Page 64 of I’d Be Honored

Hayley tried to brush it off as nothing more than a waitress doing her job well, but each time the woman circled back around, Hayley felt a sharp sting in her lungs. It was the same pang she’d felt earlier, when she had walked into Gemma’s kitchen and caught Nina looking at Maddie with a spark in her gaze that Hayley recognized all too well.

Heat rose up in her chest, radiating from the inside out. Hayley couldn’t tell if the spots in her vision were from the club lights or the sudden rush of red-hot rage building behind her eyes.

Maddie was perched atop the back of the booth when the waitress approached again and wrapped an arm around Maddie’s waist, whispering something only Maddie could hear.

Hayley’s jaw tightened as blood began pounding in her ears. The woman’s hand had shifted, settling on Maddie’s thigh as if she were hers to claim. The two laughed, entirely unaware of the jealousy coiling inside her.

In one smooth motion, the woman dipped a finger past the top button of her shit, pulled a piece of paper from her bra, and pressed it into Maddie’s palm. Maddie pocketed it with a smile, and something heavy dropped inside Hayley.

She was going to be sick.

“Why the hell are you just standing there?” Gemma yelled over the music.

“Let’s take a shot,” Hayley shouted back, desperate to feel the burn of anything other than the scene she had just witnessed.

She poured out two shots of tequila, and Gemma tossed one back in solidarity without hesitation.

Caitlin approached, sweat shining across her face from dancing. She wrapped her arms around Gemma from behind. “Hay! Are you seriously going to let someone else swoop in on your girl?”

Hayley grimaced, moving closer so that Gemma and Caitlin could hear her without screaming. “I can’t keep running in and out of her life. It’s not fair to her.”

“Okay? So stop,” Caitlin stated as if it were that obvious and simple.

Could it be?

“It’s either that or you can stand by while Maddie goes home with that waitress tonight.” Gemma shrugged, looking toward Maddie and the woman. “She is pretty.”

Hayley had heard enough. She pushed past the other women, sliding around to the other side of the booth where Maddie now sat atop the backrest alone.

“Cute,” Hayley scoffed, not even trying to disguise the sarcasm in her voice.

Maddie tossed her hair over one shoulder, her gaze following the waitress. “She is, isn’t she?”

“Then why don’t you go home with her? I saw her slip you her number.” Hayley felt the threat in her own words. She was playing a dangerous game and needed to get herself in check before she said something she couldn’t take back.

“Maybe I will,” Maddie countered, crossing her legs. “She does think I’m gorgeous.” She leaned closer to Hayley, dropping to a whisper. “She also mentioned something about running her tongue up the inside of my thigh until—”

“Stop!” Hayley’s voice ripped out of her at a pitch she’d never heard before. “Don’t,” she pleaded.

“Don’t what?” Maddie’s eyebrows pulled together, challenging Hayley with feigned confusion.

Hayley had pushed too far. The thought of Maddie being touched by someone else, even hypothetically, was more than she could handle.

She was suddenly furious. Her entire life, Hayley had gone after exactly what she’d wanted with unstoppable determination, yet when it came to Maddie, she couldn’t seem to make the final move. She needed to change that, now, before she lost Maddie for good.

“Throw away her number.”

Around them, the club pulsed with a deep house track, but Hayley barely heard it. Her world shrank to the space between them, the crowd dissolving until only those turquoise-green eyes remained.

“Why should I?” Maddie shot back.

Hayley stepped closer and gently uncrossed Maddie’s legs. Slowly and deliberately, she knelt on the bench cushion between them. Looking up at Maddie, Hayley slid her palms up Maddie’s bare thighs. She leaned in close, her mouth near Maddie’s ear. “Because I am insanely jealous, and I want to be the only one who gets to take you home.”

Whether her courage came from the alcohol or the possessiveness prickling her skin, Hayley had finally stopped holding back.

“Keep going,” Maddie murmured, a devilish smirk playing across her face.

“I want to be the only one who gets to touch you.” Hayley’s lips ghosted over Maddie’s. “The only one who gets to fuck you, to hear the sounds you make as you come undone.” She felt Maddie’s body tense beneath her fingertips as they slipped under the hem of her dress. “I want to be the only one who knows exactly what you taste like.”