Chapter 5
five
ESTRELLA
“W hat a fucking dick!” Derek said as he threw back his own shot of tequila. I handed him a lime slice to suckle on with a giggle as he continued with a pinched brow. “You know, I’ve met some cowards in my life, but that’s a whole new level. Not only did he abandon you, but now he thinks that he can talk to you like that, too? That’s crazy.”
“Isn’t it?” I exclaimed. I was intensely buzzed as I rambled Derek’s ear off—yet again. And while this would generally be a dangerous combination considering I had liked this man enough to have sex with him in the same setting mere days ago…I didn’t even care.
Fucking Zack thinking I would drop everything to talk to him the second I saw him.
Fucking Theo thinking he could compliment me and I would bat my eyelashes like a love-sick school girl.
Fucking me for feeling heartbroken as soon as I walked away.
The only men safe from my wrath were the other shitheads in that damn band, and even then, I probably wouldn’t protect them if some weirdo came at their million dollar hands with a baseball bat. Simply because they were connected to the men who ruined me.
Survive the weekend, I told myself. Survive the weekend and then you can run away.
I continued even as my words had the faintest hint of a drunken slur. Had I eaten anything that day? I couldn’t even remember. That probably wasn’t a good sign. “And you know, maybe I will hear them out. Maybe I’ll even try to see if there’s anything that can be repaired. But I will do that on my goddamned terms! They don’t get to boss me around as if I am that young, na?ve, twenty-one-year-old girl anymore.”
Derek’s eyes pinched together with a questioning head tilt. “Would you take him back? Or take them back into your life at all?”
I plopped my elbows up on the bar top before dropping my head in my hands. “I don’t know. I came here thinking I would throw the—yet again—rejected divorce papers in his face. I’ve been over him for years. I wouldn’t have slept with you or anyone else if I thought we had a chance ever again. And then…one look at the men that I used to call my best friends had me in more pain than I've been in years.”
“That’s not good.”
“ No hay mierda , Sherlock.”
“Hey! You texted me. No cursing at me in your fancy…really sexy tongue. I’m trying to be a friend, and that only turns me on. So shut up. I’d rather not think about fucking your face while you’re crying over your piece-of-shit husband and brother-in-law.”
I groaned.
“Well, doesn’t this look cozy,” a voice I would know anywhere said as a heavy arm was thrown over my shoulder. “Excuse me if I misunderstood or anything, but did you just talk about fucking her face?”
My shoulders grew impossibly tense at the drop of a hat. I looked up in a daze to confirm my already-known assumption. “Theo.”
His blue eyes flew to mine, and I flinched at the anger that they held. Somehow, they softened when he saw my reaction. “How much have you had to drink, princess?”
Derek spoke for me. “She’s had a lot.”
“And that’s your doing?” Theo asked, his eyebrow raising in fury as he turned back towards my… friend? Could you be considered friends with someone who gave you really strong orgasms?
“Me? No. There’s no controlling that fireball of a woman. But I have matched every single one of her shots. If I’m buzzed, I don’t even know how she’s going to stand.”
Theo sighed as his gaze turned back toward mine. “This is my fault, isn’t it?”
I laughed. It almost sounded like the Joker had possessed me at that moment. I spoke as I tried to shrug him off me. “Yes. Yes, it is. I’m so glad you could come to that realization yourself. Now, get your arm off me. Estás pesado y yo estoy cansado .”
“Did you just call me fat?”
A very unladylike snort flew out of my mouth. “Maybe.”
“Alright.” Theo sighed as he pulled the barstool away from the tabletop. I squealed as his arms wrapped around me, with one arm going underneath my knees and the other going under my arms, before he lifted me effortlessly. “Time to get in bed. C’mon.”
“Let me go, you mongrel!”
Derek stood up abruptly before he was directly in Theo’s face.
In my face.
I gulped at the testosterone that surrounded me, all in the blink of an eye. God, I really was blasted.
“Hey, hey, hey. Listen, I don’t care if you’re her brother-in-law or not—not after what she’s told me. If she doesn’t want to go with you, then she’s not going anywhere. So, either sit the fuck down with us until she makes up her mind, or you’re gonna have to go through me first. Don’t make me kick your ass because I will.”
Theo took in a deep breath before he looked down at me. “Will you please go with me?”
A part of me wanted to spit in his face.
The other part of me just wanted to burst out in a fit of drunken tears.
Fuck, life was unfair that week.
“Are you going to hurt me again?”
“What?” Derek exclaimed loudly. I was so unbelievably grateful that this round of hotel staff had been warned about loud men coming to their premises, because when I looked up, people around us were well and truly minding their own business. It was normal for musicians to be ruefully loud. “He’s hurt you? What the fuck, man? Put her down!”
I shook my head as I leaned to rest my head against Theo’s chest. He certainly wasn’t my first choice as a pillow, but I was running short on options. “Not…not like that.”
Theo ignored Derek. I had a feeling he was mere moments away from losing his shit entirely. “Princess, I will get on my knees and beg. Will you please let me take care of you tonight? You can go back to hating my existence in the morning, okay? I’m not letting you be alone anymore tonight, though. Alcohol is only making everything worse.”
I huffed as I nuzzled closer to him.
The prick was warm, and it was as agitating as it was comforting.
“Fine.”
Derek sighed, and I watched as his fingers raked through his hair in stress. “Are you sure, Estrella? You can stay with me if you prefer.”
Theo’s snarky comeback was quick as he walked away. “Oh, so you can think of face fucking her some more? Fuck you. I’m taking my girl back to our own suite. I don’t know what past you two have, but it ends here.”
His footsteps were heavy as he carried me throughout the hotel. I had the faintest feeling that people were watching—probably even pointing and whispering—but I didn’t have it in me to care.
I wanted to lay in bed. And I wanted to cry. Humiliation and shame had begun to mix in with my buzz the second that Theo picked me up, and it was only growing.
What has my life become?
As Theo stepped into the elevator, somehow managing to press the button to his floor, tears leaked down my face without my control. I sniffled as my shoulders shook along with them.
Fuck, I was crashing.
I pulled back to look Theo directly in the face with words that I knew would hurt him. I had to hurt him in some way to level the pain they had both caused me. Somehow . I hoped that the tears on my face would be more convincing than not. “I’m not your girl.”
He didn’t even flinch as he looked back at me. “No. You’re ours.”
“What?”
The elevator dinged as the doors opened, and I watched as we stepped out of it and directly into his private, penthouse suite.
Of-fucking-course.
They were headliners. Just like Derek’s band. Richer than rich.
Zack stood by the elevator doors anxiously, and my tearful eyes met his sad, red-rimmed irises.
I flinched.
Why was he crying?
Theo hardly paid him any mind. Instead, he carried me past him, and only shook his head as he walked me into one of the bedrooms. As if he knew I couldn’t handle talking to him yet. Though, his next set of words confused me more than anything—and I didn’t know if I could blame the alcohol that time. “Introduce me as your brother-in-law to anyone ever again, and you will be bent over my knee and punished accordingly. Are we clear?”
As he laid me down in bed, still in my outfit and lanyard from the day previously. I shook my head in a mixture of confusion and annoyance.
I couldn’t even muster a reply as sleep hit me mere seconds later.