Page 33 of Divine Sense

“Nothing. Just forget it.” I swallowed hard and avoided her eyes, knowing good and well that if I looked into them I’d lose the battle I’d been trying to fight for the last several weeks. She took another step closer to me and leaned down to catch my glance. I gave her a stony expression, trying to push the feelings I’d so nicely packed into a box back into it.

“I’m sorry, istheKolbi Vesey admitting he’sjealous?” She kept her eyes trained on me and her lips pulled into a cocky smile. “That can’t be though, right? Because we’re just friends, as you like to remind me of every chance you get. Even though we both know that the feelings we have for one another are anything but friendly. May I remind you of the moment we had two weeks ago, oh wait, no, you just want to try and pretend like that never happened.” Her words came out hot and her eyes pierced me like daggers. I finally stopped pacing and brought my eyes to hers.

“Who said anything about wanting to pretend like it never happened? I think about that night every fucking day,” I pressed through a clenched jaw and took a step closer to her. Her eyesgrew wide as I brought my face close to hers. “I think about you every day no matter how much I try not to. Every time I get home from work, the first thing I do is go to the bedroom you slept in and wish you were there. Not a single day has gone by since I met you that I haven’t thought about you. And what happened at the party, that’s the best thing that’s happened to me in years.”

“Then why are you pretending like there isn’t anything going on between us? Why do you so badly want to ignore?—”

It was my turn to interrupt her this time with a kiss. Wrapping one arm around her waist and another around her neck, I pulled her into me and pressed my lips to hers. She leaned in immediately and opened her mouth, inviting me in further. Feeling her on me like this again drowned out all the noise around us and it was as if she were the only thing in the world. When she pulled away from me, I cradled her face in my hand and watched her chest rise and fall heavily.

“I thought you said you couldn’t have me?”

“I thought you knew you were already mine.” When she pulled her eyebrows together, I found the wrist that adorned the bracelet I’d given her and held it in front of her face. She laughed again before pushing up on her toes to bring her lips back to mine. As we stood kissing on the sidewalk, the crowd inside the club started to countdown.

“Three…two…one…happy New Year!” We pulled away from one another, laughing at the timing of it all and looked at each other.

“Happy New Year, Jack.”

“Happy New Year, flower.”

She chewed on her lip and suddenly looked shy, giving me a once over before speaking again.

“You wanna get out of here?”

22

MAGNOLIA

I’ll never forget the sound of his voice in my ear when he came up from behind me in the club. How it sent a shockwave down my spine and made all of my senses stand at full attention. I knew it was him without even needing to turn around because I could pick out his voice no matter how loud the room was. Deep, strong, and something I could feel throughout my entire body.

When I asked him if he wanted to leave the club with me, I fully expected him to tell me no. To tell me that I wasjust a clientor some other bullshit like how we were ‘just friends.’ But I took my shot anyway because that’s what Sinclairs do. We take the shot to get what we want, even if we don’t think it will work out in our favor. When he told me to wait here so he could go tell his friends he was leaving, I didn’t try to hide my smirk of triumph.

He came back out of the club quickly and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk towards the direction of a car that had just pulled up. He opened the door for me and signaled for me to get in before sliding into the backseat next to me. We sat in silence as the driver took us in the direction of his place. Whenwe pulled up, he handed a hundred dollar bill to the driver, told him to have a safe night, and helped me out of the car. He held my hand as he punched in a keycode to the front door and when he heard the lock unlatch, he pushed it open and let me go in ahead of him.

While this wasn’t the first time I’d been to his place, being here this time felt different. I felt different. Like every one of my nerve endings were buzzing with the anticipation of what might happen tonight. What he might do to me tonight—what I would let him do to me tonight. We were standing in the foyer a few feet apart, waiting for the other person to make the first move. I’d asked him to leave with me, so in my head, it was his move to make. If he wanted this, wanted me, he was going to have to show his hand first. My nerves frayed at the edges as he stood with his back to the door, looking at me as if he’d just caught a fresh meal. His typically solemn eyes were now burning into me, full of desire and want. Unable to take the silent tension between us any longer, I spoke first.

“What’s wrong, Jack, cat got your tongue?” I tried to make my voice flirty and coy instead of agitated and flustered which is how I was growing more and more with each second he stood there unmoving.

“There are three rules,” he started, setting his shoulders back and taking a predatory-like step closer to me. I stood up straighter and squared my shoulders to his.

“I don’t care much for rules. I’ve had to follow them my entire life and at this point, I’m over it.” I cocked my head at him, challengingly.

“Then I’ll call you a ride and you can text me when you make it home safely.” He matched my movements exactly before taking a step around me, heading down the hallway. I huffed out a breath and turned to face him again.

“Fine. What are the rules?” If I had to follow his stupid rules to get what I wanted, so be it. He paused mid-step and turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. When I caught the flash of the smirk on his face, I almost told him to fuck off and send me home. But I wanted him something fierce and I knew he wanted me, too, so I held my tongue.

“First rule.” He turned around and took a few steps closer to me. “Your parents cannot find out about this. No one can know about this. About us?—”

“Oh there’s anusnow?” I cut him off.

“Not if you interrupt me again.”

I swallowed hard and waited for the next rule.

“Second rule,” he added as he took a few steps closer. He was within arms reach and it took everything in me not to reach out and grab him. “You will do as my men say when they’re working. You will not make their job any harder and I better not hear about you being difficult again. Unless you want to be punished for your poor behavior.” I wanted to make a quip about how he can punish me any day of the week but knew that if I interrupted him again, my chances of getting what I wanted would be gone.

“And finally, rule number three.” He had moved even closer and his body was now flush with mine and his hand was reaching down for the wrist that held the bracelet he’d given me on Christmas morning. I hadn’t taken it off since he put it on me in front of my place and when my mother oooh’d at it, thinking Daniel gave it to me, I simply rolled my eyes at her and told her I bought it for myself.

“Rule number three is that you never, ever, take this off.” With my wrist tucked into his firm hand, he pulled it to his lips and kissed the soft spot of the inside of it. The move was gentle but did something unworldly to my insides. His eyes were on mine as he pressed his lips there and I wanted nothing morethan to know what it felt like to have his lips on every inch of my body.

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