Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
JOSHUA
“I’d give more than a penny for your thoughts,” the voice next to me sounds more like a purr than a usual sound. It kinda takes me by surprise as I glance sideways to a long dark haired woman holding a large wineglass by the stem.
I direct my eyes back to my screen to see if Lexi has replied yet, but put my cell back down when I see she hasn’t.
“Could be a waste of a penny,” I reply, signaling over to the bartender, who’s just finished making two cocktails across the far side of the pricey but ambient wine bar.
“My thoughts are just on a good glass of Shiraz and my beautiful girlfriend.” I emphasize the last part.
“I’m sure I can keep you company until she gets?—”
I feel two hands around my waist as the woman’s voice trails off.
I turn slightly to look over my shoulder and smile when I see Lexi.
She let me know earlier in the day she was heading in straight from work.
My eyes coast over her beautiful, vibrant, peach colored pant suit.
Her golden curls bounce from being tied up in a high ponytail, a matching piece of ribbon wrapped around the base.
“Baby.” The words are barely out of my mouth before she spins me around to face her and lifts onto her tippy toes, one hand grabbing my tie and the other rolling over my butt cheek.
Holy shit.
I bend to kiss her, but she has more in mind than a peck hello. Her kiss is deep, sexy and an open invitation to more bedroom shenanigans at my place tonight.
We’ve been rocking each other’s worlds ever since Lake Haven, and I’m loving every second I spend with her.
However, her urgency now takes me by surprise — not that I don’t like it. I love it when she takes charge, but she never usually kisses me like this in public or with that much vigor.
“Happy to see me?” I muse as I pull back, realizing the brunette is watching us with a wide-eyed stare.
“Oh, very happy,” she says, reaching back up to wipe the stain of her lip gloss from my lips.
I couldn’t give a fuck, I’m used to it by now, and it tastes like vanilla.
I’m used to it all over my dick, too, when she gets on her knees for me, but I try not to think about that since we’re here in public and it would only cause problems for me to hide.
I order us a drink, not wanting to keep the bartender waiting, because I know exactly what she wants, something sweet and bubbly. I’m surprised yet again when I hear her address the ‘ penny for your thoughts’ woman, who has made no attempt to move, or stop staring at us.
“Is that really you Julia Macintyre?” Lexi says, the words sounding mechanical and forced, very un-Lexi like.
“In the flesh,” the woman says, as I look quizzically from one to the other.
“You know each other?” I’m about a second away from scratching my head in confusion when I notice Lexi’s body language is also different.
As I slide my hand in hers, she curls her fingers around mine and squeezes.
Her back is rigid, and she’s not one bit smiling at the woman.
In fact, she looks mad. Her pout and her frown says it all.
“Unfortunately,” Lexi says, glancing up at me, then back to Julia. “Looks like you were just hitting on my boyfriend, wasn’t the first one enough for you?”
Oh, holy shit. My frown becomes even more profound.
“Lex.” I tug her hand. “We can go get?—”
“No,’ Lexi says. “This is something she needs to hear.”
Julia makes the mistake of rolling her eyes to the heavens while taking a longer than necessary gulp of wine. “Here we go,” she mutters.
“Here we go?” Lexi all but cries in bewilderment. “You texted me the other day, harassing me to talk to you, to which I told you to leave me alone. Now suddenly you show up here and you’re hitting on my boyfriend?”
Julia blows out a sigh. “I didn’t know he was your boyfriend! And okay, you got me.” She holds up her palms in some kind of bid of protest. “I followed you here from your work.”
I whip my head up to stare at the stranger who clearly has Lexi riled like I’ve never seen in my life. “You followed her?” I grit out, not liking in the least bit how that sounds.
“What the hell?” Lexi exclaims.
“I wanted to talk to you!” she insists. “But you won’t even let me try to explain.”
Lexi shakes her head and looks up at me. “This is Julia,” she says, “My ex-best friend I found in bed with my ex-boyfriend.”
Any expression on my face drops; like someone told me there was no Santa this year, the fire of her words light a spark in me. Anyone who hurt Lexi can go to Hell as far as I’m concerned.
I shake my head toward Julia. “Are you for real?”
“Just hear me out!” she insists, her face twisting in a bid of emotional replay. The pretty face from moments ago seems anything but that anymore. “I never got to explain when you tried to claw my eyes out and pulled my hair!”
“What is there to explain?” Lexi grits, the edge to her tone bitter and pained. “And can you really blame me? You did what you did, Julia, and lied about it. There’s no going back from that.”
“The guy was an asshole,” Julia says. “You’re so much better off without him.”
Lexi laughs without humor, her grip on my hand becomes lethal. “So what you’re saying is you did me a favor by sleeping with him?”
“I didn’t mean it like that, it just happened. I wished it hadn’t, but it did.”
“I’ve heard enough.” Lexi holds up her palm in front of the girl, rivaling that of a stop sign. “You need to stop talking and you need to stop following me or I will call the police and have you charged with harassment.”
“But I was only trying to apologize!”
“Don’t bother,” Lexi spits. “The time for talking was a year ago, but you didn’t even have the gall to face me. Who does that?”
“I wasn’t in my right frame of mind!” She continues to protest and it gets on my nerves the way she keeps trying to justify what she did to her best friend.
Lexi is quick to retort back, “Clearly! You not only followed me here from work, which is super stalkery by the way, but then you tried to hit on my boyfriend while you’re waiting for me to finish my phone call!”
“I told you, I didn’t know he was your boyfriend!”
“You seem pretty intent on the guys I choose to be with!” Lexi fires back. “Where is he, by the way? You called him an asshole just before, don’t tell me there’s trouble in paradise already?”
Julia’s face falls, and tears actually start to well in her eyes. Oh wow, has Lexi finally hit a nerve? “You’ll be pleased to know it didn’t last. And I regret everything that happened. I miss our friendship, Lex. I didn’t mean to do what I did.”
Lexi shakes her head in disbelief, I tug on her hand to indicate we need to leave. I’ve heard just about enough, so I can’t begin to imagine how Lexi must be feeling. I grab my wine glass.
“You need to stop,” I say in Julia’s direction. “Leave Lexi alone, you’ve done enough damage.”
“Exactly what he said,” Lexi seethes, reaching to the bar and grabbing the stem of her glass, and I think she is ready to walk away with me, but she turns back to her ex-friend and before I know what’s happening, she throws the wine in Julia’s face.
Pink Moscato instantly coats her, and she shrieks in horror.
Lexi gives a satisfied sniff and places the glass back on the counter. “You make me sick!”
“OHMYGOD!” Julia cries, the wine dripping down her face as she leaps up from the stool and flails her arms around, trying to find a napkin. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yes, it really was. I never got to say how I truly felt, and you’re a bitch,” Lexi says simply. “With ex-friends like you, who needs enemies?”
“Let that be a lesson to you.” My voice is deep and growly as I point a finger in Julia’s direction. Yes, I’m fucking angry now, too.
I tug Lexi’s hand as we turn to find the exit.
“What you just did is harassment and assault!” she calls after us. Every patron in the place turns to look our way, at least, the ones that weren’t looking before now. “I’ll report this to management! You’ll never step foot in here again!”
“You do that,” I holler back with a snide smirk I’ve been dying to use since she confronted me when I first walked up to the bar. “Tell Lennon, the owner and manager, that I said hi. We go way back.”
He’s an old friend of the family since Dad sold him the building when I was in diapers. He won’t do shit.
I take a gulp of my wine as we walk briskly to the entry doors.
I see no point in wasting it, but it’s more like a guzzle now than a slow sip over tapas with my girl like I thought we’d have.
When I’m done, I leave it on a spare table as I push the entry door open and we step outside, the cool air blanketing us.
Lex is quiet beside me, she’s understandably upset. What a fucking confrontation to have.
“Lex, I’m so sorry,” I start, we’re around the corner now and out of the view of anyone in the bar. But when I look down at her, she’s blinking up at me, those juicy lips pressed together, then they pop. “I shouldn’t have done that,” she whispers.
“Umm, yes you should.”
“That was reckless and stupid and way off my good ju-ju grid.”
I try not to laugh because it’s no laughing matter. But my princess is a little woo-woo at times, and I love it. “I think reckless and stupid are the best ways to describe your ex-best friend’s personality. I think your ju-ju is gonna be just fine.”
A tiny laugh bubbles from out of her and that softens my racing heart immediately. “That’s so true. I can’t believe the nerve of her, though.”
“Me either. And following you. What a weirdo.”
“Rick tried to call me not too long ago, I wonder if it was because they broke up.”
“The guy sounds like a real asshole. Pity they couldn’t make it work, they seem perfect for each other.” My hand holds her hip, the other caresses her cheek in a gentle stroke, I bend to kiss her and she smiles into my lips. “Why don’t you kiss me like you did in the bar?”
“That was to prove a point to that pouty little bitch trying to chat you up.”
“Remind me to never get on your bad side.”
A true laugh escapes her, and it makes me feel somewhat better I was able to extract one from her after that exchange.
She reaches up on her toes once more, her neck long and her lips slightly parted.
I close the distance fast, not that there’s much between us, and as soon as our mouths meet, the passion ignites again, and I feel it all the way down to my fucking toes.
“I need to get you home and into that tinsel,” I pant, prizing my lips from hers and pulling her into me so she can feel my hardness. Every damned time she touches me, my cock thinks there’s a party happening.
She squeals, tapping me on the arm, but her sparkling eyes tell me she’s delighted with my body’s reaction. “You! I can’t take you anywhere!”
“Ha! You’re the one who just threw a perfectly good glass of sparkling wine over that woman. Couldn’t you have reached for the glass of water?”
We both laugh, Lexi holds her sides as we find the sweet irony of the situation.
“I really should have. But let’s get home and crack a bottle.
Mr. Snuggles is waiting.” My hand slides down to her ass, where I give her a little pinch and a tap.
She squeals again and tries to wriggle out of my grasp, but I’m not budging. Not when I have her set in my sights.
“That sounds perfect.” I lean into her ear, my warm breath feeling at home as I take in her sweet scent and graze the shell of her ear. “I need to be wrapped around you like that Christmas tinsel, Lexi.”
“Your wish is my command.”