“Of course she can do whatever she wants, but you have no chance with her. She’s too good for someone like you,” I scoff as the hands let go of my elbow with a huff.
His eyes narrow as he sizes me up. The fucker has thenerve to smirk at me. I take a step forward, and a look of fear crosses his face.
“Kane, enough!” a small voice yells behind me firmly, causing me to look at the little hell cat glaring at me, arms crossed.
“Look, man, I think some wires got crossed—” he starts, but I turn and glare at him, effectively cutting him off before turning back to face Avery.
“Really, pretty girl? Trying to date atmyfucking bar?” I ask, tilting my head, regarding her. Fire burns in my veins as my eyes rove all over her face at the way she’s done herself up for him. The jealousy eats me alive because he gets to see her like this. Her eyes are black with liner, and her lashes are impossibly long with mascara. I trail my eyes to her deep red lips and feel the need to bite down on my fist with how fucking irresistible they look.
“This isn’t your bar, Kane, and you lost the right to tell me what to do months ago,” she spits back, a haughty look on her face.
“I don’t think anyone is brave enough to tell you what to do.”
“You’re interrupting something, Kane. Leave,” she snarls.
“No,” I fire back with an air of nonchalance.
“Yes. This doesn’t concern you,” she argues with a jut of her hip and mirth in her eyes.
“Anything having to do with you concerns me, baby, don’t you know that by now?”
Shock lines her features at my words. The statement freezes her where she stands. Then she turns and takes off toward the restroom. I hesitate for a moment before I take off after her like a bullet, refusing to let her out of my sight again tonight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
avery
Worst Way – Riley Green
Islam into the bathroom, fuming with the shock of how Kane thinks he has the right to crash my night. He has the audacity to get mad at me for trying to live again—to feel something again instead of this numbness that has seemed to burrow itself into my very bones.
I lean over the counter and brace myself over the marble counter and the pristine white sinks you’d be shocked to find in this bar, trying to catch my breath before I go back out there. I turn the water on cold and put some on my cheeks to cool the redness from the anger of our heated conversation on the bar floor.
The door slams open behind me. I jump and turn to see Kane burst through the doorway after me.
We stare at each other, neither of us moving as the bathroom fills with the sounds of us breathing heavily. My chest rises and falls at a rapid pace. The bathroom seems to shrink with him filling the space before me.
“You think that’s what you want?” he barks, pointingback toward the bar. He turns and locks the door before taking a few steps toward me as I place my back against the sink counter.
This back-and-forth we’ve had going on has drained me. The endless months of missing him mixed with the small moments of hope, only to be crushed when we take steps back.
“Maybe that’s exactly what I want, Kane,” I taunt, a smirk forming on my lips as I see his eyes darken further. I cross my arms beneath my chest, pushing my tits up in my top, making them practically spill out with the movement. I watch him track it with his eyes, the flex of his hand at his side egging me on further.
“No, it’s not. You think a man like that is enough for you?” he challenges as he eyes me like I’m his prey.
His hands brace at his sides, breaths coming in hard pants as I watch him fight to keep his control. His hazel eyes are wild as they take me in.
“And how do you know what’s enough for me?” I reply with my arms crossed, wanting some barrier between myself and the man who seems to haunt all my waking moments. My heart rate spikes as he takes one step across the gray floor toward me. He stops, one side of those full lips quirking up in a taunting smirk.
“I know because I’m it, pretty girl,” he challenges. “You don’t want a man whose ego you have to stroke. You want someone who comesundonewith just the thought of you. You want a man who would fall to hiskneesafter one taste. Someone willing to worship the ground you walk on just for a sliver of your attention.”
He advances toward me, shoes squeaking across the glossed cement floor until we’re inches apart. Black Converse shoes fill my vision as Ilower my eyes.
We feel miles apart still. My hackles are raised with the way this conversation has turned in his favor. I feel the heat bloom across my cheeks, thinking of all the ways Kane is very capable at handling me.
“You forget that I know every inch of you better than I know myself,” he taunts, that smirk deepening on his face, eyes dark as he drinks me in.
His darker side comes out to play when it’s just the two of us—the one that demands I submit to him. I can let all my fears and worries fade away in those moments, trusting him fully with my pleasure. I willingly give over the control of my mind and body to this man, submitting to whatever he wants in a way only he has been able to do.
