Текст книги "Misbehaving"
Автор книги: Abbi Glines
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 13 страниц)
She pulled her arm free and walked away. I let her go this time. I stood there as she walked past her friends at the table and to the stage. Then she opened the back door and disappeared. Krit left the band to finish without him as he hurried off the stage.
He was willing to put her first. I never had been. He made her feel special, and I hadn’t. He wore eyeliner and had more piercings than one human should, but he knew what he had and he wasn’t willing to lose her.
Problem was, she had said she would hurt him for me. It was me she wanted.
How the hell was I supposed to walk away from that?
Chapter Sixteen
JESS
The stage door had barely closed behind me when Krit came stalking backstage. His eyes searched my face, and I felt like crumpling to the floor. He was worried about me. Jason was out there and I had all but told him I still wanted him, and Krit was worried about me.
“What the hell did he want?” Krit asked, looking ready to strike.
“He’s here with friends. He just wanted to say hello. I don’t think he expected to see me,” I told him.
“Does he know you’re with me?” Krit asked, taking another step toward me like he was scared I would burn him if he got too close.
“Yes, I told him. But he saw us earlier too.”
Krit studied me. “Now you’ve seen him, are you over it? Is this your closure?”
My closure? Could you get closure for something like this? Loving a man who didn’t love you back? “I don’t think there is anything to close. We were a mini fling.”
“Bullshit! He screwed with your head. Then that motherfucker has the nerve to walk into this bar.” He started pacing again.
“Krit, get out here,” Green said in an aggravated tone as he stepped backstage.
“Leave me the fuck alone,” Krit snapped at him. Then he looked back at me and cupped my face. “You okay?”
“They want you, Krit,” Green yelled over the crowd.
“I said to back the fuck off,” Krit yelled back at him.
I put my hand on Krit’s chest. “Go. I’m fine. I just want to stay back here and watch until your break,” I told him.
Krit nodded, then pressed a kiss to my lips before walking back onto the stage.
The door behind me closed, and I turned to see Trisha standing there. “Did he go back on?” she asked me, and I nodded.
Trisha walked over to stand beside me, and we watched him as he entertained the crowd. “He loves you,” Trisha said.
He hadn’t told me he loved me, but after the way he had acted outside earlier, I was beginning to wonder. “Why?” I asked. I hadn’t done anything to deserve it.
Trisha grinned. “Because you’re you. He knows the real you. Not the wild party girl you show the world. But then, you’ve not been that girl since the beginning of the summer.”
I hadn’t been that girl since I met Jason. We were both thinking it, but neither of us said it out loud.
“He’s not ready for what he feels. He wants to be, but he’s not. He’ll let you down. He’ll mess up.” I looked at Trisha, surprised by her words. She adored Krit. “I love him. But I know him. He’s a free spirit, and for the first time in his life he’s got someone he wants to hold on to. He’s never had that before. But he isn’t ready for it. It will ruin you both eventually.”
“I can’t hurt him,” I told her just as Krit turned to look back at me. He winked and licked his lips, causing the crowd of females to squeal.
“He’ll hurt you if you don’t. He’ll hate himself for it, and I’ll end up having to protect him from Rock. I don’t want to say all this, because for the first time in a very long time I can see he is really happy. You make him happy. But it’s not going to last. He can’t keep this up. He’ll crack. The right girl will throw herself at him and not take no for an answer and he’ll have had too much to drink. Then he’ll hate himself.” Trisha stopped talking and sighed. “I hate doing this. But if there is anything to that guy out there and you, he’s your ticket out, Jess. He’s the one who will pull you out of the life you were born into. Don’t let that go.”
What was out there would hurt me more than Krit could ever hurt me. I looked at Trisha. “Jason has the power to destroy me completely. I can’t let him. He broke me once. I can’t chance that.”
“You love him?” she asked.
I wanted to say no and for it to be true. I couldn’t. “Yes.”
“Krit has a club full of females willing to soothe his broken heart. He loves women, Jess. You know that. He’ll be hurt, but he will get over it. The females who adore him will help him.”
“When he’s ready, I’ll let him go. I can’t love him. My heart’s already taken.”
Trisha reached over and squeezed my arm. “And you’re sure you don’t want to see if this thing with Jason deserves a chance?”
Jason wasn’t here to give anything another chance. He just happened to be in town with friends and saw me. He hadn’t come looking for me. “I’m sure,” I replied.
Trisha nodded. “Okay.”
She turned and walked back out the door. I thought about sneaking outside to be alone, but if Krit looked back and didn’t see me, he would leave the stage again. So I leaned up against the wall and waited.
Fifteen minutes later Krit announced a break and left the stage without talking to the girls hanging around for his attention. He came directly to me and grabbed my hand. “To the back. Now.”
I knew what this meant, but could I do it after seeing Jason again made me so raw? I started to follow him and stopped. “Wait,” I said.
Krit stopped and looked back at me. I could see the fear flash in his eyes, and I hated it. I couldn’t let him think this was because of Jason.
“I’m … vulnerable right now. My emotions are all over the place. I’m not in the right mind-set to go have a quickie.”
Krit let out a defeated sigh. “I can make you forget him. Just give me five seconds, love.”
“That’s not the problem. I just need more than a quickie.”
Krit walked back over to me and pulled me into his arms. His chest was damp from sweat. “Fuck, yeah. Okay. I get that.”
He didn’t get it, but he thought he did. I was just glad to get a reprieve.
“I’m gonna need a drink, then,” he said. “You good to go out there with me?”
I nodded. If I had him beside me, I could deal with it. Jason was probably gone by now anyway.
“The douche is still out there,” Krit said, opening the door and putting his arm around my shoulders as we walked into the crowd. I knew it was his form of showing ownership, and any other night I would have shoved it off. Tonight I needed the protection. My heart needed protection. Krit was supplying that.
We walked over to Rock’s table, and Dewayne was grinning at me as I approached. “If it ain’t the heartbreaker. Got all them boys lining up tonight, don’t you, Mess?”
Dewayne had been calling me Mess instead of Jess for as long as I could remember. He and Rock had been friends since elementary school, so there wasn’t a time in my life Dewayne wasn’t in it. That went for Marcus Hardy and Preston Drake, as well.
“Shut it,” I snapped at him, shooting him the bird as Krit pulled out a stool for me.
“Sit, love. I’ll go get you a whiskey,” Krit said before laying one of his claiming kisses on me. They weren’t meant for me. They were meant for everyone else in the club. When I had first agreed to him kissing me to keep other guys away while I nursed a broken heart, I hadn’t expected things between Krit and me to progress the way they had.
“Thanks,” I said when he pulled back, and he sauntered over to the bar. Krit had cornered the market on walking to draw attention. Girls stopped in midsentence to watch him. Something about his bad-boy charm and ego did it for the females. Then there was the fact that he could sing.
“We were wondering if Krit had chained you up backstage when he did that disappearing act in the middle of the song,” Dewayne said, leaning back with a taunting grin on his face.
“Leave it,” Rock warned him, but Dewayne just laughed.
“Amanda wanted to stay and check on you,” Trisha said, “but Preston was having a hard time keeping his hands off her. Their classes are keeping them apart this year, more so than before, and he’s not dealing with it well.”
“Dumbass needs to go ahead and marry her. They can move in together, and that will fix that shit,” Dewayne drawled.
“Oh, hell, Jess. Stone’s coming this way,” Rock muttered.
I knew looking was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help it. Surely he wasn’t stupid enough to walk over here. But then, he had no idea how badly I had been hurt. It had been a fling to him.
“It’s fine. He’s probably coming to say hello to everyone,” I said under my breath.
“Would have been smarter had he done that when you weren’t here,” Rock replied, shooting an annoyed glare Jason’s way.
“But it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun,” Dewayne added.
Trisha slapped his arm and scolded him.
“Krit’s gonna go apeshit,” Dewayne said in a singsong voice.
“Shut him up,” I whispered to Rock.
Jason approached the table, and I did my best not to stare at him. I smiled. “Hey again.”
He didn’t look as easygoing as before. “Hey.” He turned his attention to the others at the table. “Rock, Trisha, Dewayne, good to see you,” he said, then looked back at me. “I was hoping we could talk.”
“Bad idea. Her man won’t deal well with it. Just let it go and save me the hassle,” Rock answered for me.
Krit’s arm settled around my shoulders again, and he set my drink down in front of me. His gaze was locked on Jason, but he lowered his head to kiss the side of my face. “Company?” he asked in a bored drawl, even though he knew exactly who Jason was.
“Krit, Jason Stone. Jason, Krit,” I said, unable to look at either of them. I glanced to Rock for rescuing.
“Jason, it’s good to see you again and all,” Rock said. “Hope life’s treating you well, but due to your past with Jess, this isn’t the best time.”
“When is a good time?” Jason asked, looking at me and ignoring the glare I knew Krit was directing his way.
“Never,” Krit replied.
This was not me. I didn’t hide behind men to protect me. How had I let this one guy completely change me? I was stronger than this. I grabbed Krit’s hand and made him look at me. I had been going to tell him to let me talk to Jason, but the look in Krit’s eyes stopped me. He didn’t deserve that.
“It’s okay,” I told him softly, then pressed a kiss to his lips to try to ease some tension from his body. Then I turned my attention to Jason. “We talked, Jason. You’ve said all you wanted to say to me before. Let’s just be friends and leave it at that,” I told him.
Jason started to say something else, but I shook my head and then stood up. I wasn’t arguing with him in front of everyone. I didn’t want him to say anything around them that would prove what an idiot I was. How I had taken something so small and made it much bigger. It was my humiliation. I wanted to keep it that way.
“Dance with me,” I told Krit.
“Gladly, love,” he replied, and I watched him cockily salute Jason as I pulled him toward the dance floor.
JASON
“She’s a hot little number. Completely blew you off, though, for the singer dude with the eyeliner,” Finn said as he leaned over in the limo, unable to sit up straight.
I wasn’t in the mood to discuss Jess with either of them. They didn’t know what had happened with us, nor would they understand.
“Don’t know why you didn’t dance with one of the many other babes who asked you,” Hensley said. “Hell, that redhead was hitting on you so hard she was about ready to crawl into your lap. Sucks that I can’t have a rock-star brother. That one group of girls knew you right away. They were squealing and shit, like you were the fucking rock god, not Jax. ’Course, I got to fill that girl up. When you weren’t showing interest, she moved on over and climbed into my lap. Sweet tits. Really sweet tits.”
I closed my eyes and tried to block the guys out. But then again, if I thought too hard, all I’d be able to see was that fucker’s hands all over Jess like she was his. But then, she was his. I didn’t have any claim to her.
“I don’t know why we can’t take home those slutty ones. I woulda been getting lucky right now,” Finn grumbled.
“Oh, I don’t know, Finn, maybe because we’re staying at Jax’s summer place, and he doesn’t want rabid fans to know where it is,” Hensley replied.
“We coulda drove around and fucked in the limo,” he complained.
“You need to sleep this off. No orgies in the limo. We aren’t that drunk,” Hensley said.
She had said that she’d hurt him for me. I had thought that meant she wanted me more than him. That she didn’t love him. But then she’d chosen him over me at the table. I couldn’t figure her out. Had she gone to the back and changed her mind? Was my fuckup in New York it for her? I had sent her home like she asked and not contacted her once. I had stared at her number enough times, thinking about it. But I’d never actually gone through with it.
“She was watching you when she thought you weren’t looking. When she was dancing with him, the rocker dude,” Hensley said.
I opened my eyes and lifted my head to look at him. “Jess was looking at me?” I asked, needing to make sure I hadn’t just imagined that.
“Yep. She looked at you a lot. But then the rocker dude caught her one time and she stopped. Then we left.”
Shit. This was all kinds of fucked up. I needed to let this go. She had obviously moved on. I had to get back to school Monday, and staying in Sea Breeze to make something happen with Jess was impossible.
“Doesn’t matter. She doesn’t fit into my life,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Hensley agreed.
“Dude could sing, though,” Finn said with his eyes almost closed and his body leaned over so far his head was touching the seat.
Maybe I needed to get that drunk. Then I wouldn’t care.
Chapter Seventeen
JESS
Throwing myself back into school and work was the only thing that got me through the next week. Krit realized I was pulling away, and he was letting me. I wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t holding on so tight after Jason’s showing up at Live Bay. Part of me felt like I should go apologize to him, tell him I was sorry about how I was acting, but I couldn’t. I needed time to deal.
When Friday night came back around, Krit called three times. I didn’t answer. I wasn’t in the mood to face Live Bay tonight. I had brought home some things to alter from the shop. Focused on that, I almost ignored my phone the fourth time it rang. But it could have been Momma. Glancing over at it, I saw Jason’s name flash on my screen, and I dropped the pants I was holding and grabbed my phone.
Standing in my room, I stared at it. Why was he calling? I didn’t think about it too hard. I just answered.
“Hello,” I said, wondering if he had accidentally called me. Maybe he had meant to call a Jessica or a Jocyln.
“Hey, can you talk?” His deep voice came over the line and my insides went all warm, despite my better judgment.
“Uh, I …” Could I talk? Could my heart handle it? “Yeah, sure.”
He let out a relieved-sounding sigh. “Good.” There was a smile in his voice. I could visualize the way his lips curled up in amusement. “I’m sorry about last weekend. I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. I just … I hadn’t been prepared to see you again.”
I wanted to laugh at that. He hadn’t been prepared to see me? Ha. Did he have any idea how he had affected me? “You surprised me,” I replied.
“You surprised me, too.”
“How did I surprise you? Surely you knew I would more than likely be there.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed, trying to calm my shaking hands. Talking to him like this was making me nervous. It was silly and ridiculous and I should have ended this call, but I didn’t.
“I wasn’t expecting … him.”
Oh. So he’d thought I was sitting here pining for him. Even if it was for selfish reasons and it made me a terrible person, I was thankful for Krit at the moment. If Jason had expected me to still be alone, I was glad he saw I was desirable to some people. “Why?” I asked, needing to hear him explain it.
“I don’t know.” He let out a hard laugh. “I’m a dick.”
That still didn’t answer my question. “Krit is different. I never imagined anything serious with him when it started, but his feelings ran deeper than I thought possible. So, yeah, he surprised me.”
Jason didn’t respond right away. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking. I wanted to see his face and smell his clean scent, so different from Krit’s.
“How’s school?” he asked finally.
“Uh, good. I guess,” I replied, confused by his change of topic.
“You guess? Sure it doesn’t suck? Mine sucks.”
No, mine didn’t suck. It was the last semester I could go to junior college. Which meant it was the last of my college education. I would be getting my associate’s degree in December.
“Why does yours suck?” I asked, my nerves finally easing as I lay back on my bed and relaxed.
“I’m doing what my parents want me to do. Not what I want to do.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to have time to decide. I’m … I’m thinking of taking next semester off. They don’t know it yet, but I want to be free to travel. Find myself. Figure it all out. I tried that this summer …” He stopped.
“But I messed that up,” I finished for him. He hadn’t come back to Sea Breeze after our trip to New York.
“No. I messed that up. None of that was you, Jess.” His voice had gone gentle, as if he wanted to reassure me. The smile on my face was ridiculous, but it was there.
“I didn’t expect you to answer,” he said.
“Why?”
“It’s a Friday night. I figured you’d be out.”
“No. I’m staying in tonight. I have work to do,” I told him. I didn’t want to tell him I had been hiding out since I had seen him last Friday. That wasn’t something he needed to know.
“Work as in school?” he asked.
“No, I’m working for a seamstress in town now. I have some work I brought home.”
“You sew?” he asked. I had surprised him. It was in his voice.
“Yes. I also design clothes. I’m working on Christmas recital costumes now for the local dance studio.”
He made a choking sound, like he had been drinking something. “You design stuff?” he asked after he’d caught his breath.
“Yep. The red dress I wore in New York—that was one I designed and made.”
“Holy shit, really? That’s amazing. That dress was …” He trailed off.
“It wasn’t a designer label and I know I didn’t fit in, but it’s my favorite piece,” I told him. He didn’t have to feel awkward.
“No, you looked beautiful in it. There wasn’t another girl there who even compared.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. He had also sent me home without an argument that night.
“I need to go,” he said. “Jax is sending a car to get me. I’m eating with him and Sadie tonight while they’re in town. But can I call you again?”
Could he call me again? No. “Yes,” I replied.
“Have a good night, Jess,” he said, the smile back in his voice.
“Yeah, you too,” I replied.
After we hung up, I stared at the phone for a long time. I shouldn’t have told him he could call again. Would that mess with my head completely? Could I move on if he was calling me and reminding me how I felt? No. That would be impossible. The wound would never heal. I had to tell him the next time he called. This wasn’t going to work.
JASON
Jax was sitting in the limo with a bottle of water, watching a football game when I climbed inside.
“Where’s Sadie?” I asked when I realized we were alone.
“Meeting us there. She’s picking up Star at the airport. I would have sent you to pick her up, but Star said you’re acting weird lately when she calls. So I figured it might be best if we talked before this thing tonight.”
Jax had agreed to do an event at Harvard tonight. It was for charity, and because I attended here he had agreed to it. He just had to sing a few songs and then sign some things for them to auction off. Star was also performing with him. After their appearance, we were going to head out to dinner.
Star was the female counterpart to Jax in the music industry. She was also a longtime friend of Jax’s, since they both started young and had been thrown together so much. Once Jax and Sadie went public, they stopped getting thrown together. Star and Sadie had had a rocky beginning, but they were friends now. And when Star needed a last-minute date and didn’t want anything that would cause problems for her, she called me.
“Bad week,” I replied, reaching for a water.
“Why?” he asked, studying me.
“Went to Sea Breeze last weekend,” I told him.
“Yeah, I know.”
Of course he knew. I had stayed at his place. He was still watching me.
“I saw her,” I said through clenched teeth as the image of what she had been doing flashed in my head.
“Ah, so the town’s bad girl still gets to you,” Jax said, grinning.
I hated it when he referred to her as a bad girl. He didn’t know her. He had never met her. He only knew the stories. She was so much more than that. “Don’t,” I warned him, and he stopped grinning.
“Wait … are you really hung up on her?”
I opened the water and took a drink. I wasn’t talking to him about this. He wasn’t any help. He had made it work with Sadie, so none of my excuses would stand with him. His life was different. Our parents weren’t trying to control him since he held their purse strings.
“You like her … a whole damn lot, from the looks of it.”
I glared at him. “Yes. I like her. But I fucked it up. She’s with some alternative-looking dude in a local band. He had his hands all over her.” Just remembering the way Krit had kept his arm around her shoulders like she was a possession pissed me off.
“Is this a mutual thing, or did you get in too deep with a girl who likes to play the field? From what I’ve heard, she’s a flirt.”
I slammed my water down. “What you’ve heard? You’ve only heard shit about her. You’ve never met her. You don’t know that she’s fun and when she gets embarrassed she blushes. You don’t know that she can design and make her own fucking clothes. That she pays her tuition at a local junior college and won’t get a chance to go any further because she can’t afford it. Her momma is a stripper, and the boy she grew up loving hit her and broke her heart and knocked up another woman. Yet when his drunk ass needs something, he comes to her and she sets him straight. You don’t know shit. So don’t act like you do.”
I was breathing hard when I finished, and I jerked my head around and stared out the window. I had said too much.
“Holy shit,” Jax finally said under his breath.
“What?” I snapped, still angry.
Jax shook his head. “Nothing,” he said.
I wanted to demand he explain himself, but I was afraid he’d piss me off and I’d hit him. Not a good idea since he was about to go onstage.
“I called her tonight,” I told him. I needed to say it. I needed to admit it.
“Did she answer?”
“Yeah, she did. We talked. She said I could call again.”
“Which member of Jackdown is she dating?” he asked.
I looked at him, confused. “How did you know it was Jackdown?”
Jax smirked. “I found Sea Breeze first.”
Oh. Yeah. And Sadie would know about Jackdown.
“Lead singer,” I replied, trying to block out the guy’s face.
“Krit? Really? That’s Trisha’s brother. Huh … ,” he said, surprised.
“What do you mean, ‘huh’?”
He shrugged. “Krit is Trisha’s brother. Trisha is married to Rock. Jess is Rock’s cousin. I would think those two grew up together. Known each other for years. Surprising they’re just now dating. Weird, almost.”
I hadn’t known that. Could he have been there just to make me jealous?
“You don’t think … ,” I said, but stopped myself.
Jax didn’t need me to finish. “Might be,” he replied.
I had to get back to Sea Breeze.
Chapter Eighteen
JESS
On Tuesday I finished my last class at two and headed home to change and get the clothing I had taken home to work on. I was supposed to work from three to seven tonight. Krit had called twice today, and I hadn’t been able to answer it. He knew I had classes today.
We had talked Sunday night, and I had explained to him I needed to cool off. What we were doing was going too fast, and he was free to sleep around. He hadn’t handled it well, but according to talk, Krit had taken not one but two girls backstage Monday night, where he had performed in Destin, Florida. Several of Jackdown’s groupies followed them around. They also made sure I heard about it.
I would call him on my way to work. Pulling up to the house, I realized I wouldn’t need to. Krit was sitting on my front porch. I wasn’t in the mood for him to apologize, if that was what this was. I had told him he could sleep around, and he hadn’t wasted any time. Proved to me he wasn’t as into me as he thought he was. Which eased my conscience. At least he didn’t love me.
I stepped out of my truck and headed toward him. He sat there and watched me approach, but he didn’t look apologetic. He looked pissed. But I hadn’t done anything.
“Hey,” I said, studying him.
“You didn’t answer my calls,” he replied.
“I was in class. I was going to give you a call on my way to work. What’s up?” I tried to make it sound casual.
He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe me. “Really? That’s it? We’re back to being fucking friendly?”
He was going to make me late for work. “We talked about this. You were okay with it,” I told him.
“Okay with it? Who the fuck told you I was okay with it?”
I leaned on the railing and sighed. “I know about the girls Monday night. Word travels fast. I would say that makes you okay with it,” I told him.
Krit threw down some paper he was holding and stood up. “Fuck that! You said I could sleep around. You needed fucking space. You can’t get mad because I did what you told me to.”
I reached out and grabbed his hand, hoping to calm him down. “I’m not mad. I didn’t say I was mad. I was pointing out that you taking girls backstage means you’re okay with this. With us.”
Krit crowded me and reached up to cup my face. “They weren’t you. So no, I’m not fucking okay with this. It sucks. It hurts like hell and they can’t make it go away.”
I reached up and pulled his hand from my face. “You did it, though. You wanted them enough to fuck them. That means you were attracted to them. If you had been heartbroken over this, you wouldn’t have been able to sleep with other girls. That’s all I’m saying.”
Krit closed his eyes and swore. “Don’t you fucking say that. Don’t you turn that shit on me when you said it was okay. All you had to say was you didn’t want me with anyone else, and I wouldn’t have.”
If I didn’t think it would make him angry, I would have smiled. He was so confused. He did have feelings for me. I knew that. But he wasn’t in love. He hadn’t experienced that yet, so of course he thought this was as bad as it got.
“If you just wanted me, then you wouldn’t have been able to sleep with anyone else. With or without my consent. That’s all I’m saying.”
Krit shoved away from me and started pacing. “Fuck that. It’s not fair, Jess. I was drinking. I get horny as hell when I’m onstage. It gets my blood pumping. You know that.”
I grinned this time. I couldn’t help it. “I know. And I’m telling you it’s okay. I just have other things going on right now I have to deal with.”
Krit stopped pacing and bent down and picked up the papers he had thrown down: several articles from an event this weekend, where Jax Stone and Star had performed for charity. But the photos weren’t of Jax. They were of Star, and on her arm was Jason.
“This is what you’re dealing with. This little shit. He used you. He’s fucking with your head. I saw you looking at him last weekend. You wanted him. I could taste it on you. Don’t let him fuck you up. He can’t be what you want, love. Hell, I have a hard time being what you want. You want a fucking lot. You deserve it, but he won’t be the one to do it.”
Krit started to say more and stopped. Instead he turned around and walked to his car. I didn’t watch him go. I was too busy staring at the photo of Jason and Star taken on Friday night. The same night he had called me. He had said he was going out with Sadie and Jax. He hadn’t been lying. He’d just left out the small piece of information that he was dating Star.
Krit was right. I was wanting a fairy tale. I wasn’t getting a fairy tale. I was a stripper’s daughter. Nothing more. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. Someone I would never be. I started to wad the paper up and stopped myself. Instead I smoothed it out. I would put it away, and when I needed reminding of just how stupid I was when it came to Jason, I would pull it out again. Remind myself.
*
Friday night I spent extra time getting ready. I wore my shortest skirt and my tightest top. I even finished it off with the expensive boots Jason had bought me. I hadn’t been able to wear them again. But I was tired of acting like they were some shrine to him. I should be enjoying something from our time together.
My hair looked good down tonight, and I put extra eye makeup on to give me a sultry look. By now everyone would know Krit and I were over and I was free to flirt and be flirted with. It was rebound night for me, and I planned on drinking too much and dancing all night.
When I walked into Live Bay, the night was already in full swing. I stopped by the bar and grabbed a whiskey before heading over to the table where Rock was watching me with a concerned, fatherly frown. I just winked at him, which made his frown deepen. I shifted my gaze to Dewayne, who was the only other person at the table right now. Licking my bottom lip suggestively, I set my glass down and leaned forward, knowing that even though he viewed me as Rock’s little cousin, he was going to look at my tits.
“Wanna dance?” I asked.
“No,” Rock answered for him.
“Hell yes,” Dewayne replied.
“Stand up and I’ll make you sit down,” Rock warned him.
Dewayne just laughed and took a drink.
“What are you doing, Jess?” Rock asked.
“Drinking, then dancing,” I replied with a smile I didn’t feel.
“It’s not like you,” he replied.
“No. It’s exactly like me. This is me, Rock. I’m done pretending to be someone else. Now, why can’t Dewayne dance with me?” I asked, turning to pout at Dewayne, who looked very amused.
“Stop flirting with Dewayne,” Rock said, annoyed.
“I’m enjoying it. Please, let her continue,” Dewayne said, leaning back to look at me through half-hooded eyes as he smoked a cigarette.
