Several things.
I’d come into this night with demands. Specific ones. But with Iain standing so close to me, still touching me, they’d become afterthoughts.
Maybe it was the tequila. Or maybe it was the fact that I could feel the palpable energy thrumming between us. Whatever it was, it was what made me suddenly blurt out, “Where’s Keira?”
Oops, I thought, though I didn’t actually regret my question. Especially not when I caught the irritated look in Iain’s eye which, oddly enough, I’d come to really enjoy.
“She isn’t here,” he replied.
“And why not?” I challenged.
He was silent as he stared me down, looking unamused with my antics—like he knew well that his answer was about to embolden me.
“Because we’re not together anymore,” he finally said.
And… wow.
I’d kind of known it, yet it still managed to shock me. I mean it was a crazy thing to process.
Iain Thorn was single.
When I was a kid, he was off-limits because I was too young. Once I was of age, he was off-limits because he was taken. But now, after five years with the same girl, it was somehow all over. He was single, I was legal, and I had enough liquid courage buzzing through me to go ahead and call him out.
“I guess that explains the way you eye-banged my tits before,” I said, enjoying the deepened look of annoyance on Iain’s face.
He didn’t take his glowering eyes off of me, but he said nothing as he took a drink from his glass, watching me toss my hair back behind my shoulders and sit up straight in my seat.
“So. You asked me what I wanted,” I reminded him, feeling a slow but steady adrenaline coursing through my veins. “And honestly, I just want the truth about why you got me fired.” I pulled my hand out from under his to pinch my straw and position it just outside my mouth. “Is it because you’re that protective of me, Iain?” I asked mockingly, cocking my head to the side.
I paused for a moment, returning his unwavering stare as I wrapped my lips around the straw and sucked down the last drop of my drink.
“Or is it because you want to fuck me?”
My own words set fire to my cheeks as I gazed up at him, unblinking despite the crowd swelling around us and the strobe lights flashing in my vision. Outwardly, I was unflappable, defiant, but in secret, my breath caught in my throat, and I felt warm all over as Iain leaned into me, standing so close to me now that I could feel his fingertips graze my naked thighs.
It was the lightest touch but it still sent little bolts of pleasure coursing through my body, eventually settling into a deep, warm throbbing between my legs that made me to writhe in my seat as he finally parted his mouth to reply.
“I promise you, Holland,” he murmured, peering at my parted lips then looking back up at me. “You’re the last person in this world I would ever want to fuck.”
Oh.
The statement knocked the air straight from my lungs, but I continued to glare back up at Iain, daggers in my eyes.
He was lying and I knew it, but it still felt like a slap across the face. I could practically feel the sting of his hand on my cheek, and suddenly I was certain that I hated this man.
I hated that he’d ever come into my life.
That he’d addicted me to his kindness from day one only to disappear on me, and then come back cold-hearted and mean. He’d done nothing but insult since he walked back into my life, and still, he’d managed to pull me back into my stupid, teenaged fixation—even when I wasn’t a teenager anymore, and I knew a million times better.
I’d worked my ass off to grow up and get rid of the old Holland, and not only had he brought her back in a snap, he’d found a way to break her heart in half yet again.
For all that, I swore I despised Iain Thorn.
But I took a page from his book and gave nothing away as I looked back up at him.
“Good to know,” I said brightly, holding my stare for another second before hopping off the barstool and making a beeline for Mia.
I’d given Iain all the sass I had in me, and because of that, there were tears burning in my eyes as soon as I started walking away—which meant the plan now was to grab my roommate, grab a car, and then go the hell home.