I pull open the bathroom door and I take a step out and see him leaning against the wall beside the door. His feet are crossed at the ankles, his hair is pushed to the side like it always is. His beard makes my hands itch to touch it, his shirt—again open at the collar—and I want nothing more than to lick up his throat while I ride him. “Jesus.” I put my hand to my chest. “What are you doing lurking near the women’s bathroom, Zane?”
“Oh, now she knows my name,” he goads, and I can feel the tension in the hallway. It’s thick and the walls are closing in on us.
“What are you doing waiting for me in the dark hallway?” I ask as I try not to get too close to him, fearing I’m going to try to touch him and he’s going to turn me down, yet again.
“No, what are you doing is the question of the night,” he fires back. I fold my arms over my chest and my tits push up more.
His eyes roam down as he takes in my action. “I don’t know what you mean.” I smile at him, a fake smile just like I gave Elliott before. “Right now I’m having the best night I’ve had practically all year long.” I shrug my bare shoulder and his tongue comes out to lick his bottom lip, mine wanting to come out and touch his. “I might even end the night with Elliott and me rolling around in?—”
“Victoria,” he says my name and the minute he does, my whole body starts to tingle. My stomach flutters. My heart speeds up. My nipples tighten, and a certain part of me demands to be played with.
“Yes,” I reply, pretending that him saying my name does nothing to me, “what can I do for you?” He just stares at me and his look is one where I want him to pick me up and push me against the wall, which pisses me off. “You know what, I don’t care what you have to say,” I hiss. “It’s been a week since I called you, one fucking week.” I hold up my finger and he takes a step closer to me. “And you haven’t done anything. Not a call. Not a text. Nothing.”
“So you date that guy?” He points to where the table is.
“Why shouldn’t I? What do you want me to do, stop living my life?” I roll my eyes. “I’m twenty-five, not ninety-five.”
“That guy is a fucking tool, and you deserve better,” he says softly. My eyes burn and my nose stings, knowing he’s right, but not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
“Better?” I tilt my head to the side, hoping my voice doesn’t crack. “Do you mean I should be with someone like you?” He glares at me. “Because, I believe, I made myself pretty clear to you when I called you,” I hiss, my head advancing into his space, “that you could have had me.”
“It’s not that easy,” he deflects, and I shake my head.
“But it could be,” I say and walk away from him to head back to my date.
I walk out of the darkened hallway and head to the table, seeing Elliott is there on his phone. Jaxon and Ariella are across from him, the two of them in their own conversation. Knox, Kylie, Kirby, and Lexi’s chairs are all empty. “Where did everyone go?” I ask, sitting in the chair beside him, his eyes glued to his phone.
“They called it a night,” Jaxon answers me. “The sitter just called us.” He looks at me and then back at Elliott. “We have to go. Jagger is being really fussy. We’re just waiting on the bill.”
“Oh no,” I say, sitting down.
“Yeah,” Jaxon confirms. “Do you want to come with us?” He raises his eyebrows.
I look back at Elliott and then look over toward the bar, seeing Zane come back out from the bathroom. He looks over at us and I dare him to come back. Dare him to finally come after me, and he looks to the right then toward me again, and before he can make his choice, someone comes up to him and starts to talk to him.
The server comes over and hands Jaxon one bill and then the other bill to Elliott, who takes out his credit card and hands it to him. “That one might be heavy,” he brags to the server, “it’s platinum.” He looks over at me and winks.
“So did you have fun tonight?” I ask him as we wait for the server to come back with his platinum card.
“It’s been alright,” he replies, and I throw my head back and pretend he just said something funny. Zane, always watching me, looks over at me confused.
“We’re going to go and say bye to Coach,” Jaxon announces. “Elliott, I hope to see you again,” he says and then mumbles “never” under his breath. I roll my lips and close my eyes. The server comes back and hands Elliott his card, and I get up at the same time he does. He puts his hand on the lower part of my back and ushers me out. I can feel Zane staring at me. I can feel his eyes on me, but I ignore the feeling to turn and go toward him and instead walk out with Elliott. He walks us to his brand-new BMW. He made a point to tell me that he just got this car last week. It’s the newest one on the market, they brought it in specially for him. I tried not to roll my eyes at him, since it’s actually not brand-new to the market because my uncle Nico got his seven months ago.
I wait for him to walk over to my side of the door and open it for me, but he just takes his keys out of his pocket and unlocks the door. Okay, that would be the nail in the coffin at this point. “Oh God,” I say, opening my own door, “I got this sudden headache. Wow, it’s like a pounding.”
“I had one of those last week,” he says, and I look over at him. “You need to drink lots of fluids.”
“Thanks,” I tell him, rolling my eyes, and when we pull up to my house, I look over at him. “I’m really sorry. I would invite you in, but my head.” I hold my hand to my head as I reach for the door handle. “Thank you for tonight; it was fun. Text me.” I get out of the car before he tries to lean over and kiss me, and I make my way to my front door, almost jogging. I close the door behind me and for the millionth time I wish it was Zane coming home with me.
twelve
Zane
I walk out of the bathroom and I’m about to head to the table, when I see her sit down and then turn to the side to talk to her fucking date. Who, by the way, is the biggest fucking tool I’ve ever met, and I’ve met plenty of fucking tools in my life. “Hey, Coach,” Woods says, coming to me, “you have a minute?”
I look back over at Victoria and see her bare shoulder and my teeth bite down, wishing I could bite her right there before I mark her. I want to tell him that I’ll talk to him another time, but I also want my players to know they can come to me for anything. “Sure thing,” I say reluctantly and motion over to the empty table in the corner. “Should we sit?”
“Yeah,” he agrees. I turn to walk over to the table, pulling out the chair that faces the restaurant and the front door. This is pure torture for me, seeing her laugh with someone else, wanting it to be me, but knowing I shouldn’t fucking go there with her.
