“Where the hell do you think you’re going? You can’t just ditch the wedding.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, baby boy,” she growled back at him. “Besides, if one of us is socially stunted it’s you, not me. I wouldn’t dream of leaving without saying good-bye, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving without checking to make sure they didn’t need help cleaning up. I just need some air. Your face is making me sick.”
“Real mature,” he said, rolling his eyes at her back.
“See, that’s the problem. I have no difficulties with being mature around other people. There’s something about you that brings out the worst in me.”
“At one point you told me I brought out the best in you,” he shot back, stung even though he shouldn’t have let her bother him.
“You bring out the best and the worst. Everything is like a roller coaster with you. I never know if I want to seduce you or slap your pretty face.”
Chapter Five
This whole conversation was stupid.
Dex had seen Grant talking to Sarah—a woman who was completely her opposite—and she’d been fucking beside herself with jealousy. She had no right to be jealous, and yet watching the sweet little submissive programming her number into Grant’s phone had made her want to claw the unsuspecting woman’s eyes out.
They’d been very careful not to let people know that anything was going on between them, so there was no way Sarah could have any idea that Dex thought of Grant as hers. Well, they were each other’s, even though Dex didn’t technically want him, want him. Sure, she wanted to sleep with him and wanted him to dominate her again, it was just the rest of it she couldn’t handle.
She knew he’d been playing with other women and going on dates since they’d been together, but for some reason it didn’t feel like Sarah was going to be yet another fling. Sarah was the kind of woman Grant could get serious about and be happy with.
She didn’t want fucking Grant fucking serious and fucking happy!
At least not with someone else.
Not because she wanted a relationship with him herself, or anything, but Grant getting a submissive of his own would mean the end of their already tattered friendship.
What were the chances that Sarah would approve of Grant hanging out with Dex? He’d tell Sarah that he’d slept with her and that would be the end of that. She’d already basically lost one of her two best friends over the past few months, and she wasn’t about to lose the other one. If Grant ended their friendship entirely, that would leave Dexter with no close friends other than Andromeda, and Andromeda had a busy work and social calendar. She wasn’t a hanging-out kind of friend.
For a fleeting moment, she let herself acknowledge how much she missed Mia, but then promptly pushed thoughts of her away. Some things couldn’t be salvaged. Some people weren’t worth the heartache.
Will and Grant, though—they were different. They hadn’t betrayed her the way Mia had. They were worth fighting for.
That sweet little Sarah bitch was not allowed to steal her BFF.
Every time Grant went on a date it made her stupid jealous, and then she’d have to find someone to go on a date with herself. That was always a debacle. A woman just didn’t find a funny asshole like Grant every day. The two of them just . . . clicked, and other guys always paled in comparison.
She stopped next to one of Stride Design’s trucks and glared up at him. He was glaring back.
“What’s your problem, Arabella? You don’t want me, but you don’t want me to see other people?”
“I never said I didn’t want you, you idiot! I said I’m not interested in being collared.”
“Well I’m not interested in letting you bounce on my dick whenever the mood strikes you.”
“When did you turn into such a prissy little debutante, Grant?” she seethed, then decided to ask the real question. “Why will you whore around with pretty much anyone except me?”
He grit his teeth. “You’re so fucking clueless sometimes, you know that? Fuck, you piss me off.”
“Ditto, buddy.”
“If you were mine,” he went on, as though she hadn’t spoken, “I’d turn you over my knee and spank that attitude out of you every goddamn day. You’re so fucking impossible.”
She grabbed his phone out of his hand and opened Sarah’s contact information while he growled out a few choice words, then handed the phone back to him.
“So call her, then. Obviously I’m not what you want so I don’t know why you’re so hell-bent on getting a collar around my neck. If you want a nice, biddable woman, she’s the one for you, not me.” She jabbed a finger at his phone, then gestured for him to make the call. “I’m so glad I never gave in.”
“You’re a nasty little viper when you’re jealous.”