34. Chapter 31
Mari
I ’d meant it when I told Beau I’d missed him. We sat together, talking and laughing as if we’d seen each other just the other day.
“I shit you not, Trevvy, people do some weird stuff to avoid paying taxes.”
He told me stories about the finance firm he worked for in the U.S, and I filled him in on the shockingly low amount of news in Soggla.
“So, when were you going to bring up the fact that you have one of the UFL’s top up and coming fighters not only training with Al but coaching out of your very gym?” he demanded, shocked that I wasn’t deeming this big news.
“Must everything be about him ?” I groaned, nearly tripping on the slip of my tongue.
His eyebrows flicked up in surprise and it was clear as day I’d fucked up.
“Hmm … I don’t know, Trevvy. Must it?” he asked mockingly.
“Ugh!” I threw my head into my hands and groaned again. “No, it mustn’t.”
I glanced over to the beautiful women who were inching closer and closer to Chance.
One had wiggled her way in-between him and one of the bigger guys from the gym, Hogs, and was currently twirling circles on his chest. My very blood boiled at the sight of it, a wave of unnecessary possessiveness crashing into me.
Chance’s blue eyes met mine, bored and blank.
Light-bulb moment.
“Come dance with me!”
“What?” Beau gaped, nearly choking on his drink.
“Come dance with me,” I repeated, hopping down from my stool.
“Come on, Beckett. We haven’t dance together in ages !
” I began swaying my hips in the fashion of the way we’d used to dance together in clubs.
Mind you, we had been sleeping together in some weird friends-with-benefits arrangement back then.
“Alright! Alright! Calm your tits. I’m coming.”
I laughed and pulled him onto the dance floor.
I jogged over to the DJ set and hit a song. The flow of a sexy beat bounced out of the speakers and thrummed through the room. My hips tipped up and down as I danced my way through the crowd.
He held out a hand and pulled me into him and we fell straight into sync, just like old times. But somehow, for some reason, we were moving in sync and yet we felt off . I struggled hard to ignore the fact that Beau’s body felt cold compared to Chance’s.
Chance.
Where is he? I can barely see off the dance floor with all these people moving around us.
I stalled the spin Beau twirled me into and pushed myself lightly up against him.
Light enough for Beau to know I wasn’t serious.
Heavy enough for Chance to not.
“Does this have anything to do with the angry UFL fighter looking at me very murderously from the booths?” Beau asked in my ear.
I smirked, the asshole side of me wanting him to notice.
Wanting him to hate it.
Wanting Beau off me.
Wanting him to be on me.
Chance straightened, the agitated tick in his jaw flaring. His eyes had blackened to dark, flat steel. A frosty iciness in them as they bore into me and the hands gently on my upper waist.
Beau was great, and a very dear friend. We had great dance chemistry and our senses of humour gelled together wonderfully.
But he wasn’t Chance. And for whatever crazy twist of fate, I didn’t hate that. He didn’t ignite me like Chance did. His hands on my waist felt cold and all wrong .
Wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
“I’m just gonna go freshen up—back soon,” I said loudly in his ear and headed off to the back-door bathrooms. They were typically only used by staff, but I knew on a busy night like this they would have to use the patrons’ toilets.
The sexy, Latin beat still purred through the tiled walls as I leaned over the sink. I looked up, meeting glassy eyes that had a scalding storm brewing beneath them.
Beau and I always had great fun together whenever he was in town, but I’d never felt so illicit being close to him like that.
Everything about him was so wrong, and not in the sexy, forbidden way.
It felt like trying to fill a hole that wasn’t his to fill.
A gaping space inside of me that was waiting, yearning for the presence of another. Not just any other; Chance.
You didn’t want him, Mari. Except I did.
You made that clear to him. Except I shouldn’t have.
You don’t get to be mad if he moves on. Except I was.
The bathroom door opening and slamming shut made me jump, turning immediately into a defensive stance. My legs were heavy and wobbled as I faced those blue eyes behind me.
“What the fuck was that, Sunny?” Chance growled.
His short-sleeved khaki shirt brought out the olive in his glowing skin. It tightly stretched across his pecs and at the beginning of his biceps. Those muscles, those glorious muscles, were taut with tension and fury.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumbled, turning back to the mirror. I brushed a slightly shaking finger under my eyelashes, pretending to check my makeup.
“Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about.” He seethed. “You tell me you don’t want to be with me, then get all green-eyed fucking monster jealous when I’m sitting in a booth surrounded by women.”
My mouth opened to respond, to fire some snarky comment back his way. But even the thought of those women on him—
I dropped my hands on the basin and squeezed. I squeezed all of the tension in my body through my fingers at the thought of those women around him, touching him.
Chance slowly stalked towards me, as if pursuing prey. He was the lion; I was the fawn. Difference was, it wasn’t fear my legs were beginning to tremble with.
“You got all jealous about the dozens of women surrounding me, touching me, pushing up on me.”
I began to grind my teeth, needing some more goddamn relief from the unfiltered rage pumping through my veins.
“You got mad, enraged about the fact that they’re beautiful , sexy , stunning women who were fawning over me.” He was behind me, so close I could smell his cologne and the faint scent of my favourite whiskey. Our favourite whiskey.
I was already well and truly on my way to getting sloshed, the shots and whiskey buzzing through my system. But here I was, with someone more intoxicating than any booze.
Him .
“You got so mad …” His chest pressed against my back as his lips found the shell of my ear. “That you didn’t even notice that I wasn’t paying them any attention.”
His teeth nipped my ear, his tongue following.
“You got so jealous …” Chance’s warm fingers sent electrifying waves through me as he moved my hair off my shoulder. “You didn’t even notice I was fawning over you in that goddamn skirt.”
His fingers ran up the slit of my black leather skirt.
“No number of women in this world could keep my eyes off of you, Sunny.”
I shuddered a breath out and let my head fall onto his shoulder, surrendering to both myself and to him. His lips pressed into the space between my neck and collarbone.
“You’re right,” I breathed. “I couldn’t stand it.”
He groaned slightly. “I couldn’t stand seeing that guy’s fucking hands all over you,” he growled before licking a line up the side of my neck to my jaw. “You’re not his to touch.”
“I’m no one’s but my own.” I sighed, both of his hands running up and down my sides teasingly.
“Oh, love. We both know that’s not true.” He chuckled darkly. “We both know this …” His right hand ran over my peaked nipple through the bralette under my mesh top. “Is for me.” A breathy laugh escaped him as he gently pinched.
I let out an involuntary sigh at the sensation.
“And we know this …” He twirled his left fingers over my other peaked nipple. “Is for me.”
A gave a dark, dark laugh as he spun me around, picked me up, and sat me on the bench. “And we know this …” His finger instantly pushed my black, laced thong aside and brushed my slickness. “Is for me.” He pulled his fingers away and sucked them in his mouth.
“Cocky ass,” I breathed, feeling my cheeks flushing.
“Oh, you wanna talk being cocky?” He grabbed my hand and guided it down his abs to the straining bulge in his jeans. “This, my darling, is for you .”
My jaw slackened and I softly ran my palm around the strain.
“Every goddamn woman could be in front of me, begging for my cock. But no one …” He groaned as I squeezed. “ No one but you can do this to me.”
I bit back on a groan myself.
“You may not think you’re mine.” He grabbed my moving hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss to it. “But I’m yours.”
Chance kissed my cheek, dropped my hand, and walked out.