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His hand moved lower, no longer pretending to be on her back. He cupped her ass, drawing her hips against him. One firm squeeze was all it took to rip a gasp from her.
“Fuck,” he whispered as though tortured.
She trembled and lifted her gaze to find his hot and hungry on her.
One song turned into two, and before she knew it, they’d been dancing, swaying, and grinding for long minutes. She’d given up trying to ignore the rock-hard press of his erection against her stomach. Instead, she moved against it, reveling in every flare of his pupils and hitch in his breath.
He kept his hand on her ass, aiding her movement in her mission to drive him crazy. In return, he made her just as mindless with need.
What the hell was happening to her? She’d felt desire. She’d had sex. Sure, it’d been years ago, but she wasn’t unfamiliar with orgasms. It’d just been her providing them to herself for the past seven years. But this sensation was something different. Her desire for him was powerful, raw, and frankly, terrifying. She ached to touch every part of him and have him touch her with a ferocity she didn’t understand.
She wanted to spend hours memorizing every tattoo on his body and study the dips and rises of each hard-earned muscle. She yearned to know what he’d feel like inside her, filling her. Hell, she even wanted him to be rough with her. To put all that strength to good use and toss her around the fucking bed like he owned her.
Insane thoughts.
She wanted him to make up for the loneliness of the past seven years. To show her what she’d been missing. To prove she didn’t need to guard her heart, mind, and body so closely.
But that would never happen. Harper lived in the real world where people did shitty things, and the only way to avoid becoming collateral damage was to protect herself twenty-four-seven.
She stiffened as though she’d been slapped in the face by her thoughts. Thankfully, Jinx didn’t seem to have noticed.
He leaned down and spoke in her ear. “You’re driving me fucking crazy, Harper. Let’s get out of here. Find somewhere private.”
Everything she’d been fantasizing about dangled right in front of her face. All she had to do was reach out, and she could spend the night just as she’d dreamed.
But what would happen after? How long would it be before he hurt her? Humiliated her? Destroyed her life?
He must have felt the change in her because he loosened his grip enough for her to step back. She bumped into someone but didn’t bother to apologize.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I can’t do that.”
And like the scared little girl she pretended she wasn’t, she fled.
She managed to avoid him for the rest of the night, dancing and talking with the girls for the majority of the time. They’d seen her slinking her way through the crowd after dancing with Jinx and refused to let her run home to bury herself under a pile of blankets.
About an hour later, she could admit she was having a fun time.
Until she made the unfortunate error of glancing toward the back of the clubhouse, where she’d run into Jinx.
There he stood with the woman she’d seen talking to him earlier. The woman hung off him like she was a coat and him a tall rack. She giggled, and Jinx laughed hard at whatever had been said. Her heart sank, and her stomach dropped. A sick feeling washed over her.
“That’s Jess,” Liv said next to her. “She’s been after him for a while.” She raised an eyebrow in a what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it way.
Nothing.
Harper planned to do nothing. Jinx wasn’t hers, and she didn’t want him to be.
“Pretty sure they already hooked up,” Rachel said as she joined them.
Liv gave her a wide-eyed glare as she shook her head.
“Uh… I mean. I don’t know anything.” Rachel winced.
“Smooth,” Liv said with a snort. She tossed back the last sip of her drink and turned to Harper. “There’s still time to grab him. I promise you, he’d leave with you instead of her if you gave him the option.”
Harper peeked Jinx’s way again. He had his head bent low, still laughing. Jess couldn’t stop touching him in ways that made Harper see red.
She cleared her throat. “I have no claim on him. so he can do whatever he wants. I’m not looking for anything from him or any man.”
The pitying look she received from Liv let her know her friend wasn’t buying her shit. Didn’t matter. If she stuck to her guns long enough, it would become easier.
It’d become her truth.
A final glance Jinx’s way showed him guiding Jess out the back door with his arm around her shoulders.
That was it. Harper had turned him down, and he’d found someone else, as he had every right to do.
