“Maybe we should just stay away from each other for a while.”
“What? What are you saying?” My mind raced as I reached out for her, and she folded her arms over her chest. “Katie, I would never hurt you. You know that, right? Katie!”
“I know that.” She took a step back, and like the twig that cracked under her foot, so did my heart.
“Then why are you hurting me?”
* *
As I reached the chorus, I opened my eyes, and they landed on Ella’s. My tongue ran over the cut on my lip as we began to play an original song of ours.
To the untrained eye she’s hanging by a thread
But she’s a black widow and she’s spinning a web
Hotter than sin and hell-bent on pain
She’ll eat you alive until nothing remains but…
LOVE will be the death of us all
LOVE until you crumble and fall
LOVE just another reason to cry
Fuck love, fuck you, I don’t want your lie
Begging for mercy and waiting to attack
The knife in your heart slides into your back
Kill or be killed, but you’re dying for her
Sin tasted, life wasted, because there’s no cure for…
LOVE will be the death of us all
LOVE until you crumble and fall
LOVE just another reason to cry
Fuck love, fuck you, I don’t want your lie
We continued the set, singing a few original songs and a couple more covers before the night was over and I could finally get off stage. I needed something to calm my mind, and the blonde who had just grabbed my arm and pressed her chest against mine normally would be the perfect choice. But when I glanced up again to the bar, the smile Ella had worn through the night had faded, and in that fraction of a second, her mask slipped.
“Give me a minute.” I stepped around the woman and made my way through the crowd to the bar.
“Need a drink?” She tucked her hair behind her ear as she filled a mug of beer from the tap, but her mind was elsewhere.
“Double shot of Jack, straight up.”
She smirked and shook her head. “And for your friend?” She glanced over my shoulder, and I looked behind me to see the blonde I had just brushed off before looking back to Ella.
“You can pour yourself one as well, if you think you can handle it.”
Her smile broadened as I blew off the other woman. She poured out our drinks and sat my glass in front of me, raising her own toward her lips. “Challenge accepted. What are we drinking to?”
I grabbed my own glass, spinning it in my fingers as the amber liquid sloshed against the side of the cup. “To dark alleys.” I drank back the shot, letting it burn down my throat without a chaser.
“To dark alleys.” She drank slowly, her eyebrows furrowed like she was in pain, but she didn’t stop as I struggled not to laugh.
“Are you going to hang out for the after party?” I asked as she took my glass and poured again.
“Actually, when my shift ends, I have something I have to do.”
“What’s that?” I asked, and she tilted her head to the side. “A date?”
“You ask a lot of questions about things that aren’t any of your business.” She poured herself a single and drank it down a little quicker than the last, scrunching up her nose at the taste.
“You don’t have to pretend you like whiskey just to prove something to me.”
“I’m not.” She tried her best to hide the disgust from her face.
“You don’t have to pretend you don’t like me.”
She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the bar to get closer. “Is it really that hard for you to believe not everyone wants to fuck you?”
I closed the gap between us, and her gaze dropped to my lips. “No one said anything about fucking, sweetheart.” I cocked my head to the side as embarrassment washed over her, tinting her cheeks a sexy shade of pink.
Swoon
Chapter 9—Ella
Swoon: to faint from extreme emotion
His cockiness was getting under my skin. Watching all the women swoon over him as he sang, I could see why it was so easy for react to him that way. But I had way too much on my mind to fall for bedroom eyes.
“Let me take you home.”
I coughed, shocked at his brazen words. “Excuse me?” He was still shirtless in front of me, and my eyes drifted down over his bare, toned chest.
“So you don’t have to walk in the alley. I want to make sure you make it home safe. Is everything about sex with you, Ella?”
I felt my face heat from misunderstanding him, and I wanted to slap the smirk from his lips. Maybe my mind was in the gutter. I shook my head as I ran a damp rag over the bar.
“Yeah, rumor has it some lunatic beat the hell out of some guy earlier tonight.” I pictured the eviction notice on my door. I had no idea where I was going to go tonight, but I had suffered enough humiliation for one day and was desperate to change the subject.