She grabbed the guy’s wrists, running her hands up his arms, pushing up the sleeves of his raglan shirt to find two full sleeves of tattoos.
She was touching him. Stroking him, practically. And despite her pique, the need was rising up, threatening to choke off her air supply with its heavy weight. Her body was practically vibrating now, she was so worked up.
She barely registered Gali’s squeak of protest as Minh moved her hands to the top of his tee, pulling one side down to reveal more of the tribal design that covered the right side of his neck. “Why would you think that I want to fuck an arts and crafts project?”
Damn. There it was again. She’d said fuck out loud, twice in the last minute. And yet…she couldn’t bring herself to stop. She loved the way the naughty word rolled off her tongue, even as she insulted him. Even then…she’d meant it to sound disdainful, but she feared it had come out as a purring, admiring sort of disdain.
Because she didn’t mean it. She wanted him.
Yes yes yes.
He felt even better than he looked. Tracing those swirling colors aroused her beyond anything she’d ever known, even as her mind tried to convince her that he was wrong for her. He was too…different.
But something was making her crazy. She was right in his face now, standing on her tiptoes to match his height, the smell of beer wafting up from her heated body.
That blue gaze was hot. Hot and hard, like burning ice, and the heat of it made her falter.
Her hands froze, her shocking behavior finally registering. His eyes stayed pinned on her face as he took a slow step backward, her now-useless arms falling away from him to drop heavily at her sides. They stood like that for a moment longer, neither breaking the connection, until one side of his mouth tipped up in an insolent smirk and he turned on his heel, disappearing into the crowd.
Dismissed by the sexy inked hipster.
“Minh,” Gali’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“Oh my God.” She was breathing so fast, it took her a minute to regain her composure, and then she shook her head. “It’s okay, Gali. I deserved…whatever that was. I don’t know what came over me. I can’t believe I—what did I even do? What was that?”
She thought about it again, how his muscles had flexed under her fingers, those eyes had tracked her every move over his warm skin…she almost wished she’d had the courage to say what she really wanted, instead of channeling that into some strange, touchy tirade. Let’s go, she’d wanted to say. Let’s go back to my place, and we can fuck all night. You’re rebellious and strange, and I’m feeling rebellious and strange and I need you so much
But why would she say that? That’s not what she really wanted.
Was it?
She shook her head. No. Just a bad reaction to a bad week.
Minh looked up at the ceiling, an industrial-looking black space peppered with huge floodlights and random cables. A chord sounded in her mind, thick and metallic and laced with something interesting that she’d never thought of before, but she couldn’t grab hold of it long enough to do anything with it.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that angry. Hell. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you half that angry. You looked like you were going to rip his head off.”
Angry? Gali had thought Minh was trying to attack the stranger?
Maybe that’s what it had looked like, from the outside. Part of her was relieved that Gali hadn’t guessed Minh’s real feelings. They were inexplicable. Wrong. She looked back at her friend, trying to put the whole incident out of her mind. “I’m going now. For real this time.”
“I’m coming with you.” Gali set her drink down and linked her arm through Minh’s, but pulled away almost immediately. “You smell like a frat house after a kegger, by the way.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for.”
Minh laughed and let her lead the way out of the club, but she couldn’t help keeping an eye out for the hottie stranger. Part of her wanted to find him, to apologize for overreacting, and another part of her wanted to avoid him out of embarrassment.
But she didn’t see him, and she did her best to chalk the whole thing up to a moment of insanity. After all, in a city as big as San Francisco, it was doubtful she’d ever see him again.
…
“Thanks again for coming with me.” Daria smiled up at Chris as they walked down Alemany, enjoying the August sunshine.
“What good is having a big brother if you can’t use him as an apartment inspector from time to time?” He slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him in a one-armed bear hug.