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Stumbling into the backseat of the car, I told my driver where to go. I sat back, the base of my skull against the head rest, and ran my hand over my face.
I needed to think of her like the enemy again. I needed to forget everything I’d ever felt about her. It was the only way I was going to get through this. Fucking women. I didn’t want or need anyone else. I certainly didn’t need some girl being forced on me and then acting as though she was somehow morally superior. What the fuck did I give a shit about morals? I’d murdered men, had snuffed out their lives as though they were nothing, and now she was getting all upset because I’d given her brother a few drinks and mentioned some stuff she didn’t like. Fuck this shit. There was no way she could handle me.
My driver pulled up in front of the club, and I opened the door and climbed out. Aware I was a mess, I smoothed down the front of my suit jacket and raked a hand through my hair. I didn’t want anyone seeing me and thinking I was anything less than in control, even when I’d been drinking and had a belly full of pills. The pills had given the world a nice little fuzz around the edges, and my initial anger—and heartbreak...no, not that—at losing Hallie had begun to soften. I was sure it would be back with full force in the morning when I woke sober, but for now I was going to make the most of my escape.
People greeted me as I walked through. Men shook my hand or clapped me on the back, and women fluttered their eyelashes, and stroked my arm, and pressed their tits against me. It was like being famous, and I enjoyed the buzz. Fuck the Wynters. I didn’t need them, and neither did the rest of my family. This was ending with me. With Harvey dead and Leo already practically married, both my father and Marlon Wynter would have to accept that there were no other options open to them.
I spotted Sly, Murphy, and Damon sitting in a booth with several women all over them. I headed over. They already appeared to be settled in for the night; sitting on the table were half-empty bottles of whiskey and a couple of bottles of champagne for the women they were with. They greeted me heartily, and the women each shuffled along, offering me a place right in the middle of everyone. Someone had poured me a drink and placed it in my hand, while someone else cut up a line of coke on the glass table.
One of the women was a redhead, like Hallie, only hers was more of a ginger-red. She was short and curvy, where Hallie was all endless limbs and natural elegance. Would any other woman ever match up to her in my mind, or would I spend the rest of my life comparing and always finding them wanting? I shook the thought from my head. I needed to focus on the here and now, and not think about the future or my past. I was rich, and powerful, and surrounded by my friends and beautiful women who were desperate to fuck me. What the hell did I have to complain about?
My younger brother was murdered, and the woman I’ve come to love has left me.
I balked at the thought of love. I wasn’t the kind of man who fell in love. It was lust, that’s all. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe I was capable of loving any woman, least of all a Wynter.
The redhead must have noticed me watching her as she sauntered over with a smile on her glossy lips and wiggle to her curvaceous hips.
“Hi,” she said, sliding onto my lap. “How can a man be sitting with so many people and yet look so lonely?”
I forced myself to play along. “I’m not lonely now, am I?”
She swung her leg over my thigh to straddle me, causing her already short dress to ride right up, giving me a flash of what was underneath the skirt—nothing other than bare skin.
“You can have my company anytime you want, baby. A gorgeous man like you all on his own should be illegal.”
She leaned into me, her tongue already sneaking from between her full lips to lap at mine. I grabbed the back of her head and roughly pushed my tongue into her mouth and then bit her lower lip hard enough to hurt. She gave a little moan and ground down on me, rocking her hips back and forth. The only thing that separated her pussy from my dick was the material of my trousers. My cock hardened, and she took hold of my hand and placed it between her thighs. I found her hot and wet, primed and ready for me to stick my cock into. I was tempted, too. Would it take my mind off the gaping hole in my chest, this utter emptiness I carried around with me since Hallie had walked out?
“God, Tam, that feels so good. Keep touching me. Yes, just like that.”
She tossed her hair back and pushed out her chest, and then glanced over to the others and fluttered her eyelashes as though to say, ‘look what Tam Cornell is doing to me.’ I didn’t know why, but the gesture filled me with a sudden surge of anger. This girl was only sitting on my lap because of my name and the accolade it could bring her. Hallie had never needed to do that—she had an accolade all of her own.
But this wasn’t Hallie, and the eagerness of this stranger suddenly repulsed me.
“Get the fuck off me.”
I shoved her off my lap, and she fell to the floor.
“Hey!” she protested, sticking her lower lip out in a pout.
I got up, wanting to wash her stink off my fingers.
Sly got up to join me. “You okay, man?”
“Yeah, fine. I’m just sick to death of people fucking with me all the time.”
“Where’s Hallie tonight?” he asked. “The two of you have been joined at the hip.”
“I sent her home to her father. It’s over.”
“Oh, shit. So no more Cornell-Wynter alliance?”
“Doesn’t seem that way.”
How the fuck was I supposed to live without her? She’d been thrust into my life, and I hadn’t even known she’d been what I’d been missing all this time. I’d done everything in my power to make her run from me, and yet she’d stayed. Her loyalty to family was stronger than anything else, and by making her my wife, I became her family. Except I’d been the one who hadn’t been loyal and now I was going to pay for that.
The pain in my leg seemed to pulse with the ache in my chest. It twisted and wrenched, sending sharp stabs of agony up through my hip. I deserved it, though. I deserved everything I felt and everything I’d been through. I reached for my packet of pills but stopped myself. I didn’t deserve that release.
I needed to suffer.
