Frayed (Connections, #4)(11)

The trance is broken and she finds her voice. “Oh, I worked an event earlier and left something behind. I’m just going back to get it,” S’belle tells the man.

“Oh, okay, then. Make it fast.”

“Did you just lie to that man?”

Her eyes cut to mine. “It wasn’t really a lie. Just a half-truth.”

“There’s a difference?” I feign ignorance.

“Yes, now come on before he catches up with us,” she says nervously.

I laugh and her eyes stay locked on mine. Her initially hard stare softens second by second and then just like that she shoves me forward and takes the lead. I follow her and the next door takes us right into the Crystal Ballroom.

I scratch my head. “How did you know how to get here?”

“I just mapped the location out in my head and followed the service corridors.”

I raise my eyebrows. “I’m impressed.”

“We’re closed,” the bartender calls.

“Hey, man, I just popped in to show this nonbeliever your sign behind the bar.”

“Mr. Covington, I didn’t realize it was you. Come on over.”

“Mr. Covington,” she scoffs, and straightens her shoulders as she strides toward the bar. “Hi, Ryan. How was your night?” she greets him.

Shock overtakes me. She knows him too?

He smiles at her. “Busy,” is all he says when he catches the look on my face.

She takes a seat and I move to stand behind her, making sure he knows she’s with me. But with being this close, all I can think about is wanting to press myself against her.

He lifts the framed sign from behind the bar and hands it to S’belle.

Her laughter jolts through me. She looks over her shoulder at me. “You’re not going to turn me in, are you, Mr. Covington?”

I wink at her and lean down to whisper in her ear, “Not if you behave.”

She sits perfectly still.

I watch in the mirror as her eyes close. I stay close just breathing into her ear and inhaling her lemon scent.

“Funny, right?” Ryan comments as he takes the sign from her and puts it back, making himself scarce at the other end of the bar.

S’belle twirls around to face me. “Your speech told such an emotional tale. I never thought about all you went through. I’m really sorry—”

I place a finger over her lips. “Shhh . . . no sorries. That part of my life is over and I’m moving forward. But I want to apologize to you for the last time we spoke. I really should explain—I wasn’t thinking clearly then. I was in a really bad place and—”

She repeats my action and places her finger over my lips. “Shhh . . . we’ve all made mistakes. I shouldn’t have judged. So let’s just let it go.”

She’s letting me off the hook for my lapse in judgment. Good. Working as a wedding columnist over the summer and fraternizing with the bride is not anything I’m proud of or even want to ever think about again.

We lean toward each other, drawn together like two magnets. I place my hands on either side of her. This close there’s no denying that we are two people who want each other. Lust, fire, desire erupt between us.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Covington, but I have to close the room down now.”

The weight of his gaze as he takes us in tells me he wants to be me. A smug satisfied smile spreads across my lips that he isn’t.

“We’ll get out of your hair and thanks for letting us in.”

“Anytime,” he says.

I pull myself back to look at her.

She tries to step from the barstool, but one of her heels gets caught in the rung. I catch her splaying my fingers across her hipbones and guide her to safety. “You okay?”

She blinks but doesn’t answer.

When I assess her body for signs of injury, the only thing I notice is gooseflesh up and down her arms. “Ready to head back?” I ask her softly.

She nods, still unable to speak, seemingly in a daze. I find it rather adorable. But that feeling passes quickly when she raises her eyes and they meet mine. In them I see no need for words. I recognize the look—one of pure hunger.





CHAPTER 4


Underneath It All

Bell

I’m not going to try to deny the desire burning within me. Heat flares as he leads me out of the ballroom, and it only seems to get hotter with each breath I take. I am, as always, completely under the spell that is Ben Covington—whenever he is near me now, then, and dare I say forever? The thing is that I can also tell he wants me just as much as I want him.

He turns around, walking and talking at the same time, his eyes drinking me in all the while. “Can you lead us back this way or should we take the main hallways?”

From the intense look he gives me, the same memory that was interrupted earlier assaults me.

? ? ?

At the frat party his eyes drank me in as if he had been in the desert for days and I were his first cup of water. Shivers went down my spine and I lost my ability to speak, but I didn’t really need to because he communicated with me by trailing his gaze slowly down my body. He stopped on my low-cut shirt and I was sure he could see my nipples popping out of the thin fabric. My breathing picked up as he lowered his eyes to the short hemline of my skirt. I had a feeling he knew my panties were already soaked, because I saw him swallow a few times.