“Aw, come on. If you’re lookin’ to give it up tonight, darlin’, you can do better than Wolf. I’ll take you upstairs,” Green offered with a brush of his knuckles down her arm.
Crystal turned to look at Green, and then looked back at Wolf. “I’m not looking for anything.” She climbed off Wolf’s lap and stalked off with a flip of her hair.
“Thanks a lot, brother. Why don’t’ you go fuck off?” Wolf snarled at Green.
Green flashed him an apologetic look. “Sorry, man.”
Wolf sighed. “Aren’t dumb blondes more your speed? The ones brainless enough to let you climb on top of ‘em?”
“They don’t have to be dumb or blonde, just easy.” Green slumped back in his chair, his elbow hooked around the back of his chair. He nodded his head toward Crystal. “Kinda like…”
Wolf raised an eyebrow and dared Green to finish the thought.
“Yeah, okay.”
Wolf drained his glass.
“I like you better when you drink,” Green commented, watching him.
“I like you better when I drink, too.”
“Right.” Green got up and ambled off.
Wolf watched Crystal wind her way through the crowd and contemplated pursuing, but thought better of it. He folded his arms, leaning back and crossing his legs at the ankles, every inch the indifferent, aloof rogue. Wolf like the chase. It was his favorite part of the whole male-female dynamic. But, he wasn’t about to chase after her, he told himself. Playin’ with Crystal was like playin’ with fire. She wasn’t the type he dated, and there was a reason for that. With her he kept it casual, he knew if he ever let it get out of hand, it would be anything but casual, and he wasn’t looking for complicated or permanent. Not at this point in his life. And he knew Crystal could turn out to be both.
Yeah, he’d been with her. More than once. And it had been fucking fantastic. But she knew what the deal was with him. He’d never been anything but honest about that. Yet, he kept coming back to her. Every time he dumped another girl, she was his first stop. That had to end, he knew that. He had to break that habit. Starting now.
“You’re a blind fool,” a woman’s voice spoke softly from behind him.
Wolf twisted, meeting Shannon’s gaze from where she stood by the pool table. He let her words sink in. “You don’t know enough to make that call, sugar.”
When she just shook her head, he got up and walked away.
About an hour later, Shannon and Crystal were at the jukebox. Shannon was choosing some music, and Crystal was leaning back on the jukebox, surveying the room.
“Who invited her?” Crystal murmured in a pissed off voice.
Shannon turned from the jukebox to look over her shoulder toward the door to see who Crystal was referring to. Across the room, just inside the door was that girl, Misty. The one that Angel had introduced her to at the BBQ. The one she said was with Wolf, and the one she said she suspected was a stripper. Shannon turned, leaning back against the jukebox, raising her glass to take a sip.
The two women watched as Wolf strolled toward a beaming Misty, who looked up at him with a bright smile. He cupped her jaw with both hands and kissed her, then moved back to take in her outfit. He said something to her, and his hands moved to her hips encased in a short tight red skirt and topped off with a gold halter top.
“He’s still with her, huh?” Shannon observed.
“She’s lasted longer than they usually do.”
“And how long is that?”
Crystal shrugged. “This one’s been around three months, maybe. They usually only last about three weeks.”
Shannon looked at her with her brow raised. The girl had been counting. Interesting. She turned back to study the pair. “What usually runs them off?”
“Wolf usually runs them off.”
“But why? Why don’t they ever last?”
Crystal nodded toward the woman in his arms. “Because that’s the type he goes for. Strippers and such. Then when they don’t turn out to be anything more than head-cases with low self-esteem issues,” she paused to make quotation marks with her hands. “Big shocker there, he cuts them loose.’
Shannon took a sip of her drink and speculated over the rim. “Maybe that’s why he chooses them. He doesn’t really want the type of girl he’d have to commit to.”