But I hurled his phone at him. Hard. And I missed.
It careened past him, into the mirror behind the bar, making an appallingly loud crash, and knocking over a cocktail shaker, which fell to the floor along with the phone.
Heath stared at me in shock, his eyes darkening with anger. He flipped up the bar top at the end of the bar, ignoring his phone, and came around to me, steps quick and intention obscure.
“I…” For a second I panicked, indecisive long enough that he was able to firmly grip my hand and drag me into the back room.
He shoved me inside and slammed the door shut behind us.
Then he locked it.
“Have you lost your f**king mind?” he demanded.
It suddenly seemed like I had.
Chapter Nineteen
The back room was an office and storage room, liquor on shelves all around us. It was small and poorly lit and I felt very aware of the fact that he was risking his job stepping away from the bar. That I had risked his job by showing up there and demanding answers that could have waited until he got home. That I’d made a scene and that I was damn lucky that mirror hadn’t broken.
“Shouldn’t you be out there?” I asked, nervous.
“Oh, now, you’re worried about my job?” He snorted. “The guy sitting at the end of the bar is actually the owner. I’m sure he has it covered.”
Fabulous. His boss was right there. The guy I had actually glared at when I had walked in. “Shit. I’m sorry.” Heat flooded my cheeks. “I didn’t mean to throw your phone, I really didn’t.”
“What is going on? Why are you so jealous?”
“You gave Aubrey your address. She asked to see your junk and you said if you want to see my dick, come over, and you gave her your address.” I felt miserable, desperate. My voice sounded foreign to me, high pitched and hysterical. Shrewish.
“She was just flirting, being a dick tease. I called her bluff. I knew she wouldn’t come over and she didn’t.”
I wanted to believe him. I stared at him, willing him to tell me the truth, trying anxiously to win the war with my own insecurities. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” he exploded. “When have I ever lied to you? If I had sex with her, I would tell you. But I didn’t and even if I had I would have been wishing the whole goddamn time that it was you, because I wanted to be f**king you.”
His anger made me crumple. I hit his chest with my fist, frustrated. “This is all your fault!” I said. “You shouldn’t have left me. You left me and now I don’t know if this is real.”
“I never left you,” he said, shaking his head, jaw set, nostrils flaring. “I was forced to go. And I came back and you were the one who had left me. You were the one with a ring on your finger. You were the one who moved on, who gave up on us.”
“I didn’t give up. I was forced to give up, just like you were forced to leave.” I was crying, and I was landing a punch on his chest with every other word, keys jangling in my hand, frustrated and hurt and angry and scared. Most of all I was scared.
“Calm down,” he said, grabbing my hand.
I struggled, my wallet tumbling out of my hand to the floor. “No.” Then I hit him again, only my swing was higher this time and I accidentally grazed my fist across the bottom of his chin.
Before I could even open my mouth to apologize he had grabbed both my wrists and turned me, so my back landed against the locked door. “Stop it, Cat.”
“Let me go,” I breathed. But I didn’t want him to. Ever.
And I wanted him to fight for me, like he had promised. Prove to me that I was it for him. The one he loved.
“No. I’m never letting you go.” He kissed me and it was hard, angry, dominating. “You’re the only one I want. The only one I’ve ever wanted.”
Heath kissed down my neck, sucking the top of my breast through my shirt. He still gripped my wrists tightly, holding me in place against the door.
“I don’t believe you,” I said, even as I fought the urge to gasp as his tongue ran everywhere I had bare skin exposed.
“Yes, you do. You’re just being stubborn. It’s one of the things I love about you.”
I yanked my arms, trying to break free, displaying that stubbornness, trying to exert my control. Regain it.
But when he suddenly let go of me and leaned away a few inches to study me, I didn’t go anywhere. I stayed put, heart racing, body tingling, hands still over my head pinned to the wall. He gave me a sexy smile of triumph. “That’s what I thought. You’re a good actress, but ultimately you want exactly what I do.”
This time when he kissed me, he bit my bottom lip. He swallowed the gasp I gave, while his hands jerked open the button on my jeans and tore down the zipper. He wasn’t really. I couldn’t believe he would.
But he was. And he did.
And I wanted him to.
He ripped my jeans down to my knees while his mouth assaulted mine. “Tell me you love me,” he demanded. “Tell me if I give you a ring you’ll wear it and forget forever that I wasn’t the first to give you one.”
I was breathless, aroused, shocked at how damp I was when his fingers stroked inside me. “I love you,” I said, knowing that I had always and forever would.
When he thrust inside me, I was forced up on my tiptoes, grabbing onto his shoulders for balance. Shock and pleasure flooded me. “Oh, God.”
“What else?” he demanded, holding himself still inside my body, a hot throbbing tease.
I met his gaze, insensible and overwhelmed, but knowing that what he wanted to hear would be nothing but the truth. I could say and mean it from the very depths of my soul. “Yes. Give me a ring and I’ll forget him forever.”
He made a sound in the back of his throat and then he moved, pounding into me, squeezing my leg up onto his hip to give him a better angle to push in deep. “You trust me.”
It wasn’t a question. But he was right. I did trust him. It was just when there was so much to lose, I was terrified that I would. I nodded, feeling frantic, emotions and arousal squeezing me, holding me tense and desperate. “Yes. I trust you.”
Heath pressed his forehead against mine, our breath intermingling in hot urgent pants as he took me hard. I was shocked that I had an orgasm. There was so much friction, so much raw thrusting, that I didn’t think I could without the stimulation to my clit, but I had an internal orgasm. One that came from deep inside me and burst onto his c**k with a velocity that had me biting the shoulder of his shirt so I wouldn’t scream out and give us away.