Promises, Promises (13 page)

Just then the door burst open and Sandy came in yelling, “Flynn’s in a fight and we can’t break it up!” Her eyes grew even larger as she looked at us as we tried to disentangle ourselves while still panting heavy. It took me a minute to register what she said. “Fuck!” I muttered as I ran out to the bar, making sure to adjust my hard on.

A huge crowd was gathered. Mark and Flynn were throwing blows at each other. Bartender Mark and Clark were trying their best to break them apart.

I stepped in and pushed douche Mark away towards Clark. Clark caught him and pulled him out the door. His buddy, Dex, was pushing on Clark yelling, “That’s fucking bullshit and you know it asshole!”

Flynn was laughing and holding his jaw. I wanted to laugh too, but knew customers were watching.

“Nothing to see people. Move on!” I yelled. The music was still going so a couple of people started dancing again.

I grabbed Flynn by the shoulders and asked, “What the fuck happened?”

He was laughing when he said, “He called me out on cock blocking him. I said ‘yeah and?’ he pushed me and fuck if I was going to let the asshole push me, so I punched him in the face and it went from there. Gotta give it to him though, he’s got a great right hook!” He must be drunk because he was still laughing.

Izzy came running out. “What happened? Are you okay Flynn?” She obviously had no idea who Flynn was in a fight with. Her hair was still mussed from me thrusting my hands through it. She was running her hands over it trying to fix it, which just added to how sexy she was.

Flynn glanced at me and wiped some blood from his mouth. “Yeah Izzy, I’m doing fine.” Smirking, he walked back to the bar.

Izzy looked at me curiously, “Who’d he get into a fight with?” I put my arm around her shoulder and started walking her back to the bar.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s almost closing time. Let’s start wrapping things up.” She went back behind the bar and started cleaning.

By then Clark was coming back in talking loud about how great a fight it was. I slung my arm around his shoulder and leaned in to him, “Shut the hell up about the fight, okay? Izzy doesn’t know it was with the dude she was trying to get with.”

He had a disgusted look on his face as he asked, “She was trying to hook up with that dude after she was with you last night?”

“It’s not what you think. Just...just shut up for now, okay. I’ll explain it all later. Start closing up the bar.” Two hot chicks came up to Clark saying something about how hot it was that he had to break up a fight and how well he did. How the hell does he get them so fast?

After the last customer was gone from the bar, I started to help clean up. I glanced over at Izzy and she glared at me. Shit. I think she found out that Flynn fought Mark, since I didn’t tell Sandy or Mark not to say anything. Well, that was dumb of me. But then again, I’m sure the rest of the wait staff would have told her. I wasn’t sure what to say to her just yet. I looked up again and she was on the phone. Must be that douche Mark. She looked like she was apologizing and then she was smiling and hung up. She looked over at me and glared. Again. Well, that’s not good.

Chapter 9

Izzy

The feeling I had for Z was something I couldn’t quite explain to myself yet. The heart pumping, fiery attraction we felt towards each other, the chemistry we shared was…intense. It was a feeling I’ve never shared with a man ever before. Not even with HIM, which seems strange considering I always felt HE had swept me off my feet, well, at least in the beginning.

I touched my fingers to my mouth and ran them softly over my swollen, almost bruised lips caused by our passionate kissing just moments ago in his office. His touch seared my skin like fire when his fingers grabbed my thigh and then strongly cupped my ass. My heart picked up from just replaying everything in my mind. I gently bit my swollen lip, trying to calm my hunger for more of his touch.

Shouldn’t I be angry with Z for what he had done? Had he pulled me into his office only out of jealousy because I had flirted with Mark? Was he in some sort of contest with Mark?

Mark. Shit. How do I feel about Mark? It was nothing at all compared to what I felt for Z, but I did have a nice flirtation that was entirely on the opposite side of the spectrum. Sweet. Innocent. Almost a teenage romance type of flirtation.

I glanced up at Z and noticed his gaze upon me from across the room. He seemed like he was trying to gauge my feelings. I gave him my best scowl, which seemed almost comical considering his lustful gaze made my insides swirl deliciously in my abdomen.

If I were to go with my instinct, I would sprint across the bar as if I were in some dramatic love scene, bounding into his arms with my hair flowing behind me, as he carried me into the shadows of the night.

I quickly tore my gaze away from Z before I started to giggle at my silly fantasy, making sure my hair draped over my face so he wouldn’t notice the change in my expression.

Leave. I needed to get out of the bar quickly to try to understand what just happened.

A silly expression popped into my head from when I was little. The guys at the bar used to tell me how women “fish hook” them – digging their lure hard into their hearts to reel them in. I giggled remembering the expression, but started feeling like that’s what Z has already done to my heart in such a short time. He has some sort of hook digging into my heart. I feel like I need to remove that hook before it sinks any deeper and tears me apart. Would it tear me apart? I asked myself as I quickly grabbed my purse and headed out the door.

I tried to answer the question by putting myself in his position. Sheila had probably just tore some stupid hook out of his heart when she cheated on him. So really, Z just has a hole that needs to be filled right now. Because right now, Z only wants a rebound and after what Sheila did to him, I can’t blame him.

Is that what Z would be to me? The question still hung over my mind from the other day, when he threw the question at me with Clark standing right there: ‘
Is that what you want to do to get over your ex
?’ I replayed his husky voice dripping with sexual innuendo when he asked me that; not to mention his deep intense stare as if it were daring me to say ‘yes.’ I was so close to saying yes, just so I could be with him. Just to go ahead and take the chance, thinking maybe we both need to be each other’s rebound to get over our exes.

Mark. I thought of our phone conversation as I picked up my pace towards the townhouse. He called me to ask me if I wanted to run tomorrow with him. I felt bad about the fight, but even worse that I made out with Z in the back room right after flirting with Mark at the bar. I agreed to run with him more out of guilt than anything else.

Did he get into a fight with Flynn over me? Why did Flynn care about what I do with Mark?

A strong, but gentle hand grabbed my bare upper arm. I knew the touch immediately because his touch shot an electric current to my core. I spun around to stare into the most perfect, caring blue eyes speckled with amazing grey flecks. My heart raced as my belly rolled with anxious pleasure by seeing and being touched by this man.

 “Hey, didn’t you hear me calling you?” He was out of breath. He obviously doesn’t run or at least I didn’t think he ran, guessing by the way he was trying to catch his breath.

“No, I guess I was deep in thought.” I hope he didn’t hear the breathlessness in my voice. I crossed my arms across my chest, more as an attempt to calm myself to keep from throwing my arms around his neck, so we could continue our make out session from the office.

“You’re not angry with me, are you?” He cocked his head to the side and smirked, “I didn’t knock the shit out of him,” he teased.

I wanted to giggle at his adorable attempt to make light of the situation. “I don’t know what to think.” I tried to keep my voice quiet and even, but my heart was racing, making me feel anything but calm.

At first, he seemed to try avoiding my eyes, as he looked past my shoulder. Then he quickly glanced back looking me in the eye and asked, “Is it me or do you also feel our connection?” I watched him as he shoved his hands into his pockets and then tilted his head to the other side, giving me a cute grin.

I was shocked by his sweet admission. I grinned back at his adorable boyish charm, bit my lip and glanced away quickly – knowing that we do have a connection, but unsure how to respond.

 I took a deep calming breath as I tried to regain my senses. I gazed back into his gorgeous eyes as I quietly tried to reason things out and decided to try to find out if he wanted to use me just to get over Sheila.

“Is that what you think it is? You kissed me when you were drunk and another time when you were jealous. I don’t want to be your rebound just so you can get over Sheila.” My heart beat fast knowing I had just laid it all out there. I looked to the ground, awaiting his response, unsure of what he might say.

I glanced back up as his eyebrows pinched together, “You’re not a rebound, Izzy. I’ve never wanted you for a rebound.”

My breath hitched as I swallowed. “I…,” but something caught my eye across the street. My heart stopped with fear as I strained to look over Z’s shoulder. Was that the same guy I saw when I was out with Melanie at Spike’s? No, he couldn’t be…my mind was playing tricks on me again. Cars sped by the street as I continued to try to search for the person I thought I saw.

“What’s wrong, Izzy? You just went white. Are you okay?” Z looked behind him and was trying to find what I was looking for.

I blinked and he was gone. At least I think the person was a he. I don’t even know what I saw. I faintly heard a question from Z. “What?” I asked as I shook my head and looked back at him.

“Did you see something? Was it your Ex?” Z asked as he was looking around searching for whatever I might have seen. By that time Flynn walked up and heard Z say “Ex.”

“Where the fuck is her ex?” Flynn asked also looking around.

My eyes scanned back across the street, searching for that same shadow from my memory and I shook my head, “No…,” I stammered. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything. Just my mind playing tricks again.” I swallowed hard. “I…I need to get inside. It’s just been a long night, that’s all.” I looked over at Flynn and noticed his lip was bleeding and swollen. “Oh God, Flynn! You need some ice on that.” I turned and proceeded to walk up the stairs. I looked back when I realized no one was following me. They were both staring at me with confused expressions on their faces. “What? You need ice on that.” I stated as I turned back around and continued to walk inside.

 I grabbed a ziploc bag and put some ice in it, then turned around to Flynn handing it to him. He took it and put it on his lip, looking at me dubiously.

Z watched Flynn tap the ice bag to the corner of his mouth, still giving me the same uncertain look. Z looked back at me, “What’d you see out there Iz?”

“Nothing. It was nothing.” I tried to sound convincing, although I knew I failed at my attempt. I turned to grab a beer out of the fridge.

Mel was on the couch watching TV and turned when she heard Z’s question. “You saw someone again, Iz?” She asked clearly concerned.

“No,” I stated firmly, while shaking my head and held my other hand up for everyone to stop worrying. “Can we just drop it? It’s just my mind playing tricks on me again.” I tried to give a small reassuring smile to convince them.

HE wasn’t going to have me followed, would HE? I frowned as I took a drink from my beer. I turned away from the guys and walked to the couch in an attempt to change the subject.

I lowered my voice and asked Melanie, “how was your date?” I forced a smile. I heard Flynn huff, clearly pissed off as he grabbed a beer out of the fridge. I mentally scolded myself yet again for asking Melanie about another guy in front of Flynn.

“It was good! We went to a great restaurant and he was so much fun to talk to!” Shit, why did I ask her this? She stopped abruptly, probably also realizing Flynn was right there. “Hey, did you know we have a pool table here? I don’t think I ever really gave you a good tour of the place! How about a game?” Melanie jumped up excitedly.

“I had no idea!” All this time I could have played to help clear my head! I beamed as I followed Mel to the back of the townhouse and to the right. There was another huge room, basically behind the kitchen. It had a gorgeous, mahogany wood regulation pool table with green felt and an exquisite Tiffany light fixture over it. I walked over to the pool table and began to set up.

We started playing and Mel told me a little more about her date. The good parts she increased the volume on her voice to make sure Flynn heard her in the kitchen. The rest she giggled and lowered her voice, probably trying to make him think they were intimate discussions or something.

Flynn stalked into the pool room, looking pissed off, followed by Z. I was still trying to figure out what Z meant by his comment before we came inside earlier. If he doesn’t want me as a rebound maybe he wants something else? I shook my head. It’s a competition thing, I kept trying to tell myself, as I tried to concentrate on what Melanie was telling me.

 “Holy shit! What happened to you?” Melanie asked, looking concerned at Flynn as she finally noticed his lip bleeding. He was no longer holding the ice bag to his cut, I noticed.

 “I got into a fight.” He answered as he glanced away.

Melanie looked at me knowing there was more to this story. “He got into a fight with Mark.” I told her.

“Who the heck is Mark?” Melanie asked. Oh yeah, I hadn’t told her about him yet, had I?

“A guy I met on my run who was interested in me until Flynn and Z decided to pick a fight with him.” I told her while looking over at Z. I was still trying to figure out why Flynn got into a fight with Mark.

“I didn’t get into a fight with him, Flynn did!” Z shot at me giving me another boyish grin. That adorable look melted my insides and I had to bite my lip to stop from grinning stupidly.

“Well, wasn’t he fighting Mark for you since you decided to pull me into your office so you could make out with me?” I asked, still not knowing exactly how the fight started.