Racing Hearts

Chapter Seven- The Night Before

Smoothing out the kinks of her silver dress, Kayla applied a final layer of lip gloss to her plump kiss, before following Amanda from the car and into the line set before the club. The sight of twenty and thirty-somethings lined up with their cohorts had been a reminder to her as to why she loathed the ‘club scene’ to begin with. If not for the unnecessary gossip spoken between friends, the constant smoke of various vaping pens, or the drunken patrons stumbling out and bumping into them without care, it would then be for the way she felt guilty once leaving as one of these ‘pathetic girls incapable of knowing their limit’. But with the pain of Jeff’s words continuing to sting her heart and the absence of a man she had lusted for to quite an unhealthy degree, she welcomed whatever consequence the alcohol would bring her on this night.

Eventually making it to the front of the line, they were allowed inside once showing their IDs, but not allowed in the main section of the club. Instead, the bouncer whispered something to a mutual peer before they were escorted beyond the main floor of the establishment and allowed up a set of lengthy stairs and left at a VIP section. 

“This must be because of the video…” Amanda explained as Kayla looked at her with confusion. “Here…” Her friend spoke as Kayla sat beside her closest confidant before watching the kiss seemingly watched around the world. Over fifty million views in just a week with comments mostly unkind spored by jealousy of online trolls. She also recalled this kind of aggressive treatment once returning to work-therefore reminding her of how she had now been thrust into the spotlight without a wish to do so. Of all people in Saginaw, Texas, she was the last one who wished to be noticed at all. She was perfectly content with her nose in a book and her head in the clouds-but found that this may no longer be possible. 

“Oh my God! I love this song!” Amanda spoke as she downed a portion of her drink before taking to her heels and swaying her hips side-to-side. Eyes of aroused patrons below watched her as she turned to invite Kayla to join her. But not wishing to become a spectacle, she remained sitting before watching the video on her phone once again. Having ignored the comments, she focused on the way he charged at her as she could recall the electricity between them that was formed by either hatred or desire; or maybe a bit of both. But then her heart ached and her thighs tightened in a mix of pain and arousal that led her to take hold of the amber tinted drink present for their exclusive consumption. Bringing it to her lips, she managed to take half of it behind her lips before pressing the glass back onto the solid black table before the set of red leather chairs. 

“Make some room.” Kayla commented with a smile as Amanda and her began to dance together, unaware that there had been a set of eyes upon them that were different from all others. From below, Devon and Dusty watched the girls laugh as they danced sensually together, seemingly careless and shameless to the amount of attention they were receiving-as they remained intertwined this way until they ran out of alcohol. 

Kayla descended the steps on her own as Amanda watched from above as her friend shuffled through the mass of people and to the bar. But as she rested her weight on the cold surface of the all-marble bar, accented with strands of gold into his makeup, she was introduced to a man with poor taste in his fashion, but piercing green eyes, and a s****l timbre in his voice. She looked upwards to Amanda, who was forcing two thumbs upright in her direction, before a hand suddenly made its way onto her back. 

“Are you alright?” Immediately, she recognized the voice to be Devon’s, even over the pulsating club music of a remixed Halsey song as she faced him with humor. 

“Of course you would be here...I’m guessing that is why we got the loft?” He smiled to himself before she watched him lean on the bar as well. 

“How about you dance with me? I can tell you all the details…”

“I’d love to.” His face lightened before falling once she turned to face the first man who approached her and left her drink on the bar. 

Joining the crowd of dirty dancers, she allowed this stranger to take her against his torso as she was able to feel the extent of his own body guide hers to the music. Surprised with herself at how s****l she was allowing herself to be in public, she blamed this on the Tequila and simply went with it as she adored how angry it made Devon to watch her with someone else. But it wasn’t until she wrapped her arms around this stranger’s neck and nestled her nose with his that Devon could no longer take the sight. Between pelvic thrusting against this figure and running her fingers through his curly blonde locks, he had abandoned having to witness her throwing herself at this man. She would then finish this dance, and retired to Amanda. Only, her friend was not alone- as she was sitting with Dusty and Devon. 

“Let’s go dance!” Amanda cried to Dusty as she pulled him down the steps that Kayla had just ascended before she was left with Devon. 

“If you dance like that, you’re going to give people the wrong idea…”

“What idea is that?” She teased, pulling the straw to her new beverage between her lips as he rolled his eyes with annoyance at her. “I thought you liked your girls loose and available...Shouldn’t you be happy with me this way then?”

“I would be happier if you weren’t shaking your ass for half of Texas…”

“Just for you then?” Questioning him, he watched as she now sauntered over to him in a slow seductive pace before she bent over him to torment him further. It was during this time that he had come to realize how truly drunk she had been. If the smell of Tequila hadn’t tipped him off; the sight of her body so willing to be near his own had been the final nail in this coffin of evidence. 

“You’re drunk.” He narrated as her hands began to run up his legs and he stood to cease her.

“Wow...you aren’t just a pretty face…” She continued to tease him as he suddenly took her by her hand as he towered over her. “This isn’t funny.”

“I’m not trying to be...I’m serious...If you want me...come get me…” Speaking these words, she shook her head with humor before joining Amanda and Dusty. But as she had expected Devon to join her, she watched him storm out of the club instead. Curious to know what had angered him, she stumbled through the crowd before finding him on the side of the building, with a few sets of gazes on him that he ignored, before watching her then watch him. 

“You need to go home...Have my driver take you-”

“I’m not going anywhere...And I suggest you stop telling me what to do!” She demanded as he let out an angered grunt. 

“Someone has to...or you’re going to end up half dressed in some alley somewhere...if not dead.”

“Someone’s a bit dramatic.”

“I don’t know what you are trying to prove, but I think you’ve made your point...Now get your ass in the car.”

“You sure know how to sweet talk a girl- '' Before she could finish her words, she was lifted over his shoulder and forced into the car before it was set into motion with him taking the seat beside her. Silence filled the car as she struggled to keep control of the contents of her stomach remaining internally and continued to dry heave. Ever the dutiful gentleman, Devon held her hair backwards as she projected to release bile to her own feet. Using his sleeve, he brushed the remnants of this expulsion of her last meal from her lips before she then cuddled up onto him, entirely unaware of how she had let down her walls until they came to the front of his hotel in Arlington. 

“I want to go swimming!” She spoke as she quickly pushed her way from his grasp as he attempted to bring her inside of the hotel before she stepped over the edge of the fountain and sat within the water. For a moment, his sincerity escaped his expression until he looked at her with amusement. There was something cathartic about witnessing her exist with such a childish mentality considering she was always so stiff to him. “I want you to swim with me too!” She called to him over the loud noise of the running water as he shook his head ‘no’. 

“I’d rather watch.” These fatal words left his lips as she had made her way to the ledge, where he was standing, before presenting her fingertips to his shoulders. He tensed with the belief that she was preparing to kiss him, before she then turned away from him. But as he expected her to remain innocuous, he watched her slip her fingers to the edge of her dress to disrobe, in which he froze for just a  moment with selfish intrigue, before recalling how public they were. Once again, he came to her salvation by lifting her away from the scene and into the hotel, her damp exterior dripping as she was entirely over his shoulder. 

Once in the elevator, she was set back down to the soles of her feet as her eyes did not break from him. “I don’t like that I like you…” Her having spoken these words, collected his attention to her immediately. “Maybe you should just get it over with...That way I can get you out of my system…” She explained as she now brought her fingers to his chest to play with the fabric clinging to his own damp torso. 

“Even if I did want to...I’m not going to do that when you are too drunk to even stand up.”

“I don’t need to stand up to let you do what you want with me…” With these words, she thrust him against the door of the elevator as the main doors came open and he led her outside by an unkind pull of her wrist. Leading her to the end of the hall, he opened the door and moved immediately into the back room to search for some clothes for her-meanwhile, reciting a mantra within his mind that he would not allow himself to take advantage of the situation; no matter how badly he wanted to or how much she threw herself at him. 

But as he left the comfort of his bedroom, he found her in only her lingerie, her soaked dress exposed in an unknown location, as she was walking around the room. His eyes followed the c**k of each of her curves as she moved sexually throughout the space. 

“So many windows...surfaces...walls...Where do you want me?”

“I don’t.”

“That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one...We both know I won’t admit how badly I want this just as much as I won’t admit how badly I need this...So how about you stop taking the high road and f**k me?” These words acted as immediate Viagra to his already erect member as he crossed the floor to face her. 

“I want you to remember it.” He spoke, moving away from the living room and into the bedroom , beyond the champagne he had come to open on his own prior to her arrival, and the strawberries also consumed by him.

“I don’t want to…” She countered his words by pulling a string of condoms from her purse and pressing them against his chest as he kept her at arm’s length, forcing her to keep away from him. But with this restraint, she attempted to lunge at him with a kiss before he avoided her, forcing her lips to fall to dead air instead. “Come on, any other guy would jump at this...A girl who keeps turning him down finally admitting she wants him...just be like every other guy…” Her eyes met with his as he saw the glossed over version of her sober self hidden behind ounce after added ounce of dangerous liquor. 

“I can’t...Because you aren’t like other girls…” With these words, she became blackout drunk and passed out into his arms, thus waking up the next morning with that severe of a hangover. She blushed and felt guilt with how cruel she had been to him and how kind he had been to her. But this stonewall of a man would do anything but inform her of his kind words to her as it seemed he wished she wouldn't have remembered them as they were not in his recollection of events. But before she could question him, he was suddenly out of the car and opening the door for her. 

“Good God, Devon!” A woman’s voice spoke as Kayla found a woman dressed entirely professional to pull at his arms as she realized they were at the racetrack as opposed to her home. 

“Dusty, just take her home-”

“No. This concerns her too…” The woman spoke as Kayla and Devon both looked at each other with concern before being escorted into one of those private rooms away from everyone else-excluding this woman, an older gentleman drinking a Scotch, a thin young boy with clear Italian roots, and the foursome who made their way into the space.