Clinging to Rapture Page 3

  Vic didn’t know about it. The extra deposits and bonuses Chris received were something they thought he had earned at work, not something given because some stalker was trying to move in on their roommate. But that’s what happened. I don’t know what I expected Vic to do when I told him what the psycho had done, but I didn’t think he would do what he did, which was absolutely nothing. Maybe it was stupid of me to think he would come back. Actually, I knew it was stupid, but that didn’t keep my heart from ripping apart. He and Chris had a whole new life in New York, new friends, new everything. I was just the stripper friend they left behind. But that was story of my life. I was the girl everyone left behind for something better, something more. It was the sad and bitter truth and most days I didn’t want to accept it. Most of the time I pretended my life hadn’t really fallen apart. But it had. Proof of that: I worked the night shift in a gas station on the seedy side of Dallas. I partied in an after-hours club, and went home to an apartment where my neighbors sold hard drugs from their living rooms.

  I took the last shot, let the burn engulf me, suck me down into its depths. I loved the way it felt, like I was tied to the stake awaiting a crackling fate.

  “There’s not much to tell,” I said.

  Mandi leaned in. “Come on, Julia, I know there’s something going on. You can talk to me. Really.” When she smiled, diamond piercings glittered on top of her teeth.

  I opened my mouth, not sure what to say. I didn’t know how to handle this new friendship after everything else had gone to shit. A strange feeling came over me. Oh shit, I want to tell her.

  “Well…” I let my words trail off. What would I say?

  Well, Mandi, I had this stalker who I dated and broke up with. He still stalks me, but now he’s getting married to this hideous, rude-ass, bitch and I vomited all over myself in front of both of them when I found out.

  Nah, wrong choice of words.

  “It’s nothing really. Just a rough day at work. I hate working by myself.” I turned back to the bar and waved my arm at the bartender.

  Yeah…this night is going to need more than a few shots.

  I writhed to the music, sliding up and down the stranger behind me. People packed the dance floor. Sweating, twisting bodies pressed against each other, pawing roughly. The music thrummed in time to the fluorescent lights beneath my feet. It rumbled through my bones, taking me far away from the dark place I’d been stuck in all night. The guy behind me gripped my waist with big hands. I didn’t know who he was, I hadn’t even glanced behind me when he pressed his body against mine. I was too drunk to care.

  He thrust against me, his rock hard cock spearing my ass through our clothes. I glanced over my shoulder. The bartender who’d been supplying me with free drinks all night flashed a smile.

  Can they dance out here while they’re on duty? I snorted at the thought. Is it even called duty when you’re serving idiots alcohol?

  The music shifted to a slower, more sensual R&B song. The couples around us slowed down, pressing against each other. The bartender gripped my shoulders and spun me around. I let him, giving him a lazy smile when I looked up into his eyes. He was cuter than I’d first observed at the bar earlier.

  Or maybe I’m too drunk to care. I couldn’t see what color his eyes were but he had good hair, short and spiky. Not like Cole’s.

  “Fuck.” I bit my lip. Stop thinking about him!

  Bartender leaned in and pressed his mouth against my ear. “I want to fuck you.” He leaned back, a cocky smile spread across his face. The urge to slap him tingled through my body.

  I didn’t though, instead I smiled. “Do you?”

  He jerked me against him hard and thrust his hips, his cock pressed against my belly. “I’ve been eye-fucking you all night. You’re all I’ve been able to think about.” He slid his meaty hands up my thighs and fingered the bottom of my skirt while grinding against me. I wrapped my arms around him. His shirt was wet, sweaty beneath my fingertips, clinging to his muscles. “I want to take you home.”

  I should let him. The words drifted through my mind as I moved to the sinuous beat. I should just go home with him. Maybe sex with someone else would help me forget. I let my head fall back as the music picked up a bit, letting myself loose in the sensuality. I wanted to clear my head, let it all just drift away to blissful nothingness. Hot lips pressed against my exposed throat. A whimper escaped my lips. It’s been too long. Maybe this is exactly what you need. He moved on, so should you.

  I lifted my head and pressed my lips against the bartender’s. His mouth opened under mine, kissing me back. He was salty from sweat and tasted like a cigarette, but I wasn’t going to be picky, not right now. Not when all I wanted was to get lost in him completely.

  He’s not perfect, but he’ll do…for tonight.

  But then he was gone. One second my lips and tongue were intertwined with his, my hands gripping his biceps, the next he was jerked away from me. I stumbled forward, the alcohol making me trip in my heels. I looked around in horror only to have my vision filled with the towering stature of a man. Not the bartender. A black designer t-shirt clung to rippling muscles. Dark tattoos covered both arms. I gasped, glancing up to meet angry eyes. Cole’s eyes.

  I could have stood there forever and stared at him. He was just too perfect, with his hair loose, his angular jaw covered in a few days’ growth of a beard. I wanted to touch him, to run my hands through his hair like I had before. I wanted to pull those locks while I straddled his big hard body and took his cock into my pussy. Wet heat coated my thong and I squeezed my thighs together.

  One of his hands closed around my arm before I could come up with anything to say. He pulled me off the dance floor toward the back of the club. I let him. Following after him as he stomped through the crowd. His body moved smoothly, the muscles flexing under his shirt, bunching as he walked. It was only once we reached a darker, more secluded corner of the club did he pull me around in front of him. His big body caged me between him and the wall. A thrill of excitement swam through my intoxicated mind.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Julia?”

  The anger behind his words made me frown. “Huh?”

  “You fucking heard me!” he roared, placing his hands on either side of my head. I could barely see his face in the dim lighting, but I didn’t have to be sober to know he was pissed.

  “What are you talking about?” I pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge.

  “That. Out there on the dance floor. What the fuck was that, Julia?”

  “Me and the bartender?”

  “Yes.” He gritted his teeth.

  My cloudy mind pushed the image of him and Elaine forward. “That’s none of your fucking business.” I shoved his chest again, harder this time, letting disgust roll through me.

  “It is my business, Julia.” He leaned in, putting his face only inches from mine. Part of me, a very sick part, wanted to lean in and taste his firm lips. Never again.

  “Oh yeah? I say it’s not. You’re not my boyfriend. I can go home with whoever I want.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Go home with him? You were gonna go home with that douche-bag back there?” His gaze searched my face, almost begging me to say it wasn’t true.

  “Yes. I can do that. Just like you can go home with your future wife.” The words were like poison, burning my lips.

  His jaw clenched and he cut his eyes away. The R&B song still played around us, its sensual sound filling the air. He let out a pent-up breath. “You’re right.”

  The back of my eyes felt suddenly hot. “Why are you here? Just leave me alone. Make your men stop watching me. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

  “Anymore?” His lips crooked in the corner, like this—my life—was all just a big joke to him.

  “I fucking hate you.”

  His jaw ticked, but he didn’t bat an eye. “I want you to come back to Rapture.”

  “What?” I didn’t know what I expected t
o come out of his mouth, but that wasn’t it.

  “I want you to come back and work at Rapture.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? I would never.” I tried to duck under his arm, but he moved it down preventing the maneuver.

  “It’s why I came here tonight. The way you’ve been living is ridiculous. You don’t need to be working at a gas station, making next to nothing. You can have your old job back.”

  Maybe it was the alcohol, but probably more of the ridiculousness of what he was saying that made me burst out in laughter. “I would never go back there.”

  “I’m still going to be the owner, but I will rarely—if ever—be there. I’ve hired a team of people to run the business. You won’t have to see me, probably ever again after tonight, but I do regret that I was the cause of you quitting a job that provided very well for you.” His face was impassive as he spoke. The earlier anger completely gone, killing my laughter.

  He only came here for this. Just to tell me he was never going to see me again. “You regret it?” The words slipped through my lips, sounding weak.

  He stared at me for a minute, saying nothing. It was too dark, so I couldn’t see his eyes. What is he thinking? But then he leaned in, his big body surrounding mine, his hot musky scent clouding my brain. For a moment I thought he would kiss me, but he didn’t, instead he trailed his lips up the side of my face. A shiver cut through my body, my skin prickling with pleasure.

  Push him away.

  I didn’t. Couldn’t. My hands were numb at my sides, hanging lifeless; I was unable to do anything but stand there and take what he was giving. His lips reached my ear, his breath hot against the outer shell.

  “I regret what happened between us every day, Julia. Every fucking day,” he hissed.

  My hands moved as if of their own accord, one pushed against his shoulder and the other smacked against his cheek. Stinging pain shot down my arm, but I didn’t care. “Fuck you, Cole.”

  “I did fuck you. Have you already forgotten?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wow, we fucked a couple of times, that’s it. It’s not like it was life-changing.” I tried to move away from him, but still he didn’t budge.

  “Oh, it wasn’t? Then why haven’t you taken anyone else to bed since?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.”

  I crossed my arms again, the buzz of the alcohol starting to wear off. “That’s not any of your business.”

  “Yet you were going to go home with that asshole tonight.”

  “I was and you know what? I was going to ride his big cock all night.” My body was suddenly flush with Cole’s as he pressed me back against the wall. His dick stabbed against my stomach through his jeans.

  He’s hard?

  He growled, staring down at me. He was only inches away now and I could see the anger in his eyes, but that wasn’t all. There was something else there: lust. It was painted brightly, twisting with the anger in his irises.

  “I let you walk away, Julia. I let you go, but I can still take you back if I want.” The words sounded like gravel, deep and grating, against the rhythmic music playing over us.

  Some sick part of me melted at his words, wanting to beg him to prove it. But the smart part of me perked up, the part that didn’t put up with shit like this. “Are you fucking kidding me? I walked away from you, asshole.”

  “I let you walk away.”

  “Ha, right.” I looked away from him, letting my anger bubble and pop beneath my skin. “Whatever. Shouldn’t you be at home with your loving fiancé? Is it really necessary that you babysit me at a club in the wee hours of the morning?” I ducked under his arm and got out from his grasp before he could stop me. “Or, wait,” I added as I backed away from him, “I think the better question would be, does your innocent little wifey know that you’re out philandering with the woman you’ve been stalking, the same woman who sold her gas earlier tonight?” I smiled sarcastically. “I’ll bet she doesn’t. Do me a favor and stay out of my life.” I whirled around and walked away making for the closest exit. The club’s dim back alley greeted my gaze. I sucked in a gulp of warm Texas air. I barely made it two steps when the door opened behind me.

  “Me and her weren’t together when I was with you.”

  His words stopped me in my tracks. I turned back around to face him. He had come up behind me and stood only a few feet away, his body lit by the yellow alley light. “And that’s supposed to matter to me?”

  “I did a lot of thinking after what happened between us. Me and her were together a long time before that.” He paused, and glanced around, almost as if he was uncertain what he should say. “She’s the person I’m supposed to be with.”

  Those words ripped me to shreds more than anything else he’d said all night. The backs of my eyes became hot again. Fuck, Julia, don’t cry. “Well, good for you.” I moved to turn away and he stopped me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  “I meant what I said, I want you to come back to Rapture.”

  I gaped at him. That’s really the only reason he came, to appease his guilty conscience. It flustered me, all of it. He was the one letting me go, truly letting me go. He had moved on.

  “I’m not going to watch you anymore. Tonight is the last night.”

  “So, you came to what? Say goodbye?” I tried hard to keep my voice from shaking, but feared I had failed miserably.

  He ran a tattooed hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “Something like that.”

  I stiffened my spine and looked away from him. “Well, good—”

  “I paid for your gran’s care for the rest of the year.”

  “What? Why would you do that?”

  He took a step toward me. “I ruined everything in your life, Julia. I wanted to make it right.”

  “Make it right?” I couldn’t believe it. Just when I thought things were as bad as they could get, he said something else to make it worse. “Nothing will ever make it right.” I turned away, and this would be the last time. I was going to leave and be done with this situation. I was finished with this mess for good.

  I barely made it ten feet when strong arms wrapped around me. “No, Cole. No.” I tried to wriggle away from him, but he turned me around and mashed his lips against mine. They were so different from the bartender’s. They were firm and smooth, perfect against my own. His tongue pushed against the seam of my mouth and I only hesitated a second before I opened up and let him twine his tongue with mine. I was weak; I wanted to blame it on the alcohol, but I couldn’t. Cole made me weak. I seemed to be powerless when it came to him.

  He backed me up against the outside of the club. The warm bricks pressed against my skin. The pounding music rattled against the building, making my body vibrate as Cole thrust his tongue into my mouth. It was as though we were dancing, dueling, fighting for something that didn’t exist, but yet here we were. There was no denying that I craved him. I had all this time. It was why I hadn’t been with anyone else, because I wanted this. I wanted his sinewy body dominating mine. I wanted Cole. It was that simple there underneath pale yellow lights in the mucky alleyway behind a club.

  Cole’s hand gripped my thigh and pulled it up next to his waist, spreading my legs. His lips never left mine as his other hand made its way up my inner thigh, leaving tingling heat in its wake. My nipples pebbled against the sheer bandeau wrapped around my chest. I moaned into his mouth.

  His fingers traced my panty line, brushing against the damp fabric. He growled. “You’re so fucking wet, you’ve soaked your panties.” He nipped at my bottom lip with his teeth. “Are you wet for me, Julia? Or that prick in the bar?”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him the truth, that after all this, after all the shit he’d said and done, just tonight alone, that I still wanted him buried deep inside me.

  He moved his hand away from my throbbing pussy. “Tell me,” he snarled, and thrust me hard against the brick wall.

  After ever
ything, even in my alcohol and lust-induced haze, I couldn’t tell him I was wet for him.

  “For the other guy,” I whispered against his lips.

  A strangled sound tore from his chest. The hand holding my thigh up released me. His closed fist slammed against the wall a few feet away from my head. I didn’t even flinch. He wouldn’t hurt me, not like that. His knuckles were bleeding when he pulled his hand away, the word love bloody and broken. How fitting.

  I thought he would walk away from me now.

  He didn’t.

  He leaned in closer, pressing the palm of his injured hand against my cheek. He looked straight into my eyes and I swear I saw a hint of tears there before he closed them and leaned in, running his nose up and down mine. He let his injured hand trail down my body and lift my thigh again. His other fingers didn’t dance over my panties as they had before, instead, he jerked the wet cloth to the side and pressed his fingers against my throbbing clit. I gasped as pleasure tore through me.

  “You may be wet for him, but you will cum for me.”

  He started moving his digits against my throbbing bundle of nerves. I tried to hold back a moan, but failed.

  “Yeah, it’s me that’s playing with that little pussy isn’t it?” he taunted over me, his eyes hard and full of lust.

  I pressed my lips together. I wouldn’t answer him.

  “Isn’t it?” he growled and thrust hard against me. The bricks dug into my back.

  “Yes!” I moaned and rocked my hips into his fingers, the orgasm building deep inside me. I snaked my hand between our bodies and gripped his cock through his pants. He bucked into my hand.

  “I want you to remember this,” he said against my ear. He moved his fingers faster against my clit. I snaked my free hand into his hair and pressed myself hard against him while I rocked into his fingers. I was close, I could feel the pleasure there, just out of my reach. “You’re never going to have something like this again.” He thrust his hips in time with the movement of his fingers. “No matter how wet anyone makes you…” Cole’s hand gripped my thigh hard, his nails digging into my skin. The pain pushed me over the edge, hurtling into the orgasm that seconds before seemed unreachable. I shuddered against him, clinging to his hard body, digging my hands into his scalp. “It will only be me who can make you cum like this.”