I shrugged. Sometimes I made up rules to make myself feel better about my personal reality. Deep down I knew my theory was bullshit too. Cameron was equally gorgeous, and Maya didn't have any complaints. Then again, they'd been in love for years. I hadn't known the pleasure of sleeping with someone I loved for far too long, and if what Maya said about Darren's reputation was true, he probably hadn't stopped the whore tour long enough to fall in love with anyone.

"Miss?"

I turned to find two dirty martinis placed in front of me, as if by magic.

"I didn't order these."

"Do you want them? The guy down there put them on his tab." The once-elusive bartender jerked his thumb in the direction behind him.

I narrowed my eyes. "What guy?"

"I think this one, V." Eli nudged me again, gentler this time.

Then a warm hand was at my hip, grazing softly across my back as I turned. My breath caught at the sight of Darren. Somehow his presence seemed to suck up all the oxygen around me.

"Not dirty enough?" He smiled.

And my heart went flying again.

"What?" My confused reply got lost in the din of the bar.

He leaned closer, the cool scent of his cologne wafting over me, his warm breath tickling my ear. "Grey Goose martini, extra dirty. Did you think I forgot?"

Oh. I registered the slightest disappointment that he wasn't taunting me with some overly sexual comment. He had remembered my drink of choice, though.

"Thank you. I mean, you didn't have to do that." I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say, but for some reason, his presence had my thoughts in a total jumble. Probably because the heat of his body was only inches away. Probably because the sexy curve of his smile and the glimmer in his eye had some sort of paralyzing effect on me, the way it probably did on most women.

Eli offered a little wave, pulling Darren's attentions away from me. "I'm Eli, in case you forgot."

"Good to see you again." Darren's touch fell away when he held out his hand, shaking Eli's. "You guys psyched for this trip or what?"

"Grand Cayman or bust!" Eli lifted his martini glass with a flourish, clinking it with Darren's brown beer bottle.

Eli took a drink and then frowned. A second later, he fished his phone out of his pocket, silenced its ringing, and pressed it to his ear. "Taylor, hang on," he shouted into the phone. He lifted a finger, letting me know he'd be back.

Darren moved into the space that Eli had occupied, resting his arm along the bar so it curved behind me. "Do you come here often?"

I almost choked on my drink. He didn't just ask me that.

He shot me a full smile, showing his straight white teeth. "That was a serious question, not a pickup line. I promise."

"Sure. Well... I don't come here often, but that will probably change in a couple of weeks when I move in with Eli. I'm taking over Maya's lease, so I'll be in this neighborhood more."

He nodded. "Are you happy about that?"

"I am. Eli is one of my best friends, and I didn't really like living alone. I think it'll be a good change for me. I work a lot, and Eli has a way of helping me put things into perspective, I guess. It'll be nice to live closer to Maya too. Since she left the firm, I feel like I never see her."

Silence fell, and I immediately replayed my words, hoping they didn't sound as awkward and desperate as I felt behind them. Work was my life, and my friends were everything to me. I missed Maya, and Eli and I had grown a lot closer since she'd moved in with Cameron. I twisted a lock of my hair between my fingertips and released a sigh. "Sorry. It's been kind of a stressful few months for me. Lots of things changing."

"I get it. Cameron's not the same either. I mean, he's my brother. We'll always be close, but it's definitely different now. Maya is his first priority."

"Cameron's a good guy."

"He's the best of us. Maya's lucky."

I caught a slight frown marring the space between his dark eyebrows.

"So is he," I countered. Maya may have been a handful, but Cameron had put her through hell when he walked away from his half-baked marriage proposal years ago. She'd held up okay, all things considered. In the end though, they were both better people for having found each other again and for giving their relationship another try.

Darren flashed me a small smile. "Fair enough." He leaned close again, even though I could hear him fine. "So where's your lucky guy?"

I shook my head and stared down into my drink. "No lucky guys for me." Only lucky guy in my world was David Reilly, and I couldn't wait to be a country away from him. I lifted my glass to my lips. The distinct flavors of olive, vinegar, and vodka swirled over my tongue, and the promise of relief from my day at his beck and call loosened some of the tension in my shoulders. I held back a sigh.

"Good?" Darren flicked his gaze from the drink, up and down the length of my body, and back up to my face.

When our eyes met, I remembered how beautiful his were all over again. Light brown with flecks of green. Mesmerizing. Disturbingly so.

"It's perfect, just how I like it. I can't believe you remembered. It's been a while." I licked my lips, convincing myself that he wasn't really checking me out.

The smile in his eyes softened, and something darker came over them. "I'm pretty sure I committed that whole night to permanent memory."

I didn't know what to say. I wasn't even bumbling. I was lost for words. Darren was obviously hitting on me in a way that he hadn't before, and I had no idea what to make of it. My physical body was screaming at me to say something, to touch him, to give him some indication of how he affected me. But my brain was too smart for that.

Just when I thought I'd never win the battle between throwing myself at this over-the-top sexy man and talking him to death about my stressed-out existence, Eli appeared through the doors of the bar and came up to me. A few paces behind him was the guy Darren had been talking to earlier. Up close he was even more impressive. Tall and lean, light brown skin, with eyes a cool gray-blue. He looked like he was of mixed descent, but I couldn't begin to guess what origins could combine to make such attractive features.

Darren turned toward him. "Vanessa, this is Ian Savo. We're both on Ladder 9."

"And I'm Eli." Eli shook Ian's hand.

"Good to meet you. You too, Vanessa. Heard a lot about you." He pivoted toward Darren. "I hate to interrupt, but there's someone I wanted you to meet. Can I pull you away for a minute?"

Darren frowned slightly before taking the last pull from his beer and straightening his body away from the bar. The movement put enough space between us that I felt the loss of his warmth.

"Sure thing." He offered me a tight smile that seemed to reflect my own disappointment. "I'll be back in a few, all right?"

I nodded without a word and watched him disappear with his friend. I couldn't help myself. Watching him walk away was like seeing the sun go down and feeling the heat go with it. I turned back to Eli, determined to put an end to my little internal pout. Eli was staring at his phone, reading a thread of texts.

"What did Taylor want?"

"He wants to hang out tonight. I told him I'm getting drunk with you instead. He wasn't pleased."

Taylor was Eli's on-again, off-again lover. They were keeping things "casual" since Taylor was a photographer and traveled so often. Only problem was Eli wasn't the casual type.

"Is he heading out of town?"

Eli nodded. "London."

He'd never admit it, but he was completely head over heels for Taylor and burned every time he left town, knowing he could be hooking up with someone else. The result was Eli retaliating at times like these, to send a message that he too could have his own fun, even though as far as I knew, he'd been loyal to the "boyfriend" who wasn't.

I sighed, wishing I could say something to make him feel better. "I'd let you off the hook, but then I'd be that desperate-looking girl all alone at the bar."

"No, fuck that. Friends don't let friends look desperate at bars. Speaking of, you up for another round?"

I popped the olive in my mouth and nodded. "Sure, I'm going to hit the ladies' room. I'll be right back."

I maneuvered through the crowd and found the line to the ladies' room mercifully short. I took care of business and, on my way back to Eli, noticed Darren on the other end of the barroom. He was with Ian and two other women. Ian had his hands all over a brunette nearly as tall as he was. Next to him, a petite blonde was hanging on Darren's muscled arm, laughing as he spoke into her ear over the noisy crowd around them.

As if sensing my presence, he looked up and our gazes clashed. Heat rushed to my cheeks and disappointment flooded me. I wasn't sure how many seconds had passed when I realized how stupid I must have looked, standing in the middle of the bar fixed on Darren and his harem. I averted my eyes and carried on toward Eli as quickly as I could, cursing myself. Darren Bridge was definitely every bit of the player I'd been warned about, and I was stupid to believe anything different.

As soon as I found Eli again, a loud voice came through the speakers mounted on the wall.

"Ladies and gentlemen. It's the hour you've all been waiting patiently for. We're ready to hear your best karaoke jams. Grab a friend, pick a song. Step up. Don't be shy."

Without ceremony, I grabbed the fresh drink out of Eli's hand. A song I knew pumped out from the bar's speakers following the announcement. Suddenly, the lyrics seemed to live under my skin. The need to sing bubbled up through my pores, replacing the unexpected feelings Darren had inspired in me over the course of the night. I welcomed the shift and chased it through half of my chilled martini glass.

"Whoa, what's up?" Eli stared at me wide-eyed.

I pointed to his drink. "Drink up. That's our cue."

DARREN.

My face hurt from fake-smiling at the blonde who kept eyeballing Ian's advances on her friend. I wanted to get back to Vanessa, but I didn't see that happening anytime soon. Then, as if the universe answered my silent request, she came into view again. Stepping up onto the small stage in the corner of the room, she radiated. Dark auburn hair and soft pink lips. I hadn't been able to take my eyes off of her, and I still couldn't.

Somehow, she was the last person I expected to be on the stage. With a microphone in her hand, she stood there, twisting and untwisting the cord around her hand. Eli was bouncing beside her like he couldn't fucking wait to get started.

I stilled, anxious to see how she would perform. I wanted her to see me, but at the same time, I didn't. I hadn't fully recovered from the look on her face when I'd seen her moments ago. She wasn't the first girl I'd had to put on the back burner for one reason or another. But I couldn't remember feeling like such a jerk for it until tonight. No doubt she thought I'd ditched her for blondie.

And I had.

Thanks to Ian. I could have castrated him for pulling me away. Most nights I didn't mind being his wingman, but I had blinders on tonight. All I could see was Vanessa. Fittingly, she was on stage, for everyone else to admire the way I was right now.

"Do you know her?" the blonde shouted in my ear.

I winced and nodded, never taking my eyes off of Vanessa. Had I really blown it with her so quickly?

All for the brunette Ian had a hard-on for tonight. Pretty girl, body like a runway model, voice that would peel paint off the wall, but I didn't figure he was interested in her conversational skills. He just needed me to keep her roommate occupied long enough to make a play.

I shouldn't have cared either way. Not like Vanessa was the first female who'd had a physical response when I was inches from her. I reveled in the way her cheeks caught color when I touched her. Those small subtle touches that were easy to brush off as casual, but in my world, were tactical as fuck. I knew Vanessa was off-limits, but the second I'd laid eyes on her across the bar, nothing could have kept me from going to talk to her. I'd shown incredible restraint last time we'd hung out. In fact, I couldn't remember wanting to take a woman to bed so damn bad and denying myself. New York City was my playground, and I rarely denied myself of its pleasures. I worked hard, and I fucked harder.

I grasped my beer tighter in my hand, imagining Vanessa on the receiving end of that mantra.

Meanwhile, she held the microphone close to her mouth and stared at the ground in front of her. She looked different tonight. Not like she was out on the town. No tiny red dress, stilettos, and messy hair from all the dancing we did at the club. Tonight she looked how I imagined she must look any day of the week. Her hair was soft and natural. Dark jeans hugged her hips, and a loose-fitting shirt fell over one shoulder, baring a single black strap. I wanted to grab that little strap with my teeth and...

The noise of the bar died down enough to hear the upbeat melodic intro of the song, and I strained to recognize the tune. A few seconds later, she belted out the first verse, her eyes closed.

Jesus.

It was hot as blazes with all the people jammed in this place, but goose bumps still rippled over my skin. She was incredible. Eli's off-key chorus wasn't doing her any favors, but even he couldn't detract from the raw talent pouring from Vanessa.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger!

Every line came through more powerful than the last. She wasn't making eye contact with anyone except Eli and the ground, but every word that left her lips made me believe she was feeling it. The nervous way she'd been minutes ago had vanished. She was someone else on the stage, and how would I have ever known?

Blondie started to tell me something, but I held up a hand, silencing her until Vanessa finished the last verse and the song faded out to a roar of applause.

"Goddamn, she can sing," Ian shouted above the hoots and hollers.

Hell, yeah, she could.

I smiled, clapping and whistling as loud as I could.

Chapter Three.

DARREN.

"Vanessa!"

She moved from the front of the line to the ticket counter. I bypassed the train of people waiting and came up beside her. The timing couldn't have been better, and for some reason, an odd sense of urgency spurred me.

After her karaoke stint the night before, I had tried to find her, to no avail. Ian had totally screwed me on that. Took an hour talking with blondie about her postgrad internship before the brunette finally agreed to take Ian home with her. Took another half hour to convince her roommate to join them in the fun, and by then Vanessa was nowhere to be found.

I went home alone and slept like shit. I should have brought the blonde home to calm my nerves, but I had a feeling it wouldn't have mattered. I couldn't get Vanessa's voice out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her up there singing her heart out. I couldn't remember the last time I'd laid eyes on a woman and hadn't run her looks through some sort of mental hot-o-meter. Tall, short. Nice body, too much makeup. Sweet ass. The list of assets or lack thereof went on...

Vanessa wasn't like that. She was more than a list of features. She was...beautiful. Naturally beautiful with a body I couldn't wait to get my hands on and size up in a much more intimate way. She wasn't all made up and ready for the club like she'd been when we first met, but for some reason, that made me want to take her to bed all the more. She wasn't trying to impress me or be more than who she was. She was...real. Real and disconnected enough from the scene that I'd been working for so long that maybe I couldn't help but be entranced by her.

She widened her eyes when I came up beside her. They were pretty, like the rest of her. A mix of color, pale green the most prominent.

"Do you mind?"

"No, of course not." She shifted her gaze away from me, setting her passport up on the counter.

"Are there any upgrades for two?" I asked. I shot the woman behind the counter a smile. Curvy, older bottle blonde.

She blinked a few times before looking down at her computer and tapping keys. "Let me see. Well, actually you're in luck."

"Darren, I can't-" Vanessa shook her head.

"It's fine. I'll get it." I reached for my wallet and tossed the woman my credit card.

Vanessa started fumbling with her own wallet. "I can't let you do that."