Wasted

by Suzannah Daniels

  My fingers curled into my palms as I attempted to focus on my customer. Regardless of what was happening outside, I still needed tips—the more generous, the better. “What can I get you, love?”

  “How about a Cosmo?” She propped her chin in her hand and gave me a dazzling smile.

  For a guy who was more interested in kicking ass rather than kissing it, I attempted to add some flair. I tossed a bottle behind my back, catching it in the opposite hand, and added the ingredient to the cocktail glass, but my heart wasn’t in it. I cut the show short and delivered her drink.

  “So what’re you doing after work? Want to hang out?” She ran her fingers through her blond curls.

  “I’m busy, love.” I attempted a smile.

  She puckered her lower lip. “Such a shame.” She tossed her money on the counter, and I picked it up. Turning to talk to her friend, her attention was immediately elsewhere, and I was relieved as I rang up her drink and dropped off her change.

  I watched the door to see if Lexi was on her way back to the bar yet. Damn it. What did he want with her?

  Pulled away by a server, I fixed her drink order as quickly as I could, so that I could concentrate on the door. What if he was forcing her to stay outside with him?

  Relief poured over me as I saw Hawk come through the front door. He walked toward the bar, and with his painfully slow stride, I clenched my teeth, wishing he’d hurry the hell up. Finally, I motioned for him. A surprised look crossed his face, and he picked up his pace and sank down on the empty stool in front of me.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Did you see Lexi outside?”

  “Huh?”

  “When you came in just now, did you see Lexi standing out there with a guy?”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t notice her, but it’s dark outside. There was a couple standing off to the side, but I wasn’t about to stare them down and see what they were doing.”

  “What do you mean ‘standing off to the side’?”

  “I mean they were standing by the building on the side of the parking lot.”

  “Were they kissing?”

  Hawk cocked his head to the side and gave me a look like he wondered whether I’d lost my mind. And maybe I had. Just knowing that she was with him was tearing me up.

  “Why do I feel like I’m missing out on something?” he asked.

  I gripped the edge of the bar and exhaled. “Lexi’s ex-fiancé just came in here looking for her, and against my advice, she went outside to talk to him.”

  Hawk leaned back against the chair, a huge smirk on his face. “You’re jealous.”

  “I am not jealous. I’m just worried about her. The guy was a douche.”

  Hawk shook his head. “No. You’re definitely jealous.”

  Staring at the floor, I sucked in a deep breath.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being jealous, as long as you don’t let it make you crazy. Lexi’s a great girl. It’s been a long time since Rachel.”

  I lifted my head and glared at him. “Don’t bring Rachel into this.”

  “Man, we’ve been friends a long time. I haven’t seen you act like this around a female since Rachel. Stop punishing yourself.”

  Squeezing the edge of the bar, I blew out a breath. “I’m terrified, man. I really like her, but shit, I loved Rachel. And I still managed to screw things up.”

  “You’re human. Y’all were going through a difficult time, and that’s the kind of shit that either draws people closer or splits them up. And well, you know how that story ended.”

  Indecisive, I wondered what I should do.

  “If you were in another relationship, would you do things differently than the way things went down with Rachel?” Hawk asked, his voice penetrating my thoughts.

  “Hell, yeah. I screwed up.”

  “Then consider yourself older and wiser. Find someone to watch the bar and go check on her.”

  “I don’t know, man. It’s not like we’re together, and she made it clear that she could take care of the situation herself.”

  “I can’t tell you what to do, but if a chick I was interested in was out there with her douche of an ex, I’d be out there checking on her. I don’t care how independent she is, women like to know you care. If she matters to you, your top priority should be to make sure she knows it.”

  His words burned into my brain. Torn between ignoring the situation and rushing outside to possibly make a fool out of myself, I tried to logically cipher the number of pros and cons. Hell, why was I standing here wasting time?

  I called someone over to watch the bar and rushed outside. If he had done something to hurt her, I was going to beat his ass, and I didn’t give a damn what Lexi had to say about it.

  As I exited the building, I scanned the parking lot, scantily lit by a dim light attached near the corner of the building. A group of three walked to their car, and a couple were on their way into the building. I didn’t see Lexi anywhere.

  Had she left with him?

  My heart sank. Damn, I shouldn’t have let her come out here alone.

  I walked along the front of the building. Hearing a noise, I peered into the night in its direction. I heard it again, and I picked up my pace as I skirted around a huge planter.

  She was sitting on the ground in the shadows near the corner of the building, her back against the brick, her knees bent in front of her. Her hands covered her face, and I could hear her soft cries.

  “Lexi?”

  She looked up and leaned her head back against the wall.

  With long strides, I covered the distance between us. I was going to kill him. “Did he hurt you?”

  Swiping at her tears, she sucked in a breath. “Go back in, Mason. I’ll be there in just a minute,” she promised in a shaky voice.

  “Did he hurt you?” I repeated, my hands curling into fists at my sides.

  “No, not in the way you think.”

  I dropped down to the pavement beside her and pulled her into my arms. “What’s wrong, love?”

  Unable to speak, she cried even harder.

  Her cries wrenched my gut. I held her close, softly whispering words of encouragement as I stroked her hair. “I got you.”

  Wrapping her arm around me, she hugged me closely. I kissed her temple, and she drew in a shattered breath.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  She shook her head.

  Frustrated, I frowned. I wanted her to talk about it. Hell, it wasn’t just that I wanted her to talk about it. I wanted her to want to talk to me about it. I wanted to be the guy that she turned to, the guy that she needed.

  In an attempt to comfort her, I rubbed her back in long, gentle caresses.

  “Could you tell Spanky that I left early?”

  “Why? Are you going after him?”

  “I want to go home.”

  I closed my eyes, clutching a silky strand of her hair in my fist. Her confession offered me a reprieve from my anxiety. I was terrified that she wanted to be with him, that she was unhappy they hadn’t worked things out.

  Home.

  I released a pent-up breath. She wanted to go to our apartment, to the comfort of the place where we had shared meals, beds, and most importantly, snippets of our lives with each other.

  “I’ll tell Spanky. I can’t leave the bar right now, but let me have Hawk drive you home.”

  She squeezed my hand. “No. I don’t want anyone else to see me like this. I can drive myself. Just call me when you’re ready for me to pick you up.” She wiped her face with the hem of her tee shirt.

  Standing, I reached down and pulled her to her feet. I gave her another hug, and she laid her head against my shoulder.

  “Mason?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.” She turned and looked at me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Lifting her face, she reached up and softly kissed my cheek before she released me.

  I pulled the car keys out of my pocket. “Be careful.”
r />   “I will.”

  “And you’re not getting back out. I’ll call my friend who owns a cab.”

  A soft laugh escaped her lips. “You’ll come home in a caxi tab?”

  My mouth twitched into a grin. “Something like that.”

  Her smile dissipated, and her gaze grew serious. “I think….”

  I waited for her to continue, but she pursed her lips and swallowed.

  “What?”

  “Nevermind. I’ll see you when you get home.”

  Chapter 14

  Stinger

  Mason

  I thought the night would never end. Realizing I didn’t have a key, I turned the knob, and I was both relieved and aggravated that the door was unlocked.

  When I stepped into the apartment, dim light from the hall bathroom cast a soft glow that spilled into the living room. Exhausted, I kicked my shoes off and moved silently over the carpet as I made my way to Lexi’s room. I’d wondered all evening what had upset her.

  Gently opening her door, I saw the outline of her body beneath the comforter. Her dark hair contrasted against the white pillowcase in wild disarray, and the faint smell of perfume hung in the air. I breathed in deeply, enticed by the scent.

  After closing the door softly, I pulled off my tee shirt and socks. Once my jeans were unfastened, I pushed them to the floor in a crumpled heap and stepped out of them. Her soft breathing cued me that she was asleep, and I crossed the room and went into her bathroom. So that I wouldn’t wake her, I made sure to close the door before I flipped on the light. The nightlight immediately flickered off, and I noticed the neatly folded towel and washcloth on the edge of the vanity. A pair of my boxers had been folded into a small square, and my toothbrush and a brand new travel tube of toothpaste jutted out from a white mug that she had borrowed from the kitchen.

  I took a hot shower, allowing the steamy water to release some of the tension from my shoulders. Opening her bottle of shampoo, I lathered up, hoping my manhood wouldn’t suffer too much once my hair smelled like a blooming hibiscus.

  The fragrance reminded me of her, of all the times she’d been close enough that I could smell her hair. I rushed through the rest of my routine, the need to hold her close burning like hot coals in the pit of my stomach.

  I toweled my hair dry and ran my fingers through it, contemplating over whether I should use the blow dryer. Turning it on at low speed, I dried my hair just enough to keep it from being overly damp.

  Flipping the light out, the nightlight resumed its duty of being just luminous enough to prevent stumped toes.

  When I approached the bed, she turned over and watched as I slid beneath the covers.

  “Did you have a good night?” she asked softly.

  “Not as good as if you’d been there.” And it was the truth. I’d missed her, and I could barely concentrate on anything else.

  She snuggled beside me, and I put my arm around her, tucking her in close. “How about you?” I kissed the top of her head. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  I could hear the pain in her voice, and I knew that she wasn’t.

  “You can talk to me. You know that, right? I’ll keep whatever you tell me between the two of us.”

  She was quiet, and I wondered if she was mulling my words over in her head. Her fingers started tracing the edge of my tattoo, faintly visible in the dim light.

  “I thought I was going to have his babies, you know?” she whispered softly, emotion cracking her voice.

  Remaining silent, I rubbed her arm in a soothing motion. I wanted to comfort her. I wanted her to open up, to tell me about her ex-fiancé.

  “We’d planned on getting married as soon as we both graduated from college. I had everything planned out. We’d move back to Creekview, spend the first year of our marriage getting everything established, then we’d have beautiful babies.” Her fingers stilled. “I thought he was ready for children, too.”

  “So he didn’t want to have kids? Was that why y’all split up?”

  “He said he wanted kids, and maybe he did. Maybe it was the wife part he was having trouble with.” She started tracing my tattoos again.

  “He didn’t want to get married?”

  “I was the one who broke off the engagement.”

  Somehow that made me feel better, like maybe there would be less of a chance of them working out their differences if she was the one who had called it quits.

  “I’d went back home to visit my parents, but I had a lot of pressure on me because I hadn’t finished a presentation that was due for my marketing class. I decided to go back a day early.” She sniffled, and I knew what he had done. I knew why she was in so much pain. “I thought he’d be happy to see me, but…it became painfully clear that he hadn’t missed me at all.”

  “You walked in on them?”

  She nodded, and there was the stinger.

  Smoothing her hair away from her face, I kissed her forehead. I wanted to take her pain away, to absorb it. I rose, leaning on my elbow as I gazed down at her face. Even though her eyes were cloaked in shadows, I knew she was crying, tendrils of excruciating pain squeezing her heart. “I’m so sorry, Lex, sorry that you had to go through something like that.”

  “Don’t be,” she whispered. “He’s a heartless bastard, and I’m glad I found out before I married him.” She wiped her tears away. “Besides, I always try to look at the bright side.”

  “How the hell can you find a bright side in a situation like that?”

  “If all that hadn’t happened, then I wouldn’t be here with you.”

  A strange mixture of terror and pride rushed through my veins, and I struggled to sort through the unexpected tangle of feelings. Part of me wanted to grab her and never let go, and another part of me wanted to run like hell. I leaned down, my lips softly meshing with hers.

  The kiss was gentle at first, meant to comfort, but we could never be this close for long before things started to sizzle.

  She arched off the bed, pressing against my body. When I slipped my tongue in her mouth, she released a soft moan of pleasure.

  I needed to end the kiss before things progressed much further. She was vulnerable, and she’d made it clear that she wasn’t ready for a sexual relationship. But damn, I knew the sounds a woman made when she wanted more, and Lexi was definitely into this as much as I was.

  Desire raced through my body, and I closed my eyes as I concentrated on the softness of her lips and the mewling noises that reverberated through our kiss.

  Propping myself up on both arms, I rose over her. I grabbed her by the waist, tucking her body beneath mine. When she arched against me, I hardened, all the reasons why we shouldn’t be doing this fleeing from my mind.

  She lifted her hands to my hips, her soft palms cool against my skin. When her fingers eased their way beneath my boxers, squeezing my ass, I pressed my erection against her. Wriggling beneath me, she pushed the thin fabric over my hips.

  Shoving the cover off of us, I pushed my boxers down to my knees and awkwardly worked my way out of them. I pulled her into a seated position, and in one swift movement, tugged her tee shirt up over her head, exposing her bare breasts.

  She lay back down, her hands reaching out and finding me.

  I closed my eyes, my breath coming out in pants that corresponded with her touch. Slowly, I rocked my hips as her fingers tightened around me, all logical thought lost in the moment. “That feels good.”

  My encouragement made her bolder as her hands explored my body. Unable to wait a moment longer, I lowered myself over her and drew her nipple into my mouth as she continued to massage and squeeze my flesh.

  She arched against me, and I kissed a trail across the valley of her cleavage and sucked on the opposite nipple, teasing her taut flesh with my tongue.

  Delivering a trail of tiny kisses along her soft skin, I slid out of her grasp as I worked my way down her body until my lips tickled her abdomen, and I could feel her muscles contract beneath m
e.

  Positioning myself between her legs, she drew her knees up, resting her feet on my shoulders. I gripped her legs and kissed her inner thigh. She wiggled beneath me, her growing impatience evident. Knowing that it would be much more memorable, I wanted to build the tension within her. I wanted her to want me like she’d never wanted any man before me. I wanted her to forget her ex-fiancé ever existed. I wanted to be the only man that she thought about when she closed her eyes at night, the only man who could build a blazing inferno deep within her, the only man who could squelch that inferno and then build it again.

  I skimmed my thumbs along the soft flesh of her thigh until I neared her apex. As I approached the tiny scrap of lace that covered her, I reversed directions, again and again, until it was obvious that she ached for my touch.

  “Mason,” she whispered, her fingertips skimming along the edge of her panties.

  “Tell me what you want, love.”

  Panting, she lifted her lower body from the mattress, arching toward me. I remained still, watching her face in the dim light. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted. She slowly rolled her head from side to side, her chest heaving with her need.

  I pressed my thumb against her center, the damp lace warm with her heat.

  Her audible gasp made my hard-on rage with unfulfilled desire. My breathing became labored as I tried to tamp down my need and concentrate on Lexi.

  Peeling back the scrap of lace with one thumb, I parted her flesh, using my tongue to taste her, to torture her.

  My plan had been to drive her to the brink of insanity until she could think of nothing but me, but it had backfired. I was the one who couldn’t wait another second. I wanted to stake my claim, to give her something of myself, to make her want me and no one else.

  Rising to my knees, I pulled the lace down her shapely legs. Scrambling from the bed, I grabbed my jeans and pulled a condom out of the pocket. I quickly put it on and pulled her to the edge of the bed. She repositioned herself until she was lying horizontally on the mattress. Ignoring the urgency that raced through my body, I slowly worked my hips, letting her body adjust to mine as I entered her. She was hot and tight, and I clenched my teeth against the pleasure, sweat beading on my forehead as I fought to retain control.