His lips find mine for a second, and then he draws back when my tears threaten to fall.
“You know you love me, baby. Just stop fighting me. All it’s doing is exhausting both of us.”
“I do love you, and I love Brazen, but you both broke me. Even if I absolutely had to choose to be with one of you, I don’t think you would come out on the good end of that. You watched me fall to pieces. You knew telling me you had been with Alex would destroy me. Have you ever actually been with her?” I almost ask demandingly.
“Never. I haven’t been with anyone but you since the day I met you. No one else really feels worth my time. You’re my counter, and even if you weren’t, you’d still be the only girl in this world able to capture my full attention. I’m so sorry, but I thought I was sparing you. I hope you understand that soon because I don’t know how much longer I can take being without you. I’m almost praying for another savage episode.”
I stifle my grin thanks to his last part, and then I roll my eyes.
“Go talk to your people. Don’t waste your time on me because nothing is changing tonight. I’m still washing salt out of the wounds right now,” I sigh out.
Grayson’s sad face all alone in the corner draws my attention, and Hale notices my gaze.
“It appears someone else needs a nonsocial person to speak to,” he nudges, and I pat his chest before walking away.
A girl beats me to him, and she giggles out, “Will you dance with me?”
He sips on the whiskey he shouldn’t be drinking, and then shakes his head.
“I’m with someone,” he grumbles.
“Who?” she muses.
His eyes sting, and then I step up to be the hero.
“Grayson, there you are,” I gush out. “I love this song.”
He smirks lightly, and then he walks over to take my hand while twirling me onto the dance floor.
“Thanks,” he murmurs while sipping the whiskey again.
“I never pictured you hiding in a corner. What’s going on?”
His jaw clenches, and then he points across the room to where a drunk, giggling Angelica is dancing with Ty.
Ty, you son of a fucking bitch.
“She’s completely over me, and I still don’t know what to do. I shouldn’t even care. If she’s so okay with us not being together, then I should be too. Is it different for girls or something?”
“It’s not different at all. Perhaps she does have something in common with me. All the wrong choices for one,” I murmur to myself.
“My hearing has gotten better, you know,” he huffs out.
“I know. Your hearing saved my life,” I utter while kissing him on the cheek.
His soft blond hair is tousled from the times he has run his hands through it, and he does it again when Angelica laughs louder while Ty pulls her to his body.
“That’s it,” I growl, and I stalk toward the asshole who has already pissed me off too many times to do this to Grayson.
I rip Angelica away, and he throws his arms up in a what-the-fuck motion.
“I knew you still had the hots for me,” he teases.
“You can’t fucking go after her,” I snap while dragging the staggering drunken blond girl behind me.
“Why not?” he chuckles out. “Because you would get jealous?”
“No, you egotistical son of a bitch. She’s my fucking sister, and she already has a boyfriend,” I bark while my eyes cast daggers at his heart.
