Chapter 19
Rex
I check my phone for the millionth time and still see no message from Gwen.
I’m not one to wait by the phone for any woman, yet it’s slowly killing me that she hasn’t responded.
A burning hatred starts to build around my heart.
Hatred for myself for letting her in when I have spent most of my life putting up walls.
I won’t let myself be like my old man, but fuck if the sting of her not responding isn’t making me go a little mad worrying I already am.
The message I sent earlier is not nearly as crucial as needing a reply. Something, anything to keep me strung along and not thinking all the nights I’ve come home and lost myself in her until morning wasn’t a total waste.
So, for the last several hours, I’ve busied myself with cleaning the bar to take away the sting. To occupy my mind. Now, onto storing glasses I’ve recently unpacked from boxes, I shake my head, push Gwen from my thoughts, and put another one away on a shelf.
The club is coming together nicely, and with just a little more luck, we should open on time.
Even dumbass Eric Maxwell couldn’t stop that.
Eric Maxwell. Another thorn in my side like the woman who can’t answer a simple text .
He has a nasty habit of showing up at Gwen’s office uninvited a few days a week.
And even though she always says no, a part of me would like to brand her in front of him so he knew who she belonged to.
Stake a claim to let him know to keep his hands off. But I can’t.
Sure, I’ve spent almost every night with her since we fell in bed, in sync, and fucked liked savage animals a few weeks back.
But at work, here at the club, everything is different.
Once we leave the little heaven that is her tiny little apartment, it’s almost like the nights don’t exist and we’re back to square one.
Just like we were in high school. Only this time I can’t tell if it’s her or me that’s putting up the charade.
Hell, it’s only a text.
Why am I acting like such a love-sick fool?
I guess because deep down, the fear of rejection and the thought of her leaving if I can’t be what I know she deserves, wrecks me.
Tormented by my thoughts, I slam a glass down a little too harshly, and it chips, cutting me slightly. “Shit,” I curse loudly.
Bonnie Miller, a girl we hired to help open the club, looks up at me across the room.
She’s the type of girl I usually would have had in my bed a few times over by now, had my head not been so far gone with Gwen.
Dark black hair, amazing tits, and exotic eyes stare back at me as I try to wipe the blood on a bar towel.
“What did you do?” she giggles, coming towards me.
She has been flirting with me nonstop since she got here. She isn’t too subtle about it either, and a lot of the other guys have given me shit for it. To hell with them, though, because there is no way in hell I could think about Bonnie when I go home to a sexy siren like Gwen every night.
“Nothing, I’ll be fine,” I grumble, turning away as she rounds the corner behind the bar.
“Let me see,” she insists, and instantly takes my hand. I deny her for a moment before I cave and let her have a look. “Oh, it is just a scratch. You’re such a baby.”
I roll my eyes at her, jerking my hand away. “I told you it was nothing.”
Sticking her hand on her hip, she teases, and pushes her cleavage into my line of sight. Keep trying, sweetheart. I only have eyes for one woman, and she isn’t you.
“What’s crawled up your ass?” she sasses.
“Excuse me?” I ask her, shocked that she would talk to her boss that way.
“Come on, Rex. You’ve been moody since you got here.” She rolls her eyes, and I’m stunned for words. “I mean, I’m not trying to overstep, but chill out, loosen up. Hell, take a shot and blow off some steam, but stop being such a jerk-off.”
I stare at her for a moment with wide eyes. Then, she starts to laugh, and I can’t help myself and laugh with her. The girl has some balls, I’ll admit it. Still laughing, she pours a shot and hands it to me.
“I’m not one to drink alone,” I say, taking it and stalling a moment.
Pouring herself a shot, she cheers me, and we shoot back the brown liquid quickly. A fire slowly burns down my throat as we set the glasses back on the counter.
“Better?” she asks, retaking my hand. She examines my scratch, and against my better judgment I let her as the tension I felt a moment ago starts to fade with the warmth of the alcohol now humming through my veins.
“I think you’ll get by with just a bandaid.
” She winks at me, then runs a finger along the cut.
“I’ll go see what we have in the office. ”
She turns to walk away, just as my eyes lock on the club entrance.
Gwen, Eva, and Noah stare back at me. Bonnie walks past them, sauntering off like only a woman would who’s trying to win a battle she doesn’t know she’s already lost. I smile at Gwen, but she doesn’t smile back.
Noah walks toward me and states what anyone would think is the obvious, though it’s furthest from the truth.
“You waste no time in marking the wait staff, do you?” he laughs.
My eyes stay locked on Gwens. Sadness fills her expression.
There is nothing between Bonnie and me. I wish I could show Gwen that.
I wish I could yell it. I wish I could tell the whole world that Gwen is the only woman I could ever want and need.
But like a fucking idiot, I react the only way I know how- unfazed, unattached, and void of emotion when I’m anything but.
“Nah, she’s into one of the other guys in the kitchen,” I say, trying to avoid the question, and never taking my eyes off Gwen.
She averts her gaze, and I take a few steps around the bar to meet Noah in the middle of the room.
“Took you long enough to pull your ass down here.” I slap his hand hello in our customary handshake and gesture towards the bar. “Want a drink?”
“Actually,” Eva says, “We were just going out. Care to join us?”
I look behind her and see that Gwen still has not moved or spoken. She stares me down with a look I can’t decipher. Looking around the club, I nod my head. “Yeah, I think I’ve made enough of an appearance here today. Where did you want to go?”
“Bourbon Street,” Eva says with wide, excited eyes.
“Woah there, Darlin’, I know what happens when you drink bourbon. Maybe that is a bad idea,” Noah laughs as he takes his wife in his arms.
“Easy, Romeo, remember I am the one you’re going home with later.”
“On second thought, maybe that’s a great idea. Roberts, what’s the quickest way to Bourbon Street?” Noah asks. We all laugh except Gwen, who has still yet to move forward.
“Let me just grab a few things in the back, and I will be right with you,” I say, studying Gwen over his shoulder.
“I’ll meet you in the parking lot.” Noah and Eva nod and head towards the front door.
“Gwen, can I see you in the back about something?” Gwen hesitates and then luckily starts to follow me.
Damn it, that was not subtle at all, but I need to talk to her. I need to be with her. It has been a week since we have been together, and hell if I will let what she walked in on ruin what is building between us.
Both our friends smile as they walk away. Once Gwen and I round the corner and are out of sight, she walks a little faster down the hallway to the back. I hurry along after her, enjoying the view of her ass as she stalks towards the storage closet.
She holds my heart in her hands, always has, and she doesn’t even know it.
But that won’t stop me from showing her the only way I know how.
Pleasing her with my cock, my mouth, until she’s screaming my name always seems to do the trick.
My heart beats fast with anticipation as Gwen pushes open the door to the storage closet.
The tortuous week away from her only intensified my need to have her again while I sat struggling with the stupid shit in my mind.
I hope you’re ready, sweetheart, because I’m not letting you go without a fight. And right now, the only fighting I have in mind involves locked doors, shaking thighs, and screaming apologies as she comes undone in my arms.