Page 57 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part One

“Who are you here with?” I ask, looking around to see which guy has claimed Bambi for the evening. Bambi shrugs and says, “Just out with friends.”

She blinks up at me, and I zero in on the sensation of her fingertips edging beneath the panels of my shirt.

“You’re drunk,” I say, my voice firm. I look around, trying to spot Shae, but she’s moved from her dance spot.

Shit.

Bambi puts her head on my chest, and I move to the side so her head lands on my shoulder.

“Where are your friends, Bambi? I need to get you to them. I have to go.”

Her warm breath fans across my cheek when she slowly lifts her head and says, “Youhaveto go?”

I close my eyes. Bambi hasn’t had a good time lately. A family session with her mother and her rehab counselor resulted in lots of tears and an inability to get out of bed.

Bambi called me. I helped her through it.

She always calls me, and I always help her through whatever it is.

Shae pulls my attention to where she stands on the raised platform leading to the exit. She’s not alone. Some asshole has his arms around her, his hand dangerously close to her nearly-exposed breast.

Rage pulses through me with each heartbeat, because Shae’s drunk…and this motherfucker dares touch what’s mine.

Shae gains her balance and surveys the crowd. I still in anticipation when it finally happens.

Our gazes connect.

The moment hits like a revelation. I can’t look away, can’t stop myself from drinking her in—every line of her face, every curve of her body, every bit of the aura surrounding her. In an instant, Shae Rivers banishes the tension I’ve carried since my father blew up my life.

In a second,fora second, I’m at peace.

It’s impossible to deny this moment, and the way her chest rises tells me she senses it too.

Shae is a wave, and I’m the shore—pulled together by forces crafted in the cosmos. We’re an inevitability, one I can’t deny any longer.

Not that I want to.

She’s mine.

“There you are!” A bright voice I don’t recognize bounces over to me, and Bambi takes a step back.

“This is Rebecca. One of my friends,” Bambi says. Rebecca does a small finger wave and tries to move into me.

Not today.

“Okay, you’re set then. See you later,” I say to Bambi, giving both of her shoulders a firm squeeze before moving around her and heading toward the exit.

I burst onto the sidewalk and immediately search for Shae. She couldn’t have gone far. Movement on the street draws my attention as one cab departs.

That’s when I see her.

Shae.

My breath leaves my body as a volatile feeling takes over. She exits an idling cab; the handsy dickhead who grabbed her inside pulls her from the backseat.

His grip on her arm is too tight, like she’s a prize he’s won.

I try to think through the reasons why she’s with this guy—try to convince myself this is what she wants. But then she takes one step, then another, and nearly tumbles to the ground.

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