“Ah, that’s rough. She’s here with someone else?”
Damn, he’d forgotten about the girl. “Yeah. I fucked things up, and now she’s collared to my best friend. We were never really together, exactly.”
A more adventurous couple had claimed the biggest piece of equipment, and the man buckled the woman’s wrists and ankles to the solid wooden X. Watching kept him from oversharing all of the words that fought to free themselves from his mouth. This girl didn’t need to listen to his problems. She was there for a party. He refused to be the guy who got drunk and talked about his unrequited love all night—not that Ambrose served alcohol at this type of party.
“Well, maybe I’ll see you around. Nice to meet you.” Gwen nodded politely and walked off toward the kitchen.
He didn’t bother to watch her retreating back, or even check out her ass. Maybe he should just go home.
“What the fuck, man?” Ambrose was suddenly there, looking pissed. “That girl has been waiting to meet you for days. Did you blow her off?”
“She’s . . . not my type.”
“Is she too hot for you? Too submissive?” Kate was two steps behind Ambrose, which meant his friend couldn’t see the strained awkwardness on her face.
Ambrose followed Banner’s gaze to Kate. “Oh, for fucksakes.” He fished in the pocket of his cargo pants and pulled out a leash, then clipped the end to Kate’s collar and glared at Banner. “Don’t stare at my girl, unless you want a black eye. You had your chance.”
He led her away, and Banner noted the way she walked. Graceful, submissive, proud to be on Ambrose’s leash. Fuck, had he been wrong about her? The back of her little black dress was cut away, leaving her skin bare right down to just above the cleft of her ass. Ambrose slid his hand up her back. The small sign of affection seemed so much more intimate when it was skin on skin. She leaned into him and Banner groaned.
“You know, just because you’ve never asked for her back doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.” Konstantin was watching them, too.
“You’ve been talking to Ambrose?”
“Ambrose picked me up at the airport. I know all of it. Maybe more than you.”
Of course. They didn’t keep many secrets from one another.
The noise was starting to give him a headache. Kate was leaning against Ambrose like a woman in love. He pulled her to where the girls were dancing and started to move suggestively with her.
“Look at her. She really likes him.”
“I don’t know about that. She really liked you more, from what he’s told me.”
“So what? I’m supposed to stroll over there and ask him to give her back? Like she doesn’t get to have an opinion?”
“Why don’t you try asking for permission to play with his sub, to start with? She is wearing his collar. Just because it’s Ambrose, doesn’t mean the rules change.”
“I never should have let her go. What the fuck is my problem?”
“I think you spend too much time worrying about other people.” Konstantin draped an arm around his shoulder and watched the two girls he’d been with earlier as they danced together provocatively and cast sidelong glances at him. Like always, Konstantin had an audience trying to keep his attention. “If you want something good in your life other than Rook, you can’t wait for someone else to hand it to you. You gave up art to be a good son. Ending things with a girl because you think you’re no good for her isn’t giving yourself, or her, much credit. Trust me—I’ve been watching her stare at you. I think you broke her heart.”
Fuck. Trying to be suave about it, Banner glanced back at Kate. Ambrose spotted him, then grabbed Kate by the back of her hair and kissed her, hard.
Bastard. Ambrose was mocking him.
When they broke away from each other, Kate stepped back and crossed her arms.
The two girls Konstantin would likely fuck
later came over and led him onto the dance floor where they made a show of kissing and groping him to the throbbing beat.
What would be worse—letting Ambrose have Kate or admitting that he’d been wrong? Did she actually want him though? Ambrose’s words about Kate being a grown woman who could make her own decisions repeated in his head.
The next time he looked over, Ambrose was taking Kate into the hall that led to the bedrooms. Banner booked it across the room, then followed their retreat down the hall, determined to ask to play with her, even if he was cock-blocking his best friend.
“You have a lovely little thing on your leash,” he called to Ambrose’s back.
Ambrose turned and measured him with a neutral gaze. “Thank you. She was a gift from a friend. One of my two best friends, in fact.”