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Connor snorted. “I don’t think actively disliking them counts.”
“Shame,” Noah said, then leaned forward to track Bryan and Stella through the throng of dancers. “What the fuck is he playing at?”
But Zac was watching Cassie. He saw the moment she must have spotted Bryan and Stella. Her lithe movements stuttered to a stop and her lips parted. The next moment she’d clamped her eyes shut to block out the vision of whatever it was Bryan was doing to make his point. She started dancing again, but her movements were jerky. Any relaxation she might have been feeling was obviously gone. Another man moved up behind her, and she didn’t step away. She let him put his hands on her hips and pull her close.
The heat of Zac’s anger, fueled by the whiskey he was drinking, burned through him like wildfire. Fuck Bryan. Someone needed to teach that asshole a lesson on how to treat the people you’re supposed to love. He downed the rest of his drink, slammed his glass down on the table, and stood.
“Oh shit,” Noah said from behind him as Zac stalked toward the dance floor.
He shouldered his way through the crowd until he saw what Cassie had seen: Stella with her back to Bryan’s chest, rolling her ass into his dick while he held her hips against him.
The fucker was staring directly at Cassie.
Zac’s anger flamed hotter. That asshole had hurt Cassie badly, and when she didn’t fall back into his arms—when she wouldn’t give him the forgiveness he so obviously thought he deserved—he proved what a petty little shit he was by torturing her more.
Zac’s hands fisted, and he suppressed the urge to punch the man. He didn’t need to. He knew what would hurt Bryan more than a fist to the face. Emotional pain always did more lasting damage than physical.
He should know.
So, instead of jamming his fist into Bryan’s face, Zac made a beeline for Cassie.
The man dancing behind her must have seen Zac’s determination and he quickly melted away into the crowd. Zac barely noticed. All he could see now was Cassie, body stilling, eyes widening as she watched him approach. He wondered if she sensed his intention.
If so, she didn’t retreat. She stood frozen, gaze fixed on him.
Waiting for him.
He reached her. Didn’t stop. Didn’t second-guess himself. He knew what he needed to do. What he fuckingwantedto do.
He buried his hands in her hair, tilted her face up, and crashed his lips down on hers.
Zac didn’t know what he’d been expecting—hesitation, maybe, possibly resistance. If so, he would have stopped. But that wasn’t what happened. Cassie opened for him, her tongue meeting his, the taste of champagne and strawberries andherexploding through him. He tugged her head farther back and slid one hand down to bracket her neck. Her pulse jackhammered under his thumb as he pressed it lightly against the hollow of her throat. What would she taste like there if he flicked his tongue over her skin?
“What the fuck!” Bryan’s enraged voice seemed to come from a distance behind him, but Zac didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. The reason he started kissing Cassie faded from his mind until all he could think about was tasting more of her, thrusting his tongue deeper, claiming her, taking her.
She moaned into his mouth, and he felt the vibrations under his thumb where he was stroking it across the satiny skin of her neck. He dropped his hand to the small of her back and dragged her against him so he could feel the softness of her breasts against his chest. Their hips were pressed together, and there was no way she could miss how hard he was. He didn’t care. Didn’t care if she knew he wanted to take her somewhere right now, bend her over, and fuck her until they were both crying out in release.
Someone bumped against him, and he finally broke away. But he didn’t look to see who jostled him. Or to see Bryan’s reaction. He kept his gaze fixed on her. He watched her eyelashes flutter open, revealing pupils wide and black. Her lips were still parted, swollen from the intensity of his kiss.
And he fuckinglikedit.
Bryan yelled something, someone behind him swore, and finally, Zac turned. Tex stood in front of Bryan, who glared at them over Tex’s shoulder. Connor and Noah were flanking Bryan. The bands’ bodyguards held the crowd back, but many of them had their phones up, recording the moment for posterity.
Reality hit him like a bucket of ice water to the face.Fuck, what was he thinking? He’d lost his cool in front of everyone and did something he promised himself he wouldn’t. Zac’s heart slammed in his chest, all too aware of Cassie’s presence at his back. He had no idea what she was thinking, but he needed to wrestle back some of the control he lost the second his lips had touched hers. Fuck, the minute he’d seen her in that dress. He stepped toward Bryan, leaned close, and said, “It’s about time you learned what it feels like.”
He turned, catching Cassie’s stricken expression. A stab of guilt made his stomach clench. He somehow had to explain why the hell he’d kissed her. He needed to justify his actions to her. But not right now, and not here.
He averted his gaze. “Let’s go,” he barked at the others. He headed for the exit without waiting to see if anyone followed.
ChapterSixteen
The ride back to the bus in the stretch limo was beyond awkward.
Cassie somehow ended up sitting between Summer and Noah, diagonally opposite Zac, who was silently staring out the dark-tinted window the whole time. A muscle flexed in his jaw. Was he angry?
Her pulse was still racing, her lips tingled, and a confusing mixture of hurt and arousal simmered inside her.
Seeing Stella and Bryan dancing together like that had been painful. Two weeks just wasn’t enough to get over losing the person you’d thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with.
