Page 4 of Bound By Them
“I care about her, too. I should’ve gone with her instead, but…fuck. I could tell she wanted to be with him. I’m her best friend.”
“But she isn’t fucking you.” Edmund still sounds like he thinks this is funny.
Dani is quiet, but tense. I can practically see her thinking, the way she’s trying—and failing—to sort through her swirling thoughts.
She looks around. “Do you have anything to drink in here?”
“Yeah.” Edmund pulls a flask from his jacket and passes it to her.
“More fancy shit. Just like the car.” She takes a swig and then strokes the engraved silver, the Layton family crest. A crown and dagger.
He shrugs. “It’s the only useful gift I ever got from my dad.”
Danica seems to shrink into herself. I wonder if she’s thinking about her family now. How her grandfather yelled at her. I’ve always thought of Sergey Aseyev as the enemy. It was a detached sort of hatred, theoretical. I hated him because I was paid to. But the way he spoke to Dani made my vision go red.
Edmund turns in his seat to fully face her. “What do you want tonight, Dani? Anything you want, is yours.”
She puts her free hand on his knee. A not-so-subtle invitation. “I want to feel good. I want to forget everything my family just did.”
“I can do that for you.” He grabs her wrist, taking control in the way he likes to do.
She winces and hisses in pain.
“Fuck, that’s the hand you punched your cousin with.” Edmund loosens his grip. “I’ll be more careful.”
“Thanks.” When she lifts the flask to her mouth for another drink, he plucks the flask from her hand, caps it, and puts it back in his jacket.
“What—?”
He smiles. “You can’t be drunk for what I want to do with you.”
Danica
I don’t know whether I should climb on Edmund’s lap or knee him in the trouble nuggets. But the way he smiled when he talked about what he wants to do with me? Um, that was hot.
Unfortunately, Troy is still in the seat next to us, hulking and sexy and very much a cockblocker. The lights of the city, muted through the car’s tinted windows, flicker over his handsome face.
This is nuts. Getting in Edmund’s car was nuts. I’ve gone home with guys, I’ve had one-night-stands before. It isn’t a big deal. But after everything that happened tonight, shouldn’t I be at home in my room, crying my eyes out?
That’s exactly why I’m not at home in my room. I’m sad and mad and if this rich playboy can help me forget about that for a little while, I’ll take him up on it.
First we have to ditch the friend.
I’m about to open my mouth to say so when Edmund gathers my other wrist in his hand and draws my arms up, over my head. He tugs me against him, so I’m leaning back against his hard body.
Which means I’m facing Troy.
Edmund takes my hands and places them at the back of his neck, further stretching me out, making my back arch and my chest thrust forward. I flex the fingers of my bruised hand. The pain is a nice reminder of how I hit Patrick. He deserved it. I should’ve punched him twenty more times?—
Edmund whispers in my ear, obliterating the anger threatening to rear its ugly head. His words are just loud enough to hear over the rumbling of the car. “I want to touch you, little Dani. Will you allow that?”
My heart pounds out an insistent rhythm. Want…want…want. Forget everything else that happened. But Troy is sitting mere inches away from me. “Um…here? Right now?”
“Is there any reason to wait?”
“Well…yeah.” Ugh, fine. If he’s going to make me state the obvious, I’ll state the obvious. “We aren’t exactly alone.”
“Is being alone a requirement for you? Is it a deal-breaker? Because at the party, you liked being admired by everyone around.”
