Chapter Three
Violet
As we walked into The Tavern, I took in all the sights and sounds and soaked up the atmosphere. There was a band on stage at the far end of the room, playing a cover of a popular country song. The dance floor was filled with couples shaking their asses with wild abandon.
I scanned the faces of the people in the room and tried to tell myself that I wasn’t looking for my husband, Adam, but that was a lie.
I was totally looking for him.
Not because I wanted to see him again—I’d be a very happy woman if I never had to set eyes on him again, but because I was hoping that he wouldn’t be there. When I didn’t catch sight of him anywhere in the room, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I was also not looking for Luke.
But that was another lie.
When I saw him standing around a high table with Mason, Coop, and Ethan, my heart missed a beat and I mentally performed a little happy dance. God, there was something so masculine about him, and something so sexy. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was exactly about him that got my motor running, but he just seemed to ooze sex appeal.
Of course, I wasn’t the only woman who noticed it. The group of women on the table next to him looked like they were practically hyperventilating. I could relate. He’d had the same effect on me countless times.
“Oh, this is great!” Libby said with her usual enthusiasm. “Come on, let’s dance.”
I wasn’t in the mood for dancing, but I dutifully followed her, Andrea and Faith onto the floor and by the time the third song came on, I had to admit, I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
I still had the same concerns, but I pushed them to the back of my mind. I stopped worrying about running into Adam, stopped fretting over what beautiful woman Luke was going to go home with, and just cut loose.
I hadn’t even realized how much I’d needed a night of dancing and enjoying myself with the girls, but I definitely had. The previous few months, starting from around the time I’d caught Adam cheating on me, had been stressful, but things were finally starting to get better.
My web design business was going from strength to strength and I’d stopped barricading my bedroom door with a chair when I went to bed every night because I was no longer afraid to be in the house on my own. But most of all, I’d finally started to heal from my broken heart and had come to accept the fact that not all men were assholes, I had just happened to pick one of the bad ones.
There was something to be learned from that.
If and when I got into a relationship with someone new, I would not make the same mistake again.
Players were most definitely off the table.
So were sexy as all get out bikers like the one who was currently watching me dance while simultaneously looking as if he wanted to devour me.
As the night progressed, we alternated between the bar and the dance floor and all of us except for Libby, for obvious reasons, proceeded to get more than a little tipsy.
I’d fought the urge to keep staring at Luke, but I continued looking his way regardless and each time I did, his eyes were trained on me. I’d never understood why when you were trying not to look at someone, your gaze sought out that person all the more.
It was seriously inconvenient.
At some point in the night, Mason had grabbed Libby and they were slow dancing together to each song that the band played, regardless of whether the song was slow or fast. Coop was swinging Faith around the floor which left Andrea and me to our own devices.
Several times, I noticed Andrea look in Ethan’s direction and I was about to ask her if she had a thing for him when a handsome, well-dressed man started dancing in front of her. I expected her to turn her back on him or tell him she wasn’t interested, but when she grabbed his hand and began dancing with him, I sighed and decided to go and get myself a drink.
I headed for the bar and was halfway there before I caught sight of Adam leaning against it, chatting up a pretty young girl who looked as if she was still in her teens. I stopped dead, frozen. It was the first time I’d seen him in a couple of months, but it was two months too soon.
There was no way I was going anywhere near the bar with him there. But as I looked back to the dance floor, a slow, sultry song started playing and the girls moved closer to their partners and started slow-dancing with them.
I didn’t know what to do with myself.
When I looked towards the bar again, Adam gazed my way and his eyes widened when he caught sight of me. Shit. This wasn’t good. I didn’t want him to feel sorry for me for being on my own, and neither did I want him to think that I was following him or watching what he was doing and who he was with because the truth was, I didn’t care in the slightest.
I started to panic and I was moments away from bolting when Luke grabbed me and pulled me back onto the dance floor—far enough away from Andrea and the others and also, thankfully, far enough away from the bar and from Adam and his ‘date’.
Luke took hold of one of my hands and slid his other hand around my back. He pulled me in close to his body and began to sway in time to the music.
“Thought I’d get that dance you promised me,” he said against my ear.
He had to have seen the panic on my face, but if he had, he chose not to comment on it and for that, I was grateful.
“I don’t recall promising you anything.”
He shrugged. “My mistake. Guess I also confused the way you’ve been fucking me all night with your eyes as an invitation.”
I snorted. “When was the last time you got your eyes tested? You’re seeing things that aren’t there.”
Luke chuckled. “That a fact?”
He glanced towards the bar then back again. “You know, I never understood why you married him.”
I sighed. Lately, I’d been struggling with the why of it myself. I shrugged.
“He was charming and funny at first. I suppose he swept me off my feet.”
“He’s a player.”
I snorted. “Takes one to know one, eh?”
Luke shook his head. “I’m not a player.”
“There are a dozen women in this town who’d probably disagree with you.”
Luke pulled back until he met my gaze. “You’ve got it all wrong about me. I’ve never played a game with a woman’s emotions. I’ve never pretended that what I had with someone was anything more than what it was.
“I never promised anyone anything. Just because I enjoy sex now and again and I’ve been with a few women, that doesn’t make me a player.”
My lips twisted into a cynical smile. “A few?”
Luke shrugged. “Like I said, you think you’ve got me all figured out, but you haven’t. Seems to me that you only see what you wanna see.”
We were going to have to agree to disagree on that point.
I’d been so focused on my conversation with Luke that I hadn’t realized we were moving away from the dance floor until he spun me around, pushed me up against a wall then pressed his muscular body into mine.
I gasped.
“What are you…?”
“When are you gonna let me fuck you, Violet?”
His expression was stark and honest, but raw emotion swirled in his eyes—a fire that burned bright.
I opened my mouth to reply, but no words came out.
How was I supposed to answer that anyway? I was shocked that he’d been so blunt. And, if I’m being honest, a little turned on by his crudeness. What the hell was wrong with me? How could I be turned on by that?
“What makes you think I want you to?” I shot back at him.
He used one of his knees to spread my legs wider then pushed his thigh in between them so that I was practically straddling it. It took all of my restraint not to press my core against his leg to try to find some relief.
“It’s been, what? Six months since you split up with the asshole? That’s a while to be without a man between these beautiful thighs. Let’s not play games.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me. You want me. And I want you. You know I do. So why not let me take care of that ache you’ve gotta be feeling right about now? Let me scratch your itch.”
God, I wanted to say yes.
My every instinct was screaming at me to accept what he was offering. He was right. It had been too long and I had missed sex. And here was a man who I was seriously attracted to who was offering it up to me on a plate. Why not give in to my desires and sleep with him? I wouldn’t be hurting anyone. Would I?
A lazy grin spread across his lips. “I can all but see the cogs turning in your head. Let me make it easy on you. Say yes. Let me inside that beautiful body of yours. Let me make you scream.”
Despite my best efforts to suppress it, a ragged groan slipped from my lips. Something bold and compelling flared in his eyes then his gaze slid slowly and seductively to my lips. Without another word, his mouth descended on mine, and his tongue pushed into my mouth, urgent and demanding.
I kissed him back.
I had to.
I was powerless to stop myself.
As the kiss turned hungrier and more insistent, it was all I could do to keep upright. When he pressed me back against the wall, every inch of his hard body pinning me in place, my head spun. It was glorious and made me feel alive. After so many months of denying my desires, my arousal hit full force. Within moments I was wet and aching and ready to do something I wasn’t convinced was the best course of action.
As his hands moved roughly down my sides, I craved more of his touch, more of him. But then the band stopped playing and the few moments of quiet in between songs brought a certain amount of clarity to my mind.
I pushed him away.
“Luke, don’t I…”
I glanced over at the dance floor and realized that Andrea was watching us with a scowl on her face.
It was like getting doused in a bucketful of ice water.
Luke followed my gaze.
“Vi, forget about my sister. She’ll probably bitch and moan about us at first, but she’ll get over it.”
I glared at him. Thinking about sleeping with him was one thing, but if I’d agreed to it, did he honestly think I was going to tell his sister about it? He put his hand on my jaw and turned my face to his.
“Don’t bail on me now. You want this.”
“I shook my head. I’m sorry. I can’t. I just can’t do this.”
“Listen to me. We’ll talk about this later. I’ll come to your house, okay?”
“I…” I glanced at Andrea again then extracted myself from his grip. “I’ve got to go.” I strode across the dance floor to where Andrea was dancing alone.
“What the hell, Vi? Did you just kiss my brother?” she asked when I reached her.
“No,” I said, sounding defensive. “He kissed me.”
She scowled. “Yeah, right. You hardly looked like an unwilling participant. Jeez, my brother? That’s gross.”
But it hadn’t been gross.
Far from it.
The kiss had been incredible, better than I could have imagined and the only thing that kept playing over and over in my mind was how soon we could do it again.
But I didn’t think Andrea would have appreciated that nugget of information so I kept my mouth shut and let the subject drop.
I danced with her for another couple of songs then dragged her to the bar where we downed a few shots of a luminous green, fruity shot that tasted as disgusting as it looked. I wasn’t even bothered by the fact that Adam tried to engage me in a conversation, which, I naturally ignored.
“What happened to that guy you were dancing with?” I shouted over the music.”
“Got bored of him!” she shouted back.
Of course she had.
Andrea got tons of male attention, but none of them ever held her interest for longer than five minutes. Oh, some lasted for a few dates, but none had ever stuck around long term and I knew for a fact that had never been their decision.
She always let them go.
By the time we left the club, I’d almost convinced myself that the kiss with Luke hadn’t happened.
Almost.
But it had happened.
And it had been everything I’d hoped it would be and more.
And now, I really, really wanted it to happen again.