♫ Like Water - Flume ft. MNDR ♫
I think I forgot how to breathe.
Seeing a casually-dressed Roman—beanie, gray sweatpants, and all—no more than five minutes after arriving knocked me sick. Literally sucked the wind right out of me and turned my stomach upside down.
And he wasn’t just here as guest.
No.
After further explanation, I was told this was his home—all gray walls, white clean-lined furniture, and modern goth decor.
Shock gave into silent rage within sheer milliseconds.
I wanted to kill Ramsey.
Had Marco not taken the brunt of my wrath when he saw me going off on her like a psychopath, I might have snapped her neck and left her for dead on the lush patio.
Okay, so I’m exaggerating; I could never actually kill my girl, but holy hell was I livid.
Ramsey swore she didn’t know and Marco claimed he’d not had a clue either. That, apparently, he was invited by someone else and took it upon himself to extend the invitation a few times over.
I don’t know how much of that I truly believed, solely because I didn’t know Marco as well as I knew Stryker, but I decided to let it go.
Ramsey would never purposely do this to me.
Suki, yes.
But Ramsey, never.
So I drowned myself deep in the whiskey hole instead, a naive attempt to abolish Roman’s presence from my mind.
Within thirty minutes, I’d downed about six fingers worth and was working on another few when Marco and his buddies led Ramsey and I through the dimmed house.
Flume resounded off the walls.
Bodies writhed and swayed around to the beat.
I was having a good time, and with Roman no where in sight, I actually let myself believe all would be okay. That he had enough sense to lock himself away and leave me alone.
There wasn’t any need for us to interact, hostile or otherwise.
But that’s when I saw Vic…green eyes trailing me like a hawk.
My stomach skyrocketed to my throat.
On a small gasp, I gripped Ramsey out of reflex, expecting him to roll up on us, but he simply raised his glass by way of greeting, then disappeared down the hallway with a small push off the wall.
If I didn’t know the man as well as I did, I would’ve wondered what the hell he was doing here.
This was prime Vic behavior, though—a serpent always slithering around undetected, always watching.
Waiting.
He’d stepped it up after Javi’s murder, too, which would explain why he was here.
And yet, my heart still seemed to race.
My focus kind of tunneled. Everything was out of sorts. Ramsey was talking as we moved along but I didn’t hear a single word of it. I hated being near Vic and it showed.
Was the first thing she questioned me about when we followed Marco and his mates into what appeared to be Roman’s home office.
I brushed it off, promised I’d tell her later. This wasn’t the time or place for me to come clean about that. Not when Roman’s stare was striking me from across the room.
I felt it long before I even saw him. Tried to avoid it, to avoid him, but the pull was too strong, like a beacon in the night.
My eyes moved of their own free will, tangling with those piercing blue orbs. They were an intimidatingly icy shade beneath his cinched brows.
Another breath escaped me.
I held in what little air remained within my lungs and forced myself to hold his stare, too, adamant on squaring him off. On seeming unaffected.
But the flashback hit me in double time, more vivid and louder than ever before.
Wet mouths.
Frantic hands.
Dueling tongues.
I nearly went weak at the knees as my core clenched, betraying me in the worst way possible. All I could think was I had to get out of there.
I knew Ramsey was going to unload a whole new set of questions on me, but so be it.
Anything was better than this inferno of crazy.
Everything following me dragging Ramsey out of the office was one gigantic, tipsy rollercoaster of emotions I’d barely remember later.
I did, however, remember chugging two beers in succession.
I remembered Ramsey yanking me into the powder room after the fact.
I remembered her texting Suki and filling her in on what was happening in her absence.
I remembered her bitching like the mama bear she often could be.
And I, unfortunately, remembered stumbling back out into the hallway, right as Roman was trailing down it’s length with a woman on his arm.
Which brings us to now…
2am.
The storm was going at full force and the power had officially gone out. All you could hear was the rain pattering against the window and the palm fronds slapping about with the terrifying howl of the wind.
It was much worse than I’d been anticipating despite the warning over the last week, and as a result, I couldn’t sleep. Ramsey, on the other hand, laid passed out beside me on the couch.
I kept going back to Roman sauntering down the hall with that girl’s hand in his grasp. The sight of them together filled me with instant jealousy, jealousy he caught onto clear as day.
The way he looked at me when he passed by confirmed it.
Satisfaction.
Triumph.
Just the thought resurfaced the green-eyed monster with a vengeance. Throwing the pillow over my face, I groaned aloud in irritation. What the hell was wrong with me?
Why was I acting so ridiculous?
Why was I letting him affect me like this?
‘Cause you don’t have a choice.
No. I dismissed the thought faster than it’d hit me. This wasn’t me. I didn’t fuss over men like this, ever.
But he’s not just any man…
No, he wasn’t.
I groaned again and shot upright from my place on the couch. Ramsey stirred slightly, mumbling something about ten points to Ravenclaw, before rolling over on her side and falling silent once more.
How could she sleep so soundly when I was wired?
Probably because she wasn’t busy obsessing over a man she had absolutely no business obsessing about.
I felt myself pale.
My God...
I really was obsessing, wound tighter than a fucking spring. If I didn’t zen myself soon, I’d likely combust before morning.
Alcohol hadn’t done a thing except magnify my vulnerability.
Marco had the weed, and we’d lost him hours ago.
But Suki had cigarettes in her purse.
I eyed it on the floor with the rest of our belongings.
Very rarely did I smoke, more socially than anything else, but a smoke had honestly never sounded so good.
A little burst of nicotine was sure to chill me out...
Snatching it off the light travertine, I rifled through her mass of shit. The pack was near the bottom. I pulled a cigarette free and the lighter, too. Both went into my bra before I enabled the flashlight on my phone, and then I was out the door.
Sans boots for the sake of being quiet.
There wasn’t a soul in sight as I trailed through the house. Most of the doors were shut for privacy, though you could still hear the sounds of sex, or laughter, or various handheld radios every few feet or so.
I couldn’t help but wonder what room he was in.
If he was fucking her.
If he was enjoying it.
If she was still in his bed, caught in a naked tangle with him, her lilac hair splayed out all over his inked chest.
Indignation bloomed deep in the pit of my stomach. Teeth baring slightly, I clenched my fists at my sides and kept on down the hallway, beseeching the voice in my head to spare me of those images.
But as I slipped around the corner, maybe a hundred feet from the front door, the images in my mind were laid out before me in the flesh.
Only worse.