wicked smile at her. “You have no idea. Those boots, by the way? So fucking hot.”
Then he left, easing the door shut behind him. Mabel collapsed backward, not sure her legs could support her yet. After a minute or two, she sat up and pushed her skirt down, yanking off her ruined underwear and dropping them into the trash can next to the desk. Let the office’s owner wonder what had happened in here. Actually, no. It was pretty obvious what had happened. Let the owner be jealous instead.
Mabel moved to the door on watery knees and stuck her head out into the corridor, looking left and then right like some kind of cartoon villain making sure the coast was clear. She aimed for her best “nothing to see here!” vibe as she walked out to rejoin Ana at their table, although she imagined her tousled hair told a completely different story.
“Hey.” Ana handed Mabel a drink when she was seated. “The guys just got onstage for their last set.”
She nodded and drained her glass, barely tasting the contents. It could’ve been soda or alcohol or diesel fuel for as much as she tasted. Her friend watched in amusement.
“Nice hickey.” Ana unwound the scarf from around her neck. “Want to borrow this for the rest of the night?”
Mabel touched the tender spot above her collarbone and shivered at the memory of Jake’s tongue and teeth loving the mark onto her skin. Then she wrapped the gauzy fabric around her neck and leaned to press her cheek against the wood table, letting out a long sigh.
Ana reached out to stroke her hair. “Jake?”
Mabel nodded against the table.
“And you’re still determined not to be with him?”
“Yes. No.” She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of Ana’s fingers moving along her scalp. “I want to. I’m scared.”
Ana kept smoothing her hand over Mabel’s hair. “Too scared to chase your joy? That’s not the Mabel I know.”
Her friend was right. Jake had stripped her bare and, well, stripped her bare. Time to locate her bravery and chase that joy.
Thirty
Jake strutted back into the main room of the bar. Really, that was the only word for it. The memory of the way Mabel had fallen apart in his arms; the taste of her, hot and wet against his tongue; the helpless, blissed-out look on her face; the sounds she made when she came. What man wouldn’t strut a little having caused all that?
Back at his table, he dropped into a chair and inclined his chin at Brandon, who was sitting in the middle of the Brick Babe brigade. Brandon chin-nodded back but didn’t make any comments, lascivious or otherwise. Hopefully that meant he was in the clear and didn’t look too smug for having rounded most of the bases just now with the hottest woman in the bar.
He hadn’t intended to corner her tonight to talk about their relationship, and hedefinitelyhadn’t planned on kissing her, let alone sliding his hands under her skirt to steal all that heat for himself.
It was just that she’d sung that song.
Before that, he’d been enjoying her performance. She was as electric as he remembered from the show in September. He’d been content to sit back and drink in all her magnetism, but of course Brandon just had to speak up.
“Your girlfriend’s good!” he yelled over the Rob Zombie song she was covering.
Thea turned and hit him with a confused glance. “Your girlfriend? I thought she was dating Aiden?”
Jake closed his eyes briefly, praying for strength. “She’s not my—it’s not like that.”
And then Mabel and Dave moved to the edge of the stage and she sang for him. No, she’d sungtohim, as if he were the only other person in the room. Her voice had been strong, but the vulnerability on her face and the raw yearning in her tone gutted him. She didn’t move. She didn’t shift her focus away from him. She simply sat on that stool and exposed her soul. And when she was done, she morphed back into rock star Mabel, laughing and waving as if she hadn’t just shown him his own bloody, beating heart.
After the song, he didn’t dare make eye contact with anyone at the table until he felt a gentle touch on his knee. It was Thea.
“Are you telling me that woman up there doesn’t care about you?” Her soft voice was barely audible over Mabel’s final song.
Jake shrugged helplessly.
“Well, it sure seems like she does. Maybe go talk to her?” When he didn’t move right away, Thea tried another tactic. “If you don’t track her down the instant she’s off stage, I’m making a move on you myself.”
That startled a laugh out of him. “For pretty much any other guy, that would be awful motivation,” he said. “Thanks.”
