14. Fourteen
Fourteen
brAX
I t was 6pm.
I sipped on a gin and tonic and tried to calm the nervous energy that was racing through my body.
Hanging out with an ex-girlfriend was not something I thought I'd ever be doing. But Dylan wasn't just any ex; she was the ex. The one that I’d never stopped thinking about. Not for one day.
I glanced at my watch again and rolled my eyes.
It was still 6pm.
The seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours.
I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made me this nervous.
Taking another sip, I considered how rocky the foundations of both our relationships were. I was furious at myself for not ending things with Ally when I should have. If I’d broken up with her months ago, like I'd wanted to, I’d be sitting here a single man.
But, again, I'd listened to Greg and did what he said was best considering the situation.
But even if I'd ended my relationship with Ally, Dylan still wouldn’t be single.
She’d made it clear she was unhappy though. Her boyfriend sounded like an asshole.
Or maybe I was imagining him to be the worst cunt alive to feel better about myself?
Who the fuck knows. All I knew is that the thought of her being with another man made me want to unleash violence.
Movement behind the bar caught my attention. The bartender elbowed another colleague, nodding towards the entrance. Their tongues were practically on the floor, their eyes bulging out of their head.
I angled my head to see who they were looking at, but I already knew it would be Dylan.
Her outfit… damn.
My dick twitched in response at the sight of her. Black, wet-look leather pants, clung to her legs like a second skin. A tight-fitting white tank top with the word ‘SMOKIN’ in red written across the middle, accentuated her breasts and tiny waist.
Her onyx hair was up in a high bun, with red, cherry lips and dark, smoky eyes.
She looked every bit the femme fatale. Like she’d devour anyone that dared to look her in those sharpened eyes.
All eyes were on her as she strutted in, oblivious to the attention she drew from every man—and woman—in the vicinity. She had absolutely no idea how hot she was.
“Hey,” she said casually as she pulled up a bar stool next to mine.
I was lost for words. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
“You look…”
She pointed to her shirt that indeed spelled it out. “Smokin’?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Yeah. Keen for tonight?”
“I can’t believe you got us tickets,” she said excitedly, playfully nudging me in the arm with her elbow. “I didn’t even know they were here!”
She was cute when she was excited. She crinkles her nose and her voice squeaks. Like her inner child bubbles to the surface briefly, before the dark queen takes back control.
Dylan's chestnut eyes sparkled as she ordered a vodka soda.
She turned towards me. “So, how was your day?”
“Better now.”
We stared at each other for a few moments. The weight of my “better now” hung in the air. It was true, my day was better now that we were here.
That she was here.
She felt the same, I knew it down to my core. I could read her, she still had the same tells.
Like when she’s annoyed, she bundles her hands into little fists. Or when she laughs, she covers her mouth with her hands and squints her eyes. Or the way her eyes softens when she sees a puppy, and how she takes a little breath in when she reads a steamy scene from one of her smutty books.
I wondered if she still reads that shit. It was basically glorified porn.
The truth was this: I had never stopped being attracted to Dylan. And not just for the obvious physical reasons, but for the way she thinks and approaches life.
She’d never been interested in keeping up with the Joneses.
And I’d always run as far away from those motherfuckers as I could.
Dylan nodded a thanks to the bartender as he placed her drink on the bar. “Have you heard any other feedback from the Omega team?”
“Feedback is all positive,” I nudged her and teased. “Not just a cushion fluffer after all.”
She slapped my leg.
If we couldn’t touch each other sexually, we were finding any way at all to have some sort of physical connection.
“What about you? What do you think?”
“I’m just the builder, it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“You’re not just the builder to me,” she said, taking a sip of her drink. “C'mon, I want to know.”
“About Studio Pase? Blown away. You’re really talented, Dylan. Greg isn’t easy, his briefs can be difficult to bring to life, but you managed to not only nail it, but give him something he didn’t even know he needed in terms of the flow of the structural components.”
Her eyes were pinned on me, a look of appreciation etched on her face. Like she’d never been praised for her ideas or effort before.
Did Zack ever tell her he was proud of her? Did he know how lucky he was to have her?
“And personally? I know how hard you’ve studied and how much of yourself you’ve given to your career, so to see you achieving what you've worked so hard for is…” I paused, searching for the right words.
“What?”
“It's cool."
She gave me a look that could melt the polar icecaps. It was the look she gave when something wasn't good enough. "Cool?"
I grinned. I loved to give her hell.
"Yeah, it's fucking cool."
Dylan scoffed and took an usually large sip of her vodka.
"Okay," I spun on my stool and faced her. "I'll stop playing."
She mimicked my move, turning to face me.
"I’m proud of you. You fucking know I am. ”
Her eyes danced like how trees might blow in a breeze. She laid her hand on my thigh and her touch instantly burned a hole in my jeans.
“I do,” she grinned. “I just wanted to make you say it.”
I tried not to think about her hand placement and how much I wanted to reach over, grab her by jaw and kiss her.
“He doesn’t tell you, does he?”
Hurt flickered across her beautiful eyes. “No, he doesn’t.”
What a cunt.
“If you were my girl, I’d tell you every fucking day how incredible you are.”
She took a deep breath, and gently dragged her black painted nails over my cheek. “I know you would."
Goosebumps covered my body. I marveled at how I reacted to the simplest of her touches.
Fuck, she was strikingly gorgeous.
With her hair up, her facial features were arresting. Her caramel eyes were framed with thick arched eyebrows and long eyelashes that curled at the end. She was blessed with high set cheekbones, a sweet button nose and full lips.
She was a natural beauty. Which was rare these days.
My eyes were drawn to her cherry red lips. I bet she tasted like chocolate covered strawberries.
The urge to kiss her was overwhelming.
The urge to see those red lips wrapped around my cock, even stronger.
“What time should we go?” Dylan asked, snapping me out of my explicit daydream.