Cullen grabbed her arm, stopping her as Beck and Mary slipped out through one of the auditorium’s exit doors.
She tugged on her arm. “The nerve of her coming all the way here after what she did—”
“Give them some privacy.”
She glared at him. “Let me go—”
“Are you going to go after them?”
Her mouth pursed mulishly.
He shook his head down at her. “Your brother is a grown man and can fight his own battles.”
“I know that, but Mary just isn’t some girl he dated. They’ve been together forever. She was my friend first. Did you know that? Since kindergarten. She betrayed us all when she betrayed him.”
Cullen held her stormy blue gaze for a moment before nodding and letting go of her arm.
She looked toward the door where they departed and then back at him. “Fine.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned against the wall beside him. “I’ll give them a couple of minutes and then nothing is stopping me from following and giving her a piece of my mind.”
A smile twitched his lips.
“What’s so funny?” she snapped.
“I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Like what?”
“Mad.” Before he could consider it, he added, “It’s kind of hot.”
Color flooded her face, and suddenly all the tense awkwardness of last night was between them again. They were in his bed and his hands were on her skin, sliding her thighs apart, sinking into her satin heat, wringing soft little cries from her lips. He inhaled and smelled that fruit shampoo of hers. His gaze slipped down and he got caught up in the way the coral dress made her skin look lush as peaches. Lust slicked through him and he dropped his hands to disguise his sudden hard-on.
She stared straight ahead, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s enough time.” Turning, she made a beeline for the exit, the hem of her dress flirting around her knees.
Chapter Six
Huntley rounded the hallway and stopped hard. She didn’t see Mary anymore. No. There was only her brother lip-locked with a dark-haired girl in a white lace dress. Well, that would explain the absence of Mary. He wasn’t kidding when he said he was over his ex.
Not that it was hard to imagine him getting over Mary when he had this girl to help him along. She was vaguely familiar and Huntley thought she might have seen her around town. Maybe on base. She was beautiful. Edgy, even in white lace. Beck looked like he was going to pull her deep inside himself and never let go. Her hands crawled over Beck’s massive shoulders, and it was clear she was all for that plan.
This girl was the reason for that elusive expression on her brother’s face on the drive over. He was in love with her. She knew this about him just like she knew he loved banana and peanut butter sandwiches and spent the first eight years of his life with a Rambo poster on his wall.
Cullen came up beside her. She was assailed by his scent. That faint hint of soap and laundry sheets and man. And something else. That thing she had smelled in his bed with him. A pheromone that belonged to him alone. Whatever it was, it shot a bolt of lust straight through her.
God. It was like she was a victim of her body. For a brief moment she was on her back again, his hand between her thighs, the salty musk of his skin swirling all around her. She salivated as though she was hungry. Starving. Only not for food. For him. For what he could give her. Last night had been a sample. Sometimes it gets a little rough. She knew there was more. So much more to be had. His body was built for pleasure, and she knew he would have sex like he did everything else. With focus and intensity and power.
“I don’t think he’s going to need a ride home,” he murmured beside her.
“No,” she said evenly, glad her voice came out normally. “Looks like he’s got that covered.”
Whatever was going on with her brother and this girl, it wasn’t meaningless for him. Her chest hollowed out a little watching Beck make out with a girl whose name she didn’t even know.
With Cullen beside her, she shifted nervously. She tried not to think about them. About them yesterday.
He had lit a fire within her. Stirred coals to life that had been long dormant. She needed to get laid and soon, before she threw herself at Cullen’s feet and begged him to finish what he had started.
Cullen propped a hand on the wall, his arm brushing along her back. “Well, good for Beck.”
She nodded, a lump forming in her throat. Yes. Good for her brother. He had found someone. He had been here all of three days and found someone. Meanwhile, she was a leper. Even Cullen didn’t want to seal the deal. Last night she had been his for the taking and he had stopped.
“Yeah,” she replied, hoping she didn’t sound as shell-shocked as she felt.
“He deserves it.”
She turned to face Cullen, suddenly not wanting to talk about her brother and the happiness he’d found. Yes, he deserved it. Yes, she wanted him to be happy. But right now it only reminded her of how she got a fat fail when it came to relationships.
Cullen’s sculpted lips twitched like he wanted to smile, clearly pleased for her brother.
“And you don’t, Cullen?” she asked.
He turned to face her, his mouth all hard and flat again, a faint question in his eyes.
“Deserve happiness,” she clarified.
Okay, calling attention to his perpetual single status might not have been the way to go if she was trying to get things back on normal footing between them. She never questioned his lifestyle. She certainly didn’t pressure him to get serious and date any of his one-night stands.
His eyes grew more hooded, the dark depths shielding whatever was going on inside his head. “Don’t put me on your shrink’s couch, Huntley. I’m satisfied with my life. I think it’s you who isn’t happy.”
Cullen was right on that score. She’d joined a dating service because she wasn’t happy with the status quo. He knew that. But at least she was working on changing her life. Grandma always said there was nothing wrong with taking a hard look at your life and not liking what you saw. The wrong was in doing nothing to fix it.
She glanced back at her brother, still lip-locked with his girl, his big hands cupping her face like she was the most treasured, special thing in the world to him. She wanted that for herself. Returning her gaze to Cullen, she knew she wasn’t going to find that with him. Her stomach churned sickly. Suddenly that mattered a lot. It hurt. Even though she told herself not to let it, last night with him mattered.
Without another word, she turned and started down the long hallway. She’d text Beck later. She didn’t want to interrupt what was obviously an intimate moment. Besides, she had a coffee date tonight that she needed to get ready for. The first step to fixing her life. Grandma would be proud.
Cullen’s dress shoes clicked next to her. “Where are you headed?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, lifting one shoulder as she stepped out into fading sunlight, unwilling to tell him about her date for some reason. It felt weird confiding that after last night.
“Home. I’m kind of tired.” She winced over the implication that she hadn’t slept last night, but the words were out of her mouth before she could snatch them back.
He scanned the parking lot, his eyes squinting slightly against the sea of gleaming hoods and glinting windshields. “Guess I’m to blame for that.”