“Want a drink?” Dean asked me.
I turned to look at him as he walked over to a full bar against the right wall. There were also eight red leather chairs sitting around the room and a large bearskin rug in the center of things. I hoped it was fake. The lighting in here was dim with only two floor lamps on the back wall.
“What is this?” I asked him.
“It’s the owner’s lounge, where he lets his favorite guests hang out,” Dean told me.
“Of course you know the owner,” I said.
He walked over to me with a glass of ice water. “Drink this. Hydrate.”
I looked at the water and started to argue but figured he was right. I should drink water. I took the glass and then drank deeply before walking over to study the club below. It took me a few moments before I found Clara on the dance floor with the blond guy from the bar. Karaoke was on a break, and music was being played by a live band.
“How do you know the owner?” I asked Dean without looking back at him.
“Jimmy is a friend of my son and daughter-in-law,” he replied.
I hadn’t expected that answer. I’d figured it had to do with Slacker Demon or his fame.
“So, you were up here and saw me?” I asked him, finally turning from the scene below to look at Dean.
He had taken a seat in one of the chairs and was watching me as he drank what looked like whiskey in his glass.
He simply nodded.
“Why did you come get me?” I asked him then.
He took a drink, then said nothing for a moment. I thought he wasn’t going to answer when he finally replied, “I didn’t like it.”
“Didn’t like what?”
He didn’t hesitate this time. “That,” he said, waving his hand in my direction.
I glanced down at myself, then back at him. “You don’t like my dress?” I asked him for clarification.
He stood up, then set his glass on the small table beside his chair. His eyes were locked on mine. “I love the fucking dress. I didn’t like that everyone in that bar was getting to see you in it. Is that what you want to hear? You want me to admit it, Brielle? Tell you that I didn’t want others looking at your hot little body? That I didn’t want men fantasizing about getting their hands on you?”
I shook my head.
Dean took a step toward me, tilting his head as he moved closer, and then smirked. “Yeah, it is. That’s exactly what you wanted to hear.”
I was struggling for words as I stood there, looking at him. Yes, hearing him say it made me feel things inside I shouldn’t. This was Dean. A man I should keep my distance from. He could confuse my future. He could destroy the life I had built for me and Cam. This was a bad idea for more reasons than he realized.
But just like it had in the times before, my body didn’t agree with me. My heart raced as he moved closer to me, and I wanted things that were best left alone.
Dean stopped as he reached me, and I watched in fascination as he shrugged out of his leather jacket. The corded muscles on his arms were those of a younger man’s. The tattoos covering his body only accented his well-defined chest.
He placed his left hand on my waist, then looked down at my breasts as he pulled me to him. “I tried,” he said in a husky whisper. “I even left town. I did shit I don’t want to admit. None of it worked.” He lifted his eyes to meet mine. “You won’t get out of my head, Brielle. Why can’t I stop thinking about you?”
I didn’t think he wanted an answer. Not that I had one. All I could do was stare up at him. This was different. It wasn’t like before. This could be a huge mistake. It was a mistake, and we hadn’t done anything.
He lifted a hand and ran his pointer finger along my collarbone, then brushed his thumb over the swell of my breasts. “I need to fuck you like I need to breathe,” he said, moving his gaze from my breasts to my face again. “You have a power over me, and I don’t like it, but I am starting to accept it.”
Again, no words. I had no words. What did I say to this? No? I wasn’t strong enough to say no. Not here. Not in this moment. Not after I had thought about him for weeks. Not when I had spent my days pushing him from my mind, only to hear one of his songs or see … something that reminded me of him.
“Later, I want you naked in my bed. I want hours to taste you, explore you, sink myself inside of you. But I can’t wait,” he said, brushing hair from my shoulder. “I’m gonna fuck you now. This dress, those goddamn heels,” he said as his hand wrapped around my upper arm again and jerked me flush against him. “I need that pussy gripping my cock, Brielle. I want to come with you crying out my name.”
I trembled. My entire body gave me away. His words were making me feel weak and needy, all at once. I was glad he was holding me so tightly because I wasn’t sure I could stand without swaying.