Mandy’s lips twisted into a devilish smirk. “Good thing too. Since she finally got a chance to move on.” She turned her eyes on Evan and her smile softened. “Babe, could you get me a margarita?”

He leaned over and kissed her again. “Sure thing. I’ll be right back.”

Mandy watched him walk away.

“What the hell did you do to him? You broke Evan.”

“And you broke Lexa!” she fired back.

“Oh yeah, sure. Her indifference and unreturned calls really show me how much she misses me. I’ve spent the last month begging for her to talk to me or message me.”

“You made her feel worse than Trager did,” Mandy said.

“That’s a shit thing to say. Where is she?” I said, bolting out of my seat.

“Why?” she said, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Because I fucking miss her and I came back here because being somewhere without her is killing me. I’m fucking miserable.”

Mandy’s expression thawed and her eyes turned sad. “That’s too bad. I think you’re too late, Holt.” She shook her head and waved to the door. “You should leave. She just walked in.”

My head snapped to the front of the bar, heart racing and mushrooming with warmth. She was here? Lexa was here?

Without thinking, I pushed through the bar toward the door. My thoughts raced and my chest tightened. The first thing I needed to do was apologize. Then I was going to kiss the shit out of her.

And then she was standing in front of me, stunningly beautiful. Her hair was a sexy mess, her eyes were wide, and the brightest blue I’d ever seen.

“Lex, I need you to just listen to me before you walk away—”

“Jameson…” she stammered, face blanching.

“Yeah, baby, it’s me,” I said, feeling like it was the first time I took a deep breath in over a month. We both stood there staring at each other. “God, I missed—”

“Lexa? Is there a problem here?” a deep voice cut in.

My vision shifted a few inches to the right of Lexa and noticed a man standing next to her. Not just next to her, he was practically on top of her, clutching her arm possessively.

“What the fuck?” I asked.

“James. Hi. Wow. Are you visiting? It’s so nice to see you,” she said softly.

She was lying. This wasn’t nice. Whatever this was—wasn’t nice—and it kind of sucked rancid cock.

“Um, Jameson Holt, this is Spencer,” she offered me a tight smile and then looked up at the fucknut standing next to her. Her smile brightened and softened at the edges, making me want to break him. “Spence, this is James.”

“Hey. Wow. Jameson Holt—from Holt Media? Great to meet you,” he said, extending his hand out for a handshake. I didn’t reach out my hand; there was no way I could touch him without squeezing his hand and breaking every bone in it.

Lexa’s eyes darted between Spencer and me quickly. “Well, okay then. It was nice seeing you Holt. We’re supposed to meet Mandy and Evan for dinner soon so we have to find them…So, yeah, nice seeing you.”

She stood in front of me stiffly, waiting for me to say goodbye, and I couldn’t even form words in my mouth. The only bodily functions I could perform at that very moment were rapid blinking and shaking of the head.

Holy shit.

Was that her date? Her boyfriend? Someone she was sleeping with? She couldn’t be sleeping with him, right? A sharp burning sensation slashed deep inside my chest and zigzagged across my stomach. Visions of his tongue thrusting into her mouth and her hands shoved down the front of his pants had me clenching my jaw painfully. She couldn’t have fucked him. There was no way. He looked like a cartoon character. And what kind of name was Spencer?

She couldn’t have moved on.

It’d only been a month.

Black spots dotted my vision as I stood there practically snarling as I thought about him flat on his back while she rode him slowly.

I stepped back as if she’d punched me and almost lost my footing.

How could she have forgotten about us? How could she have not been as miserable as me?

This hurts.

This wasn’t happening.

“Are you okay, Holt?” she whispered with a sad smile. She reached her hand out but yanked it right back and tucked it against her chest instead of touching me. “We…uh…we have to meet…we’re just going to meet Mandy and Evan. It really was nice…to see you again,” she stammered, trying to get away from me.

I couldn’t let that happen.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her walk away again.

Not without letting her know.

“Oh, yeah? That’s great news because they just invited me to join you all for dinner. This should be fun.”

25

Lexa

“I’ve been waiting for THIS ever since I read my first Fairy Tale.” @Kavon #HappyEndings #AndTheDishRanAwayWithTheSpoon

What an arrogant asshole. James actually had the audacity to lead the way to where Mandy and Evan were sitting, waiting for us.

“Thanks so much for the invite Evan, I think I will join you all for dinner,” he said, pulling over a vacant chair and plopping his pompous ass into it. I folded my arms across my chest angrily. This couldn’t be happening.

Mandy choked on her drink and glared at him. “What?” she said, coughing and gasping, “Really?”

James gave her a wink. Ugh, I hoped his eyeballs popped out of their sockets.

She shook her head and raised her drink back up. She nodded her chin approvingly at him. “This is going to be fun.”

Spencer—who as soon as he heard was about to share a meal with the demi-god of Holt Media, acted like a complete schoolgirl in front of him. Spencer just left me standing at the table as he pulled out a seat for himself next to James and sat down, shooting hundreds of questions at him like speeding bullets.

“I read in Publisher’s Spot that Holt Media just bought into Lifestyles Production Company…” Spencer said excitedly. Did no one see how uncomfortable I was? It was like I turned completely invisible.

The only other empty seat was on the other side of James, in the corner.

I huffed loudly, stomped around the table, and collapsed into the chair.

Spencer continued to fire questions at James.

James immediately slid his hand under the table and onto my knee.

I kicked him.

He gripped my knee tighter.

I dropped my hands on his and tried to twist his thumb off.

He chuckled.

Spencer still talked.

Evan and Mandy ignored everyone else and played an intense game of tonsil hockey.

James shifted his hand up over my knee and under the hem of my skirt, digging the pads of his fingertips into my lower thighs.

Was he crazy? A burst of heat erupted along my collarbone. I slid a bit down in the chair to try to shake his hand off me, but to no avail. My mouth instantly dried and my throat felt parched. I grabbed a bottle of water that was on the table, not even asking whose it was, then opened it and gulped.

James’s hand slid further up my thigh and began softly massaging my skin. I squeaked out a gasp—again, nobody seemed to notice.

His fingers crept up higher. They had to be feeling the heat between my legs. Any higher and that stupid, cocky man would find out how wet he was making me. I leaned my elbows on the table and hung my head in my hands, grasping hard at the roots of my hair. The urge to spread my legs wide and feel him touch me again was unbearable. On the few dates Spencer and I had, we hadn’t gotten physical yet. Honestly, I just wasn’t feeling that way about him. He was far from being anything like James. I guess that was the reason I had agreed to go out to dinner with him. But right then, sitting so close to James with his hand between my thighs under the table, I found myself so totally turned on I could have gotten off right in front of everyone.