Part 28
He’d seen her from afar. Long, he thought. Long hair, long legs, long body. She was hot. He’d walked over to her not knowing what to expect. He knew her type. Too beautiful for their own good. Expecting everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. The type he usually went out of his way to avoid.
And yet he found himself walking over to her, his feet moving across the dance floor as if they had a mind of their own. Now here she was, dark eyes looking up into his as they danced closely in the centre of the club.
”What’s your name?” he asked over the music.
An expression of apprehension came over her face but disappeared so quickly that he wasn’t sure if he’d actually seen it. And maybe he hadn’t. He hadn’t given her any reason to be nervous around him.
“What’s yours?” she asked instead of answering him.
He raised an eyebrow, not really believing that she didn’t know who he was but he answered her anyway. “JC,” he said.
She nodded absently and looked distractedly around the club.
He looked at her and wondered what she was thinking. Whoever she was. She still hadn’t given him her name. “So what was your name?”
She looked down at the floor staring at their legs for a few seconds before she looked back at him. ”I have to go.” She took one step back, swivelled around and started to walk away.
“Hey, wait,” JC said in panic. She couldn’t just leave.
He reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait.”
…
“Wait.”
Alex turned around and looked into JC’s eyes again. Oh God this was horrible. It had taken her less than a minute to realize that dancing with JC was a mistake.
When his beautiful lips had opened and he’d asked her what her name was, she hadn’t known whether to be strong and tell him the truth or hightail it out of there. She’d chosen the latter. What could she say? She was a coward.
Part of her wished he had figured it out on his own and taken the option of telling him out of her hands. But he hadn’t. There hadn’t even been a glimmer of recollection in his eyes when he’d come up to her.
“Please. Give me a chance,” he said to her.
She let him lead her back to the dance floor. Her stomach was clenched with
overwhelming guilt. Here he was begging her to hang out with him, when she
should have been the one begging him for forgiveness.
She barely heard the DJ announcing that he was slowing the music down and only realized that the tempo had changed when JC slipped his arms around her waist and eased her closer to him.
She inhaled and sighed. His scent was so familiar to her and so comforting. Memories of him flooded her brain. She had tried not to think about him at all these last few months. It had been too dangerous, bringing up memories of someone that she thought she’d never see again. But now they were surrounding her, overwhelming her, mocking her because they were lies. All of them tainted by her one little lie.
Suddenly his lips brushed against her hair and she stilled. What was he doing? What was she doing? She was playing him for a fool again. She had to tell him. She had no choice.
What if he ends up hating you forever, a voice in her head asked her. Are you willing to risk that?
No.
She wasn’t.
He was pressing her even closer to him now, his thumbs making light circles against her back. His breath a whisper against her hair.
She pulled back a little and looked up into his face. “JC…”
He lifted his hand from her waist and drew a finger down her nose and then across her lips as if memorizing her face. “Shh,” he whispered, his mouth barely an inch away from hers. And then his lips closed the gap between them. His mouth touched hers. Softly. Sweetly. Sadly.
Sadly? The thought echoed through her mind before dispersing like the rest of her thoughts.
His hands slid under her hair and cupped the back of her head. Her hands flattened against his chest as her lips opened up to his. Their mouths fitted perfectly together. And she knew that she wouldn’t be able to walk away from him after getting this second taste of how things could be between them.
He let go of her suddenly and she hoped that the disappointment she felt didn’t show on her face when his lips left hers.
“What’s your name?” he whispered.
Panic hit her. She didn’t know what to do. Lie and hope that he never found out who she was or tell the truth and risk his anger and resentment?
He was watching her with serious eyes and she knew that there was only one thing she could do if she didn’t want him to go.
“Jessica,” she said finally.
His expression remained serious. “Nice to meet you, Jessica. Come and meet the guys.”
Alex’s guilt doubled and suddenly she wished that she hadn’t lied again.
JC had gotten a hold of her hand and he drew her away from the crowded dance floor to the VIP area. Dread was coursing through her at this point. JC might not have recognized her but who said the other guys wouldn’t?
And why did he want her to meet the guys anyway? She knew how the guys worked. She knew that they hooked up with random girls at clubs but they never went out of their way to introduce them to the other guys. That would mean that the girl was sticking around. Which she never was. Did that mean that JC was interested in her as more than a random hook-up?
She saw Joey first. He eyed her appreciatively before saying something to Lance who didn’t even spare her a glance. Justin wasn’t there. He was probably still on the dance floor with Becca.
“Guys this is Jessica. Jessica, Lance and Joey,” JC said before sliding in one of the empty chairs around the table. He looked at her and nodded to a seat beside him. She sat down uneasily as she gave Lance and Joey an awkward smile.
Chris walked up to them, a bottle of beer in his hand. He stopped suddenly when he saw her. His eyes widened and Alex knew without any doubt that he had recognized her. How? She wasn’t sure. No one else had. JC hadn’t, so how had he?
“Jesus. You look different,” Chris said, dropping heavily into a seat beside Lance.
Alex went into instant damage control. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Jessica.”
Chris looked confused and glanced over at JC. Alex looked over at JC as well and was surprised to discover that he was staring at her, an indiscernible look on his face. He continued to watch her and an uneasy feeling started to build up inside her.
He glanced at Chris. “That’s right, Chris. This is … Jessica,” he drawled out the name.
Her heart, which when they’d first gone over had been beating slightly faster that normal, was now beating with a ferocious intent as if it planned to burst out of her chest and make a run for it.
“Jessica, you look familiar.” JC asked her, his face still blank. “Are you an actress?”
“No,” she said. She was surprised she’d managed to get that out considering that her heart was now lodged in her throat and making it hard for her to breathe.
He eyed her dispassionately. “Really? Hmm. I’ve seen you perform somewhere though.” His eyes lowered for a few seconds as if he was in deep thought and then he looked up at her and she could see the ice in his eyes. “I’ve got it. Kinnington. Last spring. Although you’ve changed since the last time I saw you." He leaned closer to her and she cringed when she saw the look in his eyes. His hand reached out and his fingers brushed against her soft lips before they slid down her face, to her neck and then lower to her breasts where they slid to the hollow of her cleavage. “You didn’t have these for instance.”
She gasped and slapped him hard. She jumped up from her chair in shock at what she had just done. But she was furious. How could he treat her this way? She turned to the three guys and Joey and Lance were watching the scene with expressions of shock and bewilderment on their faces. Chris was looking at JC in disbelief.
“JC, what the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Joey blurted out.
“Me?” JC asked as he too got up from his seat casually and Alex stared at the red imprint of her hand against his cheek in mortification. “Nothing. For the first time in six months, nothing’s wrong.” He faced Alex who was still standing there watching him, her legs too frozen to move. “I wasted countless nights worrying about you. When you disappeared, I thought I was going to go insane agonizing over what could have happened to you.” He shook his head. “You fucked me up, you know that? I didn’t know who I was anymore!”
Tears started to build in Alex’s eyes. JC was furious but even worse, he was hurt. His mouth was clenched in anger but his eyes betrayed him. They were opaque with pain.
She reached out to touch him and he flinched. “Don’t.
Don’t try the girl shit on me. I’m not used to it remember?”
”JC please,” her voice was trembling, “let me explain.”
”I don’t want your explanations. You lied to me, Alex. And then when I gave you
the chance to come clean tonight, you lied to me again. Or maybe you didn’t.
Maybe you’re name isn’t even Alex.”
The tears were rolling down her cheeks now. “It is. Alexandria.”
JC opened his mouth to say something else when Chris stopped him. “Enough, man. You’re out of line.”
JC glowered at Chris but then shrugged. “This is over anyway.”
And it was over, Alex thought as she watched JC walk out of the VIP area, across the dance floor and out of the club. What had she been saying about one dance and being out of his life forever?
The joke was on her.