Second Chance Boyfriend (Drew + Fable #2)(29)
Author: Monica Murphy

The insult girls are dancing close by, shooting Jen and me rude glares, and I put my back to them, trying my best to enjoy this last song. My nerves are shot, though. The mean girls killed my buzz and I should’ve insisted on leaving before the song started.

But Jen’s into the music, a giant smile on her face as she waves her hands in the air like she just don’t care, yo.

I smile at my own mental joke and throw my hands up in the air, mimicking Jen. The music slowly starts to work its magic, taking me over until all I can feel is the pulse of the bass and the heartfelt lyrics running through my mind. I’m about to be completely swept away with the chorus when I hear one of the mean girls gasp behind me.

“No way! Is that Drew Callahan?”

Glancing over my shoulder, I catch sight of him standing on the opposite side of the room near the door, as if he just entered. He’s squinting as he scans the room, searching for me, no doubt, which sends a flutter of anticipating nerves through my body. He looks cute as hell in a white long-sleeve shirt with a button placket at the neck, the sleeves pushed up to reveal his sexy strong forearms. Jeans, of course, that mold to his thighs and remind me of just how muscular they are. His hair is hanging in his eyes and he pushes it away, flicking his head in irritation.

Pressing my lips together, I want to sigh like a little schoolgirl with my first crush. My man is so damn fine I can hardly stand it. He still hasn’t found me, though. In fact, he looks mighty irritated as he pushes through the crowd, his gaze constantly scanning, and a warm sensation washes over me as I keep moving, my attention half on the girls gushing about Drew and watching him.

“He never goes anywhere,” one of the girls says. “God, he’s so f**king gorgeous it hurts just looking at him.”

I’m tempted to turn and scratch her eyes out but I restrain myself. After all, I’m the one who had him nak*d and between my legs earlier today. Drew Callahan belongs to me.

“Oh my God, he’s looking this way!” another one screeches.

He’s staring right at me and I can feel the sizzle of his smoldering gaze from clear across the room. Tossing my hair over my shoulder, I send him a sultry smile, hoping like crazy I don’t look like a fool.

Drew sends me a delicious smile right back. But he doesn’t come toward me. I can still hear those girls going on and on about him. They need to know he’s mine. I’m desperate for them to know he’s mine.

So I watch him. And I want him. But no way am I going to approach him. He has to come and get me first.

“Your boyfriend is here,” Jen shouts in my ear.

Nodding, I never take my eyes off of him as I continue to dance to the throbbing beat. “I know,” I shout back.

“He’s looking at you like he wants to gobble you up.” Jen laughs as she moves away from me.

Heat flares between my legs. He is totally looking at me like he wants to eat me up. Unable to stand it, I crook my finger and give him the age-old sign I want him to come to me.

“Look, he’s coming this way!” One of the mean girls screams as he makes his way across the crowded dance floor straight toward me.

I wait in breathless anticipation as he walks toward me. He’s taller than most of the people here and he stands out. Or maybe that’s because I notice no one else but him. The way that white shirt he’s wearing stretches across his shoulders and chest. How much I love his longer hair. The way he’s looking at me when he stops directly in front of me, his gaze dropping to my mouth for one hot, lingering moment before he lifts his lids to meet my gaze.

“Hi,” he says but I can hardly hear him. More like I have to read his lips. His sexy, gorgeous, I can’t resist them lips.

So I loop my arms around his neck and give him a sweet kiss on that irresistible mouth. “Hi,” I whisper, my lips brushing his.

He settles those big hands on my butt and tugs me closer. I can literally hear the horrified gasps coming from the group of mean girls standing behind us and I hang my head back and laugh triumphantly.

It feels really good to be the girl who gets the guy for once.

Drew

It took me forever to escape my apartment. Dad called twice to gripe about Adele and whatever else she was doing. I didn’t want to hear it. But he needed to unload. I sensed that and so I let him. Until finally I checked the time and realized Fable was probably waiting for me at that stupid club she’s at.

She’s probably good and pissed at me for keeping her waiting, too.

I finally drive myself over there and get inside, which was no small feat. I had to promise I was only going in to snag my girlfriend out of there and then we were leaving. The line to get in was huge. The guy manning the door figured out who I was real quick and was a major football fan so I lucked out when he let me in.

Now I have a warm, sexy woman in my arms, smiling up at me like I’m God’s gift. She’s snug against me, her fingers playing in my hair at my nape, her body still moving to the music. Driving me out of my mind.

“I thought you weren’t going to show,” she yells at me. The music is so loud I can barely hear her.

Leaning in close, I murmur in her ear, “Sorry, my dad kept calling.”

She nods, her fragrant hair brushing against my cheek, making me inhale sharply. “I wondered if that was the case.”

Her friend she’s with touches Fable on the arm and tells her she needs to go. We both wave at her and she leaves, threading through the crowd until it swallows her up. The song changes, still fast though not as hyped up as the previous one, and Fable swivels her hips, the smile on her face alluring.

Sexy as hell.

“I missed you.” She brushes her chest against mine and I feel like I’m going to shatter. Both from being turned on and the earlier tension I dealt with over the stupid divorce. I wish he hadn’t called. He ruined my mood. My girl senses it too. Her smile turns into a frown. “What’s wrong?”

I shrug, not wanting to dwell on a bunch of bullshit tonight. I want to focus only on her. “I’m absorbing other people’s problems and stress, which I know is ridiculous but I can’t help it.”

Her frown softens but it’s still there. She probably feels sorry for me and I don’t want her to. I want her free and beautiful and flirtatious. Fable behaving like this makes me feel free. “I can help you with that,” she says, her voice full of promise.

I dip my head to hear her better. “You can?”

“Oh, yeah. You need to learn how to let go of all your troubles.” She whispers the words in my ear, the sound of her sexy voice sending a jolt of lust straight through me. “You chasing me here is the first step.”

I settle my hands on her h*ps and pull her in closer. The music is loud, the room is stifling and the crowd is thick. But with Fable’s arms slung around my neck, her body close to mine, it’s like we’re the only two people in this room. “First step to what?” I ask, confused. My brain literally fries when I’m with her.

She trails her fingers lightly down my nape and I shiver. “First step to acting like two normal people who are madly in love and can’t keep their hands off each other,” she murmurs right before she kisses me.

I drown in the taste of her, in the feel of her sinful body snug against me. I slide my hands back and forth over her ass and she whimpers, the sexy little sound sending a zing straight threw me, making me hard.

Damn. I want out of here. It’s too public, too crazy to indulge like this with her. We’re completely surrounded by people and the song changes yet again, a popular song that’s been overplayed on the radio, though no one here seems to care.

Including my girl. She’s withdrawn completely from my arms, a little smile teasing her kiss-swollen lips, and she starts moving to the beat. “Dance with me,” she shouts over the music.

I slowly shake my head, my gaze dropping to her hips. The way she moves, as if she were born to dance. She knows I’m watching too, and she puts on a show, just for me. The sway of her h*ps in those too-tight jeans she’s wearing, how she thrusts her chest out as she lifts her arms above her head. The white lace of her bra peeks above the neckline of the tank she’s wearing beneath the plaid button-up shirt and without thought I grab her. Let my hands rest on her waist as she moves against me.

“You don’t dance?” She arches a brow and I do the same in return as my answer, standing completely still while she keeps moving. Her h*ps shift beneath my palms and she turns around, brushing her ass against my front, making me harder.

Glancing over her shoulder, she offers me a sultry smile but doesn’t say a word. Just keeps dancing while I keep my hands on her. I pull her closer. Closer still until her back is nestled to my front and I slip my arms completely around her, my hands pressed flat against her stomach. I smooth them down, to the tops of her thighs, and I swear I feel her tremble beneath my touch.

She looks up at me, her eyes gone wide, her lips glistening as if she just licked them. We’ve been playing a game since I got here and I’m ready to claim my prize.

Her. She’s all I want. All I’ll ever want.

I never believed in the fairy tale, even when I was a little kid. My life has been full of tragedy since my mom died. My illusions were shattered completely when I was fifteen years old. I became such a shell of myself, I never believed anyone could truly accept and love me. It sounded pitiful when I admitted to Dr. Harris I firmly believed I would go through my entire life alone, but it was the truth. I felt completely unlovable.

Disgusting. Shameful.

Being with Fable, all of those old, harsh feelings are slowly evaporating. She loves me for me. She knows every single dark and horrible thing that’s happened to me in my life and she doesn’t care. She wants to help me, stand by me, be there for me no matter what.

She flat-out wants…me.

I’m probably thinking too fast, wanting to move way, way too fast for her comfort, but having Fable in my arms at this very moment, smiling up at me from over her shoulder, I know without a doubt that this is the girl I want by my side forever. She’s embedded herself so completely into my life and my heart, I can’t imagine being without her.

It’s just that simple and that complicated, all at once.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whisper in her ear and she nods once, her hair brushing against my face. She smells amazing, her cheeks are flushed and all I can think is how fast can I get her home so I can have her nak*d beneath me.

Taking her hand, I start to guide her off the dance floor, noticing a group of obvious sorority girls watching us as we go. Fable turns and flips them the bird, sticking her tongue out at them, and I yank on her hand hard to get her the hell out of there before she starts a fight.

“What the hell was that for?” I ask her as he walk down the back stairs and push open the door that leads out into the parking lot.

“They were giving me shit. Saying catty stuff about me. Next thing I know, you walk into the room, and they all flipped out.” She smiles and squeezes my hand. “They thought you were smiling at them but really you were smiling at me.”