Bound by Her Best Friend (A Club Smex Story) Read Online Free Page A

membership.
    “Thought I might find you two here,” Zak said as he approached the men.
    Rob slapped him on the back, whilst Mitch signaled the bartender. “Scotch?” he asked. “A large one I imagine.”
    Zak nodded. “I’ll leave my car in the lot. Pick it up tomorrow.”
    “Here,” Mitch said a moment later. “You need to down that.”
    “Yeah,” Rob agreed. “We’ve been expecting you for the past hour.”
    “Am I that predictable?” Zak asked.
    Rob shrugged. “We know how hard these nights are for you.”
    “And we’re not going to lecture you again,” Mitch interrupted. “Your love life is your own business, even if you are acting like a complete pussy.”
    Rob laughed. “We said a dick, didn’t we? Not a pussy.”
    Mitch downed his own drink. “Either or. Have you manned up yet by any chance? Sorted your fucking love life out?” He paused. “No, you wouldn’t be here otherwise would you?”
    “We don’t talk about this,” Zak grated. “You know that.”
    Both men grinned and despite himself, Zak grinned back. It was the only way to deal with it, to smile and pretend that all was well. Besides, Zak knew from experience that this teasing would go on for at least another ten minutes, longer if he let on how much it bothered him.
    He deeply regretted confessing all to his friends, but it had been late one Saturday night, he’d been drunk, brooding, and it had been such a relief at the time to talk to someone. Zak remembered Mitch shaking his head and advising Zak to fess up or walk away. Rob was a little more understanding, but not much. Trouble was, in the end, no matter how he tried to explain it neither men could understand why he didn’t just make a move. Why he couldn’t simply go after what he wanted. But they had no idea of how delicate the situation was, how the years all added together into more than the whole.
    They had no inkling how much he stood to lose.
    “Let’s just say that this won’t be my first scotch tonight,” he said after a moment. “And leave it at that.”
    A half hour and another drink later, Mitch had run out of steam complaining about his newest PA, someone he referred to only as trouble-with a-capital-T, and headed off home. Rob remained at the table with Zak. They were discussing the latest change in some stock they both held when Zak became aware someone was standing at the table. He looked up to see a woman he vaguely recognized.
    Gemma, he thought, her name was Gemma.
    “Rob. Zak.” She grinned. “Why are you both over here by yourselves?”
    “We’re talking stock,” Rob said, grinning back. “Though we’re open to offers to change that.”
    “Then you’re playing tonight?” she asked.
    “I could be convinced,” Rob said at the same time Zak shook his head.
    “Not tonight, Gemma.”
    She pouted. “Soon then?”
    He shrugged, because Zak did not know the answer to that. Every time he came into the club he promised himself it would just be for a drink, or a meet up with his friends. But every so often, when the months and months of frustration reached a fever pitch, it would become something more. The women in the club came for one reason and one reason only, and to most of them Zak was a challenge. A challenge they wanted to figure out.  The fact Zak had no intention of ever letting them didn’t seem to bother them at all. He suspected it just made them all the more eager.
    If only the one woman in his life who meant anything felt that way.
    Realizing she wasn’t going to get any other answer out of him Gemma wandered off back to the bar. Zak’s gaze followed her, taking in the scene as he did so. There were maybe a dozen men still drinking and talking—many more than he would have expected on a Thursday night—not to mention an equal number of women, but that didn’t give a true count as to the number of people inside the building. Couples—maybe even more—would be enjoying themselves in their private rooms. No guilt. No