Page 68 of Little Devil

“I, uh..” I trail off, awkwardly clearing my throat while I decide what to say to them. “Xan helped me get dressed, okay?”

“Yeah, we can see that,” Kian chuckles, taking my hands to pull me into him. “Baby, you look fine. I kinda hate you for it, though.”

“What? Why?”

“Because my fuck buddy looks like he wants your ass more than he wants mine,” he jokes, but I don’t miss the clear dig intended for the boy behind him.

“Ki,” Travis grits out, but Kian just flips him off and pulls me away, keeping hold of my hand while we make our way through the parted crowd.

“What was that about?”

“Nothing,” he says lamely, but I’m not buying it.

“Kian.”

“JJ,” he mocks my tone, rolling his eyes when he catches the look on my face. “What?”

“Sweetie, he’s more than just a fuck buddy.”

“Try telling him that,” he mutters. “He doesn’t want me for anything more than an easy la–”

“The fuck I don’t,” Travis cuts in, snatching his neck to pull his back to his chest.

Kian yelps and I run my thumb over my lips, doing my best to hide my laugh while Travis drags him away from me. They disappear around the corner and I move to go find Xan, sighing when I come face to face with my ex–boyfriend. I’ve gotten really good at avoiding him over the last few weeks, even more so since the night I talked to him on the phone while Xan made me come for him to hear it, but it seems my luck just ran out.

“What do you want?”

“What the fuck are you wearing?” he bites back, curling his lip in disgust while he moves his eyes from my face to my heels and back up again.

A bitter laugh leaves me and I cock my head at him, honest to god wondering what I ever saw in this narcissistic piece of shit. I was sure I was in love with him when we were kids, but lately I’ve been starting to wonder if that’s only because I’d have done anything to make my mother happy. She wanted me to love Noah so I did it, convinced myself that was what love felt like and rolled with it because I had to.

It wasn’t love, though, was it?

I get that now.

His nostrils flare like he knows it and he opens his mouth to say something else, but then Xan shoves his ass to the side and takes his place in front of me, casually handing me a margarita like the last three seconds didn’t happen. I raise a brow and he takes my hand in his, pulling me into him to speak over my lips.

“Mine.”

I hide a grin and he grins back, ignoring Noah completely while he leads me out towards the makeshift dance floor by the pool. I wrap my arm around his neck and lift my drink to my lips, enjoying the way he dances with me without a care in the world. He spins me around and I grin for real this time, but my mood soon changes when I catch Sienna staring at us from her spot in the kitchen. This isn’t the first time I’ve caught her looking and it probably won’t be the last, and even though I know Xan would probably never go there, I can’t deny the anxiety running through me at the thought of him cheating on me with her.

Or anyone.

“What’s on your mind, princess?” he asks me, gently tipping my chin up to pull my eyes back to his.

“Sienna wants to fuck you,” I say childishly, huffing out an annoyed breath when I catch the amusement on his face. “You think that’s funny?”

“I think you’re jealous,” he teases, dipping his head to drag my bottom lip out through his teeth. “And even though it makes my dick really fucking hard, you have no fucking reason to be. I want you, Jordyn James. Even when you’re not looking, you’re all I want.”

“Is that right?” I draw out, struggling to hide the way my heart skips all the damn beats. “And if I dared you to kiss another girl?”

“I’d lose the game,” he says simply, shrugging like he didn’t just lie to my face.

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Dare me, then,” he challenges, wrapping both arms around my waist to rest his forehead on mine. “You wanna win, right? Dare me to go kiss someone else and I’ll fucking show you how much you mean to me.”

I blink at that, momentarily shocked into silence because fuck me, he’s serious.

---