Friend Zoned (Barnett Bulldogs #2) (21 page)

Instead I school my features, giving him a flirty little come hither smile as I tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear.  “Hi.”

“Hey.”  Not saying another word, he hoists a bottle of beer to his mouth before taking a long slow swallow.  His eyes never once release mine.

I’m detecting a definite air of interest here.  I’m thinking this guy is going to be a keeper.  For tonight anyway.  Clearing my throat, I introduce myself hoping to get the preliminaries out of the way. “My name’s Violet.”

“Nice to meet you, Violet.   Nick.”  Just as those words leave his lips, his eyes suddenly dart over my shoulder before he tacks on rather hastily, “And this is my girlfriend, Bree.”

I’m sorry.  Come again?

Not a moment later, a tall slender woman with glaring eyes wraps her arms around his neck.  Shifting uncomfortably at the ungodly awkwardness that has now descended upon the three of us, Nick leans down, hesitantly planting a kiss on her lips.  Except Bree has decided that her territory is in clear need of marking.  Twining her arms around his neck, she holds his head possessively while opening her mouth wide and pretty much mauling his face right in front of me.

I’m guessing that’s my cue to leave. 

Sheesh.  All the guy had to say was-
not interested
.  Those two little words would have had me moving on to bachelor number four.  Whoever the hell that is.

With a roll of my eyes, I spin on my heel, before stalking back to our table.  As my gaze latches onto Mia’s, I can tell she’s approximately three seconds away from laughing her proverbial ass off.  There’s a huge, barely contained grin wreathing her face.  Even more telling- her shoulders are shaking uncontrollably.

It only has my eyebrows lowering in response.

When I’m finally close enough, I say with an exaggerated sigh, “Go ahead… let it out.”

That’s all it takes for Mia to totally lose it.  She laughs for a good three minutes before her chuckles finally subside.

“Alright,” I grumble, “it’s not
that
funny.”

“Oh god, it is.  You should have seen the look on your face when he introduced his girlfriend!  It was priceless, Vi.  Completely priceless.”  She glances over in their direction again before shaking her head.

I can’t help but look as well.

Yep… still going at it.

After another thirty minutes, I’ve drained yet another beer and have approached two other guys who, if you can actually believe it, are more interested in watching the game on TV than striking up a conversation with yours truly.

Yeah… I know, totally unbelievable!  And trust me, I’ve been thrusting my boobs out the entire time too.

It’s still a no-go.

Staring rather glumly at my empty mug, I can’t resist stating, “This is much harder than it looks.”

As those disheartened words leave my lips, Mia dissolves into yet another fit of giggles.

“For you, yes.  I really should be videoing this.  It would make a hilarious GIF.”

“You suck as a wingman,” I mutter.

“You suck at picking up dudes,” she tosses right back at me.

Can’t exactly argue with that one, now can I?  Apparently I do suck at picking up guys.  Who knew?

This night has turned out to be a complete bust. 

Feeling deflated, I say, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Just as I return to our table, a guy loitering at the bar catches my attention.  Before I can think better of it, I make a beeline towards him.  Even though his back is to me, he has big broad shoulders.  So, right there, I know he has potential.  And he’s tall.  I like that as well.

Peeking over at Mia, I notice that she’s wrapped up in her phone.  Good.  The last thing I need is her making a video of my most humiliating fails.

Because she would seriously do it.

My eyes arrow back to the guy in question. I’m not really able to see much more of him because he’s wearing a ball cap.  I have no idea what he looks like, but so far, I’m intrigued.  Plus, I’m kind of feeling desperate over here.  This night hasn’t exactly gone the way I expected it to.  Once again, my gaze slides back over his impossibly sexy shoulders.  The sheer width of them is breathtaking.

And then I feel it.

I almost want to pump my fist in the air with unfettered joy.

That’s attraction zinging through my body, baby.

See?

I knew this was the right approach to take.  I just had to be patient.  Sometimes it’s all about persistence.

The way his muscular back fills out the tight gray t-shirt stretching its cottony way across all that broadness has my mouth salivating.  As I weave through the people standing by the bar, I squeeze myself in right next to him.  Sucking in a quick breath, I send up a little prayer hoping that the front is just as delicious as the backside.

With a sexy little smile gracing my lips, I finally turn towards him.

“Hey, Vi.”

My eyes widen as the sexy little come hither smile slides clean off my face before splattering onto the bar.  I’m sure my eyes look like they’re on the verge of popping right out of my head.

Oh for fuck’s sake…

“
What are you doing here
?”

If he registers the shock slash dismay seeping through my voice, he doesn’t say one damn word about it.  He merely tips his head towards Mia who is still sitting at the booth with her phone.  “Mia texted that you guys were here to catch the game.  I was just ordering a beer before joining you.”

My narrowed gaze slices straight to my traitorous ex best friend.  Catching my eyes, she gives me a huge shit eating grin along with a little wave of her fingers.

I’m seriously going to maim and kill that girl.

“Oh.”

Well shit.

That piercing blue gaze of his spears right through mine, effectively pinning me in place.  Something trembles at the bottom of my belly as our eyes lock and hold.  “I’m surprised you’re out on a Wednesday night.  I thought for sure you’d be home studying.” 

Yeah… studying probably would have been a lot more productive than what’s been happening here tonight.

“Just felt like grabbing a beer,” I throw the words out rather lamely before nodding towards the big screen TV, “and, you know, watching the game.  I, ah, thought it might be fun.”

Christ.

I don’t even know whose playing tonight…

Or any other night, for that matter.

Thankfully Sam only raises a skeptical brow in response.  My guess is that he sees right through my paper thin lie because I don’t follow the NHL.  Like at all.  I doubt I could name one single player from the league.

Again he nods his head towards the booth.  The breath instantly becomes wedged in my throat because I’m wondering what else my soon to be ex-roommate has told him.  “Mia said she needed to head home but that you wanted to stay and hang out a bit longer.  So, I thought I’d swing by and keep you company.”

My chin drops before I mutter, “She said that?”

Now I really am going to kill her.

Slowly.

Painfully.

His lips slide up at the corners as if he knows I’ve been purposefully avoiding him of late and has finally found a way to thwart me.  Grabbing his beer, his other hand wraps around my fingers before tugging me towards the booth.  Quickly I rack my brain, trying to figure out how I’m going to get out of this one.  Spending more time alone with Sam is definitely not a good idea.  Especially right now.  Just as we arrive at the table, Mia scoots out before grabbing her purse.  A sly smile hovers around the edges of her red slicked lips.

“So,” she announces, “I’m going to get moving.  Got some reading to plow through.”

Narrowing my eyes, I grit out, “Thanks so much for calling Sam.  That was super thoughtful of you.”  I’m hoping she sees the murderous glint shimmering in my eyes.

Damn Mia and her interfering ways.

Her smile only widens.  “No problem, sweetie.”  Pointing a finger, she wags it between the pair of us.  “Now you kids have fun tonight.”  Sending us a little wink, she skedaddles away before I can think of a reason to detain her.  “But not
too
much fun.”

Silently fuming, I watch her saunter out of the bar as Sam settles his big body onto the side of the booth Mia just vacated.  There’s nothing else for me to do but slide in nervously across from him.

My eyes immediately fixate on the empty mug in front of me before shooting him a quick glance.  Even though it’s fleeting, a little current of energy snaps and sizzles its way through me as our gazes collide. Almost immediately, I drop mine back to the table.

“Vi?”

My name comes out sounding all low and gravelly as I run my finger slowly over the rim of my mug.  His voice has my eyes snapping back up to his.

Expression completely shuttered, he asks, “Did you really come here to watch the game tonight?”

His words have the breath lodging at the back of my throat as I continue staring mutely at him.  I don’t think he believes me.  It probably doesn’t help that the TV is all the way across the bar and from the angle I’m sitting at, I can barely see it.

“Ummm…”  My voice falters before I murmur almost questioningly, “Yes?”

Those blue eyes of his narrow before he reaches out, nabbing my fingers with his own.  His huge paw practically swallows up my smaller one.  Staring down at our stacked hands, I try steeling myself against the contact.  The feel of his warm flesh settled over mine has an unexpected shaft of desire arrowing clean through me.  Swallowing thickly, I try in vain to ward it off.

This isn’t supposed to be happening.  We’re supposed to stay strictly within the friends boundary zone. That’s the way it’s always been.  Screwing with that… okay, bad choice of words…
messing
around with that is a disastrous idea.

It will only end badly.

“You don’t sound altogether sure about that.”

Shifting uncomfortably on my seat, I slowly raise my gaze until it’s once again locked on his. “Does it really matter?”

His eyes take on a hard edged glint before he says rather gruffly, “Yeah, it matters.”

“Why?”

For a long moment, his blue depths simply bore into mine.  Even though the game is on, music still pours through the sound system around us.  It changes from a fast paced beat to a much slower one.  Before I can blink, Sam is sliding out of the booth.  His fingers are still clasped around mine almost as if he’s never going to let them go.  And right now, I kind of don’t want him to.

“Where are we going?”

“To dance.”

“What? 
Now
?”  I glance towards the floor.  The bar isn’t crowded at all.  “There’s one other couple out there.”

“So?”

By this point, we’re already there and he’s pulling me towards him.  When he finally wraps those big muscular arms around me, I know I’m in deep shit.  Because they feel like home.  They always have.

I think that might be part of the problem.

Because I love being cocooned in Sam’s comforting embrace, it only takes a few moments before I find myself melting into him.  My head settles against his hard wide chest.  I can’t help but inhale the rich masculine scent of him.  His lips are pressed close to my ear.  I feel his warm breath feathering over my flesh and it sends a tidal wave of shivers scampering down my spine.

My eyelids are just starting to fall when he suddenly whispers, “Did you come here looking to get laid?”

“
What
?”

Pressing his mouth against my ear, he carefully enunciates, “
Did you come here looking to get laid
?”

His words leave my thighs unconsciously clenching.  I gulp before forcing out the lie on a long wobbly breath, “No, of course not.”

Ummm… yeah.

That’s
exactly
why I came here.

And the reason I need to get laid is currently holding me in his big strong arms, pressing me close to his rock solid body until I’m almost dizzy with the intoxicating scent of him.

Maybe… maybe I just need to be straight with Sam.  How much more of this can I possibly take before shattering into a million pieces?

But still…

The thought of laying myself completely bare scares the shit out of me.  Unsure what to say, I chew my lower lip before finally admitting the truth.  “Yeah.”

His arms tighten around me as his face presses closer.  All I have to do is turn my head just a fraction to the left and my lips would align perfectly with his.  Again something clenches within me at the thought of his mouth sliding deliciously over mine.

“Why?”

Instead of closing the distance between us, I keep my face angled away before squeezing my eyes tightly shut.  It feels as if I’m perched precariously on the edge of a cliff, moments away from descending to the ground in a terrifying freefall where I will more than likely land with a loud splat.