Chapter 59 Chapter Fifty Nine

Chapter 59 Chapter Fifty Nine
CANDY’S POV
If hell had a VIP section, this right here would be it.
For some reason, the music blaring through the rest of the club, pulsing through every vein and heart beat in the room is very low here and I’m just like a deer caught in a headlight, sitting across from the very two people in the world I’d rather not be sharing oxygen with at the moment, watching .
I fucking ran from this only to end up walking blindly into it and it feels exactly like I knew it would, like torture.
Fuck.
I pull my eyes away from him even though they’re begging to stay glued on him, to take all of him in because they’re starved of his dominance that claims every room he walks into, his perfect physique that I can still see in my head even though it’s covered properly in the immaculate charcoal grey suit he’s wearing, complete with the pristine white inner shirt.
I can’t look at him the way I want to, the way I’ve been dreaming of or that’d be the dead give away Peach needs to figure everything else out and even the slightest chance of that is hell to me.
Composing myself, I keep my eyes trained on my sister instead, forcing a tight smile every time she says something.
She looks happy, glowing even, and her hands look good holding him.
She’s been doing that a lot since she forced me back here, touching him, stroking him at every opportunity like she has a point to prove to me, brushing and teasing and caressing every part of him absently like she’s memorized every dip and curve of him.
I bite my inner cheek to keep from doing something as crazy as letting my jealousy engulf me.
I have no right to be jealous of her, this is what I wanted and I need to keep remembering that.
Forcing a small smile because it’s between that and screaming my frustration out loud, I fix my attention on my sister currently upselling me to her man.
“She’s the brains of the family, graduated from Harvard business school and she even ran the company with dad at some point.”
I feel Nikandr’s eyes drift to me, waiting for me to look up and meet the questions in his eyes but it’s not just questions in there and I know it. He’s angry, so fucking pissed at me it scares me to look into his dark eyes and see the betrayal reflected in them.
“If you both will just drop the sword for even a second, I swear you’ll like each other and it’ll make everything so much easier for us.”
Her hand lifts to his chin, caressing it softly as she stares up at him like he’s her whole world.
“Candy can be stubborn, baby, so promise me you’ll do most of the work to win her over.”
His eyes lazily return to me, slow and deliberate, burning up every inch of my skin as it crawls under it, refusing to leave.
“Do you think we can do it, hmm? Put away our differences for your sister’s sake?” He drawls over the low hum of the music, his voice washing over me and leaving goosebumps on my skin.
God, I’ve missed hearing him, having him breathe against my skin as he whispers impossible things to me. I miss.........
“Maybe.” I respond, burying my suddenly raging desires.
I pick up one of the shots of tequila that’d been served on the table between us, downing it in one go to numb my mind. I can’t keep doing this to myself.
“Baby steps....” Peach says with a knowing smile when I don’t say anything further.
“This is going great.”
Great? I’m not sure that’s the word of choice to describe being trapped under the gaze of the man that used to ruin me with one look, watching him let my sister touch him.....own him....cling to him the way I do in the dreams that have plagued me since I said good bye to him.
I’ve questioned my decision to walk away every day since I did, fought the ache that nothing else has been able to relieve, touched myself to thoughts of him night after night and forced myself to believe I’m moving on every morning.
Some nights have been worse than others and on every single one of them, it’d taken work and my last shreds of dignity to keep from calling him and confessing that staying away, knowing he’s so close yet so far away is killing me.
And now here I am, confronted with the consequences of my decisions and it makes me want to throw up all the alcohol I’ve taken tonight.
This was supposed to heal me from the meeting I had with my dad and his offer that is killing me to reject but right now it feels like trading one prison for another.
I hate this.
I hate how my body reacts to him with reckless abandon against my will.
I hate how I’m aware of every inch of his dark, brooding self seating directly opposite me. The way his inner shirt is stretched across his broad chest, the quiet strength in the way he’s holding himself like he doesn’t need to prove anything because he knows the chaos I’m suffering.
I hate that I still want him like a fucking dependent nymphomaniac.
God, I can’t take this anymore.
Throwing back one more shot, I stand from the chair.
“My friends will be wondering where I went.” I say to no one in particular.
“But you just got here.” Peach whines, pulling her puppy eyes.
“I’ll......I’ll be back. I just need to let them know I didn’t get kidnapped or something.”
Without waiting for their response, I leave the booth, walking until I make it back to Liv and Jane who are thankfully still at the bar ordering and doing shots.
“Look who’s back.” Liv teases as soon as her eyes land on me, wearing a cheesy smile but I feel too crushed inside to say anything.
Instead, I order another shot and knock it back like a pro even though my alcohol game is shit, hoping it numbs out the buzzing of my body and mind from beholding the devastating sight that is Nikandr King Cobb.
My fingers are trembling from wanting to replace Peach’s, wanting to graze down his naked torso and do the things they did to him the last time we were alone in each other’s presence and my stupid fucking mouth is so desperately thirsty for him it’s a miracle Peach didn’t see through me.
Unable to keep it down any longer, I excuse myself and escape to the bathroom.
Thankfully, it’s empty at the moment which is a miracle, so I slip in and press myself hard against the cool wall.
“What the fuck, Candy?” I question myself, my eyes tearing up a bit.
“You don’t want him.”
“Liar.”
I flip around so fast at the sound of his voice behind me softly crashing through after my defences against reason, fearing I’m drunk enough to be hallucinating him here, in the ladies room.
But he’s not a figment of my imagination.
I’m sure because I can feel his turbulent gaze and smell his insane cologne and the sight of him is not disappearing no matter how much I desperately will it to.
I watch him close the door behind him, slow and deliberate, locking it as a last minute thought, the click echoing in the space like it has a personal vendetta against me.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, to keep him from coming any closer.
“Chasing you. You’re running again, Candy.”
“I’m not sure you understand how that works seeing as you’re here. I left to get away from you!”
He saunters over to me, eliminating the distance between us.
“I know.”
God, that voice, that tone......my nipples react shamelessly to him, turning painfully hard against the fabric of my dress.
“This is the ladies bathroom, please get out.”
He doesn’t go away, of anything, he comes closer. I try to shove him away but that doesn’t achieve anything besides getting my hands pinned in his. He’s like a fucking boulder.
“Do you really want me to?” He breathes against my skin, cutting my last thread of sanity and dignity, stripping me down to the girl that’s wanted him since the very first day.
“No.” I hear myself breath and that’s the beginning of my ruin.
Again.