Destined - The Austin Series Prequel (6 page)

I leaned back on the wall of
the bar while Doug was taking pictures with his camera, swimming
and photography were his two greatest passions, followed closely by
women and Xbox. Julie had gone to the bar to get another round with
the cash I’d thrust in her palm and was still chatting to the rest
of team who had staked their place nearest to the beer taps.

‘Holy shit,’ muttered Doug. I
looked at him and saw he was staring across the room, I followed
his eye line and nodded. The girl he was staring at was just his
type, she had to be at least six foot tall, killer cheekbones and
deep emerald eyes, but she was kooky, way too kooky for my tastes.
She had a nose ring and the most bizarre haircut with different
colours in, but she was in a tight denim mini skirt, one of Doug’s
hot buttons. If she’d have been wearing a leather one, he’d have
been over there in a flash asking for her hand in marriage. ‘I
think I’m in love,’ he groaned. I laughed and shook my head. He
always fell hard for girls, unlike me. I drained my glass and
shoved it on the table next to me and saw he was holding his camera
up, taking pictures of her.

I looked back over again and
took a sudden shocked intake of breath. I felt my cock jump
straight to attention, not even half mast, as my heart leapt into
my mouth, which I was sure was ajar. The tall girl was talking with
another shorter girl, who was looking up at her laughing and it was
like a punch to my gut as I drank her in. She had the richest,
glossy brown hair piled up into a sexy up do, strands of it had
fallen out, trailing down a long, slender, sexy as hell neck and an
image of me running my lips up and down it flashed in front of me.
She had the most amazing smile, with the cutest dimples and full
soft lips that I just wanted to pull onto mine to taste. My eyes
travelled up her face, to vivid blue eyes that rivalled my own,
framed with long dark lashes. She’d put on too much black eye
makeup, and in the sticky heat of this bar it had smudged under her
eyes, which along with the dewy texture of her flawless porcelain
skin made her look like she’d just been fucked. I shifted my hips
and stuck my hand down into my jeans pocket to adjust my pulsating
cock, damn I hadn’t been this hard in …
ever
.

I craned my neck, annoyed when
someone got in the way, and managed to get a glimpse of her body.
Fuck me, I was going come in my bloody jeans, no stimulation
required, just from looking at her. She had curves like I’d never
seen, full seriously pert tits with erect nipples poking through
her thin black vest top. I just wanted to bite and suck on them
until I made her come. I tore my eyes off them and shifted position
as someone blocked my view again, but then I saw her bend over to
fiddle with the zip on her ankle boots, and I let out a groan to
see the sexiest arse I’d ever seen on a girl. I was torn between
whether I’d prefer to have her wrap those kissable lips around my
cock, or just plunge it into that tight toned backside first time.
She laughed again as she straightened up and tucked a strand of
hair behind her ear. She suddenly frowned and her bottom lip
protruded, Christ I wanted to bit that bottom lip and suck it. Look
at me baby, I pleaded internally, look over at me.
Baby?
Where the hell did that just come from? Was I seriously lusting
after a
brunette
and giving her pet names from one or two
glances?

I gulped as she turned her head
and locked eyes with mine, as if she’d heard me. I felt my balls
ache, but what was even more strange was the effect on my pulse and
heart rate. I was physically fit so they were always slow and
steady, even when I was competing, but looking at her they were out
of control, like a damn runaway train. Even at this distance I
recognised the signs and smiled to myself, her pupils had dilated,
she’d taken a quick, deep breath and her full lips had parted as
she stared at me. I felt elated, yet deflated at the same time. She
was just like all the others, reacting to what she saw, but fuck
did it make my cock jerk in my jeans to see how attracted she was
to me as well.

I suddenly frowned as I held
her gaze, I could see sadness, nestled at the back of her beautiful
bright eyes. She knew pain, maybe not quite to my levels, but I
recognised a bit of myself in her. All of a sudden my awareness of
my body’s reaction to her was replaced by a burning desire to take
her in my arms and comfort her. I cursed as someone got in the way
again. What the fuck was wrong with me?
Comfort her?
I
fucked, I didn’t do caring and nurturing, but she was stirring
something inside me that I’d never felt before. Damn it, a couple
of looks at some girl and I was falling for her.

‘Holy shit dude, I’ve never
seen you look at anyone like that.’

‘What?’ I asked, still tilting
my head back and forth trying to spot her again.

‘That brunette with the hot
tall chick. If I didn’t know any better I’d say it was love at
first sight, you’re whipped dude.’

‘Love?’ I scoffed. ‘Yeah right.
Lust at first sight, my cock sprung with one glance at her.’

‘Yeah, could tell from the look
of raging lust on your face. Well it’s not one sided, when she
looked at you … Christ, even I felt the heat in the room go up a
few hundred degrees.’

‘You saw that?’ I asked, still
distracted. Where the hell had all these people come from blocking
my bloody view of her.

‘Didn’t just see it, got it on
camera.’

‘You what?’ I uttered as I
finally looked at him. ‘Show me,’ I demanded as I grabbed his
camera and yanked it towards me.

‘Shit Gabe, you just nearly
throttled me, it’s still around my bloody neck,’ he laughed as he
unhooked it and pulled up some screen shots. There were loads of
her, he must have put it on sports mode when he saw me checking her
out. I zoomed in on the one where she’d lifted her head and our
eyes had met for the first time. I gulped again and ran a hand
through my hair.

‘She’s absolutely
stunning
,’ I whispered. I don’t know why I’d always shied
away from brunettes, but in this girls case I’d go so far as to say
if I’d had a police sketch artist draw me up my perfect fantasy, I
was looking at its spitting image. I looked back up but saw Julie
approaching with our drinks and thrust the camera back at Doug.
‘Don’t delete any, not a
single
one,’ I warned.

‘Damn, you do have it bad,’ he
chuckled. I flinched as Julie kissed my cheek and found myself
looking over to see if the girl was watching, but she was facing
her friend again, talking. I absentmindedly sipped my drink as I
tried to concentrate on holding a conversation with Julie and Doug,
but my mind was on her and my eyes kept straying in her direction.
I was drawn to her like an ocean wave to the shore. I felt a slap
on my arm and looked around.

‘Seriously? I’m talking to you
and you’re staring at some other girl?’ Julie huffed.

‘Sorry, I just thought I knew
her,’ I shrugged. It wasn’t a lie, when I’d looked into her eyes I
felt like I’d seen into her soul, like I’d known her forever. I
snorted as I heard myself in my head. What the hell was going on
with me? I tried really hard to focus on Julie but felt myself
starting to panic. What if this girl walked out and I never saw her
again? What if she was what I’d been searching for? The person that
would help heal me, give my life some meaning? I needed to get her
number, this was a large city and no way did I want her slipping
through my fingers. I hated losing, especially when I wanted
something badly, and I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything in
my life. I felt another sharp slap on my arm and Julie slammed her
drink down and headed back to the bar to join her friends.

‘Way to go dude,’ Doug laughed.
‘Carry on like this and she’ll do you a favour and dump your arse
first.’

‘Then I better keep staring at
her. Shit, where’s she gone?’ I exclaimed as I looked for the
girl.

‘Not sure you want to
know.’

‘Doug, where is she,’ I
demanded.

‘Over by the bar, with some
guy.’

‘What?’ I hissed, some guy?
What bloody guy? Doug grabbed me, swapped positions and pointed
through the crowds. I felt my fists clench and my blood boil as I
watched some fucking arsehole with his hands on her and his lips on
her neck. I heard myself growl angrily.

‘Dude, seriously? Did you just
fucking growl?’

‘Who the fuck’s that with her?’
I snarled.

‘How the hell should I
know?’

‘If he doesn’t take his fucking
hands off her I swear …’ I shoved both my hands through my hair and
put them on my hips and tried to take a calming breath.

‘You swear what?’

‘I’m going to ram his bloody
teeth so far down his throat that they’ll chatter every time he
farts.’

‘You need to chill. You’re
going to have a heart attack, I’ve never seen you like this over a
girl, you’re acting crazy.’

Doug was right, I was acting
crazy, seriously crazy. A couple of looks at a girl and I was
acting like a possessive jealous husband. O shit,
husband?
Now I knew I was losing it. Was I seriously so attracted to a girl,
a girl I hadn’t even met, that I was imagining getting
that
serious with her? I was tempted to go over and shove him off her
and tell her she should be with me, but he was obviously her
boyfriend. What was I thinking? That she’d just dump him to try me?
Hang on a second, why wouldn’t she dump him to try me? I checked
him out, I was much better looking, taller, had a way better body
and I could tell he wasn’t stacked in the cock department. I could
make her come in ways he couldn’t even imagine. I closed my eyes
and groaned, as I imagined her naked willing body below mine,
looking up at me with those big blues eyes and begging me to fill
her. I saw us holding hands as I slowly made love to her and heard
her cry my name in ecstasy. I slapped my hand to my forehead,
making love to her?
Had I really just imagined making love
to her? I’d never “made love” to a girl in my life, I fucked.

‘Dude seriously, you’re turning
red, take a few breathes.’

‘I think I need some cold air,’
I nodded. I glanced over at her again and hissed through my teeth
as I saw the guy stick a hand on her breast and squeeze. As if that
didn’t make me mad enough, I watched as she removed it and frowned
at him, then the bastard did it again. This time she scowled
fiercely at him, that scowl was seriously hot but right now I was
pissed off. I was beginning to doubt he was a boyfriend, she looked
uncomfortable all of a sudden, uncomfortable and vulnerable and I
felt my heart ache as my fists clenched again. When he grabbed her
arse and she looked at him shocked and tried to push him off, that
made my mind up. I was going to drag him off her and carry her out
of here. No one was ever going to lay a finger on her again, not if
I had anything to do with it.

I strode purposefully forwards,
my anger fuelling me, I needed to protect her from that arsehole,
before he forced her to do something she didn’t want. Suddenly I
was surrounded by people, I tried to push my way through and
realised it was the swim team boys, trying to get me up onto their
shoulders. I yelled at them to get off me and struggled to get
away, damn it, I needed to get to her to make sure she was ok. By
the time they realised I wasn’t joking about it being a bad time
and I made my way to where she’d been standing, she’d vanished. I
felt sick as I looked around the bar. I dragged a young spotty kid
out of his chair and climbed up on it to scan the room, I couldn’t
see her anywhere.

‘Shit, shit,
SHIT
,’ I
yelled as I shoved my hands through my hair. Everyone around me
went quiet and looked up at me and I saw Doug mouthing
‘WTF?’
at me across the room. I hopped down and headed
straight for the ladies toilet, ignoring everyone’s objections as I
marched in to look for her. When a blonde came out of the only
occupied stall she looked at me surprised, then smiled and bit her
lip, nodding back at the cubicle. Ordinarily she’d have been my
type and I’d have obliged, but all I could think of was that damn
brunette with the beautiful smile. I even checked the men’s room in
case he’d dragged her in there. I elbowed my way through the crowds
and rushed outside, panting in a panic looking left and right. The
street was pretty empty, apart from a row of waiting empty taxi’s,
there was no sign of her. I saw a black cab disappearing in the
distance and could have sworn I saw that crazy chick’s multi
coloured hair in the back window. I just had to hope she’d dragged
her friend out with her, but that meant I’d just lost her.
‘
Fuck
,’ I yelled and turned and punched the wall in
frustration just as Doug and Julie came out of the bar to find
me.

‘Gabe, what have you done?
What’s going on?’ Julie looked up at me all teary eyed as she
grabbed my hand and took out a tissue to dab my bleeding knuckles.
I sighed and my shoulders slumped. What the hell was wrong with me?
I was acting totally out of character over a girl I didn’t even
know when I had a really sweet kind girlfriend already. I pulled my
hand away from her, leaned back on the wall and covered my eyes
while I tried to pull myself together.

‘Julie, I think you’d better
get a taxi home,’ I heard Doug tell her. ‘Gabe’s seriously drunk,
the boys have been doubling up his drinks all night without him
knowing, I’ll get him home and make sure he’s safe, ok?’

‘I can come and help,’ she
volunteered.

‘Not a good idea, he can get a
bit aggressive when he’s drunk and he’d be really upset if he
scared you. Go on, the taxi’s waiting, he’ll call you in the
morning.’

‘I’m sorry Gabe, I hope you
feel better. I’ll speak to you tomorrow,’ came Julie’s voice and I
felt her hand run up and down my arm. I just nodded, I couldn’t
think of anything to say. ‘Happy birthday,’ she called and I heard
the door shut and the taxi drive away.