“Perhaps we should get you a new one that says ‘property of Adam Meyers,’” I suggested.
She pouted playfully. “But then what would Sebastian do?”
I hissed as she canted her hips back into my groin and swiveled them at the same time that provocative statement sank in.
My hands gripped her hips to still her, only I found them pulling her impossibly closer instead. “Behave.”
“No,” she countered, swirling out of my arms toward Sebastian who caught her even as he continued to exchange biting words with Jace Galantine.
I hadn’t known they were closely acquainted enough for Sebastian to uncharacteristically dislike him, but the set of his jaw and the way his free hand—the other loosely wrapped around Linnea—cut through the air spoke of his animosity.
“She’s hurt,” Jace said as I stepped closer again to listen. “Both Tate and I have noticed she’s not been herself the last few days, and Edgecumbe mentioned you had been by to visit. When I confronted her, she told me you’d said some things you didn’t mean.”
Seb scoffed. “Oh, I assure you, I meant them. Savannah is just very skilled at wishing away the things that cause her discomfort.”
“She’s uncomfortable now that you’re fighting.”
“What does my relationship, or lack thereof, with Savannah have to do with you?” Sebastian asked, and I was momentarily proud of his haughty demeanor.
It seemed likely he’d learned it from me.
Jace shrugged, but it was a stiff expression and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “She’s been good to me.”
Seb’s laughter was bitter. “Of course, she has. Why don’t you worry about your own relationship with Savvy. As you can see, I have my hands full.”
It was a well-aimed retort, except for the fact that Linnea was in his arms and I was the one who had just made a claim on her.
Something cruel twisted in Jace’s corn-fed handsome face. “You seem to have a thing for other men’s women.”
“And you like to live dangerously,” Linnea cut in, stepping out of Sebastian’s hold to snap the words at the other man. “If you’re done causing trouble, I think it’s best that you leave. You can either do that like a gentleman, quietly and with grace, or I can ask Sinclair to send a bouncer to escort you. Which would you rather?”
He seemed shocked by Linnea’s temper, and truthfully, so was I. That she had a backbone had been obvious since the start, but the fierceness of her loyalty was unusual in this town.
Especially given who her mother was.
A woman who had five husbands in her lifetime.
God, she deserved only the very best, and here she was bookended by two men with enough baggage to fill LAX.
Jace rolled his lips between his teeth, something Savannah was prone to do, and I realized that he was most definitely one of her playthings.
No wonder Seb didn’t like him.
To his credit, he nodded and turned on his heel without another word, disappearing through the crowd and then reappearing before he left the section altogether.
“Good riddance,” Linnea declared as we all stood still on the dance floor in a tight triangle. “I think he had a bit of a Napoleon Complex, don’t you?”
She held up her pointer finger and thumb to indicate something very small.
Both Seb and I stared at her for a moment and then shared an incredulous look before we burst out laughing. As if the laughter broke the dam of stiltedness between us, Seb and I surged forward to pin Linnea between us, falling into a natural rhythm between all three bodies. It was foolish to dance together, but I stubbornly refused to think about and took some solace from the fact that these people had been vetted by the Sinclairs and Seb who were notoriously private.
Seb smiled at me, that wide boyish grin I’d once fallen in love with on a face that had weathered into something even more gorgeous. Linnea planted one hand in my chest, curling it into my opened shirt and hooked the other over her head around Seb’s neck, her back resting against his chest, her hips against mine.
I recognized some of the faces around me, enough to know gossip could and would spread based on my behavior.
But how could I resist?
Him and her.
