up a little, like two hunting dogs who'd locked onto the scent of prey.
Ben walked around them and stopped beside me. "Hey, there, Friend of Cam."
"Hey, there back, Other Friend of Cam."
His grin widened as though he liked my sass. Shit, he was handsome in any light, but up close and wearing an amused smile, he was in a whole other league.
"What brings you to The Boot tonight?"
I lifted my drink to my mouth, taking a hefty swallow before I answered because I was suddenly thirsty. Very, very thirsty.
"Vodka," I answered. "Cam doesn't keep any in the house."
That was a dirty lie. Cam kept plenty of liquor in the house but the real reason I'd left is because I couldn't stand to be penned up, alone and drinking. It was too pathetic. Especially since Brian hadn't been the one to break my heart but the other way around.
Oh, and the fact that I didn't want to get drunk and blurt out the whole sordid story to Cam when she got home from work.
I absently wondered if men felt the same guilt I did when they broke a woman's heart. Other than J.J., I didn't have a lot of male acquaintances.
"Ever broken someone's heart, Ben?" I asked, taking another sip of my drink.
He shrugged. "When I was younger, yeah."
"Did you feel guilty afterward?"
His gaze sharpened as he looked down at me. "For a little while. Hurting someone is never easy, even if you don't mean to."
I nodded. "I agree. I just wondered if men feel the same way about that sort of thing as women do."
"Well, we're all human, so I would think that they do." He leaned a little closer. "What about you? Broken a lot of hearts?"
Oh, wow. Yeah, I'd invited that question. Nothing left to do but answer it. "Yeah, a couple of times. Apparently, I get off on it." I crunched on a piece of ice to relieve the tension on my jaw.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the two women staring at us with a mixture of shock and annoyance. Probably because I was dressed in black leggings, a loose Dr. Who t-shirt, and a beanie. My black glasses sat on my nose and, other than mascara, I wasn't wearing any make-up. Like I said, I didn't come here for attention.
Ben shifted, putting himself between me and Blondie. I scooted the stool a few inches and found my back against the wall and my inner thigh against Ben's hip. Whoa. It'd been a month since I'd had sex and my body was used to a fairly regular amount. I hadn't even been getting myself off since that night with Brian, completely uninterested in an orgasm of any kind.
"I don't know you very well, but from what I've heard from Cam, I find that very hard to believe."
Wait, what were we talking about? That's right, my supposed delight in crushing men's hearts beneath the heel of my Converse.
"I don't want to believe it either," I muttered. "But I've heard it more than once, from more than one guy."
I glanced down at my vodka and pressed my lips together. Why was I saying all this? Okay, so, yes, verbal diarrhea was my forte, but I usually kept the extremely personal stuff to myself.
I didn't know Ben that well. Cam talked about him a lot when we were in college, but in passing and usually in association with Brody, so he didn't feel like a complete stranger. Plus, there was the way he was looking at me—as though he wanted to hear anything and everything I had to say.
Ben shifted even closer, bringing my attention back to him. "People say things they don't mean when they're hurting. Don't take it to heart."
Heart? What did my heart have to do with the fact that my vagina was reminding me that it had been a while since I'd had sex? Holy crap, now I was thinking about that offer he'd made to have a little fun together. Dammit, how was I supposed to follow along in this conversation when my hormones were running amuck?
Where were we?
Oh, yeah. I'd crushed Brian and he'd accused me of being a cold witch who left a trail of broken men in her wake. You'd think that realization would cool me off, but it didn't.
A light sheen of sweat broke out on my lower back and I drained the rest of my icy drink. Ben's eyes locked on my mouth when I