Beauty from Pain(8)

Ben gives me a bewildered look, as if I made up the whole thing. “Okay. Would you like to finish the dance?”


“Sure.”


As I dance with Ben, I can’t stop thinking about the phantom or the way he disappeared without giving me his name. Shit! I bet the good-looking bastard is married and that’s why he wouldn’t tell me who he is.


That isn’t going to work for me. If there is one thing I don’t do, it’s married men.


I need to talk to Addison, but she is in the middle of her presex show with Zac. That means she’s sending me home alone with Ben. I’m not in the mood to deal with that. “I’m not feeling well. I think I’m going to catch a cab back to the apartment.”


“I’ll drive you.”


I put my hand on his arm. “I can’t ask you to do that. This is your big night. Stay and show off what you’ve accomplished.”


“I don’t mind. Really.”


Yeah, I know. He’s such a nice guy, but I’m not interested. “I know, but I’d feel worse if you didn’t stay to promote what you’ve worked so hard for.”


He concedes and I catch a cab back to the apartment. I make a point to be in bed when he comes home. I pretend to be asleep when he taps on the bedroom door because I’m not sure what he wants.


Well, that’s not true. I know what he wants, but I’ve chosen the coward’s way. I should be brutal and tell him to back off, but I don’t. I dodge him, only prolonging the inevitable.


I jerk awake with the shift of the bed beside me. What the hell? The adrenaline surging through my veins makes my heart take off like a helicopter. It’s throbbing erratically in my neck, my chest, my head. Even my hands.


“Addison?” I pray I hear her voice answer me.


“Yeah.” She whispers like she’s afraid she’ll wake someone. Too late.


I’m relieved to hear her voice instead of Ben’s, but I’m madder than hell. I look at the clock on the nightstand. It’s 3:18 in the morning. “You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing climbing into bed at this time of the morning? I thought you were at Zac’s place.”


“I was.”


Yeah, and now you’re not. “Why did you come back? Did something happen?”


“No, but you know me. I don’t want to be that girl, the one who wears out her welcome.”


Right. Because Dude doesn’t owe you anything after he gets in your pants. “Let me get straight on this. You don’t want to be the girl to wear out your welcome, but you’ll be the girl who lets him wear out your vagina?”


She slaps my arm in the dark. “That’s just crude, Laurie.” She giggles. “But oh so true. He did wear it out like a champ.”


Ugh! I was joking. She’s not.


“It’s a game, Laurelyn. Trust me. I know what I’m doing. He’ll want me more if he has to lie in bed thinking about me from across the hall. He’ll wish he’d asked me to stay, but there’s another reason I came home. I don’t want Ben to know I locked loins with Zac.”


Good grief. That’s what we’re calling it these days. “Why would Ben care?”


“You’re an only child so you don’t get it. Brothers don’t care how old you are. They’re weird about their friends screwing their sisters.”


What about a sister freaking out over her brother trying to lock loins with her best friend? Shouldn’t she be trying to dissuade Ben or something?


“So, I saw you dancing with a good-looking suit last night. What’s going on with that?”


Good-looking suit. I can roll with that. “That was him, the man I ran into at the club on our way out the other night. The same one I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for three days.”


“Oh, wow. What a coincidence.” She doesn’t have to tell me. I thought I’d never see him again.


“I know. He asked me to dinner tonight.” I let out a high-pitched squeal that shouldn’t come from a twenty-two-year-old woman. “He’s sending his driver to pick me up because he has an afternoon meeting. Is that weird?”


“I guess not, unless he’s calling the man behind the wheel of a taxi his driver. He must be rich. What does he do?”