Chasing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 4) (23 page)

A
lexa gulped half
of her vodka soda as soon as it hit her hand.

“Thirsty?” Adam glared at her.

“Very.”

“Let’s dance.”

He stroked his thumb up the inside of her wrist, making her shiver.

“I can’t now. I’ll save a dance for you later. I promise. The silent auction closed, and we need to add everything up so we can announce it at the end of the night.”

“That must be why Graham is bearing down on us like a Navy destroyer.”

Sure enough, Graham hurried over with a stack of papers. Rather than get caught in an Adam-Graham face off, Alexa stood up.

“I’ll be back in about half an hour. Maybe forty-five minutes.”

Adam’s eyes darkened as Graham approached. “You sure you don’t need any help?”

“No. We know how it’s all organized. It’ll go faster if we handle it.”

She bent over and tipped Adam’s face up with her finger, softly kissing his lips. His mouth opened, and she had just enough time to taste him before Graham arrived.

He glanced sideways at Adam and adjusted a cufflink. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“No problem.” Alexa straightened up. “Be back soon.”

She marched with Graham out of the ballroom and down the hallway to their staging room, abuzz with volunteers from the local juvenile diabetes charity. She grabbed her laptop with the files they needed, including their donation spreadsheet.

“I can’t concentrate in here,” Graham said. “Let’s find another room.”

“There’s the room next door the A/V guys were using for storage, but I don’t think there’s a place to sit.”

In response, Graham stacked two chairs and gestured toward the door with his head. “Lead on.”

Next door, they settled into a free corner, putting their papers and the computer on top of a tall, metal case and sitting on opposite sides. They split the stack of silent auction sheets and began tallying. Graham tapped away, using his cell phone as a calculator. “Poppy looks like she’s having the time of her life.”

Alexa thought of how Poppy owned the room and smiled. “She absolutely is. You should see her circulating. Sarah took her around to all the tables. Her charm is probably responsible for most of the take tonight.”

He chuckled. “Do you know what she asked me?”

“For a check? She’s not afraid to ask for the sale.”

“No. She asked me why you weren’t my girlfriend.”

“I’m surprised Poppy was able to do that with Candace glued to your side.”

“When I agreed to bring her, I didn’t know how…exuberant she would be.”

Graham gave Alexa a chagrined smile. She dropped her pen and glared.

“Agreed? What kind of deal did you make?”

“No deal. It’s just that Walker’s wife wanted to fix us up, and as soon as he heard that I wasn’t with anyone, he pounced. He’s the senior partner at our firm, and even though we’re partners, he’s kind of my boss, in a sense.”

“So, he’s pimping out this girl and you agreed?”

“No. It’s not like that, and I think in this scenario, I’d be the one getting pimped out.”

“Interesting. Well, if the fishnets fit.” Alexa intended to deliver her dig with humor. His face stormed.

“Ahh. I’m a whore.”

Her exasperation came out as a growl. “No. But seriously. There’s always a new woman with you.”

“I’m not dating all the women that you think I am. I know a lot of people. And if I
were
dating different women, isn’t that perfectly normal? I wasn’t aware that your not wanting me meant I was supposed to live like monk.”

She turned her attention to her calculator. “You’re right. It’s none of my business. Candace seems…like a lot of fun.”

Graham peered at her and put down his pen. “That doesn’t sound like a compliment when you say it.”

“Why should you care what I think about your date any more than I care what you think about mine?” Alexa frowned and threw up a hand. “I can’t believe I’m even comparing whatever is going on with you and the flavor of the week to me and Adam.”

“Wow.” Graham smirked.

“What?”

“Can’t you just let it go with, ‘I’m choosing Adam,’ and leave it at that? Why do you need to get bitchy on your way out the door?”

Alexa snorted. “I’m a bitch now. Fantastic.”

“No. You’re
being
bitchy.”

“Then, it’s a good thing we’re not together. I wouldn’t want to annoy you with my bitchiness.”

The urge to needle him attacked out of nowhere, squelching Alexa’s loathing of her own snide remarks.

“I really care for you, you know. I don’t know why I even give you the satisfaction of knowing that. I suppose I’m still trying to convince you that I was sincere.”

Alexa sighed and closed her eyes. His tone and his words chiseled away at her heart, but she couldn’t keep doing this to herself. The waffling back and forth. She’d made her choice. Graham “cared.” Perfect. How
lovely
.

“I get it. Okay? We should both move on.”

“We should. So, leave Candace alone. She’s a nice enough girl.”

Alexa thought about the girl’s “girls” spilling out of her dress and forced herself not to make another rude comment. She should stanch the wellspring of irritation bubbling inside her. She had no right.

Instead of continuing down that path, Alexa focused on sorting the silent auction sheets. They worked in silence, noting the winners and adding up their bid totals.

He looked up after looking at his last slip. “I’ve got just over a hundred sixty-two five. You?”

Alexa punched more digits into her calculator and hit the equal button. “Almost seventy-seven thousand.”

She took Graham’s tally sheet and put the numbers together. “$239,189.”

“That’s a great take. How much did they get in ticket sales?”

“Just under one hundred and eighty-two thousand.” Alexa located the pre-event total and tapped away at her calculator. “181,900. So, a total of $421,089.”

She grinned, and Graham managed to return a smile.

“That’s amazing. I’m thrilled for Toby and Sarah.”

Putting their sniping aside, they discussed how to announce the results to the attendees and who else they needed to add to their thank you list. Graham took notes.

“Who was the top bidder from the auction? We should mention them. Or maybe the top three.”

“Roger and Britta Connery. They bid on the Paris trip. Then, Camilla Strong. She won the yachting trip. Then, oh, Adam. He bid on the golf weekend at Pebble Beach.”

“You hate golf,” Graham reminded her.

“I do. But I love California, and I think there’s also a spa.”

Graham rolled his eyes.

“Now who’s being bitchy.”

“No one. I apologize. I hope it works out with him.”

“Thank you. I think it will.”

“Do you really, Alexa?” Graham slapped his hands on the table. “Forget it. We’ve had this conversation. I don’t want to have it again. Good luck.”

“No.” Alexa lifted her chin in obstinance. “He
loves
me.”

“And you love him?”

“I do,” Alexa shot back, doubling down with a confidence she didn’t feel.

“Truly?”

“I…do. I—” She cut herself off before she said she “cared” for him. The words stuck in her throat.

“You love him, but you melt every time I come near you. I kiss you, and you can’t see straight. That scares you, so you’ve chosen him because he’s safer.”

Graham stood up and turned away from their makeshift desk, scooping up his dinner jacket and shrugging it back over his broad shoulders. His whiskey eyes settled on her.

A tremor at the corner of her eye was the single sign of her quaking rage. Alexa stood and smoothed her dress. She held her shoulders back defiantly and charged around the makeshift table.

“What does that mean—‘safe?’ Because I know where I stand with him? Because he’s a one-woman guy? What you call safe, I call reliable. You make loyalty and commitment sound like a problem.”

“That’s not what I mean. He’s safe for you because he hasn’t made it into your heart. And he won’t.”

Graham closed the small distance between them. His eyes locked with Alexa’s. “He doesn’t make you feel like you’re stepping off the ledge and flying, does he?”

The warmth of his proximity dried her mouth. She could smell him—clean and citrusy. She swallowed, desperate to quell her body’s predictable reaction.

“I want to trust the man I’m with, and you see that as settling. That’s how I know you’re not the guy for me, Graham.”

“Trust is about how you feel. I can’t control that.”

“No. It’s about what you do. Who you are.”

“When have I ever made you feel like I wouldn’t commit to you? I’ve told you that I want to be with you.”

Graham touched the tip of his index finger under Alexa’s chin, and her face heated. The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and she felt like she was falling—not flying—with nothing to hold.

“Am I supposed to be comforted that you’ve taken a temporary leave from sleeping your way through the Hill Country?”

“I don’t know, Alexa. Should Adam feel comforted that you have?”

Her fear whiplashed into anger. “Fuck you, Graham.”

“You’d like to. Wouldn’t you? You should just admit that’s what you want. Let’s go from there.”

“You’re telling me what I want is a guy who has to be brow beaten into monogamy?”

“A guy who’s willing to embrace it if it means I get to be with you.”

“I don’t believe you.” The heat of Alexa’s desire melded with rage.

“You don’t want to believe me because then you might let yourself fall in love for real.”

“My feelings for Adam are real, but I don’t have to convince you of that.”

Alexa peeled herself away on unsteady legs and glanced toward the doorway.

“Of course you don’t. You have to convince yourself. Good luck with that, by the way. How long before your true colors show and
you
bail on
him
? Just because your biological clock may be ticking, watching your cousin have a baby and Melissa get engaged, doesn’t mean you have to rush things with this guy.”

“Nice. You think I’m that much of a simpleton? Well, then, forgive me if I don’t want to waste my waning years of usefulness as a woman on you.”

Alexa pushed past him, down the hall from the work room. The sounds of the party grew louder as she turned through the double doors into the banquet hall. Crowds of people swirled, and the band screamed. Her chest constricted.

Standing out in the sea of humanity, Adam waved and caught Alexa’s eye. She ping-ponged her way to him.

“I need to go outside for a few minutes and get some air.” She plucked her mobile phone out of her purse. She had about twenty minutes before she and Graham announced the auction winners and gave their thank you speeches.

“I’ll come with you.” Adam glanced over her head, and his jaw tightened. “What’s going on with Graham?”

“Nothing.”

“So, he’s stormed out here after you about nothing?”

Alexa’s gaze roamed over her shoulder. Graham had followed her, but then stopped, staring at her and Adam. A faint shake of her adversary’s head, and he disappeared into the crowd.

“We had a disagreement over some of the final details, but we’ve worked it out. Look, I’m a little tired. Let’s step out on the patio and take a minute.”

“Of course.”

Adam grasped her elbow and led her toward the door. She followed silently, glad that the sliding metallic screech of electric guitar made speaking nearly impossible.

The heavy door swung shut behind them, blunting the thump of music inside.

“He upset you.”

“No. He didn’t. I’m fine.”

Adam pulled her to him and kissed her temple. “You should stay away from him.”

“Except for the fundraiser and the building situation, we hardly talk. Now, this is done.”

“Good. I don’t like to see you upset.”

The plush softness of his lips on her forehead calmed Alexa’s nerves.

“I’m not. It’s been a long day.”

“You aren’t going to see him anymore? You shouldn’t.”

“I don’t know, Adam.” Alexa sighed and shrugged. “I’ll see him when I see him. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. I don’t like the way he looks at you. He’s still making a play for you.” Adam slipped his hand under her hair, holding the back of her neck between his thumb and forefinger.

“Not anymore, he won’t.”

“Something
did
happen.”

“No. Not really. I told him before that we were only going to be friends. He understood that way before tonight.” Alexa pulled away from Adam and forced a smile. “I don’t want to talk about Graham. Let’s talk about our upcoming vacation—assuming that you’re taking me as your plus one.”

Adam’s gleaming grin cheered her. “Absolutely. Do you golf?”

“No, but I’m sure I can find something to do.”

Alexa wrapped her arms around Adam and nuzzled her face in his neck.

“I’m sure we both can.”

He squeezed her tight, keeping an iron grip on her waist. Sinking into his warmth dissipated her troublesome mood.
Hold on to him
, she encouraged herself. That’s all she had to do.

T
he minute Candace
reached behind her and unzipped her scarlet dress, Graham wished she would disappear. Maybe in a puff of smoke.

They had stopped at a couple of bars after the benefit before catching a ride home. His chin fell to his chest as he thought about how he’d have to go get his car in the morning. He could practically feel the bourbon and tequila sloshing inside his skull.

He could blame the alcohol for how he ended up sitting on the edge of his bed, watching a woman he wasn’t sure he even liked take her clothes off. Or he could blame the bone-deep bruises on his ego.

Being a sore loser only added to the shame. Sure, he’d lost Alexa to that British control freak, but if that’s what she wanted, he couldn’t help her. She’d see what a mistake she was making, and Graham wouldn’t be there to hold her hand. Her loss.

That petulance led him to the moment where a half-naked woman swaying her hips like a willow in a windstorm left him cold. His body’s disinterest was equal parts humiliating and affirming. Sure, having the deflation of his ego made manifest in his listless cock hurt his pride, but on the other hand, it proved he wasn’t quite the asshole Alexa thought.

After all, bringing Candace home was a mistake. What he wanted was to tangle his hands in the cloud of Alexa’s hair and bury himself in her all night. The booze-soaked thought bobbed in his mind, rousing his nether regions.

She eyed his burgeoning erection and smiled. “Hello, Mr. Happy.”

Graham flinched at the cutesy talk, briefly deciding to send her home, but she stepped over to him and knelt down, slipping her hand inside his boxer briefs to free him. She closed her hand on his cock and stroked upward, swirling her palm around the tip.

His teeth ground together. “You know this is just for tonight, right?”

He wanted to be straight with her. The last thing he needed was her running off and crying on Helena Carmichael’s shoulder.

“Fine by me.” Her hot breath tingled. Graham closed his eyes.

A vision of Alexa’s dress sliding off into a gold pool at her feet materialized in his brain. Dark, peaked nipples. He could imagine tasting one. But he couldn’t and probably never would again. Reality doused the spark of his arousal. In a show of will, he pushed Candace’s open mouth away and rolled to his side to get his dick out of her hand.

“What’s the problem?”

“I can’t do this.”

She sat back on her heels. “Are you worried about the Carmichaels? Don’t be. I’m not going to start planning our wedding and then whine because you broke my heart. I just want to have fun, and you do too. I can tell. You’re a party guy.”

The echoing indictment of him deflated what had been left of his hard-on. Candace reached for him again, and he grabbed her wrist. “Don’t. I’m done.”

“I can see that, whiskey dick.”

“Put your clothes on.”

Her snarky pout sealed the deal. Graham stood up and put his uninspired penis back in his underwear. “Do you need me to call you a taxi? Or order you a car?”

Candace stepped into her dress and pulled it up over her shoulders. “No. All I need is for you to zip me up.”

Graham obliged and walked her out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the entryway. It might be a ten or fifteen minutes before she got a driver at this time of night. He’d have to extend his hospitality a little longer.

“Do you want something to drink?”

“No. I’ll wait outside.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I’m not going to sit in your house awkwardly staring at you. I’ll save you that embarrassment.”

Graham shrugged and opened the door. “Suit yourself.”

Her heels clacked over the threshold of his door, and she stumbled, but righted herself before he had to catch her. A drunk woman tripping through his yard didn’t sound like a good idea.

“You alright?”

“I’m fine. I’ll stand here and wait. The car will be here in,” she paused and tapped on her phone, waiting a bit, “twelve minutes. Close the door.”

Graham welcomed the idea and slammed it shut, waiting until he saw her throw herself into the back of her ride before heading back to bed. Glad to be alone, he conjured up old memories and new fantasies starring Alexa.

That pleasure was something he could do by himself. Using Candace as a blow-up doll wouldn’t make him feel better.

Then, he felt like a fool. He had a warm, willing woman, and he had thrown her out of his house. What had Alexa done to him?