Very Twisted Things (Briarwood Academy 3)

He puffed up his chest and took two giant steps back from me as he held his hands up in front of him. “I was just making conversation. No one is harassing you here.” He cleared his throat. “Now, get over to the hostess stand and wait for me to call for you.”

He marched off in a huff, and I mentally cheered. It was a tiny victory.

I headed to the coat check to hang up my jacket.

A young, female voice spoke from behind me. “Pssst, V.”

I looked behind me and saw the redheaded hostess girl I’d met earlier. She waved and smiled broadly from behind her stand. It was hard to believe we were the same age.

“Yeah?”

She smacked her gum. “Come over here. There’s a guy in the VIP section who’s staring at you like you’re on the dessert menu. His eyes followed you all the way out of Phil’s office. Weird, huh?”

I harrumphed. “He probably just has gas.”

“He was staring so hard I’m surprised you couldn’t feel it.” She wiggled all over.

I glanced down at my black ensemble. “He’s probably wondering why my dress is unbuttoned to my navel.” I buttoned it back up. Screw Phil.

Her eyes flared big as saucers as she arched her neck to get a better view of him. “OMG, get this: he’s with Blair Storm, which means it’s him.” She flapped her arms around.

I walked closer. “Um, you okay?” Maybe I should have applied at the Macaroni Grill down the road.

Then alarm bells rang. “Wait. Blair Storm?”

“Uh-huh,” she said as she covertly held her phone next to a menu and snapped pics. “They are so freaking beautiful. My roommate is going to die when I text her this.”

Dread pooled in my stomach. I scanned the tables hurriedly, but didn’t see them. “Where?”

She pointed and I found them at a big curved booth in the back with several other people. My heart jumped as Sebastian’s intense eyes met mine. His muscled arms flexed, calling attention to his hands—which were on top of the table cuddling with Blair Storm’s.

Oh. I looked away, surprised by how much it hurt to see them together.

Phil walked up to the stand and clapped his hands. “Quit gawking at the celebrities with your mouth open.” He looked at me. “Are you ready to play?”

My chest tightened and my eyes bounced around. I landed on Sebastian. “There’s someone I have to say hello to first.”

“Who?” he and the hostess girl said at the same time.

“Ahhhhhh.” I nodded my head in Sebastian’s direction. “Guy at table eight?”

She grabbed her chest. “You-you know him?”

“He came over one night to go swimming. Saved a dog. Quoted Shakespeare to me.”

“OMG, you’re going to be so famous,” she exclaimed. “Please, get his autograph for me when you go over there. And Spider’s too.” She closed her eyes, in the throes of a star-gasm. “‘Superman’ was like the best song ever. In the video, they danced in these fur coats during a snowstorm on a rooftop … only at the end, you see, they take off the coats, and they’re wearing these tiny bikini briefs, you know like the Europeans wear, and you can tell they have big cocks—”

I held my hand up to stop the madness. “I get the picture.” I’d actually seen the famous video today when I’d googled them, but it had been their music that I’d noticed. It was wild and raw with lyrics straight from the heart. Toss in how gorgeous they were, and it was no wonder they’d hit it big.

Phil put his hand on my arm. “We don’t flirt with the guests.”

I shook him off. “It would be rude to ignore him—and he’s waving me over.” He totally wasn’t, but before I could change my mind, I grabbed the note pad the hostess thrust in my face and went for it.

Anything to get my mind off playing.

I made my way over to the VIP section.

Just say hi. That’s all. Don’t look at Bubbles and think about how you’d like to stick a fork in her eyeball.

I stopped at their table, my eyes widening when I saw Mila.

“Hey, you,” she said in surprise, a big smile on her face.

I filled in the gaps, remembering how she said she was a PR person.

“Your clients?” I asked, indicating Sebastian and Spider, and she nodded. Relief filled me because I liked her. A lot. But if she’d been seeing Sebastian, then I’m not so sure how I would have felt. Not sure why that mattered anyway, since he was obviously seeing Blair.

Spider looked from me to her. “You guys know each other?”

“We bonded over coffee and a mutual distrust of boob jobs,” she said on a giggle.

Sebastian crossed his arms, effectively dropping hands with Blair. His eyes darted over my shoulder, and I followed his gaze and found Phil’s angry face and the hostess girl’s look of rapture.

I sighed. “That’s my boss. He didn’t want me coming over.”

“You didn’t mention this is where you worked,” he said, a hint of accusation in his voice.

“She did to me,” Mila chimed in. “I can’t wait to hear her play the violin.”

I looked at Sebastian. “You didn’t mention you were coming here on a date,” I said.

Blair’s eyes were daggers as they raked over me. “Well as you can see, he is on a date.”

I ignored her and poked Spider in the arm and nodded my head at his drink. “You want me to come over tomorrow and make you another green drink? Don’t think I didn’t see you pour it out this morning before I left.”