Chapter 90
T he very first bar Layla and I had met at, back in our degenerate hookup days while I was at Burnson Investments, played host to the start of the evening for Sarah and I.
Unlike Friday, when I had played distant and tried to have my cake without necessarily actually eating it, I had no pretenses that I was going to be a good boy who could resist the siren’s call of temptation.
I was going to get drunk with Sarah, we were going to do some freaky things in this place, we were going to have wild sex in my place or her hotel, and then all of the demons and yearning that my childhood self had wanted would go right out the window.
It was such a perfect plan. And one that you know is so full of shit. You know full well you’re not going to solve anything by fucking Sarah.
Shut up, brain. Let me have some fun tonight. I fucking need it.
Sarah met me outside the bar wearing a top that revealed a great deal of cleavage, tight jeans that showed off her slim figure, and bright red lipstick that had me thinking about where on my body those lips could go.
“Hey, sexy,” I said.
I had on a suit and no tie. I had groomed myself for what felt like the previous two hours—I had gone into everything I could have done to make myself look as handsome yet rugged and tough as possible.
I was going to spare no expense and leave no stone unturned tonight.
Sarah Hill was going to get me at my absolute best.
For one night before she disappeared back to Oxford, I could give her my all.
And yet, Layla never got that. Not since you started getting back together. How fucked up is that, ya dummy?
“Oh, my,” she said, coming in close and giving me a hug. Damn, her perfume smells hot as hell. “Aren’t you looking mighty fine tonight?”
“I could say the same for you, pretty lady,” I said, kissing her on the cheek.
When I pulled back, I was pretty sure that I could have kissed her right there.
The look in her eyes was one of surprise, but a kind of impressed and aroused surprise that suggested I could have done just about anything in that spot and she would have gone with it.
But I wasn’t quite ready to spoil all the fun yet; that would have been too much, too soon.
I needed to drag this night out so I could get over it all.
Get over what? How you screwed up with a woman that you loved? Still love?
“Oh, Chance, you are on some kind of a run tonight,” she said. “I think we need to go inside and get some drinks before I lose my mind out here.”
I smiled as I led her down the steps, keeping my hand firmly on the small of her back.
It was mighty tempting to smack her ass, but there was a difference between a seducer and a grunt idiot.
I was going to seduce Sarah and then turn into the dominant monster when the time was appropriate; I didn’t need to scare off two women tonight.
Just for the hell of it, I took her to the booth Layla and I had sat when I got my underhanded handjob. I put my hand on her knee as the cocktail waitress came by and took our orders.
“Where did you get into the mood like this, Chance?” she said. “You were so distant on Saturday, you had me wondering if there was something wrong with my face.”
“Haha, not at all,” I said.
I thought of telling her the truth about Layla right now. I could have just started the night on a brutally honest note.
But this was not a note for good Chance. This was a night for the bad, naughty Chance. This was a night to break out the Chance who could charm and seduce just about any woman he came across. This was a night to sleep with Sarah, not convince her to date me when she came back.
You’re still going to be the same person you are now even if you sleep with you, you idiot.
“I think I was just affected by Edwin’s death, you know,” I said. “I wasn’t that close to him, but shit like that hits you and makes you think, you know? Like, Morgan is taking it really hard. I look at him and how he reacts, and it makes me think about my biological parents.”
“Aww,” she said, taking my hand in hers as it rested on her thigh.
“I know my father died a few years ago. My actual father. But my mother is still alive. I’m actually going to go and see her tomorrow.”
“Really!” she said excitedly. “We can’t have you getting too drunk tonight then, I’d hate—”
“Nah, ah, ah, ah,” I said, wagging a finger by her face and then running it alone her chin. She closed her eyes and let out a gentle, breathless moan. This is fun.
But is it fulfilling?
“I know exactly how to handle myself, Sarah,” I said, and then I decided it was time for my first flirtatious comment of the night. “And if you’re lucky, later on, you’ll see I’ll know exactly how to handle you.”
I pulled back quickly at that, putting my hands on the counter, but I could practically feel the heat radiating from her.
Her cheeks were red, her eyes were narrowed on me, and she was seconds away from pouncing on me.
This was absolutely perfect—after over a decade, Sarah Hill would finally be mine again.
And that means… what, exactly? You get pussy and then you still mourn losing Layla?
“Chance…” she said, blushing.
She was waiting for me to kiss her. But I was enjoying teasing her like so. It helped that our drinks came out moments later, giving me an excuse beyond just playing to not kiss her.
“Cheers,” I said, holding up my glass.
“Cheers, indeed,” she said, clinking glasses with me but maintaining some of the most intense eye contact I had ever seen in my life.
I drank about half of my drink right there, determined to let the tongue get even looser before I made my move on Sarah.
“You know,” she said, coming close, pushing her chest together and forward, giving me a rather nice look into her cleavage.
“I always did want you when we were in seventh grade. I felt so bad leaving you, but I knew that my father would never let me hear the end of it if I dated someone adopted into a family.”
“Hey, it’s all good,” I said.
That was a true statement. It hurt then. But now? I had Sarah on a string. She could remind me all about the time we’d broken up, and it didn’t matter.
It also doesn’t matter because you know she’s not the one who is going to love you. She’ll be your girl tonight, but she’s not the girl for the rest of your life.
“But he’s totally out of the picture now.”
I swear, her eyes looked practically predatory as they locked onto mine. I couldn’t ever remember a woman looking at me with such lust before.
“And now that he’s gone, there’s nothing between me and you,” she said.
She came close enough that she rested her hands on my thigh. She didn’t place them right on my cock, but she let her weight move forward enough that she brushed on the tip of them with her closest fist.
“So tell me, Chance Hunt,” she said, her voice the hottest whisper I had ever seen before. “What do you want to get out of tonight, hmm? What do you want that has you coming to meet me outside the bar with the kind of aggression I can only dream of a man having?”
I turned in the booth to her and again placed my hand on her chin. I admittedly had several great lines that I could have said right there. But there was something that would have said it better than any words could have, an action that would have addressed her question.
Don’t do it, you idiot. She’s not the girl you love. She’s not the girl you love. She’s not—
I ignored the voice in my head. I pulled her chin closer to mine.
And then, after a decade of waiting, I finally got to kiss Sarah Hill again.
Man, did she taste fucking great. She’d improved as a kisser, that much was for goddamn sure.
It wasn’t like I could remember what kind of a kisser she was like when we were just young kids, but right now, she was one of the best goddamn kissers I’d ever had in my life.
The perfect combination of sensual, aggressive, and erotic.
“Oh, Chance,” she murmured.
This just encouraged me to kiss her harder as I pulled into me. I ran my left hand up her thigh, my right around her back, as I teased going right up to her pussy… but stopping just short.
“Oh my God,” she said.
Only then, only then did she pull back. But instead of being satiated, she looked like she was even hungrier than before. She was even more desperate to have me.
“That’s a kiss I’ve been waiting for,” she said. “I can’t believe you made me wait on Saturday.”
“Who doesn’t like a good chase?” I said with a smirk, ignoring the fact that I had never had any intentions of making her chase me—or that, in some ways, I’d been chasing her and the ideal of her for over a decade.
“Damn,” she said.
She pulled me in for another kiss, and by now, I knew I had the deal sealed. I just had to go through the motions now before we went back to my place. As far as ways to make up for Layla…
The girl you still have feelings for. The girl you said you were going to go all-in for.
Is it really all-in if you get dumped by her and then fuck an old fling in the span of one day?
“But for real,” she said. “This is like seeing two different Chances! You on Saturday and you tonight. What the hell changed? How did I get the good Chance?”
“Are you saying Saturday was the boring Chance?”
“No!” she said, giggling. “No, it’s just, it’s just—”
“You’re cute when you squirm,” I said confidently.
She practically melted at my words. “I just was cautious on Saturday is all. It, admittedly, hurt a lot when things ended all those years ago, and even when I saw you a few years ago in between summers, you weren’t very interested in making things work.
So when I saw you Saturday, I wanted to go slow and make sure that you were serious about this.
But now that we’re here, I’m going to go all-in. Just… had to clear the concern is all.”
“Have I addressed that concern?” she said dryly.