Page 36 of Drown in You

Though I initially protested because I didn’t want to find out how Luke would react to seeing me in this dress, I’m glad they pushed me to wear it. As soon as Luke left the bar with Damien, Knox beelined for me.

“Sienna waits for you!” He beams, leaning against the bar next to me, so close his heavy cologne fills my nose. His boyish face is already flushed. From alcohol or dancing his ass off, I’m not sure. Could be both. “Get it? Sienna waits for you? Like Vienna by?—”

I giggle. “I get it.”

I take another gulp from my water. I shouldn’t be touched that Luke ordered me a glass of water after noticing how much I sweat my ass off on the dance floor.

I’m painfully aware of his absence and that he could return at any moment while Knox regales me with a hilarious story from their practice yesterday. I clutch at my stomach, the laughter making my abs ache until someone yanks my arm.

“Come on.” Luke wrenches me away from Knox, jaw hard and gray eyes blazing. “We’re going home.”

“Don’t be like that, Valentine,” Knox protests.

“Let me go!” I try to pull out of his grasp, but it’s like fighting stone.

As he tugs me toward the door, I catch my friends’ eyes. Violet waves and Juliet mouths for me to text her.

I’ll definitely be texting her to come rescue me from wherever Luke plans on locking me up.

Once we’re outside, the freezing January air pierces me to the bone. I finally manage to wrench out of his iron grip and clutch my arms to my shivering body. “What the hell, Luke?”

He rounds on me. “Why do you hook up with guys you barely know?”

His sharp tone momentarily withers me. But who the hell is he to judge who I hook up with? Not that I was even hooking up with Knox. We were literally just having a conversation. I don’t owe Luke Valentine any sort of explanation.

I narrow my eyes at him even as my teeth chatter. “Why do you hook up with girls you barely know?”

He’s a big fucking hypocrite considering he hooked up with me the night we met.

“I don’t.” He steps closer, and I’m forced to lift my chin to meet his gaze. But I’m not backing down. Not this time. I’m done letting my stepbrother intimidate me.

When Luke followed me up to my hotel room, I assumed one-night stands were a regular experience for him. It never occurred to me that we were both behaving out of character.

“I’ve never done anything like that either,” I admit. “I at least know their names first.”

“So why did you?”

Maybe I should end this conversation here. We should be pretending that night never happened, not rehashing it right in front of a bar where any drunk college student stumbling past could overhear.

But his gaze is heavy, simmering with a quiet need to hear the answer.

“I think...I think I was willing to that night because I didn’t want to be at my father’s wedding. And I was lonely and lost and I don’t know.” I’m blabbering now, teeth chattering as I study the few inches of space between our feet. Between his expensive boots and my old heels with exposed toes about to fall off.

The stress of everything with Marcus and the move and the new family, the sting of rejection when Ten kept ignoring me, it was all too much for one night. I needed an escape, and Luke gave me that.

“For some reason, I felt like I could trust you. And when it was happening...it was like I’d known you way longer than ten minutes.”

He put that disposable camera in front of me and reminded me of the best friend I had. Of the friend I was missing. Even though I’ve only known Luke for about a week, something about him is weirdly familiar. Like we knew each other in a past life and our souls still remember the connection we shared.

But in this life, we’re step-siblings and nothing can happen between us.

His finger hooks under my chin, tilting it up to force our eyes to meet. “It lasted a lot longer than ten minutes.”

God. As if I could forget. No matter how much I wish I could.

“Come on.” He leads the way to his car, and I’m grateful when he doesn’t grab me by the arm or the hand. “I’m taking you home.”

I could run back inside. Refuse to leave with him. Unless he wants to pick me up and drag me kicking and screaming, he can’t force me. But I’m freezing, my limbs are drained, and my warm bed sounds perfect right now.

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