Welcome to Sugartown (21 page)

Holly seems
to be hitting it off with the new bartender, who seems real nice
and is certainly pretty enough to look at. We don’t normally have
the luxury of having bands play at the Sugartown Hotel, but the new
guy somehow convinced Dave that bands would get more patrons in the
door, and so far it appears to have worked.

Holly and I
make a show of dancing. We both agreed it was the right thing to do
to support the new guy’s band theory. Best intentions aside, I know
we’re both just trying to gain the attention of the two hottest men
in place. I make the mistake of seeking out the gaze of one of
those hot men and earn a stab to the heart because of it. Elijah
once said he couldn’t imagine anything hotter than Holly and I
together and, as the band blasted out a very sexy and slightly emo
cover of The Divinyls’
I Touch
Myself,
Holly practically molests me in
her effort to get the new guy’s attention. It looks as though
Elijah is one step away from jumping the pool table and molesting
the both of us.

Scott jumps
right on in behind me and I feel my spine turn to slush when I
think about the last time a guy stood that close behind me. Then I
remember the way Elijah had reacted to that scenario and, with a
quick glance in his direction, I excuse myself and head for the
bar. He doesn’t make a move toward me, but I feel his eyes burning
a hole in my backside until I’m sitting safely on a
stool.

Holly stays
on the dance floor and I’m okay with that, because it gives me a
chance to suss out the new guy and see if he meets the best friend
seal of approval.

“
Thirsty
work, huh?” He leans over the bar and his eyes are sparkling as he
winks at me. He’s got a very Adam Levine kind of vibe—sex on a
stick and just as cheeky too. “What can I get ya?”

“
Johnnie
Walker, blue label, neat.”

“
Ooh,
top-shelf? Either you’re in for a big night or you’re buying for
the guy in the corner who’s been tossing them back like lollies and
hasn’t taken his eyes off you all night.”

“
Let’s go
with the first one,” I say and slap a fifty-dollar note on the bar.
I gulp down the shot. My stomach threatens a mini revolt and I have
to choke it down again before it makes an embarrassing
reappearance. After the burn settles all I can taste is Elijah, and
my heart hurts all over again.

“
Tonight, I’m
drinking for Australia,” I declare and tilt my glass toward him in
a salute.

“
Thatta
girl.” He refills my glass and shakes his head when I slip another
fifty-dollar note from my clutch. “This one’s on me.”

“
Thanks.” I
smile and sip the shot slowly, and then, because the taste is so
familiar I hold the glass beneath my nose and inhale. When I open
my eyes sex on a stick is watching me with a half-smile and a
knowing glint in his eye.

“
How long has
it been?”

I don’t know
if he’s talking about the last time I got laid—which sadly has been
never—how long it’s been since I had a drink—I am sort of acting
like a raging alcoholic—or how long since Elijah and I broke up,
but I find myself answering the latter, anyway. “Four
weeks.”

“
I think from
the death glares he’s sending me right now that it’s safe to say he
wants you back.”

“
It’s
complicated.”

“
Yeah? So is
life.”

“
Yeah, no
shit.”

“
That dance
you two were doing, was that all for him?”

“
Mine was.
Holly’s though, Holly’s was all for you.”

“
And this
Holly, is she complicated?”

“
Surprisingly
not.” I lean back on the stool a little to get a better look at
him. It’s kind of an odd question for a guy who doesn’t know her
from a bar of soap, and I feel a flutter of excitement for her when
I realise he wants to get to know her a lot better. “Holly’s a
great girl. She’s calls it like she sees it, she doesn’t like to be
undermined, patronized or interrupted when she’s ranting. She’s
loyal to a fault and she’s been a bossy, nosy bitch since
kindergarten.”

He laughs and
shakes his head. “Wow, that’s really a stellar
recommendation.”

“
She’s the
best woman I know. I hear she’s also fireworks in the sack, though
that little titbit came from her, so don’t blame me if it turns out
not to be true.” I swallow back the rest of my drink and slide off
the stool I’m occupying. “Will you tell her I went home? I don’t
want her to feel like she has to take me home when there’s someone
else waiting for her.”

“
I’ll tell
her.”

I swing
around and face the room, my eyes automatically searching out
Elijah’s, as if they’re on autopilot. Disappointment washes through
me when I don’t find them anywhere. Maybe he went home, or maybe
he’s in the bathroom taking a pee. That thought automatically makes
me need to go myself so I turn back around and say, “Oh, and if you
break her heart I’ll hunt you down and rip out yours.” And then I
strut away to the ladies.

I’m still
laughing at the look on his face when I stumble into the bathroom
and freeze in my tracks. Propped up against the wall is a young
couple fucking one another’s brains out. Crude, yes, but there’s
really no other way to describe it. His jeans are down around his
ankles displaying a firm arse and two long muscular legs, one with
a very detailed tiger tattoo. Her legs are wrapped around his hips.
One of his hands supports her weight while the other palm is
slammed flat against the tile, and his thrusts are hard enough to
nail her to the goddamn wall. He groans with each one and the sound
rings in my ears—primal, animal, it calls to some baser thing
inside me yearning to be let out of her cage.

The moment
seems to stretch on for eons.

Neither one
of them has noticed me yet. Her eyes are shut tightly, and the
noise of the door banging shut is swallowed by her
moans.

“
Oh, fuck me
harder,” she cries out and I find I’m equal parts aroused and
revolted. Also, I can almost pinpoint the second when my addled
brain catches up to what my eyes are witnessing and my heart
shatters in two. I can’t look away, and yet I’ll never be able to
look at him the same way again. In this moment, all the bullshit
that had transpired between us before seems like just that,
bullshit.

But
this?

This is the
sort of betrayal I can never forgive him for, because no matter
what the excuse, he knows how I feel about him. He also knows how I
feel about her and he knew there was a chance I would find the two
of them like this, and the fact that he’s willing to hurt me for
the sake of a quick fuck makes me hate him just a
little.

I’m not an
idiot, though. It’s obvious he’s enjoying himself, too. That’s
evident by what he says next as he hammers into her, “God, you feel
so fucking good.”

Nicole lets
out this ridiculously high-pitched giggle and opens her eyes. They
widen in shock and then narrow down as she registers that I’m
standing there, watching. A smile spreads across her face, wide and
victorious. And then she grabs his arse with her long taloned hands
and drives him into her faster.

It isn’t long
before he’s finishing hard and fast, exactly the way he never could
with me. And that cuts deeper than anything I’ve seen so far in
this disgusting bathroom. He leans against her, spent. He doesn’t
kiss her; there’s none of the tenderness of our post orgasmic
moments, but that hardly matters. The truth is, he still fucked a
girl up against the bathroom wall knowing I was in the very next
room.

Nicole bends
down to whisper into his ear. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves an
audience.”

Elijah
freezes and then he turns his upper body to face me. Only his upper
body, because I’m assuming the lower half is still buried in that
whore. “Ah, fuck.”

I don’t say a
single thing in return, though there are many, many words on the
tip of my tongue. I simply convey all of the hurt I’m feeling with
one look before calmly stepping through the door.

Once I’m in
the hallway with that mind-fuck of a mess behind me, I take a deep
breath and bolt outside. My plan is to run all the way home. It’s
just a few short blocks, and the bathroom incident has sobered me
enough to ensure I won’t wind up stumbling and passing out in
someone’s front yard. That’s the plan, but life hardly ever goes
according to one.

“
Ana!” I hear
his footsteps pounding the pavement behind me, but I don’t bother
to turn around, I just run faster and pray he doesn’t catch up.
Apparently I’m not that lucky though. Elijah reaches out and yanks
me back into the curve of his chest. “Baby girl, would you just
stop and talk to me.”

“
Don’t you
dare call me that!” I kick and try to lurch away from him but he
holds my arms down by my sides, rendering me completely useless.
“You just had your dick buried in another girl and, no less than
five seconds later, you’re calling me baby girl? Fuck you,
Cade!”

He spins me
around so my back is pressed into an alcove created by an empty
storefront. “What do you want me to say, Ana? You broke this shit
off, not me. So why do you give two fucks about who I’m buried
inside?”

“
I
don’t.”

“
Bullshit.
You jealous? That it? ”

“
Oh
completely,” I sneer, “because I’ve always wanted to be nailed to
the wall of some dingy toilet that hasn’t been cleaned in over a
century.”

“
I forgot you
were such a purist.”

“
Fuck
you!”

“
Wish you
would’ve.” He leans forward, pinning me against the glass with his
massive frame, his eyes all molten chocolate, his voice pitched low
and gravely. “It’d be the fuck of your life, darlin’.”

“
This is
sick.” I attempt to move past him, but he places a meaty paw in the
middle of my chest and gently pushes me back against the glass.
“Let me go.”

It’s only
then that I realise just how drunk he is. He smells like whiskey
and need and sex, and knowing the latter is because of someone
other than me makes me want to throw up.

He begins
pressing sloppy kisses into my neck and, god help me, it’s been so
long since he touched me that I find myself revelling in the feel
of his hot mouth on my skin. So much so, that a small moan escapes
my mouth before I can rein it in.

“
God, I miss
that. I miss the sounds you make when you come. I miss the way you
come alive beneath my hands.” He runs his hand up my dress, slides
my knickers aside until his warm hand is cupping me. His finger
glides into my wetness while his thumb strokes circles around my
clit. Despite my better judgement, I feel myself leaning into his
touch, and the more his fingers work against me, the more my
thoughts flee and my body takes over until I’m panting and aching
for more. “Yeah, just like that, baby girl. Fuck, I miss
you.”

That
revelation brings my orgasm to a crashing halt and I press my hands
into his chest and plead, “Stop.”

He doesn’t.
Instead, he doubles his efforts and acts as though he hasn’t heard
me. Warmth travels up from my toes and floods the centre of my
belly. I rock my hips into his hand.

“
Come for me,
Ana,” he whispers.

“
No.” But
even as I say it, I’m breathless with need. My legs are trembling
beneath my weight and I’m shaking from head to toe, and it’s sure
as hell not from fear. One more circle of his thumb and then I
completely come apart in his hands, clawing and scratching and
pulling him closer as wave after delicious wave of my orgasm
sluices through me, even though I’m appalled and repelled by what
he just did.

He leans in
and whispers, “I love you, baby.”

I freeze
against him. Finally hearing those words should make my heart soar.
Instead, it shatters that last fragile shard of dignity I have left
and I completely lose it. I shove him back with my hands against
his chest and punch him right in the jaw with the fist of my
fractured arm. I cry out, because it stings like a bitch. Clearly,
I’ve just ruined whatever good progress I’d made with it these last
few weeks because it hurts just as much as it did the night I first
injured it.

Elijah rubs
his jaw and then turns angry dark eyes on me. “Fuck!”

“
Yeah, I can
see that you love me, Elijah. What with the way you were fucking
Nicole up against the wall. I can see you missed me real
bad.”

“
Jesus
Christ, Ana, she’s filler!” he roars, getting all up in my face
again. “Fuck! That girl in there has nothing on you! And yeah, I
fucked her. I fucked the shit outta her because I thought for one
minute, just one single fucking minute, I might be able to bury
myself in someone else and forget about you.”

“
Is that
supposed to make me feel better? That you have to screw other women
to forget about me?”

“
Honestly,
darlin’, I don’t care how it makes you feel. It’s the
truth.”

“
Like you’re
an expert on the truth.”

“
God, you’re
so fucking self-righteous! You didn’t seem to give a shit about the
truth when I was getting you off with my hand just now.”