When the song ends, I step back from my dance partner and thank him before Shane grabs my hand and pulls me off the dance floor. Like I said, I know Shane well enough to know now is not the time to fight him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Andi?” Shane angrily demands when we’re just outside the dance area.
“I’m having fun with my friends, Shane! What’s your problem?” I ground out back at him.
“That guy was all over you and you were just letting him!”
“Don’t lecture me about that, Shane! You take home a different girl every damn night!” I would laugh at the shocked look on his face if I weren’t so pissed off right now.
Shane stutters for a minute before spitting out, “That’s different, Andi, and you know it!”
“Come off it, Shane. It was just a damn dance - I’m still here. I haven’t left with anyone. Yet.”
Shane’s jaw is clenched shut and the muscles on each side are twitching from the force. His nostrils are slightly flaring from his angry breaths and his face is turning blood red. I wonder to myself if he’s about to have a stroke from his elevated blood pressure.
Through his clenched teeth, he spouts, “Andi. So help me God. You are not leaving here and going to some strange guy’s house.”
I smile sweetly at him, knowing that my smile mixed with my next words may actually make the top of his head pop right off. “You’re right, Shane. I won’t go to some strange guy’s house. I’ll be sure to take him home with me instead.”
And I walked off, leaving him there to process my words alone while I made my way back to the fresh pitcher of Bahama Mamas. I refill my empty glass and down a couple more glasses within a few minutes. When I look back up, some half-dressed girl is sitting Luke’s lap and rubbing her hands up and down his chest. He leans in and says something in her ear, to which she giggles and furiously nods her head ‘yes.’ My imagination just ran away with me on what she so eagerly agreed to.
LUKE
Going out with the guys feels really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve had fun with a group of guys who have the same aspirations I do. They get me, they get why fighting is in my blood and they don’t judge me for it. So tonight, we’re going to The Beta Room and having a good time. I try not to let the fact that Andi is there influence how I act. I don’t want to think about her and I don’t want the guys to know I’m having a hard time keeping her off my mind.
As soon as we walk in the club, I spot her. Shane is still looking for her but like a homing beacon, I’ve already zeroed in on her. Though I pretend I haven’t. She just did a tequila shot with her girlfriends and I’m trying to reel my tongue back in my mouth after seeing what she’s wearing tonight. Every other male with a pulse is doing the same thing. She doesn’t even realize how many guys are staring at her right now.
She looks good enough to eat in that black dress. It hugs all her curves a little too well – and holy hell, there’s no back on it. It ties behind her neck, leaving her shoulders and back completely exposed all the way to barely above her ass. The material is stretched tight across her ass and thighs and moves with her like a second skin. Damn, this is going to be a long night.
She gets Shane’s attention and he leads us to their table where Andi and another girl are setting up a table and chairs for us to sit beside them. I purposely choose the opposite side of the table and at the other end. I don’t think I can stand to sit beside her and not touch her. I watch her take another shot before she heads off to the dance floor with her friends.
The waitress comes over to take our drink order and we ask for a couple of pitchers of beer. We’re talking and looking around the club when I see Shane completely freeze then bolt to his feet. I follow his gaze to see some guy dancing with Andi and he has his whole body plastered to hers. I jump to my feet, knocking my chair over and fall in beside Shane as he plows through the crowd to get to her. She sees us and gives me a dirty look while she molds further into this guy’s arms.
Even though I know I really deserve the dirty look, I can’t stand seeing him all over her like this. Yeah, it was shitty of me to flirt with her friend like that right in front of her. I realized it was a mistake the minute the words were out of my mouth. Her friend is sexy and Shane had already made it clear that Andi is off-limits for a one night stand. But this feeling I get around Andi doesn’t feel like a one night stand. I don’t know what it is, though, and I’m admittedly hesitant to put a name to it.
I saw the look on Andi’s face and I know I need to call a truce, make amends for it. No matter what, we need to at least be friends. But at the rate we’re going, we won’t be able to stand each other by morning. Watching her press closer and closer to this dickhead on the dance floor during the slow song doesn’t help my resolve to only be friends with her. At all.
Shane finally drags her off the dance floor and I see them fighting but I have no idea what they’re saying. She looks mad as hell though. From the purely murderous look on Shane’s face right now, I don’t think I want to know whatever it was she said before she walked away from him. While I’m watching Andi, I feel something land in my lap and I snap my head around.
There’s a drunk, half-dressed girl sitting in my lap and giving me an open invitation to take her home. She’s obviously already out of it and is rubbing her hands on my chest. The music is so loud, I have to lean in to her ear for her to hear me when I ask, and “It’s hard to walk with those beer goggles on, isn’t it?” She laughs and exaggeratedly nods her head at me.
I smile and politely help her stand back up but she doesn’t leave. She’s just waiting patiently beside me. I glance down at Andi and I see a similar look on her face – hurt, confusion and then what looks like pure hatred. This has gone far enough. I stand to move around the drunk girl and Shane is standing in front of me.
“We need to talk,” Shane says with such finality all I can do is nod and follow him to an area behind the bar where the speakers aren’t so loud.
He doesn’t give me a chance to ask what’s up before he starts.
“Look, man. When I said I’d protect Andi, I meant it, but I wasn’t trying to warn you off her if you’re really interested in her. Like for more than just a piece of ass.”
I’m not even sure how to respond because I don’t know what I want from her. I just met her and I can’t promise it’ll last more than one night.
Shane continues, “I heard before I even got to the gym that you and Andi seemed to be into each other. If that’s true, I gotta tell you – you are royally fucking this up. Ignoring her, flirting with her friend, then with that other girl. Andi’s planning on taking some stranger home with her tonight – she’s never done that, Luke. Make your mind up about her but don’t screw her over.”
The thought of her going home with some other guy tears me up because I know I want her. I’m just not really a relationship kind of guy. As much as I don’t want to say it, the words just tumble out before I can catch them. “She’s grown, man. If that’s what she wants, I say she should go for it.”
Shane gives me a disappointed look and, while shaking his head in disbelief, says, “Your loss, man. Your loss.”
He walks back to the table and then leads one of Andi’s friends to the dance floor. I scan the area but I don’t see Andi anywhere and my heart pounds. At this very moment, I know without a shadow of a doubt that she’s already left with someone else. Her one night stand.
The anger hits me hard and I decide that’s exactly what I need, too. A night of meaningless sex with a meaningless person whose name and face I will forget by this time tomorrow night.
As I round the bar, the girl who was mauling me just a few minutes before steps into my line of sight and I make my way to her. I grab her hand and pull her to the dance floor without asking. The DJ is playing another slow song so I pull nameless-girl in close to me. She wraps her arms around my neck and I let my fingers slide down her sides, feeling the side of her breasts and her stomach.
When my fingers reach the hem of her shirt, I slide my hands underneath it, stroking the skin on her stomach and around to her back.
She angles her head up and before I know it, she’s pushing her tongue in my mouth for a very aggressive kiss. She lets out a little moan and I know she’s more than ready to go. I grab her hand, ready to pull her to the door, when I take a step and realize Andi is standing in front of me.
From the look on her face, I know she saw the whole thing. Her mouth is slightly open, as if she just sucked in a shocked breath and is still holding it, and her face is pale. The anger hasn’t even hit her yet – only the shock. I see movement over Andi’s shoulder and I slightly shift my eyes to see Shane watching me, nameless-girl and Andi. I’m suddenly keenly aware that Andi didn’t leave with anyone – she was probably just in the fucking bathroom and I overreacted again.
Andi squares her shoulders, steels her spine and collects her wits quickly. Her emotions are stamped down and a hard mask is pulled over her beautiful face. My only coherent thought is, “What the fuck have I just done?”
I drop nameless-girl’s hand and ignore her protests as I slowly walk away from her, following in the direction that Andi just went. She’s back at the table with the other girls and when I sit, I realize nameless-girl has followed me and is now in my lap since there aren’t any open chairs at our table. Andi looks over and sees this girl in my lap and our eyes meet. She looks hurt at first….then really, really mad. She gets up and heads towards the dance floor but keeps going past it.
Suddenly, Andi’s on stage, standing in front of the microphone. The DJ is queuing up the music for her and when it starts, I immediately recognize the song. She puts on a good show, but there’s no doubt who this song is dedicated to. The song is Stupid Girls, by Pink. She blatantly sings the bridge, where she sings about how vain they are, directly to me and the stupid girl sitting in my lap.
I watch in awe as Andi drops to her knees on the stage, her back arched so her chest is sticking out, and her profile is to the audience. She looks so damn sexy. She’s at the part where Pink speaks seductively during the song. When Andi starts this part, she flips her hair back in an overly exaggerated way.
Then she runs her hands up her stomach to just under her breasts and pushes them up towards her chin as she looks over her shoulder at me. Damn – that little move just put me at half-mast! She nimbly jumps back to her feet and finishes the song. The DJ is blatantly impressed with her talent, as is the rest of the club because the cat-calls and whistles abound.
The DJ calls out to the audience, “What do you guys say – do we want Andi to do one more song for us?” The drunk and disorderly crowd goes wild and the DJ looks at Andi, “You heard ‘em, girl, now sing it for us,” and he starts the music to Buttons, by the Pussycat Dolls.
Perfect, for the next several minutes, I have to sit here and watch her moving her body in every suggestive and tempting way imaginable as other guys’ hands try to touch her. She is definitely putting on a good show.
A bouncer has to grab one guy who tries to climb onstage with her after she sings one especially enticing part of the song that basically says she can’t get the guy to help her take her clothes off. Andi’s running her hands up and down her torso in the most seductive show performed outside a strip club. Every fucker in here is revved up – all for her.
Andi finally leaves the stage and I see several motherfuckers lined up waiting to get her attention as she maneuvers around people on the dance floor. She doesn’t stop for any of them but she gives them her warm smile as she keeps walking, including the guy she was dancing with earlier. I’ve pushed nameless-girl out of my lap and not so nicely got rid of her. She’s already found someone else’s lap to sit in. Fine with me - maybe I can find a way to convince Andi that I’m not a complete dickhead.
Over the next hour, I watch Andi order one shot after another, dance with the girls and a few guys who try to cut in on them. She keeps on until she’s barely able to stand on her own. Even drunk, she ignores me when I try to talk to her. I think she’s trying to get to the point where she’d let some random guy take her home. Even completely shit-faced drunk, I still don’t think she has it in her to go through with it. And that gives me much more satisfaction than it should.
CHAPTER FIVE
ANDI
The little pinpricks of sunlight streaming through my closed blinds are causing me serious pain. If I could remove my head and put it in a vice, I think I would feel much better, because I swear the damn thing is about to split in two. I think I must have passed out before I had to experience the spinning rooms or the puking that always follows the spinning.
I’m not really sure though because I can’t remember getting home.
Or getting undressed and into my bed.
Or who the hair sticking out of the covers belongs to.
Oh shit, what have I done?
I need to get to my bathroom, take some ibuprofen and drink some water. I should’ve done it before going to bed last night, but with how I feel this morning, I’m pretty positive I didn’t. I don’t even know who is in my bed with me but I can feel that I’m not wearing any clothes. This is so not good. I look around on the bed and on the floor beside me until I find a shirt.
A man’s shirt. A nameless, faceless man that I don’t remember bringing home, or getting naked with, or getting in the bed with. And he’s still here. This won’t be awkward at all.
I snatch it up and quickly pull it over my head before I ease out of bed. I’m doing my version of the walk of shame to my own damn bathroom. I am pathetic. I close the bathroom door and lock it behind me before digging the Advil out of the cabinet. I take a long, hot shower, letting the water spray all over me and wash away whatever happened last night. I feel more human, not quite full human yet but at least more human, after my shower.
After I brush my teeth, comb my wet hair and wrap a towel around it, I put on my robe and take a deep breath before stepping back into my bedroom.
And I freeze dead in my tracks.
Luke is sitting up in my bed, leaned up against my headboard, with a stupid, shit-eating grin on his face. Of all people, why the hell did I have to bring him home with me?
“Good morning, sunshine,” he has the audacity to smile at me and sound chipper, “How are you feeling?”
“Better, after a shower.” Even to my ears, my voice is flat and void of all emotions. It’s the only way I’m keeping them in check because my head is precariously sitting on top of my shoulders right now and I’m desperately trying to not disrupt that balance.
His smile increases and his voice takes on a low, sexy rumble when he answers, “Good. I was afraid you’d feel pretty rough. Does that mean you’re up for a late-morning repeat of last night?” He pulls the covers back on my side of the bed and pats the mattress, inviting me to get back into my bed.
Not one to back down, I can’t help but take this moment to burst his ginormous ego-bubble.
“I was actually hoping you could help me with that, Luke,” I say as I move to sit exactly where his hand was, forcing him to quickly move it out of my way.
His smile quickly fades, but he isn’t giving up yet. His brows are furrowed and his eyes are crinkled at the corners. “Help you with what, exactly?”
“I’m afraid I don’t remember anything about last night. How we got here. Where my clothes went. How we got in the bed together….” I intentionally left it here, knowing he would take full advantage of my alcohol induced amnesia.
“Oh, yeah, baby, I can definitely try to help refresh your memory.” He slowly starts leaning towards me and I know he expects me to jump back away from him. Sorry to disappoint you, buddy.
“Well, what’s strange is -- I’m not sore. At all. So if we had sex, as you’re implying, I guess that means you have a really tiny penis and I didn’t enjoy it much at all. If that’s the case, then no, I’m not up for a repeat of last night. One disappointment is enough for me. Thanks for the offer though –
I admire how you don’t give up. Can I call you a cab to get home or do you have your car here?”
I keep a straight face while waiting for him to digest everything I said. It takes about ten seconds before I see the red creeping up his neck until it takes over his entire face, ears and head. The low, mean growl comes first, then his thundering roar comes soon after. If my head felt just a little better, I would be more amused, but it really isn’t bad entertainment considering my current hangover state.
This time when he really does make a lunge for me across the bed, I jump up and scoot across the room farther away from him.
“Something you’d like to say, Luke?” I innocently ask.
“Say? Oh no – I have nothing to say, Andi. But I definitely have something to show you,” he challenges.
I sigh dramatically, “Luke, seriously, we don’t have to go through this again. Your secret’s safe with me. I promise.”
And now I know how fast the big guy really is – because he is out of my bed and has me pinned against the wall before I can even scream. Not that I would have screamed because my head isn’t quite ready for that yet.
He grabs my wrists and pushes my arms up over my head, pinning them to wall. The gleam in his eye is wild and dangerous….and sexy. He grinds his hips into me, pushing his impressive erection between my legs as he growls into my ear, “Baby, if I’d made you mine last night, you would definitely remember it and you would most definitely still feel it this morning.”
A shudder runs down my spine and goose bumps pebble across my skin at his words, his insinuation and his possessiveness. Right now, I am definitely not thinking about my throbbing head since I have other body parts that are throbbing in a very different way. I’m actually glad he has me pinned to the wall with his weight, otherwise my knees would have already buckled and I’d be a quivering mess in the floor. And I freaking love it!
Crazy Maybe Page 4
