Track 15 #3
I shove Vince, causing him to stumble back several feet.
“Yo, what the fuck!” Vince yells, drunk and confused.
“Find someone else,” I deadpan with a finger pointed to him, nostrils flaring. I go to turn to Alana, but Vince’s hand finds my shoulder, forcing me to face him.
“Who the hell do you think—”
I step toward him until we’re nose to nose. “Find. Someone. Else,” I seethe. His eyes widen at the darkness in my tone. My gaze is stern, angry, and unmoving. My hands are already fists at my sides. Vince takes a few innocent steps backward.
I turn my glare to Alana, and it barely softens. I grab her by the hand, pulling her through the crowded dance floor until we reach the back of the bar. I take her down the hallway and into a storage closet.
I spin her into the small room, pulling the string on the light and closing the door behind us.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snarl.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m having fun.”
“Fun?” I echo with disgust. “This is fun?”
“Well, it was two seconds ago.”
“Don’t lie to me, Alana. What the hell are you doing?”
“What were you doing with Macey?” she accuses.
Shock and fury mix into one. “Are you kidding me right now? That’s what this is about?!”
“No.”
“Yes, it is! You got jealous, so you’re trying to make me jealous by acting like a child. What happened to ‘you can’t fill voids with meaningless actions,’ huh?”
“It’s not a void—”
“Bullshit. You’re mad about what you saw, so you’re trying to get my attention.”
“Oh, whatever.”
“And, dammit, you fucking have it, okay? You have all of it.” My voice is dark and sharp, anger and desire and hurt sewn into one.
“I don’t want your attention, Jake.” Her prickly tone tingles on my skin, fanning the flame inside me.
“See, I find that hard to believe,” I say, leaning into her.
“Because you say that, but then you do the exact opposite. You say you don’t want anything to do with me, but then you look at me like I’m everything you’ve ever wanted.
So, which is it, Alana, hmm? You want me.
Then you don’t want me. Tell me what comes next.
” I take a step closer, her back already against the metal shelves behind her.
My voice is thick and dripping, a sinister bellow.
“Let’s line this up, shall we?” I cage her between my arms. “You don’t want to see me sad, so you try to help me.
You don’t want me to help you, so you try to push me away.
You don’t want to be with me, but you don’t want me with anyone else. That right so far?”
She swallows in response.
“What comes next, Alana?”
“I don’t know,” she breathes.
“Oh, I think you know. And that’s why you’re trying to hurt me.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Jake.” Her voice trembles, and her eyes fill, not with fear, but with something darker. Something deeper. Something that screams her lustful desires.
“Yes, you are,” I drawl. “You’re trying to hurt me so I won’t want you anymore.
You’re trying to push me away so I’ll leave you alone, but that’s not gonna work, Alana.
” I close the rest of the space between us, our noses nearly brushing.
My body surges at our proximity, burning me from the inside out.
“Because I know you. I know what you’re thinking, and I know what you’re doing.
And I still fucking want you. And I know you want me, too.
I can see it in your eyes right now. I can feel it coming off your body like a fucking heatwave. ”
“Jake—“
“Tell me what comes next.”
Neither of us says a word for several heated seconds.
Desire pulsates on my lips, my hands, my whole damn body with an electric shock.
My eyes fall to her lush lips and climb back up to her stormy gaze.
Her breasts rise and fall quickly against my chest, her breaths shallow and shaken.
Her throat dips as I watch her. In my mind, I’m already running my tongue over every inch of her.
Her gaze burns through me, fierce and glassy. “You don’t get it, Jake.”
“Then make me.” My one hand holds her face before it falls to necklace her throat. She swallows, the movement making my dick twitch. She closes her eyes slowly before they open again.
“I can’t. If I let you in, I won’t want to let you go.”
“Then let me stay,” I breathe.
I brush my thumb across her lip, pulling it down and I swear I hear her whimper.
My face is mere inches from hers. I’m rock hard, and I know she can feel me pressed up against her.
My lips barely skate across hers, teasing her into submission.
The space between her legs widens, and she tilts herself forward, pushing against me.
Her eyes flutter closed, and I’m fucking starstruck.
My free hand comes to the small of her back, pulling her harder against me.
She moans at the connection. I watch her, pushing and grinding into her slowly, my body on fire as it moves with hers.
I shift my hand to cradle her face, bringing my lips to her ear.
My thumb pushes into her mouth, and she nibbles at it.
“Tell me to stop,” I whisper.
She moans as I grind into her harder. She spreads her legs wider.
Her hand wraps around my neck and into my hair.
She tugs as she draws me closer. I lift her up onto the shelf, grabbing her perfect ass, my lips and tongue tasting her neck as I guide her to her pleasured finish.
I’m so fucking close, and I’ve barely even touched her the way I’ve wanted to all this time.
She gasps, and I all but lose my fucking mind. “Fuck, Alana, if this isn’t what you want then tell me to stop.”
Her breaths are pants, my name coming out in a whisper on her lips.
“Jake,” she breathes, and I groan at the sound against her neck, my hand coming up and wrapping around the base of her throat again as I watch her crumble against me. “Jake,” she moans again, her frosted eyes darker than ever.
And then her lips crash against mine. The earth shatters around me, and my heart pounds hard in my chest. I fist her hair, forcing her head to a new angle as I reach to taste more of her.
Our tongues lap against each other in between breathy groans and soft whimpers.
We kiss with force. With messy need and lustful desire.
Her fingers claw at my shirt, pulling me closer until there’s no space left between us—just heat, hunger, and the ache of everything we craved from that very first night.
“Wait,” she whispers, and I freeze, holding her in place, my ears tuning in to the same sound she heard. “Someone’s… Someone’s at the door,” she panics.
I look back over my shoulder, dropping her while I rush to reach for the knob.
It jiggles once, twice, and then once more before the person on the other side gives up and lets go. I stand there, holding the handle a few seconds longer just to be sure, letting out a relieved breath I didn’t realize I was holding when the coast is seemingly clear.
I turn back to her, my pulse still racing, heart still pounding heavily in my chest. Our breaths are heavy and uneven, proof of the line we crossed and the desire we failed to keep at bay.
Her eyes are on mine, hunger and need still burning in the yellow that surrounds her frosty blue stare.
I wipe my full hand down my mouth, wanting to say everything but forcing the words to suffocate inside of me instead.
Our silent stare is a standoff. She bites her cheek out of what seems like frustration and casts her eyes down, hopping off the shelf and realigning her skirt to its proper place. A tangible wave of shame and regret roll off her, and it burns, but not in the way I’ve come to like.
I want to grab her, hold her. Tell her everything my heart wants to say, but my drunken tongue is mangled, frozen and confused, scared I just made everything worse.
She pauses for a split second to look at me, then steps to the side, grabs the knob, and walks out the door.
I close my eyes in defeat, gritting my teeth. I turn around and punch the solid wood door, catching the light’s string in my swing. The bulb bursts above me, sending down a rain of glass.
“Fuck!” I scream into the nothingness.
And that is all that is left without her—nothing.