I really wanted to tell them everything, but I had promised Sully no one would ever know what I did for him.
“Okay, I do like him. He’s a real gentleman. Not like the ones we meet who pretend to be. No one’s ever opened doors for me, but he does.”
“Oh, honey, sounds like you’ve got it bad,” Kelly said. “Maybe we can talk to this guy. Show him how dumb he is for passing up a gem like you.”
“You’re so silly. Listen, I’ll be fine. I have the opportunity to make some money, and I’m fine with that. Even without love. Now you both should go before you have to report your location to Nolan. By the time he calls, you should be long out of the city.”
I used my credit card to pay for the check, then walked the girls outside and hugged them tight. I didn’t want them to go. They were my closest friends in the city. The closest thing to a friend I now had was Liam, and he didn’t count. He was friends with Sully, so I couldn’t talk to him about certain things.
After waving off the girls, I shoved my hands into my coat pockets and surveyed the streets. The busy nightlife was in full swing. It was a few minutes after ten, and the last thing I wanted was to go home to an empty house. I used the GPS on my phone to locate the closest nightclub. Great, it was within walking distance. I took off, avoiding a man who catcalled me. What I needed was the stiff drink I hadn’t allowed myself to get earlier at the restaurant. Some pulsing music and dancing should help with the way I was feeling too.
I was on my time after all. Sully didn’t give a damn what I did with it.
I found Glaze easily enough, and judging by all the people waiting to get inside, it was a popular club. The line moved quickly, though, and fifteen minutes later, I was being assessed by the bouncer. He tagged my arm with one of those glow-in-the-dark wristbands and told me to have a good time. He didn’t even charge me to enter.
The second I walked in, the loud techno-pop music had me shaking my hips. All I’d asked him for was one dance, and he’d gotten upset. One dinner invite and he’d shot me down. I couldn’t even blame him for not wanting to get involved with a hooker—ex-hooker.
As soon as I was at the bar, the bartender came over…with a drink I hadn’t ordered. I shook my head.
“No, thanks. I’ll order my own drinks tonight. Start me a tab.”I was prepared to slip him money under the table, but he didn’t even ask me for an ID.
I downed the first glass of martini, then chased it with a couple of shots. Screw Sullivan Matthews. I could drink as much as I liked without his overbearing, moody, gorgeous ass being all stern and judgmental. So what if I’d been a prostitute? Did that mean I wasn’t to be loved?
Just not by him.
As sulky as I was tonight, I knew my limits for drinking. A few years ago, I’d been so drunk I’d woken up in bed with another man. That had been wrong on so many levels. One, I never woke up with another man. I let them fuck me, then got out of Dodge. Two, I’d had no clue who he was or what he’d done to me. I’d vowed never to drink so much ever again.
It’d been a spur-of-the-moment decision to ask him. In that split second before I asked him out, I’d thought, what if I was right and all those times I caught him watching me meant something? What if he stayed awake at night as much as I did, thinking about what would happen if we kissed? When I jerked off these days, he was always the one on my mind. Fuck, why had he turned me down?
Enough of that. I needed to forget him. The dance floor looked inviting. I raised my arms and pumped my hips, gyrating to the intoxicating music that flowed through my body. Someone moved behind me, placed a hand on my hip, and pressed their groin to my ass. I didn’t care who it was. I just needed to feel good after the crappy day I’d had. A day that had reminded me that money wouldn’t make me happy.
One guy became two, and soon, I was in a circle of guys who passed me between them. It’d been a long time since I’d been in a gang bang, and I wasn’t interested in one—I wasn’t interested in sex at all tonight—but it felt good being admired, teasing them, giving them false hope.
Carried away by the pulsing vibe that wound its tentacles around me like a vise and wouldn’t let go, I danced until I felt one with the music. Even the surrounding men faded. I was in my little space in my head without a care in the world. The two people I cared about most were out of trouble for now.
Life couldn’t get any better, could it?
The warm bodies pressed up against me disappeared. I opened my eyes, but before I could turn, a hand clamped around my waist and hauled me back into a broad chest.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sully growled into my ear.
He’d come for me. At the back of my mind, I’d hoped he would, but I hadn’t dared to think about it too much.
Instead of answering him, I closed my eyes and rolled my hips. I leaned my head back against his chest. He was so solid. So strong. Why did he affect me so much? I’d slept with more than a hundred men since working for Nolan, and none had ever made me feel the way Sully did. None of them had made me dream about things a boy like me could never have.
But dammit, I wanted it anyway.
I wanted it so much.
I turned in Sully’s arm so swiftly the world spun for a moment—from all the alcohol and dancing and lack of air in the stifling room. Or from his presence? Sully caught me as I stumbled, his hands on my hips the only thing preventing me from keeling over like a sloppy drunk. He pinned me with a glare, but I didn’t care. I grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled him down.
Sully’s lips connected with mine, and I groaned, moving even closer to him as electric charges surged through my body. I ran my tongue across his lips and… He wasn’t kissing me back.
Humiliation poured over me. I stumbled back, but he still held me tightly, so I couldn’t escape.
“Let me go!” I yelled over the music. I shoved him in the chest hard, but he didn’t even budge. Stupid offspring of a giant.
“I’m not leaving without you,” he shouted back.