Page 59 of Don't Lie to Me

Macy threw her arms in air and cheered for me, almost smacking Tate in the face behind her. He moved her off to the side and set his beer on the table.

“Do we need to go kick his ass, Emma?” He asked me with all the seriousness of a big brother. Dean crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at me, looking fierce. And slightly blurry. Maybe it was time to slow down on the shots.

I snorted. “Like you guys could do it.”

I watched their faces morph into wounded ego expressions and laughed. “Seriously, guys. Look, I’m sorry. Jack was a prick, but that’s nothing I didn’t know was possible before I hopped into his bed. It’s over and everything will be fine.”

I was a rotten liar and they all knew it. I wanted so badly to believe everything really was going to be fine, but no matter how many times I repeated it to myself, it wasn’t sinking in yet.

I grabbed Dean’s fist and opened his fingers so he could hold my hand. “Dance with me.”

I pulled him down to the dance floor, stumbling on my heels the entire way.

“You’re completely wasted,” he said as we got to the dance floor and began moving our hips close together.

I was. I couldn’t deny it. I just wasn’t drunk enough yet to forget. No matter how many times I tried to brush Jack out of my head, I kept seeing visions of him professing his love for me in the back of the limo, before everything went to shit. For a moment, I thought I had found something special. Someone special.

I turned around so Dean couldn’t see tears fill my eyes as I remembered the way Jack made love to me, the way he made me feel as soon as he put his arm around my waist, and the pain I felt when he took me so roughly in his living room.

With my back to his chest, I tried to relax, wrapping an arm around the back of his neck, moving against him as I lost myself in the music. I kept my eyes open, worried that if I closed them, I would think he was Jack.

One song turned into another and soon, I was starting to feel hot and sweaty, not having any idea how long we’d been on the dance floor.

Slowly, one of Dean’s hands moved up to my neck and brushed my hair to one shoulder. I felt his breath on my neck, and then my ear.

“If you weren’t so completely in love with another man, I might be willing to forget that I think of you as a sister.”

My eyes widened and I spun around, shocked. Did he seriously just say that to me? With a mischievous grin, Dean grabbed my hand and spun me out into a full circle. I tripped on my heels and wobbled, grabbing onto his arm with my free hand before my ass landed on the dance floor. I squealed as my body swayed to the side, and I started falling but then Dean’s free hand grabbed my waist.

I laughed at my mishap and stumbled some more as he pulled me back to him.

“I’m just screwing with you, Emma. I just wanted to see you smile.” He winked and tapped my nose. “Let’s get you another shot.”

“Drunk enough?” Macy asked as I reached our table. Tate’s hands were wrapped possessively around her waist and he was licking her neck, not bother caring – or noticing - that Dean and I had come back.

“Ew,” I said with a scrunched up nose at the slobber he was leaving all over the place.

Macy laughed and brushed him off. “He won’t remember this in the morning.”

I waved down the cocktail waitress as she walked by and asked for another round of shots and a refill on my vodka tonic. While I waited, I pulled out my phone and saw five missed calls. Panic seized me at the thought that it was Marcus needing help with Logan or something. Just as I was swiping my finger across the screen to unlock it, it started buzzing in my hand.

It was Jack.

Tate grabbed the phone from me instantly, probably recognizing the look of either fear or fury that crossed my face and held it out so I couldn’t reach it.

“Hey!” I yelled, and jumped for it. Except he was so tall and his arm was so far away, I practically dove over the table and crashed a bunch of our shot glasses into the floor. Tate caught me with his free hand and steadied me so I didn’t fall over again.

Everyone at the table busted out laughing, but I was pretty sure my face was purple in anger.

I held out my hand and put another on my hip. “Give me my phone, Tate.”

He shook his head. “No way. You’re going to talk to him and say something stupid, or take him back when he apologizes for being such a prick.”

I huffed in frustration. They knew Jack fired me, and that was reason alone to be concerned about me, but they didn’t know the other details. I wasn’t going to explain the feral and cold way he looked at me after he got done forcefully screwing me against his couch. It was mortifying. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell Macy afraid of what she would say, or do, to Jack at work.

She’d probably lace his coffee with diuretics.

My phone lit up and I knew he was calling again so I put my hands on the table and glared at Tate. “I want my phone. I’m not going to be stupid. I promise.” I crossed my heart with an x over my heart and smiled sassily.

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