Page 33 of No Longer Safe

“Tell me you didn’t,” I fumed.

She made a face and put Ace between us again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She could pretend all she wanted to but when Salt Shaker came on, I knew she’d done me dirty. My body was no longer my own. I was a slave to the music and Carina had done me soooo dirty. She’d given over myho playlist.

Gone was all my self-control when Booty Wurk played next. I knew Alexei was grinning somewhere, but I couldn’t locate him and I couldn’t pry myself away from the beat bumping through me. Carina was no longer using Ace as a human shield and was slowly making her way to me across the dance floor. I was honestly surprised by how many young people there were because I hadn’t noticed them before. Carina grabbed my hips and ground against me.

“I can’t believe you,” I whisper-screamed at her.

She pressed her lips together and jutted her chin out in an innocent look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It was absolutely not a coincidence when the next song came on and it was Freek-A-Leek. I deadpanned. Her grin was over the top and obnoxious. “Okay, I might have been a little drunk when I gave it to him last night. He wanted to know what songs you liked and my stupid ass was likeoh yeah, ho phase Audrey.I don’t know, I guess I just miss how things used to be. You don’t have to be her all the time, but it would be nice to have some of you back. You weren’t the safe or cautious one. You were always Wilde before Brian.”

I nodded. I felt the same way but I didn’t know how to get her back, especially not now that I was going to marry Brian. “Speaking of,” I grabbed her elbow and hauled her off of the dance floor. “Your Snapchat was seen by my fiancé.”

She frowned. “I don’t have Brian on Snapchat.”

“Someone saw it and showed it to him.”

Her over-the-top grin quickly fell away. “I wasn’t thinking. About any of it, obviously. I’m sorry.”

I shrugged. “It’s too late now, but he wants to come on the trips with me.”

“Maybe it lit some fire under his sorry ass.” Carina cocked her head and made a face. “I hope this is enough to push him into accepting all of you and not just the parts he wants to change.”

After that,I no longer cared. People were having fun. With aching feet, I kicked off my shoes and joined everyone else on the dance floor. Giggling, I watched as Carina jumped right into the pool, dress and all. With a loudwhoop,Ace followed right behind her.

“Come on, Wilde!” Before I could stop him, Alexei had his arms around my waist and hauled me straight for the water.

I squealed and pounded on his shoulders but it was no use. He was so much stronger than he looked. The photographer snapped photos and I wondered if these would get me in more trouble with Brian. I let it go as the water rushed over our heads and we quickly kicked to the surface.

Laughing, we both gasped for air and grinned at each other. For the first time since I met the Cristof brother, I didn’t hate him. For the first time, I felt completely content. Almost happy.

We wrapped towels around our bodies while we laughed and talked about nothing. Carina smeared cake in Ace’s face and hegrabbed her for a passion-filled kiss instead of going for revenge. He could have easily destroyed her face with his slice of cake. Not that it mattered as her mascara was smeared down her face from the dive into the swimming pool.

Thank goodness Emeline and Sinclair retired before theho playlistbegan. I wouldn’t have ever been able to face them again if they’d heard the music on it. But at the back of my mind I had a feeling Emeline was watching and living through the cameras.

The party seemed to stretch on for hours, all the way into the next morning and I wondered how I would ever recover from these partying nights. I wasn’t a spring chicken like I was when AudreyWildelived her best and wild life. I was much older now and my body didn’t snap back like it did before. I could practically hear my knees screaming already.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Alexei

The best thingI’d ever done in my entire life was get my hands on theho playlistas Carina called it. Even with Audrey sober, she was a wonder as she let loose to the music pumping through the speakers. I would never be able to close my eyes without seeing it. It had taken every single effort in my body to not put my hands on her. I’d stayed a safe distance away so I didn’t get stuck in her orbit. She was one of the ones you had to watch out for. Especially now that she had that retched golden band on her finger.

I sat on the corner of my bed and thought of the last week while I raked my fingers through my hair. How was I supposed to get through this wedding season like this? How could I possibly keep my hands to myself?

“Don’t look so glum,” Ace leaned in the doorway. “You’ll have someone new to make fun of soon enough.”

I groaned. “What does that even mean?”

Ace scrolled through his phone for a moment before he looked back at me in all of my misery. When had it gotten like this? When had she started to become the only thing I could think of? When I pulled her into the pool, I wanted nothing more than to trace her curves through her wet, transparentdress. She hadn’t been wearing a bra. The sight was still killing me. I’d taken more cold showers this morning than I had in my entire life. I even considered finding someone to release all these frustrations on, but when I went to get on a hook-up app, or even leave to go do it, all I could feel was sick. I couldn’t do it.

“Her fiancé will be joining us in New York next trip. Mother hasn’t stopped talking about it, I thought you knew.”

I sat up slowly. “That’swho she was talking about? That’s who I will have to share a wall with?” How on earth could I share a wall with them if they were going to have sex? At least I knew it would be horrible sex, but it still didn’t fix my thoughts on the matter. For whatever reason, I thought Mother had been speaking about Carina’s mother, who we hadn’t met yet Why I’d assumed she was engaged was beyond me. It just seemed to be the running trend at the moment, I guessed.

I rolled my eyes and pretended like this wasn’t the worst thing to be said to me this week. I thought I had time, I thought I would be able to sway her more. I was pretty certain I could have convinced her to leave him, not for me… Never for me, I didn’t believe in happily ever afters or the convoluted notion that she would choose me when it was all said and done. But I could push her to not be with someone worth her time. I could convince her that she was worth more than mediocre sex and then maybe, just maybe, I could get her out of my system. I didn’t know what that would take, but at this moment, I was feverish. I felt like I was drowning, I would do anything to get rid of this God’s damned itch.

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