Falling for My Old High School Bully (Complete)

Chapter 12 - Resisting Temptation

"Well, I'm sure my girlfriend would be really fucking jealous," he said, looking into her eyes, "if I had one."

The way he said it made her insides flutter and she couldn't help the little curve of a smile that appeared on her mouth. She looked over his handsome face that was lightly peppered with stubble, his square jaw line, his steel grey eyes and his black hair that was now swept back, not in his face like it was in high school. That just made him look that much sexier.

"How is someone like you still single?" she asked, searching his eyes.

He hesitated, looking down before saying, "Because I choose to be. I haven't wanted to be tied down to one woman," he said, lifting his eyes to look directly into hers. "Or I should say, I haven't found the one worth being tied to yet."

That made her face flush a little so she broke eye contact and took a sip of her wine, fidgeting with her cloth napkin before getting up the courage to ask, "Is, ummmm, is there something going on between you and Victoria?"

"VIctoria?" he asked, sounding surprised. "Why would you ask that?"

"I see the way she looks at you," she told him, "and she made her jealousy pretty clear when I was left in the room alone with her."

"Nothing's going on with Victoria," he said, looking at his wine glass and spinning it between his fingers. "She's a really old family friend that I grew up with and I hooked up with her one time at a friend's party when I was really drunk and she wanted to be more than friends and I didn't. She didn't take the rejection very well."

"Oh," she said, feeling jealous, picturing him and Victoria sleeping together.

"What about you?" he asked. "I don't see a ring on your finger. Your boyfriend hasn't proposed yet?"

She lifted her eyes and laughed. "Well I'm sure he would have," she said with a smirk. "If I had one."

He laughed at how she used the same phrase he used earlier. "How is a beautiful woman like you still single? You probably have men throwing themselves at you constantly."

"Yeah, well, I've dated some really great guys but they couldn't handle being with a woman that has her own career and doesn't spend her days following them around like a puppy dog. A lot of guys can't handle a strong, independent woman that's focused on their career as much as a man is. I'm a little bit of a workaholic."

"Well it looks like that's served you well, Miss Marketing Director," he said, smiling at her as he took a sip.

"It has. I've done really well for myself, but being married to your work," she said quietly. "it just gets lonely sometimes." She couldn't believe she was telling him all this.

"Yes it does," he sighed and she looked up and her eyes met his and she could tell that he understood how it felt to be lonely. "So do you like it in Chicago or do you miss the old hometown?" he asked "I mean, it's only an hour away. You probably go back and visit a lot don't you?"

"I don't go back as much as I should."

"You still have family there?" he asked.

Family was definitely a sore subject for her right now and she wasn't ready to talk about that.

"No, not really. What about you? Does your Mom still live there?"

"No."

He didn't elaborate and she didn't push. It seemed like it might be a sore subject for him too.

He looked across the table into her eyes, and it looked like he was thinking as he filled both of their wine glasses up again. This was her third full glass and she was definitely starting to feel it.