I glance around once more and I’m seconds from leaving when I hear his voice as he greets someone else. I follow the sound to the bar, where he’s on the receiving side with a couple of shot glasses—one empty and the other full—in front of him. Slowly, my disappointment begins to fade away.
“I won’t screw up. I won’t wreck things this time,” I lecture myself under my breath, walking toward him. I pull my hands out my back pockets and smooth them over my hair. God, I wish I had one of my hats right now.
“You’re killing me,” he says. I slide onto the barstool. His eyes fall on mine, penetrating and unblinking, as he waits patiently for me to say something. When I don’t, he tosses back his drink and swallows hard. “So what angle are you going for tonight? Gonna tell me how different we are? Or are you—”
“Shut up, Rhys.” I move my face closer to his, a little wave of pleasure rippling through my veins at the flash of surprise on his face. I shouldn’t admit it, but I like catching him off-guard. The look is gone almost as quickly as it appeared, though. “Maybe I came to say sorry. Did you ever consider that?”
“This must be the part where you ask me to take you home?” His tone is teasing. It’s also just the slightest bit cruel. Same as his smile. “Tell me one thing, Evelyn. That whole spiel you gave me last week about being too different—you don’t for a second believe that, do you?”
The back of my mouth goes dry as I lean away to search his gaze. Maybe I’d believed what I’d said to him once, but that was before I began untangling him. Before he succeeded in getting to me. The truth is, Rhys and I are just the same—messy and fragile.
“No, I don’t,” I finally tell him. “So now that I’ve admitted that, I can leave you to drink alone or you can accept my company.”
He lifts his lips and cocks his head to one side, and all of a sudden, the only thing I can think about is digging my hands into his thick black hair. “What makes you think I’m drinking alone?”
I look around at the rest of the bar stools and then back at him. “Oh, I don’t know. Just a wild guess.”
“That would make you wildly fucking wrong. I had a parting shot with Jase before Daisy took him to the airport.”
I run my finger along the rim of one of his empty shot glasses. “Sad to see him go?”
“He’ll be back soon enough.” He signals the girl with the flaming hair and she immediately comes over giving him the smile he manages to elicit from most women. “One more fireball, Hazel, and something sweet and virginal for Evelyn.”
“Sure thing, Rhys.” She winks, but before she leaves, she stares from him to me and then back again. “She’s gonna drive you home?”
He turns to me, his dark eyebrow lifting questioningly, and I nod. As soon as Hazel scurries off, I lift my own brows. “How were you going to get home if I hadn’t shown up?”
“Hazel would’ve taken me.” I feel a stab of jealousy, wondering if he’s ever slept with the other bartender. Taking in my drawn expression, he laughs. “The whiplash is killing me, beautiful. For what it’s worth, you’re getting worked up over something that was well before your time.”
Butterflies settle in the bottom of my stomach, and I suck it in an effort to try to still their erratic flight. “I didn’t realize I had a time.”
The second Hazel places our drinks in front of us, he tips back his shot and shakes his head. “You wouldn’t have come in here if that were true.”
Thinking on his words in silence, I sip my mocktail. As soon as I’m done, he motions me close to him. “I want you to take me home, Evelyn, but before we leave I want you to know something else,” he says in a voice low enough for only me to hear. “If you get out your car and come into my place, I want more from you. I want to be inside you, taste every inch of you, and if you come in that’s what’s gonna happen tonight.”
Oh. Wow.
Panties, meet your destroyer, I think at the pressure his words build inside of me.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. Scooting off the barstool, I start for the door, glancing back to see if he’s coming. He falls in step right beside me, and I feel his fingers splay on the small of my back. I suppress a shiver as I lead him to where my car is parked in a lot a block away.
“Did you know this thing is in Forza?” he asks me once we’re both inside. I give him a disbelieving stare. Not even two minutes ago he was telling me how this night would end with me in his bed, and now his expression is calm and collected and he’s talking about my car and a video game.
“I know now,” I say, checking my mirrors as I pull onto the street in the direction of his apartment. When I park in his driveway behind a silver Impreza that I assume belongs to him, my dark brown eyes lock with his blue ones. I start to grab my purse as a slow, sexy grin forms on his face.
“God, Evelyn, I—” he begins but his words freeze when an electric blue Fiesta pulls into the spot right next to mine. I watch in horror as Cari, his ex-girlfriend, gets out. She stares over at us, a momentary flash of surprise registering on her face before she smirks, sticks her epic rack out, and then walks up the drive to Rhys’ side of the duplex.
“What the hell is she doing?” he growls as we watch her let herself in.
“Well, apparently she has a key.” My jaw clenches, and I fold my arms over my chest and flick my gaze over to him. “So what is she doing?”
I see his muscles tighten up as he gets out of my car. Supporting his weight on the open door, he leans down and gives me a warning look. “Don’t you think about moving. I’m going to settle this and figure out what’s going on.”
Biting the inside of my cheek I follow his toned back as he stalks into his house. As each second passes by my face grow hotter and hotter in shame until my entire body feels like it’s on fire. There’s nothing quite like sitting outside a guy’s house—a guy I fully planned to sleep with—as he tries to diffuse a situation with his former girlfriend.
If that’s even what this is.
Who’s to say he didn’t ask her over himself?
Finally, when there’s still no sign of either of them and my stomach pitches violently because of the road my thoughts have swerved on, I jab my keys back into the ignition and drive away.
Chapter Fifteen
“Hey, do me a favor?” I stop Nathan just before he walks into sight singing the next morning. Side-stepping a girl who’s trying to get into class, he turns to me and waits for my request. “Can you text me the assignment? I’ve got a migraine from hell, and I’m going to run back to my room and take something before my afternoon class.”
He turns his lips into a sympathetic frown and nods. “Feel better. I’ll let you know if you miss anything important.”
Moving away from the door so a few people can walk through, I give him an appreciative look before heading down the hallway toward the stairs. Although I’m still pissed at Rhys, livid actually, I’m honestly not avoiding sight singing because of him today. I fully intend on going to our lesson this afternoon and telling him exactly what I think of him—as soon as I get rid of this headache. I’m massaging my fingers over my temples with my eyes partially closed, so I’m caught completely unaware when a strong hand closes around my wrist and pulls me into the concert band’s instrument room on the first floor.
Fear spirals through me. I pound my fists against a rock hard chest until fingers feather across my cheek and tilt my face up and Rhys’ beautiful blue-green eyes stare down at me. Sucking in a breath to calm my speeding heart, I close my eyes. Then I hit him one more time. To my satisfaction, he winces and backs up.
“You scared the hell out of me,” I gasp. He’s a couple feet away from me now, in front of a metal shelf lined with woodwind cases, with his dark eyebrows drawn together over his eyes. I settle my gaze directly on his eyes, and I quickly realize it’s a stupid, careless mistake.
An angry scowl creases his forehead. “You left without even telling me you were going.