Page 3 of There's No Us Without You
I don’t even care anymore.
With a shrug, I blow out a breath and bring the glass to my lips. Darting a glance at the man beside me, I tip some of the liquid into my mouth, letting the warmth run down my throat and chest, then into my stomach.
The flavour is a shock to my tastebuds after bingeing on only tequila, and I wrinkle my nose as an involuntary shiver races through me.
Too bad if he just roofied me. Didn’t think about the fact I just accepted a drink from a stranger.
“Good?” The man raises an eyebrow as he glances at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Yeah,” I say, giving him a tight smile. “Thanks.”
A second look doesn’t help my situation. He’s still just as gorgeous—I don’t know what I expected to find. It’s not like in the minute I avoided looking at him, he’d somehow turned into an ugly toad.
With a wink, he nudges my shoulder with his upper arm. “No problem. You look like you needed it.”
I’m tempted to roll my eyes. “Oh yeah? What gave it away?”
With a nod to the glass in my hand, he grins. “Definitely the multiple shots of alcohol.”
If I thought he couldn’t get any prettier, I am proven wrong. Something about him feels, I don’t know... safe? Familiar?Which is weird because I’ve never met this man before now. Or anyone like him.
All I know is for the first time since I arrived here, I haven’t wanted to throw myself in front of an oncoming truck.
“That obvious, huh?”
He clears his throat and gives me a tight smile. “Well,” he says, lifting a shoulder, “it’s not every day you come across a beautiful woman in a wedding dress sitting all alone in a bar.”
“I’m not alone.” I pause, frowning. “Unless you did, in fact, roofie me, and I am actually hallucinating.”
Great. Drunk me sucks at keeping thoughts to myself.
What if I just offended him? Will he leave me here all alone again?
Although, I don’t have to worry about that when he throws his head back and laughs, the deep timbre rolling over my body like a wave.
“Well, that’s a new one.” He runs a hand through his dark curls, a grin now set on his handsome face. “I’ve never been accused of drugging someone before. Seems there’s a first time for everything.”
“So, I’m your first.” I lift my glass up in salute. “Lucky me.”
In an instant, his eyes zero in on my lips as he licks his own and slides his chair closer to mine. My mouth dries up when he captures me between his long legs, his feet now planted on the front and back footrests of my stool.
Am I even breathing?
Logically, I know I shouldn’t be having this kind of physical reaction to someone else so soon after running out on my fiancé. But logic can go to hell because this is something else entirely.
My entire body is buzzing, and I couldn’t control it even if I wanted to.
“You know,” he says, using a finger to tuck a loose lock of hair behind my ear. “Firsts are always the most memorable.”
I lick my dry lips and swallow hard as my gaze darts over his face. Is he flirting with me? Because if he’s waiting for me to flirt back, he’s shit out of luck. I wouldn’t have a clue what to do.
My heart is beating so fast, my skin doing that tingly thing again, and all I can do is stare at him with my mouth open.
His body is like a gigantic magnet, and I instinctively lean in when my resolve not to look at his lips falters. What would it feel like to kiss him? I bet he tastes amazing, and with a face like that, I bet he’s kissed plenty of women.
I’ve only ever kissed two boys in my entire life. One of them being a distant cousin, who pinned me to the ground when we were about ten years old and said if I told anyone about it, he’d kill my cat. I didn’t have a cat, so I didn’t know what he was on about. I kept my mouth shut, anyway. Not for his sake, but for mine. I’m not into kissing cousins, and I had enough sense, even at that age, to know letting that cat—pun intended—out of the bag would be a bad idea.
But the thought of kissing this man has me aching in places I know I shouldn’t be.
