Fuck that, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’m always pissed at him for not manning up. I won’t let that be me.
I stalked over to the bar – long strides. I was trying to contain my anger, but it was getting tough. I stood beside the guy and Izzy looked up, still smiling brightly. Fuck, why does she have to be so gorgeous? And happy? She was so happy and I’m about to screw that up. I swallowed hard and tried to calm down. The douche noticed Izzy’s gaze and turned towards me.
Izzy excitedly spoke up to introduce me, “Z, this is Mark and his buddy Dex. I met him on my run this morning. He’s training for IronMan.” Great. A fucking athlete. I’m sure he’s great compared to the drunk she attended to last night who puked after making a pass at her.
He was holding out his hand to shake mine. I glanced at Izzy smiling so brightly; I knew if I didn’t shake his hand that smile would fade. I couldn’t have that. I shook his hand making sure to try to break it. It’s a guy thing. He didn’t miss it because he was trying to squeeze harder. Izzy broke in the weird testosterone display we were having and sweetly trilled, “Z is the owner of this bar, Mark.” Just then she was called away to take an order.
We finally ended our handshake just as Flynn came over with the two girls. Why the hell did he bring them over? I didn’t feel like talking to them; much less give Izzy the idea I wanted to. I was glaring at Flynn, who just smirked at me while shaking his head.
I tried to be polite and introduce them, but didn’t know the girls’ names. Flynn positioned himself to try to move the girls closer to Mark and Dex. I still didn’t get why he brought them over.
One of the girls turned to Mark and asked, “Wanna dance?” He tried to protest, but she grabbed his arm, pulling him out to the dance floor. He glared at me and I had a smirk on my face when it finally dawned on me what my best friend just did for me. Nice move Flynn. I fucking owe him big time. Shortly thereafter, Dex was being pulled out there by the other girl.
I smirked at Flynn. “Nice move buddy. Thanks.”
“No problem, amigo. Anytime.” Flynn grinned as we both turned back to the bar just in time to see Izzy’s face as she watched Mark walk out to the dance floor with a smoking hot brunette. Her smile left her eyes and her mouth pressed together. It looked like tears were forming in her eyes. Great. I really am a huge dick now. Fuck.
She stood in front of us, “What’d you do? Did you do that on purpose?” She was glaring at me.
“No,” Flynn protested. “No, the girls just pulled them out there. Z had nothing to do with that.” She looked at him as if she didn’t believe him, but was trying to reason it out in her head. She turned around and poured us some beers then tended to the other customers.
I turned my back to watch them dance and under my breath said to Flynn, “Damn, I feel like shit. Did you see how disappointed she was?”
“No more than you were when you saw her flirting and giving out her number.” Flynn replied.
“Now what? They’re going to come back soon.”
He took a deep breath and said, “Well, it’s almost closing time. You can send her to the back and have her take inventory or something stupid.”
Wow. Now I’m really going to be a dick. I took a long drink of my beer, looked at gorgeous Izzy and decided being a dick was definitely the way to go. I took a look around. The bar was packed. There was no way she’d believe that I really needed her to do that, but it was worth a shot. I leaned over the bar. “Izzy, I need to see you in my office for a sec.”
She looked around at how busy it was and asked, “Now? Can’t that wait? We’re slammed!”
Bartender Mark looked at me and smirked. “I’ve got it covered Iz, go on back.” Yeah. He got it. He’s also totally getting a raise too. She huffed and threw her towel on the back counter and started walking. She was glancing over at the dance floor with a really sad face. I’m such a dick.
We both got to the office and she stood there seething at me. I closed the door.
“What was that?” She spoke loudly. I was surprised she wasn’t yelling, but thought maybe she didn’t want anyone to hear. She seemed like she was trying to contain her anger.
“What? What do you mean?” I tried to sound nonchalant while I tried to think of a good enough reason why I actually called her in here. Nothing was coming to mind.
“You and Flynn were totally cock blocking Mark,” she wailed. I burst out laughing. It just sounded funny coming from a chick. I couldn’t stop laughing, but looking at how pissed she was, I started feeling bad and tried to rein in my laughter.
“Come on. You know you didn’t want to go out with him. He’s probably training or something. He shouldn’t be out late anyway. I’m doing him a favor!” That’s it Z, stand your ground. You were looking out for the guy she liked. Who am I kidding? I didn’t say any of that with a straight face so she knows that’s not even remotely true.
“Why did you do that?” She was pissed, but still not yelling. God she looks really hot when she’s angry. She had this spark in her eyes and her chest was rising up and down. Wow. Instant chub. I glanced again down at her chest. Shit her nipples were hard too. Was that because she was pissed at me or because she was thinking about Mark?
“I…we kissed last night!” I blurted out.
She looked at me cautiously, “You remember kissing me last night?”
“Well no, Flynn told me but…” as soon as I fucking said it; I knew it was the wrong thing to say. Dumbass.
“So, you heard that we kissed and now you think you can chase away any guy that likes me? You don’t even remember kissing me last night!” She was beyond pissed now, but still doing an amazing job trying to contain her anger. Wow. That’s so hot.
At that point, my dick took over any thinking possible. I grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her to me forcefully, pressing my lips to hers. She willingly opened her mouth with a small moan escaping her lips. Our tongues started searching for each other and she threw her arms around my neck, pulling me even closer. As our kiss became more fervent, we both moaned into each other. I swear if I died right now, I’d die as the most satisfied man on earth just from her kiss.
I pushed myself against her, letting her feel how hard I was for her. I had a flash memory from last night come to mind. I remembered a sweet, sensual, passionate kiss. Fuck it was so hot. This was just as hot, but this one was needy, as if we had to have our mouths melded to each other or we’d die.
My hands were thrusting through her hair, pulling her toward me hard; I just wanted to devour her. She slowly lifted one of her gorgeous smooth legs and began to wrap it around me. I put my hand on her thigh, digging my fingers into her smooth flesh wanting to pull her as close to me as possible. I moved my hand up to roughly cup her incredible ass. She moaned again into my mouth, pushing her body harder against me. She started grinding against my hard cock as I started to slide my fingers under the lace edging of her panties.
Just then the door burst open and Sandy came in yelling, “Flynn’s in a fight and we can’t break it up!” Her eyes grew even larger as she looked at us as we tried to disentangle ourselves while still panting heavy. It took me a minute to register what she said. “Fuck!” I muttered as I ran out to the bar, making sure to adjust my hard on.
A huge crowd was gathered. Mark and Flynn were throwing blows at each other. Bartender Mark and Clark were trying their best to break them apart.
I stepped in and pushed douche Mark away towards Clark. Clark caught him and pulled him out the door. His buddy, Dex, was pushing on Clark yelling, “That’s fucking bullshit and you know it asshole!”
Flynn was laughing and holding his jaw. I wanted to laugh too, but knew customers were watching.
“Nothing to see people. Move on!” I yelled. The music was still going so a couple of people started dancing again.
I grabbed Flynn by the shoulders and asked, “What the fuck happened?”
He was laughing when he said, “He called me out on cock bloc
king him. I said ‘yeah and?’ he pushed me and fuck if I was going to let the asshole push me, so I punched him in the face and it went from there. Gotta give it to him though, he’s got a great right hook!” He must be drunk because he was still laughing.
Izzy came running out. “What happened? Are you okay Flynn?” She obviously had no idea who Flynn was in a fight with. Her hair was still mussed from me thrusting my hands through it. She was running her hands over it trying to fix it, which just added to how sexy she was.
Flynn glanced at me and wiped some blood from his mouth. “Yeah Izzy, I’m doing fine.” Smirking, he walked back to the bar.
Izzy looked at me curiously, “Who’d he get into a fight with?” I put my arm around her shoulder and started walking her back to the bar.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s almost closing time. Let’s start wrapping things up.” She went back behind the bar and started cleaning.
By then Clark was coming back in talking loud about how great a fight it was. I slung my arm around his shoulder and leaned in to him, “Shut the hell up about the fight, okay? Izzy doesn’t know it was with the dude she was trying to get with.”
He had a disgusted look on his face as he asked, “She was trying to hook up with that dude after she was with you last night?”
“It’s not what you think. Just...just shut up for now, okay. I’ll explain it all later. Start closing up the bar.” Two hot chicks came up to Clark saying something about how hot it was that he had to break up a fight and how well he did. How the hell does he get them so fast?
After the last customer was gone from the bar, I started to help clean up. I glanced over at Izzy and she glared at me. Shit. I think she found out that Flynn fought Mark, since I didn’t tell Sandy or Mark not to say anything. Well, that was dumb of me. But then again, I’m sure the rest of the wait staff would have told her. I wasn’t sure what to say to her just yet. I looked up again and she was on the phone. Must be that douche Mark. She looked like she was apologizing and then she was smiling and hung up. She looked over at me and glared. Again. Well, that’s not good.
Chapter 9
Izzy
The feeling I had for Z was something I couldn’t quite explain to myself yet. The heart pumping, fiery attraction we felt towards each other, the chemistry we shared was…intense. It was a feeling I’ve never shared with a man ever before. Not even with HIM, which seems strange considering I always felt HE had swept me off my feet, well, at least in the beginning.
I touched my fingers to my mouth and ran them softly over my swollen, almost bruised lips caused by our passionate kissing just moments ago in his office. His touch seared my skin like fire when his fingers grabbed my thigh and then strongly cupped my ass. My heart picked up from just replaying everything in my mind. I gently bit my swollen lip, trying to calm my hunger for more of his touch.
Shouldn’t I be angry with Z for what he had done? Had he pulled me into his office only out of jealousy because I had flirted with Mark? Was he in some sort of contest with Mark?
Mark. Shit. How do I feel about Mark? It was nothing at all compared to what I felt for Z, but I did have a nice flirtation that was entirely on the opposite side of the spectrum. Sweet. Innocent. Almost a teenage romance type of flirtation.
I glanced up at Z and noticed his gaze upon me from across the room. He seemed like he was trying to gauge my feelings. I gave him my best scowl, which seemed almost comical considering his lustful gaze made my insides swirl deliciously in my abdomen.
If I were to go with my instinct, I would sprint across the bar as if I were in some dramatic love scene, bounding into his arms with my hair flowing behind me, as he carried me into the shadows of the night.
I quickly tore my gaze away from Z before I started to giggle at my silly fantasy, making sure my hair draped over my face so he wouldn’t notice the change in my expression.
Leave. I needed to get out of the bar quickly to try to understand what just happened.
A silly expression popped into my head from when I was little. The guys at the bar used to tell me how women “fish hook” them – digging their lure hard into their hearts to reel them in. I giggled remembering the expression, but started feeling like that’s what Z has already done to my heart in such a short time. He has some sort of hook digging into my heart. I feel like I need to remove that hook before it sinks any deeper and tears me apart. Would it tear me apart? I asked myself as I quickly grabbed my purse and headed out the door.
I tried to answer the question by putting myself in his position. Sheila had probably just tore some stupid hook out of his heart when she cheated on him. So really, Z just has a hole that needs to be filled right now. Because right now, Z only wants a rebound and after what Sheila did to him, I can’t blame him.
Is that what Z would be to me? The question still hung over my mind from the other day, when he threw the question at me with Clark standing right there: ‘Is that what you want to do to get over your ex?’ I replayed his husky voice dripping with sexual innuendo when he asked me that; not to mention his deep intense stare as if it were daring me to say ‘yes.’ I was so close to saying yes, just so I could be with him. Just to go ahead and take the chance, thinking maybe we both need to be each other’s rebound to get over our exes.
Mark. I thought of our phone conversation as I picked up my pace towards the townhouse. He called me to ask me if I wanted to run tomorrow with him. I felt bad about the fight, but even worse that I made out with Z in the back room right after flirting with Mark at the bar. I agreed to run with him more out of guilt than anything else.
Did he get into a fight with Flynn over me? Why did Flynn care about what I do with Mark?
A strong, but gentle hand grabbed my bare upper arm. I knew the touch immediately because his touch shot an electric current to my core. I spun around to stare into the most perfect, caring blue eyes speckled with amazing grey flecks. My heart raced as my belly rolled with anxious pleasure by seeing and being touched by this man.
“Hey, didn’t you hear me calling you?” He was out of breath. He obviously doesn’t run or at least I didn’t think he ran, guessing by the way he was trying to catch his breath.
“No, I guess I was deep in thought.” I hope he didn’t hear the breathlessness in my voice. I crossed my arms across my chest, more as an attempt to calm myself to keep from throwing my arms around his neck, so we could continue our make out session from the office.
“You’re not angry with me, are you?” He cocked his head to the side and smirked, “I didn’t knock the shit out of him,” he teased.
I wanted to giggle at his adorable attempt to make light of the situation. “I don’t know what to think.” I tried to keep my voice quiet and even, but my heart was racing, making me feel anything but calm.
At first, he seemed to try avoiding my eyes, as he looked past my shoulder. Then he quickly glanced back looking me in the eye and asked, “Is it me or do you also feel our connection?” I watched him as he shoved his hands into his pockets and then tilted his head to the other side, giving me a cute grin.
I was shocked by his sweet admission. I grinned back at his adorable boyish charm, bit my lip and glanced away quickly – knowing that we do have a connection, but unsure how to respond.
I took a deep calming breath as I tried to regain my senses. I gazed back into his gorgeous eyes as I quietly tried to reason things out and decided to try to find out if he wanted to use me just to get over Sheila.
“Is that what you think it is? You kissed me when you were drunk and another time when you were jealous. I don’t want to be your rebound just so you can get over Sheila.” My heart beat fast knowing I had just laid it all out there. I looked to the ground, awaiting his response, unsure of what he might say.
I glanced back up as his eyebrows pinched together, “You’re not a rebound, Izzy. I’ve never wanted you for a rebound.”
My breath hitched as I swallowed. “I…,” but something caught my eye across the str
eet. My heart stopped with fear as I strained to look over Z’s shoulder. Was that the same guy I saw when I was out with Melanie at Spike’s? No, he couldn’t be…my mind was playing tricks on me again. Cars sped by the street as I continued to try to search for the person I thought I saw.
“What’s wrong, Izzy? You just went white. Are you okay?” Z looked behind him and was trying to find what I was looking for.
I blinked and he was gone. At least I think the person was a he. I don’t even know what I saw. I faintly heard a question from Z. “What?” I asked as I shook my head and looked back at him.
“Did you see something? Was it your Ex?” Z asked as he was looking around searching for whatever I might have seen. By that time Flynn walked up and heard Z say “Ex.”
“Where the fuck is her ex?” Flynn asked also looking around.
My eyes scanned back across the street, searching for that same shadow from my memory and I shook my head, “No…,” I stammered. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything. Just my mind playing tricks again.” I swallowed hard. “I…I need to get inside. It’s just been a long night, that’s all.” I looked over at Flynn and noticed his lip was bleeding and swollen. “Oh God, Flynn! You need some ice on that.” I turned and proceeded to walk up the stairs. I looked back when I realized no one was following me. They were both staring at me with confused expressions on their faces. “What? You need ice on that.” I stated as I turned back around and continued to walk inside.
I grabbed a ziploc bag and put some ice in it, then turned around to Flynn handing it to him. He took it and put it on his lip, looking at me dubiously.
Z watched Flynn tap the ice bag to the corner of his mouth, still giving me the same uncertain look. Z looked back at me, “What’d you see out there Iz?”
“Nothing. It was nothing.” I tried to sound convincing, although I knew I failed at my attempt. I turned to grab a beer out of the fridge.
Mel was on the couch watching TV and turned when she heard Z’s question. “You saw someone again, Iz?” She asked clearly concerned.
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