6. Zoe
6
Zoe
"In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight." – Pretty Woman
“ N ever have I ever seen a dead body.”
“I swear I will burst from these cocktails if you keep going like that. Are you psychic or something?” I groan and take another sip of the red, extra sweet drink in front of me that somehow doesn’t make me nauseous.
“What?” He gapes at me. “When have you seen a dead body?”
“I’m a pathologist. It’s literally in my job description.”
“Fuck me. You’re beautiful and smart?”
“Smooth.” I smile back at him, and he winks knowing exactly how smooth he is.
We have been at it for the past hour at least. Maybe more. Time just sort of stopped once I walked inside this place. All of my worries just vanished, and I have been truly enjoying myself. But this whole time he has been trying to weasel out any information about me by the means of this game or using sly follow up questions. I really don’t know why he wants to get to know me when I am as sure as a heart attack—as Joy put it the other day—that he is only interested in taking me to bed.
Which is also baffling to me.
I mean…I am just me. The girl who doesn’t get chosen, yet here is this sexy bartender who is trying very hard to win a night with me. When there are more than enough other—younger, prettier—girls around. In fact, there is a new one coming up to the bar every few seconds in an attempt to flirt with him.
I mean, I can’t really blame them. He’s that handsome and wears carefree confidence like his second skin. A perfect cocktail for all of us little moths.
Who I can blame, though, is me and my irrational hatred toward each girl who comes up. I almost want to slap their hands away and tell them to back off. Tell them it will be my name he will be adding tonight to his long list of conquests.
Yep, I’ve gone mad.
That must be another symptom of my pregnancy because never before did I entertain even a thought of a one-night stand.
And this fact should be enough for me to turn around and go back to the safety of my cottage, to my romance novels and fucking chamomile tea because wine is no longer an option. It would be enough any other time in my life but for some reason, today, I don’t care.
I like his attention. I like it a lot. Our age difference—six years—be damned. And I am here for it. Because this past hour has been the easiest one I’ve ever had.
Talking to this sexy, shameless flirt is easy. Breathing is easy here. Thinking is easy. And I haven’t felt like this in…hell, I haven’t felt like this ever. It almost seems like inside LPs I am not a future single mom who doesn’t have her life together. I am not a girl who spent her early twenties buried in books and studying her life away.
I am just me. Just Zoe.
So, I stay where I am as we shoot questions at each other.
“Never have I ever gotten drunk.”
“Have you been living under a rock?” He takes a sip.
“Nope, in the library.”
“Shit, I should do a booze pop-up shop there.” He scratches his beard like he’s really considering it. And I must admit that does sound like a brilliant idea. When you are five hours into studying soulless subjects, a glass of wine or two doesn’t sound half bad.
“Never have I ever been in a relationship.”
“Like ever?” I gape at him, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t already suspect.
“Never.”
“Do you want to be in one?”
He takes a second to think about it, puckering his lips as he does so. “You know, I never had a desire for one before.” He pauses locking his eyes with mine. “And most likely never will. I like my free-bird style of life.”
So, what he is trying to say without saying is: I am up for one night of fun and that’s all, so don’t get any ideas. Strangely, that thought doesn’t scare me as much as it usually did because one-night stands were not a part of my vocabulary before.
Now, all of a sudden, I am looking to expand it.
“Never have I ever gone to a club,” I say because based on his lifestyle I know exactly the type of questions to ask and smirk at him. “Drink up.”
“Evil little Sunshine.” He takes a sip of his drink. “Okay, never have I ever sleepwalked.”
He notices me thinking and starts laughing. “Okay, I need to hear this! In detail, please.”
I roll my eyes playfully. “There is no story. I don’t sleepwalk.”
“Nuh-uh.” He wiggles his finger in my face. “I saw that look on your face. I know you’re lying right now.”
“Since when do you think you know me that well?”
“Since I’ve been watching you from the moment you walked up to that front door.” He fixes me with a look. “And trust me, I’ve been watching you nonstop.”
I fight an urge to suck in a deep breath.
Yeah, his list of conquests must be a mile long.
“Fine, but I really don’t sleepwalk. At least I don’t think I do. But I can get a little…” I chew on my lip trying to figure out the best way to say this. “Violent.”
“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.” He folds his arms across his chest.
“Next question, and oh look, it’s my turn,” I deflect, and he shakes his head.
“No, no, no. If you don’t want me to dig deeper into your violent tendencies, I get another go.”
“I don’t remember that being part of the rules.”
“That’s because it never was.”
“Then how come you’re switching it up?”
He leans over the bar, bringing his face closer to mine and his sweet breath from the cocktail teaser my skin, raising every hair on my body. “Because I get to make my own rules in life, Sunshine.” He winks, leaning back as if he didn’t just send that wink all the way to the bottom of my stomach.
Oh, this guy is dangerous. He is nuclear because he represents everything I’ve never had. He is freedom and danger all in one. Life and death. He is everything I shouldn’t want, yet do anyway and I feel my resolve slipping inch by inch.
“Are you holding your breath?” he asks when I don’t respond for a few seconds.
“Yes,” I quickly say and stop breathing again.
Please don’t ask why.
“Why?”
Seriously, universe?
I can lie, tell him I got hiccups or something but for whatever reason the truth just spills out of me.
“So my marbles don’t get off their places with a gust of wind.” Because I’m this close to doing something stupid. Something off the plan.
He tips his head to the side, considering my statement for a bit but he doesn’t laugh at me like I thought he would. He puckers his lips in concentration. “What about a tilt of your head? Would that knock them off? Cause you’re tilting it now.”
“Shit.” I blow out the air I was holding. “I didn’t think of that. Well, I guess I can blame it on the tilt.”
“Blame what?”
I must be losing it. But what else do I have to lose?
“This,” I say before I can think any better and reaching over the bar I grab a fistful of his shirt, hauling him close as our lips collide.
At first, I stiffen from the shock of my own action but that only lasts a second before wild euphoria takes over my body and both of my hands fist his unbuttoned shirt, drawing him closer to me. I feel pressure, scorching heat and raw desire on my lips as this sexy stranger complies with my insanity and kisses me senseless.
I forget everything. I forget I’m in the middle of a now very busy bar or that I shouldn’t be doing this. I forget he is much younger than me. I forget about all the hurts and problems I have waiting for me outside this space.
I forget it all and exist in this kiss as our lips devour each other and before I know it, he slips his tongue past them and tangles it alongside mine, groaning into my mouth and making me shiver with desire.
Dear God, this is the hottest kiss of my life, and I don’t want it to stop. But after a few more seconds he slowly pulls away, yet not too far and his eyes are fixed firmly on my now red, puffy lips.
My breathing is labored as if I ran a marathon and so is his.
“Never have I ever wanted someone as much as I want you,” he says but I don’t drink because the feeling is mutual and he tilts his head to the side, the hunger in his dark eyes now more prominent.
“Never have I ever done something this crazy,” I confess, feeling too much at the moment. He watches me for a beat and then instead of drinking like he was supposed to, he pulls me back in for another kiss.
Once he’s done, I’m gasping for air. “I don’t believe for a second you haven’t done something crazy before.”
“I have.” He grins.
“Then why didn’t you drink?”
“I did,” he says, and I eye his cocktail in confusion before he adds, “I just preferred drinking you over that.”
Can someone help me find my jaw, along with my sanity somewhere here?
Damn it, he’s so smooth and he knows it so well. My cheeks are on fire, my thighs are hurting from all the clenching I’ve done and the more I spend in such close proximity to him, the fuzzier my brain grows.
He keeps watching me with unnerving intensity, like he sees more than I’m okay with. Like he knows more.
And then he brings the pads of his fingers over my lips, gliding over them slowly. “I think I was wrong before.”
“About what?” I breathe out.
“About the nickname I gave you. Sunshine is too tame for you.”
“Oh?” Never have I ever been referred to as something other than tame.
“Mm-hmm. You are a lot wilder. You are just trying to hide it from the world, aren’t you, Beastie?”
Am I?
“Beastie?”
“Yep. That’s the one.” He smiles at me and then just to spike my heart rate further, he slowly slips back behind the bar, his eyes on mine as he swipes his thumb over his lips, gathering the remnants of our kiss on it and sucking it without breaking eye contact.
“Now, what’s your real name, Beastie?” His voice is full of gravel and that sexy rasp.
I’m still panting, and my thighs can no longer keep clenching.
“You decide to ask this now?” We have been together for hours and he only brings it up now.
“I was okay with not knowing before.”
“So, what changed?”
“I need to know the name of a woman who’s changed my life with one kiss.”
I stare at him, my mouth slightly parted. How can he say that? I want to call out his lies, yet something tells me this guy isn't capable of lying. So, I give it to him. “Zoe.”
“Zoe.” He repeats it slowly as if tasting it on his tongue, and another shiver breaks over my body. “That’s okay, you can ask.”
“Ask what?”
“My name.”
“Why would I need to ask your name?”
“How will you know what to scream later tonight when I will change your life too and make you see the stars and the galaxies above?” I narrow my eyes at him and run my tongue over my teeth.
“Aren’t you the cocky one.” It wasn’t a question. But he leans forward, bringing his face closer to mine once again, as if he can’t keep away for that long until he is just a breath away from my swollen lips, and his nose almost touches the tip of mine.
“You have no idea,” he whispers into my mouth.
He wants me. I want him. To hell with plans and order.
And maybe, just maybe, Loverly Cave is just what I need.
“Never have I ever seen the stars and the galaxies above,” I whisper back.
“Then let me show you.”