Chasing Love (Dark Love 1)

“I’m so ready to kill you right now.” I grit my teeth. “Payback will be sweet, my friend.”

“Let the games begin,” she continues with a smirk.

It’s going to be one hell of a long night.

I start getting fidgety knowing I’ll have to say hello to Lex sooner or later. It has only been three days, eighteen hours, and ten minutes since the last time he touched me. Shit, I need to put things in perspective. Since when does my vagina rule my life? Don’t answer that question.

Julian is standing before me, breaking me from my sadistic thoughts about Lex. He looks so dashing in his dark jeans and black sweater.

Can he see the guilt in my eyes?

Can he feel the touch of another man lingering on my skin?

Smile and just act normal.

“Happy birthday, gorgeous.” He wraps his arms around me holding me close before slowly letting go to kiss my lips. All around us, eyes are watching, some with adoration, and others with contempt.

“Thank you. You forgot the cape again?”

“I’m saving that for the end of the night,” he whispers in my ear.

My body flushes at the sound of his voice. I don’t know how this night will end, or who it will end with. I avoid eye contact with Lex because no doubt he’s pissed right now. To quote him, ‘he doesn’t share.’ Not that I am his, but try telling him that.

I continue to receive hugs from the others, of course, the last being Lex. He stands in front of me wearing black jeans, a blazer, and a charcoal gray shirt. His mop of messy hair is gloriously styled, his chiseled jaw grinning at me, his eyes lighting up the whole room. He’s sex on legs, I can’t deny that. I try my best to keep my cool, worried Julian is watching us interact.

Yet all I want to do is lay him on the table, pour sangria all over his cock while I suck him off nice and slow.

You only want what you can’t have, Charlie.

“I guess I better hug the birthday girl,” he says, leaning in to hug me.

I wrap my arms around his neck, inhaling his scent, careful not to cl

ose my eyes. The eyes are always the giveaway.

“That dress isn’t helping the fact that I want to fuck you right now,” he whispers.

“Is that a challenge, Mr. Edwards?”

I pull away from his embrace, trying not to linger while I leave him standing with a perplexed expression. I shouldn’t have said it, still angry at him for what he did, but my brain is all up in that sex cloud trying to climb its way out, and unfortunately, not in time for me to respond with something more appropriate.

We all sit at the round table. Julian is seated on my left and Nikki on my right. Lex sits directly opposite me next to Adriana and Becky. Becky already looks like she’s hyperventilating. Why Nikki hired her is beyond me, or for that matter, even invited her. Yeah, she’s hot for a twenty-two-year-old. Damn, I feel old now. I try not to watch her interact with Lex, but I can’t stop myself. I pretend to be looking around at the restaurant and people, but when I make my way back to concentrating on the guests at my table, I glance at them again.

The waiters rush to our table filling our glasses with sangria which prompts Nikki to tap her fork against her glass gaining everyone’s attention.

“I’d like to propose a toast to the birthday girl, my best friend,” she announces. “You have given me eight wonderful years of friendship, and there’s no one else in the world who can put up with my shit like you do. Oh, except for you, babe.” Rocky raises his glass, proud of his pussy-whipped status. “For something fun, I want everyone around the table to tell their story of how they met Charlie. I’ll start with Rocky and me.”

Oh God. Clumsy, awkward, Charlie stories aren’t on my list of things to reminisce about.

“We met Charlie during our first year of college. She was to be my roommate. It was Friday afternoon, and she wasn’t supposed to arrive till Saturday morning.” She laughs, shaking her head. I join her, knowing exactly how this story will go. “Well, Rocky and I decided to take advantage of our last day alone together. It was also the first time we decided to, um, experiment with a few things.”

I start laughing harder, the embarrassment still fresh in my mind.

“Anyway, Charlie had arrived early and walked in on us, Rocky tied up to the bed with a blindfold and chocolate sauce dripped all over him. I was shocked but not as much as she was. She freaked out and ran from the room, straight into the door. Her nose was bleeding and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to help her, but Rocky was tied up, and I had to untie him. I stood there naked, rushing between the two of them, covered in chocolate as well.”

The whole table is laughing hard, Rocky’s in tears from the hilarity.

“I gave Charlie a hard time after that but soon learned it was impossible to hate her. She became my best friend, supported me through the birth of Will, gave us the honor of being his godmother, and helped me follow my dream professionally. I couldn’t have done it without you, Charlie.” She raises her glass again before leaning over to hug me tightly.