Chapter Eleven
Hot, warm arms twisted around his waist, pulling him closer to the small perky breasts that were trying to brush against his chest. Brad assumed from the way Stephanie was rubbing herself against him, under the cover of “dancing”, she had more than just dancing on her mind.
It was the last thing he wanted. From her, at least.
Arching his chest away from hers, he tried to slip free of her wandering hands. She seemed to think his detangling efforts were a game, because she laughed and wound herself tighter around him.
Peering over her shoulder, he searched for the group they’d been dancing with, hoping for rescue. All he could see in the darkened glow was a swaying mass of unfamiliar heads.
How had they separated so quickly? One moment he’d been sliding his arms around Ana’s waist—the only waist he wanted to touch—and the next thing he knew he was being tugged through the crowd while Ana smiled approvingly and waved him away.
Why had she done that? The only reason he’d come out tonight was to see Ana.
He’d thought it would be hard working with her, being reminded day in and day out of his past. And it had been, to start with. But that had passed quickly. The initial burst of memory, of pain, had faded; replaced by the pleasure of seeing Ana’s smile, of battling her wit, basking in her effervescent presence. He’d started to think maybe, just maybe they could have a future. For the first time in a long time his head was full of hope, and his heart was full of…love.
And yet, here he was, no Ana in sight and the wrong woman’s arms around him. He’d wasted too much of his life in the wrong set of arms. But that was all about to change.
Galvanised by the thought, Brad gave up trying to unwind Stephanie’s hands and leaned towards her. He’d wanted to spare the girl’s feelings, but sometimes a direct response was the most effective. ‘I’m going to get a drink.’
‘Sounds good,’ she smiled, encouraged somehow, sliding her arms from around his waist only to grab his hand, her fingers squeezing around him.
‘I meant me, just me,’ he emphasised, placing her hand on her own waist and slipping his fingers free.
‘Oh.’ Her face dropped, the excited bopping energy drifting away and her body deflated. ‘But what about—’
‘No. Sorry, Stephanie, it’s not going to happen.’ He felt like a heel, but he was sure he’d never done anything to lead the woman on. ‘Why don’t we find the others and you can keep dancing with Will and Stevie.’ And he would take Ana to some dark corner and tell her what he should have told her years ago.
‘Sure, I guess,’ Stephanie shrugged, minus her earlier enthusiasm. He couldn’t blame her. He just hoped his rejection didn’t affect their working relationship too much. He led the way through the thriving mass of bodies, stumbling across Will and Stevie on the edge of the dance floor. A quick glance across to the table the rest of their crew occupied showed that she wasn’t there, either.
‘Where’s Ana?’ he asked as soon as he reached his friends.
‘Brad. Mate. Where’ve you been?’ Will slapped a hand down on his shoulder, listing a little towards him. His eyes slid past Brad, and a wide, knowing grin split his face in two. ‘Ah, I see,’ he slurred as he leaned closer. ‘Good on ‘ya,’ and he gave Brad an exaggerated wink.
‘That’s not happening,’ Brad assured his friend, removing his hand from his shoulder in the process. Thankfully it was much easier to disentangle himself from Will. ‘So, where’d Ana go?’ He tried to make the words come out calm and casual, but he didn’t think he managed it with the way Will’s eyebrows rose at his question.
‘That’s how it is, ay?’
‘That’s not how anything is,’ Brad denied. ‘I was just curious,’ he shrugged. ‘Thought you might have scared her off.’
‘Ha. No chance of that, mate. She’s barely glanced in my direction.’
‘Then where’d she go?’
Will delayed his response a moment, clearly taking some kind of sick pleasure in making Brad wait.
‘Look, if you don’t know,’ Brad shrugged again, looking around the room. The pub wasn’t that big, he’d be able to find her with or without Will’s help.
‘Don’t go getting all het up. She said she was going for a drink, and then—’
But Brad didn’t wait to hear the rest. He slipped through the thinning crowd and headed straight for the bar. A quick scan of the people lined up waiting to order their drinks failed to find Ana. He climbed the steps to the other side but came up empty again.
He needed to find her. He had to tell her he loved her. It had taken him too long to reach this point to wait a moment longer.
Desperate now, he started wandering back down the stairs. Maybe she’d returned to the table after she’d grabbed her drink. His hunch was rewarded when he caught sight of Ana’s short hair swaying as she folded into her seat.
Heart pounding, nerves assailing him, he paused where he was, taking a moment to watch her, to garner his courage.
She was so beautiful, sitting there smiling, laughing, her eyes sparkling with flirtation.
But who was she laughing with? Flirting with? Because…she wasn’t looking at him.
Barely daring to breathe, he looked at the man seated next to her, in the chair Brad had occupied. A man who was making Ana laugh; who was putting a smile on her face the way Brad should have been.
But the man wasn’t him.
With dread sinking through his bones, Brad stared at the two of them.
Had he left it too late?
***
‘Hiya,’ Ana smiled briefly at Xavier, waving politely before sitting down and shooting Cara a suspicious glance. Her friend better not be trying to set her up. Cara shrugged, but she couldn’t quite smother the smug smile, either.
‘Hi,’ he flashed her a stunning grin as he unloaded the drinks onto the table before dropping into the seat Brad had only recently vacated.
There was no denying that he was the most gorgeous man she’d met in a long time, and Ana could feel a spark of attraction racing between them. It wasn’t at the same Brad-level she seemed to constantly run at when she was around the other man, but enough to know that Xavier had potential. He leaned close towards her, and spoke so softly she had to lean towards him in order to hear.
‘I think we’ve been set-up,’ he confided, flashing her a conspiratorial grin and she couldn’t help but laugh.
‘I think you might be right.’
‘I told Levi I’d shoot him if he tried to do this again.’
‘Does he do this often?’
‘Not…often. But the last time, well, he hadn’t vetted the friend first and she wasn’t exactly my type,’ he conceded with a self-deprecating smile.
‘In what way?’
‘For one thing, she was wearing way too much make-up. It was so thick it looked like a mask. She was clearly hiding something underneath it all, and no way was I hanging around to find out what.’
‘Oh, the poor girl,’ Ana couldn’t help but commiserate with the unknown woman. ‘She probably had really low self-esteem and you trampled all over it.’
‘I might have thought that, if I’d only been looking at her appearance, but, unfortunately I had to talk to her as well. So I know she didn’t have low self-esteem. Between each sentence she’d make that stupid duck-face that girls do—do you know the one I’m talking about?’
‘You mean this one?’ Ana angled her head, sucked in her cheekbones and pouted her lips at him.
‘Exactly,’ he laughed, taking a swig of his beer and Ana let the expression drop. ‘You don’t do that often do you?’
‘What would you do if I did?’
‘Probably make a hasty retreat, and tip my beer over Levi’s head on the way out.’
‘Ooh, now that is tempting. So I just need to do this?’ and Ana pulled the duck-face again before letting it drop, ‘and then you’ll go away.’
‘Now that hurts,’ he laughed, clutching at his chest. ‘Bu
t, alas, I already know that’s not the real you.’
‘You don’t know that,’ Ana pulled the expression again, having fun despite herself.
‘Stop it!’ he mock cried, covering his eyes with his hands.
‘Okay, I’ll stop,’ Ana gave in, dropping the expression and reaching for her drink. ‘So this means Levi’s safe from a soaking for now?’
‘Very safe,’ he assured her, his eyes warming with appreciation as they roved over her face. Secretly, Ana was quite impressed his gaze didn’t drop below her neckline. Maybe the evening wouldn’t be a total loss.
‘Ana, are you okay?’
Ana jerked, startled by the sound of Brad’s voice so close to her, the feel of his fingers resting on her shoulders. Her pulse hammered in response, the pace of it dwarfing her response to Xavier.
‘Yes, of course I’m fine,’ Ana shrugged out from under his hold, twisting slightly in her chair so she could glance up at him.
‘It’s just…when you left the dance floor, you…’
The look he gave her was penetrating and direct and didn’t waver for a moment. A part of her—the part that always fell for Brad—wanted her to give in, to drop Xavier and follow Brad anywhere he wanted to go. But the other part—the one tired of being hurt, over and over again—knew she had to push him away.
‘Stephanie looks thirsty,’ she said, nodding down the table to the woman who was watching them with eagle eyes. ‘Maybe you could grab her a drink?’
‘But I don’t—’
‘Just get her a drink. Please.’
The last thing Ana needed was to end up in a cat fight with a girl from work over a guy she was trying to move on from.
‘If that’s what you want?’
She hardened her heart. Of course it wasn’t what she wanted. But it’s what she needed.
‘It is,’ she told him before turning away, focusing on Xavier, and her future.
She could feel him standing behind her, feel the warmth, the energy of him so close, yet so far. She had to ignore it. She needed to ignore it.
Leaning towards Xavier, she patted his forearm, a way of getting his attention and pushing Brad away. It worked. As soon as she touched the other man she felt Brad move away from her, away from the table. He disappeared into the crowd, and she knew she’d hurt him. She hated doing it, but she didn’t know any other way to move forward the way they both needed to.
Pushing past the pain, she flashed Xavier a grin. It was fake, but that didn’t matter. It was something.
‘So, what is it you do? Aside from letting your friends set you up on really bad dates.’
He smiled at her weakly, his eyes flicking behind her, obviously looking for Brad.
‘Forget about him,’ she ordered, drawing his eyes back to her.
‘Ex?’ he asked taking another swig of his beer.
‘Friend,’ she answered quickly, taking a gulp of her own drink.
‘He doesn’t look like a friend.’
‘Well he is. Or was. Whatever. He’s not the future. But maybe…?’ she tilted her head, giving him her best impersonation of a rakish once-over.
He hesitated another moment, his eyes assessing the truthfulness of her words, before grinning and conceding that she had a point.
‘Maybe,’ he agreed, having another swig of his beer.
‘So, tell me, how do you know Levi?’ Ana asked, keeping her gaze focussed on Xavier. It was hard, because she could see Brad in the periphery of her vision, knew he’d been talking to Stephanie and was heading to the bar. But somehow she managed to focus on Xavier, on the words he was saying, on the way he kept smiling at her, leaning closer. It turned out he’d been working with Levi for the past four years. They were junior partners in one of the largest law firms in Brisbane. He was charming and witty, and if she hadn’t been so conscious of Brad she might have started to enjoy herself.
It was tiring, though, pretending to smile and laugh and not notice Stephanie pressing herself against Brad down the other end of the table.
Ana redoubled her focus on Xavier, shuffling her chair closer to his, leaning in and brushing against him occasionally. Maybe if she could push this attraction along, she would forget about Brad.
An hour—and three glasses of wine later—Ana was no closer to forgetting about Brad. The way Stephanie was sidling up to him on the dance floor in full view of their table wasn’t helping matters.
Maybe dancing would be easier. She could lose herself in the music, and maybe manoeuvre across the dance floor and out of sight of her colleagues.
She leant closer to Xavier, bopping her head as Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines started pounding through the nearby speakers. ‘I love this song. Do you want to come and dance?’
‘I’m not much of a dancer,’ he told her, his eyes wary as he glanced between her, the dance floor, and Brad, who had been consistently avoiding Stephanie and keeping an eye on Ana and Xavier.
‘Oh, come on, it’ll be fun,’ Ana insisted, swaying up and out of her chair, grabbing hold of his hand and tugging.
He glanced down at the hand over his, staring at it a moment before flipping his over and squeezing her fingers. ‘I hope you know how much this is costing me,’ he laughed as he stood up from the table.
‘Whoa, don’t tell me the big man is dancing,’ Levi threw across the table at the sight.
‘You would too if you knew what was good for you,’ Xavier threw back.
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got myself covered,’ Levi winked and faux-yawned his arm around Cara, who laughed and snuggled into him, her hand resting on the inside of his thigh.
‘I’m sure you do.’
‘Come on.’ Already bored with the boys banter, Ana started sashaying around the table, her hips swaying provocatively to the beat of the music. Ana could feel Xavier’s eyes on her hips as she shimmied onto the dance floor—and he wasn’t the only one watching. Skimming past her colleagues with minimal greetings, Ana led Xavier into the thick of the dancing, well hidden from prying eyes.
His hands slid across her hips and he spun her around, drawing her close until she was flush against him. His breath was hot and dry against her cheek, the scent of stale beer, and undigested Mexican food surrounding her.
Eurgh. Not quite as tantalising as she was expecting, but maybe she was being too hasty. The attraction between them had been growing all night—hadn’t it?
His hands slid from her hips to her buttocks, squeezing her up against him and she felt something hard bump her. Pulling back from him she glanced down at his pants. Yep. There was a definite bulge pushing against the zipper of his pants.
She looked back up to see him smiling down at her, as though he was proud of his hard-on. With his arms still wrapped around her backside, he pulled her back up against him.
‘That’s all for you, baby,’ he spoke the words against her ear, as though she should be thankful, grinding his pelvis against her. ‘How about we ditch this place and really get to know each other?’
Before she could formulate any sort of answer to the vulgar question, his lips were on hers. Dry and chapped, it felt as though they were chafing Ana’s as they pushed against them. It was like her mouth was wandering across a desert, desperate for a rain that would never come. At least his arms, sweaty as they were as they grasped and groped at her, had some moisture in them. She tried to swallow, to somehow work moisture into her mouth, but as her lips split apart, his tongue plunged in, taking full advantage of her slip.
His tongue was even drier than his lips. It plunged in and out of her mouth with no movement, no skill, just cold and lifeless and lizard like. If she’d ever wondered how it would feel to kiss a lizard, she knew now.
And to think he’d been so cute. There had been real potential between them. How could someone so charming and gorgeous on the outside, be such a hopeless kisser? And if the kissing was this bad, just how horrendous would he be in the sack?
The image of him jackhammering, cold and dry and lifeless inside
of her sent a shudder of horror through her. Nothing, not even moving on from Brad, was worth putting up with someone that bad in bed.
Ana pushed her hands up flat against his chest, trying to push some distance between them, hoping to end this disaster as quickly as possible.
He seemed to get the hint, because his tongue slid out of her mouth, his lips moving from her mouth up to her nose and then her forehead, pressing, dry, chapped kisses across her face.
‘What do you say? Shall we get out of here?’
Ana’s stomach rolled at the thought. No way was she going anywhere with this guy. ‘I think I just want to dance.’
She tried to slide out and away from his arms, but his grasp on her tightened.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I told you. I just want to dance.’ Ana tried to free herself from his hold again, to no avail.
‘I guess we can hang around for a little longer,’ he conceded, his eyes sweeping down her body, and this time she felt her skin crawl beneath his gaze.
‘You can go whenever you want. But I’m going to keep dancing.’
‘Ah no, you’re not. You’re coming home with me.’ His arm around her tightened into a vice like grip.
An icy trickle of fear ran down her spine. How had she gotten herself into this mess?
‘Let me go.’
‘Now, you don’t want me doing that.’
‘Yes. I do. Let me go. I’m going to find my friends and we can forget this ever happened.’
‘Forget? Forget the way you’ve been coming on to me all night? I don’t think so. You want this as much as I do.’
‘No. I don’t. Let me go.’
‘What are you? Some kind of prick tease? You’ve been gagging for it all night.’
Wowsers! Where had that come from?
Sure, she’d been flirting. But she hadn’t intentionally set out to turn him on just so she could turn him down. It wasn’t her fault he was so bad at kissing. She’d love to tell him just how much he’d turned her off, but it probably wouldn’t be the smartest move while he still had her trapped like this.
A Love Worth Saving Page 16
