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1
LEVI
I sip my soda water as the thumping bass line of whatever mix the DJ is playing vibrates through the club floor. The bar is crowded, but I hold my space on the bar stool I claimed an hour ago when we arrived, undeterred by the crowds around me clamoring for a space of their own.
One look at the scowl on my face stops the guy grumbling about me hogging the seat, and he takes his complaining elsewhere.
A nightclub is not my idea of fun, no matter how much my friends insist that I’m young and free and should act like it. At twenty-five, I’d much rather be at home in my own crowd and noise-free apartment than out with a bunch of drunk strangers dancing to an indecipherable mix of songs. But it’s Kade’s birthday, and as one of my oldest friends, I’ll suffer the discomfort in order to celebrate with him.
Though, currently, I can’t find his face in the crowd so he seems to be doing just fine on his own. I spot a few others in our friend group, laughing and joking at the edge of the dance floor, but my gaze skates over them, drawn back to the person who captures my entire focus in every room we’re in together.
When Lacey Scott is close by, everyone else ceases to exist.
She sways to the music, full hips swinging side to side to the beat, arms stretched over her head, and face tilted back so the multi-colored lights send blue and pink over her flushed complexion. Her long blonde hair is tied up off her neck in some sort of plaited design that looks both intricate and perfectly messy. There’s a bead of sweat dripping down her spine, following the low back of her blue dress. My eyes trail it, taking in the curves and dips of her body.
I shift in my seat as my cock reacts to my perusal of her body, pressing against the zip of my jeans and making me grimace. It’s getting really fucking hard to keep up with the just friends relationship Lacey and I are supposed to have. I try and fail to remind myself that I can’t have her the way I so badly crave.
She’s not just any girl, she’s my brother’s ex-fiancée.
The reminder of what he did to her makes my teeth grind and fists clench. Edward, my brother, never deserved her. They were supposed to get married last month. Hell, I was supposed to be his groomsman. But five months ago, not long before their wedding day, Eddie up and fucked off with some new girl.
Turns out, my asshole brother had been cheating on Lacey for months. Not only did he cheat and lie to her, but he broke up with her and immediately left the country to go on some swanky, expensive-as-fuck holiday with his new girl. He left Lacey with a broken heart, a sense of utter betrayal, and a huge fucking mess to clean up.
When I heard what happened, thanks to my brother posting on social media with some girl I’d never seen in some hot sunny country somewhere, I immediately ran to their shared apartment to check on Lacey. I always liked her, but I never let myself dwell on that. She’d been my brother’s girl, after all.
I only intended on offering her comfort and some support, given she had been left with the horrible task of contacting all the vendors and guests for their wedding to tell them the wedding was off. I’d taken that task off her hand after listening to her sob down the phone to yet another relative asking why the hell the wedding was canceled and what happened. I handed her a tub of ice cream, a thick fluffy blanket, and snatched the phone out of her hand.
That night, I worked through the list and informed everyone with a gruff, dark tone that ensured nobody asked any more prying questions, and sat with Lacey as she sniffled and finished the whole tub of ice cream in one sitting.
Most of her friends had also been Eddie’s friends and now that they’d broken up, they sided with him because, of course, he surrounded himself with assholes like him.
Lacey didn’t deserve a second of the struggle and pain Eddie caused her. And I did everything in my power to soothe that pain.
Now, a few months later, she’s part of my friend group like she’s been here forever. My friends love her, and the longer she’s around us, the more she comes out of her shell. The urge to growl at my lifelong friends like I’m a goddamn caveman whenever they get too jokey or close to her is getting impossible to hide, though.
Because I want her on a deeper, much more personal level than any of them do. On a level that nobody knows her.
Lacey is a virgin, a fact she admitted through tears as she explained all the arguments she’d had with my brother because of it.
I try very fucking hard not to think about that particular fact as my gaze stays glued to her body while she dances. My eyes flick to the side when movement catches the edge of my vision. A man’s approaching her, a drink in his hand and a smirk on his face. My chest grows tight and my jaw aches with how hard I’m clenching it as he stops beside her, trying to join in her dancing.
Lacey pauses, her eyes going wide as she stares up at him. She takes a step back, and he follows, not allowing her the distance she clearly wants.
Rage floods my veins, and before I know it, I’m on my feet, not giving a single fuck when someone immediately takes my seat. Nothing else matters but Lacey.
“...come on, dance with me,” the random guy is saying as I get close enough to hear them. Lacey shakes her head, and the glint of discomfort in her bright blue eyes snaps something inside me.
The second I’m close enough, I grab the guy’s shoulder and throw him away from Lacey, forcing him to give her the space she’s so clearly asked for already.
“Get the fuck away from my girl,” I snap at the man, my voice coming out as a growl. Even over the thump of the music, I know he hears me loud and clear.
Lacey hears me too, if the breathy gasp that leaves her pouty lips is any indication.
“Whoa, dude, calm down,” the guy says back, pulling a face as he looks between me and Lacey.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” I snarl, having no qualms about punching this asshole if he doesn’t leave her alone in the next two fucking seconds.
The dude mutters something under his breath, sneers at Lacey, then stalks off to the bar. When he’s out of sight, I turn back to Lacey, focusing all my attention on her again.
