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I watched Sorina walk out with her shoulder bare and her inky hair spilling down her back. Still coming to grips with the fact she was even here. Still reeling over the words that came out of her mouth a minute ago. The thought of her half-naked in our pool with a pack of drunk football players high on a win was enough to make me want to commit murder. Did this girl have to invite trouble everywhere she went? I was barely holding on by a thread as is.
And since when did she hang out with Theo and Kenzie?
“What’s wrong, baby?” Julie pressed, caressing my jaw.
“Nothing.” I was at my fill of her sitting on my lap. I didn’t offer her this spot; she somehow seized the opportunity. In fact, there was nothing more I wanted than for her to get the hell out of my vicinity. I guess she’d been a buffer to keep me from attacking Axel.
“You feel so tense. Let me help you with that.” She leaned in, about to kiss me, and I gripped her ponytail, yanking her head back. She squeaked in surprise.
“Get up.”
“What? Why?” she stammered.
“Go. Get out. Go join the party.” I lifted her off me, depositing her on her feet. I realized I was being a dick, so I tried to dial it down, but I was still simmering over the little sassy Romanian who enjoyed getting under my skin. Regardless, I needed to soften the blow. “I’m not feeling it today.” Julie had been all over me since she arrived. I didn’t know why I’d tolerated it until now. I didn’t know why I couldn’t or wouldn’t tolerate it, considering I’d never had this problem before. I guess my tolerance sucked.
“Fine.” She snatched her towel off the empty space beside me and stomped off.
“You doing all right?” Axel raised his eyes at me.
“If you value your life, then you’ll keep your mouth shut around me.”
He nodded with complete disregard to the warning. “You never turn down easy pussy.”
“Axel, I’m at my limit of your bullshit today.” This guy was number one on my shit list after watching his stupid antics with Sorina earlier. The only reason we hadn’t beat the shit out of each other was because Nick and Roman had been hovering around us like human shields. Roman warned us both not to ruin the fucking party. Had he completely lost his balls?
“I’m not trying to fuck with you. I’m serious. You’ve been on some kind of tangent lately, man. What gives?”
“Since when did Sorina start hanging out with Theo and Kenzie?”
“Since they have class together.” Roman materialized and dropped down with an unlit blunt between his lips. He reached out and grabbed a lighter off the table. “What’s the problem with that?” He cupped his hand and inhaled deeply.
“Nothing.”Everything. Did that mean she’d be hanging around the fucking house all the time now?
Nick sat on the arm of the sofa and tapped Roman on the shoulder to pass the joint. “Good. Don’t make us choose between you and her, because we like her.”
The fuck? This wasn’t a damn breakup where people chose sides. “How would you know? You don’t even know her.”
“Actually, we had coffee with her the other day after the girls got out of class, and she was quite pleasant,” Nick quipped, clasping his hands together. “You’ve been sandbagging us, haven’t you?”
“Are you serious with this?” They were all hanging out, drinking coffee with Sorina behind my back and didn’t tell me?Drinking coffee?
“Very.” Roman leaned back and threw his hands behind his head, stretching out his legs like a kingpin. “She’s your ward, which means she’s part of the family now. You know how it works with us.”
My ward. That label was getting old quick. “What the hell, Roman? This isn’t the mafia, and you’re not the fucking Godfather.”
He didn’t bother to grace my statement with a response. Only cracked his neck from side to side.
“Why are you so uptight about her being here, anyway? You think we’d let anything happen to her?” Axel tilted his head while smoke poured out of his mouth. “You know we have her back.”
“The fuck does that mean?”
“Like Roman said, she’s your ward, so that makes her our responsibility, too.”
Did they all have a running bet to see how many times they could use that term? Now they were all up in my business? Taking her in like a stray? Well, she was, kind of, but rest assured, Sorina had the uncanny ability to adapt to any environment, it seemed. I’d seen it myself, and I knew about being resourceful. She was like a walking Swiss army knife.
“Here, you need this. You’re way too uptight.” Axel held out the blunt.
My first instinct was to punch him in the face like he deserved, but instead, I ground my teeth together.
