Page 39 of Rival Hearts

I turned around, marching back to the bar, leaving her in the street. It was a dipshit move. The gentleman in me screamed at me, leaving a woman alone in the street like that, but I had to get away from her while I could still think straight, or she was goingto reduce me to putty in her hands, and then I would be royally screwed.

Ben and Chris both looked at me with eyebrows raised when I walked in.

“What was that?”

“Just taking care of business.”

Ben cocked a lopsided grin. “That didn’t look like the kind of business you do in the office.”

“Or maybe it is the kind you do in the office. Like on your desk. Or against your shelves.”

“Fuck off,” I said with a scowl.

“Is that her?” Chris asked.

“Who?” Ben wanted to know, interest piqued.

Behind me, Charlotte came in and walked over to her friend. They talked in hushed tones. A moment later, they paid for their drinks and left. I forced myself to focus on my brothers instead of looking after her like a forlorn lover.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said to Chris.

“Oh, my God, it’s her,” Chris said.

“Who?” Ben wanted to know.

I shook my head, already irritated with my brothers that they’d hit the nail on the head with Charlotte. Was it so damn obvious that there was something there?

“It’s nothing.” I knew neither of them would buy it, and damn it, they weren’t wrong.

11

CHARLOTTE

“You’re seriously not going to talk about it?” Maya followed me into my apartment.

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Come on, Lottie. What’s going on? It was clear as day you and that guy were about to climb into each other, and then you just leave the bar like that… I thought you guys might come to blows outside.”

God, if only that had been true. That would have been a hell of a lot easier to handle than the furnace he lit within me.

I thought about the way he’d held my chin, possessive, demanding. It had turned me into a puddle of need. I’d wanted him to take what he wanted, to turn all that high-and-mighty big-boss energy onto me. With his piercing eyes staring into my soul and those perfect lips… I wanted them all over my body. I wanted him to taste every inch of me, pin me down, and pound me into the mattress again and again.

What the hell was wrong with me?

“I’ve got wine,” I said to Maya, trying to shake off the thoughts and the waves of lust washing over me just at the thought ofhim. “We’ll just keep drinking here. It’s cheaper than that place, anyway.”

Maya was suddenly behind me in my kitchen. I hadn’t heard her come up. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the counter where I stored my wine so that I couldn’t get to it.

“So, no drinking?”

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Maya said.

I let out a shuddering breath. She wasn’t going to let this go.

“I…” I squeezed my eyes shut for a second. “Slept with him.”

I opened my eyes again. Maya’s face was one of pure shock, her green eyes wide, mouth open, and the pink and green streaks in her hair were comically disheveled.