Page 38 of Release Me
‘I’m starting to wonder if it would be worth the consequences…’
Me too. Which is why I need to drag myself away from him before I do something I’ll regret. Soulful black eyes smoulder at me, reflecting everything we can never say. ‘I’ll catch up with you later,’ I say, but it’s a lie and we both know it. If we’re flirting with trouble this early in the evening, God only knows what we’d get up to after a couple more drinks.
He nods and removes his hand from my waist. My treacherous body instantly aches for his touch.
‘Another drink?’ Avery appears beside us and shoves another champagne glass my way. Ivy is hot on her tail.
‘Excuse me, I need to find the restrooms.’ I fire Rian one final look, then scan the room for the exit.
‘To your left. Down the corridor and take the first right.’ He points, with a glint in his eye. ‘Unless you want to use the one in my old bedroom?’
‘Baby Beckett, control yourself!’ Ivy scolds, but her tone is literally dripping with glee. ‘Have you no shame?’ She slaps his arm playfully.
‘When it comes to Rebekka, apparently I have none.’ His eyes dart over my body one final time before Ivy hauls me away.
‘Oh. My. Fucking. God,’ she exclaims. ‘That was like watching a full-blown fucking porno.’
‘What was?’ I take a sip of cold champagne, but it does nothing to quell the flames licking me from the inside out, specifically the ones inside my lingerie.
‘You and Rian!’ Avery nudges my ribs hard enough to hurt. ‘How did we never see it before? I mean, he was all over you at the Hozier concert.’
‘He’s all over every woman,’ I reply, battling to keep the bitterness from my tone.
‘No.’ Ivy shakes her head. ‘He used to be, but I haven’t seen him with a woman in weeks. Months maybe.’ A flicker of a frown crosses her face. ‘Oh. My. God,’ she whisper shouts. ‘It was you.’
‘What was me?’ Alarm spikes in my chest. Did he tell her about our kiss?
Ivy is practically bouncing beside me. ‘Years ago, we went on a date.’
‘You did?’ My tone rises three octaves while I silently will the green-eyed monster screaming inside my chest to shut up.
‘Well, he took me out to lunch to piss Caelon off and shock him into sleeping with me—it worked by the way, so, I suppose you could say I owe him one.’
‘What does this have to do with anything?’ Avery waves at someone across the room as we push through the throng of people, including my husband. He doesn’t even notice us because his tongue is so far up that brunette’s ass he can probably taste her cocktail before she even swallows it.
‘He said something that day that I never forgot,’ Ivy leans closer to whisper in my ear.
‘He said, “You’re not the only one pining over someone you can’t have”. Naturally, I said he could probably have anyone he wanted—apart from me.’ Ivy shrugs. ‘His exact words were, “you’d be surprised.” I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.’
My heart.
It’s so full, I feel like it might actually explode.
The green-eyed monster isn’t just silenced—he’s bleeding out inside of me.
Finally, we locate the restrooms. Naturally they’re big enough to house the three of us, easily, but Avery, Ivy and I have no problem testing that theory. Ivy locks the door behind us and leans herself against it.
‘So how long has this affair been going on?’ She mock scolds, but her blue eyes are glittering.
‘There’s nothing going on.’ My tone is feeble, even to my own ears.
‘Well, maybe there should be,’ Avery arches her eyebrows, places her champagne on the marble countertop and proceeds to pull her panties down and sit on the toilet. It’s official; she’s just taken our friendship to the next level.
‘What?’ She arches her eyebrow. ‘We all have a vagina. Jeez, I thought we Irish were supposed to be backwards.’
I snort. ‘I’m not backwards, I’m just wondering how you got to relieve yourself first!’ I really am busting.
‘Relieve myself!? That’s so formal.’ Avery scoffs. ‘Normally when I’m talking about relieving myself, I’m talking about something else entirely.’ She laughs. ‘Though lately my man is the only person who gets to do that job. He says it’s cheating if I touch myself!’
