Instead of admitting the reason she came tonight, Casey says, “I’m here with my friend, Joanna, just having a few drinks.” She glances at me and laughs at what is probably a shocked look on my face, not looking the least bit bothered by him grabbing her breasts like he owned them.
Hunt eyes me too for a second before his attention returns to Casey, then he runs his tongue seductively over his bottom lip. “Both of you mine to play with tonight, or are you just going to tease my dick with a little girl-on-girl action?”
Oh heck no.
“I’m not feeling too well,” I blurt out in a rush as I search the crowd for Phillip. “I think I’ll ask Fiasco to take me home,” I say, using his nickname since that’s probably the only name Hunt knows he goes by.
“You’re no fun,” Casey tells me with a fake pout. I know her; and even if I wasn’t seeing Phillip, she would want Hunt all to herself. She’s welcome to him since he looks like a man who could get a little too rough in bed.
“I’ll, ah, call you tomorrow,” I say when I slip off the stool to search for Fiasco.
I find him talking to two men in the same leather MC cuts while a woman’s hand from behind tries to slide underneath his shirt. He pulls her wrist away and is still holding it when her other hand starts trying to do the exact same thing on the other side.
That’s the moment that Phillip looks up and locks eyes with me, freezing while holding the other woman’s wrist in each of his hands.
“I’m leaving,” I tell him loud enough that he can hear over the music or read my lips when I start to the door.
“Joanna!” he calls out, but I don’t stop.
This place is insane! Do people only come here to get drunk and have sex with each other? “Joanna!” Phillip says again before I escape out the door.
I drink in the cool night air that feels good on my arms and legs since my skin is overheating from anger or from how awkward I felt inside.
“Joanna, wait!” Phillip says when he jogs to catch up with me just as another man’s voice says, “Everything okay out here?”
“We’re fine, Preston. Go back inside,” Phillip answers without turning around, like he knows the man.
“Hunt didn’t want her out here alone.”
“I’m with her. And if she’s leaving, then I am too.”
“Okay, man. Good to see you healthy,” Preston says before he goes back inside.
“Are you sure you want to leave? I thought you might want to stay and catch up with your old friends!”
“I only came tonight because you and Casey insisted on coming, remember?” he says, which has some of my anger deflating out of me.
Still, the women in the bar, the ones hanging all over him, are just the reminder I needed that I shouldn’t be so quick to trust him or care about him after just a few nights together. I need space, distance, before I lose more of myself to him than I should.
I hurry to get my keys out of my purse; but before I can open the driver door, Phillip is suddenly there, blocking it with his much bigger body.
“Is Casey ready to leave too?” he asks me.
“No.”
“And you’re just going to leave her here with no way home?”
“Casey’s a grown woman. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to come,” I tell him, annoyed with her and with Phillip. “Did you sleep with those women who came up to you?”
“Yes,” he answers immediately. “The night I got shot. I was actually fucking one of them when I got shot.”
“Oh.”
I had expected him to deny it, not admit to everything and share so much information.
“But I barely remember anything but their names,” he goes on to add. “We were drinking and having fun until the shooting started. I was only one of two of the original Aces that was single.”
“Really?” I say in surprise. “The others have serious relationships?”
“Yep.”
“Serious enough that they don’t sleep around?”
“Hardly any girls even come around the pool hall or the gambling cruise anymore because they’re all settled down hard. It was one of the reasons I was glad to come over here for a party a few weeks ago with a bunch of women who actually wanted to fuck me.”
Again, that’s more honesty from him than I expected.
“You don’t have to leave with me if you don’t want to, Phillip,” I tell him.
“Did you hear what I said in there?” he asks as he places both of his hands gently on my hips. “I told them you’re my girlfriend, and I meant that. At least that’s how I feel about you, even if you just see me as a fuck buddy.”
“I don’t think of you as a fuck buddy. How could you say that?” I ask him.
“Because that’s all I’ve ever been to any woman.”
“That’s sort of sad,” I tell him.
He shrugs. “It’s true. I’m good at fucking and that’s about it.”
“I liked being with you before we ever slept together,” I remind him.
“Yeah?” he asks with a smile that glows in the night.
“Yes. But I should also confess that I did kiss you when you were recovering.”
“I knew it!” he exclaims, his fingers tightening on my waist. “I woke up feeling your lips on my forehead, my cheek, then my lips.”
I lower my eyes in shame. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, but you were just so…handsome, and I wanted you to wake up and get better.”
His arms wrap around my back, and then he dips down all that height so that his lips are suddenly buried in my neck as I rest my chin on his shoulder and pull him even closer.
We hold each other like that for a long time, until Phillip breaks the silence. His words are muffled since he doesn’t try to pull away. “Will you
