I didn’t make it to 2 earlier than he gulped and disappeared into the depths of the membership. Fucking coward.

A part of me was dissatisfied I didn’t get the prospect to slam my fist into his nostril, however there have been extra urgent issues at hand.

I confronted Sloane once more. She hadn’t seen her dance associate’s absence or my arrival; she was too busy taking pictures with one of many clubbers on the bottom and, consequently, giving everybody an eyeful of her cleavage.

I grabbed the double shot of tequila earlier than it reached her lips and tossed it to the facet.

“Hey! I used to be—” Her protest reduce off in a yelp once I swept her off her toes and tossed her over my shoulder. I didn’t belief her to stroll straight in these heels after God knew what number of drinks.

“Let me go, you Neanderthal!” She pounded on my again as I carried her off the desk and out the door.

The membership sat on a number of hundred toes of prime oceanfront actual property, and it didn’t take lengthy earlier than the sound of the waves overpowered the music leaking into the evening air.

“Watch out what you ask for.” I dropped Sloane on a thick patch of white sand. I used to be tempted to dunk her within the ocean to sober her up, however even I wasn’t silly or assholish sufficient to try this.

But.

“Youasshole.” She pushed herself to her toes with shocking grace given her inebriation. “What the hell do you assume you’re doing?”

“What the hell do I thinkI’mdoing? I feel I’m ensuring you don’t get up to pictures of your naked ass splashed everywhere in the fucking web!”

Her glare skewered me to the spot.

As at all times, Sloane was superb in her wrath. On every other evening, I’d’ve sat again and watched that cool masks of hers explode in probably the most spectacular means, however she wasn’t the one one seething tonight.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she mentioned. “I’m not you. Individuals don’t care what I do in my free time.”

“That’s not true.”I care. The thought rose, unbidden, earlier than I banished it. “You’re a Kensington and a high-profile publicist, and the cameras arealwayswatching. You’re the one who taught me that.”

“I’m a Kensington in title solely.” A tiny flicker of vulnerability crossed Sloane’s face and stabbed at my chest earlier than her expression iced once more. “You’re at all times telling me to ‘loosen up.’ Now that I’m, you’ve got an issue with it?”

“I’ve an issue with some random man groping you in public,” I snapped.

“Why?”

As a result of the considered anybody else touching you fucking kills me.

“As a result of.” Irrational anger blanketed my phrases with warmth. “It’s not you.”

“Cease appearing like you understand me.” Her voice rose to the extent of a shout. “We aren’t pals. We aren’t relationship.Youare merely a consumer, andyouare the one who compelled me to return right here. You don’t have any proper to behave like my boyfriend or handler.”

“I’m attempting to assist!”

“I don’t want your assist!”

Every bit of vitriol dragged us nearer till we stood inches aside, our chests heaving and our our bodies shaking from the pressure of our convictions. Animosity blazed between us, fanned by years of pent-up frustration and a spark of one thing much more harmful. I didn’t know why I cared a lot as a result of she was proper. I had no declare on her past work, and I used to be at all times telling her to loosen up.

However not like this. Not when it got here from a spot of ache relatively than freedom.

“You’re proper. I don’t know you,” I mentioned. “However I do know Sloane, and Sloane would by no means put herself in a scenario just like the one you had been in.Sloanewould’ve kicked that man’s ass, and he or she would’ve pulled you out the identical means I did.”

A part of my intervention had been egocentric, however one other half had stemmed from true concern. Who knew what pictures and movies folks grabbed earlier than I received her down?

Maybe I used to be overstepping, however screw it. It was higher to be secure than sorry. Sloane’s skilled popularity meant all the things to her, and he or she would by no means forgive herself if one drunken evening jeopardized what it’d taken her years to construct.

“Properly, possibly Sloane doesn’t at all times wish to be Sloane.” Her heels wobbled within the mushy sand, and he or she let loose a curse earlier than yanking her footwear off. “Additionally, Ihatewhen folks discuss themselves within the third individual.”

My telephone vibrated with an incoming name, however I ignored it. “Cease deflecting. What occurred this afternoon? Why did you allow?”

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