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My eyes land on Andre the second I step back downstairs. He moves fluidly across the floor, eyes set on something, grin wide. I follow his gaze and wish I hadn’t.
The second he taps Claire on the shoulder, she wraps him in a hug, one he all too happily returns. My chest stretches, stomach clenching, and I hate this jealousy that’s only started to rear it’s ugly head when I’m nearly thirty.
Why? Why Claire? What is it about her that has me feeling this way?
Wyatt appears at my side, looking a little frazzled. His previously neatly combed hair is a wild mess; I realize why the second he starts tugging on it. “Beck, I’m sorry. I think I fucked up.”
“What? Fucked up in what way?”
He runs an anxious hand across his mouth, eyes shifting over my shoulder. I follow his gaze until it lands on a blond bombshell. Her face explodes when she sees me, and she starts slipping through the crowd.
“What the hell is she doing here?” I seethe, my eyes darting back to Claire. Thankfully, but also maddeningly, she’s still wrapped up in a conversation with Andre.
“I’m so sorry. She came by the office this afternoon looking for you. Said she was leaving town tomorrow and wanted to see you before she left. I told her you were gone for the day and she asked if I knew where she could find you. I didn’t think…I mean, I never thought she’d show up.”
A set of arms wrap around my waist, slender, golden fingers gripping me, long-tipped red nails pressing into my torso, and I resign myself to my fate. If Claire was hesitant about me before, this right here just signed the death sentence.
“You’re a tough man to track down, Mr. Beck,” an alluring voice purrs in my ear.
“Hey Sam,” I say softly, noting the way my voice cracks.
Samantha, my casual hook up that I turned down via text on Sunday and every other day this week, spins around my front and throws her arms around me, clinging to my chest.
Naturally, Claire chooses this moment to look up. Why wouldn’t she?
Her face breaks right in front of me. It’s impossible to miss. Those stunning green eyes flicker, her bright expression and brilliant smile slipping right off her beautiful face. Even from here, I see the heave of her chest, the quiver in her bottom lip.
This is the last thing I ever wanted.
Sam is the last thing I want.
What I want, who I want, is the stunning little redhead trying to keep it together twenty feet away from me.
***
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Claire
And that right there is the reason why I need to stop this, this thing, whatever it is, with Avery.
That’s the reason, that gorgeous woman hanging off Avery’s arm, running her perfectly manicured fingers over his chest, playing with his collar. She stares up at him with those big baby blues and bats her long lashes, tossing her silky, golden mane over her shoulder.
Her dress dips low down her chest, revealing—you guessed it—a perfect set of boobs, all round and perky. Her skin, just as golden as her hair, ripples over the toned muscles in her arms, in those legs of hers that seem to go on for miles. She’s got the most brilliant smile, all red lips and perfect white teeth.
I look down at myself, at my beyond average body, my fair skin, the auburn waves tickling down my arms, the fingernails I painted myself. I’m anything but tall and golden. My curves are too soft. My skin is too flawed with specks of brown freckles.
She’s perfect, flawless, everything.
And I’m nothing.
Just another reason for a man to want more, more than me, more than what I have to offer.
My heart tweaks with jealousy as I watch them. Their familiar touches tell me she knows Avery’s body in ways I don’t. They look perfect together. The golden couple. A god and his goddess.
She molds into him and my stomach knots painfully. I watch him take a step back, and his dark chocolate eyes flick up to me again, like they’ve done several times over the last few minutes. My cheeks heat at being caught staring, interrupting whatever moment it is they’re sharing, and I drop my gaze.
“Dance with me?” Andre reminds me that I’m not alone, that I’ve been ignoring him for the last couple of minutes while my heart has been trying to crawl out of my chest and wave a white flag. I surrender.
