She runs a fingernail up my shirt until she hits bare skin. It’s doing nothing for me, but seeing steam practically come out of Cassie’s ears makes my smile wider. I take Molly’s hand.
“How about we go get a drink inside,” I say.
Molly nods eagerly and we walk to the door into the clubhouse, out of Cassie’s line of sight. I catch Mace’s eye as I pass.
“I’ll meet you in there,” I tell Molly letting her hand go. She giggles and heads inside.
Taking the keys to Mace’s Harley out of my pocket, I toss them at him. He catches them without fumbling, giving them a cursory look before raising his head back up to me.
“It’s out front of the garage. Shouldn’t give you any more problems.”
“Took you long enough.”
“What can I say, I’m a busy guy.”
That is bullshit but I hide my smile as well as he hides his irritation.
Mace glances at the clubhouse, where Molly has gone, then looks at me, leaning back in his chair. Will he make a move on Cassie now I’ve got her all riled up?
Fuck I hate this feeling of seeing him as competition for a woman who has made it clear she doesn’t want me.
No one at the table speaks, sensing the weird energy between the two of us. Screw this.
I saunter in the other direction from the clubhouse and the party without another word. I’ve made a point to Cassie. Let her think what she wants. It is petty and childish but fuck, I am feeling some kind of way at seeing her tonight.
My dick twitches at the memory of her as I stride to the garage. I remember how fucking soft her skin is, how it feels having those magnificent tits pressed against me, in my hands and my mouth.
Fuck, I push my dick down as I try to banish the image from my head. Maybe I do need to get laid, the problem is, there is only one woman I want.
I don’t feel like going home to an empty house, but I don’t want to be around all these people either. The sounds of the party are loud, so I don’t feel quite so alone away from it all, which settles me.
Sometimes I wonder if I should move into the clubhouse. There are a few empty rooms and I’d be more than welcome. Close to the garage if I ever need work to take my mind off shit. I’ve been a loner for a long time, but the older I get, the more I crave being around people. And the harder it gets to bear the total silence.
My phone beeps, alerting me to a news story. I’d set it up a while ago and I’m not sure why. It always leaves me feeling like shit, but I can’t help it.
There is an article about my father. He’s been caught with another woman, causing another huge scandal. This one is married and is younger than me.
He is still with his wife. I refuse to think of her as my mother anymore. Adriana lived through scandal after scandal with him, never leaving his side, despite how many times he made her look a fool. She doesn’t care, that is what people don’t realize.
Adriana is a sociopathic, money grabbing bitch, who doesn’t care about anything but what she can get for herself. She barely tolerated me when I was a kid. When she got pregnant with Talya, dad forced her to keep the baby. Fuck knows why, he was barely around for me either.
I hated wishing my sister was never born. I loved her so much. Talya suffered a lot in her short life, no matter how hard I tried to love and protect her.
I’d taken care of her, hadn’t been bothered by the way she followed me, even though there were ten years between us. Talya wasn’t getting the love and care she deserved from our fucking parents, so I gave it to her. I gave all of myself to her because she should be loved.
A miniature version of our mom with her strawberry blond curls and megawatt smile, Talya was always happy. Whenever we went out in public, people flocked to her because she was so outgoing, inquisitive and cute.
I started noticing the way Adriana looked at her when she was around three. Sometimes, when they were alone, I’d hear Talya’s chatter and Adriana’s irate voice, then Talya would start to cry. I foundbruises on her more than once. Adriana claimed she’d had an accident. Falling and bumping her head, or playing too close to our pool and falling in.
My vivacious, adorable little sister was disappearing. She cried a lot, began cowering away from Adriana. I did everything in my power to keep her happy and safe. Talya only giggled and became herself when it was the two of us.
Just after her fourth birthday I began sleeping in Talya’s room. Adriana hadn’t liked it and there had been fights but I was scared about leaving her alone with Talya. I tried to talk to dad, but he was only interested in his latest role or modeling campaign.
No one wanted to listen to me, no one else seemed to notice. Or believe Adriana was capable of hurting her child. In public, she was the doting mother, no one would have believed the way she was behind closed doors.
It was hard formeto discern what she was doing. She always did it when they were alone.
I shut down the news story and put my phone in my pocket, running a hand down my face.
