Chapter 23
B lake
The hope I had that the party would wipe my brain of Ren hit zero on the success scale.
I’d played two rounds of pool and yelled at Liam during air hockey cause he was a fucking cheater.
No one was that good. I’d downed more shots than I should’ve and was now dancing with some random girl whose name was a mystery.
She turned around to face me and smiled, but there was no spark.
Was she pretty? Sure. Did she seem nice?
As much as one could at a party when you couldn’t hear the other person speak.
Did my dick enjoy her grinding her ass against it?
Again, also yes, and yet…there was nothing in me that said she was someone I’d ever want to see again.
Like she had a tractor beam on me, I looked over at the couch where Myles had dragged Ren a few minutes ago when he claimed he couldn’t dance anymore.
Of course, he had pulled her down onto his lap and had been kissing her ever since.
Sure, he couldn’t dance anymore, bullshit.
I’d never been jealous of my best friend but…
fuck me. I wanted to drag her off his lap, punch him in the face, pull Ren into a room, and lock the door.
I could still taste her lips and the sweetness of chocolate on them from the brownie.
That single thought was enough to drive me mad let alone the feel of her sitting on my lap as she slept.
“Hey, did you want to go find a room?”
I looked down at the girl I’d forgotten I was dancing with and shook my head. Her happy smile faltered. “I’m not interested in hooking up.”
There was a flash of red before I was yanked away from the blonde girl and smacked so hard across the face that I stumbled to the side in shock. What the hell? Blinking, I grabbed my cheek and looked at Kimmy.
“What the fuck!” I growled as people turned to watch the show.
“We just broke up and you already moved on? How could you do this to me? Who is this anyway?”
I looked between them. This was ironic. Two hot girls were fighting over me, and I didn’t want either of them. “I don’t know her name. We just met.”
“Excuse me? You don’t remember my name?”
“Why should he? He was my boyfriend until a few days ago,” Kimmy yelled back.
As the two of them argued, I slowly stepped away and made my escape.
You couldn’t predict weird moments like this.
I’d been slapped so many times in the last two years that I’d lost count.
The longest relationship I had was three weeks, and yet they all acted like we’d been together for years and I was going to propose.
It was insane. The world had gone insane.
What happened to just wanting to have fun?
Hell, Nash openly cheated on whoever he was seeing, and he never got slapped. What the fuck!
Weaving my way through the crowd, I walked out the backdoor and flopped down on one of the deck chairs.
I regretted it immediately as a guy cannonballed into the pool, and water splashed all over my jeans, soaking them to the knee.
Everyone else laughed or squealed. Not me, I glared at the fucker as he resurfaced.
“Sorry, bro,” he said.
Fuck.
Pushing myself up, I marched back into the house. The bathroom was locked, so I found the kitchen and grabbed a handful of paper towels to dry myself off.
“You okay?”
My entire body jolted at the sound of Ren’s voice. This was what I meant. Why couldn’t my heart pound like this for anyone else? I didn’t even care who it was for at this point. I wiped at the wetness, but my eyes were trained on the black boots molded to her legs.
Don’t do it, don’t look.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s just water,” I said.
She stepped closer, and my eyes traveled up her body, forcing me to stand straight so I could look at her easier. The rocker t- shirt hugged her body, and the low-cut front didn’t help me stop staring.
“I meant the smack. That was really hard,” Ren said as she reached out and touched my cheek.
She turned and walked to the table that was set up like a bar, and I couldn’t peel my eyes away from her ass.
I quickly adjusted myself before Ren came back with ice in her hand.
I had no idea what she was doing until she opened some drawers and found plastic wrap.
With a single-handed, quick tug that only came with practice, Ren pulled off a piece and laid it down.
Dumping the handful of ice, she made a homemade baggie and walked over, placing it against my cheek.
It really hadn’t hurt enough to warrant ice, but I would steal every touch I could get. Putting my hand over hers, I stared into her eyes. She was taller with the boots, and that put her lips dangerously close to mine.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Was that your girlfriend with the red hair?”
“Ex-kind-of-girlfriend. We were just having fun, or so I thought, and yes, that was Kimmy,” I said, running a piece of Ren’s hair through my fingers, happy that she’d taken the black wig off before we got out of the car.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Why did you break up,” she asked, her eyes trained on my cheek as I focused on her. I licked my lips as I thought about sitting her on the counter and kissing her the way I wanted to.
“Why do you think?”
Ren’s eyes turned up to mine, and she bit her lip before looking away. “Does she…know about….”
“You?”
“No, I didn’t mean me. I meant the other thing.”
I smiled wide. “No, to both,” I said as a couple of guys I didn’t know walked into the kitchen and openly stared at Ren.
I glared at them over her head, fully prepared to take them out if they made a single comment.
Luckily for them, they got the message and grabbed their drinks, leaving without a word.
“So, listen. I…um…I wanted to say sorry about earlier, with the whole trunk thing.” I loved that she was so fair. It was easy to tell when she was blushing, and right now, her cheeks were a bright red.
“Why are you sorry,” I asked, dick enough to want to see her get tongue-tied.
“Cause…well, you know, and then you had to see that, and….” She huffed. “You’re not going to make me say it, are you?”
My lip turned up, and I wasn’t able to hold a straight face anymore.
“It’s all good.” I pulled her hand away from my cheek.
“It feels better. Thanks for checking on me,” I said, running my thumb over her wrist, lingering on her soft skin.
She was tough and yet so sweet. The way she went after Vicky was hardcore, but then she let me see all the pain as she cried and fell asleep on my lap.
“I should get back,” she said but didn’t tug her wrist away.
“Yeah, you should. Myles is part bloodhound. He’ll track you down,” I said, making her smile.
“I’ve noticed.” She held out her hand, and I stared at it.
“What?”
“Keys.”
“For?”
“Don’t think I haven’t seen you doing shots. You’re not driving, and Myles already drank a few beers, but I haven’t, so the keys are mine. Hand them over.”
“But…no one drives my car.”
“Don’t but me. Besides, I’m not just anyone and I’m the only one sober,” Ren argued, wiggling her fingers.
I dug around in my pocket and pulled out the fob. Placing it in her palm, I held onto it as her fingers closed. “Just so you know, I never let anyone drive my car.”
“You trying to tell me I’m special,” she teased and smiled.
“You will be my first,” I said, and I almost stepped in and dropped my lips to hers to prove the point, but Myles chose that moment to walk in.
“Am I interrupting,” he asked, walking over.
“See, I told you, he’s a bloodhound.” I let go of the fob.
Ren held up her prize. “I’m driving home, no arguments, and you better make sure you can tell me the way because I don’t remember.”
“But what about the cops?”
Ren shrugged. “I guess the two of you shouldn’t have drunk anything.” She smiled wide and pushed the fob into her pocket, which stood out as a lump inside the tight pants.
“Well fuck, are we safe getting’ in with ya?”
Ren growled and swatted at Myles, who laughed and picked her up over his shoulder, walking out. And just like that, my heart sank, and I was alone. Fuck me.
“Hey Blake, how you doing? I haven’t seen you in forever,” Gavin said as he walked in.
I’d partied with Gavin a few times and knew he dealt product at Meadow Grove.
Nash was considering bringing him on as one of our distributors.
Liam did the vetting, though, and Gavin hadn’t been checked out yet, which was good for me.
I nodded at him. “Been busy. Work, school, you know the drill.” I waited until he was right beside me, pouring a drink, and I looked around to make sure there were no ears nearby. “Listen, I’m looking to party a little harder tonight. Do you have anything on you,” I asked, and Gavin smiled.
“I didn’t know you were interested. I’ve got a few options. You got any green on you?”
I pulled out a wad of cash from my pocket, and his eyes lit up. “Let’s go talk.”
R en
The noise of the party had slowly faded into the background. I knew Myles was talking to Liam, who was sitting beside us on the couch, but I wouldn’t be able to repeat a single word.
“What the fuck is wrong with you,” Nash roared, pulling me out of my thoughts of Blake.
There was something about the look on Blake’s face in the kitchen that was nagging at me, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
Whenever I had a bad feeling my gut would twist into knots and my mind would race.
Mainly because the worry was usually right and there was something wrong.
I kept looking around the room for Blake, but he’d never come back into the sitting area.
Was he okay? If I went to find him, would the tension between us get worse?
Myles might be pissed, and that would hurt Blake as well. I was trapped in a lose-lose situation.
“Nash, please give me a second chance.”