Page 33 of Payback
I move in closer yet. “I can definitely help you with that.”
She presses her hands to my chest for a gentle shove and skips past me to hide behind the curtain.
You can run, but you can’t hide, mooi.
Four outfit changes later, we find a fuckworthy look for Roan. In all honesty, it’s so fuckworthy, I start to stress over who his date is going to be for the gala and how painful it will be for me to watch the winner drool all over him the entire evening. I’m certain she’ll want to have sex with him. Good-god, the man is charming without even being dressed to the nines.
The way Sloan and Freya were laughing with him made me feel twitchy and hot. They even giggled to each other about how they were going to have to let the groin of his trousers out to make room for his “unit.”
A unit that I can recall with great detail.
And when he looks at me with those dazzling eyes of his, he makes it really easy for me to forget about what a horrible human I am for having a nonconsensual sex video of him on my phone.
Roan, Mac, and I say our goodbyes to the ladies at Kindred Spirits. Then Mac makes a quick exit to his car, nearly tripping over himself in some bizarre attempt to give Roan and me some space.
“There’s a decent pub down this way called The Owl and Pussycat,” Roan says, walking backwards and gesturing for me to follow him around the corner.
I purse my lips together and nod nervously.
You agreed to this, Allie. You said yes, even though you know this is a bad idea! So just get over it and hope he moves on quickly to the next girl who will most likely throw herself at him.
We walk side by side in comfortable silence to the pub. When we arrive, it’s overflowing with patrons having a pint outside after a long day of work. Roan presses his hand to the small of my back as we move through the crowd, toward the beer garden in the back. We snag an open table in the corner before Roan asks what I want to drink and takes off for the bar.
Nerves erupt in my belly because, here we are again, having drinks. We may not be going to a wedding, but something tells me if I wanted to sleep with Roan tonight, I could. But I shouldn’t want to sleep with him. Wanting to sleep with him would mean he’s more than a one-night stand and I should tell him about the video.
He returns and sets my red wine in front of me, watching me curiously as I take a sip to brace myself.
“Why do you suddenly look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?” he asks, tilting his head and eyeing me speculatively. “You’re reminding me of how you were the night we met, but you seemed lighter and more relaxed when I saw you out with your cousins at Café de Paris.”
I swallow nervously. “I’m, um…I’m just not sure you and I are a good idea.”
“Not this again,” he groans and props his muscled forearms on the small table, leaning closer to me so I can smell his freshly showered scent. “I thought you giving me your number meant there were good things to come.”
“What kind of good things?” I ask pointedly.Please don’t say sex. Please don’t say sex!
He shrugs. “The kind that involve you and me hanging out, I guess.”
I huff out a laugh. “You hardly know me. How do you know you want to hang out with me?”
He drops his chin with a pointed look in his eyes. “Shall I remind you of everything I learned about you that first night we had together?”
“Apparently!” I volley back with a laugh, thinking he can’t possibly remember anything other than the multiple orgasms.
He clears his throat and pushes his sleeves up on his arms before counting off his list on his fingers. “Number one, you occasionally snort when you laugh, but you turn it into a cough because you think that hides it. It doesn’t.” He winks and I have to cough back a snort.
“Number two, you get a crease between your brows when you’re thinking about something else and not living in the moment…Something I’d really like to make stop right now.”
I relax my browline and do my best to give him my undivided attention.
“Number three, you have no idea how beautiful you are, probably because you grew up with a father who didn’t value beauty as much as intelligence. Not the worst thing he ever did, if I’m being honest.”
“And number four…” He pauses and loses all humour on his face before stating, “you were trying to hide your heartbreak from me the night we met, but I could see it when you didn’t think I was looking. And what attracted me to you that night wasn’t actually your surface-level beauty, even though you were fucking hot in that garter belt. It was the fact that most women would have been crying and eating chocolates, but you were brave enough to put on a pair of heels and not let life knock you down.”
My breath catches in my throat and I swallow the knot I feel rising. “Is that all?” I husk, still stunned by what he just said.
He gets a wicked glint in his eyes. “That and I know what your face looks like when you come. That should be worth something.”
A zinging sensation shoots between my thighs from the overwhelming reaction I’m having to all of his words. Meanwhile, he sits back in his chair like he’s just casually talked about the weather.
