4. Jenny
Jenny
“ W hat the hell is wrong with you?”
He just keeps staring at me and I reach over and tap him on his head. “Hello, is there anybody in there?”
His head pulls back and he narrows his amber-brown eyes on me. Whiskey eyes. Rimmed in long, dark lashes that flutter as he seems like he’s finally waking up.
“I’m just tired.”
I shake my head. “Nope. I’m not buying it. You’ve been staring at me for quite awhile. Why?”
He huffs and glares at me. “Why do you have to be such a pain in the ass? I told you I’m tired.”
“And I told you that I don’t believe you. You don’t have big shadows under your eyes....”
“Like you do.”
Ignoring him, I continue. “You look rested. Your eyes are clear and bright.”
His head cocks and he smirks. “You like my eyes?”
I sit back and glare at him again, crossing my arms. “You’re annoying, you know that.”
He leans back and crosses his own arms and my traitorous damn eyes follow the way his biceps flex and bunch, checking out a tattoo that seems like it’s moving.
“Is that fire on your arm?”
His eyes jerk to his arms and then swivel up, narrowing. “My tattoo?”
“Yeah. I love a guy with a good tattoo. You got anymore of them?”
His firm lips stretch into a knowing grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I want to pat myself on the back for making him smile. I get the feeling that he doesn’t do it very often. “I would actually.”
“You’re exhausting.”
Pain shimmers inside me and I push it down. I see a quick glint in his eyes that makes me think he saw it though. “I try.” I pick up my glass of water and take a long drink, looking around the restaurant again.
It’s your typical beach-front bar with grass skirts and crabs on the wall.
The neon by the bar is of some brand of beer that is mass-produced somewhere else.
The local stuff is here but it’s not on display.
Because most tourists would rather have something they know even though they’re on vacation.
The whole point of a vacation is getting away from your life and experiencing new things.
But that’s not how most people feel. They want some kind of familiarity even amongst the new experiences.
“I’m sorry,” he mutters.
My head whips back and I stare at him, stunned. “What on earth for?”
“I don’t know what I said but something hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”
My lip quirks. “Just make fun of me and nag me a little bit, huh?”
He grins, light flashing golden in his eyes. A glint of rare metal amongst the dark chocolate. “It’s like you know me.”
Throwing my head back, I laugh at him. At us. “Yeah. I feel like I do.”
“You’d be the first,” he mutters.
“Are you married?” I ask him, wondering why his face turns cold and closed.
“No.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“I’d rather not talk about that.”
“So you were.”
His lips curl. “I don’t think that’s what I said, Jenny. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“You’d have said no if it wasn’t true.”
His lips open and close several times and then he sighs. “Lord, I wish this place wasn’t so busy. I might need to find a new place.”
“Why mess with something if you like it? Just come earlier before the beach clears out.”
“Yeah. I’ll think about that.”
Both of us stop speaking and I try and look away from him.
But his dark eyes entrance me. He’s hiding them from me.
His dark lashes lie against his high cheekbones and the jaw that looks cut from glass tightens as he runs his finger along the edge of his glass, the condensation pooling on his thick finger.
His hands fascinate me. Thick, tanned, calloused.
He’s all man and my belly clenches as I fight the urge to stand up and walk over, sitting on his lap and kissing the hell out of his firm lips.
I don’t know if he’d kiss me back or bite me like a wild animal. I think that’s part of my fascination with this man.
“You know, you don’t look like you’re enjoying your vacation.” It’s a simple statement and he takes it as such, just shrugging his massive shoulders.
Huffing in exasperation I take another long drink of my water. He’s sipping his bourbon like he’s got all the time in the world.
I seriously want to rattle this cold, hard man.
“How do you feel about oral sex?”
He just took a sip and he chokes on it, his lean face turning red as a beet as he fights to get his breath back.
I feel absurdly happy.
He finally gets his breath back and clears his throat. “You are a menace. What the hell is wrong with you?”
I shrug my shoulders and sip my drink. “I turn into a crazy woman when men ignore me. I have my little quirks. One of them is I absolutely hate being ignored.”
His whiskey eyes narrow on me and then he leans back and crosses his arms, biceps bulging and drawing my thirsty gaze like a magnet. He crosses one leg over another and his thick thigh bulges and I swallow roughly when I see another bulge higher up.
My eyes dart away and he chuckles, dark and low.
“You’re not nearly as smooth as you think you are, honey.
You wanna know how I feel about oral? Fine.
I’ll tell you but it’s open season if I do.
” He leans over and his calloused fingers run along my forearm and I jump, my eyes darting up to his, wide and confused.
“That means I’m gonna ask what I want and I want a real answer.
Not one of your cutesy little one-liners. I want the real truth.”
Nodding jerkily, my mouth going dry while he continues to pet my arm. Electricity sizzles along my nerve endings and my pussy clenches on air. Hunger burns in my veins and I shift on my wooden seat, moisture coating my lower lips.
I’ve honestly never been as turned on in my life. And all he’s done is touch my arm. If he ever actually gets me naked and touches my lower body I might spontaneously combust.
He grins but it’s not full of humor. It’s dark and dangerous. I should be fucking terrified but I’m not. I’m so damn hungry.
I want this man. I knew as soon as I saw him there was something firing up between us but it’s like I’ve been hit by a tornado of desire and lust and it’s wiping out what’s left of my brain cells until I’m just a mess of hormones and hunger.
“I happen to love oral. I love nothing better than eating a woman out until she comes and comes and she can’t even breathe she’s so exhausted.” He leans back and taps the table. “And very satisfied.”
Whimpering, I lean back slowly, gently, not sure if you can come from just words. My whole pussy clenches and my lower body is throbbing.
“Now you,” he growls.
“I like oral too,” I whimper.
“Well, that’s nice to know, baby girl. Real nice to know. But I want to know what I said that hurt you and why it hurt you.”
And just like that all that lust shrivels up and dies like I’ve taken a cold shower.
Jerking back, I glare at him. “What kind of a question is that?”
“The kind of question I expect an answer for. Who hurt you?”
Tapping at the side of my glass nervously, I look away from him and study the bar like it’s the most beautiful, interesting thing on this planet. Sighing when he doesn’t say anything else just waits I lean back and stare at my hands, twisting them in my lap.
“I had a boyfriend. We were together for a year. Until the beginning of this year. Then he started acting kinda crazy and pulling back. He used to tell me all the time that I was exhausting. Like my emotions were too much for him to take.”
I dig my fingers into my thighs. My thick thighs that he constantly told me were too big. I was too big. Too much.
“He wanted me to lose weight. He wanted me to be quieter. Not talk so much. Not laugh so much. He just wanted me to be…less than I was.”
He growls under his breath and his big hands reach across the table, tugging at my arms until I give him one of his hands. He runs his fingers along mine, cradling my hand gently.
“He was an idiot. There was something else too though, wasn’t there? You seem like you thought he should understand you better.”
Shrugging, I shoot him a sickly smile. “We did the same thing. We were both writers. I just got my first contract and I was trying to finish my first book on my new series. He just kept wanting attention. More and more. And when I wanted to work, he always seemed to start a fight.”
He smirks. “By any chance was he still trying to get a contract for his books?”
Nodding, I sigh. “Yeah, but he was good. He got a contract with another publisher a few months after we broke up.”
“But you were there first and he was jealous as hell. He started fights to mess with your head so he could throw you off your game. He wanted to fuck up your career because he’s just that kind of egotistical asshole.
The kind that thinks no woman should ever be better than him and if she is, then there’s something wrong with her and she needs to fix herself.
It can’t be a him problem it has to be you. ”
My eyes seek his and there’s something in his dark eyes. A shiver trails like icicles down my spine.
Lance McGuire looks dangerous as hell. Like he could cheerfully kill someone and not even break a sweat.
He grins. “If I could find him, I’d beat him until he couldn’t walk. That kind of guy deserves it.”
Shivering, I draw my hand back.
I don’t really know this guy. But just how dangerous can he be?