Page 38 of Bang Buddies With Benefits
“Again, it’s more about you not giving me enough slack. Perhaps you’ll think twice about that from here on out?” I tapped her nose to soften the words and veer them into request territory.
“We’ll see,” She skirted her fingertips across my jaw, pausing at the puckered white stripe of skin on the underside that no longer grew whiskers. “Has this scar always been here?” Her nose crinkle had no business being that adorable. “I mean, obviously it hasn’talwaysbeen there. I’m just surprised I never noticed it before and…” She started to withdraw, and I caught her wrist.
“You’re doing it again. Deflecting and changing the subject before you even get a full question out. This arrangement is about freedom, and the only confines I’ll allow are the kind that involve you being tied up and moaning beneath me.”
Pink flushed her cheeks, and her eyes sparked with our shared memory. Slowly, I guided her fingers to the cut that’d required ten stitches. Not only did I want her to ask me questions, but I was also becoming addicted to her touch, every cell in my body screaming “don’t stop” similar to the way she’d done moments ago.
“About a year ago, a nasty brawl broke out at the kraken. We’re usually better at cutting people off, but the place was packed, and apparently this dude thought he was in the wild west. I heard glass shatter and saw this dude charge one of our regulars. I leapt over the bar to break up the fight and”—I jutted out my chin, sighing at the blessed drag of her fingertips. “Caught the jagged end.
“It would’ve been worse, if not for some quick maneuvering. I managed to disarm and subdue him, and since Zoie had already called the cops, they were there within another minute or two.”
Instead of looking at me like I was some kickass hero, she frowned, eyebrows pulled low.
“What? Didn’t you hear about the part where I saved the day?”
“I just never thought about your job being dangerous before, and now I can’t stop thinking how much danger it entails.”
“Pfft.I’m so strong, nothing can hurt me.” I flexed, attempting to lighten the mood, even though I didn’t understand why or how it’d grown so dark. I wanted the afterglow back. “Those nights are rare, and we handled it. It’s nothing to get upset over, I swear.” I’d tease her about actually caring about me if she didn’t appear so distraught.
“Well, that’s good to hear. Anyway…” She sat up, sheets around her breasts, and while she only scooted a foot or so away, it felt like a mile. “What’s next on our plus-benefits itinerary?” She slipped on a T-shirt—not mine, unfortunately, not that we’d ever done the clothing swap thing, and why did it feel like my bearings had been thrown out of whack? “We don’t have anything else for a while, right?”
Did she have to sound so relieved? She clearly intended for the question to be a hint, too, one that conveyed it was time to wrap things up already. Normally, that was one of the things I loved about our trysts. No small talk or searching for an opening to mutter an excuse and leave.
Tonight, offense and disappointment pricked at my skin.
Because my lungs were still useless, too-flat organs—yeah, that was it. Nothing else. “Not this Thursday, but the next, we have waltzing lessons, immediately followed by the food tasting, and since the wedding party will be there, I could definitely use my wing woman.”
Put that way, it sounded fairly innocuous. Since I didn’t want to spring anything on her she wouldn’t be prepared for, Catalina knew it was more complicated than that, whether or not I said the full details aloud.
Because it meant we’d soon be facing Jeremy’s sisters, one of whom happened to be my very bitter ex.
17
Catalina
The waitress at Paddy’s Gaslight Pub neared me, lifting her pen and tiny notebook and then lowering it once she saw it was me—I assumed, anyway, since that’d recently become a bad habit of mine. “You’re a wee bit early. Are Penny and Ellie on their way?”
I crossed and uncrossed my legs, same antsy way I’d been doing since my arrival. After snagging our usual table, I’d checked my apps a ridiculous number of times—anything to avoid my email, although I’d accidentally opened it out of habit before immediately closing out of it again. “Yep. They should be here shortly.”
I’d shown up early, as though this were a presentation instead of a typical girls’ night out. Problem was, nothing in my life felt typical anymore. The complications all started around the time I’d deviated from my forever-single path.
Why, oh why, did I go and open my life up to that devastatingly handsome and charming bartender?I’d known better. Except, I’d also been arrogant enough to assume—see, there was that word—that I’d never slip and sorta, kinda, start to fall.
Just the tiniest bit.
More like a trip, really.
Four years of experience testified to that very fact, but then my foolish heart had to go and commit perjury. That was why I’d had to order an emergency injunction and put myself in solitary confinement.
Not from my friends. From He Who Shan’t Be Named, and I didn’t mean the noseless wizard.
I like how Zac’s nose has that small dent in the bridge and how it turns up slightly at the end. Masculine and artistic, at the same time, as if a sculptor took great care carving it out of stone.It also drew attention to his multi-talented lips and had me recalling last weekend when we’d been cuddled up in my bed.
Ugh, no! Bad, brain. Bad, bad, bad. This was why I’d texted the Dolls with Balls chat, informing them I needed help with something and was going to need the floor at the beginning of the night, before we got too tipsy to be good problem solvers.
“…fries? Catalina?”
I whipped up my head, shocked to find the waitress hadn’t left. More, that I hadn’t noticed.
