Thrust (15 page)

“Holy fuck!” Tori grabs onto my arm and pulls me to her. “He is really something else; so, so, so much better than Jordan. He’s almost unreal. Is he real?” She turns to Brad. “Sorry.” Then she turns back to me. “But damn!”

Brad just shrugs his shoulders and says, “It’s all good,” and finishes off his drink. “I’ll be right back.”

Brushing strands of his golden hair out of his face, Brad kisses Tori on the mouth before walking away and toward the bar.

“Can I trade him in?” She raises both brows. “I’ll give you one week with Brad if I can have Kyan for one night. Just one night and I bet he’ll make up for a year’s worth of sex with Brad.”

I push her and cover my mouth in surprise. “That is so mean to say.”

We both look over at the bar. Kyan is standing there with confidence, knowing that one of the girls will fight to get to him as soon as they are free, while Brad keeps jumping around and waving his arms, looking like a helpless little boy.

“He’s not that bad.” I lie. “I mean . . . he’s cute. He has that going for him. He’s just like a little puppy. Girls love puppies.”

She rolls her eyes and pulls out some gloss, coating her plump lips. “Not me, Calla. Definitely not me.”

“Then why are you with him?”

She gives me a confused look and shakes her head to herself. “I don’t know. I guess to keep busy. It helps sometimes to have sex with someone that you know you won’t fall for. It saves you from getting hurt. I guess Brad is safe . . . I know I won’t get too attached, and so I keep holding on. Men scare me. Real men that is.”

I stand here in a daze and let her words really sink in. Kyan is exactly the opposite. He’s the guy that I see myself falling for, except I can’t make myself stop having sex with him. My body physically aches for his touch whenever he’s near. I don’t want to stop, no matter what the consequences are.

I feel a hand on my arm so I turn beside me. Some dark haired guy, wearing a polo shirt and a pair of khakis, smiles at me.

“You’re too beautiful to be standing here alone.” He holds up his beer. “Can I get you a drink?”

I shake my head and offer him a friendly smile. “I’m not here alone.” I lean into him so he can hear me over the music. “Thank you, but no.”

When I look over his shoulder, Kyan is walking with his hand on Brad’s shoulder. I see Brad thanking him, so I’m guessing he took care of his tab to save him the trouble from bouncing around.

His eyes look away from Brad to meet mine, and his jaw steels. I can clearly see his hard body tense up.

“Are you sure?” The guy places his hand on my arm and leans into my ear. “I don’t see you with anyone. Just one drink.”

Kyan’s hand grips the guy’s shoulder, pulling him out of my face. “She’s here with someone.” Pretending that the guy doesn’t even exist, Kyan smiles at me and grabs the back of my neck. “Let me give you a ride back home.”

Mumbling something under his breath, the guy turns and walks away, clearly realizing that he has no chance against Kyan.

“Okay,” I say with a smile. “I guess you sort of owe me a ride home after kicking my ass in pool so many times. It’s the least you can do.”

Tori gives me a huge, face-ripping smile and hands her keys to Brad. “I’m going to have Brad drive me home and we’ll pick up my car tomorrow morning. I’ll see you at home.”

Kyan says bye to Tori and Brad, before pulling me through the crowd, keeping his eyes on me instead of all the girls that seem to be staring at him in passing.

Why do I want to choke all of these girls? Every damn one of them is making it so obvious that it seriously looks desperate. The good thing is that it doesn’t even seem to faze Kyan like it would most men.

We have small talk the entire way back to the apartment and I find myself cracking silly jokes all the way into the building. I’m ashamed to say this always happens when I get too tired. Mix it with alcohol and it’s worse than you can imagine. Sometimes I want to run from myself. It’s that bad.

Kyan holds the elevator, letting me step in first.

“I hope you don’t have to work in the morning.” He leans against the wall and smiles when I do. “I’d hate to see how that shoot comes out.”

I slap his arm and laugh. “No, I don’t, thank goodness, but I can guarantee I would still rock that wedding,” I say, pointing at him.

He smiles at me and places his arm on the small of my back as the elevator stops on the sixth floor. “I believe it,” he says. “You’re amazing at what you do. I could see that from the shoot we did. It comes naturally for you.”

I find myself smiling bigger than I probably should be by his comment. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

Pulling out my key, I unlock the door and turn back to him. He steps closer, bringing our bodies together. His eyes meet mine as he brings his lips down and kisses the side of my mouth.

His lips linger there for a second, causing my heart to pound with anticipation. I want his lips to crush mine, but they don’t.

He pulls away, grinding his jaw as he looks into my eyes. “Goodnight, Calla.”

I swallow as I look up at him. “Goodnight, Kyan.” I grab his tie and tug on it. “Thanks for tonight. It was a lot of fun. I needed it really bad.”

He nods once while looking me up and down. “I forgot to tell you that you look incredibly sexy tonight. It’s taking a lot for me to just walk away instead of inviting myself in.”

My heart races as my eyes lock with his.

Does he want me to invite him in? Do I ask him? Crap!

He’s the first to break the silence. “We need to catch up on some training. Meet me at the gym around noon?” He rubs his thumb over my bottom lip. “Can you manage that?”

I nod my head and open the door behind me. “See you then.” I smile. “ I think I can manage.”

The elevator opens up to Tori, so Kyan flashes me a smile and quickly catches the door as Tori steps out and tiredly stumbles to the door.

She walks past me and tosses her purse down onto the ground. “I’m so hungry. Make me food,” she whines.

I pull my eyes away from Kyan and walk into the apartment, shutting the door behind me.

Now that I’m back here and alone . . . well with Tori, I feel that ache in my chest again as I remember the invitation.

Tonight’s going to be a long night . . .

I MET KYAN AT THE gym this afternoon, spent about an hour training with him, and then went to the mall with Tori. Now here I am, lying down on the couch, and relaxing with one of the sexiest men alive: Ryan Guzman.

He looks so incredibly sexy when he’s moving his body that it reminds me of Kyan at the club last night. That thought keeps me smiling. I could lay here all day and watch him, forgetting about everything else, so that is my plan.

Tori is curled up in the chair with her Funyuns, watching the movie just as hard as I am. This is about the only way I can get her to shut up: a sexy guy on TV and her favorite snack.

My whole body is sore from my workout this afternoon, so every time I move trying to get comfortable, I let out a slight groan.

“Shut your face over there,” Tori complains.

“Really though . . .” I toss a pillow at her face. “You’re over there chomping on those Funyuns as if your life depends on it. Close your mouth when you chew, asshole.”

Shh . . .” She growls at me and turns up the volume. “You’ve been moaning and groaning since we were at the mall. Tell Kyan not to fuck you so hard next time, because it’s really ruining my day.”

I sit up and roll my eyes. “He didn’t. I had a personal training session with him. The gym was full of people this time. Nothing happened.”

Her ears perk up, and suddenly her attention is on me. “This time?”

Crap . . . my stupid, big mouth.

She hits the pause button and sits up straight, suddenly interested in listening to me speak, when before all she was interested in was having me shut the hell up. “Have you and Kyan had sex at the gym? If you did then I really need to know because that is fucking
hot
and exciting.

“Maybe . . .” I lift a brow. “Is someone suddenly curious about the gym, because a few seconds ago I remember you telling me to shut my face.”

“Maybe . . . and that was before sex at the gym crossed my mind.” She grins, encouraging me to go on. “So did you?”

“I shouldn’t even tell you, but yes, and it
was
hot and exciting. That’s all you need to know.” I reach for my phone and start scrolling through my emails, trying to get away from this conversation. “It was later at night so no one was there. That’s all you’re getting.”

“I so hate you.” She tosses the pillow back at me. “At least tell me where at in the gym? You can’t just tell me Kyan fucked your brains out at the gym and leave it at that.”

My eyes widen when I notice a reply email from Olivia Powers. “The shower . . .” I trail off while quickly opening her email to see an attachment. “Holy shit.”

I jump out of my seat in excitement as I quickly scroll over her message, reading it.

“What!” Tori jumps up from the chair and runs over to look over my shoulder. “Is it from the bitch? She has a lot of nerve.”

I squeal in excitement and hit download on the attached file. “No. It’s from the author that I did the photo shoot for. She said that her cover artist sent her a mockup and that she wants me to be one of the first to view it.”

“Oh wow, Calla. That is fucking awesome!” She places her chin on my shoulder and eagerly waits for the picture to load. “Can’t wait to see this. Hurry!”

I shake her off and open the pictures up in my gallery. My eyes widen as I stare down at my phone. “Holy shit! Wow . . . I can’t believe these are my photos. These are my photos and they’re going on a book, Tori.” I feel like a little kid right now as I imagine the book in my hands.

I don’t even have any other words for this beauty. On the front of the cover is one of the pictures I took of Kyan in front of the white wall. He’s turned sideways and his body is flexed in all the right places, looking so damn sexy. The background is now a dark, grungy looking wall with hot pink letters that read:
Before Blaine.

The back of the cover has the blurb, along with one of the pictures of Kyan lying in his bed, only the sheet covering his deliciously firm lower body. Seeing him there, looking so damn sexy causes my heart to skip a beat as I think about what happened after these pictures.

“That is hot.” Tori snatches my phone from my hand to get a closer look. “These are the photos you took? There’s no way I would have been able to contain myself seeing him like
that.
These look so different than the ones I saw that one night.”

I nod my head in excitement, not really hearing her words. I’ve never been so happy to see my work before. “Yeah. I’m speechless.”

“It’s amazing. This book cover deal is pretty exciting. I’m not going to lie. I’m a little jealous.”

Taking my phone back, I quickly send Olivia an email before sending Kyan a message.

Me: Olivia just sent me a mockup of her cover. It looks AMAZING! You look AMAZING!

I set my phone back down, knowing that Kyan is usually busy all day, and return back to my spot on the couch. Hopefully this movie will help steer my thoughts away from Kyan for a while. Thinking about him takes my mind to places that it shouldn’t be.

“Alright. Enough interruptions. Back to Ryan time.”

Tori doesn’t argue with that. She plops back down in her chair and hits play on the remote, starting the DVD.

We get through the first hour of the movie before someone knocks on the door. I sit up and look over at Tori, not wanting to deal with it. “Go get it. It’s probably Brad.”

She makes an annoyed face. “I haven’t talked to Brad since this morning. He knows better than to just show up. He’s a trained little puppy.”

“Well get it anyways. You’re closer and I’m sore.”

She lets out a frustrated breath as the person knocks again. “Fine. Calm your tits, I’m coming.”

She stomps across the room and over to the door. I look over the couch and watch as she opens the door to Hunter standing there. My heart does a little flip as he flashes his sexy smile.

“What the . . . Hunter?” Tori steps aside as Hunter walks in and closes the door behind him. “What the hell are
you
doing here? It’s been like six years or some shit.”