Perfectly Broken (2 page)

I shook my head as they made their way through the crowd to the hardwood dance floor. She stared up at him, wide-eyed, as he grabbed her hips, pulling her close
.
They moved together to the heavy beat of the bass that was steadily pulsing throughout the club. The lighting fluctuated in time, adding to the perfectly intoxicating atmosphere of the place.

It wasn't that I didn't understand the look on Bambi's face. I did. Zane was attractive. At six foot two, he towered above all of us at the table. Me
,
especially. His shaggy, dark blonde hair accentuated the pale blue of his eyes. He didn't shave tonight, leaving a hint of stubble along his jaw that was just dark enough to make a girl want to reach out and stroke his cheek… which would then leave her aching to feel that scruff against the inside of her thighs.
 

At this point, I knew his game almost better than he did.

Tish raised his hand, indicating he wanted another round
.
Before the waitress even arrived, Kas shoved him out of the booth, pushing him toward the dance floor. A large crowd now blocked the small distance but I knew that wouldn't stop Kas.

"One song, Lili. Watch the table. We'll be right back
,
" Kas promised over her shoulder. I nodded. I could see Kas's dark red hair as she all but threw people out of the way to get to the floor
.
Once they made it
,
they began to move with the closely packed figures surrounding them. Tish's hands groped at her inappropriately and I couldn't help but laugh as I looked away.

My eyes fell on a group of about six guys standing at the bar. They were obviously trashed and two of them looked away the second I spotted them. I grinned, knowing I'd caught them staring. I picked up my beer, rolling it expertly between my fingertips as I attempted to gain their attention once more. The same two glanced my way again and I ran my tongue slowly around the lip of my bottle before tilting my head back, downing the remaining liquid in one long drink as they watched with wide eyes.

There was some discussion between them, seeming to get almost heated before the shorter of the two headed through the crowd in my direction. He wouldn't have been my first choice
,
but he certainly wasn't too hard on the eyes. His dark hair was styled into a short faux hawk and he wore a green button-down shirt
,
sleeves rolled to his elbows
,
which pulled nicely along his shoulders. His eyes stayed glued on mine and the smile plastered on his face told me this would be almost too easy.

"What happened to all your friends?" he asked when he arrived at the booth. He leaned his hands on the table, trying to look nonchalant
.
It didn't take an expert like me to see he needed it for stability.

I dropped my chin to rest on the heels of my hands and sighed. "They all ran off and left me here to watch the table."

"Well that wasn't very nice. It seems like a boring job." He grinned but it was sloppy. He was drunk. Perfect.

"It's lonely," I said
,
glancing at the empty spot beside me. He took the bait, sliding into the seat Zane had occupied only a few minutes before. Like I said, almost too easy.

"No… NO!" Hands press against me. I try to find words but I can't breathe.

CHAPTER TWO

Lust

ZANE

The rhythm Bambi set as she moved against me had my attention bouncing between her tits and her ass, both barely covered by the tiny red scrap of fabric that would hardly be considered a dress somewhere else in the world. Just one more thing I loved about living in the city of sin.

"So
,
you're here celebrating your birthday?" she asked over her shoulder, her wavy blonde hair nearly smacking me in the face as she looked back at me.

I grinned at her, nodding. "Hell yes. Can you think of anywhere better to celebrate?" I'd learned a lot about tourists in the last few years, one being that they preferred other tourists.

She reached behind her and bravely cupped my arousal through my jeans. I groaned and dug my fingers harder into her hips, pulling her ass against me as I dropped my face to her neck, tasting the soft skin there. Tonight wasn't about getting laid but it didn't hurt to keep my options open. It was my birthday, after all.

"I think I need a drink," she said, out of breath as the song changed again, the beat of the bass remaining steady and loud.

I nodded and glanced back to the table, my eyes immediately landing on Lili, or the back of her head. She was attached to a guy, his fingers grabbing at her long, black hair as she kissed him. I dropped my head as I laughed
.
Taking Bambi's hand, I led her back to our table
,
nudging Kas as I passed and tipping my head toward the booth. She nodded and glanced that direction
.
Though I couldn't hear her laughing, I could see her shoulders shake as she pulled Tish beside us.

When we approached, Kas cleared her throat and Lili gracefully disentangled herself from the guy, running her index finger under her bottom lip slowly as she grinned. The guy watched us carefully, clearly trying to decide whether to go or stay. Lili's hand disappeared under the table and he straightened immediately. I rolled my eyes at her as I slid in beside the newest addition to our table, pulling Bambi behind me as Kas and Tish took their seats on the other side of Lili.

Kas leaned around Lili to look at the guy. "Hi," she said, her eyes drifting back to Lili meaningfully. I wrapped my arm around Bambi as I watched the exchange.

"Oh!" Lili said, sitting up straighter and gesturing to the guy again. "This is… uhhh…" She bit her lip to hide a smile, trying to look ashamed but clearly not caring that she didn't bother to get his name.

"Stewart," the guy said, extending his hand to me first. Before I could even take his hand to shake it, Lili scoffed.

"Ew. No. I did
not
just make out with a Stewart. We're going to call you Charles," she said with a nod. "So, this is Charlie." Stewart looked over at Lili, his expression a mixture of shock and confusion.

I took the hand he still had extended to me and shook it, laughing
.
"Welcome to hell, Charlie." Lili was tiny but she was a blazing ball of contumacy and he would quickly learn there was no use arguing with her about anything.

Losing interest in the conversation, I held my bottle up to Carrie and nodded toward Bambi to let her know we needed another round. It was then I noticed the group of about ten women pushing through the crowd near the door. I watched, amused
.
The girl leading the group had one of those stupid fake veils on and a bright pink sash with ‘bride to be’ printed on it.
 

I would never understand why girls felt the need to announce to every person around them that they were out acting trashy the night before they were going to make a lifetime commitment to another person. It made no sense to me. I watched the group, only partly paying attention to them
,
as Bambi's hand traveled up my thigh under the table. I slid down slightly in the booth, opening my legs further so she could better reach her mark right about the time the girls stopped in front of a group of guys at the bar.

The ‘bride to be’ started shoving at one of the guys, clearly pissed. I chuckled quietly, wondering what the groom was caught doing. I closed my eyes a moment as Bambi's tongue started working along my jaw. The combination of that and her hand working over the denim of my jeans left my mind foggier than the alcohol I'd been drinking all night. I opened my eyes, knowing I needed to focus or I would be dragging Bambi back to the bathroom of this place to finish things off
.
That was really more Lili's style than mine.

I wasn't opposed to the occasional brief tryst in a dark corner but I preferred to take my time when it came to sex. Lili, with her practiced hardness and deep-seated distrust of people, was more of the “get in, get off, get on with life” type. From the way Charlie was twitching beside me on the booth, I was betting it wouldn't be long before they disappeared.

I let my fingers slide across Bambi's bare arm as I turned my attention back to the bride. Her entire face was red, obviously furious as she yelled at the group of men in front of her. I couldn't hear the words from across the room but the guy at the front glanced in our direction
.
Her gaze followed, landing immediately on the guy to my right, who had Lili draped over him as they laughed. The bride's eyes narrowed and she started through the crowd toward us.

"Oh shit," I laughed the words, covering my mouth with my hand as the train wreck that was about to happen fell into place. The tall blonde was a few pounds past curvy and a complete opposite of Lili. As she reached our table, she slammed both of her fists on the outside edge before Charlie and Lili even looked in her direction. Tish and Kas were watching with confused expressions, oblivious to the scene I'd witnessed at the bar.

"Stewart!" she squealed the single word, making me cringe as the sound grated in my ears.

"Oh
,
fuck! Erica, this isn't what it looks like!" Charlie quickly extricated himself from Lili's grip. Lili narrowed her eyes at the blonde across the table and reached out to trail her nail along his neck.

"Seriously? First my sister and now this skank! My mom was right. You aren't husband material at all," Erica said, her fists now clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"Stewie, she's
really
not my type. I don't do frumpy," Lili cooed, wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck again and leaning close before turning her face back to the blonde. "But
,
she's welcome to watch."

The girl sputtered for a moment in her attempt to find a suitable retort. "Slut," she spit the word at Lili who just laughed.

"Oh, burn. I guess you told me. Listen, maybe you and I should go get a drink and I could give you a few pointers on how to keep your man here satisfied," Lili offered, patting Charlie's leg with a grin.

Erica just huffed and turned to push back through the crowd.

Before any of us could react, Charlie jumped up onto the booth
.
Using the table top as a step to leap down, he chased Erica through the crowd. “Erica! Wait!"

Carrie paused in her approach, watching all of us grab bottles before they tumbled off the table from the weight shift. She shook her head, glancing in the direction of the couple before she stepped forward.

"It's always eventful when you guys are around," she said, dropping off the drinks and clearing empties before disappearing through the wall of bodies.

Lili burst out laughing and all four of us turned to look at her
.
She glanced around the table and shrugged. "Oops."

"Oops?" Kas asked, nudging Lili's shoulder. "Did you know he was engaged?"

Lili shook her head as she answered. "Not until she walked up."

"You're shameless."

"It's not my shame. I was only working with what I was given. He should've said he was engaged."

"I'm not sure he had time before you shoved your tongue down his throat," Bambi said. I leaned back, looking over at her. She obviously didn't know Lili well enough to run her mouth that way
,
but it was too late to stop her now.

Lili's laughter cut off at Bambi's words. She looked around me, her wide blue eyes narrowed menacingly. "Says the girl with a hooker's name. Did you bother to ask about Zane's relationship status before jerking him off under the table?" Her eyes looked pointedly at the table covering Bambi's hand on my crotch.

"Lee, shit," Tish said, making a disgusted face as he took the shot in front of him.

"Who the fu—" Bambi started but I pulled her hand off of me
.
I squeezed her fingers to draw her attention to me and shook my head.

"Don't," I warned, watching Bambi carefully. If she continued, she would just be digging herself a deeper grave. I didn't need to defend Lili and she knew I wouldn't
,
but that didn't mean I was in the mood for bloodshed tonight. Bambi huffed, yanking her hand free and pushing herself out of the booth before stomping off toward her friends.

I groaned and rolled my eyes as I looked back over at Lili disapprovingly. "Thanks for that."

"What?" she asked, looking offended.

"You weren't getting laid tonight so you wanted to make sure I didn't either?" I tugged on the thighs of my jeans in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure against my zipper before I took the shot in front of me. "By the way, it's not really fair to hold what Bambi was doing against her when you were doing the same fucking thing with Charlie."

"Can we
please
stop discussing this now?" Tish grabbed Kas' shot, downing it as well.

Lili ignored Tish's request, her attention completely focused on me. "Excuse me
,
but I was perfectly fine until your whore decided to talk shit. Maybe you should train them to only open their mouth to suck your cock."

"Maybe I could if you didn't go out of your way to try to intimidate anyone who even cracks a fucking joke."

Lili scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest as she turned toward me in the booth. "You mean the way you did last Saturday with that frat boy at the bar?"

"That mother fucker wasn't joking…" I trailed off when I glanced down at her and noticed the black ink lining up perfectly along her forearms. It made me grin despite my annoyance. 'Though she be but little, she is fierce.'

I remembered telling her about
A Midsummer Night's Dream
one night about a month after I moved back home. I told her she was tenacious in spite of her size. She laughed and told me theatre had never been her thing and she never really understood Shakespeare. I knew Shakespeare in the Park was scheduled to perform that play in just a few weeks, around the time of her birthday, so that night I took her to see it.

She had been in awe of the performance, laughing and nudging me at the quote. On the way home that evening, she told me it had been the best birthday of her life. I'd spent next to nothing on the night, only buying a card in order to write where I was taking her on the inside. It was just a few days later when she got the tattoo on her forearms.