Hot Pursuit - Denise A. Agnew [8]
She rubbed the back of her neck and took another sip of wine to quell the urge to scream. “I’m a magnet for all the jerks in the military. I’m moving on to quiet, easy-going, staid businessmen.”
A sardonic smile covered his mouth, barely removing the caution in his eyes. “I know a businessman who cheated on his wife five times before she caught him. Nothing staid about that.”
She half-expected him to leave and never see him again, and the thought made her ache. Maybe it was for the better though, if he did leave her be. Okay, so he had the command part down pat, and his slight chastisement had the effect he probably wanted. She smarted a little. This wasn’t supposed to get personal. Oh, well. Just roll with it. He’s military. You aren’t getting involved. You’re talking with an old acquaintance and that’s all it is.
“Why do I get the feeling that you don’t like the military because of this ass-wipe who dumped you for this other woman?” he asked.
She swallowed hard. “He made me so mad.” Her fists clenched. “I really, really thought he believed I’m special.” She sighed, regret filling her. “It’s more complicated than Danny. Before Danny I knew another military guy who was hot and women came on to him constantly. Kind of like that woman who touched your arm right before we said hello.”
He snorted. “Clara? She’s the bar owner’s daughter, and she’s harmless. Flirts with every guy and doesn’t mean it. Even if she did, I’d never take her up on it. So what about this other guy before Danny?”
She nodded. “Women flirted with him right and left. He’d tell me but insisted he never did anything about it. I figured out that he loved the attention and that he was cheating on me. Three times. We dated six months and he was having sex with three other women at the same time. After a year, I decided I’d take a chance on Danny because he sounded so sweet and sincere and during our date we connected. Or at least I felt we did. He said he hadn’t felt like this about a woman before. I felt more secure and ready to take a chance on him.” Anger boiled up and she barely kept it out of her voice. “Then he proved that it was all a lie.”
He covered her fist where it lay on her thigh. “I know the feeling.”
“Hating the military?”
“No. Feeling betrayed.”
Lucy decided she wouldn’t let this one-sided confession continue. “Fess up. What did your ex-girlfriend do to you?”
If Lucy Creed shifted a single inch closer, Vic didn’t think he could restrain himself.
He’d have to kiss her again.
Fuck. Who was he kidding? She’d kissed him. Slipped her warm, sinfully sexy mouth over his and claimed him until he’d almost fired off like a virgin.
Sitting next to Lucy in a secluded booth while Jace Everett’s Bad Things spun out over the jukebox made him crazy. Did he want to do bad things with her?
Hell yeah.
He had a hard time believing that tonight of all nights he’d run into her. Talk about good luck. Or bad, if this all went south. He sensed more to this story than just hating the military because of one jerk. She wasn’t providing the whole story. At the same time, after Shelly’s betrayal, he’d vowed to have nothing to do with women for months. Years. Fuck. A lifetime. Shelly had screwed him seven ways to Sunday, and he’d be paying for it for a few months. Now Lucy had walked in and turned all his resolutions to avoid women into gelatin.
Vic stared at his old high school friend, or enemy if he held grudges. He wondered how more than fifteen years had gone by without him seeing her again. Nah, she couldn’t be his enemy. He wanted her too damn much. Wanted her with an ache that surprised him. His cock didn’t care how amazed he was. Vic’s body had reacted to her the second he turned on the bar stool and saw her marching toward him like an avenging angel.
For a second her black hair, short and spiky, had thrown him off. He’d thought he was imagining things. After all, the young woman he remembered had long black hair, a black so inky it almost glowed with blue highlights. Her lush mouth and small nose were the same. Her pale,