Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2), Katana Collins [ebook smartphone .TXT] 📗

31 Chloe

I was grateful for the large paloma in my hand. Nothing could have prepared me for running into Dan tonight. Sure, I guess he was an entrepreneur of sorts. But typically speaking, I didn’t see many doctors and dentists with private practices here at the event. A few acupuncturists, sure. A chiropractor, yes.

It made much more sense after she who shall not be named forced her gut-healthy booger juice on us. He was there for her. He was there to support her business. He was nurturing her, helping her grow and thrive, using his connections to get them into posh events… but with me, all he ever did was ask me to have dinner on the table by seven.

However, if I wasn’t mistaken, Dan’s eyes were on me. He was watching me with jealousy glinting in his brown eyes. Just like the other morning when he and Liam had their little showdown over the La-Z-Boy, he seemed to be having regrets as he watched me from across the room. An aching flame inside of me was dying to know why; what about me now was so appealing? Was it the fact that I was here with Liam and it had looked like he’d spent the night with me that morning Dan had shown up at my house? Was it that I looked professional and polished, and Raina looked like she’d just left a party at Woodstock? Was it that my business was thriving—that I was thriving? Or was Dan just the kind of man who wanted what he couldn’t have?

Well, if he was going to stare, I was going to give him something to stare at. I swallowed a large gulp of the cool grapefruit from my glass and grabbed Liam’s hand. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s dance.”

I led him to the middle of the dance floor where there were only a few other couples swaying to the crooning music.

I pulled Liam close enough to smell the sandalwood and vanilla scent clinging to his skin and inhaled deeply. God, he smelled good. Warm and sexy. Dan had always smelled vaguely clinical—like that weird scent of a filling being drilled. Liam’s hand slid from the curve of my waist around the small of my back and he curved me into him, flush against the broad wall of his chest.

I buried my nose in his neck and from over his shoulder, I watched as Dan’s scowl deepened.

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look at Dan. Didn’t want to think about him or the woman he’d replaced me with.

And yet, I couldn’t resist peeking every now and then to see if he was watching.

“Chloe,” Liam’s voice had a hard edge to it. Shit. I was caught red-handed obsessing about my stupid ex who I didn’t even like, let alone love anymore. I didn’t want the man back, so why was I so damn obsessed with what he thought about me?

“Sorry,” I sighed, dragging my gaze away from Dan. Instead of staring, I fell in step with Liam’s slow sway and nuzzled into his neck. I felt immediately better in his arms. Like home. And for the length of one song, I pretended he could be mine. That we hadn’t rushed into this business together and muddied it all up. I smiled against his neck, picturing how our life would be together.

“What do you want, Chloe?” His question could have been so innocent. But the growl in Liam’s voice was thick and carnal and sent a flare of awareness spiraling between my legs.

My heart pounded as I lifted my gaze and came face-to-face with Liam. How was it that a man I saw every day in various stages of undress—from naked to ripped jeans and an apron to now in this suit—could continuously take my breath away? I swear, each time I saw him, I was stunned with how gorgeous he was. It should be a crime to look as hot as Liam Evans.

“Breathe, Chloe,” he said, smiling, as he curved his hand into mine and hugged it against his chest.

How could I, with him so close?

With another disarming smile, the few couples on the dance floor with us faded away, blending into the low hum of the crowd around us.

I stopped dancing. Right there in the middle of all the swaying bodies, I halted, not caring who was watching.

My eyes slid to the bar where there was only one employee and boxes of champagne bottles unattended beside the bar. I grabbed his hand and tugged him off the dance floor. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“You ask too many questions. Take off your jacket and hand it to me.”

He stumbled as I tugged him back over to the bar, fumbling out of his suit jacket and handing it to me. “Chloe, what the hell—”

I spun a quick one-eighty to face him and pressed my index finger to his lips, whispering, “Do you remember our first kiss?”

His pupils dilated, the inky black widening against the moss green background. “Of course. You’d literally just ended things with Dan—”

“Not that kiss,” I interrupted him. “Our first kiss. When we were in high school.”

He went silent for a breath before he answered. “Of course I remember it. Every second. I remember your hair was even blonder back then… and long. So long that it usually landed at the middle of your back. But that night, it was tied in high pigtails with blue and silver ribbons. You had Go Cats painted in the school colors on your cheeks and you tasted like cherry vanilla Chapstick mixed with—”

“Champagne,” I finished his thought. “Because Elaina and I had stolen a few bottles from our parent’s cellar. We thought they’d never notice… we were wrong. And we were grounded for a month.”

“I didn’t know you got grounded for that.”

I shrugged, continuing with my thought. “I’d been watching you all year. I thought you were so cute, but