Chapter Two
Reid
Jesus, she smelled fantastic. And apparently, my cock was in full agreement, because I hadn’t even seen her face yet and already, it was up and at attention.
The past couple nights had been hell, thinking about her, cycling through emotions ranging from flat out fury to bone deep despair.
How could she be so blind not to see that what we had could be the start of something amazing?
Now, though, as she whipped around in her seat and stared up at me through those ridiculous glasses with her mouth agape, all I felt was satisfaction. I didn’t let it show, though. Instead, I kept a straight face—barely—as she sputtered, her knife-wielding hand fluttering in front of her.
“Better put that down before you cut someone,” I said, making my way to the opposite side of the booth and sliding in before slouching back casually. “How’s it going?”
“Reid!” She cleared her throat and dropped the knife right in the center of her mashed potato sculpture. “Wow, I’m good. You?”
“Good. Although, I’m a little surprised to see you here. It’s so far off the Strip and out of the way. How did you even get here?”
“Cab. I, um, I come here a lot, actually.” She reached for her water glass, realized it was empty, and set it down again with a clink.
“Do you? I had no idea.”
She ran a hand over her blonde wig and shifted in her seat. “Yeah, it’s pretty much my favorite place.”
“Nice hair. I like the glasses too.”
“Thanks.” She looked away and tugged them off and finally worked up the nerve to meet my eyes. “What brings you here?”
I held her gaze for a long moment, trying to determine exactly how far she was willing to go with this farce but she just blinked back at me.
“A dinner date. With your friend, actually.”
She had the balls to look surprised and then bared her teeth in what I imagined was supposed to pass for a smile.
“Dee? How fun! Are you guys having a great time?” She flicked a glance to the table we’d been sitting at that was now empty, but I didn’t offer to elaborate.
When I’d first noticed Lo, I’d done a double-take and nearly went over right then. After a few seconds to think on it, I opted to save Lo the humiliation of Dee seeing her, and Dee the discomfort of having to witness whatever was about to go down between me and her friend.
Because something was about to go down.
I’d let her play coy for a while, but there was no way I wasn’t eventually going to call her on this.
Had she shown up because she was regretting her decision to push me away? Or was she one of those girls who always wanted the one thing that was no longer on the menu?
Only one way to find out.
I leaned forward, close enough that she had no choice but to look at me again. “What are you doing here, Lo?”
“Eating dinner.” Her throat worked as she swallowed hard and looked away.
“Not from what I can see,” I said, taking a pointed glance at her still full plate. “So I’ll ask you one more time. What are you doing here at the very time, on the very night, that I’m here on a date with your friend?”
She looked so miserable, I almost felt sorry for her and let her off the hook, but that would solve nothing. The only way to get to the other side of this for us was through it. And, dumb or not, I wanted more than anything to wind up on the other side of this with Lo. Her coming to the realization that she’d been trying to walk away from something good here was the key but she was going to have to meet me halfway this time.
“I don’t know. I just--” She broke off and tossed the napkin that was in her lap onto the table. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she muttered on a rush of breath. She shot to her feet, grabbed her purse and crossed the floor in long, hurried strides.
With a quick glance at the contents of the table, I rifled through my pockets and dropped three twenty-dollar bills on the table. Then, I made a beeline to the restrooms. Without hesitating, I shoved the still swinging door open and stepped in.
Luckily, only one female gasp of shock echoed through the room.
Lola stood there alone, a hand clapped over her mouth as she stared at me through stunned eyes.
“Reid, you can’t be in here,” she started, holding up a staying hand.
“I know. So come hide with me before someone else comes in.”
I took her unresisting hand and tugged her toward the furthest stall, saying a quick prayer of thanks to the toilet gods that each was like a little room unto itself with walls that went almost to the floor.
I pushed the stall door open and then pressed her backward. Though she laid her hands against my chest, there was no pressure or sign of resistance. If she wanted me to stop, I would. But it was just another thin paper veil she was putting up between me and her heart. And if I’d learned anything in the past couple minutes, it was that the paper was getting thinner by the minute. It was time to take another shot at tearing it down.
"Reid, we're in public," she hissed, glancing around my shoulder, but not before I saw the heat in her eyes.
"Then we’ll have to keep our voices down, won’t we?” I guided her further into the enclosed space and closed the door behind us. The sound of the latch sliding into place was like a rifle shot.
By the time I turned to face her again, I could see the pulse in her neck fluttering wildly and I traced the spot with my fingertip.
"We can't,” she whispered.
"Can’t what?” I trailed my finger up the length of her neck to take her chin in my hand. If the chemistry between us was the hold I had on her, I wasn’t too much of a Boy Scout to use it.
"Your date is waiting," she said.
"No. She's not."
She blinked and then bit her bottom lip.
Bingo.
She hadn’t expected that, and there was no hiding the relief on her face. I could tell she had questions, but knew she didn’t have the right to ask them.
“I thought she was waiting for you in the bar or something.”
"Nobody is waiting for me anywhere at the moment. I’m right here with you. So tell me, Lo.” I reached up a hand and tugged the wig off her head, sending the mass of inky curls tumbling down her back. “What are you really doing here tonight?"
I pressed her back against the side of the stall and dipped my head low, gratified to feel the heaving of her breasts against my chest. She could deny a lot of things, but she couldn’t deny this.
“I don’t know anymore. Seriously. I don’t even know anymore, Reid,” she whispered. Then, she rolled on to her tiptoes and touched her lips to mine.
Soft, sweet Lola. Her scent surrounded me and I groaned, threading the fingers of my free hand into her hair, anchoring her against me. She let out a muffled moan and opened her mouth to me, sliding her tongue against mine and I nearly lost it. Every nerve ending fired, and all the blood in my body rushed south as the last time we’d kissed ran through my mind.
In her dressing room at the burlesque club.
And the time before that it had been a dry hump standing in my pool.
Now I was going to take her in the stall of a ladies bathroom. If I wanted her to know I was serious and that I wanted her to take it just as serious, maybe it would be better if we got a chance to really spend some time together instead of treating it like some drunken hookup.
My dick hated that plan, but before I had a chance to overrule its objection, a knock sounded at the door.
“Is someone in there?” a nasally, feminine voice called. “The other stall door won’t close.”
Lo jerked back and stared up at me with stricken eyes.
“Sorry, ma’am,” I said, my throat still raspy with need as I tried to get control over the speed of my heartbeat, slamming against my ribcage. “My wife is pregnant and feeling really sick. We’ll be right out.”
On the fly, I scrunched up the mass of fake hair in my hand and stuf
fed it into the front of Lola’s trench to form a ball.
“Waddle a little, and try to look ill,” I muttered as I straightened her actual hair, flushed the toilet behind her for good measure, and then swung the door open.
We stepped out of the stall together and the woman standing there eyed the two of us dubiously.
“Is she…all right? She looks very flushed.”
To Lo’s credit, she managed a weak smile and nodded. “Yes, just getting morning sickness around the clock.” She patted her wig-belly fondly, and the woman snicked her tongue against her teeth sympathetically.
“Aw, well, at least your husband here is taking good care of you.”
She smiled at me and then scuttled past us into the stall.
Lo pulled away and made a beeline for the exit, and I followed behind.
“That was a close one,” I said when we got back to her table.
She picked up her sunglasses and jammed them back on her face, but not before I saw the tears in her eyes. “Yeah. Too close.”
“Lola,” I started, but a chirping sound coming from her purse stopped me.
She fumbled through it for her phone and then sucked in a breath. “My cab is here. I’ve got to go.” She turned and started to walk away before she turned back. “I’m really sorry, Reid. Coming here was way out of line.” She wheeled around and rushed out of the restaurant, leaving me staring after her.
What the hell had just happened?
I shifted in my still too-tight jeans, adjusting my aching cock before blowing out a sigh. Either it was time to move on, or I needed to start thinking about buying myself a pine box, because this woman?
She was going to be the death of me.
Chapter Three
Lola
“Two grilled cheese sandwiches, hold the fries.”
I nodded absently and drifted back to the kitchen to put the ticket in, realizing belatedly that I hadn’t even offered the customer a drink.
I blew out a sigh and slapped the sandwich order on the line in front of the cook. “Ordering.”
Luckily, the air conditioning had been fixed, because if I had to sweat all day, I think I would’ve quit and I sure as hell couldn’t afford to do that. But my mental health was questionable already, what with how things had gone down with Reid last night.
My cheeks went hot as I recalled getting busted. Then they got even hotter as I recalled what happened in the bathroom afterward.
As much as I’d wanted to touch him and for him to touch me, it didn’t change the fact that I’d kissed him when he was on a date with my friend.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
And just as hard to swallow? The fact that he’d let me leave without doing the Reid thing. He didn’t tell me he’d call or make some prediction about how we weren’t going to be able to stay away from each other.
He’d just…watched me go.
So what if Dee had left a little early? That didn’t mean they weren’t going to see each other again. Maybe he was sick of my bullshit and figured we’d have one more for the road and call this thing between us done so he could move on. I guessed I should thank the lady who’d walked in for sparing me the full humiliation.
I wouldn’t blame him if he hated me. I’d been nothing but fickle and totally immature up until now.
My eyes felt hot and scratchy and I blinked hard. With a full shift ahead of me, I had no time for tears.
Maybe later, though. I’d set up with some wine and a sad movie and let it rip.
“Hey, girl, how’s it going?” I turned to see Dee standing there, a half-smile wreathing her face.
Guilt nipped at me hard and I worked up a smile in return, feeling every bit like a total shit. “Hey! I’m pretty good. I didn’t know you were working today.”
“Shay asked me to cover for her,” Dee said as she tied her apron around her trim waist. “She wasn’t feeling well.”
I nodded, but my brain was already whirring a mile a minute.
I hadn’t planned on seeing her so soon and I’d been so caught up in the craziness of the night before with Reid, I hadn’t yet taken the time to figure out what I was going to say to Dee. It felt dishonest to sit here and ask about her date when I’d fooled around with him in the bathroom after she left, but it would be super weird for me not to ask, since I’d sort of set them up. At the same time, hearing about it would be almost as bad as seeing it had been. I just didn’t know if I could take it.
Before I could make a decision, Dee took it out of my hands.
“So you and Reid, huh?”
She dropped it so casually, for a second I thought I’d misheard her.
Desperate for something to do with my hands and an excuse not to make eye contact, I reached for the cart filled with half empty salt and pepper shakers and started filling them.
“Uh, I--”
“It’s okay, Lo. I get it. I should’ve gotten it the day he came in here.” She tugged my apron, urging me to face her, and I did. “In my defense, I was kind of blinded by his looks and that sexy voice.”
I swallowed hard and nodded dumbly. I couldn’t blame her on that score.
“But after he told me and I thought back on it, it all kind of fell into place.”
“Wh-what did he tell you?” I asked, as the blood rushed to my ears. As crazy as it was, it seemed like Dee wasn’t mad at me at all. That was a huge relief, but now there was a whole other question looming that had me in knots.
Had Reid told her he was into me? Or had he told her we’d had a past relationship and Dee had made the decision to remove herself from the situation because she was afraid we were still involved? Seemed like splitting hairs, but if there was a chance that Reid still wanted to be with me…
“He actually called me before our date. Told me he just wanted to go out as friends.” She laughed at that, genuine mirth twinkling in her dark eyes. “Imagine that? And cocky as I am, I was sure I could turn that around. Until we met at the restaurant and he started talking about you.”
I turned back to unscrewing the top off the saltshaker clutched in my hand so she wouldn’t see how red my cheeks were.
“He’s crazy about you, Lo. It’s plain as day. His face lit up every time your name came up. Once I knew the deal, I kind of just let the night flow and actually had a really nice time. Like two old friends talking over dinner. When it was over, I picked up my purse, and said I was heading out, and he didn’t argue. I think we both knew we wouldn’t be seeing each other again unless it was a friendly type thing.”
I nodded, another rush of emotion threatening to swallow me up. He hadn’t been toying with me. And it wasn’t about the sex. If Dee was to be trusted, Reid was still into me.
My relief was so great, my legs started to shake.
That meant I still had a chance.
“My advice? Whatever game it is that you’re playing, whether it’s hard to get, or chicken, or even if it’s that you’re actually too scared to let yourself get close to him?”
She gripped my shoulder and forced me to meet her gaze.
“Stop it. Just stop. He’s worth his weight in gold. He’s hot and charming and he paid for dinner, even though we were just out as friends. He was sweet to the waitress and tipped well. He held out my chair for me and he smells like walking testosterone. And if you don’t plant your flag in him soon, a smarter girl like me is going to come along and tear that damn flag from your stupid fingers.” She released my shoulder and stepped back, the fierce light in her eyes fading as her lips curved into a familiar smile again. “Just my two cents.”
She bustled out of the kitchen and into the dining room with me just staring behind her, a ball of conflicting feelings. If she thought the situation was confusing now, I wondered what she would’ve thought if she knew the whole truth? That, after she left, Reid had found me creeping on him like a weirdo. As humiliating as it was, I couldn’t find it in me to regret it anymore, though.
Because if Dee was right, Reid still wan
ted me for real. And that was all I needed to light a fire under me.
After work, I was going to go see him. Tell him what was really going on with me. Bare my soul. It was a risk, for sure. But, for another chance with Reid?
It was a risk I was willing to take.
* * *
Reid
“So how was your date last night?”
Olivia and I were ringside, noshing on roast beef sandwiches, watching Bash spar with his trainer. I’d made it a habit to check in on him when I had a break between kickboxing classes, but I’d nearly backed out of the room when I’d seen her there, for precisely this reason.
I knew she was going to ask questions. That was how she rolled. And today, like the other night, I was still no closer to having answers. I put on my big boy pants and went in anyway, because who knew? She’d been right about the whole Dee dinner date situation. Maybe she’d have some other pearls of wisdom to share with me about Lo.
Because I sure as shit had nothing.
“It was okay. You were right, Dee was very understanding. She’s a great girl, and we’re going to keep in touch. I think you’d like her.” I tore off another chunk of my sandwich and chewed, wondering if I should tell her the rest.
“So if it went okay, why did you come into the house grumbling last night?”
I stopped chewing and turned to stare at her incredulously. “What are you, Batman? You weren’t even in the living room and I went straight to bed.”
“Right, but thin walls and all. You still seemed exasperated. What gives?” She hadn’t turned to meet my gaze, her focus still on the ring, but there was no question she was waiting for an answer.
I swallowed the bite I’d been working on and set the paper wrapper aside. “Lo showed up.”
At that, she swiveled toward me, eyebrows raised. “On your date?”
“Yep.”
“Holy crap, that’s…an interesting twist.” She popped the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth and wiped her hands on the thighs of her jeans.
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