Sex Snob (7 page)

I decided to mingle since
I rarely ever got to talk to most of these people due to the fact that we were normally gasping for air too much to form words. Walking over to a few people I saw most often in class, I struck up a conversation.

Glancing
down at my watch sometime later, I was shocked to see that an hour and a half had passed. I had been having such a great time, it felt like only a half hour tops had gone by. I was laughing with Cedric, Brit, Tanya, and Rob as we all imitated our respective bosses. Evidently,
we all worked for total dick bags.

I was cackling hysterically at a story Cedric told about how his boss walked around for an entire day, oblivious to the fact that he had a pair of women’s underwear hanging from the back of his belt like a tail, when I felt a strong hand on my bicep.
I spun around, expecting someone from my gym, and then froze.

It took a moment for my brain and my mouth to get back on the same page.
Eventually, I was able to mutter a single, meek word: “Nate.”

“Hi, Amanda,”
he said smiling.
Smiling? This asshole is smiling at me. The fucker!

“Hi,” I replied,
looking
every bit as confused as I was.
“Where did you . . . what are you doing here?” The group I had been talking to backed away slightly to give us more privacy. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to speak privately with Nate. I didn’t want to speak to him at all. My breathing accelerated as panic rose in my body.

“I was just meeting some friends.
What about you?” He casually took a sip of his beer, looking at me expectantly.

He was so calm, it made me
want to gouge his eyes out and feed them to a sewer rat. The thought of eyes caused my own to slip quickly down his body. He looked good. Damn good. He actually looked exactly the same as he had when I last saw him about four years ago, except that his hair was slightly longer.

“Uh, I’m
. . . here with friends, too,” I stammered.

“Hmm, that’s nice.
You’re looking good, Amanda.
Really
good.” He smirked down at me, his eyes roaming freely over my body.

His comment disarmed me, and I had no idea how to respond.
Jesus Christ, Amanda, snap out of it.
This wasn’t like me. I wasn’t this shy, self-conscious, pathetic girl. But
,
right now, with Nate standing barely two feet from me, this was the girl I had become. The real me fled, and was hiding behind harsh words and devastated tears from four years ago.
Well, shit.

I was staring down at the floor, willing my sarcasm to come back to me so I could tear this asshole to shreds.
And as I stood there, struggling to find words, I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders. My head jerked up when I heard his voice.

“Hey, baby, where ya been?
I’ve been looking for you.” Shane pressed a brief kiss to my temple. I nearly wiped it away on reflex. “Hi, how are you? I’m Shane, Amanda’s boyfriend. And you are?”

Wait, what?
My boyfriend? What is happening here? Is Shane . . . saving me?
I didn’t know whether to be grateful or horrified.

Nate stumbled a bit, his cool facade slipping slightly, “Uh, hi.
I’m, uh, Nate. I used to date Amanda.”

“Oh, small world,” Shane replied smiling, though it didn’t reach his eyes.
He gazed impassively at Nate. I stared at Shane like he was Big Foot.

“Uh, yeah, well, it was good seeing you, Amanda.
Nice to meet you, uh . . .” Nate fumbled.

“Shane.
Nice to meet you, too.”

Nate started to reach out his hand, but when Shane made no movement in return, Nate ran the hand through his hair instead and then walked off.

“Who the hell was that prick?” Shane asked, dropping his arm from my shoulder.

“I . . .
he was nobody. Just . . .” I took a deep breath and willed myself to calm the fuck down. “He’s just some pompous douchebag I used to date.”

“Interesting,” Shane mumbled before taking a sip of his beer.
“You okay? Your whole body tensed when you saw him,” he asked.

I nodded slightly, my head cast down toward the floor again.

“Hey, Amanda, look at me,” Shane said softly.
When I didn’t comply, he placed his hand beneath my chin and raised my head for me. The look on his face was one of concern. He wasn’t mocking me, like I would have expected.

But somehow, the concern was worse.
I didn’t need his pity. Nor had I needed him to pretend to be my boyfriend.
Except . . . maybe I had.
No, I pushed that thought from my mind. I didn’t need anyone. I had just been caught off guard. I could have handled Nate. The real Amanda was flooding back into me with a vengeance. And right as I was about to tell Shane where he could go stick his white knight act, I stopped. He had only been trying to help. There was no need to verbally eviscerate him when it was actually Nate I wanted to yell at. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Sorry,” I said finally.
“I’m fine. I just didn’t expect to see him. It caught me a little by surprise.”

“Yeah. You need a drink?” Shane asked, a little louder than he’d probably intended. He seemed uncomfortable.

“Sure,” I smiled genuinely.
“I’d love one.”

“What’s your poison?” he called over his shoulder as he made his way toward the bar.

“Stoli and cran,” I yelled after him.

He was back fairly quickly, considering how packed this place was.
He handed me my drink and then placed his hand on the small of my back and ushered me to a few stools that lined the wall.

“Thanks,” I said sincerely, hoping it covered more than just the drink.

“No problem,” he said, staring intently at me, letting me know that he understood.

I needed to lighten the mood and reassert myself in my body.
“So, is that how you pick up chicks? You just saunter up to them, refer to yourself as their boyfriend and hope it sticks?” I said lightly, my smile wide.

“It’s probably more effective than your tactic of staring at the floor and letting all the color drain from your face,” he smirked.

Embarrassment crept through me at his words and I worked hard to keep my eyes trained on his.
“It’s the damsel in distress technique. I feel it worked quite well. Got you to buy me a drink, didn’t it? Sucker,” I said with a laugh that was only partially forced.

“That it did.
So, are you insinuating that it was me you were trying to pick up in that situation?” He lifted an eyebrow and gawked at me in that annoying, cocky way he has.

“No, I was just trying to give you some pointers.
Show you how it’s done,” I quipped. I was a bundle of nerves and emotions.
Are we flirting right now? Do I like it? Fuck.

“Oh, was that what that was?
A lesson for me. How kind of you.” He rolled his eyes playfully, and I had a sudden urge to tell him the truth about Nate. I can’t explain why, but I wanted him to know it. To know me.

But at the same time, I didn’t want those things.
I had made it my mission in life to never be vulnerable again,
especially
in front of Shane Reed. There was something about him that I just couldn’t put my finger on. He caused me to feel a gamut of emotions, and I hated most of the ones he elicited. But I didn’t hate him.
Weird.

“Your boy and his posse moved
closer.”

I looked up and saw Nate and his crew congregating not ten feet away from where we sat.
He really is a piece of shit.

I tried to seem unfazed, but clearly failed, because Shane leaned into me and whispered in my ear.
“Let’s give him something to watch.”

Before I was able to reply, S
hane pulled me off my stool, positioning me so that I was standing between his legs, my back to his chest. He then slipped his arms around my waist and pressed his mouth to my ear. I had to resist the urge to nuzzle into him as his breath grazed my ear. “Watch. He’s going to glance back in five, four, three, two, one . . .”

As if on cue, Nate whipped his head toward us briefly, and then
turned back to his friends.

“Wow, how’d you know he’d do that?”
I asked, allowing Shane to hear how impressed I was with him for the first time, well, probably ever.

“He wasn’t going to be able to resist.
He moved closer so that he could watch you. And when I noticed his shoulders tense, I knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold off much longer.”

“You’re like Yoda,” I mused, turning my head to look at him.
Then, we both burst out laughing.

This was quite a change: Shane and I playing on the same team for once, trying to take down the dark overlord of pain and misery.
I felt myself relax and my mood brighten.

Shane and I continued to play the game, laughing and putting our hands freely on each other.
Nate either left or moved to a different part of the bar about fifteen minutes into our charade, but by that point, I had barely remembered he was there to begin with.

Finall
y, Shane called attention to it. “Well, I think we chased him away.” I had turned toward Shane a while ago and my hands were resting on his shoulders, though my arms were slightly extended to provide us with some distance. I cast a look behind me, acting like I hadn’t noticed, though I had. Nate hadn’t been standing back there for at least the last five minutes.

I begrudgingly began to slide my hands off his shoulders, but suddenly stopped.
I wasn’t ready to lose contact with him yet. Instead, I pushed my hands back farther and clasped them behind his head, drawing him into a hug.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“For what?” he asked softly as his hands slid around my waist, returning my hug. I was suddenly overcome with the desire to feel those hands beneath my dress, trailing up and down my exposed skin.

“For saving me.” I uttered the words before I could censor them. Once they left my mouth, I stilled, realizing that I was opening a door with Shane I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk through.

He pulled me closer to him and my chest pressed against his toned pecs.
I instantly felt a dull ache low in my belly and took notice of the moistness in my panties for the first time. I tried to even out my breathing. Shane Reed was turning me on and I wanted him. Badly.

But I couldn’t do this.
No matter how strongly my body was pulling me toward him, my mind was screaming at me to back off. I had rules for a reason and Shane didn't meet my criteria. Trainers didn't make even close to the kind of money I made. I knew; I had Googled it. I risked too much otherwise. But I couldn’t just pull away. He had done too much for me tonight. He deserved for me to let him in a little.

I pulled away from him and moved to his side, resuming my seat on the stool.
“I dated Nate for a year and a half right after finishing college. Long story short, we moved in together, I thought I was going to marry him one day, and then I came home to find a note telling me that he had only been
pretending
to love me and that he couldn’t do it anymore. And I haven’t seen him since. Until tonight that is.” I expelled the words in what felt like a single breath. It felt good to release them, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“Wow,” Shane replied, his eyes wide, “what a cocksucker.”

I slipped my arm around his shoulders. “My thoughts exactly,” I said laughing.

My eyes skimmed the bar and fell on Kate.
She was talking with some other people from the gym, but her eyes were glued to Shane. When she saw me notice her, she quickly looked away.

It was none of my business, but I had to know.
After all, I had shared personal information with him. Maybe he’d reciprocate. “So, what’s the deal with you and Kate anyway?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“What do you mean?” He seemed confused.

“Is something going in between you two?”

“No.
What makes you ask that?” he questioned.

“Really? You don’t see it?” I couldn’t believe he was this obtuse.

“See what?”

“Nothing, never mind.” I tried to drop it, but his look told me that he wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily. “I just figured that, since you were throwing her this party, you guys were involved somehow.” I tried to recover quickly. I didn’t know how Kate would feel if I outed her penchant for staring at him.

“Well, first of all, I didn’t
throw
this party. She wanted everyone to come out, but she felt weird asking everyone herself. Kind of like she was throwing herself a birthday party. So, I said I’d spread the word. And second of all, I don’t believe that that’s what prompted you to ask your question, so spill it.”

Damn, he’s
good.
“Well, it’s just that . . .” I thought for a moment about how I could phrase this so that Kate didn’t come off seeming like a stalker. “She stares at you a lot.”
Epic fail.