“Why does he look like he smells something foul?” she asked loudly enough for only me to hear.
“That’s just his face. It hasn’t changed over the years.”
Mina snorted and turned her attention to a customer who wanted a refill and left me to deal with the one approaching the bar. I braced myself, waiting to see what vitriol would spew from his mouth, since experience had proven he could only look at people as if they were beneath him.
“What can I get for you?” I asked, trying to keep my tone professional and not loaded with the contempt I felt.
“A shot of tequila and keep them coming,” he grumbled.
I quickly poured the shot and sat it in front of him, and without even looking at me he downed it in one swift drink and slammed the glass on the counter. “I said keep them coming.”
“Everything okay?” I heard myself asking, then winced because I shouldn’t care. He’d treated me like shit, so why should I care that he looked miserable?
“Nope, Foster, it’s not,” he said with a sigh as he picked up the glass to slam it down again. “I’m out of tequila.”
I poured him another, and he snatched it from my grasp before I had the chance to hand it to him. Some of the liquid sloshed over the side of the shot glass and onto the bar as he jerked it toward his mouth and tossed it down his throat.
“More,” he rasped, slamming the glass beside the other empty one.
“Maybe you should wait a few before you have any more,” I suggested.
“I didn’t ask your opinion. But I’m sure you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Enjoying what?”
I grabbed a large glass and added some ice before filling it with water. I placed it in front Blaine, but he ignored it and gestured toward the empty shot glasses in front of him before looking at me with hazy, pleading eyes.
“Seeing me this way. Does it make you happy to know that my boyfriend of four years just dumped me because he fell in love with his trainer?”
I wasn’t sure which floored me more. The fact that he just admitted all that to me or that he was dating a man. He had slept with almost everyone on the cheerleading squad and half the girls’ soccer and volleyball teams. Through all four years of high school I heard nothing but gossip about how Blaine was seen making out with someone else or hushed whispers about who his newest conquest was. But who was I to ask questions considering who I was currently…exploring with?
“Forget it,” he growled. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Feeling a bit sorry for the guy, even if he was my nemesis, I poured him another shot and set it in front of him. “Here. And regardless of what you might believe, I understand more than you think.”
Blaine tossed back the tequila. “Oh yeah? How so?”
“Well for starters, I’m back here after moving away.”
Blaine scoffed. “Everyone comes home at some point.”
“But not willingly. I had moved away with my ex-fiancée, Jennifer.”
Blaine’s eyes widened a fraction. “Fall on hard times?”
“Nope, she fell on someone else’s dick,” I said bluntly.
“Ouch. Want me to buy you a round?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m not upset about it. She did me a favor. Because if she hadn’t done that, I would still be engaged to her instead of here.”
Blaine snorted. “I know that look. You got over her by getting inside someone else, am I right?”
I wanted to cringe at his assumption but was able to hold it off. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but I wasn’t using Stellan to get over Jennifer. Those feelings had been gone for a while, and I hadn’t been inside him, either. Though the thought of that sent a shiver down my spine.
“Everyone going okay over here?” Mina asked as she sidled up to me.
“Everything’s fine. Just catching up with Blaine. We went to high school together,” I explained.
“Yup. Want me to punch you in that pretty face of yours for old time’s sake?”
I tore my gaze from Mina’s to turn down Blaine’s terrible offer when I was interrupted.
“I don’t think that’d be such a good idea,” a gruff voice said. A gruff, familiar voice.
My body instantly heated at the sound of the voice as I remembered how it sounded as it rasped in my ear. Looking up, I was surprised to see Stellan standing beside Blaine. What was he doing here? It wasn’t the night for his band to have a gig at Clancy’s. And why was he looking at Blaine with such a thunderous expression?
Blaine blinked his eyelids a few times and made an attempt to sit up straighter on the stool. The movement caused his body to sway a bit, but he managed to catch himself on the bar.
“This ought to be good,” Mina said with a snicker.
I shook my head at her but kept my focus on Stellan and Blaine.
“Well,” Blaine slurred, since the tequila was starting to affect him, “helloooooo, tall, tattooed, and tempting. Tell me your name, and I’ll tell you mine.”
“No need, Blaine. I already heard when you offered to punch Foster in the face.”
Blaine snorted and waved him off. “Eh, don’t pay him no mind. Actually, Foster, why don’t you get me another shot and whatever this sex on legs wants.”
My jaw dropped at Blaine’s blatant, drunken flirtation, but also something else happened that was unfamiliar to me. It was the insane amount of jealously that filled my body and nearly caused smoke to come of out my ears. Had I been jealous before when I saw women flirting with him? Yes. But never to this degree. And it had never happened before with anyone else I’d ever dated. Not even with Jennifer. If someone flirted with her while we were out somewhere in pubic, I didn’t bat an eye because I wasn’t bothered. This was different, and way more intense, especially since I’d finally gotten introduced to his taste and touch. And all I wanted to do was break a beer bottle over Blaine’s head.
“Not gonna happen, pal,” Stellan said with a sneer.
“And why not, buddy?”
Stellan laughed harshly. “Well, for starters, there’s no way in hell I can pay Foster no mind.”
Blaine chuckled and pressed his side into the bar to steady himself. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?” he challenged.
“Because he’s who I came here to see. You know why?”
“He makes a good drink?” Blaine guessed.
Stellan shot me a heated gaze before turning back to Blaine and grinning wolfishly. “Because he’s mine.”
Mine.
The way he said the possessive word, full of fire, domination, and promise should’ve had me running scared. We hadn’t talked particulars or about being exclusive. All we’d done was hang out a few times and share some heated kisses and explosive orgasms. But rather than running away, I shot Stellan a heat-filled gaze that rivaled his and bit down on my lip.
Stellan’s eyes dropped to my mouth, and I swear I could feel the rumble of his chest as he growled even though the bar separated us. My pants grew tighter as I remembered how his tongue felt when he rubbed it across my bottom lip, and I was thankful the bar was there to hide my rapidly growing erection.
“Ah, shit man, I didn’t know,” Blaine slurred, reminding us he was still there and ruining the moment Stellan and I were having. “Good for you, Foster. Let me buy you a drink, Tattoo. So I can ap-ap…say I’m sorry for trying to punch your man.”