by Alice Raine
Making my excuses, I escaped to the bar for some space, but no sooner had I leant my elbow on the cool marble surface than I became aware of an angry wall of heat advancing to my right. I didn’t even need to look to know it was Sean. I could feel him in every molecule of my body as they united in the joint desire to reach out to him.
Glancing at him, I felt my stomach drop when I saw the hard, bitter expression on his face. He wasn’t even looking at me. Instead his eyes stared straight ahead, paying me no heed whatsoever. I was so stunned by his dismissal that it took a second or two to work out that Sean actually was looking at me, via the mirror mounted above the bar.
Connecting my gaze with his in the glass, I saw his furious glare and felt my hackles rising as I replayed the last half hour’s worth of memories, all of which involved him having his arm around, or touching, Savannah as she fawned over him like a doe-eyed, love-sick teenager.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ he ground out between clenched teeth.
He was annoyed. Good, he bloody deserved a bit of payback for tonight. ‘I’m ordering a drink,’ I replied coolly, not rising to his bait.
‘I meant with that dickhead who had his hands all over you.’
Turning marginally so I could see Sean in person, I saw the murderous expression on his face and flinched, but still managed to force out a shrug, acting as nonchalant as I could.
‘I have no idea what you mean. He’s talking to me. I’m talking back. It’s called polite conversation. He might have put his hand around my waist briefly, I don’t really remember.’ I knew I was playing with fire, but I just couldn’t help myself.
‘He definitely did put his hands on you, and not just on your fucking hip,’ Sean snarled, his head snapping away from the mirror and making direct eye contact with mine.
We might have been mad at each other, but the chemistry between us was just as intense as ever, and as our eyes met unflinchingly, tension seemed to crackle in the small gap that separated our bodies. I was fairly sure that if we had been alone, there would have been some magnificent angry sex taking place right about now.
The strength of his stare made my heart accelerate, but I was so angry with him that I tried not to let it faze me. ‘Well, it looks like we’re even, doesn’t it? He has his hands on me, and you have your hands on Savannah,’ I spat, our heated glowers clashing as our whispered row threatened to escalate into a full-on shouting match.
My remark was met with complete silence from Sean as some of the anger seemed to slip from his face to be replaced with … something I couldn’t quite name. His eyes flickered around my face before he blinked, long and slowly, an action I found mesmerising.
‘Is this just a game to you?’ he asked quietly, shaking his head. It was then that I recognised his new emotion – disappointment. He was disappointed in me. That was so much worse than anger and I felt my earlier bravado wither and die.
As this horrible realisation sank in, I watched as Sean ripped his gaze from mine and stared down at the counter. ‘Because it certainly isn’t a game to that guy you’ve been flirting with for the last half hour.’
I was suddenly feeling on the back foot, not liking the way his judgement was making me feel, because deep down, I knew he was right, and I was disappointed in myself too.
‘Nothing happened, and nothing will happen. We were just talking,’ I murmured, trying to justify my actions and knowing that my inner turmoil showed in my trembling voice.
‘Yeah? You might want to tell that to the fucking hard on he’s been rocking for you,’ Sean said in disgust as he began to turn away from me. ‘I’ll let you get back to him. If you’re lucky he’ll still have a semi, so that’ll save you some work later on.’
I knew his disgusting words were thrown at me out of hurt and jealousy – or maybe he really was disgusted with me – but either way they made me panic and I quickly tried to reach out for his wrist. ‘Sean …’ He flinched slightly, but then with a brief flick of his arm he disengaged my hand and continued away from me.
Shit. Shit. Shit. What the hell had I just done? Flashing my eyes around wildly, I saw Sean was now back at Savannah’s side, his arm firmly around her waist and her body practically tucked against him.
What a sight. It made me feel so sick that I ended up grimacing. I bet perfect Savannah would never make a face like this. On top of his blatant display of supposed affection, he also appeared to be pointedly ignoring me, his body angled away and fully focused on Savannah and the man they were currently talking to. Not that I could really blame him; I’d been a complete cow.
God, talk about a major backfire – it seemed that somehow instead of tempting him to come to me, I’d actually managed to push him firmly into her arms, which Savannah was clearly loving.
So Sean was in the perfect, possessive arms of his waif ex-girlfriend who obviously wanted him back, and I was standing on the side-lines with an ugly, scrunched-up face like a complete spare part.
To make matters worse, I saw Austin moving in towards me again with a narrow-eyed smirk on his face, so sending him a quick apologetic wince across the gap between us, I turned to make my escape. Dashing haphazardly through the crowds, I bumped into random elbows and spilt at least three people’s champagne until I finally saw the sanctuary of the exit looming ahead of me and made a dive for it.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Allie
Bursting from the gallery door and into the cool of the night air, I stumbled forward almost blindly as tears blurred my vision. Before I could take more than a few steps away from the gallery, I found myself being yanked sharply backwards by a tight grip on my elbow that had me staggering around in my high heels as if I were drunk. Which I wasn’t.
Idiotic, yes. But drunk? Sadly, no.
‘Careful, Allie! Bloody hell, you nearly ran straight into the traffic. What the hell is the matter?’ Cait. My shoulders sagged in relief. After basically throwing my love life down the toilet, my best friend was a welcome sight right now and I promptly threw myself into her arms and began to sob loudly.
‘Whoa! Hey … hey, shhh, it’s OK,’ she said soothingly, patting my back.
Poor Cait, I’m sure she didn’t know what had hit her, but I proceeded to snivel, hiccup, and cling to her as I tried to cry out my stupidity and the ever-growing fear that I’d just royally screwed things up with Sean.
When I was finally able to speak, I leant back and drew in a shaky breath. ‘It’s not OK, but thank you for trying to make me feel better.’ Giving her a watery smile I licked my lips and checked the road for any signs of a taxi. ‘I want to get away from here. Can we go back to the hotel?’
‘I’m just waiting for my cab, but they just texted to say it’ll be at least twenty minutes because there’s a traffic delay.’ Giving me an assessing look, Cait jerked her thumb across the road and towards a bar. ‘Want to go and get a drink and you can tell me what’s wrong?’
Blowing out a huge breath, I ran my hands over my hair to smooth it, but grimaced. ‘I must look a right state.’ Pulling a small packet of wet wipes from her handbag, Cait set about cleaning under my eyes for me and then stepped back with a satisfied smile.
‘You look fine. We’ll find a quiet corner and I can tell you about the huge mistake I probably just made.’
Her words made my composure crack and I laughed, loud, and hard and slightly manically. ‘You made a huge mistake? That makes two of us, because I have just majorly fucked things up with Sean.’ Seeing the expectant concern on her face, I rolled my eyes. ‘Let’s get inside and I’ll tell you.’
I linked my arm through Cait’s elbow, and we made our way across the road and into the bar. It was small, but thankfully relatively empty. As promised, she settled me into a quiet corner and disappeared to get us some drinks before returning with two glasses of house white just a minute later.
‘You want to go first?’ Cait asked, a sad smile twitching on her lips.
Shaking my head adamantly, I took a sip of
my wine and practically sighed with delight as the liquid parched my dry throat. ‘No. Whatever you’ve done can’t be as bad as mine, you go first.’
‘OK … well, I talked to Jack,’ she started tentatively, and I nodded. ‘Again.’ She emphasised this word and began to fiddle with the stem of her wineglass. ‘I kept thinking about our near kiss, so it was a bit awkward at first but not too bad.’ Cait sighed.
Reaching across, I gave her hand a gentle squeeze before asking the question I’d been dying to know since I’d watched them in the bar. ‘Did he ask you out again?’
She was chewing on her lower lip, yet another sign of her anxiousness. ‘No. But he did try to give me his number,’ she confessed much to my excitement, until I picked up on her use of the word ‘try’.
‘Try?’ I questioned, already sensing with a heavy heart where this was going.
‘Mmm-hmm,’ Cait confirmed with a nod. ‘I declined it.’
Although I’d given the excuse of going to the toilet to leave them alone together, I had watched the interaction between Cait and Jack for a while. Well, what good friend wouldn’t snoop just a tiny bit if their mate was being chatted up by a celeb? It had seemed pretty obvious that he was interested in Cait, and that she reciprocated, even if only tentatively, so it was really disappointing to see her so stubbornly walking away from it.
‘He said I could have it in case I needed him for anything, and I believe the exact words I used were “I can’t see why I’d need you.”’ Cait used her fingers to make speech marks in the air and grimaced. ‘Then I walked away. I barely even say goodbye,’ she confessed, now looking unsure and embarrassed.
‘You said that? To Jack Felton?’ I gawked, trying to picture the shock on his face when she said it, not to mention the fact that she had dismissed him by walking away. Jeez, talk about brave. Or stupid. Or stupidly brave.
‘And then, to add insult to injury, as I was leaving some drunk guy fell on me …’ Cait paused, a shudder running through her body. ‘Jack dragged him off me, so I kind of did end up needing him. Talk about ironic.’ Taking a long, deep breath, Cait seemed to shake herself and then smiled at me weakly. ‘So that’s my mess up. I basically just turned down a date with a film star that most women would kill to be with, which probably makes me the world’s biggest prize idiot.’
Cait raised her glass in an ironic toast, but I could tell her humour and bravado were to cover the insecurity she was feeling. She was avoiding Jack because she was scared, which, given her history, I couldn’t blame her for, but it was still incredibly frustrating to witness. I understood her reticence – he was older and more experienced than she was, but just the fact that she had admitted to feeling something towards Jack was a step in the right direction, and it seemed a shame not to pursue it.
‘You said you thought you’d screwed up with Sean. What did you do?’
Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands and hid my face. The more I thought back over my pathetic stunt, the more I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. Explaining what had happened, I described Austin’s attention and the jealousy it had sparked in Sean, and then reluctantly told her about my angry encounter with him at the bar.
‘It was such an immature thing to do,’ I moaned, shaking my head and picturing the look of fury and disgust on his face as he’d walked back to Savannah. ‘To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s off somewhere rekindling things with her. At least Savannah is his age and probably acts like a grown up, unlike me.’
Seemingly lost for words, Cait gave me a consoling smile and rubbed my arm. Glancing at my watch I saw it was now half past ten, and there had been no call from Sean, so obviously he’d had second thoughts about meeting me tonight – further evidence of how much of a fuck up I’d made.
‘We’re a right pair, aren’t we?’ Cait mumbled, but before I could agree, her mobile flashed up a new message and she began to pull on her jacket. ‘Taxi’s here. Let’s continue this conversation back at the hotel.’ Grabbing my things, we made our way outside where a yellow taxi was waiting. As I clicked over the pavement in my heels, Cait turned to me.
‘Don’t rule him out yet, Allie. It seems that between you and Sean you’ve both made your fair share of mistakes. Call him tomorrow and see how the land lies.’
I nodded, but deep down I couldn’t stop thinking of how repelled he’d looked, and feared my stunt tonight might have been the final nail in the coffin of our relationship.
Pushing open the door to the bungalow, Cait turned to me with a frown. ‘I don’t remember leaving the lights on,’ she commented warily, before spinning to me with a look on her face that seemed to push aside some of her earlier melancholy. ‘Oh! I bet room service has been around and put those chocolates on our pillows again! Chocolate is just what I need right now!’ Kicking off her flip flops, she flung her handbag onto the sofa and grinned at me. ‘You put the kettle on and I’ll go and get them,’ she yelped excitedly before disappearing in the direction of the bedrooms.
Rolling my eyes, I wandered to the bar area and ran the tap for a few seconds before filling the kettle and switching it on, then sat on one of the stools to release my tortured feet from the confines of my shoes. I wasn’t exactly a great high heel wearer at the best of times, but going out for drinks in a celebrity-studded art gallery I’d had very little choice. I could hardly have worn my trusty Converses.
Cait reappeared a few seconds later, walked over to where I was sitting, and placed just one chocolate down on the table with an odd expression on her face. I frowned and looked at her in confusion. ‘Who got left out?’ I asked in disappointment as I dumped my high heels down with a sigh of relief.
‘No one, yours is still on your pillow.’ As she spoke, I noticed that Cait definitely looked a bit strange; her cheeks were flushed and her eyes kept darting between me and the bedrooms in a decidedly twitchy manner. ‘There was, uh, something extra on your bed you might want to see,’ she said cryptically.
Giving me another odd look, Cait pursed her lips between her teeth, her eyes wide and unreadable. I couldn’t decide if she was trying to hold back a laugh, or just felt extremely uncomfortable, because her expression was downright bizarre. Sliding from my stool I decided to investigate, but as I walked down the corridor I heard Cait give a nervous giggle behind me.
Making my way towards the wing that housed the master bedroom, I sighed heavily. What a night. Perhaps room service had made a mistake and left an entire box of chocolates on my bed – now that would make me feel better.
But as I arrived at my room, I saw something else that made my spirts soar. Sean. More accurately, Sean, sprawled on his back, on top of my bed, asleep, and wearing not a stitch of clothing. Blimey. His head was closest to the door so his manhood wasn’t in my direct line of sight, but Sean didn’t exactly have a teeny-weeny, and I got a pretty good view of his package, so there was no doubt Cait would have had a bit of an eyeful too. Oops. I stifled a giggle – poor girl, no wonder she had looked so flustered.
Closing the door behind me I turned, licked my lips, and began to advance into the room as quietly as I could so I didn’t disturb him.
Pausing by the side of the bed I gazed down at him and allowed my eyes to roam across his sleeping form. A small sigh slipped from my lips as I took in the sight. Physically speaking, he was about as perfect as a man could get: toned, but not bulky; tanned, but naturally; perfectly proportioned in the tackle department; and with a nice sprinkling of hair in all the right places. For me, he was the epitome of masculinity and I found that just looking at him was getting me aroused.
Trying to ignore the fact that I now had a rather pleasant throbbing between my legs, I crossed them at the ankle and tried to decide what his presence here meant. Presumably he’d forgiven me? Or even if he hadn’t, at least he was here with me and not in bed somewhere with Savannah.
Lowering myself gently onto the side of the bed closest to his head, I tentatively lifted a hand and gently stroked some hairs
back from his brow. His skin was warm under my fingertips, making me smile like a lovesick fool. My expression promptly turned to a grin a second later as he made a small, happy grumble before his head tipped sideways to rest heavily in my palm. It was as if even in his sleep he wanted to be as close to me as possible.
My chest suddenly felt really tight as my heart accelerated, and then seemed to try to burst from the confines of my ribs as if it had been set on fire with a kind of burning, all-consuming love. God. I really did love him so much, and I couldn’t believe I had nearly messed that all up with my stupid, childish games.
Suddenly feeling almost desperate to make things right, I gently rolled his head off my hand and stood up. Raising my hands to the thin straps at my shoulders I flicked them to the side and let my dress slide from my body and pool at my feet.
We might’ve been going through a bit of a tough patch, but I knew one thing that never seemed to go wrong between us – sex. Unclasping my bra I let it fall down my arms to join my dress on the floor, my nipples tightening in the cool of the room and sending a delicious tingle to the heated flesh between my thighs. Gazing at Sean I tried to formulate a plan, and then wearing just my lacy panties I climbed on the bed and positioned myself next to his hips.
Using one finger I gently circled its tip on the hollow of his hip bone. In the past this simple action was enough to give Sean a hard on within a minute, even while he slept. I’d discovered it by accident one morning when I’d woken up before him and had been absently – and innocently – trailing my fingers across his skin. Needless to say, once I’d seen his morning wood, things hadn’t stayed innocent for very long.
Hoping it would work tonight, I continued for a few more seconds and watched in satisfaction as his peacefully sleeping cock began to rouse from its slumber. Seconds later, after several twitches and jerks it began noticeably growing in excitement, causing a smug grin to pull at my lips. Adding just a few gentle strokes to the soft skin on the underside, I checked his steady breathing, and saw he was definitely still asleep but now with a quickly developing hard on and an endearingly confused frown fluttering on his brow.
