Seb smirks at me and I just flip him off. There’s no way in hell I’m putting up with the pair of them dry humping, or worse, behind me right now.
“I ain’t going with them,” Alex snaps, darting toward the car I chose. “Come on, Baby C, I’ll keep you warm.”
She glares at him, her lip curling in disgust.
“Touch me and I’ll make use of the knife Stella bought me for Christmas,” she hisses.
“Ooh… Calli grew up,” he mutters, his eyes lighting up.
“Careful, bro, or I’ll be the one pulling my knife to cut off your balls.”
“Chill, man. I’m kidding. Right, Baby C?”
She mutters something about him being a dog before stepping around him and climbing into the car.
“Burn, bro,” I joke, as Nico and Toby finally emerge, both of them looking like they’ve already started their party. Nico nods at me as Toby damn near falls into the back of the car.
My brows pinch in concern. Ever since the truth came out about Jonas, he’s been falling deeper and deeper into the darkness he harbours inside.
His attacks on the man who claimed to be his father all these years are getting more and more brutal, and I worry that one day, he’s going to go too far and not be able to handle it.
“Fuck off. It’s not like I was actually flirting,” Alex scoffs, reminding me that we were in the middle of something.
“Good. I should fucking hope not,” I snap before finally joining the driver and hearing Alex climb in a second later.
“Good to go?” the driver asks, before double-checking our destination and taking off.
The tension in the car is pretty thick, but with thoughts of Emmie flickering through my mind as we make our way closer to the bar, I push it aside and think about how I want my night to end.
It might have only been a few hours, but hearing the final whistle on that game feels like a lifetime ago already.
I should be on cloud nine celebrating. But the importance of it all dulls in comparison to claiming my wife.
The silence in the car is shattered when Alex decides to get under Calli’s skin once more.
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one,” Calli hisses back, and I can’t help but smile at her obvious distaste for Alex’s manwhore ways. It certainly makes my life easier.
Hopefully, she’ll find herself a decent guy to settle down with and cause neither me nor her brother any issues.
“Calli,” he warns. I don’t need to turn around to see the smirk on his face. “Are you talking to a boy?”
A smile curls at my lips as anger comes from her in waves.
“Fuck off, Alex,” she spits.
The driver shoots me an amused glance before pulling to a stop outside the bar.
“Good timing,” I say, pushing the door open and climbing out. “Come on, Baby C. I don’t want to be cleaning up Deimos blood tonight,” I say after holding her door open like the gentleman I’m most certainly not.
“He’s a dick,” she mutters, storming straight past me and toward the bouncer.
It’s not until she’s flounced through the door, having been let straight inside, that her dress catches my eyes.
Was she wearing a—
“Man, she is feisty tonight. She needs to ditch that V-card and let out some of that tension.”
My fist collides with his stomach and he bends over, wheezing out a breath as I stand over him.
“She’s right. You’re a dick. Now let’s go.”
Gripping the back of his neck, I drag him forward.
The bouncer’s eyes narrow on me, giving me a silent warning about my behaviour before letting us straight inside.
We might have only been sixteen last year, and we were meant to get back on the bus with all the other year twelves, but that didn’t fucking happen. We might not have the reputation here as we do in our part of our home city, but we still managed to get inside this place and party with all of last year’s year thirteens. Although it wasn’t such a celebration, seeing as we lost. Not that any of us really gave a fuck. Some of last year’s girls were downright filthy. It was a fucking epic night.
This place has a lot to live up to, and I can only hope that tonight blows it out of the water.
Pushing my hair back from my brow, I straighten my shirt as we descend the stairs.
“I need alcohol and a willing girl grinding up against me,” Alex announces behind me.
“A-fucking-men to that,” I mutter.
The second the club comes into view before us, I scan the crowd looking for her, but I come up empty.
I swear to God, if she’s not here somewhere waiting for me, I’m going to fucking throttle her.
Reaching out, I rearrange myself once more, my semi still aching for her as Alex fights his way to the front of the bar.
With two shots of their most expensive vodka heading for my stomach, we take off on the search—Alex for any willing girl he can get his hands on, and me for my fucking wife.
The second we approach the railing that reveals the dance floor below us, I see her.
My fists curl at my sides and my anger surges forward as I watch her dancing with Xander. His back is to me, cutting off my view of anything but the top of her head as she rests it back on his shoulder.
A growl rips from my throat a second before I take off, more than ready to rip his hands clean from his arms for touching something that belongs to me.
I make it two steps before a body blocks my way.
“Drinks,” Nico shouts over the music, thrusting another vodka at me.
I stare at the glass as if it just personally offended me as my heart continues to race and blood rushes past my ears.
“What? It’s the fancy shit you like.”
Taking it from his fingers, I throw it back before shoving the glass into his chest and barrelling through both him and a wrecked-looking Toby. If someone doesn’t have to carry him home tonight, I’ll be fucking surprised.
More people get shoved aside as I make my way toward the stairs that lead down to the lower level.
By the time I manage to cut through the crowd to where they’re dancing, my body is trembling with pent-up rage and need.
But the second I catch his eye, it explodes like an old bomb just waiting for the right moment to cause the most devastation.
The faces around me blur. The only thing I can see is the two of them. And when I manage to move around, my eyes zero in on where his hand is resting on the curve of her waist.
My chest heaves as I stand there frozen, staring, too overwhelmed with everything that’s racing through my veins to act.
Xander's face dips as he whispers something to Emmie, but his eyes never leave mine, his smirk telling me just how much he’s enjoying getting up close and personal with my girl.
His smile only grows as he turns her back to me, taunting me with her body. My foot lifts, more than ready to go and physically remove her from his touch, but before I get a chance to move, he lifts his hand to her hair.
She has to know I’m here. I feel her presence like a physical fucking force pressing down on my chest. And I know that she feels it too.
She’s taunting me. Teasing me. Playing me.
But I am going to fucking win.
I will always win.
His fingers twist in her dark, wavy lengths before he gathers it all up and tucks it over her shoulder.