35. Alessia
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
ALESSIA
“ I t’s just stress, she’s ok. But she needs to stop getting worked up,” the doctor says to Astor as he packs his stuff up. I fainted, again . It’s happening more often, and I know it’s because of stress, but I can’t help it. I’m so tired of people hiding things from me, about me . Hearing that Teagan was not only in the same state, but the same fucking university as I made me so angry. Because what did I do to make him avoid me for two years?
“Make sure she takes it easy, I’m sure the wedding is stressing her out. The fainting spells should dissipate afterwards. If not, call me.”
Astor sees the doctor out and turns to me full of rage, but I don’t give a shit.
“Don’t look at me like that, Astor. You knew he was here, you knew , and you didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t my place and we weren’t the best of friends, Alessia. We didn’t talk, and when we did, it was to yell at each other. In what world would we have a conversation about Teagan, or a conversation at all?”
He was right, we didn’t talk. We didn’t communicate at all until this whole arranged marriage thing. I shake my head and start changing my clothes.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re going out, remember?”
“You just fucking fainted. You aren’t going out.”
“Astor, it was six hours ago. I’m fine and I’m going. You can either come with me or you can call a cleanup crew to be on standby because you’ll definitely be killing someone with what Caroline has for me to wear.” He stares at me and shakes his head.
“Fuck’s sake. We aren’t staying long.” I shrug and he starts getting dressed. He needs to get used to the fact that his soon to be wife will do whatever the fuck she wants.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Teagan says to me. Astor is ordering us drinks and I’m sitting on Caroline’s lap. I want to be angry with him, but most of all, I want to know why. Why did one of my best friends decide to avoid me for two fucking years?
“T, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Until you can tell me why you decided to forget I existed for two years, we have nothing to talk about.”
“That’s unfair, if I could tell you I would. You have no fucking idea how badly I want to tell you why, but I can’t.”
“It’s the same secret, isn’t it?” I say to Astor who’s standing behind him. I don’t have to be close to him to know he’s grinding his teeth. He nods his head and I shake my head, turning back to Caroline.
“This outfit on you is insane, I can’t believe he let you out in it.” I look down over my short mini skirt and my heels, and grin at her.
“I thought he was going to have an actual heart attack when he saw me. Let’s go dance,” I say, pulling her by her hand. She leans in and whisper-yells over the music.
“You’re really trying to kill him tonight.” We brush past him and he grabs my arm.
“Do not bend over. Do you understand?” he growls at me. I shrug out of his hold and saunter onto the dance floor with my best friend. We’re quickly joined by the rest of my girls and for the first time since we got here, I’m just enjoying myself.
When the song changes to a fast beat, I feel Astor’s eyes on me. It’s like no one exists when I find him. He looks like he wants to devour me, I can feel him daring me as my hips sway faster to the beat. He raises his eyebrow and I slowly start to bend over. River gets behind me as my hands hit my knees and my ass starts gyrating.
“You’re going to get killed, he’s coming this way,” she says as I turn back to her. We both laugh when an arm wraps around me and I’m pulled into a body.
I know it’s him; his smell is taking over my nostrils and his touch is one I’ve learned to crave. I push my ass back and he yanks my head back to him, wrapping his hands in my hair.
“I told you not to bend over, little devil.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Don’t test me.” I move to bend over again and I’m quickly submerged into the air. I feel his hand covering my ass and I see the crowd parting as we come through. I smile at my friends as we pass them and Astor heads towards the exit with me thrown over his shoulder. I smirk at the valet when he asks Astor his ticket.
Astor groans as I reach into his back pocket and pluck out the ticket, passing it to the valet. He quickly grabs it and tries to hide his smile. “Thank you, ma’am,” he says. His gaze lingers for a second as he passes Astor.
“Keep staring at her and I’ll kill you. I really didn’t plan on that tonight,” he says to the valet. He clears his throat and hurries off towards the cars. I tuck my hands under my chin and rest on Astor’s shoulder while we wait.
“I can stand, you know. And I’m pretty sure everyone can see up my skirt.”
“I’m covering you. Now shut up.” I don’t waste my breath responding, instead I wiggle my ass in his hand and adjust my position.
Seconds later, the valet that he just threatened pulls up to the curb with his car. Astor not so gently deposits me into the passenger seat before rounding the car to get in the driver seat.
“You’re leaving my friends,” I say, looking out the window when he drives off.
“They have the guys there with them, they’re fine.” I think about how shit keeps happening this week and how honestly, it seems to be because of me.
“Yeah, they’re probably safer without me...”
“Don’t say that.” I shrug and lean forward, looking at the mountain in front of us.
“I wonder what the view is like up there, it’s probably gorgeous.” Astor grins and grabs my hand in his before turning the wheel.
“How about we find out?”