Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding #1)(34)
Author: K.A. Linde

"Why don’t you…just…leave?" she asked between hiccups.

"Why don’t you come with me?" he countered making it sound like another demand. He took the last step towards her and placed her elbow in his hand.

She shook her head trying to get out of his grip. "Why would I want…to be…with you?"

"Can’t you see that I’m looking out for you? You know nothing about Ramsey," he said trying to reason with her even though he was grasping for excuses to get her away. "He’s not exactly a nice guy."

"Neither are you!"

"You know me Lexi. You don’t know him. You don’t know what he can be like. I know how he is with women, and I know the type of women he associates with. You’re better than all of them combined, but if you keep throwing yourself around like them, he’s going to treat you the same way. So stop being so stubborn, and let’s get the f**k out of here."

"No! God, you’re blaming me for drinking too much? I can’t believe what just came out of your mouth."

"I wasn’t kissing some random guy."

"Now that would be a sight."

"You know what I mean. You were the one making out with a guy you just met when you know absolutely nothing about him. What’s gotten into you Lexi?"

"What’s gotten into me? You’re the one practically getting a bl*w j*b in the living room. So don’t come here on your high horse and try and bring me down for kissing someone. Last I checked I could kiss whoever the f**k I want, because unlike some people I’m not attached. Not that it seems to stop you," she snarled crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh we’re back here again," he huffed. "Haven’t we covered the topic about things being different?" As the words came out of his mouth, he couldn’t help but let his eyes crawl her body. She was so angry right now, and coupled with her dangerously revealing outfit she looked amazing. He hadn’t meant to say such harsh things to her, but it’s like she hadn’t ever listened to a word he said to her. It’s not like he was about to go and kiss her now…even if he wanted to. He remembered the last time her lips had been on his and it sent shocks through his body. He knew he could kiss her. He had always known that fact…taken advantage her desire for him just like he had claimed Ramsey had. But still he wanted to think things were different.

"Right…things are sooo different now. Just…leave me alone Jack."

"Okay," he began stepping into her personal space and forcing her to look up at him. "So maybe things aren’t completely different, but they have changed. So just let’s get out of here. I don’t want to see you get hurt."

He had moved his hand up so that it was cupping her cheek. Her watery brown eyes were looking up at him. How many times had she been in this similar position before? She couldn’t even think about that right now. She was fighting off the alcohol induced hormones running rampant throughout her body. He shouldn’t have talked about kissing her and then touched her the way he was doing. That just wasn’t fair.

"It’s too late for that Jack," she whispered stepping away from his comforting touch. "You’ve done more damage than anyone else ever could."

"Lex, come on. Stop talking like that. Let’s just go."

The door swung back open revealing Bekah and Ramsey. Lexi quickly turned around to face away from the door and forcefully brushed away the tears that had seeped out of her eyes. She didn’t need them seeing her this way. It was bad enough that Ramsey had almost seen her cry. She could do without Bekah having that advantage over her as well. Not to mention she had no idea what she looked like. Jack completely threw her emotions around. One minute she was on fire. The next she was near to tears. Back and forth. She knew one thing though. She couldn’t be around him right now. It would surely end in disaster.

"Jack let’s get out of here," Bekah said pulling him backwards away from Lexi.

She didn’t exactly look pleased. Bekah shot Ramsey a disdainful look as she yanked on Jack’s arm. Ramsey just smiled that perfect Country Club smile. Apparently, he had won out in the end.

"Lex, are you sure you’re not coming?" Jack pleaded one last time.

"No, Ramsey’s going to get her a hotel," Bekah told him practically dragging him away.

"Oh." He quickly composed himself. "I’ll see you. Later," he said tilting his head at Ramsey after giving Lexi one last look and exiting with Bekah.

Lexi breathed out not having even realized she had been holding her breath. How had she let herself deal with his behavior for so long? She had such strong feelings for him and yet all they could seem to do was argue. God, it was so typical of him. She didn’t know what to do. Her head was killing her already. She didn’t even want to imagine her hangover tomorrow.

Luckily, Ramsey didn’t seem to try to push his advantage. And when he glanced at her, he didn’t ask all of the nagging questions he was dying to get answers for. Bekah had been just as secretive about the whole situation. Confirming, at least, that in some strange way, she was involved. His little sister had actually told him to just back off from the situation and Lexi. Though he could tell she was less vehemently concerned about the second demand…and more so with covering her ass.

Lexi wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to keep up pretenses if Ramsey wanted to talk about what had happened. She certainly wasn’t ready to spill her beans as she had proven when she had spoken with Bekah. There was no way she’d be able to talk to Ramsey. She was grateful when he smoothly requested her presence on the dance floor. As emotionally drained as she felt that definitely sounded like a better option than thinking about Jack anymore. Which is exactly what she did…stopped thinking about Jack and indulged a little bit more in the wonderful quantities of alcohol Ramsey was providing.

The next morning Lexi could feel her head splitting open. She couldn’t even open her eyes. If she opened her eyes, she was certain the pain would be unbearable. She couldn’t even think of anything besides the pain. What could she last remember about the previous night?

She had kissed Ramsey. Yeah that was pretty clear. And the nasty things that Jack had spat at her were still relatively clear in her mind. Though they didn’t sting quite as much now that she was sober and had other much more physically painful things to deal with. Then her and Ramsey had danced and danced and danced. She didn’t even know how long they had danced. From there things just sort of went fuzzy. Had she blacked out? She was pretty sure she hadn’t blacked out since her twenty-first birthday, and the next morning she had had some twenty-one slash marks in black permanent marker on her wrist letting her know much she had had to drink. No way had she had that much last night.

Reluctantly, she blearily opened her eyes and found herself in a strangely meticulous bedroom. A very foreign bedroom. Definitely not a hotel room. Shit! This was not good. Hadn’t Bekah said that Ramsey was going to check her into a hotel room? Not that it would have looked very good for him to check her into a hotel room in her condition. Don’t hotels frown upon that? God, she had no idea. She’d never gotten herself into this situation.

She didn’t want to face the truth. Maybe Jack had been right. She knew nothing about Ramsey other than that he came from money and was related to his girlfriend. If Jack couldn’t even vouch for him, maybe he wasn’t such a good guy after all.

She peered under the huge white down comforter and silky blue sheets to find that she was clothed in a pair of red plaid boxers and a white undershirt that was at least three times too big. Yeah, not even close to what she had been wearing last night. She rubbed her eyes vigorously hoping that maybe something else would come to her. Anything else. But she simply didn’t remember what had happened or how she had ended up here in this strange place in some guy’s oversized clothes.

Even before she lifted her head off of the enormous feather pillow, she knew it was a mistake. Spasms of pain shot throughout her entire body sending her sprawling back against the bed. The pain was all-consuming and instantly made her feel nauseous. If she had thought she had wanted to throw up last night, it was nothing compared to the desire she was having right now. But realizing she was in a strange person bedroom with no clue as to where a bathroom was, she lay back down and took several calming breaths before attempting to stand up again. Steadying herself on the dark wood footboard, she took a swift analysis of her surroundings. The room was plain, but she could tell that the furniture was high quality. A Macbook Pro sat unopened on the desk, but there were no cluttered stacks of papers or half full glasses like at her apartment. The walls were blank giving off a guest bedroom vibe, but something about the space convinced her otherwise. She couldn’t put her finger on it. Then she glanced back at the bed. There weren’t any throw pillows on the bed. She had noticed over the years that guest bedrooms always had useless throw pillows that most people neglected to place on beds they frequently slept on.

She reached for the nearest door which opened to a rather large walk in closet. The clothes were organized by style and color. It was almost terrifying how neat the closet was in comparison to her own mishmash of clothing stuffed into the tiny space at home. She shut the door behind her and walked achingly across the room to another door. This revealed a short blank hallway with several other doors and a staircase. She shuffled down the hallway, down the staircase, and around the corner into a familiar kitchen area.

Sighing heavily, she realized she had spent the night at Ramsey’s apartment. Panic hit her. Had she slept with him? Had anything happened? She put her hand to her head and trudged over to the sink. Fumbling with a glass she produced from a cabinet, she poured herself some water, refilled the glass and downed another. That helped, but not enough to ease the gnawing ache at the pit of her stomach.

The front door crashed open and she swiveled a little too fast for the headache that had taken residence in her temples. Ramsey flanked by the two roommates she had met the night before paraded into the room together not taking any notice of Lexi. She became increasingly aware that she was wearing men’s sleeping clothes with no bra, she had not seen a mirror, and she had the feeling she would be hungover until the next day at least. This all added up her looking terrible and wishing she had tried another door to get to a bathroom. Knowing they were all about to look at her in her condition made her already angry stomach lash out at her.

Ramsey didn’t even miss a beat when he looked at her. She looked like she had been through hell and back last night. Her long brown hair was tousled and tangled, and she looked a green tinge to her skin. But it did nothing to detract from her beauty. It was quite apparent that she needed nothing to make herself look good.

"Oh good you’re awake. I was afraid you were going to die up there." His roommates gaped at her before smirking at each other and venturing upstairs leaving her and Ramsey alone.

Lexi hadn’t worn a watch so she had no idea of the time. Apparently, this was starting to become a trend around Ramsey. "What time is it?" she croaked hating the way her voice sounded all throaty in the morning.

He could have listened to her speak all day with how sexy her voice was in the morning. "Nearly two."

"Oh my God!" she yelled too loud for her own ears. She pushed her palms to her temples and cringed. "Two in the afternoon?" she moaned.