Chapter 32
thirty-two
We dance until the end of the painfully slow and boring song, piece, whatever music like this is called. It doesn’t matter, because I’m dancing with my bumble. My baby girl. The woman I want to collar, and have dancing around my kitchen every morning, her bottom warm from my hand.
As the piece finally ends and I steer Cynnie towards the edge of the dance floor so I can take out my phone, a man steps forward.
“There she is,” he says. “My little fiancée. You don’t mind if I cut in?”
I turn to look at him. A few inches shorter than me.
Deep brown hair slicked back from a smooth face.
A suit that cost about ten times what mine did, tailored to give him broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Those weird shoes with the long toes that make him look like he has a size eleven instead of a size nine.
I’ve never understood the appeal of those, but then, I’m not compensating for what’s in my pants with what’s on my feet.
“Think you have the wrong girl, buddy,” I say.
Then I glance at Cynnie.
She’s gone chalk-white, except for two red spots burning on her cheeks.
I start to reach out to her but stop. I’m not sure who this man is, but at a party filled with her friends and business associates, I don’t want to step wrong and embarrass her in front of any of them. I fall back on my oldest skill. I wait, and let the awkward pause lengthen.
“Kade,” Cynnie says after a furtive glance at me. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I thought it would be a nice surprise. I’ve been gone so much this year, with opening the branch in Malaysia, that I’ve barely seen you.
Did Jun tell you we’re already profitable after only three months?
” He smiles: wide, hearty, and somehow, fake.
“Most successful launch in company history. Now that it’s launched, I can come home and pay attention to everything I’ve been neglecting. You saved me a dance, right?”
His eyes glitter and he holds out a hand.
With another glance at me, Cynnie takes his hand and lets him lead her out to the dance floor.
Leaving me standing there.
I have the presence of mind to close my damn mouth, so I’m not staring after them like a complete fucktard.
But everything else is scattered, whirling through my head.
He called her his fiancée and she didn’t correct him.
He emphasized little like he knows what she is.
Has she had a long-distance daddy all this time? A long-distance daddy she’s engaged to?
As my thoughts are tumbling and my stomach’s turning and I’m utterly torn between storming onto the dance floor and tearing her out of this pointy-shoed asshole’s arms and just storming the fuck out, Jun walks up beside me. He offers me a flute of champagne.
“I see Kade found Cynnie,” he observes, following them around the dance floor with his eyes. “That’s probably your cue to leave.”
Fuck him. I haven’t liked him since long before I met him. Meeting him has not improved the situation.
“I came with Cynnie; I’ll leave with Cynnie,” I say gruffly.
Jun scoffs before sipping his champagne. “I’m not blind the way my father is. Cynnie’s changed over the last two months, and not for the better. She disappears for days. She lies about where she is. I’ve had her followed to your apartment. I know she stays overnight. You’re not just friends.”
I tilt my head to glare at him. He had her followed? What a prick.
“You set this up,” I say, as the light dawns. “You called him back from wherever he’s been for this party. You delayed the party a couple of days until he could get here and made it look like it was Cynnie’s fault. You did it to throw him in my face.”
“Cynnie has responsibilities.” He nods at the couple on the dancefloor. “To her family. To the company. To her fiancée. It’s time she remembers her responsibilities.”
I shake my head at him in disgust. “I don’t have any siblings.
I found my family in the Navy. My brothers.
I’d die for any of them. I’d do anything to spare them pain.
You have a flesh-and-blood sister. Someone you should feel more for than I feel for my brothers.
And you did this to hurt her. To hurt your own sister. ”
He turns and faces me fully, anger stripping away his smooth veneer. “She needed to be taught a lesson.”
“What lesson? The older brother who should protect and love her is an asshole? I’d say she doesn’t need to be reminded.”
“Leave. Or I will have you thrown out.”
I shake my head at him. “I told you, I came with Cynnie. I’ll leave with Cynnie.
You’re the one making a scene right now.
And trust me, if you try to have me thrown out, I’ll make a much, much bigger scene.
The people here? They’re your friends and business associates.
I give not one fuck what they think of me. I bet you can’t say the same.”
His mask shreds further, eyes bulging, cheeks hollowing. “You will never see Cynnie again after this night. You will never speak to her again.”
Does he really think he can stop me?
I shake my head at him. “If Cynnie doesn’t want to see or speak to me again, then I won’t, but she’s the only person I’m listening to. Now, you might want to fuck off. People are staring.”
He glances around and realizes I’m right. He runs a hand down the front of his tux and lifts his chin in the air. “When she finishes this dance, tell her I want to see her. We’ll end this farce tonight.”
“Tell her yourself,” I say, nodding at Cynnie, who has pushed away from her fiancée and is steaming across the dance floor toward me with tears in her eyes.
I could turn away from her in spite. Hurt her the way she’s hurt me by keeping whatever the fuck is going on here a secret. But DirtyGurl’s words ring in my ears. Be like Logan, only less judgmental.
Don’t jump to conclusions. Be the daddy Cynnie needs.
Instead of letting any of my turmoil show, I hold my arm out to her. When she tucks herself under it, I hand her my untouched champagne and wipe under her eyes, careful not to smear her makeup. “What happened? Did he step on your toes?”
Her chin trembles as she looks up at me. “I want to leave.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Jun hisses and grabs at his sister’s arm, but I step back, keeping her out of reach.
“Don’t you even think about ruining Baachan’s birthday,” he snarls at her.
“You’re the one who’s ruined everything, Jun,” she snaps back, with both more spine and more sharpness than I expect out of my bumble.
“You did this. You set this up after I told Papa I was bringing Max. I knew I got the right date. I even double-checked. I was right. You rearranged the party so he could fly in. You kept his coming a secret. All so you could spring him on me and humiliate me in front of Max. Kade just told me how you two planned it together. After he propositioned me. Again. You’re just as bad as each other.
You always have been. I hate him and I hate you. ”
Jun’s hand whips toward Cynnie. I turn so he catches my shoulder instead of her cheek. The impact stings a little, but I bet it hurts him a lot more than it hurts me. I keep my arm curled around her as I steer her toward the exit.
“Cynnie,” I hear a woman’s voice behind us, rising in pitch. “Cynnie, where are you going?”
She stops and turns to face the woman racing after us. Her stepmother.
“I’m very sorry,” Cynnie says to the older woman. “We’re leaving.”
“Cynnie, we haven’t cut the cake yet,” Harmony protests. “Baachan will be so disappointed.”
“Then she should express that to Jun,” I say. “Since he’s the one who ruined Cynnie’s night.” I stick out my free hand. “It was nice to meet you.”
Caught between a protest and impoliteness, she shakes my hand and I use the opportunity to get Cynnie moving again. No one else stops us before we walk out into the warm night.
As soon as we’re on the street, Cynnie pushes away from me and looks up at me, her eyes teary and dark. “You hate me?”
“No, I don’t hate you, baby. But I am really fucking confused.”
Her face crumples. “You’ll hate me. You willz.”
Her lisp appearing makes my chest tighten. Should I let her go into littlespace now? I don’t want her using littlespace to dodge what’s clearly a big issue. But if she’s overwhelmed and needs to escape for a while, littlespace might help.
“I won’t,” I reassure her. “Do you want to come back to mine? We can talk or we can play? Whatever you need right now, baby. I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“You want to make sure I’m okay?” she repeats as the tears begin to slide down her cheeks. “After hearing I’m engaged to someone else?”
I swallow hard. Hearing it from Jun, and hearing it from Cynnie, are totally different things. One stung and pricked and made me want to throw things. The other feels like she’s drawing and quartering my heart.
“I-I want to understand,” I say. “I want to know why you didn’t tell me. Why you let me think we had a future. But first I need to know you’re okay.”
The tears fall faster. “I’m not okay, Oppa.”
I hold my arms out to her and she rushes into them. “Baby, what do you need? Tell me what you need.”
“I need my Oppa,” she cries. “I need growlies. I need my buzzies. I need you.”
“You have me.” For as long as it lasts. I don’t do cheating.
I hate the idea that she’s been using me to cheat on her fiancée.
I won’t sleep with her again now that I know.
But I can give her comfort and relief until she’s ready to face what happened tonight.
Even though it shreds my heart, I’m not going to turn my back on her. “Let’s go home, okay?”
She nods and nestles into me.