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He must have been able to convince Mark of a hell of a lot of it, too, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was the idiot for letting it get into my private life—if I was the fool for allowing him this close to me. I guessed I would find out. He hadn’t reached out to me since the last time we’d seen one another. Maybe he had lost interest in me now that he had slept with me again. Perhaps I wasn’t as attractive to him as I had been before.
I stared at the ceiling. I was still staying in the hotel, but I really needed to find a place of my own to call home, somewhere I wouldn’t have to deal with Mark’s judgment every time I turned a damn corner. Some place I didn’t have to worry about running into Scott every time I headed downstairs because knowing I might see him at any moment was making it seriously hard for me to relax. I wanted to see him, of course, I did, but at the same time, I was scared about running into him, scared of what I would say, of what I would do, of how he might be able to see right through the front I put up and make me feel like a complete idiot for letting myself get drawn in by him.
I pulled the covers up and over my head and let out a long sigh. I would have to figure it out when the time came. For now, though? For now, I just wanted to get some damn sleep and forget about the mess I had managed to walk myself into.
Chapter Twelve Scott
I paused outside the hotel, looking up at it in front of me.
Was Thea in there? Probably. She had no idea I was coming to the hotel tonight to pick up some money from Mark. I could have sent someone else down here to do it, but honestly, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see her if I could.
It had been nearly ten days since I had last laid eyes on Thea, and I kept waiting for the moment when she would slip out of my head. The moment where I was going to be able to forget about her, about the girl who had shared my bed for just a couple of nights and managed to burn herself into my brain ever since.
I had missed her. I couldn’t remember the last time I had really missed someone the way I had her, but my mind was hooked on her, stuck on her, constantly returning to her. Maybe it was knowing I couldn’t have Thea, or maybe it was something else entirely, but I could not move on. I’d thought about hitting the town and finding someone else to get my mind off her, but I knew it would have been futile. No matter who I met, or what I did, I would be craving her above all of them, and that was going to be a problem.
Mark had been replying to my messages, which was a positive step. I could still tell how pissed he was from the bluntness of his replies, but I could handle that part. The part I couldn’t take was when he told me to stay away from his sister. He had no idea how intensely I felt about her and how hard he had made it to keep my distance. Laying down the law had just made her even more attractive to me. She was forbidden fruit, and there was nothing sweeter in this world.
Really, I was just at the hotel to pick up some money from him and leave. I should have made my way straight down to his office and done everything I could to get in and out without getting distracted. I stepped inside, and I truly was planning to just go straight to him...
Right up until the moment I heard her voice.
It cut through everything else, even the sounds of everyone in the casino. The place was pretty busy for a Thursday evening, which I should have been happy about, but all I heard was her. Her laughter. Was she with a guy? On a date? It didn’t matter, and it was none of my business, but...
I peered around the door, and there she was, leaning at the bar with the same friend she had come to the opening night with. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a tee, just something light and chill, and she looked so hot I couldn’t take my damn eyes off of her. I didn’t know how she wasn’t being hit on by every guy in the place right now. She had probably shot a few of them down already. The way she looked, I was certain they’d tried their luck with her. It was like a spotlight shone on her, picking her out specifically, the whole world slowing to a halt just so I could see her like this.
And, as though she could sense me looking at her, she glanced around and saw me standing at the door. Her eyes widened, and I half-expected the smile to fall from her face, but it didn’t. She grinned at me, watching me across the room, and I grinned back. Yeah, there it was, the same heat between us, even at this distance. There was no way we could deny it, try as I might. And God knows I had done what I could to forget about her.
I glanced around, making sure Mark was nowhere to be seen. I knew he would lose it if he saw me looking at his sister, but right now, it was hard to care. I just wanted to be close to her again. I had already spent so much time away from her, and what harm would one little conversation do?
I sauntered over to the bar, playing it cool like I didn’t even see her, even though I had already smiled at her. I could play it like I was smiling at the bartender, right? I ordered a drink, feeling her watching me. I was aching to turn around and say something to her, but I didn’t know the situation with her friend. Did she know about me? Maybe her friend was telling her to stay away from me. Or maybe she had no idea, and the only people in this room who could feel what we were feeling were Thea and I.
I ordered a whiskey sour and sipped on it as I leaned on the bar, casually turning around to survey the room. The place was busy, which was a good sign. I should have cared more about that than her.
She had made her way over to one of the blackjack tables, hanging out with her friend. She stole a glance over her shoulder, looking for me, and when she found me gazing back at her, she glanced away again. I could see the flush on her cheeks from here. Hey, no harm in saying hello, was there?
I made my way over to the table, moving slow as though I hadn’t decided where I wanted to gamble tonight. But it felt like I was being pulled towards her, impossibly, irrevocably closer. She was irresistible to me, like a force of gravity, and no matter how much good sense I liked to think I had, I couldn’t deny how much I just wanted to be close to her.
I slid up to the table, moving in a few inches away from her. I could see her smiling, see how much she wanted to greet me, but she was playing like she didn’t know me. I planted my drink on the table next to her, and let my hand drop down by my side; our fingertips brushed, just for a moment, and she drew in a sharp breath.
"Next round?" Her friend asked her, and she nodded, smiling.
"Yeah, that would be great," she replied. "I’ll get it—"
"No, it’s fine, you got the last one," She replied, waving a hand. "I’ll grab this. Back in a second!”
Her friend seemed oblivious to what was going on here, much to my relief. It was so much hotter to me when it was just a secret between the two of us, something for us to share. There were so many people in this room, but none of them, not a single one, was aware of the history between us, the want that seemed to crackle in the air around us.
I was dealt in for the next hand and played a quick game with her, but I couldn’t focus on the cards in front of me. Her hand brushed against my side again, just the briefest little touch, the caress enough for me to feel my cock begin to stir. I could smell her, the scent of her skin and her perfume lingering in the air, and all I wanted to do was grab her, kiss her, and fuck her right over this table.
But holding myself back was so much more fun. I didn’t know where the hell we were going to go or what was going to happen tonight, but just being near her again was the balm I needed to deal with the irritation of not being able to have her. It felt devious, doing it right here in public, but we could pretend we didn’t even notice one another, right? Pretend we hardly even paid attention to each other’s presence.
Her friend returned with her drink, planting it in front of her, and she picked it up, her fingers gliding around the stem elegantly. I had never noticed how graceful she was—how sure of herself. Every move she made seemed to be designed to accentuate the most sensual parts of her, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as she lifted the glass to her lips, her mouth skimming across the rim. I wished they were pressed to me instead...
But before I could so much as think another word, I heard someone yelling my name.
"Scott!”
I turned, and my heart dropped when I saw Mark standing in the doorway to the casino. He didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked utterly pissed. And I couldn’t blame him. The one thing he’d told me to do, the one thing, was to stay away from his sister, and here I was, all up in her business, close enough that there was no plausible deniability about what my intentions had been.
