Page 80 of For Pleasure Or Worse

That meant one thing, and I wasn’t in the headspace to deal with it sanely. In fact, I was in possibly the worst headspace I’d ever been when it came to Natalia, and I wasn’t about to fend off drunken, handsy men around my woman calmly or collectively like I might in any other circumstance. I could handle the attention she got because it fed my ego to know other menwanted what I had and couldneverhave themselves. But this time I was a little bit too over the edge. Too desperate.

Hurrying in the direction of the pools, Pike followed on my heels.

“Where are you going?” Bella yelled. “You’re just going to leave your brother?!”

He would understand. Taking one for the team and all. We moved without turning back, without an answer, and the huge crowd swallowed us once more as I braved the living obstacle that was pushing back through to the other side.

chapter twenty-eight

Natalia

The coveredtiki bar was packed solid. Half of it dipped into the pool where there was a swim-up ledge with stools floating in the water and cocktail waitresses standing in the wake serving drinks. I squeezed my way through on landside to the sticky wooden bar top, wedging my elbows in and waving my hand at the woman behind it with a bottle of tequila flipped over, draining through a metal topper into a plastic cup. She twirled another bottle, bumping hips with a coworker as they both danced around each other making cocktails.

“Be right with ya.” Her blonde bubble-braided pigtails slapped her shoulders, and the button on her jeans shorts was undone, showing off a peek of a bright blue bathing suit. She passed by, reaching for a bottle of orange juice out of a mini fridge and then backpedaled to a sliding cooler where she grabbed three glass bottles and wedged them between the webs of her fingers. Then she was gone again, to the far end of the long table top.

“Excuse me!” Phee uselessly called after her. A hundred grabby hands were waving at the bartender for attention, and ours were getting lost in the mix.

“What’s a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?” I huffed. “If I’m sober I’ll lose all the go-fuck-yourself confidence I’ve built up this morning, and we can’t have that.”

“Your go-fuck-yourself confidence outscales mine at its base, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this mad at him.”

Ophelia’s lips thinned. “Does this have to do with some X-rated stuff you don’t want to talk about, because I totally get that and I’m not pressuring you at all, but it might feel good to let it out and get another perspective. I’ll listen like a therapist, not a friend who’s seen you doing the splits in reverse cowgirl.”

My lips curved at the corners. “Have you been watching our streams?”

“I subscribed to support you, but curiosity got the best of me.” Phee hid her face while mine lit up in a bright cackle. “I swear it was just one time. You told me about the steak slapping and I needed to see it for myself.”

“That’s true love. That’s soulmate level shit, Phee. I can’t believe I ever thought you might see me differently for my career choices.” I threw my arm over her shoulder and she laughed alongside me. “How did it look, though?”

“Literally stunning. The lighting, the athleticism—you’re unmatched.”

“Mateo and I have something special,” I sighed. “And it’s notallabout that. Our fight. We’re just on completely different pages. He lied to me about how much work he’s been doing at TechOps since Frankie left, and his parents bought a house in Florida without telling anyone, apparently, and he didn’t think I’d be able to handle it. I know he’s struggling, but he won’t let me in.”

Mateo’s anxiety attack was at the tip of my tongue. I stopped myself before I went too far. It was his story to tell, and though I could use a person to confide in, the only one I would be helpingwas myself. I wouldn’t break that trust no matter how hard it was to watch him take it on alone.

“You’ll come out stronger together on the other end of this, Nat. I know you will, because Mateo is fucking obsessed with you. What you need to do at this moment is get a drink, remember you are that man's everything, and then beat him in a scavenger hunt so he has to perform an interpretive dance to prove his undying love for you in front of his entire family. We’re already two steps ahead.”

“You’re right.” A jolt of positivity needled up my spine, straightening my shoulders. This was still my bachelorette party; it was what we made of it. I adjusted my veiled crown purposefully and caught myself looking around at everyone perched on the edge of the circular bar, hoping my eyes might meet soft, familiar hazel ones.

“Of course I am.” Ophelia’s arm flew out, waving toward the bartender again.

“It’s hard to get their attention.” A man beside me brushed his arm against mine and I peeled it back, staring up at him. It might have been an accident, but the crooked smile said differently. One of his bottom teeth was jagged, there was a gap between the two middle, and he was wearing a bowling shirt with the nameLancesewn into the breast pocket. The hair at the top of his head was visibly thinning through a combover. “Let me buy that drink for you. Wedding gift.”

I turned away, looking for the bartender. “No, thanks.”

“Come on, what are you, here for a bachelorette party? Where’s the rest of you?”

“In a much luckier position, I’m sure,” Ophelia edged back.

I leaned away but the crowd was so thick it was difficult to fully move. “Uninterested.”

“Don’t be like that.” He chuckled. “Isn’t it the last night out or something? Final fling. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It’s just a drink.”

“I said no.” I turned back toward him with heat in my eyes. I’d gotten exceptionally good at telling men to fuck off online, but it was always nerve-wracking in person. You never knew how they would react. My guard was constantly up, unless I was with Mateo. “What is with you putrid predatory losers and the lack of comprehension?Nois a full sentence, now find a hole in the desert and fall into it before someone does it for you and makes it look like an accident.”

The guy looked me up and down with amusement, a snarl poking out between his chapped lips and I crossed my arms over my chest as a shield. Something caught his dark gaze behind me then, in his periphery, and his face paled. Brows arching, he stumbled back and bumped into the person behind him, sending their cup and a splash of red liquid onto the sand, and then he was quickly shoved sideways and out of the immediate area by a new throng of people competing for a sliver of pine at the bar top.

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