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Her voice has a slight reverberation through the night as she delivers the first line of Bonnie Tyler’sTotal Eclipse of the Heart.
Holy. Fuck.
Turn around.
She sang something about tears and I felt like I was fighting my own.
Elle sang with a surprising rasp considering the sweetness of her speaking voice. It was mesmerising to listen to. Chatter died in the bar as everyone was listening to her. A few people whooped and called out their encouragement as she got into the body of the song. She closed her eyes and scrunched her face, feeling the emotions that the lyrics demanded. The three of us were stunned into silence, Hayden with his bottle halfway to his lips.
When she finished, the whole bar erupted into a round of applause, even I clapped. Elle took an exaggerated bow, giving everyone a view of her cleavage which caused further stir from the males in the room. Hayden stood to wrap his arms around her as she trotted back to our table, lifting her off the ground and spinning. She giggled, hugging him back.
“Fuck, baby! That was epic!”
“Thanks,” she beamed, with a hint of smugness.
“You are very talented,” Lance smiled at her and kissed her cheek as she slid back into her seat.
“Stop, you’re making me blush.” Her lack of blush betrayed her, she was loving the compliments.
Elle looked at me with a smirk and after a couple of beats, nudged my bicep with her fist. “Come on, big guy, tell me I was good. I know you want to.”
I raised my eyebrow at her and just sipped my beer, making her roll her eyes then throw her head back and laugh, Hayden and Lance just staring at her in amused fascination.
After we finished out drinks, we moved on to another bar where the music was generally better, although I had to admit, nothing beat Elle’s performance. Not that I would tell her that. This was more a club with gyrating bodies packed onto the dance floor, the smell of sweat, beer, and weed in the air. I bought another round of beers and Elle pulled Lance onto the dancefloor, the two of them swaying to the beat and getting progressively closer. Lance’s arms snaked around her waist from behind and he aligned his hips with hers. He said something into her ear causing her to twist her neck to look at him, laughing at whatever he’d told her. They looked like they’d loved each other for years and it sent a shot of emotion I couldn’t name through my chest.
“So, you and Lance are pretty close, huh?” Hayden asked casually, his elbow resting on the bar behind him.
“He’s my cousin,” I responded, still watching Lance and Elle.
Hayden’s head snapped to look at me. “I didn’t realise he had cousins.”
“No, and that’s the way Sydney Preston wants to keep it. I’ve made the decision to trust you. Don’t fucking let me down.”
He snorted. “What? So, you’re like his guard dog?”
“Where he goes, I go.”
“You’re kind of intense, you know that?”
“I’ve been told.” I huffed out a breath and turned to look Hayden in the eye. “Lance is here to escape for a while, have a good time, make some friends. You two seem to get on and we’ll all be living together for the next few months, so it’s only fair for you to know what we’re about.”
He nodded, deep in thought. “You going to tell her?” he asked, gesturing to Elle with his bottle.
“She doesn’t know who he is, there’s no need to bring her into it. She’ll probably find out that we’re cousins, but that’s where it ends.”
“Noted.” Hayden downed the rest of his beer. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have some things I need to do.” He made his way into the crowd. I thought he was going to join Lance and Elle as they noticed him and waved him over, but he just smiled and winked at them. His body moved to the music, weaving in and out of the dancers until he came up behind a small platinum blonde in a crop top and mini skirt. She was already dancing with a guy, his thigh between her legs and his lips to her neck. When she looked up to see Hayden, he grabbed her hair and kissed her…ferociously. Her partner looked at them, his expression growing angrier and angrier as his initial shock wore off.
What the fuck is he doing?
I was getting ready to step in and break up the inevitable fight when Hayden broke away from the girl, who looked most disappointed that he stopped kissing her. He grabbed the guy by the back of the neck and brought him over the girl’s shoulder to kiss him with equal enthusiasm. Lance and Elle stopped dancing, watching with shocked fascination and I stared, my heart stopping with anticipation at how this would play out. It didn’t take long to realise that the guy was kissing him back, the two of them battling for dominance with tongues. They came apart and both bent to lay kisses on the dumbstruck blond before they all melted off into the crowd. Hayden turned to wave at me with a cocky grin. Well, good on him.
Elle, Lance, and I made it back to the dorms around two o’clock in the morning. Elle was giggling whilst leaning heavily on Lance, carrying her heels in her hand. Lance smiled at her as he helped her up the stairs.
“Oh God, I’ve had so much fun!” Elle got to her door and unlocked it.
“Me too,” Lance agreed. She rushed him, throwing her arms around his neck and he hugged her back, kissing the top of her head. Then she came at me and wrapped herself around my waist. I stiffened, not sure what to do with the contact, my arms stayedby my side and I curled my fingers into my palms to halt any temptation to touch her.
She laughed at me, turning back to her room. “You know,” she said over her shoulder, “I’m going to get a proper hug out of you one day, big guy. I’ve got a year to make you like me and Iwillmake you like me. Night, boys.” She disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her. Lance and I stared at the door in silence for a few seconds.
