“Going somewhere?” A dark, husky voice seemed to come straight out of the shadows and I jumped in fright, stumbling in my spike heels and falling headfirst into the rock hard chest of the dickhead himself—Beck.
“Yeah,” I muttered, instinctively grabbing his biceps to regain my balance. “To the bar.” As I said this, I flipped my hair out of my face and met his gaze by tipping my head way back. Damn tall bastard.
His eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared a little in anger. The fact that I could recognize this sent a spike of smug pleasure through me. A few days ago, I’d have said his face was as unreadable as ever, but now I was picking up on those tiny mood cues.
What did that say about how closely I’d been watching Beck?
“You’ve had—”
I cut him off by clapping a hand over his mouth. “If you try to tell me I’ve ‘had enough’ then I will deliberately march back out there and slam six tequila shots in quick succession.” I didn’t remove my hand, but his eyes were mocking. Taunting. “Oh, you don’t think I will? Try me.”
Slowly, deliberately, he peeled my hand from his crazy soft lips and smirked. “You’ve had enough, Riley.”
I had to admit, I didn’t think he was actually going to call my bluff. That said, I wasn’t one to make empty threats, so I shrugged and took a step back in the direction of the bar. I didn’t make it far, though, before Beck’s huge hand wrapped around my wrist and held me firm.
“Don’t be childish, Butterfly,” he told me in the sort of condescending voice that made merageinside. “You’re part of a respected, old-money company now. We have standards, and they don’t include getting white girl wasted at some new-money party.”
Gritting my teeth in anger, I tried to wrench my wrist out of his grip, but his hand only tightened and pulled me closer. When my balance finally faltered, I found myself pinned to the wall with his other hand pressed across my chest, holding me in place.
“Do not defy me, Butterfly,” he breathed in my ear, his voice dripping danger and sheerpower. His fingers tightened across my collarbone, slipping up to the base of my throat, where he pressed just hard enough to spike fear and arousal in equal measures. Damn I was fucked up.
“Sebastian?” I whispered, meeting his dark eyes from just inches away and hating the fact that my own eyes probably conveyed how turned on his little show of dominance was making me. “Go fuck yourself.”
Not giving myself another second to sink into whatever this messed up attraction between us was, I brought my knee up. Hard. Nailing him right in the nuts, just the way my mom had taught me to do if I was ever attacked in the dangerous streets around home.
Instantly, his grip on me relaxed enough that I could slip out of his hold and race back down the hall in the direction I’d come after the altercation with Todd.
Where the hell were Dante and Eddy?
Halfway across the room I hesitated. Maybe I should just find Eddy and ask her to take me home? My head was already spinning, and a nasty hangover was looming even without those six tequilas I’d threatened Beck with. Chewing my lip, I glanced over my shoulder and spotted the furious, gorgeous, infuriating object of my frustration storming toward me.
“Fuck it,” I muttered, hurrying across to the bar and ordering from my favorite person of the night—the bartender. On edge, I drummed my fingertips on the bar while he poured the little glasses.
Someone was smiling down on me, though, because Beck was waylaid by a gaggle of fawning drunk girls. One of them must have been someone important, because instead of brushing her aside, he was giving a tight, forced smile to whatever she was saying while his eyes remained glued to me.
I was all kinds of mixed emotions. Angry, that was a no-brainer; these rich pricks kept saying that theyownedme. Frustrated, because it seemed like I was wading through a sea of secrets which no one was inclined to share. Jealous, because Beck just laid an all too gentle hand on that girl’s waist to move her out of his way. But more than anything, I was sad. I was sad and lonely, because that small act of kneeing Beck in the balls reminded me of my mom, and she was gone. She was dead and never coming back. I was all alone in this world now, and my bio-family were the worst kind of people. They would never be my real family, not like mom and dad had been. So I was alone.
Holding Beck’s furious gaze as he crossed the room, I grabbed a shot in each hand and gulped them back. Quick like lightning, I exchanged the empty glass for a full one the second I could so when Beck reached me, I was wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and feeling the whole world spin.
“You stupid, stubborn shit,” he said with an angry growl as he grabbed my arm in that bruising grip that I was coming to love just as much as I hated it. “Come on.”
He started dragging me away from the bar, but I wasn’t anywhereneardrunk enough to just let him manhandle me like that. Everyone knew it took a solid twenty minutes for alcohol to really kick in, so if he thought I’d be compliant he was severely mistaken.
“Take your handsoffme!” I yelled, deliberately trying to make a scene as I wrenched my arm out of his grip. My raised voice brought far too many eyes down on us, but the moment they saw it was Beck, everyone scattered.
Beck’s jaw clenched, and I imagined I could hear his teeth grinding as he let me step away. Over his shoulder I could see Evan waving him down, and I jerked my head in that direction. “Your friend needs you, Sebastian,” I said, my words sounding a little slurred already.
He took his focus off me for a split second, and it was enough time for me to turn and not that gracefully slip away.
I made it out near the pool. “Hey!” I shouted, spotting my missing friends beside the Jacuzzi. They were both holding drinks and dancing close. Really close. “What the hell, you guys? You just disappeared on me!”
“Riles! There you are!” Eddy beamed and threw her arms around me in a drunken hug. “We were looking for you everywhere. This house has a really shitty layout, but I guess that’s what you get with these new-money builds.” Her breath held so much alcohol I suspected it was a fire hazard, but then mine probably wasn’t much better.
“Uh huh, really looks like you were looking for me,” I replied with light sarcasm, glaring at Dante. The look he gave me back was... confusing. Way too complex for my tequila fuzzed brain to figure out, so I shrugged it off and let Eddy coax me into a swaying dance with her.
Soon, Dante joined us and the three of us danced together while the pounding beat of the music reverberated through us. Hands seemed to be everywhere, but it wasn’t until Dante’s lips brushed the back of my neck in a light kiss that I became uncomfortable. Was that a platonic friend-kiss? Or something more?
“Um, I think I need to pee,” I told them, and started weaving my way over to the pool house where I imagined there would be a bathroom. It was just on the opposite side of the pool, so I waved away their half-hearted offers to accompany me. It was pretty obvious Eddy was into Dante, so maybe they needed a bit of alone time.
