Page 126 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

If that weren’t already a pathetic enough bargain, she saluted me eagerly, sending a splash of vodka soda onto the floor between our feet.

“I have a bad track record,” I mumbled.

Tyler scuttled away with Elle’s friend, and Mateo was somewhere in the masses of dancing bodies in front of the DJ with Tally. Sam was the last person I wanted to wave a flag to for rescue, but it didn’t matter anyway, because the table where he and Ophelia were sitting was vacant. My blood cooled instantly as I whipped around looking for them, dying to be wrong about my assumptions and worried about the person I was about to become if I wasn’t.

I loosened the tie around my neck until it hung at my chest, shucking the buttons open with forceful pinches. A sweat had begun to bead at my nape and I wasn’t certain if it was the crowded club or my body responding to my woman falling like sand through my grasp.

A cool, wet glass graced the back of my neck and I turned once again, assuming I’d have to ward off Elle for a final time, but was met instead with an amused, albeit cold Ophelia where the girl was standing seconds before.

She raised an eyebrow, waving in the direction of the crowd. “If you’re looking for the blonde, she just got picked up by her parents.”

“Where did you go?” My tone was immediately aggressive and I couldn’t take it back.

She breathed out a sigh of disbelief, jingling the glass of water and its half-melted ice cubes in front of my face. “Coming to get the drink you got too distracted to bring back to me.”

“You seemed pretty occupied yourself, O. Didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Oh, you can’t be serious right now.” The strobe lights painted us both in blues and greens as loud music vibrated the floor.

“I can’t be serious? I have two eyes just like you do.”

“Maybe you need to get them checked. Sam is yourfriend, Frankie. You were the one who brought me over there in the first place. I didn’t tell you to get caught up at the bar with Blondie, but you were quick to do that.”

A bitter laugh ripped out of me. This girl was nothing short of a constant challenge. “We both knew how this was going to end, Ophelia. That was fine, but I thought you might at least wait until the plane fucking boarded first to find a replacement.”

“He was being friendly.” Her eyes zeroed into dark pinpoints.

“Friendly?” I stepped close enough to feel her little puffs of aggravated breath on my throat. “When I touch you like this, am I just being friendly?” My finger hooked through the belt loop on her jeans and I tugged her toward me, flush against my chest, then pinched her chin between my thumb and forefinger as Sam had. “Tell me, honestly.”

“Honestly?” Ophelia’s hands sunk into my shirt and she shoved me away. “This is you being a jealous dick.” She whipped around, swaying toward the exit doors that opened onto a dark side street, and I bounded after her immediately.

“Have I ever told you how much I love chasing your pouty ass through bars?” I shouted as I caught up to her, just as she pushed through the heavy black door and outside. “I told you the first time we met, Ophelia. I don’t share.”

The sounds inside the club were snipped in half by the exit closing behind us. Only a dull thudding bass and the telltale sound of raucous chatter filtered through. My ears popped and my eyes adjusted to the darker alley we were standing in. Cigarette butts were scattered around the concrete at our feet.

“Sam wasn’t fucking hitting on me,” she growled, finally turning around.

“Only because he knows you’re mine.”

That visibly knocked the wind from her sails. Her clenched fists softened at her sides, while the crease between her eyes flattened to a silent acquisition. I watched her full, plum red lips part and my body recognized that change in her like an invitation.

I tried to wrap my fingers around the pulse at her neck and drag her to me, but she batted my hand away with little force instead.

“Now Ibelongto you?”

“You’re goddamn right you do, Ophelia.” I stepped forward, crowding her back into the brick wall, hiding in the shadows where the moon couldn’t dip through the buildings and touch us. “We let this happen, we fucking did this to each other, O. And now we have to deal with it like adults. I have to find a way tobleed youfrom my veins, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to treat you like what you are while you’re still here, and that is fuckingmine.”

This time when I reached for her she let me. I dug my fingertips into the tangled hair behind her ear, let my palm take on the pounding beat of her heart as it rested against her neck. She was fuming mad, pupils dilated into pools as dark as tourmaline, and our breath mingled in harsh, tandem huffs.

“You can’t say things like that,” she murmured, shaking her head.

“I don’t care.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she stressed, tugging on my loosened tie until it was wound around her little wrist. She was so close I could taste the hint of fruity alcohol she’d been sipping all night on her breath.

“Well it did.”

A wave of loud cheering erupted from within the building, and the music hushed to rhythmic ticking, like a countdown on a clock. We both looked toward the door, neither moving, listening to the descent of muffled numbers as they dropped from thirty to twenty and then heightened to an unmistakable chorus as they began from ten.

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