Seduce Me (Austin Singles 1)

“I’m Noelle, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I snarled my lip at the way she openly flirted with Darrell. What a bitch.

Lily looked pissed, as did the rest of the table. The only person who seemed happy was Noelle. Lily’s eyes darted to her and then back to me as she spoke in a gruff voice. “It’s not what you think.”

I shrugged. “Not my business.”

“Charlie mentioned y’all would be here tonight, so we just stopped in to say hello. So if you’ll excuse us.”

My eyes widened in shock. Darrell wasn’t messing around.

“Wait, you’re not going to sit here with us? We haven’t seen you in weeks, Charlie,” Terri said, her eyes sad and hurt.

I let my eyes drift over to Noelle. They lingered on her for a few seconds since she was busy typing something out on her phone. Focusing back on Terri, I replied, “Not tonight, table seems crowded already.”

“Nice meeting y’all,” Darrell said and we went to turn. Oh my God, I felt him before I even realized where he was.

As I turned around to join Darrell, there he was.

Gasping, I threw my hand over my chest. “You scared me to death, Tucker.”

Darrell stood taller when he realized this was the ex.

Tucker stared at me with a hard look. “Finally decide to hang out with your friends?”

I lifted my chin. “Actually, I only came over to say hello. Looks like you’ve got a full house at your friends’ table.”

Tucker’s eyes looked past me and to Noelle. His eyes were back on mine and he smirked.

“Jealous?”

Darrell’s fingers pressed into my hip.

“Hardly. You always were the type to jump from one to the next.”

Tucker’s smirk slid off his face. “Same old Charlie. Runs when the shit gets real.”

The smell of booze practically dripped off Tucker.

Darrell cleared his throat. “Okay, I’m not sure what happened between you two, but we’re going to be leaving now.”

Poor Darrell. I really should have warned him what he was getting himself into. Tucker faced him.

“Who are you? The new flunky she tricked into falling for her? Y’all getting married? Dude, you better watch out with this one. She likes to play games.”

“Me?” I shouted, taking a step closer to Tucker. “What about you? You knew from the very beginning, and you never said a word. How long were you going to play me, Tucker? Maybe your intentions were to leave me at the altar. Ultimate payback, right?”

His jaw was locked tight, and I barely understood the words that came from his mouth. “It wasn’t a game.”

“It never was for me either.”

Tucker tossed his head back and laughed. “That’s classic, Charlie. How much time you got left? A month? You pay this guy or something?”

Darrell took a step closer to Tucker. “Listen here. I don’t know what in the fuck is going on, but Charlie is a friend of mine, and I don’t like how you’re talking to her.”

Tucker smiled wide now. Normally his smiles made my lower stomach pull, but this one did the opposite. It frightened me. A look of evil moved into his eyes.

“Friends with benefits. Is that the type of arrangement you got with him? Is that what we had Charlie? Because I thought it was a hell of a lot more than that.”