AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I sent Lucas a text. Told him I couldn’t do it anymore. To give him a heads-up before his mother sees pictures in tomorrow’s lifestyle section,” I say.
His eyes narrow. “Are you—”
“Apollo, don’t hog him all night,” Josie sneers at me before she turns her veneered, bright white smile on Graham. “I’m Josie.” She wiggles her fingers in greeting. He looks at me like “Who is this chick?” and then he flashes her his Graham Davis smile. “Nice to meet you, Josie.”
“You, too,” she preens.
When Graham grabs her hand and brings it to his lips for a kiss, she sways and teeters toward him as if she’s being lead. I roll my eyes.
“Would you ladies like to come sit in my section? We have table service, and you might be more comfortable.”
“Why yes, I’d love that.” She bats her eyelashes and I marvel at how brazen she is.
Graham cocks his dark brown eyebrows at me, his smile flirtatious as he says, “After you.” He lifts one of his long, muscular, pink velvet-encased arms and points in the direction of the VIP.
My purse vibrates. I fish around in it and pull it out of my small, gold-beaded purse.
I caress the dime size depression at the bottom of the screen with my thumb noncommittally but with just enough pressure to unlock it.
The picture we took a few weeks ago. It’s just our faces, pressed together, our smiles wide, our eyes dancing. I wish we were back there.
The notification for the text from Lucas glares up at me. It’s been sitting there for two hours, and I still can’t bring myself to read it. Besides the fact that I don’t think we have anything more to say to each other. I hadn’t wanted to let anything ruin my mood on Graham’s big night. I let the phone fall back into my purse and continue toward the corner where he and Josie had disappeared.
The thumping bass of the loud hip-hop music thunders through my body violently that I feel it in my bones. I don’t know how Graham spends night after night in places like this.
As I take the few short steps toward the very last place I want to be, my organs feel like they’ve turned to water and slosh around inside me, and I feel the burn of bile in my throat.
Graham is already seated, and Josie is practically sitting in his lap. She’s laughing loudly.
I’m going to kill Reena when I find her. She said Josie was new to the firm and needed to get out. As soon as she’d climbed into the Uber I’d ordered for tonight, she started talking about Graham. Now, Reena has completely disappeared.
“Apollo, come join us,” Josie shouts over to me.
“I’m fine here,” I say down across from them.
Graham’s attention has already moved from Josie. He’s bent over his phone, texting, his face hidden under the long fall of hair. Josie leans forward, eyes dancing with excitement, her grin so wide, her teeth look like they’re trying to escape her mouth.
“Holy shiiiiiit,” she mouths as she shimmies her shoulders and points at Graham. As if I and the dozens of eyes trained on her don’t know that she’s talking about him.
I smile, pretending to be as excited as she is.
But right now, the only thing that would excite me is seeing them both spontaneously combust. The mental image that conjures makes me laugh out loud.
Graham’s head whips up at the sound of my laughter, and he arches an eyebrow at me.
“What’s so funny?” he asks, enunciating so I can read his lips. I can’t hear anything above the booming music.
I just shake my head and dismiss him with a wave of my hand, but my laughter dies. He eyes me expectantly, and I shout, “It’s nothing. Really.” His eyes narrow and he leans toward me, rests his chin on his linked fingers and his elbows on his knees as he watches me like he’s trying to decide what to do with me.
“Tell me,” he demands again.
“No,” I say with a giggle.
He stands up, his tall body appearing even longer as he comes to stand in front of me, legs spread, arms crossed over his broad chest. My eyes are eye level with the brass buckle of the dark brown leather belt that he always wears. I purse my lips defiantly and glare up at him.
He caves first, and with a small chuckle, he drops down into the seat next to me. He’s such a big man, but he’s as graceful as a dancer as he drapes his big body over the low, tufted sofa that I’m sitting on.
His arm is slung on the back of the chair. His hand rests lightly on my shoulder, and he toys with the lace that trims the sleeves of my top. It’s cold in the club, but the gooseflesh spreading all over my body, the tingle in my nipples as they start to harden has nothing to do with air conditioning. His touch. It is … my weakness and my greatest desire.
