by Jenn Hype
I chuckled. “As bossy as ever, Stacy. Yes, I will be there. Unfortunately, though, none of my single friends were available to tag along so I won’t be able to provide your entertainment for the evening.”
“Dammit,” Stacy said, pouting and stomping her foot.
“Great. As if tonight wasn’t going to be bad enough….” I heard Adalyn mumble under her breath.
“Don’t worry, sunshine. I’ll keep you company. I’ll bet I can even get you to loosen up a bit.”
“Ugh, so full of yourself. Like I would ever want your company. I’d rather be groped by a gang of greasy, fat bikers than spend any amount of time with you.”
And with that, she turned and marched right out the door. I should have been offended. I had every right to be pissed off at how she’d spoken to me when I’d been nothing but nice. But there was something about her, something I couldn’t put my finger on, that told me I wasn’t getting to see the real Adalyn.
She had put on a good front, but there was something hidden in her eyes that gave her away. Maybe tonight I’d get a chance to find out what that was.
Chapter 5
Adalyn
“What the hell, Adalyn? Why did you treat him like he was dog shit stuck to the bottom of your shoe? That was really embarrassing. I have spent weeks telling him great things about you and trying to get you this job and you undid everything in 2.5 seconds by turning into the world’s biggest bitch.”
Finally relaxing my shoulders and back muscles now that we were out of the building, my body ached from the strain. I didn’t realize how badly I had tensed up during our little altercation.
Why did I react like that?
Hell, I knew why. But no sane person would understand, so why bother explaining? That smile. That smile made me shiver all the way to my toes. It made me simultaneously feel a mix of lust and hatred. Not that he’s ever done anything to cause me to hate him, but I’ve seen that smile before. The one that all the charming, egotistical assholes use to manipulate women.
His smile did seem somewhat genuine, but I knew better. I’m not an idiot. He may not have been pretending because he was being malicious, but it still wasn’t real. Most likely it was for Stacy’s benefit. If not for her, he never would have given me a second glance. If his fancy suit and expensive haircut were any indication, he most likely dated models or dimwitted socialites. So why waste my time with someone who was only being nice for someone else’s benefit? I didn’t accept charity from anyone, even when it came to friendships. I didn’t have many friends and there was a reason for that. I guarded myself closely.
“I’m sorry Stacy. I’m just in a mood and I was caught off guard. I didn’t know I was going to be meeting a potential future boss today. Not to mention one that is hot enough to melt the sun. You could have given me a heads up, you know. Look at me, I’m a mess. How the hell do you know him anyway? You’ve never mentioned him.”
“Since when does dressing to impress matter to you? You and I both know you would have done nothing different if you had known. If anything, you would have intentionally made yourself look ridiculous, you crazy bitch. And he is Carrie’s older brother, so I’ve known him as long as I’ve known her and he’s really not a bad guy. Even despite all of his money and success, he’s pretty down to earth.”
“Yeah, because a two-thousand-dollar suit is so down to earth. Maybe you just don’t see it because you’ve known him so long or something, but he’s no different than any other cocky prick.”
“You’re wrong, Adalyn,” Stacy snapped at me. I jerked my head back in surprise at the anger in her voice. “You shouldn’t make so many assumptions about people. I know you have a history with guys like that and I’m sure your opinion of Carrie might affect your view of him as well, but Ian is not like that. If you gave him half a chance you would see that.”
“You’re right, that was seriously shitty of me,” I sighed, my shoulders sinking as the guilt took over. “You know how I am; I push people away. I sabotage good opportunities. And honestly, he was just so fucking hot that I panicked.”
“Well, you should apologize. Carrie can be difficult to get along with, but Ian’s never met an enemy. Well, once, but he’s seriously the easiest guy to get along with and his employees love him.”
She knew what she was asking of me. Apologizing did not come easily for me, especially when it came to men. But Stacy was right. I had judged him before I got to know him and he was obviously important to her, so tonight I would have to suck it up and make the effort.
I’d always been this way - ruining any chance of happiness. It had gotten worse over the years. It wasn’t until I started therapy after the incident that I realized what I was doing and why. My therapist said I intentionally did the opposite of what others expected of me as a way of pushing them away so I didn’t have to face rejection.
If that’s not a slap in the face, I don’t know what is. I’ve got insecurities just like the next person, but I’m not so hard on myself that I just assume everyone is going to immediately dislike me. The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense. People are users. They take what they can from you until you have nothing left to give, then they move on. So I stopped wasting my time long ago and quit trying to please the people around me and started living for myself.
It only strengthened my determination to ruin my own chances at happiness when I found that I could truly relate to someone or see myself enjoying spending any amount of time with them. I would start intentionally saying things I knew would offend them, or would behave obnoxiously. Anything I could do to make them not want to be around me.
Very few had seen right through my efforts and made their way into my heart. Stacy was one of them. She saw right through my bullshit and called me on it constantly. Every time she did, it ended in a fight. We would scream at each other for about an hour and then curl up on the couch and watch a movie, eating ice cream, as if nothing had even happened. We were bat shit crazy like that. Fight hard, love hard. That was our motto since we met freshman year.
Pulling myself out of my daze, I looked at a very impatient Stacy staring at me like she was trying to set fire to my hair through telepathy.
“Ok fine, slut. Let’s go find me a dress. To make it up to you, I’ll even let you pick out my shoes and jewelry.”
Stacy squealed and slipped her arm through mine, linking us at the elbows. She returned my glare with a knowing smirk. She was in my personal space. I did not like to be touched, but she didn’t care. Making me uncomfortable was one of her favorite pastimes.
“Chop, chop clit breath. Bitches gotta get shit done.”
Chapter 6
Adalyn
“I changed my mind, Stacy. I can’t wear this.” I felt like my vagina was waving at me in the mirror. I swear this dress wasn’t this short when I tried it on earlier. Did I buy the wrong size? Did I gain fifteen pounds in the last three hours? What the hell.
“Ughhhhhh. Are you trying to get me thrown in jail? Because I will seriously fuck you up if you don’t stop whining. If busting up your face is the only way to shut you up, then I’ll do it. Don’t test me.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you love me. Now get your shoes on and let’s go. My vagina is getting really antsy and is ready for some entertaining, and that can’t happen if I stay here listening to your annoying crap. Unless you grew a penis overnight and didn’t tell me.”
“I really think you should join a sex addicts anonymous group, Stacy. Actually, you know what, never mind. You’d end up just using it as a way to meet people to sleep with. The whole thing would probably turn into an orgy.”
“See, that’s why I love you so much, hooker. You know me so well. That’s actually not a half bad idea, either. Although, I think the issue here is that YOU are the one who needs to get laid.”
“Um, no. I’m so scarred from that last guy; I may stay celibate for the rest of my life.”
“Was he the ‘farter’ or the squeake
r?”
“Oh, God...the ‘farter’.” Ugh, that night was traumatic. “I totally forgot about him. He had no shame. Who farts every time they thrust into you and doesn’t even try to act embarrassed or apologize for it? I almost threw up on him. Then the idiot had the balls to ask me out on a second date before he left. That really was a low point in my sex life.”
“That’s not nearly as bad as the guy who slapped me across the face right when he came. I had a fucking bruise on my face for a week! Apparently bitch slapping me during his climax was okay but me kneeing him in the balls was “crossing the line,”” she said that last part using her fingers to make air quotes.
I was rolling around on the ground, clutching my stomach and trying to catch my breath. I was laughing so hard it felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me. Tears were streaming down my face. It’s sad how many of these stories we had. My dress was going to get all wrinkled and my ass was probably flashing her, but I was laughing too hard to care.
“And no, the squeaker was like three mistakes ago.” I sat up trying to catch my breath, feeling winded from laughing for so long. “Where did we find these guys? I seriously felt like I was being pounded by a rubber duck.” Of all the nights I wished I drank alcohol so I could just black out the memories, that was definitely one of them.
“Oh my god!” Stacy yelled, doubling over with laughter. “Is he the guy you made donkey sounds with?”
“Yep. Apparently he thought his sounding like a chew toy was hot, but when I would ‘hee-haw’ it made me “just fucking weird.” Men… such double standards.”
“Whatever, nothing is as bad as the titty slapper.” Stacy could always one up me when it came to embarrassing sex stories. Even with my competitiveness, I was more than happy to lose with this one. “My girls had never seen such abuse. I like a good spanking as much as the next girl, but smacking my tits over and over is not hot.”
“Alright, you win, Stace. If we keep going, we’ll be here all night reminiscing over our biggest mistakes.”
“True. Lord knows I’ve got plenty of them. Let’s get out of here before you change your mind, slut bag.”
Ten minutes and thirty dollars in cab fare later, we arrived at the club. Grind, aka, my personal hell for the night. On top of all of the other reasons I didn’t want to be here, now I had to apologize to Ian. That alone made me want to vomit. I felt like my legs weighed a thousand pounds each. Physically exiting the cab and walking up to the building took every ounce of energy I had. There used to be a time when I would be excited to be getting VIP treatment at an exclusive club. That time was not now. That time felt like a hundred years ago.
As soon as the bouncer opened the door for us, I was smacked in the face with a wall of loud music and heat. I had to admit, it was a really nice club. A live band was playing to the far right on a corner stage. There was a second level that wrapped around the entire perimeter of the club, overlooking the packed dance floor. Several high top tables were spread out sporadically around the large room.
Stacy immediately spotted Carrie and grabbed my hand, dragging me behind her. Instinctively I resisted, not wanting to talk to Carrie, and when my hand slipped from hers I stumbled at the loss of contact and started to face plant right into the ground. I pinballed off a couple of people on the dance floor, but just as I was about to go down, large hands wrapped around my waist, saving me from my demise.
I found my balance and turned around to thank whoever was kind enough to prevent me from going home with a concussion before the night even started, but I almost fell again from the shock of looking directly into the face of Ian. He was wearing that same shit eating grin as he was earlier. Rat bastard.
Roughly shoving his hands off my body, I said thank you and turned to walk away. He grabbed my hand though, preventing my escape. I hated him in that moment. Maybe that wasn’t fair, considering it was really my own body that was pissing me off. Were my nipples seriously getting hard from him grabbing my hand? Maybe Stacy was right, I really did need to get laid. My inability to control my body’s reaction to him made me more furious than ever. Why did he have to be so damn hot?
Determined not to let him get to me, I went to yank my hand from his grasp and almost fell backwards. Why do I keep almost falling!? He let go easier than I expected and a flash of relief, and then disappointment, ran through me.
Disappointment? What the hell, Addy. Get your crap together. He is the enemy. Your nipples are not hard; you are not aching with need. You are just mad. You are not thinking about hot, angry sex with this man. Not at all. Well, maybe just a little….
Before I could recover from almost falling again and the argument I was currently having with myself over whether or not one hot, steamy night with Ian would be acceptable, he wrapped his hand around my waist again and gripped my neck, pulling my face to his. I felt his breath warm on my ear. Damn it all to hell, I just shivered. Considering I was already a little sweaty from the heat coming off all of the writhing bodies on the dance floor, he most definitely knew that I did not shiver from being cold. Nope. Now he knew I was attracted to him. Shit on a pretzel stick.
“You put on a good show, but I know you feel it, sunshine. Your body craves mine as much as mine craves yours. You might mask your desire as hostility, but I see right through your bullshit. I will break through those barriers of yours, I can promise you that. I won’t give up until you are writhing underneath my body, spread out on my bed, screaming my name in pleasure.”
Cocky prick. Sexy as hell cocky prick. Fighting to maintain control of myself and resisting the urge to slip out my tongue and lick his neck, I shoved him as hard as I could and he actually stumbled for a second, clearly caught off guard by my reaction. What did he think? That he could just whisper some bullshit nonsense in my ear and I would just fall to his feet? Yeah, my panties were soaking wet and my knees were weak, but like hell was I going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
Turning and managing to escape this time, I made my way toward the bar, scanning the crowd unsuccessfully for Stacy. Spotting an empty stool at the bar, I sat down and motioned for the bartender. My nerves were frazzled and an impulsive need to calm down took over, easily pushing aside all of the rational parts of my brain telling me that alcohol wasn’t the answer. This man got under my skin like no one I had ever met before. Most guys would have called me a bitch or an assortment of colorful names by now and given up. Why was he trying so hard to mess with me? He clearly could have any woman he wanted, yet he felt the need to piss me off with his over the top flirting.
When the bartender made his way over to me I realized I had no idea what to order. He was tall and muscular, with shaggy blonde hair. His white t-shirt clung to him like it was a second skin and you could actually see his abs through it. He was hot and he was grinning at me, his head tilted to the left, patiently waiting for my order despite the numerous hands waving for him to come refill their drinks. Under normal circumstances, this type of attention from such an attractive man would have made me uncomfortable, but already being shaken up from feeling Ian’s breath on my neck while his body pressed into mine, had me verging on the edge of numbness.
Right when I started to open my mouth, Ian stepped up next to me, putting his hand on my lower back. The club was so packed that he had to wedge his way in between myself and another woman, who was so beautiful it physically hurt me to be sitting next to her. She tried to smile at him, but he didn’t even notice. Instead he pressed himself up against my side, not even trying to pretend that he wasn’t intentionally pushing his hard cock against my leg, and I cursed myself for liking it.
My legs immediately clenched, trying to slow the pulsing between my thighs. Ugh, I’m so weak. Stiffening my spine, I closed my eyes and counted to 10. If I didn’t calm down I was either going to kiss him or smack him. Both sounded highly enjoyable. Maybe I could kiss him then smack him. No. No kissing Adalyn.
Ian ordered something from the bartender. I had no idea what it w
as. I couldn’t hear over all the blood pounding in my ears while I glared at his smug face. Control yourself, Addy. Don’t let him know he’s getting to you. No reaction, feign indifference.
“Drinks are on me, Sunshine. What would you like?”
“I don’t drink. The only thing I would like right now is for you to get your hands off of me and take a hint. Oh, and stop calling me Sunshine.”
“You afraid to let your guard down around me? Don’t worry, I wouldn’t take advantage of you if you were drunk. I want to make sure that when I finally get you in my bed you remember every little detail.”
“No, I just don’t usually drink. But you should know that if you’re trying to get me to go home with you then I would most definitely need to be completely shit-faced before I would ever willingly get in your car. So if getting me naked is your end goal then you might have to rethink that whole ‘not taking advantage of me when I’m drunk’ thing.”
He looked at me incredulously. Was it because I said I didn’t drink or that I wouldn’t go home with him? Probably the drinking thing, it was a pretty common reaction. Why was it so bizarre that I didn’t drink? Everyone looked at me like I was insane every time I said that, and they always wanted to know why. It was a conversation I would never have, so asking was a waste of time. Normally I would try to deflect or change the subject, but if that didn’t work I’d just say I was a recovering alcoholic. I didn’t care what people thought, I just didn’t want to talk about it.
“Aw, is princess afraid of losing control? Are you so uptight that you can’t let yourself have even a small amount of fun? Must be hard walking around with that giant stick up your ass all the time. Probably for the best. Wouldn’t want you to let your guard down and end up doing something crazy, like being nice for once.”