His amused stare met mine.
Fuck. I held his gaze, pretending like he hadn’t just caught me glaring at his date.
Ally said something to him, but he didn’t acknowledge her. She rubbed his stomach and snuggled up to him seductively.
He finally broke our eye contact and looked down at her.
I returned my attention to my friends, who were all giving me shit-eating grins.
“Shut up,” I said to Ez.
“We didn’t say anything.” Wes’s grin went devious.
“You didn’t have to.” I drained the rest of my beer, downing more than half of it in a single go.
“Whoa.” Ez snatched the bottle out of my hand. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing,” I lied, letting him take the empty.
“Try again.” He handed the bottle to Jett with a look I couldn’t decipher. Jett untangled himself from Wes and took off toward the crowd still showering Sebastian and his date with attention.
“I’m just out of sorts today,” I said grudgingly.
There was a time when me chugging a beer had been a perfectly normal thing, but those days were behind me. I wasn’t acting like myself, but how the fuck was I supposed to explain why I was a mess?
I couldn’t tell them about Sebastian. For one, I didn’t know if he wanted to keep his bisexuality a secret, and I wasn’t about to out him. I’d been there, and so had Ez and Wes. No one deserved that, not even the guy who pissed me off more than anyone ever had.
I couldn’t even tell them about the fight because that would raise too many questions. And I’d have to admit how much I’d enjoyed it.
How many times I’d replayed it in my head.
How many times I’d jerked off to the memories.
That was the part of the whole situation that was fucking with me the most. Fighting, getting hard, even kissing him, had all been fucked-up reactions to a messed-up situation.
I’d known as soon as I’d seen him at the cabin that he was in a mood, but instead of delivering his boxes and getting the fuck out of there, I messed with him because I enjoyed getting a rise out of him.
I could have stopped things, Ishouldhave stopped things, but I didn’t.
And we’d gotten carried away.
But none of that explained why I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Or why I’d gotten off to thoughts of him under me, his hard body tight with anger as he struggled to free himself, his hazel eyes blazing with that intoxicating mix of rage and need that made my brain short-circuit.
Another burst of laughter drew my attention to the crowd. This time Sebastian stood alone, and Ally was off to the side with a few of her friends, whispering furiously.
Angrily, I turned my back on the crowd.
“Here.” Jett came up to us, a bottle of water in his hand.
“Thanks.” I took it and twisted off the cap so I could take a long drink. The cool water soothed my throat and helped settle my stomach a bit. I couldn’t even blame that sour feeling on chugging a lukewarm beer on a mostly empty stomach. I’d been feeling off since I woke up.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Wes glanced around. “Is it…him?”
I nodded, grateful I could use this as a cover for what was really bothering me. “I got a text when I was pulling up to the house.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed them.
“Shit,” Wes said with a sigh as I put my phone away. “I really thought it was over.”
“Yeah, me too.”