Page 3 of Huge Games

At the bar, I order two of my favorite peachy cocktails and drink them both so fast, I gasp from the immense brain freeze.

"Easy, tiger." Travis orders me another and pays before either Dornan or I can offer. Dornan tips his beer at Travis gratefully, and I sneak a sideways glance at Travis's profile, watching his throat move as he swallows down his drink. Damn, there's something really masculine about him. Maybe the extra years he has are enough to set him apart. He has that strong jaw and brow thing about him that's seriously sexy, and his biceps are more than lickable.

"So, what's the plan?" Dornan leans against the bar, still using his body to shield me from Eddie. "Are you going to hide out over here all night because that cocksucker is marking his territory over there?"

"You think he's there on purpose?" Travis asks, resting his beer on the wet bar top.

"He knows Celine is hanging out tonight. I caught him listening while I was talking about it with Ellie in the coffee shop earlier. There are plenty of other places he could have chosen to go with his friends, but he happens to pick this place where he can intimidate Celine."

"I'm not intimidated." Without thinking about it, I draw myself taller and push my shoulders back.

"Down girl." Dornan touches my arm, his big, rough hand warm against my skin. "Maybe intimidated is too strong. Where he can make his presence felt."

"I'm done with him. I don't care where he is."

"So, let's get back over there."

For all my bravado, I'm not eager to face Eddie, especially in front of everyone. But Dornan is looking at me expectantly, and I don't want to lose face in front of Travis. Ellie's words are still simmering in my alcohol-loosened mind. Rebound sex seems mercenary, but maybe a little fun could help take my mind off things and show Eddie how unbothered I am by his infidelity.

As I follow Dornan back across the room, sipping on my peach cocktail with Travis at my side, the alcohol makes me wobble. Yowzah! I'm going too fast, or maybe it's my mood combined with the drink that has me spinning out of control.

Ellie grins at me from where she's resting with her back against Colby's front. Her stepbrother-boyfriend has his arm across her chest, protectively holding her in place and sending the ‘mine’ signal to anyone looking. A pang of envy shoots through me. Eddie was never like that with me. He'd be sexual in front of other people, grabbing my ass or groping beneath my shirt, and I'd swat him away, but there was never any protectiveness in the way he treated me in public.

Dornan stops to talk to Colby, and Travis slides into a booth. I crane to look in the direction of Eddie's table, and my head spins. My feet seem to get tangled, and suddenly, I'm stumbling right into a huge, rock-hard chest. Big beefy arms close around me, and I scramble to stabilize myself, grabbing handfuls of soft, warm shirt.

When I look up to see who's holding me like a log, I find Elias staring down at me with one dark eyebrow cocked.

Elias. Fuck.

A flash of him hefting me against him with just one hand and then pinning me against the wall momentarilyblinds me. The furious way he fucked me knocked the breath from my lungs then, and the memory of it does the same.

"You're drunk."

"I'm fine." I try to push away as his onyx eyes bore into me, deciding something different, but he lifts me like a sack of potatoes and tosses me into the booth next to Travis. I brace my hands on the cool table before me, my mouth hanging open. Angry, indignant words catch in my throat, but Elias grins as he slides in next to me as though he intends to use his big, strong, unbelievably muscular, sexy body to block me from leaving the booth.

Idiot.

The picture of Eddie cheating flashes into my mind. He was in a booth like this with his tongue rammed down another girl's throat and his hand up her shirt.

Distantly, Travis asks me if I'm okay. I blink as his familiar blue eyes, filled with concern, trail over me. If Eddie can do it, so can I.

Without seriously considering the impact of my actions, I shift closer to Travis and press my lips against his. We both have our eyes open so I can see his surprise, but then he moves his mouth over mine in a sensual, slow, spine-tingling kiss, pushing his hand into my long hair and pulling me closer.

My head spins, but this time, it isn't from the cocktails. It's all Travis.

The scruff on his chin scratches my face in an arousing way, and when his tongue slides against mine, my pussy clenches between my thighs.

Jeez. Gabriella's brother has skills.

"Come on, Celine. You don't need to be doing that…" Elias's huge hand scoops me around my middle, and he hauls me off Travis. I blink, woozy in too many ways, turning to rail against the interrupter of my fun. Except,when I do, I find Elias's expression is quizzical rather than aggressive or judgmental. He has a smile playing at the corner of his mouth and eyes that seem to light with amusement.

"Celine." The way he says my name is like melted chocolate, and I'm immediately transported back to his dorm, where he moaned it loudly as he came inside me. It was a one-time thing when Eddie and I were on a break, a one-time thing that shattered every preconception I had about Elias. In daylight hours, he's a bear with a sore head with enough snark to cut through steel, but by night, he's a man of determined passion.

Those lips did things to me I can't think about without messing my panties.

I kiss him before the ramifications of my actions have time to register. The familiarity in how he kisses me back is like slipping into a warm bath with a glass of wine.

Jeez. Elias kisses me like he's searching for my soul in the rubble of my mind. His hand clasps my hip, and in a flash, I'm on his lap, straddling his big, solid body, pawing at him like we're alone and naked rather than in a bar, surrounded by our nearest and dearest.

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