5

Gina

Amalia took the cowboy hat from the man across her and placed it with a sultry smirk on her head. It was the same look she used in university when she wanted to take a man home.

Although, I doubted she would end up at her house. Bringing a hook up to your dad’s home was a little awkward, even if he was at the same bar and trying not to watch us.

I looked up more than once through the night to find Brandon’s eyes already on me. His gaze burned a hole through me every time I caught him looking. He didn’t look away either, like some men did when you saw them staring.

Instead, he would tip the neck of his bottle in my direction before taking a sip.

It wasn’t flirting, but it didn’t feel like he wasn’t flirting.

Although, that was the way most of our interactions went over the last week.

When I looked up at him again, Brandon was talking to his friend, and a woman was standing with them. She put her hand on his arm, and he smiled at her like he wanted her.

Jealousy started to rear its ugly head, but I shoved it away. He was nothing more than an attractive older man in a bar.

I was single, young, and ready to have a good time after a failed engagement. However, there was no way I would spend my night pining over my best friend’s father.

Even though he looked like he was made to exist in my wildest dreams.

“Shots!” Amalia said, pushing a shot glass filled with clear liquid toward me.

I grinned, and we downed ours together. The alcohol went straight to my head, and the guilt I felt for lusting over Amalia’s dad went with it. He was an attractive man, and with the buzz the alcohol gave me, I wasn’t too concerned about whose father he was.

That might have made me the wrong person, but Tequila said I didn’t care.

“I’m going to be heading out with Reece in a few minutes,” Amalia said, grinning at me and wiggling her eyebrows. “Are you okay to get home alone?”

I smirked and shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll go home alone, but I’m okay.”

Amalia bumped her hip against mine, screaming about my getting laid, before finding the cowboy she stole the hat from. I watched as they left the bar together, barely able to keep their hands off each other.

A long time ago, I had been like that with my ex.

Two months after finding out he was cheating on me, I was ready to start in a new town where nobody knew who I was.

I wasn’t interested in anything long-term. I wasn’t sure people wanted to settle down after going through a disastrous relationship.

As soon as Amalia was gone, I left the other people I was with. They were a few of her other friends, and they seemed friendly enough people, but I wanted to dance and be by myself.

The song changed as I stepped onto the dance floor, losing myself in the multitude of people. I moved my body to the beat, losing myself as the alcohol and inhibitions coursed through my veins.

Though I wasn’t drunk, I did have a buzz going. It was enough to dull the edges of the night without taking away my control.

Brandon was watching me as I danced. Though the woman was still beside him and his friend, talking a mile a minute, his eyes never left my body. I caught his gaze, rolling my hips as I spun in a slow circle.

The song changed to a slower one as I turned back around. He arched his eyebrow as I continued to dance, running my hands through my hair.

Even across the bar, I could feel the heat flowing between us. If the way he was looking at me had anything to do with what was on his mind, he wanted me as much as I wanted him.

“Hey there,” a blond man said, stopping before me. He blocked my view of Brandon, but that was fine.

It was for the best. I didn’t want to do something that I would regret.

Though I might not regret anything I did with him in the morning, I knew I would feel horrible if Amalia ever found out.

“Hey,” I said, smiling up at him. He was easy on the eyes, though he wasn’t Brandon.

“Mind if I have this dance?” He looked at me from beneath the brim of his ballcap, smiling as if he knew my deepest, darkest secrets.

“We were just leaving,” Brandon said, stepping around the man before me. “Come on, Gina; we have to get home soon.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to stay and dance, thank you.”

“Gina, you’re drunk, and I have a car waiting outside to take us home. Let’s go.” Brandon’s voice was stern, sending a shiver down my spine.

As he reached for my hand, I was already picturing everything he could tell me to do. I would happily do them without question.

However, telling me what to do in public was entirely different from telling me what to do in the bedroom.

“Brandon, kindly fuck off. I was just about to dance with this guy here.”

“Over my dead body you are,” he said seconds before he threw me over his shoulder.