“Awh.” She sighs and leans onto the bar. I look up like I’m finding a distant memory.
“I thought she was the love of my life, you know? She made me laugh and smile like no one else.” I wipe a hand down my face and look down at the pretty brunette. “I imagined my future kids with her fierce attitude and eyes, her perfect skin and curly hair.” I watch the way her features soften and eyes widen with yearning. Glad my acting skills are good enough to fool her, because I haven’t a clue how any of this is meant to sound, I am simply reciting the lines Rosie fed me.
“I just want a big family and a woman to love. To care for. I just want to be wanted back, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” She sighs and then steps closer, smoothing a hand over my arm and looking up at me through her long lashes. I can’t work out the lump that forms in my throat at the words being exchanged and her responding touch; it’s making me uneasy.
I reach a hand up and tuck her hair behind her ear to bring myself back to the moment.I need to get a better handle on these stupid fucking thoughts.
“Sorry…I…I am a mess.” I cover my face with my hands, frustrated at the fact it isn’t even a lie. I am a fucking mess, over a woman who barely knows I exist, no less.
“I’m Nadia,” she provides. Pure lust radiates from her, and I allow myself a sparse moment to admire her, taking in her beauty.
“I’m Caleb,” I say back gently, letting her step closer into my space.
“Maybe I can help take away your pain? Remind you what it’s like to be touched by a woman?” she whispers, and her fingers trace a path up my forearm to my jawline.
“You don’t have to do that,” I whisper back and let my hand find its way to her waist, pulling her gently toward me, and she lets me. Falling into my chest, she rests her hands on my pecs and I encircle her lower back with my hands, trying to clear my head of that annoying little voice.
Not Rosie.
She isn’t Rosie.
“It feels wrong. I haven’t…with anyone else.” I look at her lips, which part in a pretty smile.
“Let me help you,” she says quietly and then rises on the tips of her toes, sealing her lips on mine, tentatively, testing, and I let her, falling into her softness and letting myself kiss her back. It’s a nice kiss, it makes me think the sex might be a bit vanilla, but the feel of her is nice under my hands. I try to let myself fall into her kiss, the way her tongue darts out and tests the seam of my lips, but as I open and deepen the kiss, I feel the hair on the back of my neck rise. I feel the burn of her stare from across the bar, and when I open my eyes, they land on Rosie. She and her hulk are seated at a booth, his head is buried in her neck, andshe combs her fingers through his hair as she lets him kiss her delicate skin. That’s not what has my regard completely locked on her, though. It’s that Rosie’s attention isn’t on her hulk of a date…it’s on me. Burning fires in those whiskey-brown eyes, no hint of shyness at being caught.
A scorching heat races through my veins at her boldness, at the challenge of it. I keep my sight locked with hers, letting my tongue deepen this kiss with Nadia. My hands move to grip her tighter, teasing her curves until I feel her relax against me, melting into my arms.
Just another one of our games, I realize, as I focus on Rosie. The way she is toying with me as she lets another man touch her, kiss her, in ways she knows I’m close to begging for. Try as I might, I can’t fight the thought that pushes forward:Is she thinking about me?I know for certain, with my hands trailing Nadia’s body and tasting her mouth, that I’m picturing Rosie. That it’sherbody I’m exploring, her skin I’m finally touching. Her lips I taste desperately, never wanting to come up for air.
Rosie’s lips open in a gasp, and that’s when I note Hulk’s hand disappearing under her dress.
Burning red fury blurs my vision. My skin is onfire, I can’t help but rip away from Nadia as I watch Rosie’s chest rise and fall from across the room, enraptured by her subtly widening eyes…and then she tipped her head in silent confirmation.Oh shit.He’s going to get her off in the bar.
“Are you okay?” Nadia pants, and when I quickly fix my eyes to find hers, I see the slight glazed-over look of desire before my eyes snatch back on Rosie. “Caleb?” Nadia’s gentle voice is trying to get my attention, but I can barely hear a thing with the way my heart is thumping like a fucking drum in my chest. I didn’t realize that cold, dead thing still lived.
“No. I’m not,” I answer, still not able to stop my eyes from burning the back of Hulk’s massive body as he touches the girl who owns my mind.
Fuck.My cock is straining painfully in my pants.What is happening right now?
Am I about three seconds away from yanking Hulk off Rosie so I can punch him in the jaw? Yes. Am I impossibly turned on and hard as fuck from watching Rosie being pleasured? Also, yes. Seeing her lips part, knowing she is soaking her underwear and probably thinking about my fingers buried deep inside her?Fucking Christ.
“You like kissing me?” Nadia snickers and pulls my attention back to her, confused about what she is talking about. I quickly correct my attention to meet her eyes, seeing her gesture to the tent in my pants.
“You’re so pretty,” I lie, practically panting, hoping she hadn’t caught my focus locked on Rosie. “Let’s do it again,” I say and pull Nadia toward me, anything to be able to distract her so I can get my eyes back on Rosie. This time I kiss her with more force than the pretend-loving-boyfriend from before. I kiss Nadia desperately, imagining that night from Noah’s birthday and the way Rosie tasted, the way she kissed me like a woman on a mission. Nadia falls back into my embrace but links her arms around my neck, and when I’m satisfied that she is distracted, I open my eyes and find Rosie still looking at me except she has her back completely pressed up against the booth seating, her fingers dug into the chair as she sits with her legs slightly spread. Hulk at least has enough decency to block her from anyone seeing, but with the way her head is angled, with the rise and fall of her chest and the direction of his hand, I know exactly what’s going on.
I slip a hand under Nadia’s dress, finding the smooth skin of her thighs, and trail up to find her ass, gripping softly. I watchas Rosie’s eyes squeeze shut, and I know she’s coming. I groan into Nadia’s mouth, utterly desperate now for a release. I watch Rosie’s eyes squeeze even tighter, her perfect lips form the word that does me in.
Caleb.
“Sorry.” I pull away abruptly from Nadia, breathless and losing my ever-loving mind. “I…I can’t do this, I’m sorry.” I shift out of reach, disentangling myself from the nice girl in front of me, screaming at myself to not look back over to the curly-headed vixen across the bar, who is determined to ruin every last brain cell I have.
“I’m just going to leave,” I mumble to myself, blinking rapidly and turning to the bar to discreetly rearrange my dick. Annoyed at myself, at the control Rosie has over me when she is in the room, and undoubtedly burning with an anger that’d rival Addison at this point.Hewas touching her.Hehad his lips and his hands on her. I couldn’t work out what was worse, that I knew what it was like to have my hands and lips on her? Or that I was ready to explode from being so fucking turned on at the sight of Rosie coming for someone else.
I was right before, I am a fucking mess. I wanted to break the guy’s fingers, tear his arms off, and bleach his fucking eyes for looking at her like that. But I wanted to watch her unravel while calling my name a million times over and I don’t have a clue what the fuck to do about any of it.
Nadia seems unimpressed with the brush-off but is eloquent in the way she smiles and squares her shoulders, moving about the room, I’m sure, looking for her actual Prince Charming. I scold myself, shaking my head, letting the bartender know I am moving, gesturing to the back corner with a lone booth. I want to get the fuck out of here. Go home, drown my sorrows and overactive brain in some expensive whiskey. But another part ofme doesn’t trust the people of New York City, and I’m not about to leave Rosie here on her own.
