Page 18 of Captivated

“Cash Williams, when are you going to stop acting like a child when it comes to women? I taught you better than that! I know you like your female company as much as the next man, but going on a date with a women because of a bet? I’m ashamed of you…”

I cringe. Fuck, I hate when Birdie says shit like that. “Look, I’d rather not go through with it, but I already made the plans. Don’t worry, I’m gonna let her down gently.”

“Why do you do this? Aren’t you ever going to get past this belief of yours that you can’t find love?”

“I don’t want to find love, Birdie. You saw what my parent’s marriage was like…”

“That was NOT love, Cash. Love is accepting a person for all of their flaws and never being able to imagine your life without them. Love is putting another person’s happiness before your own. Love is living your life one day, and the next day realizing you weren’t really living without that person beside you before…”

A stray tear slides down Birdie’s face, making me reach out to pull her close to me.

“I’m sorry, Birdie. I know you think everyone should have what you had with Preston and now with Samuel, but I just don’t think that’s in the cards for me.”

“I worry about you, Cash, but I’m not giving up hope. Even you getting in that accident a week ago reminds me how fragile life is.” She reaches up and strokes the scar still healing minus the stitches. I called Birdie while I was in the hospital to let her know what happened, and of course she rushed down to make sure I was okay. I let her be the worrisome mother for the day, but once she saw I was intact, she relaxed, but still seems a bit shaken up about the whole thing. “I think that woman is out there for you. And who knows, maybe you’ve already met her…” Birdie’s words trail off, but it isn’t lost on me that Piper’s face flashes through my mind and is gone as quickly as her words.

“We still have time for a game of Scrabble before I have to leave, if you want?” I release my hold on her and stare down into her eyes, hoping that changing the subject will alleviate this emotional cloud I feel like I’m suffocating under.

“I have time to teach you a lesson or two,” she winks. “But don’t think this conversation is over,” she continues, brushing aside her tears before we leave to the game room and she hands me my ass.

A few hours later after a shower and change of clothes, I arrive at Tony’s, itching with nerves over this date with Misty—all the while Birdie’s words play back through my mind.

I’m ashamed of you…

Yeah, well truth is, I’m a little ashamed of me too right now—and Cooper. We may be grown men, but this is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. Not just because I’m putting myself in Misty’s line of fire, but because she’s oblivious to the real reason she’s here, which is fucked up for sure.

“So, Cash… I’m really glad we’re finally doing this,” Misty purrs at me from across the table, her cleavage about ready to spill out the top of her tube-top as her curly hair bounces with each of her movements. I swear, onewrongmove and we’re going to have a Janet Jackson nipple-slip situation on our hands. And by the way those peaks are hard and drawing attention to themselves beneath the fabric of her shirt, I’d bet good money she’s not wearing a bra. I’m fighting the urge to stare down at them, but even a person with bad eyesight could see those things in their peripheral vision.

“Uh, yeah. So, how are things for you?” I ask, trying to be polite and chat, but internally I’m counting down the minutes until Cooper calls with a fake emergency to get me out of this. Murmurs of conversation filter around us and the clinking of glasses echo around the room. Tony’s Bar is the place to be on a Thursday night, a spot for the locals to unwind and converse with friends after a hard day’s work. Normally I would search the crowd for my next physical companion here on any given night, but tonight I’m fulfilling the stakes of my bet with Cooper in a place full of witnesses. And Cooper and Clara may also be watching from across the room to make sure I don’t chicken out.

I know, I know… it’s my fault I’m in this predicament to begin with. And yes, it’s Cooper’s fault that I’m currently on this date. But even though he’s the dick that gave my number to Misty, he’s still my best friend. So we made the agreement that I had to last at least one hour with her and then he would rescue me before things went too far. From his carefully perched spy position across the bar in a booth with his fiancé Clara by his side, Cooper looks smugly at me over the rim of his beer as I mentally punch him in the face for putting me in this situation to begin with. Clara is grinning from ear to ear as well, clearly pleased with my uneasy state.

Of course, it’s notentirelyhis fault I’m here—it’s my loud mouth and cockiness that made me raise the stakes of the auction in the first place. And I swear, if Clara hadn’t freaked out at the prospect of Cooper dating someone else and hadn’t thrown down one-thousand dollars to claim him as her own, effectively making him surpass my final amount earned, I definitely would have won our bet and it would be his ass sitting across from the succubus known as Misty Chambers, not me.

“Oh, life is great! I love working at the school—can’t beat weekends and holidays off, am I right?” She licks her lips and leans over to reach for my hand. I fake like I have something in my eye so I can draw my hand away from hers before our skin touches and I contract a disease.

It’s just an hour, you can do this. Get this over with and then vow to never do something like this again.

“Yeah, I bet. I have to work most weekends and holidays though, so I don’t know what that’s like.”

“That sucks. But, youdoget to wear that sexy uniform that makes my panties all wet.” She eye-fucks me across the table and my entire body shudders. Jesus, the woman has no filter or decency, does she? I mean, don’t get me wrong. A forward woman can be a turn on, if done correctly. But that’s a fine line to teeter on, and Misty has crossed the finish line and is going for lap two with her blatant intentions.

“Well, okay. Say, would you excuse me please? I need to use the restroom,” I smile politely as I stand.

“Of course. Don’t be too long though, Deputy,” she mewls and then drags her finger from her neck, down her collarbone to the crack in her cleavage, dipping it inside before bringing it to her mouth and sucking it off, extracting it from her lips with a pop.

“Fucking hell,” I mutter as I turn on my heels and head for the hallway that leads to the bathrooms. I step inside and brace my hands on the sink, questioning how the hell I get myself into situations like these. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a woman come on to me this strongly, not by a long shot. But Misty isn’t a woman I’m interested in in the slightest.

In fact, the only woman of interest to me lately is the hot-as-hell nurse that put me in my place when I acted out of line after hitting my head. But fuck me, Piper Davis has weaseled her way into my mind and no matter what I do, I can’t kick her out. She made it clear that my forwardness was a turn-off, and now I can’t help but see the irony in the situation I find myself in.

“Fuck. How much longer?” I say out loud as I pull my phone from my pocket and check the time. “It’s only been fifteen fucking minutes!” I shout in disbelief and run my hand through my hair, wondering how the hell I’m going to survive another forty-five minutes with this woman without her discarding her clothes at some point and mounting me.

“Man up, Cash.” Cooper’s voice draws my attention to the door as he steps inside the bathroom to join me.

“Fuck you, Cooper. You have no idea what’s going on at that table, man.”

“Ha, I can only imagine.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep her from touching me for the next forty-five minutes. And every time she licks her lips…” I fucking shudder again. “What the hell were we thinking making a bet like this?”

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