Tyler
LAUGHTER WAS CERTAINLY in order.
A tall, dark, and witty dose, at that. It seemed rather ironic that Paris’s wine mogul was crushing on her champagne room bartender and not her.
Things were about to get interesting.
A smugness creased my brow that I couldn’t deny, just like I couldn’t deny that the look she was giving me bled disdain. “We need to talk,” she seethed.
The bartender practically ran out the door and that left three. “Me?” I asked, pointing to myself.
Her gaze narrowed. “Yes, you and I need to talk.”
Leaning against the wall, I crossed my arms. “I’m not going anywhere if that’s what you’re worried about. Not until I find out what’s going on, anyway.”
There was a frown on her full lips that I found adorable because now I knew whose dick they were never wrapped around.
Everything about her softened when she slid her attention sideways. To him. The douche that was striding her way. “Babe,” she said softly, placing her hand on his shirt, “I’ll catch up with you later.”
Babe.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when he whispered something in her ear. In fact, the entire interaction made my teeth clench and my gut knot.
When he strode past me, he did so like I wasn’t even in the room and then just stepped right out into the club.
I think I might have growled. I hated that he shared a connection with her that I no longer did.
The past was the past.
There was no rewind.
But could there be?
As soon as we were alone, I shook myself back to reality. “So,” I taunted. “Your sex life must be fantastic.”
“Screw you,” she tossed back, blinking at me with those lush, full lashes.
“You wish,” I recanted.
She shook her head. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
That hurt.
Stung.
Felt like she’d stabbed me with a knife because I had changed. Spent a lot of time and money assuring I didn’t end up like my old man.
Refraining from replying with another jab, I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the stirring of a headache.
See, I had grown-up.
But then I said, “Actually, I have. I’m much bigger now,” and I had to wonder if I sounded that grown-up.
She made a disgusted noise. “I don’t really care how big you are.”
“You used too.”
“Used, is the key word.”
Wishing I had a bottle in my hand, I looked up just in time to catch her smoothing her dress over her slight curves.
It was a reaction I knew all too well.
I mimicked what she’d done then mused, “Nervous.”
It wasn’t a question.
Her cheeks flamed red in anger. “Don’t you even dare try to act like you know me anymore because you don’t,” she huffed.
The heat was getting to me. I was feeling hot and bothered. Rolling my shirt sleeves up, I glared at her. “No, you’re right, I don’t know you. But I know that show you were putting on out there was for me. Just like I know you’re pretending to be in love, and don’t even try to deny it.”
As if amused, she gripped the edges of the break table she had strode over to and leaned against it. The expanse her silky smooth flesh had my mouth watering. “Okay, great, you caught me. Now what?”
I puffed out my chest. “How about we start with you telling me why you have a pretend boyfriend.”
She crossed one ankle over the other and I felt my dick go hard in my slacks. Down boy. Not a good time. “I don’t think so. You said start, so what’s next?” There was no smile. No laughter. Only hatred bleeding through every single one of her words.
I pushed away from the wall, and for the second time that night, I gave her my back. “Now, I leave,” I gritted out and trotted for the door.
“Stop being a coward, Tyler.”
With my hands clutching the jams, I glared over my shoulder. “What did you just call me?”
Those luscious red lips smiled like the devil. “A coward.”
“You know that’s not true. Now or then.”
Her lips pursed. “Do I?”
My fingers squeezed the metal. “Sorry, Paris, but I’m not going to play games with you.”
She stood up straight and tall. All red hair, long legs, and sex appeal that was bewitching. “That’s what I thought,” she snapped, and then she turned and swayed her luscious ass as she walked toward the door she’d come through.
Spell. Instantly. Broken.
No way was she walking away from me again.
Screw that.
I lunged forward, my steps becoming faster and faster the closer I got to her. Just as she was about to slam the door in my face, I reached for her and took hold of her wrist.
Up close I could see what a true knock-out she’d grown into, and for a moment I lost myself in her.
That mass of lush red waves that rolled all the way down her back. That smattering of freckles across her porcelain skin. That perfectly upturned nose and those pouty lips.
Frankly, I really had lost it because the next thing I knew I was pinning her to the wall and grinding my body slowly against hers. “You aren’t going anywhere. We aren’t finished, yet,” I managed to say.
After tonight, I had to wonder if we’d ever be finished.
Teasing me with the barest taste of her lips, she slid her mouth to my ear and whispered, “Oh really, we’re not? I thought we were . . . a long time ago.”
That smart-ass tone really got the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Needing to take control, I pressed against her navel, making certain to get her attention. “Leave the past in the past.”
Her head shook.
I had to ignore all that. “There’s something we need to talk about, now.”
I couldn’t believe I was going to open Pandora’s box.
A smile pierced her lips and she arched her back as she got on her tiptoes. “Don’t you think you should be on your knees, first?”
Quirking a brow, I pulled back, a bit surprised that she was going to get flirty so easily. “Say please and maybe I will,” I teased, returning to the way things used to be with her much easier than should have been possible.
Dragging her teeth over her lower lip, she sighed and scrunched her nose. “I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to go.”
Games.
More with the games.
I hated the fucking games and loved them at the same time.
Curious about her statement, I boxed her in with my arms, and with my lips hovering close to hers, I asked, “Why don’t you tell me what you’re talking about?”
She tapped her chin. “It’s down on one knee, right? That’s it. You’re supposed to get down on one knee, not both.”
Easing myself back, I had to work at playing it cool, which was fucking hard to do with the way the floor felt like it was crumbling from beneath my feet.
She knew.
She already knew the plan I never had any intention of actually executing.
Fucking Wilhelmina.