Page 22 of Bordeaux Bombshell
What I thought would be a momentary distraction turns into a full-onMomentin the space of a heartbeat. Without my consent, my spine melts, curving my body against his while our tongues wrestle. Years of wanting, remembering, and hating how good his kiss feels flood through me, drowning me in feelings I’m too worked up to battle.
If I thought I was going to stay in charge of this kiss, Nate proves that a lie as he continues to grasp my neck. His thumb digs into the muscle at the back of my skull hard enough to draw a moan from the depths of my lungs.
With a growl, he releases me and steps back, chest heaving while we stare at each other. The steady beat of The Proclaimers and someone singing about “500 miles” stomp on the shattered ruins of the unspoken rules between us.
Brown eyes search mine, full of questions I refuse to ask or answer. I’ve had a lot of bad ideas in my life—most of them to do with him—but this may have been my worst one yet. On pain of perjury, I would deny the spark that’s flaming to life inside me after that kiss.
Anger, lust, fear. They all swirl inside me, burning away whatever self-control I had left. A lifetime of lashing out, mostly because of the man standing in front of me, has my instincts taking over, coiling my muscles and readying to strike out.
Sawyer’s scoff is the trigger my body has been waiting for. “Whatever. Hope your tiny dick doesn’t get lost in her stretched-out pussy. Do you like being with a woman whose vag isprobably half rotted off from all the men she’s had before you?” He’s starting to draw attention from the strangers around us.
Neither of the men notices me until Sawyer’s doubled over from the elbow I jabbed into his stomach. “My mother says I don’t have to be polite to men who make me feel uncomfortable.” With that, I shove past both men and stalk toward Payton.
Pulling her away from her conversation, I lean close so I don’t have to yell. “I’m leaving. His friend is a fucking asshole.” I jerk my chin toward the exit. “Do you want to come with me?”
Payton bites her bottom lip, eyes flitting from me to Everett. He hasn’t noticed his friend wheezing a few feet away and tips his head in a question. “I just knocked the wind out of your friend. Hope you don’t mind.” I shrug, daring him to respond.
Payton is the one who reacts, throwing her arms up. “Jesus fuck. Are you serious, Sydney? Why do you always do this?”
“Do what?”
“Start a fight. Piss people off. Take your pick.” Payton rolls her eyes, then pinches the bridge of her nose. “I just wanted to get laid, Syd.”
Like lighter fluid, Payton’s words fan the anger inside me even more. Rejection washes over me, ice-cold water dousing my righteous anger. Bristling at the unwelcome feeling, I snatch my leather jacket from the back of a chair. “I’m closing my tab.” I shove my arms into the sleeves, feeling the pockets to check my shit is still there. “Seriously, your friend is an asshole. You should get a new one,” I throw over my shoulder as I turn to leave.
Joke’s on me—that could apply to either of them.
When I finally get the bartender’s attention, he just shakes his head and points to the end of the bar.
Where goddamn fucking Nate is holding my card up, raising an eyebrow at me like I’m nineteen and he just caught memaking out with a boy in the car. It’s not the first time I’ve seen him make that face.
Stomping over, I snatch my card out of his hand and shove it in my pocket without a word. I don’t have to look to know he’s following me out of the bar.
“How did you know I was here?” is the first question I fire the second we’re outside. A cold, wet breeze snaps past us as I move down the block, away from the music spilling out of the bar, so I can wait for my rideshare.
“You’re welcome.”
The man is so infuriating I want to explode. “Oh, come off it. I’m not thanking you. I had it under control, and you only made it worse with your goddamn overbearing act.”
He closes the distance between us in a few steps, grabbing my arm and forcing me to face him. “It’s not overbearing when you keep putting yourself in harm’s way. What were you thinking, antagonizing him like that? He could have seriously hurt you.”
When I scoff, Nate bristles. His chest heaves with a deep breath before he shoves his hands in his pockets, the light in his eyes dimming. “I’m just saving myself from having to tell Kel I let you get hurt.”
If this motherfucking Neanderthal thinks he’s getting away with following me to my favorite bar, acting like a possessive frat boy and embarrassing me, and then brushing it off like he’s doing my brother a favor, he’s got another think coming.
I jab my finger in his chest and lean close so I can hiss in his face. “Listen to me and listen carefully. Just because we have history and I occasionally let you get me off, don’t for one second think you have any claim on me. And just because I loved you once, doesn’t mean I feel anything for you now except loathing. A truce for Maggie and Kel’s sake doesn’t give you the right to interfere in my life.”
It doesn’t matter that this stupid fucking idiot has owned my heart since I was sixteen. That he was my first everything. That the reason I’m a shit show is because when I offered him all of me, he left me behind without a word of explanation.
I hate him.
And that kiss blew a hole in every wall I’d built between us, letting in a deluge of desire to feel the rightness and safety of his arms just one more time.
When his lips slam into mine, the dam breaks inside me, and I’m swept away in the flood.
Nate
Ididn’thearaword she said after “I loved you once” fell from her lips. The words reverberate through me, pulling at the threads stitching my badly mended heart together.
