Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men Book 9) (11 page)

“Good?” My lashes wavered as I met her gaze. “What’s the fun in that?”

She shook her head and drew her finger slowly from my face. “Behaving has its rewards too.”

Eyebrows perching with curiosity, I didn’t say anything. But what the hell? Was she flirting with
me
now?

I was so confused, and yet completely entranced.

“Excuse me,” she cooed. “I have some balls to go break now.” The wicked delight in her gaze almost made me need to shift where I sat because my jeans had grown way too tight.

Her shoulders were rigidly proud as she strolled off in the direction her two friends had gone.

I gazed after her until an elbow jabbed me in the side. “Dude. Who was that? She was hot. I didn’t know you were into black chicks.”

Ignoring him, I jumped off the wall and wandered in the direction she had gone, unable to stay away. It took me nearly five minutes to find her in the crush, but that was okay. I needed that long to settle my racing blood enough to concentrate on anything else but what had just happened.

Julianna had flirted with me, and smiled at me, and touched me. What the hell did that mean?

I wasn’t sure but I needed to find out.

When I finally spotted her, she’d rejoined her two friends and was in front of the band, dancing for them with about fifty other people, though dancing was such a lame word for the amazing way she was fucking dirty grinding. One of her girls had spooned up behind Julianna, clutching her hip and gyrating right up against her ass while the other friend spooned against the friend in the middle.

Juli’s arms were above her head, her fingers were snapping and her eyes were closed as she tilted her face up and smiled through the music.

I stopped dead in my tracks and stared openly as she seemed to float off into the music and let it carry her mind away. Wishing I were the chick pressing her lap into Julianna’s ass, I watched her perfect body shimmy and writhe, and one fact became perfectly clear to me.

I didn’t care that she wasn’t my soul mate. I didn’t care how much she’d hurt me and pissed me off. I didn’t even care that it was Brandt she really wanted. I just knew I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to fuck her very, very badly.

C
OLTON’S
C
HAPTER
|
11

B
y the time the song ended, I’d found myself a new drink and was sipping from it as I stood on the sidelines to watch Julianna rub and grind against her girlfriends.

The way they skimmed their hands up the other’s thighs and then laughed and leaned into each other as if they might kiss took sensual to a whole new level.

I realized I wasn’t the only one gawking when some guy paused beside me and let out a loud wolf whistle. I tensed, hoping he was watching one of the other two and not Julianna, but damn, she was by far the most gorgeous of the trio. The one in the middle was tall, maybe even taller than me and wore her hair in box braids. And the chick on the opposite side of the sandwich was the shortest. She had a nearly shaved head, the biggest loop earrings I’d ever seen, and was packing some serious curves. They were all beautiful, but Julianna remained my favorite.

There was just something about her style and grace and the way she laughed with her friends when she busted a bold move that kept my attention glued to her. As the song ended, I prayed she would keep dancing, but the dude who’d been hanging out next to me flashed forward, interrupting them. I stepped after him to pull him off Julianna, but he wrapped his arm around the shortest chick. She screamed out her surprise and jumped, whirling toward him as if to wallop him, but when she saw his face she screamed again, in excitement this time, before she leaped up and gave him a full body hug, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him full on the mouth.

I eased back and glanced around, hoping no one had caught me starting to act on the instinctive need to keep him away from Julianna. It was a stupid instinct, and I didn’t like that I’d been following it.

Rubbing the back of my neck in humiliation, I started to turn away. Except another dude popped forward and caught hold of the tall friend. Seeing Juli’s two friends greet their boyfriends, I paused, curious if Julianna’s significant other was going to appear and surprise her too. But she only smiled tightly at the two couples and took a tiny step away from them. I knew then no one was coming for her. She looked too uncomfortable, too much like the fifth wheel, too much like the very reason why I’d declined to go to supper with Caroline and her family earlier. She didn’t feel as if she fit in.

Hating that she felt left out, I moved toward her without thinking. She didn’t see me coming; she was too busy watching her friends and their boyfriends talk animatedly amid the four of them.

So I leaned in and said, “You told me you didn’t dance.”

She gasped and spun toward me.

Pressing her hand to her chest, she sucked in more air, her chest heaving with surprise. After taking a moment to collect herself, she shook her head. “I told you I didn’t want to dance
that night
.”

“Right.” I nodded. “You just hadn’t wanted to dance with
me
. I remember now.”

She scowled. “No. That wasn’t it at all. I was just too uncomfortable to dance at all. It had nothing to do with you.”

“Sure,” I murmured in a tone that let her know I didn’t believe her.

With a sniff, she said, “We ended up dancing, didn’t we?”

“We did,” I allowed. “
After
I forced you into it.”

Huffing some more, she set her hands on her hips as if she were about to give me a piece of her mind. I lifted my eyebrows and took a drink, letting her know I was all ears and ready to hear what spiteful words she had to deliver this time.

But her gaze focused on my cup and she instantly narrowed her eyes. “I thought I told you no more alcohol tonight.”

When she reached for it, I pulled the drink away. “Relax, there isn’t any this time.”

After sending me a telling look, she reached for my cup again, less forcefully this time. I let her take it, and instead of dumping it out on the ground, she took a sip. My body tensed as I watched her lick an excess droplet of pop off her top lip. She swallowed some more, and I couldn’t recall if I had ever seen anything look so freaking sexy before.

Something about watching her drink after me made me want to go into caveman mode, just pick her up, haul her over my shoulder and carry her back to my lair so I could turn into a primal beast that rutted until dawn.

My stomach clenched as I physically restrained myself from reaching for her. “You know,” I murmured, masking all outward signs of arousal. “If you think going protective big sister on me and keeping me sober is going to win you brownie points with Brandt, I should probably just clue you in now…he doesn’t give a shit if I sneak a drink every now and then.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came. I could tell I’d caught her off guard, and I wasn’t sure if I felt smug or shitty about that. I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned Brandt, but hell…he was the only thing between us.

Clearing her throat, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin before saying, “I thought you promised to stop all that contention you keep slinging my way.”

I took my cup out of her hand. “It’s a work in progress.”

But I didn’t get a chance to take a drink. She once again swiped my cup from my clutches. She didn’t dump any liquid on the ground, though. No, she threw the whole damn thing down, cup and all.

A split second later, her finger began to wave madly in my face. “Let’s get one thing straight, Little Gamble.”

“Yes,
let’s
,” I growled right back, pulling out my own pointer finger and aiming it at her nose so that we could damn near start dueling with them. “Stop calling me Little Gamble. You compare me to him every time you say it, and I don’t like that. I’m not Brandt. I could never
be
Brandt, even if I tried. So this is who you got, baby doll. Colton David Gamble, and no one else.”

Again, I managed to stun her speechless. “That’s not what I…I mean, I didn’t intend to—
shit
!” Her eyes grew big as she caught something behind me when she glanced over my shoulder.

I started to turn to see what had stolen her attention, but she grasped my arm to keep me facing her. “We should probably talk about this somewhere else. Yeah, let’s talk about this somewhere else.” Then, tightening her grip on me, she yanked me forward, hurrying through the crowd away from whoever she’d spotted.

I glanced over my shoulder but didn’t see anyone I knew, or anyone chasing after us for that matter.

“Who the fuck are we running from?”

“What?” Julianna glanced back at me, her eyes frantic and whole demeanor filled with disorder. Then she shook her head, trying to play it off, but totally failing. “No one.”

I snorted. “Right. Because I run from no one all the time.”

“We’re not running.”

“Uh huh,” I murmured. We were totally running as we wound around a group of loud, drunk guys talking in a cluster so she could use them to provide a shield for us. “And now we’re
not
hiding, right?”

With an irritated glance, she waved a hand. “It’s just…some guy.”

I nodded, suddenly understanding. “Ex idiot who can’t accept no, or straight-up stalker?”

She sighed. “Ex.”

“Ah.” I nodded once before frowning and glancing sharply at her. “Wait, how recently of an ex are we talking, here? You weren’t dating him when you and I—”

“What?
No
! Good God, no. He and I have been through for way over a year. Almost two years. Before you and I ever met. Before I even met your brother.”

“Wow.” My eyebrows spiked, impressed. “And he’s
still
having a hard time getting over you?” She must be pure magic in the sheets. I mean, the sample I’d tasted had been nice, and I’d been messed up since then, craving her, but to pine after her for damn near two years after having her… Maybe it’d been a good thing we’d never gone all the way. I wouldn’t want to miss her that much.

On the other hand, now I was really curious to know what it was like to get inside her if she left that kind of effect on a guy.

“I know.
Thank you
.” She sent me a grateful glance, and it took me a second to realize she was thanking me for being incredulous over her stalker ex’s persistence and not over the fact that I wanted to fuck her really bad. “And we were only married five months too, so why, why,
why
hasn’t he gotten a clue and moved on yet?”

“Whoa! Married?” I slowed to a stop, gaping at her. “Did you—hold up a second there. You just said married. You were
married
? He’s an ex-
husband
?”

When she tried to tug me back into gear but met with resistance, she sighed and sent me a harassed scowl. “Unfortunately, yes. I was married when I was twenty. It was a big, stupid mistake, but it happened, and I can’t erase it…as much as I’d like to.”

“Twenty,” I repeated blankly. Then I shook my head, too discombobulated by this entire information bomb to think straight. “You realize I’m still a year and a half away from
twenty
, and you’re throwing the number around like it was eons ago. Holy shit, how old are you?”

She scowled. “Not that it’s any of your business because it’s totally rude to ask a woman her age, but I’m almost twenty-two.”

I calculated in my head. “So you must’ve started working at Forbidden as soon as you hit twenty-one. Because your one year there is coming up in, what...March?”

“That’s right.” She blinked at me strangely. “How do you remember that?”

“Hmm?” I glanced at her before shrugging. “I’m a genius. So why, again, are you having
me
run away from your ex with you? I seriously doubt he gives a fuck about me.”

“Oh.” Startled by my question, she let go of my arm. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. You can totally go.”

“What the fuck ever.” I grabbed her hand. “I’m not abandoning you when you’re acting like this.”

“Like what?” She paused to scan the crowd. “I’m not acting unusual.” Then she must’ve spotted him, I guess, because her entire body gave a little twitch and her eyes filled with…what was that emotion?
Fear?
Tightening her fingers around me, she set off again, tugging me along with her.

“You’re acting
completely
unusual,” I argued, frowning as I glanced back. When I caught some dude scanning the crowd, I figured that was probably
him
.

The ex-husband.

He started to look our way, so I moved to block her. And he kept scanning his gaze past. Blowing out a relieved breath, I returned my attention to the woman weaving us through people.

“You’re
the
Julianna Radcliffe,” I said. “You make grown men cry at your feet when all they want to do is worship your beauty.”

“I do not!”

“You totally do. You’re a ball breaker to the extreme. Cool and unaffected by pretty much everything, except really annoying pests like me. But I bring out the scrapper in you and make you want to fight. I do
not
send you running and hiding, so…what the fuck did this guy do to you? Jesus, baby doll, did he hurt you?”

We reached the edge of the crowd, so she came to a halt as if afraid to step into the open night air and expose herself.

Spinning to me, she stared wildly into my eyes and shook her head. “I can’t talk about this here.”

I nodded and set my hand against the side of her throat, where I could feel her pulse beating violently against my hand. I didn’t like seeing her scared.

“I’ll get you to your car.”

She began to nod, only to wince and shake her head, gulping. “No, I didn’t drive. I rode with Tyla and Sasha. Shit, they’re still here somewhere.” She began to look around for them, but I squeezed her fingers, regaining her attention.

“Let them know you’ve got another ride home. My truck is this way.”

“Okay. Okay, thank you.” She nodded without a fight, which told me exactly how rattled she was. She’d never not-argued with me. And the fact that she actually accepted a ride from me…yeah, she was wigging out big time.