She’s one hundred percent certain I’ll follow.
I grab her wrist with two fingers, peeling her hand off me. Only one woman’s allowed to touch me now.
“Thanks for the offer...” I stumble, my mind blanking. Not only was I a slut, but a fucking asshole, too. I fucked this girl a dozen times... you’d think I’d remember her name by now. I don’t, so I take a wild guess, “...Grace, but—”
“It’s Jess,” she huffs.
“Right. Jess. I’m not interested.”
She rears back like I slapped her. “Are you not feeling well?”
Broadway snorts into his tumbler. “Proves our point, doesn’t it? Even Jess knows the only way you’ll pass is if you’re dying.”
“I’m fine,” I say, glaring at him before turning back to Jess. “Just no longer available.”
She’s speechless, staring at me as if I’ve confessed to murdering kittens for shits and giggles. Without a word, she saunters away.
“Look at you, all grown up,” Ryder teases when I grab the bottle and pour the last of thePappyinto our glasses.
Unless the topic changes fast, this will be a long night.
19
Leilani
Ishouldn’t wait up for Koby every evening.
Definitely not on a Friday.
It’s barely midnight. He won’t be home for hours, maybe not until dawn. I should head to bed and let him do the same, but I’m selfish... and hopeful. Maybe tonight he’ll come back early. Maybe I’ll get more than five minutes of his busy schedule.
Half the time I want to scream at the top of my lungs and hit him straight in that perfect face for making me feel so unhinged. Soneedy. So raw. So alive after years of numbness.
The emotions Anton tried to train out of me are back, bubbling like a shaken soda bottle, and every time Koby so much as breathes near me, another Mentos drops in.
It’s only a matter of time before I burst.
I shake my head, cheeks flushing at the fantasy distracting me: Koby, shirtless in his bed, jeans undone, back against the headboard, his cock in his fist, and me, kneeling between his thighs, tongue out, ready for a taste.
Does he think about me like that?
He must do. I refuse to believe he’s not into me on some level. There’s too much intimacy between us, too much heat for this attraction to be one-sided.
Although, given he looked like sex on a stick when he left, maybe I’m misreading him completely.
Maybe he won’t come home at all tonight. He always dresses well, but tonight he cranked it up. Black slacks, white shirt, matching jacket that made his shoulders look even broader. Gold cufflinks, signet rings, and a watch that could fund a semester of college. More bling than on any other day.
Why put in that much effort if you’re not planning to impress someone?
I swallow the fist-sized lump clogging my throat.
When he saw me naked, the feral look in his eyes sent a thrill straight to my clit. My imagination fired up immediately. He locked himself in his bedroom, and the whole time he was getting ready, I pictured his touch, his kisses, imagined his scent.
For a second, I thought everything had shifted. I thought maybe this was the crack in the wall between us, the moment he’d finally take what we both want.
Wishful thinking.
I don’t get it. I really don’t. His eyes burned like I was the only thing he wanted when he saw me naked, but he walked away.
