Chapter 2
Night
Seraphina was on the prowl once again. After a couple of drinks following a stressful day, the ache would become a throbbing need of arousal. She needed someone to fill her and take that ache away. Someone who didn’t expect attachments. Someone who wouldn’t ask for her number or expect her to still be there in the morning when they woke up. Someone looking for the same thing she was at this posh, high-class club. Someone who shouldn’t be messing with her.
“Lance!” she squealed as she walked into the nightclub 7 and saw her one-time lover and bouncer friend checking identification at the door.
The man’s face lit up when he saw her, his blue eyes twinkling under the dancing strobe lights that bounced off his bald head. “Seraph! I would say I’m surprised, but since you haven’t been here yet this week, I expected you.”
Seraphina grinned at him as she walked up and was swallowed inside the man’s massive embrace.
Lance had once trained to be a professional wrestler, but after a back injury, he had been forced to resign and now made his living doing what he loved best—throwing people around.
“How does it look in there?” Seraphina asked, perusing the crowd from over Lance’s shoulder as they hugged.
Lance pulled back and turned to look over the crowd with Seraphina. “There are a lot of newbies tonight. I have to warn you, though, that woman—Rachel, I think her name is—she’s here and made a point to ask me if you were here.”
“Rachel …?”
Lance’s face broke out in a blush that Seraphina could see even in the dim lighting.
That was why Seraphina loved him so much. As huge and intimidating as he looked, deep down, he was the biggest Teddy bear. She unconsciously smiled in delight at his blush, not remembering what had brought it on.
“Uh … She’s—was—the fiancée of the guy you picked up last time you were here. The one who left then came back when she spied you two at his car.”
“Oh, yeah, that guy.” Seraphina got a faraway look in her eyes, remembering the incident in the parking lot when the redhead had yanked some lawyer away from her as they had kissed against his car. Then the woman had slapped the man and threw her engagement ring at him. After that, Seraphina had walked away, leaving the couple to fight in privacy.
Really, the woman had no business looking for her. For one, Seraphina hadn’t made the guy almost cheat. For two, their business wasn’t her own. Had she seen the couple together before the woman had left and Seraphina had made her move? Yes. But like she said, it had still been the guy’s decision to leave with her. And all men did, which was why Seraphina would never settle down with a man. They would only hurt her one day. She proved that every time a man slipped between her legs.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Seraphina told Lance, giving him a peck on the cheek before walking into the lion’s den.
She walked up to the bar, leaning over it to give her order to the bartender who had watched her approach. “Seabreeze, please.”
He nodded, flipping a clean glass over before grabbing a bottle of vodka.
Seraphina turned around as she waited for him to finish, leaning back against the bar and coming face to face with the redhead from last week.
Not knowing what to do or say, she froze, before glancing over to see Lance had been watching and was already standing, ready to interfere should this turn into a cat fight.
She turned her attention back to the woman who looked nervous yet not confrontational. She was beautiful, mid-twenties, gorgeous red hair that lay over her shoulders in waves, wearing a gold dress that was quite flattering on her. That lawyer had been such an idiot for betraying someone so beautiful, one who looked sweet as she stood there, garnering courage with every second that went by.
“I want to thank you,” the woman, Rachel, started, her voice soft.
Seraphina’s eyes widened. She couldn’t help it. “Is that a joke?” She looked around, almost afraid this woman had backup and she was about to get jumped. It had happened before, many years ago.
“No,” Rachel answered as the bartender nudged Seraphina’s arm, placing her glass beside her elbow.
“Thank you,” she told him, taking the glass while never taking her eyes off the redhead.
“I know your reputation around here.”
Seraphina raised her brows at that, needing a sip of the refreshing alcohol. She hadn’t known people talked. Besides Lance and a few bartenders, she hadn’t known other patrons were familiar with her. It was time to start finding other clubs.
“I saw you eyeing us. Or, well, him. That’s why I left. I knew he would cheat.”
“Do you want to sit down?” Seraphina cut in, noticing the woman was shaking. From nerves or anger, she couldn’t tell.
Rachel nodded, taking a step forward before grabbing the back of the seat and swiveling it around.
As she maneuvered herself onto the chair, Seraphina asked, “A drink?” At this point, she was sure the woman wasn’t about to attack her. She felt a womanly bond tethering them together. The bond that all women who had been burned by men formed.
She nodded at hers. “Same.”
Seraphina motioned to the bartender as Rachel continued.
“We had been together for three years; just got engaged a few weeks ago.” She played with her ring finger that was now bare. “I didn’t trust him. There had been too many times where things didn’t add up.” Rachel laughed self-depreciatively. “I mean, he was already in a long-term relationship when we met. He broke up with her for me. That should have been a warning sign right then, right?”
Seraphina nodded, wanting to roll her eyes and smack the woman on the back of the head, telling her duh!
The bartender brought the second drink over, and Seraphina handed it to her.
After taking long sips through the straw, sucking the drink dry, Rachel continued, “So, yeah, after I left, I just sat in my car and waited. It hurt, you know?” She looked up at her. “I was angry, heartbroken … but it’s better this way. So, thank you. Thank you for saving me from a horrible mistake.”
She then opened her clutch that had been resting in her lap and pulled out an engagement ring. “I want you to have this. And I don’t mean in a reminder of what you ruined sort of way,” Rachel was quick to say, rolling her eyes at herself. “I just mean, it’s mine, I don’t want it anymore, and I think you deserve it, as a show of my gratitude.”
Seraphina tried to step back, not wanting it, but Rachel grabbed her wrist and pushed it into the palm of her hand.
“I won’t take no for an answer. You want to throw it away, go ahead. I don’t care.” Closing her hand over hers, she slid from stool. “Thank you for the drink.”
Seraphina watched the redhead walk away and out the front door, dazed by the quick, strange encounter. Her eyes then met Lance’s. The man just shrugged before walking back to his stool. She went back to her purpose.
~~~~~
Nathan sat in a dark corner on the far side of the bar with his ballcap pulled low over his eyes. He watched the woman from across the room as she leaned back against the bar, pushing her plunging bustline out and throwing her head back as she laughed at what some stiff in a button-down shirt said.
Every one of her movements was calculated to arouse the opposite sex. The way she tilted her head, the way her eyes brightened in interest, the purse of her lips or when she licked them, almost subconsciously but not. When she walked, her steps were controlled, balanced, fluid, her hips swaying in a motion that turned heads.
After six years, she had been so often on his mind that he had become borderline obsessed. He had to know everything about her now, watch her, learn what made her to tick. And when he had learned enough, then he would confront her, but slowly, subtly. He needed to be cautious. One move too fast and all would be lost, fractured.
For now, he was content to sit back and watch as the woman who looked too young to even drink meander through the bar like she owned the place.
Nathan fiddled with his beer bottle, keeping his head down but eyes up as he watched her grab the loosened tie of the man who had made her laugh and pull him toward the dance floor with their faces only inches apart. He could see her eyes smoldering into the unknown man’s, filled with lust and mischievousness.
She danced around him with a fluency that drew the attention of all those around her. Meanwhile, the man barely made any movements, obviously unable to dance. Nathan could tell he was overly embarrassed at the attention she was garnering as he laughed and tried to shake off his nervousness.
The woman smiled at him knowingly, finally taking pity on him and letting him draw her into his arms and lead her off the dance floor. Then she leaned into him and whispered something in his ear before giving him a coy smile. The man stopped dead in his tracks, eyes widening.
Nathan read the man’s lips when he asked, “Right now?”
She nodded then pressed up on her toes to lick the man’s surprised lips seductively.
And without further ado, Seraphina Nolic, the object of Nathan Style’s obsession and every dream, left the nightclub on the arm of another man.