Intoxicated Read Online Free PDF Page A

euphoria of Jack’s kisses still clinging about her, it was a bit easier to take the high road than she’d imagined.  
    “Must have been a pity fuck,” Brian muttered as she pushed past him.
    Rage and humiliation flooded through her. Her fingers clenched into fists with the desire to slap him hard across the mouth. Why did he always have to go there – to make her feel as if she was never good enough? Taking a deep breath, she drew herself up to her full five feet six inches and turned to stare him straight in the eyes.
    “That was low, Brian.” Her voice was cold and even, edged with steel while her insides quivered with hurt. “You’ve already humiliated and embarrassed me by screwing my best friend. You don’t have to be an ass about it. ”  
    His hazel eyes softened and he stepped back. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I only wanted to say hello and make sure you were okay.” He waved a hand helplessly. “I didn’t know it would hurt so much to see you with someone else.”
    “Take that feeling, multiply it by a thousand, and you might come somewhere close to how it felt to walk in on you with Becca.” The words hung on the air between them as she took another step away from him. He seemed like a stranger, like some distant acquaintance. The connection between them had dissolved; there was no pulse of attraction, no empathy, no desire. The realization saddened her. It really was over. She felt nothing for him.
    She might have lost all feeling for Brian, but the tingle of gooseflesh along her arms told her that Jack was at her elbow. He loomed over her shoulder like an archangel. A glance at his face showed it dark and inscrutable but his eyes snapped with vitality. Their energy renewed her flagging spirit.
    “Everything alright over here?” His deep voice rumbled with quiet authority. “Is he bothering you, Ally?”
    “It’s okay,” she said. “He was just leaving.” She smiled in reassurance, took a step backward and tripped headlong over the leg of a barstool. The roughened boards of the floor rose to meet her. She landed on her butt with a dull thud and a squeak of surprise.  
    As if I haven’t been humiliated enough .  
    With a groan of exasperation, she struggled to get her feet underneath her. Both men extended a hand to help her up.  
    “Ally…jeesh! Are you hurt?” Jack loomed over her. His broad shoulders blotted out the rest of the room.  
    “I might be dying…from embarrassment.” A streak of pain jabbed into her backside as she scrambled to recover her dignity. “And I think my butt might be broken.”
    Her confession was rewarded with a burst of surprised laughter from Jack. “Girl, you are officially cut off.” The warmth in his eyes brought a rueful smile to her lips. She slipped her hand into his, let him pull her up from the floor and dust off her backside like an errant child. If Brian was still there, she didn’t notice.  
    With the back of his hand, Jack stroked her cheek and smiled. “If he ever bothers you, you let me know.” The unexpectedness of his gallantry made her bottom lip quiver. Tears again? Seriously? She swallowed back the feeling with a shudder and bowed her head so that he wouldn’t see her vulnerability. She feared that more than anything.  
    The emotional turmoil and excessive liquor of the evening had finally taken their toll. Her knees quivered and she slumped against him, her forehead falling against his chest.
    “I need to go home,” she murmured into his chest and took a deep breath of the fabric softener in his shirt.  
    “Want me to call a cab for you?”
    She heaved a grateful sigh of relief that the drama might be over, if only for the night.  
     
     
     
    The cab lurched forward in a cloud of blue smoke and the squeal of tires before it disappeared around the next corner. A mangy black cat sprinted across the street in front of Jack and dissolved into the shadows of the dark and deserted alley. The street light overhead