Chapter 68 #4
“You know, Amy, things could be worse,” Jodie piped up, her finger trailing the inside of her shot glass and up to her mouth where she sucked on it between soft, pink lips.
“How exactly?” My voice sounded throaty.
“Well, you have two exceptionally good-looking men fighting over you, and I have no-one.”
She couldn’t have been further from the truth.
I had one guy who professed to love me but had still cheated.
And cheated in a place he knew he might get caught.
Maybe he’d wanted to, maybe it was his way of getting rid of me, too.
Maybe he regretted it now, but if I went back, he’d do it again.
And another guy I’d fallen completely and utterly in love with, who, despite his ridiculous desire to keep me safe, didn’t love me in return.
Worse than that, he’d grown bored of me.
Even worse than that, he couldn’t stand what I was inside.
Grenades landed in my self-esteem. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t meet her eye. I stared across the room, seeing only static, hearing only white noise.
“Darcy, dance?” Jodie asked, holding out her hand.
“Oh um, I don’t know how to.” He scratched his freckled arm and shook his head.
“It’s fine, I’ll teach you.”
Reluctantly, he stood up. When he spoke his voice was both crisp and practical. “Okay Jodie, but you need to know, you’re not really my type.”
She smiled, bemused. “That’s okay, Darcy, I won’t try anything, I promise.”
Darcy moved awkwardly on the dance floor, completely out of time with the music, but Jodie didn’t seem to mind.
Clint came over with another tray of shots.
I didn’t ask who ordered them, it didn’t matter.
“What are you going to do?” Georgie leaned forward and placed her hand on my arm. “He moved here for you—gave up a career in the big smoke—it’s safe to say he must be truly sorry.”
“I don’t know, fur burgers are looking good at the minute,” I said with a wry smile.
BJ chuckled. Georgie said, “You might be needing a few more drinks then.”
“Pretty sure there’s not enough drinks in this bar to get me through that.”
“Let’s just drink a bit more, shall we? We can talk a little bit of smack, and whose bed you end up in is your choice.” She gave me a wicked smile. “Bottoms up.”
We shot another four down.
“We’re going to need some more drinks,” I said, feeling light.
Everything hazed, the room, the people, my pain.
The alcohol had done its job. I stood up.
The seat moved and knocked into my legs.
I shot a hand out to stop myself from falling flat on my face.
Georgie and BJ laughed. I pushed myself back up, clamped at hand over my mouth, and giggled.
I looked up and the first person I saw was Tom.
He was standing by the bar, a pretty blonde chatting to him, he smiled at her.
As much as I hated it, I couldn’t help but feel pangs of jealousy.
He looked across like I’d called out to him.
There was a pain in his eyes that I knew was mirrored in mine.
I tore my gaze away to Karson. He sat at the end of the bar with a flirtatious Rebecca, she smiled at something he said. The pin got pulled from the grenade.
I spun on my heel and went to join the others on the dance floor.
The alcohol blurred my eyes, the floor swayed, the world’s axis was put into fast-forward.
I glanced again in Karson’s direction. I shouldn’t have done, it was stupid, but I did.
Rebecca had her hand resting possessively on his arm.
She stroked his forearm, with one manicured, blush coated nail, in a long sweeping motion.
The grenade exploded.
I was aware of a male dancing close behind me.
He’d been there for a few minutes, trying to get my attention.
I’d ignored him until now. I turned to face him.
He was medium height and build, brown hair that fell past his ears, tanned skin, brown eyes.
Cute, maybe mid-twenties I guessed. He smiled, revealing crisp white teeth and small dimples on his cheeks.
I smiled back. He stepped closer. I turned away and raised my hands above my head and tilted my bottom back towards him, swaying in a sexy side-to-side movement.
He took the cue and wrapped his hands around my hips and pulled me closer.
His breath, hot and heavy, landed against my ear.
I swung back around and wrapped my arms around his neck, he settled his hands around my hips and pulled me in and we danced body on body, hip on hip.
I ran my hands down his back, plied by enough alcohol to loosen my body, I arched backwards with all the skill of flexible gymnast, touching the floor with my fingers. He supported the small of my back.
“Woohoo!” Georgie sung out, “you go, girlfriend.”
I pulled myself up and laughed.
“I’m Jason,” he introduced himself, running his hands up my back, onto the top of my butt.
“Amy,” I answered and swung away.
He reached for my hand and pulled me back, and we moved a little closer.
The dancing slowed. I lifted my arms high and swayed, wrapped in a hazy film of mind-altering alcohol.
He ran his hand down my body, grazing the sides of my breasts, down over my stomach.
My arms settled behind his neck, our eyes locked again, and I leaned in and kissed him.
There were no fireworks, not even a sparkler was lit.
Still, it was nice. Nice to be wanted by someone.
I knew what I was doing was a multi-pronged attempt to somehow cover the pain that sat like a rock in my stomach, and also to stick it to Karson and Tom.
Karson didn’t want me, fine, someone else did.
Jason was the screen actor that would fill the role and the crater-sized indent in my self-esteem, if only for the night.
It felt wrong, but I was going to do it anyway.
Not only that, but I was willing to take it a step further, maybe three steps further.
I ran my fingers up his collar bone, neck, toying with his earlobe. “Do you want to get out of here?” I purred.
“I was hoping you might ask.” He smiled and took hold of my hand, pulling us toward the door.
A body blocked our exit. A voice snarled, “I’d let go of her right now, unless you want to find your hand removed from your body?”
It wasn’t Karson. It was Ethan. What the fuck is it with vampires threatening to remove body parts? I rolled my eyes.
Jason lifted his chin, he let go of my hand and placed his arm around my waist. He wasn’t letting me go. Not when the promise of sex was on the line. “I think Amy can decide who she wants to hold her hand.”
Ethan’s eyes darkened, into black beady marbles. “You will move away now, before I tear your hand, then your arm, and then your head clean off your stupid, shoulders.”
Jason’s eyes widened. His mouth dropped open. He dropped his arm and stepped back quickly. “I’ll be over by the pool table, Amy,” he muttered and almost ran off.
“What, are you my father now?” I hissed.
He threw me a look that could carve ice. But black faded in his eyes and the blue remerged like a night ocean. “I’m saving you from doing something you’re going to regret. You’re drunk, you’re hurt, and you’re making a mistake.”
I threw out my hands, which unbalanced my foothold, and I staggered. “It’s my mistake to make, Ethan, not yours to stop. If I wake up in the morning and regret it, so what. It wouldn’t be the only mistake I’ve made lately.”
A muscle on his jaw bunched. “You will wake up in the morning and feel degraded and a hell of a lot emptier than you do tonight.”
I snorted out my nose. “Right, ‘cause I’m a girl. You can go out every weekend and fuck half the town. But if it’s me, that’s not okay!”
Ethan sighed. “You’re being childish, it’s nothing to do with that. I know what you’re feeling.”
“What?” I stared at him incredulously, dismay found a place in my head. “Are you reading my mind?”
“You’re drunk, your guard is down, your ring is on. So yes, I can read your mind.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be angry, mortified, or embarrassed. Finally, I realized it was all three— because if he could read it . . . so could Karson.
I glanced at Karson. You’re such a dirt-bag fucking asshole, I shouted in my head, read that.
His lips curled up, but his eyes scorched through me like a hot brand.
I yanked the ring off my finger and tucked it into my pocket. Emotion rushed through my veins, heat and pain. Anger and despair.
My power thrummed though me, buzzing, burning, begging to be released. My palms curled into fists.
The bar lights above Karson’s head exploded.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Glass fragments rained down, landing in their hair, glinting like rain drops.
Rebecca shrieked. I flicked out a hand and sent her drink flying into her lap. She gasped and jumped up, wiping madly at a dark stain over the groin of her beige skirt.
I smiled, with all the warmth of a shark.
Grace had stopped serving, she was staring, unblinking, at me. I was too drunk, too angry to care if she’d seen what I’d done.
Somehow, Ethan had the ring out of my pocket and back on my finger without me noticing.
“Fuck, Amy,” he growled into my ear. “You know better than to use your magic.”
Karson’s lips thinned. His jaw clenched. His face became a picture of fury.
Fire roared through my heart. I couldn’t stand seeing him for one second longer I whirled toward the door.
“Don’t even,” I snapped, holding my hand up to stop Ethan following. “Stay here, I can take care of myself.” I launched out through the door.
He followed out behind.
“I said stay inside, Ethan,” I yelled. I swung left toward home, the wind blustered around, twirling leaves. An aluminium can skipped across the pavement.
“I’m not letting you walk home, Amy. You’re behaving like a child.”
A tall slender girl walked past and smiled. Ethan nodded at her. I took little notice. It was probably one of his many acquisitions.