Chapter13
The more comments that people made to him throughout the night, the more that dark cloud hung over his head. Looking at Aaliyah when he’d picked her up had almost made him forget the type of guy he was. Hell, seeing her had made him forget almost everything else in the world but her. But with all of the reporters and their questions, so shocked that he would actually choose to have a girlfriend, and his teammates telling Aaliyah all of his stories from before, he couldn’t help but be reminded all night long of who he used to be.
Thankfully for him, there was an open bar. He needed it if he was going to continue to smile at the jokes and fight off the reporters that were buzzing around the night like flies. As he poured the shots down, he couldn’t stop looking at Aaliyah. She was handling everything so well, being so strong. He knew she’d stunned everyone when she stepped out of the limo; she’d even stunned him at the way she was able to stand so strong and proud next to him. It was one of the first times in his life that that the pride coming out of him wasn’t for himself but for her. He hated that throughout the night, his good feeling had quickly dwindled back to the mood he’d been in earlier.
But the more he drank, the fuzzier the edges of his frustration became.
“Another round, please.” His teammate Corbin sidled up next to him at the bar.
“I really shouldn’t,” Max slurred. “I was just getting Aaliyah another glass and going to have a seat with her.”
Corbin laughed. “You’ve already been up here taking shots. What’s one more with me at this point?”
He did have a point, so Max accepted Aaliyah’s long-stemmed glass of champagne and waited with his teammate.
“You know how lucky you are to have a piece of candy on your arm like her? Got to say man, of all the girls you’ve bagged, she’s probably the hottest. That smooth chocolate skin and that body, damn, you’re lucky.”
Max looked over to where Aaliyah was sitting with Eli. Corbin was definitely right, he was damn lucky. He’d hooked up with a lot of hot girls, but none that could actually wow a room like Aaliyah did.
“How long you think you’re going to stick around, though?”
Max turned back to Corbin. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean, I’m glad she’s recovering well from her accident and everything, but I mean, come on, it’s not like you’re getting any with her right now. I bet the action was hot before, but you probably haven’t gotten anything in a while, am I right?”
Max shrugged and silently wished the bartender would hurry up with their shots already. He really wasn’t liking where this conversation was going and knew that he wasn’t in the best shape to be having it.
“I’m just saying, how long are you going to play out this doting boyfriend card?”
The bartender finally arrived with their shots, and Max didn’t even hesitate before shooting his back.
“Why is everyone making this such a big deal? So I have a girlfriend, maybe I’ve changed,” he finally said.
Corbin twirled his tiny glass in his hand before he shot his liquid back too. “The reason it’s a big deal is because people can change, just not overnight, and everyone knows that you’re not the type of person who can change.”
Through dinner, he could feel himself pulling away from the evening. Aaliyah chatted with Eli and his date while Max just poked around at his food. In the middle of dinner, she leaned over and asked if he was okay, but all he could do was give her a small smile and squeeze her hand. Her face was etched with concern, and he could already see his destructive ways would end up hurting her. Corbin, the reporters, everyone was probably right about him. He couldn’t change.
“I’m fine.”
Right before the crème brûlée was served, he could see Aaliyah start to yawn, but it didn’t even occur to him to ask if she was ready to go.
“How about after dessert we get you into a car and get you back to your hospital room, okay?” Eli spoke up.
Max felt like an ass. He should have been the one to see that she needed to leave. But between his mood and his alcohol level, he was surprised he was seeing anything at all. Yet he tried to save himself by pulling out his phone.
“I’ll call the driver and have him bring the car around so that when you’re ready, we can go.”
Eli had been right. By the time dessert was served, it was obvious Aaliyah needed to go home, so they made their rounds, saying goodbye. As tired as he could see she was, Aaliyah was still enthusiastic, telling everyone how nice it was to meet them and that she hoped to see them again. At the door, Eli leaned down to hug her goodbye, and Corbin came up to Max.
“A bunch of us are going out tonight to the club; you should come with us. You’ve been living in that hospital room with her for weeks. You could use a night out with the guys to blow off some steam and have some fun.”
Max shook his head no. “Thanks for the offer.”
Corbin shrugged and gave him a slick smile. “I’ll text you where we are anyway, just in case you change your mind.”
Aaliyah fell asleep on Max’s shoulder on the way home, and he could feel his body coiling tightly. Too many depressing thoughts and worries were bottling up inside of him, and her breath tickling his neck was just making everything harder for him. Maybe Corbin had been right; maybe he had been holed up in the hospital room for too long and needed a night out with his friends. He texted Corbin and told him that after he dropped Aaliyah off, he’d meet them. He hit the send button quickly before he could change his mind.
She’d fallen asleep quickly, so Max really hadn’t had a reason to stay, which he figured would have been his only excuse for backing out of the clubs. But instead, there he was, leaning against the bar in a dark room where the music was pumping and girls, wearing practically nothing, were surrounding him and his teammates. Usually he’d be the ring leader of the boys, getting his first pick of the women around, but this time he was staying far away from the scene. He watched as his boys hit on the strange girls and the ways the girls flirted back. A touch of a bicep, one of the guys placing his hand on the small of her back, it was almost as if he was watching a dance. One that ended in someone’s apartment later that night.
It was hard for him to believe that he’d been that type of guy not that long ago. The moves he watched his boys do were moves he’d perfected, and he had to admit that just sitting back, sipping his whisky, and watching this all unfold was rather amusing.
“Well, hey stranger, I haven’t seen you in forever.”
He recognized the voice immediately and didn’t even need to turn in her direction to see who it was.
“Sylvia, it’s been a while.” Max flinched when he thought about the last time he had seen her. Aaliyah had caught them flirting at the table and had gone running out of the restaurant. Then again, it had ended well for them that night in her apartment, he thought, and a smile slid into place.
“Glad I can still bring out that smile in you,” she whispered. Her breath felt heavy against his ear, and he felt his body shiver—an old response to her.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it wasn’t her that was making him smile like that, and also he didn’t feel like he’d be able to convince her since it was her that made him shiver like that. Instead, he just took a step away from her with the pretense of ordering another round of drinks.
“How have you been?” he asked.
Tossing her head back, her laugh came out shrill, and he knew it had been a stupid thing to ask. The two of them had never been ones for small talk. He gratefully took his freshened drink and poured a large gulp into his mouth. In the limo, he’d felt as if he’d sobered up a bit, but if he was going to keep tossing drinks back as if they were only water, he was going to be starting to feel the world tip very soon.
“Want to dance with me?”
Sylvia was right up against him again, and for a brief moment, he remembered what her body felt like against his when there was nothing between them but slick sweat.
He took another swig and swallowed hard. “I shouldn’t…” he hedged.
But Sylvia was never one to take no for an answer. She was also a woman who always got what she wanted.
“Just one dance won’t kill you, I promise.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the pulsing dance floor. In his head, he could hear sirens going off, telling him to run away. The nights he would spend in the clubs with Sylvia would always start with drinks and dancing, their own little version of foreplay where she’d grind up against him, making it impossible to continue moving without wanting to rip her clothes off. Then, inevitably, he would get her out of there and do exactly that, rip her clothes off and have his way with her in every room of his apartment. In a flash, he could remember exactly what it had been like, exactly how hot it had been, and he could feel himself growing hard at the thought of her.
Quickly, he pushed her off of him and left the dance floor. He ordered another drink and tried to cool himself off.
“What’s the matter?” She was behind him again, her fingers lightly grazing his hip, and he could feel his body responding to her again.
“I can’t do this.” His words were becoming slurred again, and he could feel everything around him becoming unfocused and fuzzy. This was always the part of his drunken state where he’d single out the girl he was taking home and make his move.
“How long has it been, Max? At least since she got hurt, right? You’ve got to be lonely; you’ve got to be bottled up in there.” She reached around from his hip and grabbed on to him where he was already hard with need. “Let me make it better for you.”
He slammed the rest of his drink and turned toward Sylvia. His eyes couldn’t exactly focus on her, but that didn’t matter, he knew her well enough. Knew every inch of her body; he didn’t need to see her. He’d let his body do the talking. Quickly, he dialed his driver and grabbed her hand from off of him, pulling her toward the door.
The moment they got inside the limo, she was already unbuckling his pants, pulling them down where he was already hard and waiting for her. Sylvia’s eyes lit up at the sight of him, and she immediately put her soft mouth around his cock. Max closed his eyes, and a moan escaped from deep inside of him. She was damn good at what she was doing, and he couldn’t even think of a reason he’d want her to stop.
But he wasn’t going to let himself release in the back of the limo.
Instead, he grabbed her by the hips and placed her on the bench of the back seat where he had just been. Sliding up her dress, he found the sweet spot between her legs and began to taste her. It was familiar yet uncomfortable at the same time. His mind was telling him to back out of all of this, that it wasn’t too late. But his body was strongly disagreeing with his mind and kept pushing him.
After all, he knew now what type of guy he really was.
By the time he got her up to his suite, any amount of logic and reason had been completely replaced by his primal need for a body. A need to forget about his brother’s suffering, the pain Aaliyah was in, and the knowledge that he was screwing up his entire life by not being able to be the man he should be.
Instead, he tore off Sylvia’s short silver dress the moment he had shut the door behind him, and then he’d ripped down his own pants. Before he could stop himself or give it another thought, he thrust inside of her where she was already wet and wanting him. Her moaning in his ear made him drive at her harder and faster, not for pleasure, but for simply needing to finish the job.
He felt her ripple around him as her body violently fell apart. The sensation of her coming undone right there against the wall should have pushed him over the edge as well, but it didn’t, and frustration crept in. Pulling her off from the wall, he carried her with her legs still tightly wrapped around his legs and threw her on the bed. She trilled with excitement as he took charge, flipped her onto her stomach, and spread her smooth legs apart. It didn’t seem possible, but her screams became louder than they were before as he took charge and pushed into her from behind, pulling her hair and nipping at her neck. He knew she liked it this way, and he continued to pound into her until he felt his own release build.
Pulling out of her, he flipped her onto her back, and she made his own pleasure come hot and strong between her lips. Panting from exhaustion, he fell to the side of her. Between his powerful release and all of the booze, he could feel himself falling asleep fast.
He only had one thought before his mind finally shut down for the night: What have I done?