Desire in Lingerie (Lingerie 7)

We were over.

This was my life now.

I was here to pick up a woman, and Vanessa was here to pick up a guy.

As depressing as it was, it was the truth.

I had to let it be.

Max turned his gaze back to me. “What are you going to do?”

I watched the woman get closer and closer, eagerness written all over her face. “I’m going to win this bet.”

Six

Vanessa

It was nice to be out of the apartment and out on the town. I went out with some friends to a club, had men buy us a few rounds, and watched people hook up together and leave. A few men made passes at me, but I wasn’t interested, so I let them down easy.

Even in a crowded room full of people, I felt lonely.

I wished I was home, my ankles locked together around Bones’s waist. I wished my nails were cutting into his skin, drawing blood, as he pounded into me and made me his. My thoughts kept going back to the man I was trying to forget.

But it didn’t seem like I could forget him.

My glass was empty, so I left the table to get a drink at the bar.

That’s when I noticed him, wearing a black t-shirt that fit his strong body. His biceps stretched the fabric, and his black ink stood out in comparison to his fair skin. His short blond hair was styled, and his black jeans made his ass look nice.

But he wasn’t alone.

He was talking to a beautiful woman with a bust twice as big as mine. She was so close to him they looked like they’d already become acquainted throughout the night. She smiled at everything he said.

Then she ran her hand up his arm.

She was oblivious to everything around her because she was so absorbed in him. She didn’t even notice me, the woman standing there staring at them. Bones’s back was to me, so he didn’t see me.

But she should have noticed me by now.

The woman smiled before she grabbed his scotch and drank from his glass since hers was empty.

Bones watched her, hardly blinking.

“I’m gonna throw up…” My hand went to my stomach, and I dashed toward the bathroom, my insides turning over. My eyes immediately watered as the pain stabbed me in a million places. I felt the wounds from the back of my neck all the way down my ankles.

There was a line for the bathroom, so I leaned against the wall in the hallway and covered my face with my hands, not caring about the way my makeup would smear with my tears.

There was so much pain I didn’t know what to do with it.

Fuck, it hurt.

That woman was totally smitten with him, drinking out of his glass and touching his arm.

My arm.

I had no right to be angry, and I wasn’t. But I was in the most extreme form of pain—agony.

I knew this day would come, when he would move on with someone else. But to see it happening in real time was killing me inside. My stomach contracted painfully, and I felt weak in my knees. The tears fell, and I wiped them away as quickly as they came. The other girls in line looked at me, but no one asked if I was alright.

I was definitely not alright.

I didn’t have many options here. I could go home and cry.

Or I could walk right up to him and ask him to take me home.

I knew he would choose me in a heartbeat. I was the woman he loved, the real woman he wanted to be with. I still had a chance to turn this around. But I couldn’t interfere with his life just for one night.

I had to be sure it was what I wanted.

I wanted to move on because our relationship didn’t have a future.

But I couldn’t let him go either.

He was the only man I’d ever loved.

He would probably be the only man I would ever love.

After a few more breaths, I made up my mind. I left the hallway with the restrooms and walked back to the bar.

But they weren’t there. Their spot had been filled by two guys.

Shit.

I pushed past the crowd at the entryway and made it to the sidewalk outside. It was dark, and the line of people waiting to get in wrapped around the building. My breath immediately came out as vapor because of the cold, and my skin bubbled with goose bumps. I looked to the left and didn’t see him.

I looked to the right and spotted him walking to his truck, his arm around the woman’s waist.

God, I wanted to throw up.

I slipped off my heels and ran barefoot down the sidewalk, my feet aching on the stone-cold concrete. My hair flapped behind me, and the people who passed me on the sidewalk stared at me as I ran like a lunatic.