Can't Let You Go: A Wheeler Brothers Novel (11 page)

"What about Callie's car?"

"We already took it home."

"So you guys had this planned all along?" I ask both Nash and Bryce.

Nash lets us go when he sees Callie walking toward him. "You really think we'd let you girls go out without us?" He wraps Callie in his arms and kisses her.

"It was supposed to be a girls' night," she says, smiling up at him.

He smiles back. "So you want us to leave?"

"No." She kisses him. "Let's go dance."

Bryce and I turn back to the bar.

The bartender hands me my drink, then nods at Bryce. "And for you?"

"Jack and Coke."

"And add a cherry," I yell.

"What the hell?" Bryce puts his arms around my waist as he turns me toward him. "I don't want a damn cherry. Then it's a girl's drink."

"But I love those cherries."

He smiles. "You always take my drink anyway so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Does it make you mad that I always take your drinks? Like when I drink your pop?"

He laughs a little. "No. Why would I care?"

"I just wondered." I said it because Chad acted like I was committing a crime for just asking if I could take a sip of his beer. Bryce has never acted that way. He'll share his food, his drinks, anything with me.

"Jack and Coke," the bartender says, holding up the glass.

Bryce takes it from him. "Thanks."

I lean over and take a sip of his drink from the tiny straw. "It's good. It needed the cherry."

He's staring at me. "I didn't even taste it yet and you're already drinking it."

I shrug. "Sorry."

"I'm just kidding." He takes a big swig of it, his other arm still around my waist.

He normally doesn't hold me like this, or at all. He usually tries to avoid touching me, or if he does, he pretends it was accidental or couldn't be avoided, like when he was reaching in my kitchen cabinet the other night and I backed into him. Or he acts like it's a friend-only move, like when we snuggled on the couch and watched TV. We've been doing that forever so it's not like either one of us would consider that crossing the limits of our friendship. Other than those types of touches, Bryce keeps his distance from me.

"You want some more?" He holds his glass up to me.

"No, I'm good." He swigs the rest of it.

"You thirsty?"

"Yeah, I think I'll have another. Grab your cherry before I give him the glass."

I fish it out of the bottom and suck it into my mouth, then drop the stem in the glass.

"Jake!" I yell at the bartender, getting up on my toes so I can see him.

He smiles and yells back from the other end of the bar. "What do you need?"

"Another Jack and Coke. With a cherry!"

"Got it."

"You know that guy?" Bryce asks.

"I met him before you got here. His name is Jake and he was hitting on Ivy. But don't tell Jake that. You know how jealous he gets."

"Was anyone hitting on
you
?"

I quickly shake my head, then sip my drink.

Bryce takes it from me. "Who was it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I can tell when you're lying. So who was it?"

"Just some guy. He smiled at me. That's it." I reach for my drink but Bryce holds it up high. "Give me my drink."

"Just tell me who it was."

"So you can go yell at him for smiling at me? No. You're not doing that. He didn't do anything wrong by smiling at me. He wasn't try to steal me away from my boyfriend. In case you forgot, I'm single." The words flow freely from my mouth as the alcohol starts to affect me. The drinks are strong and I'm not very big so it doesn't take much for me to feel it.

Bryce downs my drink and reaches over to set the glass down as he takes his drink from the bartender.

"Another whiskey sour," I yell at Jake. He nods and goes to get it.

"You need to slow down on the drinks," Bryce says.

"I could say the same thing about you."

"I'm twice your size. I can handle it. You can't. You get drunk after two drinks."

"Maybe I
want
to be drunk tonight." I grab his drink and take a sip. "I don't know what you're worried about. You're here to keep the guys away from me so it's not like it matters if I'm drunk. No one's going to try to take advantage of me."

"Whiskey sour," the bartender yells.

"Thanks!" I reach over and take the drink.

Bryce's arm is still around my waist, holding me right in front of him. He tugs me closer as some guy brushes against me to get to the bar. I gulp half the drink down. I'm totally relaxed, not quite drunk, but getting there.

"You freaking drive me crazy," Bryce says, taking a big swig of his Jack and Coke. Bryce doesn't drink very often. In fact, this is the most I've seen him drink in months.

"What'd I do now?" I ask, taking the cherry from my drink and popping it in my mouth. I love how the liquor soaks into the cherry so when you bite into it, it bursts with flavor.

"You never listen." He finishes his drink and sets the glass down on the bar. "You always do the damn opposite of what I say."

"Because I don't like you bossing me around."

"I don't boss you around. I look out for you. I try to keep you safe."

"Which I don't need you to do." I look him in the eye. "Why did you come here tonight? Was it just to keep me away from other guys?"

He glances to the side. "Why do you keep asking that? What the hell difference does it make?"

"I want to know. So answer me."

His eyes return to mine. "I just wanted to see you."

"You see me all the time." The alcohol is hitting me hard now and I feel my brain giving up control as the words spill out of my mouth. "Just admit it. You came here because you didn't want me with some other guy. Which makes no sense because I'm not yours. We're friends. That's it. Because that's how you want it to be. So stop trying to keep me away from other guys."

His eyes are dark and heated as he stares at me, inhaling deep breaths through his nose. He takes my drink, downs it, and slams the glass on the bar. Then he takes my hand and drags me through the crowded club.

"Bryce. What are you doing?"

He keeps walking, going fast. I hurry to keep up in my high heels. We reach a hallway that leads to an open staircase that goes to the upper level of the club. He goes down the hall, stopping behind the staircase. He backs me into the wall, his arms on either side of me, and sets his eyes on mine, breathing hard. "I can't fucking take this anymore."

"Take what?"

He leans down and presses his lips hard against mine, the intensity and urgency of the kiss proving just how much he's been holding back all these years, wanting to kiss me just as much as I've wanted to kiss him. I grab his shirt, keeping him close, not wanting this to end. He eases up slightly, waiting for my lips to part. When they do, he slips his tongue in my mouth and his hand wraps around the back of my head, pulling me closer. I sink back against the wall, loving every second of this, wanting more. I grasp the back of his neck, and he steps forward, pinning me to the wall. I arch my body into his, feeling his hard length against my thigh. It turns me on even more and I grind my hips into him.

"Fuck," he groans, his mouth breaking from mine as he catches his breath. His head is dropped and he's watching my hips move.

"Don't stop," I whisper, gripping his hair, tugging it so that he'll lift his head.

He looks at me for just a moment, then kisses me again, cupping the back of my neck as his other hand grips my ass, then slides down to the hem of my dress. His fingers graze the back of my thigh, and sparks of pleasure explode between my legs, throughout my core. He lifts the back of my dress up just enough to sneak his hand up my inner thigh, and just as I feel his fingers along the seam of my panties, some girls come clomping down the stairs, their heels making a loud dinging sound on the metal.

Bryce quickly takes his hand away and tugs the back of my dress down. His lips break from mine as the girls disappear into the bar. He's breathing fast and heavy over my mouth, his hands bracing the wall on either side of me.

"Why did you kiss me?" I ask.

He closes his eyes, then opens them again. "Don't make me explain."

"You're not doing this to me again. We're not repeating graduation night. You owe me an explanation this time. So tell me why you did it."

He shakes his head. "I don't know."

I push on his chest. "That's a lie. Now look at me and tell me the truth."

His eyes move up to mine. "We're more than friends, okay? That's why I did it. I like you as more than a friend." He drops his head and mutters, "Fuck."

"I already know that," I tell him. "I knew since the last time you kissed me. So why have you been denying it the past four years?"

He sighs. "Do we have to do this right now? Right here? Tonight?"

I've had too much to drink to fully comprehend whatever he'd tell me. It'd probably be better to wait, so I say, "No, but we're talking about it later." I glance to the side and see girls rushing to the dance floor as a new song blasts through the speakers. I turn back to Bryce. "You want to dance?"

"I don't dance." He slides his warm hand up and down my arm.

"Then what do you want to do?"

He puts his lips to mine and whispers, "More of this."

He holds the sides of my face and kisses me, his tongue going deep into my mouth. I melt back against the wall and we remain there, kissing, for I don't even know how long.

When we finally break apart, we make our way back to the bar, Bryce's arm around my waist, holding me close to him, like he's making sure everyone around us knows I'm his. But am I?

I don't know what's going on here. Are Bryce and I a couple now? Or was this just a one-time thing? After tonight, will he go back to just being my friend?

CHAPTER TEN

Bryce

I broke my own damn rule. After we kissed on graduation night, I told myself I'd never kiss Jen again, and then I did. And not just once, but over and over again, for a long damn time. Maybe a half hour. I don't even know. And I touched her. My hands were all over her body, even under her dress. What the hell was I thinking?

I wasn't. I wasn't thinking, at least not with my head. I'm still not. From the moment she showed up at the house looking hotter than hell in that tight red dress and those sexy high heels, I lost all control of my brain. That's why I made such a scene at dinner. My emotions took over. I couldn't stand the thought of other guys putting their hands all over her. The girl I love. My best friend. The girl I don't want anyone else to have.

I'm not playing fair and I know it. Jen should be free to be with whoever she wants, except that twice tonight, she told me she wants to be with
me
. She's never actually said that before, and although tonight she didn't actually say those words, she made it pretty damn clear.

Now what do I do? I fucked this all up. And the thing is? I don't fucking care, at least not at this moment. Because at this moment, my mind is too relaxed to care. And my body is soaking up how good it feels to have Jen wrapped in my arms, her back molded into my chest, her ass rubbing against my crotch as she moves to the music. It's pure fucking heaven. I bury my nose in her soft hair, breathing in the flowery scent, and kiss her. She tilts her head back at me and smiles.

"How you feeling?" she asks.

"Fucking awesome. You?"

"Same." She turns around in my arms, pressing her hands against my chest and smiles. "Kiss me."

I do as she asks, and we keep it up until some girl bumps into us.

"Sorry," she says, then yells her drink order at the bartender.

"We should probably move," Jen says.

"There's no place to go. The place is even more packed than when we got here."

"We should at least move away from the bar. But first I think I'll get another drink."

I order us both one and we find a place off to the side to stand. I've had a lot of drinks tonight, way more than I normally do, and I usually drink beer, not hard liquor. But the liquor is keeping my mind relaxed and that's what I need right now. Tomorrow, I'll be beating myself up for what I did tonight with Jen, trying to figure out where we go from here, but right now, I don't want to worry about it. I just want to enjoy this for a few more hours, because once my brain is back to functioning, I won't let myself do this again.

We hang out by the bar, drinking and talking and watching people dance. An hour later, Ivy steals Jen from me and the two of them go to the dance floor. I haven't seen Callie and Nash. Maybe they went up to the second level.

Jake makes his way over to me, a beer in his hand. "I don't know how they dance to this shit."

Techno music is pumping through the speakers, vibrating the floors.

"Yeah, I know. I hate it."

He takes his phone out. "Shit. Just missed a call. It's this guy I'm trying to hire. One of the best framers in the city. I gotta call him back."

"Go ahead."

He heads to the exit and goes outside to make the call.

I feel a hand snake up my arm, then notice a set of black nails crossing over my chest. I look to my side and see a girl with a tight black dress standing next to me. She smiles. "Hi. I'm Jackie."

"Hey." I move away from her and check the dance floor for Jen.

"Bryce Wheeler, right?"

"Yeah." I look back at her. Her eyes are coated in so much black eyeliner that she reminds me of those girls who dress up as cats on Halloween. "Do I know you?"

"No. But you could
get
to know me later tonight." She runs her tongue over her lips. "What do you say?"

"I'm not interested." I swig my drink.

"I bet I could
make
you interested." She comes in front of me and rubs her hand down the front of my pants.

I yank her hand away. "What the hell?"

Her eyes go to my neck. "I love your tats." She gets close to me again and I move to the side to get some distance.

"I said I'm not interested."

My gaze returns to the dance floor. Jen spots me and waves, then notices Jackie, who has latched onto my arm again. I try to push Jackie away but she's like a damn leech. She won't let go. And I don't want to shove her away and end up hurting her.