Chapter 26 – Sydney #2
“It’s true, I’m a nightmare. Two left feet and everything,” Sienna adds, not missing a beat, and I silently thank the universe for women who help women. Sienna shoots me a wink as she grabs Seamus’s arm to lead him away.
He hesitates. “Are you sure you’re okay here, Sydney?” he asks, glancing at the knife on the table. He looks torn between wanting to help me and wanting to be anywhere but here.
“I’m fine, I promise,” I reassure him.
Sienna leads him away, but Jade stays back. She gives Sebastian a long look. “You think this is funny? Showing up here and ruining her date?”
He turns that icy glare on her. “I can’t think of anything less funny right now, actually.”
She snorts and turns to Viper, pointing an accusing finger at him. “I don’t care how scary you are, don’t fuck with her. She says stop, you stop. Got it?”
Viper stares after her when she storms away, a grim look on his face. He reaches for the knife on the table.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sebastian says, reaching out to yank it from the wood. He sets it down and pushes the knife further away from him, closer to me.
Viper’s lip curls. He reaches for the knife again.
“Line,” Sebastian tells him, tapping the table. A simple, clear command.
“Fuck you and your fucking lines,” Viper snaps. But he withdraws his hand. His leg bounces with restrained energy as he glares after Jade.
“What does that mean?” I ask, frowning, glancing between them and the knife. “What did you just tell him?”
Sebastian stares at Viper, watching him closely. “Viper has problems with impulse control,” he says finally. “Sometimes he doesn’t know where to draw the line. When to stop.”
“And you tell him when to stop?” I ask.
Viper barks a laugh. “You really think he could stop me, little rabbit?” he sneers, turning that dark, violent gaze on me.
“I remind him that he might be crossing a line,” Sebastian explains. “That’s all. Stopping is up to him.”
I stare at the knife on the table, then follow Viper’s eyeline to Jade, and then back to the knife. And slowly—too slowly—my mind connects the dots.
“You were going to hurt her,” I say, my voice sounding strangely distant.
Viper doesn’t answer. He just watches Jade through narrowed, dangerous eyes.
“Because she was defending me,” I continue, my voice rising in volume. “Because she told you no. You were going to hurt Jade. My Jade.”
“Sydney,” Sebastian says softly.
Suddenly I’m moving closer, taking a step toward Viper, hands clenched.
“How fucking dare you,” I hiss. My breathing is quick and erratic. There’s a high-pitched ringing in my ears, like a scream.
Make him pay.
“Sydney,” Sebastian says, louder this time, as I take another step.
Viper sits up straighter, attention now fully focused on me. His dark eyes sparkle in the dim lights.
“If you ever try to lay one fucking hand on her, I will… I will…”
Sebastian’s hand whips out, grabbing my wrist, and I freeze.
I’m holding the knife.
I blink, staring down at it, clutched tight in my hand. I can’t remember reaching for it, can’t remember why I picked it up.
My gaze slides to his, intense blue eyes calm behind his glasses.
“Line, Sydney,” he whispers. There’s no judgment in his stare as he watches me. Then he lets my wrist go and sits back.
It’s up to me to stop.
I drop the knife back on the table, yanking my hand away from it like it burned me.
Slowly, Viper stands.
“You’ll what?” he asks, smiling down at me, his lips stretched too wide, as he closes the distance between us. “What will you do to me?”
I’m so angry I’m shaking from it. My muscles burn with the tension.
“Maybe I’ll take your tongue, Viper,” I snap, throwing his threat from the other day back in his face. “How would you like that?”
Viper’s grin is all menace.
“Take it, then,” he says.
Sebastian swears, scrambling to stand up to intervene, but it’s too late. Viper grabs the back of my head and slams his lips down onto mine, shoving his tongue into my mouth.
I’m too stunned to do anything but stand there, frozen, as he rolls his tongue over mine, licking at my teeth, my gums, everything he can. It’s not a kiss, it’s nothing like a kiss. It’s a claiming, like he’s branding me.
I’m shaking and breathless when he finally pulls his mouth away, hand still gripping my hair.
He grins. Against my leg, his cock pulses, thick and hard.
“Sit the fuck down,” Sebastian snarls at him.
“Would you really try to hurt me, little rabbit?” he asks curiously, fingers playing with my hair.
I glare at him. “I would. If you hurt what’s mine.”
“That’s so fucking hot,” Viper groans, pressing his hips against mine even harder.
“Viper,” Sebastian snaps.
“Maybe I’d let you,” he tells me, ignoring Sebastian entirely. “Maybe we could bleed together.”
It’s fear that sends my heart racing at those words. That makes my breath hitch.
Fear. And nothing else, I try to convince myself.
But the way Viper licks his lips, wild manic eyes staring into mine, makes me think he can see through the lies I’m telling myself. He pushes himself against me again, grinding his length into me, and I swallow a moan.
“I want to fuck you,” Viper says, bluntly.
“And you can’t,” Sebastian tells him, spitting the words between gritted teeth. “Because you can’t control yourself. You’ll hurt her.”
“Yes,” Viper tells me, eyes sparkling with that promise.
“You’re not gentle,” Sebastian reminds him. “This is crossing a line, right here, Viper. Sit back down.”
“I could be gentle,” Viper tells me, ignoring his brother. “But you don’t want me to be gentle, do you?”
God help me, I don’t. I don’t want him to be gentle at all.
I swallow, hard.
I want him to make it hurt.
Maybe he sees that answer in my eyes, maybe he knows exactly what I’m thinking. My nerves are on fire, my pussy drenched with visions of what he would do to me.
Satisfied, Viper lets me go and finally sits back down, grinning at me the entire time.
Sebastian takes a deep breath. “Good. Now that we’ve settled that…” He turns, focusing on me. “Do you want to tell me what the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” he asks, voice ice cold.
“What does it look like?” I ask firmly. I raise my chin a fraction in defiance. “I’m on a date.”
“A date,” Sebastian repeats, rolling the word in his mouth like it disgusts him.
Anger flares in my veins. How dare any of them try to make me feel guilty for going on a simple date, when they’ve hidden so much worse from me.
“Yes,” I tell him. “A date. Is that a crime?”
“You were kissing him.” He says it so softly, I almost miss it. But I don’t miss the hurt in his eyes, the betrayal as he stares down at me. “You were, y-you were…” he stutters, stammering to get the words out. I’ve never seen him like this, so flustered, so out of control.
“He kissed me,” I insist. “And I’m not the one who ruined everything! I wasn’t the one who—”
Just like that, it’s gone. That fragility in his face, that vulnerability. His face shutters, his expression going blank.
“You’re right,” he agrees. The emotional wall he hides behind rebuilds before my very eyes, shutting me out. “It’s none of my business who you date. Why would it be?”
“It wasn’t… It’s not…” I’m trying to organize my thoughts into a coherent sentence, but I need to get it right, to dismantle those walls before they become permanent. “It wasn’t about you, Seb. Or what we did, it’s…”
How do I explain it? That I feel like I’m entitled to my anger, to my rage. Just because he didn’t outright lie to me doesn’t mean he wasn’t a part of the deception. But this date was more about Alec and Ash than it was about him.
I didn’t mean to hurt him.
“I’m not trying to make excuses,” I say softly. He won’t even look at me, eyes fixed on the wall. “But finding out you all lied to me? Finding out Alec is married? That hurt me, Seb. I’m angry. And I don’t know how to move forward with—”
His eyes snap to mine. “What did you just say?” he cuts in, voice low.
I stare back at him, confused. “About…?”
“About Sterling being married?” His gaze is so intense, solely focused on me.
“Um, you mean the reason I stopped seeing all of you?” I frown at him. “Are we not having the same conversation right now? Why do you think I’ve been so angry these last few weeks?”
He blinks slowly. “This whole time, all of it, it’s because you think he’s married?”
Throughout all of this, Viper has just been sitting with a growing smile on his face. Like this is all an amusing theatre production he’s watching play out.
“I don’t think. I know,” I insist. “I saw his wedding ring. I saw the pictures with Annika. He admitted it. Alec lied to me, and you all just went along with it. I thought I was getting past it, but then I saw her with Ash, and I realized I can’t do this anymore!”
I’m not even sure he’s listening. His eyes are wide, his chest rising and falling with his breath. He takes a step closer to me.
“It wasn’t me,” he says softly, barely more than a whisper. “It was never me. Was it?”
I scoff, rolling my eyes. “Unless you’re also married and keeping it from me, I—”
Viper gave me no warning when he kissed me, and Sebastian isn’t much better. His hand comes up to cup my jaw, touch so delicate, and then suddenly his lips are on mine, his body pressing into me.
I melt into him.
This. This is what a perfect kiss can be. It’s soft, slow, and unhurried. But I feel it in every cell of my body, touching every part of me.
It’s impossible to resist, and I don’t even try to fight it. I reach up, wrapping my arms around his neck, arching into him.
When he finally shifts back, I’m breathless, aching for more.
“We have to go,” he murmurs, lips brushing against mine, fingers trailing over my cheek.
“What?”
But he’s already moving away, hands dropping away from me. He motions to Viper, who stands, grabbing his knife. He doesn’t say another word to me, doesn’t even look at me. He just disappears into the crowd, Viper on his heels.
What the fuck?
I stand there for a few more seconds, catching my breath, trying to collect myself. It’s worse than when he almost kissed me in my shop, a thousand times worse. I’m surprised my legs can even hold me.
It’s not fair, the effect he has on me. Not fair, how much I want him.
When I finally feel like I’m back in control of my body—when I finally remember what the hell I’m doing here, in the middle of this club—I make my way to the bar to find the others.
Jade and Sienna I spot immediately standing at the far end of the bar, wrapped in each other’s arms. They’re making out so vigorously I almost feel bad for interrupting them.
“Ahem…” I clear my throat when I walk up, trying to get their attention as gently as possible. Jade’s eyes snap open, and she pulls back immediately, untangling herself from Sienna’s embrace. There’s red lipstick smeared on her mouth.
“Uh, hey guys,” I say, giving them an awkward wave. I look around the bar, searching for my date. “Where’s Seamus?”
They exchange a look. “He left right around the time that you and Viper started making out in front of the entire club,” Jade tells me.
“He was pretty disappointed. I think he really liked you,” Sienna adds. Great. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel worse.
“Fuck.” I close my eyes and tip my head back. “This might be the worst first date in history.”
“You have a tendency to be hyperbolic, but I think in this case you might be right,” Jade concedes. “But forget about him for a second. Are you okay?”
“No. I’m really not.” I open my eyes to look at her and have to fight against the urge to cry. “I think I need to leave. I’m going to head home.”
“Oh sweetie.” Jade pulls me into a hug. There’s lipstick smeared on her neck, too. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, you two have fun. I’ll be okay, I promise. I just need to get home and cry on my couch for a while. I’d rather do that without any witnesses.”
We say our goodbyes, and I head back to the abandoned booth to grab my jacket, throwing one last glance at where Sebastian disappeared into the crowd.
Officially the worst first date ever.
It gets worse, though. Somehow, it gets far, far worse. Because when I get home, there’s a note waiting for me on my doorstep.
And a photo of me at the club, dancing with Seamus.
I see you.
Everywhere you go.
You can’t get away.
I have eyes in places you can only imagine.
I stare at the photo, my heart pounding in my chest. Ash wouldn’t do this. None of my guys would do this.
Someone else left this for me.
Someone who wants me scared.