Chapter Seven
Wren
The glass window above my bed rattled, waking me from my sleep. I jumped, startled by the loud bass shaking my entire cabin.
“What the fuck?” I sat up in bed, pressing my hand against the window. It was shaking beneath my touch, moving in rhythm to the music blasting from the cabin next door. I glanced at the alarm clock next to my bed. One in the morning. It was exactly what I had been scared of when those rich city boys had taken up residence next door to me. I knew they weren’t there to relax. Or be quiet.
Without stopping to check a mirror I jumped into my leather boots and stormed outside. There was a pile of cars parked in the gravel patch outside, and clutches of men and women both inside and outside of the cabin next door to mine, all with drinks in their hands. Most of the women seemed already too dunk to function, wobbling around in their heels.
I glanced over to see the shadowy figures of a man and woman in the backseat of a car, steaming up the windows as they tore at each other’s bodies.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I stared through the darkness at their cabin. All of the lights were on, and through the windows I could see even more people mingling. And then there was Axton, one arm draped around the shoulders of a very drunk blonde, while he gestured animatedly as he spoke.
I grunted and stomped up the steps of their back deck. Along the way, I picked up several empty beer cans and one dry bottle of tequila.
But I couldn’t get to the door before I heard one of Axton’s buddies behind me. “Oh, good morning!” He called out to me. I stopped in my spot, turning to glance at the blonde head of the idiot who had bowed to me earlier that morning. He was surrounded by women in bikinis, some of them with wet hair. I glanced over at the bubbling hot tub on the deck, only to see more empty cans lined along the rails.
I rolled my eyes started to pick up more of the cans, choosing to ignore his comment.
One of the girls laughed, jeering at me as the man whispered in her ear. I caught the last bit of what he was saying, “That’s the babe Axton wants to bang.” I thought about throwing the empty bottle of tequila at his head, but figured that would derail my plans to scold Axton East for throwing this ridiculous party.
A red-head crinkled her upper lip at me and whispered in her group, “What is she even wearing?”
As I turned to go into the cabin, I noticed my faint reflection in one of the windows. My dark hair was a knotted mess at the top of my head, and I was wearing a white tank top without a bra and flannel pajama pants that were tucked into my untied brown work boots. I looked like a mess. But I hadn’t move to Colorado to let other people judge me for what I was wearing or what I looked like.
If my hands hadn’t have been so full of empty cans and bottles I would have flipped her off. Or maybe let her know how stupid I thought she looked in the tight, sparkling red dress that just barely covered her vagina. How stupid she was for being at a party like the one Axton and his cheesy friends were throwing. That she didn’t actually mean anything to them, other than being a pretty piece of ass to squeeze and maybe sleep with, if they felt like it at the end of the night.
But I didn’t. I was focusing all of my rage on one person. Axton East.
He was still charming an entire group of people, his arm around a girl who could barely stand and kept pulling the strap of her dress up her shoulder. I scowled. A few people stopped laughing at what Axton was saying to stare at me. Silence began to fill the room, and eventually, Axton stopped talking to turn around and find out what everyone was staring at. Why everyone had stopped laughing at his pretentious jokes.
His jaw dropped at the sight of me standing in the doorway.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I asked coldly, staring him down as I dropped my armful of trash onto the kitchen floor.
The blonde girl under Axton’s arms squinted at me, her makeup badly smudged around her eyes. “Who’s that?”
I shot her a glance and was about to answer when Axton said as calmly as possible, “Nothing to worry about.” He moved his hand away from her and stepped towards me. “I’ll be right back, guys.” He finished the shot that was in his hand before walking towards me, moving slowly as if I was a viper about to strike at any moment. I was.
“Wren, maybe we could go outside?” He whispered when we got close enough.
“Oh, am I embarrassing you?” I scowled and tried to pull away from him as he gently grabbed my arm and started to pull me through the house towards the front door.
“Not at all,” he muttered under his breath, trying not to make a scene in front of his friends. “But I think you might be embarrassing yourself.”
I cringed away from him and stormed towards the front door. “I don’t give a shit what any of these people think.” Throwing open the front door I stepped outside into the chilly night air.
A couple making out on the porch didn’t stop to look at us. I picked up the nearest empty can and threw it at them.
“Hey!” The girl yelled at me as I stomped down the steps.
I could hear Axton apologizing to them behind me.
When I reached the nearest patch of gravel that was overridden with drunk assholes and women without clothes I turned on my boot heel and glared up at Axton. “Seriously, what is this?”
“What is what?” His ice-blue eyes narrowed on me.
“This fucking party,” I shot back. He was going to fuck with me. This was going to be his moment of getting back at me for the morning, when he couldn’t figure out how to work his stove.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I thought I’d invite some friends over for the night.”
“Some friends?” I threw my hands into the air, tired of his attitude and ready to strangle him.
“Yeah.” His face was a blank slate. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious, or just trying to provoke me further. I guessed the latter.
“This isn’t a party lake.”
“Why not?”
“I live here,” I pointed at my own cabin, dumbfounded at how stubborn he was being.
“Yeah, and I’m renting out a cabin for the summer,” he pointed at his own cabin, mimicking me.
“I won’t have it.” I crossed my arms. “I’m going to call George.”
Axton laughed cruelly. “You’re going to tell on me?”
I pursed my lips. “Yeah. If it means getting you the hell out that cabin, I will tell on you.”
“Come on,” he held his hands out. “I’m just having a party with some friends. Did we really disturb you?”
My mouth dropped. “Are you kidding me? How could you not have disturbed me? Do you not even realize how loud that music is?”
Axton glanced over his shoulder at the cabin and chuckled. “Oh, yeah, I guess we are pretty loud.”
“I don’t even think that begins to cover it.”
“Wren,” he sighed. “I’m not trying to make your life hell.”
“Well you are.”
“Please don’t get us kicked out.” I noticed a real sense of desperation in his voice. He was worried, and in that moment I realized I had all the power.
I took advantage of the moment. “And why shouldn’t I? I don’t want to wake up at one o’clock in the morning all summer long because you decided to invite some friends over.” It wasn’t just that I was giddy to watch him squirm, which I was, I was also being dead honest with him. I had left New York City a long time ago, and the outlandish parties were part of the reason why. I hated seeing men with depthless pockets get beautiful women so drunk they didn’t know what they were doing, only to take advantage of them and send them packing the next morning.
Axton’s head dropped, his gaze falling to his feet. In the moment, he looked somehow fragile. My heart skipped a beat as I stared at him, trying to soften my glare despite the fact that I was still boiling with rage.
“Listen,” he took a step forward and held a hand out. Close enough that I thought he was going to wrap his fingers around my arm. Goosebumps shivered through my body. “I need this.” He was begging me. I could see it in his face, how sincere he was. His dark eyebrows pinched together, concerned.
“Is this the last one?” I kept my arms folded across my chest. He was making me soften beneath his cool stare, the sadness that laced his voice. It had all caught me off guard. I had never expected to see him this way.
A dimple formed in his cheek as his lips spread into a charming grin, a moment of playfulness as he shrugged, “It’s the last one you won’t know about. I promise.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t want the rest of my summer nights to be like this.”
“They won’t,” he finally stepped closer. I could feel the heat coming off of his body. The scent of tequila and beer assaulted my nostrils, but underneath I could smell the brisk mix of his cologne. I sucked in a breath as he reached out and touched my elbow, squeezing gently. “I promise.”
I tried not to squirm away from his touch, but his fingers were setting my whole arm on fire.
“You have to ask,” I settled firmly with him.
He blinked. “Ask?”
“The next time you’re having a party,” I was trying not to flinch underneath of his eyes, but he was so close I could see the faint stubble of his dark beard, the way his neck muscles tensed each time I tested him.
His fingers moved slowly up from my elbow to my shoulder, where they stopped as he leaned forward. “I promise.”
My body shuddered and I jumped away from his touch, from the intensity of his stare, from the sudden intense desire I had for those fingers of his to run across every inch of my body.
“Okay,” I coughed, trying to ignore every feeling he had just ignited inside of my body. For the first time, I suddenly felt very self conscious in my pajamas and messy hair and no makeup.
“Wren,” he whispered after I pulled away. He looked defeated. “I won’t do anything to upset you.”
In that moment I decided it was the alcohol in his system talking. I reminded myself that he knew how to charm women until they were putty that he could control. I was nothing special – he was just doing what he had always done. Charming me so he could get exactly what he wanted. And I had fallen for it. Like an idiot.
But he was good at being charming. My heart was beating rapidly against my chest as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I was ready to run home and crawl back into my bed. I needed to get away from Axton, and the smell of his body, and the dark purr of his voice, and the electricity of his touch.
Despite all odds, Axton East was getting under my skin.