Page 9 of Red My Lips

The best way to deal with someone demanding attention, someone who’s trying to force your hand, is to ignore them.

Pulling my eyes away, I continue my shopping like I never saw him. Lana and I browse while she tells me about the restaurant her date’s taking her to tonight—sampling products and tossing things into our baskets—until we’ve both racked up quite the beauty haul. Stress claws at me with every swipe of my credit card, and I have to force myself not to cringe against the numbers being added to the balance.

Today was a shopping day, and this is our last stop after clothing and accessories. When we’re finally done shopping, we check out.

Walking out the door, I can see when Lana registers our shadow. “There’s a man on your car,” she murmurs, leaning in. “Is he yours?”

“Yeah, just ignore him,” I say, staring straight ahead. Stowing our shopping bags in the trunk, Lana climbs into the passenger seat without a word. When I approach the driver’s side, there he is.

His massive frame leans against my vehicle, taking up space and drawing me in like gravity. The closer I get to him, the more my body responds.

I want him to wreck me.

I don’t spare the man a glance when I reach for the handle. He doesn’t budge an inch, simply standing with his hands tucked under his crossed arms to display the rich ink covering his beautiful, bulging biceps. After a moment of trying—and failing—to get my door open, I finally give him a taste of what he wants.

“Gage.”

“Jill.”

“You’re in my way,” I say, keeping my tone and expression neutral. He doesn’t like being ignored, and despite his calm demeanor, I can feel the tension radiating off his body. Instead of backing away, he leans in, speaking intimately into my ear.

“I want to be in more than just your way, little devil.” He gives me a cocky grin when he finally steps back with a dark promise. “I’ll see you around.”

I open my car door as soon as there’s enough room, not bothering to make sure it doesn’t hit him on my way in. Unfortunately, he’s faster than me and dodges it effortlessly. I climb behind the wheel, shutting the door soundly behind me.

“Is that Gage Lawless?” Lana asks, pushing her vintage Prada sunglasses down her nose to look at him over the frames.

“That’s him,” I confirm, starting the car. I told her all about last night, all the way up until the part where I met up with Jonas and killed him. I spared no details about what happened between me and the new owner of Inferno. There are no secrets between me and my best friend—aside from the ones too dark to see the light of day.

Gage tucks his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as he walks backward towards a motorcycle, only taking his eyes off me to tilt his head and grin at Lana before his gaze locks back on me.

“Goddamn,” Lana murmurs, echoing my thoughts the first time I saw Gage. “That man wants you so bad. Are you gonna fuck him?”

“Probably,” I say, putting the car into gear. I rev the engine and peel out of the parking spot, but not before flipping him the bird. “If he’s any good, I might even let him fuck me.”

The question isn’t if I’m going to fuck Gage. It’s whether or not I’m going to kill him.

“Here you go,” I shout over the club music. “Four Hellfire shots.” Placing the tray on the counter in front of the group of girls, I grin as their eyes widen. The red shots look so pretty, with flames dancing on the tops of each glass. They exchange glances before grabbing a shot each to clink in cheers and down in one gulp.

They each cope with the effects differently—one shouting with a whoop, one screwing her eyes shut tight and clenching her fist in front of her, one hopping around in a little dance, and one taking it with a straight face like she’d just taken a sip of water.

“Another round?” I ask, but they shake their heads.

“No, I wanna go dance,” the hoppy girl says, tugging two of her friends’ arms. “But we’ll definitely be back. That shit is good.”

“Thanks, girl,” the straight-faced girl says, laying down some bills. They paid when they ordered the shots, so this is for me. I accept it with a smile.

“My pleasure, ladies. Enjoy yourselves.” I’m off in ten minutes, so I won’t be here when they come back. But Billy will take good care of them when he takes over behind the bar.

As soon as they walk away and disappear into the crowds on the dancefloor, I let out a deep breath. My eyes lift to scan over the crowd, half expecting to find a dark figure standing amongst the partiers—watching me.

Gage has appeared several times since my shopping spree earlier today, always watching me like it’s his favorite thing to do. Every time, he makes himself known—standing out so there’s no confusion about what he’s doing.

I don’t try to avoid his attention. In fact, I meet it head on. I never shy away from meeting his gaze, but I won’t let it affect how I live my life. He can watch me, try to get inside my head and toy with me. But I’ll decide when it’s really time to play.

Seeing nothing in my perusal of the dancers, I focus on collecting my receipts and cash tips. Tonight has been hectic, to say the least, and I’m glad I’m not closing. There have been some big and rowdy groups here tonight.

I’m not working at the main bar, which is a blessing and a curse. Tonight, I’m at the smaller second bar Inferno has off the dancefloor. We only serve shots over here, so the work is faster and much simpler. But the chaos is so close to the DJ booth, with sweaty throngs of dancing partiers, that it can be overwhelming, and the tips are a lot smaller.

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