Oh, God. I’d wondered if all those bodies moving in erotic positions behind the brief flashes of strobe lights and semi-opaque glass had only been an illusion, some titillating effect meant as a play on the fantasy-themed name of the club. Part of me knew it was real, but hearing Paige confirm it sends a note of shock into my veins.
Was Jared Rush one of those unclothed, undulating bodies that night? As for the rumored orgies at his house, it takes more effort than I care to admit to avoid picturing him being pawed at and pleasured by a den full of eager women. How many has he seduced with his dangerous, yet magnetic sensuality?
Dozens, I imagine. Hundreds? I wouldn’t doubt it.
I stop myself from trying to guess, because it doesn’t matter. All I know is I’m not going to be one of them. What happened at his beach house couldn’t have driven that point home with any sharper clarity.
And that goes double for the fact that I refuse to be around another man with a drinking problem. Growing up with my father and his brutal binges was terror enough to last me a lifetime. I’ve got the scars to prove it, both inside and out.
Paige reaches for her glass of beer. “Tell us again how you ended up with Jared Rush’s tongue down your throat and his hand up your skirt yesterday.”
“Paige,” Evelyn gasps. “You’re kind of missing the point here, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. Am I?” she asks, one brow arched as she eyes me over the rim of the glass.
Where Evelyn is measured and elegant, with a natural poise instilled in her from her modeling days, free-spirited Paige flouts conversational and societal guardrails wherever possible. Next to these two creative, successful women and their colorful lives, I’m the wallflower of our trio. I’ve long been the practical, quiet one who spends all her time either studying or working.
That is when I’m not doffing my clothes for an arrogant and tormented, possibly alcoholic artist to bail out my closet-gambling boyfriend. Oh, yeah. Let’s not forget, letting him thrust his tongue down my throat and his hand up my skirt.
My pulse throbs at the remembered heat of those incredible moments. It’s been more than a full day and I can still feel the intensity of Jared’s lips burning against mine. I can still feel his hand on my sex, his strong finger moving inside me until I came. I feel it so vividly it makes my thighs squeeze together under the table even now.
The truth is, I wanted him to kiss me. To touch me.
I wanted him. Only the unexpected shatter of that liquor bottle and his unhinged reaction that followed was enough to jolt me back to my senses.
Thank God.
Any longer in his arms and I’m all but certain I would have let him do a lot more than he had, and then my stupid mistake would have become a disastrous one.
I set down my fork, my already weak appetite drying up altogether when I think about how recklessly close I was to the edge of something dangerous with Jared Rush.
“I’m not sure how I let any of this happen,” I admit, miserable with all my questionable choices lately. “I just know it can’t continue.”
Paige tilts her head. “By ‘it’ are you talking about your contract to pose for Rush, or letting him melt your panties off you again?”
Eve smiles. “She wasn’t wearing panties, remember?”
I groan, but I’m not sure if it’s in reaction to my friends’ teasing or to the way my core tightens at the thought of letting Jared’s mouth anywhere near mine again. To say nothing of letting him near any other part of my body. The fact that I can be aroused by a man I’m certain can only be bad news and trouble for me is just more evidence for staying away from him.
“I’m talking about all of it,” I say, pushing my half-eaten lunch away from me. “I never should’ve agreed to it in the first place.”
“Daniel should have never pressured you to agree,” Evelyn says gently. She reaches out and gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I know you’re always the first one in line to help someone if you can, but this is different. I can’t imagine any problem big enough for Gabe that he would be okay with me posing for one of Jared Rush’s paintings in order to save himself, let alone encourage me to do it.”
I can’t imagine that, either. Gabriel Noble leads the security team for Dominic Baine’s corporate offices, headquartered in a sleek glass tower on West 57th Street. He and Evelyn have been together only for a matter of weeks, but it’s obvious to anyone who sees them that Gabe is head over heels in love with her and she with him. As a combat veteran who lost part of his leg in the war, he’s been through the worst kind of hell on the battlefield. I know he’d walk through that much pain and more if it meant keeping the woman he loves safe.
“You deserve better than that, Mel,” Evelyn says, her tone solemn. “Daniel shouldn’t have let you agree to that contract for any price.”
A small, ironic laugh dies in my throat. “That’s what Jared said to me. The first morning I went to his house, he told me if he were Daniel, he’d rather put a bullet in his head than put me anywhere near a man like himself.”
A strange look of surprise sweeps over Evelyn’s face. “He said that?”
At my nod, Paige narrows her eyes. “If Rush really felt that way, then why
