by Lisa Simmons
“Have you found your man yet?” I asked, hoping to distract her further.
“No! I need your help to pick someone,” she giggled, pulling me inside the back door to re-enter the house. It was packed with people, some playing games, some making drinks, others dancing or just hanging out as the music pounded throughout the room. We leaned against the wall, giving us a fairly good view of the room as her eyes scanned for a potential hook up. It was weird; my behavior tonight was usually what Emily ended up doing while I either hung out with friends or my boyfriend. Tonight was the first party I had gone to since becoming single, and I had to say, my newly single life was off to a wonderful start. My eyes searched the crowd as well, looking more for the familiar beautiful face I had recently come to know than for a suitor for Emily, but she didn’t need to know that. “Him?” I asked, indicating toward a blonde guy across the room who looked like her usual type. She twisted her lips in consideration as she observed.
“No, I think he’s with a girl,” she said. Sure enough, seconds later a girl appeared by his side, planting a sloppy kiss to his cheek as he grinned down at her.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted as my eyes trailed further along the crowd. “Him?”
She scrunched up her nose. “No, too drunk,” she said as he wavered in his place.
“Holy shit,” she said suddenly, tone dropping. I glanced at her face to see her expression blank, jaw hanging open slightly as she stared. I followed her gaze to see it land on the person I had just been searching for. His head was thrown back in laughter, dimples I hadn’t noticed before dotting his cheeks as he leaned back against the wall, once again surrounded by a crowd of people. I couldn’t help but notice his hair looked significantly messier than it had the first time I’d spied him across the room.
“No,” I said immediately, knowing it was him who had caught her attention.
“No shit, no,” she said, surprising me. I had expected her to select him as her target, not reject him with such hostility.
“Why?”
“Don’t you know who that is?” she asked incredulously, tearing her gaze away from him to look at me in shock.
“No...” I lied. My eyes flitted back to him. I nearly choked when I found his gaze focused on me again, amusement glinting in his eye with the lingering smile from whatever he had been laughing at. His lips moved as he answered someone from his group, never tearing his gaze from mine. My heart pounded in his chest when his left eye dropped in a cocky wink before turning back to his group.
Luckily Emily had been too busy staring at me to see any of this.
“That’s that Evans guy,” she said slowly, as if it were obvious. Her words told me absolutely nothing.
“Okay?”
“You seriously haven’t heard of him?” she asked, her eyes widening at me.
“No, now what is it?” I said impatiently, flitting my gaze back to him and taking in his cool, relaxed stance. A ghost of a smirk remained on his face as he watched his group, not speaking again. Dark splotches of ink could be seen on the skin covering his forearm and I wondered how I had missed those the first time. When my gaze returned to his face, I sucked in a breath when I saw, once again, his green eyes focused on me.
He was going to have to stop doing that or I was going to pass out.
“He just... gets around, you know? Like a lot,” she said, a look of distaste crossing her face. My first thought was that she was being a bit hypocritical- hadn’t the only reason we’d come to this part in the first place was so she could find someone to hook up with? My second thought was a flash of concern, which was quickly extinguished by my realization that it suited me just fine. I wasn’t interested in any type of relationship, so I didn’t really care if he had that reputation. Sure, I wasn’t thrilled that I would probably be just another notch in his belt, but I wasn’t devastated by this news. Frankly, I wasn’t really surprised- he had been incredible in bed so it only made sense that he was... experienced. My eyes slid over him again, my eyebrows furrowing as I studied him. The more I thought about it, the less surprised I was. He was incredibly attractive, definitely confident enough, and clearly knew what he was doing. Even the move with making me wait behind the tree seemed a lot like something he had pulled several times, now that I thought about it.
Irritation flashed through me as his eyes locked on mine for what felt like the hundredth time. My passive expression turned to one of slight annoyance as his now serious face observed me, trying to determine the cause of my change in mood. I was proud of myself for deciding I didn’t want anything from him earlier, before I had even known any of this. Now that I knew, I was glad I hadn’t gotten some weird, irrational thought in my head that what we had done was anything more than sex. Incredible, mind-blowing sex, yes, but just sex all the same. I nodded to myself, wiping away my irritation and allowing my calmness to settle back in as I returned to the state of mind I had been in earlier. Nothing had really changed, after all. I had just learned a bit about his past, but it didn’t change the way I felt about him, which was nothing. Sure, there was still that weird lingering burn, but I attributed that to my intense attraction to him and his talents in the bedroom.
I glanced back at Emily to see her ignoring me, which was good because I had been wrapped up in my head for a while now, unashamedly observing Reece from across the room. Her eyes were focused on a man of her own, finally seeming to have found someone she deemed appropriate. She was currently waving him over to us, a flirty grin spreading on her lips. “I’m gonna get a drink,” I told her. She barely acknowledged me as she made eyes at the now approaching guy. Pushing myself off the wall, I glanced at Reece one last time to see him refocused on his group. I wove through the crowd and made my way into the kitchen where the drinks were. After sniffing several different suspicious looking options, I decided it was safest to go with a beer from the quickly emptying keg. I had nearly pumped a cup full of the frothy beer when a voice at the shell of my ear made me jump.
“Did you tell her?” he asked, standing closely behind me as he watched me finish up at the keg.
“No,” I said evenly, turning around to face him. He didn’t back up, leaving only a few inches of space between us as he looked down at me.
“Okay."
“Why?”
He shrugged. “No reason.”
“Okay...”
“You can if you want, I don’t really care,” he said, eyes flitting back and forth between mine.
“I don’t want to,” I said honestly, still liking the idea of having a private dirty secret with him and him alone. And, now that I knew she knew him, I didn’t want to deal with her surely incessant questions.
“Why not?” he pressed.
I shrugged, twisting my lips into my mouth. “It’s between us, yeah? It can stay that way,” I said evenly, smirking up at him lightly. He studied my face to see if I was serious, obviously not used to such a calm reaction from his previous encounters. Everything I had said so far had been the truth, even though I could see he was still deciding if he believed me or not.
“Alright,” he finally said. He looked around the kitchen before determining that we were alone. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the dark corner, away from the view of the entrance to the kitchen. Pushing me back against the counter, he ducked his head down and pressed a kiss to my neck, just below my ear.
“See you around, Abigail,” he breathed into my ear before tugging on it lightly with his teeth, releasing it and disappearing just as quickly as he had arrived.
Despite everything I that had happened tonight and what I had learned about him, I couldn’t help but desperately hope he was right.
"Without a sound, yeah, you're calling me, and I don't think it's fair."
Chapter 4
Nearly a week had passed with my interaction with Reece and I hadn't seen or heard from him again, not that I expected to. While I knew the odds of me ever seeing him again were slim,
I couldn't stop his face from constantly reappearing in my mind and remember the way his skin had felt against mine. Goose bumps rose on my body at the slightest thought of him, my body reacting as if he were right in front of me breathing down my neck rather than nowhere to be found.
It was an infatuation I had never felt before, but I knew that's all it was- an infatuation. I was a realistic person, and I knew that whatever I was feeling, it went no further than an intense physical attraction and burning curiosity. Sure, there was that weird, lingering connection that had drawn me to him in the first place, but I attributed that to the atmosphere of the party and the way he had been looking at me.
I felt confident that if I had met him in the grocery store or somewhere decidedly less sexually charged, he wouldn't have had the same effect on me. Or so I tried to convince myself. Whatever it was, it was not something that was going to cause me to hunt him down and demand to get to know him like a crazy person. It had been a one night thing, an incredible one night thing, yes, but a one night thing all the same; it was a wild memory I could look back on when I was old, married, and grey and think, yeah, I used to be pretty crazy.
That was it. That's all it was and that's all it was going to be. If I ever did see him again, I had mentally prepared myself to watch him work the same routine on another girl and I would be okay with it. I would.
These were my thoughts, as they had been all week, as I drove home from my last class on Friday afternoon. It was my sophomore year of university and I shared an apartment with Emily, who was always up for a good time and proving to be a very interesting roommate. We were only about a month into school for the year, but it was off to an eventful start.
Music flooded through the halls from various apartment suites as I walked toward mine, the various college students that lived in my building already celebrating the end of the week and getting their weekend started. I wasn't surprised to find that Emily, too, had joined the festivities when I entered our apartment and saw her bouncing around the kitchen with music blaring, cooking a gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese while drinking a beer.
"Welcome home, lovely," she greeted me, raising her beer in my direction when she saw me enter. "Hope you have your party pants ready," she said cheerily, grinning at me as I rolled my eyes playfully and threw my keys on the counter.
"Why is that?"
"Party, duh! You're not staying in another weekend because we need to keep your mind of Jack," she hissed, frowning in exaggeration and taking another sip of her beer.
"Starting early today, huh?" I laughed, dodging her statement about going out. It was just past four in the afternoon yet she was happily drinking already.
"Yes, and I've got some waiting for you, or vodka, or whatever you want, so you have no excuse."
"And I have no say in this?" I asked, pulling myself up to sit on the counter top.
"Nope," she said, grinning at me. She was right; I probably shouldn't stay home alone on a weekend because that's when I got stuck in my head about everything that had happened with Jack.
Jack, who had been until very recently, my boyfriend of three and a half years. He had been my rock and my absolutely best friend until I had discovered that he had been cheating on me for the last half of our relationship, obliterating any faith I had in them. If someone who claimed to care about so deeply and love me so much could do that, I didn't want to know what other people were capable of.
He had absolutely shattered any hope I had left in love, relationships, and frankly, men in general. I had come to the realization a few days ago that it was probably the reason I had gone so willingly to Reece. A reckless, carefree night was just what I needed to get set in the mentality of a firmly single person.
It was also probably the reason I felt such a weird connection and detachment to him all at the same time; my body burned for him, yet my heart was decidedly uninterested and avoidant. I was certain nothing good could come of any relationship with anyone, much less attempting to start something with him after he had flat out told me he wasn't looking for anything.
It suited me perfectly, really, because as far as I was concerned, I was done with relationships and anything close to a relationship for a very long time.
"Stop thinking about Jack and go get ready," Emily scolded me, reading my mind. "We're meeting Lauren and Chloe for drinks then we're going out."
"Okay, okay!" I laughed as I jumped off the counter to go take a shower, determined to keep my mind off of all men and focus on having a good time with my friends tonight.
Three hours later, I was completely ready and on my way to dinner with Emily. I was driving since she had decided it was a good idea to keep drinking by herself and was fairly drunk already when we walked into the restaurant to meet Lauren and Chloe. She never stopped talking, blabbering about something trivial in her drunken state as they waved us over to their table. It was located in the bar section that was fairly packed.
We wove our way through the other students gathered there, showing our forged IDs that claimed we were of age to drink before ordering a round of drinks. Emily, thankfully, decided to stick with water for a bit so she would actually make it out.
The table we sat at was off to the side of the dimly lit bar, my back toward the middle as Emily sat across from me and slurped at her water drunkenly. We had passed the time quickly, chatting and laughing as we drank several over-priced drinks. Chloe was in the middle of telling us a story when I noticed Emily's eyes go wide and her jaw go slack, gaping at something behind me.
Chloe and Lauren, too, seemed distracted by something I couldn't see. I was about to turn around when I felt a hand slide up my back and into my hair, reminding me instantly of the time someone had done that exact thing to me last week. I froze in my seat when I felt a body lean down behind me, lips pressing to the shell of my ear to speak. I knew it was him before he even said anything; my body reacted exactly as it had the first time, sparks shooting through my veins and the smoldering burn erupting into full-fledged flames.
"Abigail," he said in my ear. I resisted the urge to shiver as my name dripped off his tongue. He leaned into my field of vision, releasing his grip on the back of my neck as he leaned casually against the table, resting his weight on his elbow as he peered down at me. Just as the last time I had seen him, his eyes were practically burning a hole through me. My mouth felt dry as I stared at him, shocked that he had suddenly appeared before me when I had been thinking about him all week.
He was even more beautiful than I remembered with his striking green eyes, sharp features, and perfectly messy chocolate hair pushed back off his forehead.
"Reece," I finally managed to say, pleased it came out as coolly as I had hoped. He completely ignored my table of friends as he continued to stare at me.
"Good to see you," he said calmly.
"And you," I returned, determinedly holding his gaze and not letting it fall to his beautifully full lips. Not that looking him in the eye was any less difficult.
"Plans tonight?"
My heart thudded in my chest. Was he asking so he could ask me to do something? Or just making conversation? He didn't strike me as the type to bother with casual conversation.
"We're going to that party, I think," I started, still not able to tear my gaze away from his but gesturing vaguely with my hand at my friends, who remained silent. "On Monroe Street."
He nodded, cocking his head up as he ran his thumb across his lower lip. "See you there."
"You're going?" I asked, focusing on remaining calm. If he was going to be at this party, that changed everything. I knew if he was anywhere near me, I would automatically be drawn to him again and I didn't want to make a fool of myself by doing something stupid.
"Yeah."
I sucked in a breath when he leaned down, placing his lips to my ear again. His hand, hidden by the table, slid up my leg slowly as he did so before reaching the seam of my jeans. My body tensed up and I hoped my friends ha
dn't noticed as he put a pressure on my center.
"You look so good tonight, baby," he whispered. Before I could take a breath, his hand slid from me and he pulled back enough to flash one more blazing look at me, raising an eyebrow before disappearing into the crowd of the bar. I was noticing a pattern here with him suddenly appearing and disappearing just as quickly. I tried not to pant as I felt the residual heat from his hand on me.
"Who the hell was that?" Lauren demanded immediately as she struggled to wipe the shocked look from her face.
"How about how do you know him?" Emily interjected. I blinked blankly as I tried to catch my breath.
"Who is he?" Lauren repeated, shooting Emily a frustrated look. The fact that Lauren didn't know him comforted me; maybe Emily had exaggerated his infamous player reputation.
"That's not the Reece, is it?" Chloe asked, raising her eyebrows as she looked back and forth between us and the direction he had gone, her words shooting down my brief hopes that maybe Emily was the only one who had heard of him. I put my head in my hand briefly before lifting it back to look around the table.
"It totally is, but how the hell do you know him, Abigail? He was all over you," Emily pressed, her face looking the most alert it had in hours.
"Um... I met him at that party last week," I answered vaguely. That was one way to put it.
"Will someone tell me what the big deal is about this guy? 'Cause he was hot as shit," Lauren said exasperatedly. I tried to look casual and uninterested as Emily repeated the story she had told me, filling Lauren in on the legend that was Reece Evans.
"That doesn't surprise me, honestly," Lauren said once Emily had finished. "I'd give it up for him, oh my god."
My stomach churned at her words, very much disliking the idea of Lauren and Reece together.
"Hey, he's gonna be at that party," Chloe offered. I wanted to slap my hand over her mouth to keep her from speaking. "Maybe you can."
