Telling Aubrey we were leaving may have been a little too direct. Asking her to leave though, would not have been an efficient use of anyone’s time. She had no other option. I wasn’t letting her leave with anyone else.
Decisions had to be made, and I was going to make them for both of us.
When I looked in her eyes, I thought she understood that. If she couldn’t avoid me feeling her up in a bar with a crowd of people around her that would normally make her panic, there was no way in hell she could avoid going home with me.
Or so I thought.
The thing about a stubborn woman is she almost always fails to see it the right way. She will fight the inevitable until the bitter end, hoping the pendulum will swing in her favor at one point or another.
Our relationship wasn’t structured like a fucking pendulum though. It was a circle, always leading us back to the same point at which we belonged.
We belonged together.
In a bed, if I had anything to say about it.
So, when she avoided looking my way as she entered the VIP area again, I contemplated throwing her over my shoulder and leaving the bar with her that way. Fuck what the paparazzi would say.
Fuck what my brother and Roman would do.
I just wasn’t sure the damn skirt she wore would cover her perfect ass if I did just that.
Instead, I watched her disregard our whole encounter as she sidled up to Bastian and Jay. I reasoned that she might be saying goodbye to them at first and I told myself not to get frustrated.
Then, they were ordering more drinks and Jay was spinning her around to the beat of a song. Katie and Vick jumped in for another drink. And another ten minutes passed.
Isabel came to sit next to me. We didn’t talk. She just leaned into me as she checked her phone. When Vick approached us, I was hoping she would say the night was wrapping up. Instead, she shouted, “We’re getting another round of shots. You want one?”
Isabel looked at me with a bored expression on her face. My face, I know, didn’t hide my rage very well as I glared back at Vick.
Vick stuttered, “We’re just trying to have a good time. We’re trying to make the most out of the situation.”
The situation? The situation was that Aubrey needed to stop drinking and come home with me. The situation was very straightforward.
Instead of explaining that to her, I grunted and Isabel waved her away.
“She seems to be a lot of extra work for a man who is so efficient, don’t you think?”
She had a point. For anyone else, I would have moved on. Aubrey wasn’t anyone else though. She’d been the girl I grew up with, the girl I wrote songs about, and the only one I ever loved.
She wasn’t anyone else, she was everyone else to me.
“Do you think I want to discuss this with you?” I glared at Isabel, knowing most people withered under my stare. She was no different. Her eyes jumped away from mine and tried to focus on anything but the attention that I knew Aubrey and I created in VIP.
No one was immune to that force. I witnessed the glances as eyes jumped between us.
When Rome’s stare met mine, neither of us looked away. The silent understanding that we had come to ping-ponged between us. He loved her, maybe not in the way that I did, but it was there. Its presence boiled my blood. My infatuation with Aubrey swirled around in a cloudy, thick mist, mixing with jealousy.
As Jay put his arm around her, it got even cloudier. I didn’t want anyone’s hands on her, not even my brother’s in a platonic way.
I kept watching them until Aubrey finally looked over. No guilt or remorse hid behind her forest-green gaze. When she saw Isabel planted next to me, all I saw was fire burning that forest down.
A stubborn woman shouldn’t be attractive. Yet they’re fiercely beautiful when they set their mind to something. Aubrey owned me, and probably every other man that could see her.
She stood tall and flipped her dark wavy hair over her shoulder before she took long strides that accentuated her legs over to Isabel and me. When her black stilettos stopped inches from my own shoes, I took my time dragging my gaze up her body.
Her skin glowed under the strobe lights, and her black skirt shifted every time she moved like it was made to mesmerize men. Knowing she didn’t have anything on under it, and that it was the only damn barrier between her and every other man that wanted her in the club, had my neck tighter than it had been in years.
“You ready now, little dancer?” I sneered.
She knew she should have never danced with him or even let him have his hands on her.
She squinted her eyes at me and unknowingly swayed to the music. When she replied, her voice was laced with alcohol and a loss of inhibition. “What should I be ready for, Jax?”
I shook my head. “Do you think I normally waste my time on issuing commands that don’t get followed? When I said we were leaving, I thought it was clear that I didn’t want to wait for you to socialize for half an hour.”
She glanced at Isabel. “Isn’t it obvious to you that I’m not going home with you? I haven’t looked your way or talked to you for thirty minutes.”
“That’s never fucking obvious anymore, Whitfield. From now on, the expectation is that we’ll always leave together.” I realized too late that my voice boomed out louder than I had intended it to.
My brother and Rome showed up at her side almost immediately. Katie and Vick weren’t far behind as she crossed her arms like a petulant child.
She’d created a family, an army, some sort of cavalry that would have been intimidating to everyone else. Probably formidable, and almost impenetrable in most circumstances.
They just didn’t know they were dealing with a nuclear bomb of a force so strong not even I could overcome it.
One minute she stood with them and in the next, she flowed like a siren up to my chair to lean over me. I caught a hint of alcohol with the sweet smell of cinnamon I always longed for.
“This may be casual but it is not a relationship of convenience.” She practically spit the last word and as she said it, her eyes were so frustrated that even I, the man who loved seeing her lose control, wanted to soothe her back to calm.
Both our eyes held one another’s until hers snapped to Isabel’s as if to lay the culprit of her anger out on the table.
Isabel didn’t back down. She protected her image and mine at all costs.
“This night is over, Whitfield.” I let my steely gaze run over each and every one of her soldiers behind her.
Vick took a step back immediately, but the others stood their ground.
I pushed off from my chair to stand, and Aubrey stumbled back. The alcohol caused her to wobble a little more than she had intended it to.
Katie righted her immediately.
“If your night is over, go home.” Aubrey shrugged like her statement wouldn’t feel like sandpaper on an open wound for me.
I was sick of the bullshit and drunk or not, she damn well knew it. “Don’t make me carry you out of here.”
“I’d love to see you try.” She lifted her chin, so emboldened by the alcohol in her veins that she didn’t realize it would only take my one arm wrapped around her to carry her out.
When I took a step forward, Rome started to move but Jay moved faster. Stone-faced, he stood toe to toe with me.
“Don’t make me go through you, little brother.”
Isabel grabbed my bicep. “Hey, not here.”
Jay didn’t say a word and he didn’t move.
Aubrey leaned to the side to peer around Jay. Her eyes seemed to focus for a minute and they widened at the scene. She stepped around to Jay’s side and whispered, “Maybe I should just go. No one needs a scene.”
“Jay,” I tried to use my most consoling voice. “You know this is unavoidable. I’ll take care of her.”
His jaw worked and his muscles flexed. It pained me to see this struggle he had just because I might be interested in his best friend.
Aubrey patted his arm while glaring at me. “We’ll call you when we get home.”
Still holding his ground, he commanded, “Breakfast with me tomorrow morning. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
She nodded with a love and trust in her eyes I would have bled for as she looked at him. “Okay.”
He backed off and nodded to the others for them to back off too. He led the forces that protected her, I guess, because they all turned to leave.
Isabel squeezed my bicep again, reminding me that she’d be another problem of mine soon enough. “So, I guess I should leave with you both.” Her voice was resigned like it was the only option. “I’m fine with a threesome but it won’t be the best PR.”
Aubrey had moved close enough to hear Isabel’s words and her skin paled to a porcelain white as she blurted, “I think I’m going to be sick.”
I swore and shook Isabel off while wrapping my arm around Aubrey. She curled into me, fitting right where she belonged. I started weaving through the crowd and waved Isabel off to go home.
She knew the drill and probably wouldn’t be irritated other than with the fact that she would have to deal with the media questions regarding me coming with her and leaving with another woman. My driver pulled up at the side of the club just in time for Aubrey to slump so far into me that I didn’t think she’d be able to walk.
I scooped her up and carried her the last ten steps to the SUV. No paparazzi caught us, thanks to my driver’s maneuvering, and we endured a half silent drive while he made his way back to my penthouse.
Out of the darkness, her little voice floated over to me, “He used to drink so much, Jax.”
I tensed, knowing exactly who she was talking about.
“How?” Her question shot out angrily. “How could anyone drown in it so much and know they had everything? She gave him every single thing. And for what?”
Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the city lights and they danced over her features, accentuating each slant and curve I had memorized.
I put my hand on her thigh and rubbed circles, soothing her the only way I knew how. She sighed like it was enough for me to just touch her, hold her, be with her.
“I thought she ran back into the fire for him, you know? All this time I didn’t realize he was her saving grace.’ Her whispers didn’t make sense. I didn’t ask. She’d drank too much and was haunted by a day that had changed us all.
So haunted and drunk that, just as we pulled up to my building, she opened her door and vomited most of the alcohol she’d consumed into the street.
