How About Never
LEELA LOU DAHLIN
HOW ABOUT NEVER
Copyright © 2019 by Leela Lou Dahlin
The right of Leela Lou Dahlin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organizations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical or mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
Dedication
For everyone who’s been hurt in love.
Open your heart and try again.
CHAPTER ONE
TEMPEST
“I wish I could be more like you.”
Tempest Sure sat across from her best friend Ava listening to her cry into her Pina colada. “You want to be more like me? Bitchy and bossy?”
Ava’s eyes grew wide, and the smile that had been absent all night tried to make an appearance. “Are you making a joke?”
“Not my strong suit, I guess, but yes. Why would someone so sweet want to be like me?” Tempest thought about her question and then decided she shouldn’t ask it. Ava was sweet. Almost too much so, she could see how she would want to be tougher. “Never mind.”
Tempest wished they were in a loud club with blaring music and strobe lights so she wouldn’t have to hear her best friend drowning in sorrow, but they weren’t. The pleasantly moderate jazz bar that was supposedly the hottest spot in town and was quiet enough for conversation. It would have been fun checking out some of the hot guys that walked by their table, but she was trying to concentrate on being a good friend.
“Look, Ava, you don’t need to be more like me. Then there would be two ice bitches in the area instead of one, and I don’t want to share my title.” Tempest leaned back in her chair so she could take in her friend.
Ava shook her head. “I know how people see you, and you do too, but I love that. You’re not an ice bitch. You’re a kick-ass-and-take-names, who-cares-what-people-think-about-me, get-shit-done chick.”
“You could do the same. You just need some fuck-it juice, and when a guy tells you he’s a player… believe him.” Tempest felt sorry for her friend. Being the woman who had given the same speech to men she crowned as her lover for the night, she knew how it felt to be the recipient of such anger and disappointment. She and Zane had been in the ultimate eye fuck contest before he went out with her friend, then she’d cut all that off.
“I just thought I could change him.” Ava looked away from Tempest, and she was sure it was because she remembered the way her friend had warned her away from Zane Calder. Birds of a feather that’s how she and Zane appeared, on the outside, at least. She didn’t know his story, and she didn’t want to, but sometimes she’d just wanted to take a bite out of that delicious-looking man. Her friend’s desires had to come before that, so she may have continued to look, but she’d never touch.
The man was beautiful, direct, and had a reputation of being a love ‘em and leave ‘em type. Tempest didn’t think that was a bad thing, especially since she was sure she had a similar rep. Was it true? Probably. Which is why she didn’t want her white-picket-fence, two-point-five children seeking a friend to put herself out there for him. Ava said she could handle it. Tempest hadn’t believed it, but the woman was grown and could make her own decisions. Unfortunately, Tempest had been right. Although her friend wasn’t crying into her drink, she looked so sad and lost it was breaking Tempest’s cold, love’s-not-real heart. She should have just stepped in and fucked him. It would have saved her friend this agony and relieved Tempest’s curiosity.
“Okay, I’m so bringing the whole vibe down into a sad place. Here we are in the exclusive Book Bar that you decorated, and I am only thinking of my bad choices. I will choose to be happy that you scored us entrance into this place and get my head out of the clouds.” Ava drank down the rest of her drink. “First, I need to get more fuck-it juice.”
“Okay, so fuck-it juice isn’t alcohol. It comes from within. I know that sounds corny. Don’t make me say it again. If you want to work on that, do it when you’re sober.” Tempest got up and grabbed Ava’s glass. “Tonight is for reasonable alcoholic consumption and fun. Do you want another of these?”
“Why don’t you just wait for the waitress to come over?” Ava sat back and looked around. “Oh, I see.”
Tempest nodded her head. While Ava had been wallowing and telling Tempest about her last attempt to make Zane answer her calls, she hadn’t noticed how crowded the place had gotten.
“I’ve been looking for our waitress for the last 30 minutes. It will be quicker if I go to the bar I’m hoping.”
Tempest walked to the bar and remembered why she hated to come to crowded events like this. They made her anxious. No one would know by the resting bitch face people said she always wore, but sometimes her tough exterior masked her weakness. The people were polite and moved aside easily, but by the time she made it to her destination, she just wanted to go home.
The bartender made his way to her with a crooked smile. “What can I get for you, Ms. Sure.”
She’d met all the bartending staff as they were being hired and trained as she put the finishing touches on the interior decoration. This handsome man had made sure she knew his name because he introduced himself to her with his first and last name at their first meeting. She liked a man with confidence even though she knew in the first few minutes there wasn’t going to be anything more than smiles and cocktails between them.
“Nice crowd, huh, Jeremy?” She looked at the full bar and returned to see him nodding. “I’ll have a pina colada and an extra dirty martini.”
“Extra dirty, huh?” The voice she heard behind her was unmistakable. It was deep, smooth like chocolate and rough like rawhide. Tempest knew who’d she would see when she turned around. Intelligent green eyes, hair too long for the standard business guy, just the right amount of scruff. Her gaze snagged on the sexy full lips that seemed to pull her gaze every time she saw him. Tempest turned to face the man who created this beautiful establishment. It was the same one she’d heard about all evening and the man who’d been showing up in her fantasies uninvited… Zane Calder.
“I would think you’d be well acquainted with that option.” She cocked her head and tried not to go into flirt mode. It was extremely difficult. The man flipped her switch, for sure. Half of her wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. Have mercy, would she love that. He may be a jackass, but he was ruggedly beautiful, and the arm porn he presented to the world, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, made her wonder what he looked like under all of his clothes. The other half of her knew that her punishing of him would kill her friend and their friendship, so that thought needed to axed immediately.
“That’s exactly how I like it.” He moved closer to her, and she could smell his scent. What the fuck was that? A blend of citrus, outdoors, and Alpha male. Damn. It wasn’t possible to melt panties in real life, was it? That scent must just be her Kryptonite, or maybe it was just him.
She said nothing to that because whatever spark that was moving between them needed to stop. She was done adding fuel.
“I love what you did with the place.” He looked around the room briefly before settling his gaze back to her.
Now that was just hitting below the belt. How was she supposed to downplay praise from the hardest to please architect in town? He was not one to hold his words back abou
t what he liked or what he didn’t like. Zane was opinionated but could back it up. His portfolio was as impressive as he was. There were several times he’d used his influence to get the interiors of his buildings changed to fit what he thought would work. She’d waited to see if there would be blowback when the owner wanted to use her, but his royal highness hadn’t said a word about it, to her knowledge.
“Do you now?” Tempest leaned back with her elbows behind her on the bar. Did that make her full breasts jut out a bit? Yep, and although he didn’t outright gawk at her, the quick up-down appraisal didn’t escape her notice. It helped her think less of him. Maybe that would help her with this wild attraction. “Well, it was a pleasure to decorate. You did a great job incorporating nuances that made it easy to make this place look like a library and a bar.”
“I think a celebration is in order.” He lifted an eyebrow and grinned like a television villain. “I have the penthouse blocked for midnight. Meet me there.”
That shouldn’t have made her smile. Not just a quirk of her lips but a real, full-fledged smile. Fuck. This guy’s aura felt like trouble, and he smelled deliciously like danger. The very best kind of danger. “Celebration in the penthouse, huh? Sounds like a tryst.”
“It can be whatever you want it to be, but I was thinking about you looking at the room you designed as a patron instead of a creator.”
He was smooth. Tempest would give him that, and she should have expected no less. Zane didn’t crowd her, but the feel of being surrounded and protected was uncomfortably pleasant.
“You realize that I’m here with my friend, Ava.” Tempest was expecting him to back off quickly, but he didn’t. He looked thoughtful, and she wondered how he would try to explain himself if he did at all.
“I didn’t realize that you were friends, or that she was here tonight, but my invitation to you still stands.”
She must have gasped. “Wow.”
“Look, I explain to all I entertain that I’m not for keeps, even though I’m sure everyone knows that. I’m just for fun. The women in my bed understand that. I thought she understood that as well. We play, orgasms are achieved, and then it’s over. I’m never sure why some of them expect more.” Zane was doing his very best to look like the misunderstood playboy. “You stand here, looking at me like I’m the very devil, but this town is small, and I’ve talked to a man or two who thought they could claim the beautifully alluring Tempest Sure.”
“Are you comparing us?” She squinted like she was trying to see into his mind. The problem was she knew that he was, and she knew he was correct, but he wouldn’t hear it from her lips.
“If the trail of broken hearts behind you fit,” he said softly.
“Ms. Sure? Your drinks are here.”
Tempest turned away from Zane and held out her card to the bartender.
“On the house.” Jeremy smiled.
She looked to see if she had a few dollars in her little bag for a tip.
“I don’t want a tip either. Enjoy your night.” Jeremy walked off to answer the calls of other patrons.
Picking up her drinks, she turned and was almost surprised that Zane was still there.
“Can I assist you to your table?” he asked, looking into her eyes.
“Really? You’ll deliver drinks to the table where your conquest waits, and you try to get in the pants of her friend?” Tempest’s words were soft and throaty. He really was making her want to give him a taste of his own medicine. He was confident in a way she was trying hard not to admire. His I-don’t-give-a-fuck-ness was at a level she aspired to, but it was almost unbelievable.
“I’m not sure why she’s mad when what we had was spelled out, but I get your point. I’ll not apologize for something I didn’t do.” Zane took a step back and let Tempest walk by. “I have the penthouse for an hour. They let people sign up to see what it’s like and hopefully book it at another time. It doesn’t have to be a tryst. I’m an architect, and you’re a designer, there are lots of things to discuss.”
She looked up at him with her best fuck off face until he chuckled and moved further out of her way.
“What an expressive face you have.”
“The better to say, fuck you without words, my dear,” Tempest swore she heard laughter as she walked away, but then she realized that she could see her table from the bar, so Ava probably saw that whole exchange.
Sliding the drink to Ava, she sat down in her seat next to her friend and took a sip of her deliciously made martini. It was difficult not to see her friend in her peripheral vision staring at her.
“What did he say?”
Taking another sip of her drink, Tempest wondered if she ignored the question would her friend lose the nerve to ask again. Ava hadn’t moved to look away from her, so Tempest figured she’d have to say something.
“He’s an asshole and so not worth any of the time you’re spending being disappointed. You dodged a bullet.” Tempest took a moment to assess her friend and take in how watching the topic of most of their current conversations was affecting her. Her face was calculating, but she wasn’t sure what she was coming up with.
“He came on to you. Didn’t he?” The quizzical tone didn’t hold the heat of anger Tempest had been expecting.
She took a deep breath and decided to give in to her friend’s quest for knowledge. “Yes. He has the penthouse booked and invited me to join him, but he said he was inviting me in more of a ‘look at your work in a new light’ kind of thing.” Tempest was good at reading body language, but her friend wasn’t giving her what she’d been expecting.
“Did you say yes?” Ava’s eyes lit up like sparklers on the Fourth of July.
“Of course not. What kind of friend do you think I am?” Tempest probably shouldn’t have been as pissed as she was about the way her friend thought of her, but damn. She turned away from her friend and looked at the crowd as she spoke. “I like sex, and I adore a man who knows how to turn me on without direction, feed my need and then get the hell out, but I’d never do that with someone a friend had a history with.”
“I’ve hurt your feelings?” Ava placed her hand on her chest, and it looked like she was clutching her pearls.
“I know sometimes it doesn’t seem as if I have any, but I have feelings.” Tempest hated that she said that, but damn… Really? She got that she appeared uncaring, but there were people she cared what they thought of her. Not about her sexual choices or how she fed her sexual nature, but her personality… Maybe she had a few fucks to give for certain people. She sure as hell didn’t want that bit of knowledge to get far.
Ava scooted herself over, so she was closer to Tempest. “I’m sorry. I watched the two of you at the bar, and he’s interested in you. Like really interested. I fought like hell for him to notice me, and I swear he only got with me, so I would leave him alone.”
Tempest continued staring into the crowd, almost not wanting to continue this conversation anymore. There were lots of good recruits for her bed. When her stress levels got too high, or her bullshit readings were on overload, kissing, biting, sucking, and fucking could level her out like nothing else.
“Tempest?” Ava put her hand on her arm. “Did you hear what I said?”
“No.” Taking a big gulp of her martini got her feeling the warmth of the alcohol. That sensation filled her after the chill of the assessment her friend gave her.
“I want you to give him a taste of his own medicine. Fuck him, make him love you like all the other guys you bed do, and then dump him so hard he doesn’t know his ass from the curb.”
Tempest turned to stare at her friend before taking her pina colada and moving it away from her. “I think you’ve had too much to drink. I don’t revenge fuck. I’m not indiscriminate. It may seem to you that I have fun with everyone, but there is a method to my madness.”
“I’m not drunk. I’m serious. Go up to the penthouse and give him a taste of his own medicine, not for me, but because you two are combustible. I know how yo
u are, and you don’t play for keeps. Just like him. I think you can beat him at his own game.”
“I don’t think you know what you’re asking me to do.” Tempest took another gulp of her drink because damn… that sounded like an amazing idea. She knew it was just her body talking. She was still trying to shame herself into losing the arousal that remained from the brief verbal sparring with Zane.
“I know what I’m asking, but I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want to. It just came to me while I was watching you that the only way to fight fire is with fire.” Ava reached for her drink and took a sip when it was handed back to her.
“So, I’m the fire you want to fight with?” Tempest hated that she loved this idea. “I have no filter and take no shit. I don’t play games. If I go up there and things happen, it’s because I wanted it too.”
“This is one reason I love you and a huge reason I want to be you. He won’t be able to resist you and then BAM.”
“Bam?”
“You’ve got him in your trap, and then you’ll let him freefall like the other jokers.”
Tempest was having a hard time hearing what her friend thought she did to men. It was like she was some Black Widow spider aiming to take men out after they’ve pleased her. That’s not what she did. That’s not who she was. “Ava?”
“I get you don’t like how I’m putting this, but know that this is something I want you to do. I won’t ask again, but,” Ava took a few sucks from her straw as she stared at Tempest with what could only be described as puppy dog eyes.
Tempest shook her head and sipped her drink. The silence on the other side of the table was thick enough to taste. Returning her gaze to Ava, she saw the bright, excited smile.
“Pleeease.”
“I don’t do regrets.” Tempest wasn’t sure her friend knew what she was talking about.
“Then don’t do any…just do Zane.”
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