Will she be happy to see me? Shocked, just like I am to see her? I can’t stop running back through all my old insecurities as to why she cut me out of her life without a second thought. I was worried about her, and then I was angry and hurt. She caused me to put up a lot of walls that weren’t there before her.
“Wes!” Quin shouts and waves in my direction. I smile as I watch Zo? freeze with her back to me, her shoulders tense. Her hair is half up in a bun, and the rest cascades down her back in a flurry of spirals.
“Hey there, blushing bride,” I say to Quin as I get close enough for her to hear me. I stay behind Zo? but get close enough she can feel me.
“This is my friend Zo?!”
Zo? turns around and looks up at me, an uneasy smile on her full lips as she takes me in. In her heels, she isn’t more than a few inches shorter than me, but her frame is so tiny I can’t help but feel a foot taller. I could easily swing her up and over my shoulder, taking her somewhere private to punish her for cutting me out of her life like she did. The idea sends the blood rushing to my dick, and I quickly shake the vision out of my brain.
“Hey, Zo-Zo,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest and smirking down at her big brown eyes. They’re wide in shock as her eyes graze down my body. Her eyes snag on the tattoos that color my arms. I notice she doesn’t have any that I can see, and there’s a lot of skin on display. Her navy blue dress is a slip of a thing with thin straps on her shoulders. It stops at midthigh, showing off her strong legs that I want wrapped around me.
“Hi,” she breathes.
“Do you guys know each other?” Quin all but shouts over the music, still half-heartedly dancing.
“Barely,” I tell her, letting my eyes leave Zo?’s for a moment to look at Quin. She hesitates before someone else comes up and steals her away. She motions with two fingers from her eyes to mine, letting me know she’s watching me. I laugh and wave as she gets pulled through the crowd of people.
“Barely?” Zo? asks, her face in a mask of smugness, but I know her well enough to know there’s some hurt under there at my brush-off.
“It was an honest answer,” I tell her. “I haven’t spoken to you in, what? Eight years? I’d say I barely know you anymore.”
“Fuck off, Wesley,” she says, using my full name like I’m a kid. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She rolls her eyes and brushes past me, bumping into my arm with a pretty hard push for such a tiny thing. I smile and turn to follow her.
There’s nowhere to go, Little Doe.
CHAPTER TWO
I watch her ass as she walks in front of me. That fabric clings to it perfectly as it moves and, God, I want to reach out and grab it. She isn’t the little girl I knew anymore. She grew up, got curves, and got an attitude.
“Stop following me, Wesley!” she says over her shoulder, flipping me off.
“It’s a small yacht,” I tell her, getting close enough to reach out and touch her. “Where do you want me to go? Especially when there’s no one else I’d rather be talking to.”
She stomps down the stairs to the deck below with surprising agility.
“You move pretty easily in those stripper heels, Zo-Zo,” I call after her as I follow her down. The music isn’t as loud down here, but I still say it loud enough for others to hear. “Something you want to tell me?” I smile as she turns on me, her entire neck and chest lit up with embarrassment. She looks at the people around us who glance in our direction before turning her narrowed gaze back to me.
“When did you become such an ass?” she asks me.
“When some girl broke my heart,” I say in an exaggerated tone, pouting and clasping my heart.
“Sarcasm to cover your actual feelings?” she asks as she walks closer to me. Her scent invades my personal bubble, and I can’t help but inhale it into my lungs. She still has that same floral scent in her hair, and it drives me fucking insane. “How mature of you.”
“Who said it was sarcasm?” I lean close to her, making her crane her head back to look at me. Her eyes glance down to my lips before she catches herself, and I smile. I’m giving myself a tally for that. Wes, one. Zo?, none. “Maybe you did break my heart, Zo?. You disappeared without a word.”
“Like I said, Wes,” she says, closing her eyes and moving a bit further into my space. “Fuck off.” I can feel the heat coming off her body. I can’t stop myself from reaching out and wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, tangling those soft curls in my fingers. My thumb traces the line of her jaw. When she opens her eyes again, they’ve softened a bit.