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Boss only has eyes for Addy, though. They catch on her as we near, and a smile brightens up his already bright face. He comes to a stand and sweeps her up in his hold, unapologetic as he gives the crowd another PDA-filled moment much like last night, but it ends as quickly as it began this time. Addy steps away and pulls me in close to her side.
I’m not sure she’s going to let me out of her sight tonight. Because I finally told her aboutlastnight. About Jude and our small moment on the balcony, and the even smaller one in her dark hallway two nights ago. But mostly, about how I freaked out at the loft and almost completely lost it. She felt awful even though it wasn’t even close to her fault.
Leaning down to bring her mouth closer to my ear, she asks, “What are you thinking? Are we heading to the bar for some drinks, or are we just chilling here for now?”
“I’m good for now.” I smile warmly and tug her even closer. “Doesn’t that bother you?” I ask after a moment, eyeing the girls who are eyeing her man.
She rolls her eyes with a tilt of her lips, not giving them an ounce of her worry. “They can all suck a big fat one for all I care, every single one of them.” The little growl in her words forces a breath of laughter from me. Addy might be adorable, but it’s what can make her all the more threatening when she truly wants to be. These girls wouldn’t have the first clue her claws had been extracted before blood was already drawn. Because the thing about Addy—she loves hard, but she fights harder—when there’s good reason to. And that reason is almost always to protect the people she loves most.
I would know because I’m one of those people; she’s told my parents off a few good times in my defense, even when we were just fourteen years old.
The memory of those buried moments threatens to darken my mood, dropping a leaded weight into the pit of my stomach. I swallow them down and brush them away—the vision of her balled-up fists and her tear-streaked face, the pitch of her voice when she screamed at them to remember they still had a daughter. One with a beating but broken heart, who had lost someone, too.
“Her brother, our best friend!”
The way her voice cracked and splintered open with those three words is something I’ll never forget.
I squeeze Addy’s hand, and it serves as the sturdy rope I need to drag me back into the present. Back into the club, back to the shimmering walls surrounding us, and back into Boss’sVIP booth. Back into the quieted space where an intense and captivating guy is currently staring daggers into me.
I look down at the short black skirt of my dress, running my hands over the silky material in an attempt to find my breaths and collect myself. But when I look back up at him, his stare is granite, cold and penetrating my senses. It makes my heart stall. Makes my skin feel as if icy hands are running over every inch of my body with his gaze alone.
Memories of last night flood past the walls of the dam I built around them.
His easy smile, and his relaxed state as he made small talk with me against the wall on Boss’s balcony. Smoke blowing out past his full lips and into mine. The soft brush of his mouth, and the way the consuming feeling of that closeness skittered up my spine and left a lingering ache in my chest.
And today. The subtle smirk and passing interest as he stood on the porch.
All of it—is gone tonight.
He sits at the farthest edge of a velvet couch, quiet and withdrawn. A calm exterior to anyone else looking, but there’s something deeper churning behind his eyes.
He looks… Well, he looks pissed the fuck off. Proven when his scowl deepens, and he stands up and storms away.
What the hell?
Chapter Seven
Jude
I don’t mean to be a dick; it just keeps fucking happening.Maybe if I think it enough times, I’ll eventually believe it. I’m not typically such a grade-A asshole, though. There’s just something about the way this girl makes me feel that scrapes at the surface of a barely healed wound.
It doesn’t help that Parker was testing me, eye-fucking her as she walked into the club tonight and saying something under his breath about taking his shot if I don’t. It pissed me off—irrational or not. And I directed that anger, that frustration, at her. However brief.
I know it isn’t deserved. So instead of continuing down that path, I stood up and walked away.
Parker was just being Parker, amused he could so easily pick at one of the only outward vulnerabilities I’ve ever shown. He wouldn’t actually swoop in like that after I’ve asked him not to. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is interested in her—attracted to her at the very least.
The truth is, none of us should be giving either of these girls a second glance, but Coach had to go and warn us off them, essentially waving a red flag in a damn bullpen. A stupid move, really. It’s obvious which of us has taken the warning seriously and which of us have taken it with a grain of salt.
Ahem. Boss.
I suppose when you’ve grown up wanting for nothing, you’re bound to view a few rules as nothing but mere suggestions. But again, what Boss and Addy have going on is genuine, so we can’t really fault him for doing so.
I head through the club, restrooms at the end of a dim hallway in my sights. Opening the door to the men’s room, I step inside and find a moment of reprieve from the pounding music that’s been hammering at my eardrums for the past hour.
Exhaustion eats at me all the way down to my bones. Hell, we’re all exhausted after today. But there’s not much that will keep the guys from going out and having a good time. And at this point, we all know I can’t help but come along and make sure everyone gets home in one piece. The former, to everyone’s knowledge; the latter, only to mine. Even when it’s to my own detriment. Because I’d much rather be back at the Masons’, in my bed and passed the fuck out. But no matter how much time goes by, I still feel beholden to the promise I made Brenna.
The emotions I wrestled with back then—anger, resentment, guilt—rear their snarling heads when I think twice about following through.