Until then, I replayed the look on the guy’s face when the first holographic dick hit his cheek.
I fucking loved my bar.
CHAPTERNINE
My back was to the door when I heard the gentle whoosh of it opening. I was sitting on the arm of the couch, my bare feet pressed into the soft cushion as I watched the bar start to wind down for the night. It was pushing two in the morning, and I knew Indy had already given everyone an opportunity for last call.
I’d been hiding in my office for hours now, watching Cain through the glass, as he sat and nursed the same beer. He glanced back at the mirror I was concealed behind several times, as though he could feel my heated gaze on him throughout the night.
At one point, Sly had paid me a visit, wanting to hear about what had Cain’s panties in a twist the last few days. I’d word vomited, explaining everything I’d said to him, plus the conversation I’d had with Elle. Sly sat on the couch chuckling, unsuccessfully trying to hide his laugh behind the fist he held to his lips.
He agreed with Elle that Cain absolutely thought I meant I wanted to have a threesome, but promised to have a conversation with him if the opportunity arose to explain his side of our situation to him.
Not that I gave a shit, honestly. Cain could think whatever he wanted, but being that Cain held a higher rank in the club than Sly did—thehighestrank—he wanted to show some sort of respect.
He’d also offered to step back from our arrangement so I could pursue whatever was unresolved between me and Cain, but I ended up begging him not to, in a very unbecoming,un-Rosie like way.
Whatever.
I knew the entire situation was a mess, but as the days passed, I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into the hole I’d crawled myself into.
When Sly left for the night with my promise to join him in his room after the bar shut down, I sat in the exact spot I was in now and let my thoughts drift away from me.
Thoughts of Cain, and what could have been if I had left Brent all those years ago.
How different my life may have been if I hadn’t kept letting Brent in, wasting years on a man I didn’t really care about, all because havingsomeonewas better than having no one.
Now, as Cain strode into my office, my heart rate quickened with anticipation. “Have you thought about my offer?” I asked him, craning my neck to look at him. My tone was nonchalant, but on the inside I felt anything but.
“I told you I won’t share you, Rose.” He rounded the couch and lifted my legs, taking a seat on the cushion my feet had been resting on, then placed them back down into his lap. “I’ve always been the guy on the sidelines, the one wishing he had you when someone else did. It won’t happen again, Rose. If you still want Sly, then you can’t have me.”
“Who said I want you, Cain?”
His hand skimmed up my bare leg, and he drew lazy circles with his thumb against my calf. “Because when two people are meant to be, those feelings don’t just disappear.”
A shiver ran through me, his words resonating somewhere deep in my soul. He was right, and I absolutely hated that he was right. I may have shoved my feelings deep down in the darkest caverns within me, but they were still there, begging to claw their way back through the dust, ashes, and rubble until they reached the very place they belonged.
My heart.
“You don’t even know me anymore. For all you know, the Rosie you remember is dead and gone.”
“I’m confident that the same woman I watched drive away is the same woman in front of me now. I’ve watched you these last few months, Rose. You’ve grown, but you haven’t changed. You’re stronger now, more independent. I’m really proud of how far you’ve come.”
Emotion clogged in my throat, and I had to look away before I said something stupid, or worse…teared up. Cain always had a way with his words and knew exactly how to say everything I wanted to hear.
Unlike most men, though, Cain actually meant his words.
You could tell by the way he held your gaze as he spoke, and the sincerity in his tone.
“What happened to you?” I asked him, eyes cast downward as I watched the movement of his thumb brush against me. “When I took Brent back, you never came around. You never called. It was like you were a ghost. You two used to be inseparable.”
His movements stopped, and he slid his hand back down to my ankle, wrapping his hand around it. “He never told you?”
I shake my head.
Cain’s eyes narrowed, his face contorting into a look of sadness for a split second. “The short answer is I refused to stand by and watch you go back to him. I was done feeling like my heart was being set on fire every time he touched you or belittled you. That’s all it ever was between the two of you, fucking or fighting.”
“That’s not al—”
