Theo-fucking-Astor.
He stood at the edge of the trees, just beyond the firelight. Shirt rolled to his elbows, fists clenched like he was trying to crush the bones in his hands. Eyes locked on me with something feral simmering behind them.
Possessive. Jealous.Mine.That’s what his gaze said. He wasn’t moving. Justwatching. Like a man deciding whether to fuck me or fight me.
I smirked, slow and vicious, and let my fingers trail down the back of the shirtless guy still grinding against me. Then I lifted my eyes back to Theo’s—daring him.
Come get me.
His jaw flexed.
I tilted my head, challenging him. Waiting to see what he’d do.
He stepped forward once. Twice. Then turned and disappeared into the shadows.
But not before I saw the rage. The hunger. The way his control cracked just enough to let something real slip through. And it hit me like a second heartbeat in my chest.
I mattered. Hefeltit. Whatever we were—whatever we weren’t—he couldn’t ignore it forever. And I wasn’t going to let him. Not anymore.
Theo’s gaze followed me like heat sliding down my spine, even after he vanished into the dark. He thought that was the end of it? That he could ghost me for days, then show up, glare like I’d betrayed him, and vanish again like some fucking storm cloud?
No.No fucking way.
I stalked toward the makeshift bar someone had set up on the tailgate of a Range Rover, music thumping around me like a pulse. A girl with glitter under her eyes handed me a red cup, but I shook my head and pointed to the bottle of tequila instead.
“Straight.” I smirked. “Make it burn.”
She laughed, but obliged. I knocked the first one back without flinching. Let it scorch a path down my throat. Took another. Then a third. The edge didn’t dull. It sharpened.
He was still watching. Iknewit. Even if I couldn’t see him. So I gave him something to follow. If he thought he could play games with me. I’d play them right back.
I peeled off from the firelight, slipping into the trees like a shadow, following a narrow footpath that curved along the lake’s edge. The sounds of the party faded behind me—bass and laughter turning into distant echoes.
And I waited. Waited like bait.
The air was cooler out here, damp from the lake, quiet enough to hear the soft lapping of the water and the pounding of my own heart. I leaned against a tree, lit a joint I didn’t even want, and stared out across the inky surface.
I didn’t turn when I heard the leaves crunch behind me. Didn’t flinch when I felt the heat of him close in. At some point over the last few months, my body had become perfectly attuned to Theo. I could sense his presence in any room the moment he entered, and I felt its loss the moment he left.
He grabbed my arm and spun me around hard enough to make my back slam against the rough bark of a different tree, disorienting me. One hand pinning my wrist above my head, the other braced flat across my chest.
Theo’s eyes were wild. Not the polished, perfectly presented vision I was treated to day in day out at work. Just fire and fury and something darker. Somethingreal. Like the night he begged me to make him feel and he broke apart in my arms.
“You think that was funny?” he growled, lips brushing against my throat. “Dancing with them like that?”
My breath caught. “Why? Did itbotheryou?”
His jaw clenched. “Don’t play with me, Sinclair.”
“Or what? You’ll ignore me harder?”
He pressed his arm tighter across my chest, forcing me fully against the tree. His body practically caging mine. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Getwhat, Theo?” I spat, defiant, hurt, drunk on tequila and adrenaline and him. “That I’m your dirty little secret? That you can fuck me, disappear, and still expect me to sit around like some sad little shadow waiting for you to look at me again?”
His face twisted. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then whatisit?”
