Page 72 of Pin-up Girl

He was the center of a black sea, smiling salaciously down at the red headed beauty. I couldn’t see her entire face, just the dainty black mask that looked more like artfully designed lines than an actual solid material. She was flush against him, his hands dropping dangerously low on her hips. They looked like the power couple to end all power couples.

Milo was talking, but I didn’t have any wits about me to focus on what he was saying. As I zeroed in on Emmett wrapping himself around his fuck toy, everything else was white noise.

She leaned up and kissed the bottom of his jaw, leaving a scarlet lip print I could see all the way from where we sat. Shekissed him, and he let her. He wasn’t even trying to push her away, and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t on the lips. In fact, that bitch pulled his hands from her ass and started walking backwards, leading him out of the room.

He tossed his head back and laughed, following her like a good little boy.

My ears were burning. My whole body was on fire, and I couldn’t process the emotions shredding me like I was a lemon rind in a blender. It hurt, and I couldn’t even hide it. I looked down to see my hand pressed against my chest, holding my heart like it could stop the pain.

Jules caught my face in his palms, and he peppered little kisses all over my face. My forehead, eyelids, chin, corner of my mouth. There wasn’t any skin left untouched by him. I wanted to kiss him back, but I couldn’t, I was a stuffed doll without any control over my motor skills.

“Did you know he was done with this?” Milo’s voice was a whip across the table. It was so sharp, I jumped at his question.

Jules shook his head no and touched his mouth to my forehead, this time just keeping in constant contact until I pulled away.

I separated myself completely from him. There wasn’t a lot of space between Milo and Jules, but somehow, I found the perfect position to avoid touching either of them, even though they crowded me.

Jules signed too fast for me to try and decipher, but Milo’s response helped.

“No, I don’t know who that was. He hasn’t said anything, even after what happened.” Milo’s gaze slid to me, and I cast my own gaze to my lap. I was the fucking traitor, I knew that already. “Before that, he was fucking happy, the happiest I’d seen him ever. This is probably just him lashing out.”

Jules’ hand was again a fast flurry of signs.

“We can’t force him to be part of this if he doesn’t want to, Jules. Honestly, I was surprised he’s lasted this long. You know how he was with his hookups.”

An uncontrollable gasp escaped me, and I detested myself for it. Both their heads turned my way, and from their pained, twisted expressions, they must have regretted having this conversation in front of me.

Milo feathered the tips of his fingers down the side of my face. Was this supposed to comfort me? I couldn’t even be fucking mad Emmett thought I was the snake in the nest. But I was fucking,fuckingpissed.

“Listen, Elise. He’s lashing out. When he gets upset, he’s always done something he’s regretted later. I know things have been fucked up between us the last few days, but I don’t think he’d actually want out without telling us first, all right?” His gaze searched my face, but I didn’t have anything inside of me for him to find. I was empty.

All of my hopes, dreams, desires, even my determination to get a happily ever after leaked out of me into a sad puddle on the floor.

Was it a win that Milo was trying to comfort me? I couldn’t even find it in myself to be happy he cared.

Jules held his phone in front of my face again.We’re going to go get him, and we’re going back to our place to talk this out. We’ll stop him from going too far.

I didn’t think they understood. He had already gone too far. He didn’t leave us until we were climbing in the booth. There was no way he didn’t know we had a front row seat to his groping session. It was almost like he wanted us to see.

Slowly, I evened out my breathing. All I had to do was rebuild my walls. This was why I didn’t care about people, why Cass only held me at arm’s length. Caring about people was the one guaranteed way to break yourself.

“We can get him. I’m not in the mood to stay here any longer anyway, but I don’t want to talk it out later. Honestly, I’d like to go back to my place tonight. We’re all tired of each other anyway.” I pushed on Milo’s arm so he would climb out of the booth. After a long look, he agreed.

Holding out his hand, Milo helped me out of the booth. They both had their arms around my waist as we walked out of there. Doing what I did best, I held my head high and blanked my face. No one would ever see any of the carnage they wrecked on me, and the world definitely wouldn’t witness what a man left behind.

Before we were out of the ballroom, our lovely friend Derek appeared in front of us, sporting the slimiest smile I’d ever witnessed. Something about it was especially off tonight.

It could also be that Cass was on his arm. She gave me a brittle smile as she molded herself into his side.

“You’re not leaving so soon, are you?” He slapped Cassidy’s ass and spun her out from his hold. With a quick glance to the left and right, he stepped forward like he was about to dish up some dirty secret.

“Yeah, it’s time for us to head back.” Milo tried to push past him, but Derek grabbed Milo’s arm.

“No, I got a text for a job, and I want you to help me with it. In fact, tonight is the set for a very public scene.” Derek shot a grin at Cass, who was standing behind him.

She was too far away to hear what he’d said, but she didn’t need to. I did, and I didn’t have a good feeling about what was going to happen.

Jules wrapped his arms around my chest and held me tight, like he was afraid I was going to do something I’dregret. He must have had an idea of where this was going.

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