Page 56 of Give Me Perfect Love

She takes her arm back and walks ahead, and there’s nothing I can do. I’ve got the most hardheaded woman in this fucking place. Lucky me.

“Hey, Ben.” I hear her say as I walk up behind her.

“Kat,” he greets her, but his eyes look to me.

“Can I come up?” she asks.

I nod at him, and he steps to the side. Kat looks back at me with awhat the hellexpression, clearly finding it ridiculous that she had to ask permission. I sigh, and she climbs the stairs.

Ben stops me. “You know what he’s doing up there?”

“I know, but do you think we can stop her?”

He smirks. “That’s all you, man.”

I roll my eyes as I continue up the stairs. K opens the door and walks in and I hit the top step.

The scene before us is one I’ve been a part of several times, but nothing I’ve wanted my girl to see. The room is dark, save for the dancing lights above. Jace is leaning down with a white line as long as the table he’s snorting from. Girls are dancing naked, and some guys are playing poker.

Jace leans his head back after he sniffs. Closing his eyes, he mumbles, “Ahh.”

He sniffs again and rubs his nose before tossing the rolled-up bill onto the table. His eyes look to us. I rub a hand down my neck.

“Kat!” he says with his big Jace smile. He’s cocained up and I’m not sure what else. He stands and walks over to us.

“Um. Hey, Jace,” she says as he wraps her up in a hug. He looks at me from her back like,what the fuck, dude?

I shrug. “She wanted to tell you hey.”

Jace puts her down. “We were just having a little private party here. These are some of my buddies from the Army.” He rubs his nose. “They’re in town for the week, so I wanted to show them a good time. Boys, this is Kat. Best fucking girl around.”

They lift a hand and wave at her before getting back to their gambling.

The boy riding on a cocaine high is all over the place; he’s black-eyed and sticky sweaty.

Kat’s eyes scan the room, from the drugs to the naked women and booze covering every inch of the place. The girls look over at me.

Shit.

“Bryce,” the one I’ve messed with says, walking over, wearing only panties and ruby red lipstick.

I hold up my hand, stopping her from hugging me. She looks over at K who could possibly murder every one of us right now with the look on her face.

“Right,” K says to Jace. “Well, I’ve told you hey, so I’ll let you get back to it.”

Jace grabs her arm as she turns to leave, guilt written all over his face. “This is not something I do all the time.”

Yeah, right.

“It’s your life, Jace.” She darts her eyes to red lipstick girl and only briefly looks at me as she walks out. I don’t follow her.

“Is that the new girl everyone is talking about?” Standing here practically naked in front of us all, this girl has no shame.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Yeah, that’s my girl.”

Jace hits my shoulder. “Really, man?”

“Hey, I tried to stop her from coming up here. Maybe you should clean your life up and you wouldn’t have anything to hide.”

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