Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3)(54)

“Dancing,” I said, tilting my face slightly so my nose brushed against his light beard.

“So dance,” he responded, setting his hands on my hips. I leaned forward, brushing my chest against his arm as I set the drink down behind him, smiling when I felt his grip tighten a little. I started to move my hips side to side, quirking a smile at the way his gaze smoldered on mine.

“Well, I’m not going to stand here and give you a private show,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “I charge for those.”

His grin was dark and full of mischief as he pushed himself off the bar and began to move with me, his hips in perfect tune with mine. “I’d pay a f*ck ton of money to see it.”

I smiled, running a hand through my hair to push it away from my face. I tilted my head slightly with the movement, and gasped when his lips came down and sucked me there.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked, his lips making their way up my neck, to my chin, my cheek, my earlobe.

“Did you?” I asked breathily, still moving along with him.

He reared back, cupping the side of my face as he gazed down on me with those dark, lust-filled eyes. He nodded.

I stopped breathing.

Stopped moving.

I looked at him, eyes wide. “What?”

“Come home with me,” he said, his mouth brushing the edge of mine. “I’m sick of playing games. Come home with me, Nicole.”

“Why now?” I asked. I tried to swallow that thought before I vocalized it, but it was no use. I had to know. I had to know he wasn’t the one playing games with me.

“Because I want you too f*cking much. Because the thought of you coming to this place and hooking up with some other * is just too much for me to bear.”

I felt myself smile. “So you want to be the * that takes me home?”

“More than anything.”

More than anything. I didn’t dare question him further. There was no point. I could see the resolve in his eyes, and that alone assured me that this was happening. I could’ve just brought up the reasons he’d been turning this idea down, but I wanted it more than anything, so instead, I went for light.

“No bathroom sex?” I asked, gazing up at him. His smile was slow, wide, and sensual as he shook his head as he brought his face close to mine again.

“Fuck. No. Definitely no bathroom sex, unless it’s one of our bathrooms,” he said, his mouth near my neck. He dropped a kiss there. “People change.”

All I could do was nod and turn around, ready to bolt out the door, but suddenly his arms were around me body, pulling me back to him, and I gasped at the feel of his hard body pressed up against mine. God. It’d been so long.

“Do you remember where I live? Have Marcus drop you off there,” he said into my ear before nipping the tip of my earlobe. I rocked against him. “We need to be careful until everything is finalized.”

I nodded and stumbled a bit when I felt his mouth on my neck again. What I would do for him to just f*ck me right there on that dance floor. In that stairwell. In the club bathroom. I was past the point of caring. He let go of me and walked at a normal distance once we reached the top of the stairs and into the VIP section. I introduced him to Chrissy, formally. They already knew each other from the first club experience Victor and I had, and then from the whole the guy I f*cked in the bathroom on my birthday works for my father! What are the chances? fiasco.

“I saw you on TV when you represented Harlow Winters in her divorce. You look hotter in person,” she said. Victor gave her a tell me something I don’t know smile.

“Let me go tell Bobby I’m leaving,” he said after I told Chrissy I was leaving. At the mention of my Bobby’s name, I paused. Victor shot me a confused look, so I pulled down on the sleeve of his suit jacket so he could lower his head.

“Isn’t it going to look weird if we both say bye to him and leave together?”

He straightened and looked at me for a long moment. I could practically hear the wheels in his head turning, trying to think of a solution. Finally, he nodded in agreement. I walked back to where Marcus was instead, and left while Victor went back to his table. When we opened the back door to go outside, the paparazzi snapped pictures, probably hoping to catch their newest juicy story, but stopped quickly when they saw it was only me, though they did ask their usual questions. What are you doing now that Gabriel is filming in Canada? Do you miss him? Will you visit him on set?

I let out a relieved breath once I got into the passenger seat.

“They are so f*cking annoying,” I huffed when Marcus got into the driver seat.

“Where to now?” he asked. I hated when he ignored my remarks. Didn’t he understand that I wanted to rant?

I pulled up Victor’s address from the text message Estelle had sent me the day he was sick and instructed Marcus to drive me there.

“Drop you off?” he asked when I said that.

“Yes.” I leaned back into my seat as I sent a quick reply telling Victor I’d be there. “I’ll get a ride home.”

Marcus looked at me for a beat. I didn’t acknowledge it, but I felt his stare on the side of my face before he sighed and started driving. I kept quiet the entire time. My hands on my lap shaking slightly. My nerves making it difficult to breathe calmly. I’d done this before. I’d done it often, but I couldn’t escape the fact that I’d never completely planned for it. The ride was long enough for me to have no choice but to think about the decision I’d made. I wondered if he’d purposely sent me there in a different car for that reason, to see if I chickened out and decided I couldn’t follow through with it. I took a breath and let it out slowly when the car slowed into a stop as we reached the quaint two-story beach house that I’d fallen in love with the day I came to visit.