Page 12 of Dirty Like Zane
We all made our way into the bar, working our way through the crowd to a section near the dance floor where most of our group was hanging out and a bunch of our security guys were making a nice solid perimeter. I was one of the last to arrive, and when I did, there was an empty seat waiting for me, right next to Seth and across the table from Maggie—with a big bottle of Perrier, a glass of cranberry juice and a smaller glass filled with limewedges.
No one but Maggie would order this shit forme.
As I sat down, I looked hard at her. She was so fucking pretty. Her dark hair was smoothed straight down around her face. She was wearing a little makeup, but she didn’t need it. Maggie had flawless honey-toned skin and striking features, the kind that stopped a guy in his tracks. Round cheekbones and sweet little chin, full, sculpted lips and those pretty gray eyes. Filipino, English,German.
Allbeautiful.
The kind of girl who just got more beautiful the more you looked at her. I’d looked a lot, and Maggie was fucking gorgeous to me. She looked hot as fuck tonight in her sexy little black dress and lime-green suede jacket. And I knew she could feel me staring ather.
I poured some Perrier into my cranberry juice and sat back. Everyone else had beer, and they were firing more drink orders at the waitresses who were circling our tables. Except Seth, who had a takeoutcoffee.
He raised his cup to me and Inodded.
Seth was always drinking coffee. I wasn’t much of a coffee guy myself, and I didn’t much like Coke or other pop. Reminded me too much of drinking it with about ten fingers of booze, like I could still taste the remnants of it and smell the whiskey fumes. Definite no-go. So whenever I was in a bar, I stuck with water. Mineral water, sparkling water, fruit-flavored water, I’d tried it all. Any way possible to change up what was otherwise a pretty fucking boring drink. I liked cranberry juice, of all things. Half-water, half-cranberry juice, wedge oflime.
I would’ve drank it more often if all these assholes didn’t call me an old man whenever I did.Granddad cocktail; that’s what they called my drink ofchoice.
I took a sip and stared at Maggie until she finally looked at me. I smirked. She rolled her eyes and looked away, and kept ignoringme.
But fuck it. That wasn’t gonnalast.
I did not believe for one second that Maggie Omura didn’t want me. That she didn’t wantus.
That there wasn’t some part of her that wanted to be mywife.
Even though she’d avoided me backstage at the show tonight. Even if she ignored me all fucking night. She could ignore me all she wanted. At least, she couldtry.
Reality was, I was a hard man toignore.
Especially for MaggieOmura.
I could still feel what went down this morning on her tour bus, when I’d kissed her… how she’d reacted to my touch. The way she’d stopped breathing, stopped moving, and every nerve in my body started firing in response to her desire for me… It was so fucking pungent in the air between us. I could practically smell it.Seeit. Her repressed lust was like a splash of vivid color in my brain. And her taste on my lips? I could practically taste her lust for me right fucking now, just looking at her. And I was not gonna forget any ofit.
Because it told me exactly what I needed toknow.
This wasn’tover.
No way was anything finished between us. No matter how long she denied me, no matter how long she avoided me, no matter how long she lasted before she finally broke and let me fuckher.
This was far fromover.
Which meant I was gonna do every-fucking-thing in my power to make thishappen.
Me andMaggie.
I was gonna break down her wall of stubborn, forgood.
Brick by fuckingbrick.
Of all the things that Maggie might’ve underestimated about me over the years, she’d most definitely underestimated mypatience.
Two fuckingyears.
It’d been almost two years since we’d been married, and I’d waited this long. Twenty-one months, to be exact. And I’d waited six years before that, before I’d even gotten my first taste ofher.
I was thirty years old. Maggie was twenty-six. We were fuckingyoung.
We had time to work this shitout.
