It might be seeing her in that dress.
Because hot damn.
The party is ear-splitting, jam-packed. How to find it? Just follow the smell of regrets and drunken mistakes. I haven’t been able to peel my eyes off Kass since we got here twenty minutes ago. The worst part? She knows it. She wants me to be looking at her. She wants me to stare.
To suffer.
And it’s working.
She put on the tightest fucking dress she owns. One that makes my dick twitch every time she moves. I tried, but I can’t help watching her ass bounce as she walks around the party. I can’t stop fantasizing about wrapping my fist around that blonde hair and showing her she’s mine. Not Luke’s. Not any of the drunk bastards ogling her.
Mine.
We didn’t speak again after she ripped me a new one. And while I know she most likely said that last part to piss me off, I’m scared it comes from a place of truth.
I assess her from across the room. Track her every move as she leans against the pool table, laughing and chatting with Winter. Oh, and there’s some brunette whose face I can’t see from here. I remember Alex saying he was inviting the girl he’s been seeing.
Mia, I think?
“Is that Alex’s girlfriend?” I ask Kendrick, who’s got a barely conscious, busty ginger on his arm. She’s been “whispering” the dirtiest, cringiest things in his ear for ten minutes straight. I say “whispering” because the poor girl is way too hammered to be discreet. Now the whole party knows she can deep-throat.
I’ve never actually met Alex’s girlfriend before. Heard a lot about her though.
“Talking to you, asshole.” I elbow him.
“Fuck off, I’m busy,” Kendrick growls, hooking a finger into the ginger’s deep V neck as if to take a peek inside. She smacks his hand away with a giggle.
I don’t give a shit. “Is that Alex’s girlfriend? The one in the pink shirt?”
Irritated, he checks. “Yeah, it’s her.”
“How do you know?”
Why does she look so familiar?
Sure, the back of her head looks familiar, Will.
“Saw her and Alex come in together earlier. Now shut up.”
I never thought I’d be jealous of Haze Adams one day. But when he pops up by Winter’s side, surprising her by looping his arms around her waist from behind, I’m so fucking envious I could go apeshit. I want to do that to Kass. I want to be able to hold her in public and not give a damn who’s watching. Kendrick got over them being together, and he hates Haze’s guts. How is me dating his sister any different than his enemy dating his cousin?
Flustered, Winter frees herself from his embrace. Then Haze says something that makes Winter choke. She literally chokes on her drink. Soon after she’s done coughing, she excuses herself, dragging Haze’s drunk ass into an isolated corner to talk.
Alex and Ryder are back with drinks for Kass and Mia a few minutes later. Eventually, Winter rejoins their small circle, minus Haze. Nothing happens for a solid five minutes.
Until I see him.
Luke.
Staring at Kass. Fine, drooling over Kass. Guess I’m not the only one who noticed that dress. Greg, Luke’s dumbass friend, tells him something I know is about her. I can’t hear squat, but I’d bet a hundred bucks it runs along the lines of “Are you going to hit that?” and Luke flashes a cocky smile.
Then he’s making his way over to her.
He taps her shoulder.
She turns around.
Smiles at him.
It’s just to be polite, but still.
I can’t do anything. And since I’m the designated driver tonight, I can’t even get blackout. All I can do is stand there like a brain-dead fucking moron while the school’s quarterback flirts with my girlfriend.
Fifteen minutes in, I decide I can’t take any more of this hell. I tell Kendrick I’m going to get some air before storming off. Too bad he can’t get his tongue out of the ginger’s mouth long enough to reply.
I grab a beer in a cooler on my way to the backyard.
Fuck it.
I step onto the perfectly mowed lawn, wandering around and finding a quiet spot to drown my sorrows. I must chug my beer in less than five minutes.
She’s in there.
With him.
And I’m here.
Drinking the truth away. The truth being that she’d be better off with someone like him. Someone who wouldn’t hide her.
Rage spurts inside my stomach, and I lose it, chucking my empty beer against the brick house. It smashes, but the impact isn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped, the noise drowned out by the booming pop music inside.
“Feel better?”
I jump, spinning to find Kass staring at me, worry plaguing her clear eyes. How long has she been standing there?
“Not even a little,” I say hoarsely.
She threads forward hesitantly.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
She has?
“Why?” I sneer.
“I-I was hoping we could talk about… earlier.”
“What? Sick of Luke already?” I snap.
She’s caught off guard.
“Look, if you’re going to be like this, I’m just going to go.”
Shit.
She hasn’t even taken a step before I’m striding across the lawn, leaping into her way and crashing my lips to her. She yelps in surprise, staggering backward and granting me a short, fleeting moment of peace. Our lips chase each other. Hungry. Avid. And I couldn’t give less of a fuck that someone could find our lonely spot and see us at any moment.
I grip her waist with both hands, easing her against the old shed sitting in the backyard. I suck her bottom lip between my teeth, and she moans into my mouth, flattening her tits against my chest. We claw at each other’s clothes, faces, necks, making out until my dick strains against my zipper.
“I love you. Is that what you want me to say?” I rasp in between kisses. “Because I’ll say it a hundred fucking times if I have to. I love you, Kass. I love you.
