She shook her head and drew her finger slowly from my face. “Behaving has its rewards too.”
Eyebrows perching with curiosity, I didn’t say anything. But what the hell? Was she flirting with me now?
I was so confused, and yet completely entranced.
“Excuse me,” she cooed. “I have some balls to go break now.” The wicked delight in her gaze almost made me need to shift where I sat because my jeans had grown way too tight.
Her shoulders were rigidly proud as she strolled off in the direction her two friends had gone.
I gazed after her until an elbow jabbed me in the side. “Dude. Who was that? She was hot. I didn’t know you were into black chicks.”
Ignoring him, I jumped off the wall and wandered in the direction she had gone, unable to stay away. It took me nearly five minutes to find her in the crush, but that was okay. I needed that long to settle my racing blood enough to concentrate on anything else but what had just happened.
Julianna had flirted with me, and smiled at me, and touched me. What the hell did that mean?
I wasn’t sure but I needed to find out.
When I finally spotted her, she’d rejoined her two friends and was in front of the band, dancing for them with about fifty other people, though dancing was such a lame word for the amazing way she was fucking dirty grinding. One of her girls had spooned up behind Julianna, clutching her hip and gyrating right up against her ass while the other friend spooned against the friend in the middle.
Juli’s arms were above her head, her fingers were snapping and her eyes were closed as she tilted her face up and smiled through the music.
I stopped dead in my tracks and stared openly as she seemed to float off into the music and let it carry her mind away. Wishing I were the chick pressing her lap into Julianna’s ass, I watched her perfect body shimmy and writhe, and one fact became perfectly clear to me.
I didn’t care that she wasn’t my soul mate. I didn’t care how much she’d hurt me and pissed me off. I didn’t even care that it was Brandt she really wanted. I just knew I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to fuck her very, very badly.
COLTON’S CHAPTER | 11
By the time the song ended, I’d found myself a new drink and was sipping from it as I stood on the sidelines to watch Julianna rub and grind against her girlfriends.
The way they skimmed their hands up the other’s thighs and then laughed and leaned into each other as if they might kiss took sensual to a whole new level.
I realized I wasn’t the only one gawking when some guy paused beside me and let out a loud wolf whistle. I tensed, hoping he was watching one of the other two and not Julianna, but damn, she was by far the most gorgeous of the trio. The one in the middle was tall, maybe even taller than me and wore her hair in box braids. And the chick on the opposite side of the sandwich was the shortest. She had a nearly shaved head, the biggest loop earrings I’d ever seen, and was packing some serious curves. They were all beautiful, but Julianna remained my favorite.
There was just something about her style and grace and the way she laughed with her friends when she busted a bold move that kept my attention glued to her. As the song ended, I prayed she would keep dancing, but the dude who’d been hanging out next to me flashed forward, interrupting them. I stepped after him to pull him off Julianna, but he wrapped his arm around the shortest chick. She screamed out her surprise and jumped, whirling toward him as if to wallop him, but when she saw his face she screamed again, in excitement this time, before she leaped up and gave him a full body hug, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him full on the mouth.
I eased back and glanced around, hoping no one had caught me starting to act on the instinctive need to keep him away from Julianna. It was a stupid instinct, and I didn’t like that I’d been following it.
Rubbing the back of my neck in humiliation, I started to turn away. Except another dude popped forward and caught hold of the tall friend. Seeing Juli’s two friends greet their boyfriends, I paused, curious if Julianna’s significant other was going to appear and surprise her too. But she only smiled tightly at the two couples and took a tiny step away from them. I knew then no one was coming for her. She looked too uncomfortable, too much like the fifth wheel, too much like the very reason why I’d declined to go to supper with Caroline and her family earlier. She didn’t feel as if she fit in.
Hating that she felt left out, I moved toward her without thinking. She didn’t see me coming; she was too busy watching her friends and their boyfriends talk animatedly amid the four of them.
So I leaned in and said, “You told me you didn’t dance.”
She gasped and spun toward me.
Pressing her hand to her chest, she sucked in more air, her chest heaving with surprise. After taking a moment to collect herself, she shook her head. “I told you I didn’t want to dance that night.”