20. Chapter 20
Saint
Ames squirms on me and all blood rushes south. If my heart can't handle it and I end up with angina, I would only have myself to blame.
"Oh my God," she mutters.
I don't know what to make of her expression. Is she reacting to how I brought her to me? To Aidan studying us from across the VIP section? Can she feel my hardening cock?
I can't make it out, and I don't have time to think through the options. Or the blood flow to help my brain much at the moment.
Everything else disappears, pushed into nothingness by this move that landed her on my lap.
None of my exes wrecking my evening with Ames.
No questions from her about who I want to take to my bed.
Not the words on the tip of my tongue, that might have revealed exactly who I want.
None of it exists. Nothing matters, but her on my lap.
I lean close, and speak into her ear. "Let's make him question everything, shall we? "
It's an intimate gesture. It's what I might have done with someone I'm trying to seduce. I surround her with my arms for good measure.
She shivers.
"This is evil," she says.
"They say revenge isn't nice." I smirk. "But then, why does it feel so good?"
She turns so her legs fall over the side of my thighs. She sits closer to me like this.
The movement has me biting back a groan.
"You okay there, Saint?" Evie smiles at us, enjoying the show.
I clear my throat. "Very well, thank you."
I adjust Ames on my lap. It doesn't help. It makes things worse.
"I'll leave you to it, then," Evie says and turns to Logan, giving us privacy.
As if choreographed, Ames and I turn to gaze at each other.
Despite the low-set lights, we're close enough I can catalog my favorite details on her face— the freckle at the end of one of her eyebrows.
The burnt umber of her eyes, darkened in the soft purple glow around us. The gentle curves of her top lip.
"I'm sorry," Ames whispers to my temple. "You didn't sign up for any of this."
"Stop apologizing, please." I press my lips together. "It was my idea."
"Yes, but…" She doesn't finish the thought, but she wriggles on my lap. "This is… affecting you…"
I bite the inside of my lip. I'm fully hard now, and she has clearly noticed.
"I should be the one apologizing," I groan. "I can't help it, under the current circumstances."
She watches me closely.
I sigh. "Let's show him how much he fucked up. Otherwise, just let this… human reaction… remind you how fucking desirable you are. Or ignore it. Whatever you prefer. Please."
"It's hard— I mean— it's difficult to ignore."
"Thank you." I lean my forehead against her shoulder and burrow into the crook of her neck. "I didn't think things through when I brought you to sit on my lap. "
My position hides me, and I can only hope it gives me a chance to get my act together. The fact that we must look intimate to our witness helps. The fact that it gives me access to her skin, soft and warm against my face, doesn't.
"Should I… sit back down next to you?" she asks.
"Not unless you want to. I'm sure he's fuming right now to see what he lost."
And what I can pretend to have for the next few minutes, if she stays in my arms.
"I'm petty enough to like that thought." She caresses my hair, and I could purr to it. "If you're sure? I'll do whatever you want."
Dangerous.
My cock, desperate, begs me to take her up to her word. The only reason it doesn't wave a white flag is because it's trapped under her generous thighs. As it is, we'd both beg for mercy, and happily surrender to her will. She doesn't realize that her offer is more than I've ever dreamed to have.
I'm too wretched to let this chance go.
"You could drop a few friendly kisses on me." I take a deep breath and fill my lungs with her perfume. "He'll think it's part of our foreplay."
"Like this?" She kisses the crown of my head.
"Too innocent." I angle my face so my temple is on her cheek. "You might want to try again."
"Like this?" She kisses my temple. My cheekbone. "Or this?"
"Warmer," I mutter, my eyes closed. "Getting hotter by the second."
"You like it, huh?" She kisses the other cheekbone, then my cheek.
Like it is too simple an expression. My blood is heating up, and my muscles are liquifying, and if she wanted me back, I'd become her willing servant.
"I'm easy," I finally say. "You give me a few kisses and tell me I'm a good boy and I'll kneel at your feet."
She chuckles. "Don't tell me all your secrets. What if I'm tempted to see if you're telling me the truth?"
"I'm telling you the truth." I kiss her cheek now. "You can test it if you like. I'll be good for you."
I kiss her jaw. She takes in a shaky breath. My lungs echo her.
"How far do you want me to go?" I ask.
"What are you thinking?"
"I'll start with your neck." I gulp. "It will piss him off."
"Right. Aidan." She chews on her bottom lip. "He's watching."
"We don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
"So is this up to me?"
"Always."
"What about what you want?"
"I think it's clear what I want, Ames."
She knows how this is affecting me. I squeeze her lush form to me, filling my arms and my hands with her body. So generous, so giving, so tempting.
I'm transparent. If she wants to look, she'll see my chest has turned to glass, and my heart beating fast is the only organ keeping me alive. My cock? It's killing me, because it's still bound to feeling her weight, her movements, her warmth. My cock and I are not allowed to do more.
If she wants to look, she'll figure out how gone I am for her. It must be written all over my face, too.
I lick my lips. My heart could explode, and I can only take deep shallow breaths in anticipation.
She nods and tips her head back. I dip my head to the crook of her neck. My mouth parts… only to close in a lazy kiss on her warm skin.
I frown in abject focus. She shivers in my arms. I take a deep breath and open my mouth again.
My lungs are full of her perfume now, and I swear I can feel her heartbeat against my lips.
Should I nip? Lick a path up to her jaw?
I don't make a decision— my lips close on her again, the tip of my tongue connecting with her skin—
"Guys." Evie elbows me.
Her voice shocks me out of my dazed state. It takes an inhumane amount of effort to glance at my friend. For a moment, she even looks blurry to me.
She points to the space in front of Ames and I.
Aidan stands a couple steps away from us, staring.
"Hi, Ames." Aidan digs his hands into his pockets.
"Hey." She surrounds my shoulders with an arm. "Didn't think I'd see you here tonight… or ever, really."
The glass over my chest— it cracks.
For a moment, I forgot this is for show. To provoke Ames' ex. That I have a part to play in this charade.
I muster a smile. "Hello, Aidan. Are you having a nice evening so far?"
Internally, I'm barely back to my senses. I gather whatever I can and use it for a stint.
He frowns. "I see things have… evolved."
"Yeah?" I say. "What gives you that impression?"
Ames laughs. It feels like a gift, so I thank her with a kiss on the cheek.
She doesn't react to my kiss, but stares up at her ex. "Maybe things have changed, maybe they haven't. I don't see how that's any of your business, Aidan."
"So if I go out there and date other people—" his Irish accent comes out stronger, the more he talks. "If I go down there and dance with someone else… it's not a big deal?"
"It's not a bigger deal than you cheating on me," she replies.
"Atta, girl." I grin and accommodate her on my lap, making a show of it.
Disdain takes over the line of the musician's mouth.
"I don't recognize this side of you," Aidan says.
She shrugs. "I don't remember asking for your opinion."
"What we have—" he tries.
She shakes her head. "I don't owe you anything but basic respect as a fellow human being."
I chuckle .
"We're over," she insists.
"Right." He studies her, then me.
"Good night, Aidan." Ames rests her head on mine.
"Toodaloo, mate," I echo.
I'm obnoxious and I know it. My words are nettle leaves thrown at him.
He ignores me. His face saddens as he looks at the woman in my arms. "I… miss you. I never meant to hurt you like this."
Ames shakes her head. "Enough, Aidan. Go."
She stares up at him and waits.
The tall singer shakes his head and gazes at her for a long minute. He ignores everyone else. Ames gazes back, but her face is inescrutable.
Eventually, he gets the message and nods. He turns to leave, but stops himself at the last second.
I squeeze Ames to me again. Just in case.
He scoffs. "My first single. It's coming out next week. It's one of the songs I wrote for you."
In my arms, it's easy to sense the way she stills.
"I'll take it as your goodbye," she says.
"It can never be," he says. "Music is forever. Every time that song plays, it will be for you."
He leaves, going straight for the stairs down to the dance floor.
I take a deep breath. At least, my cock is dormant again, in the face of what just happened.
"Wow," Evie says. "That was a lot."
"How are you doing?" I ask Ames.
"I'm okay." She sighs. "I think this was a better goodbye than last time I saw him."
"So should we celebrate?" Evie asks.
"I'll buy you drinks," Logan says .
"Yeah." She sits next to me and smiles at our friends. "Let's enjoy the night. Maybe we'll get to dance some more later?"
Her eyes land on me. The need to surrender overtakes me again.
"I'll dance with you for as long as you want," I say.