Page 44

There was an extra swing in her hips as Tonya moved down the bar. I jabbed at the ice and lime wedge in my drink with the little red straw and then took a long swallow.

Seb leaned in to grab his drink. His quiet laugh tickled my ear. “I didn’t sleep with her.” His voice was low enough that I barely heard him over the stereo blasting Tim McGraw.

“What makes you think I care?” I snapped.

He just laughed again. Our gazes locked in the oil-stained mirror, and I glowered at him.

“Watch Lila’s drink.” Seb laid a square napkin across the rim. “We’re going to dance.”

“I don’t want to dance,” I protested as Seb tugged me off the bar stool.

“You love dancing. Besides, I want to get a look at the room. Make sure I know who’s here.”

He led me to the corner where two other couples were two-stepping. The song playing over the speakers wasn’t a slow one, but Seb made it feel like it was. He slid an arm around my waist, his palm flat against my mid-back, and pulled me close. His other hand held mine against his chest.

“I didn’t sleep with her,” he said again.

“I already told you, I don’t care.” I kept my eyes locked on the collar of his shirt. “Anyway, I’m sure the offer is still on the table if you change your mind.” I couldn’t keep the pettiness out of my tone.

“My bed is currently occupied, as you well know. Magic tits are hard to come by, so I don’t plan on kicking her out any time soon.”

Magic tits. I had forgotten about that. Once upon a time, I would have called that swoopy feeling in my belly butterflies. Now I knew they were bees. They might look fuzzy and cute, but those stingers packed a punch. “Fuck whoever you want,” I said haughtily. “It’s not like I expected you to be celibate after abandoning me in D.C.”

His hand spasmed around mine. “I wasn’t celibate. But if you’re worried you’re going to run into someone I slept with, don’t be. As I told Tonya, I don’t sleep with locals, and I have a one-night-only policy.”

Thinking of Seb with another woman made my insides feel like I’d eaten a whole loaf of French bread. “Great,” I said flatly. “Wonderful. You’re a thirty-five-year-old fuckboi. So happy the women of Mercy River dodged that bullet. But as I said, I don’t care. I’m not jealous.”

“Tell me how you manage that.” His gaze flicked around the room as he slowly swayed us in a tight circle. We could have been talking about the weather for how unaffected he looked. “Because when I think of another man’s hands on you, I want to wipe his existence from the fucking earth.”

I stumbled over my own feet, but Seb simply lifted me off them and then set me back down again like it never happened. “What?” I whispered.

His eyes met mine for a split second before he looked away again, his eyebrows furrowing. “You can’t actually be surprised. I literally ripped his shirt off you. Did you think I just hated the color?”

“But you left me.” I stared into his face, searching for clues and finding none.

Seb said nothing. His jaw ticced.

I planted my feet, refusing to budge. Say something, dammit.

Still nothing.

“Fuck you,” I said from the bottom of my weary heart. “I’m getting another drink.”

I knew he was right behind me, so the arm that landed heavily around my shoulders wasn’t a surprise.

But the smell was beer and sweat, not soap and aftershave.

My heart leaped into my throat as I froze in my tracks.

“Don’t be sad, pretty girl, I’ll dance with you,” a voice that was definitely not Seb’s slurred drunkenly in my ear.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. My breaths turned to shallow pants.

And then with a squeaky yelp, the arm was gone, the smell was gone, and I was still frozen. Something pinched my forearm, and I blinked. My brain flipped back on. Holly was at my side. Seb was—shit. Seb was about to break someone’s wrist.

I darted forward. “Seb! Stop.”

His furious gaze swept over me, and then he twisted the man’s arm and studied the back of his hand like he expected to find something there. Releasing him, he pushed him back a step, keeping me behind him.