Jase steps out, folding his arms and leveling Ares with a deadly look. “You’re not welcome.”
“That’s not what my invite text from Julia says.” Ares waves his cell in front of him.
“She just uninvited you, so bye.” Jase grabs my hand, yanks me inside, and slams and locks the door before Ares can retaliate. I stumble on my heels, falling into his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of his cologne, and almost dying. His hand lands on my lower back, and his eyes dip to my mouth.
I straighten up and slide out of his embrace before we both do something we will regret.
His lips pull into a tight line. “Drinks are in the kitchen, and people are split between the basement and the living room. Enjoy your night, Ashley.” He walks off, and I try to calm my racing heart. He stops at the door leading to the basement and turns around. “For the record, you don’t look like a whore. I love the new hair and you look sexy as hell.” He opens the door and disappears down the stairs as a clicking sound reverberates behind me.
“I said it first,” Ares says, coming up behind me.
“How did you—”
He waggles a key in my face and grins. “The bitch never took her key back.”
I laugh, and it’s the first time in weeks I’ve exercised those muscles.
His features soften as he sweeps his fingers down one cheek. “I have missed that sound.”
“Don’t go getting all soft on me now, Ares.” I gently remove his fingers from my face. “I don’t know what your new game is, but I have no desire to play it.” Before he can reply, I walk off toward the kitchen to grab a beer.
I move around the living room, chatting to a few people I know while knocking back a few beers and counting down the time until I can leave. Ares is dipping in and out of the room, staying in the shadows, but his eyes rarely stray from mine.
You would have to put a gun up my vajayjay to get me to admit I like his possessive attention. It feels good to have someone in my corner again. Even if that someone has questionable morals and motives.
“Hey.” Bree comes up to me the second she sees me in the living room. “How have you been?”
I shrug, knocking back a mouthful of beer as Ares slips back into the room, planting himself in the corner, with a fresh beer in hand and his gaze firmly fixed on me.
“Chad is going crazy you showed up with him,” Bree says, sipping a vodka cranberry as she jerks her head in Ares’s direction.
“It was a coincidence. Nothing is going on.”
“I believe you, but I don’t think Chad does.”
I turn to face her. “What does it matter? We broke up weeks ago, and he hates my guts. He doesn’t get to do this. He knows the kind of person I am. He knows how truly sorry I am for cheating on him. He knows I would not show up with his enemy on my arm even if something was happening between us.”
“He’s hurting, and he’s a man. Emotion and logic don’t always cohabit easily in the male mind.”
“Isn’t that the truth.” I spot Toby Salinger watching our interactions like a hawk dissecting his prey.
“How are things with Toby? He’s watching us like he has lip-reading ability and he knows everything we are saying.”
I haven’t forgotten how he leered over me at my initiation.
He’s a creep.
Bree turns around and flips him the bird. “He’s a prick, and I might have made it worse and slept with him last week.” The words rush out like verbal diarrhea.
“Well, that’s an unexpected development.”
“I was drunk, and in my drunken state, I thought I should sample the goods before I’m forced to purchase them.”
“Something tells me that didn’t work out quite how you planned.”
“It was awful.”
I quirk a brow.
