Page 27 of Damnation
I make it to the bar and try to order, but the thumping music and the crowd of people all decidedly taller than me render me invisible to the bartender. After a few failed attempts, I sit on the first open stool I can find and wait for the people to disperse. I can see Tiffany and Leila tearing up the dance floor in the middle of the club; the guys from before appear to have left. I watch as they sway to the rhythm of the music, back to back.
“On the house, babe,” a nearby voice says, and a glass full of amber liquid slides down the bar toward me. I take it and look over to find myself faced with a tall broad young man with green eyes. Not green like Thomas’s, of course, full of infinite hues and shades; this guy’s eyes are just…green.
“Bartenders in places like this never notice people like you,” he says.
I frown, a little annoyed. “People like me?”
He gets up from his stool and walks over to me. Placing a hand under my chin, he leans over me with disarming self-confidence, and then, just a couple of inches from my ear, he whispers, “Yeah, people like you. Good girls.”
He steps back and brings his glass to his mouth, taking a sip without moving his eyes from mine. He sets the glass back down on the bar and then stares at my legs shamelessly, his mouth hinting at a smile. Uncomfortable, I quickly press my knees together and tug down the hem of my dress but to little avail.
“I’m Jeremy. And you are?” he asks me when he looks back into my eyes again. I don’t even have time to tell him to back off before an arm moves between us with such sudden vehemence that it makes us both start.
“She’sspoken for.”
My heart hammers in my chest. Thomas is standing between Jeremy and me with his back to me, and his large masculine hand is gripping the cold steel of the bar so hard that his knuckles are white. I can’t see his face right now, but I can see Jeremy’s stricken expression, so I can imagine the icy look Thomas is giving him. “Andif you don’t wanna be hospitalized for a head injury, I’d advise you to get lost.”
Jeremy takes a step backward and vanishes into the crowd. But I am far from relieved. How dare he pull this crap after he’s the one who came here with Shana and didn’t tell me? Infuriated, I hop off the stool and try to leave, but Thomas stops me with a hand on my wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he roars.
“Anywhere you’re not!” I try to tug my arm out of his grip, but he stops me, pulling me tight against his chest.
“What the fuck are you doing here? You should have told me; if I knew you were here alone, I would have—”
“You would have what? Changed your plans so you could do whatever the hell you want in peace?” I needle.
“What plans are you talking about?”
I cross my arms irritably, glaring at him. “You’re here with Shana. I saw you two together.”
He stares gravely at me, his face revealing no emotion whatsoever. I don’t know whether his unruffled state suggests a clear conscience or otherwise.
“So?”
I raise my eyebrows in astonishment. “And when were you planning to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Thomas! That you’re seeing other people, that you’re seeingher!” I gesticulate wildly, finding myself thankful for the crowd that renders us anonymous.
“I’m not seeing her,” he says pointedly through gritted teeth. He’s a hairsbreadth away from my face and at the end of his patience. “And if she’s hooking up with one of the guys I’m out with and we happen to be in the same group, why is that a problem?”
“It is a problem because a week ago that bitch threw a smoothie on me. It’s a problem because every time I run into her, I have to endure her ridiculous attempts at intimidation because she’s jealous over you!” I stab a finger into his chest. “It’s a problem because, apparently, youcan go out on the town with the girl you were fucking up until a few weeks ago and who clearly still has feelings for you, and you can let her touch you and kiss you, but I can’t talk to Logan or Jeremy or any other breathing male in my vicinity!” I am yelling now, truly getting out of control.
Faced with his angry eyes, I completely lose my temper. He is the last person in the world who is allowed to be mad right now.
“Yeah, that’s right, because you are clearly incapable of recognizing danger when it’s right in front of you,” he replies with his most punchable face. “Why the fuck did you hide this smoothie thing from me?!”
I stare at him, offended. “I can’t recognize danger?” I demand, focusing on the only part of his speech that really seems important to me. “You think I don’t know what that guy was after? I would have gotten him to piss off easily if you hadn’t barged in. You treat me like I’m this little baby incapable of living in the world, but I don’t need to be protected from everything. Just now, I danced with a guy, and hey, would you look at that? I’m still alive.”
Thomas takes a deep breath, and a terrible expression comes over his face. “What did you do?”
“Don’t give me that look. If Shana is allowed to take liberties with you, then I can too. After all, isn’t that how these open relationships work?”
His jaw tenses as he scrubs a hand over his face. His rapid breathing shows no sign of calming down. “She was one who jumped me, and if you had been there, you would have seen that I didn’t return the favor. I backed off! And what do you do? Grind your ass on the first dick you can find?” His words hit me like a punch to the chest, leaving me speechless. I’m starting to feel a painful guilty sensation, but why? I’m not the one who screwed up.
“You know what, Thomas? Enough. I…I gave it a try, okay? I tried to make this thing between you and me feel good, but I can’t. It doesn’t. This isn’t for me.”
