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Jason chuckles, either not sensing the danger or too stupid to realize she means business.
“Oh, I like it rough. Want to tie me up too, Aud?”
Audrey swivels on her stool to look at him, her neck angled like the queen she is, and I lean my shoulder against a pillar near the entrance to the bar and watch. With any other woman, I’d happily step in, but Audrey would have my head on a stick for interfering and she can handle this, I have no doubt about that. Watching her cock her perfectly arched brow, I almost smile to myself. I’ve dealt with some of the worst of humanity over the years. Violence is a fact of life. Some people deserve it, most don’t, but only the cunning smile of violence on Audrey’s face makes my dick hard. What I wouldn’t give to be the man to stand beside her in every battle.
Her hand snaps forward and Jason goes up on tiptoes as she holds his junk. His face pales as she leans forward, and I angle my body to see her expression. She looks like a Valkyrie about to go to war. A woman ready to end empires and she’s fucking breath-taking.
“I’m going to say this one time, Jason. Do. Not. Touch. Me without my consent. I’m not going to fuck you, I don’t want to see you, hear you, and I sure as hell won’t think about you. It wasn’t fun, and I won’t call. So do yourself a favor and leave before I rip these pathetic balls from your over-muscled body and shove them down your throat.”
Fuck.
She releases him and he steps back, his face red now as he tries to regain some of the masculinity that Audrey just put through her verbal mincer. “You were a lousy fuck anyway.”
He shoulders past me as she picks up her drink and chuckles. I slide onto the stool beside her and order a whiskey from the bartender, who wisely stayed at the other end until now.
I sip the amber liquid in silence, not really sure how to say I’m sorry when there are so many other things clouding my thoughts. I know I ghosted her. I know I hurt her, and I never believed she’d hate me so intensely for so long, but I also know this apology is well overdue. “I’m sorry.”
In my peripheral, I notice her glass pause halfway to her lips before she sips the last of her cocktail and lifts it to the bartender.
“Fuck off, Hudson. I’m not in the mood.”
I swing my torso toward her, seeing for the first time the guard she holds so steadily has a chink. She’s otherworldly beautiful like a Hollywood starlet had a baby with an angel, and yet today I can see the thing she hides so well. Pain, so deep, so visceral that it carves wounds that aren’t healing into her soul.
“I’m not here to make trouble. I just wanted to apologize.”
Audrey turns toward me, and I do the same, my legs bracketing her thighs. The gut punch of desire that runs through me every time I’m around her makes me glad I’m sitting down.
“For what?”
“For earlier. For trying to get a rise out of you.”
“That it?”
I know now isn’t the time or the place for this conversation but, for the first time in years, she’s giving me a glimpse of vulnerability, even if she doesn’t realize it. “No, but not here. Can we go grab a drink somewhere else and talk? I don’t want this animosity between us.”
Audrey snorts but it holds no humor, only contempt. “Animosity suits me just fine.”
“Are you happy living like this, Belle, with so much hate for a mistake I made years ago?”
Her anger is like a living thing, rising up in her and I want to grab her and kiss her until it consumes us both.
“My life is none of your business.”
I notice she doesn’t tell me she’s happy, and a wave of regret almost takes me under. I don’t give a fuck if I’m living half a life without her, but to know she is too almost breaks me. “I know. Just have a drink with me then, for old times’ sake. I’ll even let you regale me with all the reasons I’m a bastard.”
She cocks her head as if I’m a species she doesn’t recognize and turns back to the bar, signaling the bartender who hurries over like an eager puppy with a look of adoration on his face. I can’t blame him, it’s the Audrey effect. She dazzles everyone she meets and has no clue.
“What can I get you?”
The man is probably early twenties and looking at Audrey like she hung the damn moon. I want to offer the guy a fist bump, for having such good taste but then I also want to rip his eyes from their sockets for looking at her like he is with open lust.
Audrey waggles her eyebrows. “Well, isn’t that the question of the day, handsome?”
I know she’s doing it to rile me, and I won’t show her it’s working.I won’t let Audrey toy with me like I’m a plaything for her enjoyment. It’s not in me to be weak. I’ve fought for everything I have, so being passive and showing weakness isn’t my style. Not now, anyway.
Hipster bar kid leans forward with a grin. “I get off at midnight.”
“Well, let’s hope I’ll be getting off too.”
