Page 140 of Until I Own You

Should I go upstairs? Should I say something?

Before I can make a decision, Seth looks away. Like he didn’t even see me.

It doesn’t feel like a part of our Dom and sub dynamic. It hurts to the deepest part of my soul.

And I know I deserve all the pain I get. I broke his heart.

Yet, while I know all of this in the logical sense, my chest aches. And a fire is brewing inside me.

I want him to watch.

I’m going to put on a show for him. A show so good he can’t look away.

I toss the shot glass over my shoulder and dance again. Harder. More unfettered. The straps of my dress are desperate to stay on my shoulders as I twirl and undulate and shimmy. My friends egg me on, and soon other people on the dance floor do too.

From the outside, I might look like I’m having the time of my life.

On the inside, I hurt like I never have before.

Look at me, I want to scream. Look at me. I belong to you. Why won’t you look at me?

As my hips roll and my head turns to gelatin, I lose myself, yes, but I lose my balance too. I trip over my high heels and attempt to steady myself. But gravity pulls me backward.

If I am writhing in pain on the floor, will he look?

Except I don’t fall to the floor. I land against a hard mass of body.

Hands engulf my hips. And there is a hardness forming at my lower back.

Someone’s dick.

“Long time no see, Bridget,” a voice from my past growls in my ear.

I want to run. But I am locked in his grip.

“Don’t run away.” He grips my hips harder, locks me to him. “Let’s talk.”

It takes everything in me to turn and look at the face of the man restraining me.

And when our eyes meet, the past slaps me in the face.

26

SETH

“Stop staring at my sister,” Jack says.

I glare at my friend across the high top we’re crowded around. “What?”

“You keep looking at the dance floor,” Jack goes on. “Doesn’t he?”

Mason and Nate exchange a look with each other. Their stupid telepathy. Wonder if it’s gotten stronger once they started a relationship with the same woman.

Nate cocks his head to the side. “Did something happen between Seth and Abigail in Key West?”

“Oh, my god, no. Nothing happened with Abigail.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. Me and my stupid eyes. The second I realized Bridget was at the club, it’s been impossible not to stare at her. Her beauty is captivating, always, but the way she seems so free tonight. On top of the world. Untethered.

I have to wonder if I should let her go. Let her find someone she can bring home to Mom and Solomon that isn’t her fucking stepbrother that’s been sitting with her at family dinners since she was sixteen.

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