Page 13 of Contrition

“Are you going to hurt me again?”

“What?”Derek exclaimed loudly. I was so unbelievably grateful that this round of hotel staff had been warned about loud men coming to their premises, because when I looked up, people around us were well and truly minding their own business. It was normal for musicians to be ruefully loud. “He’s hurt you? What the fuck, man? Put her down!”

I shook my head as I leaned to rest my head against Theo’s chest. He certainly wasn’t my first choice as a pillow, but I was running short on options. “Not…not like that.”

Theo ignored Derek. I had a feeling he was mere moments away from losing his shit entirely. “Princess, I will get on my knees and beg. Will you please let me take care of you tonight? You can go back to hating my existence in the morning, okay? I’m not letting you be alone anymore tonight, though. Alcohol is only making everything worse.”

I huffed as I nuzzled closer to him.

The prick was warm, and it was as agitating as it was comforting.

“Fine.”

Derek sighed, and I watched as his fingers raked through his hair in stress. “Are you sure, Estrella? You can stay with me if you prefer.”

Theo’s snarky comeback was quick as he walked away. “Oh, so you can think of face fucking her some more? Fuck you. I’m taking my girl back to our own suite. I don’t know what past you two have, but it ends here.”

His footsteps were heavy as he carried me throughout the hotel. I had the faintest feeling that people were watching—probably even pointing and whispering—but I didn’t have it in me to care.

I wanted to lay in bed. And I wanted to cry. Humiliation and shame had begun to mix in with my buzz the second that Theo picked me up, and it was only growing.

What has my life become?

As Theo stepped into the elevator, somehow managing to press the button to his floor, tears leaked down my face without my control. I sniffled as my shoulders shook along with them.

Fuck, I was crashing.

I pulled back to look Theo directly in the face with words that I knew would hurt him. I had to hurt him in some way to level the pain they had both caused me.Somehow. I hoped that the tears on my face would be more convincing than not. “I’m not your girl.”

He didn’t even flinch as he looked back at me. “No. You’re ours.”

“What?”

The elevator dinged as the doors opened, and I watched as we stepped out of it and directly into his private, penthouse suite.

Of-fucking-course.

They were headliners. Just like Derek’s band. Richer than rich.

Zack stood by the elevator doors anxiously, and my tearful eyes met his sad, red-rimmed irises.

I flinched.

Why washecrying?

Theo hardly paid him any mind. Instead, he carried me past him, and only shook his head as he walked me into one of the bedrooms. As if he knew I couldn’t handle talking to him yet. Though, his next set of words confused me more than anything—and I didn’t know if I could blame the alcohol that time. “Introduce me as your brother-in-law to anyone ever again, and you will be bent over my knee and punished accordingly. Are we clear?”

As he laid me down in bed, still in my outfit and lanyard from the day previously. I shook my head in a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

I couldn’t even muster a reply as sleep hit me mere seconds later.

six

ZACK

Ilaid on the couch, twisting and turning for hours at the sounds of the thunderstorm that had begun nearly as soon as Estrella passed out—all while she slept in my bed, mere feet away from me—praying she wouldn’t wake up to it. Theo had tried to convince me to sleep in his room with him, but I had refused, claiming that I didn’t want to give her the chance to sneak out later.

That wasn’t the entire truth, though.

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