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Watching Amber drive away, I wondered how Hank was. Should I text him? I closed the front door.Not yet. I wasn’t much better than Zach after all.
While I had been with Amber, the party had gotten bigger. I walked down the outside steps, with a fresh glass of wine, onto a back patio crammed with people. The music had changed to a Latin club beat. A few clumps of people were dancing. Dillan and his friends splashed around in the pool, shooting baskets at the mini hoop set up by the diving board. Antonio was on the giant pink flamingo, drinking a glass of wine.
I went over to where Layla stood with a group of people by the food tables. A big guy wearing a ball cap had a shot glass in his hand. “Take it,” he said to Layla. “You’ll blow rocket fuel farts out of your ass. Come on, I dare you.”
“No way.”
“You’re such a—”
I interrupted. “Why do you want her to try it so much?”
“He’s my brother,” said Layla, rolling her eyes.
“Well, hello, brother. Is that Smirnoff Spicy Tamarind Vodka?”
“Uh, yeah,” he said, scratching his jaw as he stared at me.
“All right. Let’s both take a shot. Whoever makes a face clears some dishes upstairs. Deal?”
“Yeah,” said Layla, snatching the shot glass out of his hand and passing it to me.
He shrugged and filled up another glass—smaller than mine. I didn’t make a fuss. “Three,” he said, “two, one.”
I tossed mine back like it was water. His lips puckered a little.
I raised an eyebrow. “You call that spicy? What do you think, Layla, am I the winner or am I the winner?”
“You’re definitely the winner.”
“My mama does call me Spicy Spice.”
And that’s how I ended up down the path to drunkenness that Saturday night. Forest brought out a slushy blender full of daiquiri for Layla and her friends, so I tried a little of that.
Someone started a twerking competition, Layla was clearly the winner, and then we were all dancing. The guys in the pool came over and shook water onto us. Kate came back from wherever she’d been and smoked a joint on the back deck. Then she grabbed Antonio and pulled him into the dancing. Another friend of hers joined them and made a sandwich out of Antonio, who appeared very happy smooshed between two women.
Clint had walked in during this time, his unhappy blonde girlfriend trailing him. When he stared at me, I had to give myself a little lecture in my head.Hands off, no, noooo, don’t you dare…I mean, I’d just kicked out Zach for screwing around on his girlfriend.
When I took a break to run up to my bathroom, I overhead Clint’s girlfriend say, “What are we even doing here again? What’s with you—you’re, like, barely talking to me?”
“I told you, I go where the team goes,” Clint said in a low rumble. What the hell was he doing with that girl?
Shaking my head, I moved away from them. Clint had nice manners when I’d known him, but he was as stubborn as a brick wall. He’d also taken it for granted that everyone would give him what he wanted.
When I made it back outside, another football playerpulled me onto the impromptu dance floor—a sharp-faced man with a wicked twinkle in his eyes and dark black hair cut short. He moved a little too fast for me though and I slipped away into Layla’s group, dancing through them into a darker corner of the patio. I took another step backwards and landed against the hard front of a big male body.
“I’ve got you,” said Clint, as his hands landed on my hips.
“Whoops, didn’t see you there.”
“I saw you,” he said in my ear, his hands still holding me against him. We stood there, panting, suspended in this moment of potent throbbing lust—on my end anyway. A song blasting out of the speakers with rhythmic thumps repeated,want it want it, over and over. I shivered. Clint’s hands tightened on my hips.
“What are you doing,” his girlfriend shouted at the same time as someone called, “Bella?” from the upstairs balcony off the living room.
I stumbled forward and stared up. “Javier?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Leaning over the balcony above me was a familiar square-jawed face, with thick dark brown hair and a devilish smile. “Bella, mi princessa, I am here. Did you miss me?”
