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“Please tell me you got her number?”
Cole.
I could do without playing tennis with the three stooges this morning.
Ignoring their line of questioning, I deal with them the best way I know how. “No. No. No.” I point at each one of them and walk back to my bedroom. “I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
Eli sounds exasperated when he says, “He’s a killjoy these days.”
“What do you mean, these days? Hasn’t he always been a mood vampire? And anyway, at least someone is getting their dick wet,” Cole grumbles.
Max jumps in on the defense. “Hey, I have no complaints.”
“Man whore,” I mutter to myself and walk inside my bedroom that smells like sex, sin and reeks of her perfume that I wish I knew the name of.
I’m never having my sheets washed.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Enough now.” I rub my temples, then push my boxers down my hips and step out of them, and jump in the shower to scrub away my stupidity, instantly regretting it when the scolding water hits me, because for some reason I hate that I don’t want to wash her off me.
Maybe I’ll bump into her again.
Maybe not.
San Francisco is a big city and I’ve never seen her before.
I bang my fist against the tiled wall, mad at myself for not asking for her number.
Although she was sneaking off, which tells me everything I need to know; she’s not interested in anything more than one night.
And that hurts more than I care to admit.
Oh well, here’s to never seeing the only woman I’ve ever felt excited about.
I’m better off being alone anyway.
And did she just call me Nathaniel?
No one calls me that except my mother.
Though, I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Nathan comes from Nathaniel.
5
ARI
Shit.
I rest the back of my head against the mirrored elevator wall and stare at my reflection in the ceiling mirror. I can’t even look at myself without feeling sick to my stomach.
I slept with Nathaniel Hart.
The man I wanted to get close to, but not carnally.
I used sleeping with him as an excuse to get into his apartment when what actually happened was I overslept then lost the opportunity to snoop around from fear of him waking up before I left.
Which did happen, but at least our interaction was brief.