Once in a Lifetime (2 page)

“You know him?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, he’s best friends with our men. We’ve got no choice but to know who he is. Don’t worry. He’s harmless. He’s never tried a thing with us,” Lilly said.

“Don’t worry about him, Emily.” Janet nudged her shoulder, and they walked toward the table.

The only seat available was beside Guy. Placing her drink on the table she climbed into her seat aware of his gaze on her. She felt branded by his look alone.

Keeping her gaze on everyone else she watched the men pull the women closer.

“So, Emily, it’s time to introduce you to my fuck-head of a friend, Guy. Guy, this is my woman’s friend, so keep your hands to yourself. This is Emily.”

She turned to the side and smiled at him.

He went to touch her hand, and she pulled away.

“I don’t think so. Have you been to the bathroom since your moment outside?” she asked, taking a sip of her drink.

“Ah, the prude of the group. I should have known.”

His words pissed her off. She was no fucking prude, but she wasn’t risking any diseases he could be passing off onto her.

“I’m not a prude. I’m just not willing to risk my health to greet you.” She lifted her hand and patted him on the back. “Nice to meet you.”

Guy burst out laughing. “Wow, this woman is priceless.” His arm went around her shoulders.

She liked his laugh. The sound did something to her pussy. Emily felt the heat flood her core. Crossing her legs she did her best to ignore the pulse that had started since seeing him getting off in the back of the bar.

What the hell was wrong with her?

This guy was a serious womanizer. She was never, ever going to allow herself to fall for that type of man again.

Sipping at her drink she listened to the conversation around her. Every now and then a couple of women wrapped their arms around Guy’s shoulders, whispering in his ear. Emily was surprised when he pushed them away.

“I’m bored and need to dance,” Dorothy said, pulling Wayne with her. She watched all of her friends go up onto the dance floor, pleased when Guy didn’t ask her.

Turning around in her seat she watched the happy couples on the dance floor. Her friends looked really happy, and it was nice for her to see them happy. For too long her time had been consumed by Nathan. The cheating prick had taken her away from her friends. She should have seen it before it happened.

“Hey,” a man said, approaching the table. Glancing over her shoulder she saw a big beefy looking man glaring at Guy. Rolling her eyes, she returned her gaze to her friends.

“What do you want, man?” Guy asked.

She couldn’t help listening in. Guy didn’t seem intimidated by the other man.

“What the fuck did you to my girl?”

Emily kept her gaze on the floor.

“What girl is that?” Guy asked.

Why couldn’t he see he was in danger?

“Ah, the blonde, I didn’t know she had a boyfriend. Dude, you should do yourself a real favor and dump her ass.”

Emily winced and couldn’t stop from looking at the scene beside her. The big man’s hands were fisted at his sides.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“She’s the one who came onto me and was sucking my dick. Believe me, your woman is a slut.”

Guy was already standing. Emily didn’t know what to do, sit down or head out the door. A fight was about to start, and she didn’t want to be near that at all. Fights only got ugly.

“I can’t believe you’re with this piece of shit,” the other man said, turning his anger on her.

Holding her hands up in surrender she shook her head. “I’ve nothing to do with him. I’m here with friends, not him.”

Emily watched in horror as the big man raised his fist and clocked Guy across the face. She winced and cried out as Guy crashed into her. In the heat of it, she fell on her ass with him landing between her thighs. How he landed between her thighs was sheer luck alone.

She was surprised how he caught himself before he could hurt her. The anger washed over him. She saw the change in his eyes as he lifted himself up. He helped her to her feet then spun on his heel.

No words were spoken as he lashed out at the other man. She couldn’t think of what else to call him other than “beefy man”. Emily hated violence. She was not a fan of using fists instead of words. Tensing up, she watched as Guy went for the beefy man. There was no stopping him.

Gritting her teeth, she tried with all of her might to look away, but she couldn’t. It was like she was drawn to the scene in front of her like a moth to a flame.

Chapter Two

Whoever this fucker was Guy didn’t really care. The bastard had nearly made him hurt a woman. He wasn’t a small guy, and Emily would have felt the pain if he’d landed on her completely. Ever since she’d walked to the table he’d been conscious of her. He’d been so aware of her that he’d not even clocked the guy about to hit him until it was too late. She was the first woman to ever keep his attention for longer than five minutes. Usually, if a woman wasn’t interested, which was rarely, he moved on to the next one. There were always plenty of fish in the sea.

Hurting a woman was never on his list. He fucked women and told them the way it was going to be, but he never went out of his way to physically hurt them.

Raising his fist he released all of his anger into the hit. He’d never been big on fighting, yet he could defend himself. His father made sure his son wasn’t a pussy.

Landing one to the man’s stomach, he took another hit to the chin. The guy crashed into the table.

“Take it outside,” Tony, the owner of the bar, shouted.

Guy was more than happy to do that. Heading outside he passed the blonde who was causing him the problems. She was laughing and popped some gum as he passed.

“You’re not worth this,” Guy said.

“My man thinks so. He doesn’t like other men hitting on his woman.” Anger was coursing through his veins. The bitch had clearly said he was the one to come onto her when the truth was the exact opposite. If this man wanted to fuck with him then he was more than happy to oblige.

Turning around he saw his friends were rushing out of the bar. Dorothy wrapped her arms around Emily’s shoulders.

“Guy, what’s going on? We leave you alone to dance and you start a fight.” Wayne approached with Dale and Frankie close behind him.

“I’m not starting a fight, but I’m sure as fuck am finishing it. That slut who was all over me, the blonde intent on getting a fuck?” He saw they remembered. “Yeah, it turns out she has a boyfriend, and she’s called him in to defend her cause or some shit. She fucking lied to make herself look like a victim.”

He checked to make sure Emily was okay, not having a clue why. She was nodding at Dorothy and Janet. Lilly was on her phone, obviously calling a cab or something.

“Fuck, Guy. Why can’t you just get a woman and not pick up your fucking strays in bars? I’m tired of this shit,” Dale said, clearly annoyed.

“I didn’t start this shit. He started it, and now I’m going to end this fucker.”

Don’t think about, Emily. You don’t know her, and she’s not important here.

The other man came at him. His girlfriend was cheering him on, begging him to kick Guy’s ass for hitting on her.

Watching his moves, Guy waited for him to strike before hitting out himself. The crowd was stupid. The drunken crowd was getting him angrier by the second. Did they know how fucking dangerous this shit was?

“Your pussy is not worth this, man. Get a new one. She was not thinking about you when she took me around the back of the bar.”

“Fuck you. My Claire is perfect and would never do that to me. You’re a liar. She told me you approached her, offering her money for her time. My woman is no whore.”

Guy pitied the man. Shaking his head, he charged him, fighting with all of his might. He took the shots aimed at him, but when it came down to it, Guy got in the last punch sending the other man to the ground. He waited to see if the other man would get up.

“Tommy, get your ass up,” Claire, the blonde, said. Her voice was raised, shouting across the distance.

The man, now known as Tommy, stayed down. The night was ruined, and as Guy headed toward his friends he saw Emily and her friends climbing into the back of a cab.

“What’s going on?” Guy asked.

“We’re going home,” Dorothy said, answering him first.

Emily looked at him with wide eyes. There was no fear, and as he glanced down her body he saw her arousal. Her nipples were rock hard pressing against the front of her dress. It was warm outside, so there was no way she was cold.

“See you tomorrow,” Dorothy said, talking to Wayne.

He didn’t have eyes for his friends, only the black haired woman staring back at him. What the hell was he supposed to say? He’d never been good at speaking or saying the right shit.

Fuck.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he stared at her without saying a word. Dale and Frankie said goodbyes to their women, and he was left alone looking at her. She climbed in the back without saying a word. Once she was inside the cab, she didn’t even give him a glance, which pissed him off. All women looked back at him, waiting for his attention. What was so different about this woman?

The car pulled away taking all of his unanswered questions with them.

“Well, there go our women,” Dale said, turning on him. “Why did you have to start a fight?”

Dale was their ride for tonight as he was the only one who hadn’t drunk.

“It’s not my fault. The guy came at me, and then I was defending myself. He almost hurt, erm, that girl.” Why couldn’t he say her name? He knew her fucking name, Emily, but the words failed him.

“Emily, her name’s Emily, and I’m sick to fuck of you behaving like a fucking teenager, Guy. When are you going to grow up?” Dale looked angered.

“What the fuck is your problem? Is it because you didn’t get any pussy tonight, is that it?” He felt defensive. His friends had never criticized his lifestyle before.

“Janet is not some fucking pussy to me, you fucking prick. She means something to me. I know all the women mean nothing to you, but to me, Janet is the one.” Dale pointed at Wayne and Frankie. “All of us are settling down, and you’re not seeing it. You’re too busy thinking about your own shit to even see what’s happening all around you. We’re settling down.”

Guy looked at Wayne and Frankie and saw all of his friends felt the same. Guy was the only one in their group still playing the field. At twenty-eight years old he didn’t want to mess around. He liked not having to settle for one pussy and having his pick of all of them.

“I can’t believe the shit you’re saying. I’m not going to change who I am just because you want the same fucking pussy. This is not about you or what you want. I’m not going to change.”

“Whatever.” Dale charged toward the car.

Guy couldn’t help but think about Emily. What was it about her that drew him in?

There was no answer, and instead of trying to find one, he climbed in the back of Dale’s car. The answers to all the questions could wait.

****

“I can’t believe Guy would do that,” Dorothy said, charging ahead into Emily’s two bedroom apartment. She was proud of her apartment as she was buying the place, not renting. Her new job started on the Monday, and she had all weekend to herself to pamper and get ready. The bar she’d been in tonight was the place her new job would start. She knew the owner, Tony, was going to be pissed with her. She hoped he’d know she wasn’t the one responsible for the fight.

“He’s a good time kind of guy. He doesn’t care about who he screws around with. Why wouldn’t you think the worst?” Emily asked, going for the fridge where her bottle of wine was chilling out.

“It’s that reason why it’s so surprising. He doesn’t fight over pussy. The guy who hit him first would have only got that hit in. Guy would have handled it calmly, and then that would be it. Guy’s many things, but a fighter and brute he’s not. I know he’s always straight with the women,” Lilly said.

“You’re defending him?” Emily asked, surprised.

“He’s an ass, but he’s always been nice to me. I’ve not got a problem with him.” Lilly shrugged. “You got to know him first.”

Her friends had been dating Dale, Wayne, and Frankie for the last six months. Nathan being the jealous bastard that he was had kept her away from her friends when he could. The only time she’d been allowed to see her friends were when they visited her.

She couldn’t believe when she looked back over her time with Nathan how he’d manipulated and controlled her life. Watching the news or reading about it in books was completely different from actually living it. Nathan was controlling, but he’d never actually hurt her, not physically. The right woman might like his way of living, but she did not.

“He fell on me after the guy hit him. Guy looked angry about that.” She shrugged and poured out four glasses of wine.

“Yeah, I don’t think Guy was angry about that,” Dorothy said. “I saw the way he was looking at you.”

Handing out the glasses, Emily stared at her friends.

“You’re all crazy. That guy was getting off around the back of the bar while I was talking with my ex. There’s no way that guy likes me. He doesn’t even know me.” Emily brushed off their comments.

“He likes you, and he wants to kiss you and do the nasty with your lush body.” Janet bumped her hip, giggling.

“Guy does not like me. He was glaring at me.”

“So you noticed he was staring at you. Your tits are like a beacon to the male population. They want to see how they bounce while they ride you.” Janet sang the words to her.

Laughing along with her, Emily shook her head. “You’re all terrible. Nothing is ever going to happen between me and Guy.”

“We’ll see,” Dorothy said, taking a seat. “You’ve only been together this night, but give it time. I’m going to have a bet that before the year is out you and Guy will end up in bed together.”

“I’ll put a hundred dollars to that,” Lilly said, slapping notes on the coffee table.

Grabbing the wine bottle from the kitchen counter, Emily topped off all of their glasses. “Not going to happen.”