27 #2
Jayden winked over her shoulder at me. I rolled my eyes.
Go figure that he’d have to pick up a hooker as well.
The two of us were so similar sometimes it was scary.
The only difference was that I wasn’t out there throwing my life away by selling drugs for my dad like he was.
Jayden was smart—if he applied himself with the opportunities he was given, he could have made something of himself.
Then again. Look at me. I wasn’t the shining example of making a better life. I knew what my dad was up to. I still worked under him, letting it happen while actively cheating on my wife. It didn’t matter how much I tried to act like I was better than all of them—I was just as bad, if not worse.
I wanted to gag as Jayden kissed up her neck, grabbing her ass before taking the seat next to me at the bar.
I didn’t even need to mention that the woman had just tried to sell herself to me.
It was the place. If she hadn’t, she wasn’t doing her job.
I guess I didn’t pick my so-called best friend as someone who would fall for someone like that.
I didn’t think I was the person to fall for someone like that.
Maybe I was just learning all sorts of things about myself and the people around me.
“What are you doing here, Orion?” Jayden asked as he settled Raven into his lap.
She sipped her drink that was still sitting on the bar top, acting as if she wasn’t listening to anything we were saying.
People like her were dangerous. They heard every last word, knowing exactly how to use it against you.
Instead of giving him a direct answer, I lifted my beer bottle to my lips to take a drink, only to discover that my second drink was empty.
I shouldn’t order another if I wanted to see if I could spend some time with Sable when he got off for the night, but now I was annoyed.
I waved down Victor for another. He delivered the drink without question.
“Just needed to get out.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. I couldn’t tell him about how I’d been pursuing Sable, even if I was sure he knew. He’d implied just as much. Why else was I coming back week after week since he’d dragged my sorry ass through the front door.
The way Jayden looked me up and down told me he knew I was full of shit.
Instead of calling me on it, he turned his attention to the woman in his lap, whispering something in her ear, making her giggle.
I rolled my eyes because coming here to watch everyone except me get lucky was the last thing I’d intended.
Raven stood from Jayden’s lap, pulling him along behind her.
Back to sitting alone at the bar, the whole thing felt a little off.
Raven had been asking for Jayden specifically.
He’d been whispering to her like he didn’t want anyone else to hear what he had to say.
Not that I wanted to listen to my friend’s dirty talk, if that’s truly what it was, but I was so damn suspicious of everything he did now.
“Everything okay?”
Victor made me jump as I turned to face him at the bar again.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You’re watching Jayden like he’s someone to worry about. Is he? Do I need to get security involved?”
Fuck, I didn’t mean to come across that way. I didn’t want to raise a false alarm if it was nothing. Jayden really could be there to fuck the damn girl.Maybe she just had a thing for him. Hell, Sable and I had something going on, maybe Jayden was establishing something with Raven.
I tilted my head to the side. Jayden settling down with anyone seemed implausible. The man had fuckboy written across his forehead with a permanent marker. That title wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
“Orion? Do I need to get someone?”
I shook my head at Victor’s continued questioning. “Nah. I don’t think so. He’s pretty harmless.”
And fuck did I hope I didn’t regret those words.
Ishivered a little as the cool evening air hit my overheated skin. The club had been so much warmer—with the last call, I couldn’t sit inside anymore.
Sable hadn’t come back out after he’d disappeared with his client. I hoped he hadn’t snuck out of the back entrance heading home alone. I’d come to see him, after all.
Oxygen rushed into my lungs when I saw his familiar petite frame push through the front door of the club.
He was fully dressed now in a pair of oversized jeans paired with a long-sleeved t-shirt that clung to his thin frame.
As if sensing that I was standing there waiting for him, he spun to face me, a crooked smile breaking across his face.
“You didn’t need to wait for me to get off.”
I wanted to laugh at the statement. Maybe it took me back to being a twelve-year-old, but I’d wait for him to get off in more ways than one.
“Let me take you home?” I asked.
He slumped a little, but nodded. “Actually, that’d be nice. I’m exhausted.”
I moved to his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. We walked to my truck in silence, but the moment I got to the passenger door, I needed to say something.
“That was—that was a little harder than I thought it would be.”
Something shuddered in Sable’s gaze.
“Orion. Please don’t. I can’t do the whole jealous boyfriend thing again.”
I didn’t want to play that role. There was something about knowing that other men were touching him when I wanted to be the only one to do it that was making me irrational.
Maybe it was something that would come easier with time?
I wouldn’t know unless I tried it. The biggest downside was that it made Sable my grand experiment. I didn’t want to do that to him.
“Is that what I am?” Was it a little fucked that I was playing off his statement? Why did it make something warm in my chest to hear him call me his boyfriend? It should have been wrong.
Sable huffed a laugh before launching himself at me.
His arms wrapped around me. I finally got to do the one thing I’d wanted to do all night.
I just fucking held him. I kissed the top of his head and took a whiff of his hair that smelled like sex and sweat.
It was enough to flare that ugly green monster to life inside of me once more, but I did my best to shove it down. This wasn’t the time for any of that.
“Fuck. I don’t know. I want you to be? Is that weird?
Like, I know we talked about it.. sort of...
” he trailed off, huffing in irritation, like he couldn’t quite put into words what he wanted to say.
I wanted my pretty little dancer to be mine.
I just didn’t know how to navigate that around my marriage.
“I’m whatever you need me to be.” The words fell from my lips more easily than I thought they would. It was a commitment I shouldn’t have made.
Sable’s arms tightened around me—all I wanted to do was get him home, alone.