Page 48 of Mariposa
“How do I look, Kade?”
The way she says my name…my dick swells. Suddenly, my jeans become tighter, and a wave of too much damn blood rushes down. Fuck, I already need another ice-cold shower to get rid of what she does to me. Her beauty wounds me.
“It doesn’t matter. Stop acting so carelessly. Get your shit together. That guy almost took videos of you! First, you get drunk and end up on the rooftop’s edge, and now this? Both times are on my watch!”
Her stern expression mirrors my own. “You are not my instructor anymore.”
“No, but you’re Adam’s, and I’m just looking out for the both of you!”
“How many times do I have to tell you that we’re not together?!” she shoots back and leans on her hip.
“Dammit.” I point my finger at her. “Get sober, Isla, and?—”
“Kade! Where are you?” Karen’s voice screeches behind me, not letting me finish. Her high-pitched, whiny tone makes the cloud I’m floating on fall to the floor, and it’s back to reality.
I twist around to find the back of Karen’s head at the opposite end of the hall.
“You better get back to your date,” Violet murmurs. She twirls around, the ends of her dress lifting momentarily, and disappears into the women’s restroom.
“Fuck.” I curse under my breath, low. Turning around, I pull out my smokes.
I need to burn one.
I don’t think Karen heard anything because she stays calm as I stalk past her.
“I’m going outside,” I tell her. She gives me a small smile when she sees me, but it’s gone in the blink of an eye.
“What the hell was that?” Karen follows me out of the bar, her voice only getting under my skin. It’s different with Karen lately. I can’t bring myself to talk to her like I used to.
“What was what?” I snap. We pass Slater and Booker through the doors. They’re lost in conversation as they walk nonchalantly back into the building. I pull Booker by his collar with one hand until I’m at his ear, so he can hear me loud and clear over the music.
“Keep an eye on Violet. She’s drunk, and I refuse to babysit her now that the course is over.” Releasing him from my grip, he stumbles into Slater.
“Where are you going?” Booker asks as he holds the doors open so Slater can walk back inside The Drunken Shell first.
I point to the ocean across the street.
Still walking in tense silence, I nervously take out my knife and twirl it between my fingers. The urge to carve something is high, and it’s not the wood projects I like doing. I need to talk myself down from going back in there and carving up everyone who saw her tits and didn’t say anything to warn her.
“Is that girl the reason for your sudden abstinence from sex?”
I don’t respond. I’m too pissed. Her question goes in one ear and out the other because I’m still fuming.
“I’ve never seen you this way. The way you watched her.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I place the knife back into my pocket.
“The way a man looks at something he wants but can’t have.”
I halt.
“Jesus, keep your voice down.”
“She is the reason, isn’t she?”
I run a hand through my hair while she continues to interrogate me—there’s a damn volcano inside my chest, boiling over, waiting to erupt, and there’s no stopping it.
“Karen. You sound ridiculous! That’s my son’s ex-girlfriend.”
