His Wasted Heart

by Monica Murphy

  And I don’t know what to do about it.

  Glancing up, I find her leaning against the wall not too far from our table. She’s watching me. And there’s a hunger in her eyes that matches mine. Her chest rises and falls rapidly, and my gaze drops to her chest. Her breasts. I swear her nipples harden just from me staring at them. And when my gaze lifts to meet hers once more, I can see her hunger has intensified.

  So has mine.

  Without thought I rise from my chair, my gaze still never leaving hers.

  “Where you going?” Chad asks, his words slurred from too much alcohol.

  “I’ll be right back,” I answer, not even looking at him.

  I’m too busy looking at Jensen.

  I walk toward her slowly, the sensual beat of the music driving me on. I send her a knowing look, a quick flick of my head to indicate where I want her to go. Chancing a glance over my shoulder, I see she follows me, until we’re both back in that darkened hallway we just vacated, tucked away in the deepest, darkest corner.

  Where no one can find us.

  “Did you want to talk to me?” she asks breathlessly as she turns to face me.

  Without a word I grab hold of her slender waist and press her back against the wall. A gasp escapes her, her mouth curling into a small, satisfied smile just before she opens it to say something.

  I rest the palm of my hand over her blood-red lips, shutting her up. “Don’t talk,” I whisper. “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”

  Her eyes are wide as my hand continues to cover half of her face. She slowly nods, a little whimper escaping her when I lean in and nuzzle the side of her neck.

  Christ, she smells so good. I run my lips across her skin, lightly, just a tease, and a jolt moves through her, as if I electrified her. I keep my hand in place, and I can feel her lips moving, her damp breaths against my fingers. I nudge my hips against hers, letting her feel what she does to me, and she moans, an agonized sound contained by my hand.

  That sound goes straight to my dick.

  “I shouldn’t do this,” I murmur close to her ear. She shivers and I kiss her there, just below her lobe, my mouth lingering as I breathe her in.

  I know I shouldn’t do this. Touch her. Kiss her. I said it out loud in the hopes I’d convince myself this is wrong. I fucking know it’s wrong.

  But right now, at this moment, I don’t care. I’m too caught up.

  Caught up in her.

  My hand drops from her mouth and she takes a deep breath, her lips parting, mine crashing down on hers to shut her up before she says something to ruin the moment. I kiss her fiercely, thrusting my tongue in her mouth, my hands wandering along her waist, her hips. She returns the kiss with equal, hungry force, a whimper escaping her when I cup her left tit, my thumb strumming the already hard tip. My mouth waters, and I tear my lips from hers to bend over her chest and suck and lick her nipple.

  She thrusts her hands in my hair, holding me there, keeping me there, like she never wants me to leave. I cup her ass and break away from tasting her skin to lift her up. She automatically wraps her legs around me, her skirt riding up her thighs as she presses her heels into my ass. Wincing from the pain, I hold her against the wall, my erection nudging her right between her legs, and I swear I can feel her panties and her hot pussy beneath.

  I’m losing control. Right here in the hallway by the bathrooms in a seedy strip club. I want to fuck Jensen against the wall, thrust deep inside her welcoming body, and damn the consequences.

  “Rhett,” she whispers, her hands greedy as they reach for me. She grabs hold of my face and brings my head down so our mouths are mere inches away from each other. “Please. Kiss me.”

  I do as she asks, drowning in her taste, in the swirl of our tongues, our bodies straining against each other. I’m drunk as hell and messed up in the head over this woman.

  This has to stop.

  I break the kiss and she clutches my hair tighter. “No,” she whispers against my lips, her tongue darting out for a lick. “Don’t stop. Please.”

  It takes everything I’ve got to lower her back to her feet. Tug her skirt back into place. Release my hold on her and step away.

  I’m shaking. She’s quivering. Our panting breaths fill the tiny space. Her nipple is still wet from my mouth and my cock presses against the fly of my jeans, horny and ready to slip inside her.

  But I can’t. Not like this. Not here.

  Maybe never again.

  “You still want me,” she says, sounding surprised.

  Her statement pisses me off. What does she think, that I’m inhuman? I can’t turn my feelings on and off like a light switch. I cared about her. I told her that.

  Yet she’s still surprised I want her.

  “Of course I do. I mean, look at you.” I wave a careless hand in her direction, trying to play this off. Trying my damnedest to be as callous and unfeeling as she seems. “Who wouldn’t want you? You’re walking around with hardly any clothes on, with your tits hanging out. They all want you.” I run a hand through my hair, trying to fix the mess she made with her fingers, trying to play this entire thing off.

  Though deep down, I know what I just said was my way to try and hurt her.

  The look Jensen gives me is full of so much pain, that I immediately feel like an asshole.

  But by the time I can find my voice to correct my wrongs, she’s already gone.

  “You missed the performance of the night,” Chad tells me when I return to the table.

  I say nothing, reaching for the first semi-full glass I see. I down the liquid in one long swallow, grimacing when I feel the burn of alcohol slide down my throat like fire. That tasted like absolute shit. “She was that good, huh?” I ask, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

  My thoughts immediately go to Jensen, and how good she felt in my arms.

  But then I remember what I said to her, and I banish her from my brain.

  “You just finished my drink, asshole,” Chad says incredulously.

  I shrug. “I’ll buy you another one.”

  “Yeah, you will,” Chad mutters just before he raises his hand. “Hey, sweetheart, get your fine ass over here. I need a drink, stat.”

  I want to growl in irritation at the way Chad just commanded Jensen. Calling her sweetheart and talking about her fine ass isn’t sitting well with me, but what the hell can I say? I can’t expose our so-called relationship to him.

  Jensen approaches us, her expression unreadable. She’s mad. At me. I don’t look at her as she asks in the fakest, sweetest voice I’ve ever heard, “Sir, what would you like?”

  “Another scotch. Neat,” he tells Jensen with a cocky smile. Then he reaches out and actually palms her ass, like he owns her. “What time you off the clock, babe? Wanna come dance for us?”

  “Leave her alone,” I mutter, hating how he’s treating her, how he’s talked about all the women in this club since we got here. I clench my hands into fists and watch with satisfaction as Chad does what I asked, his hand dropping from Jensen as if she’d suddenly turned into a dead body. Now is my time to say something, but how can I? He has no idea I dated this girl, since he’s never seen me with her before. And maybe that’s for the best.

  So I say nothing else. I’m mad at myself. I’m still mad at her too. And I feel like shit for talking to her like I just did, for mauling her in the hallway like a crazed pervert.

  “Rhett.” Her voice saying my name startles me, and I glance up to find both Chad and Jensen watching me closely. “You’re really going to let your friend talk to me like this?”

  Didn’t she hear me tell him to leave her alone? Or is she trying to call me out in front of Chad?

  Chad’s eyes practically bug out of his head. “How does she know you, bro? You been keeping secrets or what?”

  “I don’t know—” I start, but Jensen cuts me off.

  “We’ve fucked a couple of times.” She shrugs those pretty bare shoulders, the light catching on the flecks of gl
itter on her skin, making her sparkle. Like an angel. “No big deal.”

  I glower at her. This girl is the complete opposite of an angel, I swear.

  Chad starts to laugh, so hard that everyone else sitting at the table focuses their attention on us. “Are you serious right now? You’ve actually fucked this chick, Montgomery? And you never told us? You’ve been holding out.”

  “Guess he wanted to keep the good pussy all to himself.” Her smile is brittle as she tosses her dark blonde hair over her shoulder and walks away. I can’t believe she just said that. And if she was trying to humiliate me or make me feel like a fool, then...

  Mission accomplished.

  This is the longest damn night of my life. The guys won’t stop giving me shit about Jensen. After the truth bomb she dropped, she sent over another cocktail waitress to serve our table drinks, and they start harassing her, jeering and commenting on her curvaceous body, Chad trying to grab this one’s ass too.

  But she’s not having it. The tall, platinum blonde gives us all a death stare and literally slaps Chad’s hand away from her butt when he tries to cup it.

  “Touch me again and I’ll break your fingers,” she says, punctuating her vicious statement with a sweet smile.

  The look Chad sends her when she walks away tells me he might still be a little in lust. I guess he likes them mean.

  Jensen never comes back to our table, and I’m thankful. It’s bad enough, all the questions I’m fielding about her the moment she left. Doesn’t help that Chad blabbed to everyone that, Rhett fucked that hot waitress. She said so! Like, literally said so!

  His big mouth needs to shut the hell up.

  We shut the club down and I wander out into the parking lot with everyone else, the icy cold night air like a harsh slap in the face. But not hard enough to sober me up. I’m drunk and I know it. And I drove my ass here too. Chad’s going home to his brother’s house and everyone else seems to have come in groups with a designated driver at the wheel.

  “You want to come back to my place?” Emmett asks, but I can tell that’s the last thing he wants.

  “Sabrina’s gonna kill you,” Chad mutters. He sends me a look. “That’s my future sister-in-law.”

  “It’s good, guys.” I hold up my hands, like it’s no big deal that they’re all going to abandon me. They aren’t my friends. The majority of these guys I don’t know at all, with the exception of Chad and his brother. I don’t expect them to help me. Hell, most of them are gone already. “I’ll take an Uber.”

  “You sure?” Chad asks, looking guilty. He glances over his shoulder at his brother before he steps closer to me. His voice lowers as he says, “It’s just that, his fiancée wasn’t too thrilled about him coming to a strip club tonight. She already bitched about me coming back to their apartment. If we bring you too? She’ll probably freak the hell out.”

  No way do I want to deal with another upset female.

  “Yeah, no, I’m good. I’ll call Uber right now.” I reach into my front pocket to find it empty. My keys are in my other front pocket, but that’s it. I pat my butt down and realize both of my back pockets are empty too. “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” Chad frowns.

  “I think I forgot my phone inside.” The last thing I want to do is go back into the club and possibly face Jensen. “I gotta get in there before they close down for the night. I’ll see you guys later, okay? Thanks for inviting me Emmett, and I’ll see you tomorrow, Chad,” I call to them before I start jogging toward the front doors of City Lights.

  The place is locked, and I tug on the handles, making the glass in the doors rattle. A big, burly guy with a shiny bald head barely cracks open one of the doors, glaring at me through narrowed eyes. “We’re closed for the night, asshole.”

  Nice customer service. “I left my phone inside.”

  He studies me for a moment. “You were with the bachelor party.”

  “Yeah.” I nod.

  “What kind of phone?”

  “An iPhone X.”

  “Uh huh. One of the girls said a fancy new phone got left behind. Come in.” He pushes the door open farther and I slip inside, surprised at how different the club looks with all the lights on. It’s nothing special, with the harsh fluorescent light making everything look dark and dingy. Rundown. There’s a guy about my age mopping the floor, and the bartender is behind the counter washing up.

  “Come over here,” the bald guy tells me with a wave of his hand.

  I follow after him, going through the very hallway where I made out with Jensen, pushing through a black door into a very dark, small room. There’s a bunch of chairs stacked in one of the corners, and a giant round table covered in all sorts of miscellaneous items. Discarded jackets, a small purse, a couple of wallets.

  And my phone.

  “This is our unofficial lost and found,” the bald guy tells me. “You’re lucky someone turned in your fancy-ass phone. Not everyone is that nice around here.”

  I snatch up my iPhone and shove it in my pocket. “Thanks for letting me back in so I could get it.”

  “No problem. Take better care of your phone.” He slaps me on the back so hard, I take a couple of faltering steps forward. “Now get the hell out of here. I wanna go home.”

  I exit the room and make my way toward the doors, checking my phone as I walk. I have a text from some hot girl named Micki I met at a party a few weeks ago, before I was having serious thoughts about Jensen. I don’t bother answering her. Last thing I need is another woman in my life.

  There’s a few other notifications, but nothing important, so I swipe out of everything and open up my Uber app.

  “Hey, watch where you’re going,” a familiar voice says right when I collide with a very soft, curvy female. I grab hold of her waist to stop her, clutching fistfuls of a soft black sweater, and I realize quick it’s freaking Jensen.

  The look she sends me is full of disgust. “Why are you still here?”

  “Forgot my phone.” I hold it up to show her, then shove it into my front pocket. “Now if you’ll excuse me…”

  I start to walk past her, but she stops me with her words. “You know, you were a real asshole earlier.”

  “At least I don’t have to lie to make friends.” I turn to face her.

  She crosses her arms. Thank God she has that sweater on. I couldn’t take another moment of staring at her perfect breasts on such obvious display. “You’re also a judgmental asshole.”

  “Hey, I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” I remind her. I’m offended she called me judgmental, though I guess I was judging her earlier.

  That hurt look crosses her face again, and I immediately feel awful for what I just said. What I’ve said and done the entire night.

  “You ready to go, Jen?” The ferocious blonde who took over our table magically appears by Jensen’s side. She eyes me up and down, a frown on her pretty face. “This guy bugging you?”

  “No.” Jensen hesitates, a sudden gleam in her eye. “Not really.”

  The blonde sneers. “You need to get going, jackass. We’re closed.”

  Remaining silent, I walk out of there, sick of all the bullshit. Sick, period. I swear I’m getting the spins. And my head is starting to pound. Too much alcohol will do that to a person, and it doesn’t help that I mixed my liquors either.

  My ass is going to be hurtin’ tomorrow.

  Opening my phone, I go back into the Uber app and start looking for a car to come pick me up. But after a little searching, I realize there isn’t one available.

  As in…

  I’m screwed.

  “Fuck me,” I mutter as I open up a browser and start searching for a taxi service.

  “Already did that,” Jensen says from behind me, making me whirl around. “Remember? You wanted to keep all the good pussy to yourself.”

  She’s smiling. Meaning she’s joking. Though, of course, she lies too, so I don’t know if I can trust that she won’t turn on me in a quick second.r />
  Her constant mood shifts leave me on edge.

  “Why did you even say that?” I ask.

  “I don’t know, I wanted to watch you squirm.” She shrugs. I swear that’s the most honest she’s been with me all night. Minus when I had her in my arms in the hallway. “Why are you still here?”

  “Can’t find an Uber.”

  “What? And all of your friends left you here alone?”

  “They weren’t my friends. I came tonight because my roommate invited me. His brother is the future groom.” Why am I telling her all this? She doesn’t fucking care.

  More like, she doesn’t deserve to know.

  “They still abandoned you, Rhett.” Her voice is soft. So are her eyes. She has the most beautiful eyes. Big and blue and full of secrets.

  It’s like I know nothing about her.

  I glance down at my phone again and misstep on the edge of the sidewalk, nearly toppling over before I right myself.

  “You’re drunk.” She states the obvious.

  “Only a little bit.” I hold my thumb and index finger up, with barely any space between them. “I’ll be fine. I’ll get a taxi.”

  “Isn’t that your car out in the parking lot?” She points.

  I look where she’s pointing. “Yeah, that’s mine.”

  “You’re going to leave it here overnight and take a taxi home?”

  “I can’t drive home, Jens. I’m drunk, remember?”

  She blows out an exaggerated breath and turns to the ferocious blonde, who just exited the club. “I need to take him home,” Jensen tells her.

  “Oh, hell no,” I start, but she sends me a look. I lower my voice. “I don’t want you driving me home, Jensen.”

  “You leave your car here and someone is going to break into it,” she tells me.

  “At the very least,” the blonde adds. “More like they’ll flat out steal it.”

  “Savannah’s right. You’ll come back here tomorrow and your car will most likely be gone,” Jensen says. “I’ll drive you home.”

  I stare at my car with longing. I love that fucking car. I don’t make a big deal about my financial situation, but I do appreciate driving a truly excellent vehicle.