Soren's Obsession

Chapter Two

The club was more packed than usual as we entered inside. From where I stood, tonight might actually work in my favor more than I hoped for. Beautiful women were walking around everywhere, just waiting for a guy like me to make them feel special, even if it was for only one night.

“Okay,” I said, slapping my hands together and rubbing them in a wicked way. “Do you see anyone that appeals to you, Eve?”

Eve looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Would you calm down? We just got here. At least give me a few minutes to look around before you start going all crazy on me. Besides, it’s you that we are talking about here. It couldn’t have been that long since you had a woman in your bed.”

“Um, yeah, you would think,” I responded without looking at her. Luckily, Joel had padded over to the bar to get Eve a drink, so we were alone for a few minutes at least. I wouldn’t dare say any of this in front of them, only Eve. “It’s been a few weeks, but even longer than that since I’ve, well, you know.”

She turned to me, placing her hands on her hips. “Seriously? Are you freaking out over a few weeks of not having s*x? Come on, Soren. You are better than that. What is going on with you?”

It turns out that I think Eve sometimes knew me better than I knew myself, which was strange. “I don’t know. I sort of feel abandoned, I guess. First, it was Cole, then Joel, and now Ace and Maverick. Here I am still in this bachelor stage, which I don’t really mind, but it sometimes gets lonely. You know me well enough to know that having a woman to drown that out, even for just a little bit, is better than nothing at all.”

“I just don’t get it. You are a great guy. Yes, you have this manly façade that makes people think you are just some manwhore, but that isn’t you. Why do you let everyone think of you like that? Why not show them differently?”

“Because, Eve, people except what I give them. I don’t want to ruin expectations.”

Joel stomped back over, holding three drinks just as I said that. The girly drink with the umbrella hanging out the top was Eve’s, and he had two glasses of whiskey for us men. Eve took one look at hers in disgust and traded drinks with Joel, who drank the girly drink with a smile on his face. See? That was how relationships worked. I didn’t want to share any of my s**t with a woman. Why share when I could have it all to myself?

“What about her?” Eve snapped me out of my thoughts.

She pointed to the sexiest woman in the club by far. She was sitting off to a booth by herself, close to the bar. I could see her stirring around whatever she was drinking with the straw, not really interested in whatever the drink actually was.

Because I have been doing this for a long time, I could see warning signs all over the place with this woman. She wasn’t looking for a one-night stand, which is exactly what I came here to get. From here, I could see that she had just come to the bar to have a drink or two to escape the stress of her work life or possibly s*x life. Sometimes, that is hard to decipher when it comes to women. She would run off any man who would come up to her because she wasn’t interested in hooking up at a club. I could tell that she thought she was more sophisticated than that.

At the same time, I was intrigued. That usually never happens to me. A woman as sexy as her shouldn’t be spending her time at a club like this. She should be showcased. Her black hair flowed down the middle of her back in curls, with half of it in a ponytail sitting on top of her head. The grey dress that she had on told me a few things. One that her body was sculpted by someone not of this world. Two that she was in the middle of being innocent but not so innocent that she felt it was necessary to wear white. One thing that I knew better than anyone else was women.

I shrugged. “Yeah, she is cute. A mean, she is a little uptight for me trying to get laid though, don’t you think? Not to mention that she is sitting alone. I said that I needed you to be my wingman. If a woman is sitting in a club alone, she has no interest in leaving here with a guy. Look at her. She isn’t even drinking whatever she is stirring around in circles in that glass. It’s clear that she just came here to blow off some steam, not anything that I’m interested in.”

Eve grabbed my arm and rushed us toward the woman sitting alone in her booth without saying anything back to me. Eve was surprisingly stronger than I would have ever given her credit for. By the time I got her grip loose, we were standing in front of the woman.

“I’m so sorry to bother you, but my brother here thought you were cute and wanted to see if maybe he can buy you a drink or something.”

The woman turned toward us, took one look at me, and shook her head. “Sorry, but I’m not interested.”

Um, what? Did she look at me? Who does this woman think she is? Any woman who has ever looked at me hasn’t denied at the least the chance to talk to me. Now I was on a mission to get her to loosen up a little.

“Thanks, little sister, but I’ve got it from here,” I whispered to Eve and watched her dance her way back to Joel across the club.

Without asking for her permission, I took a seat in the booth across from her. She stared at me, raising her eyebrows. “What do you think you are doing? I’m pretty sure that I made it clear that I wasn’t interested.”

“Can you at least tell me why?”

She smiled, which nearly melted me. Was everything about this woman perfect? “Because I know why you came over here, and I’m not interested in sleeping with you tonight or any other night for that matter.”

Wow. She was good, almost too good. “I just simply want to know your name, so I can buy you a drink and be on my way. I just saw you sitting alone over here by yourself and figured that I would be a gentleman and at least offer to buy you a drink, but if you don’t want that, then I’ll just be on my way.”

“Right. I’m sure that is exactly why you came over here.” She paused for a minute, then stared straight into my eyes, making me lick my lips involuntarily. “My name is Alana.” She leaned in closer, making me do the same. “How about that drink so you can go find yourself someone more willing to go back to your place tonight?”

Ouch. Her words stung, which drew me to her even more. I’ve never had a woman that turned me down so quickly before. They would at least want to know my name, or maybe a little bit about me, but Alana wasn’t interested at all, which only made me want her more.

Without moving, I whistled, staring at Alana without ever breaking contact. “Hey, Ian. How about another drink for my friend here?”

“You got it, boss,” Ian, the bartender, said before disappearing back behind the bar.

“Impressive. So, you know the bartender. That either makes you an alcoholic or just a man addicted to s*x. Which one is it?”

“Maybe, I’m a little bit of both. So, what are you like a shrink or something? You seem to have figured me all out before even getting to know me. It sounds like you might have some experience.”

She chuckled for the first time. It was hard for me to control the urges building up inside me when she did that. I wanted her like really wanted her. I’ve never felt this connection to another woman before just from simply knowing her name. Something about Alana had me wanting to learn more about her. Yes, it was obvious that I wanted her in my bed tonight, but I still found myself gravitating to her, which was a strange feeling.

“As a matter of fact, I am a shrink, but I prefer to be called a therapist. L.A. is a big city, which means a lot of people need evaluations. It was a smart career move. Besides, I like helping people, especially ones who don’t think they need any help.”

“Oh, you are referring to me now? I actually enjoy my life just the way it is. I don’t think your therapy help is the kind that I need tonight.”

Alana bit down on her lip and leaned in, letting me get the perfect angle of her cleavage. Oh, f**k. I’m going to hell for this. She took one more look at me and stood to her feet, but I was just as quick as she was.

“Leaving already? You didn’t even get my name.”

She put her hand on my chest, and I swear that I almost fainted. Something like this has never happened to me before. “Take it as a hint that I don’t want to know your name. You are clearly here hoping to take advantage of some poor drunk woman who thinks you are the answer. I can see right through you. I don’t need to know your name to see how lonely you are, even with all the women ready to jump in bed with you. You can hide behind them, but women like me know the truth.”

I gulped. The only other woman in my life who has ever known that about me was Eve, and I highly doubt that she knew this woman enough to tell her that.

“Wait,” I said, running and catching up to her. “You don’t know a thing about me.” We were outside by the time she turned around, and we found ourselves against the side of the building. “Don’t claim to sit there and judge me because of the certificate you hold on to your belt. I know damn well what people see when they look at me, but I don’t need you and your fancy title to tell me s**t about who I am.”

Alana walked up to me and pushed me against the building. The sweet smell of her perfume fell all around me, making me close my eyes to try to commit the scent by memory. “Your good. For a second there, I almost believed what you were saying. It must get very boring when it works on women all the time, but I assure you that I’m not your average woman.” She kissed me on the cheek and started to walk off. She turned around a little and flipped her hair when she did. “Oh, and just a little tip. Most women find it a turn-off for their men to be so aggressive. You may want to get a shrink to look into that for you.”

A cab pulled up, and she quickly jumped in, not looking once in my direction again. I didn’t know a damn thing about her other than her first name and that she was a shrink in this massive city, but I found myself wanting to know more. f**k, that is a problem. I need to get back inside and find the first woman that I can to come back with me so I can forget all about her. The chances of me ever seeing her again were slim to none anyway.