Breaking His Rules Page 13

“I like her. What do you want from me? I do.” Gary waved his hands around and I got the notion he was more surprised than I was.

  “Two more dates and you’ll be picking up her dry cleaning and going grocery shopping with her so she can make your lunch.”

  He didn’t say anything. Just laughed.

  “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “Club Ivy.”

  Oh FFS. “For fucks sake, man. Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

  “What? What’s the problem?”

  “Turn the car around.”

  “Will not. A deal is a deal. What’s wrong with you? You don’t even go to clubs, so what difference does it make?”

  “The difference is someone I know works there and I’d rather not see them if I can help it.”

  “An ex.”

  “You know bloody well I don’t have exes.”

  “Then what’s the problem? You’re the one who always parts with your stable of women on good terms. Ain’t that what you told me?”

  “Yes, well…it wasn’t exactly bad terms. She just…”

  “What?”

  “It was just a new experience.”

  Gary looked over at me as he turned the wheel and guided the car onto Brush Street and pulled into the parking lot near where I’d parked the day before. “A new experience, huh? Did she have a red room or some shit like that?”

  “No, dammit. And for the record, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. She was just…kind of abrupt and rude. And I’d rather not see her is all.”

  “Oh. She was rude and abrupt and hurt your little feelings?” His voice went up a few octaves, a whiny sound that made my flesh crawl.

  “You really are a bellend. Did you know? Oh whatever. Maybe she’s not even there tonight. I don’t think she’s a manager or anything like that, so we probably won’t run into her if she is there. She could be a waitress or a bartender…”

  “Well, we’re going to be in the VIP section. My girl—”

  “Your girl?”

  “My friend. Fuck you, Ash. My friend owns a restaurant and knows the owner. So, unless she’s a manager or something like that, this woman you’re talking about probably won’t be bothering us. So relax, princess. Besides, her friend is probably a knockout. You know best friends are usually pretty similar.”

  “Is that your professional opinion?”

  “Just something I’ve observed. She’s around forty, very elegant.”

  “What’s her name again?” I wanted to check, just to be sure. Even though Terra was nowhere near forty. If she was, no older thirty-five…maybe.

  “Gloria.”

  “Okay. Well, what’s her friend’s name?”

  “You know, I didn’t even ask. Probably should have, but I was so glad to get her off the phone and into a dress, I must have forgotten.”

  “Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

  “Yeah, since you never met a chick you didn’t like.”

  “Hey, that’s unfair. I have simply learned to appreciate things other than looks, money, all that other shit. There are some real diamonds in the rough, if you will. Open your eyes, man. Some things are deeper than the surface.”

  “Okay, Socrates. We’re here. Bring your philosophical ass inside. And please, best behavior. And by the way, don’t turn up the British boy toy tonight. That shit is like catnip to women.”

  “Have I told you to get stuffed yet this evening? No? Well, give it time. The night is still young.”

  While Gary paid the parking lot attendant across the street from Club Ivy, I took in the place once more. At night, the brick building looked historic. The blacked-out glass didn’t give any hint of what was happening inside, besides the flashing green and red laserlike lights. The line wrapped around the corner, even though it was Tuesday. Must have a theme like most trendy clubs for each night of the week. It was probably Thirsty Tuesday or some ridiculous shit like that.

  “Ready, man?” Gary came up from behind me and flanked my left side.

  “Yup. Let the games begin,” I said.

  We hit it across the street and I fell in behind Gary since he didn’t seem to be heading for the back of the line. He walked up to the bouncer and practically yelled at him over the music that was spilling out onto the street. It was Detroit-style house music, loud and bumping the duh-duh-duh beat that was so very familiar to most club rats. “VIP section, Gloria Rainer.”

  “Go on in,” the man said. He was tall and ripped, looking like a body double for Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile. Not the guy from the day before. He’d been working on paperwork, so probably not a bouncer. But they had the same build. A towering wall.

  He lifted the red velvet divider and let the both of us pass. I followed Gary in and found…yup, exactly what I expected, even if it looked a lot different inside with seventy or eighty people all over the place. Half-dressed women, questionable-looking men, and the scent of sweat, fake fog, and alcohol. A neon sign across the sea of pulsing bodies read VIP, and Gary headed off in that direction. I fell in once again and pushed past countless faces that all seemed to be the same, no matter what race, shape, or size. They wore that familiar mask of desperation. Still no Terra. I looked for her, though, in the various stations, the bar, the DJ booth. The cocktail waitresses were all dressed in the same black attire she’d worn on the first night we’d met.

  Good, I thought. But was it? Was it really?

  We finally made it across the room and walked toward a row of curtained-off rooms. Outside one of them a whiteboard read Gloria Rainer and Gary headed in. It was a little after eight and inside was a striking woman. She stood, a smile on her face that absolutely glowed, her pale white skin illuminated beneath red and green lights.

  “Gary,” she said in greeting. She leaned in to give him a hug and he stole a quick kiss on her red matte lips, which seemed to take her off guard. But she smiled again after the initial shock wore off. Oh yeah, they liked each other. But when she looked at me, that same look was back.

  Gary seemed nervous and sported his own sheepish grin as he turned, like he’d only just remembered I was there. He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close possessively. Calm down, killer, I thought as I eyed her. Her brown and cream colored dress was very flattering, and even though she was clearly either fast approaching forty or already firmly there, she was very pretty. And familiar for some reason. A good catch for good ole Gary. And I could already tell he was a goner. She had him, hook, line, and sinker.

  “How do you do?” I asked, extending my hand over the coffee table just in front of the couch. I didn’t want to move too close for fear Gary would make like a rottweiler and bite my hand off.

  “Very nice to meet you,” she said, but I would have needed to be blind to miss her pensive expression.

  When she motioned to me to take a seat, I did, choosing the chair opposite the couch she and Gary sat on.

  “My friend will be here in a minute,” she said in a loud voice, a nervous laugh behind it. Surprisingly, the music seemed muffled in the VIP section. Must have had some kind of sound walls in place. Nice touch. The owner must have been a pretty good businessperson to think of something like that. “She, uh…runs the place,” she said, then pulled out her phone and began what appeared to be furious texting.

  Oh shit. I was about to be on a date with Terra’s boss. Goddamn, fuck, shit. She’d insinuated it was a woman, and I should have guessed the moment I walked into the club. Gary had told me that, but for some reason, the actual meaning behind the statement didn’t hit me until just then. “Oh, okay.” It was all I could manage. I should have gotten up and run for the hills.

  “Yeah, Ashton here works with me at Frontier. One of the best salesmen we’ve got. Don’t tell my boss, though,” Gary said. I could tell he was trying to pump me up for her friend. Good lo
oking out, buddy.

  “He’s totally full of crap. Gary’s on the fast track and has graciously tried to teach me everything he knows. Except, I’m a slow learner, you see.” We all laughed at my modesty. And Gary smiled even brighter that I would toss him such a great bone. Yeah, well, he may as well have a good night. Even though I was nervous as hell.

  The beat changed, and the song seamlessly transitioned into a new song with a strumming baseline.

  “You didn’t tell me you were out here killing the game, Gary,” she said, returning her attention to him with a nervous dart of her eyes.

  “Yeah, well. I’m not into bragging.”

  Bullshit, he totally was. “No, you’d never know he was so impressive. Humble like that,” I threw in.

  “Okay, okay. I see you, Gary. The waitress is bringing us a bottle. I hope you boys like Grey Goose.” Her knees had shifted, leaning into Gary. An early sign that she was into him. But something was off…the whole thing was a bit off.

  “Yeah, that’s fine for me. Ash? You down for vodka?” Gary asked.

  “Oh yeah,” I said with a nod. I preferred whiskey, but I feared it would make me think of Terra the Terrible. It was kind of her to order for us anyway.

  “Awesome,” she said. She turned back to Gary and he, in turn, slid his arm around her, pulling her closer. She was gripping her phone as if it were a lifeline. To be fair, most people held on to their phones like that so I decided that I was probably just nervous about being in Terra’s place of employment after having sex with her just a day before. As they fell into hushed voices, I decided ogling them was probably in poor taste. No sense in cock-blocking his action with my useless banter.

  I turned in my seat and peeled back one of the curtains, hooking a fabric loop onto the hook on the side wall. I watched the club patrons bumping and grinding against one another on the dance floor. Near the bar, poor slobs spent wads of cash on prospective dates and friends while we waited for our own bottle.

  A silver vessel with Grey Goose on ice appeared in my line of sight and then it all happened in slow motion. A black and silver dress revealed long, lovely legs. The extended split on the left thigh led up to three silver clasps cinching the wrap dress, the neckline dipping into spectacular cleavage. Her elegant neck had a large crystal around it, curly tendrils fell over her shoulders, and those full, magnificent lips that I recalled moaning my name. Fuck. Fuck me. Fuck it all.

  Terra was our waitress? No. I was struck silent as I put it all together in my head. She wasn’t wearing the uniform everyone else had on. Wait…Terra was standing there with a bucket of liquor and wasn’t dressed for work at all. She was…Dammit. She was her. The boss.

  I could have banged my head against the wall or taken that bottle and lobbed it over my own head. I’d always been proud of my keen instincts, my ability to pick up on clues. And she’d surely left them as I thought back over our interactions the previous days. From the car to Brice not freaking out that we were actually screwing in her office. Would he have known? He had to fucking know. I was simply stupid. Full-on prat. Dammit all to bleeding hell.

  “Terra,” Gloria practically yelled as she stood up. “Hey, girl. You never stop working, do you? Gary, this is my very best friend and owner of this fabulous club. Terra, this is Gary and his friend Ashton,” she said, emphasis on my name. Her eyes darted between us. And then it dawned on me. Gloria knew who I was because they were friends.

  Gloria waved her hand in my direction and Terra looked down at me. I held her gaze, her eyes wild with…something. I really didn’t know what. They went from happiness to shock. Complete shock. No more shocked than I was.

  I didn’t know whether to take her in my arms and kiss her until she was breathless or flee that goddamn scene.

  Fuck. It. All.

  Chapter 12

  Terra

  Moments like these were obviously the reason for the phrase “You’ve gotta be shitting me.” I nearly dropped the damn bucket. A quick review of my surroundings along with a deep inhale clued me in that I hadn’t fallen asleep and wasn’t dreaming. That along with the realization that my fingers were ice cold from the bucket full of ice sealed the deal, despite the heated sweat that broke out over my body. All I could think of was his head between my legs, my body bared to him on my goddamn balcony of all places, and then him looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic. Like…like he was pissed…again.

  Oh boy, he’d looked good the other times I’d seen him, but today he was practically irresistible. His blond hair was slicked back and there was even more stubble on his chin. He wore a black suit and another white shirt with a pop of yellow poking out of his lapel pocket. Lord help me, he was downright delectable.

  He stood up, took two steps, and was suddenly right in front of me. His smell was the minty clean scent of fresh air, sunshine, and cigars, though I’d never seen him smoke them. Dammit, it was all so much better than before—the way he looked, his hair, his dazzling smile. All of it. I hadn’t even thought it possible to be better. Yet he was.

  “Terra?”

  I heard Gloria speaking off to my side, but I couldn’t quite look away from—

  “We’ve met. Hello, Terra,” he said, breaking into a smile and revealing those wonderful teeth of his. I remembered them nipping at—“It’s so good to see you again.” He took my hand and raised it to his lips, the softness of them in direct contradiction to the hard pulse in my core. Along with it came a pang in my gut as I recalled the very public humiliation I’d felt when everyone found out about my ex-husband sleeping with various women throughout the club, as well as when he’d shown up high in front of Ashton yesterday.

  “And you as well,” I said. I licked my lips because they’d somehow managed dry up to desert levels.

  “I guess calling this a surprise in an understatement,” he said. His eyes roamed over me, my dress or my legs or somewhere else.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “So you mean this is the girl that you told me about?” said Gary.

  Another flash of heat washed over me. “You told him about…” I started, suddenly embarrassed that his friend knew I slept with him.

  “That I knew someone who worked here,” he said, shooting the guy a look. “I just didn’t know you owned the place. Funny, you left out that bit of information. And you brought the vodka. Something tells me we’ll need this. Thank you.” Ashton raised his brows and took the bucket from me.

  “Yeah, I do work here, though. You know…manage and stuff…”

  “Uh-huh. Have time to sit with us or were you on your way to manage and stuff?”

  “Oh…yeah,” I replied. Man, he was too close to me.

  I sat on the chair opposite the red couch the two Gs were seated on. Ashton sat back down in the chair opposite them, to my relief. When I reflexively gulped in air, I realized I hadn’t been breathing at all. I gave Gloria the WTF look and she shrugged. Obviously, Gary had never mentioned his friend’s name to her. Probably just as surprised as I was. When she pointed to her cell, I knew. But I didn’t have it. I’d left it on the desk in my office. Of all days…

  Desiree, one of the waitresses, walked in. She was a stunning twenty-five-year-old brunette with a perpetual tan even in the middle of November. She wore one of the approved outfits, black leggings and a Club Ivy shirt, the one with the red logo. The apron she’d worn accentuated her tiny waist and her giant rack. I didn’t even know how that was possible. Somehow I was a little more self-conscious around her than I’d ever been.

  The glasses and pitchers of various juice chasers clicking against the marble of the table as she set them down highlighted the fact that none of us was speaking. “Here you go,” Desiree chirped like the dazzling bird she was.

  “Thank you,” I managed to say.

  “You’re welcome Ms. E.,” she responded, and she was gone, disappearing
through the curtain that was already opened for her. Even though it was open on Ashton’s end, he didn’t watch her leave.

  No. His eyes were trained on me. I looked away and shifted my body toward my friend and her new boo. While I didn’t have an easy view of Ashton, I could still feel his heavy gaze on me. Parts of me reacted so intensely, he may as well have touched me.

  “So, where’d you guys meet?” I figured we might as well take the focus off Ashton and me. No one needed that drama.

  “I met her at the grocery store. You see, I’m trying out paleo…” Gary started.

  “You are?” Ashton’s voice was loaded with shock. Not sure if it was because the guy was lying or because Ashton had just been really out of touch with his friend.

  “Yeah, man. For the last three months. But I still have a hard time shopping for it.”

  “So I helped him pick the ingredients for a chicken vegetable casserole with cauliflower rice, except—” Gloria chimed in.

  “I can’t cook for shit. I called her up and she stayed on the phone with me through two tries. The first time, I burned it to hell, and you haven’t smelled a stench until you’ve smelled burned cauliflower rice,” said Gary, who was the only one in the room who seemed clueless to the tension in the air.

  They both laughed. Not like normal laughter. It was more like side-splitting, raucous laughter. The kind that was layered with inside jokes and hand touches between them.

  I watched as he finished her sentences and they dragged Ashton and me along on a ride through their short, yet storied history. At least, if you listened to them.

  Oh yeah. They were on the fast track to love and babies. For sure. And I was happy for her. Honestly, she’d been through a lot of shit.

  “I guess the only question left is have you enrolled in cooking classes?” Ashton asked, always the comedian.

  The four of us giggled and Gloria rose, grabbing two of the glasses. She made quick work of preparing her and my drinks. As she did whenever she was nervous. She was probably getting close to Gary, and having others shine a spotlight on it was bound to give her some feelings.