Reese set his glass carefully on the bar, and walked toward Tenny.
It was slow progress. RJ had three women around them, all of them dancing poorly, drunkenly, in time to a too-loud song. Another girl made a grab for Reese’s sleeve, one that he shook off. He had to step around Dublin and Briscoe’s heated pool game debate. Samantha and Whitney stepped in front of him with polite excuses, headed for the bar and refills.
Then he stood in front of Tenny, and Tenny rested his head back against the couch, while the girl in his lap kept grinding against him and kissing his throat. “Problem?” he asked, all crisp and proper and disinterested.
But his eyes – oh, his eyesblazed.
Reese might have been an idiot and not understood all that he should, but he knew that now was a time to press, and not to retreat. “I want to talk to you,” he said, and his voice cracked ontalk. Talking was not what filled his mind in bold, colorful imagery.
Tenny sighed, like he was bored, but his eyes flashed, and Reese saw the way his breath caught, momentarily. “Yes, yes. Ladies. What do you say we take this somewhere more private?”
The women murmured approval. The one on Tenny’s lap leaned in to nibble at his throat; she left a red smear of lipstick behind, just above the scar there, the mark left by the bullet that had nearly killed him the night Reese saved his life.
That smudge sent a wash of unproductive emotion through him, too hot and ugly to name. Emboldened him, so his voice came out harsh and grating when he said, “No.”
His tone startled the women. Both of them turned to look at him.
“I want to talk toyou. Tell them to stay here.”
One of the women murmured something – Reese wasn’t sure which one; his gaze was pinned on Tenny.
Tenny, whose self-satisfied, lion-at-leisure expression froze, and then melted, leaving him flat and expressionless. Operative mode, cold and efficient. “This is a party,” he said, like Reese was stupid.
Reese matched him, stare for stare, mask for mask – though he could feel the anger lifting off himself like vapor, and knew it must be visible to Tenny. “I don’t care. I want to talk to you.”
It was the third time he’d said it, and Tenny finally reacted. He gathered himself to stand, and the woman with the red lipstick slid off his lap and back to the couch. “Excuse me, ladies,” he said with a big, put-upon sigh. “I have to go and deal with this little problem.”
The words didn’t sting as they’d no doubt been intended. Reese was too furious to be hurt by slights. Every second Tenny delayed – straightening his cut, swiping a hand back through his perfectly slicked hair – wound his anger another notch tighter. His jaw and throat felt tense; he wanted to bare his teeth.
Instead, he stepped back, and gestured, and Tenny set off in front of him, rolling his eyes dramatically.
He led the way down the hall, where the music was only a dull rush like the ocean; where several doors closed on laughing intertwined couples. Absently, Reese noted Chanel and Boomer. Stephanie preceded Deacon into a room, already reaching back for the zipper of her dress. Reese searched himself for anything like jealousy, but it wasn’t there. It was good she’d found someone else for the night; he didn’t want any third parties involved in this conversation.
They went to Reese’s dorm, because that was where they always went. Tenny strolled into the room with an affected swagger, and stood with his hips cocked, and his hands braced on them, heaving another dramatic sigh.
Reese closed the door and leaned back against it. He didn’t speak at first, which was stupid, given he’d been the one who insisted on this, and given that–
“Okay, so.” Tenny turned around and gestured to him, his expression one of crafted boredom. “Let’s have this talk.”
–he was going to dothat.
Fuck it, Reese thought, in a very unlike him fit of pique. That was something Aidan would have said, but maybe he needed to be more like Aidan, now. He’d been hesitant, and reserved, still out of his depth in this particular arena. But Tenny was playing some kind of game, and he was tired of it. He wasn’t moving from this door, or letting Tenny out of the room, until he had some sort of answer.
“Were you going to have sex with those women?”
“I’m still going to, if you’ll hurry this along,” Tenny said with an impatient motion. “I’d invite you to play, but you’ve not been much fun lately.” The last he said with a sneer.
“You’re the one who started acting strange,” Reese shot back. “You keep leaving the room. You won’t talk. You’re the one who ran away when I kissed you.”
Tenny’s expression clouded; the anger sparked quick, had been waiting just beneath the surface. It rushed now to darken his cheeks with blood, and to draw his brows together. “I didn’trun away–”
“You did,” Reese insisted. “I kissed you, and you got up and ran away, and you wouldn’t look at me after that for days.”
Tenny bared his teeth, and Reese fought not to echo the movement; they were both bristled up like dogs about to fight. Reese felt adrenaline flood his veins.
“I didn’t,” Tenny started again.
Reese said, “Why is it okay for you to kiss me” – and a lot more than that, besides – “but I can’t kiss you?”
