Page 25 of Pretty Obsessed

“I don’t want you to get hurt. I know how you are.” His words came flat. Needled into my insecurity.

“I know how I am, too, I feel everything. I’m going into this with my eyes wide open.”

“I don’t think you are,” Octavius replied.

“Goodnight. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

He nodded and I felt the condemnation as I turned my back. He didn’t have to agree with everything I did. “Be safe. Use protection.”

“I know,” I muttered, the flush coming back. Like he needed to say that in a club full of people. We'd known each other since freshman year of college. He knew me better.

“Less lecturing than I expected,” River said, as I approached.

“I got more than an earful last night. This was an updated disapproval.” I laughed and pushed my fingers into my hair.

“At least he doesn’t feel the need to repeat himself.”

“True. I didn’t need to sit through that lecture again.” A forty-five-minute one, but I wasn’t going to throw Octavius under the bus for it. He saw a lot working here and after the year I’d had, he wanted to protect me. I didn’t fault him for it.

But I wanted this.

“This way.” He pinched my shirt and dragged me towards the back.

“I should have realized you’re one of the people who use the private entrance. I don’t need to do that. No one cares about me coming and going. They probably think I work here.”

“You’re pretty enough to.”

I stared at him as we stepped out into the covered garage. It was used by high profile visitors and their cars so there were no pictures of them going in or out of the establishment. For the most part, no one knew the club was here because of the NDAs. Occasionally there were pictures of a famous person’s car going into the garage, but most people had wised up and took cars they wouldn’t be recognized in. They cherished their freedom, and I didn’t blame them.

“I don’t think I could do it. You have to be brave as fuck to get on stage and perform.”

“As someone who gets on stage every day, you get used to it.”

“You don’t do it naked…” I cut myself off. “I guess you did yesterday.”

His driver opened the door for us, and River slid into the back seat, offering me a hand. “I’d hardly call my indiscretion a show.”

“I’d call it a show.” I took his hand and climbed into the seat next to him.

A smile curled over his lips. “We can call it whatever you’d like as it drew you to me.”

“It wasn’t the blow job that drew me to you.” I buckled my seatbelt.

He left his undone, turning to angle his body towards mine. “What was it?”

“Your eyes.”

“The color or something else? I’ve never thought of my eyes as a particular draw.”

“The intensity of them.” The color didn’t hurt either. I brushed my fingers over his lips, staring into them. “I couldn’t say no when you beckoned me over.”

“And when I asked you to kiss me, why couldn’t you say no then?” He was really going to drag all of this out of me.

“You were different than I expected you to be.”

“Are you attracted to different?” His voice was raspy, sexy again.

“With you, yes.” I didn’t want to tell him why, but I knew it was coming.

---