I was officially drunk.

It wasn't my fault, though. The first three shots were my idea, sure, but after that? Wilt and Miles took over the show, drowning their sorrows about their girl problems.

Me? I couldn't relate. Ever since I'd sworn off any and every woman, my life had been drama free and oh so peaceful.

My last girlfriend had definitively fucked me over in more ways than I had cared to admit, so taking time for myself the past two years on my own was needed.

That didn't mean I didn't partake in a one night stand once every few months, just to dip my toes in the water and see if I was ready to get back into dating, but every morning I'd woken with a girl who'd looked vastly different in the morning light, I realized that I didn't want someone who advertised herself as something she wasn't.

I wanted someone who didn't care about the Instagram influencing and the social circles she could join just by being with me. Someone who was normal, who had their own hopes and dreams outside of how many likes they could get on their videos.

That girl, however, seemed like she didn't exist as, even after two years of being alone, I had never once come across her.

"I can't believe she did you like that, bro. She's not worth it. You could get any girl you wanted in here, she was literally just a Maddie. You can't let it get to you like this, man."

I tuned back in to Miles and Wilt commiserating over the fact that Wilt's ex girlfriend had only used him to gain more followers, especially considering that his growing basketball career was close to rivaling my own and Eli's, though he was on a completely different team than the two of us.

We'd come together for a night of fun and drinking after the two flew in from Oklahoma, their home since joining Thunder, and in New York we'd had our pick of the bars that we wanted to choose from.

Ever since Eli had joined the Knicks, he'd been able to talk me up while I continued on in college and, with him gone, had been able to shine until I decided to join the draft.

I still hadn't forgiven myself for what I'd done to him that day in the basketball game, the injury in his shoulder that I'd caused him, but Eli felt like he'd deserved it, especially after planting the steroids in my locker that day in high school.

Once he had explained everything afterwards, though, I'd obviously felt like total shit for basically kicking the guy while he was down.

Still, the bonds we'd created in school stood the test of time, and I was thankful for a lifelong friend who was able to forgive me as easily as he was.

"A Maddie? Damn, we're still using that? Poor Pat."

Miles described any girl who had done any of us wrong as a 'Maddie', a term for a girl in college who'd screwed over our other friend Pat (Patrick) so fully and completely that he'd quit basketball and had taken a job in sports marketing instead.

I clapped Miles on the shoulder and stared drunk, glassy eyes to Wilt.

"Why don't we just forget about girls? Just us and beer and tequila shots!"

"That's disgusting. Fuck that, I see my rebound, hold my drink."

I followed after his dark figure into the crowd and then it was just me and Miles.

"What about you? You gonna ditch me for a girl, too?"

"Uhh...maybe? Don't hate me, man. We can't all be priests like you."

I rolled my eyes at his assumption.

"I'm not a priest. I still get some, just not as much as you two. It's not all that it sounds to be in a relationship."

"Don't I know it."

Miles had had his own trouble in relationships, lately. Hadn't we all?

A shock of golden brown hair in the crowd caught my attention, though I wasn't sure what drew my eyes to the woman dancing seductively in the thick mass of people first, but I only knew that once my eyes were upon her, they couldn't leave.

I was half swaying where I was standing, but I was sure that my vision was perfect. No haze in there at all, not even as I downed yet another shot of the burning tequila and allowed the techno beats in the club to wash over me.

Her body was perfectly curved in all the right places, places that my hands would fit in like a puzzle piece, crafted especially for her.

The tight jeans molded to her almost like a second skin, the cut of them ending just below her belly button, and the silk strap top she wore in a blue jewel tone brought out the glowing tan of her skin.

She was on the taller side, exactly how I liked my women because of my height being abnormally above average, but I grimaced as I watched her snake her arms loosely around a guy directly in front of her, obscuring her face from my sight.

If she wasn't already with someone, I would've walked over there and claimed my spot right beside her.

"Matthew? You going to ditch me this time?"

"Huh? No. Just...thought I saw someone I knew."

It was the best excuse I could come up with for losing myself in someone I knew I shouldn't have been so drawn to just by a simple glance. She had no idea who I was and I had no idea who she was. She shouldn't have affected me so much, and yet, I couldn't get that form out of my mind, the way her heels had lifted her calves and the way she had danced so slyly and yet so sweet.

Angel and devil all wrapped up in one.

The moment the man left her side and another moved in, I realized she was, in fact, not there with anyone, just dancing with whomever had come next.

I was out of my chair at the bar before I knew the thought had even flashed through my mind, ignoring Miles' laughter behind me.

The man saw me coming from a mile away and backed away, but just as the girl was about to turn around, I slid my hands up her sides and a satisfying shiver ran through her body, sending chills up and down the arms that I was running my hands along as she swayed lucidly against me to the music drowning out all coherent thoughts in my brain.

I didn't normally do this, just find a beautiful girl and come on to her so aggressively in a club that I hadn't been to in over a year. I would have dates and be a gentlemen, tell them upfront that I wasn't looking for a relationship so no one would get their feelings hurt if I couldn't pursue anything further than one night with them. But this?

I was so out of my depth here, with this gorgeous woman's body plastered against my front, arms up in the air and hands landing on my shoulder, close to my hair, tangling her fingers there and shocking my entire system when, as the lights went out, she turned around in my arms and angled her head close to mine.

There was a promise in our proximity and sin swirling in the skin connecting us.

It was almost as if she'd never done this before but knew exactly what she was doing as her hands came to rest on my shoulders, one of them trailing up and resting on the skin of my cheek, angling me down so that my lips would capture hers in mine.

And capture they did, like a prisoner in her snare, though I'd happily submit to her being my jailer, would hold my wrists out willingly for the metaphorical cuffs that she'd place upon me if only it meant that I could be hers for a night.

Warm velvet and ice mint crashed into my senses as the blaring bass rattling my heart against my ribs like a cage became snuffed out by more important sensations, the strongest of which being familiarity, like I'd known this woman my whole life and this kiss was like coming home to her.

Never before had kissing a stranger elicited such a strong response to my body, but it was like upon first touch, I lit up like a Christmas tree, and I never wanted that light to go out.

My hands trailed up her arms to hold her smooth face within my own, the strobing of the green and blue lights dancing across the backs of my eyelids as my heart beat in rhythm to the monstrous bass threatening to shatter my ear drums.

Her lips parted on a soft whimper that I had barely heard, but the sound ignited a fire within me that I never wanted her to extinguish.

My tongue darted into her mouth of its own accord, and my hands left her face to snake around her waist to bring her closer to me, impossibly so. She angled herself to kiss me deeper, stronger, to make me feel her passion swirling around inside her just as vigorously as my own did the same.

An aggressive shoulder slammed into me from behind, causing me to stumble into the woman whose name I had forgotten to ask, but before I could check on her to make sure she was alright, I was faced with the man who she had previously been dancing with, metaphorical steam coming out of his ears.

I stood in front of her, then, protecting her from the man who was almost the same height as me and clearly drunk off his ass.

"Whaddya think you're doing? I was taking her home!"

I internally groaned at the thought of having to deal with a bar fight, but I balled up my fists, preparing myself for a fight.

"Look man, I didn't think you two were together," I managed to grind out, though the man's glassy eyes flitted back from me to the space behind me where the mystery woman was standing.

"Hey. Where'd she go?"

Scratch that. Where the mystery woman had been standing moments before.

Shit.

I turned around aimlessly, searching the crowds for her face, but then I remembered. I hadn't seen her face. Not yet, at least. Not when I had been too busy burying my tongue in her throat and caressing those soft curves, losing myself in someone I had no business even touching, but I couldn't help it. I had to touch her, feel her, know her. Something in my bones demanded it of me.

I backed off from the guy and searched for her the rest of the night in that club, but to no avail, my mystery woman was gone.

She'd pulled a Cinderella, and hadn't even left a glass slipper behind for me to find.