She blinked as though the question caught her off guard. “We’re neighbors. I want everything to be all right between us. I want us to be—”
“Don’t say friends,” he snarled, everything in him seizing tight, wanting to lash out at her—pull her to him so he could let her know just what he thought of that idea . . . and what it was he really wanted to be to her. “That’s not happening. You and I were never going to be friends.”
She stared at him, looking hurt all over again. He took a step toward her. She backed up, stopping when she bumped into a wall of paper towels. “The only thing that was ever going to happen between us was sex.” He propped one hand against a shelf right over her shoulder.
Fire lit her eyes. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah. And that’s not happening now.”
“Oh? Because you decided?” Her face screwed tight with irritation. “Hate to tell you, but that wasn’t ever going to happen because I wasn’t going to let—”
He shut her up by kissing her. Hard. Her mouth parted on a cry and he slid his tongue inside, tasting her, groaning when her tongue thrust out to meet his. He pressed his body into hers, sinking into her shape. He grabbed her hip, pulling her to him, angling her so that he could settle his cock against the soft juncture between her thighs. Her hands went for his shoulders, her fingers curling into him.
He angled his head, deepening the kiss, drinking long and hard from her like a starving man. They pushed against one another, desperate, yearning. He gripped the shelf as though he could use it to leverage them closer.
It wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until they were melding into one. Until he was in her so deep—
Paper towels started to fall around them. He broke away, coming up for air.
She stared at him with wide, glazed eyes, her mouth inching back toward him, after more.
He reached out to stroke her pretty bottom lip, swollen and damp. “You still lying to yourself now?”
She blinked, the glazed look leaving her eyes like clearing smoke. Her hands worked, shoving between them, red splotches breaking out all over her face as she launched him away from her like he was some kind of poison and not the man she had been kissing for all she was worth moments ago.
Her eyes shone wetly, brimming with angry emotion as she sputtered, “Don’t touch—”
“I won’t. Never again.” His voice was hard with finality as he looked at her, standing before him, her face flushed, her lips still mocking him, begging for him to pick right back up where they’d just ended. “Forget I live next door. Forget you even have a neighbor.”
He stood back and looked at her solemnly, letting his words sink in. For her. For him. She appeared a little shell-shocked as she held his gaze. But still mad. Still furious. Angry fire shot from her eyes. Good. Better this than her looking at him like he was something worthwhile. In the back of his mind, he had started to feel almost normal; he’d started to think he could have a normal life. It was a necessary wake-up call. There was no normal for him.
Turning away, he grasped the bar of his cart in a white-knuckled grip and left her standing in the aisle.
Home was still the last place he wanted to be. Bumping into Faith at the store only reaffirmed that.
He stayed only long enough to drop off his groceries. Sticking the cold stuff in the fridge, he exchanged glares with his empty walls before pushing off the counter. “Forget this,” he muttered to himself.
Grabbing his keys, he hopped back in his truck. Without thinking about it, he found himself pulling into the gravel parking lot surrounding Joe’s Cabaret.
For midweek the place was hopping. He stepped inside the smoke-laden space to the raucous cheers of patrons waving money for a pair of dancers dressed like pink bunnies.
He assessed the crowd in one sweep. He spotted Piper weaving through tables. She looked harried even with a smile etched onto her face. Her big doe eyes looked tired with shadows underneath them. He knew Cruz hated that she had to work so hard, but there was little else she could do with no parents around, a brother in prison and a fourteen-year-old sister to raise. With her day job and picking up shifts here at night, she was burning the candle at both ends.
Her face lit up when she spotted him. She waved him toward a vacant table near the back. Naturally, all the tables near the stage were occupied. Fine by him. He wasn’t here to stuff money in G-strings.
He seated himself with his back to the wall, settling in until Piper could get to him.
He was still waiting when the main door opened again and an officer stepped inside, the dark blue of his uniform with its glinting brass bits unmistakable. There was a noticeable shift in the air as everyone became aware of the new arrival. He stepped deeper into the room. The red stage lights cast him in a glow and revealed his face. North released a low, mirthless chuckle.