Addicted (Addicted Trilogy Book 1) (3 page)

Normally, I wouldn’t have given his actions a
second thought but considering I had an audience, I became a little flustered
by the extra attention being thrown my way.

“Is he your boyfriend?” the gorgeous stranger
asked, a blend of emotions evident in his tone.
Is that curiosity mixed with annoyance?
Now
he
was the one asking inappropriate questions. He was making me
anxious, and I didn’t even fully understand why.

Since he flustered me, I didn’t know what to say
except
, “What?”

With a cocked eyebrow, he repeated more sternly,
“Is he your boyfriend?” He leaned forward on the counter, his hands practically
touching my own.

Whoa
. Who did this guy think he was? His tone floored me. His face was the
picture of composure, throwing me off because the two didn’t match up.

I wasn’t going to answer him. I really wasn’t, but
something clicked inside me. The need to assure him Matt and I were not an item
was simply too strong.

“No, Matt is just a very good friend of mine.”

“Uh-huh,” was all he mumbled, his bottom lip
disappearing between his teeth. Normally, I would have rushed to get this cocky
man out of the store, but I couldn’t force myself to want to part with his
domineering presence.

After composing myself yet again, I attempted to
continue with my normal line of questioning, making sure this time they were of
the appropriate nature. “What kind of flowers would you like to send to this
friend of yours?”
I couldn’t help myself
.
“And what’s the address where they’re being delivered?”

“Why don’t you surprise me and put together
something of your liking?”

Is he
serious?
Why would he want me to put together
something out of the blue, without any input from him whatsoever? “I don’t know
if that is such a good idea. I mean, I have no inkling as to what kind of
flowers she likes, what color she prefers or anything like that.”

“I’m sure whatever you come up with will be
perfect. I trust you.” He wrote down the delivery address, placed a wad of
bills on the counter and turned around, walking out the door before I could
even respond.

Sara

The rest of the week went by in a flash due to how busy
we always were. Closed on Sundays, I always tried to take full advantage of
Saturday nights. It was my one night to hang out and let loose with two of my
favorite people, Matt and Alexa.

“Matt, what are your plans tonight?” I was hoping
he was game for hanging out, especially since I needed to stop reminiscing over
my encounter with Mr. Gorgeous from almost a week ago.

“I’m free.
Whatcha
thinking?” he asked, cleaning up the remaining
orders scattered on the counter.
                                                                                                              

“I’d like to hit up that new nightclub, Throttle. Have
you ever been there? I hear decent things, and now is as good a time as any to
check it out. What do you say?”
Please
say yes, please say yes.

“Sounds all right to me. Is Alexa going? And what
time do you want me to pick you up?” Initially, I’d thought Matt was interested
in Alexa, but that idea was quickly squashed once I realized he might only like
the romantic company of men.

“I already texted her and she’s in. But you don’t
have to pick us up. We can just meet you there at nine o’clock. You know it’s
gonna
take us girls a while to get ready,” I teased. I felt
bad because every time he swung by to pick us up, he always ended up waiting at
least forty-five minutes for us to finish primping ourselves.

“I’m going to finish up with this last order and
head on home. I’ll see you guys later tonight then!” he yelled over his
shoulder as he headed toward the back of the store.

An hour later, I’d made my way outside and inhaled
the fresh air. It smelled like rain but then again, it frequently smelled like
that. This
was
Seattle, after all. But
I wasn’t going to let some precipitation put a damper on what was surely going
to be a great night out with friends.

It was almost six-thirty when I finally arrived
home. Unlocking the front door, I breathed a sigh of relief when I entered my
solace.

I really felt comfortable in the apartment I shared
with Alexa, even though our space was a bit on the small side. But it was ours
and it was homey. It took us a while to find the right décor; thankfully, we
had the same taste. I wasn’t sure what the name was for our style. Was it
contemporary or modern? Or maybe it was something different altogether.

Rich browns, creams and reds decorated our small
living room. Only a few pieces of furniture adorned the space, the comfy
leather recliner the object of many a bet as to who was going to enjoy it on
any given night.

Our kitchen was also small but it had come with up-to-date
appliances, a cost-saving benefit to the both of us. The kitchen island gave
way to four stools which slid underneath. More savings.

For as small as the living room and kitchen were,
we lucked out with the size of the bedrooms and the one bathroom we shared. The
much larger spaces allowed us to fit all of our other furniture and belongings.

Like I said, we were very lucky to find the place. It
wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t as pricey as some of the other places we’d looked
at. Splitting the bills right down the middle left us both with a little extra
cash to splurge on whatever else we liked. One of those splurges was going to
be the night’s fun at Throttle.

 
“Hey, Sara!”
Alexa shouted. “I didn’t even hear you come in. Can you come back here? I need
your fashion opinion.” Alexa had more clothes than I think she knew what to do
with, piles of outfits strewn all over her room. I honestly didn’t know how she
ever found anything.

She was holding up a short, navy blue dress as I
walked into her room. Other options were laid out on top of her bed, in case
that one didn’t pan out.

“It’s nice, but isn’t it a bit short? Aren’t you
worried you’ll be showing off your goodies?”

“If I’m lucky, yes!” she exclaimed, a big grin on
her beautiful face. I knew Lex was not easy or slutty or anything like that. But
you really couldn’t tell by the way she dressed sometimes. I personally wasn’t
comfortable dressing like she did, something she was forever trying to change.

“If you like it, then I’m sure you’ll look great.”
There was no use in defending my position because she was going to wear what
she wanted. Sometimes I didn’t even know why she asked my opinion.

“What are you going to wear tonight? And please
don’t say jeans and a T-shirt.”
All
right, so she knew me a little too well.

“Well…yeah. I don’t have anything else.” I really
did need to go shopping for some new clothes. What I had was nice, but I didn’t
have
club
clothes. But a piece here
and there couldn’t really hurt, as long as it was to my taste, and length.

“Here, I have the perfect dress for you.” She went
into that packed closet of hers and almost fell over something trying to reach
to the left to pull an item out.

It was a beautiful, hunter-green dress, with a plunging
neckline the main focus. The back of it was no more modest, a large opening
scooping down to pretty much show off the top of my ass. As if that wasn’t
enough, the length barely covered my lady parts.

 
“You’re
kidding, right? I would never wear that out in public. First of all, it’s way
too short. I’m a good three inches taller than you, so it would be
that
much shorter on me. And second of
all, I couldn’t possibly wear a bra because of how open the back is.”

“So then don’t wear a bra.”
          

“Are you out of your mind? Do you know what I would
look like with no bra?” I was too well endowed to never wear support. I wasn’t
gargantuan, but I had too much to ever go without a bra, in public at least.

“You have a great rack, Sara. You don’t take enough
advantage of your
gifts
.” She was
already laughing because she knew I found it funny when she referred to my
breasts as
gifts
. I shook my head and
smiled.

“I’m not wearing that dress, so if you don’t have
anything else, I’m going to find my jeans and T-shirt.” I turned on my heel and
left her standing there with her mouth open.

“Wait, I think I have something else that’ll meet your
approval.” I heard her rummaging around in her room again before she came
barging into my space, quickly shoving something into my hands. It was a red
sparkly tank-top accompanied by a white skirt. Another short item, although the
skirt wasn’t as short as her other clothing.

“Why haven’t I ever seen you wear this before?” I
asked as I pointed to the piece of clothing. “Is it new?”

“No, it’s just too long on me.”
Figures
. “Will you at least try it on? See
how great you look?”

“All right, I’ll try it on only to shut you up,” I
said, throwing her another smile over my shoulder.

“I’ll be right back,” she retorted. “I think I have
the perfect shoes to go with it, should you grace me with your approval of
wearing it.”

I checked the size before I did anything. Even
though we were different heights, we sometimes fit into the same size pants and
skirts. Not that I wore a lot of her clothes, for obvious reasons. The top was
bigger than she usually bought so I was wondering if she didn’t buy this for
me, secretly hoping to push me out of my more conservative wear. I wouldn’t put
it past her. “Why did you buy the wrong size shirt?” I asked as she came back
into my room.

“I grabbed it by accident and didn’t feel like
taking it back to the store.”
Uh-huh
.

After I’d quickly thrown on the clothes, I stood in front
of the mirror and smoothed everything out. Surprisingly, everything fit the way
I’d want it to. The skirt hit me mid-thigh, a length I could definitely work
with. The top, while tight to my chest, looked amazing.

“What do you think?” I asked as I twirled around in front
of her.

“Holy fuck, girl! You look so hot! You have to know
how good you look right now, Sara.” She was hopeful I would agree with her.

“To be honest, I think I do look nice, but I don’t
know about this,” I said as I waved my hand back and forth over the top of the
shirt, pointing to the obvious. “Don’t you think it looks a little sleazy?”

“Not at all. I think you look fantastic. Here’s the
shoes.” She handed me a pair of nude wedges. Thankfully we wore the same size.
 
I had to admit with the shoes, I really did
like the outfit. It accentuated all of my curves and made me look…sexy.

“You were right. I look good, although I’m still
not a hundred percent sold on the shirt. But I’ll work with it. Thanks, Lex.”

“I knew you would come over to my side one day.”

“Just for tonight,” I chuckled.

It was already 7:15, which meant I only had a
little over an hour to get ready. We had to allot at least twenty minutes to drive
to the club.

I dried my long chestnut-colored hair as quickly as
possible, running a big curling iron through it to smooth it out and give me some
nice bouncy, loose curls. I wore minimal makeup, some sheer eyeshadow, a little
eyeliner and mascara, some blush and a clear lip gloss. I thought the outfit
was enough already; I didn’t want to add to the dramatics with an overdone face.

I was officially done with fifteen minutes to spare,
so I sauntered into Alexa’s room to see how she was coming along. She was
almost ready as well, putting the finishing touches on her own makeup. She
really did look beautiful, even with the revealing clothing she chose. She had
shoulder-length, dark blonde hair with sun-kissed highlights. It was her
natural color, and almost everyone complimented her on it. Her pale blue eyes
and olive complexion were a great contrast to her tresses. Alexa really was
quite the looker, and I made sure to tell her as much.

“You look really beautiful tonight, Lex. You’re
going to have to fight the men off for sure.”

“You look fantastic, too. We’re going to have a
great time.” She laughed as she did a little dance. “Thankfully Matt will be
there to get rid of anyone we don’t want bothering us.” Sometimes we had Matt
act as a boyfriend, warding off guys who couldn’t take the hint.

One more quick glance in the mirror and we were off
to enjoy our evening.

Sara

By the time we found a parking spot and walked to
the front of the club, it was just after nine o’clock. Matt was waiting for us
on the sidewalk, looking like he’d stepped right out of a J Crew ad. Wearing
dark jeans, a fitted light grey polo shirt and brown boots, he was quite the
sight to behold. He was one of the few guys I saw who could look good with
wearing his collar up.

After we finished greeting one another, we glanced
at the line and realized it snaked around the corner. I really wanted to go in,
but I wasn’t too sure about the long-ass wait.

“Come on, guys, let’s go,” Matt said as he grabbed
each of our hands and pulled us toward the guy with the clipboard.

“Matt, don’t we have to go to the end of the line?”
I asked, eyeing up the other waiting customers.

“No, I know one of the bartenders working tonight. He
said he would put us on the list. So let’s go, shall we?” I instantly reached
up and kissed him on his gorgeous cheek, thankful he had connections.

As soon as we walked in, we noticed how big the place
was, much larger than it looked from the outside. Private sitting areas
littered either side of the enormous room, each with four black leather sofas
running the length of each wall.

It was cozy while still managing to be classy.

The dance floor was smack-dab in the middle of the space,
the house music at a tolerable level. People were already busy having a great
time, swaying and grinding to the beats thrumming through the large speaker
system.

There was a very large bar straight ahead and an
area set up for actual bands to play. There wasn’t anyone scheduled that night,
though, which was a little disappointing. I loved to discover new music. Local
talent was certainly in abundance around our area.

As we walked, we almost missed the second floor
towering above us, a DJ booth hidden in the center of it. S
o
that’s
where the music is coming
from.

First impressions were everything, and Throttle was
a club I could definitely see us coming to over and over again.

“Let’s head back to the bar to grab some drinks
before it becomes way too crowded for us to even order anything,” Alexa hollered
over the increasing music.

“Don’t worry about it. My friend Colin said he’s
working the bar. I just have to find him.” Matt grabbed both of our hands again
and led us toward our drink hookup.

Finding him easily enough, we had our double orders
in less than five minutes. I tried not to make eye contact with the people who
had obviously been waiting before us. I could feel them giving us the evil eye.

We were lucky enough to find an open seating area,
enough room for all three of us. “I can definitely see us coming here a lot,”
Alexa voiced as she winked at some random guy passing by with his friends. She didn’t
waste any time. I wasn’t as aggressive, which was totally okay with me. But I
couldn’t fault her for her forwardness, either. She knew what she wanted and
she went for it.

I was envious of that kind of confidence.

“Lex, can we be here for twenty minutes before you start
stalking your prey?” Matt asked as he hit her shoulder with his, giving her a
wink.

She laughed. “You know me better than that by now,
sweetie.”

“I do.” He looked over at me and shrugged, knowing
Alexa would continue to be Alexa, no matter what.

We’d been sitting
for about an hour before we needed a refill. Since Matt bought us the first
round, I announced I would go for the next one.
I wasn’t sure
whether or not Colin would remember me from a two-second introduction an hour before,
but I would give it a shot.

I made my way through the ever-growing crowd,
knocking into a few people on my way.
How
am I going to make it back without spilling everything all over myself, or
someone else for that matter?

I was able to spot him right away, and thankfully
he remembered I was Matt’s friend. “More of the same for all of you?” I couldn’t
believe he remembered what we were all drinking, but I guess it was his job. It
was still impressive nonetheless.

Trying my best to figure out how I was going to
carry six drinks back to our area, I was startled when I felt warm breath on my
skin.

Then I heard a voice.

“Do you need help with those?”

The hairs on the back of my neck instantly prickled.

That voice!

It couldn’t be.

Sure enough, when I turned around I hit against his
towering form, spilling part of a drink all over his shoe.

 
It was Mr.
Sexy from earlier in the week.
What the
hell is he doing here?
And how did he
see me in this crowd?
I was lucky if I could even see my own friends, and I
knew where they were sitting.

Stepping back, I was able to get a better look at
him. And oh, was he quite the sight. His black shirt fit him like a glove, a
hint of an exquisite body underneath. He cuffed the material up to his elbows,
exposing his sexy forearms. Dark-washed jeans hung seductively on his hips,
teasing and tormenting the hell out of me.

He looked……opulent.

His hair was behaving in that unruly way, looking as
if he was constantly running his hands through it. Sexy was what it was. I
longed to run my fingers through it, twisting his soft strands around my hand
as I pulled him into me.

Holy Christ. Get a hold of yourself, woman!

Being in close proximity
to him was a dangerous game. His intoxicating male scent surrounded me, automatically
making me even more aroused than I was a second ago.

His pheromones were sending mine into overdrive.

He was enchanting.

I have to get
away from him.

“Did you need some help?” he asked again, patiently
waiting for my answer. Roving his eyes slowly over my face, he lingered on my
lips before dipping lower to gaze at my displayed breasts.
This damn shirt.
His look descended my body until he reached my
feet, then ever so slowly raised them back up to meet my eyes. Eventually. I
felt so vulnerable, as if I was standing naked in front of him. Parting his
mouth, he slowly ran this tongue over his bottom lip, a lip I suddenly wanted
to bite. Without realizing it, I mimicked his actions, running my tongue slowly
over the sensitive skin.

Quickly regaining my wits, I finally answered him.

“No, thanks. I can manage just fine by myself.” I
was trying to pretend like I didn’t remember him, trying not to appear affected
by his mere presence. I didn’t think I was too convincing though.

“I insist.” Before I could protest, he grabbed four
of the six drinks, turned and waited for me to follow him.
 
He was obviously not taking no for an answer.

“Fine,” was the only thing I could think to
respond.
He was making me uneasy again but in a purely
sexual way. My breathing had changed, inhaling and expelling quick, shallow
breaths. My nipples had become painfully erect, pushing against the thin fabric
of my shirt. It was definitely not cold in the club, so I knew it was my
reaction to him standing so close to me. A deep ache started to bloom between
my thighs, making me hyperaware my body was betraying the distant persona I was
trying to give off. Never before had any man affected me so deeply.

He led the way to where we were sitting, which was
a surprise since I barely knew my own way back. But I followed him, and sure
enough he stopped right in front of both of my friends. They glanced first at
him then over to me with questioning eyes.

“Who’s your friend?” Alexa immediately asked. I
could see her delight as she was taking him all in, top to bottom, stopping
longer than necessary when her eyes hit his
package
.
When she finally ripped her eyes away, her mouth agape and practically
drooling, she connected her gaze with mine. I laughed. Her blatant perusal of
Mr. Sexy was too funny, and I couldn’t help myself. Thankfully he was
oblivious, or at least I thought he was.

“I don’t know, and he’s not staying.” I didn’t mean
to come off as rude as I sounded, but I couldn’t stand the fact a stranger was
making me feel that way, pitting my body against my brain. I grabbed the rest
of the drinks from his hand and put them down on the table. When I finally
happened to look over at Matt, I noticed he was glaring at our visitor. I
instantly shifted my gaze and saw Mr. Sexy returning Matt’s glower.

Both men looked pissed, for reasons unknown to me. But
I knew enough about testosterone to realize I should put some distance between
them both. Although Matt was in excellent shape, this guy had a good couple
inches on him, not to mention a few more pounds of muscle. Plus, I didn’t want
to put Matt in the position to defend me, like he did sometimes. He had become
somewhat protective over me when we were out together. Maybe it was because I
was kind of on the shyer side when it came to dealing with people I didn’t
really know. I stuck up for myself when necessary, but I didn’t like
confrontation unless it was unavoidable.

I turned around toward the relative stranger and
instinctively put my hand on his arm, pushing him away from our table.
Shit! His arm is even more rock-solid than
it looks.
Yeah, I had to remove him before Matt said something. “You can go
now. Thanks for your help,” I mumbled, still trying to rein in my overactive
hormones. When I turned back around, I could still feel him standing behind me
for a brief moment.

“I’ll see you real soon,” he said, his voice like
velvet coating my ears.

Shivers instantly wracked my body.

Then he was gone.