Shane grins with hooded eyes, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a non-alcoholic beer.
“What?” I ask.
He yells over the music, “She reminds me of another eighteen-year-old that I used to know.”
I roll my eyes. “I can’t imagine who that is.” Just as I’m about to take another drink, I jump at the sudden vibration in my core. “Oh, fuck.” A splash of rum and coke spills on my black dress.
“What’s wrong?” Shane uses the cuff of his long-sleeved black top to wipe the spill on my chest before stuffing his hand back in his pocket.
I stare up at him. He only has a few inches on me in my heels. “Nothing. I don’t know.” I jolt again as another pulse of the toy sends an electrical current straight to my clit. “Do you want to sit down?” If I’m sitting, maybe I can get a handle on this thing. It doesn’t help that what I thought was the string with a silicone pad on the end is actually a clit stimulator that’s nestled itself between my folds.
Shane’s lips twist up into a grin as he takes my hand and leads me into the other side of the bar, where it’s quieter. He slides his pint onto the wooden table and pulls out a chair to sit down.
I shuffle on the back padded seat opposite, opting for a comfier seat with plush backrest. With my body tense, my bottom clenched, I wait for the next buzz to hit my core. When it doesn’t come, I relax my shoulders and take a sip of my drink, the cool fizzy liquid quenching my thirst.
“Do you still have those twin block braces you used to wear?” Shane smiles behind his pint before taking a drink.
“No.” My brow furrows. “Why the hell would I have them? They were the bane of my existence.”
“I just had a stupid idea. Doesn’t matter.”
“Hey, Lil. How’s your brother?” Matt, my very brief high school boyfriend, says, walking through the room.
I gulp, not wanting to talk about Ash in front of Shane. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”
“I heard he was out.” His hand pulls his long hair from his eyes.
Shane’s smile turns to a snarl, his face twisting at the mere mention of Ash. He turns around and glares at Matt.
“Fuck. Catch you later, Lil.” Matt pushes the wooden door that leads to the other room with the band.
Shane turns back to me. “When did Ash get out?”
I shrug my shoulder. “A month back, I think.” I can see his brain ticking over, doing the math. “He’s not the one robbing the elderly, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time. He’s robbed from his own family before.”
“That was when he was using. He’s clean now.”
“How do you know?”
“Just what I heard.” I shuffle in my seat. I hate lying to Shane.
He eyeballs me as though he knows I’m telling fibs, just how he would in my teens when he would ask who I’d been out with and where I’d been. He had a way of getting the truth out of me back then.
My bottom clenches as a vibration pulses through my core. I squirm in the seat again, my breath catching in my throat.
“A little jumpy, aren’t you? What’s wrong? That punk got your knickers in a twist. Have I got to threaten his ass like I did before?”
“You’re the reason he dumped me?” I narrow my eyes as I chew on the inside of my mouth.
“He wasn’t good enough for you.”
“Funny you said that aboutallmy boyfriends growing up.”
“They weren’t. Where the fuck are they now? On the dole or banged up. Every time I came back from tour, there was a new loser sniffing round that I had to get rid of.” He drinks his drink as though he hasn’t just confessed to ruining every relationship I ever had.
“But you had no problem with me dating the worst one of all?”
