Chapter 24 #2
“Here ya go, babes. One long island iced tea and one without the good stuff.” She winks at me.
“Thanks, Lucy,” we both say together.
The music vibrates from the speakers but just loud enough we can still hear each other talk.
Lucy leans forward glancing back at the pool tables. “So, how’s the sexy, muscled, tattooed brigade going?”
Tequila chuckles and I choke on my drink.
“It’s actually criminal how hot they are,” I find myself confessing as I bite my straw with a smirk glancing at Liem who looks sexy as fuck in his jeans and plain shirt.
Lucy snorts, casting a hard look at them. “Too bad they’re just men who think with their dicks.”
“Hey.” Tequila raises a finger. “Speak for yourself.”
“I love you, T. But there was a time Throttle stuck his penis in every hang-around at the club.”
I pause, waiting for Tequila’s reaction while Lucy’s face washes over with remorse.
“Shit. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I’ve just been a bitter bitch lately.”
Tequila throws her a soft smile. “What happened between you and Tank?” she asks Lucy, and I wait in bated breath playing with my straw. Apparently, there’s history there.
She sighs, letting her elbows bear the weight of her shoulders. “Nothing. There has to be something going on for something to happen.” Lucy snags a towel, aggressively scrubbing a clean spot.
“Don’t want to talk about it. Hint taken.” Tequila eyeballs me and I take a sip, not knowing if I should add to the conversation.
Lucy silently thanks her with a glare then throws me a quick look; eyebrows raised with grimness. I scrunch my nose, Tequila giving me the same pressed, clear knowing look. Her glossed lips tug into a short grin.
“What?” I ask, not knowing why they’re giving me that look or do they know something I don’t?
“Soooo… how’s Hush?” Lucy cocks her hip, resting a fist to her pronounced curve.
“He’s fine…?” I say in a questionable tone. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, um.” Lucy searches for the words and I wait because I truly have no idea what they’re talking about. “Sorry. Jules likes to catch me up on the latest Steel Valley Chains gossip. It gets kind of stale here on the weekdays.” Her eyes widen like a deer caught in headlights.
“Well, whatever you heard, we’re just friends.” I plunge my straw in and out of the ice watching it scatter.
Tequila swivels her stool toward me. “I’ve seen, felt, and played that friend’s game before.
The way hush looks at you… the way he’s looking at you right now…
” I fight my body’s urge to see for myself and keep my eyes drawn to my drink.
“Trust me. I was naive in thinking Throttle didn’t feel that way about me either. That we were just friends, too.”
This time I look up, meeting her stare. “It’s different. We’re both—”
“Broken?” she finishes for me.
I was going to say… well, now I’m not sure because broken seems to fit.
Empathy falls over both their expressions.
I let out a heavy breath. “Yes. Broken.”
Tequila touches my arm. “I might not know Hush’s story, but I know yours. And you’re going to be okay, Dan. Shit, you’ve already come so far.”
My stomach twists because yeah, I suppose I have. I glance at Liem but this time he’s actually conversing with the guys. A small smile draws across his handsome face, and I smile along with him.
“Right. Just friends.” Tequila rolls her eyes.
I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “Ugh fine. I fucking like him, okay. I really like him. God, what are we in high school?” I roll my eyes back with a playful grin.
Tequila squeals loud enough the guys turn our way. Lucy twirls in place, throwing her hands up as her breasts move in a flirtatious fashion. Tank hits her with a heated gaze that can erupt the entire room if he’s not careful.
I cover my face in my hands because the embarrassment pours out of me.
“He’ll come around. You just have to be patient with him,” Tequila tells me, gulping down the last bit of her Long Island.
Her positivity is admirable, and I wish I had the same outlook on life.
But she doesn’t fully understand Liem. Not like I do or have grown to.
It sounds cocky but I understand him. I know what makes him tick, for the most part.
What makes his inner voices haunt him daily.
The pain is too familiar not to understand.
After a short while, Liem breaks away from the guys and sits by himself at the bar. Knowing him, his social battery has run out.
With Tequila on Throttle’s lap, I sneak out of sight finding myself unable to stay away any longer.
Approaching him, I can feel the flutters in my stomach. “Hey.”
The floor beneath me screeches when I scoot my stool closer to Liem’s. Wanting to absorb his presence even if it’s a selfish thing to crave.
“Hey.”
“You don’t drink?” I ask, eyeing the water at his palm.
“I used to. But then I realized if I didn’t stop, then I never would.”
His words cut through me, sharp and hard. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I told you before, this isn’t for you to bear.”
“You seem to trap my demons, why can’t I help carry yours?”
“You have enough scars, and I won’t let you take on mine. You’re too special for that kind of ugly, Danika.”
A slow song starts as I stare deeply at his profile. “Dance with me.”
His jaw moves, as he stares straight ahead. “What?” Only a sliver of uncomfortable movement.
“Dance. With. Me. Please.” There’s a slight beg to my voice, but I don’t care anymore. I’d beg for him, plead for his attention and touch.
Liem darts his focus anywhere he can, avoiding me completely, searching for an escape. Well, damn. I didn’t mean to frighten the poor guy. I just asked him to dance with me.
“Hey. It’s okay. We don’t have to. Let’s just sit here and—”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I agree, and turn in my seat, getting into an awkward position.
Way to go, Danika.
“I mean, yes. I’ll dance with you.”
I move slowly as he pins me with a heated stare and my heart jumps.
We rise, and I snag his hand in mine taking the lead. His warmth pours over me as we walk to the dance floor. Tequila and Throttle are sweetly slow dancing. She smiles over Throttle’s shoulder, and I give her one in return.
With me and Liem facing one another, I peer up at him and him down at me. This doesn’t have to be weird, but neither one of us has probably done this in a long time.
I go to make the first move, to lift my arms around his neck, but he quickly places a hand at the small of my back.
I’m a goner.
I all but melt at his touch and step closer, leaving a tiny length of room between us.
I snake my arms around his neck. The shaky breath he lets out is telling and I step back to allow him more space, more breathing room, but he then pulls me into him, my body barricaded against his chest and I breathe him in. Soak him in until I feel like I might crumble into a million pieces.
We sway to the song, and he pierces me with his stare. A cover song is strumming through the speakers and nothing else exists. Not the bar. Not anyone. My demons are gone. My monsters, too. It’s a world where nothing bad exists. Not the man who took everything from me. Just me and Liem.
I lay my head against his shoulder, and he wraps his arm fully around my back, encasing me to him. There’s nothing else that matters except this man who is shattering me in the best way possible.
Is it possible to love someone so fast? To feel so much for another person without the time to back it up. I don’t know and I don’t care. Because I’m letting myself feel in this moment.
Liem’s face buries into my hair in the tiniest fraction, and I close my eyes. We melt into one another, our souls fading together.
He strokes my hair and my eyes sting with tears. This is the worst time to be crying. But I feel it, a drop from his eyes. And that’s when I realize, this dance isn’t just for me, it’s for the both of us. A way of bandaging our souls. Healing together.
My shoulders shudder from the overwhelming emotion that I can’t stop from pouring out of me.
The song stops but I stay locked in his arms, and he doesn’t even try to pull me from him.
Thank God.
When we do break apart, he holds my face, and our foreheads meet. He glances down at my mouth and just when I think he’s finally going to kiss me, he doesn’t and my heart cracks.
I get it. I do. But I want this so badly it hurts.
He lets me go and the world turns cold again.
A fast song plays through the bar, Liem staring at me with an apologetic guilt. A gesture I don’t want or need.
I back up slowly, his gaze never faltering.
I find Tequila who just broke apart from Throttle, and I snatch her hand in mine.
We twirl together moving more into the mild crowd.
She starts first and then I follow her rhythm because even though that dance was about me and Liem, this one is for only me.
We bump and grind at the music, bringing me back to the old feeling of being carefree and having fun.
The spunky me who was always loud. The hyper one.
The thrill seeking one. A time with innocence and vulnerability.
The heat of his stare melts into me. I don’t have to check if he’s watching, I can sense it. And I feel guilty for falling for him. Liem doesn’t have to feel the same, but it’ll be impossible for me to stop mine.