Page 10 of Bounced Into Love

“As far as I’m concerned, our relationship started the night you first stepped foot in Ice.” It might’ve taken me five weeks and a nudge from my boss to make my move, but it wouldn’t have been too much longer before I broke on my own. Either a guy would’ve hit on her and gotten his ass kicked by me, or she would’ve stopped coming around and I would have had to hunt her down. Even though she deserved better than me, she was always meant to be mine.

Chapter 8

Kiara

“Are you coming out with us tonight, or do you have a date with that bouncer from Ice?” Glancing up, I found Susan standing near the edge of my desk. I could’ve sworn there had been an odd edge to her voice when she asked me about my plans, but there wasn’t anything unusual about the way she was looking at me. Since I hadn’t gotten much sleep over the past week, I figured I must’ve been mistaken and smiled back at her.

“I’ll be at Ice—”

Her expression fell, and she muttered, “That’s too bad. I was hoping you two had hit it off, especially since you’ve seemed a little preoccupied all week. I know how distracting new relationships can be.”

“Yes—”

I wanted to bang my head against my desk when she interrupted me again. “I refuse to give up on the two of you. Maybe this will be your lucky night, and something more will happen.”

Thinking about how we’d spent the past week, my cheeks filled with heat. Considering how many orgasms he’d given me, there wasn’t much more that could happen between us other than actual sex. Ever since he’d found out he was the first man to touch me, Jaxson had been relentless in his pursuit of my pleasure. He took every chance he had to touch me, and he made sure he had plenty of them.

I certainly wasn’t going to share any of that with Susan, so I just mumbled something noncommittal and nodded. She’d see soon enough how things were between Jaxson and me. He wasn’t shy about public displays of affection, even when he was at work. He’d had ample opportunity to demonstrate how little he cared about people seeing us together since we’d settled into a routine over the past week where we spent basically every available moment together. Even if I walked into Ice with my coworkers, it wasn’t going to change anything. I was going there to be with Jaxson just like I had four other nights, not them.

That knowledge helped me ignore the little digs Candice shot my way as we made our way to Ice. Susan shushed her a few times, but it didn’t seem to do much to slow her roll. When she spotted Jaxson manning the door, she tugged the hem over her skirt up and the collar of her shirt down.

“Candice.” Susan hissed.

“Don’t give me that. I played it your way for more than a month! She had her chance, and she wasted it. All she managed was a conversation with him.” She flashed a fake smile my way. “Don’t feel bad, sweetie. He’s probably just looking for a real woman and not a girl.”

Candice calling herself a “real woman” when nothing about her was authentic was incredibly ironic. The only time she was being genuine was when she was bitchy…which made what was about to happen even better.

I held back, flashing Jaxson a wink when his gaze darted over Candice’s shoulder after she approached him. He ignored whatever she was trying to tell him and shouldered past her to get to me. He claimed my mouth in a brief but deep kiss. When he lifted his head again, his eyes were full of heat. I’d quickly become familiar with that darker shade of green and associated it with the mind-blowing orgasms that usually followed.

“I was starting to think you’d never get here,” he growled.

“It’s barely after six, and you don’t even have a line yet.” I gestured towards the empty sidewalk in front of the club.

“Yeah, it’s only the usual after-work crowd so far,” he agreed. “But I’ve gotten used to seeing you before six.”

“It’s not like fifteen minutes makes that big of a difference in the grand scheme of things,” I pointed out with a smile.

“I’m a greedy man when it comes to you.” He brushed his lips across mine before tugging on my hand to lead me to the door. He gave Susan a brief nod of greeting but continued to ignore Candice, which made me giggle. “You want to sit with your friends? There are a couple of tables open on the main floor.”

I quirked my brow at him in confusion because he liked to get me settled at the bar until it got busy and then he moved me to the VIP section. It was more private, and I’d done a lot of reading up there while he was working. He knew I liked the booth in the back of the VIP section, and this was the first time he suggested I use a table in the open area in front of the bar. When he gave me a slight shake of his head, I figured he’d explain later.

“I’ll have a drink with them, and then I’ll head over to my usual spot at the bar.”

He didn’t look happy with my answer, but he still offered to send over a round of drinks. “Do you want a strawberry lemonade vodka?”

“Yes, please.” I rose up on my toes to give him a peck on the lips. “Susan likes Chardonnay, and Candice usually orders a cosmopolitan.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” he muttered as he walked away.

Susan and Candice rushed over and dragged me to a table. “I thought nothing came out of your conversation with the bouncer?”

“That was definitely not nothing,” Candice grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. Even when she was pouting, she still found a way to showcase her breasts to any guy who wanted to look.

I shrugged. “You interrupted me and jumped to a conclusion before I could correct you. I figured you’d find out you were wrong soon enough.”

“So you just let me go on thinking it and didn’t say anything?” Susan’s tone raised an octave, and her cheeks filled with a dark red color.

I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her overreaction. “For less than fifteen minutes.”

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