Текст книги "Until Fountain Bridge"

Автор книги: Samantha Young

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to be humiliated about. He’s a prick who played you. He’s the idiot. He’s the stupid fuck

who’s going to look back and realize that for five months he was the luckiest bastard on this

planet to be with you. He’ll regret this, baby.”

Baby.

For a moment I forgot how to breathe. Adam had never called me “baby” before. There

was something somehow intimate about the endearment. I liked it. I liked it a helluva lot.

I smiled at him. “You always know the exact right thing to say.”

“Because I only ever tell the truth. You’re one of a kind, Els. Any guy would be lucky to

have you.”

I gazed into his eyes feeling his words like a caress across my body and as I stared his

gaze flickered over me again, surreptitiously checking me out before he took another sip of

wine. It occurred to me that perhaps all Adam needed was a push. Yes, I was Braden’s wee

sister, but I was also Ellie, the girl he apparently thought the world of and admitted he

thought was beautiful. Blame it on the wine or the fact that he’d stood up for me once again, I wanted him

and had decided impulsively that I was tired of hiding the fact.

I let Adam make me feel better as we finished off our glasses of wine. An hour had passed

before I knew it and I had kicked off my Uggs and curled up on his sofa, sitting close to him.

His arm still rested along the back of the sofa and every time I laughed I touched his bicep or squeezed his knee. I was an affectionate person, tactile and open, but it was more than that,

and Adam knew it. I could see it in his eyes as we chatted and I hoped my plan was working.

You would think hurt and betrayal would make me shy away from opening myself up and

laying it all out there but I just didn’t have it in me to close myself off. It wasn’t who I was, and I definitely didn’t want to be that way with Adam.

As the hour drifted into two, I became more determined than ever that tonight things were

going to change between me and Adam. I was sick of dating guys I couldn’t seem to fall in

love with, and even sicker of being duped by them.

Adam was in the middle of telling me about the Skype chat he’d had with his mum a week

ago and his parent’s plans to return to the UK for a few weeks in April, when I stretched my

arms up, pretending to need to crack my back. The movement pulled the hemline of my top

up, baring my flat stomach, and it also pushed my breasts out. When I brought my head back

down and relaxed, Adam had stopped talking and I could see a muscle ticking in his jaw.

“Ellie, what the fuck are you doing?” he asked hoarsely, his voice quiet.

Although my face burned with the possibility of rejection I shrugged nonchalantly.

“Stretching.”

His gaze drifted down my body and I watched his own tense. “You know what I’m talking

about. The touching, the flirting, the stretching…”

Heart pounding I shifted closer to him on the couch until my knees touched his outer

thigh. I licked my lips, nervous but completely turned on just by the mere thought of him

touching me back. “I think you know,” I whispered.

Our eyes met… and clung. The air thickened between us. Adam swallowed hard. “Ellie,”

he breathed.

Holding his gaze I reached a trembling hand out and placed it on his thigh and slowly I

moved it up, caressing him. It had almost reached the heat of his crotch where to my utter

satisfaction and delight I watched his erection strain against his zipper, when his strong hand grabbed mine tightly.

I’d barely let out a surprised gasp when he tugged on my wrist, yanking me against him. I

collapsed on him and he used my momentary disorientation to his advantage– he gripped the

nape of my neck and slammed my mouth hungrily down on his.

I melted against him. Just melted.

My fingers sank into his hair, and I rearranged my legs so I was straddling his lap. My

body sank into his. My mouth sank into his.

It was everything and more than I’d always imagined.

My skin burned and my nerve endings sparked and I was tingling all over. Adam tasted of

wine and heat and… home. I moaned into his mouth and Adam’s arms tightened around my

waist, somehow drawing me even closer, the kiss changing from passionate to dirty in a

nanosecond. It was suddenly biting and wet, our tongues tangling and licking and learning

every inch of one another’s mouths.

It wasn’t close enough.

As we continued to kiss, everything lost in a fog of sexual chemistry so electric I would

never again doubt romance novels, I felt his rough hands on my ankles, coasting along the

skin of my calves, and up the back of my thighs as he drew my skirt free of our tangle and

bunched it around my waist. Those hands of his caressed my bottom, giving me a squeeze

that sent a streak of heat between my legs and made me gasp into his mouth.

Adam groaned and put pressure on my hips, pushing me down on his lap so his hard-on

rubbed me directly between the legs, nothing between us but denim and the thin cotton of my

underwear. I sought the delicious friction, riding him until our mouths parted in brief

increments to catch our breaths.

Needing closer, needing him inside of me I sank down on him and dug my fingers into his

shoulders as I rubbed harder.

Adam growled and broke away from me to tug my top off. I raised my arms, our

movements hurried and frantic as he divested me of my top and then my bra. He cupped my

breasts in his hands and I arched my back into his touch.

“So perfect,” he murmured hoarsely, “So fucking perfect.” He captured my nipple into his

hot mouth and I cried out at the rush of pleasure that coursed through me, pushing me closer

and closer to orgasm.

My being so turned on seemed to fire Adam up. After I cried out I found myself flat on my

back on the length of the couch and watched threw hazy, lust-blurred vision as Adam

whipped off his shirt and pulled down my skirt and pants. The muscles of his ripped abs

flexed deliciously and I felt another rush of wetness between my legs.

He was so goddamned beautiful it wasn’t fair.

Our lips met again as he braced himself over me, my hard nipples brushing his naked

chest, my legs spread to fit him between them. He still wore his jeans, and the coarseness of

the denim was sensual torture against my naked skin.

As our kisses grew even more desperate I sought what I wanted from him, finding the

button and zipper on his jeans and undoing it. I pushed at his boxers, my hand sliding inside

to grasp him and tug him out. He was throbbing and hot and hard and I couldn’t believe this

was actually finally happening. Now I knew everything about him.

“Fuck,” he groaned against my lips, his hips thrusting as I pressed the mushroomed head

of him against my clit. I let go of him to grasp his lower back, tilting my own hips up as he

teased me. He kissed me again, hard, and I felt his erection slide down…

I spread my thighs wider and smoothed my hands down his muscular back to push his

jeans further down. I grasped his buttocks and pulled him to me. “Adam, please,” I begged.

“Adam…”

He froze. Instantly. His name on my lips bringing him out of the magical sexual fog.

Our eyes met as he pulled his head up, his body hovering over mine, his muscles

trembling with tension. While I imagined my expression was one of confusion, Adam’s was

one of horror.

It was a look that made me want to crawl inside of myself.

It hurt like nothing I’d ever experienced before.

He scrambled off of me, pulling his boxers and jeans up and then tossing my skirt at me to

cover me somewhat. “Ellie, we can’t.” He shook his head and practically jumped off the

couch, grabbing his T-shirt and yanking it back on.

I was feeling a mixture of things—confusion, hurt, sexual frustration—and so I was slow

in sitting up.

“For fuck’s sake, Ellie, get dressed,” Adam snapped harshly and it took everything within

me not to flinch… not to cry.

As I pulled on my clothes with trembling hands Adam exhaled. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry, I

didn’t mean to…” his voice was heavy with regret.

I didn’t say anything, I just straightened my clothes and reached for my Uggs, trying to

hold myself together. I couldn’t fall apart in front of him. I just couldn’t.

“Ellie?”

Finally I looked at him as I stood. He looked as heartbroken as I felt. It was a small kind of

consolation.

“Ellie, your Braden’s wee sister. I can’t… we can’t…” he gestured helplessly to the couch

before running a hand through his hair.

And that’s when I realized something absolutely tragic. While I thought what was

happening was something borne out of affection, attraction and, yes, love, to Adam what had

almost happened was something borne out of lust. He didn’t want to make love to me. He

wanted to screw me.

Pain lodged itself in my throat and I knew I was five seconds from bursting into big, fat,

hopeless tears. I spun away from him and rounded the couch, my long hair covering my face

as I grabbed at my jacket, heading to the door.

“Ellie,” Adam called out in panic but I was already yanking his front door open. “Ellie.

Fuck!” I heard him curse as I slammed the door shut behind me and bolted down the

stairwell, knowing the lift might not arrive in time for me to make my quick escape.

The tears were pouring down my cheeks as I raced down the stairs, trying to hold in the

gusty sobs that were ready to blow.

“Ellie, please!” Adam was suddenly in the stairwell, his footsteps pounding hard behind

me.

I ran faster, ignoring his shouts for me to come back and talk to him.

By the time he made it out of the building I was already racing across the street toward a

bus that was about to pull off. I got on it and the doors closed behind me. I sagged in relief

and glanced absentmindedly at the route number.

I didn’t care where it was going as long as it took me far, far away from the biggest

mistake I’d ever made.

***

There had been a few times in my teen years I’d cried myself to sleep. A couple of those

times had even been over Adam. But when I was a teenager, like most teenagers, anything

remotely negative seemed like the complete and total end of the world. Thankfully that flair

for the drama usually disappears as you enter adulthood. It did for me anyway. So when I say

I sobbed myself to sleep that night, it was without a sense of faux melodrama. The pain inside

of me was real. It was genuine. It was raw.

For a good eight hours I believed that not only had I been given 100% proof positive that

Adam Sutherland didn’t love me the way that I loved him, I also believed that I’d ruined us

and destroyed one of my favorite things in the whole world —my friendship with him.

I barely slept and woke up early to make myself tea, sitting in my big flat alone and puffy-faced wearing mismatched socks on my feet and a broken crocodile clip in my hair.

A pounding on the front door made me jump and sent hot tea over the rim of my mug and

splashing onto my skin. I bit back a curse and placed the mug carefully on the table,

scurrying out of the room and into the darkened hall.

“Ellie, open up!” Adam shouted through the thick wood. “Ellie!”

I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to somehow fix things and rewind the clock, but I knew

if I let him inside the flat he’d take one look at my face and realize that I, Ellie Nichols

Carmichael, was completely and utterly in love with him and that last night had devastated

me.

So I didn’t open the door. I leaned against the wall in my hallway and slid down until I

was sitting on the cold hardwood floor. I listened as Adam pounded my door and called my

name. I listened as my phone rang in my bedroom. I listened as Adam left a message on it. I

listened as he walked away…

When I woke up I was curled up on the cold floor. I blinked, trying to get my bearings and

as I did, everything came flooding back. I didn’t have time to dwell on it, however, because I

realized what had woken me up was my phone ringing. I got to my feet with a groan, my

back and neck hurting from my awkward sleeping position, and I ran into my room to pick it

up. According to the clock on my phone I’d been asleep for just over two hours.

My stomach flipped at the sight of the picture of Adam on my phone. I sucked in a deep

breath and answered it.

“Ellie, thank fuck,” he breathed in relief and I could just imagine him tugging at his hair in

anxiety. “I came by earlier.”

“I was sleeping. I had more wine last night so I was kind of dead to the world,” I lied.

“Els, I don’t even know where to start. I’m so sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”

“Adam—”

“I can’t lose you, Els. I can’t believe I fucked up like this but you have to forgive me. I

can’t lose you.”

When he said stuff like that it made it hard to hate him. Worse it made it harder to get over

him. But I knew from now on that I really needed to try. And not just say that I was going to

try. I had to try. I couldn’t live my life pining after him. So I made my decision to do just that.

“Adam, it’s okay,” I promised him softly. “It was a mistake. We got carried away in the

moment. And I’m sorry for running out on you. I was just embarrassed, that’s all.”

I heard his heartfelt sigh of relief and attempted to force the sting of tears out of my nose.

“Els, you’ve nothing to be embarrassed about, okay.”

“Okay.”

“So…” his voice grew even quieter. “We’re good. We’re still us?”

“We’re still us,” I managed, blinking back tears.

“I don’t want there to be any awkwardness between us.”

“There won’t be. I won’t let there be if you won’t.”

“Good, Sweetheart. Good. We’ll just forget this. It didn’t mean anything.”

I choked back the pain. “Right. It didn’t mean anything.”

Chapter 6

“It’s like a car crash,” Adam sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face as he handed me back the

diary. “It’s painful reading this from your perspective but I can’t look away.” He pointed to

another diary. “I want to know more.”

Not liking the strain etched into his features I shook my head. “Adam, we’re past all this. I

didn’t mean for this to be painful. I just thought… well now that I have you I can take a step

back and look at the pieces of our history without it hurting. And you know me.” I shrugged.

“The angst of it all seems romantic.” Then I frowned. “But you’re obviously not taking it that

way so I’m going to put these away.”

He clamped a large hand down on mine as I moved to lift the diaries. I glanced up at him

and he shook his head with a small smile. “It’s painful to read how my stupidity hurt you at

the time, but I like being inside your head. I like knowing that while I was struggling with the fact that I had fallen in love with my best friend’s little sister, she loved me back more than I could ever hope to deserve.”

I grinned at him. “One: you deserve it. And two,” I gestured to the diaries, to the story of

us, “It is totally romantic, right?”

Adam laughed, shaking his head at my single-minded determination to turn us into a

romance novel. “Maybe. But don’t tell anyone I said so. It’ll ruin my reputation.”

I pushed through the diaries looking for the familiar purple leather of the last one. “Baby,

you ruined that reputation when you told Braden Carmichael you were in love with me.”

“Cocky bastard knew all along,” Adam muttered unhappily. “Could have saved us a

couple of months of worry.”

“You mean,” I found the diary and paged through it, “A couple of months of you being a

mercurial pain in my arse.”

“Such a nice way to put it. But let’s not forget I wasn’t the only pain in the arse.”

“All I did was start dating again, and it took me ten months to do it after our little couch

scene. You got off easy.” I thrust the diary at him and he took it with a scowl.

“I was staking my claim.”

“No, you were peeing all around your territory without actually staking a claim.”

He chuckled and bent his head over the latest page without responding… because he knew

I was bloody right.

Sunday, August 13th

I haven’t had time to write anything down for a few days, partly because of studies and

partly because my seething anger has been taking up quite a lot of my time. You see, it all started on Friday afternoon when a casual conversation with Nicholas ended in me wanting

to strangle Adam…

As Joss and I walked toward The Meadows where we were meeting Braden, Adam, Jenna

and Ed for a picnic, I considered telling her what I’d discovered about Adam yesterday while

I was having coffee with my fellow student and friend, Nicholas. I didn’t get the chance to

tell her yesterday because she’d been working at Club 39. I knew Joss would be pissed off for

me and I needed that fire, I needed motivation to put Adam at an arm’s length and see how he

liked it.

It had taken me and Adam a few months to get past the awkwardness of almost having

sex, and even then things weren’t the same. If I thought about it, things hadn’t been the same

for a while. I think maybe since the lip brush incident when I was nineteen.

Anyway, I knew obviously that Adam had slept with other girls since he’d had me on his

couch and it hurt worse than I could ever explain. The whole incident made it difficult for me

to move on and I hadn’t. I hadn’t been on a single date in ten months.

That was all about to change, however. After making a crack to Nicholas about my dry

spell he’d told me maybe I’d have better luck getting a date if my friend Adam would stop

going around intimidating men out of asking. Surprised and to say the least, confused, by this

comment I’d asked him to elaborate only to discover that Nicholas had wanted to ask me out

months ago. Knowing how close I was to Braden and Adam, but feeling Adam the safer

choice, he’d called Adam and asked him for advice on where to take me out. Adam’s

response had been, “Stay away from Ellie or I’ll break your face.”

What the hell was that?

Seriously?

I couldn’t even begin to process how not cool that was. He was warning perfectly nice

guys away from me? So he was allowed to manwhore his way through Edinburgh but I

wasn’t allowed to go on a single date? I didn’t think so.

I wanted to tell Joss all that. Despite being incredibly secretive about her past, Joss had

proven herself straightforward. I needed her to tell me if it was okay or not to play a little

dirty with Adam. Honestly, I was just so tired of being the nice girl that he could just walk all over, knowing I’d still love him in the end. His actions had proven that he could be

possessive of me, which meant he thought of me as “his” in some small way. Well, I wanted

to show him that I wasn’t his. I wouldn’t ever be his unless he decided he wanted more than a

one night stand.

All this I wanted to confide in Joss that sunny Saturday as we strolled to The Meadows but

Joss was distracted by something so I decided it wasn’t a good time. I was curious whether

Joss’s distraction had something to do with Braden. She’d been acting strangely around him,

strangely enough for even me to notice during the aftermath of one of my headaches. We’d

been book shopping with Hannah when it happened. The headache hit me out of the blue like

it had been doing for the last couple of months. It was horrible and usually accompanied by

tingling and numbness in my arm. When it passed I was exhausted. In fact, lately my energy

levels hadn’t been great. I kept meaning to go to the doctor but every time I got this ominous

churning in my gut, and I put it off, promising myself I’d make an appointment the next day.

Anyway, the headache hit and Joss was concerned—she didn’t fool me with her ‘I don’t

care about people’ rubbish—and taking me to get some food in me. We bumped into Braden

and Vicky. While I was pissed off that Braden had slept with her again and brought her back

into our lives (and Adam’s orbit), I still noticed the tension between Joss and Braden.

Admittedly when they’d first met I’d had hopes of playing matchmaker but recent revelations

had spoiled my hopes. However, Braden still asked an awful lot of questions about Joss and

he stared at her (a lot), and I was beginning to suspect that, despite denials from both of them, something was going on. I didn’t know how to feel about that now that I knew Joss wasn’t

keen on being in a relationship. It was difficult to pin down her true feelings about anything

and I didn’t want either Braden or her to get hurt.

Deciding to bite my tongue about a lot of things I kept our conversation cheerful as we

approached our friends. Braden, Adam, Jenna and Ed were already there, sitting on a large

chenille blanket with two picnic hampers beside them. My eyes immediately went to Adam

and then quickly moved to Braden when I discovered Adam was watching me.

I laughed as Joss teased Braden upon our arrival, something not many people outside of

our family dared to do and I loved that Joss did. I think secretly my big brother did too.

Without thinking about it I flopped down onto the blanket beside Adam. His strong arm came

around me instantly and he squeezed me affectionately against his side. “Nice to see you,

Els.”

The whole point of the picnic was to catch up with Adam and Braden since they’d been

working so hard on the new development we’d barely seen them these last few weeks. I

missed them both, I did. I missed Adam, and inhaling the familiar smell of him and feeling

his strength pressed against my right side, I almost forgot for a moment my earlier resolve.

Almost.

“Yeah, you too.” I gave him a half-hearted smile and pulled casually out of his embrace. I

turned to Jenna and Ed to greet them properly, ignoring the sudden tension radiating from

Adam. He knew me too well, and he immediately understood something was wrong.

Good.

Hearing Joss tell Braden she needed to take a rain check on the picnic, worry brought my

head around to her. I gazed up at her in concern, suddenly wondering if there had been more

to her distraction earlier than I’d previously thought. “Is everything okay? Do you need me to

come?”

Joss shook her head, and waved her phone at me. “No, I’m okay. Rhian just really needs

someone to talk to. It can’t wait. Sorry.” She was avoiding Braden’s eyes for some reason

and when I glanced at my brother I found him studying Joss in a weird way. Did he not

believe her? Why not? Rhian was Joss’s best friend. She stayed in London and had been

having personal problems lately, so it was completely plausible that she needed to talk. “See

you later.” Joss walked away, her long ponytail swaying across her back. Looking back at

Braden I watched him watch her in a way that unnerved me. It wasn’t just the fact that he had

that determined, focused expression he got on his face when he was going after something—

usually a development and never a woman—it was the glimmer of excitement in his eyes.

I’d never seen him look at anybody that way. The romantic side of me sighed happily. The

practical side of me (and believe it or not I had one) worried her lip between her teeth,

thinking Joss and Braden were either the perfect match or a freaking disaster waiting to

happen.

Later, after having frozen Adam out to the point of seriously pissing him off, my

suspicions over Braden’s interest were confirmed when he pestered me all the way home

about Joss. I knew by the time he’d dropped me off on Dublin Street that he was going after

her, and I knew from having grown up with him that when Braden really wanted something

he was absolutely relentless, even when he was reaching for the impossible. I could only

hope Joss didn’t hurt him while he tried to reach for her.

***

I’d spent the picnic catching up with Jenna and laughing at Braden and Ed’s jokes. Maybe

once in the entire three hours we hung out did I speak directly to Adam, and I avoided his

gaze at all costs. That was difficult, considering he was constantly trying to catch it.

Thankfully there wasn’t a quiet moment for him to ask me what the hell was wrong with me,

so my form of torture worked out even better than I’d planned it.

I was gratified to discover it was a form of torture because by the time Braden and I left him, Adam’s expression was black with ill humor. Normally, Braden would have noticed our

behavior, but much like Joss he was kind of distracted.

I was even more gratified to discover later, after having a discussion with Joss regarding

Braden —I was still unsure of where Joss stood on that one since I thought she was protesting

her disinterest just a wee bit too much—and then confiding in her about Adam, that she

agreed with me: Adam needed to be taught a lesson. If he didn’t want to be in my life in a

romantic sense, then he needed to butt out of my romantic life. I was going to continue my

torture that evening.

Joss was working at the bar while Braden, Adam and I were going out for drinks with

Darren, the manager of Braden’s nightclub Fire, and Darren’s wife Donna. I wore a black top

that was backless. It was held together by a silk ribbon across the middle of the back, while

the front was demure with a high neckline and draped chiffon panel that fell a good three

inches past my waist. I’d matched the top with black skinny jeans that were so tight they

might as well have been painted on. My hair was pulled up into a messy bun to give

maximum impact to the top, and I was wearing four inch silver heels to match the silver tear

drop earrings I was wearing.

It was a little more femme fatale than I usually went for but it did the trick. Adam’s eyes

flared when I turned around after greeting Donna, his gaze burning as he took in the full

effect of the outfit.

That just pissed me off.

What pissed me off even more was Braden’s announcement that we were going to Club

39. Knowing what he was up to regarding Joss, I didn’t feel comfortable letting him unleash

his plan while she was busy working. However, Braden wouldn’t listen to me and Donna

wanted to check out the bar.

My annoyance levels increased when Adam held me back as we walked along George

Street.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or am I going to have to guess?” he asked, his

words clipped.

I shrugged, not looking at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ellie, don’t. Being a bitch doesn’t suit you.”

I flinched but kept walking. “You know what else doesn’t suit me? Being single. But

apparently that’s not my choice.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he hissed, his voice low since we’d gotten closer to

Braden.

I kept my voice low too as I illuminated him, snapping my head around to glare at him.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, you overbearing arsehole.”

“Everything okay?” Braden turned around to frown at us.

I nodded sharply and hurried forward to walk beside him. As we approached Club 39, I

sighed, “Braden, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

He shot me a wicked smile. “Always do. You know, Darren knows the doorman here.”

Turning to Darren, Braden set his devious little plan in motion. “Darren, why don’t you go on

in ahead and gets us drinks. We’ll find a table.”

Darren nodded and ignored the complaints from people standing in line as he shoved his

way down the narrow steps to the basement bar. He greeted the big guy at the door and they

spoke for a few minutes. He turned and pointed up to the street where we were standing and

the next thing was we were being waved down the stairs. Darren disappeared inside the club

and I watched Braden take Donna’s arm.

I glowered at his back. Donna was an attractive brunette and Braden was hoping to use her

to make Joss jealous. I knew how Braden worked. He liked this idea because it meant that he

could use a woman to make Joss jealous without actually getting entangled with another

woman. My brother liked reaction, and I was guessing he wanted a big reaction from Joss.

Part of me hoped she’d deal with it with her usual admirable self-possession.

Unfortunately my hopes were dashed. As soon as we got inside Club 39 my eyes swung to

Joss and I watched her expression harden as Braden leaned down to whisper in Donna’s ear.

He looked right through Joss and I saw a flicker of something I didn’t like pass in her eyes

before she quickly turned away.

I really wanted to bash my brother’s head against Adam’s.

More than anything I just wanted to leave the two of them to it. But Adam wouldn’t let

me. He pressed me forward as Braden managed to clear us a table and I brushed off his hand,

still playing it cool. I strode after Braden and stopped as he and Donna, followed by Adam,

slid onto a couch. Standing over them I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to glare at more.

“Ellie, sit your arse down,” I heard Adam snap over the music.

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head.

Adam’s expression darkened and before I had a chance to maneuver away from him, he

reached up, grabbed my arm and yanked me down beside him. At the feel of his body pressed

flushed to my side, I struggled to get away from him but was halted by the sensual brush of

his fingers across my bare back as his arm wound around my waist. His hand clamped down

on my hip and he forced me closer, his mouth at my ear. “If you stop acting like a petulant

child, I’ll stop being overbearing.”

I stopped struggling against him but held myself tense so he’d know I was still angry with

him. For the next hour he kept me held against him, his grip possessive and definitely more

than friendly.

Braden didn’t even notice. His eyes were burning holes in Joss and her colleague Craig

who had started the night off by sharing a kiss and spent the last hour flirting and having fun.

I liked this side of Joss.

Braden apparently didn’t. No. He did. He just didn’t like that she was doing it with another

guy. The mini-drama playing out before me almost kept my mind off my own, but when

Braden, who’d clearly finally had enough, got up and approached the bar when Joss went on

break and somehow managed to talk the other bartender into letting him into the staffroom, I

was brought back to my own problem with no escape.

Darren and Donna were up at the bar getting more drinks.

Adam and I were alone on the couch.

He caressed my hip soothingly, obviously trying to get me to relax. “So,” he spoke into

my ear again, reinforcing the feeling that we were in our own little bubble inside the bar.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re being a bitch to me?”

“Stop calling me that,” I snapped, turning my head so our noses were almost touching. I