Cheaters Anonymous by Lacey Silks Page A

York, and my sister got an offer to work at a brand new studio. It was perfect timing.
    With Chris and Zoey’s help, I fought my addiction. Sometimes, actually quite often, I still felt like I was fighting it.
    “If I had been there...”
    “Then it’s possible I would have ruined a friend,” I jumped in.
    “Those guys were scum. I can’t believe they used you.”
    I covered his hand with mine. “Scar, it was me who used them. They were a high for me. A way to deal with... issues. A way to forget. But it’s over now. It’s all over.”
    “What were you trying to forget?”
    You.
    “It doesn’t matter now. It’s behind me.”
    “Men are scum,” he repeated.
    “Not all men. You may not know it, but you’re my favorite man of all.” This time it was me who leaned in to kiss his cheek. I wanted him to know that he had a friend in me and that he could count on me.
    “Thanks, Jules. But truth is truth. I’m not the anomaly you’d like me to be. You deserve someone better in your life.”
    “Didn’t you hear me? I’m fine on my own, and I’m not looking for anyone. I just wanted to see how you were.”
    “Well, I’m good. I feel much better now that you’re here. I missed you, Jules.” He lifted his head and reached into the inside pocket of his suit. He slid his finger over the phone and frowned.
    “Shit, I need to head to the back. Will you wait for me? Please?”
    “Yes, of course.”
    He called over a waiter, saying, “Rick, get this lady anything she’d like.”
    “Thank you.” He kissed me on top of my head and left.
    As I sipped on my drink, going over our conversation, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else was watching me. Earlier in the evening I had thought it was Scar, but the chills that swept over my body made me doubt it. And when the familiar man sat down by my side, I knew it was he who had been staring at me the entire night.
     

 
    C HAPTER 6
     
    I sneezed.
    He stood by my booth for a few uncomfortable seconds before sitting down. Licking his full lips as if coaxing me to recognize them, he shifted from one foot to another and adjusted his crotch. The stranger at my side was well defined and definitely easy on the eyes, but nothing close to Scar. There was something familiar about him, and I sifted through my memories, wondering whether he was a man I’d fucked and didn’t remember. Yeah, promiscuous wasn’t even close to describing how I used to lead my life.
    I’d sleep with a man, fuck him until my muscles ached and bones nearly broke, just to see whether he could live up to my expectations… and then never call him again. I never spent the night, and most of the time I left before he even woke up, usually right after I reached my unsatisfying climax. It was like an art form, one I didn’t want to practice any longer and had no intention of revisiting. During the past six years, no one could even come close in comparison to the way Scar had made me feel that night. And there were so many men I’d been with, I’d fail to recognize most if they walked right past me… or stood in front of me like this guy.
    “I’m sorry, but I think you got the wrong table,” I said.
    “You don’t recognize me¸ do you?” he asked.
    “Should I?” My nerves were beginning to take over as I again wondered whether I knew him, and if so, how well.
    “Time has done you well, Julia.”
    I felt my brows narrow. His eyes were familiar and so were his cheekbones – but definitely not the nose.
    “Bradley Watson. From high school? Come on, I’m not that forgettable, am I?” He leaned his head in closer, and I let out a shaky breath. Okay, at least it wasn’t someone I had screwed in a hidden corner of a restaurant. Yet his presence didn’t ease the tension in my shoulders. Brad had tried to take advantage of me at his own birthday party our last year of high school. And that would explain the different nose – Scar had punched him and broke it. For the rest of