Chapter 24
“Let’s play a game!” Alex clapped during one of the rare moments everyone was back at the table.
“What kind of game?” Erik eyed her.
I groaned. I was tired. My feet hurt. My buzz was starting to wear off, and I was more depressed seeing the way Olivia practically hung off of Ty for most of the night.
It didn’t help that every time she touched him, cooed at him, or batted her eyes at him, Cady-Jo and Octavia beamed, sharing conspiratorial looks.
I’d been immensely grateful I hadn’t had to endure watching Ty dance with Olivia. Yet. I didn’t think I could handle watching him touch the younger woman, who was the epitome of sexiness in the black bandage-style dress that highlighted her model-perfect figure.
“Musical dance partners!” Alex exclaimed. “Here’s how it works. I’ve put everyone’s names in a hat. Each pair I pull out have to dance the next dance together.”
Kill. Me. I hated this game. She rigged it for her own amusement, and I was too tired to figure out which person here had earned her wrath.
“No one wants to play your games.” Preston glared at her, finally looking up from his phone.
Eww…I actually agreed with him. Now I needed a shower.
“Psht!” She dismissed him. Not waiting for anyone to agree, she pulled out the first name from a hat she’d “borrowed” from a nearby table.
“It could be fun.” Louise went along.
“I agree!” Helen joined, excited. “We need to do something to liven things up.”
Ugh…how much had she had to drink?
“Good! Let’s see who our first contestants are.” She reached into the hat, pretended to rummage around, and then pulled out two pieces of paper. “Erik and Cady-Jo, time to shake your groove thing!”
Erik and Cady-Jo smiled, happy with the pairing.
One by one, Alex started to pair people off.
Luke, who was one of Ty’s employees and friends, with Helen.
Louise with Prescott. That had me sitting up straighter.
I’d thought nothing of this game, believing she wouldn’t do it.
Sure enough, Isaac, who was on break from working the bar, got paired up with Olivia.
“Next is…Ty and Phoebe!”
She did it. She really did it.
Damn it. I should have known this was a setup. Alex continued to pair people off until she was paired with Preston. When she finally deigned to look at me, she gave me a saucy wink. Like that was going to make this better.
Prescott nudged me. “Maybe I can convince him to trade.” He jerked his head to Ty’s now empty seat.
“Not a chance,” Ty growled, stepping to the other side of my chair. Holding out his hand, he said, “This dance is mine.”
“No!” Alex glared at my hesitation. “You have to do it. It’s the rules.”
“This is a bullshit game,” I whisper-snarled at her.
“And one you know the rules of,” she whispered right back. “Now dance with him. He deserves it.”
Oh, did he now? I fumed, knowing she knew something I didn’t. I’d seen her drag Ty down the hall and figured I’d have to help her flee the country. Her shoving me at him with her rigged game hadn’t occurred to me.
Ty closed his hand around mine, pulling me to my feet. “This way, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart?
My heart, the stupid recalcitrant organ, thudded hard in my chest, and I ruthlessly smothered the feeling. You know all you need to about how he feels about you, Phoebe. Don’t be suckered in.
Ty pulled me onto the dance floor, Alex dragging Preston behind us.
To my horror, I watched her wink at the DJ. A second later, Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” began. I cringed, wanting to run away. I couldn’t do this.
“Come here.” Ty pulled me close, his hand finding the small of my back, his other hand holding my hand up. I stiffened, not wanting to be close to him. Okay, so my body really wanted to be close to him. It was my head and heart that wanted body armor first.
“Hear him out,” Alex ordered, then spun Preston away with her.
What the hell? She was supposed to be my best friend, and she was…
“I screwed up,” Ty sighed, and my head snapped around. He was staring at me like I was the only thing he could see. He pulled me closer till there was no space between us. I instinctively looked around, trying to put space back where it should be.
“I owe you an apology,” he said gravely, turning me so I couldn’t see anyone but him.
“Whatever. It’s over. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He closed his eyes with a pained look. “I fucked up, but you need to know I wasn’t—I was an asshole.”
Yes, yes, he was. Still, it hurt me to see him looking so…not like Ty.
Being me really sucked…
“It’s okay. Things are fine. Don’t worry about it. Let’s just move on.” I hated each word that came out of my mouth. I didn’t want to move on. I wanted to curl up and cry. I was pathetic. Ty had been a dick to me, and I couldn’t handle seeing him upset…
“It’s not okay,” he contradicted me. “Fuck. There are too many people here. But what happened this week, it isn’t what you think.”
Yeah, I was sure it wasn’t. The week he’d had to work with his dad, something that had been preplanned when I’d signed my contract with him, was over, and now he wanted to make finishing my reno less awkward.
“It’s fine, Ty.” It really wasn’t. I just couldn’t handle this right now.
Even while he held my hand, my fingers tried to close as I wished I had a pen to roll between them.
Ty adjusted his grip. “Squeeze my hand all you need. I don’t mind.”
I reared back in surprise. I wasn’t aware he knew what I did when I was stressed. Suddenly, I wanted to be anywhere but on the dance floor.
I can do this. I can do this. “Look, that night shouldn’t have happened. It was a mistake. Let’s just forget it.”
Ty laughed, low and sensual. The sound rumbled through him, echoing in my chest where we were connected. “You want me to forget the way you felt in my arms? The way your skin tasted under my tongue?” He leaned down, his breath fanning the hair by my ear.
My body clenched, remembering the pleasure he’d given me and wanting more.
“Mind if I steal my date back?” Prescott chose that moment to show up, and I almost kissed him.
“And if I do?” Ty’s grip tightened on me, pulling me tightly against him.
“Then I’d point out that everyone, including your mother, is currently looking this way, and they don’t look too pleased,” Prescott pointed out.
The pernicious bitch of reality made herself known, and I jerked out of Ty’s hold. “You should head back to Olivia.” To Prescott, I said, “Let’s dance.”
Ty stood there, his lip curled at Prescott. “This isn’t over,” he warned me.
Prescott twirled me away, and I looked back just in time to see Ty stomp off the dance floor.
For the next several songs, I went through the motions of dancing. Alex spun me around at one point, whispering in my ear, “Give him a chance.” For the first time in a while, my mind wasn’t lost in a story. It was in a maze, trying to figure out what Ty meant and why Alex was suddenly “pro-Ty.”
When I couldn’t take any more, I excused myself, heading for the bathroom in the back.
I needed a few minutes to get myself together.
As upset and confused as I was, my body was still humming.
Not from too many cocktails but from being in Ty’s arms again.
Having his hands touch me in any way made me feel alive in a way I knew I shouldn’t.
It was all too much, and I was ready to call it a night.
Washing my hands in the sink, I threw some cold water on my face for good measure. It was time to end this living nightmare.
I was barely two steps out of the bathroom when a hand closed over my mouth and an arm banded around my waist, pulling me backwards.
This hall was too deserted, curving so I was hidden from the main room. I yelped, thrashing as hard as I could.
“Shhh!” Ty’s grip tightened on me, pulling me into the room I’d noticed at the end of the hall next to the emergency exit. “It’s just me.”
That didn’t really make me feel better. My heart was still in my throat, and my head was spinning as lingering fear clawed at me. I was barely aware of the door closing behind us or that we were in a room that was little more than closet-sized with extra chairs, tables, and boxes covered in dust.
No sooner had he released me than I found myself against a wall, Ty’s hard body pressing up against me, trapping me.
“Ty! What the hell—”
His lips swallowed my words. Strong fingers tangled in my hair, wrapping the strands around his palm. His other hand gripped my thigh, lifting it up and hooking it over his hip. His erection pressed into me, and I cursed the skirt Alex had forced me to wear. It gave me no protection.
I was lost in a torrent of lips and teeth. The powerful stroke of his tongue and the nip of his teeth on my lip were all lightning strikes that shot down my spine.
He growled into my mouth, his movements ravenous.
Outside the door, I could hear the faint sounds of music and voices filtering through the wall.
He kept me pressed against the wall as his lips traveled down my neck, his teeth scraping my skin, making me shiver.
I’d just been able to stop wearing a turtleneck yesterday, and my core tightened in excitement that I might need to wear one again.
His grip on my hip was so hard, his fingers sinking into my flesh, that I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow, and I didn’t care.
I was lost in the feel of him, his touch, his body against mine.
My brain, the thing that should be screaming at me, reminding me of all the reasons this was wrong, was silent.
Ty ground his erection into me, and I choked back a gasp just as Louise’s voice sounded just outside the door. “Do you know where Phoebe went?”
“She had a call to take care of,” Alex lied, directing her back to the main room.
It was the bucket of cold water I needed to break through the sensual haze fogging my brain.
“Ty.” I bit off a moan when his hand slid up my thigh to cup my ass, pulling my hips forward. He rocked me against his erection, and I knew that if he didn’t stop, I’d be coming in no time.