Before Ryan Was Mine (The Remembrance Trilogy - Prequel) (26 page)

“What are you doing here?”

I looked down into Ellie’s accusing gray eyes, her left eyebrow was cocked sharply.

“Uh…” I began, bemused, but automatically my eyes began scanning for Julia. “Having a beer? Didn’t know you owned this shithole.”

Ellie’s hands rested on her hips and her jaw set. “You never come here. That’s why… Oh, hell!”

“Yeah, I hate this damn place. I’d never pick it, but my date wanted to come. Is Jules with you?”

“She’s having a good time, and she doesn’t need you hovering.”

My brows knitted together in a frown as I looked down on the much shorter woman. “I’m not! I don’t.” I finally took a swig from the bottle, only to gaze around the bar.

“Yeah, sure you don’t.”

“What’s your problem?” I asked, irritated.

“Just let her be, Ryan. It would be better if she didn’t even know you were here. She’ll be too busy worrying about you to have a good time.”

“Whatever. Since when is hanging out with you guys off limits?”

“Since you started going all Neanderthal ape-shit when anyone male even glances in Julia’s direction.”

I ignored the implications and flushed, uncomfortable from her shrewd observation and now worried that she’d said something similar to Julia. Or worse, that my feelings were obvious to everyone. Ever since the “Dave” situation, I’d tried hard to lighten up. That was nearly a year ago now, and though I was uncomfortable then, the closeness I shared with her now was compounded.

I rewarded Ellie with a wry look. “Is there something that will freak me out?” The hair on the back of my neck was beginning to prickle.

“See, that’s just it.
Nothing!
She’s an adult. Nothing should freak you out, Ryan. She gets to do what she wants, and as her friend, you should support her.”

“As long as she isn’t getting hurt, it’s cool.” I dismissed her with a roll of my eyes, but the very direction of this conversation had me feeling uneasy.

“It’s cool.” Ellie mocked dryly, staring up into my eyes with a shake of her head, and apparently waiting for me to slap a condition on what I’d just said. I was getting tired of the inquisition.

“Yesssss,” I hissed. “Can I go back to my date now, Ellie? Christ!” I began to move around her as she still stood in my path, but she grabbed my arm. “What?” I was starting to get pissed and wondered what the fuck she was trying to keep from me.

“Where are you sitting?”

I used my beer as a pointer. “Over there, on that couch near the dance floor.”

“Shit.”

“Why? What is it I’m not supposed to see? Is some asshole trying to get her drunk? I saw that tray of lemon drops head out from the bar a minute ago.”

“She’s having fun and dancing. Letting loose a little. If she sees you, just chill and let her be.”

My mouth settled into a firm line as I noted the direction of Ellie’s glance. If she was worried about my reaction, then something was worth worrying about. I did a half-turn, and my eyes narrowed as I searched the crowd and finally landed on Julia.

She was standing near a table on the opposite side of the dance floor from where I’d left Leah lounging on one of the couches. My breath hitched as I looked her over. She looked stunning wearing a short, black sequined dress with miles of bare leg showing. I couldn’t see her feet from where I was standing, but I knew she’d have on some sort of amazing high heels. Her hair looked wild, as if she’d just been freshly fucked, and I nearly dropped my beer, realizing just how often I’d fantasized over that very image. I lifted the hand still holding my beer and wiped at my mouth with the back of my wrist.

“Holy fuck,” I said under my breath.

“Yeah,” Ellie muttered and shook her head again. “This is not good.”

I watched Julia’s head fall back as she laughed at something the man next to her said, her hair tumbling down almost to her waist. Then he handed her a shot. Julia took it, clinked her glass with his, and threw it back before setting the glass back down on the tray.

“Ryan!” Ellie waved her hand in front of my face until I looked at her again. She pointed toward my date. “Go on! You’re being rude to that girl.”

My chest felt weird; curiously tight, and my heart was thudding sickeningly in my chest, like a tennis ball that’d been caged inside a tin can and kicked down a steep hill. It was strangely painful and completely foreign. I was used to feeling protective, and I didn’t usually like the guys who were with her, but this was starting to hurt. Physically hurt.

I’d known Julia over two years, and this wasn’t the first time I’d seen her dressed up. I knew she was hot. I had eyes, and my dick had a mind of its own, despite my attempts to quell it since the second we met. But what was fucking me up was that she was here without me, and she was having a great time. In this steaming den of hormonal college guys just looking for their next conquest, all of them leering at her legs and the soft curves swelling under the clingy fabric that sparkled softly in all the right places. She was a prime target. It didn’t hurt that her face was so beautiful, and her hair was long and screaming to be touched. I glanced at the men near her and the ones lounging on the couches openly ogling her legs, and my chest was ready to explode and my face felt hot. I felt like every male eye in the place was trained on her. It would only be a matter of time before one of those jackasses tried to touch her in a way I wouldn’t like.

Ellie shoved me gently in the chest with both hands, and I dragged my eyes away from Julia back down to her face. “Can you just be cool? Ryan?”

“What? Who are those guys?” I didn’t recognize them, but the taller of the two, the dark-haired one who’d bought the tray of shots, was leaning in to speak to her, and his hand settled lightly on her hip.

“They’re just guys to dance with. They’re students at Stanford, too.”

My eyes honed in on the one touching Julia. “I’ve never seen them before.”

“Yeah, well it’s a big campus. So, we good?”

I cleared my throat. “Yeah. But if something happens… come and get me.”

“Ryan.” Ellie rolled her eyes in reproach.

“It’s either that or Leah and I can just join the party right now.” She looked pissed, and I didn’t give a fuck. “That’s the best I got. Take it or leave it.”

“I’m sure your date would appreciate that, Ryan. God!”

“I barely know her, Ellie. Julia comes first.”

She looked me square in the eye. “Would it matter if you’d known her for ten years?”

“Probably not,” I said without thinking, still watching what was going on at the table across the club.

Ellie sighed, her chest visibly heaving. “Well, at least that’s honest.”

I ignored her and turned away toward my date; who was bouncing around as she did some ridiculous chair dance.
Fucking embarrassing
, I thought. She looked ridiculous. No doubt, she’d probably drag me to dance, which would shoot Ellie’s request I keep a low profile, all to hell. I did a mental shrug as I handed Leah her beer. This place was small, so it was likely Julia would see me anyway. I wasn’t exactly sure I didn’t want her to. I wanted her to know I was here if she needed me, but it felt strange to be around her when we were each with other people. It was uncomfortable, and I continually found myself wishing it were just the two of us. I had an overwhelming urge to storm across the bar and make sure that dude knew he’d better keep it on the up and up with Julia, but that would only be awkward and embarrassing. I couldn’t do that to my date, or my best friend. Instead, I settled down and bored holes in his back with my eyes.

The couch was too low for me. The thing was maybe 18 inches off the floor, and my legs felt cramped between the edge of the seat and the table. Leah smiled and rested her hand on my chest in an awkward attempt to re-establish my attention on her. I smiled weakly, pulled out my cell phone, and fiddled with it, fighting the desire to send Julia a text. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been out with a woman and sought out opportunities to check up on her. Right now, I didn’t stand on pretense or formality. My fingers itched to type out a text.

“Ryan, do you want to dance?”

My brows furrowed at Leah’s words while my thumbs hammered the keys of my phone. “Maybe in a while,” I threw out offhandedly; distracted between my phone and watching what Julia was doing. Ellie was seated at the table, and Julia was still standing next to it. Her companion leaned in and whispered something into her ear. It was way more intimate than I wanted to witness, his hand skirting up her bare thigh toward the hem of her dress. I hesitated half a second before I pushed send. I pulled at the front of my shirt as my chest tightened painfully.

What are you doing?

When she found out I was here and already knew exactly what she was doing, she’d be pissed that I’d ask, but I wasn’t thinking much beyond needing to see if she’d tell me the truth.

The music changed to a slow pulse with more of a melody. I watched the guy take Julia’s slender hand in his and tug her slowly toward the middle of the dance floor, closer to me. My eyes roamed over them both; jealousy took a tighter grip deep down in my gut and my muscles coiled. At the bar, I’d barely glanced in his direction, but now with Julia, he had my undivided attention.

“I really like this song,” Leah murmured, her fingers now worming their way in between two of the buttons on my shirt to scratch lightly on my bare chest. “Mmmm… you feel nice.” Her voice was beguiling, and I realized she was trying desperately to get me to pay attention to her. I chugged the last couple ounces of the beer from my bottle and waved the empty bottle at the waitress. I held up two fingers, and she nodded in understanding.

It took every ounce of strength I had to pull my eyes away from Julia, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from doing something I had no right to do. I turned to Leah, pulling her fingers from my shirt to enfold them with my own. I smiled at her, trying to concentrate on her dark brown eyes and not the asshole wrapped around Julia less than twenty feet in front of me. Leah was babbling on endlessly about a trip to Europe she took with a group of friends over Christmas break, when the waitress brought us our beers. She set them both in front of me and I grabbed the closest one, wanting to get hammered but knowing I wouldn’t. How could I take care of Julia if I was wasted?

The music changed again, and I raised my head away from Leah, letting myself glance toward the dance floor and the table where Julia had been. She wasn’t there. The guy wasn’t either. My breath left in a rush as panic washed over me and I sat up straighter, trying to untangle Leah, who was halfway draped across my chest by now, with one of her legs hitched over my knee.

“Ryan, let’s go back to my place,” she said, her voice low and dripping with sex. Too bad it didn’t do a goddamned thing to distract me. Her hand roaming high on my thigh was only pissing me off when I wanted to be free of her. Her fingers squeezed suggestively as her hand inched closer to my crotch, and her lips nudged my jaw. “If you don’t want to dance, maybe we can find something else to do.”

My beer slipped from my fingers, and I scrambled to catch it but it was being lifted by another set of slender fingers without the blazing red nails. By the time my eyes shifted up and focused, Julia was leisurely taking a drink from my bottle. Her hooded green eyes appraised me, with my date almost on my lap. I barely noticed Leah because my attention was on Julia, and then her eyes shifted twelve inches right, landing on Leah. Julia hated beer, but still here she was, stamping her ownership with something as simple as a pull on my beer bottle. She probably didn’t even know the effect it had on me at such a base level, but I fucking loved it. Something tightened deep inside my chest, and my dick twitched inside my jeans.

“Ryan! Are you gonna let her do that?” Leah demanded indignantly, her eyes flashing haughtily up at Julia.

My lips raised in the slightest smirk. Julia echoed it when her eyes locked with mine.

“Yeah, she… uh, she can do that,” I confirmed without emphasis. Amusement at Julia’s confidence made me want to laugh out loud. I felt fucking elated.

Leah huffed beside me and angrily flung herself back against the cushions of the couch, removing her leg from mine. “Well, do you know her?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know her.”
Boy, do I know her.

Julia wobbled a little, and I could see she’d had more to drink than she needed. Still, she grinned at me, her arm bent at the elbow as she curled my beer close to her chest, not drinking, just holding it in place. My instinct was to reach out or stand up to steady her.

Angrily, Leah pushed on my shoulder and spewed venom in Julia’s direction. “Are you going to introduce us? Is she your sister?”

Julia started to giggle. “Pffft! Do I look like his sister?”

“Then who are you?” my date demanded, her expression hard. I watched the exchange, anxious to see what Julia would say.

“Oh, we’re….” She handed back my beer and walked behind me to sit on the top edge of the back of the couch and slid her hand over the shoulder Leah had shoved. “Well, let’s see… we’re… mmmm...” Her words were nonchalant but her eyes widened, waiting for me to finish the sentence. “What exactly are we, Ryan?”

“This is my best friend Julia. Jules, this is Leah.” I said the words carefully, but couldn’t tear my eyes from Julia’s face. Her features were filled with laughter and devilry.

“His date,” Leah spat.

“Congratulations.” Julia focused on Leah and wagged a finger in her direction. She was clearly tipsy. “You need a donut.”

A laugh burst from my chest because I couldn’t help myself.
You need a donut.
I thought it was fucking hilarious, but Leah was clearly pissed.

“What did you say?”

“You seriously need a donut.”

Leah looked indignant and furious, but my shoulders were visibly shaking with laughter when Julia turned her attention to me. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Excuse me,” I murmured to Leah then immediately rose to follow Julia a few feet away. “Are you being careful?”

“Is it just a coincidence that you and Twiggy are here tonight?”