Kane glanced at me, and I gave him a tight smile. I thought I heard him say my name as I walked back inside, but I ignored it entirely.
***
Thirty minutes and two cocktails later, I was feeling much more receptive to Nick from Marketing’s advances.
He was tall and handsome, and he’d carried a torch for me ever since I stepped foot inside SBG. Why, oh why couldn’t I like him?
Because he wasn’t Kane. That’s why.
“Ugh.” I tossed back the shot the bartender handed me.
I still hadn’t seen Kane and Alayna, but then again, I wasn’t looking. I didn’t want to see.
“You wanna’ dance?” Nick asked hopefully.
I grinned at him through bleary eyes and ran a hand over his chest, enjoying the way he shivered beneath my touch. Kane would never shiver.
I was a little tipsy and being stupid. I wasn’t proud, but I dragged him out onto the dance floor anyway.
“I’m just using you to make myself feel better,” I blurted. “I don’t want to lead you on, Nick.”
He smiled and shook his head, wrapping his hands around my waist. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t?” I asked in surprise.
“No.” He chuckled, twirling me around in his arms. “I see the way you look at Kane. I know that’s who you really want. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate you while I have you in my arms.”
“God, you’re so nice,” I groaned. “Why do you have to be so nice? You should tell me I’m a bitch or something. You can, you know. Because I should want you. I really should.”
“I wouldn’t kick you out of my bed,” he smirked. “And I’d never call you a bitch.”
“Then what would you call me?” I leaned my face against his shoulder and allowed him to lead. “Invisible? Because that’s what I feel like.”
“You aren’t invisible, Aspen. But you just don’t see it.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant, because a moment later, Kane was trying to cut in.
I grabbed onto Nick and pleaded with my eyes, but he fed me to the wolf.
“Later.” He winked. “We’ll pick this up later.”
Kane took over with his usual smoothness. Whatever I’d witnessed out on the balcony earlier was completely absent from his features now. He looked as unruffled as he always did.
“I don’t want to dance anymore,” I protested.
His grip on me tightened. “You mean you don’t want to dance with me.”
“Shouldn’t you be holed up with Alayna in a dark corner?” I retorted. “Or did you already get what you needed?”
His eyes narrowed in warning, but I didn’t care. I was jealous, and I wanted to push his buttons.
“That was fast,” I noted. “Must have been a quickie. I’ve never understood the thrill of them, to be quite honest. I certainly won’t be having a quickie tonight when Nick takes me home. That’s for sure.”
He released me as though he’d been burned, and I thought I saw a flash of hurt in his eyes. Surely, I was imagining things.
“Is that what you want?” he asked.
His voice was soft and missing its usual mischief. I hated that.
