Pulse - Part 3 (Pulse 3)

s the phone at him and it bounces against his chest. "I deleted my number."

"What?" He's on his feet now, his voice husky and edging anger. "Why?"

"Why?" I parrot back. Is he seriously asking me why I don't want anything to do with him anymore?

"Jessica." He takes a step towards me and I teeter on my heels in an effort to get out of his reach. I grab for the bar, holding on to the edge to get my level footing back.

"Leave me the fuck alone." Any barrier that I've had up until now is gone. It's crumbled beneath the slew of half-truths and realizations about how many women he's actually slept with. "I'm going home."

"I'll take you." At any time before tonight, that would have been an offer I saw as sweet and endearing coming from him. I would have jumped at the chance to take him home into my bed.

I shake my head. "No." It's all I can manage. I just have to get out of here.

"You can't just leave," he pleads. "We can talk about this."

I hold my hand up as he approaches, warning him off. "I'm done."

Chapter 4

I can't believe you just bailed on him." Rebecca flips her damp hair back as she pulls the hairbrush through it.

My lips twist into a scowl. "What was I supposed to do?"

"You think he's still screwing them all?" She almost visibly winces when she asks the question.

I shrug my shoulders. "Don't know and don't care."

"Oh, you care, Jess." She pulls herself up off my bed and throws the towel she had her hair wrapped in, into my laundry hamper.

"I don't," I scoff. I can't, I want to say. When I held that phone in my hand and read all those messages I felt devastated. I can't explain to her that I was falling for him. Who the hell falls for a man they met in a club who fucks women in a room right above it? I'm too humiliated to admit I was developing feelings for Manhattan's biggest man whore. Correction. Boston and Manhattan's biggest man whore.

"Liar." She leans back down on the bed. "So you're done with Fingers for good?"

"Don't call him that," I whine. I don't need the constant reminder that Nathan fingered me to orgasm the first night I met him. My fate was sealed then. Why did I ever let Rebecca convince me to go back to that club the next night? "This is all your fault."

"My fault?" She smiles. "How is it my fault that your boyfriend is trying to set a world record for banging?"

"You're the one who dragged me to that club."

"I didn't throw you into bed with him. He's the one who worked his magic on you." She leans her shoulder on me. "You're spending too much time mourning the loss of him and his big dick."

"What?" I smirk.

"Get back in the saddle." She props herself up on her knees and whirls her hand above her head as if she's casting a lasso in the air. "Go out and find a new guy. Once you fuck him, Fingers will be a distant memory."

"It doesn't work that way." I laugh.

She flashes me a smile. "You won't know until you try. When you have a night off, we're going out dancing and I promise we won't go near his club."

***

"What's going on with you, Jess?" Drew taps me on the shoulder as I'm walking out the employee's exit after my evening shift.

I turn to briefly glance at him. He really is attractive, in a cute boy next door kind of way. Why hadn't I met him first before I fell into Nathan's bed that night? "Nothing. I'm good," I lie. I wasn't good. It's been almost a week now since I had my face -off with Nathan in his hotel room and he hasn't come looking for me. Why did I care? Why did I want him to? It wasn't as though I wanted to climb back into bed with him. I just wanted the satisfaction of knowing he still wanted me.

"You're feeling okay?" That’s never a good question to ask a woman. Obviously, he thinks I don't look okay.

"Sure." Sure? You need something better than that, Jessica. He's cute, he's interested and some time with him would help erase Nathan from your mind. Just listen to Rebecca. Live a little.