She giggled, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I’m sure they’ll be back down soon enough. Want to grab a drink with me?”
I wanted to be nice and say yes, but my head was already light and fuzzy, and all I wanted was to go home and sleep tonight off. If Ren was busy with Ben, that meant heaving to find somebody else to get me home, maybe Dallas, a driver Sophie hired for me when the one my father employed was let go right after the arrest was made. “I really shouldn’t. I’m going to find Ren. I kind of want to head out.”
“You just got here!” She normally stayed until the middle of the night, but that wasn’t me. Not even on the days I was sober, maybe especially then. Seeing what the people here did without a care in the world made me realize how much I didn’t fit into their crowd. Or any crowd, it seemed. Plus, there were still people who gave me one look and started whispering. Probably about the scandal and my father, maybe about the articles online on me. That was when the tingling started, the itch of anxiety creeping up the back of my neck like prickles of heat sent to taunt me as they watched me.
I waved despite Rita’s protest and gave her an apologetic smile. Evan’s eyes were still on me like a hawk, following me as I weaved through the crowd. They were narrowed and it made my skin crawl, so I stayed vigilant of the way he moved a few feet behind me like he didn’t want me knowing he was but was too smashed to be as stealthy as he wanted. Even a few of his frat brothers had talked about the growing difference in him over the past year. He was always annoying, but then he turned into a drunken stoner who acted out like he had nothing left to lose. Maybe if he wasn’t such a pest to me, I’d find it in me to care, even be concerned.
My hand found the phone in my dress pocket, speed dialing Lawrence by muscle memory as I pulled it out. He didn’t pick up, making me wonder just how busy he got with Ben as soon as they’d found a place. There was a chance they’d gone to his room, but there were too many other ones in the house for me to check and the stairs were packed full of people already.
Blinking back exhaustion, I stumbled into a few partygoers when my legs became like jelly beneath me. I murmured an apology that a few people brushed off, while a guy I recognized as Ren’s teammate looked me over with concern from where he was talking to somebody by the refreshment table. I thought his name started with J. Jamie? Jacob? It didn’t matter.
I dragged my hand along the wall until I made it outside, my fingers dialing a different number as my feet became heavier.
He picked up after one ring. “S-Something’s wrong,” I slurred, dropping onto an abandoned beach chair outside the house. There were a few people mingling, one couple making out on the lawn, and empty cans and red cups littering the freshly mowed grass.
“Where are you?” His voice was clipped, but there was enough worry etched in it to make me think it wasn’t because I called. At least, I hoped it wasn’t.
I was pretty sure I gave him the address, but my brain shut off somewhere between sitting down and saying anything to him. My phone was on my lap, my eyelids blinking heavily, and my mouth like lead to the point I couldn’t move it. A voice in my head told me to stay awake, but it was hard to listen.
It was sometime later when I heard my name being called before familiar hands found my arms. His deep voice barked at somebody before I was being lifted.
“Della?” A new voice said from close by. “Jesus Christ, what happened?”
“What happened,” the man holding me spat, “was that you left her alone at an STD fest. What the fuck did you think would happen?”
My eyes cracked open slightly to see Theo’s hard face glaring over me. I didn’t turn my head, but I recognized my best friend’s voice as he replied, “I’m sorry. Shit, I was just—”
“Does it look like I give a shit what you were doing?” Theo snapped, his grip tightening around me. His head shook as he carefully adjusted me in his arms so one of them was perched behind my knees and the other supporting my back.
“I’m sorry. As soon as my buddy noticed she was acting off, I came as soon as I could.”
Theo didn’t grace Lawrence with a reply before turning. His eyes found mine as we walked, the cold air making my overheated body feel better despite the goosebumps that formed from the way his gaze bored into me. “What did I tell you about drinking at these?”
I couldn’t answer him. He swore again.
I tried saying something, but he just quieted me, yanking open a door before carefully draping me on cool leather seats. I didn’t remember what happened after that except drifting off to the familiar and easing scent of tobacco and cologne.
Chapter Two
Theo
The last thing my dick should have done was get hard when I stepped back from pulling my comforter over Della’s sleeping form, but it became suffocated behind the zipper of my slacks as soon as I saw her curl into my sheets, knowing she’d smell like me.
“Fuck,” I grumbled, closing the door behind me. As much as I wanted to make sure she was okay, I didn’t need to watch her sleep before going to the fucking master bathroom and rubbing out a permanent hard on that appeared whenever she was around.
Dropping into the leather chair in my home office on the other end of the house I won during my divorce, I scrubbed
