What are you wearing?
I smiled when I heard his voice in my head. You’ll just have to see.I kept looking at the door as we sat at the table together. Most of the girls found other people to talk to, but Tracy was still with me.
“Why do you keep looking at the door?” she asked. “Expecting someone?”
I never told her we’d gotten back together. She was a close friend, but I didn’t confide all the details of my life. I doubted she would believe me if I did. “Heath and I got back together.”
“Really?” she asked. “After that fight you guys had?”
“Yeah, he won me over.”
“I think that’s great news. You aren’t going to find another man like that. He’s Grade A, top choice beef.”
“Oh, I know.” That was why I was still there, why I was going against everything I believed in just to be with him. “But he is more than his looks. He’s sweet, thoughtful, loyal…a lot of things.”
“Sounds like you love him. I’ve never seen you with the same guy for so long.”
Because I never had been. “I do.”
She gave me a surprised look, as if she didn’t expect me to admit it. “And he loves you?”
I nodded.
“I guess that’s obvious just by the way he looks at you.” She spun her olive around in her glass. “Man, why does his brother have to be married…?”
I chuckled. “You’ll find someone, Tracy.”
“Not like that,” she said as she flipped her hair. “He’s one in a million.”
Yeah, he was.
My eyes went to the entryway when I saw a six-foot-three hunk walk inside. All eyes turned his way, cataloguing all the features that were impossible not to notice, his massive build, the way he stretched the fabric of his long-sleeved shirt over his strong pecs, his scorching blue eyes, his hard jawline sprinkled with a shadow of hair.
He headed to the bar first and ordered his drink.
I stared at his ass, liking the snug fit of his jeans.
It didn’t take long for a woman to make a move, to touch him on the arm and make a pass. He didn’t smile playfully, didn’t say more than a few words with an annoyed expression, before he walked across the bar to me, like he already knew where I was without checking.
I felt my stomach tighten with excitement, looking at the sexiest man I’d ever seen. It was hard to believe he was the man who’d assaulted me months ago, took me captive by choking me out. Now, he was everything to me.
I got to my feet because anything less than a deep kiss wasn’t good enough to greet him—according to him.
He looked me up and down subtly, liking the tightness of my red dress, his blue eyes flashing in approval. When he reached the table, he set his drink down without taking his gaze off me. Then his arm hooked around my waist, his hand flattening against the arch in my back. He looked down at me as he pulled me close, giving me a much different expression than he gave to that admirer at the bar. He held his lips there as he stared at me, like he expected me to do the rest.
I was in high heels, so it was easy for me to move into him, to plant my lips against his, to smear a drop of lipstick against the corner of his mouth. My hand slid to his chest, and I almost forgot he still had injuries under those clothes. I kept my touch gentle but my kiss hard.
He kissed me like we were alone, even though we were in public. His hand squeezed my ass as he gave me a little tongue. His deep voice whispered to me. “So sexy in that dress.” He lowered himself into the chair I’d just been occupying then patted his thigh, as if he expected me to sit there.
I wasn’t sure if he could handle it, but I didn’t want to ask in front of Tracy, so I lowered myself across his lap, my feet dangling above the floor.
His arm hooked around my waist, and he supported me like the back of the chair, his eyes all over me like his hands in the bedroom.
Tracy stared at us, like she didn’t know what to say.
I looked at my friend and tried to ignore the way Heath looked at me, with a gaze so hot, it burned my skin like a tanning bed. I grabbed my drink and sipped it, letting the fruity tang splash across my tongue along with the tequila.
Tracy continued to stare. “So…do you have any friends you could set me up with?”
Heath directed his gaze to her. “All my friends are assholes.”
“Like, assholes like you or…”
He smiled slightly. “No. As in, bad assholes.”
She sighed. “Oh damn.” She sipped her drink until it was empty then headed to the bar to get another. “I can’t watch this fine piece of man be all over you. I need to go find me a man.” She walked off.