Chapter 4
Chapter four
“I didn’t realise how loud it was in there!” Beth shouts from behind as Caleb pulls her through the crowd.
Isabelle is laughing uncontrollably as she lets me lead her. Her soft, warm hands are firmly encased in mine as I try to see the floor as straight instead of nauseatingly crooked.
Fuck, I haven’t been drunk like this since my early twenties. Back when I didn’t care about what happened, I just wanted to have fun with my best mate.
The ringing of game machines feels as though it’s blaring directly in my ears as we pass row upon row of people gambling and cheering.
“We should probably head back to the hotel!” Caleb yells.
“That’s what you said ten minutes ago!” I say, cringing as my own voice beats against my skull. “That’s why we’re walking to the door.”
“Oh, good idea.” Caleb nods.
I would roll my eyes, but it hurts. I need to lie down. I feel Isabelle stumble behind me and fall into my back. Whipping around and quickly regretting it as my head spins, I keep one of Isabelle’s hands in mine while the other lands on her bicep.
“You okay, Buttercup?” She looks up at me with a beaming smile and unfocused eyes. Or maybe it’s my eyes that aren’t focused.
“I’m so good,” she says with a laugh.
I tuck a curl that hangs in her face behind her ear, then turn back around to lead us out, silently reaching back for her other hand again.
Without pause, she holds onto me, sending a pulsing energy through my arm. I just want to pull her in closer and wrap her all around me. It feels so nice. So good. I want to soak up all her sunshine. That’s what she is—beaming, bright, and delicate. Like the buttercups I’d plant in my garden.
“Oh, look, showgirls!”
I’m still stumbling along an unsteady route to the doors that I’m sure are around here somewhere, when I see Beth running up ahead.
“Elizabeth! We need to stay together!” I shout after her, but it’s too late. She’s reached a pair of women with peacock feathers on their heads and so many sequins, I’m blinded.
“I never realised how attractive redheads are,” Caleb muses beside me as we deviate to catch up with Beth.
“I didn’t think you had a type,” I say, watching in horror as Beth starts posing with the scantily clad dancers. “Oh shit. Quick, we need to stop her before someone gets a photo.”
“I didn’t think I did either,” Caleb continues, lost to his own thoughts. “I don’t think it’s a general thing, though. It might just be one in particular.”
“That’s fascinating, Cale, but can you tell it to me after we stop our sister from making herself a headline? She’s fucking unbuttoning her shirt right now.”
I make it to Beth right before she reveals her underwear to the lobby of the High Rollers Casino. “Beth, keep your shirt on.”
“But look at these beautiful women with their bedazzled bras, Henry.” Beth is giggling and looking at the dancers, who do, in fact, have bedazzled bras.
“Yes, very nice. Now, please, let’s get out of here.” My hands are still locked around Isabelle’s, and I’m adamantly against the idea of letting them go. I look around for Caleb, expecting him to be right beside me, but he’s a few metres back, scrolling on his phone.
“Caleb, help!” I call to him, and he looks up in the complete opposite direction of my voice. “Over here, you idiot.”
The look on my brother’s face when he finally spots me is one of surprise, like he forgot we were here. He jogs over to us, smiling big when he sees Isabelle, then throws an arm around her shoulders. “Hi, Iz.”
I can’t be sure if the look on my face matches the riot of emotions I’m feeling from the sight of my brother’s arms around Isabelle. But for whatever reason, it’s enough for him to lean down to her.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asks.
Isabelle unleashes the sweetest burst of laughter, her cheeks turning pink when she looks up at me, then back at Caleb. “Wait. What was your question?”
“What question?” Caleb asks, and I want to smack myself in the face. Instead, I drop my head back and instantly feel bile rise in my throat. I’m sure I haven’t drunk that much tonight, but given I rarely drink, whatever I have consumed has definitely gone straight to my head.
“You’re on Beth duty, Cale,” I say. With a deep inhale, I close my eyes and try to breathe away the dizziness.
“I need to lie down,” Isabelle says, right before I feel a weight press against my back.
Looking over my shoulder, I see Isabelle resting her head against me, eyes closed peacefully.
Tingles dance up my legs, and my belly flips, but it feels like a good flip, not a sick one.
It feels like something I want to keep feeling over and over again.
Caleb is bending down, letting Beth climb onto his back. The pair of them laugh when Beth pretends to whip reins and screams, Yee haw!
Isabelle’s head starts to feel heavier against my back. “Hey,” I call gently.
She lifts her head, opening one eye, and I bend down. “Hop on.”
Her knees come around my sides, and I hook my hands behind them.
Once she leans forward, letting her arms drape over my shoulders, I stand and call Caleb to start following me.
I only take a few steps before I realise Isabelle’s breasts are pressed against my back.
Heat explodes over my cheeks, through my chest, and all down my arms. Her hands are criss-crossed over my front, one palm pressed directly over my heart. Can she feel how fast it’s beating?
“Did your piercings hurt?” she asks over my shoulder.
Pain is measured against the hardest thing you’ve endured. After losing someone I haven’t yet figured out how to move on from, I don’t think much more would be worse than that.
“No.”
“One. Two. Three-Four-Five,” she says as her fingers gently touch on each of the rings threaded through my lip, nose, and ear. “Are you hiding any more?”
“Where would I be hiding more, Buttercup?” I ask, looking over my shoulder into her blue eyes and knowing exactly what other piercings I’m hiding.
Her cheeks blush before she whispers, “Some men have their nipples pierced, or—” I see her throat bob as she swallows, and my tongue aches to reach out and follow the motion. “Their downstairs.”
She buries her face in the crook of my neck as she laughs. My stomach takes flight, and I smile at how cute she is.
“What about you? Any piercings you’re hiding?” I ask. She shakes her head, making the long chain earrings threaded through her ears jingle.
“I have a tattoo, though.”
“Where?” I demand, desperate to know where on that pure, creamy skin lies an ounce of rebellion.
“A butterfly on my hip. It’s only small, nothing like what you have, Grim.” With her confession, she brings one hand up to trace the lines of ink on my neck.
My hands, where they hold under her knees, grip tighter, desire stealing my breath.
It’s the alcohol. I’m never out of control with my actions or my needs, but this proximity to her is like an itch I need to scratch.
A song I need to scream from the top of my lungs.
A fire I need to let burn and consume me.
It’s untouched lands that I need to conquer and—
“Taxi’s here!” Caleb’s voice pulls me back. He’s pushing Beth into the back seat, lifting one foot in at a time. It looks like she’s already passed out.
I stumble over to the car in a daze, mind stuttering on everything Isabelle.
I crouch down so she can hop off my back, and I’m hyper aware of every inch of her body as it slides against mine.
It’s as if time slows, and it’s impossible to think of anything else.
I’m too inebriated to stop the wayward thoughts, like moving her body against mine without any clothes on.
When have I ever wanted a woman like this?
Never. But I can’t want her. She works with my brother.
She’s working on my new business, and I will not mix business with pleasure.
Caleb already had experience with how that can go wrong.
Besides, I can’t be in a vulnerable place again.
I won’t. Definitely not with her. Light can’t survive in the darkness, and Isabelle is incandescent.
I slide into the taxi. Caleb is sitting in the front, directing the driver, while Beth is lying along the back seat, her legs stretched over my and Isabelle’s laps.
The High Rollers plied us with endless alcohol.
I was able to keep drinking water, but the shots wouldn’t stop, and those fuckers made sure to look each of us in the eye to make sure we joined in.
My stomach swirls and my head pounds as we drive through the streets of Royal Harbour.
I have to shut my eyes to ward off the bright lights of the sleepless city.
Thankfully, it’s a short drive back to our hotel.
I open my eyes once I feel the car stop and hear Caleb exchanging words with the driver. Isabelle has her head resting against my shoulder, and Beth’s head is thrown back against the window, snoring so loudly that I’m actually shocked by how aggressive it sounds.
Caleb pulls our baby sister from the car, draping her over his back to carry her inside.
“Isabelle.” I nudge her arm with mine, but she only mumbles something incoherent at me. Pushing my door open, I step out of the taxi, then pull her out, hoisting her into my arms.
Caleb waits in the hotel foyer, and I reach him just in time for the elevator doors to ring open.
“What time are we checking out tomorrow?” I ask.
“Eleven,” Cale says, his eyes shut as we ride up.
I manage to move my wrist enough to read the time on my watch. 3:52. No wonder I feel like shit. That was almost eight hours of drinking and socialising.
I follow Caleb out of the elevator once we reach the eighth floor.
“Can you help Izzy to her room? I’ll take Beth through the interconnecting door in my room,” Caleb says, balancing our sister where she’s passed out against his side.
“Yeah. See you in the morning.”