Chapter 9

James

I had resigned to let her go and got in the shower fully prepared to clean up and go down to Club Expose where I could hook up for the night without any complications from feelings and confusion over what to do with them. I would walk in, scan the room, take my pick and find a nice back room or even a hotel to get lost in meaningless sex for the remainder of the night.

I didn’t need to let things get so complicated with Maya. She’d kissed me purely out of curiosity, and refusing her had been not only the right thing to do but the smart thing.

I’d planned a nice little fuck fest for the night, and after my shower, I dressed thinking I’d show her that even though she was living with me, we had a no strings deal too.

By the time I walked out into the elevator, doubt had started to overtake me. Too many emotions plagued me, and I decided my best course of action would be to head straight down and get the hell out of the building before I hit the top floor button and headed up to check on her. As the doors closed, I hit the button. “Fuck!” I pounded my fist on the elevator wall and shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from doing it again.

I couldn’t help myself; I had to know what she was doing. I had to know if one of these fucking guys was pawing at her, or plying her with alcohol so he could take her down to his suite and take advantage of her.

“I’ll just peek in and leave. She’ll never know I’m there.” The doors opened revealing the thumping beat of the music and laughter which brought my head around. Maya stood across the room with Darek Dillon. Her head was thrown back in laughter, and his hands were all over her; his eyes are staring up and down her body like she was his instrument and he knew just how to play her. My blood boiled.

The asshole had already ruined a perfectly good relationship by whispering his ‘Be it, Live it, Love it’ shit, and I was ready to shove one of those rainbow fantasies up his smug ass and punch him in the teeth. I took a step forward and turned around knowing I had to compose myself for Maya’s sake. She didn’t need some alpha douche bag coming up and baring his teeth and showing his temper.

I took a few deep breaths, and as I did, her eyes met mine. She immediately looked down to her waist and stepped out of his grasp. The handsy bastard.

“James! You came!” She stepped over and embraced me, but my eyes stayed fixed on Darek Dillon, who looked like he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar; my fucking cookie jar. And he wasn’t sorry.

“Yeah, I thought what the hell. I figured I should come up and protect you from some of the assholes who like to get beautiful women like you drunk and take advantage of them.” I took the drink from her hand and handed it over to Darek.

He placed it near a plant on a table beside him. “How are you, Thomas? You shouldn’t have changed your plans; I would have looked out for her.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

“I didn’t realize you knew each other.”

“Yeah, you could say that, but it’s not like we really do,” Darek gave me a cocky grin and then extended his hand. I looked at it, but I wasn’t about to shake his fucking hand.

Darek Dillhole placed his drink on the table next to hers. “Okay, I can see I’ve overstepped my bounds with you once again, but maybe if you’d had come with her in the first place, we could have avoided this awkward encounter.” He turned and walked away as Maya stumbled forward.

“Wait; why is he leaving?”

“Because he’s an asshole and if I hadn’t gotten here when I did, he’d have you wasted and horizontal on the sixtieth floor. Trust me; I know all about the guy.” I took her hand and led her to the door in a hurry.

“Stop, why are we leaving?” She glanced around to the others staring, and I tugged her hand, and she followed me to the elevator. The last thing I had wanted was a scene.

Once inside, she spun around and got in my face. “You had no right to come up and bust up my good time.” Her hot breath smelled of alcohol.

“Are you saying you wanted that guy all over you?” I couldn’t believe she would really want that, but if she did, she could stay with Darek and be his fucking assistant. I wanted no part of the guy around me or anyone working or living with me.

“No. I mean, he wasn’t all over me.” Her speech slurred and she wobbled a bit on her feet as the elevator stopped on my floor.

We exited the lift, and I had to help her walk to the door. “How much have you had to drink?”

“A few; maybe four.” She lifted her shoulders and put out her hands. “I didn’t keep count, but I didn’t know there’d be a quiz.”

“This is just like him. Did you tell him you stay with me? Did he tell you that he convinced my last girlfriend to leave me? For him. And then days later he dumped her. The guy’s a class A jackass.” I walked her toward the couch, but she took the closest chair instead.

She pulled her lips in tight as if trying not to smile and then she burst into laughter. “You’re jealous of Darek Dillon.”

“Please, a guy like that? What do I have to be jealous of? I’m smarter, better looking, and I guarantee you, I’ve worked harder in life than Mr. Personality. I’ve made my fortune helping people, not feeding them lines of bullshit to make them feel better about themselves. Success? Do you want to know how to be successful? He gives you a thousand ways in his seminars, but no one is to be a fucking leech like him as a motivational speaker. I bet he’d lose his cool guy persona if another person was so interested in his fucking livelihood.” As I ranted, pacing the room and waving my hands, she continued to laugh. “And you; how the hell does he know if I might be interested myself? He doesn’t. He just assumes that the world is his for the taking, and it doesn’t matter what. So, no, I’m not jealous of his fucking money.”

“I don’t mean his money. I mean me, silly.” She rose from the chair and stepped in front of me to put her arms around my neck and look me in the eyes. “You were jealous because you thought I wanted him.” Her hands slid down my chest, which heaved beneath my shirt as I tried to catch my breath.

She was the beauty calming the beast in me as she slipped them lower around my waist and lay her head against my chest. “I think you deserve better. Is that so bad of me?”

“You haven’t even considered what I’ve wanted, have you. You’re so angry.” She tilted her head back and stared into my eyes.

“What do you want?” I barely had time to get the words from my lips before hers crushed against them. This time I wasn’t going to pull away. She’d have to first.

A moment later, once my body had fully responded to the action, she pulled away and looked into my eyes. “You stopped me last time.”

“I didn’t want to. I was trying to do the right thing. I should stop you now, though. You’re drunk, and I’m not sure you’ll remember this later.” She needed to know there were good men in the world.

She ground against me. “I’m sober enough.” She slowly unbuttoned my shirt as she stared up at me with those big blue eyes. “I wanted you to go with me tonight because I wanted people to see me on your arm. I wanted to feel like I belonged in a big fancy place like this.”

“You do belong; it’s me who doesn’t. I’m not like the others. If you want me, this is what you get, Maya.”

“So, don’t stop me.” She reached the last button and spread my shirt open and off my shoulders. Then she worked at undoing my pants and fumbled a bit as she lifted on her toes to kiss me.

A gentleman would have stopped her. I wouldn’t be any better than Darek fucking Dillon if I took advantage of her in this state, but as I gripped her hands and pulled away, she gripped my shirt, holding me close.

“We shouldn’t do this, now. Maya.”

“Shh. Don’t you want me?” She licked the side of my face, and my cock twitched, punching the front of my pants where she tugged at my zipper. “I want you right now, James.”

How could I say no to that?