Page 68 of A Lot Like Forever
Chapter 15
Nate was miserable. So miserable that the only thing he could think to do was drown himself in alcohol. He went to Joe’s, something he wouldn’t have done if Faith’s ex was still working there. It made one corner of his mouth turn up into a smile thinking how quick the guy had left town, something his investigators had advised Nate after a couple of weeks of not being able to find the guy locally, but then it only reminded him of Faith again and he was back to scowling. Now what he wanted was to get good and drunk, then head to his apartment to sleep for at least ten hours straight. He was so jet-lagged he was ready to be comatose. He’d promised himself after his last trip that he was gong to slow down, but it was easier to just keep going, given how messed up he was over Faith leaving.
“Turn that frown upside down, gorgeous.”
The overly sexy drawl made him look up and into a pair of heavy black lashes. Nate glanced down her body, liking her equally oversize breasts. Why the hell was he pretending to be a monk just because he couldn’t have Faith?
“Hey.” He pushed out his chair a bit, rocked back on the rear legs, then quit when he realized how unsteady he was. He needed to either slow down on the whiskey or switch back to beer.
“What’s your name?” she asked, dropping into the chair across from him and waving to someone else. He looked over his shoulder, saw another woman hurrying across to his table. He’d scowled so much all night that he’d as good as had aGoAwaysign on his chair, but these two weren’t so easily put off.
“Nate,” he finally said. He should have asked them theirs, but he didn’t really give a damn.
“I’m Sally and this is Essie,” she announced, leaning in closer to him, her perfume surrounding him. “You having a good time?”
Do I look like I’m having a good time?He might be drunk, but he wasn’t a complete asshole, so he just smiled. “Yeah, sure.”
The woman she’d introduced as Essie reached for his hand, stroking hot-pink nails across his palm when she turned it over. “Feel like getting out of here and having double the fun?”
Nate’s head snapped back. They might be kinda trashy in a faked-tan, too-much-tits-on-display way, but they weren’t exactly hard on the eye. Both blond, Essie was tall and leggy, whereas her friend had a ton of curves. He retrieved his hand, grabbed his whiskey glass, and knocked the rest of it back.
“You wanna drink first or get out of here now?”
They looked at each other and giggled. “Let’s go, Mr. King.”
He grimaced. So they’d known exactly who he was. He’d had too much to drink, but he knew he hadn’t told them his last name. He never did announce it unless it was business or a different kind of company.
“Nate?” Sally purred, sidling up against him. “What’s wrong?”
Nate shook his head. “Nothing, sweetheart. Let’s go.”
He slid an arm around each girl, wondering why the hell he’d hadn’t just picked up a beautiful woman earlier.
“You gonna take us back to your ranch, sugar?” one of the women asked.
He dropped a kiss into blond hair that smelled like cigarettes and cheap perfume. He clamped his jaw, ground his teeth at the memory of Faith’s sweet, fresh-smelling shampoo.
“How about we go to yours?” he replied, not wanting to ruin the moment by thinking about what he didn’t have. And there was no way in hell these two or any other damn woman was going to be coming back to his ranch with him.
The woman pouted, but he wasn’t going to change his mind. He had rules for a reason, and look where breaking them had gotten him.
“I’m thinking a hotel room and champagne,” he said, laughing when his ass got grabbed. He slid his own hand down and caressed a perky butt.
“Nate?”
The soft, surprised voice made him stop dead.What the hell?
“Hey,” he managed, staring at the woman he hadn’t been able to get out of his head since the day she’d left his house. He went to extract his arms, but one of the women giggled and slid closer, trailing wet kisses along his jawline, then nipping at his ear.
“You look like you’re having fun,” Faith said.
He groaned. The woman he’d found so appealing earlier took it as a sign he liked what she was doing and amped up her tongue exploration of his earlobe. Nate pushed her back. How the hell had he ended up bumping into Faith now, of all times?
“You working here again?” he asked.
“No.” When she shook her head it made the light catch her hair, dark tresses shining and silky. He remembered exactly what it was like having those strands against his skin. “The gallery is going great; I love working there. I’m just, ah, having a few drinks with friends tonight.”
Nate hadn’t even noticed who she was standing with, but he glanced sideways and realized her friends were hovering slightly behind her. He smiled and said hello, suddenly a whole lot more sober than he’d been earlier. Part of him wanted to flaunt the two women standing beside him, almost purring, they were so damn desperate to get him into bed, but the sensible side of his brain was telling him not to be an asshole and to fight harder for the one woman he wanted. Because he wanted her—if there was one thing he’d realized over the past month, it was that he wanted her more than anything he’d ever wanted before. He was just too damn proud to go chasing her when he still couldn’t figure out how he could have her without giving her what she needed.
