Breach (10 page)

I jolted, shooting my friend
a death glare as we scooted around to make room. I was on the end, making me the one he sat next to, our thighs touching.

“Wouldn’t have missed it,” he replied with a smile as he greeted the table. He leaned close to me, whispering in my ear and sending heat throughout my body. “Lila.”

I smiled at him. “Nate.” His eyes flashed and he drew in a quick breath, but he composed himself before anyone noticed. “I’m surprised to see you out.”

“Oh, we used to see him here all the time,” Ian chimed in. “Been months, dude. We thought you fe
ll off the face of the earth or something. Finally find yourself a steady girl?”

Nathan laughed, but I couldn’t find it in me to join in
due to the knife twisting in my gut. Of course he would go out to get his kicks. It didn’t slip my attention that Ian said he hadn’t seen him since before we started having sex, though.

“So, you’re a man
-whore? Should have known.” I downed the rest of the Long Island in front of me. The thought of his hands on some of the skanks I saw around the place made my blood boil. Okay, the thought of his hands on
anyone
other than me did it, but did I expect him to have been a monk before me?

No. It wasn’t rational.

“It was just sex, Delilah. Fucking,” he mumbled low enough for just me to hear.

I could feel the bi
le rising in my stomach, my expression slipping, exposing my displeasure.

That’s right, just sex. You don’t mean anything to him other than a good fuck.

I jumped, flinching when I felt a hand on my leg, right above my knee. Nathan’s hand gripped tight, his thumb making small circular patterns on my skin, placing a fire in their wake. His scent enveloped my senses as he whispered in my ear, “I don’t want them.”

He didn’t
include me in that comment, as he would previously, grouping me along with the rest of his fan club. A step, I supposed, but a step to what? To him fucking me at his whim? If I was being honest with myself, I wanted more. But I would take whatever he would give just to have a part of him.

“I n
eed another drink,” I said as I turned for Nathan to let me out. His face was hard and unreadable, and his grip on my leg tightened. My heart rate sped up; he always managed to touch me in a way that excited my body and made it rebel.

“Are you sur
e that’s wise?” His gaze moved to the empty glasses in front of me.

“Are you my fucking father? No, I didn’t think so. Let me the fuc
k up so I can get another drink.” I was fuming, no doubt about it. He finally relented, and I pushed past him and through the crowd, clamoring for a drink.

Up at the bar
, I tried to get the bartender’s attention. Tried, but failed.

“Need help, pretty lady?” a slimy voice asked from behind. I could s
mell the alcohol wafting off him without even turning around. I crooked my head to find a good looking, but drunk as all hell blond man.

“No
thanks, I’m fine.” I returned back to my task of getting the damn bartender to acknowledge my existence.

“Suit yourself.”

After finally getting some attention, I got a Hard Lemonade and headed out to the dance floor where Caroline and Ian were grinding away. I joined in, the booze and the music taking me away from my inhibitions, and I
danced
.

My eyes were closed, hips swaying to the beat. A body pressed up against mine, but not the one I wanted. There was an arm around my waist, a hand at my hip. The touch was foreign, not what I craved, what I needed, but in
my inebriation, I let it stay.

He pulled me back into him
, and felt his arousal. The hand on my hip worked its way up my waist, skimming the side of my breast.

It was wrong, all wrong. It wasn’t
his
hands,
his
body—Nate. That was who I wanted. Nate.

A chill ran down my spine, igniting my body. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to know Nathan was there.

“Can I cut in?” His voice was low and menacing. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me, anger vibrating off of him.

“Wait your turn,” a drunken voice said from behind me. I tilted my head back to
see the blond that had been at the bar. Ew, I was dancing with him?

Nathan snarled. “I’m not asking.
”

Funny, people snarled at me in the past, but it had always been frightening. Not
so with Nathan; he was turning me on.

“Okay, man, shit,
take her,” blondie said as he backed away and pushed me at Nathan. I crashed into his chest, hands gripping his shirt. I was unable to stop myself from breathing him in.

“What the fuck was tha
t about?” I pushed off him.

Instead of an answer
, he grabbed my arm and pulled me from the dance floor. “You’re letting strange men put their hands all fucking over you!” His grip tightened.

“What the hell do you care, Thorne? Huh?”

“Because, you are mi—”

“
This guy bothering you, Lila?” A familiar voice boomed out over the music, cutting off whatever Nathan was about to say.

My head snapped to the side to find a familiar silhouette, and
my gaze rose to find an annoyed set of eyes trained on the hand gripping my arm. It looked like he was waiting for the go ahead to tear it off.

A gasp escaped my lips
as I looked at my very pissed off ex-boyfriend. “
Andrew
?”

The rising tension was almost palpable in the smal
l area we occupied. Andrew was there, standing next to me, ready to rip Nathan apart. A pissing contest seemed to commence while Nathan’s hand remained in place, his fingers still digging into my arm.

“Let
go of the lady,” Andrew warned, fists clenching at his side.

Nathan’s eyes flickered to mine before going back to Andrew. Instead of releasing me, he pulled me closer to him. Andrew’s hand reached out to grab Nathan, and I knew what I had to do.

Stepping between the two, I grabbed the front of their shirts and pushed them apart with as much force as I could muster. Which, considering their sizes compared to my own, wasn’t much.

“Enough! Jesus, knock it off.
” I glared at them. “Nathan, you can let go now. Drew, back off.”

“He wa
s grabbing your arm, Lila.
Hard
.” Drew’s steely gaze was leveled on Nathan.

“Yes, after saving me from some drunk sleaze on
the dance floor,” I explained. Well, it was pretty much true. “Then he proceeded to lecture my drunk ass about watching out for myself.”

Andrew’s jaw opened and then closed, looking from me to Nathan.
“Really?” He looked like he was still dubious of Nathan’s reaction and harsh grip, which was warranted as Nathan was still on the defensive side.

“What’s going on?”
Caroline came up to us, her eyes taking in our stance.

“Just a misunderstanding and too much testosterone,” I assured her.

Andrew visibly relaxed, but continued to be on his guard. It took Nathan longer. What had Nathan been about to say? My stomach churned as an insane curiosity swept through me. And what was he so angry about now?

“Okay, then,”
Caroline said, looking between all of us. “We ordered another round of drinks back at the table. Join us, Drew?”

Andrew’s gaze moved down to me as if he was searching for something before answering. “Sounds great,
Carrie.” His familiar good natured grin lit up his features. He swept me up in his arms for a hug then extended his hand outward, indicating for me to go first. “After you, Lila.” It was apparent he didn’t trust Nathan enough to let me walk in front of him.

My step
s wobbled a bit, the alcohol getting to me more. Nathan’s hand reached out to mine, steadying me. I looked up to find his emotions secured back in place, his anger stifled for the moment, hidden away, stewing beneath. His fake smile was plastered in place, and inside I cried out for the real Nathan to show himself again. I wanted to know him, not the pretty picture he presented to the world. Brief glimpses were not enough to satisfy me.

God, we were the perfect pair with the way we handled ourselves.

It would be nice to be normal, not to have to keep the act up all of the time. To end the masquerade.

Somehow
the nightmare escalated as I ended up sandwiched between Andrew and Nathan. The most awkward place in the world to be—at least for me. Trapped between the guy I used to date, and the guy who was secretly fucking me into oblivion. It didn’t help that Nathan’s hand had returned to my thigh under the table.

Andrew hiked his thumb toward Nathan. Subtlety
be damned. “Okay, so who’s this newbie?”

We all laughed then
everyone launched into the whole Vivian debacle that led to Nathan being my new partner in crime. Oh, if they only knew how true that was in reality.

The waitress came by with the
round Caroline ordered. I got one sip in before a hand grabbed it from me.

“You don’t need that,” Andrew
said.

My glare was icy as I grabbed the glass back from him, taking multiple large gulps until the majority of the liquid was gone. “Don’t mess with my drink, Drew. I need it.”

“No, you don’t.”

“It’s the only way I can sleep, okay?”
I admitted in a huff, and rubbed my eyes. I was so tired, exhausted to the point of tears. Add in the downers of the booze and I was about to burst. “I just want to get some fucking sleep. I can’t fucking drink every night, so let me sleep tonight. I can get more than a couple hours in and my brain will shut down.”

Caroline
thankfully jumped in, which was good because I didn’t want to go into it any further. “Her insomnia’s back.”

Nathan was already staring at me, I could feel it. My attention moved down to where his hand was, the skin tingling beneath.

“All right, off topic Lila. I’m not interesting enough. Next topic,” I rambled, trying to steer the conversation away from my depressing self.

Andrew snorted.
“I see you still love to be the center of attention.”

I rolled my eyes, which caused my whole head to spin.
“Yeah, yeah. Drunk, depressed, center-of-attention-hating, stupid, ugly…” I choked as the words began swirling in my head. I tilted the rest of my drink back, trying to drown them out.

“Okay, enough.
” Andrew took the glass out of my shaking hand. “I think it’s time to get your drunken ass home.”

I let out a whimpering sigh. “I drove.”

“You definitely aren’t driving. I can take you,” Andrew said.

Nathan’s fingers dug into my thigh, and I could swear I heard him growl.
“I can take her home.”

Everyone at the table turned to stare at him, myself included.

I couldn’t hold back the laughter that escaped. “Oh, Caroline, I forgot to tell you.” I placed my hand near my mouth to block people from hearing as I whispered across to her. “The asshole lives in my building!”

“You know I can hear you, right,
drunkie?” Nathan quirked his brow at me, while his fingers caressed my thigh. It was a dangerous thing to do in the company we were keeping, but I loved it.

I turned to him, contemplating what to say in response. He was distracting me again, not that it was a hard thing for him to do. “Do I look like I care?”

“Don’t hold back on me now, Palmer, let it out.”

Fine, he wanted to play, my
drunk ass would play. “I was going to go into great detail of where to stick it, but thought it might be a little too rough for our party here.”

Ian laughed. “
Oooh, Lila’s getting surly.”

“Surly wench, that’s my name,” I agreed.

Nathan smirked at me. “I’m going to call you that from now on.”

I narrow
ed my eyes at him. “Bite me, Thorne.”

“You are so fucking asking for it,” he whispered in my ear, his hand sliding up under my skirt.

“Alrighty!” I jumped, startling everyone at the table. “I need…home. Who’s taking me?”

Andrew turned to me. “I can, babe.
”

There went Nathan, glaring at him again.
“I live in the same building. Why waste the gas when we’re going to the same place?”

And pissing contest round two, commence!

I had to try to pull their attention away from each other. “Asshole has a good point.”

“Would you stop calling me that?” Nathan
’s face turned red and a vein pulsed at his temple. His jaw flexed as he exhaled in a rush.

“Nope.
You threatened to call me ‘surly wench’ at work; if that’s the case, I have every right to call you ‘asshole.’”