My shoulders and arms ached from the effort of standing in front of a mirror for hours straightening and teasing my hair into something more manageable, but it would be worth it. Barely dressed in pink silk shorts and a matching camisole, I padded through the apartment. It was nine at night and I’d already gotten through several glasses of wine this evening just to build up the courage to use the relaxer on my hair and strip it of its natural color.
Pulling the door open, Damen automatically stumbled through it, slamming his drunk body into mine as he fell. I caught and righted him before helping him over to the small sofa and he fell sideways before shoving himself back upright with a drunken huff. I sat down next to him, a look of innocent concern on my face.
He was a mess. His longish hair scruffier than usual and his normally healthy skin pallid. I pushed his jacket off his shoulders and threw it across the room to one of the chairs. It stank of beer and wine and it was stained with something I couldn’t quite describe.
“Are you okay? What happened?” I asked, my tone full of worry.
“I’m sorry, Anna. I didn’t know where else to go. I just need to see her,” he slurred, looking up into my eyes. His pupils dilated when he focused in on my face, his hand reaching up to stroke my long length of hair. “What…what is this?” he mumbled.
A shiver trailed down my spine at his clumsy touch, his hands cool on my warm body making my nipples harden. I sat up straighter and smiled. His touch was nothing like the time in the kitchen, but I forgave that because he was so upset.
“I just wanted to try something different. Do you like it?”
He sat up and reached out with both hands, threading his thick fingers through my hair, and I couldn’t help the little moan that escaped from my lips at the feel of him this close. Touching me. Wanting me. This was how it should always have been, and now he could see that.
“I liked it curly,” he slurred, but his hands were still knotted in my long lengths, his heated gaze on my face. “It looks nice like this though. Pretty.”
It was wrong to take advantage of him while he was drunk and broken-hearted, yet I found myself leaning in closer, my chest heaving as his hands stroked through my hair and then smoothed themselves up and down my back.
I hated that it took looking like Louise for him to want me like this, but if that’s what it took to finally get my man, then that’s what I would do.
His tongue darted out to wet his lips. “You look so much like her, Anna. I never realized before.”
His hands were back to stroking my hair, but his touch was getting rougher and I forced myself to stay calm and not smile. Not leap for joy and tell him that he’d been mine all along. That I’d been waiting and waiting, and my fucking vibrator had run out of batteries twice since I’d met him.
“She’s not here,” I said, needing him to know that. Needing him to know that she was gone and that it was me now, all me and no Louise. I needed him to give himself over to me fully because when she did come back, he needed to have washed her away.
He released my hair. “I can’t believe that she did this to us. I gave her everything that she wanted, why would she just throw it all away?”
I shrugged pitifully, my hands rubbing my arms. “I warned you what she was like, Damen. How she treats people.”
He nodded pitifully, and I decided I didn’t like this version of Damen. I needed the old Damen back and soon.
“Let me make you a coffee and sober you up. You’ll feel better then,” I said and he nodded, before leaning forwards and putting his face in his hands.
I walked through to the kitchen, making sure to sway my ass as I did. The percolator took an age to boil, as usual, and I used the time to taunt him some more by reaching up to fetch the mugs from the top shelf. My shorts were tiny silk things that barely covered my ass and there was no way he wasn’t looking.
I glanced over my shoulder and found him staring at me, his gaze filled with lust. It wasn’t his fault, I was practically naked and a man like Damen, drunk and who hadn’t had sex in several days only had one thing on his mind. I grinned as I turned back around.
I finished the coffees and carried them into the lounge, placing them on the table opposite and sitting down on the sofa with him. We were cramped up, thigh to thigh and I tucked a leg under me, making sure my silk shorts rode up a little higher.
“I love her,” he said suddenly, blurting it out like those three words didn’t hurt.
“Love her?” I snorted. “She cheated on you and you’ve only been dating, what? A month, six weeks? You can’t love her.”
“I do though. I can’t stop thinking about her.”
I gritted my teeth together, squeezing until I thought they might break and then I released the pressure.
“Try thinking about when you walked in and found her fucking another man instead then,” I replied bitterly, jealousy coursing through me. All this and he still loved her?
“Don’t!” he moaned, his eyes imploring as he grabbed the tops of my arms. “The image of that is burned in my
