by Moira McTark
Eric pulled back and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, offering up a smoky gaze.
“Should we get out of here?” he asked, trying to weave his bony fingers through hers.
Amber shook her head and pulled her hands away. “I hope we can stay friends. Good bye, Eric.”
Chapter Five
By Friday night, Brian was ready to move on. He’d spent the week vacillating between guilt over what he had done and guilt over what he wanted to do more of. Amber was in his mind at all times. He was embarrassed by what he’d said, but his temper had flared when he realized he’d been played. Tonight, however, his experience with Amber was going to be a thing of the past.
After days of Neil’s berating, Brian relented and agreed to venture back into the sea in search of another fine fish to help him clear his mind of all things Amber. But now, leaning back against the bar at Riley’s, he wondered what he’d been thinking returning to the scene of the crime. He knew Amber came to this bar, but he’d justified the selection with the rationale that he’d never run into her there before and he imagined she wouldn’t risk bringing her boyfriend anywhere near a bar Brian frequented. What if he exposed her for the cheater she was? No, Riley’s was probably the safest spot in town.
But if that were really what he was thinking, then why was he watching the door like a hawk, his cock half hard at the prospect of running into her again?
Neil swaggered up to the bar, flashing the business card he held between two fingers. “This would be number three for me. Or should I say the third number I’ve collected tonight. Reeling them in, baby!”
Brian chuckled lightly, but his friend’s boisterous demeanor wasn’t catching. Brian had already brushed off two passably attractive women for no good reason at all.
Looking for more support, or possibly more competition, Neil scowled and tipped his longneck back, draining it. “Hey man, loosen up and go wash off that babe-repellent you slathered on. We came out to get you a distraction from the piece of tail who took a bite out of your ass last week.”
Brian bristled at the offensive description and then quickly reined in his aggression, reminding himself that Amber wasn’t a woman he wanted to defend. “I know. Here, let’s get another round.” He pulled out his wallet and retrieved a few bills. Waiving them at the bartender he signaled two more beers and then changed his mind and signaled four.
Neil clapped him on the back and laughed. “Now we’re talking.”
The girl behind the counter smacked the bottles down. Brian leaned further over the bar. “There a band playing tonight?”
She shook her head, no, and bumped the till in with her hip, showing off the top of a tattoo peeking out of her low-cut jeans. She must have seen him staring at it. “It’s a daisy.” She had a small voice and had to shout to be heard over the crowd, but she seemed happy enough to linger there with him, pulling down the side of her jeans to offer a better look.
Brian smiled at her. She was pretty with nice curves. “You got a boyfriend?”
She blinked twice, with a stalled out smile hanging on her lips before answering. “You move pretty fast, mister. Don’t much bother with names or any of the usual pleasantries, do you?”
Feeling like an ass, he shrugged and shook his head. “No, no. I just… You’re pretty. But I didn’t want to bother you if you had a boyfriend who wouldn’t appreciate me doing it.”
She seemed amused, but her neglect of the patrons was catching up. “Looks to me like you could take on most guys whether they appreciated your talking to me or not. But as it is, I don’t have a boyfriend. And my name is Daisy. Like the tattoo. Gotta work.”
She winked at him, then changed gears to taking drink orders and ignoring requests for an encore viewing of the tattoo. Brian followed her progress down the bar, but it felt more like a duty than it should have. There was nothing wrong with her, but he couldn’t help thinking that she didn’t make him want to listen. The chemistry wasn’t there.
Brian turned back around to find Neil wrapped around a buxom female. She giggled as Neil whispered into her ear. Looking down at the four beers, Brian knew that no matter how parched his friend might be, at times like these, it just wasn’t cool to interrupt and offer a refill.
Taking a deep slug from one of the bottles, Brian was lonely. Daisy’s interest didn’t excite him. And she wasn’t really available, in the immediate sense, anyway. How was it that other than Neil, he didn’t know a soul in this place tonight? He planted his ass on a barstool and finished off the first of the four-bottle round. No sense in denying it, he was sulking. What a pisser.
By the end of the third beer, the scene wasn’t as depressing as he’d found it thirty minutes before and halfway through the fourth, Brian was feeling downright sociable. Daisy was swamped at the other end of the bar. And though she’d made it a point to glance down at him, periodically throwing an impish smile his way, she still didn’t do it for him.
Turning away from the bar, his newfound friendly attitude knocked directly into the very woman who had kept it under wraps for a solid week. Amber stumbled back, spilling a full drink down her chest, as he grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.
Shit.
Exasperation evident, she looked up from the white tee-shirt plastered against her breasts, clearly not expecting to meet Brian’s eyes. Anger instantly replaced the mere annoyance. She wrenched her arm from his supportive grasp and glared at him.
He couldn’t believe she was here, and he couldn’t believe the way that betraying mouth of his was splitting into a wide smile at the sight of her. The drink he’d knocked into her chest made her look like a first prize taker in a wet tee-shirt contest. Her nipples, dark circles against creamy swells, were bunched into tight buds under the chill of the thin material. Her breasts hung loose tonight, no bra constricting them, just the full round curves, sexy in their gentle swing. He knew what he wanted. To just reach out and touch them, take their weight in his palms.
A shrill whistle followed by a loud hoot broke through his admiration for Amber’s tits. He wasn’t the only one enjoying the show. Amber’s eyes darted around the room as she crossed her arms over the fabric plastered against her chest.
“I’m sorry…about the drink I mean.”
She mumbled, “Oh, about the drink.” Then her gaze shot back to him and, apparently forgetting about modesty in the crowded testosterone-charged bar, she put one hand on her hip and jabbed the other into Brian’s chest. “Well, thank God you apologized for offending me with a well-drink. Very much the gentleman. Now, get out of my way.”
She tried to shove him aside and in doing so attracted even more attention to her breasts, which might have actually sparked less interest if she’d been totally naked. As it was, she was turning into the number one attraction for the night. Hell, it was all Brian could do to keep from running his hands over them and brushing the hard nipples with his thumbs. He wanted to do it until she moaned his name again.
“This man giving you some trouble?” a burly guy asked. He talked like a gentleman but his stare was locked on the buoyant tits in front of him. A wave of proprietary jealousy Brian knew he wasn’t entitled to washed over him.
“No, thanks,” she said, scowling at Brian. “He’s about to leave. And I’m fine.”
The guy didn’t even bother trying to look away from her chest and when he licked his lips, Brian had enough. “Hey, buddy, get the hell out of here will you? She’ll be fine.”
He turned to Amber who was glaring at him with her hands on her hips. “Is Eric here?” He meant it only to find out if she had someone to look out for her tonight, but it came out sounding accusatory.
She snorted out a laugh and tried to turn away from him with a sloppy wave of her hand. She didn’t look drunk, but she could have had enough where her own sense of invincibility might be impaired and Brian wasn’t about to walk away from her like that. Not with the pack of vultures circling around her transparent chest. Two other guys were already le
aning in, trying to offer their support in getting rid of him and pretty soon he’d be in bad shape if he didn’t resolve the situation.
He unbuttoned his Oxford shirt and pulled it out of his waistband, untucking the plain white tee underneath. He was about to take the top layer off when a seedy pack of crap with a thick mustache and too tight jeans reached out and helped himself to Amber’s left breast, causing her to shriek and turn away, right into another grabby grasp. That was the last straw.
Before he even realized he’d done it, Brian’s Irish was up and running the show with a single well thrown punch. Tight Jeans was flat on his back and holding his hands up against his face. Amber was tucked into Brian’s chest, soaking his tee-shirt with the sodden fabric of her own. Her breasts pressed flat against him as he lifted her with one arm and carried her out of the bar.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, pushing out of his grasp.
Dumbfounded, he stared back at her. “Are you freaking kidding me, Amber? If I’d known your goal was to get mauled by a bunch of strangers, I would have offered you a second drink to splash over your tits, given you a leg up to stand on the bar.”
“Screw you, Brian. I was fine. That guy was grabby, but I was fine.” Her voice faltered slightly, giving away her shaken state.
He yanked the shirt off and held it out. If he was going to get arrested, he’d at least leave Amber with a little coverage.
He shoved the shirt towards her. “Here, put this on.”
She looked down at it like he was offering her rancid meat.
“That’s it.” He stalked over to her, grabbed her shoulders and spun her so she faced the darkened glass of a closed storefront. “Look!”
Amber gasped at her reflection, crossing her bare arms over her chest. “Give it to me!” She grabbed for the shirt and quickly slipped it on. The absence of her ample bosom was a bittersweet victory. Brian leaned forward, trying to control the delivery of his words. “Are you here with anyone? Can someone take you home?”
She was still looking in the glass at the image of herself now wrapped in Brian’s shirt. “No. I had a crappy day at work, made a stupid mistake—my head…anyway, I just wanted to get out and burn off some steam. Danny was going to meet me during his break, but some delivery got screwed up and he had to run out. So it was just me. I didn’t think I’d see you here. I figured it was the last place you’d go.”
She turned to face him. Her eyes glittered with tears for a second before she turned and walked toward her apartment.
Brian’s fingertips tingled where he’d wanted to run them over her cheek and soothe away that look of sadness. He stepped back and searched the bar window for Neil, who was nowhere to be found. Maybe Miss Giggles had gotten lucky, or maybe Neil was in the john, but either way, Brian didn’t have time to stick around and find out.
Amber was already pushing the corner when he caught up with her.
She shot him a scathing glance and kept walking. “What are you doing out here?”
“Amber, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your night. I want to make sure you get home, okay? The way you look right now, it’s probably not a good idea for you to be walking alone.” She had on tight grey Capri pants that hugged her ass in a way that told the story of someone who ran religiously. With every breeze, his shirt billowed open, revealing the soaked little baby tee that cropped off at just about the bottom of her ribs and left a sexy expanse of flat abdomen for the casual observer’s viewing pleasure. With all that skin and swell, there was no way he could let her walk home alone.
“That’s awfully noble of you, Brian, but I don’t need your help.”
“Well, do you want me to call Eric to come and get you?”
“What the hell? Eric is probably off banging some intern tonight. Even if he’s not, no, the last thing I want is you calling him. And not that it’s any of your damn business, but Eric isn’t here because Eric and I are not together.” She finished, jutting her chin at him.
He took a long stride and grabbed her arm, pulling her even with him. “What do you mean you aren’t together? Tonight? Or at all anymore?”
“At all. What’s wrong with you? Why do you care?”
He shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter if she was single or not. He knew she was a cheater and she’d made one out of him. She wasn’t the kind of girl he wanted to know much about. But he couldn’t help the way she was ruling his mind, which made him all the angrier. “Actually, screw that. I don’t care.”
“I didn’t think so. Here’s your shirt back. Take a hike.”
She pulled the oversized shirt off, tossed it back to him and stomped off.
He would have loved to take a hike. To get as far away from those perfect tits and jewel-hard nipples pointing through her shirt, as he could. Remove himself from temptation. God knew that any poor bastard who wanted to have a try at Amber tonight would be lucky to get away with his life. But of course, he couldn’t do it. She would be inside her apartment with the door locked before he’d walk away.
“I’m walking you home, then I will gladly take a hike.”
“Ah, his chivalry extends beyond fucking in public and then dumping at the nearest street corner.”
Blood rushed up his neck and into his head. “That is bullshit and you know it. You started that in the club and I’m pretty sure you loved every damn second of it as much as I did. And as for the street corner, you ended it there. Eric showing up must have been a bit of a surprise. How’d you manage to explain me away? Oh, wait, you aren’t together anymore. That why you’re out alone tonight? Looking for another dick to fill your void?”
“You’re a prick. I don’t need to go out to get stuffed, asshole. And as phenomenal a fuck as you are, that’s all you’re good for. I’ve got a dildo as big as you and it’s a lot less complicated.”
She shouldn’t have told him that. It was information he shouldn’t have. His mind flooded with images of her kneeling on the floor, legs spread, her wet pussy taking in a giant rod. His chest got tight and he felt all that boiling blood in his neck plummet to his cock. They were at the sidewalk stairs to her building. He grabbed her by the arm, spun her around to face him.
“You were a fantasy, Brian. One rock hard fantastic fantasy. But the reality of you isn’t so attractive.” She tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but her statement had shocked him and he held firm.
“That’s what this was about, Amber? Some high school crush…some old fantasy? That’s what you said, right? Did you feel like the prom queen fucking me?”
Her eyes smoldered as he held her there, a subtle smile curving at the corners of her mouth. He tightened his grip on her arm and pulled her a step closer. Her breath caught as she pushed ineffectually against him, her eyes flashing anger and something more. “Fuck the prom queen. It was better than that.”
The overhead streetlamp cast a yellow cone of illumination over them, enough light for Brian to see every ridge and bump of her nipple through the damp shirt. God help him, but he reached out and grazed her nipple with the pad of his thumb, pushing his palm roughly up against the bottom curve, squeezing it hard.
Amber sucked in her breath and then let it out with a slow hiss, leaning in to his grasp. “Damn you.”
He trapped the erect nub between his fingers, rolling it tightly as he rubbed his thumb back and forth against it. She looked like she was going to come on the spot, and then kill him within seconds. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “So I’m good for a fuck?”
“And not one damn thing more.”
Her breath was coming in short pants as he pulled at her, their eyes locked together, aggression and arousal sparking between them.
“Better than that dildo you have upstairs?”
He tweaked the nipple with a pinch until she bit her lip and took a short step closer to him.
“I don’t know. It just came today.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be. I hate yo
u.”
He tugged her closer, holding her captive, eliciting a small cry from her and turning his cock to stone in the process. Her parted lips and smoldering eyes were an irresistible invitation. Lowering his head, he brushed his mouth against hers, probing with his tongue as he pinched her nipple harder. She shuddered, opening to him, and slid her tongue over his. His cock strained painfully against the front of his pants. Wanting Amber to feel the hard bulge, he grabbed her by the waist and forced her roughly against him.
His grip tightened and he straightened up, lifting her off the ground. Her legs immediately wrapped around his waist, her ankles locked together behind his back. He spun around and rammed her back against the outside concrete wall of her stairway, grinding with rough thrusts against her spread legs. She gasped, tearing at his tee-shirt to rip it over his head.
“Inside,” he growled against her ear, biting her lobe and wrenching her breast in his hand.
“Yes,” she panted, trying to get free, grabbing at his fly.
Slamming through the lobby door, Amber’s back made contact with the wall beside the mailboxes with a loud thud. He slid his hands up under the baby-tee and against the unhindered swell of her breasts. Her erect nipples felt like small stones as he brushed them with his thumbs. She arched against him as he pounded between her legs, grinding at the source of his longing. He thrust his knee between her thighs and pressed it against the wall so she straddled his leg. Brian pulled open the button and unzipped the front of her pants, rubbing over the stretched fabric. It was already damp. She kissed him, biting his lip hard, just shy of drawing blood. He groaned, not sure if it was the pain or the pleasure making him do it. He had to get her inside, had to get inside of her.
They crashed against the stairs in a heap of grappling limbs, crawling up, writhing against each other. At the landing, beyond the view of the street below, Brian grabbed her by the hips and stuffed his hand down the front of the open pants, cupping the wet folds of her sex. The pressure of his fingers parted her lips, making a slick nest for him to burrow in.
