Saving Us (The Billionaire Brothers of NY Duology #1)

10. Gage

CHAPTER 10

Gage

“ I sn’t that the chick from the flower shop?” Chase whispered in my ear as I walked over to the bar. I was trying to ignore the feelings I was experiencing from seeing her again. Here. Only twenty-four hours after having my fingers inside her, my mouth on her. And those feelings surprised me. Though I guess they shouldn’t have. I knew she was a pretty girl—okay, more than pretty. Her day job attire was not something that truly accentuated her assets, however. But, fuck, if she didn’t come alive in the tiny outfit they had her wearing in this place.

And I wasn’t necessarily pleased about it.

Case in point, Chase already noticed her.

“She has a name, ya know,” I responded, and my back was all he was getting. I was still pissed at him for how he treated her at the shop last week. Plus, how does he forget the name of someone he wanted to ask out? I know he apologized to me, but she was owed one as well. At twenty-four years old, I wouldn’t think I’d still have to parent his behavior.

“Well, I wouldn’t need to know her name if she was under me or on top of me, I’d have her screaming my name the whole night.”

Motherfucker. How was I going to let him get away with talking about her like that? His assumption would automatically be that I wanted something with her if I came back at him.

And I didn’t. Right?

However, my hands rolled into fists as the bartender came to take my order.

“What can I get you?” he asked.

“Bourbon on the rocks, please.” My words were curt, but he had no idea why.

“Sure,” he said, “and just so you know, Harper can take your order if you’d rather not make your way to the bar, sir.”

My breath hitched at the mention of her name, more so because I was hoping my brother was no longer standing behind me. When he moved on to make my drink, I slowly turned to my left to find Chase watching me closely. The look on his face immediately made my hands curl at my sides again.

“Harper,” he said, almost to himself. And the curl of his lip as he smirked told me all I wanted to know about his newfound intentions about her. “That’s right. She’s fucking hot. I know you said no business with pleasure, but shit, she might be worth crossing that line for.” His elbow nudged me as he went in for another sip of his drink. “I probably owe her an apology, though, huh? Maybe I should go give that to her now.”

The bartender placed my drink on the bar in front of me. I took my time picking it up, swirling it in the glass. Smiling down at the liquid, I was happy to see this place used highball ice as it clanged against the crystal. Eventually, I turned toward my brother and locked eyes on him. My composure needed to be in place for the rest of this conversation.

“Maybe leave well enough alone, Chase. I restored our relationship with her and their company, one that you threatened to destroy with your immature outburst.”

He chuckled at my reprimand and proceeded to down the bourbon in his glass, slamming it on the bar once done. But I was trying to do whatever I could to keep him away from her. And to not give away that I’d had my fingers in her and my mouth on her a mere twenty-four hours before this.

“Well, isn’t that what big brothers are for, bro?”

The level of cockiness in his voice was troubling. He was drunker than he should be for just arriving.

“Where’s Amanda?” I asked. Scanning the room, I found her sitting at one of the tables talking with our man of the night, Nate Weaver, and his wife Cami. They brought some friends with them, as did we. It was more fun that way in these lounge rooms. “Go take care of your girl, Chase. She came with you tonight.”

He pushed off the bar, stumbled a bit, and started walking away. “Yeah, whatever bro.”

Hopeful he could keep our new staff member entertained for a bit, I remained at the bar with my drink.

Right then, I heard loud shouts from around the corner. There was another lounge slightly visible from where I stood at the bar, and I was able to notice a large group of raucous guys next door, their party just getting started.

And Harper was right in the middle of them.

With a tray in her arms, high above her head, full of bottles and glasses, she was bouncing from guy to guy as they appeared to be…grabbing at her ass?

“She’s okay.”

The voice echoed in my ear between the pulsing and pounding of my heartbeat I also heard in there. My head snapped in the direction of the voice, realizing it was the bartender.

“She is,” he said with confidence as he wiped down an already clean and dry bar between us. “We do this every weekend, and she’s a champ. They won’t even know they’re getting turned down as they are, because, you know, we work for tips.”

He reached his hand out and I stared at it, momentarily numbed by the information he had just provided. But I quickly recovered and offered my hand in return.

“I’m Pete. You seem to know Harper, so I thought I’d introduce myself. Any friend of hers is a friend of mine, she’s one of the good ones.” His smile was completely genuine.

Yeah, I knew Harper. And this guy had me wondering how well he knew her, too. But that really shouldn’t matter to me. She shouldn’t matter to me.

None of this should be bothering me, yet it was.

I’ve sworn off relationships, women in general. And I’d sure as hell learned my lesson on dating people from work.

Yet, here I was, seeing her again, and the damn giddy feeling it gave me inside was pissing me off.

What the fuck was going on with me?

“Nice to meet you, Pete. And, um, well, Harper and I know each other through our, uh, day jobs, I guess you would say.”

He nodded, obviously understanding what I meant. My eyes traveled back to the other room, noticing that Harper was no longer amidst the men but along the side of the room, clearing some tables of empties. Regardless of how adept she was at handling herself in such situations, it didn’t make it any easier to see her having to deal with it. It was like she was in a room full of Chases.

And I didn’t like how it was making me feel.

I drained the drink in my hand, and as I placed the glass down, a new one landed in front of me. Pete’s slight smile and nod as he backed away from the bar let me know I’d probably be regretting this come morning. But as I brought the fresh drink to my lips, I didn’t care too much about tomorrow morning. I needed to get through the night.

“I see you’ve made friends with Pete.”

Her voice.

My dick was throbbing just at the thought of looking at her, knowing what I would see.

Those perfect tits pushed together by that ridiculously low-cut thing barely decent enough to be called a top. And it was basically see-through, most of it black lace other than the front covering up the important parts. The parts I was longing to have my mouth on again.

And then there were the shorts.

Though more of her ass was showing out of them than not. Her perfectly tight, round ass that I envisioned pushed up against a wall with me in front of her.

And of course, I liked seeing it.

But so did every other fucking guy in here.

She most definitely did not resemble someone wholesome anymore, and it was messing with me.

Taking a deep breath, I turned toward her and smiled. “I did, he’s the one to have as a friend in a place like this, right?” I tilted my glass her way before taking a sip.

“Absolutely. And let me know if I can get you or your guests anything else. Any food, for example. Would you like to see a menu?” she offered, as she reached across the bar.

Rather, over the bar.

With her ass up in the air and her heels lifting from the ground.

My gut reaction—well, I had two of them, really.

One: I wanted to pull her off the bar, cover her with my jacket, and never let another man look at her the way I knew they all were at that exact moment.

I wanted to protect her.

Hide her away forever.

Make her mine and never let anyone touch her ever again.

What the fuck was wrong with me? That was the exact opposite of what I knew was right.

And two: I wanted to slam my body up against her ass as she reached across the wooden slab. I would tell her to hold on to the other side as I spread her legs open with my knee. Then I would slide that small slip of fabric between her legs to the side, knowing full well there was nothing underneath, and expose her. She would shake with excitement, and she would be wet, really wet. My finger would start by teasing her soft skin, but then it would slip right in, and that innocent voice, she’d moan. Loud. I would rub my dick, still in my pants, against her pussy, and she would want to pull away from the bar. But I’d force her to stay exactly where she was. And then…

“Gage?”

Fuck.

“Did you hear me? Here are some menus, do you want me to ask your guests, or would you like to take care of that?”

Why was she acting as if yesterday didn’t happen? As if I didn’t have my fingers inside her pussy just last night?

“I’ll take care of it.” My words were gruff, probably more than they needed to be, as I took the menus from her hand and stalked to the other side of the room. I knew what we did was a mistake, and this was the proof I needed. She wanted it to be a one-time thing, and frankly, I should, too. I had to stop my habit of turning everything into a relationship.

I wasn’t doing relationships. Right?

The group was already lively, and I guess I had Chase to thank for that. At least he was good for something. I threw the menus on the table toward him and he understood the assignment. Moving to the club side of the room, I took a seat on one of the stools along the half wall looking over the dance floor. The club was packed with people grinding up against one another, making it hard to tell who was with whom. I was sure those things changed by the end of the night, anyway.

“Looks fun down there.” A voice next to me caught my attention.

Looking to my left, I found a pretty blonde standing against the velvet rope railing. She was looking off into the distance, admiring the party atmosphere down below, giving me the opportunity to admire her.

The music was loud up here, but somehow their sound engineers configured the speakers below in a way that still allowed us to be able to hold a conversation. Even still, I think I only grunted as my reply.

“Not a fan of dancing?” she asked, turning her body toward me, in an attempt, I knew, to get my attention.

And it worked, she was worth looking at. Her deep-dipping black minidress, covered in some kind of sparkles, left little to the imagination. And if she bent over, we would all know whether or not she had panties on.

“I’m Chelsea, by the way.” And she used her voice well. It was seductive and sweet at the same time.

“Nice to meet you, Chelsea, and no, dancing is not my thing,” I answered, returning my eyes to the movements below. “But be my guest,” I said as I gestured to the staircase leading to the dance floor. “I want everyone here to have a good time.”

She took the rejection in stride as she strutted down the stairs, knowing full well I was still watching her. She wasn’t done with me, she and I both knew that as she glanced my way one more time.

“She’s one of Amanda’s friends, she’s a nice girl,” Chase said next to me. The change in his demeanor threw me for a moment, him sounding like he cared. “I told Amanda to bring her along tonight, thought she might have a chance with you, ya know, with you being celibate for months now and all.”

And he ruined it by continuing to talk.

I got close to having sex very recently…but he didn’t know that.

“Dude, it’s written all over you. You looked ready to fuck Harper right there on the bar before.”

My head snapped toward his.

“Hey, I get it. You’ve had a dry spell.”

He might be my brother, but I didn’t need to sit here and allow him to counsel me on my sex life, or lack of it.

And it was a choice to not have sex.

It got in the way down at brU, and I needed a complete break for a while. Heading down there to get my mind off Rebecca, my now ex-wife, only to meet Becca, was not the intended course of therapy. Escaping one heartbreak to head into the hands of another forced taller walls of avoidance to build around me.

It was obvious sex got me into emotional trouble. I wasn’t good at separating the two very well. My hand and porn were taking care of the job just fine up until now.

I don’t know why I thought I could do one-night stands.

“Gage, listen, I know you better than you think I do.” Chase’s voice held a hint of sympathy. “And I know you won’t touch Harper for the exact reason you gave me.”

And I nearly choked on the air I breathed. I quickly took a long chug of my drink to hide my response.

“No one wants a repeat of what you’ve already gone through with Rebecca, man.”

His elbow went into my side and almost sent me off my feet due to my stunned state from his words. I righted myself as we both leaned against the velvet railing that mimicked a rope and observed the anarchy on the dance floor below.

My eyes found Chelsea as Chase and I continued to survey our surroundings. Both our heads turned slightly toward the other, a knowing look between us. There were plenty of guys giving her the attention she wanted, she deserved.

“Chelsea is hot,” I told him.

“There ya go!” he yelled while hitting me in the arm. “Right? She’s fucking hot as hell. If I wasn’t going home with Amanda tonight, I’d be trying to tap that.”

I shook my head, already knowing the answer to the question I was going to ask him.

“Do you have to have a girl every Saturday night?”

I chuckled as he stood from the rail and we both started moving toward the crowd that was surrounding and almost attacking the food that had come from the kitchen. Chase stopped me, though, his hand on my arm, and turned me to face him.

“The bigger question is, why don’t you? You’re a young guy, have money, and not to be weird, but we know you’re good looking.” He primped himself, grabbing his lapels before continuing. “Of course, not as good looking as me, but you should get your fair share. Why are you not enjoying yourself with the ladies? That’s the real question.”

Everyone thought they knew what went down between Rebecca and me, and for the most part, they did. But our marriage was, essentially, a sham. And it happened out in the open for the entire company to see.

And that really sucked.

But what no one knew was how my heart got broken a second time. And I didn’t plan on telling anyone about that. And here I was, brooding over a girl I hooked up with once simply because other guys were checking out her ass.

“Someone has to focus on the company, little brother,” I offered as my reason. And it wasn’t a complete falsehood. He and I both knew he wasn’t ready to be in the role he was. That was apparent during the time I spent at brU last semester.

“Yeah, well,” he started before stuffing a huge piece of shrimp cocktail into his mouth. Through the food, he attempted to complete his thought. “Good seggs doesn’t haf to take that long.”

His garbled words gained him some laughter from our audience that had crowded around us and the food.

“Is that so?” Nate, our future co-worker, questioned with a hearty laugh afterward.

His wife chimed in. “Oh, Nate, what are you laughing at? I thought that was your motto?”

“Oooh!”

“Ouch!” The crowd was full of sympathy for our man of the night.

“Touché, my darling.” Nate reached out with his arm, pulling his wife close, and they shared an intimate moment that ended with a kiss.

It was refreshing to see a couple that was apparently…healthy.

“They’re cute,” a small voice said next to me.

Chelsea had returned. And this time, I made sure to really look at her.

Her long straight blond hair was in a tight ponytail high on her head, the hair still flowing a bit past her shoulders. I could see tiny droplets of perspiration dotting her hairline, I assumed from her dancing ventures down below. She wore a lot more makeup than I usually liked to see on girls, especially since she didn’t seem to need it; she looked like a natural beauty. And the dress she was wearing, it was still as short as I remembered from a bit ago.

And her legs were something to see.

Long. Lean. Smooth. Tan.

They looked as if they literally had oil on them. Was that something girls did?

“They are,” I replied. “I’m not sure how long they’ve been married, but I know they have three kids, so they’re doing something right.”

She quietly agreed as she took a sip of her drink. Her eyes remained locked on mine over the rim of her glass. Her intentions were obvious.

This time, I made sure to keep eye contact with her.

I’d made up my mind.

She would be my distraction. A means to an end to rid my mind of Harper Wilson.

Another Saturday night alone was not in order for me tonight.