Chapter 7
SEVEN
Hart
I f there was such a thing as a dream come true, it was happening right now. Because less than fifteen yards from where I was sitting in the dining room of the sushi restaurant, Sadie sat in the bar. She was positioned at a high-top, a martini glass close to her mouth, her hands wrapped around the thin stem.
She had been visiting me in my sleep since my lips had kissed her pussy, and every morning, I’d wake up, wondering if I was ever going to see her again.
Hoped was more like it.
But instead of looking at me like she wanted to get on her knees to suck the cum out of me, matching my desire to lick the orgasms out of her, she was glaring at me as if she wanted to fucking kill me.
And that expression intensified with each second that passed.
What the hell?
What the fuck did I do wrong?
She’s the one who left that morning, not me.
She said something to the other two women she was with, and then she set her glass down and got up from her chair. She didn’t look at me as she crossed the bar and went through the front of the dining room toward the hallway, where the restrooms were located.
I could eye-fuck her for the rest of the night and play this little back-and-forth game of bullshit, trying to figure out what was on her mind, or I could ask her myself.
Given that direct was the path I preferred, I said to the group, “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” and I went to the hallway.
Since this was a restaurant I frequented with friends, I knew the restrooms weren’t onesies. At least in the men’s room, there were several stalls and urinals, so I cracked open the door to the ladies’ room, checking if there were other women in there besides Sadie.
From here, I had a clear view of the stalls, where there weren’t any feet, and of the sinks, too, where she was standing. She gripped the sides of the porcelain and was staring at herself in the mirror.
Fuck, she was beautiful.
She wore a dress—not like the other night, this one simpler and a bright red, shaped like a long, oversize sweater—with knee-high boots.
A color that looked ravishing on her.
And a dress I wanted to tear off with my goddamn teeth.
Pretty confident that she was alone, I walked in and locked the door behind me.
Sadie immediately connected eyes with me through the mirror and turned toward me. “What are you doing in here? ”
“Coming to say hello.” I paused. “And coming to get some much-needed answers.”
She laughed. It wasn’t the kind of sound that came after a joke. This was a sound that told me she was shocked to see me, and this was the only noise she could muster. “Answers regarding what?”
“Why I woke up that morning and you were gone.”
She searched my eyes, a slow back-and-forth pattern, before she said, “Why does it even matter?”
An interesting response, given that I’d sworn she was into me. That entire night, I had fed a passion inside her, but I was positive it went deeper. I’d felt that shit straight in my chest, and I thought she had too. But the look on her face as she had glared at me from across the bar and in here was entirely different from the way she had gawked at me the other night.
“Why does it matter? How about I give you some honesty? Because that’s the only way I know how to give it. I’ve thought about you every goddamn day for the last week. How much I want you. How much I fucking need you.” I went to loosen my collar, realizing the top two buttons were already undone. “Maybe that’s a little dramatic, considering I only knew you for one night. But that’s what you did to me, Sadie. That’s the impression you left. That’s how you made me feel.”
“It was a one-night stand. Nothing more.” She clenched her fingers as they hung at her sides, her tone and stance so cold and turned off. “That’s what you told me, remember?”
“Is that all you wanted from me? One night? Is that the reason you left?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” I gripped the back of my neck. “Have you thought about me?”
“It doesn’t matter. ”
I didn’t like that response at all, not the first time I had heard it or the second.
My brows pushed together out of frustration. “Why didn’t you leave me your number?”
“That doesn’t matter either.”
“All of this matters, Sadie. Please stop saying that.” I released my neck and shoved my hands into my pockets. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Her arms crossed, which pushed up her tits. “It amazes me that you don’t at least know the answer to that. I can understand why you’re clueless as to why I left and didn’t give you my number or?—”
“You left without even kissing me goodbye.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she stayed quiet.
“I wish you had woken me up,” I said. “I had a hell of a good time with you, and I didn’t want that good time to end. I wanted to get breakfast delivered and …” The thought of what would have happened next made my lips pull wide. “Then I wanted to?—”
“No, no, no.” Her head shook again. “Please don’t tell me what those plans were. I honestly don’t want to hear them.”
Jesus, this was getting confusing. She hadn’t wanted a one-night stand. That wasn’t the reason she’d left. But I should know why she was looking at me this way? Yet I didn’t have a fucking inkling.
Did she regret hooking up with me?
Had I fucked up somehow?
Or was it something else?
I pulled my hand out of my pocket and brushed my thumb across my lips. “You suddenly don’t want to hear about what I wanted to do to you, yet when I was whispering against your pussy in the shower, telling it just how I was going to fuck it when we got out, you didn’t complain then. And when we finally lay in bed and I wrapped you in my arms and your face was on my chest, you fell asleep in seconds, more content than anyone I’d ever seen. Tell me, what happened between then and now?”
Her head fell back, exposing her throat. She stayed just like that for several seconds until she looked at me again. “Everything.”
“What?” I waited. “What the hell is everything?” I studied her eyes, trying to understand what she wasn’t saying. “We spoke about it being only a one-night stand—I get that. You left—I don’t get that. And now I’m standing in the women’s restroom, attempting to talk to you about it, and you’re not saying anything. You need to just say it, Sadie.” I shifted my weight. “All I want to do is get past this so I can get on my fucking knees and put your pussy in my face.” I smiled, hoping the diversion would lighten her mood.
“You really are that clueless, aren’t you?”
It hadn’t worked.
I ran my hand over the top of my head, feeling the hardened, gelled pieces. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
She mashed her lips together, her chest rising as she took deep breaths. “The woman you’re with tonight.”
“What about her?”
“You know, the one you’ve been heart-eyeing. I get the feeling she’d be extremely upset if she found out you were in here, saying these things to me.” Her voice started to get sharper. “That you’ve been thinking about me. That you’ve been wanting me. That you want to eat me out in this bathroom.” She ran her stare up and down the length of me. “That’s a slimy move, don’t you think?”
My neck protruded back while every single one of her words hit me.
Again and again .
“It’s a … what ?” I asked.
“You heard me.”
The woman I was with.
Slimy.
Oh fuck.
It finally clicked.
I knew exactly what was causing this. It hadn’t dawned on me at first, and I hadn’t even considered the way things looked. Now it made perfect sense.
But before I addressed that elephant, I had a few things I needed to uncover.
I took a step toward her and then another, and on my third, she raised her hand and said, “Stay there. Don’t come any closer.”
“Fine, but let me ask you this.” My hands returned to my pockets so I wouldn’t be tempted to reach for her. “You were the one who left. You gave me no way to get in touch with you. So, why does it bother you that I’m with a woman tonight? It’s clear you had no interest in seeing me again.”
I didn’t just observe her stare. I felt it.
In every part of my fucking body.
“That is,” I continued, “unless you have regrets about leaving. Knowing that by now, we’d be on our second or even third date.”
The words had fallen right out of my mouth, and I was taken aback by them. I’d already admitted things to her that I didn’t ever say to women, things I never felt about women. What I knew was that when I’d woken up that morning, I wasn’t done tasting her. And when I realized she was gone, the disappointment came over me, and I’d wanted more. But hearing myself admit that we’d be on more dates was taking it one step further.
And, shit, I didn’t hate that at all .
“Lockhart, why would I have regrets about leaving? Clearly, I’d have to share you—that became obvious tonight—and I don’t do threesomes.”
Jealousy made her spicy.
Delicious.
And I wanted to inhale every fucking layer.
I smiled. “I don’t either … especially with my sister.”
Her brows rose. “Your … sister ?”
“That’s the woman you think I’m with. The other couple are business associates who happen to be married. I’m not on a double date, Sadie. I work with my sister and the associates also happen to be my good friends.”
She was silent. Processing. Her expression lightening, even if there were hints of confusion mixed in.
“Jesus … I thought …”
“I know what you thought, but that assumption wasn’t even close to being accurate.” I let that settle. “That’s only the first issue. The second is that I still don’t know why you left.”
She stared at the ceiling, licking the gloss off her lips, her head shaking. “I needed to make an important phone call, and I didn’t want to do it in the suite.” She finally looked at me. “It was a rushed decision and … not the right one.”
Not at all what I’d suspected.
Regret was a word that had been haunting me, and I needed to use it again. “You’re telling me you regret it?”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Why should I? You leaving changed everything. Tonight is luck, but what if we hadn’t been so lucky?” I pulled my hands out of my pockets, ready to touch her.
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that. And …” Her head tilted to the side. “Yes, I regret it.” Her voice was soft. “Yes, I’ve felt horrible about it.” Her voice turned even quieter. “And, yes, I’ve wished every day that I could have a do-over. ”
I took a step, and this time, she didn’t stop me, not even as I slowly closed the distance between us, my hands going to her waist, pulling her against me. “You’ve got that do-over. Right now.”
Her fingers pressed against my chest. “I was hoping for a moment like this. Maybe not exactly like this—I certainly didn’t want our run-in to go down this way. But out of all places, I can’t believe you’re here at the same time as me.”
I brushed my nose over her cheek. “What if I weren’t?”
As I pulled back, her eyes glued to mine. “I wouldn’t know how to find you. I wouldn’t know how to fix it.”
“And we’d go forever without seeing each other again.”
She nodded. “I hate that thought.”
I stretched across her hips toward her lower back. “About that do-over …” I leaned into her neck to get more of her scent. “I wouldn’t mind hearing a little, I missed you, Lockhart. I’m happy to see you, Lockhart .” I smiled even though I was out of her line of sight. “ My pussy is tingling and wanting you, Lockhart .”
She laughed. “You are …”
I leaned back to stare at her. “I’m what, gorgeous?” I licked across my lips as I took her in. “I have to say, jealousy looked so fucking sexy on you.”
“Dick.” She laughed. “You enjoyed that bit, didn’t you?”
“Once I figured out what was happening and the cause of it, I did. Getting there was just a little painful.”
She arched into my fingers. “But let’s say you had seen me with another man tonight. That I had looked at him the way I’d looked at you. Smiling. Laughing. Would that have bothered you?”
I didn’t know why, but I didn’t like the thought of that.
When I had been between her legs, the idea that I’d made her scream the loudest fucking owned my mind. That no one had ever licked her like me. That she would wake up craving my dick the same way I dreamed of her pussy.
Those were the thoughts that made me reach for her face and hold it. “If I’d looked out into the bar and seen you with another man, tonight would have played out the exact same, except for the conversation we’re having right now. That would have looked different.”
“How so?”
“I’d have asked you if he could make you feel as good as I could. If the answer to that was yes, I’d have left you in the restroom. If the answer to that was no, then …”
There was a rattle on the door, followed by a knock and a, “Hello? Is someone in there? Why is the door locked? Excuse me, do you know why the bathroom door is locked?”
I glanced toward the door, seeing if it budged by someone sticking in a key, and then glanced at Sadie again, her eyes gradually returning to mine.
“Then what would you have done?” she asked.
I smiled. “Do you really want to know that answer?” When she nodded, I added, “Or would you rather me show you?”
She winked. “I want you to surprise me.”