Seven #2
“I’m Jeremy. And you are?” he asks me when he looks back into my eyes again. I don’t even have time to tell him to back off before an arm moves between us with such sudden vehemence that it makes us both start.
“She’s spoken for .”
My heart hammers in my chest. Thomas is standing between Jeremy and me with his back to me, and his large masculine hand is gripping the cold steel of the bar so hard that his knuckles are white.
I can’t see his face right now, but I can see Jeremy’s stricken expression, so I can imagine the icy look Thomas is giving him.
“And if you don’t wanna be hospitalized for a head injury, I’d advise you to get lost.”
Jeremy takes a step backward and vanishes into the crowd. But I am far from relieved. How dare he pull this crap after he’s the one who came here with Shana and didn’t tell me? Infuriated, I hop off the stool and try to leave, but Thomas stops me with a hand on my wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he roars.
“Anywhere you’re not!” I try to tug my arm out of his grip, but he stops me, pulling me tight against his chest.
“What the fuck are you doing here? You should have told me; if I knew you were here alone, I would have—”
“You would have what? Changed your plans so you could do whatever the hell you want in peace?” I needle.
“What plans are you talking about?”
I cross my arms irritably, glaring at him. “You’re here with Shana. I saw you two together.”
He stares gravely at me, his face revealing no emotion whatsoever. I don’t know whether his unruffled state suggests a clear conscience or otherwise.
“So?”
I raise my eyebrows in astonishment. “And when were you planning to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Thomas! That you’re seeing other people, that you’re seeing her !” I gesticulate wildly, finding myself thankful for the crowd that renders us anonymous.
“I’m not seeing her,” he says pointedly through gritted teeth. He’s a hairsbreadth away from my face and at the end of his patience. “And if she’s hooking up with one of the guys I’m out with and we happen to be in the same group, why is that a problem?”
“It is a problem because a week ago that bitch threw a smoothie on me. It’s a problem because every time I run into her, I have to endure her ridiculous attempts at intimidation because she’s jealous over you!
” I stab a finger into his chest. “It’s a problem because, apparently, you can go out on the town with the girl you were fucking up until a few weeks ago and who clearly still has feelings for you, and you can let her touch you and kiss you, but I can’t talk to Logan or Jeremy or any other breathing male in my vicinity!
” I am yelling now, truly getting out of control.
Faced with his angry eyes, I completely lose my temper. He is the last person in the world who is allowed to be mad right now.
“Yeah, that’s right, because you are clearly incapable of recognizing danger when it’s right in front of you,” he replies with his most punchable face. “Why the fuck did you hide this smoothie thing from me?!”
I stare at him, offended. “I can’t recognize danger?
” I demand, focusing on the only part of his speech that really seems important to me.
“You think I don’t know what that guy was after?
I would have gotten him to piss off easily if you hadn’t barged in.
You treat me like I’m this little baby incapable of living in the world, but I don’t need to be protected from everything.
Just now, I danced with a guy, and hey, would you look at that? I’m still alive.”
Thomas takes a deep breath, and a terrible expression comes over his face. “What did you do?”
“Don’t give me that look. If Shana is allowed to take liberties with you, then I can too. After all, isn’t that how these open relationships work?”
His jaw tenses as he scrubs a hand over his face.
His rapid breathing shows no sign of calming down.
“She was one who jumped me, and if you had been there, you would have seen that I didn’t return the favor.
I backed off! And what do you do? Grind your ass on the first dick you can find?
” His words hit me like a punch to the chest, leaving me speechless.
I’m starting to feel a painful guilty sensation, but why? I’m not the one who screwed up.
“You know what, Thomas? Enough. I…I gave it a try, okay? I tried to make this thing between you and me feel good, but I can’t. It doesn’t. This isn’t for me.”
Thomas stiffens, giving me a severe look. “What the hell are you talking about?”
I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m saying. Or what I’m doing. But I’m like a runaway train—unstoppable.
“You know exactly what I mean,” I tell him stubbornly.
For a long time, he just stares at me with no reaction. Then, without another word, he grabs my wrist and drags me away from the chaos that surrounds us.
“What are you doing? Let me go!” I try to resist, digging my heels into the floor, but he just tightens his grip on my wrist.
“Come with me, now,” he orders, pulling me into the men’s bathroom.
He looks around for a free stall, and a moment later, I find myself imprisoned in a tiny metal cubicle with profane scribbles all over the wall.
My back is against the door, Thomas’s body pressed against me with his forearms on either side of my head.
“You want to end things with me just because you saw Shana sitting with me? I don’t give a shit about her.”
It’s enough to make me laugh. “I can’t end anything with you, because technically, we aren’t even together, Thomas. I’m just telling you I can’t do it anymore.”
“You felt otherwise up until this afternoon. What happened to make you suddenly change your mind?”
“Nothing happened. I just realized that this is not for me. So no more messy scenes from now on. No more doubts. No more anything; it’s over,” I answer, unable to admit that I’m simply jealous. That I’ve fallen in love.
Thomas’s face grows hard as he becomes increasingly enraged. “Bullshit,” he says.
“It’s over,” I say again, almost challenging him.
But he just shakes his head, slowly and more seriously than ever, looming over me again.
His mouth is a mere inch from mine. My heartbeat suddenly becomes faster, stronger until it’s deafening me.
He takes my face in his hands and stares into my eyes.
“It’s not over until I say it’s over,” he growls, a breath away from my lips and staring like he wants to devour them.
“And I say it’s not over. You want me. And I want you.
Just you.” His grip on my face intensifies, and I can feel my skin heating.
“Right now, you’re out of control and crazy jealous.
But so am I. You think it didn’t piss me off, seeing that guy drooling over your tits and legs?
Or that I’m not dying to find that asshole you danced with and smash his face in? ”
His scent, wafting up from his T-shirt, surrounds me. Surprised and maybe even satisfied by his words, I lift my eyes to meet his.
“Fuck, do I want to do that,” he continues. “But do you know what else I want to do, Ness?” He spins me around in one sudden movement, and now my chest is pressed to the door, my palms flat against it. My breaths are short and rapid, and his body is crushed against me.
“Thomas…” I start to say, planning to calm him down, but the gentle whisper I’d intended takes on more of a moaning quality.
The rumble of male voices coming in and out of the bathroom instantly triggers a fear that we’ll be overheard.
But for some reason, that risk only makes everything that’s happening more exciting and even seems to amplify the sensations roiling inside me.
Thomas brushes his lips over the sensitive skin of my neck, and a shiver runs down my spine.
He slips his hands under my dress and crawls his fingers along the flesh of my inner thighs, slowly moving up and up until he meets the damp fabric of my panties.
The panting for breath and burning skin are clear signs of my growing arousal, and they coax a satisfied groan from the back of his throat.
“I want to rip this dress off and fuck you until you forget about the existence of other men.” He presses me into his pelvis hard, making me feel his erection.
An untamable fire ignites within me, and I tremble all over when he starts to slowly move his fingers between my panty-covered lips.
The way he sucks and gnaws on my earlobe is almost violent.
“Until you understand that the only cock you’re allowed to rub yourself on is mine. ”
I hold my breath. I dig my nails into the door so hard, I nearly scratch the paint.
Not giving me time to react, speak, or even think, Thomas takes my chin with his other hand and turns my head for an angry kiss.
I moan into his mouth. It’s intense, this kiss of his; there’s agitation in it as well as presumption but also desire.
Yearning. When he pulls away from me, I feel dizzy and hot.
He turns me around completely so we can face one another and then continues.
“Fuck it, if they want to look at you, then let them look. But I’m the only one who gets to touch you.
” He grabs my ass with both hands, lifting me up, and I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist. My back hits the door.
My dress rides up to expose my thighs, and I gasp as he rubs his groin against my panties.
Incapable of pushing him away, I let him do what he wants. What we both want.