Chasing Love (Dark Love 1)

Lex snatches the phone back from me and reads the message. The steam is practically pouring from his ears, his knuckles white as his grip tightens around my phone. He bows his head, refusing to look at me. How dare he read my private messages? I’m ready to blast him, give him a reality check his arrogant ass needs, but a tall, lean man comes up behind him and starts whispering in his ear.

Lex’s demeanor changes, a concerned expression that doesn’t bother me the slightest as I’m grateful he’s distracted.

“I have to take care of something. Don’t even think about responding to that message,” he warns before quickly following the man down the stairs.

Arrogant prick! He has no right telling me what to do. I’m no longer at the mercy of Alexander Edwards. Julian is the man I’m going to marry, he’s who I choose to build my new life with.

So why am I sitting here in Lex’s club flirting like a fucking sixteen-year-old?

Another mistake.

Take a shot and have fun without Lex, you don’t need him.

With my purse in hand, I abandon our table and scurry down the steps until Eric meets me halfway.

“Why didn’t you tell me Lex was going to be here?”

“Because you basically said you were over him and that Julian was the love of your life… yada, yada, yada.”

Is that what he got from our earlier conversation?

“I’m over h-him,” I stammer. “It’s just awkward because there’s a lot of history, and I’m not perfect, you know. Seeing him is very… uncomfortable.”

“Well, Charlie, you would have to be blind not to see how much he wants you. Julian’s a great guy, but why not play the field a little?” Eric raises his perfectly shaped eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner.

The laughter is echoing in my head. Lex is not the field-playing type, and that was evident two minutes ago. Back in high school, someone had spread a rumor that Carter, another senior at school, and I had sex in the janitor’s closet during our study break. It took weeks to calm Lex down, and I had Carter openly admit to the biggest school gossip, Stacey, that it was another girl, not me.

“C’mon, Eric, let’s dance.”

I yank his arm, pulling him toward the dance floor. As I make my way to the middle, sweaty bodies press and rub against me. It’s even more crowded than I thought. I move my body in rhythm with the music, closing my eyes, intoxicated by the beats and the sway of bodies around me. As I open my eyes, Eric has turned around to dance with some guy. I don’t want to watch Eric play who’s-the-bigger-tease, so I spin back around falling straight into Lex’s arms.

His emerald eyes burn into mine, the touch of his hand sliding down my arm and settling on my hip. Unwillingly, I close my eyes again, this time inhaling his scent, forgetting what happened upstairs, and surrendering myself to the moment.

It’s only one moment, Charlie, and then it’s over.

Lex moves in rhythm with me, our hips swaying to a remix of ‘Red Red Wine.’ He continues to slowly grind himself against me, spinning me around, so my back is against his chest. With his arms wrapped around my waist, my vision is compromised with all the movement making me slightly dizzy. To drown out the nauseating feeling, I close my eyes, welcoming the darkness.

With his lips brushing my ear, he sings the lyrics, every word sending my body into a complete frenzy. His hands slowly move upward from my stomach, grazing my breasts.

The urge to resist him is a battle I can no longer fight as a warm sensation floods every inch of me, leaving me breathless. I reach my arm behind me to grab his head, burying him into my neck. The pain he’d left behind is buried and caught in revenge. I want him to feel what it’s like to want me and be unable to have me.

Desire is driving me to tease him with my touch, but my passion stems from a very bitter place. I need him to feel what it’s like to taste what he can’t have. Our tables have turned, and this time, I hold the cards in this sick and twisted game my mind is playing.

But then, I lose control of the moment. I don’t have a single minute to think, caught in the speed of which he drags me off the dance floor and through a door marked ‘Staff Only.’ The doorway opens into a dark hallway leading to a kitchen.

The kitchen is dark, but I can see the large stovetops backing against the wall, the rows of stainless-steel counters creating an island in the middle, and the refrigerators lined up, side by side.

Confused, I turn to question him only to be pushed against the fridge as his lips crush against mine. The glass door is cold, making me shiver, yet my skin is on fire, melting away the moisture.

His tongue battles desperately with mine, wanting more. Letting out a moan, his hands grip my face, pinning me down before he releases and runs his palm down the middle of my chest. There’s no wasting time as he slides his hand beneath my dress, my body convulsing at the graze of my hardened nipples.

I moan into his mouth, my legs threatening to give way while he forces them to spread even further.

“Charlotte, can’t you feel how right this is?”

I want to give him all of me and take everything he has to give me—nine years’ worth of suppressed sexual desire. And foolishly, I want him to taste the forbidden fruit. Poison him with just one bite.

He greedily sucks my lips while tugging on my hair, then continues kissing down my neck until his mouth is on my breasts. A groan escapes his beautiful lips as he sucks the left one hard while pinching the right nipple, then quickly alternating.