Where his eyes were tiny slits with a cunning soul staring out from behind them, mine were wide and anxious, my arms tightening around my center as if they could protect me from whatever it was he was thinking.
It was stupid to keep staring, but I couldn’t ignore my morbid fascination, and before I could snap out of it to do what any intelligent person would do, like turn around and haul ass, Tanner broke our locked stare to glance across the room, his chin nudging in someone’s direction just before the music suddenly stopped and the room was bathed in jarring silence.
I turned to see what happened, my gaze slowly drifting back his direction to see he was once again staring at me.
If that wasn’t bad enough, his beautiful lips parted, a deep tenor voice floating across the space that stilled me in place.
“Either join in or leave.”
Everybody in the room turned to look at whoever Tanner was talking to, my neck twisting left and right to realize that person was me.
Swallowing down the knot of apprehension clogging my throat, I looked back at him, his eyes now blazing with menace, the girl straddling him still rolling her hips as she ground against his lap.
It was then that I noticed she’d abandoned her bra to the floor at Tanner’s feet, her full breasts shamelessly displayed to the entire room.
She was oblivious to the fact he had his eyes on another woman...that his dead stare was locked directly on me.
Opening my mouth, my voice came out as a weak croak. “What?”
The corners of his lips curled, a feline smile from a cat that couldn’t wait to pluck the feathers from the bird it had trapped.
“Are we entertaining you? Getting you off while you stand there deciding whether to touch yourself just to pretend you’re on one of our laps? Why be shy? I have enough cock to go around. Strip off your clothes and climb up.”
He shoved the girl away, a cry of surprise falling from her lips when her ass hit the floor.
Shaking my head, I couldn’t find my voice to respond, not that I would have known what to say even if I had.
Desperate for help, I turned to where Everly was watching me from across the room, her expression worried. Leaning down, she whispered in Jase’s ear and he laughed softly.
Jase took a hit off the joint he held pinched between two fingers, rolled his head over the back of the couch and said, “Leave her alone, Tanner. She’s Everly’s friend.”
“I don’t give a fuck who she is,” Tanner barked in response. “She wasn’t invited here and now she’s watching everybody like we’re fucking Pornhub or some shit.”
His eyes snapped back to me.
“So, what do you say, Everly’s friend? Are you going to join in or get the fuck out? There’s space on my lap if you’re feeling neglected.”
Laughter filled the room, all eyes on me while I stood dumbfounded. Terror rolled down my spine, anger chasing after it that I couldn’t seem to grasp onto enough to defend myself against the asshole.
He smirked, his voice a dark croon. “That’s what I thought.”
Tilting his chin toward me, he demanded, “Walk your ass out of this room if you’re not willing to take part.”
Mortified, I looked to Everly again, but she shook her head, a silent plea that I do as he said without arguing.
He didn’t have to say another word for me to get the hint that I wasn’t wanted.
On unsteady legs, I fled the room, ran through the hall and downstairs, people chuckling and whispering as I passed them.
Bursting through the front door, I ran down the large half-circle steps. Reaching the bottom, I sucked in air to cool my burning lungs - fear, anger and embarrassment rolling through my veins to mix into a toxic poison.
Face flushed, I leaned against the half wall that lined the steps, a faint yellow glow beaming from an exterior gas lamp by the side of my body.
Tears pricked my eyes and I smacked them away while music filtered out from the windows of the house.
Hugging my body with trembling arms, I finally calmed down enough after several minutes to breathe evenly again.
There was no chance of me going in that party to look for Clayton. Choosing to wait outside for him instead, I glanced up at a window to see a familiar set of cold, dark eyes staring down at me.
Luca
What is it about certain men that make women lose their minds?
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand it. Perhaps it had something to do with our nature, biological programming taking over in moments when a woman should cling to her logical mind, should realize that despite a strong, hard body and a face that is chiseled from stone, there are some men who aren’t worth the days, weeks or even years of your life they suck away simply by being present.
I certainly wasn’t one of those stupid girls who lost her grip every time a handsome man looked my direction. I’d worked too hard to get where I was, my high school years spent slaving away so that I could get into Yale and make something of my future.
Yet, in this moment, I stood uncertain in my place in life, one ridiculously arrogant comment tipping me off balance to leave me flailing over questions of whether I was as strong and independent as I wanted to believe I could be.
It was stupid, really, this insecurity I felt, and while I stood waiting beneath the flicker of a gas-flame lantern at my side, I allowed that insecurity to become what it should have been all along: a deep-seated hatred for the asshole who’d believed he could yell at me, and anger at myself for having run.
Clayton had another ten minutes to arrive before I called for a ride to head home. I’d already spent fifteen minutes standing against the wall, my eyes averting every time people arrived to the party or left.
Word must have spread quickly in the house because those leaving stared at me a little too long to be comfortable as they passed, quiet laughter and whispered comments trailing back to me about how I’d been the girl kicked out.
Hating this place now that I’d finally had a taste of it, I stared down the pathway leading to the parking area and noticed the silhouette of a person walking toward me.
Relief flooded my veins to think Clayton had finally arrived, but when a cloud of smoke rose above the person’s head, that relief bled out of me.
I’d met Clayton at the beginning of the year in a torts class where he was the professor’s assistant. Although tonight was technically our first date, I’d gotten to know him pretty well already and I knew he was too much of a health nut to be a smoker.
Trying, and failing, to keep from watching the approaching person, I ended up meeting his green gaze with mine as he walked up, blew out another cloud of smoke and leaned against the half-wall opposite me.
“Bad night?”
Not in the mood for a conversation with a stranger, especially after my run in with Tanner, I shrugged a shoulder and scanned my eyes up and down the man talking to me.
Casually dressed in a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a pair of dark jeans that hung from his tapered waist, he had solid shoulders and muscular forearms, his light green eyes glimmering with warmth as they stared back at me.
He seemed friendly enough for being as handsome as he was, and I felt rude for not answering him.
Rubbing my hands up my arms to chase away the chill still trapped beneath my skin, I answered, “You can say that.”