Jason looked up at me. "Hey man, I've been behaving. You can't kick me out."
I looked down at him. "I own this place. I can do whatever I want. Why don’t you go find somebody else to hit on?" I stepped in front of him blocking him from Natalie. I looked down at her.
Her eyes blazed hot as she glared up at me. "What's your problem?"
I gritted my teeth. "I'm trying to save you from the embarrassment of making a fool of yourself."
Her eyes narrowed at me. "It's a little too late for that, don't you think? Why do you care anyway? I'm sure you've already picked out your next bimbo to take home."
"No —"
"Oh, that's right you don't take them home, you take them to hotels. You fuck ‘em and leave ‘em, don't you, Hunter?"
I didn't like that I was the one looking like the asshole here when she was the one that came striding into my club flaunting her curves all over my dance floor.
"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked.
"This is a free country. I can go wherever I want."
"So, this is just another one in your plans? You come in here with your barely there dress shaking your ass thinking that's going to change my mind about you?"
She lifted her hand as if she was going to slap me. For a minute I was going to let her because somewhere inside me, I thought I deserved it.
But she stopped herself. Her expression was a mixture of hatred and pain, and again I felt like the biggest asshole ever. What the hell was I missing?
"You are a self-centered ass. It was Andi’s idea to come here. She wanted to have some time with her friends, and she decided on this place. If it were me, I would've gone anywhere else because you are the one person in the world I never want to see again.”
She turned away from me and headed to the bar. The rational side of me said to let her go. Looking over at the corner where Andi and Kellie sat watching me intently, I realized that perhaps Natalie was telling the truth. Maybe she hadn't come here to flaunt herself in my face. But of course, anger and adrenaline had other ideas. I followed her to the bar where I overheard her ordering a shot.
"It's not a good idea to drink alone," I said.
She slanted her eyes at me. Then she turned back to the bartender. "Give him one too."
The bartender, Eddie, looked at me, unsure of what to do. I gave him a curt nod to let him know that I would take a shot as well. When he put the shots in front of us. Natalie held up her drink towards me.
"Here's to bad decisions and bad ideas." She downed the shot.
I downed mine as well, setting the empty shot glass on the bar. "Feeling better now princess?"
She gritted her teeth and turned back to the bartender. “I want another one."
"Don't do anything you're going to regret tomorrow."
"I've already done a bunch of stuff I regretted the next day. All of it involved you. There's almost nothing I can do now to make me feel worse than that."
Her words hit me right where she wanted them to. I was her regret. Of course, she was mine. So why the fuck did I want to grab her and kiss her senseless, and then drag her out of here to my loft and make love to her until she stopped looking at me with that smirk and instead gave me that sweet smile she'd given Jason over at the table?
This time she didn't wait for me. She downed the shot. I took mine and drank it as well. Then we glared at each other. Each second of our stalemate, I grew more and more likely to follow through on my bonehead thought to grab her and kiss her.
A hand patted my shoulder. "You've had enough, Hunter, don't you think?" Noah said.
My eyes narrowed at Natalie. "I have had enough."
Andi and Kellie appeared too.
"Come on honey, let's go home," Kellie said. She didn't look at me, but Andi gave me her you’re-being-a-jerk expression.
Angry at all of them, I jerked my shoulder out from under Noah's and I strode out of the club.