I shake my head as I start swiping men. I see my damn teammates pop up because they’re nearby. “Nope, nope, nope. Ah,” I say when I come across the first guy I don’t recognize as a coworker. “A bartender at the joint up the road. Ralph. A little older. Probably good in bed. Most importantly, I won’t be a liar.”
Dagger looks at me like I’m crazy, also there’s some admiration glinting in his expression. “Well, alright. That’s one way to get her done, Dempsey. Call me if,” he says, leaning in to peek at my phone and finishes, “Ralph from Johnny’s Bar gives you a hard time.” I message Ralph immediately and don’t wait for a reply.
I stumble, nod at Dagger, and approach Luke. I hate the way his broad back is perfectly proportioned. I hate the way he leans to one side as he talks to the woman who is not me. The low rumble that accompanies his speaking voice is infuriatingly sexy, and well, I love everything about him. It has to be because he hasn’t shown his bad side yet. I tap his shoulder to get his attention. The quick movement makes me stagger. Okay, in addition, I hate him because he sort of forced me to get this drunk. Kind of.
A quick peek over his shoulder is what I initially get. When he sees me, he excuses himself from his conversation and follows me to a quieter corner away from the booze desk and the brunette. Babe and Milo are glancing our way. Doing that thing people do when they’re trying not to be obvious, but they totally are anyway.
“Is Dagger finished talking shit and making up lies?” he says. His face looks hardened, shuttered in a way I’m not familiar with.
“Everyone has had a lot to drink,” I reply. It’s safe. “He didn’t mean any of that.”
Hart scoffs, gaze glinting at his friend across the room. “You’re an expert at knowing my best friend now too?”
His tone makes my heart skip a beat. Not in a good way. Swallowing hard I say, “He obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. That’s all I’m saying. I wanted to tell you bye. My Tinder date will be here soon.”
His face morphs from hardened to unwitting neutral. There’s no way to read him. There’s no way Dagger can read him. I guarantee it. Even drunk, I can tell. The room spins a bit and I reach out to put my hand on the wall. He notices and shakes his head.
“You don’t have to tell me bye or ask permission, Dempsey. I’m not your daddy.”
My heart leaps into my throat. Not in a good way. In a scared, defensive way. Luke spins on his heel and goes back to the brunette. This time he doesn’t keep a distance between them. He wraps an arm around her waist and she leans her head against his broad chest.
The ragged thump of my heart is disheartening. I care. More than I know I should or have any right to. What did I expect? I told him I was essentially about to go fuck a stranger. Isn’t he doing the same? My stomach leaps and I lay a hand on my abs and focus on breathing. Sanders and Dagger are looking at me when I finally peel my gaze away. Sanders looks down to the carpet when I catch him. Dagger doesn’t. He strides over and walks out the door with me and down the hallway.
“I had to know either way, Dempsey. At least now I know you have something for Hart. Don’t take offense.”
The hallway is colder as we make our way to the elevator. My room is on a different floor than everyone else. Dagger is chattering on about God knows what. I can’t hear him, I’m inside my head obsessing over Luke Hart and all the things drunken me wants to say to him. Mean, inappropriate and otherwise. The door pings open and I walk to my room. It’s now that I remember Dagger is here.
With a hand on my doorknob, I say, “You can come in if you want.” Then I amend. “You know, to hang out in a super platonic way.”
Dagger looks left and right. “Right, well this is awkward. I would walk any woman or one of my buddies home to make sure they got in alright. I don’t care to come in, no.” He slips his phone out of his pocket and shakes it in front of me. “I’m going to swipe up a date real fast. Sorry, Dempsey.”
My mood slips further. “Don’t apologize for being honest. At least someone can tell the damn truth.” I take my phone out and check my messages. Nothing. “Looks like Ralph is a no-go. Good luck with your date.” I actually mean it too. Dagger might be annoying and sort of scary, but he’s being nice to me. “Thanks for walking me back.”
I’m about to let the heavy door click closed when the elevator pings open. Off steps Hart. His movements are jerky and wild as he narrows his eyes, scanning the hallway. A look of relief crosses his face when he sees Dagger standing in the hallway.
Dagger chuckles and punches the doorframe lightly. “Slap my ass and call me Sally.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means I owe you the story of how I got my nickname, Little Dempsey.”
Luke rushes my door and his friend, a stormy look on his face.
“Lost something on Dempsey’s floor?” Dagger asks, pressing his lips into a knowing, sarcastic smirk. “Or what?”
“I need to talk to Aar…” Luke says, correcting to, “Dempsey. Skydiving. Work-related.”
I should back into my room and let them bicker back and forth, but this is too interesting. The dynamic is weird. Dagger is well aware that Luke is lying, but he’s letting him. To save face? For me? I don’t know.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dagger says. “No one saw you come up here, I hope.”
“You came up here with her,” Hart hisses back. “How is it any different?”
Dagger’s jaw drops. “Everyone in that room saw you two participate in shot guzzling foreplay. It wasn’t me and Dempsey. It was you and her.” He pokes a finger into Luke’s chest. “It’s different.”
“Bullshit. It’s no different.”
Dagger knocks him back a step with a mere finger poke. I hold my breath. Oh, God if this turns into a fight I’ll die.
“I don’t want to fuck my teammate,” Dagger replies.
“I don’t want to fuck her,” Luke counters.
“You guys really need to stop talking about me while I’m standing in front of you.”
They both look at me in the doorway, like they’re shocked I’m there. Hart meets my eyes. “No one saw me come up here.” I believe him. It’s why he was acting so squirrelly when he stepped out of the elevator. “I just want to talk.” He swallows hard. I feel bad for him. The way Dagger is looking at him like he’s the judge, jury, and executioner, and Luke is guilty as sin.
“Fine,” I slur at Luke. To Dagger, I say, “Choose the pretty one. She is the better option.”
Dagger laughs and winks at me. He gets close to Luke’s face with that shark smile. “You, my dear friend, are fucked. Your secret is safe with me.”
Luke tries to refute his friend, but Dagger is already gone. Jogging down the hallway, he disappears into the elevator.
“Something about skydiving, then?” I ask, pushing duck lips to one side of my face. I back into my room and Luke blows in quickly, slamming the door behind him.
“What the fuck, Aara?”
“What is the fuck, Hart?” He called me Aara.
He glowers, nostrils flaring. I’m suddenly hot so I pull my sweatshirt over my head and toss it on the made bed. I have a workout tank on under it. When he doesn’t speak, I glance at him. He’s staring at me with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. “You have a man coming over?”
I shrug once and retrieve a water bottle from my fridge. “I don’t know?”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” he fires back, composure faltering. The chill in his words steals my breath.
I take a sip and turn to face him. He’s close now—standing toe to toe. I can smell his skin, and the heat from his large body envelops me. “It means he hasn’t replied yet and I don’t know,” I whisper, tone taut with anger.
He takes another step closer to me. “Why?”
“Why not?” I sling back.
A flash of loneliness skips across his face. “Because,” he says, swallowing hard. “You know why.”
I’m instantly wide awake a
nd his non-admission makes me a touch more sober. He can’t dance around the chemistry any longer. His gaze flickers across my bare shoulders and body, but blue eyes greet mine moments later.
“Say it, Hart.”
His lips pull into a grim line. Like even the thought of speaking the truth is too much for him to bear. I poke my finger into his chest, like Dagger did. “If you’re going to pussyfoot around, I’ll be the bigger man and say it. There’s something between us.”
He looks away, to the side, unable to hold eye contact while I speak the truth. “Dagger was right.” I give an agitated cough. “But is he right about you needing to fuck me out of your system?”
Chapter Ten
Luke
I put my hands on her bare shoulders, but then, because this is how things are between us, I think better of it, and let my arms drop down by my sides. I’m not satisfied I can trust myself with them there either, so I perch them across my chest. Aarabelle is so drunk. Her eyes are lazy, half-mast, and her movements are sluggish, unplanned. Not like usual. I’m buzzed from the shots, but the interminable rage I feel is directed at the situation we’re in. I’m fuck all confused, lying to my friends and they know it, chasing a ghost of a feeling I only get with her.
Her lips are flushed and pouting, and I’d hit my knees and beg to kiss them if this was a picture-perfect scenario instead of the dumpster fire it’s becoming. I lick my own lips instead as I study her face. “I didn’t lie about that. I don’t want to fuck you.”
She rolls her eyes and makes an ungraceful move toward the attached bathroom. She leaves the door open as she brushes her teeth.
“You didn’t let me finish,” I call out.
She spits into the sink. “What did you lie about, Hart?” she asks.
I can see her body reflecting in the full-length mirror adjacent to the bathroom. If she were sober, I’d turn away, but there’s no way she knows I’m watching her. Aarabelle grabs the waistband of her leggings and pulls them off in a shimmy move that makes me swallow hard and readjust my cock.
“Obviously about wanting to talk about work,” I reply.
She’s bent over in the tiny closet area scouring her bright pink suitcase. When she finds what she’s looking for, she pulls a pair of shorts up her legs and then pulls the tank over her head. “What do you want to talk about, Luke?” she asks, and her irritation is obvious.
“The something between us.” After I speak, she pops her head out from around the corner she has no idea I have a full view of.
She puts on a tight t-shirt and approaches. Not tentatively. It’s a stalk, one of a predator who knows they have their prey cornered. “But you don’t want to fuck me,” she drawls, licking her lips.
Inhaling a huge breath, I close my eyes to control the raging thoughts. Fucking her every which way to Sunday. When she takes a step toward me, I step back. The delicate balance of self-control and friendship is sliding across the line in the sand. Her phone pings from the bed and the momentary lust haze is shaken.
“Maybe that’s Ralph. He wants to fuck me.”
Every time she says fuck, my dick jumps like Fido. I grasp her arm. She looks back at me accusatory. “Don’t get the phone.”
“Give me a reason not to.”
“I do want to fuck you, Aara. But once isn’t what is going to sate me.”
Brows furrowed, she tilts her head to the side. “But you said…”
“I won’t be able to fuck you out of my system. I don’t just want to fuck you.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. “I want more than that.” I loosen my grip when I know she’s either surprised into submission, or too stunned to remember her phone.
Dempsey runs her hands through her long dark hair. Sort of like the habit I have when I’m frustrated, except she makes it sexy. “Why?”
I suffer in this arena because I’ve never done battle in it. With her inebriated, I’m not sure she’ll remember this in the morning. We should just fuck and keep everything else on the back burner. That would be the wise decision. The one Luke Hart from a year ago, shit, the one Luke Hart from a month ago, would make. But she’s going to slip through my fingers if I don’t give her something. “You’re sort of spectacular. You have to know it.”
Her face softens, the fight dying with each second. “I am not,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m your teammate, Luke. Anything between us would be taboo, unsavory, another reason stacked against women in giving us opportunities. You also know that,” she says, eyes pleading.
“Does that mean you feel the same way about me?”
“Do I think you’re spectacular? Is that what you’re asking?”
I grin and sling myself down on the end of the bed. She’s standing in front of me. “Aara, be straight with me.”
After she runs her hands through her hair one more time, she clamps both hands on her ears like we’re in Daytona and the race cars are too loud. “I’m falling in love with you.” Her words pierce my chest and make my head swim. She takes her hands down and smiles.
I quirk one brow. “That’s a bold statement, Little Dempsey.”
“I didn’t hear what I said. It makes it legal. No rules were broken.”
My phone rings in my pocket, but I ignore it in favor of staring at Aarabelle. She takes a step closer to me and my heart pounds. I’ve been in hotels with women a million times and never have I ever felt like I was losing my mind before now. This is what it feels like to fall. This uncontrollable lust and adrenaline. It’s different because there’s an intellect component. She’s smart, and equal in ways I didn’t know existed. Her passion is mine. My dad told me how she saved a guy during Hell Week. Not an abnormal occurrence because we’re all on the same team, but then he told me that guy was being a total asshole to her for days prior. She has unconditional commitment.
When she’s in grabbing distance, I snare her in my arms and pull her to stand in between my knees. I rest my forehead on her hard stomach and interlace my fingers on the base of her spine, on top of her ass. I breathe her in. I capture her. Her breathing speeds, making my head rise and fall then her hands are on my shoulders, behind my neck.
“What are you thinking right now?” she whispers.
“Probably should keep that to myself.”
Instead of responding, she places her hands on my ears and presses in. It makes me chuckle. Then I say, “I’m falling for you too and I don’t know how to do it even in the best-case scenario. This is the worst-case scenario.”
She takes her hands off, and I look up to meet her eyes. “We’re sort of experts at worst-case scenarios, Hart.” The smile she offers is sad, but her gaze is molten. A promise. A commitment. “Let’s just…take it slow.”
My phone rings again. “I should get that,” I announce.
She nods and steps out of my embrace, retrieving her own phone. Her eyes widen as she reads her notifications. “Shit.”
It’s Dagger on the other end of my cell. No greeting, just three words, “Tinder date downstairs.” My gaze lights on Aara. “Ralph is here.” Dagger tells me he’s taken care of him.
She spins. “You didn’t let me reply to him! I would have stopped him from coming here.” Moving around me, she races to the window and out to the small balcony.
I crack my neck. Both sides. Then stand up and join her. Towering over Dempsey, I lean down to her ear. “He’s my problem now.”
She panics. “He’s a barkeep for God’s sake. You’ll kill him with a stern look. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into. Don’t you dare lay a hand on him, Hart. I’ll smite you.” Her anger is cute.
“I’ll explain your plans for the evening changed,” I counter. “No harm, no foul.”
She grabs my midsection, fingertips raised, but seems to realize she’s touching me in a place she hasn’t before, gaze lighting on her hands, then she pulls herself closer to me. “Let me talk to him.”
My skin is fire under her fingers. There’s this forbidden quality to her hands that drive
s me wild. “Dagger already sent him away, Aara. He was outside waiting for his date when the guy showed up. He recognized him and sent him away,” I explain. “I just wanted to see if you’d let me play.”
Dempsey clears her throat. I can tell she’s wavering between being offended and attacking me. “Play? How about we play in a different way?” she asks.
I knew it.
The smile I offer is dangerous. Dagger assumes we’re fucking, but it’s not right. There needs to be some ground rules for this to go on for longer than one night. Laws that protect her. I pull her away, back into the room and pull the sun blocking curtains closed. “There are rules forbidding anything happening between us.”
“Oh, my gosh, do you have a fever, Captain Obvious?” Aara bites. “Obviously.” If she were sober right now, I have a feeling she’d be a little less cavalier.
She never lets me finish my thoughts. “We need to have a code of our own. For safety.”
Her brow wrinkles. “You’re right. I’d think of that first if you hadn’t gotten me so drunk.”
“You went and got yourself drunk. Don’t blame me.”
Her shorts ride up when she sits on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Big brain wants to lay out rules, small brain wants to eat everything inside the shorts.
Dempsey sighs. “Neither here nor there. Back to the rules. Are we exclusive? Exclusively hiding? What exactly?”
My face falls as I let my eyes roam her rock-hard body and lips. “No fucking around on work trips for starters. Too many red flags if we hang out too much. If exclusive means you can’t call up Tinder dates, then yeah. Exclusive.” The thought of her with another man sent me off the deep end. Jealousy is fine when it’s me trying to obtain something someone else has, but it feels…painful when it’s like this. Where I don’t have any control over the damn woman.
Legacy: A Salvation Society Novel Page 11