“Can I have my drink back? It’s a fi..fire..ball,” she stumbles, only to giggle. “It tastes like donuts. Remember that morning when we ate donuts for breakfast, then you fucked me up the ass in the shower?”
Jesus Christ. I lower my head, ignoring the memory and how my dick hardens at the very mention. She means none of this, and she’s not thinking at all.
Don’t let her actions or words get to you.
I motion for the bartender to stop serving her and throw back the shot, letting it burn. The cinnamon tastes rather sweet, unlike the usual smoky liquor I drink.
“You drank my fireball!”
“Yes, because you need to stop, okay?”
Amelia pouts her lips. “Why do you have to get all alpha on me? I’m a big girl, and so what if I’ve had a few. It’s been a long day.”
“It has been a long day, which is why I’m taking you home.”
“My home is so far away,” she tells me, letting out a sigh. Her softened expression quickly reverts to annoyance, her eyes narrowing while staring at me. “This is all your fault. You walk back into my life as if nothing happened, looking all sexy. And what’s with the glasses? Did you know there is an actual thing as glasses porn? Men who act in porn wearing suits and glasses. It’s a thing…Ava will tell you.”
I can’t help but be amused by the glasses comment. “C’mon, no more. Time to go.”
It dawns on me that I have no clue where she lives. I attempt to ask her, but all she says is something about campus and water—neither one of those clues helping me. Andy is just as wasted and neck deep into two women. There seems no other alternative than to take her back to my hotel room.
I grab Amelia’s hand, gripping tight, so she doesn’t do a runner on me, and interrupt Andy on the dancefloor.
“I’m going to get her out of here before she passes out,” I yell over the music. “Will you be okay?”
“This isn’t my first rodeo with her,” Andy chuckles, then moves his attention back to the brunette with the bouncy tits.
Transporting Amelia back to my hotel is more challenging than I thought. She struggles to walk, even after I make her drink some water before leaving the bar. By the time we get to the room, she becomes even more sloppy. My arm is wrapped around her waist to hold her up until we get closer to the bed.
“I’m going to lay you down, but you need to drink more water and take some Advil, okay?”
She throws her arms around my shoulders, staring into my eyes so intensely. Her gaze is penetrating, no words escaping her perfect mouth. The trance she is in begins to worry me; it's more than a loving gaze. Amelia looks ready to pass out completely.
But then, she buries her face into my neck as she’d done many times before. A soft moan escapes her while I desperately ignore how right she feels. How much I want to place my lips onto hers and take back what used to be mine.
“You smell good,” Amelia murmurs, running her nose against the crook of my neck. “I can never forget.”
I take a deep breath, shutting my eyes tight to block out the voices telling me to strip her bare and lay her on this bed. Sliding my hands up to hers, I remove them and urge her to lay on the bed. She remains quiet, in and out of shutting her eyes until she’s flat and they fall entirely closed.
Slowly, I remove her shoes and place the blanket over her. The room begins to fill with the sound of her gentle snores.
As I sit in the chair watching her, I realize so much has changed yet nothing at all.
We are here, years later, living two different lives, but the feeling of longing, it’s still there, etched into me and a part of who I am.
I refuse to be second best, nor will I push her to choose me.
There should be no choice—end of the story.
And until she realizes that, I vow not to touch her.
No matter how impossible that may be.
8
AMELIA
A loud groan escapes me while I try to suppress the persistent throbbing inside my head.